Cosa Nostra News for Week of July 5

By Ed Scarpo


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If Uncle Joe Retires What Happens in Philadelphia?

By Ed Scarpo
Joseph (Uncle Joe) Ligambi, who recently got out of prison following two mistrials for what primarily amounted to gambling-related charges, says that he is done, finito, with Cosa Nostra. He wants to drop the harness and relax, to summer in Longport and winter in Florida. In 1980, violence on the streets of Philadelphia rose sharply following boss Angelo Bruno's murder. Does Ligambi mean it? If he’s being sincere, then who will step in and take over?  Too many wiseguys, if history is our guide. The volatility for which the Philadelphia crime family was once well-known can return as swiftly as the time it takes to pull a trigger. Two generations historically at odds with each other have been working together (the old Scarfo gang and the Merlino young turks). The ability to rivet these two enclaves together is among the skills "Uncle Joe" is credited for having. But with or without him, shifts in power are inevitable as the family's composition changes (...
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Kitchen Nightmares Gangster Back In Business (Mob Business, That Is)

By Ed Scarpo
“Nobody is gonna go against them. They’d go head to head with anybody.” Source on Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso and his Administration in the Bonanno crime family. Bonanno mobster Peter (Peter Pasta) Pellegrino, a name you are familiar with if you have been watching Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares and reading Cosa Nostra News , is back in business—the gambling and shylocking business, though, not the restaurant business. Peter Pasta Pellegrino. (From Facebook.) In fact, Peter Pasta was among the Bonannos who benefitted from Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso 's reorganization of the crime family last Christmas, we've learned. Pellegrino was bumped from acting capo to official capo. He’s now overseeing a Bonanno crew in Florida and one allied with Albanians in Ridgewood, Queens. Also part of the Nose's Christmastime shakeup, Anthony (Bruno) Indelicato , the longtime Bonanno wiseguy who was a direct participant—he was one of the shooters—in the 1979 Carmine Galante murders, w...
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Philadelphia Cosa Nostra Family Has New Boss

By Ed Scarpo
Skinny Joey Merlino EXCLUSIVE:  Phil Narducci has been named boss of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra Family, according to several sources who requested anonymity. What is not known is whether he is the official boss or acting boss for Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino , who is serving a short stint down in Florida. Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi and Joseph "Chickie" Ciancaglini, Sr. are sharing the position of consiglieri. The underboss position is officially unfilled, though it is believed that South Philadelphia-based capos Stevie Mazzone and John "Johnny Chang" Ciancaglini may fill the void by serving as street bosses for the often-troubled Philly crime family .
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Mob Wife Ex-Husband Hector Pagan In Brooklyn Halfway House With April 2021 Release Date

By Ed Scarpo
Back in 2014, despite the heartfelt pleas of a murdered man's daughter, Brooklyn Federal Judge John Gleeson sentenced Hector (Junior) Pagan to 11 years in prison —and offered a thoughtful comment. James Donovan was killed during a botched robbery in 2010. He said, “We can only hope” that by time Pagan is released “we have prepared him for re-entry into society to mitigate the risk” of what would happen if Pagan returned to a life of crime. How far Judge Gleeson's hope gets us is something we will discover very soon. The former Bonanno associate/Mob Wives bit player is getting out of the can in a few months..... He is currently residing at the Brooklyn RRM (a halfway house where he and other Federal offenders receive "community-based services that will assist with their reentry needs.") Pagan's official reentry date is April 18, 2021. Renee Graziano's ex-husband got a reduced sentence in 2014 because he flipped and testified against two cohorts who were involve...
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Decades of Mob Violence Behind Waterfront Case

By Ed Scarpo
The week before Christmas 2014, three North New Jersey-based Genovese crime family mobsters pleaded guilty to waterfront racketeering in a case going on for years -- since January 2011's Mafia Takedown Day . The guy who owned the “Godfather’s Garden.” But the Genovese family's control of the New Jersey waterfront goes back decades and includes many storied mobsters of the past who killed and were killed for control of the lucrative waterfront rackets of the Garden State. The Genovese family even ran its own hit squad, which focused on murdering FBI informants, among others. The bloodless indictment by comparison likely will end with three men serving three-year prison sentences. The key count in the indictment is conspiracy to extort members of the International Longshoremen’s Association for Christmastime tribute payments, according to New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman and Eastern District of New York U.S. Attorney Loretta E. Lynch . Genovese s...
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Ex-Bonanno Boss Joe Massino Detailed His Role In Galante Hit (And It Wasn't What You Think)

By Ed Scarpo
REVISED, EXPANDED Carmine Galante straightened out Joe Massino, Anthony Spero, Joe Chilli, and three others  on June 14, 1977, in a bar in Queens.  Massino testified that during the ceremony, Galante asked each of them who the boss of the Bonanno family was, and each replied, "you."  Massino, however, replied "Rastelli." Joe Massino came from a working-class Maspeth background, the second of three sons of a second-generation Italian-American couple. He survived and thrived in a longtime career in the American Mafia, rising to the epitome when he became boss of the Bonanno crime family. In the early 1990s, when most of the other New York bosses were incarcerated, Massino stood alone as the most powerful Mafioso on the street. Goombata: Gene Gotti, left, and Joe Massino walk-talk. Massino rose to the top on the backs of a multitude of dead men.  As protégé to Bonanno powerhouse Philip Rastelli, who spent most of his reign in prison, Massino first made his mark in ...
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