Cosa Nostra News

I n comments to the previous story , it was noted that there was a general belief that the Chicago Mafia family held no formal initiation ceremony. This photo of Family Secrets Tour Chicago is courtesy of TripAdvisor Unfortunately, I can't find my copy of Jerry Capeci's Complete Idiot's Guide to the Mafia or I'd quote what he writes.  With direct evidence absent, a school of thought emerged that since Al Capone wasn't Sicilian, perhaps he left the Sicilian stuff behind with the Five Family Cosa Nostra in New York. That theoretical framework made some sense --but only prior to the landmark Family Secrets trial. Once federal prosecutors gave their opening statement in June 2007 -- and especially when Frank Calabrese Jr 's tape recordings of his father were played, and when Nicholas Calabrese took the witness stand, supposedly the first made “uniform” to flip for the feds -- it was revealed that in Chicago, they not only made members, but the ceremony was a...

For some, this is old news; for others, it's very old news. For us, it's timeless .... To be “made” in Chicago meant one was 100 percent Italian and had committed at least one murder. The making ceremony was one of the closest-held events in the “ secret organization hidden in the shadows, ” according to the federal government. Getting made entitled one to a greater share of the proceeds from illicit gambling, loans, and street taxes. A Mafia initiation ceremony described in Mario Puzo’s novel the Godfather is “very close” to the truth, according to Frank Calabrese Sr. while speaking to his son in 1999. Both were in prison at the time, only Frank Calabrese Sr. didn't know what his son was truly seeking from him. Frank Calabrese Junior  was wearing a wire as part of a personal quest to keep his homicidal father in prison for the rest of his life. As per that mission, he was cooperating with the FBI against his own father — hence, the significance of t...

New York City's private carting industry is the focus of ongoing probes of two garbage haulers following a number of fatal accidents caused by garbage trucks either losing tires or crashing into people. Joe Gallo, former Gambino consiglieri  New York City's Business Integrity Commission (BIC), which licenses and regulates private sanitation companies, is investigating New Jersey-based Century Waste Services, which was once linked to an associate of the Gambino crime family. The Port Authority of New York & New Jersey also is investigating Century Waste Services to learn how it scored $2.7 million in contracts since 2014. Century Waste’s headquarters are located in Elizabeth, New Jersey, on property owned by Frank Savino, the father of the current owner of Century, raising questions about to what extent Frank Savino may be involved in an industry that BIC expressly barred him from in 1998 as part of a plea agreement with the Manhattan district attorney. S...

"I’m like an old-time general. They’d better give me some stars.” -- Giuseppe (Joey the Clown) Lombardo, caught on wiretap The Clown He was The Clown, but he was an intelligent clown who read the Wall Street Journal. (FBI agents who knew Joey the Clown Lombardo were amazed by his business and financial acumen.) He also embodied such an extreme paradoxical nature, he almost shouldn't have existed. “[H]e was no clown; he was a deadly killer,” Bill Roemer, the late FBI Outfit investigator, once wrote. “I believe he filled up a cemetery or two," Michael Corbitt, the former corrupt police chief, now deceased, who spilled secrets in a best-selling book once said of Lombardo. Some in law enforcement even found positive feedback to offer. "It’s kind of refreshing to have people like Joey Lombardo out there,” Peter Wacks, a former FBI agent who once helped put Lombardo away said when the mobster lammed it for the family Secrets case. "There are...

They ditched the 1973 brown Ford in a Pontiac dealership near Route 83 after committing the heinous deed on September 27, 1974. Outfit "work" car found in 1974 They transferred certain items into a second vehicle, a blue Dodge Challenger, and took off in the Challenger. The Ford LTD left behind was a "true mob work car," according to investigators. It had been modified to have heavy shocks and a boosted motor (to allow for greater air intake). On the dashboard were black boxes with switches that enabled the occupants to disable the car’s tail and brake lights, allowing the automobile to prowl the night with stealth. The rear license plate was held in a hinged bracket that tilted forward, allowing for a quick plate change, if required. The vehicle had a siren, police scanner, and a red emergency light that could be placed on the dashboard to make the car resemble an unmarked police car. Within the vehicle, investigators found ski masks that were apparentl...

Dana Cutolo, daughter of William (Wild Bill) Cutolo, a longtime Colombo gangster, has come far in life in a short time period. Bill Cutolo, with a young Dana, and her mom. ( Wild Bill had two families.  That's not exclusive to wiseguys: I have an uncle who had three .)  Two years ago, she mixed cocktails at an outerborough country club. Today, she's a successful ethnobotanist and herbalist who started her own company, NY'ALA , which offers a natural sustainable skincare line (see the company website at www.Ny-Ala.com ). Just this year, she relocated from Staten Island to Hawaii. But back in 1999, she was a little girl whose daddy didn't come home one day... Her father was underboss of the Colombo crime family . And in 1999, he drove to a garage in Brooklyn, lost an FBI tail, and quite simply vanished. Pretty quickly it was clear that Wild Bill had been murdered. His Colombo "cohorts" didn't exactly hide their bad intentions. Jackie DeRo...

Genovese associate Salvatore (Fat Sal) Delligatti was sentenced to 25 years in prison yesterday (August 16) for conspiring to murder Joseph Bonelli, another wiseguy in the Genovese crime family, among other crimes. Salvatore Delligatti Specifically, Delligatti, 42, was convicted for racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder in aid of racketeering, murder-for-hire conspiracy, participation in an illegal gambling operation, and a firearms offense. He was convicted by a jury following a three-week trial this past March. He was sentenced in Manhattan federal court by U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest. Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the sentence yesterday. Delligatti was on the Fed's radar as an associate of the Genovese crime family  in 2010 and earned by participating in extortion and illegal gambling rackets, according to the Feds. In May and June 2014, De...

A Brooklyn federal court judge yesterday (August 15) sentenced acting Bonanno capo Ronald Giallanzo to 14 years behind bars for running a loansharking operation that she said terrorized a Queens neighborhood for nearly 20 years. A cting Bonanno capo Ronald Giallanzo Giallanzo, whose uncle is Bonanno mobster Vincent Asaro, and nine other Bonanno members and associates were arrested last year on a broad swath of criminal charges, including racketeering, kidnapping, robbery, and attempted murder in Brooklyn federal court. Ronnie G pleaded guilty in March to running the loansharking ring and was ordered to forfeit his $1.25 million mansion on 86th Street in Howard Beach, which he "built with his ill-gotten gains." On top of that, he still owes $268,000 in restitution to five loansharking victims. Prosecutors said the 48-year-old acting capo ran gambling and extortion rackets in Howard Beach since 1998. As per the indictment, Giallanzo and an associate o...