Lesson in Mob Jargon at Basciano Murder Trial

By Ed Scarpo
Newspapers are doing anything to find a new angle on the already-tired story about Joe Massino, former Bonanno chief, ratting his former friend Vinny Gorgeous all the way to the lethal needle. I already did a post about "brokesters," and I am pretty sure everyone knows what "clipped" means, but here it is, courtesy of the New York Times: Lesson in Mob Jargon at a Mafia Murder Trial.

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Hoodwinked: Restaurateur on Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares Was a Mobster

By Ed Scarpo
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Peter (Peter Pasta) Pellegrino, formerly of the Babylon, New York restaurant Peter’s Italian Restaurant, really is -- or was -- a gangster. Gordon gives a pep talk. Peter is ready for action..... The once-promising Bonanno crime family member who appeared in Kitchen Nightmares now calls himself a brokester . And the Bonanno crime family, with which he was once affiliated has disowned him. So has the rest of New York's Cosa Nostra, according to FBI documents and Peter Pasta himself. But before all that he appeared on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares in which he acted very much like the mobster he allegedly was trying to become around the time of filming. (See Peter's Italian Restaurant menu here .) Back then Peter Pasta was an up-and-coming Bonanno associate who "earned" $15 grand a week from bookmaking. At the time, he also owned two boats that he'd park in a pricey nearby Babylon harbor called Great South Bay. Gang Land News's Je
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Who Killed Carmine Galante And Why: Weighing The Evidence (Series Conclusion)

By Ed Scarpo
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“ In the back, Sally! "                                               --(?) G etting sentenced to 20 years in prison on narcotics charges in 1962 was just about the worst possible thing that could happen to the ambitious Carmine Galante—short of, say, getting blasted in the face with shotguns while dining with amici stretti on the back patio of his favorite restaurant. 1980 Giuseppe Bono wedding: Phil Giaccone, Dom Trinchera, JB Indelicato, and Bruno Indelicato were major participants in Galante murders. Lilo spent most of the 1960s and almost half of the 1970s in various prisons. By the time he departed on parole, he was already “yesterday’s man,” as Adrian Humphreys and Lee Lamothe dubbed him in The Sixth Family: The Collapse of the New York Mafia and the Rise of Vito Rizzuto , adding: “Internationally, the underworld had realigned in his (Galante's) absence: the French Connection, along with Galante’s Corsican and French colleagues in Europe and Canada, was unraveling. The
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Joseph Anthony Colombo Jr. Dies at Age 67

By Ed Scarpo
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Joseph Anthony Colombo Jr. Joseph A. Colombo Junior, affectionately known as "Pop," died on October 29, 2014 at his home in Newburgh, New York. He was 67. He's survived by his wife, Diane, and kids Dina, Denise, and Joe. He died following a long battle with Neurological Lyme Disease, according to one news report . Joe Junior was among Joseph Colombo Senior's five children, which also includes sons Christopher, Anthony and Vincent. Visitation will be held from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. on Monday, November 3rd at Brooks Funeral Home, 481 Gidney Ave., Newburgh. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated by Rev. William Scafidi at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, November 4th at St. Mary's Church, Newburgh. Burial will follow in Calvary Cemetery, New Windsor. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be made in Joseph's name to Hospice of Orange and Sullivan Counties, 800 Stony Brook Ct., Newburgh, NY 12550 or to Lyme Research Alliance, 20
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Who Really Killed Tommy Two-Guns DeSimone?

By Ed Scarpo
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It's one of gangland's most high-profile, enigmatic hits -- and the identity of the killer has been debated for decades. Joe Pesci immortalized a vicious killer in Goodfellas. Thomas "Tommy Two-Guns" DeSimone killed a made member of  the Mafia  -- and for that, among other things, he was killed in what's been described as a classic setup. The truth is, we know very little about this murder, including who pulled the trigger. (Or fired up the chainsaw, depending on who you believe). DeSimone disappeared, meaning there's zero evidence as to how he was killed; in fact, it can't be said with absolute certainty that he was killed. Still, he was killed . Guys like him don't just disappear into thin air.  They'd never leave New York because everything they want -- a certain lifestyle, basically -- is in New York and cannot be duplicated anywhere else.  At the same time, there's no shortage of answers as to who and the why. Answers sell books an
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Bath Avenue Crew Rose High, Fell Hard

By Ed Scarpo
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This story from 2014 is one of the most popular on this site—and we didn't even know it until very recently (for reasons stemming from the fallibility of generalized analytics data.) Members of the Bath Avenue Crew were as young as 8 years old when they began to align themselves with the biggest, baddest gang in America: Cosa Nostra, specifically the Five Families. Bath Avenue Crew founding members. They saw the wiseguys on the street pulling up to the curbs in their big shiny Cadillacs, loafing around social clubs wearing pricey suits and sporting hundred-dollar haircuts and manicured fingernails. But the guys presented more than just a cold, distant image to watch; Mafia members interacted with the kids, joked around with them and showed them there were other ways to make it through life. The wiseguys doled out twenty-dollar bills like they were nothing. The wiseguys patted them on the back, told them they were "good kids," and maybe asked them to watch the cars
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Genovese Capo Angelo Prisco Wiretap Transcript: "I Hate Them F---ing Gangsters"

By Ed Scarpo
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On December 24, 2004, while being driven to a meeting with the  acting boss of the Genovese crime family, Daniel (The Lion) Leo, capo Angelo Prisco relaxed and spoke candidly with his driver, Jeff Santini, who Prisco considered a protege. Genovese waterfront capo Angelo Prisco Prisco sounds good natured and easygoing, but the man you hear casually shooting the breeze was, at that very time, helming a violent home invasion crew that tied up its victims and beat them inside their homes. Not even other wiseguys were off limits. As the FBI later alleged: Prisco told his crew about his robbery "policy" -- specifically, that they should "play dumb" if it ever turned out that they had robbed someone with organized crime ties. As the tape (and the car) rolls, Prisco casually tells Santini that he expects one of two things to happen at the meeting. Most likely, he'd get paid a lump sum that had been dangled before him previously, compensation for being in pris
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