Cosa Nostra News

You sometimes come across a scrap of information in a decades-old news story that seemingly upends much of what you thought you knew about the Mafia. Aniello Dellacroce, who rose in the Gambino crime family to become Carlo Gambino's underboss, is considered historically to have been an old-school gangster,  one whose mantra seemingly was: " The boss is the boss is the boss ." Aniello Dellacroce However, Dellacroce was accused of plotting to murder Carlo Gambino.

For Bucky Cosa Nostra News Exclusive The most infamous gangland hit of the 20th century was the December 1985 execution of Gambino boss Paul Castellano, who was shot six times, and his driver/underboss Thomas Bilotti, shot four times, outside Sparks Steak House in midtown Manhattan. Paul Castellano, formerly Gambino boss, died December 1985. Castellano was the precursor to John Gotti, the man who Gotti had to kill to rise to the top. The story of why Paul Castellano was killed has been the topic of books, films, magazine articles, newspaper stories and television documentaries, the details of the hit have been recounted again and again Owing to heavy mainstream interest in his high-profile successor, Castellano has been given short shrift; he's been mocked, derided and trivialized, cast as a deliberate foil to John Gotti, the polished, well-groomed "gangster from central casting." Castellano wasn't a tough guy; he thought he was a Fortune 500 CEO. He deliber

Allen Smiley worked for around 10 years of his life with Cecil B. DeMille, "a founding father of the Hollywood film industry, and the most commercially successful producer-director in cinema history," as noted in The Art of the Hollywood Epic  biography. But Smiley decided it was more worthwhile to join with Benjamin (Bugsy) Siegel, who'd installed himself in Los Angeles to get pieces of various action for his New York friends (and himself). Despite what one high-profile biography says about Smiley growing up in Manhattan with Siegel and Meyer Lanksy, his daughter told us otherwise. Allen Smiley on left; Luellen on right; unidentified woman in middle. Allen Smiley was born Aaron Smehoff in Kiev. His family immigrated to Canada and settled in Winnipeg when Allen was five years old, his daughter writes in her memoir, Cradle of Crime: A Daughter's Tribute . "Dad met Ben in 1937," Ms. Smiley told us. "Dad spent one year in New York af

The dead man lay on his back, his arms frozen in an odd, upward position, away from the body "as if he were reading a newspaper." He wore an overcoat over a green suit replete with white dress shirt and dark necktie. He was dressed in layers of clothes, with pale-blue-colored pajamas underneath. The corpse's clean-shaven face looked like it had recently entered middle age. Rubber galoshes were stretched over his shoes. The sum of $156 in cash was found in his pocket. But the body held not a single piece of paper that identified who it was. The victim seemingly had done something decidedly impractical. Though his face was intact, it was discovered that he'd been shot in the back of the head four times with a .25 caliber pistol. Someone had pulled an old Saturday Night Special on him and finished him off. Those once-ubiquitous cheap portable guns packed little stopping power, which didn't matter if the weapon was used properly, meaning up close and personal, maybe i

Colombo crime family boss Carmine (The Snake) Persico's grandson recently underwent eye surgery, though he still seems to have vision problems. As recently reported , Persico's grandson (and namesake) mistook a total stranger for someone he thought he knew. Carmine (Junior) Persico The 25-year-old grandson of Mafia royalty apparently has a beef with whoever he thought he saw. Persico, backed by three guys, punched the stranger in his face outside the Brooklyn bar the Kettle Black, in Bay Ridge. "You look familiar," Persico allegedly snapped at the puzzled victim.

Meyer Lansky had a dream that rivaled the one widely ( and inaccurately ) attributed to Benjamin (Bugsy) Siegel regarding transforming a sizeable stretch of the Nevada desert into a gambling mecca. Lansky wanted to create an empire of Mafia-owned casinos that stretched across the Caribbean. He'd use Havana, Cuba, as his base of operations, where he and childhood friend/chief criminal cohort  Charlie (Lucky) Luciano could work together. Charlie Luciano in Rome after he was kicked out of Cuba.... Fate in the form of Fidel Castro didn't allow things to develop the way Lansky and Luciano hoped. Lansky lost out on a major opportunity to build another fortune.  Luciano, however, had it worse.  He was returned to Italy, a country he despised. The  Sicilian Mafia was robbing him blind.

DeCavalcante crime family capo Charles Stango yesterday admitted to planning the murder of an organized crime rival, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said in a press release. Stango, 72, of Henderson, Nevada, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge William H. Walls in Newark federal court to one count of knowingly using an interstate facility – the telephone – with the intent to murder a rival. Charles Stango ALSO READ: John Riggi, Mafia's "Last Legitimate Boss" He also pleaded guilty to violating the terms of his supervised release, which he was serving following his imprisonment on racketeering charges in New York. According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court: Stango was arrested on April 14, 2015, along with a  crew of DeCavalcante members and associates who operated in New Jersey and elsewhere.

Exclusive material about  Benjamin (Bugsy) Siegel 's  life and crimes and murder  will be the focus of my pending monthly newsletter, debuting next week. ( You will note a style change: from now on I am going to use parentheses instead of quotations around nicknames, on first reference only. This is for reasons too complicated and boring to explain .) Sign up now; it's going out by the end of next week. If you'd like to advertise in the newsletter, I'm offering very competitive rates, so here's your chance to get your book or product or service in front of thousands of people interested in the Mafia.  Specific readership data is available to those interested in purchasing advertising. Rates are not expensive, believe me.  Authors who need to promote a book should definitely contact me (publishers aren't as active and effective in this area, I know).   Contact me to discuss at Cosanostranews @ gmail dot-com...

Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was killed on June 20, 1947, at 10:45 pm West Coast time. [Watch film footage below, the man wearing the maroon jacket is said to be Bugsy. I don't know... but first see the rare footage that is Bugsy Siegel ....) The gangster often identified as the visionary of Las Vegas was 41 years old. As recounted (here) , he was killed around three months after The Flamingo reopened in March 1947, once construction was completed. This IS rare footage of Bugsy Siegel..... At least one gunman crept up to a French window with a 30-30 carbine, resting the rifle on the lattice work of a trellis outside the Moorish‐style mansion Siegel shared with Virginia Hill at 810 North Linden Drive in Beverly Hills, California. Siegel sat on a couch, his back facing the gunman, who was only about 15 feet away, separated by glass. Siegel flipped through a copy of the Los Angeles Times he had picked up after dining at Jack’s on the Beach, when the gunmen squeez