Cosa Nostra News

GazzettaDelSud  reports today: "A Palermo appeals court acquitted Cosa Nostra Mafia gangster Antonino Madonia of murder charges in the 1981 death of a doctor. Prosecutor Vittorio Teresi had requested a life sentence for Madonia for the November 6, 1981 assassination of Sebastiano Bosio, chief of vascular surgery at Palermo's Civic Hospital. Francesco Madonia Antonino Madonia is the oldest son of convicted Cosa Nostra crime boss Francesco Madonia, who investigators believe was a major ally of the Corleonesi clan and once ruled over the Resuttana neighborhood of Palermo. Investigators also believe Antonino served on a team of hitmen assembled by the Corleonesi's ruthless, powerful top boss in the 1980s, Toto' Riina. Prosecutor Teresi in his indictment cited a long list of "penitent" law informants who had fingered Madonia as Bosio's murderer. One witness alleged Bosio was killed for opposing public bid candidates supported by Salvatore Lima, a polit...

It looks like the waiting may be nearing an end for Nicodemo S. Scarfo and Salvatore Pelullo, both of whom are charged with taking over the Texas-based FirstPlus Financial mortgage company and looting its shareholders of $12 million. Nicky Scarfo Jr., of Luchese family... But the question is: Who is guilty of what, based on note from jury.... "It looks like the jury has voted to convict in the FirstPlus Financial racketeering fraud trial ," according to George Anastasia at Big Trial . "But at this point we don't know which one -- or how many -- of the seven defendants have been found guilty."

Interesting response to the Pope's excommunication of the Mafia--well, the Ndrangheta, specifically, by Rick Kollinger, who also drew the cartoon with caption. I have made many of the same points about government assuming control of traditional mob-run businesses (NOTE: my personal politics differ vastly; I am not anti-abortion, for one thing. And I don't agree that no one is interested in the mob anymore, obviously). Here is a piece Kollinger recently wrote for Kent County News: ...Now the Pope has announced that “Those who go down the evil path, as the Mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated.” Pope Francis is hoping to point out that financial misbehavior is equal to sexual sins. To the Pope, love of money and violent or dishonest behavior is as much of a sin as abortion. The Pope has in the past condemned corporate financial sins, particularly for their socioeconomic consequences. Excommunication means that someone is out of communion...

The story of Britain's Mafia Princess  was to have been made into a film. On Jan 30, 2013, the above video was posted, described as "an exclusive preview of the documentary "Mama Mafia, one woman's story of her mafia family." The film apparently was never made, which may have something to do with an acquisition of one of the companies behind the project. We will revisit this at the end of the story. Marisa Merico's story is quite convincing considering the history of the 'ndrina she was associated with, as well as extensive press coverage. She's been written about going as far back as 1998.

Abe "Kid Twist" Reles wanted to be a power in Brooklyn's Brownsville section once he'd committed himself to a life of crime. But in 1930, when America's economy slumbered in the Depression's depths, Brownsville already had a sitting criminal viceroy, a man standing in Reles's way. The underworld erupted into intense violence as Reles and his good pal Buggsy (no, that's not a typo; we don't refer to Benjamin "Bugsy" but to Martin "Buggsy" Goldstein) formed a gang and waged a war to establish their dominance over Brownsville's criminal activity. The canary who sang, but couldn't fly. Abe Reles's death, by the way, was never solved, despite different stories being told about Frank Costello and/or Albert Anastasia paying off cops, etc. Not true. This has been exhaustively researched and analyzed -- and don't believe any claims, at face value, regarding who was responsible. Because the fact is, t...

With the Mafia Maps app, you can visit many of the mob's most famous haunts in New York City. For .99 cents, it's a hell of a deal... You can find the exact place this wiseguy got the hard goodbye. Among the sites Mafia Maps will help you find: the place where Don Umberto (Albert Anastasia) was brutally slain -- the hit forever linked the Mafia and barbershops, as well as the steakhouse in front of which Gambino boss "Big Paul" Castellano was gunned down, along with his driver and underboss, Tommy Bilotti. They were killed in front of Sparks and died in the street, Big Paul splayed out on the sidewalk, eyes wide open in death. Bilotti was supine, in the street on top of a huge puddle of his own blood.

The story is not up now, but on my blog list below you can see a Big Net post that must have been yanked. If you hit the link to the story there's only a blank page there. Is the jury working on Saturday? All I know is, this story was posted, five hours ago, by Anastasia, then yanked -- so only this scrap remains: Verdict In FirstPlus Trial, But Deliberations Contniue - *By George Anastasia* *For Bigtrial.net* The jury has reached a verdict on some of the charges in the FirstPlus Financial fraud trial, but is still wrestling...

