Cosa Nostra News

It looks like ex-Colombo associate John Pappa still might break the record for serving one of the longest prison sentences in US criminal history. Pappa was part of the hit team that rubbed out John Gotti ally Joseph Scopo. Pappa, who committed four murders at the age of 19 and was convicted and sentenced to multiple life sentences, filed a motion for compassionate release on December 19, 2022.  Pappa asked the Court to grant him a sentence reduction under Section 3582(c)(1)(A) based on what he argued were "extraordinary and compelling circumstances": -- his upbringing and youth at the time he committed the crimes of conviction; -- the fact that a life sentence in his case will be unusually long given his young age at the time of his convictions, which, in turn, "creates a sentencing disparity" when compared to "nationwide sentencing practices for those convicted of murder in federal court"; -- the sentencing court's inability to consider the mitigatin...

Nick Christophers, who contributes articles to this site and has written several mob-related books, is in talks to make a big-screen version of  his novel Destinies. Nick also recently appeared in an episode for the new MobTV, a free, ad-supported streaming channel (think of a Netflix that shows mob-based films and television shows only). Poster for Destinies, based on novel by Nick Christophers. Nick will appear on MobTV with former Colombo mobster Larry Mazza  (who discusses MobTV in the podcast below). MobTV is the brainchild of Infamous Media, an independent company owned by Soprano’s writer and producer Terence Winter, the creator of Boardwalk Empire and executive producer of The Sopranos. Winter co-founded MobTV with Joe Poletto, a former HBO executive.  As per a Hollywood Reporter story published in December, "Infamous Media’s streaming offering will have free, ad-supported channels available to users; one of the first channels will be focused on mafia and other m...

During a closed hearing in Brooklyn Federal Court on March 9, a Federal judge approved the release (on $1.6 million bond) of ailing reputed Colombo underboss Benjamin (The Claw) Castellazzo, 84, who has been accused of helping lead the Colombo crime family’s efforts to loot a Queens-based labor union. Alleged underboss Castellazzo, 84, was released from MDC. Castellazzo, who  joins other Colombo crime family wiseguys so far released on bail, got a bargain rate compared to reputed Colombo boss Andrew (Mush) Russo,  87, who has been free on  a $10 million bond since October. Castellazzo and the rest of the administration of the Colombo crime family—the youngest and most violent Cosa Nostra clan in the country— were arrested last September for allegedly masterminding a 20-year effort to loot the union, which Gang Land News identified as Local 621 of the United Construction Trades and Industrial Employees Union in Flushing. The 19-count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn Feder...

UPDATED " To be honest with you, we just barely let the Gambino family in ...." Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso, referring to the stunningly profitable gasoline tax scam in testimony before the Senate Subcommittee In May 1996, for the first and only time, Luchese underboss Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso testified—before the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which was examining the emergence of Russian immigrant crime groups and their ties to New York's Five Families, among other crime groups. Underboss to underboss: Sammy the Bull and Gaspipe Casso walk-talk. He spoke during the brief period that was the length of his cooperation . Gaspipe, who flipped in March 1994, was booted from the program in July 1998, when Judge Frederic Block of the Federal District Court in Brooklyn found that he had breached his cooperation deal with prosecutors. Block authorized the Government to rescind the plea agreement on the grounds that Casso had bribed prison guards to smuggle co...

An acting boss commands a crime family's captains, while a street boss generally is a capo in direct contact with the boss who passes on the boss's orders to the other captains, as our usually reliable sources tell us. What me worry? Ralph Francis DeLeo, former street boss. A boss would designate an acting or street boss when he is in prison or otherwise unable to command the family on the street. Why a boss would choose one man over another to be acting or street boss would depend on multiple considerations, including the political and the personal. One big consideration for the Colombo family circa 2008 was finding someone who wouldn't try to take over the entire organization, which is why they chose a Boston-based bank robber and convicted murderer. Alphonse (Little Allie Boy) Persico—the son of Carmine Persico, the onetime reputed head of the Colombo crime family who died in 2019 while serving a 100-plus-years prison sentence—was seeking to avoid his father's histo...

In 1987, reputed Colombo boss Carmine Persico knew that, short of his lawyers one day cooking up a miracle, he would in all likelihood be spending the rest of his life in prison. He had been convicted in  two separate trials: the Mafia Commission trial and a separate racketeering trial involving the Colombo family's operations. (Persico died in 2019 at age 85 after serving 32 years of that 136-year prison sentence following his two convictions.) Allie Boy Persico was on the run for seven years. The cases were separate, but overlapped, the common denominator being FBI surveillance recordings of Colombo soldier Ralph Scopo’s conversations, which alerted the Feds to the initial evidence that would help them build the Commission Case. Scopo was the bagman in a large-scale ongoing racket involving shaking down concrete contractors at major construction projects. As the president of the Cement and Concrete Workers District Council of the Laborers' International Union of North Americ...