All Blog Posts Tagged 'Gotti' (72)

By David Amoruso

The gangster movie genre owes a lot to Italian-American directors like Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppolla. Soon we can add Matteo Ribaudo to that list. His words. Shoot for the moon and you might just hit a star. That’s his motto. With his new film Broome Street Boys this fresh director plans to make his mark and…

By David Amoruso

Since its inception members of the American Mafia hung out at social clubs owned by friends or associates. Places with names like The Ravenite, The Triangle Social Club or The Gemini Lounge. Mob buff Charlie Yates has compiled an app and map listing almost every known mob social club in the New York area. “Modern technology can actually put you…

By David Amoruso

Longtime New Jersey mob boss John Riggi passed away on Monday. He was 90 years old. He had been released from prison almost three years ago and peacefully died at home surrounded by his family.

His obituary reads, “John M. Riggi, Laborers Local 394 business agent, Army Air Corps veteran, dedicated his life to his family.” Though…

By David Amoruso

Gambino mobster Carmine Agnello (photo above) was charged with running a multi-million dollar scam at his Cleveland scrapyard, yesterday. Authorities accused Agnello of theft, money laundering, conspiracy, and injecting race horses with banned substances.

Along with the New York mobster eleven others were implicated in the…

By David Amoruso

Whether you’re a flaming liberal or a staunch neocon, you have to appreciate Jon Stewart’s wit and humor. Especially when The Daily Show host takes on the Mafia. Born in New York City in the 1960s, Stewart has exhibited a fascination with all things Mafia since he began his career as a comedian and has frequently done mob bits on his show -…

By Thom L. Jones

Omertà: Good is he who sees and is silent.

                                             Old Mafia saying.

Sicily is an intricate web of favors done in exchange for other favors owing among people of all class, from the humblest to the highest. The trick is to never over-estimate…

By David Amoruso

“The first time my dad ever said he loved me was in Marion, Illinois, and we had a two inch thick glass between us,” says John Gotti Junior. The retired mob boss is pulling no punches in telling us about “the life.” He is currently on tour promoting his book Shadow of My Father which details his rise in the…

By David Amoruso

The times they keep a-changin’. Over a decade ago, Casablanca restaurant in Maspeth, Queens, was the home base of Joseph Massino, boss of the Bonanno family, one of New York’s five Mafia families. At that time he wielded tremendous power as he was the only boss not behind…

By David Amoruso

When it comes to the mob in America everybody knows about the five families in New York or Al Capone in Chicago. But what about a smaller city? Like Tampa, Florida. A city that has a long and colorful history of violence filled with gangsters from Italy, Spain, Cuba, and the U.S. itself. A brand-new magazine and tour shine a…

By Peter Lance

John Marzulli, who covers organized crime for the N.Y. Daily News today broke a story on the new memoir by John A. “Junior” Gotti to be released this week. As Marzulli reports, the book had been under wraps for months. It will be…

By David Amoruso

Ever since mob boss John Gotti drove by the dead body of his predecessor Paul Castellano, the Gambino crime family in New York has been ruled by him or one of his men. Be it his son Junior, his brother Peter, or his friend Jackie, Gotti’s grip on the family was firm and outlasted his own life. In 2011, that grip was broken when Domenico Cefalu…

By David Amoruso

Just when I thought I was out they pull me back in…? After having spent the last couple of years living in relative anonymity, former Gambino mob boss John “Junior” Gotti is back on the front pages of New York City’s tabloids. The reason is typical of the lifestyle he claims to have said farewell. He was stabbed in a parking…

By David Amoruso

Posted: March 10, 2007

Updated on: August 12, 2008



"I know my father loved me, but I got to question how much, to put me with all these wolves. This is the world you put your kid in? So much treachery. ... My father couldn't have loved me, to push me into this life." – John “Junior” Gotti



John “Junior” Gotti was…

By David Amoruso

The world of organized crime is one considered to be inhabited by individuals who are a cut above the rest. People who can work together to achieve a goal, think out of the box, who can rob and murder and protect their newfound riches through sheer strength. What separates them from other criminals is stated right there in the label “organized…

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…

This is an excerpt from Seth Ferranti’s new book, Gorilla Convict: The Selected Prison Writings of Seth Ferranti. The book is published by Strategic Media Books. To buy the book or for more information go to strategicmediabooks.com or…

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…

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



Based in Greenwich Village, the Triangle Social Club used to be the headquarters of the most powerful Mafia Family in the United States. But today, it has become the home of an organic, feel-good tea and spice store and…

This coming March 17th and 24th, the radio show, CRIME BEAT: ISSUES, CONTROVERSIES AND PERSONALITIES FROM THE DARKSIDE, will feature a special two-part program focusing on Lewis Kasman, John Gotti’s so-called 'Adopted Son', and his lawyer, Joel M. Weissman, one of the country’s top divorce lawyers. Kasman, at one time a millionaire garment executive, became one of the…