Cosa Nostra News

FINAL Just in time for the upcoming debut of the Many Saints of Newark, the theatrical prequel to the Sopranos television series, comes a new book about New Jersey’s only homegrown Mafia family, the DeCavalcantes, which many (including some DeCavalcante wiseguys) believe inspired David Chase’s acclaimed HBO series. Charlie the Hat Stango and son "Whitey." Giovanni’s Ring: My Life Inside the Real Sopranos w as written by Giovanni Rocco (the name is a pseudonym) and Douglas Schofield, a criminal trial lawyer and author. The G-man worked undercover as Giovanni Gatto, a pinky ring-wearing outlaw biker-turned-wannabe wiseguy who cozied up to an assortment of unsavory underworld characters during his three-year infiltration of the New Jersey crime family. During the probe, he made extensive surveillance recordings, including catching on tape a capo ordering the murder of a rival.  By the end of it, 10 mobsters and associates were pinched for multiple crimes in 2015. The key target ...

UPDATED on JAN, 22; 10:02pm Michael DiLeonardo answered a slew of questions -- most of the ones that were posted.  Mikie Scars was a c apo in the Gambino crime family when John Gotti was boss. If you look below in the comments section, you'll see questions people have asked Michael about the Mafia, with his answers. I'm keeping this going indefinitely, as long as Michael doesn't mind. Feel free to ask away. Just remember it may take a few days to get answers, so please don't delete your questions.... With Mafia-related murders at an all-time low and cases involving major drug trafficking on the wane, we could very well be in an era that historians will one day recall as the American Cosa Nostra's golden age. Mikie Scars suited up and ready for Freddy.... That's Michael DiLeonardo's assessment of the state of the mob today based on his recent interview on Intelligent Talk. For nearly an hour, DiLeonardo discussed Cosa Nostra life with Ralph W. ...

DeCavalcante crime family capo Charles Stango yesterday admitted to planning the murder of an organized crime rival, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said in a press release. Stango, 72, of Henderson, Nevada, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge William H. Walls in Newark federal court to one count of knowingly using an interstate facility – the telephone – with the intent to murder a rival. Charles Stango ALSO READ: John Riggi, Mafia's "Last Legitimate Boss" He also pleaded guilty to violating the terms of his supervised release, which he was serving following his imprisonment on racketeering charges in New York. According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court: Stango was arrested on April 14, 2015, along with a  crew of DeCavalcante members and associates who operated in New Jersey and elsewhere.

Charles Stango has yet to be charged following the DeCavalcante bust of March 2015.  A DeCavalcante crime family associate was sentenced to 30 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release, for selling more than a half-kilo of cocaine to an undercover FBI agent. U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman noted  this yesterday, when U.S. District Judge William H. Walls imposed the sentence in Newark federal court. (Press release is here .) Last December, John "Johnny Balls" Capozzi, 36, of Union, New Jersey, pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of cocaine (as did associate Mario Galli, of Toms River, New Jersey).

If anyone missed the recent news about what turncoat Vincent "Vinnie Ocean" Palermo, former acting boss of the New Jersey-based DeCavalcante crime family, has been up to, here is a detailed, full-blown account from a website called  Courthouse News Service , a nationwide news service for lawyers and the news media, based in Pasadena, Calif.: A former New Jersey mob boss who came to Houston in the Federal Witness Protection Program - and who allegedly was an inspiration for the fictional Tony Soprano - defaulted on payments on a $1.3 million promissory note issued to buy out a partner's share in a strip club, the partner claims. Lisa Hansegard sued James Cabella, his wife Debra Cabella and son James Jr., and Hereweareagain Inc., in Harris County Court. Hansegard says she had no idea that James Cabella, owner of the strip club across the street from a strip club she acquired from the estate of her child's late father, was actually Vincent Palermo, a former a...