Cosa Nostra News

A Federal appeals court in Boston yesterday (Friday, September 24) upheld the life sentences of New England Cosa Nostra boss Francis (Cadillac Frank) Salemme and mob associate Paul Weadick for the 1993 murder of Steven DiSarro, a Federal witness whose remains were found in an unmarked grave in Rhode Island in 2016. 1993 surveillance photo, from left: Salemme, Flemmi with back to camera, Frank Jr.  According to Federal prosecutors, Salemme, 88, held a secret interest in a South Boston nightclub  called The Channel, which DiSarro purchased. Salemme had DiSarro killed after he began to believe that the nightclub owner was talking to the FBI and was about to implicate him in criminal activity. The Fed's star witness at Salemme and Weadick's 2018 trial was Stephen (The Rifleman) Flemmi, the longtime partner of Winter Hill boss Whitey Bulger . Flemmi, 84, who is serving a life sentence for 10 murders, testified that he had walked in on the Salemmes, father and son, and Weadick, 66,

Unpretentious, minimalist, and straightforward, is how we'd describe the new podcast series Mob Tales by Nick Christophers, who writes about the mob, including for this blog, and has written several mob-related books. Nick Christophers debuted a new podcast, Mob Tales. We recently caught up with Nick to ask him about the podcast....the (very brief) interview is below. Here's the first episode of Mob Tales:  Rebel Mobster in Detroit And the second: Florida Wiseguys Tell us about your new podcast, Mob Tales... This was an idea from the producer Peter Papageorgiou, and we collaborated with director Sean King, who recently shot the trailer for my film Destinies, which is in pre-production. Mob Tales is different because it is coming from someone like me, who was educated on the street and in school, not just some reporter who never was around these type of guys. And also I will be telling stories that most people don't know about. Especially about the Greek mafia. I will offer

While teams of FBI agents, NYPD detectives, and other law enforcement personnel were moving to arrest the 10 members and associates of New York's youngest and most violent Mafia family (as well as a single Bonanno wiseguy) on September 14 on racketeering, extortion, and other charges related to the infiltration of a Queens-based labor union, the alleged consiglieri of the Colombo family was already in Florida, having departed his Merrick, Long Island, home the day before for a scheduled trip. Gamboling in the Sunshine State? Ralph DiMatteo When the Feds realized that the Colombo family's number three, Ralph DiMatteo, was the only person to successfully evade their dragnet, they declared him a fugitive, according to John Marzulli, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn. Then the fun began, according to Daily News reporting by Larry McShane and Noah Goldberg .  DiMatteo attorney Mathew Mari was negotiating the consiglieri's surrender with the Feds on Tuesday,

UPDATED With the arrests on Tuesday (September 14) of 10 members and associates of the Colombo family for various offenses related to an alleged 20-year effort to loot a Queens-based labor union, the Feds completely beheaded the Colombo crime family, imprisoning the family's official boss, underboss, consiglieri, and a bevy of top capos, one of which is Carmine Persico's nephew/handpicked successor. Andy (Mush) Russo  The 19-count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn Federal court charges a total of 14 defendants, including the 10 members and associates of the Colombo family, and one member of the Bonanno family with various offenses, including labor racketeering, extortion, and money laundering conspiracy. ( A few guys had a good thing going for many years — until 2019, when the bosses moved in and fcked it all up -- eventually bringing in the Feds somehow …) The charges relate to multiple schemes in a long-running effort by the family to infiltrate and control a Queens-based labo

The grand jury indictment unsealed Tuesday charged 14 defendants — including “the entire leadership structure of the Colombo crime family” — with multiple crimes around a scheme that involved the Colombo family's monthly siphoning of around $10,000 from a labor union’s health plan. Bonanno wiseguy John Ragano during previous roundup Charged in the case ( see story here detailing specifics of Tuesday's indictment ) were Colombo street boss Andrew (Mush) Russo, underboss Benjamin (Benji) Castellazzo, consigliere Ralph DiMatteo; captains Theodore Persico, Jr., Richard Ferrara, and Vincent Ricciardo; soldier Michael Uvino and associates Thomas Costa and Domenick Ricciardo. Bonanno family soldier John Ragano also is charged in the case. As for the arraignments Tuesday afternoon ( via Law & Crime ): Costa and Uvino appeared in Federal court with their attorneys and pleaded not guilty. Russo appeared via videoconference from a hospital while under Federal guard. (What was wrong wi

