September 22, 2019 — Per sources, Philadelphia mob boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino has personally “made” at least a dozen new members into the Bruno-Scarfo crime family since 2013. Late last week, resident Philly mafia experts Dave Schratwieser and George Anastasia broke news of up to 17 confirmed makings in the past 18 years on their popular Mob Talk Sit Down series on YouTube.

Many of the ceremonies, according to Schratwieser and Anastasia’s crack reporting, were held at public social gatherings but in private rooms. Sources tell Gangster Report that the 17 initiates cited by Mob Talk Sit Down may actually be undershooting it in terms of numbers.

Merlino, 57, will be released from prison next week after serving a short sentence for a 2018 gambling conviction out of federal court in New York. The famously hip and handsome don has lived in Florida for the last several years, allegedly running his crime family via buffers and layers of street bosses. George (Georgie Boy) Borgesi, a childhood confidant of Skinny Joey’s, took the reins of the crime family on an acting basis back in the summer according to multiple sources.

Two of these sources claim there have been Merlino-led making ceremonies in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2018. Another two separate sources say Merlino is hoping to soon make a number of guys in South Florida to establish a full-time crew in the area and more buffers between him and activity on the street.

Gangster Report was the first to bring news of the fall 2015 making ritual, which is alleged to have taken place, in part, to strengthen the 55-year old Borgesi’s crew by providing buttons to up to four of his men. The always-on-the-make, politically-savvy Borgesi conducted a making ceremony of his own in 1997 when Merlino gave him the authority to induct five New England-based soldiers, per sources.

Merlino, Borgesi and their childhood inner circle of friends — mostly made up of sons and nephews of elder-generation button men — fought and won a war for power in the Philly mob in the 1990s when they were just in their 30s. Borgesi was Merlino’s consigliere. They were pinched for racketeering together and did prison time in the 2000s. Merlino walked free in 2011 and Borgesi followed in 2014 on the heels of beating another racketeering rap at two trials.

The post Making A Lot Of Noise: Talk Of Philly Mob Inductions Abound, Merlino Injects New Blood appeared first on The Gangster Report.

September 23, 2019 — Rap titan Drake is reportedly in negotiations to come on the much-anticipated BMF television series as a producer alongside fellow hip-hop luminary 50 Cent. Two years ago, 50 Cent announced he had made a deal to follow up his smash-hit crime epic Power on the Starz Network with a show detailing the rise and fall of the infamous Flenory brothers and their legendary Black Mafia Family.

Drake took a photo wearing a BMF hoodie sweatshirt that was posted on 50 Cent’s social media account in November 2017 to promote the still-in-development project. 50 Cent has sold more than 30,000,000 records, while Drake has already eclipsed the 100,000,000 marker. They’ve both won Grammy Awards and have dabbled in the acting world (Drake started his career as a wheelchair-bound high school student on a Canadian teen soap opera).

50 Cent created Power in 2014. Dipping into television production recently to diversify his own career, Drake has a role in producing Euphoria (HBO) and the upcoming Top Boy reboot (Netflix).

The BMF organization ruled the American cocaine trade in the late 1990s and early 2000s, rising from the slums of Detroit, Michigan to maintaining a criminal empire the likes of which had never been seen before on U.S. soil, a sophisticated, multi-tiered wholesale drug kingdom that spanned two dozen states and was worth an estimated $300,000,000 when the fatal Operation Motor City Mafia case finally dropped in the fall of 2005.

Demetrius (Big Meech) Flenory, 51, and his younger brother Terry (Southwest T) Flenory, 48, are serving 30-year prison sentences for heading BMF, the outcome of plea deals they each cut for themselves on the eve of a 2007 federal trial in Motown. Big Meech is by far the most revered criminal icon of his era and the most notorious this side of mythic Mexican drug lord El Chapo. Drake and dozens of other popular rappers make a habit of shouting out Big Meech on their tracks even further embedding him in the New Millennium pop culture narrative to this day, almost 15 years after his reign came to a sudden halt with a syndicate-crushing indictment.

Last February, 50 Cent put the word out that his BMF show would start the casting process. Since news broke of the coming casting call, no actors have been publicly attached to the project as of yet. Big Meech’s son, aspiring rapper “Lil’ Meech” is rumored to be in the running to play his dad as the lead in the series. There’s also been speculation that Drake himself might want to throw his hat into the ring in the race for the role.

The post From 0 To 100 Real Quick: The BMF TV Series May Be Adding Drake As Producer appeared first on The Gangster Report.

The BMF television show is probably at least two years away from seeing the light of day on the screen and the behind-the-scenes drama is already raging at full tilt. Hip hop and Hollywood superstar 50 Cent, the creator of the show set to chronicle the life and times of the notorious Flenory brothers and their epic Black Mafia Family drug empire, is sparring in the tabloids and on social media with a co-collaborator on the project and his reality tv star’s wife as well as taking fire on Instagram and Twitter from a longtime bitter rap rival and a one-time BMF crew chief ridiculing his handling of the BMF show.

Leveraging the success of his juggernaut rap career, 50 Cent created the hit tv show Power, premiering on the Starz Network in the summer of 2014 and telling the story of a conflicted New York drug kingpin named “Ghost” St. Patrick. Power only has one season left. Starz will be home to the BMF series as well.

The post Behind The Scenes Of BMF TV Show Seems A Bit Chaotic To Say The Least appeared first on The Gangster Report.

