“I could scarcely believe what I was reading to be honest!”
Those are the words spoken by Rob Crawford, who is one half of Australia’s emerging podcast network, Podular.
A self-proclaimed nerd, the Melbourne based audio engineer is a key cog behind the incredible true crime podcast, The Enforcer.
It’s an engrossing 10-part series about Lucky Luciano’s nephew, Anthony Salvatore Luciano Raimondi, who was an enforcer for the infamous Colombo and Bonanno crime families.
When Rob was sent the rough draft of Raimondi’s book, When The Bullet Hits The Bone, by Page Publishing, he was hooked immediately.
“We got sent a digital form earlier this year and I printed out the full 236 pages, which was a fair whack on the ink cartridge,” Crawford said.
“Well, it was certainly worth it. I could scarcely believe what I was reading to be honest – it was insane!”
From that point onwards an obsession began and only an immersive podcast would do Anthony’s story justice, according to Crawford who is host of Essendon’s No. 1 fan podcast The Sash.
“When the opportunity was presented for Podular to tell Anthony’s story in podcast form, we couldn’t reply to quick enough.”
“It made so much sense to tell his story via this medium, particularly given his skill for telling a good story – and not to mention that soothing, heavy Brooklyn accent of his.”
The lead came from 360 Degree Marketing Group [360 DMG], one of Australia’s premier media buying advertising agencies.
Robert Huxley, Vice President of Business Development USA at 360 DMG, met Anthony several years ago and was so enthralled by his rollercoaster life that he put the wheels in motion to help Anthony write a book about being an Italian-American gangster.
“From the moment I first heard Anthony’s amazing story, I was excited to amplify it not just for our fellow New Yorkers, but the world, and podcasting is a great way to do that.”
“I have no doubt that his brutally revealing tales will leave listeners hooked and wanting more.”
With support from New York video marketing company, Carpe VM, over 10 hours of video and audio was shot across three days with Anthony.
The podcast touches on many of his experiences, including time spent serving in Vietnam, being involved in one of the biggest American robberies of all-time [Lufthansa Heist] and making claims that he helped poison Pope John Paul I.
It really is a staggering listen and provides great colour to Raimondi’s life through the carefully constructed narration and audio production values.
The Enforcer is part of a new direction for Podular and one that founder, Adrian Houghton, is super excited by, despite the difficult decision to discontinue a podcast where they made their name.
“We had to put a halt to the regular Daily Football Show [DFS] podcast, a product that kickstarted our fascination with podcasts,” Houghton said.
“We built our credibility through DFS and other AFL related fan podcasts like The DeeBrief, but it was a natural and commercial decision to broaden the catalogue.”
“It’s a new dawn for Podular as we move into the realm of more narrative non-fiction titles in the not so distant future.”
“We’re still very much committed to sporting content across existing channels, but will be producing a different style of content. We may even see the resurrection of DFS – watch this space.”
Subscribe and listen to The Enforcer podcast on Apple, Spotify and your favourite podcasting apps.
