Cosa Nostra News

Frank Gangi—a former Bonanno associate who, thanks to best-selling author Philip Carlo, earned lifetime infamy for his stint as sidekick to one of the most notorious Cosa Notra killers of the 20th century, Tommy Karate—has died, we've belatedly learned..... Frank Gangi  Jimmy Calandra announced Frank's demise in one of his Bath Avenue Story podcast s, saying he had gotten the word from some of Gangi’s relatives after mentioning Frank in an earlier podcast. (We were initially tipped off by the last person you would think of when hearing  Frank Gangi's name. Well, actually, the first—someone who has been in prison for more than 30 years now.) Back in April 1990 (then-Gambino boss John Gotti et al would be arrested in December of that year), Gangi confessed to being a member of a mob-linked crew under Bonanno soldier Thomas (Tommy Karate) Pitera and committing a host of horrible crimes, including selling about 50 kilograms of cocaine from between 1987 and January 1989 and pa...

By Andrew Machin It is not often that the media, when reporting news of the murder of a leading member of organized crime, immediately and in unison, indicate the organization suspected of being responsible as well as the motive. In the case of Carmine Verduci's murder (on Apr. 24, 2014;  see Part 2 ), all this happened. And it happened largely for one reason: because there were different police sources who all suggested the same line of inquiry. We refer to a set of opinions expressed by anonymous officers that, considering their authoritativeness and competence, journalists understandably reported and developed.  These opinions could be summarized as follows:               ① The killing was to be attributed to the Rizzuto crime family (Montreal Family), which had eliminated a high-ranking member of the 'Ndrangheta rooted in the Greater Toronto Area, right in the heart of its territory. ② Verduci’s ...