This hour-long program centers around three women.
The first is about Virginia Hill. That is the woman, if you saw the movie "Bugsy," who Annette Bening played. She was Bugsy Siegel's girlfriend. (Dyan Cannon also played her in a made-for-TV film.) What she mainly was known for, though, was being "The Mob Queen." This is a tough woman from a tough family. The narrator of this show points out that when Virginia was seven she confronted her drunk and violent father with a red-hot frying pan. The next day, her mom and the other nine kids all packed up and moved out to Marietta, Ga. She wound up having to take care of all the brothers and sisters. Anyway, we follow Hill's history from the time she's 17 and now a short-lived prostitute in Chicago to last days in another continent.
She ran into mobster Jospeh Epstein, who was smitten with this ice-cold, smart-mouthed kid. She became his mistress and then was then into the mob and given a juicy assignment of going to New York City and seeing if mob man Joe Adonis was skimming some of the profits.
It was interesting to hear her talk at the Kefauver Hearings in 1951 in which she denied nothing anything about anyone and got testy about it, too. This program keeps referring to Hill as some some of gorgeous, starlet-type woman but all the pictures they show don't reflect that, at least to me. She is no Bening or Cannon. Whatever. She wound up killing herself at the age of 49 when the money ran out and she had lived in Europe for over 15 years, avoiding the IRS. The IRS had moved in soon after the Kefaver hearings. Virginia was living way beyond her means.
There's no sense going into every detail of her history as you can see it here on this program or read about it. She was a fascinating woman with a lot of nerve, I'll say that, and not exactly the kind of woman you want to "take home to momma!" To begin the second story, let me tell you: Arlyne Weiss-Brickman is a shock to look at, at first. Unlike Hill, who was long dead when this program was made, Brickman is "live" and discusses her life. You have to get used to all the lipstick and other makeup on her face and she recounts her life in the rackets. Boy, this is a hard woman but she had some hard tales to tell, one involving a 400-pound man which is pretty shocking. Arlyne is a big believer in "payback" as you will see in the segment about her.
This is a bold woman, to say the least. After turning informant, she has refused witness protection services and goes about her life as she wants....and brags about it.
Speaking of movies and the name "Hill," as I did with the first "lady mobster," the third story involves the woman who was married to Henry Hill who was a key subject in a well-known film. Henry, you'll recall was the narrator and young gangster in "Goodfellas," a 1990 film. Ray Liotta played Henry's role.
Karen Friedman wound up dating and then marrying a man she thought was just a bricklayer. Later, she found out what her husband did after hours. Friedman, whose parents were unhappy (to say the least) she didn't marry a fellow Jew, was a pretty nice girl according to this episode. However - and I'm skipping a lot of territory here - she wound up being a crook like her husband but yet got off. After finally divorcing her husband after many years (and the year before the movie), she has been in the witness protection program.
The one thing that was annoying was the woman, "Lisa," who spoke on Karen's behalf throughout. She was fouled mouthed with a real twisted set of values, herself. It made me wonder just how "innocent" Karen was all along. Well, none of these "ladies" were Innocent people who they wouldn't have the subject of this good episode of "Mobsters."
The first is about Virginia Hill. That is the woman, if you saw the movie "Bugsy," who Annette Bening played. She was Bugsy Siegel's girlfriend. (Dyan Cannon also played her in a made-for-TV film.) What she mainly was known for, though, was being "The Mob Queen." This is a tough woman from a tough family. The narrator of this show points out that when Virginia was seven she confronted her drunk and violent father with a red-hot frying pan. The next day, her mom and the other nine kids all packed up and moved out to Marietta, Ga. She wound up having to take care of all the brothers and sisters. Anyway, we follow Hill's history from the time she's 17 and now a short-lived prostitute in Chicago to last days in another continent.
She ran into mobster Jospeh Epstein, who was smitten with this ice-cold, smart-mouthed kid. She became his mistress and then was then into the mob and given a juicy assignment of going to New York City and seeing if mob man Joe Adonis was skimming some of the profits.
It was interesting to hear her talk at the Kefauver Hearings in 1951 in which she denied nothing anything about anyone and got testy about it, too. This program keeps referring to Hill as some some of gorgeous, starlet-type woman but all the pictures they show don't reflect that, at least to me. She is no Bening or Cannon. Whatever. She wound up killing herself at the age of 49 when the money ran out and she had lived in Europe for over 15 years, avoiding the IRS. The IRS had moved in soon after the Kefaver hearings. Virginia was living way beyond her means.
There's no sense going into every detail of her history as you can see it here on this program or read about it. She was a fascinating woman with a lot of nerve, I'll say that, and not exactly the kind of woman you want to "take home to momma!" To begin the second story, let me tell you: Arlyne Weiss-Brickman is a shock to look at, at first. Unlike Hill, who was long dead when this program was made, Brickman is "live" and discusses her life. You have to get used to all the lipstick and other makeup on her face and she recounts her life in the rackets. Boy, this is a hard woman but she had some hard tales to tell, one involving a 400-pound man which is pretty shocking. Arlyne is a big believer in "payback" as you will see in the segment about her.
This is a bold woman, to say the least. After turning informant, she has refused witness protection services and goes about her life as she wants....and brags about it.
Speaking of movies and the name "Hill," as I did with the first "lady mobster," the third story involves the woman who was married to Henry Hill who was a key subject in a well-known film. Henry, you'll recall was the narrator and young gangster in "Goodfellas," a 1990 film. Ray Liotta played Henry's role.
Karen Friedman wound up dating and then marrying a man she thought was just a bricklayer. Later, she found out what her husband did after hours. Friedman, whose parents were unhappy (to say the least) she didn't marry a fellow Jew, was a pretty nice girl according to this episode. However - and I'm skipping a lot of territory here - she wound up being a crook like her husband but yet got off. After finally divorcing her husband after many years (and the year before the movie), she has been in the witness protection program.
The one thing that was annoying was the woman, "Lisa," who spoke on Karen's behalf throughout. She was fouled mouthed with a real twisted set of values, herself. It made me wonder just how "innocent" Karen was all along. Well, none of these "ladies" were Innocent people who they wouldn't have the subject of this good episode of "Mobsters."