Cosa Nostra News

On Tuesday Federal prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss a perjury case against a Rhode Island mob associate/bookie. Gaythorne (Poochie) Angell Jr., 84, was indicted in 2016 for lying to a grand jury about shakedown money paid to the mob by the Foxy Lady strip club. He is the Angell family’s patriarch — whose friends range from Smith Hill politicians to Federal Hill wiseguys. Poochie has long denied he was anything but a consultant. But a 2009 court document signed by a Foxy Lady lawyer showed that Angell had a previously undisclosed financial interest in the club, raising questions about the city’s oversight of its liquor-licensing laws. He since successfully completed a pretrial diversion program, as prosecutors noted in a filing in U.S. District Court, Providence. If a judge agrees to the dismissal, Angell, of East Greenwich, will not face the perjury charge in federal court. Jim Martin, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, said that prosecutors and Angell agreed...

UPDATED New England Mafia capo Edward Lato, 71, was transferred Wednesday from Fort Dix federal prison in New Jersey to a halfway house. Eddie Lato According to the BOP inmate locator he's in a facility in Philadelphia. According to Target 12, which broke the story, Lato was sent to Pawtucket in Providence. Lato was eligible for release to home confinement or a halfway house on Jan. 25, according to the Target 12 story, which based that on information acquired from the Federal Bureau of Prisons via a Freedom of Information Act request. Lato's attorney, Mark Smith, remarked that he had "no knowledge" of Lato's situation. We've emailed Tim White, the reporter whose byline is on the Target 12 story, for clarification, and we'll update this story accordingly. Tim White replied: "Philadelphia is where the BOP's Residential Reentry Center is. As I reported in my story, he is at a halfway house in Pawtucket (halfway ho...

The most amazing thing about FBI Special Agent Michael R. McGowan (retired) is not that he is the first -- and so far only -- undercover FBI agent to infiltrate three crime families. Mike McGowan Nor that he has infiltrated Russian crime groups, Mexican drug cartels, and outlaw motorcycle clubs, nor gone undercover to nab criminals of a multitude of stripes, from contract murderers to corrupt politicians. It's not even that he won recognition from the highest levels of the FBI and the Department of Justice for completing some of the most daring and deadly assignments in recent memory. What bedazzles us most of all about  Mike McGowan is that he did all those things while sporting the same gigantic walrus mustache he sports even now (see it, up above?). "That was a little flipoff to the bad guys," he told us recently in a telephone interview. Both the mustache and its owner have been prominently mentioned in recordings of discussions among so...

Former New England mob boss Francis (Cadillac Frank) Salemme, 85, has appealed his conviction and life sentence for the 1993 murder of Steven DiSarro, a South Boston nightclub owner. Salemme's attorney filed the appeal Wednesday He and co-defendant Paul Weadick, 63, were both convicted in Boston federal court in June. Weadick also is appealing. DiSarro, a 43-year-old father of five, was killed to prevent him from cooperating with federal authorities. His remains were unearthed behind a Providence mill building in 2016. The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston will hear the appeal. Salemme was in the Federal Witness Protection Program when DiSarro’s remains were discovered, leading to Salemme's arrest. At the sentencing hearing, DiSarro’s son, Michael, told Salemme about irony. “(Y)ou killed our father for thinking he was going to rat and become a snitch. When actually, Mr. Salemme, you ended up being the snitch... “You are a coward a...

Headline corrected; story expanded Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme has pleaded not guilty to the 1993 murder of Boston nightclub owner Steven DiSarro. Salemme, 83, copped to the charge on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Boston. Rhode Island ex-mobster Robert "Bobby" DeLuca cooperated with investigators, according to an affidavit, which also noted that DeLuca had implicated Salemme in the murder.

UPDATED NOTE, VIDEO ADDED Yesterday, Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme, one-time boss of the New England Mafia, was formally indicted for the 1993 murder of a Boston nightclub owner whose body was found this past March in Providence, Rhode Island by law enforcement authorities acting on a tip. Salemme, Paul Weadick, who also is named in the indictment, and Salemme's son, who died in 1995, have long been suspected of involvement in the notorious disappearance of the nightclub owner, Steven A. DiSarro. The indictment, unsealed Friday, charges Salemme and Weadick with the murder of DiSarro, a federal witness. 

October 15, 2021 : This story was NOT a gag, as it said at the end for the past five years. There really was a guy I called Charley P, or C.P., from here, New York City. He got cold feet about two seconds after I published and freaked out on me--begged me to take it down. I told him: how about I put a little note at the end saying it was all a joke? He was so relieved I could see the anguish visibly depart his face. I also inserted some fictional material about the “murder” on Gun Hill Road, and some of the other biographical Bronx details were “masked” in an attempt to make the story seem like it truly was a joke. It took years before Charley was comfortable enough to communicate with me and tell me anything meaningful. Over time he learned he could trust me (after testing me in multiple ways). When I said I would never betray him, say by naming him and writing about him, etc., I meant it. The piece overall was an attempt to re-create Charley's personality and record some of his o...