Cosa Nostra News

Even an outlawed, unnamed secret society must observe certain formalities. It must perpetuate itself, and its members must know one another in order to create an infrastructure to assist them as they embark on their life of crime. "Jack Falcone" aka Joaquin Garcia (Big Jack to his friends.) Mobsters don't operate in a vacuum, and the Mafia, in addition to being a criminal brotherhood, also provides a milieu where members can share one another's company. If you can't break bread with another man who understands the world you live in, you will probably go insane. Mob guys tend to want to operate and prosper.

Anthony “The Genius” Megale, who rose to be the underboss of the Gambino crime family, died at Stamford Hospital Tuesday night. Megale was dubbed “The Genius” on a federal wiretap by an upset and angry John Gotti, who apparently thought Megale was anything but a genius. Cause of death was not known as of yesterday, said an employee at the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Farmington. However, it was confirmed by two sources that Megale died of a heart attack at 9:30 p.m. on his 62nd birthday. He had only been released from a Pennsylvania federal prison in December having been indicted on 38 extortion charges in 2004.

Vinny Limo REVISED, MORE DETAILS:  Talk of the Sound reported that Vincent "Vinny Limo" Zarcone, 47, a former social club manager (what??), was arrested by New Rochelle Police on August 28, 2014. He was charged with a misdemeanor: criminal mischief . Some may recall Zarcone from a couple of earlier incidents -- one of which was the 2009 meat clever attack in which Vinny Limo's right hand was hacked off by Christopher Calise, assisted by Maurice Mann, who held Vinny Limo. The vicious attack was believed at the time to be possibly connected to the remnants of a Westchester/Bronx Genovese family-run gambling ring busted up years earlier. The victim, Vinny Limo, had been arrested for his involvement in the operation. In fact, it was reported at the time that the FBI's Organized Crime Task Force was looking into the club in which Zarcone worked. The cleaning lady insisted that he was a "good fellow," telling CBS2, "He works downstairs, the com...

REVISED 6/9: I was fully intending to continue working on my stories about Canada and the Combination (no connection) when something else grabbed my attention enough to warrant a change in plan. I started to write that -- and something else got in the way! This is why I'm always behind! The website  FedScoop  posted the above video, which includes Joe Pistone and another former undercover FBI agent who worked in Cleveland (David Drab). Joseph Dominick Pistone, alias Donnie Brasco , (born September 17, 1939), is the former FBI agent who worked undercover for six years infiltrating the Bonanno crime family. He was an FBI agent for 27 years and seems to hold to the adage "never turn down an opportunity to be on television." The evidence collected by Pistone led to over 200 indictments and over 100 convictions of Mafia members and nearly destroyed the Bonanno family. (I am not sure what those numbers include -- whether they specifically resulted from Operation Br...

As the "new" Mafia seeks to find its place in the post-9/11 world, families are more selective about who will have the honor of being straightened out, noted Joaquín "Jack Falcone" García . Falcone--who wrote a book that is essential reading for all who are interested in the goings-on of Cosa Nostra--had been an FBI agent for over 20 years when he infiltrated the Westchester-based crew of Gambino family capo Gregory DePalma. He spoke with Cosa Nostra News this week.  Gambino family capo Gregory DePalma.  As part of its overall strategy to better isolate itself while it has the perceived breathing room -- the FBI has magnified its focus on terrorism and other crimes, downsizing its efforts against organize crime in New York -- the mob has put the word out to members: be careful who you sponsor, Falcone said.

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Arnold Squitieri was as security conscious as Joe Massino . As former FBI agent Joaquin "Big Jack" Garcia originally informed us , in 2002, Gambino crime family acting boss Arnold "Zeke" Squitieri, who was on parole for a drug conviction, had appointed a ruling panel of three mobsters with whom he was especially tight: Alphonse " Funzi" Sisca, Louis Filippelli, and Chris Sucarato  were Zeke's official eyes and ears on the street. Acting underboss Anthony Megale was involved with overseeing rackets in the Stamford, Conn. area. ( Megale  died  in the summer of 2015). Squitieri, in his own fashion, allowed personal feelings -- nepotism, basically -- to informally preempt the Gambino crime family's official hierarchy. Louis Filippelli had the most juice out of the three, as he was Squitieri's nephew. However, Filippelli was only a soldier in Gambino capo Alphonse "Funzi" Sisca's crew. Since Sisca was Squietieri's brothe...

Jack "Falcone Garcia" It's not every day that we get a phone call from someone like Joaquín "Jack Falcone" García , but it so happens that we did today. We got his take on what's going on in the mob these days. The fellas are everywhere, despite all the big busts and trials, and the endless parade of informants you read about in the newspapers. With the FBI focusing on so many other types of crimes (terrorism being key, of course, plus cyber crime and other things), it seems the fellas are running wild. The mob has been here for over a hundred years and its tentacles are into everything. We'll explore that in more detail on this blog when we post the story. If you haven't read his book, " Making Jack Falcone: An Undercover FBI Agent Takes Down a Mafia Family " you are missing out on a lot of good stuff. Jack was an FBI agent who pulled a Donnie Brasco on the Gambino family, penetrating deep into the...