Cosa Nostra News

Richard Cantarella, aka Shellackhead, recently contacted me on Facebook. Or at least I think it was him. In this online world of ours, one can never be too certain. He asked if I could help put him in contact with Sal Vitale.   I'm going to work my sources, but if Good Lookin Sal  were to contact me , it'd be somewhat easier and I guarantee confidentiality. Richard Cantarella. Pre-Shellackhead Moving right along, I am sharing here part of a chapter from the short-format ebook I wrote with former  Bonanno capo Dominick Cicale, Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire. The chapter, of course, has to do with Cantarella.

Maspeth building formerly known as Casablanca, the restaurant owned by ex-Bonanno boss. Massino, way back when.... A building recently advertised as available for sale was once the Casablanca Restaurant, the Queens-based eatery formerly owned and operated, off-the-books, by Joseph "Big Joey" Massino , the former boss of the Bonanno crime family who flipped and testified. Located at 62-15 60th Lane, the 5,250-square-foot building is built on 1,800 square feet of land, a  DY Realty Services ‘ listing noted, adding that it includes a usable basement, full sprinkler system, overhead drive-in door and great signage visibility. In our $2.99 ebook,  Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire , I included a detailed description of the place, which the so-called Last Godfather used as a sort of social club.

Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire... Thanks to NCS for interviewing me and linking to my book. I'm going to include first part here but you should visit the website for the full interview (if you're interested).... "Joining us in the hot seat today is the journalist and author Ed Scarpo who runs  Cosa Nostra News and also has a book available called Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire in which former Mafia Capo Dominick Cicale makes a contribution. "Ed also runs a Facebook page called Cosa Nostra News which is dedicated to covering the Mafia in America as well as the Sicilian Cosa Nostra, Calabrian Ndrangheta and Neapolitan Camorra."

Edited The short-format e-book The Mystery of the Lufthansa Airlines Heist:: A Wiseguy Reveals the Untold Story , available now for $3.99, reached number 2 on an Amazon Kindle paid bestseller list. It's still at number two as I write this... and 3 and 4 on other paid lists. That's a damn fine showing -- and it beats our own Cosa Nostra News: The Cicale Files, Volume 1: Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire . We asked Rob Sberna for his take: "I’m pleased but not surprised that the book is a hit. The Lufthansa robbery grabbed the public’s attention, for both its size and also its boldness. And because the crime—and the whereabouts of the missing loot—have remained unsolved for nearly four decades, it has become even more infamous.

Vinny Asaro was among the top characters of interest in 2014.... His Tommy D rant makes us really want to hear the tapes.... I deleted a bunch of horseshit with which I initially started this post. Based on a quick Google Analytics filter, we found five days when there was a clear spike in our daily traffic. piked progressively, save for the last two samples, which were nearly equal. 

Click on the cover to purchase We'd like to give a shout out to the  Reading Ghost blogger  for crafting a review of  Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire  that highlights a key aspect of our approach to writing The Cicale Files series . Mob books such as  Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires  tend to provide detailed overviews of organized crime, focusing on a particular crime family, city, or period of time. Often an abundance of names, biographies, storylines, dates and other details swamp the reader.  And we have wondered how much most readers really take away from these books once they finish the last page... As bloggers writing about the subject, we of course love these books and we eagerly consume even the footnotes and details regarding source material. But in this case we refer to  the mainstream reader , not only the Mafia junkie.

Now available at a holiday promotional price as part of the Kindle Countdown Deal: Cosa Nostra News: The Cicale Files, Volume 1: Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire . Life (and death) inside the Mafia... in the words of a former Bonanno capo.... Dominick Cicale was born and raised in the Bronx, New York. From a young age he was closely associated with the Genovese crime family, considered the most powerful Mafia group in America. Fate intervened.  In 1999 Cicale forged a tight alliance with Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano, then an up-and-coming member of the Bronx faction of the Bonanno crime family. Under Basciano’s tutelage, Dominick rode the fast track: he was inducted into the American Cosa Nostra and swiftly rose from soldier to capo, amassing great wealth and power. Cicale befriended and associated with numerous high-ranking figures within all of New York's Five Families as he plotted and schemed in a treacherous world where each day could be his last....

TG Graziano had five acting capos around him. One of the first things Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano did as acting boss of the Bonanno family was bust down the five acting capos that Anthony "TG" Graziano had around him, according to our colleague and former Bonanno capo Dominick Cicale. "What is this? The Bonanno family or the Graziano family?"  Basciano complained to Dom, referring to the Staten Island-based capo who reportedly has since been shelved by the family because of " Mob Wives ," the reality show that was the brainchild of TG's daughter Jennifer; Renee, one of the show's stars, is another of his daughters.

Man of Steel... Cosa Nostra News: The Cicale Files, Volume 1: Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire  is not a full-sized book; it is about 70 pages and the ebook is $2.99, the price Amazon suggested. If you signed up for my newsletter you will have already read this excerpt. Here I attempted to drill down into an  infamous piece of Mafia history, specifically Bonanno crime family history.

Today I had hoped to have the button up, the one you click to purchase the ebook I wrote with former Bonanno capo Dominick Cicale :  The Cicale Files, Vol. 1: Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire . As indicated this is only the first of a series we have planned. But it looks like getting that button up is going to take a couple of more days. We're looking to launch by Monday, hopefully earlier. I hope you all buy a copy, especially since Dom padded his goddamn expenses... You won't believe how many copies we have to sell before yours truly sees a single nickel!   Just kidding...  But I am not kidding about hoping you all buy a copy. It's going to cost less than $5, and we packed the book with as much value as possible. Researching extensively to set the background and context for Dominick's information, I tried to focus on little-known facts that were part of some of the major events described in the book.