Cosa Nostra News

John Gotti, who died in 2002 , lives on. (He obviously lives on in the memories of his loved ones and those who knew him; then there's the friends and loved ones of those no longer here because of Gotti to remember.) The onetime Teflon Don found immortality of a sort in the mass media. Gotti with his lawyer, Bruce Cutler. (Cutler looking at anything in particular?) For decades, his presence has abounded in videos, films, books, magazines, newspapers -- and, yes, blogs. Then there's the work of Jerry Capeci of Gang Land News. Capeci and silent partner Gene Mustain have written the only Gotti books you need to read: Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti and Gotti: Rise and Fall . John Gotti is an especially hot topic as we transition into 2018. Stimulating some recent discourse is the long-gestating topic of  the Gotti biopic starring John Travolta as the Dapper Don. It was close to its theatrical run when it was pulled -- and sold back to the production co...

Based on a recent bust involving members of the Gambino and Bonanno crime families in which more than a dozen alleged members and associates of organized crime were arrested as part of a sweeping investigation into the fentanyl trade in Canada and New York, it seems the Buffalo crew is alive and well. Or was.... Source: Gang Land News Update: it appears our note about a discrepancy in news reports was incorrect See story for Adrian Humphreys clarification. The following information was sent from a source. In indicates that the Buffalo crime family is definitely larger and more organized than many have believed. Last week's bust no doubt has taken a toll on the crime family. Yet who'd have guessed its heft? And if  could be big, who else is thriving in the US, off the radar....? Boss Frank BiFulco Underboss Joe Violi (Canada Faction) Consigliere Victor Sansanese Capos Frank Falzone-  Buffalo,  Six soldiers, ...

Merlino was released on bail following "East Coast LCN Enterprise" indictment. Who would dare write a critical word about Jerry Capeci ? The longtime, distinguished Gangland News scribe "made his bones"sneaking into Carlo Gambino 's funeral, the only reporter able to cop such an inside view of the secret society, and, it could be said, he's been off and running ever since, quickly building up a network of sources and providing unprecedented insight into the American Mafia . The   “East Coast LCN Enterprise”   case -- the fictional name was  created as a handle for an assortment of mobsters allegedly working together on an opportunistic basis -- landed with a colossal thud this past Aug. 4. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York  unveiled the indictment, which depicts a seemingly immense, sprawling collaboration involving four of New York's Five Families: the Gambino, Genovese, Luchese, and Bonannos -- and Philadel...

The Chin's Triangle social club suffered the same fate as the Ravenite: gentrification. "We got 30, 40 guys. Don't let anyone tell you that we're dead, 'cause we're here."   --Genovese capo Alan "Baldy" Longo speaking in October 2000 with Michael "Cookie" D'Urso, a mob turncoat..... UPDATED Jerry Capeci of Gangland News discussed last month's bust of dozens of mobsters for large-scale racketeering conspiracy on an episode of MetroFocus hosted by PBS show producer William Jones. Reputed members of an East Coast crime syndicate were charged in midsummer with racketeering, extortion, loansharking, gambling, credit card fraud and healthcare fraud. The indictment depicts an interesting version of how the New York Mafia seems to be evolving. Though largely focused in New York, crimes alleged in the case also occurred in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Florida and New Jersey.

Click image to purchase.... Gangland News recently recommended a book, a rarity for the website renowned for being the repository for the nation's no. 1 mob scribe, Jerry Capeci . "There are no spectacular revelations in it. There's no hint of the excitement that Man of Honor created when legendary Mafia boss Joseph Bonanno wrote his autobiography in 1984. And some of the author's facts are clearly wrong. ...," Capeci writes. But Bugs, Bull, & Rats: An Insider's account of how the Mob Self-destructed  (the full title) "is an intriguing new book about 'the last 40 years of the Mafia' by a New York wiseguy who's bummed out by 'the life' he found when he hit the streets after a long prison stretch that was caused by a 'wire-wearing rat.'"

