Cosa Nostra News

Updated at End Bonanno mobster Vincent Asaro and John J. Gotti, grandson and namesake of the late Gambino crime family boss, pleaded guilty yesterday in Brooklyn federal court to charges related to the aftermath of a road rage incident.  An unlikely duo.... Asaro and Gotti were indicted for torching a car that belonged to a man who had the temerity to drive in front of Asaro at a traffic light in New York City traffic. Asaro was acquitted in 2015 of charges that he masterminded the notorious $6 million Lufthansa heist in 1978. Asaro, Gotti and a third man indicted in the case will not be sentenced until Oct. 24.

EXPANDED SIGNIFICANTLY The shooting of Enzo (The Baker) Stagno of Whitestone, Queens, was always one of the more bizarre twists in the ongoing story of the gangland-style killing of Luchese associate Michael Meldish. Now, we finally seem to have enough information to piece this big puzzle together. We also know more about why Bonanno boss Michael (Nose) Mancuso was initially named as a suspect in the Meldish murder. Gangland hit victim Michael Meldish. The Stagno attempted hit occurred on May 29, 2013, at around 6 p.m., as he was seated in his 2009 GMC Yukon, parked at East 111th Street and First Avenue. Stagno was chatting on his cellphone when he suddenly heard BANG! The window beside him shattered and a bullet punched into his chest, grazing him. Stagno felt a “pinch” and dived into the backseat -- when the next shot was fired.

A New York federal appeals court ruled last Thursday that the 40-year sentence imposed on Gregory Scarpa Jr. in 1999 will be reinstated. Law enforcement pins 24 homicides to Junior. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the lower court judge "had overstepped his authority by shaving 10 years off the sentence," as the New York Times reported. Scarpa, while imprisoned, helped the government find leftover explosives from the Oklahoma City bombing.

“My father went through twenty damn years of aggravation, my mother’s a nervous wreck, my brothers and sisters are all wrecks. Where is all this honor and this baloney? You can’t believe in this damn oath when you’ve got a family to think of. What about them? My mother’s been alone for seventeen years. So which is the more honorable stand? My father’s position is: This is how I’ve lived all my life, and I don’t want anybody to ever say that I was a rat or a snitch, so I’m gonna die this way. O.K. I guess I can relate to that. But I’m in a different position. I’m thirtysomething years old. I’ve got six children, I’ve got a young wife. And I’ll be damned if I’m gonna put them through what my family had to go through. Especially for something I no longer believe in." --Michael Franzese John (Sonny) Franzese was convicted of masterminding bank robberies back in the 1960s. Many have long believed Franzese was framed. A classic bit of self-justifying bullshit among some law enfo...