Cosa Nostra News

In a head-spinning revelation, Gang Land News reports today that Bonanno boss Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso, 63, who recently finished a 15-year prison term for murder conspiracy, was so furious with certain members of his crime family that he has made dramatic changes in personnel. Bonanno boss Michael  (Mikey Nose) Mancuso Mancuso, a killer who came up in the Bonanno family's powerful Bronx crew, was so angered by his acting boss's " musical consiglieris " legal strategy that he broke down (demoted) and kicked the acting boss -- Joseph (Joe C) Cammarano -- plus three of his confidants--out of the mob.  All four were seasoned ranking members of the Bonanno crime family. As per Gang Land sources on both sides of the law, when a federal jury acquitted then-acting Bonanno boss Cammarano of racketeering charges last March, "Joe C figured he was golden. The clean win in court, courtesy of a jury of his peers, made him the only mob boss other than...

As noted, Paul Ragusa, 48, an associate of the Bonanno and Gambino families, was recently sentenced to six years--because in 2017, he met with a CW whom he knew through their prior affiliation with the Giannini Crew, which this story profiles at length.... Gambina, left, Senator D'Amato, Sciulla, right, who was found in a trunk. Sicilian-born Bonanno capo Baldassare (Baldo) Amato reminds us of the Mafia version of the cat with nine lives, if such a thing could be contemplated. And while he didn't have anywhere near nine resurrections, we presume over the years he’s extricated himself from some very tricky situations. While it's never been empirically ascertained, to our knowledge, we're betting that Mafia politics of the 1970s-1980s, particularly when involving the Bonanno family, had a much higher than average mortality rate. A seemingly Zelig-type figure, Amato either possessed the luck or guile (or both) to survive and thrive when others couldn't (...

Joseph Galante was a member of the notorious Giannini Crew, a group of dozens of young wannabes based in a café in Queens, when he helped get rid of the corpse of Thomas Sanjane, whose throat was slashed in 1991 as part of a cocaine rip-off scheme. Galante would later flip, hoping that his efforts to help the Feds would help mitigate his prison time. But then he resumed committing crimes -- and prosecutors discarded their cooperation agreement with him. Then at his 2016 trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Shreve Ariail told Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis: "The defendant committed one of the most heinous crimes you can conceive of committing." Galante, faced 30 years to life, and got away with a 10-year sentence. Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis was well aware of "the extraordinary length of time he served as an informant and making secret recordings of mobsters from the Bonanno, Colombo and Gambino crime families." The crew showed up on the Fed...

Springfield-area businessman Victor Bruno is selling two downtown restaurants. Adolfo Bruno One of them he opened in honor of his father, Adolfo (Big Al) Bruno, who had been boss of the Genovese family’s Springfield crew— until he was slain in 2003 by his successor as part of a takeover plot. Victor Bruno — who reportedly says he wants to spend more time with his family, including his two young boys, who are 5 and 8— conformed this week that he will sell Adolfo’s Ristorante and Art-e’-Pizza, both of which are located on Worthington St. in Springfield, Mass. Adolfo’s, which opened in 2010, is for sale at $775,000, though the listing is only for the business—the equipment, furnishings, inventory, and liquor license—and not the property. The other eatery opened last year. “My customers have been great to me, I’m going to miss them,” Bruno told one newspaper. “I want to spend more time with my family.” Bruno was shot to death in Springfield on Nov. 23, 2003. It was about ...

Yesterday, July 9, at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, Paul Ragusa, 48, an associate of the Bonanno and Gambino families, was sentenced by United States District Judge Pamela K. Chen to six years in prison for possessing nine firearms, including three automatic assault rifles and a silencer. Paul Ragusa Ragusa possessed the firearms while serving a custodial sentence at a residential re-entry facility in connection with three prior felony convictions. Ragusa pleaded guilty to the firearms charge in October 2018. As per the Daily News, Ragusa was once featured on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List. Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, announced the sentence. “While serving a prior sentence for violent crimes involving machineguns, Ragusa was ready and willing to transport more guns, including assault rifles,” said United States Attorney Donoghue. “Today’s sentence incapacitates the defendant, who clearly continues to ...

“If it don’t have to do with our mother or father, stay away from me!” -- John Gotti to Pete Gotti, as per FBI bug. It was clear as crystal from the beginning that the Feds wanted Pete Gotti, 79, the late John Senior's older brother, to rot in jail until senility set in. And now that that has happened, we still doubt that the Fed's would agree to any kind of motion that includes the word "compassion" anywhere in it -- if its goal is springing an old wiseguy from prison.  There's no compassion for lifelong Mafiosi -- unless they flip. Not opinion. Or to borrow a recently coined phrase: The cruelty is the point. The Fed's clearly had it in for Pete Gotti back in 2005. He was 65 and minding his own business while serving a 9.5-year stretch for labor racketeering, extortion, and money laundering on a 2003 conviction. Then the Fed's up and saddle him with an additional 25 years for a seemingly made-for-TV revenge-murder conspiracy to kill Salvato...

John Gotti most certainly never would've done what his eldest brother is attempting to do. Peter Gotti with Ronnie One-Arm Trucchio. And it's certainly not something in brother Gene 's vocabulary. Gene, now a capo in the Gambino crime family, served 30 years in prison, and notably refused to seek early release to a halfway house when he had the opportunity. He was released last year, after serving out his full sentence. Peter Gotti seems to be following in the footsteps of another John Gotti, the one with Junior for a nickname. Former lead decision- maker on a Gambino family ruling panel (and a nephew to Peter), Junior Gotti publicly disavowed the Gambino family back in 2005. Four times between then and 2009, federal prosecutors tried--and failed--to convict him on racketeering charges Even though the filing says nothing about his current status in the Gambino family, by filing the compassionate release motion, Peter Gotti also is tacitly stepping down...

UPDATED Reputed sitting Gambino boss Peter Gotti's compassionate release filing (reproduced in its entirety below) poses several arguments for his release, including that he suffers from more than a dozen medical ailments, including cardiovascular disease and a likely cancerous growth in at least one lung; that he's rehabilitated as well as sorry; and that his continued incarceration is financially irresponsible. Peter Gotti and John Gotti As first reported by Gang Land News  last Thursday (July 4) in Forgottiboutit! Dapper Don's Brother Says He's Done With The Mob; Wants Out of Prison , James Craven, the attorney representing Gotti, filed the motion in Manhattan federal court on June 28. Gotti, 79, has been in custody since June 4, 2002, and is serving a 25-year term on a federal racketeering conviction. He is now at FMC Butner, North Carolina. His slated release date is May 5, 2032. " In hindsight Peter Gotti made a terrible mistake in goin...

The short, stocky, balding man stepped out of the air-conditioned chill of the brown Lincoln limousine and into the scorching July afternoon in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Wearing a white short-sleeved knit shirt open at the neck and blue slacks (in which $860 in cash and Medicare and social security cards had been shoved), the man waved goodbye to the driver, who was his nephew. Then, sucking on his customary large Churchill cigar, the man strolled toward the nondescript eatery set between a law office and a pizza parlor on Knickerbocker Avenue. Dingy yellow curtains hung over the long front windows. A simple rectangular sign on top declared the place an Italian-American Restaurant and touted its takeout fare. Joe and Mary’s Italian-American Restaurant reportedly offered good food and was family-run, both of which appealed to the man, who was related to the owner. Bushwick, once a prosperous enclave, was a fading Bonanno stronghold at the time. The neighborhood, nestled bet...