Cosa Nostra News

UPDATED " To be honest with you, we just barely let the Gambino family in ...." Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso, referring to the stunningly profitable gasoline tax scam in testimony before the Senate Subcommittee In May 1996, for the first and only time, Luchese underboss Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso testified—before the Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which was examining the emergence of Russian immigrant crime groups and their ties to New York's Five Families, among other crime groups. Underboss to underboss: Sammy the Bull and Gaspipe Casso walk-talk. He spoke during the brief period that was the length of his cooperation . Gaspipe, who flipped in March 1994, was booted from the program in July 1998, when Judge Frederic Block of the Federal District Court in Brooklyn found that he had breached his cooperation deal with prosecutors. Block authorized the Government to rescind the plea agreement on the grounds that Casso had bribed prison guards to smuggle co...

A recent Appellate Court ruling granting a requested delay has cleared the path for a new trial for alleged Luchese underboss Steven L. Crea, acting boss Matthew (Matty) Madonna, soldier Christopher Londonio, and associate Terrence Caldwell, who were convicted and sentenced to life in prison for a gangland hit in the Bronx in 2013. Reputed mob associate Meldish was shot dead in the Bronx in 2013. Lawyers for Crea, Madonna, Londonio, and Caldwell filed the joint motion last month to request a delay because, the lawyers say, they found new evidence containing Brady, Giglio, or Rule 16 material—which has to do with the disclosure of exculpatory and impeachment evidence—which they will use in a motion seeking a new trial. The Rule 33 motion was to be filed in U.S. District Court in White Plains, the same courthouse where Crea, Madonna, Londonio, and Caldwell stood trial in 2019 for the murder of alleged Luchese associate Michael Meldish . Crea and his three co-defendants were convicted on ...

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...

Excerpts from two handwritten letters, the first to the NYPD: I am not (a woman hater). I am a monster. I am the Son of Sam…I am on a different wavelength than everyone else—programmed to kill. To stop me you must kill me. Attention all police, Shoot me first—shoot to kill or else keep out of my way or you will die. I love to hunt. Prowling the street looking for fair game—tasty meat. The women of Queens are prettiest of all. It must be the water they drink. I live for the hunt—my life. Blood for Papa... Another, to newspaperman Jimmy Breslin: Hello from the gutters of N.Y.C. which are filled with dog manure, vomit, stale wine, urine and blood. Hello from the sewers of N.Y.C. which swallow up these delicacies when they are washed away by the sweeper trucks. Hello from the cracks in the sidewalks of N.Y.C. and from the ants that dwell in these cracks and feed in the dried blood of the dead that has settled into the cracks. ... -- David Berkowitz, "Son of Sam" Some of the ...

A virus claims the life of a murderous ex-wiseguy After spending a month on a ventilator, Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso died of complications from COVID-19 on Tuesday, December 15, at age 78. The former Luchese underboss was first diagnosed with coronavirus on November 5 at the United States Penitentiary in Tucson. Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso Casso was one of two inmates at Tuscon USP who died of COVID-19 yesterday. (The other was a 73-year-old convict serving a 25-year sentence for sex trafficking and weapons charges.) On Thursday, November 5, Casso tested positive for COVID-19 and was placed in medical isolation at the United States Penitentiary Tucson. Institution medical staff provided treatment and monitored his condition. On Monday, November 9, he was transported to a local hospital due to respiratory distress. On Tuesday, November 17, his condition declined and he was placed on a ventilator. On Tuesday, December 15, Casso, who officials say had long-term, pre-existing medical conditions, ...