Cosa Nostra News

William I. Aronwald—a former Assistant DA in Manhattan who was Chief of the Justice Department’s Strike Force Against Organized Crime in the 1970s and whose father was slain with bullets meant to have his name on them—died of cardiac arrest near his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., on October 29. He was 79 years old. Colombo acting boss Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace  The alleged motive for the mistaken identity murder of his father was disrespect that angered a mob boss, who wanted payback for the perceived slight. William’s father, George M. Aronwald, was a 78-year-old hearing officer for the Parking Violations Bureau in Queens when he was shot to death in a gangland-style hit in a Long Island City, Queens, laundry in 1987.  The hit, a piece of  Colombo family business, wasn't solved until many years later. At the time of the murder , William Aronwald had left the DA's office and was working as a criminal defense lawyer in White Plains representing Michael Raymond, ak...

To have been a fly on the wall at the downtown Brooklyn halfway house where the leading contenders for the slot of Colombo family boss, Theodore (Skinny Teddy) Persico Jr. and Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace, both cooled their heels for months.... Theodore (Skinny Teddy) Persico is heir apparent. Unless the COVID-19 pandemic changed anything , Joe Waverly departed the Brooklyn Residential Reentry facility last Friday, May 22. Skinny Teddy still has a few more days to go before his slated May 29 release. For now, Andrew (Mush) Russo is once again acting Colombo family boss. Skinny Teddy Persico, 56, has been the presumed heir apparent since cousin Alphonse (Allie Boy) Persico, went away for life after his 2008 conviction for the 1999 murder of William (Wild Bill) Cutolo. Skinny Teddy's father, who died in 2017, was a brother of Carmine (Junior) Persico, the legendary and unpredictable boss of the Colombo crime family who died last year at the age of 85 while serving a 139-ye...

Former Colombo acting boss Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace, 78, who ordered a string of gangland hits and was suspected of ordering the murder of an NYPD cop back in the day, is currently residing in a Brooklyn halfway house located near where the battle-scarred veteran mobster came up, on Waverly Avenue in Fort Greene, according to Gang Land News , which today reported that he was released from a federal prison in Kentucky last month. Joe Waverley once fought off three would-be kidnappers, one to the death. Joe Waverly will depart the halfway house this May, according to the BOP, when he completes the 20-year prison sentence handed down to him for copping to four gangland slayings, including the 1987 mistaken identity murder of administrative law judge George Aronwald--who was the father of a former federal prosecutor who the late Colombo family kingpin Carmine (Junior) Persico condemned to death. In 2004, the onetime consiglieri, facing a sweeping indictment and devastating turnc...

A vicious capo in the Colombo crime family who was one of two hit men responsible for killing an off-duty cop got something he probably never gave: mercy. Dino Calabro Dino (Big Dino) Calabro, 59, was sentenced to 11 years on Friday when he appeared in Brooklyn's Federal district court "shrunken and remorseful... begging a judge for mercy," as The New York Times reported. His pleas were answered when the judge, noting the importance of Calabro's assistance as a witness, sentenced him to 11 years rather than life. Not everyone would agree with the judge's proclamation about Big Dino, whose testimony never brought to justice the Colombo mobsters allegedly responsible for the cold-blooded slaying of an off-duty NYPD officer. Calabro was arrested in 2008 so he still has two more years to serve before disappearing into the witness protection program . (And if it's less than two years due to "good behavior," does it really matter?) ...

Carmine Carini Junior's body had been wrapped in a blue tarp and chained to a cinder block. Then, it was dropped into an inlet off Avenue U and East 58th Street in South Brooklyn. A 5-pound bag of drywall compound had also been tied to the body, though the effort to conceal it was unsuccessful: Carini's body was found Saturday floating near a dock. His father, who has the same name, is a known Gambino mobster who served decades for a murder he didn't commit. With their testimony, storied mob turncoats Frank Smith and Sal Mangiavillano freed the elder Carini from prison for the murder.

