Cosa Nostra News

Luigi Grasso, Big Ang's cousin. It was about about six months ago when newspapers were reporting that Luigi Grasso, c ousin of ‘Mob Wives’ star Big Ang, had saved a suicidal inmate's lif e in a courthouse holding cell before Grasso’s appearance on a weapons rap.  Grasso's actions were lauded  by no less than a Manhattan judge.  The distressed suicidal inmate, who was never identified by officials, had fashioned a noose from a T-shirt and was hanging from the top bar in the pens of Manhattan Criminal Court at 111 Centre St. on Oct. 7 when the brawny mobster literally leaped into the air to save him, according to witnesses.

"Renee thinks we're gangsters, we're girls... " Big Ang "Big Ang" Raiola. REVISED SLIGHTLY : Most blogs probably picked up on the idiotic "Ratalie" headline and missed the larger point, in our opinion. Big Ang is back! We were concerned last year. As we noted in our end-of-season wrap up, it seemed like all Angela "Big Ang" Raiola did was react...

Pagan should be out of prison in about six years Brooklyn Federal Judge John Gleeson doled out to Hector "Junior" Pagan an 11-year prison term for a criminal career overflowing with drug dealing and the violence of armed robberies and kidnapping. Pagan also was the shooter who killed Luchese associate James Donovan during a street heist for which two of Pagan's former cohorts have gone away for 36 years each, due in part to Pagan's own testimony. According to Gangland News: "Sources say he didn't expect to be hit with a double-digit stretch behind bars because he had testified against his cohorts in the Donovan slaying and had worn a wire against top Bonanno family mobsters." Donovan's family made the same presentation for the judge that they did last month at the sentencing of Richard Riccardi and Luigi Grasso.

"Junior" "He went around for months trying to help them find the murderer when it was him. It's hard to think of a bigger fraud than that. And he was waving to the guys he was taping not to say anything about the murder so the DEA wouldn't know. He is just about as dirty as anyone gets, forget about government witnesses. How do they embrace this guy? Why give this guy an opportunity to walk out of jail to put my guy away for life." Since his arrest on separate armed robbery charges in November of 2011, he's been in jail. And prosecutors have already agreed to recommend leniency for him when he is sentenced this month. Hector "Junior" Pagan will not be prosecuted for the murder of James Donovan, as well as numerous crimes committed across a string of 30 years. Wonder who will be lucky enough to be his new neighbor out there in the midwest. Good luck folks, cause this guys is a sociopath with no hope of redemption. We'd love h...

Hector Pagan. Hector "Junior" Pagan  will pay the piper soon. He faces the judge for sentencing this month. And it is quite possible he will go away for life. In the end, Pagan's punishment, despite his cooperation with the Feds, could fit his crimes. This is partly because the fetching, determined daughter of the man Pagan killed has caught the attention of the judge.

Pagan testified at a murder trial in  which he was the actual murderer. Recently the  WSJ.com ran a story about a "rare and risky legal strategy" used by prosecutors. Turns out they even have a name for it: Testifying down. Guess who they were referring to! (Well, at least he's still in the clink, as we learn..) In two recent cases in Brooklyn, one of which was the  James Donovan  murder trial, in which Pagan testified,  "... [t]he government used cooperating witnesses—"big fish"—who admitted to more serious crimes than the charges faced by the people they were testifying against. "This is, generally speaking, the opposite of how cooperating witnesses work. Usually, legal experts said, the goal is to get those witnesses to admit to wrongdoing, cooperate with the government and to walk the investigation up the ladder, obtaining evidence against leaders or those potentially engaged in more serious crimes. In exchange, on the recommendatio...

"Junior" Hector Pagan, ex-husband of Renee Graziano, yesterday testified in Brooklyn Federal Court that he had become a government informant in 2006 — a full five years before he agreed to wear a wire against father-in-law Anthony Graziano and other Bonanno ranking mobsters. Pagan also fired a gun at a presumed beau of Renee's while Pagan was married to her after he happened to view her getting out of the man's car. No details are available regarding whether the man was wounded or not, and we are not aware of his name. (If anyone is, we'd appreciate a tip!) And Pagan had been a Luchese associate, as was victim James Donovan at the time of the murder, before moving to the Bonanno family after his engagement to Renee Graziano. These are among the revelations to emerge from the trial of Luigi Grasso and Richard Riccardi for the killing of James Donovan. Grasso and Riccardi face life in prison if convicted.

Surveillance photo of Luigi Grasso. Luigi Grasso and Richard Riccardi have been found guilty for the killing of James Donovan . Grasso, 46, of Staten Island, and Riccardi, 41, of Manalapan, N.J., each face a minimum of 10 years and maximum of life in prison when sentenced on Aug. 1. They were both convicted on conspiracy, robbery, firearms use and murder charges. "The defendants plotted this brazen robbery and took the life of James Donovan because of their unrelenting greed," said Loretta Lynch, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York. "After lying in wait for Donovan, the defendants coldly robbed him, shot him and left him to die in the street."

Add caption The NY Daily News is reporting that prosecutors are actually in a state of "fear" over the fact that jurors for an upcoming gangland murder trial may become starstruck owing to the fact that a former "star" of the reality TV show “Mob Wives” is due to take the stand. Also of concern is the possibility that jurors might ignore evidence and reach a verdict based on whether or not they want to gain or avoid "the notoriety associated with the show," prosecutors noted in court papers. Hector Pagan , the "star" witness against reputed mobsters Richard Riccardi and Luigi Grasso, appeared on the show during the 2010 and 2011 seasons; he flipped during the summer of 2011.

From NY Daily News : Prosecutors fear jurors for an upcoming gangland murder trial with stars in their eyes may become part of the cast of the reality TV show “Mob Wives.” Hector Pagan, the star witness against reputed mobsters Richard Riccardi and Luigi Grasso, has become a recurring plot line on the popular show because he is the ex-husband of “Mob Wives” star Renee Graziano. Pagan's so-called "betrayal" of his ex-wife and father-in-law, Bonanno capo Anthony Graziano, will undoubtedly be the subject of further discussion when he takes the stand in Brooklyn Federal Court next month, Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Argentieri stated in papers seeking an anonymous jury. The feds want the jurors' identities kept secret to prevent anyone from hunting them down "to generate additional stories," Argentieri warns. Worse, jurors might ignore the evidence and reach a verdict to "avoid the notoriety associated with the show or seek it out." Pagan i...