The FBI knows Chuckie O’Brien wasn’t involved in the disappearance and murder of his surrogate father, famed labor union boss Jimmy Hoffa and suspects a deceased Detroit mob button man was the triggerman in the iconic unsolved mystery, per a new book out this week penned by O’Brien’s stepson. Harvard University Law School professor and one-time Department of Justice attorney Jack Goldsmith was raised by O’Brien as a youth and wrote the much-talked about book titled “In Hoffa’s Shadow,” after nearly a decade of research interviewing several of the FBI agents who worked the case and O’Brien himself. Goldsmith’s book, called “riveting” by the Washington Post in a glowing review, further dispels the story being put forth in the upcoming Martin Scorsese-directed movie, The Irishman, starring Al Pacino as Hoffa and Robert DeNiro as Frank (The Irishman) Sheeran, an east coast hit man who claimed he was the shooter in the Hoffa slaying before he died in 2003. According to In Hoffa’s Shadow, the feds are aware of who killed Hoffa and it isn’t Sheeran. Declining to fully identify the assassin, Goldsmith has gone on-record in interviews promoting his book that the shooter was a “low level member of the Detroit crime family in the 1970s who rose to prominence (in the mafia later in the life) and is no longer alive.” Hoffa was kidnapped and killed on the afternoon of July 30, 1975, last seen leaving a Bloomfield Township, Michigan restaurant parking lot in a brand-new maroon-colored Mercury Marquis. At the time of his death, the fiery labor chief was feuding with his former allies in the mafia over his desire to reclaim the presidency of the goliath, mafia-controlled Teamsters union, an organization he led for 14 years before relinquishing the reins while serving a federal prison sentence for fraud, bribery and jury tampering. He was also in a personal beef with O’Brien. Nobody has ever faced charges in his homicide and the investigation is ongoing, despite most, if not all, of the conspirators in the murder being dead. O’Brien has long been tied to the crime because he was in possession of the car Hoffa was last seen traveling. Investigators traced Hoffa’s DNA to the backseat and trunk of the Mercury Marquis belonging to the son of Detroit mafia street boss Anthony (Tony Jack) Giacalone. Hoffa was on his way to a sit down with Giacalone, his direct contact in organized crime circles for decades, when he went missing. Tony Jack’s youngest son, Joseph (Joey Jack) Giacalone, owned the car, which today remains the only piece of physical evidence ever collected in the case. Goldsmith reveals in his book that FBI agents have dismissed O’Brien as a suspect and in 2013 offered to provide him an official letter clearing him of any wrongdoing in Hoffa’s murder if he agreed to sit for an extensive interview regarding his knowledge of the case and its major players. O’Brien did the interview that year, but the FBI never provided the letter of exoneration. Per FBI records, Chuckie O’Brien was born in Kansas City to Missouri mob figure Sam (The Binger) Scaradino, also known as “Sammy O’Brien,” from his days as a boxer, and aspiring model, singer and actress Sylvia Pagano, who went by the stage-name Sylvia Paris. Scaradino was a driver and bodyguard for the Kansas City mafia’s feared Civella brothers. Pagano moved to Detroit and had romantic relationships with powerful Motown mobsters Frank (Frankie Three Fingers) Coppola and Tony Giacalone. She also had a love affair with Hoffa. Through Pagano, Hoffa cemented his own relationship with organized crime in Michigan and used it to rise through the ranks of the Teamsters until he took the presidency in 1957 with the aid of Detroit’s Tocco-Zerilli crime family. Hoffa moved O’Brien into his home and raised him as a son. Tony Giacalone acted as a father figure to him as well. O’Brien eventually went to work for Hoffa in the Teamsters and became a go-between for the man he called dad and the union’s rank-and-file. Hoffa and O’Brien had a bitter falling out in the year preceding Hoffa vanishing though when Hoffa refused to support O’Brien’s candidacy for vice president of Local 299, Hoffa’s home base in Detroit. Things went south fast and O’Brien allegedly began spreading rumors that Hoffa was an FBI informant and Hoffa reportedly tried to get O’Brien transferred to a Teamsters outpost in Anchorage, Alaska as punishment for his disloyalty. This is what we know for sure about O’Brien’s movements the day Hoffa was slain 44 years go via FBI and Michigan State Police documents: On the morning of Tuesday, July 30, 1975, O’Brien picked up the Mercury Marquis from Joey Giacalone at Joey Jack’s Macomb County office and then drove it west to Oakland County, delivering a giant salmon to Teamsters executive Bobby Holmes at Holmes’ home in Farmington, Michigan – a present sent from the Teamsters in Seattle – and finally bringing the vehicle to Tony Giacalone’s headquarters at the Southfield Athletic Club in Southfield, Michigan, roughly seven miles away from the Red Fox restaurant where Tony Jack was supposed to meet Hoffa at 2:00 p.m. The FBI believes O’Brien gave up possession of the Mercury Marquis at the athletic club to the elder Giacalone between 1:00 and 1:30 p.m. and Giacalone in turn, without O’Brien’s knowledge, provided the car for the hit team he assembled to handle the Hoffa murder contract to use, according to Gangster Report sources. Goldsmith’s new book names Detroit mob capo Vito (Billy Jack) Giacalone, Tony Jack’s baby brother and a respected organized crime figure nationwide in his own right with allegedly dozens of gangland murders on his resume, as the driver of the car that scooped Hoffa at the Red Fox and transported him to his slaughter. O’Brien has often been pointed to as the driver of the car in Hoffa’s kidnapping in the narrative that has developed since that fateful day in 1975. Billy Giacalone was unaccounted by the normal FBI and MSP surveillance squads responsible for tracking his movements that afternoon. Tony Giacalone never left the Southfield Athletic Club and staged a number of public sightings throughout the day in order to establish an alibi. Like his younger sibling, Tony Jack was considered a suspect in two dozen mob-related murders, but never indicted on homicide charges in his more-than half century on the streets. If you dissect Goldsmith’s theory related to the actual triggerman in Hoffa’s execution, “a low level member of the Detroit crime family in the 1970s who rose to prominence (in the mafia later in the life) and is no longer alive,” it would appear he’s referencing recently-deceased Motor City mafia consigliere Anthony (Tony Pal) Palazzolo.

The post O’Brien Absolved Of Blame In Hoffa Hit, Detroit Mob’s Tony Pal Possibly Implicated As Shooter In New Book appeared first on The Gangster Report.

September 25, 2019 — The story of New York drug baron Nicky Barnes will be the subject of an upcoming Netflix movie starring Academy Award-nominee Will Smith. The project will be directed by Peter Landesman (Concussion) and produced by Smith’s Overbrook Entertainment. The title of the film is The Council, a reference to the mafia-like board of directors Barnes founded that ruled over the African-American heroin trade in Harlem the 1970s and early 1980s.

At the height of his power in late 70s, Barnes graced the cover of The New York Times Magazine in a finely-tailored double-breasted designer denim suit and a red, white and blue tie with a headline reading “Mr. Untouchable.” The audacious nature of the cover shoot and accompanying profile piece drew the ire of the Feds and President Jimmy Carter, who reportedly called the Justice Department once he read the article and demanded an escalation of resources put towards bringing Barnes down. He would be indicted and convicted of narcotics trafficking and racketeering by the end of the decade.

