Cosa Nostra News

Vincent (Vinny TV) Badalamenti, a former acting boss of the Bonanno crime family, was preferable to Joe C and Porky, one government witness said in testimony yesterday at the rackeering trial of Joe Cammarano and John (Porky) Zancocchio in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. One witness liked it better when Vinny TV was acting boss. The witness recorded audiotape in his pizzeria, which apparently the Joe C regime was jostling to take from him at the time. Still, the witness said that he tried to get along with them, and had even patronized Porky's restaurant, Bella Donna, where made members of the Bonanno crime family congregated on Fridays. "Like at happy hour," Judge Alvin Hellerstein interjected, evoking laughter even from members of the jury. The trial is wrapping up quickly: the government said it might finish presenting its case today, March 6. On Monday, former associate Stephen Sabella testified that Zanco...

UPDATE ADDED The Bonanno racketeering trial kicked off this week in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York before Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein (who is asking some great questions). Joseph “Joe C” Cammarano Jr. allegedly has good hair.....  On trial are accused acting Bonanno boss/official underboss Joseph (Joe C) Cammarano Jr., 59, and alleged consiglieri John (Porky) Zancocchio, 61. To win an acquittal, the two must get past the testimony of not only two mob turncoats who defense attorneys are reportedly planning to discredit for being "too cozy" with the NYPD and FBI, but legitimate business owners and others. The two top bananas of the Bonanno crime family face charges related to extortion and racketeering conspiracy. Former Bonanno capo Peter (Pug) Lovaglio and associate Steven Sabella are slated to testify against the two alleged gangsters. Also slated to testify are owners and employees of a demolition company, a constructio...

Alleged Philadelphia Cosa Nostra boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino , after pleading guilty to an illegal betting charge last Friday, made a prediction about his hometown team's NBA playoffs. On Jan. 31, 2018, Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino enters federal court in New York. (SOURCE) Merlino, a degenerate gambler, as per his own attorney , told reporters outside Manhattan federal court that the Philadelphia 76ers were his pick to win the championship. (Gamblers may want to pay heed to Merlino's sports soundbites.... Before the February mistrial, Merlino had predicted, successfully, that the case would end in a "deadlock win" for him. He also offered what turned out to be a winning tip on the Super Bowl: "Oh, and bet the Eagles .") Merlino also discussed Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill's recent release from prison, saying, "I'm glad he's at home with his family where he belongs." Rolling Stone recently thumbnailed...

EXCLUSIVE Longtime Genovese crime family capo Peter (Petey Red) DiChiara, who reputedly was the street boss, or front boss, for Liborio Bellomo, died Friday (March 2), two separate sources confirmed. Petey Red. DiChiara, who allegedly also was the Genovese crime family's consiglieri, had diabetes and other medical problems associated with the disease. DiChiara, 75, ran a social club in Lower Manhattan at 73 Market Street, which has been around since the 1990s. Except for the five-year period when DiChiara was serving time for a federal racketeering beef thanks to the associate with the funny Rolex, the club was known to have been a busy place, though the patrons reportedly had grown to ecompass more than members of Petey Red's crew, supposedly a sign of DiChiara's rise in the hierarchy to draw fire away from Bellomo, the official boss. (Bellomo was named to the acting slot in the 1980s by Vincent "Chin" Gigante himself.) In January 2016, DiChi...

Picked the wrong week to get sick. Still feeling this goddamn bug, but want to catch up on the many breaking news items that of course happened this past week.... A federal judge has postponed the coming week's trial in Manhattan of Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino , 55, after the alleged boss of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra was hospitalized for chest pains. Skinny Joey had chest pains and his trial was put on hold. Merlino was admitted to a Florida hospital for two heart blockages. He was reportedly suffering from chest pains, shortness of breath and spasms. The hospital performed a catheterization on him. The Mayo Clinic notes the procedure is "used to diagnose and treat cardiovascular conditions. During cardiac catheterization, a long thin tube called a catheter is inserted into an artery or vein in your groin, neck or arm and threaded through your blood vessels to your heart.Using this catheter, doctors can then do diagnostic tests as part of a cardiac ...

REVISED A decade ago, an impetuous real estate mogul was compelled to answer a series of questions under oath, a result of his own legal maneuverings. He had filed a libel lawsuit against a writer for authoring a biography of the mogul. And the wealthy developer who's been part of Manhattan's landscape longer than I have been alive is of course today's President of the United States. The book he filed the lawsuit over was  TrumpNation . Trump lost the case in 2011 -- free speech and all makes winning frivolous libel suits rather cumbersome -- but the deposition remains -- a relic of a dead legal case. Contained within it is an acknowledgment that, in more than 30 instances, Tump lied  extensively and proficiently on a range of issues.

The United States Attorney for New York's Southern District, Preet Bharara, the most powerful prosecutor in the country, was fired by the Trump administration after he refused to resign on Friday. Bharara  tweeted the news  on Saturday, March 11th: The Trump administration, in one fell swoop, wiped out all remaining Obama administration prosecutors at the Justice Department. A total of 46 holdover United States attorneys, including Bharara, was asked to resign immediately.   Gone... just... like... that....

Aniello "Neil" Dellacroce was born on March 15, 1914, in New York City and died on Dec. 2, 1985, in New York City. He took to "the life" with vigor. First arrested at 16, Dellacroce swiftly went about establishing a solid criminal portfolio for himself, making it as diverse as he could. He was charged with a range of crimes and was in and out of prison most of his life. He'd served one-two year bids for assault, armed robbery, drug dealing. But Dellacroce, a work in progress, eventually specialized in murder. And for that, the Feds never really touched the longtime Gambino crime family underboss. Neil Dellacroce Serving as Carlo Gambino's underboss, then Paul Castellano's, Dellacroce lived a life of what can only be chronicled as unimaginable violence. As protégé to the " Lord High Executioner" himself, Albert Anastasia, Dellacroce was a Murder Inc. button man. He learned how to administer death by some of the best practitione...