Cosa Nostra News

Bonventre declined a promotion, according to Asaro, caught secretly on tape. In a Daily News Exclusive : Bonanno acting capo Jack Bonventre, arrested last January in what was then considered a major bust related to the storied 1970s Lufthansa heist , turned down an offer to move up in the crime family, according to his lawyer. But the feds aren't impressed, saying the mere offer of the promotion evidenced Bonventre's power and stature within the crime family. Evidence that the promotion was offered apparently was caught on a wiretap. Bonanno capo Vincent Asaro, who was recorded extensively  insulting street boss Thomas DiFiore , among other things, told an associate on March 8, 2013: “[Bonventre] turned it down, he didn’t want it... Jack didn’t want no part of this no more.”

Was Palazzolo set to take control of the Bonanno family's Queens action? Arrested yesterday was mobster John Palazzolo, 77, a reputed street boss of the Bonanno crime family's Bronx faction -- or at least he was; it appears he's been knocked down in rank. Apparently the Feds found him committing a serious crime: having coffee with other wiseguys.... Well, we take liberties here. He was found "suspiciously meeting" other mobsters in the parking lot of a diner. When wiseguys meet in the parking lot of a diner wouldn't they naturally act suspiciously? What exactly defines "suspiciously"? We had a little chuckle over this one. It sounds to us like whatever is left of the FBI working OC in New York is crying out for attention...

 Asaro was the Zip faction's  favorite candidate for the role of official boss of the Bonanno crime family. REVISED:   We found some interesting information about Vinny Asaro that explains something we've been puzzling over for some time: how did Asaro, who'd been busted from capo to soldier, then shelved, abruptly get reinstated and promoted to a spot on the panel overseeing the Bonanno family? At first we'd also been curious whether the FBI had known of this prior to its investigation of Asaro, which primarily centered on 30-year-old charges, including the much vaunted Lufthansa Heist celebrated in the film Goodfellas, but also the 1960s murder of a man who Asaro and Jimmy the Gent Burke had deemed an informant, incorrectly, as is usually the case in Mafia murders. We wonder how often the mob disposed of someone over some reason and used the "rat" excuse as justification... Asaro's cousin however began wearing the wire in 2009, so Asaro'...

Vinny Asaro alone pays the piper. One rule of thumb for reporters is, if something happens three times it's a trend. Well, it seems we have something of a trend... The recent Lufthansa news, beginning with street boss Thomas "Tommy D" DiFiore's successful motion for separation , something virtually unheard of in racketeering cases involving multiple members of a single crime family, makes for three recent New York Mafia cases in which the Feds' once promising indictments slowly crumbled and ended up a shadow of what they were supposed to be. As for the other two: one involved reputed Gambino crime-family associate Daniel Fama , who faced charges that were eventually dropped for allegedly driving the getaway car in the 1990 gangland hit on  Edward "Eddie the Chink" Garofalo ordered by then Gambino boss John Gotti ; the other was the  "Papa Smurf" case involving a three-family panel trying to take control of the waste hauling business...

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Tommy D, Bonanno acting boss. Prosecutors are asking the judge for an anonymous and partially sequestered jury for the trial involving reputed Bonanno acting boss Tommy "Tommy D" DiFiore , capo Vincent Asaro and other crime family members. This is revealed in a court filing made last month by Loretta E. Lynch, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. Specifically, the prosecutors requested that jurors' names, addresses and employment information not be revealed to the defendants or their attorneys. Also, it was requested that each juror be escorted by U.S. Marshals to and from court each day, and "at all times during recess."

Richard Godkin, pictured, and partner John D'Agnese were murdered in 1981 over spilled drink. REVISED : Comment moderation, except for older posts, was removed as it was slowing down discussion. Comments now will appear immediately. Also, please consider starting an account with a nickname or some kind of name when commenting instead of leaving anonymous comments... Anyone wanting to do so in need of assistance, please email us. Comments will still be reviewed, of course. ;-) Thanks to MafiaNewsBlog.com for furnishing this info. A slew of high-level mobsters and one mob wife will be in Brooklyn Federal Court this week for various reasons, including sentencing, plea bargains and conferences. Bartolomeo "Bobby" Vernace is slated to be sentenced tomorrow morning by the Honorable Sandra Townes. The prognosis is life in prison for the Gambino capo who refused to cop to a lesser charge that included a 12-year sentence.

