Cosa Nostra News

Salvatore "Sal the Pizza Guy" Romano, the Gambino crime family's operative on Wall Street , has signed with Silicon Valley-based Fuse Literary Agency for representation as he prepares to publish his autobiographical memoir. Sal Romano and Paul Anka, in the old days.... Romano made millions of dollars for the Gambinos by way of stock fraud, first serving under the late John "Johnny G." Gammarano and later becoming a top earner for Michael "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo, a capo in the Gambino crime family and who was at one time considered a possible successor to John Gotti as boss of the family.

UPDATED Salvatore "Sammy 'The Bull' Gravano, 72, the former Gambino underboss who flipped against one of the most infamous mob bosses ever, Gambino boss John Gotti, was released from an Arizona prison Monday. Gotti and Gravano enter Brooklyn Federal court in May 1986. He served nearly 18 years after his 2000 arrest for distributing and possessing Ecstasy after departing the witness protection program. Gravano took the stand and helped the Fed's put Gotti and 39 other mobsters behind bars, creating openings for an entire generation of younger Mafiosi, for better or worse. He in return served five years for admitting his role in 19 homicides. Jerry Capeci, on Gang Land News today  tied the Bull together with Gotti confidante John Carneglia, who was released to a Brooklyn halfway house this month, as we reported. Next year, Carneglia and Gene Gotti will be released from prison. As it happens, both were identified by Gravano as being among the ...

REVISED, EXPANDED WITH INFORMATION FROM MIKIE SCARS Longtime Gambino mobster/Gotti confidant John Carneglia, 73, gets out of prison next year, specifically on June 11. John Carneglia and Gene Gotti He already has one foot out the door, though, having been moved to a halfway house in Brooklyn, a source told Cosa Nostra News . The BOP inmate locator site confirms this. His partner in crime, Gene Gotti, 70 ( brother of the one and only ) is slated for release, on September 15, but hasn't been moved yet from P ollock FCI .

There once was a New York mobster named Vincent Spinelli. He was considered a dangerous man. A truck hijacker and gun-runner, he was tied to two crime families (the Bonannos and Lucheses ) and he operated a swag-filled warehouse. Luchese soldier John Donnadio, left,  Vincent Spinelli on the right. He was known for his nice gold watches and good suits. He also preferred driving around in a Mercedes. In reality, his name was not Vincent Spinelli, and he was far from being a criminal; in fact, he was an NYPD officer working undercover. The operation lasted three years and led to 42 arrests (21 were reputed Bonanno mobsters, the rest presumably were Luchese members, plus assorted associates -- plus there was at least one grandmother who lived in a social club in The Bronx).

"He made it look easy in all respects. He was genuine," Martin Scorsese wrote in a tribute to his friend Frank Vincent. "Frank Vincent was someone I could count on. He was a natural who was at ease in front of the camera — on a set or on a stage." Vincent died Wednesday of complications from heart surgery. He was 80.  Scorsese directed him in three films, all classics:  Raging Bull (1980), Goodfellas (1990), and Casino (1995). Vincent's screen debut, The Death Collector , is also a must-see for fans. (Mikie Scars highly recommends it too.) Vincent's career probably reached its pinnacle with his turn as Phil Leotardo, boss of a New York crime family on The Sopranos.

Alleged Luchese crime family soldier Christopher Londonio, who's awaiting trial for the Michael Meldish murder , among other charges, crafted an escape plan to bust himself out of Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center, federal prosecutors revealed. Londonio didn't feel like waiting around. The plan involved dental floss, a priest, and lots of sheets and blankets. Londonio, 43, planned to use the dental floss as a cutting tool. Meanwhile, he'd solicited a priest to smuggle a blade into the facility and had begun to secretly amass sheets and blankets to use as a rope, according to prosecutors.

REVISED, EXPANDED This year marks the 60th anniversary of Apalachin,  which has always been of great interest to me.. .. Police in pursuit in Apalachin on the day. .... Apalachin, NY, the infamous location of the November 14, 1957, Mafia Summit , changed everything by finally bringing the full resources of the FBI onto the nation's crime families . That ill-fated meeting in upstate New York left two legacies in place: The enormous free reign with which the wiseguys operated for so long was coming to a close as the FBI launched a full-court investigative press against the mob that wouldn't let up -- ever.....(Law enforcement's mob investigations may have periodically waned, but the efforts were forever renewed....) And, never again could J. Edgar Hoover deny Cosa Nostra's existence without looking like a fool.

UPDATED "Do you see the devil in the tree picking his nails with his mouth trying to figure out which one he wants a rape?" This painting once graced the home of Vito Genovese. Since last night we've heard from additional folks about Trama's Trattoria, the New Jersey restaurant where the painting once owned by Vito Genovese hangs. Not all knew about the painting, but they certainly remember the food.  " The Garganelli pasta is out of this world. Don Vito would certainly have approved," said one. (They prefer I identify them as "friends." You can figure out the rest. The fact is, they are friends.)  The painting, of a group of fair maidens being spied on by a demon or something, once apparently hung in Genovese's mansion in the Atlantic Highlands. And I'm hoping someone reading this can shed more light on that painting.

Revised Considering the success of  Gomorra h,  the critically praised and immensely popular television show about the Neapolitan Cammora , which last year reported ly "doubled" the audience figures of other foreign-language series on the Sundance channel, it's no surprise that Netflix would seek a similar property. (Is Hulu next?) Netflix has managed to take an admirable shot at doing just that with Suburra , Netflix's first original series from Italy. It's been in the pipeline for years, actually. The 10-part series, which debuts worldwide on Netflix on October 6, is named for a real 2,000-year-old ancient Roman seaside town where a Mafia group erects a gambling, prostitution, and drug trafficking empire.

Carmine Carini Junior's body had been wrapped in a blue tarp and chained to a cinder block. Then, it was dropped into an inlet off Avenue U and East 58th Street in South Brooklyn. A 5-pound bag of drywall compound had also been tied to the body, though the effort to conceal it was unsuccessful: Carini's body was found Saturday floating near a dock. His father, who has the same name, is a known Gambino mobster who served decades for a murder he didn't commit. With their testimony, storied mob turncoats Frank Smith and Sal Mangiavillano freed the elder Carini from prison for the murder.

CORRECTED:  Press reports incorrectly identified crime families A Brooklyn man was  found Saturday  a few blocks from his Mill Basin home on Avenue U and East 58th street. Wrapped in a blue tarp, Carmine Carini, 35, allegedly an associate of the Luchese crime family, was found chained to a cinder block held underwater. Victim appeared to be brutally slain. His ankles and knees were bound with duct tape. An orange rope, affixed to the cinder block, was apparently used to weigh his body down and was tied to his feet. Since he was found with his head bashed in and stabbed multiple times, cause of death is unknown.