Cosa Nostra News

COSA NOSTRA NEWS EXCLUSIVE  UPDATED Gene Borrello, a former Bonanno associate and the key witness in three recent Mafia roundups, was a major player in the arson case that helped the Feds finally nail 84-year-old Bonanno capo Vincent (Vinny) Asaro — two years after his lawyers bested them in court by winning a stunning and humiliating victory for the longtime wiseguy. The car Asaro ordered torched. Inset, Gotti grandson who copped to being arson wheel man. Also implicated in the arson case was John J. Gotti, a grandson of the late Gambino boss, who pleaded guilty to helping torch the car that earned Asaro’s deep animosity. (Gotti was a very capable wheelman, we've learned.). Gotti and Asaro—in fact, all 20-plus defendants charged in that trio of 2017 indictments — copped out. Since there was no jury trial, the Feds have not publicly detailed the full extent of Borrello’s cooperation. However, Borrello has been lifting  the curtain slightly for Cosa Nostra...

COSA NOSTRA NEWS EXCLUSIVE Back in the early 1990s, one of longtime Bonanno wiseguy Vinny Asaro's daughters was assaulted. Gene Borrello Donna Cavalcante cracked her over the head with a rock glass in Butterfingers on Crossbay Boulevard after they got into an argument. Donna, at the time, was dating a member of Charles Carneglia's crew. Charlie is the heavy hitter with the Gambino family now serving life. Vinny Asaro sent his son Jerry to kill Donna, and he almost did, shooting her four times after catching her across the street from Butterfingers at the Shell Bank. Donna had fled into the ladies room and was shot through the door in the leg and in the ass. She went to the hospital -- but refused to identify who put the bullets in her. Then two weeks later, while she was at a payphone -- Vinny Asaro suddenly tapped her on the shoulder. She turned to look at him and he told here, "See how easy it's gonna be?" Carneglia then stepped in and squashe...

COSA NOSTRA NEWS EXCLUSIVE* Residents of Howard Beach should take a chill pill -- and understand that they have nothing to fear because the wiseguys responsible for terrorizing that Queens neighborhood for years are both in jail. Gene Borrello Their names: alleged Bonanno capo Vinny Asaro, 84, who now spends his days at Springfield MCFP and isn't due out until May 21, 2022, and alleged acting Bonanno capo Ronnie Giallanzo, 49, who calls Butner Medium FCI home these days and is due out on May 21, 2029. This, in effect, is what former Bonanno associate Gene Borrello wants to tell residents of Howard Beach, he recently told  Cosa Nostra News . "I took orders from Ronnie G and Vinny Asaro," Gene said, "I was a shooter for the Bonanno family." On Thursday Gang Land News called G ene Borrello an "animal" who "forced himself into the homes of law-abiding citizens, tied them up, placed a gun to their head and stole their life savings an...

Vincent (Vinny) Asaro, reputed Bonanno mobster, 82, was found last week in Brooklyn MDC “incoherent and unable to leave the visiting room on his own power” -- and he needs emergency bail, according to his lawyer. UPDATE : Vincent Asaro was sentenced to eight years in prison for ordering an arson (though really it's for committing one of the most profitable heists in American history, the Lufthansa Heist at JFK airport ). Asaro was sentenced yesterday in Brooklyn federal court. Asaro as a young hoodlum, left, and as an old hoodlum, right. Asaro's attorney, Elizabeth Macedonio, in a heroic effort,urged Judge Allyne Ross to consider the arson charge to which Asaro pleaded guilty in June, on its own. Federal prosecutors however worked to ensure that wasn't the case.They submitted detailed accounts of Asaro’s life of crime, highlighting the murder of Paul Katz and the $6 million Kennedy Airport heist as per their efforts to get Asaro a 15-year sentence. “Mr. ...

