Cosa Nostra News

UPDATED Vincent D’Onofrio has signed on to play—hold onto your hats, folks—Vincent (The Chin) Gigante in a forthcoming series called the Godfather of Harlem, slated to run on Epix, the premium cable network, it was exclusively reported this week. Vincent Chin Gigante when he wasn't feigning insanity. We always wanted Chazz Palminteri for the role of Chin. Godfather of Harlem purports to tell the true story of drug lord Bumpy Johnson (played by Forest Whitaker), who in the early 1960s returned from prison to find his old neighborhood fiefdom under the thumb of the Italian Mafia, specifically, the Genovese crime family whom Bumpy takes on to regain control.He allies himself with radical preacher Malcolm X, “catching his political rise in the cross-hairs of social upheaval and a mob war that threatens to tear the city apart.” The show's larger theme is the juxtaposition of the underworld against the civil rights movement during one of the most tumultuous times in A...

Abe "Kid Twist" Reles Abe "Kid Twist" Reles is doubtlessly remembered best for being the proverbial canary who couldn't fly (but did indeed sing). In November 1941 the mob may have gotten to Kid Twist while he was under police protection at a hotel in Coney Island, New York. We say "may have gotten" because no one knows for certain who orchestrated what may have been a hit. We repeat "may have been a hit" because there's also the chance that Reles did indeed fall to his doom (the more or less "official" opinion on the matter) while attempting to climb down a twisted roll of bed sheets to get out of the hotel, either to escape or play a practical joke of some sort on his alleged protectors.