mobsters

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Just Months After Capture, the 'Last Godfather' Dies
Mob Boss 'Took
With Him His Secrets'
OBITUARY

Mob Boss 'Took With Him His Secrets'

Sicilian 'last Godfather' Matteo Messina Denaro, 61, dies just months after his capture

(Newser) - An infamous Italian mob boss who was captured in January after 30 years on the run has died. Officials tell Reuters that 61-year-old Matteo Messina Denaro, known as the "last godfather," has succumbed to colon cancer, after falling into a coma on Friday from which he never emerged....

Cops: Pizza-Maker in France Wasn't What He Seemed

Mob suspect Edgardo Greco, tied to Italy's 'ndrangheta, found after 16 years on the run

(Newser) - Police in southeastern France have arrested a convicted murderer linked to Italy's most powerful organized-crime group, the 'ndrangheta, after he eluded authorities for 16 years, Interpol and Italian police said on Thursday. Italy's ANSA news agency reported that the 63-year-old had been working for the past three...

With One Year Left in Custody, a Hit Man's Puzzling Escape

Dominic Taddeo, contract killer for Rochester crime families, is back in custody

(Newser) - Update: The mob hit man who escaped federal custody has been captured, one week later. Dominic Taddeo was taken back into custody in Florida's Miami-Dade County without incident Monday around 11am, CNN reports. That's about 273 miles south of the halfway house he was assigned to in the...

Alleged Mobster Covered His Face on YouTube Videos, Forgot His Tattoos

Tats were visible on cooking show of alleged 'Ndrangheta gangster from Italy, hiding in DR

(Newser) - Come for the pasta making, stay for the arrest. Since 2014, Marc Feren Claude Biart, a purported member of Italy's infamous 'Ndrangheta crime syndicate, has been on the run from authorities in his home country after allegedly taking part in a Dutch cocaine trafficking operation. The BBC reports...

Inmate in Solitary for Years: 'I Know Nothing' of Bulger Murder

Inmate Sean McKinnon, 35, says he still hasn't been told why he's been in the 'hole' since 2018

(Newser) - More than two years after crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger was found murdered in West Virginia's Hazelton federal prison, no charges have been filed in his slaying. For that same period, Sean McKinnon has been asking why he was thrown into the "hole"—aka solitary confinement—...

Judge Lets Goodfellas Mobster Go Free

Vinny Asaro is allowed to go home

(Newser) - Goodfellas wiseguy Vinny Asaro got a break Friday when he was released from prison over concerns about the coronavirus, the New York Post reports. The thinking: He's 85 and suffered a stroke just last year. "If Asaro were to contract COVID-19, given his age and current state, it...

Mob Boss Murder: 'A Couple of Guys Got to Get Killed Now'

Police say Frank Cali may have been lured into stepping outside his home by fender bender

(Newser) - A minor car accident in Staten Island may have been a planned precursor to a major mob murder. That's what police are now saying about the Wednesday night shooting death of Francesco "Frank" Cali , reputed head of the Gambino crime family, outside of his home. NYPD Chief of...

Mobster May Be Key to Finding $500M in Stolen Art. He's Not Talking

To be released from prison, Robert Gentile still 'has no idea where the paintings are'

(Newser) - When FBI agents searched Robert Gentile's Connecticut home in 2016, the aging mobster was adamant that they were barking up the wrong tree. "They ain't gonna find nothing," he said through his lawyer , as he was serving a 54-month prison sentence for drug and gun charges....

Head of Gambino Crime Family Gunned Down in Front of Home

Frank Cali was first mob boss to be killed since Paul Castellano in 1985

(Newser) - Less than a week after the head of the Colombo crime family died , the Gambino crime family has lost its own reputed boss. The demise Wednesday night of Francesco "Frank" Cali, however, was much more violent and untimely than the passing of Carmine "The Snake" Persico, who died...

