The first episode finds hosts James Buccellato, a Macomb County-based social scientist, author and mob history expert, and Scott Burnstein, true crime author and the premier expert on Detroit mob history, talking to Larry Mazza. Mazza was a captain in the Colombo family.
"We were very tight and powerful, but I learned the Colombo family kills their own a lot more frequently than the other families," Mazza reveals in the first episode.
Colombo, one of the famed Five Families, produced some of the most colorful families in the mob.
Mazza was inducted as a teenager by the husband of an older woman who seduced him. He was hooked.
The husband, who became his mentor in the life, was Greg Scarpa, nicknamed The Grim Reaper. Scarpa was a feared ice-cold killer for the Colombo family. "Right up there with Al Capone," Mazza says.
He loved the smell of gunpowder -- and cash.
"One time I asked him, how much money do you have?" Mazza says in the podcast.
Scarpa said if the money was piled up and you tried to climb it -- then jump -- you would die.
Death was on Mazza's mind frequently during his decades in the mob, a career that began when he ice picked someone's tire. "The next day's headline said 'Man killed fixing flat tire,' Mazza says with a chuckle.
The OG is produced by Roberto Boschian of Macomb County, also a producer for the 97.1 The Ticket host Mike Valenti's podcast Always Aggravated. Weekly episodes will explore crime and culture, and find the nexus behind everyone's favorite true crime movies, TV shows, and music. Subscribe for exclusive interviews with former organized crime associates, law enforcement, as well as actors and musicians. Hear true stories from people who were there, 'in the life.'