Cosa Nostra News

Salvatore (Sam) Piccolo, 67, of Atlantic City, a member of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler in Camden federal court yesterday.




He admitted to staging a fake robbery of a Union County, New Jersey, pawnshop for the purpose of perpetrating an insurance fraud and to distributing illegal drugs, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.

He had been charged with distribution of 216 grams of methamphetamine and one count of wire fraud.






According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Piccolo admitted that on April 19, 2014, he and an accomplice entered a pawnshop in Union County, purportedly to sell some silver items. Once inside the shop, the accomplice displayed a hand gun while Piccolo, wearing a nylon mask, chained the front doors closed to prevent anyone from entering. The owner was bound, as a pretense, while Piccolo and his accomplice looted the safe of what the owner told police was approximately $60,000 in c…

THE WITNESS: I grew up in my country for 26 years almost, and all the people--I would say 99 percent, they never go to the law because the law was too slow, and the law make no justice for what they have done. They prefer Don Tomas, Don Nicolas, Don Ciccio, whatever they call them....

After Joseph (Joe Cago) Valachi and before Sammy (The Bull) Gravano, one of the most important New York mob turncoats was Luigi Ronsisvalle, a "diabolically funny mob hit man."



Ronsisvalle was born and was raised in Sicily, where he followed Mafia developments "like an American kid follows baseball."

He moved to the United States in 1966 when he was 25. He ″knew almost nothing″ about America's Cosa Nostra when he arrived here.

″In Sicily you could whistle and in two minutes, you’d have 200 guys behind you with a shotgun.″

Ronsisvalle said that while he was growing up in Sicily, he always wanted to be ″a man of honor. " In Sicily, people who thought they'd been wronged pre…

We recently spoke with Nick Christophers and John Alite about their new book,Prison Rules, which was written to tell first-time offenders what they can expect inside the joint.


"John Alite is candid and genuine," Nick said in a recent interview. (Nick occasionally writes for Cosa Nostra News, and we've been trying to get him to write some more. He's currently shopping what we think is the definitive book about the Greek Mafia.)

It's been years since we first wrote about former Gambino associate John Alite. That first story, John Alite Blasts Mob Hypocrisy, was published in Jauary 2015. (We've always been in awe of his ability to woo some of the most heartbreakingly beautiful women we've quite literally ever seen.) Prison Rules is John's third book -- after Gotti's Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia, and Darkest Hour: John Alite: Former Mafia Enforcer for John Gotti and the Gambino Crime Family (with S…

Two Missouri men tried to snatch a statue of Chicago Outfit boss Al Capone from its seat outside the Ohio Club in Hot Springs, Arkansas, one Saturday morning last month, and it was all caught on video, which is posted below in this story.



Club owner Mike Pettey told the Hot Springs Sentinel-Record that he chased down the crooks and retrieved the decade-old statue, though it suffered $3,500 worth of damage because, during the chase, Big Al was dropped and broke his fedora brim, arm, and leg.

Ohio Club owner and Scarface rescuer Mike Pettey places the majority of the blame for the incident on a case of spring fever.






"It was the perfect storm because everybody had been cooped up with the rain, and so we had an awesome forecast, and we had the track with all the big races going on. We had the St. Patrick's Day celebrations going on. This was Saturday night, and everybody hit town. So my doorman was overwhelmed, and my hostess was overwhelmed, and it was just almost impossible to …

Before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn,  Vincent Esposito, a son of Vincent (Chin) Gigante, former boss of the Genovese crime family, pled guilty to conspiring to commit racketeering offenses with members and associates of the Genovese crime family.



Esposito, 51, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for July 10, 2019, before Judge Marrero.
As part of his plea, Esposito agreed to forfeit the more than $3.8 million seized by the FBI as criminal proceeds resulting from the offense. 






Charges remain pending against two  co-defendants, Steven Arena and Frank Giovinco, with trial scheduled for June 17, 2019, before U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero. 
According to the Indictment and statements made during public court proceedings:

For years, continuing until 2017, Esposito conspired with other members and associates of the Genovese crime family to commit a wide range of crim…

"It is absolutely out of the question that a Sicilian man of honor could become a made member of the American Cosa Nostra  ..."
 --Tommaso Buscetta, aka the "boss of two worlds"


Frank Cali, the reputed leader of the Gambino crime family who was shot to death outside his house in Staten Island, allegedly was made acting boss in 2015.

Strong factors leading to his ascension were his strong ties to both the Sicilian Mafia and the Calabrian Ndrangheta. His rise also was part of an attempt by the Gambinos to lower the crime family’s profile after John Gotti shot his way to the top in December 1985, according to law enforcement officials.

The Brooklyn-born Cali was related by blood to, and married into, Palermo's Inzerillo family and had cultivated close ties with members of the Ndrangheta's Siderno Group, a global drug trafficking network based in the southern Italian town of Siderno in Calabria. In the 1950s, representatives of the group first migrated to Can…

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"When I was in New York for a mission, I got to know, personally, John and Joseph Gambino, both of them as initiates of the American Cosa Nostra. So, I came to know their secret joints, their way of thinking and the slang communication of the Sicilian Mafia. Usually, they communicate with just a look, something that is the norm for us in Palermo who grew up with the warning of “muto devi stare”–you need to shut up. In fact, using this system of communication we could hold a meeting even in silence–using just a look and body language passed down by our ancestors. This preferred way of communication by mafiosi, made it possible for me to figure out their messages ahead of time on occasion, some even intercepted from New York."
--Pippo Giordano, A Policeman’s Reflections on Mafia Organizations That Rule in Southern Italy


After John Gotti became the boss of the Gambino crime family in 1986 after the murder of Paul Castellano, one of his first formal acts was to promote Joh…