Cosa Nostra News

The Mafia still makes 'em like it always did... We're referring to the initiation ceremony -- the one that uses the gun, the knife, the picture of the saint, the pin... John Pennisi, 49, a Luchese member who flipped last year, detailed on the witness stand his life in the New York Mafia, touching on his initiation ceremony and how members of the Brooklyn crew began moving to Staten Island, raising the existential question of whether Luchese wiseguys who live on Staten Island can still credibly call themselves the Brooklyn crew.... Pennisi was made in a 2013 secret initiation ceremony in the dark basement of a house on Staten Island. (In a refreshing twist, he was made on his wife’s birthday rather than his own birthday.) Then-acting boss Matty Madonna, who was from the Bronx, presided. “There was a gun, a knife, there was a picture of a saint, an ashtray, a lighter, and like a diabetic pin, needle to check your blood,” said Pennisi. Madonna asked Pennisi wh...

By Nick Christophers Comic Con, Eternal Con, Chiller Theatre, and Auto Show have been staples of large themed shows, drawing huge crowds of die-hard fans. Sopranos Con organizer Michael Mota with legendary thespian James Gandolfini.  Now, on November 23-24, you can add Sopranos Con, an event organized in honor of the HBO blockbuster show that dazzled the nation. The show is the “brain-child” of Michael Mota and two partners. “It is great to do something you enjoy and put your heart into it. This is a passion project for me and my partners Joe and Dan. It is not the first Sopranos event I have had but this one is a bigger scale.” The event will be held at the Meadowlands in Secaucus, New Jersey. Michael has done smaller Sopranos events that featured four or five cast members doing a Q&A either at his restaurant or some other venue. He and his partners decided to tackle something with a bigger “bada-bing”. They wanted to develop a Con like no other that ...

Luchese soldier Eugene (Boopsie) Castelle was found guilty of conspiracy to commit racketeering and operating an illegal gambling ring after a two-week trial before U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein. Eugene (Boopsie) Castelle  Castelle, 59, of Staten Island, New York, was arrested in May 2016 with five others for running a $13 million illegal gambling operation. (When they arrested him, he reportedly told law enforcement: "I don't shake hands with cops.") Castelle also was among 10 wiseguys rounded up in January 2018. Those arrests were focused on alleged Bonanno acting boss Joseph Cammarano Jr. and John (Porky) Zancocchio, reputed consigliere, who were later acquitted by a jury after using a novel ethnic profiling defense. He was found guilty yesterday of one count of conspiracy to commit racketeering, which carries a maximum potential sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of operation of an illegal gambling business, which carries a maximum ...

The Luchese crime family apparently learned from its past mistakes -- and avoided repeating the stretch of murderous mayhem that happened back in the 1980s-1990s when over a dozen members were killed. From left: Amuso, Vic Orena, Michael Taccetta, Nicky Scarfo Consequently, Brooklyn-based Luchese mobster Michael (Big Mike) DeSantis bloodlessly succeeded Bronx-based (former) powerhouse Matthew (Matty) Madonna as acting boss, precisely as imprisoned-for-life boss Vittorio (Vic) Amuso had directed. Amuso -- who alongside his top lieutenant, Anthony (Gaspipe) Casso, was responsible for that 1980s-90s bloodbath -- had sent a message (via coded letter) from his prison cell to underboss Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea in 2017, as reported by Jerry Capeci on Gang Land News and the New York Post, noting that the news was based on testimony delivered during the racketeering trial of Eugene Boopsie Castelle. (Amuso in turn was responding to a letter that had been ...