Cosa Nostra News

My friend introduced me to The Bocce Boys , the guys from Carfellas, and also this clip, which is hilarious -- as well as one of the more honest and astute analyses of "Mob Wives." From  YouTube :

Pappa Smurf was nickname of mobster who allegedly ran trash. From Waste & Recycling News : Mobsters were exerting control over a portion of the greater New York City trash industry for years, alleged federal authorities as they revealed dozens of arrests in busting up the racket. Charges against 32 people were unveiled in a case handled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Westchester County (N.Y.) Police Department. Alleged members of three crime families of La Cosa Nostra, including alleged Mafiosos with nicknames such as "Papa Smurf," "Muzzy" and "Tony Lodi," are facing charges. Preet Bharara is U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and used particularly colorful language  [in the press release] to describe the impact of the mob on the trash business in certain areas. "As alleged, organized crime still wraps its tentacles around industries it has fed off for decades, but law enforcement continues to pry loose ...

Up in Montreal, two gangland hits less than three weeks apart offered confirmation for a jailed mobster that a certain Cosa Nostra boss had returned home and had commenced settling scores. The men killed were mobster Raynald Desjardins' associates; the returned Mafia boss was Vito Rizzuto. Desjardins betrayed Rizzuto in a bid for gangland supremacy, but also partly due to envy over Rizzuto's ability to avoid getting arrested by law enforcement. Desjardins' former brother-in-law and business partner, Gaetan Gosselin, was walking home last Tuesday night north of Montreal when one or more assailants opened fire, killing him. The ambush was reminiscent of the earlier Guiseppe Di Maulo hit; he also was a Desjardins brother-in-law -- and he'd been shot to death in his own driveway. Guiseppe "Joe" DiMaulo, not Joseph The Gosselin and Di Maulo murders (plus a few other slayings, including the Sal The Ironworker Montagna hit among other minor associates) h...

  Mob Wives Chicago was cancelled for a variety of reasons, foremost among them the cast members' lack of credible ties to the mob -- or the Outfit, the name by which the organized crime entity is better known in the Windy City. Carla and soon-to-be-former husband. It could be argued that really only one Chicago mob wife, Nora, had legit ties -- primarily through her deceased former-hit man father. The bottom line: None of the other women were mob wives in that they were not married or otherwise related to bona fide members of the Outfit (which says a lot about the Outfit, and how seriously even its women honor old-world codes). With the case of "Mob Wives" New York, that was seemingly less of an issue among some of the women, many of whom have very real ties to the "honored society" via husbands and/or fathers -- and it seems to have had very real repercussions on a heavyweight mobster who at one time was consiglieri for the Bonanno family, J...

Gambino associate Ferrante, arrested in the early 1990s. RealScreen.com  reports that the Discovery Network International will launch the television series "Inside the Gangsters’ Code" in February. The focus will not be on America's La Cosa Nostra, however, as the show will spotlight notorious crime rings located throughout the rest of the world. Further details regarding the show's day and time slot were not available at this time. Five 60-minute episodes are so far slated for release; each segment will follow ex-mafia associate Lou Ferrante as he exposes the inner workings of some of the world’s most notorious gangs in places such as El Salvador, the Philippines, New Mexico, Italy and Poland, with Ferrante explaining gang origins, developing networks of power, motivations and political sway. Ferrante appearing in TV host mode. "He will immerse himself in gang culture and live alongside prisoners, talk to guards, and meet top-level soldiers,...

Uncle Joe awaits verdict. After a couple of misfires, Philly jurors deliberating the fate of mob boss Uncle Joe Ligambi and six of his cohorts have been piled in the jury room for more than four weeks now. The restarts were caused by the judge having to replace two jurors with alternates. Then the jury had to restart its efforts -- and one of the first things it did was ask to see every single exhibit introduced during the 10-week trial. And of course the defense filed a motion for a mistrial, which was denied. So who is betting on a mistrial being declared? The latest report on the status of deliberations comes from  The York Daily Record , which notes that the "mob jury could work Super Bowl Sunday if the panel doesn't reach a verdict this week in the sports betting and loansharking case. "The jury has returned to court nearly every day to review portions of the FBI wiretaps made over the past decade. "U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno — perhaps nudging ...

From The Boston Globe : Massachusetts legislators and law enforcement officials are calling for an expansion of state wiretap law to allow police to secretly record more suspects who are targeted in murder investigations and other violent crimes. Under terms of a bill pending at the State House, authorities would still need a warrant to wiretap suspects, but the targets would not have to be members of a bona fide organized crime outfit, such as the Mafia, according to a summary of the legislation released on Sunday by the office of state Attorney General Martha Coakley. “Our current wiretap law has not been updated since 1968; it’s like asking our police to continue on horses and buggies after criminals began driving around in cars,” Coakley said in a statement. “This bill is a common-sense step forward to keep our communities safe from gun and street violence, human trafficking, and other violent crimes.” Coakley, along with police officials and lawmakers, is scheduled to brief ...

Drita has nearly half the vote, with only three days left... OK, nearly 300 readers have responded to our poll, "Who is Your Favorite Mob Wife?" We can't believe how far ahead Drita D'Avanzano is -- is she really that popular or do more of her fans tend to read this blog, is the question. But the facts are that 43% of respondents picked Drita; Big Ang is next popular, with 24%. The rest of the cast is stuck in the 5% to 7% bandwidth, which is plain ridiculous. No other mob wife even comes close to Drita in popularity??? Last time it was much more mixed up, but we know who the most hated mob wife was -- she stuck out about as much as Drita does for her popularity .

TG Graziano Jerry Capeci broke a big one this week, posting an article on his PPV website that reveals that the Bonanno family is so fed up with "Mob Wives," and all the attention that the "reality" TV show has brought to  La Cosa Nostra , that it has put TG Graziano, the one-time consiglieri (and father to Jenn and Renee Graziano), on the shelf, which means he has basically been stripped of all his mob duties. Hector Pagan's flipping -- a constant theme running through the show last season and the current one -- probably didn't help TG's cause, either, since Pagan was with TG. For all intents and purposes, it seems, TG is a "former gangster" now, and he can thank his daughters for this, according to the ganglandnews.com column. Let's see how they spin this one... Full story coming soon...

Tony Testa, recording artist. Lil Kim video shoot in Queens. Hip-Hop Wired reports that Lil Kim was in Queens this past weekend to shoot a video for a song called "Jay-Z." "Kim, whose played up her mafia persona for years by hanging with Mob Wives' Drita DaVanzo, surprised little by tapping Tony Testa and Mob Wives' Carla Facciolo in the video. Testa's Uncle, Joseph Carmine Testa, was convicted of being the head of the Gambino crime family."