About An Offer You Can't Refuse: the History of Organized Crime in the United States
An Offer You Can't Refuse is a podcast that focuses on the history of organized crime in the United States. It employs an academic approach to its study in that it places organized crime within the broader context of American history.
We Only Close for Revolutions: the Sex Trade, the Mob, and the Cuban Revolution
In this BONUS EPISODE of An Offer You Can't Refuse, Pettengill takes of the matter of an illicit sex trade that thrived in Havana as the Mafia's grip on the local economy tightened. He explores the "shows" at the infamous Theato Shanghai and analyzes it in the context of mid-twentieth century sexual norms to demonstrate how and why the Shanghai captured the imagination of American tourists. Pettengill also explores the career of Roderico "Rodney" Neyra and how his career as a choreographer allowed him to fuse Cuban culture with his dance shows at the Tropicana.
9 Aug 2024
BONUS EPISODE: Interview of Historian, Frank Argote-Freyre
In another BONUS EPISODE from the Havana miniseries, Pettengill sits down with historian, Frank Argote-Freyre. Dr. Argote-Freyre's scholarship focuses on Latin American history, including the Cuban Revolution. His book, entitled "Fulgencio Batists: From Revolutionary to Strongman," outlines the rise of Batista and underscores the corrupt regime he built in the process. Argote-Freyre notes that while the Mafia was certainly a force to be reckoned with in Havana, it would be a gross overstatement to say they ran the island. In short, Dr. Argote-Freyre demonstrates what many of us get wrong about the intersection of the Mafia and the Batista regime.
19 May 2024
BONUS EPISODE: Interview of Crime Journalist, Chris Dalby
In this BONUS EPISODE of An Offer You Can't Refuse, Pettengill sits down with renown crime journalist, Chris Dalby. Dalby's expertise is grounded in the rise and evolutionary of the Mexican drug cartels. In this interview, we discover that there were numerous similarities between the ethnic-racial groups taken up on this podcast and the situation with the cartels. Racist policies, official stances taken by governing officials, and unintended consequences all led to the empowerment of the cartels, offering one potential view of organized crime in the twenty-first century.
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