Cosa Nostra News

UPDATED; ADDITIONAL INFO I have not previously covered the 1%er motorcycle clubs (though I have been considering launching a new blog dedicated to that volatile world). However in the recent Waco, Texas, case, I have some inside information   from a knowledgeable source  that seems to jibe with recently published reports.

See part one of this story, Path to WITSEC Built on Omerta's Dead, here . In December 1964, Pascal "Paddy" Calabrese robbed Buffalo's City Hall during daylight. While serving a five-year stretch for his daring but unsuccessful feat, he started nursing a deep hatred for his boss, Stefano Magaddino, who had cut him loose the moment he was cuffed by law enforcement. Buffalo wiseguy Paddy Calabrese helped create the Witness Protection Program. Magaddino had done the same to the drug-dealing Agueci brothers, forgetting about them as soon as they were arrested. Magaddino had been well aware of the brothers' narcotics business and was glad to pocket their generous tributes in return for extending them police protection.  But Magaddino couldn't have cared less when the cops busted the two. While out on bail,  Albert Agueci  threatened the 75-year-old Cosa Nostra boss, saying if Magaddino didn't use his connections to help him and his brother, he'd talk to the

Meet the Tweetfellas. Former mobsters living large, and in public. So notes a recent Daily News  article  that sought to take to task these "media characters" who have the gall to balk "after completing their government service as informants." Instead of "vanishing into America’s heartland with new identities... they are sticking close — some would say dangerously close — to their stomping grounds and stoking high-profile on social media, personal websites and reality TV shows." WITSEC was perfected by the time Fat Pete Chiodo was ready for it. "Former NYPD Police Commissioner [from 1996 to 2000] Howard Safir, who created the witness protection program when he was a top official of the U.S. Marshals Service, said they’re foolhardy if they think they’re getting a pass on the death sentence for violating the mob’s code of silence." “Organized crime is very patient, even if it means it’s going to be years down the road for there to be re

We present a sizzle reel for an intended television series regarding Goodfellas 4 God Ministries. The show focuses on the real-life stories of those who departed "the life" to rededicate themselves to Christianity. A trilogy of feature films based on members' true live stories is also planned.

In November 2013, one of the last mob hits in the New York area took place. And now law enforcement reportedly has arrested those responsible, including a soldier in the Bonanno crime family. The murder scene of Michael Meldish. Gangster Michael Meldish was slain the old-school way, with a bullet to the back of his head. The killing had all the signs of a gangland hit, complete with the victim slumped over in the driver's seat of his rusty Lincoln LS in Throgs Neck on Ellsworth Ave.

Michael Blutrich grew up in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating from Georgetown in 1974, he opened his own firm on Park Avenue, Blutrich, Falcone & Miller. The current Governor of New York, Andrew M. Cuomo, was a partner in the firm (1985-1988). Michael Blutrich was featured on 60 Minutes The news show will revisit the Scores case. In the 1990s, using stolen money, Blutrich started investing in restaurants and nightclubs including the strip club Scores . At some point, he started working in cahoots with Steve Sergio, described by 60 Minutes as a Gambino associate. (See script of the episode, An Unlikely Informant  here.)

Greg DePalma was desperate to regain his standing as a capo when he was released from prison in February 2003 after serving a 70-month sentence for racketeering. He was supposedly all washed up. He'd been caught talking on tape, which led to his conviction as well as that of John A. "Junior" Gotti in the Scores strip-club extortion case. (They copped plea deals, actually, at the last minute.) Testimony in a 1999 case related to the Scores case told a violent tale of murders by Albanian gangsters, as well as the Gambino crime family shaking down the premium strip club. Reputed Albanian mobsters (and brothers) Simon and Victor Dedaj were arrested for the 1996 shooting murders of a bouncer and waiter inside the Upper East Side strip club. The New York Post described it as a case "with enough mobsters, loansharks and topless dancers to fill a Martin Scorcese flick." In opening statements, Assistant District Attorney Dan McGillycuddy told jurors how

COSA NOSTRA NEWS EXCLUSIVE   After reading  Michael "Mikie Scars" DiLeonardo's testimony , we wanted to know more about him. Mikie Scars, recently taken. Michael DiLeonardo knows Cosa Nostra, and we spent a week asking him questions. We thank Michael for generously spending his time answering them. Michael DiLeonardo's story certainly warrants a full-length book. When we asked Michael if he was working on getting his life story onto the page, he told us only that he's received many requests. "Mikie Scars" beat the Feds when he was tried in Georgia for extorting some $70 million from Georgia's Gold Club and $100,000 from the Manhattan-based high-end Scores strip club.

They tried to stick it up Merlino's ass, he said..... From Big Trial : "They owe me four months," Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino quipped during a phone interview this afternoon, adding, "I hope they just leave me alone. I'm not doing anything wrong." Last month, when the appellate court announced it was vacating the lower court order that sent Merlino back to jail, his lawyer, Edwin Jacobs Jr. declared that "my client has served a four-month sentence for doing absolutely nothing wrong." But that's not exactly the legal takeaway from the split decision of the appellate court that was made public today.

The Gigliottis, husband and wife, was the U.S. connection between the Ndrangheta and South American drug cartels. A savage freelancing mobster arrested in New York for his part in a transcontinental cocaine trafficking network boasted to his wife that he ate the heart and kidney of a rival who owed him money, it is alleged . Gregorio Gigliotti was the U.S. broker between the Ndrangheta , considered Italy's richest and most brutal organized crime syndicate, and the South American drug cartels. Despite reports to the contrary, it doesn't appear the New York families are directly implicated in this case. Longtime Calabria-based anti-Mafia prosecutor Nicola Gratteri said the 'ndrangheta has for some time been beefing up its presence in the United States: "In New York, right under the Brooklyn Bridge."

In what we consider to be our most important contribution to the history of the American Cosa Nostra, we interviewed Michael "Mikie Scars" DiLeonardo about life in the Five Families -- specifically, the Gambino crime family when it was helmed by one of the most famous mob bosses of the 20th century, John Gotti . Mikie Scars provided some interesting details about pre-Cosa Nostra history in America, too. You will learn things you never knew or imagined about the Gambino crime family during the Gotti reign . ( Such as Michael actually spells his name "Mikie".... )

An anonymous source who knows a lot about VH1's Mob Wives cast members recently contacted us. What annoys her (she's a true "Mob Wife") is the idea that some of the women on Mob Wives may actually serve as role models for young women. "First off, understand:  They are not  Mob Wives . None of them ." The "old" cast is new... almost. "They are all liars and everyone on Staten Island has no respect for them. And how they chased her father because of the show!

Where was this federal judge  when the FBI installed a bug inside the home of Gambino crime family boss Paul Castellano? The article doesn't even reference Castellano. A federal judge issued a stern rebuke Friday to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's method for breaking up an illegal online betting ring.  According to published reports a Las Vegas court frowned on the FBI's ruse of disconnecting Internet access to $25,000-per-night villas at Caesar's Palace Hotel and Casino.  FBI agents posed as the cable guy and secretly searched the premises.