Feeling betrayed by his protege and Council member Guy Fisher, who was having an affair with his girlfriend, Barnes stunned the New York underworld and turned state’s s evidence, entering the Witness Protection Program and helping U.S. prosecutors dismantle his own empire.

While serving time in prison in the 1960s, Barnes forged ties to Italian mobsters like “Crazy Joey” Gallo of the Colombo crime family and Matty Madonna of the Lucchese clan. Gallo acted as an advisor to Barnes as he implemented a “La Cosa Nostra”-inspired business structure in the Harlem drug racket he ran upon his release. Madonna was his main supplier.

Quietly leaving prison in the summer of 1998, Barnes was given a new identity. A decade later, he penned a book titled Mr. Untouchable that was released in 2007. A well-received documentary based on the book followed. Barnes died living under an assumed name in 2012.

Oscar-winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. gave a cartoonish portrayal of Barnes in the film 2007 American Gangster about his Harlem heroin chief counterpart Frank Lucas played by Denzel Washington. Lucas, also a cooperator, passed away earlier this year. His organization was known as The Country Boys.

The post So Fresh & So Clean: Will Smith To Star As Harlem Heroin Kingpin Nicky Barnes In Netflix Film appeared first on The Gangster Report.

September 26, 2019 — According to last week’s Mob Talk Sit Down posted on YouTube, the Philadelphia mafia’s recently-revealed pattern of using public functions for making ceremonies began at the wedding of the daughter of Philly mob associate and local music impresario Tyrone DeNittis in the late 1990s. Mob Talk Sit Down is hosted by award-winning Philly crime reporters Dave Schratwieser and George Anastasia. Schratwieser and Anastasia broke the news of the alleged series of “pop up” inductions (held in private rooms while attending formal affairs such as weddings, christenings, funerals and anniversary parties) on last week’s episode.

The feds also think a making ceremony occurred at then-Philly mob capo Anthony Staino’s fall 2010 wedding, according to Mob Talk Sit Down. Staino was busted in a racketeering case the following year and just got out of prison back in the spring.

Famously flashy Philadelphia mafia don Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino is scheduled to be released from a short stay behind bars for a federal gambling conviction next week. His longtime reputed acting boss, the lower-key Joseph (Uncle Joe) Ligambi, retired last month at his 80th birthday party. Merlino has been living in Florida for the past eight years running his mob clan in Pennsylvania through proxies.

Per FBI records, DeNittis was connected to Merlino, Ligambi and a number of their predecessors like Angelo Bruno, Ralph Natale, Phil (The Chicken Man) Testa and Nicodemo (Little Nicky) Scarfo. A FBI surveillance unit watched on as DeNittis lunched with Ligambi in 2002.

Merlino, 57, was in prison for the entire 2000s on a racketeering conviction. He grabbed control of the Bruno-Scarfo crime family in the mid 1990s and hasn’t let go since. At the time of DeNittis’ daughter’s nuptials in 1998, Merlino and his mentor Natale were steering the ship. Natale, 84, turned his back on the mob and currently resides in the Witness Protection Program.

DeNittis, 83, managed the popular east coast singing group The Tyrones in the 1950s and 1960s. He owned a South Philly talent agency that became a mob hangout in the 1970s and 1980s. The feds wired the place up and always suspected was being used, at least in part, as a front for mafia-backed bookmaking and loan shanking operations for the Riccobene crew.

Investigators believed DeNittis was the ruthless Little Nicky Scarfo’s point man in the Philly and New Jersey jukebox racket. Scarfo and Harry (The Hunchback) Riccobene went to war in the 1980s for power in the Philly mob, with Scarfo emerging on top and Riccobene ending up in prison after miraculously dodging multiple assassination attempts.

The Tyrones were signed by rock-&-roll pioneer Bill Haley in 1958. Bill Haley was responsible for taking rock-&-roll music mainstream with his 1954 hit “Rock Around The Clock.”

Later in his career DeNittis got involved in financing North Philly rap and hip hop artists. The 2002 meeting with Ligambi observed by the surveillance team was to settle a dispute regarding a South Philly rapper on the verge of a major-label deal, per informants.

DeNittis doesn’t have a criminal record. Ligambi was found guilty of murder and racketeering at a 1989 trial alongside Little Nicky Scarfo, but had the conviction tossed on appeal and was acquitted at a 1997 retrial. The FBI came knocking on Ligambi’s door in 2011 and dropped a racketeering indictment at his feet that he promptly beat at another pair of trials in 2012 and 2014 respectively,

The post Tying The Knot, Taking An Oath: DeNittis Wedding Doubled As First-Of-It’s Kind Making Ceremony appeared first on The Gangster Report.

September 27, 2019 – Aging Providence mob associate Gaythorne (Poochie) Angell has completed a pre-trial diversion program and will have perjury charges against him dropped. Federal prosecutors in Rhode Island made the request in U.S. District Court on Tuesday. The feds and the “Pooch” agreed to go the diversion program route in late 2018.

The 84-year old bookie and reputed strip club owner was indicted in 2016 for lying to a federal grand jury convened to investigate allegations of extortion against the Patriarca crime family’s Providence wing. Angell was less than truthful when he denied he was paying tribute to Providence mafia captain Edward (Little Eddie) Lato for protection over his Foxy Lady strip club during the summer 2011 testimony.

Lato, 72, did time for the shakedown racket and walked out of prison last year. He is currently the subject of another grand jury, one probing the 1992 gangland slaying of renegade mob enforcer Kevin Hanrahan. The man allegedly pointing the finger at Lato for his role in the Hanrahan hit is turncoat Rhode Island wiseguy Robert (Bobby Cigars) DeLuca, a former “kingsman capo” who went down with Little Eddie in the 2011 strip club extortion indictment and then entered the Witness Protection Program.

DeLuca and Poochie Angell were nailed together in 1993 for running a large sports book out of the Foxy Lady, the city of Providence’s most famous strip joint dating back to the 1970s. Angell has long been listed on official business documents as a club “consultant,” but federal authorities have always believed that he’s in fact the establishment’s owner. According to a 2009 civil court case, employees at the Foxy Lady reported to Poochie and nobody else. A number of Angell’s relatives run the place today.

