Cosa Nostra News

Instead of a hot little number blowing my readers a kiss to go along with my wish for a great 2012 to all my readers, friends and even enemies, I thought I'd offer you all something of more practical value. So... From  Reuters :   63 TV Marathons for New Year's Eve Weekend : "Two days of Snooki and The Situation, family drama of both the old-fashioned ("The Waltons") and mobster ("The Sopranos") varieties, "Real Housewives" of every location, and every episode "The Walking Dead" are but a few of the 63 TV marathons awaiting you and your hangover, er, post-NYE celebration fatigue, this holiday weekend." Check out the schedule at the hyperlink -- you'll have something to glance at while your New Year's Eve headache throbs like it'll pop your eyes out your head! Alright, I'll include a pic, too... Drita! Greg Antonacci Also, a shout out to Greg Antonacci -- who, in addition to writing, producing and d...

The 'big bust' of January is still considered the largest mob story of 2011, even though it was partly a dog-and-pony show put on by the Feds. But there was some fire under the smoke. The trial of Vinny 'Gorgeous' was Joe Massino's first time at bat as a witness, and was also story number two of 2011. The end of the year is always a time for pause and reflection, and top 10 lists are the order of the day... The top 10 news stories, business stories and obituaries; the top 10 celebrity scandals; the top 10 CDs, films and books (the latter few usually in terms of sales, not critical perception). And the lists go on... We wonder: Who came up with the number 10 for the ... the top 10? I mean, why 10? Anyway, we started to run our own list, or one we had found on another website -- titled  The First of 2011's Top 10 Mafia Stories  from  Masslive.com  -- but instead we decided to go to the expert, Jerry Capeci, who served up his own t...

It's becoming more difficult to tell the criminals from the white-collar professionals -- the crime from the corporate kingpins -- and it seems, for the rich, those lines have blurred to nonexistance. I came across this quote from Kingfish hi'sself, and felt like runnin' it... "Giv’em a yacht! Giv’em a Palace! Send ‘em to Reno and give them a new wife when they want it, if that’s what they want. [Laughter] But when they’ve got everything on God’s loving earth that they can eat and they can wear and they can live in, and all that their children can live in and wear and eat, and all of their children’s children can use, then we’ve got to call Mr. Morgan and Mr. Mellon and Mr. Rockefeller back and say, come back here, put that stuff back on this table here that you took away from here that you don’t need. Leave something else for the American people to consume.”

Hoffa expressing a thought, most likely to R or JFK. [ Editor's Note : We believe we know what happened to Hoffa and have written about it here:  Sheeran's Daughter: 'My Father Killed Jimmy Hoffa'  -- but we are open minded and will always offer proposed alternate views of mob history, 'cause you never know for sure...] From The Daily Mail: "The disappearance of Teamsters union boss Jimmy Hoffa remains one of America’s most enduring mysteries. "But now, nearly four decades after Hoffa vanished, his driver has claimed he knows where he is buried – and how he got there. "Marvin Elkind said Hoffa was killed by a mob enforcer and buried in the foundations of the towering General Motors’ HQ in Detroit, Michigan. "‘It was his own people who did it,’ Mr Elkind said in excerpts of a new book published in the New York Post, adding Mafia member Tony Jack insinuated he was responsible. "The startling claim comes 36 years after Hoffa, who l...

"Big Al" Bruno From Masslive.com , we bring you the first in an ongoing series of  the  Top 10 stories of 2011: Al Bruno murder trial convictions : "As 2011 winds down, The Republican and MassLive.com recap some of the  Top 10 news stories each day this week leading up to Jan. 1 when the complete list will appear with photos in The Sunday Republican. "No. 9: Convictions in the trial of those accused of killing mob boss Al Bruno . "This year brought the first mob murder-related life sentences in Western Massachusetts with the convictions of former West Springfield Mafia enforcers  Fotios “Freddy” Geas , 45, and his younger brother Ty Geas , 39. They were tried in connection with the 2003 murder of Adolfo “Big Al” Bruno and other crimes. The brothers were convicted along with onetime New York acting Genovese crime boss Arthur “Artie” Nigro, also serving a life sentence. "A three-week trial in U.S. District Court in Manhattan in March shined a li...