A mob turncoat who flipped on a multitude of Colombo gangsters, including Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli, and whose cooperation was described as "historic" was sentenced last Friday to no jail time. Thomas McLaughlin, the turncoat, was himself involved in three gangland hits, two of which were tied to the 1990s Colombo civil war. He also was a member of the Bay Parkway Boys, a farm team for the mob. In McLaughlin's case, it gave him entry into the Colombo crime family, one of the youngest and most violent of New York's Five Families. Tommy McLaughlin has a secret "I just want to apologize for my past and look forward to the future," McLaughlin, 46, told Judge Brian Cogan last week in Brooklyn Federal Court. One year after he'd finished serving a long prison term for a drug conviction, McLaughlin voluntarily began informing in 2009, and secretly recorded thousands of hours of conversations with mobsters.

Little Dino Dino "Little Dino" Saracino , 41, who won an acquittal for the 1997 murder of off-duty  police officer Ralph Dols in a split verdict, was sentenced to 50 years for racketeering. The Colombo soldier allegedly won his button by carrying out the Dols hit for then-acting boss  Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace , who wanted Dols hit for marrying his ex-wife. “It seems like what he mainly wanted out of life was to be a member of the Mafia and he attained that goal,” said Federal Judge Brian Cogan. Both Cacace and former acting boss Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli also were cleared, by separate juries, of the Dols slay. Last week, Gioeli was sentenced in Brooklyn federal court to 18 years in prison for racketeering and murder conspiracy. In a split verdict that stunned many trial watchers , Gioeli and Saracino were acquitted in 2012 of several murders that could have sent them away for life. In addition to Dols, the two  were also clear...

Tommy Shots went down fighting Former Colombo acting boss Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli was sentenced in Brooklyn federal court yesterday to 18 years in prison for racketeering and murder conspiracy raps. It's tantamount to life in prison, as Gioeli is 62 (though he looks more like 82) and apparently of ill health. In a split verdict that stunned many trial watchers, Gioeli was acquitted in 2012 of several murders that could have sent them away for life -- among them the 1997 hit on NYPD cop Ralph Dols , who married the ex-wife of Joel “Joe Waverly” Cacace , a former Colombo consigliere. The two also cleared of the 1999 slaying of Colombo underboss William “Wild Bill” Cutolo , and the 1995 execution of Colombo associate Richard Greaves. But Gioeli was convicted of plotting the murders of Frank Marasa and John Minerva and was also found guilty of crimes committed on his quest to win power . His attorney, Adam Perlmutter, noting the gangster's age and health condition,...

Tommy Gioeli on Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace's victory (at least he stopped putting the blame for the murder on Wild Bill , see story )... Alleged Mob Boss Tommy Gioeli's Voice : Congratulations In today's post I would like to congratulate my friend and onetime codefendant Joel Cacace on his justified victory over a petty, deceitful, and corrupt prosecution team led by my old nemesis, the new head of the Organized Crime Dept. for the Eastern District of New York, Elizabeth "Lizzy the Liar" Geddes.

Surveillance photo of Joe Waverly Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace, a high-level Colombo mobster who still carries lead in his chest from previous gunfights, has been acquitted of ordering the killing of an NYPD officer who married the Mafioso's ex-wife. A jury took only four hours to reach their verdict clearing Cacace of murder in aid of racketeering in the killing of Police Officer Ralph Dols, who was shot to death in 1997 outside his home in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. The verdict was reached yesterday, Nov. 26. Last year, Colombo gangster Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli was acquitted of carrying out Cacace's alleged order, along with Dino Saracino. Cacace, 72, didn't walk out of the courtroom a free man following his acquittal as he is in the process of serving a 20-year sentence for racketeering after admitting to carrying out a hit on a federal prosecutor. He is not due to be released from prison until 2020 when he will be close to 80. ...

The U.S. attorney general ordered prosecutors to seek the death penalty against mobster Joel ( Joe Waverly ) Cacace for ordering the murder of an NYPD cop, officials said in a New York Daily News  article . Cacace, 69, a former acting boss for the Colombo crime family, is charged with putting a contract on Officer Ralph Dols after the cop married the mobster's ex-wife. Joe Waverly survived two attempts  on his life. Dols was off duty when he was gunned down outside his home in Brockton in 1997.