August 2015 Blog Posts (10)

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…

By Thom L. Jones

I have struck a city-a real city-and they call it Chicago... I urgently desire never to see it again. It is inhabited by savages.

- Rudyard Kipling

In Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s there was enough crime to go around. Plenty to satisfy everyone.

As one journalist put it, "In all the…

By David Amoruso



Francesco "Franky Boy" Cali was born in New York on March 26, 1965, the son of Sicilian parents who were doing pretty good. Back in Palermo, Sicily his father ran a store selling goods and electrical materials. In New York he opened a video store. His father's name popped up during investigations into the Pizza Connection, but he was never arrested and has a clean record. When Frank Cali marries Rosaria…

By David Amoruso

Long distance relationships are hard, but running a New Jersey Mafia crew from Las Vegas is close to impossible. New Jersey mob captain Charles Stango (photo above) tried, though. In the process he gave the FBI gems like this: “The ending ain’t going to be good. I’m taking no prisoners.” The feds do take prisoners and hit him…

LeRon Barton (1978 – ) was born in Kansas City, Mo. Encouraged by his Mother to write, he attended Paseo Academy Fine Arts High-school to hone his craft. Mentored by famed writer Stan Banks, Barton began to write and recite poetry in KC and contribute to an underground zine. Graduating from…

By LeRon L. Barton

On a Tuesday in San Francisco, California, I was scheduled to meet up with Tony, a guy that answered an ad I placed on Craigslist.org. He and I traded texts on when and where to meet and decided on The Mission, a historically Latino neighborhood in San Francisco. I’ve always been a fan of The Mission. It is arguably the most…

By David Amoruso

London gangster Patrick Adams (59) was arrested by Dutch police in Amsterdam on Friday. He is now awaiting his extradition back to the United Kingdom where he is wanted in connection with a shooting in London two years ago.

Adams is one of the leading members of what is known as “the A-Team” or Adams Family, one of London’s…

By Barbara Casey

In the early 1930s banks in the United States were terrorized by a bunch of high profile armed robbers who roamed the mid-west. One of these notorious men was Tennessee, Mississippi-born “Machine Gun” Kelly. Starting out as a bootlegger, he switched careers after a stint in prison and became a fulltime bank robber feared throughout the…

By David Amoruso

Bittersweet. That’s the feeling Bonanno wiseguy Thomas Di Fiore (photo above) must have had when he was offered the position of acting boss of the Bonanno crime family while boss Michael Mancuso is in prison. Sweet, because the…

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.”…