Cosa Nostra News

Masseria murder scene; note the ace of apades -- fate or fiction? Joe "The Boss" mugshot. The New York Times FYI section is running an interesting Q&A today, titled "Coney Island’s Big Hit" -- and we are glad the writer noted that the card more than likely was slipped into the dead mob boss's hand by an enterprising photographer -- just like an enterprising cop may have slipped the famous cigar into a dead Carmine Galante's mouth....But it's kind of funny that the Masseria killing created the fear of the ace of spades -- considered the "death card" by Mafiosi and others -- when all along it may have been manufactured rather than an act of fate. Also our good friend/mentor Sonny Girard  in his comment below has reminded us that Lucky Luciano used all-Jewish shooters for the Masseria hit, most likely because Joe The Boss, who had a knack for escaping assassination attempts, would be unlikely to recognize Jewish gunmen. Anyway, ...

"Wild Bill" was feared and respected -- and he was considered the real deal. The Discovery channel certainly did not go out of its way to promote “Mobster Confessions,” its new Mafia-related series, the first episode of which detailed the story of Bill Cutolo Jr.’s efforts to nail the Colombo family members who had whacked his father. I have written repeatedly that I am not in any way connected, but if my father were killed and I happened to have access to a pistol, like Billy did, and if I actually knew who was behind my father’s murder, I’d say I would get in my car, find them and kill them all until they stopped me by putting one or two in my head. But that’s easy for me to say, sitting here typing this, knowing full well my father would never be killed by mobsters because he is in no way connected, either. Apparently Billy’s first sentiment upon learning his father had been “disappeared” mirrored my own. “Three for my father,” he says he told Colombo mobste...

From the VH1 Blog : "Westchester, NY’s GFella is a rapper who identifies strongly with his Italian-American heritage (and his purported family history of mafia connections). Naturally, then, he recorded a rap ode to Mob Wives . A former member of Confidential (a hip-hop also-ran that came up under Queen Latifah and appeared on the Romeo Must Die soundtrack), GFella is also a Mob Wives super-fan, judging from his shouts-out to the reality quartet and lyrics like “Jail visits, Fed joints, TV rules for the kids.” GFella hasn’t gotten much notice in the New York hip-hop scene lately, except thanks to his collaboration with Big Pun’s son. But he sure got our attention with this track. And Drita D’avanzo is a fan, too." We at Cosa Nostra News love Drita, so feast your eye and ears on this Gfella vid, too: SEE ALSO: GFELLA Offers Hip Hop Ode to Linda Scarpa

TVMobwives.com Interviews "Little Linda" Scarpa! (Audio) | TVMOBWIVES.COM : Linda Scarpa -- looking fine. "Growing up 'Little Linda' Scarpa realized very early on that her dad was different from most dads... "Greg Scarpa was a killer, but to his family he was a loving husband and father, who would protect them at all costs. When Scarpa contracted the HIV virus from a blood transfusion, he was still as dangerous as ever..... "Greg Scarpa's family knew what he did for a living and witnessed some of the horror firsthand." Click above link, listen to Gfella's ode to Linda , than the interview. We will offer a story tomorrow on anything new that Linda has added to the story of Greg "The Grim Reaper" Scarpa....

We admit it -- we didn't think it would happen ... but it did. Shows how much we know! Big Ang has her own show -- and the complete cast and concept have been revealed. From the people who gave you Mob Wives (including Jennifer Graziano herself -- see how much loot you can grab if your pops was a murdering, thieving Mafioso all his life? Only unlike J. Gotti Jr., whose "high-profile" film about his pops  is going nowhere, JustJenn was smart enough to know it's sometimes better to be behind the camera), you get this, from VH1: VH1 is joining Angela "Big Ang" Raiola for a wild adventure sure to add a little sizzle to the summer heat.  Known for her breakout appearances on VH1's hit series "Mob Wives," Big Ang will be sure to bring laughs as large as her personality with the premiere of  VH1's "Big Ang" on  July 8  at  9PM ET /PT. During her reality television debut in the second season of VH1's hit series "Mob Wives,...

