Cosa Nostra News

The FBI and local police in Michigan plan to take soil samples from the backyard of a house in the Detroit suburb of Roseville on Friday, acting on a dying man's tip that the body of former Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa might be buried there. Authorities have chased down hundreds of would-be leads since Hoffa disappeared 37 years ago after he met with two top Mafia operatives at a restaurant in Bloomfield Township, another Detroit suburb, in July 1975. All have led to dead ends, but authorities said this lead could be different. NBC station WDIV-TV of Detroit reported that an unidentified man who is dying from cancer told Roseville police that he saw men moving a black bag at the garage of the house just hours after Hoffa went missing. Acting on the tip, authorities ran radar tests last week that picked up an image of something buried beneath a cement slab in the backyard. See the full story:  FBI to look for Jimmy Hoffa's body at Detroit-area home - U.S. News : RE

John Gotti beside mentor Neil Dellacroce. New York Mafia Tour: Little Italy’s Mobsters, Gangsters and Tough Guys : "Get the inside scoop on New York City’s most legendary gangsters on this guided walking tour through Little Italy. Learn about the history of the Mafia and hear stories about the bloody feud between the Five Families. Pass the hangout spots of John Gotti and the characters from 'The Sopranos' and visit Umberto’s, the site of Little Italy's most infamous mob shooting. You’ll also explore film locations of iconic gangster movies such as 'The Godfather.' In the afternoon, meet at Petrosino Square, named after New York City's first Italian detective who locked up more than 500 criminals. Begin wandering through Little Italy with your guide and listen as the story of the Mafia unfolds. " Get the rest of the down-low .

UPDATE! Rudy Fratto sentenced to a year and a day beginning Jan. 8. From abc7chicago.com : Federal prosecutors are winding up to throw the book at one of Chicago's top organized crime figures. The I-Team has learned details of this week's sentencing of mob boss Rudy Fratto. DOCUMENT: Government's Sentencing Memorandum DOCUMENT: Defendant Rudolph Fratto's Sentencing Position Paper The government wants outfit boss Rudy "the Chin" Fratto to take it on the chin next Wednesday when he is sentenced for his role in a contract bid-rigging scheme at McCormick Place. Even though Fratto is from a Chicago mob family, he has managed to skate through his career largely unscathed, a routine prosecutors want to end. In the run-up to next week's federal sentencing, Fratto has seemed to relish his role as a court jester of sorts. Even though the record of 68-year old Fratto has been devoid of serious criminal charges, something his attorneys will poi

From the  NYPOST.com : GIORDANO Manhattan prosecutors have charged a reputed Gambino crime-family captain with grand larceny for allegedly extorting $50,000 from a construction-company official — by threatening, punching, slapping and kicking the poor victim until he couldn’t refuse. The accused Mafia boss, Joseph “Joe the Blond” Giordano, 63, grew up as Gambino royalty. He is nephew to former John Gotti Sr. underboss Joseph “Joe Piney” Armone, and his brother, John “Handsome Jack” Giordano, was Gotti Sr.’s one-time right-hand man. Joseph Giordano served on the Gambinos’ ruling commission three years ago, according to sources. The ruling panel of three elder capos was initiated after the Dapper Don was locked away for life in 1992. In the current grand-larceny case, Giordano used his status as a Gambino captain to further intimidate the victim, Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. said in announcing the indictment. Giordano, of Deer Park, LI, pleaded not guilty and was ordered held

Joe Pistone on  how the Mafia mugs Montrealers every day… in the Montreal Gazette : Just when you think you’re out, they pull you back in. The Charbonneau inquiry into allegations of corruption in the Quebec construction industry resumed this week and did so with what many thought would be its star witness. Joe Pistone is a retired FBI agent the world knows better by his undercover alias Donny Brasco, the man who infiltrated the mob more than 30 years ago and whose exploits were later dramatized in a film starring Johnny Depp. But Pistone’s testimony was anything but Hollywood. He detailed the inner workings of the New York mafia and its links to Montreal. But he also placed a price tag on the economic damage done by organized crime, not just to those who engage in illegal activity but to those who simply live their lives and pay their taxes – to you. The Gazette’s Monique Muise is covering the inquiry and she joined us to talk about Pistone’s testimony and what the inquiry

