abc40 Investigates: Springfield’s Organized Crime

Six years after reputed mob boss Al Bruno was gunned down while walking from a card game, a series of arrests have been made and all of the suspects are allegedly connected to organized crime with a chain of command trailing to New York.
However, local police have said the face of organized crime has [...]

Colombo family mobster turned Christian speaker Michael Franzese beats bad check writing rap

Charges were dismissed against a Colombo family mobster-turned-Christian motivational speaker who was busted for writing bad checks, officials said Wednesday.
Michael Franzese, a Brooklyn-born wiseguy once nicknamed “The Prince of the Mafia,” was arrested in Tennessee last month for writing a pair of phony $5,400 checks to a former business manager.
The charges were dropped Tuesday after [...]

Now its dis-organized crime in Atlantic City

When a new day of casinos in Jersey was dawning, Gov. Brendan Byrne once ordered organized crime members and wannabes to “Keep your filthy hands off Atlantic City!”
Byrne’s decree, of course, failed to have immediate impact, as a few notorious figures maintained Atlantic City’s well-earned reputation of being big on vice and not so nice.
Nowadays, [...]

Wise guys and drive-bys! Bus service will do tours of Mafia hit sites and social clubs

That Starbucks over there? Used to be the scene of one of the city’s most notorious mob hits.
This trendy Nolita shoe shop? It was once John Gotti’s hangout, the Ravenite Social Club, where many a bloody murder was planned.
Starting next month, John (Cha Cha) Ciarcia hopes to bring some of the city’s old gangland history [...]

Diabetic mob boss Thomas (Tommy Shots) Gioeli suffers stroke

A diabetic mob boss who has sparred with the feds over his junk-food habit suffered a stroke a day after failing to convince a judge his poor health earned him a get-out-of-jail card.
Reputed Colombo crime chief Thomas (Tommy Shots) Gioeli complained of “dizziness, neck pain, weakness of his left leg and an inability to move [...]

Nicolo Rizzuto faces fresh tax-evasion charges

Nicolo Rizzuto might have thought he left his troubles behind him in 2008 when he walked away from a conviction in Project Colisée with only a probationary sentence left to serve.
But since then a friend of his has been killed and his grandson and namesake was gunned down in December. And now Rizzuto, who will [...]

Reputed Colombo boss Thomas Gioeli pigs out on junk food in prison

This mob boss puts the “die” in “diet.”
Reputed Colombo crime boss Thomas (Tommy Shots) Gioeli likes to whine about how prison food is making him sick – but prosecutors say he’s hiding a big secret.
He’s a junk food junkie.
The fat-fella stuffs his face with chips, Velveeta, Spam, doughnuts, candy bars and other trash he buys [...]

Daughter-in-law of Colombo boss Carmine “The Snake” Persico arrested for shoplifting

A daughter-in-law of mob boss Carmine (The Snake) Persico was arrested Wednesday, accused of
shoplifting at a Staten Island Target.
Kim Persico, 47, was charged with criminal possession of stolen property and petty larceny and was awaiting arraignment last night, police said.
Persico, who lives in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, was caught just before noon trying to steal $597 [...]

Vincent Basciano Trial Update

Lawyers for Vincent Basciano have asked the court to permit him increased visits at the Brooklyn MDC. In a letter to Judge Nicholas Garaufis, Basciano’s lawyers are asking that he be allowed a visit with the mother of his youngest son Anthony every other week and that his family be allowed visits on alternate weeks.
As [...]

Murder charge is dismissed against reputed N.J. mob boss

A Superior Court judge today dismissed the murder charge against a reputed mob boss accused of gunning down a man 32 years ago in a Bridgewater motel parking lot.
Michael Coppola, 63, was accused of shooting John “Johnny Cokes” Lardiere, 68, of Maplewood multiple times outside the Red Bull Inn on April 10, [...]

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