Loyalty: My Washington Times On Crime Column On Lisa Scottoline's Historical Thriller About The First Sicilian Cosa Nostra Crime Family

The Washington Times ran my On Crime column on Lisa Scottoline (seen in the below photo) and Loyalty, her historical thriller about the first Sicilian Cosa Nostra crime family. 

You can read the column via the below link or the below text:

BOOK REVIEW: 'Loyalty' - Washington Times

 

I was drawn to “Loyalty,” Lisa Scottoline’s historical novel about Sicily, because I’ve enjoyed her novels in the past, and because I’m half Sicilian on my late mother’s side and I visited that beautiful island many years ago. I remember Sicily’s wonderful scenery, food and people, and as a student of crime, I was and remain fascinated with Sicily’s darker side.

 

Speaking to her last year, I discovered that we are originally from the same Italian American neighborhood in South Philadelphia, and we lived around the corner from each other when we were young.

 

I contacted her and asked how she would describe “Loyalty,” and why she chose that title for the historical novel.

 

“I think ‘Loyalty’ is a fast-moving historical thriller about the first Mafia family of Sicily and the young crusading lawyer who sets out to oppose them and find justice for a young, kidnapped boy,” Ms. Scottoline replied.

 

“I entitled the novel ‘Loyalty’ because loyalty is such a wonderful concept, in that it can be a double-edged sword, in that it’s a virtue until it’s taken too far. Writers have a saying that ‘the villain is the hero of his own story,’ and I think that’s true in the novel, because even the characters who do bad have convinced themselves that they are doing good, because they are loyal to a person or principle. I leave it to the reader to decide which is which, because I respect my readers so much.”

 

How did you research “Loyalty”?

 

I visited Sicily and traveled all over, setting unique locations for the novel, like a convent that is also a bakery, an underground church where a secret society met, and the awful sulfur mines in the center of the island. I even filmed videos, so readers could see them on my website as a companion piece to the novel. I also steeped myself in Sicilian culture and literature, reading di Lampedusa, Verga and Vittorini, among many others.

 

Was your character Franco Fiorvanti based on a real Sicilian criminal in history? How would you describe him?

 

Franco was not based on any mafioso in particular, but I read everything I could about the history of the Mafia and was amazed to learn that the term mafioso is a Sicilian term that means bold, brave, and essentially, having swagger. As soon as I learned that, it clued me into Franco’s character, because he starts the novel as a lemon grower in a feudal society that oppresses him, and partly because he is unable to move up in that society and enjoy the freedoms that Americans like us take for granted, especially in modern times.

 

Did the evolution of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra take place like you describe in the novel?

 

The history of the Mafia as depicted in “Loyalty” is exactly true to the facts. I’m a former lawyer and adjunct law professor, and so I am very aware that many people get their ideas about law, justice, and crime and punishment through fiction. I always feel like I have a special responsibility to get the facts right, and frankly they were fascinating here.

 

I was amazed to see that the Mafia was born in the lush lemon groves of Palermo and came into being largely because lemons became such a valuable crop when the British navy kept contracting scurvy. Lemon crops were so valuable that they needed protection, and armed guards like Franco protected them, but that protection soon turned into what is known as a modern-day protection racket.

 

Your character Gaetano Catalano was a member of Beati Paoli, which was a real organization. How would you describe the group?

 

I was astounded to learn about the blessed Society of St. Paul, or the Beati Paoli, which really was a secret organization in Palermo in the 1800s. It was composed of aristocrats who felt compelled to fight injustice for the common man, even though they benefited from the feudal system that tilted the law in their favor.

They were guided by their faith in God and specifically the teachings of St. Paul, and it struck me as so brave of them and forward-thinking. In addition, it informs the backdrop of the novel in that religion and law can give all of us a way to conduct our lives that affords dignity and respect to everyone.

 

Other than having been entertained, what takeaways would you like your readers to glean from “Loyalty”?

 

“I have written 35 contemporary thrillers in as many years, and I have been president of the Mystery Writers of America, so I think I bring my thriller chops to bear in historical fiction, especially “Loyalty.” I really think of the novel as impossible to put down, with fast-paced drama, riveting action, and even romance set against the ruggedly beautiful island of Sicily.”

 

Paul Davis’ On Crime column covers true crime, crime fiction and thrillers.