Per multiple sources, DeLuca named Little Eddie Lato as one of two shooters in the Hanrahan murder in his testimony before a federal grand jury in the spring of last year. Hanrahan, 39, was allegedly muscling in on protected bookmakers in Providence and Western Massachusetts and part of a plan to assassinate Patriarca crime family bosses. He was slain in Federal Hill, Providence’s Little Italy neighborhood, after leaving a dinner at The Arch steakhouse with a DeLuca lieutenant on the evening of September 18, 1992.

The post Who Let The Dog Out?: The “Pooch” From Providence To Get Perjury Case Tossed appeared first on The Gangster Report.

October 1, 2019 — Philadelphia mafia boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino returns to the streets this week after almost a year and a half in federal prison for a gambling conviction. The slick 57-year old mob chief will report to a halfway house in South Florida by the end of the week to begin his supervised release.

Merlino pleaded guilty to a single sports-betting count in 2018 after a hung jury in a racketeering case out of New York. He’s been living in Boca Raton, Florida since his release from a 12-year prison stint for a racketeering conviction in March 2011 and maintaining leadership of Philadelphia mob affairs through proxies and designated messengers, per sources.

In the 1990s, Merlino and his fiercely-loyal crew of childhood friends fought and won a war for power in the Philly mafia’s Bruno-Scarfo crime family. His personal run of luck is downright uncanny; averting multiple assassination attempts, murder charges and seismic shifts in the country’s mob landscape during his 25 years on top of the historic city’s mob.

Flashy, camera-friendly and fashion-conscious, the handsome and quick-witted Skinny Joey is tailor made for the 21st Century mafia. Upon leaving prison in early 2011, Merlino fell in love with social media. Some people took to calling him the “Instagram Don.” Before his most recent run-in with the law as part of the so-called East Coast LCN Enterprise case in 2016, Merlino was driving a Rolls Royce and running a now-shuttered restaurant featuring his mom’s recipes in South Florida.

Merlino was raised as part of a mob aristocracy in the City of the Brotherly Love. Skinny Joey’s dad was Salvatore (Chuckie) Merlino, the Philly mafia’s underboss in the 1980s and his uncle Lawrence (Yogi) Merlino was a valued capo in the bloody and chaotic Nicodemo (Little Nicky) Scarfo regime. The Merlino brothers fell out of favor with Scarfo late in his reign and were placed on the “pay no mind” list.

Chuckie Merlino died in prison in the fall of 2012. Scarfo was nailed in 1987 on a slew of murder and racketeering charges and died behind bars in 2017.

Thirty years ago this month, Skinny Joey Merlino might have literally blasted his way on to the scene as a major player in the Philly underworld by allegedly trying to kill Little Nicky’s progeny “Nicky Jr.” in a brazen Halloween night 1989 attack, Nicky Jr survived being shot ten times inside Dante & Luigi’s restaurant in the heart of South Philly. Skinny Joey was the No. 1 suspect in the case but never arrested for it.

Making an alliance with old school mob figure Ralph Natale, a labor union enforcer for longtime Philly mafia Godfather Angelo Bruno in the 1960s and 70s, Merlino rode Natale’s contacts in New York’s Five Families — cemented behind prison walls — and his own guile and fearless ambition all the way to the Bruno-Scarfo clan crown in the 1990s. With Natale’s backing from prison, Merlino unseated Sicilian don John Stanfa by way of a shooting war that resulted in casualties on both sides and didn’t end until Stanfa was busted in 1994.

Natale, 84, flipped in 1999, entered the Witness Protection Program and testified against Merlino and others at a highly-publicized 2001 trial. Merlino has had one of his father’s protégés, Joseph (Uncle Joe) Ligambi, running his crime family on an acting basis for most of the last two decades.

The stately Ligambi, who came up in the Philly mob as a bookie in Chuckle Merlino’s crew, reportedly retired at a surprise 80th birthday bash held in his honor in August, At least three sources name Skinny Joey Merlino’s close pal, 55-year old George (Georgie Boy) Borgesi as the organization’s newly-appointed acting boss. Borgesi is Ligambi’s nephew and, like Skinny Joey, was raised as a young-buck wiseguy in the Scarfo administration of the 1980s.

The post Don’t Call It A Comeback: Skinny Joey Set To Be Sprung From Pen This Week, Philly GF Back On Scene appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Already doing 18 years in state prison, Chicago mobster Robert (Bobby Pinocchio) Panozzo had a decade-and-a-half tacked on in federal court last week tied to an extortion case out of Rockford, Illinois.

Chicago mob soldier Robert (Bobby Pinocchio) Panozzo pleaded guilty to a single count of federal extortion this week out of U.S. District Court in Rockford, Illinois. Panozzo, a member of the Outfit’s Grand Avenue crew, is already serving an 18-year sentence in state prison for racketeering and faces up to a 14-year term, most likely to run concurrent with his state case, when he’s sentenced in federal court later this year by the Honorable Philip Reinhard. Before his arrest in 2014 in a headline-grabbing sting where he was nabbed walking out of a drug house carrying a safe, Panozzo’s was the right-hand man to Grand Avenue crew capo and Outfit street boss Albert (Albie the Falcon) Vena, both the most feared and most wanted man in Chicago right now. Panozzo’s state case centered around a home-invasion and armed robbery ring targeting drug dealers. The feds pinched him for beating up a debtor over $100,000 in interest owed on a $40,000 juice loan. Panozzo, 60, loaned a McHenry County businessman $40k in 2005. Before he left to serve two years behind bars for another robbery bust, Bobby Pinocchio and associate Joe Abbott paid the businessman a visit at his office in October 2006 and attacked him, throwing his head against a wall multiple times. Upon his release from prison in 2008, Panozzo paid Abbott $1,000 in cash to torch the victim’s car and an additional $5,000 to blow up the garage attached to his house. Abbott has pleaded guilty to extortion in the case as well.

The post The Nose Stays In Neutral: Chicago Outfit Figure Gets More Time appeared first on The Gangster Report.

October 3, 2019 — The trial was supposed to be in full swing by now. Instead, it never happened. Just 72 hours before they were set to stand trial for the gangland execution of a rival biker boss on September 23, two members of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club in Ocala, Florida and their two co-defendants, had their murder charges dropped by state prosecutors for lack of credible witnesses.

