Cosa Nostra News

US attorney (& Co.) reveals more news about NE mob boss DiNunzio; the guy in middle seems to have other things on the brain at the moment. Reputed mob boss DiNunzio showed tough side to member of New York's Gambino crime family - The Boston Globe : The man owed him money, tens of thousands of dollars for the purchase of his cheese shop in the North End, and Anthony DiNunzio was furious and wanted to send a message. RELATED 4/25: Feds charge DiNunzio, alleged mob boss VIDEO  Anthony DiNunzio is identified as New England mob boss “So I grabbed him,’’ DiNunzio, the reputed boss of the New England Mafia, allegedly told an associate last December. “Twenty-five [thousand dollars] comes to me.’’ DiNunzio’s associate, a senior member of the Gambino family, was sympathetic. And he responded, “He’s going to pay the twenty-five.’’ “Oh, yeah,’’ DiNunzio said, laughing and insinuating that if the payment wasn’t made, “I’ll kill hi...

Reputed Mafia consigliere agrees to “global” plea deal: lawyer - NYPOST.com : "The Gambino crime family’s reputed consigliere has agreed to settle all remaining charges against a group of mobsters busted last year, a lawyer revealed yesterday. Joseph “Jo Jo” Corozzo and four co-defendants struck the “global” agreement late last Friday, lawyer Bruno Gioffre Jr. told a judge in Manhattan federal court. Gioffre’s client, high-school dropout Sean Dunn, pleaded guilty to selling marijuana for the Mafia in exchange for a recommended sentence of up to seven-plus years in prison. Neither Corozzo’s lawyers nor the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office would detail the pending deal."

The FBI has been forced to release more records about its decades-long agreement with Colombo capo Gregory Scarpa Sr., one of its highest-level Mafia informants, a federal judge has ruled. Scarpa expert Angela Clemente started the process leading up to this latest development years ago. Among her goals is locating evidence of illicit acts by the FBI agent handling Scarpa, as well as helping clear the name of shafted NYPD detective Joe Simone. Formulated after Scarpa found himself arrested back in the early 1960s (J. Edgar himself is said to have approved the agreement), the deal between the Feds and Scarpa had been an uneven one, law enforcement sources have told me. One quipped: “The Feds didn’t flip Scarpa, he flipped them.”

The alleged acting head of the New England mob was arrested Wednesday, and in a federal court appearance in Providence, R.I., later in the day, he pleaded not guilty to multiple counts including racketeering and conspiracy.         Anthony DiNunzio, acting boss of the New England mob, was arrested. "In a colorful indictment returned Tuesday and unsealed Wednesday, federal prosecutors allege that the man, Anthony DiNunzio, 53, became the acting boss of New England’s Cosa Nostra crime family in late 2009 and oversaw the organization’s extortion of Rhode Island strip clubs and other such businesses, demanding payments of $2,000 to $6,000 per month," reports the New York Times . “Our indictment alleges that Mr. DiNunzio was an unscrupulous and intimidating leader of the New England L.C.N.,” said James Trusty, the head of the Justice Department’s organized crime unit, during a news conference. "According to the indictment, Mr. DiNunzio was recorde...

From masslive.com , we can read an article about the latest happenings in the ongoing Mafia murder trial now under way in New York City -- and it's not the one the aged, ill former Colombo boss is fighting through, though the last we've heard is Gioeli stopped leaving his cell -- an effort to stop the inevitable? Longmeadow loan shark Emilio Fusco , a member of the Springfield faction of New York's Genovese crime family, is on trial in Manhattan for the murder of rival mobster Adolfo "Big Al" Bruno , among other things, including a second murder. The prosecution in the Mafia murder trial "paraded its second self-confessed killer to the witness stand on Tuesday," masslive.com reports. Fusco hired a hit man in each of the murders he allegedly brought about. Frankie Roche , admitted hitman in the 2003 contract killing of Springfield mob boss Bruno , "coolly told jurors of a criminal history that began when he was a boy in Westfield, Mass., with ...

