Cosa Nostra News

The year 1987 was slightly more than a week old when FBI agents nabbed Nicodemo (Little Nicky) Scarfo as he emerged from a plane at the Atlantic City airport.  None of Chin's plots touched Gambino boss John Gotti. The violent, mercurial Philadelphia boss—he was John Gotti's more murderous precursor—and his girlfriend were returning from Fort Lauderdale, where they had spent the New Year’s holiday. Scarfo, sporting a deep winter tan and perfectly coiffed hair and dressed to the nines in an impeccable suit, looked like a million bucks, almost like an old-school Hollywood star showing up at the Oscars. He smiled and nodded as the agents handcuffed him and walked him to the vehicle that would drive him to his well-deserved fate. The Feds had indicted Scarfo and three others earlier that day on charges of conspiracy to commit extortion in the shakedown of Penn’s Landing, an area along the Delaware River that had been targeted for redevelopment. Penn's Landing was named after th...

An acting boss commands a crime family's captains, while a street boss generally is a capo in direct contact with the boss who passes on the boss's orders to the other captains, as our usually reliable sources tell us. What me worry? Ralph Francis DeLeo, former street boss. A boss would designate an acting or street boss when he is in prison or otherwise unable to command the family on the street. Why a boss would choose one man over another to be acting or street boss would depend on multiple considerations, including the political and the personal. One big consideration for the Colombo family circa 2008 was finding someone who wouldn't try to take over the entire organization, which is why they chose a Boston-based bank robber and convicted murderer. Alphonse (Little Allie Boy) Persico—the son of Carmine Persico, the onetime reputed head of the Colombo crime family who died in 2019 while serving a 100-plus-years prison sentence—was seeking to avoid his father's histo...

Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), aka Joltin’ Joe, the Yankee Clipper, played centerfield for the Yankees, achieved an historic 56-game hitting streak in 1941, and won legendary status. (Decades later, in 1978, he started appearing in Mr. Coffee commercials and helped transform the automatic drip coffeemaker into an iconic household appliance.) Removal of Joe DiMaggio statue from Chicago's Piazza DiMaggio. DiMaggio was born in California, raised in San Francisco, became legendary playing ball in New York, died in Florida, and was memorialized in Chicago courtesy of Piazza DiMaggio , a much-cherished plot of land on Taylor and Bishop Streets in Chicago's Little Italy section that boasted a statue of DiMaggio's likeness.  The Hall's first inductee in 1978, DiMaggio attended the 1991 unveiling ceremony for his statue, which had been sculpted by Ferdinand Rebecchini. Standing more than 11 feet tall, for 20 years, the Joe DiMaggio statue stood ac...

But if they do, they shouldn’t store their guns and ammunition in the bedroom, especially if they are a convicted felon.... David (Chicky) Cecchetelli, 54—reputedly a retired bookmaker associated with the Genovese family’s Springfield crew who was arrested in 2019 with his nephew, a big-shot in the Latin Kings—yesterday  pleaded guilty to one count of being a felon in possession  of ammunition before U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris. Chicky, who was nabbed in a Latin King round-up, isn't a Latin King (source: Twitter ). The judge slated Cecchetelli’s sentencing for March 17, 2022, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts. He faces up to 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a potential $250,000 fine. (See Twitter video of Chicky below.) The trouble came early one morning in December 2019, when over 500 Federal, state, and local law enforcement officers raided the Latin Kings in the Northeast United States,...

The final installment touches on how James (Jimmy Brown) Failla (pronounced FYE-yal-lah) provided the first inkling that John Gotti and the rest of the Gambino family administration were seriously screwed after the Gambino capo told them how, when he went before a grand jury, he was asked if he had ever visited an apartment above the Ravenite. From left: Joe Butch, John Gotti, Jimmy Brown (in June 1984). Jimmy Brown, who died in 1999, was a senior statesman in the Gambino crime family , a powerful capo who for more than 30 years helmed the Association of Trade Waste Removers of Greater New York, the largest private garbage-haulers' trade group in New York City. Law enforcement first noticed the Brooklyn born Failla when he became driver and bodyguard for Carlo Gambino after Gambino took over the crime family following his orchestration of the 1957 murder of his predecessor, Albert Anastasia. Gambino put Failla in charge of the Gambino family's garbage-industry interests, and F...