Cosa Nostra News

A tweak in the daily duties at our day job coupled with a vast improvement in our love life leaves us these days with much less blogging time on our hands. Nevertheless, we're planning to play catchup toward the end of this week (possibly with the publication [at long last] of that Carmine Galante story we've been referencing ad nauseam )... Meanwhile, there's this... John Gotti, left, Frank DeCicco. See previous installments in this series: 1992 Testimony of Gambino Underboss Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano, Part 1 1992 Testimony of Salvatore (Sammy The Bull) Gravano Part 2: Gambino Ceremony, Meeting John Gotti 1992 Testimony of Gambino Underboss Salvatore (Sammy The Bull) Gravano Part 3: Murders 1992 Testimony of Salvatore (Sammy The Bull) Gravano Part 4: Plotting To Kill A Boss The following continues with Sammy the Bull still under direct questioning by John Gleeson, the then Assistant United States Attorney. GLEESON: Was there a meeting to plan the murder?  GRAVAN

When asked why Gambino wiseguys were unhappy with Paul Castellano , Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano said, "There was a number of reasons that Paul was eventually having a lot of problems with a lot of different people."  THE TARGETS: Tommy Bilotti, left, and Paul Castellano. One of the lesser-known reasons had to do with Castellano's decision to allow the Genovese family to murder Connecticut-based Gambino capo Frank (The Attorney) Piccolo (aka Frankie Lanza), who was once considered one of the top wiseguys in Connecticut. Specifically, in the 1950s, as per state and local law enforcement, Piccolo was one of the two reigning mob powers in the state. The other was Genovese wiseguy Ralph (Whitey) Tropiano. Then, in September 1981, when Piccolo was 58 and awaiting trial for plotting to extort high-profile Las Vegas entertainers Wayne Newton and Lola Falana, his reign reached an abrupt end after  he was gunned down outside a Bridgeport telephone booth.  Piccolo had been

By Andrew Machin “ The Crimine belongs to nobody... it belongs to everyone. The Crimine must be composed of everyone [who belongs] to the Locale, all the men! " --Domenico Oppedisano, cl. 1930, the last known Capo Crimine, Sept. 2009. Whenever police investigators are faced with a suspected case of Mafia murder or attempted murder but also of arson, home invasion, and shootings in general, usually the probe starts and develops along two directions: 1) To identify the perpetrators (for example, by analyzing video surveillance from the crime scene and surrounding areas and looking for witnesses) 2) To identify the involved criminal group(s)/organization(s) and the motivation for the conflict (for example, by probing underworld sources) As to this last point, to direct the investigations, it may be useful to propose a categorization of the wars /struggles / clashes between criminal groups and organizations. A categorization which, considering our topics of interest, will focus on the