Cosa Nostra News

Bada Bing bada boop The New York Daily News doesn't know a good lede when it sees one... ( With apologies to "Chin" author Larry McShane , who had nothing to do with this Confidential article published today .) The newspaper, in a piece that highlights newly released book  Big Blue Wrecking Crew , notes how the championship-winning 1986 New York Giants played hard but partied even harder. "Drugs, sex and all-night partying were key parts of the game plan for some of the players, according to a new book about Big Blue's run-up to its Super Bowl win," as the New writes.

Tino Fiumara was the major topic of discussion at sealed courtroom proceeding. Anthony "Tony Lodi" Cardinalle,  indicted  in early 2013, was once upon a time one of 30-plus defendants nailed following a multi-year FBI probe into the mob's control of the private sanitation industry in New York and New Jersey. Cardinalle, a longtime Genovese associate, cooperated with the FBI and Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office. He plead guilty to two counts, racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit extortion, and copped to his role in a plot to shakedown a cooperating witness who owned a waste hauling company.

Anthony Nicodemo Predicting the future is a fool's game, especially for blogs and newspapers. Usually, no matter what certain indicators and talking heads say, the forecast ends up wrong -- and the result is a crack in credibility, probably the most valuable intangible in the world (it's up there with loyalty and honor). Just ask the Chicago Tribune , which despite its November 3, 1948 whopper, is still around to answer. So I'm not making any predictions here. Just doing a little speculating. Followed by some pondering. A recent mob trial came to an abrupt end after the prosecution made its case. Allegations were tossed about that one or more jurors may have been approached for nefarious purposes and that detectives were "investigating" the matter.

Carmine Franco when arrested. One year and one day in prison. That's the fate of Carmine "Papa Smurf" Franco for his role in a scheme to control commercial waste-hauling in the greater New York area. Franco, 78, pleaded guilty in November to participation in conspiracy for racketeering, to commit mail and wire fraud, and to transport stolen cardboard -- across state lines yet! Franco, an associate of the Genovese family, had worked with other Genovese mobsters, as well as guys with the Gambino and Luchese families to operate waste disposal businesses in New York City and in several New Jersey counties, engaging in extortion, loansharking, mail and wire fraud and stolen property offenses.

Sal Avellino ran the Luchese family's  interests in carting on Long Island. He ordered a shameful double killing. Organized labor is no longer the cash cow it once was for organized crime.  That was the apparent thrust of a recent  WSJ.com report that noted the mob's infiltration of unions in the U.S. started to steadily weaken in the 1980s when then-Manhattan U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani took aggressive measures, putting away many of the mob's legendary bosses, creating opportunities for a whole new generation of wiseguys to move up. As history shows, many weren't up to the task. But considering law  enforcement's evolution in terms of investigating organized crime, it may not have mattered who was in charge. The WSJ article offered two reasons for the cause of the Mafia's decline on the union front: the 1986 Commission Case, during which defendants were charged with membership in the  Concrete Club, followed in 1990 by the...

The recent flood of articles associating an unknown real-life mobster with a well-known fictional one is due to the enterprising work of journalist Jerry Capeci and his GangLand News website. Good ol' Tone, parking the SUV in front of the Bing, HQ for the mob boss and his key associates. Anthony Cardinalle was indicted about a year ago , one of 32 defendants nailed following a multi-year FBI probe into the mob's control of the private sanitation industry in New York and New Jersey. Cardinalle, a longtime Genovese associate known as "Tony Lodi," began cooperating with the FBI and Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office a week before Christmas, although GangLand News is also reporting that, according to sources, Cardinalle has been talking to the Feds months longer than that. In December, presumably after he committed to the other side, he plead guilty to the two counts charged against him, racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to commit extortion; he als...