Cosa Nostra News

Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas by Glenn Kenny, which we finally got around to perusing, includes many fascinating tidbits about the acclaimed 1990 Martin Scorsese film as well as the real-life Luchese wiseguys and associates on whom the film was based. We also learned the answer to something we have long wondered about: Why did Scorsese change the names of the characters?  “You got money for that fcking commercial of yours. You don't got my money? You don't got my fckin' money?”  According to Made Men, Robert De Niro’s approach to the role of Jimmy Burke —renamed Conway—the Irish-American gangster with ties to the Luchese crime family through his association with Luchese capo Paul Vario , renamed Cicero for the film—included the kind of painstaking, multifaceted preparatory work for which the New Yorker has long been known.  De Niro’s copy of the Goodfellas script—which is part of the De Niro archives at the Ransom Center at the University of Texas —includes handwritt...

In a New York Times editorial, the stepson of Chuckie O'Brien — the foster son of Jimmy Hoffa — calls The Irishman "by far the greatest depiction of the false charge against my stepfather." ... "My 86-year-old stepfather ... for more than half his life, 44 years ... has watched himself portrayed in news articles, books and motion pictures — most recently, in Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” — as someone he is not. The effect on his life has been devastating." If you haven't watched The Irishman , watch it... What’s that? Did Frank Sheeran really kill Jimmy Hoffa (and Joe Gallo, etc.)? How about we put that aside for a sec -- this interest in solving murders. Let's take our Sherlock Holmes hats-- the deerstalkers -- off. If you want to learn about the Hoffa murder, we'll send you a list of books. Here's a secret: Martin Scorsese doesn't give a rat's ass who killed James Riddle Hoffa. And Crazy Joey Gallo (and JFK, m...

Almost 45 years later, and the tips apparently still keep a-coming. Hoffa with his chief lieutenant Frank Sheeran. Michigan law enforcement yesterday morning used cadaver dogs to search for the remains of James Riddle Hoffa , the (very) appropriately named one-time Teamsters boss who abruptly disappeared off the face of the earth in 1975. Detectives with the Michigan State Police, forensic anthropologists, and a K-9 handler with dogs trained in alerting to the presence of cadavers searched a parcel of land in Hillsdale Township. They didn't find him. The source of the tip was an unidentified woman who inherited the land when her father passed away. She claims to have family ties to the American Mafia. Hoffa, who had been president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, disappeared from a Bloomfield Township restaurant on July 30, 1975. He was declared legally dead in 1982. The case went cold, with sporadic tips sending investigators on multiple...

Netflix has expanded beyond its original business model as a rental service of prerecorded entertainment. In addition to offering DVDs and streaming services for rent, it also has crossed over to the production side of the entertainment industry, producing and distributing its own television shows, documentaries and feature films, in addition to acquiring such programs from production companies. The Irishman: director, left, and  some of the best actors working in films today. Late last month, IndieWire broke the news that Netflix had nabbed the rights to Martin Scorsese ’s long-gestating gangster epic, The Irishman , the acclaimed director's ninth outing with Robert DeNiro. Also starring: Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, and Bobby Cannavale (who turned out a stellar performance as Boardwalk Empire's desperately needed villian, Gyp Rosetti .)

Tony Accardo, aka "Joe Batters", was nicknamed by Al Capone for his skill at pummeling people. On September 7, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, who were famously paired in the Michael Mann film Heat , will be reunited, with Mann, for a panel discussion to be hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Beverly Hills' Samuel Goldwyn Theatre. The discussion will follow a viewing of a new digital restoration of the 1995 film. As was reported earlier this year,  Heat  is due for a prequel by Mann. The acclaimed filmmaker has also stated that he'd approved a true-crime novelization for his new publishing label, Michael Mann Books, to detail the story of Chicago Outfit bosses Tony Accardo and Sam Giancana . For the book, the debut project for Mann's imprint, the director has teamed up with Don Winslow , the bestselling author of The Cartel "to co-create an original novel about the complex relationship between two Organized ...

Seth Ferranti's blog, Gorilla Convict , features an interview with Daniel Simone, author of The Lufthansa Heist: Behind the Six-Million-Dollar Cash Haul That Shook the World . The interview is comprehensive and intriguing. Ferranti himself is intriguing... He earned a master’s degree, got married, launched a writing career and founded a publishing house, all from behind bars. He's accomplished more inside than I ever will outside! But seriously, Seth did over 20 years on a bullshit rap.

Frank Sheeran once claimed that, when he got the order to assassinate his mentor, Jimmy Hoffa, he knew he had no choice but to do what he was told....  It was kill on command or die for disobedience. Frank The Irishman' Sheeran (right) with union boss Hoffa. The disappearance of Teamsters union leader Hoffa 36 years ago remains one of America's most enduring mysteries. To this day, no one knows where his body ended up or what was done to it. And if not for Sheeran's Catholic guilt at the end of his life and a tenacious former prosecutor turned crime writer, the story of how Hoffa died would never have been known either. So posits I Heard You Paint Houses , a true-crime memoir about Sheeran, aka The Irishman. Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro are set to bring Sheeran's extraordinary life to the big screen. The Irishman initially was also to cover Sheeran's alleged role in the assassination of American President John F. Kennedy. For Sheeran's daughter Dolore...