Ocala Outlaws Mark (Not Quite) Knotts, Greg (Stinky) Umphress, Jesus (Ace) Marrero and Miguel (Toe Jam) Torres were charged in the first degree murder of Kingsmen Motorcycle Club vice president David (Gutter) Donovan, who was slain April 29, 2017 at a well-lit and video-surveilled gas station on the last night of the annual Leesburg Bikerfest. Knotts, 50, and Marrero, 38, were arrested almost immediately. Umphress, 34, was a fugitive for two months prior to being apprehended that summer in East Naples, Florida. Torres, 39, avoided arrest for a month following the indictment landing in May.

Knotts and Torres were headed to trial first. Marrero and Umphress had been scheduled to start their trial in early 2020.

Donovan, 41, was second-in-command in the Kingsmen’s Lake County, Florida chapter. The Outlaws launched an offensive on other biker clubs operating in Florida at some point in late 2016, per an internal memo circulated throughout multiple law enforcement agencies during that time.

According to a police report from the April 2017 incident, Umphress, Marrerro and Torres put a knife to Gutter Donovan’s throat as he exited a Circle K gas station in Leesburg, Florida and forced him to his knees on the side of the building facing Knotts. When Donovan refused to remove his Kingsmen colors and “cut” (his “rocker” vest), Knotts ordered him to be executed. Per the report, Knotts instructed his fellow Outlaws to “shoot that motherfucker.”

Donovan was shot in the head and the back. He died after a two-week fight for his life in the hospital. Although the 2017 indictment named Knotts the ring leader of the murder plot, it didn’t name a shooter.

The scraggly-bearded Knotts, sometimes referred to as “Knothead,” was shot three times in the back after the attack on Donovan. One of Donovan’s Kingsmen brothers, Justin Milicic, opened fire on Knotts from the doorway of the Circle K as Knotts went to get on his bike and flee the scene.

The Kingsmen are a club out of New York trying to establish a foothold in Florida. The Outlaws headquarter out of the Midwest but have long been the premier biker gang power in the American southeast as well, taking over large swaths of territory in and around several major regions of Florida since the 1970s.

The post In The Nick Of Time: Florida Outlaws Cut Loose From Murder Case appeared first on The Gangster Report.

October 7, 2019 – The Chicago mob’s Elmwood Park crew is preparing for capo Rudy (The Chin) Fratto’s move into the Outfit’s administration, according to sources. Whether Elmwood Park will even remain its own regime or be rolled into the Cicero crew is still up for debate, per these sources.

Fratto is expected to replace 83-year old Marco (The Mover) D’Amico as the crime family’s consigliere soon these sources claim. D’Amico, the main advisor to Elmwood Park Outfit patriarchs, the DiFronzo brothers, “Johnny No Nose” aka “Johnny Bananas” and “Greedy Petey,” is said to be semi-retired. Greedy Petey, 86, is pretty much completely retired, per sources. The legendary Johnny No Nose DiFronzo was the boss of the mafia in the Windy City for two and a half decades and died of natural causes in May 2018 at 89.

The 75-year old Fratto has been in charge of Elmwood Park since around 2010 when Greedy Petey DiFronzo briefly went to the Outfit’s street boss post, per sources. Fratto is allegedly responsible for Outfit affairs in Iowa, Milwaukee and Cleveland. He did separate short federal prison stints for tax evasion (2010-2011) and bid-rigging on behalf of a forklift contractor at McCormick Place, Chicago’s premier convention center and the largest convention center in North America (2012-2013).

The FBI considers Fratto a suspect in more than one gangland murder and believes he was made at the same Father’s Day 1988 ceremony as current Outfit boss Salvatore (Solly D) DeLaurentis. His father and uncle were both made men in the Chicago mob. Solly D, 81 and based out of Lake County and his vacation property in Wisconsin, is known for a hands-off leadership philosophy, much like the man he succeeded in DiFronzo.

Upon Fratto getting the bump up to consigliere in the next year to 18 months, per sources, Elmwood Park skipper duties would be up for grabs between Alphonse (Maxwell Street Al) Mitria, Anthony (Tony D) Dote and Robert (Bobby the Truck Driver) Abbinanti. According to Chicago Crime Commission files, Dote, 67, has long been D’Amico’s right hand man and Abbinanti, 64, his top collector. Mitria, 70, was busted in 2001 for acting as a fence for Outfit burglary rings.

The post Chicago Mob Keeping Its Chin Up: What Does Future Hold For Fratto & Historic Elmwood Park Regime? appeared first on The Gangster Report.

The story of South Bronx drug lord George (Boy George) Rivera will be made into a television show produced by hip-hop superstar-turned TV mogul 50 Cent and called Obsession in honor of Rivera’s signature brand of heroin sold in the 1980s. The news broke late last week on 50 Cent’s social media platform.

Besides being one of the best selling rap artists of the New Millennium, 50 Cent, a native of Queens and one-time dope man himself, produces and appears in the wildly popular show Power for Starz, which spins the tale of a New York drug kingpin nicknamed “Ghost” and is in its sixth season. His slate of future TV projects will be anchored by the Boy George project and a highly-anticipated show about Demetrius (Big Meech) Flenory and his Black Mafia Family (BMF) currently in pre-production with Power scribe Randy Huggins on board as the show runner. Flenory and his BMF crew controlled narcotics trafficking across two dozen states in the late 1990s and first half of the 2000s.

Boy George Rivera ran the heroin trade in the South Bronx and parts of Manhattan in the late 1980s. Called the Puerto Rican James Bond of the underworld for his suave demeanor, dapper fashion style and penchant for always having the latest gadgets on hand to show off, Rivera actually incorporated his drug business and structured it with employee profit sharing, bonus incentives and health care benefits. On Christmas Eve 1988, he held a black-tie holiday party for his organization on a private yacht where rapper Big Daddy Kane performed. Rivera was busted in 1989.

The post Rapper’s Burgeoning TV Empire To Include Show About NYC Dope Baron Boy George appeared first on The Gangster Report.

October 10, 2019 — Philadelphia mafia soldier Frank (Frankie Windows) Narducci, Jr. died this week of liver failure. Narducci, Jr. is the older brother of reputed Philly mob faction leader Phil Narducci, currently in prison for loansharking. Their father was slain Bruno-Scarfo crime family capo Frank (Chickie) Narducci, killed in 1982 after a failed palace coup.

