Cosa Nostra News

Is the oldest pizzeria in America linked to the Mafia? Investigators with a state gaming control board claim Yes, it is... Alleged Genovese capo John Brescio was the public face of Lombardi's. Lombardi’s Pizza was founded in Manhattan’s Little Italy in 1905 and was the place where pizza was created. As per The New York Times, "New York pizza did not exist before 1905, when Gennaro Lombardi, a Neapolitan immigrant, began to sell pies in his grocery store in Little Italy. Lombardi's was by most accounts the first New York pizzeria" ... It touts on its website that it's "(s)till located in the Little Italy section of Manhattan" where it offers "its beautiful, smoky-crusted coal oven baked pizza, topped with San Marzano tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and basil"... Mafia or no Mafia, let's all meet there and have a slice....  Lombardi's was slated to expand into the Parx Casino in Bensalem, Pa, in time for Christmas 2017. Howev...

UPDATED A "midlevel" member of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra with a long memory may be talking to the Feds. Recent photo of John Stanfa from Mob Talk Sitdown  That is what's "stirring the pot" in the Philadelphia streets based on this week's Mob Talk Sitdown with George Anastasia and Dave Schratwieser  (see below), who recall that it was 22 years ago around Thanksgiving time that former Philadelphia boss John Stanfa was convicted and sentenced to five consecutive life sentences for racketeering, extortion, loansharking, murder and conspiracy to commit murder. New York, specifically the Gambino crime family, charged Stanfa with putting the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra family back together in the post-Nicky Scarfo era. But Joseph Merlino didn't accept him as legitimate, preferring to "report" to "boss" Ralph Natale (who may not have even been made). Stanfa's reign ended in dismal failure. Anastasia recalled how th...

Looks like Nicodemo D. “Little Nicky” Scarfo, known for his reign of violence over the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra in the 1980s, won't walk out of prison one day, as a source had previously surmised . Scarfo died in a federal prison medical facility in Butner, NC, underworld sources have revealed, as  reported by George Anastasia on Big Trial. Little Nicky, right, Phil Leonetti, and Lawrence Merlino; Leonetti and Merlino both flipped. Merlino died in 2001. Anastasia noted in the story, posted around three hours earlier tonight that: "Prison officials could not be reached to confirm the report which began circulating in South Philadelphia this morning. Scarfo had been an inmate at the medical facility for more than a year. Cause of death, which reportedly occurred on Friday, could not be determined, but sources said he had been plagued with several medical problems." Scarfo was 87 and allegedly was doing his best to make it out of prison alive after c...

Donald C. Marino Donald C. Marino, one of Philadelphia's busiest attorneys, who went on to became chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association, died Monday, at age 74. He had lived in Longport, N.J., and had died of congestive heart failure. In a report on Philly.com, it's noted that Marino hadn't known he was "one of the targets of the vengeful mob boss John Stanfa in 1993" until three years after the fact. He was asked by Daily News reporter Kitty Caparella in 1996 if he had known about the contract, to which Marino replied, "This is the first I'm hearing about this." Obviously, he was pretty pissed off about it. "The government never said anything. Usually if they pick up anything, they tell people about it," he told Caparella. Mob informant Sergio Battaglia, a former hit man, told this to the FBI when they debriefed him prior to his giving testimony in mob trials. "Battaglia said Stanfa, who led the Philadelphia mob ...