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Boss Tommy D DiFiore has reasons to be  somewhat perturbed at a capo. Considering all the hoopla over the 36-year-old Lufthansa heist, which is pretty big news, admittedly, garnering coverage around the globe, 70-year-old acting Bonanno boss Thomas "Tommy D" DiFiore from Commack, Long Island, must be feeling somewhat marginalized. Maybe not, but Tommy D is more than likely pretty furious with Bonanno capo Vinny Asaro, considering Asaro's big mouth is the only reason DiFiore is part of the Lufthansa indictment and now living in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. And on top of that, Asaro was caught on tape saying not very nice things about DiFiore. "Tommy D was not caught in any incriminating conversations by the FBI's secret snitch, Asaro cousin Gary Valenti," Jerry writes this week ."But in recorded talks with his cousin, Asaro managed to implicate DiFiore in the only crime that he is accused of, and establish to a judge's sa...

The Bonanno capo of JFK airport during heist: Vincent Asaro in an undated mugshot. “We never got our right money, what we were supposed to get, we got fucked all around. Got fucked around. That ­fucking Jimmy [Burke] kept everything.” --Vincent Asaro, as recorded by cooperator Yesterday's Bonanno bust was not solely related to the infamous Lufthansa heist at John F. Kennedy Airport in 1978. However, the legendary "unsolved" caper that informed a pivotal moment in the Martin Scorsese film " Goodfellas " has been the media's primary focus, to the extent that the fact that the crime family's acting boss,  Thomas “Tommy D” DiFiore , was also caught in the net has been largely overlooked. Only mobster Vincent Asaro , 72, who has fallen in and out of favor with the Bonanno hierarchy over the years, primarily due to greed, is linked to Lufthansa. Heretofore, only a Lufthansa cargo agent, described as the “inside man” in the robbery...

Vincent Asaro was arrested this morning; he was allegedly the capo who ran JFK for the Bonanno family back in 1978. Bonanno capo Vincent Asaro was arrested for murder, racketeering, extortion, arson, robbery and other charges--some of which are linked to the infamous 1978 Lufthansa heist at John F. Kennedy International Airport. He was one of five alleged members of the crime family rounded up by Federal agents in a series of pre-dawn raids this morning in the New York area. Also arrested were Bonanno acting boss/underboss Thomas “Tommy D” DiFiore of Commack, the highest-ranking Bonanno family member not behind bars; soldier John “Bazoo” Ragano; soldier and acting captain Jack Bonventre; and Asaro's son, Jerome. See the indictment here , courtesy of CBS News. Only Vincent Asaro was charged in the Dec. 11, 1978 JFK robbery itself; both Asaros face life in prison for the murder of a suspected police informant. High-profile informant Henry Hill long ag...

The  NY Daily News  is reporting that the Bonanno crime family has picked Michael “The Nose” Mancuso as its "official boss," noting that "Mancuso, 59, would be the first top banana to hold that title since longtime boss Joseph Massino, who turned rat shortly after he was convicted in 2005 of racketeering and multiple murders." "The Nose" Mancuso is behind  bars. We have spoken to a few sources who have had not very pleasant things to say about the reporter who wrote the pro-Mancuso piece, which seems as if it were dashed off  in an attempt to catch up with reporter Jerry Capeci, who last week reported that while Mancuso may take the big seat when he gets out of the can in five years, for now the main Bonanno on the street, and boss of the borgata, is Thomas DeFiore.

Tommy DiFiore, new Bonanno boss. Thomas (Tommy D) DiFiore, a 70-year-old gangster from Commack, Long Island, having consolidated his power within the Bonanno crime family, has been named boss of that borgata. Sources told us DiFiore longs for the good old days, when the organization was secret, and made men and their associates did not roll for the government. And a mob boss would swallow a bullet before even thinking about what former Bonanno boss Joe Massino did. He is old-school to the marrow in his bones, we hear. According to last week's Ganglandnews.com column, written by Jerry Capeci, DiFiore "is viewed by some law enforcement officials as little more than a caretaker-leader for the imprisoned Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso. But Mancuso is not due to be released until 2019, and as one wag told Gang Land the other day, A lot of spit can go down in six years."