Cosa Nostra News

This is the house as it appears today where the Colombo hit squad shot down the Perainos, former partners in crime who backed the porno film "Deep Throat." Ephemeral New York is a blog devoted to "Chronicling an ever-changing city through faded and forgotten artifacts." The site recently ran a story on what we call " The Deep Throat Murders, " in which the Colombo family sought to tighten up management and increase its portion of the revenue generated by the infamous XXX-rated film Deep Throat, which family cohorts the Perainos had backed and from which they were taking more than their fair share of the proceeds. "The story includes a photo of the house... that stands today at the address where a Colombo hit team tried to whack the Peraino father and son team." What is interesting is the story includes a photo of the house, or at least the house that stands today at the address where a Colombo hit team tried to whack the Peraino

From the NY Daily News : A rising star in the Gambino mob was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison for racketeering and other crimes, including extorting two strip clubs in Queens. “They can’t take my honor,” said capo Alphonse Trucchio, 35, as marshals escorted him from the courtroom after sentencing in Manhattan Federal Court. Trucchio pleaded guilty in February to racketeering, drug trafficking, extortion, assault, loansharking and gambling in exchange for a sentence of 8 to 10 years in prison. He was one of more than 100 mobsters busted in four states in January 2011 in the biggest Mafia takedown in FBI history. In November, he was charged with 19 others with participating in a scheme to smuggle women from Russia and neighboring countries into the U.S. on fraudulent visas to work at strip clubs controlled by the Gambino crime family. In an earlier post,  Gambino Members, Associates Plead Guilty in Manhattan Federal Court , we included the following supplementary

Chilean salmon The Broward Palm Beach New Times ran a story about seven years ago. What is so interesting about it that I would post it now is that it shows the sometimes absurd lengths the Feds will go to catch Mafiosi, especially high-level ones. This story involes some stolen salmon, overzealous prosecutors and old-time heavy hitter Gerry Chilli, a Bonanno capo at the time (we are not certain of his current status). One of our favorite quotes: A couple of mobsters "were dragged into the case on allegations that they passed football betting cards around. "Clearly, they both deserve to die in jail for that." The reporter takes an objective viewpoint and Cosa Nostra actually scores serious points in this story, while the journalist, Bob Norman, revels in the absurdities. Here is the story, one of our favorite pieces of journalism about the mob, excluding Jerry Capeci: While a couple of dozen accused mobsters milled around outside Judge Stanton Kaplan &#

Posts might be a bit slow while I am in Sin City this week. Tonight, I am going to the Tropicana to visit the mob museum there -- review to follow, probably next week. Internet connection sucks from my room and I am no longer as patient as I used to be, about a lot of things...

Billy Cutolo Jr. on the debut episode of Discovery's on- hiatus "Mobster Confessions." The Old, Grey Lady is really offering Cosa Nostra enthusiasts a fix. In a story published recently we finally learned the fate of a Discovery Channel show -- which disappeared off the face of the earth following the airing of just two episodes. We are writing about Mobster Confessions, "in which informants talk in detail about their illegal activities and their fellow mobsters," the Times writes, adding "the series is now suspended, but before the hiatus it gave us a good look at Bill Cutolo Jr. and Frank Calabrese Jr. — both sons of prominent mobsters who tried the life for themselves before ratting." We wrote a post about the first episode that garnered a lot of views -- and we wonder what caused this "suspension" -- read the comments under that post; perhaps such negative feedback landed on Discovery's doorstep, and maybe a produce

Get More: Watch In the Big House Full Episodes - , Logo TV The New York Times reports:  “The latest addition to the Mafia gabfest is In the Big House, a witless reality show that has its premiere tonight on Logo. It involves a family whose patriarch is Lou Verdi, who the show’s publicity material says ‘was involved in organized crime as part of the Bruno crime family’ in Philadelphia. He ran a bar that was a front for assorted illegal activities, we’re told, and has logged time in prison. “On this show, though, he is logging time with his family: his former wife, Dotsie; their daughter, Michel, a hard-nosed businesswoman; and their gay son, Louis Jr. The gimmick, besides that everyone in the family tries to be comically unpleasant but fails, is that Big Lou is going to help Michel and her husband, Jay, run a gay bar. “Between his gay son and the gay bar, the old mobster has a lot of gayness to process, which isn’t nearly as amusing as it’s supposed to be.  The

Edward G. Robinson as Rico, in the iconic American gangster film of the 1930s, "Little Caesar." No, probably not; the above notable quote from the 1930 cinematic masterpiece "Little Caesar," which launched the career of Edward G. Robinson as an Al Capone-style mobster, probably does not accurately describe the fate of the federal government's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Still federal prosecutors in New York are reeling and have a couple of black eyes following supposed sure-thing Mafia trials in which the charged were found "not guilty" of top-line murder counts levied against them. Recent examples are the two Colombo family trials of associate Francis “BF” Guerra, for two gangland murders, and earlier, former boss “Tommy Shots” Gioeli, for a half-dozen murders. These were both trials in which the Feds were certain they would win; and the fact that they did not caused newspapers around the nation to put wo

Sunday is Mafia day at the New York Post, with reporter Brad Hamilton pumping out a longish feature story a week about goings-on in the mob. His reportage is interesting, though he usually strolls down well traveled paths, noting the new foliage that has sprung up here and there. Gotti used pet names for guys in his inner circle. This week's offering centers on Lewis Kasman, John Gotti's self-proclaimed "adopted son" who wore a wire against "dad" -- may have stolen millions from him, according to one source -- and helped destroy the upper echelon of the Gambino family back in the Gotti days. On the Curtis Sliwa show -- to listen, c lick here -- Kasman offered such fables as how in the early 1990s, Gotti and Jackie "Nose" D'Amico rode the Long Island Rail Road into the city two-three days a week to show up at no-work jobs in midtown. Additionally Kasman, who became a paid FBI informer against the imprisoned-for-life mob boss

I see a trend -- probably years later than other people have. But I am thinking that Italian hip hop, as I have written about in my posts about Gfella, serves another purpose than the obvious in that it offers young ambitious Italian men an alternative to the dead-end life of Cosa Nostra. Other ethnic groups have also turned to music --- as well as sports, writing, business (legit!) -- as a way to rise from the streets without having to carry a pistol and taking a lifetime oath to become cannon fodder if the times require it. So I decided I will promote Italian rappers, on an occasional basis, as it is clearly not my forte, nor the core focus of this site. Today, Tony Testa... If the name "Testa" doesn't mean anything to you, start googling, my friend, or read his Facebook bio beneath the video. Here is one of Tony's latest... Here is Tony's bio, as written on his Facebook page: Tony Testa About Don't sleep. Don't even blink... Born into