Cosa Nostra News

When Bronx-based Luchese associate Michael Meldish was shot to death in front of his home on November 15, 2013, at the age of 62, he was suspected of running a protection racket in the Edenwald area of the north Bronx. Meldish's boots were still outside the door to his apartment days after he was killed. As per early reports, initial law enforcement suspicion was centered on that racket as a possible cause of the shooting. Meldish, however, was known to have had a steady supply of enemies going back decades. He'd been arrested five times in the 1970s on various charges including assault and weapons possession, and he had other convictions throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He was suspected of committing as many as 10 murders as well. Meldish lived on 2nd Avenue near 111th Street in East Harlem. According to neighbors, he lived alone, was occasionally visited by a son and grandson, and was considered affable by many who knew him in the neighborhood. One neighbor claimed

Gotti's Boys: The Mafia Crew That Killed for John Gotti is the latest from Anthony M. DeStefano. Gotti's Boys: The Mafia Crew That Killed for John Gotti  is the latest from Anthony M. DeStefano, the prolific Pulitzer Prize-winning journo. The book tells the story of John Gotti's inner circle: the men who helped the former Gambino boss rise to power. As per its Amazon pre-order page : "They called him “The Teflon Don.” But in his short reign as the head of the Gambino crime family, John Gotti wracked up a lifetime of charges from gambling, extortion, and tax evasion to racketeering, conspiracy, and five convictions of murder. He didn’t do it alone. Surrounding himself with a rogues gallery of contract killers, fixers, and enforcers, he built one of the richest, most powerful crime empires in modern history. Who were these men? Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anthony M. DeStefano takes you inside Gotti’s inner circle to reveal the dark hearts and violent dee

Before the bloody 1985 coup, John Gotti was capo at the Queens-based Bergin Hunt and Fish Club, where he'd run sitdowns. One sitdown was triggered when Bronx-based members of a crime family visited the wife of a wiseguy at home when the wiseguy was in prison for drug charges. Somehow it involved the Gambinos. “I wish it was me,” Gotti told them, apparently identifying with whoever was being detained. “You would never be safe if you stopped and spoke to my wife while I was locked up.” “You tell your skipper I said, ‘You ever go to a guy’s house while he is in jail, I’ll kill you.’" In the summer of 2009, Anthony Seccafico's wife had just given birth to twins. Seccafico, a construction worker and member of Local 79 of the Construction and General Building Laborers’ Union, commuted to Manhattan from his Staten Island home during the week. So as he did every week day, at around 4:30 a.m. on July 02, 2009, he stood at a deserted Staten Island bus stop

UPDATED Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso should've been made years earlier than he was. It was a prison sentence for murder that delayed his induction into the Bonanno crime family. Vinny Gorgeous tells Anthony Donato what's what as Dom Cicale seems to spot surveillance activity. In 1984, Mikey Nose left his mortally wounded wife Evelina on a bench outside Jacobi Hospital in the Bronx. (Early reports noted that there had been two bullets in her head.) Mancuso had pleaded guilty to manslaughter and served 10 years in state prison. His induction into the Mafia was delayed because he had to serve that sentence, informants told the FBI. Mancuso was named acting boss in November 2004, making him the third acting Bonanno boss since Joseph Massino was arrested in 2002. Mancuso was also the fifth consecutive boss or acting boss of the Bonanno crime family to be convicted of a violent crime (the previous four were Anthony Spero, Massino, Anthony Urso, and Vincent Basciano).

Additional videos added below This is part one of an exclusive interview with Colombo capo John "Sonny" Franzese and longtime friend Gregory Vita. John (Sonny) Franzese is 101 years old. He’s spent 40 of the past 50 years in prison. In February of 2017, Sonny turned 100 years old. A few months later, the prison commission approved his request for parole. On June 23, Franzese was released again. Sonny Franzese's longtime friend -- for 40 years -- Gregory Vita, in video below, explains how Sonny's early release was likely due to clemency from President Obama and he has letters supporting the claim. Vita has been caring for Franzese since Sonny’s release in 2017. Convicted of his own crimes and betrayed by family, Greg sits down with Sonny to discuss how they believe Obama's intervention led to Sonny’s early release. According to law enforcement, Sonny still occupies a high position in the Colombo family. According to his relatives (inclu

This Christmas should be merrier than usual for reputed Bonanno crime family boss Michael (The Nose) Mancuso , who moved into a halfway house in Brooklyn earlier this year. Back in the Purple Gang's day....Angelo Prisco, left, Michael Meldish, right. Mancuso had it in for Michael Meldish, but then so did lots of people. Mancuso is now less than three months away from his March 12 release date from Brooklyn's RRM , or Residential Reentry Management field office. Mancuso was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the December 1, 2004, murder of Bonanno associate Randolph Pizzolo, whose bullet-riddled body was found face down in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn. Mancuso was lucky: he had faced life in prison under the original indictment, but following his plea deal, Judge Nicholas Garaufis had to max out the sentence at 15 years. (Originally, the Pizzolo murder almost marked Mancuso's end as he and former Bonanno acting boss Vincent Basciano were both declared to be

EXPANDED MTV, whose sister network VH1 gave us the reality show Mob Wives (which fueled millions of hits on this blog), is now training the spotlight on a younger generation of mob offspring, with the new series Made in Staten Island , which has among its trio of producers Mob Wives star Karen Gravano. Gravano, daughter of former Gambino crime family underboss Sammy (The Bull) Gravano , is also the mother of Made in Staten Island star Karina. The show debuts January 14, and as AM New York notes, "it’ll most likely bring a flood of renewed attention to the borough along with it: buzz from those who love to watch, those who hate to watch and those who just can’t seem to look away. "The “forgotten borough” knows this rhythm well." “Made in Staten Island” follows a group of young Staten Islanders who "work to step out from the shadows of the once mob-driven island. These friends will either choose wisely or fall prey to the mistakes of past generation