Kirkus  describes  it as "a  straightforward update to the notorious 1978 Lufthansa Airlines heist. Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter Anthony DeStefano understands the difficulty of opening new aspects of a crime immortalized in journalism, memoirs, and the film Goodfellas. James Burke, aka Jimmy the Gent. “Of all the Mafia heists, rip-offs, scores, and plunders, none has been more iconic a part of American popular culture than the brazen [Lufthansa] robbery.” Vincent Asaro, who now faces 20 years in prison on charges related to arson, was charged with (and acquitted of) co-masterminding the infamous $6 million Lufthansa heist with James "Jimmy the Gent" Burke; Asaro also was charged with (and acquitted of) murdering Paul Katz, a suspected mob snitch strangled to death with a dog leash.

Two reputed mobsters indicted last week with Vinny Asaro and John Gotti , grandson of the former Gambino crime family boss, allegedly robbed a Franklin Square jewelry store -- and attempted to rob two other jewelry stores in the same Long Island Nassau County town six years ago, the Feds revealed today. Your fearless blogger grew up in Elmont, a town adjacent to Franklin Square. SEE THE ASARO-GOTTI BONANNO CREW INDICTMENT The two alleged mob associates, Darren Elliot, 30, and Matthew (Mack) Hattley, 26, both of Queens, were arrested on robbery, attempted robbery and firearms offenses, among other charges and arraigned last week at Brooklyn federal court with seven other Bonanno crime family members and associates, including Gotti and Asaro.

SLIGHTLY REVISED :  John Gotti 's grandson and namesake thought he was en route to an eight-year prison sentence at a correctional facility in upstate New York called Fishkill. Instead, he was ferried to Brooklyn Federal court and brought before a judge alongside reputed  Bonanno mobster Vincent Asaro, 82, and five alleged Bonanno associates to face a new indictment on arson and bank burglary charges. Michael Guidici at the Maspeth Federal Savings and Loan. Allegedly  he wasn't there to make a deposit. If everything is what it seems, this is could be a difficult case for the defendants as the Feds have a turncoat intimately involved. In addition, John Gotti's girlfriend allegedly was involved in the bank job though her status in the Fed's case is unclear. Apparently she hasn't been charged in the indictment. Fed's have in the past braced wives and girlfriends allegedly involved in criminal activity to pressure defendants to cop pleas, if not flip....

Click image to purchase It was surprising enough that Gangland News hawked a nonfiction book about the mob's doings written under a pen name, but now the New York Daily News went and interviewed this fella too. "Frank Palmeri" is the pseudonymous author of Bugs, Bull, & Rats , which the Daily News describes as "an anecdotal recounting of some of the mob’s most notorious hits and hit men." (Note to Daily News: you misspelled the guy's name -- it's Palmeri not Palmieri. I am seeking work if you need a proofreader ...) As for the inducted mobster who  wrote the book : Palmeri is not my real name because even though I make my living now by legitimate means, I'm still a member of the Mafia. I always will be. As I said, I swore the oath. The Mafia is more than a crime organization; it's the life you live. I served time because of a wire-wearing rat. Now I'm writing this book and sharing information about a secret organization that...

Called When Mobsters Refuse to Retire , George Anastasia's story,  which I read in the AARP magazine (don't ask how I got a copy), is online, I noticed . Amusingly enough, the publication placed it in the Work Life Balance section.  Here's a teaser to whet your appetite if you haven't already read it.... From AARP's online page They shared a long lunch of filet mignon, yellowfin tuna, and chicken with broccoli rabe, washing it down with four bottles of expensive Tuscan red. Ten wiseguys sat at an Italian restaurant in New Jersey, laughing and joking and talking. It could have been a scene from TV's The Sopranos . The men, from New York, Philadelphia and Newark, dressed the part — open-collared shirts, pinkie rings and Rolexes. Outside on that May afternoon in 2010, the FBI had set up surveillance cameras. Inside, at the table, a federal informant wore a body wire.