Windows Narducci, 65, kept a low profile in recent years, his lone brush with the law being a parole violation back in 2015. Both Narducci brothers were indicted in 1987 and then convicted two years later on a wide array of racketeering charges as part of the Nicodemo (Little Nicky) Scarfo Philly mob regime. They were alleged co-conspirators in the 1985 gangland murder of Scarfo rival Frank (Frankie Flowers) D’Alfonso hit — Windows was implicated as the getaway driver in the hit and his baby bro Phil was fingered as one of the triggermen.

Phil Narducci, 57, was found guilty in the D’Alfonso homicide and then had the conviction overturned on appeal and won acquittal at a 1997 retrial. Windows Narducci got out of prison on his racketeering case in 2009, followed by Phil in 2012. In 2017, Phil Narducci opened a gastropub called Chick’s in South Philly named after his dad.

The post Philly Mobster “Windows” Narducci Dead Of Natural Causes At 65 appeared first on The Gangster Report.

The Outlaws Motorcycle Club is in the midst of an expansion effort in New England, according to an internal federal law enforcement memo circulated in the summer obtained by Gangster Report. With the opening of a new handful of chapters around the region in recent years, the Outlaws have moved to beef up their presence in an area known for being Hells Angels territory. Per the memo, the Outlaws 12 current New England chapters equals the Hells Angels total.

Joseph (Little Joe Pup) Noe, Jr. of the Outlaws Fall River, Massachusetts chapter was slapped with a murder charge last month on the fatal shooting of a rival biker club member in the parking lot of a local bar. Little Joe Pup’s dad, Joseph (Joe Dogs) Noe led the Outlaws Taunton, Massachusetts chapter in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

The 25-year old Noe, Jr. allegedly shot Sidewinders MC member Eric Voshell on September 13 after he was converged on in the parking lot of J.C.’s Cafe by Voshell and others Sidewinders clubbers. The Sidewinders are known as a “support” club of the Hells Angels.

The post The Outlaws MC Wants More Of New England, Murder In Massachusetts Ramps Up Violence appeared first on The Gangster Report.

October 12, 2019 — Chicago video-poker mogul Rick Heidner is coming under scrutiny for his alleged ties to mob-connected businessmen as he seeks licensing to build a horse race track and adjoining casino in Tinley Park. The Chicago Tribune printed an expose this week on Heidner and his Gold Rush Gaming’s quest for the go-ahead by the Illinois Gaming Board to break ground on the project in the Windy City’s southwest suburb and the many potential stumbling blocks that have popped up in GRG’s road to getting casino licensed.

The state gaming board gave Heidner a gaming license for video poker and slots in 2012. The Illinois Racing Board has approved the racetrack licensing for Heidner’s proposed Tinley Park property development.

Heidner, 62, has partnered with the owners of the Hawthorne Racecourse in Cicero in the pending deal. The problem lies with his past partners though: namely Rocco Suspenzi of Parkway Bank and Trust and convicted bookie Dominic Buttitta.

Suspenzi was caught up in the famously ill-fated Emerald Casino project and accompanying scandal in Rosemont back in the early 2000s when he was caught holding hidden ownership for the Outfit. The fiasco cost the city of Rosemont the casino project, eventually resulting in the Rivers Casino in Des Plaines.

Parkway Bank and Trust began building a parking structure for the Emerald before its licensing had gone through using contracting firms allegedly owned or controlled by then-Chicago mafia don John (Johnny No Nose) DiFronzo and his brother, Outfit capo Peter (Greedy Petey) DiFronzo. According to a 2003 finding issued jointly by the state’s gaming board and FBI, Suspenzi had alleged Outfit soldiers Vito and Joe Salamone as his silent partners in the Emerald deal. In a business loan using Parkway as his conduit, Suspenzi funneled reputed Chicago mob figure Nick Boscarino 1.5 million dollars to silently invest in the Emerald casino project.

Heidner and Suspenzi have worked numerous real estate deals together. Heidner has also done real estate deals with Buttitta, who pleaded guilty in 2010 to bookmaking charges and skimming money from a South Elgin, Illinois strip club he owned. Suspenzi’s son, Jeff, was busted for bank fraud (embezzling $500,000) in the months that followed him and his dad being exposed as mob fronts by the FBI and gaming board.

Heidner’s name appeared in a federal search warrant executed at the office of Democratic State Senator Martin Sandoval’s office at the Capitol Building in Springfield last month. Why or in what context Heidner has surfaced in the Senator Sandoval probe is currently unknown.

Johnny DiFronzo died of natural causes in 2018 at 89 having sat atop the Chicago mafia for 25 years. The Salamone brothers hail from DiFronzo’s Elmwood Park crew and are linked to DiFronzo’s No. 1 advisor, Marco (The Mover) D’Amico, the Outfit’s consigliere on and off for the past decade and a half. The 64-year old Vito Salamone owns DeMarco’s Restaurant in Itasca, for years a frequent gathering spot for DiFronzo and D’Amico.

The post Through The Looking Glass: Bid For New Casino In Chicago Suburb Might Be Marred By Mob Links appeared first on The Gangster Report.

October 13, 2019 – The wedding of the year in the Philadelphia mob went down over the weekend, as reputed Bruno-Scarfo crime family captain Domenic (Baby Dom) Grande got hitched. Grande, 40, is the youngest capo in the Philly mafia and someone people consider future boss material. He said “I do” to his beautiful bride Gina at a mid-afternoon ceremony Saturday followed by a lavish party that evening.

Most of the crime family’s top leaders were in attendance at Grande’s nuptials, per sources. Philly mob don Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino phoned in his congratulations from Florida in the minutes before Grande walked down the aisle. Merlino, 57, was just released from a short federal prison stay for gambling and is in a Miami halfway house unable to leave the state because of parole restrictions.

Grande rose fast in the South Philly underworld, getting his button and getting a bump-up to capo while only in his 30s. The gangland bloodline he boasts is elite: His father is former mob hit man Salvatore (Wayne) Grande, his grandfather, deceased mafia lieutenant John (Coo Coo) Grande and his uncle is Joe Grande, currently an old-school soldier in the crime family operating out of New Jersey.