NYC Mayor on New MTV Show: 'Shameless Ratings Grab'

Staten Island residents aren't happy about 'Made in Staten Island' for its Italian-American 'stereotypes'

(Newser) - If a neighborhood was featured on a new reality show, one would think locals would be pretty excited. But for Staten Island residents, MTV's new series debuting Monday is nothing but a "shameless ratings grab" full of "stereotypes." That's per a recent tweet from NYC...

Bulger's Transfer Was a 'Death Sentence'

Prison staffers say the move was obviously fatal

(Newser) - Whitey Bulger's prison transfer was a "death sentence," say people working in that world—so why did the notorious Boston mobster get moved? NBC News reports that prison files stated Bulger was done with his medical treatment at Coleman prison complex in Florida, meaning he could be...

Body Found in NYC Was 'Right Out of GoodFellas'

Carmine Carini was son of Mafia associate

(Newser) - The case of a body dumped in waters off Brooklyn using a "Mafia-style technique," as the New York Times puts it, seems to indeed have Mafia elements. The body found attached to both a cinder block and 5-pound bag of drywall compound on Saturday has been identified as...

Catholics Tied to Mafia Could Be Excommunicated

The Vatican is eyeing a new legal doctrine

(Newser) - The Vatican is looking to develop a new doctrine that calls for excommunicating Catholics for mafia association and corruption, the AP reports. That's the decision reached this week after the Vatican hosted its first-ever conference on fighting corruption and organized crime. The meeting gathered 50 prosecutors, bishops, victims, and...

1930s Letter Shows Al Capone Was a Big Softie

At least when it came to his son, 'Sonny' Capone

(Newser) - Did notorious gangster Al Capone have a soft spot? An intimate letter he penned from prison suggests so. The three-page letter, which being auctioned off next week, is addressed to Capone's son, Albert "Sonny" Capone. The mobster signed it, "Love & Kisses, Your Dear Dad Alphonse Capone...

'Surreal': Mob Victim's Body Found—23 Years Later

Former mob boss eyed in Steven DiSarro's 1993 murder

(Newser) - Nick DiSarro's father disappeared in 1993 when he was only 7. "We've waited 23 years for somebody from the FBI to call us and say we found him," he says. That call came Thursday when the FBI said it had identified a body unearthed in March...

Cops Crack Mafia's Bizarre Sheep Farming Code

Communication pointed to messages hidden at Sicily farm

(Newser) - Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro has been on the run since 1993, but Italian police hope a series of raids early today will bring them closer to putting one of the most wanted criminals in Europe behind bars, per Deutsche Welle . Authorities say they arrested 11 alleged associates of...

Crime Boss Whitey Bulger Sends Letter to 3 Students

In which he calls his life 'wasted' and 'best forgotten'

(Newser) - When three Massachusetts high school students wrote to crime leader James "Whitey" Bulger in jail—where he's serving two life sentences (plus five years) for racketeering, money laundering, extortion, and murdering 11 people— they weren't sure if he'd write back. But he did, and the tone...

How an Angry Thief Gave America Its 1st Big Sex Tape
How a Criminal Found America's First Big Sex Tape
in case you missed it

How a Criminal Found America's First Big Sex Tape

And distributed it with money from a mobster's son

(Newser) - Remember an old sex tape, before Kim Kardashian, starring an actress and a rocker on a yacht? Well, the 1996 video that fully unveiled Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee only went public because an electrician stole it, a mobster's son funded it, and lawyers couldn't contain it, Rolling ...

Top-Secret Mafia Ritual Caught on Video

Recruits reportedly seen taking 'holy' oath, promising to commit suicide if disloyal

(Newser) - A double-kiss on the cheeks. A loyalty oath to keep up your end of the "holy chain … the holy society." A reminder to always carry an extra bullet to take yourself out if you ever betray said society. Authorities in Milan say that's exactly what they...

Family: We Know Who Killed Bugsy Siegel

Descendants of Siegel's business partner name the gunman

(Newser) - Before dying of cancer, a 71-year-old realtor sat down with Los Angeles Magazine to make a startling claim: He knows who killed infamous mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel. What's more, he says, the gunman did it for love. The story goes back to the 1940s, when LA mobsters began...

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