Everyone wants to be a gangster. Even some who aren't. REVISED:   Sonny Girard was in his early twenties -- a young mobster on the rise, back when it was still possible to live a mobster's life. The good old days, as they say. Let's picture a sunny afternoon. Our pal Sonny is blinking in the sunlight, maybe flaming a Zippo in front of a cigar he mouthed and is gently puffing. His expensive, Italian-made suit is resplendent, fitted to his body to perfection -- like a glove; his shirt and tie match in a manner that would have made Versace weep. His freshly manicured fingernails perhaps glint in the sunlight. His hair is neatly trimmed and well-coiffed, his shoes shine like mirrors. He is standing in front of a storefront that houses a business he owns. "I had a car service with an office in the back where I made book over the phone," he says. "One day I walk out of the back and see a cute girl waiting for a car. I introduced myself and asked her

I once lived right near this town, so this piece caught my eye, and hopefully will catch yours. The title of the indie film now being shot in Malverne on Long Island is "Send No Flowers"; let's hope the script was better crafted than that title, though. Tony Lo Bianco, who most recently played a certain mob boss preoccupied with having a certain Irishman murdered, stars in "Flowers," which is a strong plus, and the plot twist, a woman running a crime family, offers nifty dramatic opportunities -- although Jackie Collins wrote something similar sounding to this, on a basic level, back in the 1980s, when there was only one mob wife and her name was Victoria Gotti. Still, I like the screenwriter's taste in  film, so this has potential. In a quirk of fate, I interviewed the producer/director of this film, back in my college days when he was working on his first film. Now his subject matter is gangsters; back then, it was AIDS. I prefer gangsters.

Scarpo here: This is a case of "he said, she said." How do we know who to believe? Celebuzz, because they are telling us Showbiz 411, a competitor by the way, is incorrect? In my thinking the latter Showbiz411 story carries greater weight in that it has more facts and sources and everything versus Celebuzz, which simply gets "an insider" -- who could be the caterer for all we know -- to call the other story fake because "outlets following the production [have] been covering this story from the beginning with a shameful bias, based on [a] friendship with someone no longer affiliated with the project." WTF??? Twenty years in the news business, I have never heard such a lame excuse! “Readers should not trust anything [that is written],” said the insider. So how can we trust the story in which the insider is quoted??? Heller would've loved this -- talk about your catch-22s! I leave it up to readers to decide... I agree this film is the horse's h

From  Las Vegas Tradeshow Lifestyles : THE ULTIMATE MOB PRIMER FOR THE AFICIONADO OF ALL THINGS RELATED TO ORGANIZED CRIME. FORMER MOBSTER SONNY GIRARD HAS COMPILED A VARIETY OF ORIGINAL WRITINGS INTO A BRAND NEW VOLUME THAT INCLUDES: MOB BLOGS: Twenty-seven articles by Sonny for everything from Lansky to Lawyers to License to Bash the St. Gennaro Feast. Read and understand why there are so many mob stoolpigeons today, why the Ten Commandments of the Sicilian Mafia are ridiculous, and much more, like why Bugsy Seigel was really killed. MOB SNAPSHOTS: Eighteen short stories about figures no one outside of real mobsters recognize, like Tony Gawk, Benny The Sidge, and Funzouale. Others are just snippets about mob movies, the Jewish mobs, and the search for Jimmy Hoffa STORIES OF ME: Revealing stories for the first time in print from the actual life of the author, former mobster Sonny Girard. Find out how he got through years of state and federal prison, what lawyers meant

Governments and nonprofit organizations have lost huge sums of money due to bid rigging by investment banks, and federal authorities have embarked on nationwide probe and are gunning for prosecutions.  Following the recent conviction of three former UBS executives, Richard Weber, chief of the criminal investigation unit at the Internal Revenue Service, says the “convictions send a strong message to the municipal bond industry and demonstrates the commitment of the Internal Revenue Service and the Justice Department to rid the industry of corrupt practices.” Weber was largely referring to bid rigging. Once public entities hold bond auctions, they typically hire a broker to help them invest the money and conduct a competitive bidding process for a service provider. “In cases like that of the UBS executives, prosecutors say the process was corrupted when bankers from different firms conspired with one another, dividing up business in advance and devising their bids in cooperation, a

