Cosa Nostra News

After a six-week jury trial, Matthew Madonna, Steven L. Crea, Christopher Londonio, and Terence Caldwell were convicted Friday of murder, conspiracy to commit racketeering, and other felonies. Fifteen other defendants previously pled guilty to related charges. U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “The violent and disturbing acts of these four organized crime figures included the brutal murder of associate Michael Meldish . Fittingly, all four defendants have been found guilty of their heinous acts of fraud, extortion, and murder on the six-year anniversary of Meldish’s death. Thanks to the outstanding investigative work of the FBI and NYPD, we will continue our commitment to making organized crime a thing of a bygone era.” According to the evidence presented at trial, and other court documents : Until his arrest in this case, Madonna was the Acting Boss of the Luchese Family of La Cosa Nostra , one of the “Five Families” that constitute the Mafia in the New York City a...

In November 2013, a low-profile Luchese associate was murdered in the Bronx -- and many stories in the media blitz that followed referenced the Purple Gang, an obscure 1970s street gang with reputed Mafia links. Police probe Meldish shooting in the Bronx in 2013. The  Purple Gang roamed the South Bronx and Harlem where members were involved in the large‐scale distribution of heroin. They also whacked people -- and in many cases, dismembered their victims, of which there reportedly were 17 by December 1977. (Many of the 17 had been active informants for law enforcement when slain.) Purple Gang members essentially cut their teeth as glorified coffee boys in decade-long apprenticeships.  They stepped up their game when the competition was wiped out -- meaning, they filled a huge niche after law enforcement cleared away many local narcotics trafficking rings, including the one known as the French Connection. The Purple Gang  entered the contract killing busines...

When Bronx-based Luchese associate Michael Meldish was shot to death in front of his home on November 15, 2013, at the age of 62, he was suspected of running a protection racket in the Edenwald area of the north Bronx. Meldish's boots were still outside the door to his apartment days after he was killed. As per early reports, initial law enforcement suspicion was centered on that racket as a possible cause of the shooting. Meldish, however, was known to have had a steady supply of enemies going back decades. He'd been arrested five times in the 1970s on various charges including assault and weapons possession, and he had other convictions throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He was suspected of committing as many as 10 murders as well. Meldish lived on 2nd Avenue near 111th Street in East Harlem. According to neighbors, he lived alone, was occasionally visited by a son and grandson, and was considered affable by many who knew him in the neighborhood. One neighbor claimed...

EXPANDED SIGNIFICANTLY The shooting of Enzo (The Baker) Stagno of Whitestone, Queens, was always one of the more bizarre twists in the ongoing story of the gangland-style killing of Luchese associate Michael Meldish. Now, we finally seem to have enough information to piece this big puzzle together. We also know more about why Bonanno boss Michael (Nose) Mancuso was initially named as a suspect in the Meldish murder. Gangland hit victim Michael Meldish. The Stagno attempted hit occurred on May 29, 2013, at around 6 p.m., as he was seated in his 2009 GMC Yukon, parked at East 111th Street and First Avenue. Stagno was chatting on his cellphone when he suddenly heard BANG! The window beside him shattered and a bullet punched into his chest, grazing him. Stagno felt a “pinch” and dived into the backseat -- when the next shot was fired.

Powerful Luchese mobster Matthew "Matty" Madonna, 80, ordered the 2013 Michael Meldish murder, one of the only "sanctioned" mob hits in recent years (that we know of). For Madonna, drawing law enforcement's scrutiny is among the numerous occupational hazards of wiseguy life. He certainly knows that. Madonna's mob ties run back to 1970s Harlem. While New York's Purple Gang was murdering and dismembering anyone that got in its way, Madonna was Nicky Barnes' drug courier. A low-level gangster charged with making a dangerous drive to Harlem with a mega-load of dope stuffed in the rocker panel (or wherever, anyone see French Connection?) Matty Madonna's roots go back to 1970s Harlem-based drug kingpin  Nicky Barnes. The alleged murderers of Meldish have been arrested. Madonna copped to 2010's Operation Heat case involving a gambling ring and prison-smuggling operation, then to another case, and is slated to serve five years . M...

Suspects were never in short supply regarding the Michael Meldish murder . The former Purple Gang boss was offed in November 2013 in what's described as a classic gangland hit tableau. Michael Meldish, former Purple Gang leader, may have died for pissing off a high-ranking Luchese Mafioso. His body, expensively attired, ensconced in a camel-colored leather jacket, was slumped over in the driver's seat, his head back, his mouth agape. “Michael was a stone-cold killer,” Joseph Coffey, former commanding officer of the NYPD’s organized crime homicide task force, told the New York Daily News.

In November 2013, one of the last mob hits in the New York area took place. And now law enforcement reportedly has arrested those responsible, including a soldier in the Bonanno crime family. The murder scene of Michael Meldish. Gangster Michael Meldish was slain the old-school way, with a bullet to the back of his head. The killing had all the signs of a gangland hit, complete with the victim slumped over in the driver's seat of his rusty Lincoln LS in Throgs Neck on Ellsworth Ave.

With little fanfare -- and no media coverage that we could find -- Genovese acting boss Daniel Leo is back on the streets, having been released from prison on Jan. 25, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons . The Genovese crime family is deemed to be the most powerful criminal group in America -- and now, according to sources, free on the streets are its acting boss, street boss, underboss, consigliere -- and supposedly the capos who run a trio of the family's most powerful crews. Daniel Leo, Genovese acting boss  "The Genovese crime family is still the best organized, and has the deepest bench," the chief of investigations for the Manhattan district attorney has said. "They continue to take part in traditional organized crime activities of gambling, loansharking and labor racketeering in New York and New Jersey." "The Genovese family is the most secretive, criminally diverse, and powerful family in the country," an FBI agent added, ...

Gangster Michael Meldish took a bullet to the head on Friday night in a grizzly exercise of Mafia recidivism. The killing has all the signs of a genuine, bona fide mob hit – old school all the way. Michael Meldish's good night kiss. Meldish, who se brother is currently serving time in prison, has been a notorious hitman believed to have killed more than 10 people in the two decades he spent running The Purple Gang. His reign ended on Friday night, at around 10:30 p.m. His body was found in the driver’s seat of a rusty Lincoln LS in Throgs Neck on Ellsworth Ave. “Michael was a stone-cold killer,” Joseph Coffey, former commanding officer of the NYPD’s organized crime homicide task force, told the New York Daily News, which added that Coffey had “tried for years to pin murders on Meldish…” Interesting choice of phrase. Joseph Meldish, now in prison, is alleged to have committed up to 70 contract hits. Coffey added: “We couldn’t get any witnesses. They had the p...

Joseph Meldish, alleged mob hit man. A former drug-addicted prostitute convicted of fingering the wrong target for a mob hit man in a Bronx tavern in 1999 was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison, There is no word regarding the sentencing of the hit man, Joseph Meldish. Prosecutors charge that Meldish — a reputed member of the Purple Gang, a drug-dealing group tied to the Gennovese, Luchese and Bonanno crime families — had meant to wipe out Brown’s brother, Thomas Brown, in the mistaken identity attack. Kim Hanzlick, now 45, walked into Frenchy's Tavern in Throggs Neck on March 21, 1999, and, according to another accomplice, identified a man sitting inside as Thomas Brown but the man she pointed out was actually Thomas' look-alike brother, Joseph Brown. Meldish walked in and calmly shot Brown right in front of his wife -- nine times. After a career in crime that spans more than two decades, Meldish faces life in prison when he's sentenced, which was supposed ...