Cosa Nostra News

Cosa Nostra News Exclusive First, the following  string of comments is from a previous story ; this is simply to set  this  story's backdrop. Comments are highlighted in yellow to signify their pending significance. ( The comments are no longer following, technically. To make the story easier to read I placed them on another page, but we'll get to that. ) Angelo Spata does a Carlo Gambino grin for media. The comments, edited for clarity and space, offer several revelations: 1.) Former Gambino crime family captain  Michael "Mikie Scars" DiLeonardo wasn't involved in that blog story or the related discussion until "several" commenters blasted him. (The quotes around several are because the various names used were actually one person; this person seemed to have a strong proclivity to defend Angelo "Little Angelo" Spata.) However, since the commenter said nothing substantial to indicate he possessed special knowledge, he may have bee...

Today marks the Kindle debut of Louis P. DiVita's A Wiser Guy -- so readers can purchase it in whatever format they prefer: ebook , hardcover or paperback . (Be sure to check out Louis's website , where the above trailer is posted, along with additional information.) In A Wiser Guy , DiVita -- whose grandfather was Paul Palmeri and great uncle Benedetto Angelo, aka "Buffalo Bill," Joseph DiCarlo 's partner -- shares personal and colorful anecdotes about life among high-profile members of the American Mafia from around the 1920s to the present. DiVita's forebears, originally from Sicily's Castellammare Del Golfo , first played a decades-long role in upstate New York where they were closely allied with mob bosses Stefano Magaddino and Joseph DiCarlo. The Palmeri brothers initially planted their flags in Buffalo and Niagara Falls; they had associations with major Canadian mobsters of the day, such as Rocco Perri. These relationships had ramificatio...

Danny Persico, nephew of sentenced-to-life Colombo crime family boss Carmine Persico, has died. This is based on a seemingly exclusive report by Kenji Gallo on his Breakshot Blog. Danny Persico wasn't a violent mobster despite his last name. While contacting sources, we learned Danny, in his early 50s, had been fighting colon cancer for around the past six years.

A Wiser Guy , by Louis DiVita, includes mention of a nearly unbelievably wide array of wiseguys, including Willie Moretti, Albert Anastasia, Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Vito Genovese. Some are not as well known. His forebears wound up in New Jersey's Mafia landscape but first played a decades-long role in upstate New York where they were closely allied with mobsters such as Stefano Magaddino and Joseph DiCarlo. The Palmeri brothers both backed their countryman Salvatore Maranzano when the New York Mafia split into factions and used murder to finally end an ongoing feud as to who was going to be who. Afterward, the Mafia as we know it today was created.

Leonardo Rizzuto was denied ball again, though a judge allowed it for a dying Stefano Sollecito . Alleged Montreal Mafia leader Stefano Sollecito was granted bail, the Montreal Gazette reported . Leonardo Rizzuto wasn't -- but then the son of deceased Montreal Cosa Nostra boss Vito Rizzuto isn't suffering what seems to be, in Stefano's case, terminal cancer. The reported reason for Sollecito's bail: the judge agreed "he cannot adequately be treated for the cancer he is suffering from inside a provincial detention centre."

Angel Gotti, John Gotti's daughter, sent me a response to a recent story about her father . (Basically, I wrote a short preamble focused on Costabile Gus Farace , then posted the New York Times obituary.) John Gotti in his prime. She offered an interesting anecdote that I am publishing here. Embedded within it is a a criticism of factual information that made me dig a little further into some transcripts regarding the allegedly planned assassination of John Gotti (and his brother Gene) by the Genovese crime family . According to mob lore, "The Chin" and Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso both tried to take Gotti out, supposedly over the "unsanctioned" hit on former Gambino boss Paul Castellano. First, Angel's response: The story is not 100% accurate... I don't care what anyone on this planet says, John Gotti was not afraid of anyone, not Gigante, not anyone. He lost his son and I will tell you this: he never feared death. I lived down the bl...

