Cosa Nostra News

When not creating content for this blog, I am working my butt off doing freelance work and sending out resumes. I need a full-time job, and it seems impossible to get one. I have been dodging this financial crisis since it started, and in my view it hasn't ended. So I have resorted to this: impugning on my blog readership. If anyone out there is looking to fill any writing/editing positions, please contact me; I can show you my professional portfolio, which has nothing to do with the mob (I operate this blog under a pseudonym). I am primarily a writer/editor of business and human interest stories, and have strong experience. I am very open to venturing outside of journalism and into marketing communications or public relations. Please contact me at evlieb83@verizon.net if you have any leads for me. I'd truly appreciate it.

Still no word on who the other new Mob Wife is... Toni Marie Ricci was the number-one contender for the slot, I thought, but I have begun to suspect that maybe she's been a red herring, and that Jennifer Graziano is going to wow us with someone totally out of left field... Then I saw a bizarre mention on the Mob Wives Wikipedia page under the subhead Supporting Cast: "Victoria Gotti - Vanessa's older cousin, also daughter of the notorious mobster John Gotti, who visits Vanessa from time to time and gives her advice and a shoulder to lean on." This seems to imply that Vanessa Gotti is the other new Mob Wife, and that Victoria will be on the show. However, there is no previous mention of Vanessa on the page -- it seems she should have been mentioned in a first reference. Perhaps the Wikipedia author identified the new cast member, but was  later told to take the name out, which the author did -- but maybe forgetting to delete the subsequent reference to Vanessa????...

From Tampa Bay Times : As an FBI agent who specialized in surveillance, Cyrus Falls worked in a lot of different places. He dressed up to eavesdrop on bid rigging activity in a tony Washington, D.C., restaurant. His 16 years in the FBI's Newark, N.J., office monitoring organized crime once took him into abandoned buildings, one wrong move away from a possible gunfight; and to other states as he tailed bad guys on the highway. In Tampa, where he finished a 36-year career, he dressed like a tourist to watch communist bloc spies exchanging information at SeaWorld, witnessed drug transactions and shadowed remnants of the Trafficante crime family. For long stretches of time in between, he drank coffee — and waited. In 21 years as an agent, he drew his weapon just once. Mr. Falls, whose church activity and kindly demeanor earned him the nickname "Reverend" by his fellow FBI agents, died Nov. 20, of congestive heart failure. He was 79. ... Read complete article

Philly boss 'Uncle Joe.' From the Big Trial : A federal prosecutor urged jurors on Thursday to rely on dozens of secretly recorded conversations in finding mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi and six co-defendants guilty of racketeering conspiracy charges. "Their words define them," Assistant U.S. Attorney John Han told the jury during a three and one-half hour closing argument that marked the start of the final phase of the ten-week old trial. Han asked the jury to consider "the words that came out of the mouths" of Ligambi and most of the other defendants who he said had been "caught in the act of being themselves." The secretly recorded conversations, from body wires worn by cooperating witnesses and from wiretapped conversations, were gathered during an investigation that began in 1999 and concluded with the indictment of Ligambi and the other defendants in May 2011. The defendants are charged with gambling, loansharking a...

Sal Polisi, former mobster turned author, actor and film producer, will be there. From ReviewJournal.com : Former wiseguys and G-men plan to join forces for Mob Month at the Clark County Library every Tuesday in January beginning Jan. 8. "These events have been very popular with our audience," said Julie Okabayashi, scheduling specialist for the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District. "People like to reminisce, and I'd guess if you polled the audience, you would find that the majority liked Vegas better when the mob was in charge." Plans include panel discussions with former mobsters, law enforcement, authors, historians and other witnesses to the mob's rise to power in the 20th century, including question-and-answer sessions and book signings. The annual event began when Henry Hill, a mobster-turned-FBI informant whose escapades became the inspiration for the movie "Goodfellas," came to the library with the idea of telling people the real...

