Cosa Nostra News

This first ran in late December of 2015... In North Jersey's Fort Lee sits a mansion for sale that was once owned by one of the most powerful and feared Cosa Nostra bosses in the American Mafia's history:  Albert Anastasia . Anastasia's home in Fort Lee includes a "strange tiled room." Described as a sprawling Mission-style estate, it's located at 75 Bluff Road and, according to a recent published report, it hasn't changed much since Anastasia had it built in 1947. The house was bigger than others in the area back then. In fact, the 25-room luxurious spread ruined the scenic view of Manhattan for at least one family, though they aren't known to have complained.

Why did the Lanza family execute DeJohn? The American Mafia lost a few members in 1947, some well known, some not so well known. Among that year's deceased were Jacob "Gurrah" Shapiro, a New York-based labor racketeer who worked with Louis " Lepke " Buchalter (executed in 1944); Al Capone  and Benjamin " Bugsy " Siegel. (On the other side of the legal fence,  Fiorello La Guardia , the Mayor of New York who very publicly targeted New York's Mafia, died in 1947.) Nicholas DeJohn died that year. Ever hear of him? He was a mobster who came up in the Outfit then hauled ass for San Francisco , where he found a role in the local organized crime landscape. He died brutally in 1947; he was strangled to death, in fact. His body fermented in a trunk of a car for two days before it was discovered. The murder was never solved -- but a piece of evidence showed up in a certain pawn shop that puts an interesting twist on DeJohn's story....A hint -- G...

John Alite has been talking terrorism laterly John Alite , former Gambino crime family associate, offers part two of his discussion centering on "the link between the Italian Mafia, ISIS and how buying drugs lines the pockets of terrorists." "They both work off the same methods, which is fear and laundering money from drug sales," Alite said. He notes that terrorists he met while in prison seemed to be "misfits, insecure and vulnerable when brought into" organized terrorism groups. DISCLOSURE: I write for The Insider Magazine.

One of the best things about  The Godfather  was  Richard Castellano , aka Peter Clemenza, a caporegime under  Don Vito Corleone . Richard Castellano - the last name ring a bell? Never mind that the film likely served as one of the mob's greatest recruitment tools ever. And if you're wondering, I did ask a couple of wiseguys what they thought of The Godfather. One, who asked to be referred to as anonymous, told me that Don Vito actually was based on a composite of all five titular family bosses. Also, he revealed, a made guy was murdered as a direct result of the film's release, a story I'll save for another time (it had something to do with the actor who played Virgil "The Turk" Sollozzo  -- "a top narcotics man," in consiglieri Tom Hagen's words). Former Gambino capo Micheal "Mikie Scars" DiLeonardo was succinct. "Epic," he described the first two Godfather films.  As for the widely despised third offering: ...