Cosa Nostra News

For one brief moment in 1996, it seemed he was back.....The coiffure, the swagger, the scowl, the air of menace, threats, and schemes. The wit, the philosophizing....But John Gotti had been sitting in a 7-by-8-foot cell in the maximum security wing of the Federal Penitentiary in Marion, Ill., serving a life sentence for murder and racketeering since 1992. (He died serving that sentence in 2002.) Armand Assante last weekend in Atlantic City. Photo by Barry Brown. Armand Assante didn't so much play John Gotti in the two-hour HBO movie Gotti (which was based on  Gotti: Rise and Fall by Jerry Capeci and Gene Mustain, plus FBI tapes and court transcripts) as serve as a vessel for the mobster's reincarnation. Assante achieved something remarkable  in the movie (and his portrayal certainly bested John Travolta's more recent attempt, in our book anyways).  ''I did a tremendous amount of homework.'' Assante said of his preparation for the role in an interview with th

" Johnny Alite went to jail. In jail he met people from Philadelphia and Atlantic City. He (wound) up hanging out with the New Jersey mob, then came to Florida. He stole all these businesses from every person. You think he would give me a penny? He didn't give me a quarter; not a penny, not one red cent. Not one red cent did I get. And I swear that on my other arm, that I should lose the use of it. Not one red cent ..."--from the 2006 opening statement of Gambino capo Ronnie One-Arm Trucchio on trial in Miami for racketeering and extortion.... In 2015, Gotti's Rules, written by George Anastasia, hit bookstores to tell the inside story of Gambino enforcer John Alite, who was once a close associate of John (Junior) Gotti, who he later testified against. Now, Mafia International lets John Alite tell his story in his own words. (It is not a comprehensive autobiography however.) Since Gotti's Rules , John Alite has been a steady presence on the blogosphere. Using socia

The Cutolo family (specifically, the family of Billy Cutolo, Wild Bill's son) will appear tonight on MTV's Families of the Mafia (see trailer below), which details the stories of "five notorious Mafia-tied families as they continue to navigate away from the underlying life of organized crime that still haunts them to this day." Billy Cutolo, Senior left, Junior Five because New York has Five Families? Though the members of the five families on this reality TV show — rather than continuing to profit off a criminal lifestyle invented by Sicilian bandits possibly in the 19th century —a re seeking to depart organized crime — presumably to join the world most of us inhabit, the one filled with legitimate, tax-paying suckers.   Cutolo—like former Gambino underboss Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano —is a legitimate former inhabitant of the world of organized crime in New York City  ( and from when it counted, in the heady, deadlier days of the 1980s and 1990s ).... Aside

The Sicilian Mafia a.k.a. La Cosa Nostra originated in the 19th century, in Sicily, Italy. But that’s not the extent of the Mafia’s influence. Perhaps their greatest impact was felt in the USA, with mob families running the East Coast, the Midwest, and the West Coast. Their reign was brutal particularly during the 1920s and 1930s in the USA, but it didn’t end there. Italian mobsters ruled the roost with an iron fist. The Mafia hierarchy is quite something, and includes at the lowest level the associates. Above them are the soldiers who work for the Caporegime. Their boss is known as the Underboss who in turn works for the Big Boss who is advised by the Consigliere. Source: Pixabay No Attribution Required The Sicilian Mafia a.k.a. La Cosa Nostra originated in the 19th century, in Sicily, Italy. But that’s not the extent of the Mafia’s influence. Perhaps their greatest impact was felt in the USA, with mob families running the East Coast, the Midwest, and the West Coast. Their reign was

EXPANDED The relationship between Gambino wiseguys in New York and members of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra is healthier than ever, Italian investigators announced earlier this week following a series of raids in the Sicilian hinterland that netted 11 Mafia members, who allegedly had been working very closely with the New York-based Gambino family. A joint Italian-FBI operation in 2019 focused on the Inzerillos and the Gambinos. “The connection is very much alive — the New York Mafia still takes pride in its cultural roots in Sicily while ties to the US are a strong point for the Sicilians,” General Arturo Guarino, the Palermo Carabinieri commander, said. Members of the Gambino family and members of the Sicilian Inzerillo clan, which was nearly exterminated in the 1980s during a bloody Mafia war , have had longtime historical ties. This week's arrests centered on Mafia members based in the town of Torretta, which is outside Palermo . Italian police have not released much by way of detai

UPDATED   One evening in December 1989, Gambino boss John Gotti and underboss Frank Locascio discussed murdering a troublesome Gambino underling who had failed to show up at a family meeting. Gotti, none too pleased, called out the name of the underling, “Louie DiBono" and added: "You know why he’s dying? He’s gonna die because he refused to come in when I called. He didn’t do nothing else wrong.” Recent pic of Frank Locascio, middle. Locascio replied by offering the then Gambino boss a prediction.  The very next day, DiBono would hand Gotti a fat stack of greenbacks to compensate for things, Locascio said. "But I wouldn’t take nothin',” Gotti replied, then used colorful language to highlight that DiBono was not long for this world. The taped conversation about DiBono, plus Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano's testimony (presented via this ongoing series) were enough to convict Locascio of conspiring to murder DiBono, who met a violent end in a parking garage ab