Cosa Nostra News

The Luchese crime family apparently learned from its past mistakes -- and avoided repeating the stretch of murderous mayhem that happened back in the 1980s-1990s when over a dozen members were killed. From left: Amuso, Vic Orena, Michael Taccetta, Nicky Scarfo Consequently, Brooklyn-based Luchese mobster Michael (Big Mike) DeSantis bloodlessly succeeded Bronx-based (former) powerhouse Matthew (Matty) Madonna as acting boss, precisely as imprisoned-for-life boss Vittorio (Vic) Amuso had directed. Amuso -- who alongside his top lieutenant, Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso, was responsible for that 1980s-90s bloodbath -- had sent a message (via coded letter) from his prison cell to underboss Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea in 2017, as reported by Jerry Capeci on Gang Land News and the New York Post, noting that the news was based on testimony delivered during the racketeering trial of Eugene Boopsie Castelle. (Amuso in turn was responding to a letter that had been sent

How unpopular was the VH1 reality show Mob Wives among New York Mafiosi? Anthony Graziano and Joseph Massino on "vacation." It reportedly almost cost one Gambino associate an eyeball, not to mention life on this earth... In July 2015 at the medium-security federal prison in Fairton, New Jersey, Gambino associate Albert (Albee) Crisci was nearly beaten to death, as Gang Land News revealed a month later. He was hospitalized after the brutal assault administered by a group of inmates in a prison yard blind spot during morning recreation. Crisci, who had once been a DeCavalcante crime family associate, was then associated with Gambino soldier Joseph (Joe Boy) Sclafani (since around 2010). Crisci had played a minor role in Sclafani’s drug ring. (Sclafani had his own links to the show: he was going to marry Ramona Rizzo when he was arrested for drug dealing and sent to prison. Ramona nixed the wedding. Sclafani was serving his sentence at a different prison

Anthony (TG) Graziano -- a longtime member of the Bonanno crime family who served as consigliere and was a capo -- died at age 78 of unreported causes, though he suffered from health ailments including diabetes and bladder cancer. Anthony Graziano and daughter Renee.  Graziano's daughter Renee Graziano, the former Mob Wives star, posted word of his death on her Instagram yesterday (May 25). Part of former Bonanno boss Joseph Massino's inner circle, Graziano was among the trusted aids whom the surveillance-paranoid Massino would travel with on "vacations" to places like Italy and Mexico. Massino held Graziano in strong favor, and (as per sources) gave him advance word regarding the 1981 triple murders of the three "renegade" Bonanno capos, Anthony (Sonny Red) Indelicato, Dominick ( Big Trin) Trinchera, and Phil Giaccone in a Brooklyn nightclub. Under Massino, TG had been given total control of Staten Island for the Bonannos. Graziano ser

Ne wspapers  overseas  report that John Gotti, the former Gambino boss who rose to power following the midtown Manhattan execution of his predecessor in December 1985, played a role in the brutal bombing murders of two Sicilian judges. A Sicilian turncoat pointed the finger at Gotti for ordering a made member of the Gambino crime family -- who was an explosives expert -- to train Sicilian mobsters to use the bombs that killed anti-mafia crusaders Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. The turncoat -- Maurizio Avola, 56, a convicted murderer who flipped in 1994 -- told prosecutors in Caltanissetta, Sicily, that John Gotti had sent the American mobster/explosives expert, who Avola described as “about 40 years old" with brown hair and dark eyes, about six feet tall, with a strong build, and he "dressed very elegantly." Falcone, his wife Francesca Morvillo, and three police officers/bodyguards were killed in Palermo in May 1992 with a bomb comprised of

