Cosa Nostra News

Steven Pastore, a Staten Island-based wiseguy who allegedly helped run the Genovese crime family's racketeering and gambling rackets, was sentenced to two years in prison and must pay the government $125,000.



This past February, Pastore pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to racketeering conspiracy after he was indicted with 18 others for a grab bag of racketeering offenses.

He was sentenced this past week in Manhattan federal court.

Pastore, who the FBI alleges is a made member holding the rank of soldier, conspired from 2008 through the spring of 2016 to commit crimes to benefit the Genovese crime family, a judge ruled.




Pastore was charged in 2016 with racketeering conspiracy and participating in an illegal gambling business, authorities said. Wiretaps showed Pastore had been in the gambling business for years, the Fed's alleged, noting that Pastore also was paid more than $125,000 out of the gambling operation.

Vivian Shevitz, Pastore's lawyer, in filings, noted th…

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Joey (the Clown) Lombardo, the wisecracking jokester who was among the Chicago Outfit’s most colorful, and deadly, figures, asserts his innocence and decries repressive prison conditions in a letter written in his supermax cell in Florence, Colo.


In the letter, which was released this week, Lombardo, nearly 90, writes that his body and memory are both failing. (He’s withstood treatment for throat cancer and has had his gall bladder removed and stents put in.)
Sentenced to life in prison about a decade ago when he was convicted in the landmark Operation Family Secrets trial, Lombardo once again claims he was wrongfully convicted and asks U.S. District Chief Judge Ruben Castillo to appoint him a new lawyer.






In the letter, reportedly his first public correspondence since his sentencing in 2009, he notes: “My mind comes and goes. All my teeth are out and waiting for the prison to give me false teeth … over 3 months no false teeth. Had 4 polips (sic) removed, kidneys are going, I take …

The Attorney General of Washington state, Bob Ferguson, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday (August 7) to shut down six fake nonprofit entities posing as well-known, international organizations.


The brain behind the scheme is allegedly Ian Richard Hosang, a former stockbroker who was identified as having ties to the New York Mafia, specifically the Gambino crime family. Hosang was known to currently reside in Brooklyn, as per the Washington AG.




The lawsuit alleges that Hosang could be using the nonprofits to cover up illegal activity.

Hosang created six nonprofit entities in Washington: American Cancer Society of Seattle, American Cancer Society of Washington, American Red Cross of Seattle, American Red Cross of Washington, United Way of Seattle and United Way of Washington. None of these nonprofits are related to the legitimate, charitable organizations with the same or similar names.

Ferguson’s investigators appear to have uncovered the sham nonprofits before any Washingtonians donated to the…

Gregory Scarpa Senior, the longtime Colombo capo/FBI informant who stopped counting his murders at 50 (think about that), was done in not by a bullet, but by a little white pill.


He took too many aspirins.*  That caused stomach problems, which resulted in surgeries, then the blood transfusion from which he contracted the AIDS virus that wore him down to nothing and ended his life.

So think about this: If Greg Scarpa had only taken Tylenol, then lots more people probably would've been robbed and murdered in New York City.




"He was vicious and he corrupted people," Larry Mazza, Scarpa's protege, recently recalled. "He was cunning and wily -- he had all the street smarts."

For Larry, life is less deadly today and much  better. He's written a memoir of mob life in New York, The Life, and was in the two-part A&E John Gotti documentary, Godfather and Son. He scored a high-profile role in what will be the hottest Mafia movie in decades,Martin Scorsese's…

John Tortora (Johnny T), an alleged Genovese crime family mobster, was arrested today (August 2) for the 20-year-old cold case murder of a man stabbed multiple times as part of an alleged plot to increase the Genovese crime family's power, said federal authorities.



Richard Ortiz, 29, was murdered in Yonkers on November 11, 1997.

Tortora was arrested this morning in Yonkers by FBI agents and Yonkers PD detectives. He was to appear later today before U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein at the United States Courthouse in Manhattan.

The case has been assigned to United States District Judge Sidney H. Stein. An initial pretrial conference is scheduled for August 14, 2018, at 3:00 p.m., before Judge Stein.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said: “As alleged in the indictment, the defendant was responsible for the stabbing death of Richard Ortiz over 20 years ago. Today, thanks to the remarkable dedication and perseverance of the FBI and the Yonkers Police Department, the …

Tony Spilotro was sent by the Chicago Outfit to oversee their interests in Las Vegas, and was the inspiration for the Joe Pesci character in Martin Scorsese's Casino.



Spilotro protected the Outfit's money, aka the skim (illegal casino profits "skimmed” off the top). The Outfit 's interests in Las Vegas predate Spilotro. Before Tony the Ant there was another mobster terrifying people on the fabled Las Vegas strip (as well as in Chicago and elsewhere). Marshall Caifano was sent there to purchase land but he also looked out for the Outfit's interests, which included the Riviera casino then run by Gus Greenbaum, formerly of the Flamingo. Caifano was a suspect in numerous unsolved murders, typically involving Outfit associates. He was also suspected of committing the notorious, grizzly murder of Estelle Carey, a beautiful young cocktail waitress. One of the perceived motives for the killing is that she was "made an example of" to keep her Outfit-connected nig…