Marisa Merico may look like any other mother on the Blackpool school run. But the truth could hardly be more different. Born into Italy's most powerful crime syndicate, the Ndrangheta , Marisa was a Mafia princess from the start, and destined to lead a life of crime. At age 22, Marisa Merico was a Ndrangheta boss while her father was imprisoned; she'd been a member since age 18. A list of 10 things you should know about her...and more of her story afterward.

Reacting to stories about how boring "Mob Wives" is so far, within week two of filming, Carla Facciolo tweeted her response leaving no doubt as to how she feels about the show. As reported, "Mob Wives" season five, which has commenced filming , apparently has not started off with a bang. Or, filming so far has mostly been limited to second unit-type stuff... Who knows? Apparently, Big Ang with her grand babies is the only storyline, so far. And Renee Graziano has yet to appear on film. All this knowledge comes courtesy of a little birdie talking to AllAboutTRH .

Domenico Palazzotto, 29, was caught on a wiretap telling friends that his father’s uncle, Paolo Palazzotto, was responsible for the murder, La Repubblica reported. “He murdered the first police officer to be killed in Palermo,” Palazzotto was heard saying. “He killed   Joe Petrosino ,"  The Local  reported. Petrosino was short and heavy, but it was all solid muscle. He said his father's uncle killed Petrosino on behalf of Vito Cascio Ferro, a boss of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra who also had dealings in America.

Some claims made in the press seem suspicious to us. A remake of a 1974 film was also based on the story of the Ray Merolle crew, a Staten-Island-based car-theft ring? Sounds preposterous to us, and yet.... If you have read about new Mob Wife Love Majewski, chances are you will have seen a little anecdote in the story that goes something like this:    Love Majewski and Ray Merolle, the man famous for running the "Untouchables" car-theft operation, were the inspiration for the film " Gone in Sixty Seconds ," with Angelina Jolie playing a character based on Love. [Does that mean ol' Nic Cage was playing Ray?]

Here we have what some might call an exceedingly rare "treat": video of Gambino soldier  Roy DeMeo and his crew of killers  frolicking at a lively barbecue possibly on Long Island at DeMeo's Massapequa home. (The video is featured below.) The DeMeo crew killed a hell of a lot of people . (The death toll could be as high as 100 victims.) Members of the DeMeo crew included Joseph (Dracula) Guglielmo (a DeMeo cousin); Gemini Twins Joseph Testa and Anthony Senter; Patrick; Freddie DiNome (DeMeo's driver); Henry Borelli; and Chris Rosenberg. In the video, Roy is seen first, telling "Freddy" to shut the camera off, twice he says it, then quietly adds "I'm gonna shoot ya!" Henry Borelli, in the black T-shirt, offers us a rendition of the "Ben Dover" speech. (THAT's a real Brooklyn accent).  Next, someone off-screen says: "I think I had the machine on the whole while"...  Someone else replies, with apparent disappoin...

"Mob Wives"  season five,  which has commenced filming , apparently has not started off with a bang. Or, filming so far has mostly been limited to second unit-type stuff... Who knows? Some of these women might be guilty of being boring, though we wonder if maybe filming so far has been limited to second unit stuff... Big Ang with her grand babies is the only storyline, so far. God help us...

Carmelo Bruzzese National Post : "In Toronto an Italian grandfather arrested last summer at his suburban home north of the city was declared by an investigator with Rome’s anti-Mafia police to be the head of a powerful mob clan taking refuge in Canada. “Carmelo Bruzzese has been found by the judge [in Italy] to be the head and organizer” of a clan of the Ndrangheta, the proper name of the Mafia formed in Calabria, said Major Giuseppe De Felice. “He assumed the most important roles and decisions. He gave the orders,” he said. “The ’Ndrangheta is a global phenomena. It is a huge organization. In Canada there are many families from Calabria that belong to the ’Ndrangheta.” Mr. Bruzzese, however, said the testimony is a sham.

Gangland News : "The office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara quietly announced this week that it is dismissing charges against the last three defendants in the snake-bitten labor racketeering case that the FBI made against Genovese gangster Carmine (Papa) Smurf Franco and 28 others. All told, prosecutors have dropped charges against 10 of the 29 defendants in the indictment. Throwing in the towel before trial against more than a third of the defendants wasn't the way things were supposed to turn out: When the indictment was announced, the case was hailed by Bharara and New York FBI boss George Venizelos as a major blow against the Mafia's control over the waste hauling industry in New York and New Jersey. Instead, this foray against the mob rivals the losing ways of the luckless Mets.

