Cosa Nostra News

Click image to purchase. The following article is drawn from the newly published book Badge 387: The Story of Jim Simone by Robert Sberna (See Rob's blog at  www.robertsberna.com ). In general, mob guys don’t take on civilians as partners in crime.  Ordinary citizens can’t be trusted to keep quiet. When it comes to police interrogations, they are untested entities. They are likely to fold under pressure by expert interviewers. And when civilians do get into bed with the Mafia, it’s likely they will be taken for their money. After all, who are they going to complain to? Not the police. In a convoluted murder case from the 1980s, Lola Toney learned the hard way that crime should be left to the experts. Toney became entangled with a Cleveland mobster when her mother-in-law, Dimple Podborny, asked for help in killing her wealthy husband, Henry.

Edited The short-format e-book The Mystery of the Lufthansa Airlines Heist:: A Wiseguy Reveals the Untold Story , available now for $3.99, reached number 2 on an Amazon Kindle paid bestseller list. It's still at number two as I write this... and 3 and 4 on other paid lists. That's a damn fine showing -- and it beats our own Cosa Nostra News: The Cicale Files, Volume 1: Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire . We asked Rob Sberna for his take: "I’m pleased but not surprised that the book is a hit. The Lufthansa robbery grabbed the public’s attention, for both its size and also its boldness. And because the crime—and the whereabouts of the missing loot—have remained unsolved for nearly four decades, it has become even more infamous.