•

Loyalty
Lisa Scottoline

Putnam, $28, 432 pages.

The Scarfo Mob: My Philadelphia Weekly 'Crime Beat' Column On Cosa Nostra's Most Violent Crime Family

Philadelphia Weekly published my Crime Beat column on the Scarfo mob and George Anastasia's book, Blood and Honor: Inside the Mafia's Most Violent Family.

You can read the column online via the below link:

The Scarfo Mob - Philadelphia Weekly 

You can also read the column above and below (click to enlarge):

Female Mafia Boss Known As 'The Godmother' Who Broke Centuries Of Camorra Code By Adding Prostitution To Her Gang's Activities Is Arrested In Rome

 Laurence Dollimore at the Daily Mail offers a piece on a female Camorra crime boss was recently arrested. 

An alleged female mafia boss has been arrested while trying to board a flight to the Costa del Sol to 'visit her daughter'.  

Maria Licciardi, 70, was cuffed at Ciampino airport in Rome Saturday while attempting to fly to Malaga in southern Spain.. 

The powerful boss, alleged to be part of the notorious Neapolitan mafia known as the Camorra, was hoping to visit her daughter and to 'attend to some business', according to Italian newspaper La Repubblica.  

But she was arrested while queueing at the check-in desk by the Carabineros Corps – Italy’s  military police.  

Ms Licciardi, known as 'la piccoletta' or the little one due to her small stature, was with two associates at the time and went with the officers quietly, according to reports.  

She is accused of mafia-type association, extortion, receiving ill-gotten funds and auction rigging.  

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

Female mafia boss Maria Licciardi arrested in Rome while trying to fly to Spain to 'visit daughter'  | Daily Mail Online 

My Piece On Cosa Nostra: The Threat Of Organized Crime In America

Counterterrorism magazine published my piece on Cosa Nostra and the threat of organized crime today.

You can read the piece below:

Mob Talk 11: A Look Back At A South Philly Mob Hit And Talk Of The Upcoming Racketeering Trial Of Reputed Philly Mob Boss Joey Merlino

Veteran organized crime reporters George Anastasia and Dave Schratwieser look back at a South Philly mob hit on the 5th Anniversary of the the Gino DiPietro murder that sent Mob Soldier Anthony Nicodemo to prison 

They also discuss indicted Philadelphia Mob Boss Joey Merlino as the Feds line up their witnesses for his upcoming trial in January.

You can watch the video via the below link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-A3LgiJ6Cg 

How John Gotti Whacked The American Mafia

Sean Cunningham interviewed veteran organized crime reporter and author George Anastasia (seen in the bottom photo) on the decline of Cosa Nostra in America at realclearlife.com.

Even in death, John Gotti (seen in the above FBI mugshot) suffers indignities. A Gotti biopic starring John Travolta and directed by Kevin Connolly (“E” from HBO’s Entourage) was scheduled to hit theaters on Dec. 15… only suddenly to be not only yanked from release but reportedly dumped by Lionsgate completely.

Travolta has since pushed back, insisting that it was actually a buyback that will allow for a wider release in 2018. Indeed, they now want the film to compete at Cannes. (It still needs to be submitted, much less accepted.)

This all feels oddly consistent with the Gotti story. By the time he died of throat cancer in 2002 at age 61, his nicknames seemed to mock rather than flatter him. The “Dapper Don” who bragged about wearing $1,800 suits gave up control of his wardrobe in 1992. That was the year he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole as the “Teflon Don” turned stickum. His conviction was particularly bitter since fellow defendant Sammy “The Bull” Gravano flipped on him. Thus Gotti, whose public flamboyance just dared the government to take him down… was taken down. And he remained down until his death.

Which was par for the course during an era when the mob was bold, aggressive, loud, treacherous, and often staggeringly inept, as if watching a season of The Sopranos in which every single character was Paulie Walnuts.

“It’s a dark comedy,” said George Anastasia. Anastasia spent decades documenting the mob in Philadelphia for the Inquirer, but also explored the “big stage” of New York with Gotti’s Rules: The Story of John Alite, Junior Gotti, and the Demise of the American Mafia. (Alite was a friend, enforcer and self-professed “babysitter” for Gotti Jr.)

