Cosa Nostra News

Investigators mentioned three crime families in filings -- the Gambino, Genovese, and Philadelphia crime families. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board voted unanimously Wednesday (November 28) to reject a hearing examiner's recommendation that state investigators had failed to prove conclusively that Lombardi's owner Michael Giammarino, above, was unfit to work in a casino. Law enforcement officials alleged that the Mafia was attempting to infiltrate Pennsylvania casinos through Lombardi's, which was founded in New York's Little Italy in 1905 and has credible claims to being America's first pizzeria. Giammarino plans to appeal the decision, though he seems to face an uphill battle. "The bottom line is that the investigative and prosecutorial arm of the board failed to establish a single fact which might indicate that Michael Giammarino has done anything wrong in connection with his efforts to establish a Lombardi's at Parx," Giammarino

Carmine Gotti Agnello Jr., a grandson of late Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, copped a plea deal yesterday for running an illegal auto scrapyard in Queens. A Queens criminal court judge reduced the charges to a misdemeanor in exchange for a $1,000 fine and a $4,605 forfeiture. His lawyer Stephen Mahler says Agnello is a legitimate businessman who had simply been caught between licenses. "His license had expired and he’d already been approved for a new one,” Mahler said, adding that his client didn't feel compelled to go to trial to prove that claim. Agnello's license lapsed in December 2016, and he was arrested in July 2018 and arraigned on vehicle-dismantling and falsifying business records charges. Agnello’s business, LSM Auto Parts & Recycling, on Liberty Ave., in Richmond Hill, did not have a license to crush cars, authorities said. The shop crushed about 400 vehicles between Feb. 14 and April 5. Agnello tried to register the business in

Is the oldest pizzeria in America linked to the Mafia? Investigators with a state gaming control board claim Yes, it is... Alleged Genovese capo John Brescio was the public face of Lombardi's. Lombardi’s Pizza was founded in Manhattan’s Little Italy in 1905 and was the place where pizza was created. As per The New York Times, "New York pizza did not exist before 1905, when Gennaro Lombardi, a Neapolitan immigrant, began to sell pies in his grocery store in Little Italy. Lombardi's was by most accounts the first New York pizzeria" ... It touts on its website that it's "(s)till located in the Little Italy section of Manhattan" where it offers "its beautiful, smoky-crusted coal oven baked pizza, topped with San Marzano tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil"... Mafia or no Mafia, let's all meet there and have a slice....  Lombardi's was slated to expand into the Parx Casino in Bensalem, Pa, in time for Christmas 2017. Howev

Two more prison inmates are under investigation for involvement in the vicious prison house slaying of James (Whitey) Bulger on October 30. All four have been in solitary confinement since Bulger’s brutally beaten body was found. The two new suspects are New Yorker Felix Wilson, 26, who shared a cell with Bulger hours before his death, and Sean McKinnon, 32, a Vermont man serving an eight-year hitch for robbing a dozen handguns. Both were identified via some sleuthing by the New York Times. McKinnon shared a cell with Fotios (Freddy) Geas, the Genovese crime family associate serving life for murder who was previously identified by law enforcement as one of two suspects in Bulger’s slaying (which one former federal prosecutor recently chalked up to “bureaucratic buffoonery”). The other suspect is Paul J. DeCologero, a former member of a Boston-based Patriarca crime family crew run by his uncle, Paul A. DeCologero who reportedly once claimed that Whitey Bulger had put out

UPDATE 2 NEW PHOTO BELOW WE HAVE NEW INFO TK TOO Just a few stray thoughts here... First off, if you threaten a guy and set his car on fire, don't do it in front of his security camera, or you might get arrested. And when you're actually lighting that fire, try to avoid setting yourself on fire in the process. Also, don't frequent high-profile mob trials -- but if you do anyway, at least try to avoid getting your photograph taken with the alleged boss of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra... Joseph Merlino and alleged wiseguy Peter Tuccio walk together. That's this week's lesson, as learned by two alleged mobsters with ties to the Gambino crime family -- one of whom, above, doesn't appear old enough to grow facial hair. (Three wiseguys were involved actually; one of them copped out in 2016.) The New York City Fire Department’s Bureau of Fire Investigation also played a role in this case, which makes sense, considering... . A small business o

