Cosa Nostra News

Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was killed on June 20, 1947, at 10:45 pm West Coast time. [Watch film footage below, the man wearing the maroon jacket is said to be Bugsy. I don't know... but first see the rare footage that is Bugsy Siegel ....) The gangster often identified as the visionary of Las Vegas was 41 years old. As recounted (here) , he was killed around three months after The Flamingo reopened in March 1947, once construction was completed. This IS rare footage of Bugsy Siegel..... At least one gunman crept up to a French window with a 30-30 carbine, resting the rifle on the lattice work of a trellis outside the Moorish‐style mansion Siegel shared with Virginia Hill at 810 North Linden Drive in Beverly Hills, California. Siegel sat on a couch, his back facing the gunman, who was only about 15 feet away, separated by glass. Siegel flipped through a copy of the Los Angeles Times he had picked up after dining at Jack’s on the Beach, when the gunmen squeez...

In 2003, New York-based Bonanno crime family members called Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto and told him the worst possible news. The Bonanno crime family's boss, Joseph Massino , had flipped, they told Rizzuto. Rizzuto faced serious trouble. Massino could implicate him in a triple homicide in New York City, in 1981. Massino had actually orchestrated the hit on three dissident Bonanno capos. Alerted to a pending arrest for three homicides, Rizzuto and his wife promptly flew to Cuba, taking a flight the very next day to the Melia Las Americas, a resort in Varadero, Cuba. There, the Rizzutos bided time in the five-star resort's tropical-style rooms, each of which offers a beach-side view via a balcony; they could dine in any one of its seven restaurants (ranging from casual, poolside snacks to fine dining), as well as pay a visit to the hotel's three bars and one nightclub. Meyer Lansky represented the mob in Cuba . Santo Trafficante Jr. hated him. "...

"I’m going to run all those fascist mobsters, all those American gangsters out of Cuba." Meyer Lansky supposedly was the first to realize the possibilities Cuba afforded the mob. Santo Trafficante Junior  was close behind him. The offshore tropical island was the perfect platform for smuggling, among other things. Cuba also made an excellent vacation destination, where a gambling industry to match Las Vegas could thrive -- minus the attention U.S. operators tended to attract from certain federal agencies, like the FBI. Unlike in Vegas, the mob could invest its gambling proceeds into entities like corporations and financial institutions, thus laundering it and profiteering from what wouldn't be classified as illicit earnings.

Charles (Lucky) Luciano was born Salvatore Lucania, today, Nov. 24, in 1897 in Lercara Friddi, Sicily. American Mafia founding father. He's considered the father of organized crime in the United States . Historians in recent years have worked to put the iconic mob boss into proper perspective, as his personal impact on America's Cosa Nostra had been appreciably exaggerated for the greater part of the 20th century. The bogus Last Testament of Lucky Luciano , by Martin Gosch and Richard Hammer, certainly didn't help matters. ( As unbelievable as it sounds, some of today's foremost organized crime writers still reference it .) Consequently, we compiled this "updated" Luciano sketch. It's certainly not comprehensive, but it's substantial enough. Christian Cipollini, an award-winning author and comic book creator, has written two books about Luciano, Lucky Luciano: Mysterious Tales of a Gangland Legend and LUCKY (with Evgeny Frantsev as...