Cosa Nostra News

“I would say, ‘I warned you about drugs years ago’ — and told him something would happen and something did happen. I would see him and say, ‘I hear you’re doing drugs and you should stay away from that stuff.’ And he’d say, ‘Oh, sure, right.’ “You were there. You caused it. “Here’s a guy who was in the quintessential movie about not wasting your life and that’s exactly what he did,” — Chazz Palminteri when asked what he'd say to Lillo Brancato, an actor he has no plans to get in touch with. Lillo Branchato was led astray by drugs. It should have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity -- what is known in common parlance as "the big break." But for Lillo Brancato, Jr. (born March 30, 1976), the success of playing the lead role (Calogero Anello) in the film "A Bronx Tale" (1993), which marked the directorial debut of Robert De Niro, was so very fleeting in the end.

As a society most people are fascinated by living a different lifestyle than they live. Whether it's a famous ballplayer, an actor or even a musician -- we all sometimes muse about living the life of another. Many of us also fantasize about being infamous mobsters--thugs, hit men and even godfathers. Whatever their station within the mob, these are men who chose this lifestyle -- and they are known as American Gangsters and they left their mark on history. Capone, Siegel, Luciano, Gotti and others lived by their own rules. Whether you’re a fan or a critic we can’t deny that their legacies have enchanted millions of us. And, they have served as examples later followed by legitimate business: The booze-running days of Prohibition brought us NASCAR as we know it today, and from the illegal gambling halls came the bright lights and casinos that today glow along the Las Vegas strip. Even the numbers rackets served as a forerunner, to today's state lotteries and scratch-of...