John A. Gotti aka Junior is lending Travolta his father's personal items for a film about John Gotti Senior. John Gotti, former Gambino crime family boss, died in prison of cancer in 2002 at the age of 61. His son, former Gambino crime family boss John A. Gotti (aka "Junior"), says he left Cosa Nostra life in the dust many years ago. If John Junior is eyeing any kind of mob these days, it's the one based on the West Coast, aka Hollywood. High-caliber star John Travolta will play the Dapper Don in the upcoming production based on Junior's self-published book  Shadow of My Father . Junior claims he wrote the manuscript in response to the release of another book, George Anastasia's Gotti's Rules , based on the life and prodigious crimes of former Gambino enforcer John Alite .

Dan E. Moldea, author of The Hoffa Wars and Confessions of a Guerrilla Writer , has written a story that will be published Thursday on Jerry Capeci's GangLand News website. Apparently, he'll tell us, once and for all, what the hell happened to James R. Hoffa. From Gangland New s: Coming next week, a Gang Land special. On the 40th anniversary of one of the great Mafia mysteries — the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa — investigative journalist Dan E. Moldea, the leading expert on Hoffa, will tell you, based on his 40 years of investigating the storied mob rubout, what happened, who did it, and where Hoffa ended up.

EXCLUSIVE:   Gotti's Rules : The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia  by George Anastasia, available tomorrow, will quote and include a five-page 302 that resulted from John Gotti Junior's "proffer session" with federal authorities. This is according to an emailed excerpt from the book. The book reveals for the first time the existence of a 302 transcript of John Gotti Junior's 2005 proffer session. The meeting occurred at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in lower Manhattan on January 18, 2005. The 302, never before revealed to the public, is solid evidence that, despite all Junior's denials, he and two of his defense attorneys met with federal prosecutors and FBI agents. As noted in the previous story , Jerry Capeci first broke news of Junior’s attempt to cooperate. But the 302s go even further in terms of the extent of information Junior gave up. One of the more shocking revelations to emerge from the memo is t...

EXCLUSIVE: Dominick Montiglio, for those not familiar, is the nephew of Anthony "Nino" Gaggi, a Paul Castellano loyalist and rising star within what Jerry Capeci has called the "white-collar wing" of the Gambino family during the reign of Big Paul.. Dominick Montiglio, former emissary to the murder machine... Gaggi died in 1988, never attaining the position of underboss he'd long sought when he was close to the Gambino boss before the spectacular 1985 coup by John Gotti. It's through Montiglio's eyes that much of Murder Machine  is told. Murder Machine relates the story of how, after Carlo Gambino died of natural causes in 1976, the ruling members of the Gambino Family met at Nino and Dominick's Brooklyn home ("the bunker") to name a new boss.  Roy DeMeo also hunted people. Gaggi expected the best but prepared for the worst. He taped a gun under the kitchen table and sent Dom upstairs to watch the front of the house from an...

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."

Vinny B, left, Dom Cicale. NOTE: See first comment below, with Mancuso's response in his own handwriting.... We'd be remiss not to mention that our friend and coauthor Dominick Cicale called us today and told us to check out Gangland News (immediately!) wherein we read the following: The judge also granted Basciano's motion to add a charge of prosecutorial misconduct to his petition for a new trial. Vinny Gorgeous claims prosecutors elicited false testimony from turncoat capo Dominick Cicale about a Bonanno family plot to murder Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso, who succeeded Basciano as acting boss and who is currently viewed as the eventual boss when he is released from prison in 2019.

Jerry Capeci recently confirmed our story about Christopher "Christy Tick" Furnari getting out of prison last month--and even the storied mob scribe himself is puzzled over this one...(Yes, it does kill me to have to still write this kind of story.) Christy Tick Furnari  As we noted in a recent post: Christopher "Christie Tick" Furnari, Sr. walked out of prison last month without a peep. He'd been serving a 100-year stretch he'd been sentenced to back in 1986 as a defendant in the storied Commission Case. As Mr. Capeci wrote in his last column : "...The end result of the historic Commission case in 1987 was that seven old-school wiseguys were hammered with unprecedented 100 year prison terms, sentences intended to send a message to gangsters everywhere. Under their labor racketeering convictions, none of them were ever supposed to see the light of day outside of a federal prison. "But last month, with no official notice or pron...