Did billionaire Monaco heiress mastermind her mother's murder? From the Daily Mail : Smartly dressed in elegant cocktail attire, the smiling couple look ready for an evening out. Now billionaire Monaco heiress Sylvia Pastor, 53, and Cambridge University graduate Wojciech Janowski, 65, - pictured together at a Monaco state event in 2003 - are in custody, suspected of 'masterminding' the assassination of her equally wealthy mother . Police suspect the pair ordered the Mafia-style hit. Mr Janowski has been Poland's Honorary Consul in Monaco since 2007

"Big Sal" Miciotta  is a Colombo turncoat/jailhouse snitch who nailed Gaspipe Casso for life and got out of prison 10 years early.  John Staluppi  is a wealthy American yachtsman who sells the priciest yachts in the world. He seems to like to name the vessels after James Bond actions flicks. He was identified by the FBI as a member of the Colombo family. Vic Orena challenged "the Snake" for t he big seat in the Colombo family, igniting a civil war in the early 1990s. Former NYPD Detective Joseph Simone is living on Staten Island robbed of his pension. He faced charges that he had passed information to Mafia figures and was found NOT GUILTY in a court of law.

"C'mon over, I've got a dynamite story on Paul Castellano." It's December 1985, two days after the storied execution of the Gambino crime family boss derisively referred to as "The Pope." Big Paul Castellano Considering who the caller was, the reporter, Sidney Zion, couldn't arrive fast enough. Zion had been telephoned by none other than notorious mob defense attorney Roy Cohn, a man considered a scumbag by friend and foe alike.

NYPD Lieutenant Joe Petrosino  His name was Paolo Palazzotto. He was tried a century ago and acquitted. His crime? He was believed to have committed the notorious, brutal cold-blooded murder of legendary (not to mention courageous) New York Police Department Lieutenant Joe Petrosino in 1909. Now there's reason to b believe he really was guilty. One of the alleged assassin's ancestors, a Mafia hood nabbed in a recent major roundup in Sicily, was caught bragging that one of his forebears committed the hit.

Bunch of Bonannos following their arrest mug for the camera. Well, most of them do... A judge refused Wednesday to toss out the indictments against eight reputed Bonanno  mobsters, including longtime Bonanno heavyweight brokester Nicholas "Nicky Mouth" Santora. The defendants, rounded up last July, appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court today. They were charged with enterprise corruption , the state version of the federal crime of racketeering. The charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 25 years. Making up the corruption charge are a host of traditional mob rackets: extortion, loan sharking, and gambling -- as well as the selling of prescription drugs ranging from oxycodone painkillers to Viagra.

Tony Sirico, who played Paulie "Walnuts" Gaultieri on HBO's The Sopranos , was dragged into the media spotlight, his mob past highlighted thanks to a crime docudrama that pops up every few months. His inclusion in the show centers on his involvement as a “witness” in the murder of a 1970s B-movie actress. (Not suspect . See the difference?) Who doesn't know about Sirico's mob-related past by now? Tony Sirico -- aka Paulie Walnuts.... Sirico was born Genaro Anthony Sirico Jr. in 1942 in Brooklyn, New York. He has played gangsters in numerous films, some poorly made, some pretty decent, including Fingers (probably his earliest mob film worth watching), Goodfellas , Innocent Blood , Bullets Over Broadway , Mighty Aphrodite, Gotti , Cop Land, and Mickey Blue Eyes . Before turning to acting, Sirico was reportedly an associate of the Colombo crime family serving under Carmine "Junior" Persico -- and was arrested an amazing 28 times, according...

“Mob Wives” star Big Ang has closed The Drunken Monkey in DUMBO. Which is kinda weird cause that's exactly where we'd expect to find an eatery/bar/whatever owned by Big Ang. The bar opened with a Cinco De Mayo party on May 5, but sources told the New York Daily News that the lights went out on June 6. “[Staffers] went home that Friday night and just didn't show up the next day.” The spot was suffering some “financial setbacks,” but reality star told the News that she believes the Monkey will reopen. “We're having some little paper problems there, but it’s not closing.”

