Cosa Nostra News

Frank Gangi—a former Bonanno associate who, thanks to best-selling author Philip Carlo, earned lifetime infamy for his stint as sidekick to one of the most notorious Cosa Notra killers of the 20th century, Tommy Karate—has died, we've belatedly learned..... Frank Gangi  Jimmy Calandra announced Frank's demise in one of his Bath Avenue Story podcast s, saying he had gotten the word from some of Gangi’s relatives after mentioning Frank in an earlier podcast. (We were initially tipped off by the last person you would think of when hearing  Frank Gangi's name. Well, actually, the first—someone who has been in prison for more than 30 years now.) Back in April 1990 (then-Gambino boss John Gotti et al would be arrested in December of that year), Gangi confessed to being a member of a mob-linked crew under Bonanno soldier Thomas (Tommy Karate) Pitera and committing a host of horrible crimes, including selling about 50 kilograms of cocaine from between 1987 and January 1989 and pa...

Writer Philip Carlo is on the right. This transcript and a new page I posted  tonight about the "Ice Man" Richard Kuklinski convey what I've always believed. Richard Kuklinski was full of shit.  And, I have begun doubting my previous thinking about author Philip Carlo. There's a difference between making a mistake and concocting what you should know is false information. Carlo seemed to be working with a damaged filter. I'll leave it there. Enjoy this transcript and the new landing page, Last Word on Kuklinski .  CNN.com - Transcripts : "Aired June 26, 2006 - 21:00   ET JOHN ROBERTS, GUEST HOST: Tonight, exclusive, inside the chilling double life of a convicted killer who claimed to be a brutal Mafia hit man with more than 200 victims. Now in their first ever interview his own family, who he terrorized but didn't know about his deadly secret life until he was arrested next on LARRY KING LIVE. And good evening, I'm John Roberts sitting in f...

Guy in the middle had no idea what the future held when this photograph was snapped. Philip Carlo (April 18, 1949 – November 8, 2010) wrote best-selling novels and non-fiction, focusing mainly on sociopaths, pedophiles and psychopaths. A popular, beloved writer and New York figure, he also was known for letting the occasional fact stray in his non-fiction, which spans the range from mobsters, including Thomas "Tommy Karate" Pitera , to serial killer Richard "The Night Stalker" Ramirez -- with Richard "The Ice Man" Kuklinksi falling somewhere in between. I just finished reading Carlo's final book, "The Killer Within"; he in fact died a few weeks after completing it, of the horrifying illness ALS -- better known as Lou Gehrig's Disease. Turns out, of all his subjects it was Tommy Karate who was weighing on his mind the most heavily toward the end of his life.

Thomas (Tommy Karate) Pitera, made member of the Bonanno crime family, in his most recent effort to get out of prison, sought to use DNA evidence to shift blame for several murders on a former partner in crime. Moment of Truth: Tommy Karate, nose busted, comprehending  his career's end. Pitera's appeal was crushed (just like his nose when the DEA arrested him) by a dead judge, who while alive penned the legal documents that validated the denial. As Forbes reported: "A federal court of appeals yesterday denied a criminal defendant’s Motion To Compel Post-Conviction Relief in the form of DNA testing of six items related to the crimes at issue. "The defendant/appellant, Thomas Pitera, alleges that genetic testing of those items would exonerate him by showing that the guilty party was in fact Frank Gangi, whom the court determined to be his accomplice. In United States v. Pitera (2d Cir. Apr. 3, 2012), the Second Circuit determined after very careful a...

Here is the first post I ever wrote for this site; I in fact created this site to have a place to put it! Despite my obvious criticism of writer Philip Carlo, who sadly died of a horrible disease, I still love his work and have read all his books... Add caption I recently read a hardcover book by organized-crime specialist scribe Philip Carlo about Anthony Gaspipe Casso, a fascinating, psychotic Luchese mobster, who I think is the first mobster in history to flip for the police, then flip back, only once you flip, you really can't flip back. So he is a mafiosi who was thrown out of the mob for deciding to turn state's evidence, only the state decided the evidence he provided wasn't strong enough to outweigh his crimes, which included the torture/murders of a lot of people.

RIP author Philip Carlo Philip Carlo appeared on an episode of Mobsters about Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso, the subject of his book Gaspipe: Confessions of a Mafia Boss . Carlo died last year, on Nov. 8, never to see the publication of his last book, The Killer Within:In the Company of Monsters , which was released on Jan. 6, 2011. (Read an interview with Carlo.) Although he's made some whopping errors (Ice Man, for example, meaning the entire book), I still recommend his books due to a fascinating intimacy in them that flowed from his relationships with numerous New York organized crime figures. (His wife is the daughter of slain Gambino mobster  Eddie Garofalo ); additionally, Carlo and his family had been close friends with Casso.