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Why the New Law & Order Podcast Focuses on the Mafia and How Law Enforcement and Prosecutors Took Them Down
Law & Order: Criminal Justice System will feature 10 episodes in its first season and is hosted by former prosecutor Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, who also co-hosts the true crime podcast Anatomy of Murder.
Fans of Law & Order who enjoy the NBC drama show's intimate look at the criminal justice system are in luck.
A new investigative audio series from Wolf Entertainment and iHeart will apply that same format to true crime cases, diving deep into monumental trials in New York City that helped shape the criminal justice system.
The podcast, Law & Order: Criminal Justice System, will feature 10 episodes in its first season and is hosted by someone with plenty of experience both in the courtroom and behind the podcast mic. For a preview of what's to come, check out the trailer that dropped Thursday.
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Who hosts the Law & Order: Criminal Justice System podcast?
Anna-Sigga Nicolazzi, a former prosecutor for the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, hosts the new audio series. She also co-hosts the true crime podcast Anatomy of Murder, and hosted the TV series True Conviction.
During her first semester of law school, Nicolazzi felt particularly drawn to her criminal law class, and knew then that she wanted to be a prosecutor. "I thought it would be very exciting and in my mind, hopefully doing some good," she told NBC Insider. "Something that I felt was contributing to society."
And she soon landed a job in one of the country's largest district attorney's offices. “Brooklyn is a city within a city in New York and I stepped into that courtroom, and I watched people on trial and I just knew, that is exactly what I wanna do,” Nicolazzi said.
During her time with the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office, she tried more than 50 felony cases, including 35 homicides. “I love the challenge of putting the pieces together of a puzzle — having to then pack that all up, and explain it to a group of 12 citizens that come from all different walks of life because the challenge is to make sure they agree," Nicolazzi told NBC Insider.
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What is Season 1 of Law & Order: Criminal Justice System about?
The podcast's first season will look closely at the fall of the Mafia in New York City, kicking off with the assassination of powerful Bonanno crime family boss Carmine Galante in 1979. The series, much like the scripted Law & Order shows, will highlight both law enforcement and the prosecutors who worked the cases.
“We do the same thing,” host Nicolazzi said about the podcast’s similarities to Law & Order’s storytelling. “Except, rather than actors portraying those involved, we are actually speaking to the people.”
Original interviews this season include the prosecuting team that led what became known as the "Commission Case." Family members of former mob bosses are also featured. And Angela Tucceri Galante and Rita Gigante speak out on the podcast about their respective fathers, Galante, and Genovese crime family boss Vincent “The Chin’ Gigante.
“We have the FBI agents who worked undercover,” Nicolazzi added of other interview subjects. “You hear from those that were supervisors and really had to think of a different approach than anything that had been done before.”
Most cases tried at the time weren’t broadcast from the courtroom, Nicolazzi explained, so to get firsthand witness accounts, the Law & Order: Criminal Justice System podcast obtained wiretap audio from the case.
The audio recordings include mobsters talking while unaware anyone else was listening, according to Nicolazzi.
“I can tell you from being a prosecutor, our videos are often grainy, and our sound is often a little crackly, but it’s the real deal and that is why we decided we’re 100% putting some of it in,” Nicolazzi said.
When do new episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Justice System drop?
The first two episodes of Season 1 of the Law & Order: Criminal Justice System podcast drop on Thursday, August 22. After that, eight more episodes will follow, with one debuting every Thursday through October 17.
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Why Season 1 of Law & Order: Criminal Justice System highlights organized crime in NYC
“We are focusing on organized crime and the way that we landed there is that the Mafia really has been the largest criminal organization that the United States, certainly New York City, has ever seen,” Nicolazzi told NBC Insider. ‘So, what better a place to start? The mafia is part of pop culture, you know? The Godfather, The Sopranos. If people haven't seen it, they know of it.”
While covering the subject for the podcast, Nicolazzi was in awe of "the men and the women that tackled this organization that was untouchable for decades," she told NBC Insider.
“Seeing how they really came up with these novel approaches to success, certainly to some degree has really been an amazing journey, getting it through their eyes, how they lived it, and how they saw it, including some of the impacted," Nicolazzi added. "I don’t even think people realize all the ways that the mob has impacted the everyday New Yorker.”
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