Cosa Nostra News

"John (Travolta) was great, but it wasn’t perfect because nobody could have gotten it perfect. John did a better job than Armand Assante [in the 1996 film “Gotti”], and Armand did a good job." ---John Junior Gotti, who is not one to mince words...nor hedge bets... John Travolta dons the white suit and does the Saturday Night Fever thing..... "I’d rather wake up next to a severed horse head than ever watch “Gotti” again," began a recent memorable  New York Post review of the long-gestating gangster revisionist biopic, Gotti. The reviewer added: "The finished product belongs in a cement bucket at the bottom of the river." And he called it the "worst movie of the year so far." In the years -- eight, in total -- it took to make this film, four directors passed on the project, which had a grand total of 44 producers. Kevin Connolly, the fifth and final, helmed the film, which premiered Friday night. So we can blame him. Co...

Angel Gotti, John Gotti's daughter, sent me a response to a recent story about her father . (Basically, I wrote a short preamble focused on Costabile Gus Farace , then posted the New York Times obituary.) John Gotti in his prime. She offered an interesting anecdote that I am publishing here. Embedded within it is a a criticism of factual information that made me dig a little further into some transcripts regarding the allegedly planned assassination of John Gotti (and his brother Gene) by the Genovese crime family . According to mob lore, "The Chin" and Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso both tried to take Gotti out, supposedly over the "unsanctioned" hit on former Gambino boss Paul Castellano. First, Angel's response: The story is not 100% accurate... I don't care what anyone on this planet says, John Gotti was not afraid of anyone, not Gigante, not anyone. He lost his son and I will tell you this: he never feared death. I lived down the bl...

John A. Gotti aka Junior is lending Travolta his father's personal items for a film about John Gotti Senior. John Gotti, former Gambino crime family boss, died in prison of cancer in 2002 at the age of 61. His son, former Gambino crime family boss John A. Gotti (aka "Junior"), says he left Cosa Nostra life in the dust many years ago. If John Junior is eyeing any kind of mob these days, it's the one based on the West Coast, aka Hollywood. High-caliber star John Travolta will play the Dapper Don in the upcoming production based on Junior's self-published book  Shadow of My Father . Junior claims he wrote the manuscript in response to the release of another book, George Anastasia's Gotti's Rules , based on the life and prodigious crimes of former Gambino enforcer John Alite .

The John Gotti biopic is on again, with a new set of Hollywood backers joining the original producer. John Travolta remains tied to the project and is ready, once again, to step into the shoes of mob boss John Gotti in the long-gestating film, which Emmett/Furla/Oasis Films, Fiore Films and Herrick Entertainment are together producing. The two Johns:  Gotti and Travolta Travolta met with buyers and glad-handed the press at a Toronto event Sept. 11 where he discussed how the Gotti project had become a family project. His wife, Kelly Preston, and daughter, Ella Bleu Travolta, have signed on to play Gotti’s real-life wife and daughter in the Lionsgate project.

In 1995, a member of the Gambino crime family plotted the violent murder of John Alite and anybody in the car with him, according to a former Gambino associate directly involved in the conspiracy who was going to be one of the shooters. Alite was marked for death. Stephen Newell, about whom we've previously written, told us the  hit was to be staged  at a towing company/auto-body shop in Queens at the intersection of Crossbay Boulevard and Redding Street.  Alite would pull up in his car to meet someone -- and two men would open fire from a passing van. One of the gunmen, arrested on an unrelated charge, revealed the plot, prompting the FBI to visit Alite with a warning.   This is only one such plot; there were others.  W e caught up with Stephen Newell a few weeks ago. He'd seen our story  and had some corrections and amendments. Newell is an interesting person. He is mentioned in both Gotti's Rules: The Story of John Alite, Juni...

Click below link for videos John Junior Gotti says he never watched “The Sopranos,” and that the real truth of “the life" resides between “The Godfather” and “Goodfellas." He said this as a guest, along with Peter Lance, on Coast to Coast AM , which aired on March 10th. To access all segments of Junior's Michael Smerconish interview on CNN, during which he discussed the film adaptation of “Shadow of My Father ," see Peter Lance's website.

REVISED SLIGHTLY: A preview video, from John A. "Junior" Gotti's website , refers to the 302 "proffer memo" released in George Anastasia's Gotti's Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia (now available in the UK) as well as charges made by Gotti and his attorney previously regarding an FBI agent. Gotti is discussing the 302 in reference to a larger effort to discover who was behind an alleged "Get Gotti" campaign supposedly run by an FBI agent. Peter Lance writes about the campaign in the book's forward . This is the second preview video. In the first video  Junior discussed his reasons for writing his book, Shadow of My Father .

Ebook cover; to purchase on Amazon, click here . We present here an email that Peter Lance sent us privately; we requested his permission to run it. He sent the email five days ago, we only saw it tonight and are posting it. It appears to us that it was written to be posted. We don't think he'll have any issues; there is nothing personal in the contents. Of the very few high-profile figures who have recognized us, he is the first to do so directly and on the record. He gets major props from us for this.