… Anastasia noted that a Gotti associate turned informant summed it up pretty well: “Mikey Scars—Michael DiLeonardo—once said to me, ‘Cosa Nostra was this thing of ours. Johnny made it this thing of mine.’ That was the difference. He talked about Cosa Nostra but it was very egocentric.”

You can read the rest of the piece and watch a trailer from the film Gotti via the below link:

http://www.realclearlife.com/crime/john-gotti-hurt-american-mafia/ 

You can also read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of George Anastasia's Gotti Rules below:

Note: You can click on the above to enlarge.

The Beast Is Dead: Notorious Sicilian Cosa Nostra 'Boss Of Bosses' Salvatore 'Toto' Riina, Known As 'The Beast,' Is Dead At 87

The Daily Mail reports that imprisoned Sicilian Cosa Nostra crime lord Salvatore ‘Toto’ Riina, known as ‘The Beast’ for his propensity for violence, has died. He was 87.

MILAN (AP) - Mafia 'boss of bosses' Salvatore 'Toto' Riina, who was serving 26 life sentences as the mastermind of a bloody strategy to assassinate both rivals and Italian prosecutors and law enforcement trying to bring down Cosa Nostra, died early Friday.

Riina died the day after his 87th birthday and hours after the Justice Ministry had agreed to allow family members at his bedside. He had been in a medically induced coma following two surgeries in recent weeks in the prison wing of a hospital in Parma, northern Italy. The ministry, without elaboration, confirmed his death.

Riina, one of Sicily's most notorious Mafia bosses who ruthlessly directed the mob's criminal empire during 23 years in hiding, was serving the life sentences for multiple murder convictions, some dating back to the 1950s.

A farmer's son from Corleone, a rocky hill town with notoriety as a Mafia stronghold near Palermo, he carved out a particularly ruthless reputation in a crime syndicate notorious for its evil.

Rival bosses were mowed down in the 1970s and early 1980s in Palermo - murders blamed on mobsters happened at the rate of practically one a day in the Sicilian capital in those years - as Riina orchestrated his rise to power. In his campaign for supremacy, he violated many of Cosa Nostra's rules of conduct, including no longer sparing innocent women and children from the spray of hitmen's bullets.

He was captured in 1993 in Palermo, where he had an apartment hideout, and imprisoned under a special law that requires strict security for top mobsters, including being detained in isolated sections of prisons with limited time outside of their cells.

During the height of his power, prosecutors accused Riina of masterminding a strategy, carried out over several years, to assassinate Italian prosecutors, police officials and others who were going after Cosa Nostra.

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

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-5091875/Notorious-Mafia-boss-bosses-Toto-Riina-dead-87.html 

George Anastasia's 'Mob Files': A Look Back At The Philadelphia Cosa Nostra Organized Crime Family

For a look back at the bad old days of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra organized crime family, you can read my Crime Beat column on George Anastasia's Mob Files: Mobsters, Molls and Murder, via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2009/08/philly-mob-files-mobsters-molls-and.html

Feds Fight Bail For Joey Merlino, Allege Tapes Show He Was 'Leader' Of Mob Family

Veteran organized crime crime reporter George Anastasia offers a piece at PhillyVoice.com on the bail hearing for alleged Philadelphia organized crime boss Joseph Merlino.

It looks like a tale of the tapes in the feds’ latest battle with mob boss Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino.

Federal authorities, in arguing that Merlino should not be released on bail, have pointed to “explicit recordings in which Merlino discussed the crimes he was committing and exhibited his role as a leader” of the mob family.

A bail hearing for Merlino, originally scheduled for Tuesday, has been moved to Friday after Merlino’s Florida attorney David L. Roth asked for an extension.

Edwin Jacobs Jr., who is Merlino’s principal attorney and is working with Roth, said from his Atlantic City office this afternoon that they wanted more time to prepare their argument that Merlino should be granted bail.

Jacobs said it was “difficult to assess” the case against his client because the racketeering indictment unsealed last week “is not fact-specific.”

“All the allegations are broad and general in nature,” he said, adding that Merlino is charged with gambling and health care fraud but is not linked to any acts of violence.

Those arguments are expected to be part of a bail motion that Jacobs and Roth plan to file before Friday’s hearing. Merlino, 54, has been held in the Palm Beach county jail since his arrest Thursday morning.

He was one of 46 mob members and associates arrested Thursday after authorities in New York unsealed a four-count, 32-page racketeering indictment.

