Cosa Nostra News

This is  the third round of Q&As. Please email any additional questions or  post them in the comment section of this story. Also, former Luchese wiseguy John Pennisi has started a blog, Sitdown News so be sure and visit.  Former Bonanno wiseguy Dominick (Sonny Black) Napolitano, who was killed probably over the Donnie Brasco investigation, comes up in one of today's questions. Question : I'm Paul from Italy. Do you know something about the active families outside New York (not only the Decavalcante family and Philly)??? John Pennisi: Paul, piacere, I had some dealing with and met a few Ndrangheta I believe they were from Canada. What impressed me with them was we were once in a restaurant and I was brought over to a table where about 12 of their people were sitting. I sat and talked for a while and then went back to my table. When they left in a line from young to old, with their boss being last, they came over to say goodbye. Very disciplined and full of respect. Q:...

A Brooklyn judge rejected Bonanno crime family associate Ronald "Monkey Man" Filocomo’s compassionate release request, as was recently reported. Filocomo, in above pic, was a participant in the 1981 execution of former Bonanno crime family capo Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano . Monkey Man pleaded guilty to racketeering and is serving a 20-year sentence. His effort would've shaved time off the remaining four years in prison he faces. However, Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis, ever wise to the way of the wiseguy, reviewed Filocomo's medical problems,determined that they were not terminal, and denied the motion. As noted in numerous reports on this story, Filocomo can never become a full-fledged member of any Mafia family for the simple reason that he is a former corrections officer. The Mafia doesn't induct men with law enforcement backgrounds, including ex-corrections officers. In fact, it is surprising that they'd even take one ...

After finishing The Stone Killer (1973), Charles Bronson and Michael Winner wanted to make another film together. They discussed further projects. "What do we do next?" asked Bronson. "The best script I've got is 'Death Wish'. It's about a man whose wife and daughter are mugged and he goes out and shoots muggers," said Winner. "I'd like to do that," Bronson said. "The film?" asked Winner. "No . . . shoot muggers," Bronson replied, A Most Violent Year:  "A crime drama set in New York City during the winter of 1981, statistically one of the most violent years in the city's history, and centered on the lives of an immigrant and his family trying to expand their business and capitalize on opportunities as the rampant violence, decay, and corruption of the day drag them in and threaten to destroy all they have built." The above statistic is true. The film is fiction, but the backdrop against which it wa...

In 1986, at the age of 71, Santo Trafficante faced the most formidable indictment of his life. The reason was Dominick (Sonny Black) Napolitano , a onetime Bonanno capo Sonny Black leads Santo Trafficante out of a motel room. The Feds wanted Santo Trafficante on a platter. Operation Coldwater ran from 1979 to 1981 and was the FBI's attempt to infiltrate the Mafia then infesting Florida's Gulf Coast. However, from its inception, the op's true goal was much more targeted in nature. Santo Trafficante was considered nothing less than The Godfather of most of Florida, who'd deemed it "open territory" for the Northern-based Mafia families, with provisos, of course. He first had to give his approval, then, of course, he got a piece of their action. Or at least so said the Feds. (Mafia cases are generally easy to "build" -- as there's never a lack of motive with which prosecutors can enchant the jury...) After all attempts to flip some of h...

Frank Lino now calls the Mafia a sick world. Funny how he didn't realize it until after he was arrested for six mob hits. Frank Lino is off the hook. The former Bonanno capo, 76, was sentenced to time served for participating in six mob murders, along with racketeering crimes. He had already served eight years in prison after his 2003 arrest and was out on a million-dollar bail when he appeared today for sentencing. "Looking tanned, and wearing black-framed eyeglasses and a double-breasted suit, Lino sheepishly raised his hand when Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis glanced around the courtroom looking for him," The New York Daily News reported. “Oh, in the business suit,” Garaufis observed. Lino’s cooperation was described as being “extraordinary” in that he'd helped to bring down around two dozen Bonannos, including former family boss Joseph Massino who also has since joined Team America. Lino also revealed the burial locations of three slain gangsters, as pr...

