Cosa Nostra News

Carmine J. Persico Jr., the legendary boss of the Colombo crime family who clung to power for decades from prison, including during a years-long mob war launched to oust him, was a top echelon FBI informant all along—if we are to believe a recent Daily News report that lifts the allegation from a decades old government document that was included in a recent compassionate release filing for Persico's chief rival during the Colombo war. Junior Persico died in prison in 2019. The document, from November 1971, mentions the FBI's Top Echelon Informant Program and lists four turncoat members of the Colombo crime family. One of the four is longtime Colombo boss Carmine Persico, according to  Daily News reporting by Larry McShane and Stephen Rex Brown . “The official boss of the Colombo family, on whose side (Greg) Scarpa (the Colombo capo/FBI informant) and (Roy Lindley) DeVecchio (Scarpa's FBI handler) were working, Carmine Persico, was himself, since decades earlier, in the gove...

UPDATED Carmine (The Snake) Persico, the longtime boss of the Colombo crime family, died at age 85, t he Daily News has reported in a story by Larry McShane and John Annese . Carmine Persico had served more than 32 years of a 136-year prison sentence following his conviction in the "Mafia Commission Case." One source, who requested anonymity, told COSA NOSTRA NEWS : "After being railroaded by the courts and the Parole Commission, we tried to get a Compassionate Release based on his well-documented medical conditions. As his health plummeted they consistently ignored our pleas and engaged in deliberate delay to assure he would die in jail. "They took him to a great hospital at Duke University just a few miles down the road HOURS before he died. They should have sent him there months ago or sent him home so he could get real medical treatment. " As we reported in 2017, his attorneys were mounting a major effort to get Persico resentenced on the...

EXPANDED Okay, can someone tell us something we've been wondering about? What the hell happened to the mob? (We're being facetious; we know what happened: this guy, basically .) Mush was set to put the Colombos back together. Still, consider: Longtime Luchese associate Sylvester (Sally Daz) Zottola .... At 71 years old, he should've been slowing down. Instead, he was terrorized for a year -- clubbed, assaulted, and stabbed in the throat; his house had been robbed and his son targeted, nearly shot dead this past summer. Sally Daz supposedly was in good standing with the Luchese, and he was close to the Bonannos. (One source was baffled by what happened, telling us: "I don't get it. I just don't get it.") And let's not forget recent history. There's evidence of wiseguys hiring members of the Bloods and Crips street gangs to do hits for cash. (God help them if they ever ally with Mara Salvatrucha, aka MS-13.) Genovese associate  F...

Jim Cooley (and BIG MF Matt Freeman) together host  The Last Round , a major sports podcast that features interviews with fighters, athletes, wrestlers and more. It garners nearly a half-million monthly listeners. Jim also is a former MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter. So Jim can kick serious ass, in other words. In fact , he kicks ass in this interview by being remarkably candid and honest.  He graciously and generously provided heartfelt answers to every question I asked. Thanks, man.... Jim Cooley hosts a sports podcast; he debuted another, called The Life, about the mob. Jim recently started another show, called The Life, about the Mafia. Up to 30,000 folks listen in on each episode. And he counts guys like Carmine Persico and Thomas (Tommy Karate) Pitera as his personal friends. (Jim hooked us up, too. Some may recall my shout out .) In fact, Pitera, as you'll read, told Jim: "I trust you with my life." And what's really interesting about The Li...

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has made its ruling, and the 100-year sentence will stand. Carmine Persico, 83, alleged boss of the Colombo crime family, will continue serving the long and unusually punishing prison sentence doled out to him in the historic Mafia Commission case . The Second Circuit Court of Appeals screwed Carmine Persico, 83. The court ignored all the evidence based on former Bonanno boss Joseph Massino's 302s, which supported the allegation that Carmine Galante was not slain as per the orders of the Mafia Commission (the murder was the Commission Case's centerpiece). The court also ignored all the evidence that showed the large, previously unknown extent of former Colombo captain/high-ranking snitch Gregory Scarpa's influence over the case. We have spoken to a few attorneys off the record, and can report here that it is a fact that the government hates the Mafia so much that they don't bother hiding their disdain for mobster...

COSA NOSTRA NEWS EXCLUSIVE First we need to give a shoutout to Jim "Jay" Cooley , who emailed us a copy of a new talk show he'd done with longtime gangland attorney Mathew Mari. ( Jim Cooley hosts The Last Roundup sports show  and recently debuted The Life,  an organized crime-focused show . Attorney  Mat Mari has a website and his own talk show , which can be viewed  here . ) Carmine Persico is now 83. Carmine Persico is 83 years old and has served more than 32 years of a 136-year prison sentence following his conviction in the "Mafia Commission Case." His attorneys are seeking to get him resentenced under the grounds that the FBI may have played some covert hanky-panky during the investigation prior to the high-profile trial of the so-called leadership of New York's Five Families.

The dead man lay on his back, his arms frozen in an odd, upward position, away from the body "as if he were reading a newspaper." He wore an overcoat over a green suit replete with white dress shirt and dark necktie. He was dressed in layers of clothes, with pale-blue-colored pajamas underneath. The corpse's clean-shaven face looked like it had recently entered middle age. Rubber galoshes were stretched over his shoes. The sum of $156 in cash was found in his pocket. But the body held not a single piece of paper that identified who it was. The victim seemingly had done something decidedly impractical. Though his face was intact, it was discovered that he'd been shot in the back of the head four times with a .25 caliber pistol. Someone had pulled an old Saturday Night Special on him and finished him off. Those once-ubiquitous cheap portable guns packed little stopping power, which didn't matter if the weapon was used properly, meaning up close and personal, maybe i...