Cosa Nostra News

In a stunning development, the likes of which have not been seen since 1985, Francesco (Frank) Cali, the reputed acting boss of the Gambino crime family , was gunned down outside his home on Staten Island on Wednesday night, according to a senior police official and widespread media reports. The police said they received a report about the grizzly shooting outside 25 Hilltop Terrace in the Todt Hill section of Staten Island around 9:20 p.m. There was also a report of a blue pickup truck leaving the scene around the time of shooting. The Daily News quoted a witness as saying “There were like six shots, and then there were three more. The man (Cali) was on the ground face-up. His head was by his SUV, and the truck was open.” As per a BBC report: Witnesses said Cali's killer also “ran him over before fleeing the scene. Family members were seen to rush into the street and sit crying next to his body.” Some reports say he was run over by the blue vehicle before he wa...

Jailbird/alleged Bloods gang-banger Herman (Taliban) Blanco has been arrested for participating in last month's gangland shooting of Sylvester (Sally Daz) Zottola at a Bronx McDonald's drive-through, as well as the attempted murder three month's earlier of Sally Daz's son, Salvatore Zottola, Larry McShane of the Daily News reported  yesterday. October murder of Sally Daz Blanco, 33, of the Bronx, was arraigned Friday afternoon in Brooklyn Federal Court, McShane wrote. He's the second alleged member of the Bloods street gang to be arrested in the two Zottola shootings. Bushawn (Shelz) Shelton, 34, was arrested last month for his alleged role. FBI agent Michael Zoufal stated Blanco and Shelton offered to pay a cooperating witness to kill Sylvester Zottola and his son, Salvatore, though the failed attempt to kill Salvatore was "ordered in an effort to "lure out" the father, according to a federal criminal complaint. Sally D...

UPDATED WITH PHOTOS Reputed Bloods member Bushawn “Shelz” Shelton was indicted by a grand jury for murder for hire conspiracy and other charges in the October 4 murder of Bonanno crime family associate Sylvester Zottola, 71. Zottola was gunned down in his car, picture below, while waiting at a McDonald's drive through window in the Bronx. An unidentified cooperating witness testified that Shelton had paid him to kill Zottola and Zottola’s son, Salvatore Zottola, 41. The younger Zottola was shot outside his Locust Point home in July, but survived. Law enforcement sources have alleged that the hit was ordered by Albanian mobsters seeking to control Zottola's “Joker Poker” video game racket. One federal prosecutor estimated in court that the video game machines bring in as much as $7,000 a week.  Shelton, 34, a reputed high-ranking member of the Bloods allegedly paid another man to try to kill Sylvester and Salvatore Zottola. He also furnished the cont...

The car bombing that wiped out Gambino big-shot Frank "Frankie Cheech" DeCicco was really collateral damage from the hit on Paul Castellano. Who knows how close New York's Mafia came to shooting it out. Probably a lot closer than the public has believed. Frank DeCicco surveillance photo. Frank DeCicco (November 5, 1935 - April 13, 1986) was John Gotti’s underboss when he was slain at the behest of  Vincent“The Chin” Gigante, who seemed to have partially outsourced the job to Luchese bosses Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso and Vittorio Amuso. (A New Jersey based Genovese capo also was tasked with the job.) The Chin was old school, and he didn’t like Gotti’s move on Big Paul one bit, as it violated protocol. (Plus, The Chin and Paul made piles and piles of cash together.) Gotti mentor Neil Dellacroce would've agreed with the Chin – he was the definition of "old school" itself, which is why Johnny Boy waited until the cancer in his mentor’s brain...