A brief history of Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero soldier in the Bonanno Crime Family and his relationship with Donnie Brasco (FBI Agent Joe Pistone ), and Capo Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano . This video was released on March 28 by Bloodletters and Madman , which produces biographies of organized crime and Mafia figures. Based on Jay Robert Nash's book Bloodletters and Badmen - A Narrative Encyclopedia of the American Criminal, the segments cover "the Italian mobs, both the Mafia and the Camorra, Irish and Jewish Gangsters, and prohibition gangs." Researched, written and Narrated by G. Marshall Johnson.

Joseph Charles Massino (born January 10, 1943) was boss of the Bonanno crime family after the death of his mentor, Phil “Rusty” Rastelli. Massino is considered to be among the last of the clever, old-school dons, hence the "last Godfather" rubric. This only added to the shock that whirled through organized crime upon the revelation of Massino’s transition to government informer after losing a massive RICO trial in July 2004. He had been convicted of racketeering, seven murders, arson, extortion, loansharking, illegal gambling, conspiracy and money laundering and was told he would be a candidate for the death realty, which likely fueled his decision to become, in mafia parlance, a rat.

COSA NOSTRA NEWS EXCLUSIVE Interview with Belinda Rossetti  Belinda, give us a shout if and and when you see this! These men who hold high-level positions in Mafia crime families... what are they like? Because they do exist - they are not a figment of David Chase and Jerry Capeci's imaginations.They are not characters on TV shows or in films. Men who hold rank -- bosses, underbosses, consiglieris, either official or acting -- are human beings who get out of bed one foot at a time. Frequently, they go to prison and die there. Sometimes they die in their own bed of natural causes.... Belinda Rossetti (message to her: Belinda, get in touch with me when you can...)  What are they really like, these man who must be as wise as a fox and as strong as the lion, who must balance a strong business sense with the primal capacity to order the deaths of men. We met recently with Belinda Rossetti, a lovely dark-eyed bella donna who works as a paralegal for a hig...

" Donnie Brasco " [is] based on a true story, that of FBI undercover agent Joseph D. Pistone, who spent years infiltrating New York's Bonnano crime family... Its hero, who never fires a gun except on the FBI firing range, was played by Johnny Depp (then best known for quirky, vulnerable man-child roles) and his mentor was played by Al Pacino (as a tired, rumpled mafioso, about a million miles from his Michael Corleone or Tony Montana). As the film marks its 15th anniversary (it was released on February 28, 1997), here are true tales of what went on behind the scenes, including one star's impulsive wedding, and how the real Pistone braved a contract on his head to ensure that the movie portrayed accurately the mob world he uncovered. 1. In 1976, Pistone was chosen to go undercover as purported jewel thief Donnie Brasco because he spoke fluent Italian, was familiar with the mob (having grown up in Paterson, N.J.), and because he claimed the ability not ...

The photo of a dead Carmine Galante, who sought to take control of the Bonanno family after emerging from prison in the 1970s, is so iconic for me, I'd never think of even using another picture in this blog's logo.... Lilo wasn't around for coffee... FBI agent Joe Pistone, posing as Donny Brasco, was just infiltrating the family as a street-level soldier under Sonny "Black" Napolitano. He thought he had the players identified -- but his intel, as time proved, was not precisely on the money. Joseph Wendling, 65, now a private investigator, was a detective in an elite unit of the New York City Police Department focused on the five Mafia families that ruled the city’s underworld, called The Pizza Squad.

On the witness stand during the Basciano murder trial, Joe Massino casually imparted information that changes Mafia history, putting to rest two storied killings believed for decades to have resulted from the Joe Pistone/Donnie Brasco investigation. This is according to his court testimony. Massino flipped the script regarding the motives for some of gangland's most notorious murders.  It has been believed and written about for decades that Dominick (Sonny Black) Napolitano, who wanted to "make" the undercover Fed, was slain because of his role in bringing "Donnie Brasco" into Bonanno family business. "Massino's word will be the gospel, true or not," said Sonny Girard , former mobster. Knowing he would be killed, Napolitano reportedly gave his jewelry to his favorite bartender who worked below his apartment at the Motion Lounge, along with the keys to his apartment, so his pet pigeons could be cared for. Bonanno capo Frank Lino...