Scarpa Ruling

By Ed Scarpo
























































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Hoodwinked: Restaurateur on Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares Was a Mobster

By Ed Scarpo
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Peter (Peter Pasta) Pellegrino, formerly of the Babylon, New York restaurant Peter’s Italian Restaurant, really is -- or was -- a gangster. Gordon gives a pep talk. Peter is ready for action..... The once-promising Bonanno crime family member who appeared in Kitchen Nightmares now calls himself a brokester . And the Bonanno crime family, with which he was once affiliated has disowned him. So has the rest of New York's Cosa Nostra, according to FBI documents and Peter Pasta himself. But before all that he appeared on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares in which he acted very much like the mobster he allegedly was trying to become around the time of filming. (See Peter's Italian Restaurant menu here .) Back then Peter Pasta was an up-and-coming Bonanno associate who "earned" $15 grand a week from bookmaking. At the time, he also owned two boats that he'd park in a pricey nearby Babylon harbor called Great South Bay. Gang Land News's Je
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Getaway From Sparks Steakhouse: 1992 Testimony of Former Underboss Sammy The Bull Gravano Part 7

By Ed Scarpo
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In testimony at the 1992 trial, Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano details how he and John Gotti sat in a car and from a block away watched as Paul Castellano and Tommy Bilotti were shot to death in front of Sparks Steakhouse.  From left: Jackie D'Amico, Joe "The German" Watts, John Gotti, and Sammy the Bull. Gravano said that, on the evening of December 16, 1985, he and Gotti drove to East 46th Street and parked within sight of Spark's Steakhouse after deploying an eight-man hit team (four primary shooters and four backup shooters). Castellano and driver Thomas Bilotti actually pulled up next to Gotti's car at a light, but did not notice Gotti and Gravano. Bilotti then parked in front of the restaurant. And the gunmen ran over to the Lincoln. When it was done (at around 5:26 p.m.), the gunmen disappeared into the crowd, and Gotti and Gravano slowly drove past the scene. "I looked at Tommy on the floor," Gravano said. "I told Johnny they were gone.&
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Paulie Walnuts' Colombo Crime Family Ties

By Ed Scarpo
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Tony Sirico, who played Paulie "Walnuts" Gaultieri on HBO's The Sopranos , was dragged into the media spotlight, his mob past highlighted thanks to a crime docudrama that pops up every few months. His inclusion in the show centers on his involvement as a “witness” in the murder of a 1970s B-movie actress. (Not suspect . See the difference?) Who doesn't know about Sirico's mob-related past by now? Tony Sirico -- aka Paulie Walnuts.... Sirico was born Genaro Anthony Sirico Jr. in 1942 in Brooklyn, New York. He has played gangsters in numerous films, some poorly made, some pretty decent, including Fingers (probably his earliest mob film worth watching), Goodfellas , Innocent Blood , Bullets Over Broadway , Mighty Aphrodite, Gotti , Cop Land, and Mickey Blue Eyes . Before turning to acting, Sirico was reportedly an associate of the Colombo crime family serving under Carmine "Junior" Persico -- and was arrested an amazing 28 times, according
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Broken Tooth And The Story of Organized Crime Across Hong Kong

By Ed Scarpo
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This story touches on a topic somewhat tangential to Italian-American organized crime, but, hey, man does not live on bread alone. (In other words, expand your horizons, whydontcha?)... We will post the next part of the Gravano Testimony Series shortly.... T hings are not going too well in Hong Kong these days. The former British colony, long admired as a bustling free-market city-state, is facing the wrath of China. Agitations against the imposition of Chinese law have triggered fierce protests and police crackdowns.   Broken Tooth Koi   But it was not just the police who were beating up students and democratic protestors in the city. Mobs of masked men in t-shirts were seen rampaging with relative impunity. They were identified as members of the infamous 14K triad – a major organized crime group based in Hong Kong. Why would a criminal group involved in everything from drug trafficking to prostitution and smuggling support China, a country known for executing criminals who precisely
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