I found the following while researching where in Sicily Al Lettieri 's family arrived from. Lettieri, the great character actor of the 1970s, was noticed for his infamous turn in the Godfather; my ...

During the 1992 trial that featured Sammy the Bull's testimony it was alleged that John Gotti expected his captains to pay him $3,000 on his birthday and on Christmas.* While awaiting trial in jail, ...

The relationship between Gambino wiseguys in New York and members of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra is healthier than ever, Italian investigators announced earlier this week following a series of raids in ...

Getting sentenced to 20 years in prison on narcotics charges in 1962 was just about the worst possible thing that could happen to the ambitious Carmine Galante—short of, say, getting blasted in the ...

One evening in December 1989, Gambino boss John Gotti and underboss Frank Locascio discussed murdering a troublesome Gambino underling who had failed to show up at a family meeting. Gotti, none too ...

The 'Ndrangheta is a secret society. Its organizational and operational rules and rites are based on this inherent characteristic. Therefore, it is no coincidence that there are various similarities ...

In 1987, reputed Colombo boss Carmine Persico knew that, short of his lawyers one day cooking up a miracle, he would in all likelihood be spending the rest of his life in prison. He had been convicted ...

Feeling tinges of uneasiness one evening when his father didn't show up when and where he was supposed to, Bill Jr. drove over to his father's social club The Friendly Bocce Club on 63rd Street and ...

And we continue with the next part of our transcript series on the 1992 testimony of Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano at John Gotti's last racketeering and murder trial, the one in 1992. In December ...

"When I was in New York for a mission, I got to know, personally, John and Joseph Gambino, both of them as initiates of the American Cosa Nostra. So, I came to know their secret joints, their way of ...

The FBI surreptitiously recorded about 600 hours of discussions in the apartment above the Ravenite social club, six hours of which were entered into evidence during the 1992 murder and racketeering ...

Jerry Chilli* died last Saturday from throat cancer; a private funeral mass will be held in Florida, which is where the Bonanno capo spent the greater part of his adult life. (Especially after New ...