Cosa Nostra News

Disqus, the comment platform, has been acting funny the past couple of days. This is a Disqus problem that will likely be addressed soon. (We hope.)  The Mob Museum  recently debuted a virtual book series to highlight recent and upcoming mob books, including by top authors in the genre. All events in the series are free and can be accessed via the web. (We include all pertinent links in the story below.) Cosa Nostra News' s own  Nick Christophers has signed on to participate in the event  and, on May 26, will discuss the history of the Greek mob in America, a topic that deserves more attention (in our humble opinion).  Nick will discuss and take questions regarding his recent  Mafia Ties: The Greek Syndicates.  (The book is currently in contract to be republished under the Canadian-based Coastal West Publishing imprint.)  Mafia Ties, which we read and heartily recommend, details the history of these wily Greek criminals who deftly fashioned c...

By Nick Christophers  I had the pleasure of visiting the Mob Museum not long ago and was floored by what it had to offer. As a mob historian the Museum offered me a journey that I will not soon forget.... The Las Vegas Mob Museum displays the bullet-riddled wall from the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, among other things. Each floor offered a different layer of mob history that was exciting with surprising artifacts that only they could offer. From the bullet riddled wall of the St. Valentines Day Massacre to letters from Pablo Escobar it was wild to see. Of course, all the items go through a rigorous authentication process.  Geoff Schumacher the Museum’s vice president of exhibits and programs , plays a huge role in offering a memorable tour for the many visitors to the Museum.  Geoff first came to the Museum in 2014 only two years after it opened its doors. When he arrived, he worked on building the Museum’s internet presence (via social media platforms) and artifact ac...

John Alite recently took to the podium at Las Vegas's Mob Museum , the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. He offered an Author Talk spotlighted on his collaboration with acclaimed Philadelphia-based journalist George Anastasia , who wrote  Gotti’s Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti and the Demise of the American Mafia . In an even, somber tone, he voiced his experiences and perceptions as an associate of the Gambino crime family during John Gotti's reign. John Alite speaks at the Las Vegas Mob Museum. Alite's presentation was provided free of charge with museum admission (and for museum members). A video of the presentation can be viewed on this story's jump page.

We had to delete the pic because of Adsense violations... Initially, we included in our Cosa Nostra News logo the iconic 1979 photograph of Carmine Galante taken by the enterprising news photographer positioned atop a roof that overlooked the outside patio of Joe and Mary's Italian American Restaurant in Bushwick, Brooklyn. (The restaurant went out of business following the murder on a dreadfully hot New York summer day.) The well-known image. But one image we happened across today gave us lengthy pause. We immediately knew we'd never seen the black-and-white photo before. Yet a familiarity was indeed there, likely due to the barber chair beside which the lifeless, blood-spattered gangster had collapsed after his infamous lunge at the mirror. A fatally shot mob boss, his dying brain's synapses misfiring, had mistakenly perceived his assassins to be standing in front of him. He'd been deceived by a reflection. We knew we were looking at a photograph we'...

Christian Cipollini's book on Luciano is due this May. The Mob Museum Blog  by Beverly Ford and Stephanie Schorow: The Italian-born gangster and head of [the crime family known today as] New York’s Genovese crime family who died in January more than 50 years ago was grossing $12 million from bootlegging, gambling and other illegal activities by the age of 28. Now that’s lucky. He escaped several attempts on his life, including a notorious beating and stabbing attack in 1929 that left him with a scar and drooping eye. That’s lucky too. He orchestrated the execution of several crime bosses – even luckier still since he survived to become one of the top crime bosses in the nation until dying of a heart attack in Naples, Italy, in 1962 at the age of 64. But if you think that’s all to the story of Charles “Lucky” Luciano, think again. Author Christian Cipollini has made some remarkable new discoveries about the gangster while researching his upcoming book, “Lucky ...