Glouster County Italian Heritage Commission In New Jersey Honors Journalist/Author George Anastasia

Bob Shryock at nj.com offers a piece on an award given to veteran organized crime reporter and author George Anastasia.

George Anastasia, who launched his career at this newspaper in 1969 when it was the Woodbury Daily Times and became an award-winning journalist at the Philadelphia Inquirer and author of eight books about organized crime, has been selected as 2014 Italian-American Citizen of the Year by the Gloucester County Italian Heritage Commission.

The Pitman resident will be honored Wednesday, Oct. 22, 6 p.m. at the commission's annual "Night in Sicily" fund-raising event at Auletto's Caterers in Almonesson. 

Organized in 2007, the commission promotes the study of Italian language in Gloucester County schools and fosters the traditions and art forms of the Italian culture. This event supports commission activities and student scholarships with dinner proceeds.

Widely considered one of the country's foremost experts on mob-related activities, Anastasia has been retired since 2012 but continues his passion as an author and freelance writer.

His eighth mob-related book, "Gotti's Rules," a graphic tale about the demise of the American Mafia, is scheduled for release in January 2015. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.nj.com/gloucester-county/index.ssf/2014/10/gloucester_county_italian_heritage_commission_honors_journalistauthor_george_anastasia.html

You can also read my Crime Beat column on organized crime and George Anastasia via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2011/09/goodfellas-dont-sue-goodfellas-look.html

And you can also read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of George Anastasia's book The Last Gangster via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/08/my-philadelphia-inquirer-review-of_7773.html

Funny How? I Amuse You, Like A Clown?: The Funniest-Scariest Scene In 'Goodfellas'

John Semley at Esquire offers a piece on the funniest-scariest scene in the classic crime film Goodfellas.

Take Joe Pesci's hot-head mobster, Tommy DeVito. After cracking up a table of career criminals with a violent anecdote, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) tells him he's "a funny guy." The mood immediately drops. Tommy begins interrogating his friend about the comment. "Like a clown? Like I make you laugh? How am I funny?" Scorsese invites the viewer to enjoy his character's good humor, then, on a dime, shifts to tense throat-in-the-chest anxiety — and back again. In one scene, Scorsese demonstrates how totally seductive a sharpened sense of humor can be, and how we so often use our appreciation of that quality to skate over the larger fissures in a character's personality.

You can read the piece and watch a clip of the Martin Scorsese film via the below link:

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture/goodfellas-scene-0913

In one of my Crime Beat columns, Goddfellas Don't Sue Goddfellas, I noted that I grew up in South Philly with guys like the Joe Pesci character.

Over the years I've heard from a number of law enforcement officials who complain that The Godfather and the other mob books and movies glamorize crime. When I was a producer and on-air host on Inside Government, a public affairs radio program that aired on WPEN AM and WMGK FM on Sunday mornings a few years ago, I interviewed the assistant U.S. attorney in charge of organized crime in the Philadelphia area

He did not agree with my assessment of Goodfellas, which I said was the most realistic film portrayal of organized crime. He felt that audiences liked the actor Joe Pesci in the film because he was funny and charming, but they failed to realize that he and the other criminals in the film were vicious and murderous.

I countered by saying that I’ve found some of the real mob guys to be funny, charming and even generous. And I’ve also seen them quickly turn vicious, cold and heartless – just as Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro portrayed them on the screen. They can be good friends and good company - unless you owe them money or you have something they want. Serial killers and con artists have also been known to be quite charming.

 You can read the rest of my column via the below lnk:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2011/09/goodfellas-dont-sue-goodfellas-look.html

Note: I read somewhere that Joe Pesci suggested the scene to director Martin Scorsese, as he was on the other end of this kind of situation when he worked in a restaurant and he told a real goodfella that he thought the guy was funny. The mob guy responded like the character Pesci portrays in Goodfellas. 

Goodfellas Don't Sue Goodfellas, But 'Gomorrah' Author Is Suing The Gangsters Who Ordered His Death

Veteran organized crime reporter and author George Anastasia offered a gem of a statement in his  book The Goodfella Tapes: The True Story of How the FBI Recorded A Mob War and Brought Down a Mafia Don.

In the book Anastasia reported the FBI recording of a Cosa Nostra member telling a possible litigant in a mob dispute that "Goodfellas don't sue goodfellas... goodfellas kill goodfellas."

But Michael Day at the British newspaper the Independent reports that in Italy Gomorrah author Roberto Saviano is suing the organized crime figures who ordered his death for writing the book that exposed their criminal enterprises.
 
Italy's most prominent anti-mafia campaigner has appeared in court to sue the mobsters who ordered his death.

In a high security Naples courtroom Roberto Saviano, the writer whose print expose ‘Gomorrah’ and the eponymous hit film it spawned made him a household name, finally looked his enemies in eyes - six years after he was forced into hiding.

Mr Saviano confronted Camorra bosses Francesco Bidognetti and Antonio Iovine via video link as he began the process of suing them - and two of their lawyers, Michele Santonastaso and Carmine D'Aniello - for threats and defamation, which he says came in an 2008 appeal hearing.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/antimafia-campaigner-roberto-saviano-sues-gangsters-who-ordered-his-death-8406282.html

You can also read my Crime Beat column on The Goodfella Tapes via the below link:

http://pauldavisoncrime.blogspot.com/2011/09/goodfellas-dont-sue-goodfellas-look.html