Cosa Nostra News

From an article on the Queens Chronicle website by Michael Cusenza, Editor: FBI agents, assisted by the Police Department and state law enforcement agencies, last week executed the largest coordinated organized crime takedown in FBI history, cuffing more than 100 of 127 indicted individuals in the city, New Jersey and Rhode Island. But an academic expert in criminology and criminal organizations noted that while the dramatic pre-dawn raids undoubtedly have struck an economic blow to La Cosa Nostra, the Mafia in New York has always regrouped and regenerated. “They will adjust,” said Howard Abadinsky, professor of criminal justice at St. John’s University in Jamaica. “Whether [the arrests] will have a lasting effect on the structure of the groups — that, I doubt.” Abadinsky also called the simultaneous arrests of so many reputed members of the mob “extraordinary,” because they’re not all tied to the same crime, and said he sensed “a little bit of a suspicion that maybe ther...

From left to right: Victoria Gotti (daughter), John Travolta, John "Junior" Gotti and Lindsay Lohan, who may or may not appear in the Fiore Films production. John Travolta visited New York this past week to speak with the widow of the gangster John Gotti, whom he is portraying in the upcoming biopic produced by Fiore Films. Late Mafia boss John Gotti died in 2002 while serving a life sentence. In the upcoming film, titled Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father, will explore the relationship between the notorious crime boss and his son John "Junior" Gotti (who has a "story by" credit, although he didn't pen the screenplay and reportedly sold the story rights for half a million dollars). Travolta has been thoroughly researching the role, according to several published reports, and on Thursday even landed on the doorstep of  Gotti's widow, Victoria. He was photographed arriving at the family home in Queens, New York, and after spending two hours i...