No Respect for Merlino: "Corrupt and Dead" Director

By Ed Scarpo

This trailer packs a wallop...


Tigre Hill's new documentary on organized crime features real-life South Philly wiseguys, including Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi, Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino and Angelo Bruno.

On Feb. 2, the "Shame of a City" and "Barrel of a Gun" director released the trailer for "The Corrupt and The Dead," his latest film.

Hill described the forthcoming documentary as focusing on the detrimental effect of organized crime on society, as well as its impact on the economies of its host cities. The film covers the mob's influence in cities across the country, but tightens its focus specifically on the mob's impact on Hill's native city of Philadelphia, Philly.com noted.

"Philly was so unique," Hill said, "even the Mafia was saying, 'What the f--k is going on in Philly?'"

The film bookends with Philly elite, beginning with Salvatore Sabella, who Hill claims is the first known Sicilian Mafia boss in Philly, and it concludes with Merlino's fall.

"A lot of old mobsters have no respect for Merlino," Hill said, "Not that they're worthy of respect."



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Stories

Gambinos Elevate Mickey Boy Paradiso To Fill Murdered Boss's Shoes

By Ed Scarpo
Image
EXPANDED In the wake of Francesco (Frank Boy) Cali's murder last month, the Gambino crime family has tapped Michael (Mickey Boy) Paradiso to fill the leadership void.




As per today's Gang Land News, "In a surprise move... the Gambino family has tapped a tough, old capo who once punched John Gotti in the face and got away with it, to serve in the crime family's Administration." That's per what law enforcement sources told Gang Land.

"He will technically serve as the family's consigliere, or number three man in the family hierarchy. Paradiso will serve alongside two powerful members of the family's Sicilian faction, Domenico (Italian Dom) Cefalu, 72, and Lorenzo Mannino, 60.





"Gang Land's sources waffle on the specific ranks of Cefalu, whom the FBI has carried as the family's acting boss since 2011, and Mannino, who has been identified by the feds in recent court filings only as a "powerful capo."

Possible HierarchyPeter Gotti Of…
Read more

Gyp Rosetti Sharpens Boardwalk Empire's Edge

By Ed Scarpo
Image
"Nobody here can take a joke."
"What's that? A gun? I got a gun. He got a gun. He got a gun... Everybody got guns!" "Nothing's personal? What the fck is life, if it's not personal?!"  "You smug kike midget, creeping around like a fcking dentist with the aether."


-- Gyp Rosetti, Boardwalk Empire's villainous saviour.
Boardwalk Empire was getting pretty boring. Fortunately, the show creators seemingly realized this -- and adjusted course accordingly, killing off a major character at the end of season two and introducing a new one in the current season.

This effectively administered a jolt of much-needed vitality into the HBO series, based (loosely, very loosely) on a true crime story about fortune, power, and greed centered on 1920s Atlantic City, but also in Chicago, New York, and tertiary locals.



Somewhere in the second season, it seemed increasingly apparent that despite all the great character actors, slickly written dialogue, lush …
Read more

The Only Sicilian Mafioso In America To Turn Himself In

By Ed Scarpo
Image
THE WITNESS: I grew up in my country for 26 years almost, and all the people--I would say 99 percent, they never go to the law because the law was too slow, and the law make no justice for what they have done. They prefer Don Tomas, Don Nicolas, Don Ciccio, whatever they call them....

After Joseph (Joe Cago) Valachi and before Sammy (The Bull) Gravano, one of the most important New York mob turncoats was Luigi Ronsisvalle, a "diabolically funny mob hit man."



Ronsisvalle was born and was raised in Sicily, where he followed Mafia developments "like an American kid follows baseball."

He moved to the United States in 1966 when he was 25. He ″knew almost nothing″ about America's Cosa Nostra when he arrived here.

″In Sicily you could whistle and in two minutes, you’d have 200 guys behind you with a shotgun.″

Ronsisvalle said that while he was growing up in Sicily, he always wanted to be ″a man of honor. " In Sicily, people who thought they'd been wronged pre…
Read more

Hoodwinked: Restaurateur on Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares Was a Mobster

By Ed Scarpo
Image
Peter (Peter Pasta) Pellegrino, formerly of the Babylon, New York restaurant Peter’s Italian Restaurant, really is -- or was -- a gangster.


The once-promising Bonanno crime family member who appeared in Kitchen Nightmares now calls himself a brokester. And the Bonanno crime family, with which he was once affiliated has disowned him.

So has the rest of New York's Cosa Nostra, according to FBI documents and Peter Pasta himself.

But before all that he appeared on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares in which he acted very much like the mobster he allegedly was trying to become around the time of filming. (See Peter's Italian Restaurant menu here.)






Back then Peter Pasta was an up-and-coming Bonanno associate who "earned" $15 grand a week from bookmaking.

At the time, he also owned two boats that he'd park in a pricey nearby Babylon harbor called Great South Bay.

Gang Land News's Jerry Capeci broke the news about Peter Pasta's mob status, reporting:

Today, like the…
Read more

Philly Wiseguy Sam Piccolo Pleaded Guilty In Camden, New Jersey

By Ed Scarpo
Image
Salvatore (Sam) Piccolo, 67, of Atlantic City, a member of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler in Camden federal court yesterday.




He admitted to staging a fake robbery of a Union County, New Jersey, pawnshop for the purpose of perpetrating an insurance fraud and to distributing illegal drugs, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.

He had been charged with distribution of 216 grams of methamphetamine and one count of wire fraud.






According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Piccolo admitted that on April 19, 2014, he and an accomplice entered a pawnshop in Union County, purportedly to sell some silver items. Once inside the shop, the accomplice displayed a hand gun while Piccolo, wearing a nylon mask, chained the front doors closed to prevent anyone from entering. The owner was bound, as a pretense, while Piccolo and his accomplice looted the safe of what the owner told police was approximately $60,000 in c…
Read more

John Alite And Nick Christophers Tells Us About Prison Rules

By Ed Scarpo
Image
We recently spoke with Nick Christophers and John Alite about their new book,Prison Rules, which was written to tell first-time offenders what they can expect inside the joint.


 "John Alite is candid and genuine," Nick said in a recent interview. (Nick occasionally writes for Cosa Nostra News, and we've been trying to get him to write some more. He's currently shopping what we think is the definitive book about the Greek Mafia.)

It's been years since we first wrote about former Gambino associate John Alite. That first story, John Alite Blasts Mob Hypocrisy, was published in Jauary 2015. (We've always been in awe of his ability to woo some of the most heartbreakingly beautiful women we've quite literally ever seen.) Prison Rules is John's third book -- after Gotti's Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia, and Darkest Hour: John Alite: Former Mafia Enforcer for John Gotti and the Gambino Crime Family (with S…
Read more

Chin's Son Vincent Esposito Pleads Guilty To Racketeering Conspiracy

By Ed Scarpo
Image
Before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn,  Vincent Esposito, a son of Vincent (Chin) Gigante, former boss of the Genovese crime family, pled guilty to conspiring to commit racketeering offenses with members and associates of the Genovese crime family.



Esposito, 51, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for July 10, 2019, before Judge Marrero.
As part of his plea, Esposito agreed to forfeit the more than $3.8 million seized by the FBI as criminal proceeds resulting from the offense. 






Charges remain pending against two  co-defendants, Steven Arena and Frank Giovinco, with trial scheduled for June 17, 2019, before U.S. District Court Judge Victor Marrero. 
According to the Indictment and statements made during public court proceedings:

For years, continuing until 2017, Esposito conspired with other members and associates of the Genovese crime family to commit a wide range of crim…
Read more

Archive

Show more