"Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire" Available Now


Now available for purchase on Amazon Kindle! Cosa Nostra News: The Cicale Files, Volume 1: Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire.

"As a capo in the Bonanno crime family, Dominick Cicale was privy to the inner workings of organized crime. Cicale was a rising star in the Bonanno family until Joseph Massino, the family's boss, was arrested on a murder rap and turned on his own people.

Massino's betrayal took down Cicale and his mentor Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano, and many others. Faced with the disloyalty of Massino (the only Mafia Godfather to break the code of "omerta,") Cicale began cooperating with federal authorities. Here, Cicale not only reveals an insider’s view of the Mafia’s secret society, but provides readers with shocking details of the reign and fall of Joseph Massino."


As noted it is priced at $4.99 (it is not a full-length book, as it is around 20,000 words), and we packed it with as much value as possible. Researching extensively to set the background and context for Dominick's information, I tried to focus on little-known facts that were part of some of the major events described in the book.

For example, "Sonny Red" Indelicato was under investigation for the murder of Crazy Joe Gallo when he was killed, in addition, Indelicato, on the night of the three-capo meeting, scattered his crews throughout New York City in case the loyalist faction tried to take them all out in one strike? In addition, several Bonanno members supposedly stayed with Tommy “Karate” Pitera while the three capos were slaughtered.

As you'll read in our book, Dominick exonerates someone now sitting in prison for a crime they didn't commit. In addition, Massino failed two polygraph tests. As Newsday noted in the story Surprising testimony in Basciano case:

"Former crime boss Joseph Massino unexpectedly testified that he failed two FBI lie detector tests while trying to become a government witness -- an admission defense attorneys are likely to use to attack his credibility as they try to save crime captain Vincent Basciano from the death penalty.

"Massino described his test failings while Basciano's attorneys cross-examined him in a special proceeding, in which prosecutors are trying to convince a federal jury in Brooklyn that Basciano -- convicted this month of the murder of a mob associate -- deserves to die."


Anthony DeStefano mentions a murder plot Vinny "Gorgeous" Basciano tried to orchestrate from prison. The target was Michael "Mikey Nose" Mancuso. The plot didn't originate with Vinny, and DeStefano doesn't really know what set it in motion.

Tony Green
Now I realize some (or many) of you probably don't even know who some of these guys are. Sal Vitale, for example, was Massino's brother-in-law and underboss for a time. He fell out of favor and, following an indictment, he eventually flipped. This book was written for the beginner as well as the expert.

One main goal was to dole out juicy details that many of you likely will find intriguing. For example, consider the "Tony Green" excerpt. Anthony "Tony Green" Urso was a capo who briefly served as Joe Massino's acting boss. He advocated the killing of children of informants as punishment -- but also as a cautionary measure to stop others from flipping -- in an infamous comment made to "Big Lou" Tartaglione. (I'm pleased to announce that we have copies of those very tapes made by Big Lou! More on that to come in a future post...) Urso also dressed in skintight spandex and didn't always wear his toupee properly. He also could be talking about, say, a murder or a new family venture that could earn millions -- any topic at all was never large enough to interest Urso if a nice ass happened into his view. His entire focus would concentrate on a female's swaying buttocks.

From the excerpt:

...Urso commanded the Bonanno family and had major resources to back him up.

Urso was also interested in attractive young ladies—to a fault. On street corner meetings, he was known to suddenly lose interest in the topic of discussion whenever a fetching young woman happened into his field of vision. “Tony thought he was God's gift to every woman who passed him by,” Cicale said. “He’d make it so obvious too, looking a woman up and down.”

... Cicale recalled a time when he and Basciano were waiting for Urso to meet them. “Urso steps out of his tricked-out, pimped-out black Hummer H2 wearing bright, shiny, royal-blue skintight spandex. Urso actually looked as if he was about to get on stage at a male strip club.

“Vinny and I were standing in a supermarket parking lot waiting for Urso. We watched him park his car farther down the lot from us. When Urso got out of the Hummer in that outfit, Vinny starts whispering shit to me without moving his lips so Urso doesn’t notice. ‘Oh my fucking God,’ Basciano told me. ‘Is this man crazy or what? Dom, look at his sagging balls. They’re huge. This guy is fucking kidding, right?’”
 
Smiling at the recollection, Cicale said, “Tony was only several feet away and I’m trying to hold in a major burst of laughter. I’m trying to keep my lips together and stop myself from losing it. Then Vinny whispered again, like a ventriloquist: ‘Bo, shut the fuck up. You’re gonna make me bust out laughing right in this guy’s face. You’re gonna get us killed.’ I’m busting a gut inside, thinking if any of the other families see this guy, then we’re all gonna get killed, the whole fucking crime family.”...

