Gangsters Inc.'s Blog Posts Tagged 'Colombo' (25)

By David Amoruso

Joseph Massino, the first New York mob boss to become a cooperating witness, feels he has earned a release from prison. This week, the New York Daily News reported that the FBI agrees and asked the judge to reduce the former Bonanno big wig’s life sentence as a reward for his unprecedented cooperation. “As the first official boss of the American Mafia to…

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…

“I'm in the waste management business. Everybody immediately assumes you're mobbed up. It's a stereotype. And it's offensive. (…) There is no Mafia.” - Tony Soprano

By David Amoruso

Thirty-two members and associates of the Genovese, Gambino, and Lucchese crime families were hit with various racketeering charges yesterday, all…

By David Amoruso

Not all men are created equal. And there is a different set of rules for a different class of people. Case in point: Greedy bankers versus blue-collar mobsters.

Colombo associate Pat Truglia stood trial for money laundering last month. Prosecutors alleged Truglia, together with Colombo consigliere Thomas Farese, laundered $40,000…

By Thom L. Jones

Early morning Thursday, Christmas Eve, 1992.

A maroon, four door, Mercury Topaz slows to a halt at traffic lights in Ozone Park, a suburb in Queens, New York.

The driver is a slim, dark-haired, dark skinned Italian-American. The passenger, his wife, is a diminutive, chubby, doe-eyed woman. She is thirty-one, three years older than her husband. They…

By Thom L. Jones

In 1960, Joe and Jack Taliercio opened a restaurant in Forest Hills, Queens, New York. They had worked as chefs in some of the finest restaurants in Europe and in Manhattan, and working as a family, determined to create a historic food locale. They leased premises at 102-11 Queens Boulevard, and began serving food a la Neapolitan style to a rapidly growing and…

By David Amoruso

These last few weeks the news of the death of three mobsters hit the airwaves. All three men died of natural causes. Though they were all members of the Mafia, their stories not only show the different path mobsters take, but also how much La Cosa Nostra influenced various businesses and areas in the United States.

Let’s start with…

By Thom L. Jones

Carmine DiBiase went out on Christmas Day and got drunk. Very drunk. Very, very drunk. And then he shot and killed someone.

Not just any old someone, but a best friend someone. A guy who had stood by Carmine at his wedding, as his chief attendant. Been godfather to one of his children. Was his business partner.

A man who was…

This story is excerpted from Krajicek’s new e-book, “Gotti and Me: A Crime Reporter’s Close Encounters With the New York Mafia,” available at Amazon.com and other book websites.

By David J. Krajicek

The mugs of the American Mafia once had the quaint custom of keeping their mouths shut. Mobsters took pride in being tight-lipped, even when…

By David Amoruso



“I’m going to hell!”



The above is a quote attributed to Colombo Crime Family leader Thomas “Tommy Shots” Gioeli. According to the FBI, Gioeli uttered the words to a…

By David Amoruso



“It's not personal, Sonny. It's strictly business,” Michael Corleone says to his older brother in The Godfather. This quote has come to influence how a large percentage of the public views how organized crime groups operate. These gangsters don’t kill at random. They kill with good reasons. For profit, territory: business. It doesn’t mean they…

By David Amoruso



“Fuck you. Pay me.” You all know this line from the classic movie Goodfellas. In the movie a troubled bar owner asks Henry Hill and his mob superior Paul Cicero to become his partners so he falls under their protection and his business can flourish without harassment from other…

By David Amoruso



Frank Costello: Fucking rats. It's wearing me thin.

Mr. French: Francis, it's a nation of fucking rats.

- From The Departed



Last month, 127 mobsters were arrested in the…

By David Amoruso



It was the largest nationally coordinated crime bust in the FBI’s history. Over 800 agents of the FBI together with local, state, and other federal law enforcement officers, took part in raids on the early morning of January 20. Carrying arrest warrants for 127 organized crime figures connected to the five New York La Cosa Nostra families as…

Estimate members: Between 75 and 85 (according to Jerry Capeci)

First Boss: Joseph Profaci



Primary activities: Narcotics, gambling, loan sharking, cigarette smuggling, pornography, counterfeiting, hijacking, fraud, stock fraud.



Boss: Carmine "The Snake" Persico,…