Cosa Nostra News

"You don’t know how mean this guy is, Donnie. Lilo is a mean son of a bitch. A tyrant. ... Lot of people hate him. They feel he’s only out for himself. He’s the only one making any money. There’s only a few people that he’s close to. And mainly that’s the Zips... There’s a lot of people out there who would like to see him get whacked." —Benjamin (Lefty Two-Guns) Ruggiero to undercover FBI agent Joe Pistone, aka Donnie Brasco Carmine Galante Read Part One: Carmine Galante, Godfather Of Heroin Trafficking The Montreal pipeline pumped vast quantities of heroin into the US for years, but was only one of New York City’s countless sources of narcotics. Not even Carmine Galante relied solely on the Montreal crew. About a year after the notorious Apalachin summit in 1957 (Galante attended but successfully evaded law enforcement by concealing himself somewhere on Joe Barbara’s estate), he was nailed. The indictment alleged a narcotics conspiracy that involved the smuggling of 160 kilo...

If certain words are music to a street guy's ears ("Yes, I got your money"—"Do you know why you're here?"), then others are most definitely not. "I gotta throw you under the bus ." You don't even have to be in the mob to hear that one and not like it. Former Luchese wiseguy John Pennisi on one of many podcasts you can see him in. Anthony (Little Anthony) Caponigro, a Bonanno associate at the time, told John Pennisi, a former Luchese wiseguy, that he had to throw him under the bus after Caponigro talked out of school and backed himself into a corner. Or that is how John tells it in one of his SitdownNews podcasts.  That's right, star wiseguy witness John Pennisi, who testified at three major trials and about whom we've written a multi-part series , has launched a podcast that leverages his SitdownNews blog, where he offers a steady stream of peeks behind the curtain at goings-on in the Luchese family—as well as other crime families. Penn...

After finishing The Stone Killer (1973), Charles Bronson and Michael Winner wanted to make another film together. They discussed further projects. "What do we do next?" asked Bronson. "The best script I've got is 'Death Wish'. It's about a man whose wife and daughter are mugged and he goes out and shoots muggers," said Winner. "I'd like to do that," Bronson said. "The film?" asked Winner. "No . . . shoot muggers," Bronson replied, A Most Violent Year:  "A crime drama set in New York City during the winter of 1981, statistically one of the most violent years in the city's history, and centered on the lives of an immigrant and his family trying to expand their business and capitalize on opportunities as the rampant violence, decay, and corruption of the day drag them in and threaten to destroy all they have built." The above statistic is true. The film is fiction, but the backdrop against which it wa...

The video above will look familiar to some of you. When I first posted it, this is the story I meant to write, as opposed to what I did write, Undercover Feds and the Mob: Do Rivalries Arise? The content of the above video, recently posted by FedScoop , concerns the Mafia and white-collar cybercrime, and ways law enforcement can better marshal its forces to combat these new-wave crimes. The video includes insight from two former undercover FBI agents, Joe Pistone and David Drab. (Pistone once again calls Lefty Ruggiero a 24 hour a day wiseguy, to which I add: Pistone is a 24 hour a day  Donnie Brasco .) Pistone worked undercover for six years infiltrating the Bonanno crime family, while Drab did some work in Cleveland. Today, both consult and advise law enforcement on conducting undercover operations. Some interesting points were raised in the video that will be of interest to readers of this blog.

Former Bonanno underboss from days of Donnie Brasco was arrested not too long ago. We don't get it... Is it really just a coincidence that the mob -- specifically, a Bonanno associate -- robbed and whacked a guy with the same name as a well-known undercover agent for the FBI who infiltrated the same crime family using the famous alias of Donnie Brasco in the late 1970s ? Bonanno mobster gets 18 years in prison for 1992 murder of Brooklyn man and dog - NY Daily News : "A reputed Bonanno crime associate was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the home-invasion murder of a Brooklyn man and his beloved dog — nearly twice the term he thought he’d get under a plea deal with the government. "Neil Messina, 52, found out Friday that Federal Judge Kiyo Matsumoto may have gone easy on some Mafia oldfellas, but is more than ready to severely punish violent mobsters.

A brief history of Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero soldier in the Bonanno Crime Family and his relationship with Donnie Brasco (FBI Agent Joe Pistone ), and Capo Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano . This video was released on March 28 by Bloodletters and Madman , which produces biographies of organized crime and Mafia figures. Based on Jay Robert Nash's book Bloodletters and Badmen - A Narrative Encyclopedia of the American Criminal, the segments cover "the Italian mobs, both the Mafia and the Camorra, Irish and Jewish Gangsters, and prohibition gangs." Researched, written and Narrated by G. Marshall Johnson.

Vito Rizzuto in his prime. If Mafia history were taught in school, the date May 5, 1981, would be wrought with significance. That was the day of the infamous three-capo take-down in Brooklyn, when Bonanno family loyalists took on three bosses who were forming a rival faction to take control of the family. The loyalists won--and the family would continue to be run by its nominal boss, Philip Rusty Rastelli, a mostly impotent figure who held the top spot much longer than he would've liked in order to provide the true boss, Joe Massino, with cover.

Last year, the  Miami New Times  obtained from a confidential source hundreds of pages of sealed court documents that reveal information provided to the FBI by former infamous South Beach nightclub king Chris Paciello -- and it seems Paciello dished up a lot more details on goodfellas and their crimes than was originally thought. Lee D'Avanzo "Between December 2000 and May 2001, the FBI met with the fallen club king eight times and conducted 15 hours of interviews. During those meetings, Paciello detailed not only his own criminal history but those of dozens of his Mob colleagues," a New Times article notes. Additionally, many secrets in the documents center on Lee D'Avanzo, one of Paciello's early criminal cohorts. In fact, Paciello is a large part of the reason why Lee went away to prison. [We are not sure if this is the sentence Lee is still serving or if it was an earlier conviction.] It adds: "Most significant, Paciello fingered two mad...

" Donnie Brasco " [is] based on a true story, that of FBI undercover agent Joseph D. Pistone, who spent years infiltrating New York's Bonnano crime family... Its hero, who never fires a gun except on the FBI firing range, was played by Johnny Depp (then best known for quirky, vulnerable man-child roles) and his mentor was played by Al Pacino (as a tired, rumpled mafioso, about a million miles from his Michael Corleone or Tony Montana). As the film marks its 15th anniversary (it was released on February 28, 1997), here are true tales of what went on behind the scenes, including one star's impulsive wedding, and how the real Pistone braved a contract on his head to ensure that the movie portrayed accurately the mob world he uncovered. 1. In 1976, Pistone was chosen to go undercover as purported jewel thief Donnie Brasco because he spoke fluent Italian, was familiar with the mob (having grown up in Paterson, N.J.), and because he claimed the ability not ...