Gioeli's plan to have his cousin testify on his behalf backfired in the former mob boss's face. A key witness meant to testify on behalf of accused murderer Thomas "Tommy Shots" Gioeli caused a a stir in the courtroom when, on cross examination, he claimed that the former Colombo boss approved a killing. Thomas McLaughlin, a cousin to Gioeli, told Brooklyn federal court that Gioeli had approved the 1991 revenge killing of Frank "Chestnut" Marasa, The New York Post reported. He was shot to death in front of his Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, home on June 12, 1991. Gioeli lawyer Adam Perlmutter asked what role he, McLaughlin, had played in Marasa’s killing; the witness said he had driven Richie Greaves and Dino Calabro to the scene "where Greaves and Calabro fatally shot Marasa." Under cross-examination, McLaughlin revealed that, right before the killing, Calabro told him that Gioeli had approved the hit and the men assigned to it. Gioeli a...

Ministry founder Glenn Hovater From the  New York Daily News : Meet the Godfellas. In previous incarnations, mob rats Joe Campanella and William Cutolo Jr. were entrenched in the Colombo crime family. Now they want deliverance from evil - as "ministers" in a flock of mob misfits known as Goodfellas4God. "There are people who want to get out of that life and they talk to me," said ministry founder Glenn Hovater, a former pest control inspector who runs the operation from donated offices in Painesville, Ohio. Hovater started the group two years ago; most members are ex-wiseguys from Cleveland and Pennsylvania. A retired NYPD detective introduced him to Campanella; he and Cutolo Jr. are the only New Yorkers. Hovater will send Campanella, a former made man and Cutolo Jr., son of underboss Wild Bill Cutolo, on speaking tours to rail against "the life." Neither Mafia rat is in the witness protection program, so special security arrangements will be made to...

The below audio clip is taken from  Blog Talk Radio . Linda Scarpa is the daughter of deceased Colombo crime family capo Greg Scarpa, aka "The Grim Reaper." She has appeared in a season-one episode of the series "I Married a Mobster" and has suffered more than any person should ever have to suffer in a lifetime. In the space of 10 months, her father died of complications caused by AIDs, which he got through a blood transfusion. Her brother was shot twice in the head. Ms. Scarpa is also currently working on a book -- her life story, the foundation of which was growing up as the daughter of a high-profile gangster and an extremely complicated man of seemingly great contradictions, who lived in a subculture of our society that has more in common with much earlier centuries. Read this article  for a glimpse of the rarely seen side of the man, who was not a typical Mafioso by any means. Greg Scarpa, master manipulator, mafioso and civil rights...

Tina Franzese, wife of infamous Colombo mobster John "Sonny" Franzese, died on Easter Sunday. She was 77. I knew Mrs. Franzese, had hours-long conversations with her when I did a story on Sonny. More to come. Related Posts Missing Letter Describes Fate of Franzese Surveillance Records from Storied Bank Robbery Trial ' Nothing Personal' Debuts with Story of Larry  'Champagne'  Carrozza Hit

This is a picture of Salvatore, but not Maranzano.  Salvatore Messina. Author David Critchley, Ph.D., made a compelling argument in an Informer article that the picture above, widely viewed for many decades as being a photograph of Salvatore Maranzano, is not actually him. "An apparent photograph of 'Salvatore Maranzano' has appeared in varied venues, ranging from books to the Internet. What those who print it fail to mention [Ed. Note: I'd say they fail to mention because they fail to know!] is that it's not of Maranzano at all. The mistake made is a classic case of the much broader problem of inaccuracies plaguing accounts of the American Mafia, which spread myths and misunderstandings." The history of the American Mafia is riddled with more holes than a 1920's-era Ford in Chicago during the Capone years. But this one about Maranzano likely has thrown quite a few of you for a loop....