Whether you're home or elsewhere -- with your family, Family or others -- no matter what type of lifestyle you lead,  Cosa Nostra News wishes all its readers a MERRY, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

From  NJ.com : "For workers on the docks and piers of New Jersey, Christmastime for years meant longshoremen being forced to pay money to union leaders, federal officials say. "A Watchung man who is an official in the International Longshoremen’s Association union is charged in a federal indictment that adds dozens of counts to a previous indictment charging multiple defendants — including an alleged member and associates of the Genovese organized crime family — with racketeering and related offenses. "The charges include conspiring to extort Christmastime “tributes” from ILA members on the New Jersey piers. The defendants are accused of taking money from the workers through “wrongful use of, actual and threatened force, violence and fear,” as long as 30 years ago." See full story:  Watchung man charged with extorting money from fellow longshoremen's union members at Christmastime

From 'Mob' Wife Renee Graziano -- First Pics After Butt Surgery | TMZ.com : "Mob Wives" star Renee Graziano is unveiling her new ass-ets -- with an ass-ist from a stripper pole ... after surgically-enhancing her brand new butt cheeks. The pics were snapped at a cafe in Brooklyn for an upcoming spread in Mob Candy Magazine -- five months after Graziano went under the knife for the $30,000 vanity procedure, which, of course, included an ass lift and a tummy tuck. A rep for the magazine tells TMZ, Renee "shot like a pro." Pro what exactly? [ Editor's Note : We at CNNews would rather look at Drita's homemade calendar.]

Raynald Desjardins is escorted into SQ headquarters Tuesday after his arrest in connection with the Nov. 24 shooting death of Salvatore Montagna, who was killed in Ile Vaudry, a small island south of the municipality of Charlemagne, near Repentigny. Police say Montagna was attempting to take over the mafia in Montreal. Photograph by:  RADIO-CANADA, . Sal "The Ironworker" Montagna, former Bonanno boss deported from the U.S. to Canada back in 2009, was killed as part of a power play for control of the Montreal Mafia -- apparently following the collapse of a fragile coalition of which Montagna had been part. The man believed to be behind the hit on Montagna is a confederate of Vito Rizzuto, the once-powerful Montreal mob boss now sitting in an American prison. Police say they have "destabilized the already volatile world of organized crime in Montreal with the arrest of five men [reports vary regarding the exact number of those arrested] in the slaying of a major...

Renee Graziano offers a revealing profile of herself in an upcoming issue of 'Mob Candy' magazine. Appearing on the cover of the next installment of 'Mob Candy' magazine is none other than reality TV's favorite mob wife -- or one of them, anyway -- Renee Graziano, daughter of Anthony Graziano, a high-ranking member of the Bonanno crime family who was returned to prison thanks to Renee's ex-husband, who joined Team America. "(The Renee Issue) will reveal a sneak look at her new body... and an in-depth look inside" the mob wife's mind, reports MafiaLife Chris on the  MafiaLifeBlog.com . Yes, it seems Renee has gone under the knife to have a butt lift, among other things. According to  TMZ.com : "'Mob Wives' star Renee Graziano plans to kick off next season with a LOT more booty -- telling TMZ, she went under the knife yesterday ... for a $30,000 full-body surgery, including a massive ASS LIFT. "Renee says she was a littl...

It appears the recent Thanksgiving-day shooting of Sal "The Ironworker" Montagna was not an isolated incident. Montagna and two other mobsters trying to rebuild the Canadian Mafia were, it now seems, put on a hit list. A fourth man also is allegedly part of the group. According to the MontrealGazette.com : "It now resembles a hit list – the names of a trio police sources say were major players in an attempt to reach a consensus over who should assume control over the Mafia in Montreal. "Montreal businessman Antonio (Tony Suzuki) Pietrantonio is the latest target in a series of shootings that began in September. "Pietrantonio, 48, was left in critical condition after being shot Tuesday night near the entrance of Restaurant Imperio, a Portuguese grill in a strip mall on Jarry St. E. near Chambord St.... "The attempt on Pietrantonio’s life follows the Nov. 24 slaying of Salvatore (Sal the Ironworker) Montagna on an island just east of Montreal and a S...

