Cosa Nostra News

Federico ( Fritzy ) Giovanneli, who was charged with the 1986 murder of an NYPD detective, died Friday. He was 84. The cause of death was an illness, according to the New York Post. Federico (Fitzy) Giovanneli died Friday. Giovanelli faced charges for shooting Detective Anthony Venditti, 34, four times, including twice in the head, in Ridgewood, Queens. Venditti and his partner had been trailing the longtime Genovese crime family mobster when the shooting occurred. Giovanelli went on to face four trials, all of which ended in hung juries, except for one federal trial, which convicted him, but for racketeering only. The verdict was overturned on appeal. Venditti's partner, Detective Kathleen Burke, was wounded in the shooting. Cold Blooded Murder At 8 p.m. on the night of Jan. 21, the two detectives trailed Giovanelli to a destination in the vicinity of Myrtle and St. Nicholas Avenues. The two were part of an organized crime taskforce and were stakin...

A reputed Genovese crime family member from Staten Island who was among the 46 alleged wiseguys arrested and charged with racketeering and other crimes in last August's "big bust," has pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of running an illegal gambling business. Alex Conigliaro in 2005 photo. Alex Conigliaro, 56, was accused of attempting to extort a man who allegedly put him in the hole for nearly a half-million dollars in February 2012. The man, a bookmaker, had accounts with codefendant John (Tugboat) Tognino, who allegedly worked for Conigliaro. Conigliaro suspected the bookmaker had allowed professional bettors to place wages, which put Conigliaro on the hook for nearly half a million -- the amount he owed the winning bettors, the Feds alleged. The bookmaker was summoned to a Bronx restaurant (Pasquale’s Rigoletto?), where Conigliaro, a capo, and another alleged mobster confronted him in the basement and threatened him.

The Smoking Gun has compiled a lengthy report based on documents and interviews to tell the story of how Rev. Al Sharpton, beginning in the 1980s, worked as a mob informant for an organized crime task force of FBI agents and NYPD detectives (some of whom reportedly gave Sharpton up to the Smoking Gun). We've put together a list of 10 things we believe the mob would love to know about Rev. Al.