Cosa Nostra News

Capo "Eddie" Lato Federal prosecutors have on deck "made" members of the New England mob willing to testify against other alleged wiseguys, reveals a  court filing , as reported by  WPRI.com . The details came to light in a motion filed in U.S. District Court in which prosecutors asked a judge to keep reputed capo regime Edward "Eddie" Lato behind bars. "During the course of this investigation, the FBI has developed additional witnesses, including formally initiated or ‘made’ members of the [New England La Cosa Nostra], who will testify that the NELCN exists and further testify about the activities of its members," Assistant U.S. Attorney William Ferland and U.S. Justice Department trial attorney Sam Nazzaro write in the filing. "These witnesses will testify to the secret initiation ceremony at which newly inducted members of the LCN swear a blood oath of loyalty to enforce 'omerta,' the code of silence," they wrote. ...

John Gotti: his role was filled first, by John Travolta. OK, wiseguys and wisegals, wannabes and the real deals, there may still be time for you to make the plunge into Hollywood, because casting directors for the upcoming Gotti biopic from Fiore Films still have some roles to fill; they started with nearly 90. If any of my readers tried for a role -- whether you got it or not -- please shoot me an email, I'd love to hear about it and maybe relay it to my readers in a post. The email address, of course, is:  Eddie2843@gmail.com . Reports the  Examiner.com : "On September 26th and 27th, 2011, the New York and Los Angeles casting directors for the upcoming Barry Levinson film "Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father" sent out casting calls that include over 89 roles. They include both adults and children. The entire Gambino crime family is being cast, along with their wives and kids, countless roles of detectives and legal system players who prosecuted the mob, pris...

If you are going to do something, you might as well learn how to do it from the best. Keeping that thought it mind, the news that a News Corp. unit used Mafia films to motivate employees and crush rivals is quite revealing. This represents "the latest arm of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire to be swept up in a probe that began with hacking and bribery allegations," reports The Washington Post . "Already the subject of inquiries in America and the U.K. of police payoffs and illegal voicemail access by its British newspapers, News Corp. has been asked by U.S. investigators for documents relating to its News America Marketing Group, which places in-store ads in supermarkets and retailers worldwide, according to a person familiar with the matter," the Post writes. The marketing unit, "rivals claimed in court papers, has expanded by flouting antitrust laws, and in one case, computer hacking. News America’s CEO, also publisher of the New York Post, testified in ...

The real Henry Hill, left, and Ray Liotta, who played the Luchese mobster turned informant in 'Goodfellas.' Twenty-five years after its initial publication, Nicholas Pileggi's Wiseguy remains one of the key memoirs about life in the Mafia. Pileggi adapted his book for the screen, and director Martin Scorsese shot the film 'GoodFellas' in 1990 ('Wiseguy' had already been used as the title of a Mafia film, a quite bad one). The story follows the rise and fall of true-life Brooklyn gangster Henry Hill — "a little cog" in the Lucchese crime family who turned FBI informant after a drug arrest, reports  NPR . "He was sort of a soldier in Napoleon's army," Pileggi remembers in the article, noting that his approach to the book sprang from the notion that "it might be interesting to see that world from the point of view of the soldier." The other key part of Hill's appeal as a subject, Pileggi explains, is that he was ...