Merlino is charged with being one of the leaders of what authorities are calling an “East Coast LCN (La Cosa Nostra) Enterprise.” Members of the Genovese, Gambino, Luchese and Bonanno crime families were also named.

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

http://www.phillyvoice.com/feds-fight-bail-joey-merlino-allege-tapes-show-he-was-leader-mob-family/

Cosa Nostra At A Crossroads As Nigerian Gangsters Hit Sicily's Shores

Lorenzo Tondo at the British newspaper the Guardian offers a piece on the changing face of organized crime in Sicily.

Prosecutors in the Sicilian capital of Palermo are warning that a new alliance between the mafia and Nigerian criminal gangs moving in from Libya could herald a new era of organised crime.

“Even the Sicilian mafia has to deal with the wave of migration from Africa,” said Leonardo Agueci, Palermo’s deputy chief prosecutor. “The neighbourhoods under mafia control have changed profoundly in recent years due to the growing presence of foreigners, especially Nigerians coming on boats. Among them, there [are a small number] of people who want to transfer their illegal trafficking, linked to prostitution and drug dealing, to Sicily. And the mafia was quite happy to integrate them into their criminal business.”

In Ballarò, a mafia stronghold market area in the historic centre of the city, a whistle is traditionally used by drug dealers to attract customers, who are offered hashish, marijuana and cocaine. In the past this signal was only used by Italian dealers working for Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia. About two years ago, when Nigerians adopted the whistle, offering drugs at a discount, it was clear that a new criminal organisation had set foot in the city.

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

http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jun/11/mafia-palermo-nigerian-gangsters-hit-sicily-shores

From Bestseller To Blockbuster, A Look Back at 'The Godfather' - Today in 1972, Francis Ford Coppola's Film 'The Godfather', Based On The Mafia Epic By Mario Puzo, Premiered. Here's A Look At How The Book Became A Hollywood Classic.

Robert Cashill at Biography.com offers a look back at the The Godfather novel and film.

“Behind every successful fortune—there is crime.” Mario Puzo, The Godfather (1969)

Mario Puzo grew up in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen. As a young writer he knocked around hardboiled men’s magazines, penning war stories. In his mid-40s, he wasn’t getting any younger, and with a wife and five kids to feed, and two flop novels behind him, he accepted a modest advance to write a third. It was based on stories he heard on the street. The author of the book most beloved by wiseguys had never met a gangster.

The Godfather proved a sensation, as a book and as a movie, released today in 1972. Puzo had no illusions about a novel that through the decades has sold more than 30 million copies. “I was 45 years old, I owed $20,000 to relatives, finance companies, banks and assorted bookmakers and loan sharks. It was really time to grow up and sell out,” he recalled.

Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola was also in hock. He’d won an Oscar for co-writing 1970’s Best Picture winner, Patton, but the four features he’d directed, including the intimate drama The Rain People (1969), had a much lower profile in Hollywood. Unhappy with Tinseltown, he and fellow filmmakerGeorge Lucas opened a more experimental outfit, American Zoetrope, in San Francisco in 1969. Coppola borrowed $300,000 from Warner Bros. for his dream studio, and Lucas made his directorial debut with its first film, the downbeat science fiction story THX 1138 (1971). When it tanked, Warner Bros. wanted its money back. At 32, Coppola was at a crossroads.

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

http://www.biography.com/news/the-godfather-movie-facts

Italian Police Arrest Dozens Of Mafia Suspects From Female-Led 'Prickly Pear Lips' Gang

The British newspaper the Guardian offers a piece on the arrest of a Sicilian organized crime group led by alleged female mobsters.

Italian police have arrested dozens of suspected Mafia members in an international operation to dismantle a powerful Sicilian crime group run by women.

Over 500 officers took part in the raid on the Laudani clan in the Sicilian port of Catania, nicknamed “Mussi di ficurinia” (“Prickly pear lips”), in a sting that also involved forces in Germany and the Netherlands, Italian police told AFP.

Three women, known as the three queens of Caltagirone, a town near Catania, had ruled the clan with an iron grip as well as governing all financial matters but were brought down by the heir to the clan who began helping police.

The suspects were all wanted for Mafia association, extortion, drug trafficking and possessing illegal arms.