Controversial journalist Christopher Hitchens has finally succumbed to cancer of the esophagus. I will miss his work, but I still have more than half his memoir to relish. And I have the memory of my one phone call to him. Note: This story falls outside the margin of the ground I usually cover on this site; but the death of Chris Hitchens has moved me enough to write this post, which will probably be a chapter in my memoir, if I ever write one. Early in my editorial career, I was a managing editor working for a subsidiary of  Penthouse  magazine; I worked on three pubs, actually:  Penthouse Letters  and  Penthouse Forum  (I was a senior editor on both mastheads), and  Penthouse Hot Talk  (of which I was the managing editor).

Get More: Mob Wives (Season 2) Another trailer is available about the upcoming next season of Mob Wives, and it offers some details of the various plot threads that will be running through the shows. Renee will be a major focus, as everyone knows the story of her rat ex-husband who put her father back in prison. And we see her ex, Junior, in the clip, and we also see Renee collapse on the floor in hysterical tears after a phone call during which she was informed that her father had been arrested after winning a rarely awarded home release program. Renee also goes under the knife, but not during a fight to the death with another mob wife. She gets plastic surgery, and it seems we are treated to the filming of the operation, portions of which are in the above clip. Of course, Renee is later on pissed at anyone who didn't visit her in the hospital...

Karen Gravano: Mob Daughter excerpt from Chapter one on Facebook :   I was nine years old when I began to suspect that my father was a gangster. It was Sunday and Dad had us all packed into the car for an afternoon of house hunting. He loved driving around different neighborhoods, pointing out houses he liked and sharing his renovation ideas. On this particular Sunday, we were cruising around Todt Hill, an upscale community on the southern end of Staten Island, filled with homes owned by doctors, lawyers, and “businessmen.” Mom was in the front seat with Dad, and my younger brother, Gerard, and I were buckled in the back. My father had just finished the renovations on a three- bedroom house he’d bought for us in Bulls Head, a predominantly blue- collar neighborhood just over the Verrazano- Narrows Bridge and not far from the two- bedroom apartment we had been renting in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. My father was obsessed with construction and remodeling. He’d ripped apart and rem...

From an FBI press release: It’s a criminal’s dream—owning a financial company that can be looted at will. That’s just what 13 individuals—including two with ties to organized crime families—are accused of in a federal indictment announced last month in New Jersey. Among those charged in the 25-count indictment is Nicodemo Scarfo—a member of the Lucchese crime family and son of Nicodemo Scarfo Sr., the imprisoned former boss of the Philadelphia La Cosa Nostra (LCN) crime family. Also charged were Salvatore Pelullo—an associate of the Lucchese and Philadelphia LCN families—and 11 others…all in connection with an alleged criminal takeover of FirstPlus Financial Group (FPFG), a publicly held company based in Texas. The takeover resulted in honest FPFG shareholders losing at least $12 million; the company ultimately filed for bankruptcy. The group was charged with various crimes in connection with this racketeering conspiracy, including securities fraud; wire, mail, and bank fraud; e...

Federal agents arrested three more reputed mobsters and piled on dozens more charges as part of the largest Mafia roundup in the history of the New York/New Jersey area. A 103-count superseding indictment was unsealed in Newark federal court where previously charged defendants Stephen Depiro, a Genovese soldier, and three Genovese family associates were charged with murder, extortion, theft and other crimes, some of which date back 30 years. Federal prosecutors said they dismantled organizations that had run wild for decades -- stealing everything from electronics to cigarettes, carrying out hits and extorting honest businessmen who paid up so they wouldn‘t have their kneecaps broken or businesses destroyed. Nearly 130 members and associates of seven Mafia organizations -- including the New Jersey-based Decavalcante Crime Family -- were originally charged. In New Jersey, 15 mobsters and associates were charged with taking over several unions and extorting its members, includin...

