Cosa Nostra News

This is the house as it appears today where the Colombo hit squad shot down the Perainos, former partners in crime who backed the porno film "Deep Throat." Ephemeral New York is a blog devoted to "Chronicling an ever-changing city through faded and forgotten artifacts." The site recently ran a story on what we call " The Deep Throat Murders, " in which the Colombo family sought to tighten up management and increase its portion of the revenue generated by the infamous XXX-rated film Deep Throat, which family cohorts the Perainos had backed and from which they were taking more than their fair share of the proceeds. "The story includes a photo of the house... that stands today at the address where a Colombo hit team tried to whack the Peraino father and son team." What is interesting is the story includes a photo of the house, or at least the house that stands today at the address where a Colombo hit team tried to whack the Peraino ...

From the NY Daily News : A rising star in the Gambino mob was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison for racketeering and other crimes, including extorting two strip clubs in Queens. “They can’t take my honor,” said capo Alphonse Trucchio, 35, as marshals escorted him from the courtroom after sentencing in Manhattan Federal Court. Trucchio pleaded guilty in February to racketeering, drug trafficking, extortion, assault, loansharking and gambling in exchange for a sentence of 8 to 10 years in prison. He was one of more than 100 mobsters busted in four states in January 2011 in the biggest Mafia takedown in FBI history. In November, he was charged with 19 others with participating in a scheme to smuggle women from Russia and neighboring countries into the U.S. on fraudulent visas to work at strip clubs controlled by the Gambino crime family. In an earlier post,  Gambino Members, Associates Plead Guilty in Manhattan Federal Court , we included the following supp...

Chilean salmon The Broward Palm Beach New Times ran a story about seven years ago. What is so interesting about it that I would post it now is that it shows the sometimes absurd lengths the Feds will go to catch Mafiosi, especially high-level ones. This story involes some stolen salmon, overzealous prosecutors and old-time heavy hitter Gerry Chilli, a Bonanno capo at the time (we are not certain of his current status). One of our favorite quotes: A couple of mobsters "were dragged into the case on allegations that they passed football betting cards around. "Clearly, they both deserve to die in jail for that." The reporter takes an objective viewpoint and Cosa Nostra actually scores serious points in this story, while the journalist, Bob Norman, revels in the absurdities. Here is the story, one of our favorite pieces of journalism about the mob, excluding Jerry Capeci: While a couple of dozen accused mobsters milled around outside Judge Stanton Kaplan ...

Posts might be a bit slow while I am in Sin City this week. Tonight, I am going to the Tropicana to visit the mob museum there -- review to follow, probably next week. Internet connection sucks from my room and I am no longer as patient as I used to be, about a lot of things...