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

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/10/italian-police-arrest-dozens-of-mafia-suspects-in-effort-to-dismantle-female-led-syndicate

Italian Mafia Sees Huge Increase In Women Mobsters - And They're Often More Violent Than The Men

Michael Day at the British newspaper the Independent offers a piece on the increase of women involved with Italian organized crime.

As Nunzia D’Amico pushed her baby in a pram near her home in an eastern suburb of Naples, she probably looked much liked like any other mother. Laden with shopping, the 37-year-old was killed in a hail of bullets, yards from her front door. 

Her brothers, Salvatore, Giuseppe and Antonio, the three heads of the D’Amico clan, had been arrested. Their sister is believed to have been, when she was killed by a rival clan as part of the city’s brutal drugs war, in charge. 

An informant, Gaetano Lauria, who is accused of mob-linked murder in the same Ponticelli part of Naples, told police that D’Amico, who had a conviction for drug trafficking, had been leader of the family business. Her death in October underlined what prosecutors in Naples have long been saying: more and more women are taking over mafia groups as their husbands and brothers are jailed or murdered.

 

Even Sicily’s traditionalist Cosa Nostra crime organisation is embracing equal opportunities, with news this week that the treasurer of the group’s notorious Porta Nuova clan is a woman – 38-year-old mother of five, Teresa Marino. She was arrested along with 37 others in the island’s capital, Palermo.

Experts estimate there are 10 times as many female mobsters in Italy compared to 20 years ago – and they are often more violent and cynical than their male counterparts.

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

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/italian-mafia-sees-huge-increase-in-women-mobsters-and-theyre-often-more-violent-than-the-men-a6779061.html 

Organized Crime Brings Italy's Economy To Its Knees By Infiltrating Each Business And Public Body In The South... And Taking A Cut From Every Deal

John Hall at the British newspaper the Daily Mail offers a piece on how organized crime has hurt the Italian economy by infiltrating businesses.   

The struggling economy and 'permanent state of underdevelopment' in southern Italy is allowing violent mafia groups to flourish, as locals struggle with spiraling debt and youth unemployment.

Businesses in Sicily, Campania and Calabria face tough choices about whether to pay protection money to crime lords, who can easily drive them out of business.

While the threat of violence remains, it is increasingly the thought of intimidated would-be customers staying away from companies that refuse to pay 'tribute' to local mafia bosses that keeps many southern Italian small business owners up at night.

Add to this mix a drastic lack of jobs for young men and the ever growing riches associated with organised crime - particularly through the drug trade - and Italy once again finds itself faced with an uphill struggle in the battle to degrade and destroy the mafia.

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

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3246259/The-Mafia-mobsters-bring-Italy-s-economy-knees-infiltrating-business-public-body-south-taking-cut-deal.html

Captain Of Genovese Cosa Nostra Crime Family Sentenced In Manhattan Federal Court

The U.S. Justice Department released the below information:

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that DANIEL PAGANO, a Captain of the Genovese Organized Crime Family of La Cosa Nostra (the “Genovese Crime Family”) was sentenced to a term of 27 months in prison for his leadership role in the Genovese Crime Family. PAGANO pled guilty to participating in a racketeering conspiracy in March 2015 and was sentenced today before by U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “Danny Pagano, a Captain in the Genovese Crime Family, has been sentenced today for his leadership role in a racketeering conspiracy. Pagano’s conviction and sentence reinforce a simple truth: if you join the mob and choose a life of crime, you end up behind bars.”

According to the Indictment and other documents filed in this case, and statements made during the plea and sentencing proceedings:

The Genovese Crime Family is part of a nationwide criminal organization known by various names, including the “Mafia” and “La Cosa Nostra” (“LCN”), which operates through entities known as “Families.” The Genovese Crime Family operates through groups of individuals known as “crews” and “regimes,” most of which are based in New York City. Each “crew” has as its leader a person known as a “Caporegime,” “Capo,” “Captain,” or “Skipper,” who is responsible for supervising the criminal activities of his crew and providing “Soldiers” and associates with support and protection. In return, the Capo typically receives a share of the illegal earnings of each of his crew’s Soldiers and associates, which is sometimes referred to as ?tribute.? DANIEL PAGANO is a Caporegime or Captain in the Genovese Crime Family.

