Scarpa Ruling

By Ed Scarpo
























































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Wiseguys Should NEVER Keep Written Records

By Ed Scarpo
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Whatever the short-term benefits, wiseguys take critical risks whenever they commit certain information to paper. (Sounds obvious — yet if it went without saying, there’d be nothing to write here.)



Take what happened to Mike (The Butcher) Virtuoso, a reputed Bonanno family soldier and the owner of Graham Avenue Meats & Deli in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Federal prosecutors alleged that he operated a loanshark racket out of his deli, where he also prepared hero sandwiches and Italian specialties that won accolades from local foodies. (The Serious Eats blog, for one, noted “all Italian deli sandwiches should aspire to be” like the heroes prepared there.)





Virtuoso apparently never met a name, nickname, or phone number that he didn’t write down. The Bonanno wiseguy kept such a comprehensive file that FBI agents described the haul as a gold mine when they stumbled upon the Rolodexes and address books in which meticulously detailed contact information was listed for “members and associate…
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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.


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 Jerry Capeci broke the news about Peter Pasta's mob status, reporting:

Today, like the…
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Former Mafia Capo Dominick Cicale Answers Your Questions

By Ed Scarpo
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DOMINICK CICALE, A FORMER CAPO IN THE BONANNO CRIME FAMILY, ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS  In 1999, Bronx-based Dominick Cicale finished his second years-long bit and hooked up with Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano, then an up-and-coming member of the Bronx faction of the Bonanno crime family.

Initially he'd been closely affiliated with "Big Ernie" in the Genovese family.


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One Foot In The Grave: Reputed Outfit Member Must Be Half-Dead For Fed's Not To Object To Sentencing Delay

By Ed Scarpo
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John (Pudgy) Matassa Jr., a reputed longtime Chicago Outfit member and former union boss, will ask a federal judge today to delay his upcoming sentencing for embezzlement because of serious medical problems -- and prosecutors apparently have no problem with that.




Matassa Jr., 67, pleaded guilty in February to a scam to fraudulently qualify for early retirement benefits.

Matassa was to be sentenced on May 22, but a visit to his cardiologist and then a heart surgeon are on track to interrupt the plan. The man suffers from "coronary artery disease, hypertension, diabetes, sleep apnea, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease," according to a filing.

Prosecutors don't oppose the delay in Matassa's sentencing. In the government's sentencing memorandum filed yesterday, prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly to sentence Matassa to between 27 and 33 months imprisonment -- and also acknowledged "that it would be appropriate for the Court to consider …
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Who Beat Whitey Bulger To Death At Hazelton Prison Last October? Update On The Grizzly Slaying

By Ed Scarpo
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 FINAL
One of the most notorious gangster/snitches of the 20th century, James (Whitey) Bulger, who was found beaten to death inside a West Virginia prison last October, no longer wanted to live -- and that is what led to his doomed transfer from a Florida "safe haven."



And that's basically all there is to it, says Charles Lockett, the Florida penitentiary’s former warden, who retired in December. That's according to a recent interview with NBC News.

We can add tidbits from that interview to the vast repository of knowledge about Whitey Bulger's murder that's been accumulating since the October 30 event. We also can add Bulger's death certificate, which was recently made public -- and which disagrees with what the medical examiner reported. What else did we recently learn? At least one of the three key suspects remains in solitary confinement.

But six months into the murder, and much remains unknown. Federal officials still haven't charged anyone, even…
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“Jimmy Balls” Got Nabbed For 2017 Home Invasion Of Real Housewives Star -- And Had New York Mafia Ties

By Ed Scarpo
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A career criminal with ties to New York-based organized crime was arrested yesterday (Friday, May 3) at his New Jersey home for a violent 2017 home invasion that involved a baseball bat and a foxy reality television star.



The Holmdel and Bayonne Police Departments, with the U.S. Marshals Service, yesterday morning arrested James (Jimmy Balls) Mainello, 51, without incident (PDF of criminal complaint), naming him as one of two suspects being sought for committing the violent home invasion robbery of David Cantin and fiance Claudine “Dina” Manzo, an actress on The Real Housewives of New Jersey.

The robbery happened on a May night in 2017. Two home invaders -- one was described as "an Italian guy with a North Jersey accent" -- broke into and hid inside the then-engaged couple's North Jersey townhouse (with a baseball bat) and waited. Manzo, then 46, and Cantin, then 37, walked in and the thugs brutally set on them, beating, restraining, and robbing the pair, and reportedly …
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Long Island Town Gets Federal Subpoena Reportedly Targeting Genovese Mobsters

By Ed Scarpo
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UPDATED
The FBI apparently is probing Oyster Bay, Long Island, for Genovese crime family activity.



A Federal subpoena seeking records related to alleged members of the Genovese crime family was sent to Oyster Bay Town Hall on Monday, Newsday is reporting.

The request was “very broad” and asked for “any records” of the people named. (Newsday didn’t print any of the requested names. No information regarding what specifically is being investigated is available.)
“Names that they’ve asked us about seem to tie into the Genovese crime family,” Deputy Town Supervisor Gregory Carman Jr. told Newsday. He added: “There are no members of the Genovese crime family that I know of that work for the town.” 
Two plainclothes FBI agents reportedly took a trip to Town Hall shortly before noon yesterday, staying for all of 10 minutes. Upon departing Town Hall, one of them flashed his FBI identification in response to a reporter’s inquiry. The reporter, presumably, was a Newsday reporter. The agent also …
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