Papa Smurf? Wiseguys Have Creative Nicknames

By Ed Scarpo
Two Papa Smurfs: Which one is the gangster?
The NYTimes.com offers an interesting little piece on mob nicknames, using as its starting point one of the latest -- and most unique -- to hit the media with the predawn bust of the waste-disposal racketeers:

"One of them is believed by the authorities to be a mob associate who extorted owners of garbage-hauling companies in New York City suburbs. The other is believed to be at least 542 years old, very short and wise, with blue skin and a white beard.

"One was arrested on Wednesday. The other stays close to his village, far from humans and laws and garbage-collection companies.

"But they have the same name: Papa Smurf."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Stories

Upcoming Mob Flick Features James Ciccone

By Ed Scarpo
Image
By Nick Christophers

James Ciccone has come a long way in the past year with his role in HBO’s hit show The Deuce and notching a part in Marty Scorsese’s The Irishman (2019).



He is an interesting actor who was once on the road to be a priest.Yet his love for acting pulled him the other way. Due to his rough upbringing and looks he has been offered gangster roles as of late. Yet he does not mind it as he believes “work is work”.

On The Deuce he has aced the part of mob boss Carmine Patriccia which has been slated for a second season. Based on his work on the HBO drama he has had guest appearances on popular TV shows like Blacklist and Gotham. Prior to these he had recurring credits for Shades of Blue and Boardwalk Empire. On the horizon is a new mob film called The Kitchen which he plays the part of Joey Goon.

The film is being released by New Line Film and directed by Andrea Berloff (Straight Out of Compton). The cast is filled with amazing talents like Melissa McCarthy, Tiffany Had…
Read more

Genovese Wiseguy Sally Demeo Cops to Tax Evasion

By Ed Scarpo
Image
Reputed Genovese soldier Sal (Sallie) Demeo pleaded guilty to attempted tax evasion today in Brooklyn Federal Court.


Prosecutors charged that DeMeo had earned $2 million in profit in 2013 and 2014 when he sold shares in several downtown Brooklyn properties he inherited from his father in 1991. He's in trouble because he failed to report the capital gains on his tidy windfall.
DeMeo and others with shares in the properties -- located along Atlantic Ave., Pacific St., Bond St., and Schermerhorn St. -- sold off the lots for $18.2 million in total.




Demeo, 78, had his proceeds whacked into eight separate checks, which he then deposited into accounts that weren't his. For example, he put $1 million into the account of a plumbing business operated by another Genovese crime family member, according to court papers.

He also gave around $350,000 to someone who ran an unlicensed check cashing business, which funneled the money back to him for a fee. "I was aware I was responsible fo…
Read more

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

By Ed Scarpo
Image
Peter "Peter Pasta" Pellegrino, formerly of the Babylon, New York restaurant Peter’s Italian Restaurant, really is -- or was -- a gangster.

The once-promising Bonanno member who appeared after the Kitchen Nightmares episode aired, 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 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 Jerry Capeci broke the news, reporting:

Today, like the battered and bruised…
Read more

John Gotti as Family Guy? So Says Hollywood Reporter in Biopic Pan

By Ed Scarpo
Image
 At my first writing gig, my boss told me to research the word hagiography and make sure I never wrote anything that would fall into the category ever again...


The story he was referring to was about adult filmmaker Andrew Blake, so at least you can understand where I was coming from.... And you probably already understand where this is going ....
Yes, John (Junior) Gotti apparently still worships his father. Michael DiLeonardo, former Gambino capo, detailed for us Junior's bizarre proclivity for calling him chief, etc. 

And trust me: Listening to Mikie Scars tell you the real story would be endlessly preferable to this.
From THR: Most mafia movies, whether good or bad (and this one is bad), try to show that power corrupts, crime doesn’t pay and the price of allegiance to the Cosa Nostra is often too high to handle.
Such is not the case of Gotti, an altogether hagiographic — one could even say pro-mob — biopic that had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Starring John Tra…
Read more

Bath Avenue Crew Rose High, Fell Hard

By Ed Scarpo
Image
Members of the Bath Avenue Crew were as young as 8 years old and probably weren't even aware of what they were doing -- aligning themselves with the biggest, baddest gang in America: Cosa Nostra, specifically the Five Families.
Anthony Spero, former Bonanno consiglieri, was the man for whom they would one day carry out orders that cost some their lives, others, their freedom and all, their souls. At least that's what they said in testimony; it was powerful testimony, however, and it helped put Spero away in an unbelievably circumstantial trial.

At the same time 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 …
Read more

Why the Spilotro Brothers Were So Brutally Murdered

By Ed Scarpo
Image
An episode of the Mafia's Greatest Hits on the American Heroes Channel focused on Anthony John "Tony" Spilotro, a crime figure known for his exploits in Las Vegas on behalf of the Chicago Outfit. (Spilotro was the inspiration for the character Joe Pesci played in Martin Scorsese's Casino.)


Spilotro was sent to Las Vegas to protect and oversee the Outfit's money, the illegal casino profits known as the "skim." (Spilotro actually served as a replacement for Outfit member Marshall Caifano, another violent mobster who was a suspect in more than 10 hits.)

In addition to his ability to draw intense heat from law enforcement, Spilotro broke some internal rules as well, including one that prohibited screwing around with the wives of associates.
Read more

Former Hells Angels President "Mom" Boucher Plead Guilty to Conspiring to Kill Mobster Who Turned on Mob Boss Vito Rizzuto

By Ed Scarpo
Image
 "I fcking love Mom Boucher."
 --Outlaw MC source, to Cosa Nostra News
There are many reasons why Maurice “Mom” Boucher, the former Hells Angels leader in Montreal, Canada, serving life sentences for murder, would've wanted to kill longtime member of the Montreal underworld Raynald Desjardins.


For the nonce, we can only speculate about the “why” of it, as Boucher’s motives were not included in the RCMP’s summary of facts presented during last month’s proceeding.

What is known is that Boucher and Desjardins communicated frequently with each other in 1993. Around two years later, Boucher, a charismatic, extremely violent leader of the HA's Quebec Nomads chapter, made millions via a drug-trafficking (primarily cocaine) alliance forged with Vito Rizzuto, Montreal’s legendary Cosa Nostra boss. 



Boucher essentially murdered, retired, or scared away every “independent” drug dealer in the province who didn't submit to him (allegedly, including other Hells Angels members;…
Read more