Cosa Nostra News

'' Gene Gotti's dead." -- Bobby Manna (as per FBI transcripts) '' We're gonna be paying for this, you know, for the rest of our lives." -- J ames (Jimmy Nap) Napoli  Louis (Bobby) Manna— the Genovese family's former number three man who in the 1980s was poised to shoot it out with the Gotti regime of the Gambino family to protect Genovese family interests in the Garden State—was released from prison last month and is now under the care of court-approved custodians, as per reports. Manna and his crew were rounded up in June 1988. Manna was recorded plotting to kill both John Gotti and his older brother Gene, among others. Manna, 95, served more than 36 years of an 80-year Federal racketeering sentence. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Kirsch granted the petition for “compassionate release” –which detailed Manna’s deteriorating health – on April 16. Manna reportedly is bed-ridden and suffers from chronic kidney disease, lung cancer, bacterial infecti...

"John Gotti (went around in) a suit telling everybody he’s the boss. Our guys (in the Genovese family) had mothball holes in their sweaters, but they had $50 million in cash in their apartment." —Michael Visconti, ex-Genovese family associate "Angelo Prisco's mentor was Mario Gigante. (Prisco) was a very strong guy. He ran the Purple Gang along with Danny Leo in Harlem , and they came up through the ranks together." Michael Visconti enters court in 2006. Credit: RecordOnline . The violent East Harlem-based Purple Gang reportedly boasted more than 100 members in the 1970s and was known for committing crimes ranging from narcotics and firearms trafficking to whacking and dismembering people, many of them informants for law enforcement. Members of the organization, who reportedly spent their youths running errands for local drug dealers, were linked to the Bonanno, Luchese, and Genovese families.  By the 1980s, the Purple Gang started to fade as members were incr...

Four members and two associates of the Genovese crime family have now pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced on Thursday, February 9. Genovese associate Thomas Poli. Genovese Family associate THOMAS POLI pled guilty before United States District Judge John G. Koeltl on September 29, 2022, and is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Koeltl on April 13, 2023. Genovese Family Captain NICHOLAS CALISI, Solider JOHN CAMPANELLA, and associate MICHAEL POLI pled guilty before Judge Koeltl on February 8, 2023, and are scheduled to be sentenced by him on June 27, 2023. Genovese Family Captain RALPH BALSAMO and Soldier MICHAEL MESSINA pled guilty before Judge Koeltl on February 9 and are scheduled to be sentenced by him on June 28, 2023. Each faces up to 20 years in prison,  according to a media release  from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. (Curiously, the...

With thanks to the "mobologist," who shared his insight about the following, among many other things too numerous to list here right now.... Jay Goldberg, a welterweight boxer-turned-lawyer who defended a roster of high-profile figures, including a bevy of powerful wiseguys—and who delivered the first decisive courtroom defeat to mob-busting US Attorney Rudy Giuliani—died on December 5 at his home in Bridgehampton, New York. He was 89. Defense lawyer Jay Goldberg. Goldberg, who (in)famously quipped, “ I’m fairly certain that I never represented an innocent mobster, ” defended high-profile as well as lesser-known wiseguys. A highlight of his career as a mob lawyer had to be when he delivered such a masterful cross-examination of Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano, he won unqualified praise from the influential National Law Journal, which described his courtroom questioning of the former Gambino underboss as “Goldberg’s methodical destruction of Mr. Gravano" that showed he...

Longtime Genovese family powerhouse Anthony (Tough Tony) Federici, who ran a landmark Queens-based Italian restaurant, died this morning of natural causes, sources tell Cosa Nostra News . Still from YouTube interview with Tough Tony Federici. While the elusive Federici long claimed he was retired from the position of capo in the nation's most powerful Mafia clan, the Genovese crime family, sources say Tough Tony, aka Tony Park Side, was part of the Genovese crime family's formal hierarchy, holding the position of official consiglieri, at the time of his death. Prior, he'd been acting underboss of the crime family. Federici, who remarkably appeared in several YouTube video interviews about six years ago (three of which are posted below), was the longtime owner of Park Side Restaurant, a popular Italian restaurant located in the heart of Corona, Queens that his parents opened in 1960 under a different name. And, despite the incessant denials, Federici was a power in the Genov...

With thanks to our pal "Vincent" for pointing out the denial of the appeal... EXPANDED Salvatore Delligatti, an associate with the powerful Genovese crime family who was sentenced to 25 years in prison, will remain behind bars until February 7, 2037, after a federal appeals court rejected his appeal last month. Salvatore Delligatti, alleged Genovese associate, is slated for release in 2037.  Delligatti , who was convicted in 2018 following a three-week trial in Manhattan federal court for committing a range of alleged crimes, including for being the "main organizer and leader" of a failed plot to whack a rival gangster, raised various challenges, including that the evidence was not sufficient to sustain his conviction and that his 25-year prison sentence was "substantively unreasonable." The United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, in an opinion published June 8, concluded that his  arguments "lacked merit" and affirmed the sentence. Dell...

Four members and two associates of the Genovese crime family, including a Boca Raton, Florida-based capo, were recently named in one of the vaguest indictments we've ever laid eyes upon. Reputed Genovese capo Ralph Balsamo was among the indicted.  The Superseding Indictment charges reputed capos Nicholas Calisi (who is in Boca Raton) and Ralph Balsamo, soldiers Michael Messina and John Campanella, and associates Michael Poli and Thomas Poli with racketeering conspiracy involving illegal gambling and extortion. The crimes were allegedly committed between 2011 and 2022. Everyone faces up to 20 years in prison. Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Letitia James, New York State Attorney General, and Eric Gonzalez, Brooklyn District Attorney, announced the unsealing of the Superseding Indictment containing the charges. See the indictment here (PDF). MESSINA was arrested and presented before U.S. Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang on April 12, 2022...