Cosa Nostra News

UPDATED/APRIL 8: See below... ( Roy Cohn had a different version of events about Trump Tower. Check back for more information...) Despite his polarizing nature, a new Netflix series, Trump: An American Dream , which is available now, reportedly provides a neutral look at Donald Trump, leveraging interviews with those who either love or hate him. Trump with New York City Mayor Ed Koch, and Roy Cohn Filmed and produced by Britain’s Channel 4, Trump: An American Dream focuses on Trump’s life from his 1980s rise to his more recent political aspirations. The series is comprised of four hour-long episodes. (I'm watching episode one, and I find the show quite compelling actually. The 1970-80s news clips alone are dredging up long forgotten memories. Trump has been a years-long research "project" of mine and this series is bringing many things into sharp focus.) It may not do the kind of deep dives into topics as is commonly done in digital journalism, but it...

COSA NOSTRA NEWS EXCLUSIVE The next installment of our Michael DiLeonardo-Salvatore Romano saga .... The storefronts at 98-04 101st Avenue in Ozone Park, the former home base of the Gambino crime family. The  Corozzos were a faction of the Gambino crime family from Brooklyn's Canarsie. After John Gotti went down courtesy of Sammy the Bull, Peter Gotti was named boss. (Arnold "Zeke" Squitieri would be named acting boss in time). Jo Jo Corozzo was named consiglieri, and with that move it seemed that, for the first time in Mafia history, the power in the Gambino crime family was going to move to Canarsie. Jo Jo was in position to rise to the top. And if he needed a little firepower to help him up, he certainly had it in brother Nicky, who himself had certain aspirations. Corozzo was released from a halfway house last January after spending more than seven years in prison. Corozzo had been indicted back in 2008 as part of Operation Old Bridge...

Many, many wiseguys were born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn -- or resided there or conducted business there (or where murdered there), especially along Bath Avenue, just south of 86th Street’s bustling shopping district, where the social clubs once stood one beside the other. The list includes mobsters such as OG Carlo Gambino (he was Sicilian born, but lived in Bensonhurst in his later New York years); former Luchese underboss Anthony Casso; Gambino boss Paul Castellano, who was Carlo Gambino's brother-in-law); former Gambino capo under John Gotti Michael (Mike Scars) DiLeonardo; notorious Gambino capo/Roy DeMeo mentor Anthony Gaggi; Jimmy Moran, aka Sammy "The Bull" Gravano; capo/snitch Gregory Scarpa; and Colombo turncoat Carmine Sessa. While the Bensonhurst wiseguys are all gone today, dead or in prison or in Witness Protection, once in a great while, something happens that conjures up specters of the past. There was the Cafe Caserta thing (the place sold more...