Another uncle of Baby Dom’s, Sammy Piccolo, a button man in the family, too, was arrested on drug charges last year. Wayne Grande, nicknamed after John Wayne for his cowboy antics on the street, is in the Witness Protection Program.

Skinny Joey Merlino’s underboss and best friend, Steven (Handsome Stevie) Mazzone, is Baby Dom’s uncle-by-marriage. The 57-year old Mazzone and Merlino’s protégé and one-time driver Anthony Nicodemo, mentored Grande in the mafia. Nicodemo, 48, is behind bars for driving the getaway car in the 2012 murder of convicted drug dealer Gino DiPietro in South Philly.

Grande and Nicodemo were nailed together in 2007 for running a bookmaking ring out of a New Jersey casino. In December 2015, Grande accompanied Merlino to a Christmas Party in New York hosted by Genovese crime family Bronx capo Patsy Parrello and photographed by an FBI surveillance unit.

The post Wedding Bells Ring In City Of Brotherly Love: Alleged Philly Mafia Capo Dom Grande Takes A Bride appeared first on The Gangster Report.

October 15, 2019 — The Texas Mexican Mafia’s “free world” boss Raul (Alto) Ramos will never be free again, sentenced to life in prison without parole for drug-trafficking, robbery and extortion, among other offenses, last week in a federal court in San Antonio. Ramos, 54, pleaded guilty to the racketeering conspiracy back in May 2018. He was one of 37 “La Eme” leaders, soldiers and associates from the Texas regime indicted in the case.

U.S. District Court Judge Xavier Rodriguez handed down Ramos’ penalty last Tuesday. Per the 2017 indictment, Ramos oversaw the collection of almost $1,000,000 in street tax from Hispanic narcotics gangs across San Antonio, the Mexican Mafia’s headquarters in Texas.

Founded inside the California Department of Corrections in 1957, the Mexican Mafia eventually spread to the street and today is one of the most powerful and ruthless criminal organizations in the United States. La Eme boss Rodolfo (Cheyenne) Cadena pioneered the concept of “controlling the inside to control the outside,” prior to his 1972 assassination behind bars.

The state of Texas’ branch of the Mexican Mafia was started in the 1980s by Herbie Huerta, Jose Lopez and Benny Alonso. According to his plea deal, Alto Ramos, joined La Eme in 1991 during his first stint in prison and was sponsored by Alonso, who just a few years ago, ordered a hit on his daughter-in-law for the belief that she stole $80,000 from him (she survived the attack). Until he was nabbed in 2017, Ramos spoke for Huerta and Alonso on the street.

Although he wasn’t charged in any homicides, FBI agent Katherine Gutierrez testified at Ramos’ sentencing hearing that she had knowledge of him ordering Mexican Mafia soldiers to commit murder on the behalf of imprisoned La Eme shot callers. The attempted murder of Alonso’s daughter-in-law Teresa was included in the 1997 bust that brought Ramos down.

The post Mexican Mafia Boss “Alto” Ramos Gets Life In Racketeering Case appeared first on The Gangster Report.

October 16, 2019 — Infamous former Washington D.C. drug tycoon Rayful Edmond began his cooperation by dismantling of the drug empire he had left behind when he was arrested and jailed in April 1989. Rodney (The Great Rasoo) Moore, Edmond’s protégé, took over the multi-million dollar organization and ran it for the next decade, with Edmond himself acting as Moore’s top advisor from behind prison walls – until Edmond flipped and brought the whole kingdom crumbling to the ground, linking his crew to 31 gangland homicides.

Moore was personally tied to a dozen slayings. His top enforcer, Kevin (K Rock) Gray, had a role in 22 gang-related murders.

This week, Edmond, 54, returns to Washington D.C. for the first time since 2002 when he was the star witness at Moore’s trial. He has a hearing on his own case this time. Edmond was sentenced to life in prison in 1990. He was busted again while locked up for brokering a $200,000,000 cocaine deal and began cooperating.

Federal prosecutors filed a motion back in the winter seeking a sentence reduction for Edmond, asking U.S. District Court Judge Emmett Sullivan to trim the life sentence to 40 years. Attorneys for Edmond are asking for a ruling of time served. Sullivan will hear testimony Wednesday and Thursday. He still has a Pennsylvania state drug case to do time for following a release from federal custody. Edmond’s legal team is hoping his judge in Pennsylvania re-sentences him to time served as well.

The legend of Rayful Edmund stretches far and wide along the east coast. Polished and flamboyant, Edmond ruled the D.C. underworld with panache during the height of the crack era and got filthy rich – authorities estimate his organization had cleared between 30 and 50 million dollars at the time of his first arrest. Hip-hop superstars Jay-Z and Rick Ross have name-checked Edmond in their raps, cementing his status as a street legend beyond the borders of the Beltway. The Washington Post printed more than 300 articles on Edmond’s reign, indictment and trial in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The 54-year old Moore once stabbed a man who owed Edmond a $200,000 drug debt in a bowling alley. He got his start as Edmond’s right-hand man and main collector. Moore was often used to relay messages between Edmund and his second in command and street boss Tony Lewis, according to Edmond’s 1989 case.

In May 2000, the DEA swept in and indicted Moore and 12 of his lieutenants based on intelligence mostly gleaned from Edmond, who cut a deal for his mom “Bootsy” to get out of prison (she was nailed in his case) as part of his cooperation agreement in the case against his own organization. Moore was convicted at his 2002 trial and is serving life in prison at a federal correctional facility in North Carolina.

The post A Homecoming Of Sorts: Notorious Drug Boss Rayful Edmond Returns To D.C. For Re-Sentencing Hearing appeared first on The Gangster Report.