Guest contributor Nick Christophers interviewed actress Sofia Milos, who readers of this blog will remember for her performance on the Sopranos as Camorra boss Annalisa Zucca, one of the few women in David Chase's acclaimed HBO series capable of going toe-to-toe with James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano.  Annalisa meets Tony to discuss a luxury car smuggling operation. Zucca is the acting boss of the Zucca family in Italy in season two's fourth episode, Commendatori . Tony and his crew (well, Christopher and Paulie go with him) are greeted as commendatori upon their arrival in Naples. Paulie Walnuts Gualtieri loves the word so much, he tries to use it throughout their stay, to mixed results. Tony and company head to Italy in order to meet with members of a Camorra family (distantly related to the Sopranos) to set up a car-smuggling operation. But Tony is shocked to discover that Don Vittorio, the boss of the Naples family, has clearly started down the slope of senility (" T

FINAL Just in time for the upcoming debut of the Many Saints of Newark, the theatrical prequel to the Sopranos television series, comes a new book about New Jersey’s only homegrown Mafia family, the DeCavalcantes, which many (including some DeCavalcante wiseguys) believe inspired David Chase’s acclaimed HBO series. Charlie the Hat Stango and son "Whitey." Giovanni’s Ring: My Life Inside the Real Sopranos w as written by Giovanni Rocco (the name is a pseudonym) and Douglas Schofield, a criminal trial lawyer and author. The G-man worked undercover as Giovanni Gatto, a pinky ring-wearing outlaw biker-turned-wannabe wiseguy who cozied up to an assortment of unsavory underworld characters during his three-year infiltration of the New Jersey crime family. During the probe, he made extensive surveillance recordings, including catching on tape a capo ordering the murder of a rival.  By the end of it, 10 mobsters and associates were pinched for multiple crimes in 2015. The key target

Recent news about a purported contract killing reminded us of notorious Colombo capo Greg Scarpa, who was a longtime top-echelon FBI informant as well as a key power in the fight for control of the Colombo family in the early 1990s. Anthony Scarpati, left, and Greg Scarpa. The Colombo family mob war, which left 12 dead on the streets of New York City and many wounded, commenced November 18, 1991, when the first shots were fired. That day Scarpa was pulling out of his driveway while daughter Linda, with her infant son, was behind him in another car also pulling out---when a van and panel truck abruptly blocked them in and several heavily armed men wearing ski masks leaped out and opened fire with automatic weapons. All shots missed their mark (though they did leave a row of holes in Linda's fender). Deeply angered that the gunmen—supporters of acting boss Victor Orena Sr. who were trying to depose imprisoned official boss Carmine Persico—had risked hitting Linda and her son, Scarpa

This installment  delves into more background on the hit on Gambino soldier Louis DiBono, who Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano had an ongoing feud with that predated the Bull's promotion into the Gambino hierarchy. John Gotti (and Sammy Bull) in 1990 after his acquittal on assault charges. Gravano also talks turkey about money. Prosecutor John Gleeson asks how muc h he earned from the construction business and how much he kicked up. Gravano pocketed $100,000 a month ("about a million two a year") of which he kept 20% and “sent 80% up to the boss."  DiBono earned Gotti’s wrath by ignoring his orders to come in. Some wiseguys were appalled that Gotti took out DiBono for missing meetings, believing that the former guy, Paul Castellano, never would've ordered a hit on one of his guys because he had simply missed some meetings. But for Gotti, DiBono had committed a death penalty offense after DiBono stopped showing up to bend the knee. And of course Gravano also had