Cosa Nostra News

T rue crime Mafia shows on mainstream TV usually focus on the same handful of figures: John Gotti, Al Capone, etc..... Recently we realized some could construe that we've also been focusing on mobsters with mainstream appeal, with tons of blog space devoted to two of the most high-profile mobsters in US history: John Gotti and Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano. Our coverage included publishing transcripts related to the former Gambino boss and underboss.  Albert (Chinky) Facchiano As we've previously noted (somewhere), our motive is only to publish historical information that previously wasn't accessible online. Nevertheless, we decided to balance the scales somewhat by focusing on the following unknown wiseguy.... Before we leave the topic, the two series: 1992 Testimony of Gambino Underboss Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano The Ravenite Transcripts: John Gotti's Secret Meetings In Mrs. Cirelli's Apartment Real-deal wiseguys are ready to kill for their mob family...

Was Russell Bufalino ever the boss of the Genovese family in a temporary fashion, we were recently asked via email. The following is our answer ... Russell Bufalino By 1975, Russell Bufalino —the soft-spoken, eight-fingered Sicilian with the lazy eye who was called “McGee” by his closest associates —was at the height of his power in the American Cosa Nostra. According to law enforcement and journalist sources, at around this time he was at the helm of no less than three crime families: In addition to his own crime family in Pittston, Pennsylvania, he had assumed control of (as well as absorbed) the Buffalo crime family after the July 1974 death of longtime boss Stefano Magaddino . Bufalino also reportedly had assumed temporary control of New York’s Genovese family, sometime after the July 1972 murder of front boss Thomas (Tommy Ryan Eboli) and before Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno took over. Bufalino may have been arguably one of the most powerful mobsters in the nation in t...

Even though Joseph (Joe Cago) Valachi was made during the 1930-31 fighting of the Castellammarese War, his initiation ceremony seemingly was a warm and fuzzy affair that commenced only after the men in attendance had chowed down on home-cooked macaroni and drank red wine. Anthony (Bingy) Arillotta Valachi chronicled getting his button--in what is generally considered a “classic” initiation ritual--among a great many other  things in his bloated  autobiography The Real Deal , which can be viewed on Thomas Hunt's American Mafia website . Genovese turncoats and the Mafia's most solemn ceremony, the induction of new members, is the focus. As noted in a previous story on Anthony (Bingy) Arillotta, former boss of the Genovese crime family's Springfield crew, this month's GQ in the U.K. includes a cover story on the American Mafia in which Arillotta details his induction ceremony, during which he'd been asked to strip naked. Anthony Arillotta was the fourth ...

In 1961, from a telephone booth at Providence Hospital, a Roman Catholic nun dropped the proverbial dime on Francesco "Skyball" Scibelli, then a young hoodlum whom she apparently earmarked for redemption, at least so it seems, based on the good sister's actions. The more immediate prompt for the call was that the nun knew that Scibelli was running an illegal gambling ring. "Skyball" Scibelli  Apparently, divine intervention and the related jail time weren’t enough to dissuade him from running the rackets for the Genovese crime family in Springfield, Mass. , which included parts of two bordering states as well. Scibelli was a low-profile gangster who ran the Genovese crime family's outpost quietly during a time of relative peace and prosperity, neither of which lasted very long after the old-school Cosa Nostra boss died. Scibelli’s criminal record dates back to 1932. Among the crimes he went to prison for were extortion, illegally selling liquo...

Mob associate Michael (Cookie) Durso flipped against the Genovese crime family and wore a wire hidden within a $3,000 Rolex wristwatch for three years -- all the while recording thousands of hours of "privileged" conversations among high-ranking members of the Genovese crime family. Farby Serpico, former Genovese  acting boss In the end he rode off into the sunset of the Witness Protection Program with wife Vanessa. Financially, the couple was not hurting, either; they were able to bring millions of dollars with them, as  Gangland News  reported  on February 21, 2002. Durso had been meeting with prosecutors to discuss flipping -- due to his longstanding beef over the murder of his cousin, a Genovese crime family loanshark. Durso was to meet with Mark Feldman, the head of the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's Organized Crime unit, and Paul Weinstein, a chief prosecutor, for a third time on June 17, 1998. He couldn't make that meeting, though, as he was ar...