The first printing of Mob Boss: The Life Of Little Al D'Arco, The Man Who Brought Down The Mafia has sold out, Jerry Capeci reports today. "Because of the heavy demand, Thomas Dunne Books went to the well again for a second printing of Mob Boss, the book that The New York Times called a "gripping, novelistic biography – a bulls-eye," Capeci notes. The mass market, paperback version is due out in March. Mob Boss was given high praise by such crime writers as Pete Hamill, Jimmy Breslin, Nicholas Pileggi, and District Attorney Robert Morgenthau.

Jerry Capeci Anthony M. DeStefano runs a blog focused on the Bonanno family. Some interesting content is available there, though he admits he's unable to devote a lot of time to it right now because he's hard at work on his next book, slated for a 2015 release. The book, by the author of Vinny Gorgeous: The Ugly Rise and Fall of a New York Mobster , King of the Godfathers and Mob Killer , provides a "unique look at organized crime over the years in New York City" and is titled Gangland New York: Faces and Places of The Mob. It will be published by Globe Pequot. Let's all raise a glass and hope he's friends with Jerry Capeci , who is not very fond of writers who use the name of his long-running, widely acclaimed newspaper column, now blog. Nor writers who get their facts wrong and write a lot of fiction in books billed as nonfiction.

Michael Franzese , former Mafioso (son of Sonny Franzese and an ex-capo in the Colombo family ) turned born-again Christian minister, told Gang Land News some interesting information about the whole Rev. Al blowup , and adds a jarring twist to the story. Namely that Sharpton once had very close mob ties, to the extent he was involved in certain rackets involving the Reverend using his civil rights bully-pit to generate cash that he shared with the mob. "... Franzese says Sharpton , who has been preaching since his teenage days on the streets of Brooklyn, has yet to truly confess his many sins. "He was a gun for hire, our gun for hire," recalled Franzese, the college educated wiseguy, in an exclusive Gang Land News interview. "Franzese said that Sharpton often used his influence with black entertainers and others to earn cash payoffs from mobsters and mob-connected firms in legitimate ventures as well as scams. "He built his reputation on ...

Jerry Capeci enjoys lunch on the New York Times..... For me it began with Carl Kolchak, a fictional Chicago newspaper reporter played by Darren McGavin , who investigated stories that invariably lead our intrepid journalist head-on into supernatural forces that had somehow infiltrated our universe. Then it was Jerry Capeci... I voraciously read his Gangland column in print and then online. For all I knew gangsters fell into the same category as monsters and things of the night. I figure despite who my heroes were, I'd never be personally involved, never thought I'd get to know one, never mind multiple wiseguys. 

Gaspipe reportedly wanted Little Al whacked, so Al turned. Sonny Girard is a former street guy -- retired now, he's written several fictional novels and is involved in other creative endeavors... If I could wish for one person to read "Mob Boss" and give me their take on the book about Al D'Arco's life and crimes, it would be Sonny Girard. He lived the life, and actually knew Al back in the days...he offers a unique perspective invaluable to all interested in the Honored Society. Sonny did years in prison without a mumble and whenever I do a story that has something to do with informants, I always say silently to myself: Sonny, forgive me... Sonny didn't rat; he did years of his life in prison, like so many mobsters have done, are doing, and will continue to do. Then, later he was asked to write a tell-all about the mob, naming names... He was offered a fortune to do it. He said no. How many in his shoes would've done the same? How many g...

Thomas (Tommy Karate) Pitera, made member of the Bonanno crime family, in his most recent effort to get out of prison, sought to use DNA evidence to shift blame for several murders on a former partner in crime. Moment of Truth: Tommy Karate, nose busted, comprehending  his career's end. Pitera's appeal was crushed (just like his nose when the DEA arrested him) by a dead judge, who while alive penned the legal documents that validated the denial. As Forbes reported: "A federal court of appeals yesterday denied a criminal defendant’s Motion To Compel Post-Conviction Relief in the form of DNA testing of six items related to the crimes at issue. "The defendant/appellant, Thomas Pitera, alleges that genetic testing of those items would exonerate him by showing that the guilty party was in fact Frank Gangi, whom the court determined to be his accomplice. In United States v. Pitera (2d Cir. Apr. 3, 2012), the Second Circuit determined after very careful a...