Cosa Nostra News

Carmine Agnello. His legendary former father-in-law, John Gotti, may have been unfair when he said those famous words about him ("Does he get in the backseat of the car and think someone has stolen the steering wheel?") but one thing is perfectly clear. Carmine Agnello likes to steal (at least according to Cleveland's Cuyahoga County Prosecutor). A source formerly active in the Gambino crime family told us that Agnello is actually a pretty intelligent businessman, only he's beset with certain flaws, the chief one being he has the mindset of a dime-store thug. By this we refer to his predilection for sparking street fights with uniformed police officers over parking tickets.... "The [NYPD] set up shop across the street from him with a rival business" as part of an investigation. "So what does he do? He threatens them, sets fires and breaks their windows." Agnello was indicted and sentenced to years in prison for his scrap meta...

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...

Stephen Newell  was a low-level mob associate. He was born and bred in  Bushwick , Brooklyn. From the age of 10 he lived in Queens and much later moved to Staten Island. His uncle, Saverio "Sammy" Galosso, was a member of the  Genovese crime family  under  Vincent "The Chin" Gigante . He died in 1986. Stevie Newell Stevie, earlier in his life, worked under John Gotti's son-in-law, Carmine Agnello, after Carmine became a member of the Gambino crime family. (Carmine is living somewhere in Ohio today, we've heard.) Agnello was married to Victoria Gotti at the time. Newell does not fit the cliched definition of the opportunistic street guy as is usually portrayed in movies, books and newspapers. He was arrested, held without bail and formally charged with the murder of Bruce Gotterup, who himself had been convicted by the mob of not using common sense and repeatedly disrupting the business of a Mafia-connected bar in Queens. In 1991, Gotteru...