Mickey Cohen: Hollywood's 'most ruthless man.' From  Express.co.uk : IT WAS just after three o'clock on a sunny autumn afternoon in 1950 when the calm of Moreno Avenue in Brentwood, a luxurious Los Angeles suburb, was shattered by a deafening bomb blast. Twenty-eight sticks of dynamite had been placed under one of the elegant houses, shredding it like crumpled balsa wood. It was the home of one of Hollywood's most ruthless men - not a power-wielding studio head but the film capital's longest-serving mobster Mickey Cohen. The bombing was the work of a rival, the brutal Jack Dragna, who wanted to take over Cohen's slice of the Hollywood action. What really infuriated the dapper Cohen was not so much the loss of his home but the destruction of his collection of 200 bespoke silk suits. The Mafia had long had a stake in Hollywood, its studios and the movies they produced and even the lives of the stars. But a new book tells of the extraordinary measure

Jordana Spiro, the doctor in the house. Here is the lowdown of the show The Mob Doctor . I am a lazy man, so I am letting Fox give you the recap, but I will then offer my opinion of the show, a sketchy one because you really can't get a good feel for a show by watching the pilot. Look at the first episode of The Sopranos. So I won't race to judgment here and now. DR. GRACE DEVLIN (Jordana Spiro) is a top resident at Chicago’s Roosevelt Medical Center. Smart and self-assured, she’s heralded as one of the country’s most promising young surgeons. But family ties keep her glued to her Southside roots. To pay off her brother’s life-threatening gambling debt, she makes a deal with the devil and agrees to work “off book” for the mafia men she once despised. "The ghost of  Joe Colombo  is still with us. Ever wonder why we don't have shows named: "Mafia Wives," "I Married a Mafioso" or "The Mafia Doctor?" ... I think it is Hollywood perfo

Junior: It's full steam ahead on Gotti biopic. From the NYPOST.com : Lindsay Lohan is on the Gotti hit list — the movie, that is. It’s not a good sign when a Post-it is covering over her name on the movie poster for “Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father” that hangs in the producer’s office, according to this week’s issue of New York magazine. It’s another bit of comedic drama in the Hollywood gang war that has sent some of the key behind-the-scenes players to the mattresses in the making of John Gotti Jr.’s troubled biopic about his Mafia-kingpin dad. Writer Steve Fishman, who has chronicled the latest woes to befall the sputtering production, recalls taking notice of the Lohan diss during a visit with producer Marc Fiore at his Manalapan, NJ, office. He “had a poster of the Gotti movie, though Lohan’s name was covered by a pink Post-it,” he writes. The struggling rehab actress was slated to play the Gambino godfather’s long-suffering wife, a role Lohan snagged using th

From the  NY Daily News : Rita Gigante was 16 years old before she found out she was a Mafia princess. Life with father, as she describes it in her new memoir “The Godfather’s Daughter: An Unlikely Story of Love, Healing and Redemption,” was far more rough than royal. Vincent Gigante famously wandered Greenwich Village in his bathrobe, passing himself off as a paranoid schizophrenic to fool the Feds. They knew him for what he was, the boss of the Genovese crime family, the reputed head of the Five Families of New York. Sentenced to 12 years, he died in jail in 2005. Here Rita tells of her own violent awakening to the truth and how she was forced to join the masquerade. This excerpt is taken from the book THE GODFATHER’S DAUGHTER: An Unlikely Story of Love, Healing, and Redemption, by Rita Gigante and Natasha Stoynoff. It is published by Hay House (publication date: September 18, 2012) and available at all bookstores or online at: www.hayhouse.com . I was now a 16-year-old ten

"Donnie Brasco" From   Thestar.com : MONTREAL—It looked at first like a publicity stunt to grab headlines for a corruption scandal that’s already front-page news in Quebec. “Donnie Brasco”— real name Joseph Pistone — is to bring his considerable fame and dated expertise on the inner workings of the New York Mafia to the ninth floor of a provincial government office tower Monday in the heart of Montreal. Out of context the revelation, which came last week, raises questions about what light a 73-year-old retired FBI agent could shine on allegations of corruption and collusion in Quebec’s construction industry. And some of the most notable Canadian organized crime experts are doing just that. “I respect Joe Pistone. He’s a very knowledgeable person regarding the American cosa nostra,” said Antonio Nicaso, a Toronto-based author and commentator on the Mafia. “But to me it’s more a name to raise attention on this matter rather than a witness who can add valuable informa

