All Blog Posts Tagged 'Murder' (340)

By Thom L. Jones

Italians know Corleone as a small, inland town of about 12000 inhabitants, situated in the highlands of Western Sicily, approximately mid-way between Palermo and Agrigento.

We mostly know Corleone as the name of a fictitious Mafia boss-Don Corleone- the central character in Mario Puzo's 1969 novel The Godfather. Although…

By Seth Ferranti

“On the back of the bike with Alpo/doin’ a back down one-two-three/hopin’ to stay alive/favorite spot, Rooftop”- LL Cool J

Alberto “Alpo” Martinez (photo above) was from East Rivers projects in Spanish Harlem, better known as the Eastside. “Alpo’s building was on 105th and First Avenue,” the Spanish Harlem hustler…

By Thom L. Jones

Boston, Massachusetts, has long had a reputation as a corrupt and base city. Not so much a Mob town as a Mob's town. It has been plagued by criminal gangs over the years-The Winter Hill, the McLaughlins, the Mullens, the Barbozas, Roxbury, Killeens, the Gustings and the Campbells, and of course, its own little Mafia cartel, which controlled The North…

By David Amoruso

Francisco de Castro Visconti seemed like the perfect example of an upstanding hardworking citizen. A resident of the tropical city of Recife on the north-eastern coast of Brazil, he ran a nightclub and food import business and was happily married with two beautiful kids.

Yet, he never really existed. Francisco de Castro Visconti was…

By David Amoruso

This month has been the bloodiest one yet in the entire history of outlaw motorcycle gangs. And it’s not even over. The spotlight was on Waco, Texas, where nine bikers were killed. But earlier this month, in the Netherlands, three bikers were wounded in a shootout. And yesterday, in Germany one was badly injured, while another died…

By David Amoruso

Ever since they came on the scene in the 1950s, Ronnie and Reggie Kray, known as the Kray twins, have dominated the London crime scene and the public’s fascination as well. And they continue to do so. This year, actor Tom Hardy will play both brothers in the epic gangster flick Legend.

Based on John Pearson's book…

By David Amoruso

“What the fuck is there? Everybody runs to the law. Everybody’s a fucking rat. Everybody, they’re fucking horrible.” – Bonanno gangster Jack Bonventre

Bonanno mobster Jack Bonventre knows all about “the life” and its many hardships. Bonventre was convicted of a federal charge of illegal gambling in 2007, for which he…

By David Amoruso

New York Bloods street gang leader Ronald Herron, also known as “Ra Diggs,” was sentenced to 12 terms of life in prison plus 105 years, yesterday. He was convicted last year, following a month-long jury trial, of all counts, including racketeering, murder, drug trafficking, and robbery. He is also guilty of his own downfall, bragging…

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

Colombo crime family captain Pasquale Amato died Friday, March 13, at age 80. He was serving a life sentence at a federal prison in Florida when he passed away. Though Amato was by no means an innocent man, there are some who say he did not commit the murder that sent him away to prison for the rest of his life.

Pasquale Amato…

By David Amoruso

It ain’t easy being a gangster in Los Angeles. The City of Angels is known as the birthplace of many notorious gangs like the Crips, Bloods, and La Eme. African-Americans and Latinos rule the streets where gang shootings are an everyday occurrence. Surprisingly it was this hostile environment that gave birth to Armenian Power, a gang…

By Christian Cipollini

Throughout the chaos of well-known and publicized mob warfare, several gangsters were learning lessons, gaining their own reputations and cementing future positions in what was becoming a new crime empire. They were young, most in their early twenties, but already hardened criminals. Brooklyn’s toughest, most rebellious and motivated…

By Seth Ferranti

To many in his hometown of Washington, D.C., during his 1980s reign as the city’s biggest cocaine and crack dealer, Rayful Edmond was public enemy number one. At the height of Dodge City’s brutal crack epidemic in 1987, this 22-year-old man was responsible for distributing 60 percent of the cocaine that flooded the city’s…

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 David Amoruso

It was to be the a huge blow against Mexican drug cartels. “These cartels will be destroyed,” Attorney General Eric Holder said. Led by the ATF, Operation Fast and Furious was to cripple the cartels’ ability to traffic and use American guns. But things turned out very differently and people continue to die from ATF-facilitated…

By David Amoruso

Antonio Madafferi, an honest and successful businessman or senior leader of the ‘Ndrangheta crime clan in Melbourne, Australia? It depends on who you ask, but police are quite certain that Madafferi runs one of the country’s most powerful criminal organizations, one that moves record-breaking amounts of drugs and has connections…

By David Amoruso

Mobster Tonino Callocchia was shot to death yesterday as he dined at a restaurant in Riviere-des-Prairies, Montreal. He was 53. His murder is the latest to rock the Canadian city as two mafia factions are fighting a vicious war for control of the rackets.

The longtime mobster was enjoying a meal at Bistro XO+ (photo above)…

By David Amoruso

It’s a bad time to be a secretive criminal organization. Today, Italian authorities released video of a ‘Ndrangheta elite swearing-in ceremony after concluding a two year investigation resulting in the arrest of forty suspected members of the criminal brotherhood from Calabria.  

“It's the first time that the swearing in, with the…

By David Amoruso

Gambino crime family associate Gennaro “Jerry” Bruno (above) was hit with racketeering charges yesterday. Authorities say Bruno was involved in the 2002 murder of a rival, narcotics trafficking, extortion, and obstruction of justice. The mobster was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada, by FBI agents, and faces a long hard time behind…

By David Amoruso

Ride hard, and die free after a shooting on 15 Freeway on the Cajalco Road off-ramp near El Cerrito Road in Corona, California. An alleged group of Hells Angels and Mongols were involved in a high speed chase as they fired shots at each other. One biker died, while two others suffered gunshot wounds and were hospitalized. No…