Cosa Nostra News

Frank Cali had ascended to the role of street boss of the Gambino crime family, though now it appears that, yet again , there's uncertainty. Who's the boss? Frank Cali, maybe. Whether he's street boss or not, one thing seems clear: Francesco Paolo Augusto Calì would bring the New York-based crime family, one of the fabled five, back where it belongs: in the grip of a shrewd Sicilian who likely will strengthen its ranks and magnify its fortunes. Domenico (Italian Dom) Cefalu is Sicilian, but in terms of boss material, there are more suitable candidates, according to Michael "Mikie Scars" DiLeonardo , with whom we spoke for this story. His rise would also have an historical significance. It brings the Gambinos, once the largest and most powerful Mafia family in the country, full circle. If Cali is street boss, "the Gambino family is where it's supposed to be," DiLeonardo told me, "back in the hands of Sicilians. I...

COSA NOSTRA NEWS EXCLUSIVE   After reading  Michael "Mikie Scars" DiLeonardo's testimony , we wanted to know more about him. Mikie Scars, recently taken. Michael DiLeonardo knows Cosa Nostra, and we spent a week asking him questions. We thank Michael for generously spending his time answering them. Michael DiLeonardo's story certainly warrants a full-length book. When we asked Michael if he was working on getting his life story onto the page, he told us only that he's received many requests. "Mikie Scars" beat the Feds when he was tried in Georgia for extorting some $70 million from Georgia's Gold Club and $100,000 from the Manhattan-based high-end Scores strip club.

Sunday is Mafia day at the New York Post, with reporter Brad Hamilton pumping out a longish feature story a week about goings-on in the mob. This week's offering centers on Lewis Kasman, John Gotti's self-proclaimed "adopted son" who wore a wire against "dad" -- may have stolen millions from him, according to one source -- and helped destroy the upper echelon of the Gambino family back in the John Gotti days . On the Curtis Sliwa show -- to listen, c lick here  -- Kasman offered such fables as how in the early 1990s, Gotti and Jackie "Nose" D'Amico rode the Long Island Rail Road into the city two-three days a week to show up at no-work jobs in midtown. Additionally Kasman, who became a paid FBI informer against the imprisoned-for-life mob boss in 1997, has already taken some potshots at Gotti family members, including Gotti’s brother Richard, a Gambino capo (whom Gotti referred to as "Pee-pee brain." Seriously). Eve...

Lost in the blinding media spotlight of the January 20th bust of about 130 mobsters and associates was the writing of what could be the final chapter in the story of Joseph "Joe The German" Watts, a gangster's gangster, whose resume goes all the way back to Carlo Gambino's reign, for whom he served as a hit man in the 1970s. Mugshot of a haggard looking Joe Watts. Watts --  never "made," or officially indoctrinated into a Mafia family, because he isn't Italian -- was still part of John Gotti's inner circle and often afforded the status of a capo. Watts was respected for his ability to earn and do "work," aka murder, in Mafia parlance. A strong-arm enforcer, Watts was capable of torture, which, contrary to public opinion, most mobsters do not have the stomach for. Watts, 69, has signed a plea agreement under which he will serve 13 years; initially the Feds had indicated that they might seek the death penalty for Watts (an...