Cosa Nostra News

Guy in the middle had no idea what the future held when this photograph was snapped. Philip Carlo (April 18, 1949 – November 8, 2010) wrote best-selling novels and non-fiction, focusing mainly on sociopaths, pedophiles and psychopaths. A popular, beloved writer and New York figure, he also was known for letting the occasional fact stray in his non-fiction, which spans the range from mobsters, including Thomas "Tommy Karate" Pitera , to serial killer Richard "The Night Stalker" Ramirez -- with Richard "The Ice Man" Kuklinksi falling somewhere in between. I just finished reading Carlo's final book, "The Killer Within"; he in fact died a few weeks after completing it, of the horrifying illness ALS -- better known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Turns out, of all his subjects it was Tommy Karate who was weighing on his mind the most heavily toward the end of his life.

Rapper Tony Testa According to a published report on a variety of websites and newspapers, including the New York Post , "Bobby Brown -- R&B singer-songwriter, occasional rapper, and dancer -- is talking about working on a movie with mob-related rapper Tony Testa. Sources say the film is based on Testa's Brooklyn family connection to notorious Gambino crime-family members the DeMeo Crew. The story will be based on Testa's Uncle Patty, who transferred to the Lucchese family and was murdered in 1992. Testa's uncle, Joseph Carmine Testa, is serving life in the same prison as Bernie Madoff. Brown was spotted dining at Trattoria Dopo Teatro with Testa, "Sopranos" star Joe Gannascoli and Chuck Zito about a possible role in the movie, which will also star Armand Assante."

RIP author Philip Carlo Philip Carlo appeared on an episode of Mobsters about Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, the subject of his book Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss . Carlo died last year, on Nov. 8, never to see the publication of his last book, The Killer Within:In the Company of Monsters , which was released on Jan. 6, 2011. (Read an interview with Carlo.) Although he's made some whopping errors (Ice Man, for example, meaning the entire book), I still recommend his books due to a fascinating intimacy in them that flowed from his relationships with numerous New York organized crime figures. (His wife is the daughter of slain Gambino mobster  Eddie Garofalo ); additionally, Carlo and his family had been close friends with Casso.