Kevin (K-Rock) Gray ran the “Murder, Inc.” enforcement wing of a Washington D.C. drug empire built by Rayful Edmond and then taken over by Rodney (The Great Rasoo) Moore, painting the streets of the District red May 1, 1989 – Alvin (Flubby) Henson December 9, 1990 – Anthony (The Fish) Dent May 24, 1991 – Darrell (The Termite) Henson July 26, 1992 – Marvin Goodman January 3, 1993 – Shawn Burton January, 20, 1993 – Chris Burton June 28, 1993 – Joe Lundy July 12, 1993 – Henry Lloyd July 25, 1993 – Aaron Jackson January 11, 1994 – Corey (Binky) Royster & Andre (Orange) Robinson August 27, 1994 – Ronnie Powell February 27, 1996 – Joe (Froggy) Thomas May 19, 1996 – Marco Smith May 31, 1996 – Ricardo Bailey July 14, 1996 – Quentin Butler August 20, 1996 – Joey Jones January 3, 1998 – Rodney (Boo Yang) Faison May 30, 1998 – Roy Cobb June 20, 1998 – Ricky (Flash) Fletcher December 13, 1998 – Carlos Cardoza March 3, 1999 – Jaime Pereira July 22, 1999 – Tommy Walker August 9, 1999 – Anthony Watkins September 26, 1999 – Derrick Edwards

The post Killing The Competition: Washington D.C.’s “Murder Inc.” Hit List (1989-1999) appeared first on The Gangster Report.

October 20, 2019 — Deposed Philadelphia mob administrator Ronnie Turchi was killed 20 years ago this week, allegedly the first hit of the Joseph (Uncle Joe) Ligambi mafia era in the City of Brotherly Love. Turchi had been the Bruno-Scarfo crime family’s consigliere from 1994 to when he was demoted in 1997. Ligambi led the family as acting boss from the summer of 1999 until this past August when he retired at his 80th birthday party.

The one-time head of the Philly mob’s numbers lottery racket, Turchi, 61, was found hogtied and shot to death in the trunk of his wife’s car on October 26, 1999. He had disappeared on the evening of October 22, last seen alive leaving a dinner with a Ligambi underling in South Philly. His connection to a Ligambi predecessor would be his undoing. The homicide remains unsolved today and is considered an open and active investigation.

Turchi was sent to federal prison in 1979 for arson and did 10 years. Upon his release, he hooked up with newly-minted mafia don John Stanfa, a Sicilian-born wiseguy backed by the Gambino crime family in New York, and got “made.” Stanfa put Turchi in charge of the numbers business.

After Ralph Natale and Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino took over the Philly mob in the mid-1990s, Natale named Turchi his consigliere. By the end of the decade, Natale would go on to be the first sitting mafia don in American history to enter the Witness Protection Program.

Natale and Turchi came up together in the Philly mob in the Angelo Bruno regime of the 1960s and 70s. Starting in 1992, Natale commanded a war against Stanfa from behind bars (he was serving time for fraud and narcotics trafficking), using the fearless and charismatic Skinny Joey and his “Young Turk” faction of the family as his muscle on the street. Following casualties on both sides of the highly-publicized mob feud and Stanfa’s incarceration on murder and racketeering charges, Natale declared victory and himself the boss of the Bruno-Scarfo family.

In the six months between Stanfa being indicted in March 1994 and Natale being let out of prison in the fall of that year, Turchi attempted to buy his way into the boss’ chair, funneling a $10,000 payment to leaders in New York’s Genovese crime family in exchange for the nod as Godfather of Philly. However, Natale blocked the appointment, sending word to Turchi, he’d personally kill him if he tried assuming control of the Philly mafia before he hit the streets in September.

Turchi stood down and Natale tapped him as his No. 3, hoping Turchi would bridge the gap between the Natale-Merlino regime and the remnants of the Stanfa crew. Less than years into the arrangement, the rackets Turchi was made responsible for were far from flush and Natale pulled his stripes in the first part of 1997.

Natale and Merlino fell out with each other after Natale was jailed in 1998 and Merlino bumped him out of the way to grab power. Skinny Joey was taken into custody in the summer of 1999 and he gave the family over to Uncle Joe Ligambi on an acting basis. Merlino’s dad, Salvatore (Chuckie) Merlino, had mentored Ligambi in the Philly mob’s “Wild West” Scarfo days of the 1980s. Ligambi had recently been let out of prison on a murder beef – a 1985 hit said to be him making his bones under Scarfo – that was tossed on appeal.

News of Natale cutting a deal with the government began circulating through South Philly in the fall of 1999 and according to informants Ligambi ordered Turchi’s murder to dissuade Natale from testifying against Merlino. Turchi disappeared after dining with young mob associate Roger Vella, one of Merlino’s drivers and message-relay mainstays of the late 1990s, on the night of October 22, 1999. Vella flipped soon thereafter and followed Natale into the Witness Protection Program, admitting his role in the Turchi murder conspiracy as the “set up man” as well as to a role in another unsolved 1995 gangland hit.

According to turncoat Philly mob capo Pete (The Crumb) Caprio, Ligambi told him “We banged Ronnie out to send Ralph a message.” Caprio ran the Bruno-Scarfo’s New Jersey crew and joined Natale and Vella in the Witness Protection Program in the 2000s. The conversation took place when Ligambi allegedly reached out to Caprio and asked Caprio to introduce him to mob bosses in New York’s Five Families. Ironically, the notoriously understated Uncle Joe is crediting with stabilizing the Philly mob and tamping down violence in the wake of the chaotic Scarfo, Stanfa and Natale-Merlino regimes.

Natale and Caprio testified against Merlino at his 2001 trial in relation to murder conspiracies he was found innocent of. Vella has never been called as a witness due to reliability concerns. Merlino, 57, was convicted of racketeering and did 12 years behind bars, getting released in early 2011 and relocating to Florida. Ligambi beat a racketeering bust at a pair of trials, but he and Merlino are still suspects in green-lighting multiple mob hits in the late 1990s and 2000s, including the Turchi slaying.

Turchi worked closely with Ligambi’s underboss, Joe (Mousie) Massimino, assigned to watch over Turchi after Turchi got his job as consigliere taken away from him. The 69-year old Massimino is in the middle of serving a prison sentence for racketeering at a North Carolina federal correctional facility and is considered a suspect in the Turchi murder conspiracy.

The perpetually suave Skinny Joey Merlino walked free from a short federal prison stint for a gambling offense earlier this month. Merlino was swept up in the 2016 “East Coast LCN Enterprise” case. Per an FBI surveillance report from the 1990s, Turchi accompanied Merlino and his entourage to New York to attend the heavyweight boxing match between Riddick Bowe and Andrew Golota at Madison Square Garden on December 14, 1996.

The post Philly Mobster Ronnie Turchi Took Last Ride In October ’99, Turned Up Trunk Music In Mafia Saga appeared first on The Gangster Report.