Cosa Nostra News

William "Wild Bill" Cutolo (June 6, 1949 – May 26, 1999), a Brooklyn-born mafioso in the Colombo crime family, chose the wrong side in the third Colombo war. Wild Bill was knocked off after being named Colombo Underboss. The war, the last time a crime family split into two major factions and engaged in a years-long street way, began when acting boss Vic Orena decided he wanted to take over the family from jailed-for-life boss Carmine "The Snake" Persico. It's been said that none other than the Dapper Don, John Gotti himself, had whispered into Vic's ear to take it, take control of it; in addition to flattering Orena as was the Gotti style, the Gambino boss also was seeking to strengthen his hand at Commission meetings. As for the Colombo family, today in complete disarray, boss Carmine Persico apparently had visions of setting up a Mafia dynasty by making his son, Alphonse "Little Allie Boy" Persico, the boss. The war, which shot ...

 John Pappa, a wannabe wiseguy with the tough Colombo family, was convicted of racketeering, drug dealing, and four murders, one of which was the 12th and final killing of the Colombo family war . John Pappa looking to be in the pink of health. The other three make this a horror story. They each met their end for getting between the vicious Pappa and what he believed was his rightful street credit -- which he'd been counting on to get him his button. He got slammed with prison instead. The judge sentenced the would-be wiseguy to life in prison -- and due to Pappa's young age, he has the dubious distinction of potentially serving one of the longest sentences in U.S. criminal history. Pappa, at the ripe old age of 22, was nabbed at a wedding rehearsal on Staten Island in 1997. (He had murdered the brother of the man getting married, along with two others.) Pappa believed the trio had been seeking to steal "street cred" for killing one of the Colombo crime ...