From  Reuters : Mob boss DiNunzio The suspected former head of the New England mafia will plead guilty to a charge of racketeering for participating in a scheme to extort protection payments from Rhode Island strip clubs and adult bookstores. Anthony DiNunzio, 53, of East Boston, Massachusetts agreed to enter the plea in federal court in Rhode Island on Thursday, the Justice Department said in a statement on Wednesday. DiNunzio faced up to 20 years in prison, but as part of the agreement federal prosecutors will ask for a reduced sentence of between five and six and a half years. DiNunzio was arrested in April and charged with overseeing a scheme to extort payments of up to $6,000 per month from Providence area clubs including the Satin Doll, the Foxy Lady and the Cadillac Lounge. Read rest via above link. RELATED POSTS New England Mob Boss DiNunzio Played 'Tough Guy' Act for Gambinos Acting Head of New England Mob Nabbed

Primetime Sitdown with the Boss Blogger: THE BIGGER & BETTER BIG ANG INTERVIEW : Well I have had the Honor and pleasure to speak with Janine Detore, The beautiful and very supportive sister of Angela “Big Ang” Raiola.  Janine was very kind and helped me a great deal getting to interview Big Ang which truly was an Honor. As many of you know Big Ang popped on the scene on Season 2 of Mob Wives, New York as the owner of the Drunken Monkey Bar on Staten Island and longtime friend of Drita Davanzo, Renee and Jennifer Graziano, Karen Gravano, and Carla Facciolo. Big Ang is the niece of Salvatore “Sally Dogs” Lombardi who was a capo in the Genovese family. Big Ang was loved by viewers from the first episode she appeared on with her big smile, big heart, big laugh, and big boobies!  She lives up to her nickname “Big Ang” in every way!

Jimmy Roselli, RIP Former mobster Sonny Girard describes it as "the only true mob song." I am talking about Jimmy Roselli's version of "Little Pal." Click here to listen to a live version of the haunting melody. From Sonny's Mob Cafe : "There was in the recent past a real mob culture that was rarely, if ever, seen by outsiders and little known today. Yes, there’s the obvious dress, like in “Goodfellas” or “Casino” for the older generation and the Sergio Tacchini athletic suits and multiple oversized gold chains for the new wave of wannabes, or the Southern Italian fare that is served at the highly publicized restaurants of Mulberry Street or South Philly, and the songs of Sinatra that anyone who’s ever turned on a radio or television knows. But there is a deeper culture, a very private inside one, that is more specific and goes to habits, foods, superstitions, and songs that have particular meaning to guys who have lived their lives on the

Grim Reaper/informer Scarpa shows off the fashion of the day. Gregory Scarpa, Sr. (May 8, 1928 – June 4, 1994) was a fiercely loyal capo in the Colombo crime family with cojones the size of coconuts -- something this family is known for producing, probably because of all the inter-family wars following the early '60s insurrection by the Gallo brothers against old man Profaci, original boss of the Colombo family, which actually carried Profaci's name at the time. Known as "The Grim Reaper," for decades, especially from the1970s through early 1990s, Scarpa was Colombo boss Carmine Persico's chief enforcer, doling out the proverbial dirt nap to whoever defied the administration before dying of AIDS, contracted from a crew member during a blood transfusion.

FBI — Gregory Scarpa, Sr : Gregory Scarpa, Sr. (1928-19940) was a long-time criminal associated with the Colombo family organized crime group in New York. These files concern Scarpa, the Colombo/Profaci La Cosa Nostra crime family, and related matters and range from 1968 to 1993.

From Forbes : When it comes to leadership role models, Don Corleone doesn’t immediately spring to mind. But many bosses, knowingly or not, subscribe to his philosophy of keeping friends close and enemies closer. Psychologists Nicole Mead and Jon Maner ran a series of experiments to unpick this counter-intuitive tendency. They thought that when leaders are threatened by an up-and-coming rival, instead of backing off and giving the opponent the chance to shine, they move closer so that they’re better positioned to monitor and control the would-be usurper. They were right. When leaders in their experiment were in an unstable position (told that their role was dependent on performance) and confronted with a threatening opponent they, literally, moved closer to the threat, by placing their chair on average 15 inches closer. Leaders who valued their power the most moved closest. The more threatened they felt, the closer they wanted to be. Remarkably, this happened even when wor