Cosa Nostra News

The Philadelphia Cosa Nostra, at its zenith under Angelo Bruno, was a massive criminal empire in every sense of the word . Skinny Joey awaits word about possible retrial in Manhattan federal court. The crime family stretched far beyond the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's largest city, the sixth-most populous in the United States. Philadelphia, the economic (and cultural) heart of the Delaware Valley, is located along the lower Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, within both the Mid-Atlantic region and the Northeast megalopolis. The "Bruno family" dominated the underworld throughout and beyond, for a time spilling into New Jersey and Boston, and as far away as Las Vegas to the west, Florida to the south, and overseas, in England. The crime family wielded immense influence over (at least) four labor unions in the Delaware Valley alone. It ran the city’s largest illegal gambling operations and was a de-facto "bank" that lent money to smaller gambling s...

When, precisely, did the FBI's New York Field Office realize that it was screwed? We refer here to the seemingly immense East Coast LCN Enterprise case , the investigation that resulted in last August's indictment of 46 mobsters, including mobsters from four of New York's five Mafia families and the alleged boss of the Philadelphia mob (who lives in Florida). George Borgesi with his hot younger wife. (N OTE: Reputed Philadelphia boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino is the only alleged "East Coast LCN crime syndicate" member from the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra.) The answer to that question may shed light on a possible alternative reason for why the Fed's in New York were reluctant to share information with offices in Philadelphia and Florida. The word has been that New York's Southern District was too greedy and didn't want to share the credit on what certainly appeared to be a large, sprawling Mafia case. Unless, of course, the Feds knew that said c...

Last year, the Fed's invited Skinny Joey Merlino to what they said was gonna be one helluva party.   Only now they wanna cancel.   Well, too bad for them, Joey says. Now, he's gonna force them to throw it.  Rather than swallow two years inside Merlino is ready for trial. Bradley Sirkin, one of the East Coast LCN Enterprise case's wild cards, was a former driver for Philadelphia Mafia boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino. He had extensive ties to the Mafia -- was associated with several crime families. He seems to have been one of the key threads running from New York to Florida. This mean anything? He's agreed to a guilty plea in the EasIt Coast-whatever case in Manhattan Federal Court. He also copped in Federal court in Tampa. Sirkin said he committed conspiracy to commit health care fraud in what is viewed as a strong case against him and seven co-defendants (unlike the case in New York). Merlino refused to cop and is seeking to push the Fed...

Video added We support the independent authors, writers, artists, designers, filmmakers, etc., who create the stories and images that move us. Today, the Internet's DIY emphasis has stimulated the growth of new storytelling formats including ebooks, YouTube videos and podcasts, in addition to the traditional mainstays of stage, screen and T.V. And despite all the critics and industry prognosticators ever seeking to raise the bar as high as possible, at any given time a self published ebook or podcast or whatever may debut, gain traction and rocket to success, or become an underground classic or even a masterpiece.  You'll notice that th e independent film the following  story details may gain distribution at one of the many film festivals -- but even if it doesn't, the filmmakers can still distribute the finished property.  Emboldened by this artistic sentiment, contributor Nick Christophers, aka "Nicky Packs," (though I still call him Nicky V...

Last Don Standing: The Secret Life of Mafia Boss Ralph Natale by Larry McShane and Dan Pearson will be available in the U.S. next March.  The Amazon Kindle version is available for pre-order now at the discounted price of $12.99, a savings of 50 percent. The book, about the life of a former boss of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra will download to Kindle devices on March 21, 2017. Natale is the first-ever mob boss to turn state’s evidence, as the book's description notes .

REVISED JULY 2018 Follow-up to  recent  story on history of Philadelphia Mafia... The volatility for which the Philadelphia Mafia is historically so well-known didn't begin with Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo. Little Nicky Scarfo, violent former mob boss of Philly Cosa Nostra It certainly reached a crescendo of sorts during Scarfo's blood-soaked reign--and the violence continued when a street war erupted between factions after Scarfo went away. The greatest irony here is that the crime family known for its violence  was once run by a notoriously peaceful boss, who preferred making deals to ordering murders. "The Gentle Don," Angelo Bruno (born Angelo Annaloro) ran the Philly mob during what's called its "golden age," from 1959 until his 1980 murder, which may have resulted from the ruthless duplicity of the Genovese crime family's then-street boss "Funzi" Tieri, who allegedly was quite sore over losing a North-Je...

