Cosa Nostra News

The John Gotti biopic is on again, with a new set of Hollywood backers joining the original producer. John Travolta remains tied to the project and is ready, once again, to step into the shoes of mob boss John Gotti in the long-gestating film, which Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films, Fiore Films and Herrick Entertainment are together producing. The two Johns:  Gotti and Travolta Travolta met with buyers and glad-handed the press at a Toronto event Sept. 11 where he discussed how the Gotti project had become a family project. His wife, Kelly Preston, and daughter, Ella Bleu Travolta, have signed on to play Gotti’s real-life wife and daughter in the Lionsgate project.

Paul Castellano's White House, on Todt Hill. Buzzfeed, among other newspapers and websites, reported that Hillary Clinton made an unannounced visit yesterday to Staten Island -- specifically to the White House, "a sprawling estate that earned the name during its time as a legendary mob palace in the 1980s." Clinton was at Gambino boss Paul Castellano's old home to collect checks from supporters.

John Alite recently took to the podium at Las Vegas's Mob Museum , the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. He offered an Author Talk spotlighted on his collaboration with acclaimed Philadelphia-based journalist George Anastasia , who wrote  Gotti’s Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti and the Demise of the American Mafia . In an even, somber tone, he voiced his experiences and perceptions as an associate of the Gambino crime family during John Gotti's reign. John Alite speaks at the Las Vegas Mob Museum. Alite's presentation was provided free of charge with museum admission (and for museum members). A video of the presentation can be viewed on this story's jump page.

The Sydney Morning Herald interviewed Michael Franzese who addressed a couple of compelling topics, one of which is the murder of Larry "Champagne" Carrozz a, supposedly over a married Carrozza having the audacity to date the also-married daughter of Colombo powerhouse John "Sonny" Franzese." Michael also reveals that he learned in recent years that he was not adopted. (Franzese is visiting Australia to promote " An Evening with The Godfather ," which was delayed because "Australian immigration authorities pondered "character" issues before granting Franzese's visa." While in Australia Michael Franzese also gave an interview--click  here  to check it out--to life coach  Joseph Sulfaro  of the Newport Hypnotherapy, Health & Healing Centre.)

The judge slammed Scarfo Jr. in court. EXPANDED, SEE NICKY JR.'s PLANE:  Nicodemo Scarfo Junior , a member of the Luchese crime family, was sentenced to serve 360 months in prison for participating in a racketeering conspiracy and other offenses related to the looting of FirstPlus Financial Group, a Texas-based mortgage company. Scarfo and a partner used the publicly traded company to buy shell companies from which they could steal assets. FirstPlus is now defunct. He was sentenced in July. “Nicodemo Scarfo and his associates tried to take La Cosa Nostra corporate, using traditional, strong-arm mob tactics to take over a publicly traded company and loot it like a personal piggy bank,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “The Justice Department will fight organized crime wherever it may surface—from back alleys to public board rooms—to ensure that crime does not pay.”

In 1974, mob shooters accidentally killed an innocent bystander while in the process of gunning down a father and son suspected of stealing some of the Colombo family's proceeds from the ticket sales related to the classic porn flick Deep Throat. In time this incident would be dubbed one of the New York underworld's more depraved acts. Peraino Sr. survived the hit,  but was paralyzed. Former jailhouse snitch Salvatore "Big Sal" Miciotta, who was so discredited in the courtroom, he could never testify again, talked about the infamous hit for a documentary. William "Wild Bill" Cutolo, a powerful, charismatic Colombo capo later named underboss (only to be murdered in 1999) and five Colombo gangsters were freed because of Miciotta's false testimony, which also destroyed an honest man's career in the NYPD, among other things. Colombo shooters lured a father and son into a trap to kill them. Their crime was skimming from the proceeds g