Joseph DiNapoli is accused of being part of a Luchese family ruling panel. "Law enforcement says it intercepted more than 30,000 messages between members of a $2 billion sports betting ring allegedly run by the Lucchese crime family, but the defense asserts they may not be admissible in court," reports  NJ.com . The defense wants to examine the eavesdropping devices to learn whether they can comply with a rule limiting bugs to two minutes -- unless criminal activity is discussed. Prosecutors opposed the request, which seemed likely to slow one of New Jersey’s most notorious organized crime cases, already four years old. "During a conference today in Superior Court in Morristown, several defense attorneys questioned the legality of the devices used in the case against 31 people accused of participating in a $2 billion sports betting and money laundering ring allegedly run by the Lucchese crime family for a 15-month period ending in December 2007,"  NJ.com  w...

Racketeers go through ups and downs; the downs seem to be taking over, in Greater Springfield, anyways. "Over the years, Mafia regimes in Western Massachusetts have risen and fallen with sweeping prosecutions, old age and murder," writes Masslive.com in a follow up to a previous installment on the Massachusetts Mafia's rise and fall " Organized crime in Greater Springfield has been as cyclical as every other industry – banking, real estate and politics. "But, with the recent exodus of every made member of the Springfield faction of the Genovese crime family – either through violence, prosecution under powerful federal racketeering laws or entrance into the U.S. Witness Protection Program – the landscape of the region’s mob leadership is truly barren. Law enforcement officials say it is a first. “For the first time in my memory, all we have left is a handful of bookies. Along with a bunch of older guys we call the geriatric crew,” says State Police...

Boston.com  reports: "A New England mob associate was sentenced on Monday to 2 1/2 years in prison for his role in the shakedown of Providence-area strip clubs where he worked as a bookkeeper." Thomas Iafrate, 70, of Johnston, is the first defendant to be punished in the case, which authorities say involves several mafia figures and generated at least $2 million in ill-gotten gains. Iafrate pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and admitted to being a mob associate in July. He must report to federal prison on Jan. 3, federal prosecutors said. Iafrate's punishment was imposed the same day a federal judge denied bail for a second time for alleged ex-New England mob boss Luigi "Baby Shacks" Manocchio, 84." Read complete article:  NE mob associate sentenced in RI - Boston.com

It was judgment day for Anthony Borgese, aka Tony Darrow, in Brooklyn federal court this week. U.S. District Judge Eric N. Vitaliano slammed the actor-cum-mobster with two years’ probation, six months’ house arrest, 250 hours of community service and a $7,500 fine. Not a bad deal, considering Borgese could have gotten up to 40 months in jail. Mobsters are bad guys, Tony Darrow said, or something like it in anti-mafia public service ads that probably spared his dimpled ass a prison stint. Borgese, you may recall, is the former Catskills lounge singer turned actor who made a nice living playing mobsters in film and on TV. But then he went and got himself arrested for getting mixed up with some real mobsters who committed a violent felony while collecting a debt for the would-be Don Borgese. The actor, who is better known under the Darrow name, has played mobsters or criminal associates in numerous mob films, including Goodfellas, Analyze This, Mickey Blue Eyes and The Sopra...

Add caption Straight from my friend MafiaLife Chris's blog,  Mafialifeblog.com , I dip into the following post: There are probably enough books written about Alphonse “Scarface” Capone to fill an entire small library. This, however, is not a book about Capone per se. Think of it more as a first-person account, by an emotionally torn spouse, of man that allegedly participated in the 1929 St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. Gus Winkeler is the subject, as told by the memoirs - long buried deep in government files – of his wife Georgette Winkeler. True crime author William J. Helmer (author of Dillinger: The Untold Story and co-author The Complete Public Enemy Almanac with the late Rick Mattix ) introduces the book with a reminder of Georgette’s slightly-biased view (trying to put husband Gus Winkeler in better light). He also provides plenty of historical facts and bios in the back of the book that work to support Georgette’s account and other times to clarify or fill in blanks (Geo...

