Cosa Nostra News

Vincent D’Onofrio plays onetime Genovese boss  Vincent (The Chin) Gigante in the Epix cable series Godfather of Harlem , which debuts this month and has been billed as a prequel to Ridley Scott's 2007 film American Gangster, which highlighted the story of 1970s Harlem drug dealer Frank Lucas. Godfather of Harlem, which takes major liberties with Mafia history, premieres on September 29 and tells 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 family, whom Bumpy takes on to regain control. He allies 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...

Even though Joseph (Joe Cago) Valachi was made during the 1930-31 fighting of the Castellammarese War, his initiation ceremony seemingly was a warm and fuzzy affair that commenced only after the men in attendance had chowed down on home-cooked macaroni and drank red wine. Anthony (Bingy) Arillotta Valachi chronicled getting his button--in what is generally considered a “classic” initiation ritual--among a great many other  things in his bloated  autobiography The Real Deal , which can be viewed on Thomas Hunt's American Mafia website . Genovese turncoats and the Mafia's most solemn ceremony, the induction of new members, is the focus. As noted in a previous story on Anthony (Bingy) Arillotta, former boss of the Genovese crime family's Springfield crew, this month's GQ in the U.K. includes a cover story on the American Mafia in which Arillotta details his induction ceremony, during which he'd been asked to strip naked. Anthony Arillotta was the fourth ...

Mob associate Michael (Cookie) Durso flipped against the Genovese crime family and wore a wire hidden within a $3,000 Rolex wristwatch for three years -- all the while recording thousands of hours of "privileged" conversations among high-ranking members of the Genovese crime family. Farby Serpico, former Genovese  acting boss In the end he rode off into the sunset of the Witness Protection Program with wife Vanessa. Financially, the couple was not hurting, either; they were able to bring millions of dollars with them, as  Gangland News  reported  on February 21, 2002. Durso had been meeting with prosecutors to discuss flipping -- due to his longstanding beef over the murder of his cousin, a Genovese crime family loanshark. Durso was to meet with Mark Feldman, the head of the Brooklyn U.S. Attorney's Organized Crime unit, and Paul Weinstein, a chief prosecutor, for a third time on June 17, 1998. He couldn't make that meeting, though, as he was ar...

REVISED JULY 2018 Follow-up to  recent  story on history of Philadelphia Mafia... The volatility for which the Philadelphia Mafia is historically so well-known didn't begin with Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo. Little Nicky Scarfo, violent former mob boss of Philly Cosa Nostra It certainly reached a crescendo of sorts during Scarfo's blood-soaked reign--and the violence continued when a street war erupted between factions after Scarfo went away. The greatest irony here is that the crime family known for its violence  was once run by a notoriously peaceful boss, who preferred making deals to ordering murders. "The Gentle Don," Angelo Bruno (born Angelo Annaloro) ran the Philly mob during what's called its "golden age," from 1959 until his 1980 murder, which may have resulted from the ruthless duplicity of the Genovese crime family's then-street boss "Funzi" Tieri, who allegedly was quite sore over losing a North-Je...

Larry McShane covers the Mafia, among other things, for the New York Daily News ; he authored a book about Vincent "The Chin" Gigante  that is available now. Chin: The Life and Crimes of Mafia Boss Vincent Gigante will be available on May 31. (McShane also had a hand in writing Ralph Natale's memoirs, as noted , which is due for release next year but is already available for preorder in the U.K. The title, Lost Lives and Forgotten Vows: The Ralph Natale Story , may change, as the book's publisher noted.) First biography of the Oddfather McShane's Gigante offering is a welcomed addition to Mafia-related nonfiction, and since it is the first book dedicated solely to The Chin, it fills a huge void as well. Previously, Selwyn Raab's Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires  included details of Gigante's reign as part of its overview of the New York Mafia. Gigante's daughter also has written ...