Each crew consists of “made” members, sometimes known as “Soldiers,” “wiseguys,” “friends of ours,” and “good fellows.” Soldiers are aided in their criminal endeavors by other trusted individuals, known as “associates,” who sometimes are referred to as “connected” or identified as “with” a Soldier or other member of the Family. Associates participate in the various activities of the crew and its members. In order for an associate to become a made member of the Family, the associate must first be of Italian descent and typically needed to demonstrate the ability to generate income for the Family and/or the willingness to commit acts of violence.

From 2009 through August 2014, PAGANO, along with other members and associates of the Genovese Crime Family, committed a wide array of crimes including operating an illegal gambling business. PAGANO, a Captain, exercised a leadership role within the Family by, among other things, settling disputes between and among associates of the Family.

As the Court noted, PAGANO had previously been convicted of racketeering conspiracy and served a term of over eight years in prison. As a repeat offender, a sentence of incarceration was warranted to deter him from future crimes.

* * *

In addition to the prison term, Judge Abrams sentenced PAGANO, 61, of Rockland County, to a term of three years of supervised release, and ordered him to pay a fine of $5,000 and forfeiture of $2,000.

Mr. Bharara thanked the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Rockland County District Attorney’s Office, the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the New York City Police Department, and the New York State Police.

The prosecution is being handled by the Office’s Violent and Organized Crime Unit. Assistant United States Attorneys Jennifer Burns, Rahul Mukhi, and Abigail Kurland are in charge of the prosecution.

The Legendary NYPD Cop Who Broke Through "Italian Barrier"

Michael Kane at the New York Post looks back at the legendary Italian-American NYPD officer Giuseppe "Joe" Petrosino.

“Why Italians Are Useless in Police Work.”

That was the headline on an 1896 editorial in the Brooklyn Eagle newspaper — the premise being that newly arrived Italian immigrants would never bring to justice the criminal elements within their own community. One captain quoted said, “They are in dread of the vengeance of the Mafia.”

But the more likely reason was that the Irish, who overwhelming comprised the NYPD, were protective of holding onto their jobs. That was also true of dock work, construction, really any manual labor or civic work they’d claimed after their own wave of immigration 50 years earlier amid the Potato Famine of the 1840s.

No job was more fraternally Irish than police work. At the time of that newspaper article, there were a mere three Italian officers in a Brooklyn police force of 1,700. 

Enter Giuseppe Petrosino, a dock laborer who moved garbage onto barges. Petrosino, who’d become better known as Joseph, disapproved of the nonstop extortion rackets of the Black Hand, the turn-of-the-century precursor to a more organized Mafia to come. (The moniker coming from threatening extortion letters to businessmen “signed” with only an ominous handprint of black ink.)

With the backing of an Irish police captain for whom he’d briefly served as an informant, Petrosino joined the force in October 1883.

“Petrosino, though destined to become one of the NYPD’s greatest heroes, started out as an outsider,” writes journalist Paul Moses in his book “An Unlikely Union.” It took a decade for his first promotion from patrolman, yet all the while the short, scrappy man of few words continued to get collars.

In his first year after finally being promoted by then-NYPD boss Theodore Roosevelt to detective, Petrosino made 98 arrests, busted two murderers and even freed an Italian immigrant who was a week away from execution at Sing Sing by getting the real killer to confess.

His growing renown in getting the cuffs on killers even led to a backwardly respectful call from his Irish bosses when stumped by a murder puzzler: “Get the Dago!”

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

http://nypost.com/2015/06/28/meet-the-detective-who-broke-nypds-italian-barrier/

When Gangsters Took Over The Big Apple: Inside AMC’s ‘The Making of the Mob: New York’

I've not yet watched AMC's The Making of the Mob, but I'll catch up with the series on Comcast On Demand at a later date.

Allen Barra offers his take on the series at the Daily Beast.

AMC’s new eight-part series, The Making of the Mob: New York, goes deeper into the history of American racketeers than just about any previous TV program. The production is billed as a docudrama, meaning it blends narration, archival footage, and dramatic interpretation and reenactment of real-life events. 

Sometimes it works—the depiction of New York street scenes, particularly the pre-World War II Lower East Side, is riveting. 

But sometimes it doesn’t. Part of the problem is that most of the principal characters were portrayed far more vividly in Boardwalk Empire. Nothing against Rich Graff as Lucky Luciano, Ian Bell as Meyer Lansky, or Umberto Celisano as Al Capone, all of whom are capable actors and attractive screen presences, but the script doesn’t allow them to expand on their roles as their predecessors in Boardwalk could. 

