By David Amoruso

Are Italian authorities too harsh on imprisoned Cosa Nostra boss Bernardo Provenzano? His lawyer and family say yes. In video clips aired by Michele Santoro’s Servizio pubblico, or public affairs program, on television network LA7, viewers see an old and vulnerable Provenzano, who is unable even to use the prison…

By George Hassett

As the Italian Mafia rose in power across the country, a less organized but just as powerful underworld of Irish corruption was beginning to take shape. At the top of this hierarchy of politics and payoffs was an unlikely figure – a man celebrated as the patriarch of America’s greatest political dynasty. Joe Kennedy may have led his…

By David Amoruso

Aurelio Cano Flores started out as a cop, turned into a drug lord, and now sits in an American prison where he will spend over three decades behind bars.

Yesterday, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced that Flores, a 40-year-old Mexican national and high ranking member of the Gulf Cartel, was sentenced to 35…

By Angelo Carmelo Gallitto

No one is untouchable. Of course, others are easier to touch than others. In Italy this is being proven each and every day as Mafiosi and corrupt politicians escape justice by abusing one of the many loopholes the law offers them.

One of the men who managed to escape justice, according to many judges, pentiti,…

Crime Beat: Issues, Controversies and Personalities from the darkside on Artist First World Radio Network is pleased to announce its forthcoming schedule for May 9, 2013, through July 11, 2013. Topics covered include the Whitey Bulger trial, Vinnie Gorgeous, FBI profiling, Hells Angels and the Oklahoma City Bombing, among others.

• May 9: Anthony Bruno…

By David Amoruso

After more than thirty years, Gambino capo Bartolomeo “Pepe” Vernace finally faced the music this past week as he was found guilty of a 1981 murder and various racketeering charges. His victim was an innocent bar owner who had nothing to do with the mob. Vernace on the other hand began rising rapidly through the underworld as he managed to…

By Christian Cipollini

This is the true story of Detroit’s most dangerous underworld enforcer.

In February 1975, while travelling a narrow stretch of road in a picturesque suburb of Detroit, Chester Wheeler Campbell’s big black sedan nearly collided- head on -with an approaching patrol car on its way to a call. That close encounter would eventually…

By Thom L. Jones

I imagine a scene, long ago, in the town of Corleone, in the heartland of Western Sicily.

I see Doctor Michele Navarra (right). A classic valetudinarian; a sensitive and haunted expression playing across his features. The face of a man who had sold his soul to the Mafia and the devil for an excellent price, as English author Norman Lewis…

By David Amoruso

With the United States heading into forced spending cuts, Americans might think their grass isn’t as green as it used to be. Maybe, it’s greener on the other side of the fence? Mexicans beg to differ. While U.S. customers enjoy cocaine, heroin, meth, and weed from their Southern neighbors, the citizens of Mexico are living in a country that is going through somewhat…

By Peter Lance (author of the book Deal with the Devil: The FBI's Secret Thirty-Year Relationship with a Mafia Killer available at Amazon.com)

Gregory Scarpa Sr. was a trifecta of contradiction. A peacock dresser, he carried a wad…