Cosa Nostra News

After years of eking a living on the streets around Springfield, Mass. via the illicit book-making business, David (Chicky) Cecchetelli has embarked upon a LEGITIMATE career (in film), but faces a significant obstacle: On an upcoming date, he will stand before a judge to be sentenced for a charge he caught following a December 2019 arrest.  Chicky, right, and Damian, Mt Carmel Italian Social Club. (Source: Twitter ) That pinch was as unlikely as they come. It was part of  Operation Throne Down, an FBI-DEA operation that targeted the Latin Kings  street gang organization. It had nothing to do with ex-mob guys—Chick was simply wrong-place-wrong-time tertiary damage. Cecchetelli was caught up in the massive sting by virtue of the fact that his nephew (slash roommate) Michael Cecchetelli was an East Coast leader of the street gang and consequently, was the Feds' key focus. Law enforcement hit the apartment the two shared expressly to carry out an arrest warrant for Michael, a...

Scott Bernstein of Gangster Report  did the podcast, something i didn't realize.... In the mid-1990s, mob associate Anthony (Bingy) Arillotta had a drug problem and didn't even know it... Nigro lackey John Bologna and Big Al, who was killed in 2003. Adolfo (Big Al) Bruno, the Genovese family capo who oversaw the crew in Springfield, Mass., had proposed Arillotta for membership. Big Al Bruno was the Genovese family's seasoned hand in western Massachusetts. He had worked for the Scibelli brothers, including Frankie Skyball, making them fortunes, before he himself rose to become “capo” of the Springfield crew. Bruno was the consummate professional, who started his day early in the morning and ended it late in the evening. Bingy had been Big Al’s protégé, and one can imagine Bruno’s high hopes for the young wiseguy. But then Bingy got caught doing one of the worst things a mob associate can do: he was found to be dealing drugs on the street. "Big A...

In 1961, from a telephone booth at Providence Hospital, a Roman Catholic nun dropped the proverbial dime on Francesco "Skyball" Scibelli, then a young hoodlum whom she apparently earmarked for redemption, at least so it seems, based on the good sister's actions. The more immediate prompt for the call was that the nun knew that Scibelli was running an illegal gambling ring. "Skyball" Scibelli  Apparently, divine intervention and the related jail time weren’t enough to dissuade him from running the rackets for the Genovese crime family in Springfield, Mass. , which included parts of two bordering states as well. Scibelli was a low-profile gangster who ran the Genovese crime family's outpost quietly during a time of relative peace and prosperity, neither of which lasted very long after the old-school Cosa Nostra boss died. Scibelli’s criminal record dates back to 1932. Among the crimes he went to prison for were extortion, illegally selling liquo...