From the  Sky Valley Chronicle Washington State News : According to Rolling Stone magazine the mainstream media boys blew it big time by not covering this trial of some Wall Street “ wiseguys” calledUnited States of America v. Carollo, Goldberg and Grimm. Why? Because, says a new story by Matt Taibbi “Someday, it will go down in history as the first trial of the modern American mafia. Of course, you won't hear the recent financial corruption case, United States of America v. Carollo, Goldberg and Grimm, called anything like that. If you heard about it at all, you're probably either in the municipal bond business or married to an antitrust lawyer. Even then, all you probably heard was that a threesome of bit players on Wall Street got convicted of obscure antitrust violations in one of the most inscrutable, jargon-packed legal snoozefests since the government's massive case against Microsoft in the Nineties – not exactly the thrilling courtroom drama offered by the fam...

"I'm gonna die at 69? Cool! Ha! Ha!" Sorry, loyal readers, I just couldn't resist. This is the headline so many of you wanted to read, really, really badly... Henry Hill, a low level drug-dealing associate of the Lucchese family,  assumed a high-profile position as a mobster that he never rightly earned simply because he "rolled" for the police. Hill, whose life was the inspiration for the book "Wiseguy," which served as the basis for the theatrical film "Goodfellas" by Martin Scorcese, was clipped by natural causes (for a lifelong drunk and drug addict that is)  on June 12, 2012. He was 69, and probably would have gotten a good laugh out of dying at that age, which had to be his favorite number. As for how he died, so far, the only official word is "Hill's girlfriend tells TMZ that the ex-gangster's heart 'gave out.' Hmmm. Richard Kuklinski, the Walter Mitty of the mob, who pretended to be a hit ma...

Wiseguys don't blog or use social media, is a no-brainer. There are exceptions such as foolhardy young Sicilians. And American mobsters who will likely die in prison. G. Robert Blakey, author  of the RICO act. Gambino mobster  John Burke  writes an ongoing blog; it certainly could be John, or a proxy writing for him. Former Bonanno boss/convicted racketeer "Tommy Shots" Gioeli also has a blog which I believe his daughter writes for him based on his words. These blogs are interesting in that they give us a direct pipeline into the minds of these men. Everyone has an agenda, and these accidental content creators are no exception. So yes, they blog for self-serving purposes as do most bloggers (I don't believe bloggers who "want to help people" unless they earn tremendously helping people). They are writing  in a forum where they cannot be questioned, to proclaim their innocence, trying to bolster their claims with boring boilerplate from the ...

"Joe Waverly" Cacace In my earlier  post on NYPD officer Ralph Dols, I noted that he had been accused of selling steroids and having connections to Russian and Italian organized crime. But no details were ever released about Dols' so-called crimes. I spoke with a detective who was part of that small team working the Dols' homicide. The detective said there was "nothing solid, nothing concrete" about any of the charges "that said Dols was a corrupt cop." Investigators, after spending years chasing a couple of gooses (more on that coming), finally came to believe Dols ran into problems with the Italian mob in the late 1990s for simply marrying Kimberly Kennaugh, the ex-wife of Joel Cacace, another Colombo boss. Cacace later supposedly gave the order to Gioeli to put someone on the job of going about the murder of the cop. The chosen hit man -- turncoat Dino Calabro -- and another assassin wearing baseball caps and gloves confronted...

Turncoat mobsters committed hits, while taxpayers footed the bill. We're talking about a lot of money here -- six-figure sums. Killers snitching to the feds "got away with murder when FBI agents looked the other way, a shocking report to Congress claims," according to an exclusive report. Angela Clemente has been probing the FBI’s handling of informants. A forensic investigator for the House Government Reform Committee in 2002, she has been helping on mob cases ever since. In 2006, Clemente, 47, was choked and left for dead after an assailant lured her to a meeting at a mall in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, with the promise of a tip.

