Cosa Nostra News

Anthony (TG) Graziano -- a longtime member of the Bonanno crime family who served as consigliere and was a capo -- died at age 78 of unreported causes, though he suffered from health ailments including diabetes and bladder cancer. Anthony Graziano and daughter Renee.  Graziano's daughter Renee Graziano, the former Mob Wives star, posted word of his death on her Instagram yesterday (May 25). Part of former Bonanno boss Joseph Massino's inner circle, Graziano was among the trusted aids whom the surveillance-paranoid Massino would travel with on "vacations" to places like Italy and Mexico. Massino held Graziano in strong favor, and (as per sources) gave him advance word regarding the 1981 triple murders of the three "renegade" Bonanno capos, Anthony (Sonny Red) Indelicato, Dominick ( Big Trin) Trinchera, and Phil Giaccone in a Brooklyn nightclub. Under Massino, TG had been given total control of Staten Island for the Bonannos. Graziano ser...

Vincent (Vinny TV) Badalamenti, a former acting boss of the Bonanno crime family, was preferable to Joe C and Porky, one government witness said in testimony yesterday at the rackeering trial of Joe Cammarano and John (Porky) Zancocchio in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. One witness liked it better when Vinny TV was acting boss. The witness recorded audiotape in his pizzeria, which apparently the Joe C regime was jostling to take from him at the time. Still, the witness said that he tried to get along with them, and had even patronized Porky's restaurant, Bella Donna, where made members of the Bonanno crime family congregated on Fridays. "Like at happy hour," Judge Alvin Hellerstein interjected, evoking laughter even from members of the jury. The trial is wrapping up quickly: the government said it might finish presenting its case today, March 6. On Monday, former associate Stephen Sabella testified that Zanco...

UPDATED/APRIL 8: See below... ( Roy Cohn had a different version of events about Trump Tower. Check back for more information...) Despite his polarizing nature, a new Netflix series, Trump: An American Dream , which is available now, reportedly provides a neutral look at Donald Trump, leveraging interviews with those who either love or hate him. Trump with New York City Mayor Ed Koch, and Roy Cohn Filmed and produced by Britain’s Channel 4, Trump: An American Dream focuses on Trump’s life from his 1980s rise to his more recent political aspirations. The series is comprised of four hour-long episodes. (I'm watching episode one, and I find the show quite compelling actually. The 1970-80s news clips alone are dredging up long forgotten memories. Trump has been a years-long research "project" of mine and this series is bringing many things into sharp focus.) It may not do the kind of deep dives into topics as is commonly done in digital journalism, but it...