Below are candid photographs of Gambino capo Roy DeMeo , who operated a massive stolen-car ring and ran a crew that specialized in doing hits for hire, as well as for fun... Former Gambino capo Roy DeMeo has a word with someone  standing off-camera... A mob historian seeking to uncover Roy DeMeo 's FBI files sent them along to this blog. It was the crew's body disposal method—dubbed the Gemini Method, after a bar Roy owned and used as his HQ—that earned them the nickname "Murder Machine" from Jerry Capeci. The FBI suspect the crew murdered between 150 and 200 people in the 1970s and early '80s—at least. These photos prove quite chilling to those knowledgeable about Roy, a man whom John Gotti himself may have feared (or at least, Gotti once seemed to say as much).  Johnny Boy, the tough guy destined for mob infamy, turned down Gambino boss Paul Castellano's request that he and his Bergin crew whack DeMeo. "That guy has an army of killers,...

From the National Post :  This one is a week old, but those following Canada will be interested... A man described as a bodyguard for the Montreal Mafia — who helped prepare an arsenal of heavy firepower during a deadly feud — has survived being shot in another attack in Montreal’s continuing underworld unrest. Giuseppe Fetta, 33, was shot near his car by a gunman who approached on foot Monday morning. He was in hospital while police searched for the attacker. Mr. Fetta was considered part of the Mafia’s protection wing in 2006 by police who placed him near the bottom of the Rizzuto crime family’s hierarchy, part of a 26-man cell under the command of Francesco Arcadi. Related Mayor of St-Remi arrested on fraud charges amid Quebec corruption inquiry ‘Don Corleone’ figure who helped install Rizzuto family to top of Canadian Mafia released from U.S. prison Mafia hit?: Montreal police probe death of man found riddled with bullets in SUV Late on Christmas Eve in 2005, police...

Vito Rizzuto is battling an alliance of underworld figures who have joined against him. This is an interesting story, as it offers insight into exactly whom Vito Rizzuto and his family have been fighting against since his return to Canada from a U.S. prison... From Sun News : TORONTO - A low-key mob war being waged in Quebec won't rattle this province because Ontario is the economic engine fuelling the battle, sources say. Ontario is the source of most of the wealth for organized crime while the violence for the most part remains in Quebec. The province, according to investigators and an organized crime expert, is bankrolling European operations, often targets of tough money laundering and asset seizure laws. The war in Quebec intensified when chieftain Vito Rizzuto returned home in early October. It's a battle that has pitted Rizzuto against an alliance of underworld figures who have also sided with a group of opponents, some of whom are based in Ontario. I...

From GangsterBB.NET Forums : An informant wearing a wire helped the FBI catch a crew of New Yorkers with nicknames like "Augie," "Jimmy Boy" and "Charlie Tuna" as they attempted to steal and sell $1 million worth of cigarettes, United States Attorney Paul J. Fishman said. The informant also helped nab an East Hanover man who allegedly sold the informant cocaine, according the U.S. Attorney's office. Eight people — seven of them from New York, one whose residence isn't known — were charged in the alleged cigarette theft conspiracy. All face charges of conspiracy to commit cargo theft. Two — Augustine Guido and John Torlone — also face charges of conspiracy to transport stolen goods in interstate commerce. They could each face up to five years in prison and $250,000 per offense, if convicted. Carmen T. Marticci, 37, of East Hanover, alone was charged with distribution and possession with intent to distribute cocaine. He could be imprisoned fo...

From Complex : 23. Karen Gravano and Drita D'Avanzo (Mob Wives, VH1) Drama is what Mob Wives thrives on, but the two-season-long feud between Karen and Drita went stale long before it was finally resolved this year. While we’ll admit it was good TV both times they came to physical blows, there’s only so much of watching the two of them complain about how much they hate the other on camera before the urge to change the channel to another rerun of Keeping Up With the Kardashians comes into the picture. Both Karen and Drita had recently done things they should have been sorry for (namely, trying to kill each other in their fight), but the majority of the issues they were sparring over were decades old, kept alive by grudges that were never truly let go. Both of them could have decided to chill out long before they actually did. It would have saved a lot of hours that could have been put towards giving Big Ang more screen time. 22. Ramona Rizzo (Mob Wives, VH1) We would ...