Meyer Lansky, the criminal mastermind who was not as powerful as he is believed to have been. The Jewish Mafia may be dead in the U.S. -- or at the very least is a mere echo of what it had once been back at the dawn of organized crime, when mobsters like Lucky, Costello and Anastasia worked alongside Meyer, Bugsy, Lepke and Gurrah, aka Jacob Shapiro. The Jewish American mob shared in the lucrative rackets of bootlegging back in the golden age of the Mafia, and many Jews were even hit men in Murder Incorporated. But while they seem to have dropped out of sight in the U.S., they are alive and well in Israel -- or had been until a recent bust reminiscent of the one we had here back in January of the Italian Mafia. In the one of the largest anti-organized crime raids in recent years, police arrested 70 suspects from across Israel overnight Tuesday, reports The Jerusalem Post . Hundreds of officers led by Coastal Police officers raided addresses in several cities, from Nazareth to...

Why was The Ironworker killed outside the home of a drug dealer? A convicted drug trafficker remains in custody on an "alleged parole violation" after he was questioned by police about the hit on former Bonanno boss Salvatore Montagna, which took place inside a house the drug dealer owns, reports the  MontrealGazette.com . "Jack Arthur Simpson, 69, was arrested in Ottawa on Monday for allegedly violating his parole on a 28-year sentence he is serving for attempting to ship 300 kilograms of cocaine from California to New York in 1996," the article reports. "Donnie Brasco" got the Bonannos kicked off the Commission, fueling their dive into the drug business. Police believe Montagna, 40, was killed as he exited the house owned by Simpson, or that he was shot inside and ran outside to elude the gunman -- and additional bullets. No charges were expected to be filed as a result of the questioning.Officials did not reveal how Simpson is alleged to hav...

Hector Pagan "The 'Mob Wives' yesterday found out that one of the cast members has been wearing a wire for the FBI," reports the NYPOST.com . Hector “Junior” Pagan, the ex-husband of Renee Graziano, who was seen regularly on the hit reality series last year and was supposedly playing a prominent role in the upcoming season, "was reportedly flipped by the feds last summer," the Post reports. Junior, fans of the show will recall, was picked up in January as part of the "big Mafia sweep" in the Northeast by the feds, who shortly afteward cut their resources focused on LCN. And worse for the Graziano family, Pagan's first target was mob wife Renee and show creator Jennifer Graziano's dad, Bonanno crime family capo Anthony Graziano. Online mob newsletter ganglandnews.com reported that Pagan had been secretly taping conversations with the elder Graziano for the government.

"A Dix Hills woman is one of 20 defendants who are alleged to have been involved in recruiting European women to illegally enter and work in the United States as strippers," reports the Half Hollow Hills, NY Patch . CNNews has been following the story  since it broke last week. Elena Turubanova, 24, of Dix Hills, is one of the 20 individuals who were arrested and charged with racketeering, extortion, and visa and marriage fraud, among other things. According to the US Attorney's Office, she and the other defendants sent these women offers via print and online announcements for credible, legitimate employment, such as waitressing -- but then forced them to strip at certain mob-affiliated strip clubs. The Gambino and Bonnano crime families are allegedly behind the racket, apparently with the help of others, such as Ms. Turubanova, according to the United States Attorney's Office. Turubanova was released on bail this past week. Read full story: Dix Hills Woma...

Gotti biopic ‘coming together’ - Film-News.co.uk : Financial issues on the John Gotti biopic are “sorted,” says writer and director Barry Levinson. Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father has suffered from many financial and legal difficulties over the past few months. However, Barry confirmed that those troubles are in the past and the film is ready to move forward. John Travolta will still play the mob boss, while Al Pacino, Ben Foster and Kelly Preston will also appear.

Mob Wives – Season 2 Trailer! « Mob Wives « Reality Wives :

The Italian Cosa Nostra and Russian Mafia together allegedly smuggled Eastern European women into New York to work in high-end strip clubs — and even arranged sham marriages to keep some of them here. The women were recruited via Facebook and newspaper ads. Twenty suspects, including seven reputed Gambino and Bonanno mobsters, were arraigned in Manhattan Federal Court on charges ranging from racketeering to visa fraud. The schemers allegedly recruited women in Russia and neighboring countries through Facebook and newspaper ads to work as strippers.