George from Canada wearing his trademark pompadour. When news broke that "Tommy Shots" Gioeli would not be convicted for murdering a cop, I could tell a lot of my readers were pleased, with some probably even tossing a fist pump or two. I sensed this not based on my ability to read minds, a talent I reserve for when I can generate some cash; rather, my assumption is based on the number of pageviews the story continues to receive as well as the degree to which some have "shared" it via Twitter and Google+, for example. Even Gioeli's fellow inmates were pleased, applauding when the former Colombo boss had returned to his New York City jail cell on the night the jury reached their "stunning" verdict. It's been like that since time immemorial. A large segment of the public just plain "likes" the Mafia, seeing them as daring, dashing "men of honor," who are tremendously affluent, clad in sharp, custom-made suits, with...

Gioeli was found not guilty  for Dols' killing. Dedicated to TD and JS; some of us never forget that there are still heroes in the world. I like Tom Selleck -- he's among my favorite actors. I didn't care so much for the young Tom Selleck, the  Magnum PI Tom Selleck, of  one of the highest-rated shows on U.S. television . But I started liking him when he stood up to Rosie O'Donnell , TV's former perennial pain in the ass. I thought he made a great casino boss on the television show Las Vegas , strong enough to yank the torch from Jimmy Caan, who seems to have fallen off the face of the earth since departing the onetime hit show, which ended abruptly before the start of what should have been the sixth season. As Changing Channels wrote: "It appears that the cliffhanger season finale of Las Vegas (it ended with Molly Sims' pregnancy in crisis, while Tom Selleck was apparently returning from the dead) that aired on Feb. 15 [2008] was really th...

Two issues I have about this post: I just recently did a " list story " or two; and it breaks my mandate, which is to strictly follow traditional Italian organized crime in America -- the Mafia. But I decided to run it because I had solid retorts to both of my concerns: 1.) It is superior to the previous lists in terms of interesting hard news; and 2.) What the hell if I include the Sicilian and Italian Mafias as well as other ethnic crime groups, especially considering the immense power believed to be in the hands of a Russian crime boss. So, I present the following by way of ListVerse.com: There are certain people in the world that you don’t want to mess with: those who control some of the largest organized crime operations on the planet. Organized crime has always been a problem, but as we move into 2012 some syndicates have exploded with profit and influence. Criminal groups that used to follow illegal schemes have turned to more reliable forms of profit.... Liborio Bel...

In view of our article about the scuttling of this project we believe it is only fair to present this, from  Radar Online : Media reports that filming of the Gotti biopic has been affected by the negative publicity John Travolta has endured over the masseur sex scandal are not true, RadarOnline.com is exclusively reporting. In fact, a source close to the production tells RadarOnline.com that producers of the film and the Gotti family are fully supporting the actor and that filming is scheduled to begin later this year.[Note: emphasis added.] Seven men, including three masseurs, have accused the Pulp Fiction star of sexual misconduct. Travolta's attorney has vehemently denied the allegations. "The producers of the Gotti film, as well as the Gotti family, fully support John Travolta 110 percent, and the allegations that have surfaced against him haven't harmed the project in any way, shape or form," Steve Honig, publicist for Fiore Films, producers of the proje...

Nature abhors a vacuum. So does organized crime. Scholars will tell you, correctly, that the U.S. Mafia was always independent of its Sicilian/Southern Italian counterpart, although the U.S. version did borrow some of the old country's trappings, such as the concept of "omerta," which basically means, don't talk, ever. But like rats fleeing a sinking ship (where do these rats go, by the way? I mean, a sinking ship is out at sea, isn't it?), made guys, including management, and associates have "flipped" and continue to "flip" on anyone and everyone. It is safe to say the U.S. mob has been decimated.