Cosa Nostra News

By Nick Christophers The three granddaughters of Al Capone are setting up an auction to sell off a few gems he left behind. There is a gun which he favored and even letters he personally wrote to his son. These rare finds include a hefty price tag. Witherell, which is based in Sacramento, California, will hold a live auction on October 8. This will of course draw the wealthy collectors worldwide to get their hands-on rare items of the infamous mob boss. One of the more sought-after items surely will be his favorite gun which was a Colt .45 bidding for around fifty-thousand dollars. The rare collection has been tagged “A Century of Notoriety: The Estate of Al Capone”. Also, on the table is a platinum Patek Philippe pocket watch with 90 single-cut diamonds emblazoned on it that will go for $12,500 and a pocket knife also with diamonds fetching close to $2,000. There are least 174 items due to be auctioned. Some of the items will also come from his last residence in Miami, Florida where

EXPANDED Just about every wiseguy who ever lived, no matter how smart he is—no matter how low he holds his head—sooner or later will find himself in a prison cell. The only mystery is the duration of the sentence (which, depending on the content of the indictment, could be a couple of years or decades—or centuries).  Freddy (right), Ty (center), Arillotta (second from left). Spending time in the can is as much a certainty for wiseguys as death and taxes are for the rest of us. Case in point: even the  recently departed Gambino capo Anthony Scotto , who died at age 87 earlier this month, eventually went to the clink... Scotto was a powerful figure in the Mafia whose story heralds an earlier era of America's Cosa Nostra, when mobsters could discreetly rise high in big business. Scotto (pronounced SKOE-toe) was 29 years old when he became president of the Brooklyn-based Local 1814 of the International Longshoremen’s Association in 1963, succeeding his father-in-law, Anthony Anastasio,

Carmine J. Persico Jr., the legendary boss of the Colombo crime family who clung to power for decades from prison, including during a years-long mob war launched to oust him, was a top echelon FBI informant all along—if we are to believe a recent Daily News report that lifts the allegation from a decades old government document that was included in a recent compassionate release filing for Persico's chief rival during the Colombo war. Junior Persico died in prison in 2019. The document, from November 1971, mentions the FBI's Top Echelon Informant Program and lists four turncoat members of the Colombo crime family. One of the four is longtime Colombo boss Carmine Persico, according to  Daily News reporting by Larry McShane and Stephen Rex Brown . “The official boss of the Colombo family, on whose side (Greg) Scarpa (the Colombo capo/FBI informant) and (Roy Lindley) DeVecchio (Scarpa's FBI handler) were working, Carmine Persico, was himself, since decades earlier, in the gove

Media reports recently surfaced showing that a mob-connected bookie allegedly cheated top PGA Tour golfer  Phil Mickelson  of  $500,000. These reports were backed by federal court records. Phil Mickelson This allegation which has so far remained unreported, links the golfer with “Dandy” Don DeSeranno, one of the biggest gamblers in the history of Detroit. DeSeranno used to handle bets for high rollers in a Las Vegas casino from 1994 to 2002. What We Know So Far According to the court records obtained, DeSeranno’s link with Mickelson was revealed when he was cross-examined during Jack Giacalone’s racketeering trial of 2007. Giacalone was a well-known leader of organized crime in Detroit at the time, and DeSeranno had received federal immunity to testify as a government witness against him. Neil Fink, the legal representative of Giacalone, brought up DeSeranno’s connection with Mickelson during the cross-examination to destroy the bookie’s credibility. Initially, DeSeranno pretended that

Manhattan Federal Judge Colleen McMahon made no bones about it earlier this month when she told Gambino wiseguy Thomas (Huck) Carbonaro, in so many words, where he could put his compassionate release motion.  From left, Huck Carbonaro, Frank Fappiano, Joey D'Angelo, Edward Garafola Carbonaro’s projected release was and remains March 2063. Carbonaro, 73, had been seeking to get out of stir for myriad reasons, including COVID-19 and the poor health and multiple ailments allegedly bedeviling him. Huck also claimed he is a changed man who deserves a break. Huck’s lawyers sought to get Carbonaro’s sentence reduced to 25 years—or to a period of time that the court found “just, fair (and) appropriate”—and that was less than the 70-something years he was sentenced to for participating in several gangland hits. Judge McMahon, in her written reply, said that she saw no reason to intervene in the case. Despite his lawyers’ assertions about health problems, Huck was getting adequate medical ca

Guest contributor Nick Christophers is de facto entertainment editor.  We've known him forever and he is the only person we know who is possibly more interested in the mob than we are. He also has lots more mob books than us.  Armand Assante Nick, who recently gave a presentation on the history of the Greek mob in America for the Mob Museum and who has written a book with former Gambino associate John Alite, recently covered the Mob Movie Con show f or us.  Nick's latest is an interview with Armand Assante.... By Nick Christophers It was with a great honor to have a sit-down with multi award-winning actor Armand Assante . A man who has an acting career that has spanned four decades and is still plugging along. Most may not know that Armand was at first a theatre actor and started to get his feet wet in the 1970’s. One of his many stage roles written by Tennessee Williams was in a play called “Cat on The Hot Roof”. It was a remake of the original from 1955 play. Williams wanted