Salvatore "The Iron Worker" Montagna also plays a role.Vito Rizzuto, who set loose a bloody vendetta against all traitors, especially those responsible for the murder of his father and son, is a major figure in the book. We posit that whatever else Vito was doing in Canada, he still reported to the Bonannos and paid annual tribute to the boss in New York. Cicale believes any "break" Vito made prior to his prison sentence for the three-capo slaying was directed personally at Massino and not the Bonanno family. In fact, Vito was very friendly with another figure in our book and was still paying tribute as late as the year 2004; he didn't stop paying in 1999, the year George From Canada was murdered, as has been widely reported.

Cosa Nostra News: The Cicale Files, Volume 1: Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire

Comments

  1. Vince Isoldi is nothing but a mob wannabe but his father in law Adolph Junior Williams is the real deal. He was a mob associate that was grossing $139,479 to $208,697 weekly in number bets. He operated the largest number of rackets in Pittsburgh. Had half the city on his pay roll. Law enforcement still says his a part of the life that the majority of illegal gambling in Pittsburgh is run by him. Ed remember how the Genovese family used a front man disguised as a boss to fool the FBI? You figure out who the real Godfather of Pittsburgh is. :)

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  2. Even his father in law said "its not like the old days". That was in reference to his brother in law opening up a competing strip club across the street from mr. vincent isolidi.

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  3. Even Henry Hill's Pittsburg connection had more class than this mook, and that's saying a lot.

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  4. I enjoyed it a lot. Would love to know the names of those 2 bonanno soldiers from montreal that were mentioned and if Cicale met them and is now out of the life can't understand why he wouldn't identify them. Also enjoyed finding out that Sal Montagna knew Rizzuto and had dealings in montreal prior to his being deported. All in all worth every penny. a lot of good info not available from any other source.

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  5. There is no hierarchy, or formal LCN family structure, left in Pittsburgh anymore. True, the last remaining made man, Thomas "Sonny" Ciancutti, is now the "de facto" boss on the simple basis alone that he is the last man standing; however, he is not recognized as a boss outside of Pittsburgh. There are still remnants of the former Pittsburgh organization operating, and possibly "kicking up" to Sonny, but they are no longer a viable family in the traditional sense of LCN anymore.

    Bobby I is the underboss? You must have read that on Wikipedia. Last time I checked, you had to actually be a made guy to be the underboss. Robert "Bobby I" Iannelli was never inducted into the Pittsburgh family and IS NOT a made man, nor the underboss. He was nothing more than a high level associate who paid tribute to the family from his gambling operation.

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  6. Are you trying to insinuate that "Junior" Williams is the boss of Pittsburgh? Thomas "Sonny" Ciancutti is the 'godfather' of Pittsburgh, and that's only on a "de facto" basis because he is the last made man in the city left who hasn't become a rat or cooperated (Strollo and Chucky Porter). There is no formal, traditional LCN family in Pittsburgh anymore, just individual remnants of the former organization operating independently.

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  7. Only thing I'm insinuating is that junior may still be involved with that kind of life which law enforcement believes. Law enforcement insisted that Junior still has a hold on illegal gambling operations in Pittsburgh. It is not required to be apart of a criminal organization , mafia in other words to become a boss. Back in the old days he was making so much money that he just stop kicking up money to the fallen LaRocca crime family. When I implied that the Genovese family used a front man to fool the FBI , I meant that Junior may be using his son in law to launder his illegal earnings.

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  8. Mafia: an organized body of criminals. I agree that the LaRocca crime family is no longer in existence in Pittburgh but what you are describing is the old mob . You can say that the illegal gambling busts these last ten 10 years are only remnants of the "old" mob but you have to take into consideration that the individuals involved were of Italian American descent.

    Now my train of thought here is that their hierarchy may be crews of 5-10 guys running gambling rackets across Pittsburgh. Thomas "Sonny" Ciancutti is still believed to be a major racketeer despite his age by law enforcement. Racketeering requires organization. As for Bobby when I was researching , I came across a news article which titled him as a underboss which as you said he is nothing more then a big earner to the old mob. My humble apologies for mix up.

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  9. A source of mine told me about the in-law. Check the "Pittsburgh Prank" story. Also I have some interesting info I am following up on concerning a murder mentioned on the show....

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  10. The father in law was supposedly connected... there's no Mafia there but a lot of lone gangsters... Vince is not one of them, lol!!

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  11. Alicia talked crap about him? I thought Karen said that's why she was let go from the show. She's back for one reason, I'd wager: support Renee whose popularity must've collapsed with her sanity last season judging by all the spinning she's been doing. She thinks she's a Mobster! It's a joke....

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  12. Why do crime authors always make errors in who are in what family or grammar errors? In the cicale files you wrote tom mix santoro was the underboss of the genovese family when it is really the lucchese end of chapter 3. No care to proof read?

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  13. That all you caught? That's corrected in the print and ebook second edition... anything else?

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