Last month, he told them they were going to hell . Then, this past Saturday, Pope Francis excommunicated them from the Catholic Church. That some fear  for the Pope's life is proof enough that his words are getting through to some, maybe not only the Mafioso. "In Italy, there is not a single Mafioso who isn't religious," Padre Nino Fasullo, an anti-Mafia priest in Italy, once said. "For a phenomenon like the Mafia, which has no intellectual justification at all, religion may represent the only ideological apparatus to which it can refer. ... We're all in the church. Even the Mafia. Unfortunately. The church is embroiled in it. But regrettably not everyone in the church is convinced that opposition to the Mafia is necessary."

Iovine also turned in one of his lawyers. Judges in Naples accepted bribes to acquit a Camorra boss  of murders he had confessed to carrying out, according to the boss in question, who is now an informant. "There was a whole system set up in the court in Naples. Three times the clan paid to ensure an acquittal," Antonio Iovine , the informant, told anti-mafia judges this past week in testimony, adding that each murder acquittal cost around $340,000.

Greg Scarpa in his prime... The FBI's website says that it will offer "a closer look at the fate of the missing workers and the FBI’s role" in the infamous civil rights case known as "Mississippi Burning." We wonder if they will finally admit the role Greg Scarpa Sr. played in the case. This has already been confirmed by none other than former FBI agent Lin DeVecchio , Scarpa's chief handler, in his ironically titled memoir, "We're Going to Win This Thing."

Anthony Nicodemo's retrial slated for next year. Anthony Nicodemo's retrial  for his alleged participation as the wheelman in the 2012 slaying of Gino DiPietro in South Philadelphia has been pushed to next year. At a status conference hearing late last week, Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart scheduled a new pretrial conference for Dec. 1, but no specific date was determined for the retrial resulting from the first trial's termination on May 20. Assistant District Attorney Brian Zarallo said there is an ongoing investigation into possible jury tampering . No one has yet been charged, however. DiPietro, 50, was gunned down shortly before 3 p.m. Dec. 12, 2012, as he stood by his pickup truck in the 2800 block of South Iseminger Street.

Camorrista drawing  from 1905. The  Camorra  and tattoos go together like 1920s Chicago and the Tommy gun. But members of the gang also dress and even accessorize to trumpet their affiliations. In the 1980s, bosses in the Mazzarella clan, a Camorrist faction in Naples, wore rings in the shape of a lion's head. Today, the distinctive accessories are even more diverse — even in prisons. Mafia informer Nicola Cangiano, a former member of the Casalesi gang (the one that "O'Ninno,"   Antonio Iovine , belonged to), told anti-mafia prosecutors how the dress code imposed by the clan is strict even behind bars. "You can tell the men in the Sagaria clan apart from the others by what they wear," he said. "They all wear Samsonite shoes, designer clothes and even cashmere socks. They still get their salaries from the gang — even on the inside." The Schiavone group has its own rules when it comes to clothing. "They all wear Hogan ...

Big Ang from   Mob Wives  had a garage sale  at her house in Staten Island this weekend. Which means if you didn't know about it, you missed your (probably one and only) chance for a walk-on role on the reality show "Mob Wives." Or at least, that is what Big Ang said. I just read about it on yet another giant entertainment news blog, called Bustle : " [U]nless you follow her on social media and/or were just in the neighborhood, you missed out. Honestly, it’s a miracle that I’m able to type at the moment, because my disappointment at not being there is paralyzing. There is not a shred of irony in this statement. I’m experiencing the horror of FOMO nightmares come true. The pain is excruciating. "All weekend, Big Ang was blowing up Twitter and Instagram with updates on the sale. She was obsessed with it, which is about as amazingly absurd and entertaining as she is herself. But really, if there is anything to become obsessed with, it’s mash-up of flea...

  "Caponigro and his brother-in-law Alfred Salerno were... tortured before being killed. Salerno had been shot three times behind the right ear and once behind the left ear. The autopsy showed that a rope had been tied around his neck, wrists, and ankles, and most of his neck and face bones shattered." Ghost of Al Capone in the country? : "THE way Mafia style killings are going on in Bangladesh for the control of illegal businesses, it may not sound too incredulous to say that soon things are bound to go out of control of the administration, like it did for the governments in many countries of the world. USA, Mexico, Italy, Brazil, Russia, had bad experience with such criminal gangs, and at one point law enforcers had to go all-out to crush them. Everywhere a strong nexus of corrupt police officials, administration bigwigs and politicians made it possible for various gangs to operate right before the eye of the law.

