Cosa Nostra News

From  Showbiz411 : “Gotti” producer Marc Fiore has apparently decided to take a new secondary role in the film’s financing. He’s turning over his lead position to film/record producer Ted Field, heir to the Marshall Field department stores and the man who gave us the original Interscope Records. Field was running Radar Pictures. Field is said to be worth about $1 billion, which means he’s been able to take losses on such flops as “All About Steve,” “Twelve,” “The Invention of Lying” and other films that fell short of awards buzz like the dreadful but profitable “Bad Teacher.” Field is a nice guy, though, and could possibly raise the money to resurrect “Gotti” from its current state of rigid morbidity. As I reported exclusively here, Fiore – an ex-con – has not had much luck getting “Gotti” together. And Fiore has other problems. He’s still being sued by actor Joe Pesci over a promised role. But even worse: he ran afoul of the man he named exec producer, one Salvatore Carpanz...

Capone was probably the most famous mobster the world ever will see. We are more familiar with New York's Five Families, but we've been working on broadening our scope a bit. Here, we take a look at Mafia goings-on in the Windy City. Historically, only one family runs Chicago. Al Capone , perhaps the most famous mobster of all time, ran the city in the 1920s to early 1930s, during very tumultuous times; he in fact was the cause of tumult. (Scareface was originally from New York) and supposedly the Capone name still carries weight in the Chicago mob. The Chicago Outfit, also known as the Chicago Syndicate, dates back to around 1910. It is, of course, part of the American Mafia but distinct from the Five Families of New York City, and families in other regions of the U.S. But New York and Chicago together were the chief powers on the Commission. The Outfit is more strict, more loyal to tradition, than the New York families. When "Mob Wives" producers cam...

No one would argue that New York City is simply not the same city it was back during the 1970s to 1980s, and the results are good, crime wise, although there is something a bit boring and antiseptic about the city today. In a  Salon.com  book review there is a theory put forth explaining how this change happened -- and the book will surprise you. The New York of the film "Death Wish" is today a city out of Disneyland, if you ask me. "In the 1970s, ’80s and early ’90s, New York was viewed as one of the world’s most dangerous metropolises — a cesspool of violence and danger depicted in gritty films like 'The Warriors' and 'Escape From New York.' Friends who lived here during that time talk of being terrified to use the subway, of being mugged outside their apartments, and an overwhelming tide of junkies. Thirty-one one of every 100,000 New Yorkers were murdered each year, and 3,668 were victims of larceny," the story says. "Today, in an asto...

From  Ted Field Joins 'Gotti' Film as Producer (Exclusive) | The Wrap Movies : There won’t be any cement shoes for a certain troubled mob project. After running into financial difficulties, “ Gotti: In the Shadow of My Father ” has picked up a key addition: Ted Field . The billionaire media entrepreneur has joined the Fiore Films picture as a producer, TheWrap has learned. Field -- who has produced more than 50 films, including “The Last Samurai,” “Runaway Bride” and “Mr. Holland’s Opus” -- will play an “active role” in the production, according to an individual with knowledge of the talks. Field runs Radar Pictures . Director Barry Levinson made the introduction between Marc Fiore and Ted Field. It was Levinson who urged Fiore to sit down with Field, according to the individual. The cast of the film, which includes such heavy hitters as John Travolta, Ben Foster and Al Pacino, was notified this week of Field's involvement. The project had been dogged by repo...

Carla Facciolo appeared on the Joy Behar show and identified her father for the audience, stating that he was not a mobster. Louis "Bagels" Daidone murdered the uncle of Mob Wife Carla Facciolo, then stuffed a canary in his mouth. The family thought Facciolo was a rat -- but he wasn't. Carla identified her uncle as Bruno Facciolo and her father is Louis Facciolo. To wit, according to the Behar transcript, which another blogger found, we read the following:

