Cosa Nostra News

In 1988, years before his wife became (something of) a household name and his father's first cousin became the mayor of New York City, Lee D'Avanzo was part of a crew of wannabe wiseguys who raked in the cash via drug dealing, loansharking, money laundering, home invasions, and up to 30 attempted or successful bank burglaries. Members of one of Staten Island's many gangs in the 1980s. By December 2001, when 11 members of the New Springville Boys were indicted for terrorizing Staten Island and committing crimes up and down the East Coast, the indictment identified D'Avanzo as the head of the ragtag crew. Some other names identified in the indictment: Neat (Ned the Head) Bilali, Robert Catanese, Francis Costanzo, William (Big Billy) Fauci, and Edward Shamah. Between 1988 and 2000, crew members schemed to burglarize over 30 night-deposit boxes at banks in seven states: One string of heists in Washington state in 1998 netted the gang $240,000, court papers say. T...

Joseph Galante, 49, a member of the Queens-based Giannini Crew, who assisted in the 1993 disposal of a murder victim, but then cooperated and wore a wire, was sentenced to 10 years in prison earlier this month for this "gruesome" crime. Galante caught some major luck as he had appartently decided flipping wasn't for him. He "resumed committing crimes and prosecutors tore up his cooperation agreement," the Daily News  reported . Galante, who faced 30 to life, got away with 10 years. Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis was well aware of "the extraordinary length of time he served as an informant and making secret recordings of mobsters from the Bonanno, Colombo and Genovese crime families."

As many who watch " Mob Wives " are aware,  Lee D'Avanzo  opened a sports memorabilia store on Staten Island. Inside Mr. Lee's Sportscards store.  It apparently opened its doors this past March, with New York Mets Legend Dwight "Doc" Gooden guest starring at the grand opening. (We'd assumed Lee was a Yankees fan for some reason.) "It's a family-friendly place," says the man in the video below, who we believe is Lee. Available for purchase are a wide range of items, including sports cards, rare sport figurines and autographed jerseys. Be sure to check out the intriguing YouTube video at the end of the post in which a man we assume is Mr. Lee himself -- sound like dry cleaner! -- tells us in great detail about the store... well, not exactly. All my readers -- hit the link and check out Lee's site; I am hoping he'll see a "dramatic surge" in traffic -- and maybe I'll get an interview... Though I doubt it....

Last year, the  Miami New Times  obtained from a confidential source hundreds of pages of sealed court documents that reveal information provided to the FBI by former infamous South Beach nightclub king Chris Paciello -- and it seems Paciello dished up a lot more details on goodfellas and their crimes than was originally thought. Lee D'Avanzo "Between December 2000 and May 2001, the FBI met with the fallen club king eight times and conducted 15 hours of interviews. During those meetings, Paciello detailed not only his own criminal history but those of dozens of his Mob colleagues," a New Times article notes. Additionally, many secrets in the documents center on Lee D'Avanzo, one of Paciello's early criminal cohorts. In fact, Paciello is a large part of the reason why Lee went away to prison. [We are not sure if this is the sentence Lee is still serving or if it was an earlier conviction.] It adds: "Most significant, Paciello fingered two mad...