May 23, 2019
This Week in Gang Land
Turncoat: Mob Boss Gave Me Induction Souvenir — The Knife He Used To Prick My Finger
The Cosa Nostra induction ceremony calls for a few drops of blood
from the new member's finger, so most use a needle. We heard of one
where a big nasty old safety pin was used ("There was blood all over,"
said a participant.) But acting Luchese family boss Matthew (Matty)
Madonna doesn't mess around with the small stuff. When the veteran
wiseguy conducted a ceremony for new members in 2013, he brought a
hunting knife to do the job.
That grisly account is one of several revelations provided by a little-known mobster named John Pennisi, who is slated to make his debut as a government witness sometime next week at the trial of fellow Luchese wiseguy Eugene (Boobsie) Castelle.
The feds were hoping to save the new witness for the monster trial later this year of Madonna and four other Luchese gangsters charged with the murder of former Purple Gang leader Michael Meldish.
Lies Are Keeping Stevie Wonder Crea Behind Bars, Lawyers Claim
Citing government evidence that was recently given to the defense, Luchese underboss Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea is seeking to be released on bail on the grounds that prosecutors have withheld evidence they've had for three years that refutes the allegation that he had anything to do with the murder of former Purple Gang Leader Michael Meldish.
Mob Lawyer Finds Religion; Gets A Seven-Day Sentence
After the seventh day, he rose — to work for his Uncle Sam. A mob lawyer who found religion after he was fingered in a murder plot has been sentenced to time served — the single week he spent behind bars back in 2005 before he decided to cooperate with the feds.
Read this week's column
Unless you get really lucky, and find a copy squirreled away in the
wrong section of your local bookstore, you won't be able to get a
first printing of Mob Boss: The Life Of Little Al
D'Arco, The Man Who Brought Down The Mafia. But there
are still some second print versions of the hardcover available
as gifts or for your own reading pleasure.
Because of the heavy demand, Thomas Dunne Books went to the well again for a second printing of Mob Boss, the book that The New York Times called a "gripping, novelistic biography — a bulls-eye."
The mass market, paperback version was published in 2015. It is available online and at your favorite bookstores for about eight bucks. You still should be able to pick up a copy of the hard cover at your favorite bookstore, or, as Claude Raines might say to Humphrey Bogart, from any number of the usual online suspects: Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and BooksAMillion, as well as an independent book seller near you.
See why Mob Boss has been praised by Pete Hamill, Jimmy Breslin, Nicholas Pileggi, Mister District Attorney Robert Morgenthau — as well as readers everywhere.
Mob Boss is also available in a special BIG PRINT edition. And for those who would rather hear every word of the 406 page book read to them, Mob Boss is also available on an MP3 CD from Tantor Audio.