John Gotti John J. Gotti, who took control of the Gambino crime family in one of the most storied gangland coups in modern times, died on June 10, 2002, at age 61. He's been described as one of the 20th century's most popular Cosa Nostra bosses, usually in the same breath as Al Capone of 1920s Chicago. The closest the American Mafia has had to a " boss of bosses" since Carlo Gambino , Gotti breathed fire into New York wiseguys tired and nearly decimated by a stream of major RICO indictments, including the Commission Trial and Concrete and Windows cases .

Undated photo of Desjardins. The RCMP launched a 16-month surveillance operation against Raynald Desjardins and seven associates one day after the murder of Salvatore Montagna, the former Bonanno crime family street boss. "The Iron Worker" had been shot three times, allegedly by elderly gangster Jack Simpson with whom Montagna was meeting, and died on a snowswept river bank outside Montreal. At the time of the murder, Desjardins was warmly ensconced in his alibi, eating breakfast with his daughter.

This article was first published in the Den of Geek NYCC Special Edition Magazine; you can find the online version here .  It's written by Tony Sokol, the admitted "Gangster Geek" at Den of Geek, for which he writes. Tony is a quite talented writer, in fact (in addition to being a  playwright and musician). Aside from writing for Den of Geek, he also writes for The Chiseler , KpopStarz.com , and  hypnocloud.com . Previously, he wrote for Altvariety, Coed.com , Daily Offbeat, Dark Media Press, Wicked Mystic and other magazines.  He has had over 20 plays produced in NYC, including Vampyr Theatre and the rock opera “AssassiNation: We Killed JFK.” He appeared on the Joan Rivers (TV) Show, Strange Universe and Britain’s “The Girlie Show.” Goodfellas is a classic movie in the gangster genre. It tells the story of a crew of working criminals from the working class section of East New York, Brooklyn. These wise guys pulled off the biggest haul of the Twentieth Cent...

SEE  PART ONE In the fall of 2011 at around 3:30 p.m. a black BMW X5 pulled into the Tim Hortons' parking lot on Montreal's Lafontaine Boulevard. A black-and-grey Ford Flex was seen nosing its way into the parking lot a short time later. The SA Sûreté du Québec -- the Quebec Provincial Police -- had put a surveillance team there specifically to watch whoever participated in the meeting, called following an attempt on Raynald Desjadins' life. Montagna dared to make a huge power play. The tempers of many violent members of a once-solid Mafia faction were inflamed after an alliance was torn asunder; the result weakened a syndicate formed solely to mount a hostile takeover of the Montreal Mafia from loyalists of Vito Rizzuto , who was absent from the milieu to serve a prison sentence for his role in a brutal triple homicide that set the course for New York's Bonanno crime family.

Six members and associates of the Luchese crime family were arrested this past May 26 for running an illegal online gambling operation that allegedly generated $13 million from September 2015 to March 2016. "Boopsie" allegedly ran Luchese gambling operation. The six, who hail from Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, face various charges in a 37-count indictment for running the racket, which enabled bettors to place wages on various professional and collegiate sporting events. All payments were wired to an off-shore location. "These defendants are charged with running a lucrative gambling ring that took in millions of dollars in bets and stretched all the way to Costa Rica," Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson said. "We’ve now shut down this illegal enterprise that was controlled by organized crime and will fully prosecute those who have been indicted.”

"Chit" wants out of prison -- he's certain that no assassins are going to kill him. The parole board decided to agree with him. One of the last surviving members of an exclusive group of Rizzuto loyalists -- that very same group that someone seems to be systematically killing , apparently thinks he has nothing to fear but fear itself -- and wants out of prison posthaste. Francesco "Chit" Del Balso, 46, wrote to the Parole Board of Canada last week, informing them that "he feels his life is not in danger even though his close friend, and fellow leader in the Rizzuto organization, Lorenzo "Skunk" Giordano, 52, was fatally shot in Laval on March 1," the National Post reported . ( It was recently revealed that Giordano's wife was sitting in the car next to him when he was shot to death .) Giordano and Del Balso both recently reached their statutory release dates following their Project Colisée prison time. (Project Colisée, a...