How the Enquirer Betrayed a Mafia Don and the Donald
The first person to testify in the first-ever criminal trial of an American president is the former publisher of the National Enquirer. But the supermarket tabloid might not have been around to catch and kill stories about Trumps sexual liaisons if it were not for the early financial support of another notorious New York celebrity, the gangster Frank Costello.
And while Trump is not known for his grasp of history, hed do well to view Costellos relationship with the Enquirers first publisher as a cautionary tale.
In the 1940s, Frank Costello was known as the Prime Minister of the Underworld owing to his gentlemanly public manner, political connections, and patina of respectability. Costello used the mobs Prohibition-era millionsand the money from its vast illegal gambling empireto take control of Tammany Hall. This meant that while Costello was the head of what came to be known as the Genovese crime family, he also pretty much ran the Democratic party in New York.
In 1942, when Costellos godson, Gene Pope, wanted to buy the Enquirerthen called the Inquirer, Pope needed cash. Being a good godfather, Costellodepending on which source you believeforked over somewhere in the range of $10,000 to $25,000. Costello also regularly fronted Pope the cash needed to keep the doors open at the struggling publication. And I do mean cash, because each week, a messenger from the tabloid came to Costellos de facto headquarters, the Waldorf Hotel barbershop, where Costello handed over an envelope of greenbacks.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-the-enquirer-betrayed-a-mafia-don-and-the-donald