Genovese wiseguy John Tortora, aka Johnny T -- who was arrested this past August for hiring others to commit   a 21-year-old stabbing murder outside a Yonkers tavern  -- will face new charges in a few days from a superseding indictment. Richard Ortiz was murdered in November 1997 supposedly for stealing from Johnny T's Joker Poker slot machines.... The new charges are for destroying evidence, falsifying records, and obstruction of justice. Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the filing of the new indictment on November 14. Tortora will be arraigned on the new charges this Monday, November 19, before the Honorable Sidney H. Stein at the United States Courthouse in Manhattan. Tortora, 61, was previously indicted on charges related to the brutal stabbing death of Richard Ortiz in November 1997. He was arrested on August 2, 2018, and has remained in custody since that time. Berman said: “As alleg

Jailbird/alleged Bloods gang-banger Herman (Taliban) Blanco has been arrested for participating in last month's gangland shooting of Sylvester (Sally Daz) Zottola at a Bronx McDonald's drive-through, as well as the attempted murder three month's earlier of Sally Daz's son, Salvatore Zottola, Larry McShane of the Daily News reported  yesterday. October murder of Sally Daz Blanco, 33, of the Bronx, was arraigned Friday afternoon in Brooklyn Federal Court, McShane wrote. He's the second alleged member of the Bloods street gang to be arrested in the two Zottola shootings. Bushawn (Shelz) Shelton, 34, was arrested last month for his alleged role. FBI agent Michael Zoufal stated Blanco and Shelton offered to pay a cooperating witness to kill Sylvester Zottola and his son, Salvatore, though the failed attempt to kill Salvatore was "ordered in an effort to "lure out" the father, according to a federal criminal complaint. Sally D

UPDATED WITH PHOTOS Reputed Bloods member Bushawn “Shelz” Shelton was indicted by a grand jury for murder for hire conspiracy and other charges in the October 4 murder of Bonanno crime family associate Sylvester Zottola, 71. Zottola was gunned down in his car, picture below, while waiting at a McDonald's drive through window in the Bronx. An unidentified cooperating witness testified that Shelton had paid him to kill Zottola and Zottola’s son, Salvatore Zottola, 41. The younger Zottola was shot outside his Locust Point home in July, but survived. Law enforcement sources have alleged that the hit was ordered by Albanian mobsters seeking to control Zottola's “Joker Poker” video game racket. One federal prosecutor estimated in court that the video game machines bring in as much as $7,000 a week.  Shelton, 34, a reputed high-ranking member of the Bloods allegedly paid another man to try to kill Sylvester and Salvatore Zottola. He also furnished the cont

We present here a Q&A with Belinda Rossetti, who knew former Bonanno capo Nicky Santora intimately... Joe  Pistone surveillance photograph. Santora, as noted, died recently . And we've written about Belinda previously ... July 26, 1981, was D-Day for Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano, and he probably knew it. He and his crew had learned that a small time burglar and jewelry thief who'd been hanging around with them for years -- Donnie Brasco —a man Napolitano had put up for membership, was actually FBI Agent Joe Pistone. Pistone had fooled them all since 1976. He had popped up in Little Italy one day in New York City as a stranger and outsider, a man claiming to have been an orphan. He started meeting a series of mobsters, gaining their trust by appearing to be a part of their life. All the while he was secretly gathering vital intelligence. Pistone had to be sharper than sharp to do what he'd done for six long years. The most difficult part of his con

A second suspect has emerged in the killing of James (Whitey) Bulger -- Paul J. DeCologero, a member of a violent Patriarca crime family crew in Boston that robbed and kidnapped rivals, and murdered and dismembered a teenage girl. Paul J. DeCologero. More details in the Whitey Bulger murder Tuesday morning at Hazelton federal penitentiary in West Virginia also have come to light -- and Fotios “Freddy” Geas confessed to committing the brutal murder by himself. Law enforcement sources say suspect Paul J. DeCologero also participated in the vicious murder of Whitey Bulger, according to the Boston Globe . DeCologero is serving a 25-year sentence for racketeering and conspiracy. (Some Boston officials believe prison guards allowed the inmates to attack Bulger.) Law enforcement officials “with knowledge of the matter” said that DeCologero and Geas attacked Bulger less than 12 hours after he arrived at the prison. The two men allegedly beat Bulger to death i