Steve Bouye recently retired from his post as a decorated corrections officer who worked at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta. The father of Houston Texans cornerback A.J. Bouye served in that role for 25 years. Nicky Scarfo walks out of El Paso, Texas prison in 1984. In a recent interview with The Chronicle , he noted that he'd guarded, as well as transported, two mob bosses : Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo and John A. "Junior" Gotti, among a host of high-profile celebrity criminals, including former Alabama governor Don Siegelman and former Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick. "I've seen a lot of things working at the prison, a lot of guys who went down the wrong path," Steve Bouye told the Chronicle. "There wasn't too much room for people like John Gotti to get into more trouble. It was a tough job that I worked hard at and always did my best." Scarfo, 87, who is serving a prison sentence not slated to end until ...

The "massive" federal racketeering conspiracy indictment that broke this past Thursday named 46 mobsters, of which 39 were arrested. Compound lotion kingpin Joey Merlino.... Among the arrested was Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino, whom the Feds say still runs the Philadelphia mob family, which was also named in the indictment (though not a single mobster was yanked off the streets of Philly by the Feds during the "East Coast LCN Enterprise" bust, as it's been dubbed.) The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York unveiled the indictment, which depicts a seemingly immense, sprawling collaboration involving four of New York's Five Families: the Gambino, Genovese, Luchese, and Bonannos -- and Philadelphia.

Bronx-based restaurant allegedly owned by Genovese capo on ruling panel of East Cost Syndicate case. REVISED The Italian-American Mafia is still something of a force in New York City, if nowhere else.  But despite American law enforcement's efforts to depict it as otherwise, it's clear the mob is nowhere near the menace it once actually was. Even the nicknames suck. It's difficult to read this latest indictment and believe this entity was once a mighty, highly structured criminal organization known for committing murders and spinning rackets anywhere and everywhere possible, that it was once considered powerful enough to be a second government.

Philadelphia mob boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino and more than 40 made members and associates from four of New York's Five Families were arrested this morning in a massive Cosa Nostra takedown. ( Looks like I was more accurate than I thought with that  headline about 2016 not coming up aces for Merlino .) The federal indictment alleges this unique criminal operation spanned from New York and the Northeast to Florida (and Costa Rica, even), according to the indictment. No one in Philadelphia other than Merlino was arrested, George Anastasia reported for Philly Voice . Merlino and many of those arrested today were targets of an FBI undercover investigation that involved cooperating witnesses wearing audio and video recorders who infiltrated the various involved mob circles, Anastasia reported. Hundreds of hours of tapes were made.

Things are going from bad to worse for Philadelphia's alleged mob boss. First, his fine-dining establishment in Boca was put on the block a mere months following its grand opening. Then Skinny Joey was linked to a group of c onvicted criminals and individuals with organized crime ties  who "dumped tons of contaminated soil and construction debris near residential areas and waterways in New Jersey in recent years." Joey Merlino may no longer be able to indulge in gambling in Pennsylvania following an altercation. Now the Pennsylvania State Gaming Control Board no longer wants Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino strutting into any of the state's casinos -- as George Anastasia reported last week for Philly Voice -- so t hey filed a petition to prohibit Merlino from doing just that .

Nick Christophers wrote this as an advocate of "Nicky Slick." After researching the case, he wants to expose the truth. Nicky Slick, far left, Johnny Gabs, far right. The Philadelphia mob was in upheaval for many years following the murder of then-boss Angelo Bruno. Before a shotgun ended Bruno, he ran the city's underworld in relative calm for over 20 years. Bruno resorted to violence, or its threat, if absolutely necessary. But he tried to avoid the attention of the authorities at all costs. One of his famous sayings was "make money not headlines!"  Nicknamed the "Docile Don" due to his emphasis on negotiating versus bloodshed, Angelo Bruno also sat on the powerful Mafia Commission and was tight with New York's most powerful boss, Carlo Gambino. Everything came crashing down for Angelo in part due to his ban on drug dealing. Many of the young turks saw the immense profits in drugs, even Bruno's own underboss, Phil...