Cosa Nostra News

"John Gotti (went around in) a suit telling everybody he’s the boss. Our guys (in the Genovese family) had mothball holes in their sweaters, but they had $50 million in cash in their apartment." —Michael Visconti, ex-Genovese family associate "Angelo Prisco's mentor was Mario Gigante. (Prisco) was a very strong guy. He ran the Purple Gang along with Danny Leo in Harlem , and they came up through the ranks together." Michael Visconti enters court in 2006. Credit: RecordOnline . The violent East Harlem-based Purple Gang reportedly boasted more than 100 members in the 1970s and was known for committing crimes ranging from narcotics and firearms trafficking to whacking and dismembering people, many of them informants for law enforcement. Members of the organization, who reportedly spent their youths running errands for local drug dealers, were linked to the Bonanno, Luchese, and Genovese families.  By the 1980s, the Purple Gang started to fade as members were incr

By Nick Christophers The iconic 1993 mob film " A Bronx Tale ," based on Chazz Palminteri's autobiographical one-man show, tells the story of young Calogero (played by a pre-felonious Lillo Brancato ; more on him here ), who rejects the working class values of his loving father (Robert De Niro, who also directed) while falling in with Sonny, the local mob boss (Palminteri) who rules his piece of the New York borough from beneath a lamppost at the corner of Belmont Avenue and 187th Street. Pauly DiSalvo family with Chazz Palminteri and Sophia Milos. A Bronx Tale -- this year marks the film's  30th anniversary -- t ransformed Palminteri into one of Hollywood’s top go-to tough guys. And while the film was generally praised by critics and beloved by audiences, it didn't break any box office records and wound up stalling De Niro's directing career for over a decade. Nevertheless, A Bronx Tale is a  fan favorite that more than earned a place in the hall of fame of