The Little Guy... T.G., The Little Guy or whatever you want to call him was one foot out of the clink before he was thrown back in. That suuucks!! Renee, second from the right, is the daughter on the show dad T.G. won't watch. This comes from   THE RANT Forum :   Anthony Graziano may not approve of his daughter's "Mob Wives" reality show, but it looks as though he has given its producers fodder for another season of Mafia melodrama. Graziano, 71, of Huguenot, a reputed one-time consigliere of the Bonanno crime family, has been tossed back in federal prison on extortion charges, just a few months after he was released from a halfway house and placed under house arrest. He was busted earlier today for attempting to collect a years-old loansharking debt, federal prosecutors allege. The Staten Island gangster, who has gone by the nicknames "TG" and "the Little Guy," is the father of Renee Graziano, one of the four stars of VH1's "...

Sal 'The Ironworker' Montagna From the  NYPOST.com , we learn that Sal Montagna, the former acting boss of the Bonanno family who was deported to Canada a few years ago, may have been murdered by bikers for trying to wrest control of the Montreal Mafia from the dying Rizzuto family. Bikers may have done the hit, but it seems more than likely they would only be hired guns. Salvatore “Sal the Ironworker” Montagna was shot on Ile Vaudry, a working-class neighborhood on a small island about 30 miles north of Montreal, and dumped into a river, Canadian police said in the  NYPOST.com  report. Montagna was only 35 when he took over one of the five crime families in 2006, earning him the nickname the “Bambino Boss." "Given Montagna’s longtime involvement with organized crime and the fact that he had lived at various points of his life in Italy, the U.S. and Canada, investigators planned to cast a wide net in their murder probe, said Sgt. Benoit Richard of Surete...

Ramona Rizzo, the new addition to 'Mob Wives,' is the granddaughter to Benjamin "Lefty Two-Guns" Ruggiero, ex-mentor of one Donnie Brasco. "Mob Wives" will include a new member when it makes its season two debut, according to a New York Post article that came to our attention via Gangster BB (bulletin board). Ramona Rizzo — the granddaughter of Benjamin “Lefty Guns” Ruggiero, the Bonnano crime family soldier who mentored “Donnie Brasco” — is joining the cast this season. The Post reports that Rizzo joins the show, set to begin a new season Jan. 1, because she is a childhood friend of “Mob Wives” spitfire Karen Gravano, daughter of mob turncoat Sammy “The Bull” Gravano, according to  Gangster BB . A divorced mother of four, Rizzo lives in New Jersey, but was raised on Staten Island, where most of the action in “Mob Wives” takes place. The Post got one part wrong, reporting, "Inexplicably, the mob never ordered a hit on Ruggiero as punishment...

Joe Bruno, journalist and mob blogger. A Vietnam veteran in the United States Navy, Joseph J. Bruno started out in the newspaper business in the mid 1970's as a sports columnist for the New York Tribune. During the 70's and 80's, Bruno was an associate editor for Boxing Illustrated and monthly contributor to Ring Magazine. In 1986-1987, Bruno wrote a sports column for the Times Herald Record in Middletown, New York. His articles have also appeared in Penthouse Magazine, Razor Magazine, Boxing Today, Boxing World, International Boxing Digest, Referee Magazine and Inside Boxing.  In 2000, Bruno's first novel Angel of Death was published by iUniverse.com . Joe Bruno also has a blog, Joe Bruno On the Mob . Below are a couple of recent posts he has written about some timely mob subjects that we found interesting. Joe Bruno on the Mob — Sal The Iron Worker  : It seems like Canada is not such a safe place for reputed Mafiosos anymore. The body of Salvatore Montagna,...

Sal The Iron Work, slain in Canada, had once been the acting Bonanno family boss. Fished out of a river outside Montreal was the body of Sal "The Iron Worker" Montagna, reports  CBC News . Cause of death has not yet been determined, but it was likely natural causes -- natural to the line of work he was in, that is. His name may sound familiar. Sal had his 15 minutes of fame when his move to Long Island in 2009 was widely covered by the New York tabloids -- perhaps because it dovetailed with word that he had assumed the post of acting boss of the Bonanno crime family, or so U.S. authorities had said at the time. He had moved with his wife and three children to Elmont. I was born and raised in Elmont; my parents still live there. I suppose this is why I have always had an interest in Sal, who was deported to Canada not long after he moved his family into Nassau County, probably to put them farther away from any dangers his "promotion" may have put them in. He wa...