Cosa Nostra News

Moretti was killed in an empty restaurant at lunchtime. Which mobster inspired  The Godfather ? None of them. Mario Puzo told us that Don Vito Corleone was based on his mother. Why shouldn't we believe him? The problem is that the historical focus has been misaligned. The big question was always,  was Puzo writing from experience or research?  In   other words, take Francis Ford Coppola's reply in a recent  NPR interview . "I  knew nothing about five crime families which had recently become exposed to the public with the publication of "The Valachi Papers." But neither did Mario Puzo, who was also Italian-American. But he knew nothing about it, and he wanted to write this book sort of to get some money for his family. He thought it could be commercial, and he did everything on research. He knew nothing. He never had met any of these figures, and he advised me never to meet them, which I never did....  " The question: Well, WHAT resear...

REVISED Our first version of this story was posted in 2014 to some outrage. I was asked to delete it, etc. I understand the unusual animosity but have stuck to my guns. I wish I could tell you my source for this, but I promised him I wouldn't.  I will add here and now that the Commission boss my source references in the story was none other than John Riggi, boss of the DeCavalcante crime family.  Here's a story about Riggi you should read: John Riggi, Mafia's "Last Legitimate Boss ." Roger Moore in his prime. So the first story was about an excerpt from Roger Moore's memoir that mentioned Frank Sinatra and blasted the notion that he had mob ties. I  posted it and made a new friend... So ironically, thanks to "James Bond," I  got one of my hottest scoops ever. (As for my source, he can contact me anytime he wants. Hope all is well -- thank you so much for the information.) I'm updating and reposting due to Moore's  re...

Giovanni Riggi (February 1, 1925 – August 3, 2015), aka John the Eagle, died on Monday of natural causes. He was 90 and outlived what law enforcement officials no doubt considered a life sentence. A member of the New Jersey-based crime family since the 1940s (before it was given its historic name, the DeCavalcante crime family), Riggi served as the Elizabeth crew's captain and was named acting boss in the 1970s. John Riggi, at the height of power. Riggi's rise was slow and deliberate. Simone "Sam the Plumber" DeCavalcante  named Riggi as his successor in 1980. Riggi in fact held the official boss title up until his death a week ago.  He's been described as well-spoken, extremely polite and extremely ruthless. Toward the end of his life he'd been incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) in Devens, Massachusetts. He was released on November 27, 2012. The funeral at the Corsentino Home for Funerals in Elizabeth, N.J., held on Friday, Aug. 7...

See part one of this story, Path to WITSEC Built on Omerta's Dead, here . In December 1964, Pascal "Paddy" Calabrese robbed Buffalo's City Hall during daylight. While serving a five-year stretch for his daring but unsuccessful feat, he started nursing a deep hatred for his boss, Stefano Magaddino, who had cut him loose the moment he was cuffed by law enforcement. Buffalo wiseguy Paddy Calabrese helped create the Witness Protection Program. Magaddino had done the same to the drug-dealing Agueci brothers, forgetting about them as soon as they were arrested. Magaddino had been well aware of the brothers' narcotics business and was glad to pocket their generous tributes in return for extending them police protection.  But Magaddino couldn't have cared less when the cops busted the two. While out on bail,  Albert Agueci  threatened the 75-year-old Cosa Nostra boss, saying if Magaddino didn't use his connections to help him and his brother, he'd talk to the ...

Which Gotti really wanted Sinatra dead? We're not reading the book, but based on our devotion to our beat, we offer here one anecdote to emerge from John Gotti Junior's self-published ebook.  The story involves John Gotti threatening Frank Sinatra's life using Joseph "Joe the German" Watts, one of three guys Junior once discussed  privately. The issue we ponder is which Gotti really posed the greater threat and to whom: Senior in the form of Joe Watts or Junior in the form of his threats against mob scribe Jerry Capeci. The old-school newspaperman apparently read Junior's book, which includes the Sinatra incident,  and then gave Junior a pass. When he read about Sinatra, Jerry Capeci must've recalled the moment when the Feds advised him to be "a little more cautious than usual." The younger Gotti had hired a corrupt ex-NYPD detective to follow the journalist around to "dig up some dirt."

Courtesy of Wikipedia "In the 1970s and ’80s, state and federal officials proclaimed Palm Springs a Mafia haven, saying it had been that way since the 1960s...."  The Desert Sun is running a five-part series that explores how the Mafia established a presence in Southern California's Coachella Valley. Stories in the series so far (see end for link): Gangsters in Paradise Mafia leaders liked to spend their winters in the desert. They didn’t like any dirty business in their backyard, but that didn’t stop them from murdering a PS civic leader in Indiana. 

Caponigro didn't like it when Sinatra told him to shut up.... A Philly mobster wanted to kill Frank Sinatra, or he seemed to want to... This was one of the hundreds (or thousands?) of conversations caught on tape by Gambino mobster Nicholas "Nicky Skins" Stefanelli , who committed suicide earlier this year. He had a lot weighing on him since he flipped for the Feds two years ago and began wearing a wire on his former friends in the New York and Philadelphia Mafia families. The tapes are making their debut at the trial of Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi, reputed head of the Philadelphia mob, which began last Thursday. One Philly big shot wanted to whack Frank Sinatra. One conversation took place between 69-year-old Stefanelli and [Joseph "Scoops"] Licata at the American Bistro in New Jersey last April. Louis Fazzini, 45, and Nicholas Mitarotunda, 74, were also allegedly at the meal. READ: Sinatra Once Proposed for "Honora...

Frank Sinatra... "Old Blue Eyes" .... won a dozen Grammy Awards, three Academy Awards, and recorded 297 singles, most so well known we needn't name them here. Frank had a temper, sure, but who among us doesn't? Besides it was total B.S. what they did because of some liar nicknamed "The Animal." On  July 19 1972  Sinatra burst into the House Crime Committee and, while the flashbulbs popped, denounced its members for conducting a character assassination.