New York’s mob families are truly living undercover these days, in a manner that almost seems to hearken back to the pre-Apalachin years . An interesting report was quietly published following Vincent Asaro's startling acquittal t hat took a look at how the mob is trying to "invisibly" earn today. “They don’t want the notoriety they once had ," Inspector John Desenopolis, Commanding Officer of the NYPD’s Organized Crime Investigation Division, known as OCID, told the PIX report .  “These are secret societies that have learned,” Desenopolis added. “We were able to put people away for long periods of time. They realized, and learned how to adapt.”

Vinny Asaro, last man standing, on trial risking a life sentence at 80. Vincent Asaro sat in a car with James Burke, about a mile away from the Lufthansa cargo terminal on a December night in 1978, when eight mobbed-up gunmen were stealing a haul expected to be around $2 million, only to discover -- first to their joy, then to their horror -- that the crime had netted them three times that amount. This story has been told before of course, initially in the iconic book  Wiseguy , followed by an equally iconic cinematic adaptation, Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas , not to mention the library of articles and additional books about the vaunted robbery. Once the largest heist in American history, it has been eclipsed. The 1990 Boston Museum robbery , valued at $300 million, currently is considered the largest. Still, there remains information about the Lufthansa Heist  that only now is being revealed. That is if you believe Gaspare Valenti who claims he flipped in 200...

Vincent Asaro at Brooklyn Federal Court in 1966. In a Brooklyn courtroom this week commenced the trial of an 80-year-old Bonanno family gangster, Vincent Asaro, who allegedly was involved in the notorious 1978 Lufthansa Heist . Not only was he supposedly the Bonanno family's overseer at JFK airport, the prosecution charged, noting that Asaro himself played a direct role in the heist. Ex-underboss Salvatore Vitale testified yesterday, providing a window into events surrounding the notorious robbery at JFK airport. Asaro supposedly was heard muttering "motherfucker" constantly under his breath during testimony, trying all the while to stare Vitale in the eye. Asaro personally handed off a case stuffed with jewelry from the infamous 1978 Lufthansa heist to future Bonanno boss Joseph Massino , Vitale said Monday at the first ever mob-related trial over the historic "unsolved" crime. Massino himself also is slated to testify, among others.

Seth Ferranti's blog, Gorilla Convict , features an interview with Daniel Simone, author of The Lufthansa Heist: Behind the Six-Million-Dollar Cash Haul That Shook the World . The interview is comprehensive and intriguing. Ferranti himself is intriguing... He earned a master’s degree, got married, launched a writing career and founded a publishing house, all from behind bars. He's accomplished more inside than I ever will outside! But seriously, Seth did over 20 years on a bullshit rap.

Bobby Lino, left, Russell Mauro, on right. Our source was inducted into Cosa Nostra's Bonanno Family in 1975, when the books were opened for the first time in a long time. He started out under Nicholas Marangello, aka "Little Nicky Glasses," underboss at the time, and became acting capo for Mickey Zaffarano. "In that regime was all the guys that no one wanted," he said. "Anthony Bruno Indelicato, Anthony Rabito, Tony Mirra, Sonny Black Napolitano, James Episcopia, Louis "Louie HaHa" Attanasio and Vinny Asaro. "That crew broke up when Lilo got hit. They took down all Lilo's guys."

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.”

De Niro as Burke, left, Ray Liotta as Henry Hill. No Vinny Asaro character was in Goodfellas, though he certainly was mentioned in the book. We now return to our regularly scheduled programming.... Prosecutors blasted reputed Bonanno capo Vincent Asaro , 79, with new charges based on a superseding indictment, as reported last week . The charges have not been revealed yet because evidence recorded on tape needs to be digitized, prosecutors said. Described as looking gaunt, Asaro seemed to be suffering from involuntary shivering at the proceeding last week in which his lawyer attempted to push back the date of Asaro's racketeering trial slated for July in Brooklyn Federal Court..

Vinny Asaro was among the top characters of interest in 2014.... His Tommy D rant makes us really want to hear the tapes.... I deleted a bunch of horseshit with which I initially started this post. Based on a quick Google Analytics filter, we found five days when there was a clear spike in our daily traffic. piked progressively, save for the last two samples, which were nearly equal. 

 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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