Final The Bonded Vault Company was a commercial safe-deposit business that occupied a vault inside Hudson Fur Storage in Providence, Rhode Island. It was an unofficial "bank" for members and associates of the Patriarca crime family. Located at 101 Cranston St., the bank consisted of 146 safe-deposit boxes (each of which was 2 feet high, 2 feet wide and 4 feet deep). Patriarca allowed his bookies, associates, and amici to store their valuables there. And they did, putting everything and anything -- cash, guns, gold bars, and jewelry -- in the Patriarca family's "bank." A film dramatizing the story of the infamous Bonded Vault robbery is hitting theaters next month. Partially filmed in Providence, Rhode Island, the film stars Theo Rossi (Marvel’s Luke Cage, Sons Of Anarchy), Clive Standen (Taken, Vikings, Everest), Emmy winner Samira Wiley (Handmaid’s Tale), Oscar nominee Chazz Palminteri as mob boss Raymond Patriarca, and Golden G

Whatever the short-term benefits, wiseguys take critical risks whenever they commit certain information to paper.... Artie Piscano venting about Las Vegas in Casino. Take what happened to Mike (The Butcher) Virtuoso, a reputed Bonanno family soldier and the owner of Graham Avenue Meats & Deli in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Federal prosecutors alleged that he operated a loanshark racket out of his deli, where he also prepared hero sandwiches and Italian specialties that won accolades from local foodies. ( The Serious Eats blog, for one, noted “all Italian deli sandwiches should aspire to be” like the heroes prepared there.) Virtuoso apparently never met a name, nickname, or phone number that he didn’t write down. The Bonanno wiseguy kept such a comprehensive file that FBI agents described the haul as a gold mine when they stumbled upon the Rolodexes and address books in which meticulously detailed contact information was listed for “members and associates of organized

John (Pudgy) Matassa Jr., a reputed longtime Chicago Outfit member and former union boss, will ask a federal judge today to delay his upcoming sentencing for embezzlement because of serious medical problems -- and prosecutors apparently have no problem with that. John Pudgy Matassa Jr. Matassa Jr., 67, pleaded guilty in February to a scam to fraudulently qualify for early retirement benefits. Matassa was to be sentenced on May 22, but a visit to his cardiologist and then a heart surgeon are on track to interrupt the plan. The man suffers from "coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes, sleep apnea, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease," according to a filing. Prosecutors don't oppose the delay in Matassa's sentencing. In the government's sentencing memorandum filed yesterday, prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly to sentence Matassa to between 27 and 33 months imprisonment -- and also acknowledged "that it would be app

UPDATED The FBI apparently is probing Oyster Bay, Long Island, for Genovese crime family activity. A Federal subpoena seeking records related to alleged members of the Genovese crime family was sent to Oyster Bay Town Hall on Monday, Newsday is reporting. The request was “very broad” and asked for “any records” of the people named. (Newsday didn’t print any of the requested names. No information regarding what specifically is being investigated is available.) “Names that they’ve asked us about seem to tie into the Genovese crime family,” Deputy Town Supervisor Gregory Carman Jr. told Newsday. He added: “There are no members of the Genovese crime family that I know of that work for the town.”  Two plainclothes FBI agents reportedly took a trip to Town Hall shortly before noon yesterday, staying for all of 10 minutes. Upon departing Town Hall, one of them flashed his FBI identification in response to a reporter’s inquiry. The reporter, presumably, was a Newsday reporte

 FINAL One of the most notorious gangster/snitches of the 20th century, James (Whitey) Bulger, who was found beaten to death inside a West Virginia prison last October, no longer wanted to live -- and that is what led to his doomed transfer from a Florida "safe haven." And that's basically all there is to it, says Charles Lockett, the Florida penitentiary’s former warden, who retired in December. That's according to a recent  interview with NBC News. We can add tidbits from that interview to the vast repository of knowledge about Whitey Bulger's murder that's been accumulating since the October 30 event. We also can add Bulger's death certificate, which was recently made public -- and which disagrees with what the medical examiner reported. What else did we recently learn? At least one of the three key suspects remains in solitary confinement. But six months into the murder, and much remains unknown. Federal officials still haven't charged