Now available:   Lucky Luciano: Mysterious Tales of a Gangster Legend   by journalist Christian Cipollini focuses exclusively on the many mysteries surrounding Charles "Lucky" Luciano, the Godfather of the American Mafia. Issued raised in the book include: The origin's of the famous scar Luciano's involvement with the shadowy Seven Group and Murder Incorporated... Did he ever actually murder anyone... And what of all the wild theories following his death in 1962... With information culled from rare news articles, government documents and numerous published works, this book will give readers a chance to rediscover Luciano -- as a gangster, a man, and a pop culture icon. It no doubt also will ignite new debates over the facts and fallacies regarding Luciano's true role in helping to structure what became the American Mafia that still exists today.

Can you find Lucky Luciano in the picture? The NYTimes.com is publishing a review of John Dickie's "Blood Brotherhoods," and surprisingly, finds fault with it. I am currently reading Dickie's "Mafia Republic," a gigantic volume that basically serves as a consolidation of all his previous works; I don't know why the Times chose to review this particular book now. The review is written by an academic who also writes about organized crime in Italy, Alexander Stille,  a professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and the author of “Excellent Cadavers: The Mafia and the Death of the First Italian Republic,” which is next on my bookshelf. Divertiti! All in the Famiglia  "In “Blood Brotherhoods,” the British scholar John Dickie sets himself the wildly ambitious task of writing the histories of Italy’s three major criminal organizations from their origins in the mid-19th century to the present...

Anthony Nicodemo's Philadelphia murder trial ended in a mistrial last month. John Alite offered testimony on the hit on Johnny "Gongs" Casasanto. In addition to the murder for which he currently faces charges, Nicodemo has been identified as a suspect in the 2003 murder of John "Johnny Gongs" Casasanto. Law enforcement sources have said that the young mob soldier could work out a deal using his supposed information regarding the Casasanto murder and other acts of violence, including two additional murders said to be linked to  Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi  and his top associates. The other murder victims are Ronnie Turchi, who was hit in 1999, and Raymond “Long John” Martorano, who reached the end of the road in 2002. In this article we take a look at the three hits that law enforcement would love to pin on Uncle Joe, one of the more successful modern bosses. He is credited with cooling down the Philly underworld following deca...

AllAboutTRH EXCLUSIVE  is reporting that, except for Alicia DiMichele , the rest of last year's case began filming season five of Mob Wives last week. "There are no new cast members." "Our source reveals: "The ladies first day of filming began Thursday. All the ladies are back except Alicia DiMichele . As of right now, there are no new cast members, but they are still bugging Alicia in hopes that she’ll come back. There is talk that Jenn Graziano is trying to bring in Karen Gravano because Renee Graziano has nobody that’ll fight for her. Big Ang isn’t going to do her dirty work, and they know Karen needs the money and is willing to do it." In other Mob Wives news, The Daily News reported earlier this week that The suspect involved in a fatal fight outside the Staten Island bar owned by reality television star Angela (Big Ang) Raiola turned himself in to cops, authorities said Tuesday.

Frank Colacurcio was never  proven to belong to the Mafia. Frank Colacurcio, Sr., ran a strip-club empire and was depicted as a sort of Godfather of the Pacific Northwest. To his criminal credit, Colacurcio was cited as the first to bring nude dancing to Seattle. At one time, he operated strip clubs in 10 states. He was even mentioned in the McClellan Committee by James "Big Jim" Elkins, a major crime figure in Portland, Oregon. And, Colacurcio was supposed to have met with the son of New York mob boss Joseph Bonanno.

Montreal - CBC News  reports that 31 alleged Mafia members belonging to two groups based in Montreal, Laval, Gatineau and Quebec City were arrested this morning following a series of police raids. Three other people are currently being sought. The raids were part of  Operation Clemenza , as it has been called since its 2010 creation, and were led by the RCMP and around 200 police forces. BlackBerry messages once again played a key role in the investigation, which included interceptions of PIN-to-PIN BlackBerry messages between members of the Giuseppe De Vito and Bastone brothers Mafia cells. The De Vito clan was said to be a faction of the Ndrangheta, the Calabrian-based Mafia. No confirmation on whether the clan headed by the Bastones was Calabrian or Cosa Nostra.  These two groups working together may have been  battling Vito Rizzuto and his family for control of organized crime in Montreal.

Frank Colacurcio Sr. The Seattle Times  reports that a vacant building on Aurora Ave.in Shoreline that was "the cornerstone of a criminal enterprise" is now a church some five years after the indictment of its former criminal owners. "Formerly Sugar’s nightclub, the building was once a strip club, a haven for prostitution and the front of a racketeering operation owned by the notorious Colacurcio family," the report notes. But this "organized crime" group seems relatively benign, focusing on gambling and strip clubs that offered TLC on the side (prostitution).