“The supranational sovereignty of an intellectual elite and world bankers is surely preferable to the national auto-determination practiced in past centuries.” -David Rockefeller, Memoirs And with the quote above, political commentator, radio talk-show host and confirmed conspiracy theorist Dave Hodges begins his story  The Goldman Sachs Goodfellas  on the  NewsWithViews.com  website. Rockefeller's Memoirs quote likely sums up the deeply held views of many of the so-called 1% of Americans who own something like 90% of its wealth. But among that 1% there is a sector of Goldman Sachs execs, many of which have taken up the "sacrifice" of going into public service. Nevertheless, the firm is probably among the most reviled Wall Street companies, rightly or not -- the poster child for what is wrong with America's finances today. Probably the worst "crime" of which they have been accused: capitalizing on the mortgage-backed securities that were a primary driver ...

Drita, our favorite Mob Wife (in New York, that is). "Eighty years after the feds nailed Al Capone for tax evasion, Chicago’s ugliest legacy is about to return to the national spotlight. Ready or not, here comes Mob Wives: Chicago," reports   Time Out Chicago . So who are the Chicago Mob Wives? It seems that that is pretty well protected info, for now. NBC Chicago has noted, "The network is refusing to give up the names of the women starring in the Windy City show..." In Chicago omerta seems to be very much alive, and enforced along a quite broad front that also includes the wives of made guys. There is a chance, we at CNNews believe, that the identities of the Midwest Mob Wives may be kept anonymous. But then again, we have not learned a single thing about any inside Mafia news or gossip from Season One of the New York series. These wives talk more about themselves and how much they either love or hate one another--depending on the day of the week or th...

From the Almanac of Absurdities : Today in 1957 was a career making day for New York State Trooper Edgar D. Crosswell. Croswell worked near Apalachin New York in the late 50s, and in 1956 he pulled over someone leaving a 58 acre estate near Apalachin and found Mob Figure Carmine “The Cigar” Galante behind the wheel. Some wise guys showed up and attempted to bribe Galante out of the local slam, but it just got the local authorities attention. Trooper Croswell started keeping close tabs on the house that was owned by Joseph Barbara, the owner of the local Canada Dry distribution company and, they learned, was mobbed up with major Mafia figures in New York. In mid November in 1957, Trooper Croswell found out that Joseph Barbara’s son was making arrangements for hotel rooms for a group of visitors due at the Barbara estate on the 14th…and the state cops quietly began watching the roads in and out of the area. Barbara was having a gathering all right…the heads ofThe Luciano Family, th...

Noted Former Colorado Bureau of Investigation dies at 85 - The Denver Post : A colorful former federal drug cop who went on to become the head of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation died over the weekend in his Western Slope home. John "Ray" Enright, 85, of Silt died overnight Saturday, said former colleagues and friends. Enright was described as a hard-nosed crime fighter who was also adept at political haymaking. "He was involved, connected; he was constantly working," said Curtis Bridges, a longtime friend who worked with Enright. "He was directly involved with multiple agencies — that's what the CBI is, a coordinator. He served that function well; he got everyone moving in the same direction." Enright served as the CBI's director from 1977 to 1984. Prior to taking the reins at the CBI, Enright was a federal narcotics agent in New York, where his photo landed on the front page of the New York Daily News in 1958 when he and other age...

Anthony Lapaglia is set to produce the scripted show. From Deadline.com : Desperate Mob Wives? ABC is eying a drama series for next summer produced by Bob Cooper and Anthony Lapaglia. Titled Beautiful Gangsters, the project, now in development, has FremantleMedia Enterprises on board to handle worldwide distribution outside of North America through Cooper’s first-look deal with the company. And in a rare occasion for a network-level project, the script is written by a young newcomer, recent UCLA Film School graduate Ryan Tavlin. “It’s great to be supporting such a talented young writer as Ryan,” LaPaglia said. “Beautiful Gangsters is a stellar piece of writing, as sophisticated as it is juicy.” Beautiful Gangsters revolves around three mafia wives who cut a deal with the FBI to enter Witness Protection together in exchange for their testimony, in the hopes of giving their families a second chance at life. The FBI relocates them to a suburban border town in Canada, where they stru...