Cosa Nostra News

Jerry Chilli*   died last Saturday from throat cancer; a private funeral mass will be held in Florida, which is where the Bonanno capo spent the greater part of his adult life. (Especially after New Jersey law enforcement officials, in no uncertain terms, told him to depart New Jersey.) Jerry Chilli, at the top of the game. Chilli was a stone-cold gangster who shunned the limelight, who never "talked" and never took a step back, even when he knew there could be a steep price to pay. He was a tough guy with his fists who made his bones with a gun. The younger of two brothers (his brother moved up faster and earned more), Jerry Chilli served lots of prison time, which some chalk up to his involvement with the notorious Costabile "Gus" Farace, the mob associate who executed an undercover federal agent on Staten Island in 1989. (A 1991 made-for-television film about Farace is available on DVD featuring several actors who today are high profile, including Sa...

It was judgment day for Anthony Borgese, aka Tony Darrow, in Brooklyn federal court this week. U.S. District Judge Eric N. Vitaliano slammed the actor-cum-mobster with two years’ probation, six months’ house arrest, 250 hours of community service and a $7,500 fine. Not a bad deal, considering Borgese could have gotten up to 40 months in jail. Mobsters are bad guys, Tony Darrow said, or something like it in anti-mafia public service ads that probably spared his dimpled ass a prison stint. Borgese, you may recall, is the former Catskills lounge singer turned actor who made a nice living playing mobsters in film and on TV. But then he went and got himself arrested for getting mixed up with some real mobsters who committed a violent felony while collecting a debt for the would-be Don Borgese. The actor, who is better known under the Darrow name, has played mobsters or criminal associates in numerous mob films, including Goodfellas, Analyze This, Mickey Blue Eyes and The Sopra...