... What one should take issue with is that most of the “fact” presented in The Making of the Mob is not fact at all, but factoids. In particular, I object to the constant broad use of the word “Mafia.” Historians have long debated the origin of the term, and no one doubts it signified a Sicilian-born criminal organization. But after years of research, I have never seen the slightest credible evidence that the Sicilian Mafia was imported to the United States, or that native Sicilians had any control whatsoever over American crime. 

Not only were most of the early mob figures—Rothstein, Lansky, Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, Louis “Lepke” Buckhalter, and the most powerful New York gangster of all, Owney Madden (who goes unmentioned in The Making of the Mob)—not Italian, most of the Italians weren’t Sicilians, with Albert Anastasia and Frank Costello both hailing from Calabria. (Costello was born Francesco Castaglia but changed his name to better get along with New York’s police force.). Vito Genovese was Neapolitan, as was Capone, who was in no way a member of the Mafia, though he was known to hire Mafia hit men.

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

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/06/15/when-gangsters-took-over-the-big-apple-inside-amc-s-the-making-of-the-mob-new-york.html

My Philadelphia Inquirer Review Of 'Gotti's Rules'

My review of George Anastasia's Gotti's Rules appeared in today's Philadelphia Inquirer.

Appearing on ABC some years ago, former Mafia capo Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano told an interviewer about the time he was eating in a New York restaurant with Gambino crime family boss John Gotti.

A nearby couple was staring and whispering and Gotti grumbled. Gravano asked Gotti if he wanted him to handle it.

"No," Gotti told his underboss sternly. "This is my public."

Gravano said he was taken aback. They were both members of La Cosa Nostra, a secret criminal society. And here was a boss who believed he had a "public." Gravano said Gotti's ego and need for public attention led to his downfall.

In George Anastasia's Gotti's Rules, John Alite, an associate member of the Gotti crime family, outlines other Gotti shortcomings, such as rapacity, disloyalty, hypocrisy, and treachery.

As for Alite, Anastasia introduces him to the reader this way: "John Alite was a murderer, drug dealer and thug." For 25 years, Anastasia writes, Alite brutalized people. He stabbed them, shot them, and beat them with pipes, blackjacks, and baseball bats.

"He's not proud of that, but he doesn't try to hide from it, either," Anastasia writes. "It's who he was. But not who he is." Alite's years with the Gotti family ended when he testified in court against John Gotti's son, "Junior."

You can read the rest of the review below:

Note: You can click on the above to enlarge. 

A Pervasive Cancer: Italy's New President Vows To Fight Organized Crime

The BBC News offers a piece on the new Italian president, who vows to fight organized crime.

Italy's new President, Sergio Mattarella, has promised to fight corruption and organised crime in his first speech since being sworn in on Tuesday morning.

The former judge told parliament the two issues were "absolute priorities".

Mr Mattarella, whose own brother was killed by the Mafia, described organised crime as a "pervasive cancer" that trampled on people's rights.

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

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31116734   

Giuliani: Obama Backing The Police With Al Sharpton Next To Him Like Promising To Fight Mafia Alongside Joe Colombo

Peter Brennan at National Review offers a piece on former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's views of President Obama's support of the police.

President Obama might offer plenty of praise for American police at some times, but his friendly associations with Al Sharpton and comments at other times add up to contempt for police officers, Rudy Giuliani says.

Asked by CBS whether he’d recant some claims about President Obama’s anti-police rhetoric because the president has praised police often, Giuliani declined, and pointed first to the president’s frequent meetings with Sharpton.  

... “You put Al Sharpton sitting next to you,” Giuliani said, “you just said you’re against the police.”

“If I talked to you about fighting the Mafia . . . as I did in the 1980s, and I had [Mafia boss] Joe Colombo sitting next to me,” Giuliani said, “you would say I was a big hypocrite. It wouldn’t matter what my rhetoric is: ‘Oh, I’m fighting the Mafia.’ There’s Joe Colombo. ‘I’m for the police?’ There’s Al Sharpton. Every cop in America’s going to say, give me a break.”

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

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/395412/giuliani-obama-backing-police-al-sharpton-next-him-promising-fight-mafia-alongside-joe