Cosa Nostra News

There's a busload of former Bonanno wiseguys somewhere out there in America these days. Ya all know what one of them ( Dom Cicale ) has been up to -- and now we can catch up with one of Dom's ex-cohorts.... We love the way Oxygen  wrote up the news release, though all things considered, we're not sure how Richard "Shellackhead" Cantarella's old pals will feel about this reality television series. One old-school Bonanno wiseguy told us: " That scumbag! " when we told him about the show. (He refrained from further comment). Anyhoo, we decided, hey, we'll post the frigging thing as is: Going from a life of crime to life in the suburbs proves to be the ultimate challenge in Oxygen Media's quirky new half-hour docu-comedy series UNPROTECTED , premiering Tuesday, April 11 at 9pm ET/PT. (See trailer below.) Richard "Shellackhead" Cantarella then.... The series follows the Cantarellas , a boisterous, old-school family that...

Michael Meldish, 62, was a Luchese associate who once ran the Purple Gang, a violent crew based in Harlem and the Bronx. He was shot in the head in 2013 while he sat behind the wheel of his car. One bullet had been fired into the right side of his head at close range as if the shooter were seated in the front passenger seat. And he likely was sitting beside Meldish as a getaway car tailed them. (Ironically, the front passenger seat is usually referred to as the "death seat" in mob parlance.) Surveillance video allegedly caught gunmen Terence Caldwell. Police found Luchese associate Meldish within a very short timeframe following the shooting. He was bleeding from both ears, and his body was still warm when police arrived on the scene, summoned by a 911 call from a neighbor.

An unassuming fruit and vegetable shop in western Sicily near Trapani included a massive refrigerator attached to it. Located in the middle of mob boss Matteo Messina Denaro's home turf , the refrigerator did more than it was intended to. In fact, the cooling unit served double duty as a meeting place for six alleged members of Denaro's Mafia clan. Meeting in the fridge -- six alleged members of Messina Denaro's Mafia clan were caught holding important meetings inside a refrigerator. The alleged mobsters believed that the refrigerator's thick insulation served as an effective buffer against Sicilian law enforcement, otherwise referred to as the anti-mafia police.

John Gotti and Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano were spotted in Brooklyn, New York, this past Tuesday chatting like it was 1989... Well, not really... John Travolta and William DeMeo -- who play the former Gambino crime family boss and underboss -- were seen in Brooklyn filming scenes for  The Life And Death of John Gotti. William DeMeo, left, as Sammy, and John Travolta Gotti. Scenes for biopic were filmed Tuesday. Courtesy of The Daily Mail.