April 18, 2019
This Week in Gang Land
A Gambino Family Surprise: Mickey Boy Is An Administration Man
In
a surprise move in the wake of the murder of underboss Francesco (Frank)
Cali, the Gambino family has tapped a tough, old capo who once punched
John Gotti in the face and got away with it, to serve in the crime
family's Administration, law enforcement sources tell Gang Land.
The sources say that 79-year-old Michael (Mickey Boy) Paradiso, who has spent about 25 years behind bars during a crime spree that's lasted 55 plus years, will technically serve as the family's consigliere, or number three man in the family hierarchy. Paradiso will serve alongside two powerful members of the family's Sicilian faction, Domenico (Italian Dom) Cefalu, 72, and Lorenzo Mannino, 60.
Gang Land's sources waffle on the specific ranks of Cefalu, whom the FBI has carried as the family's acting boss since 2011, and Mannino, who has been identified by the feds in recent court filings only as a "powerful capo." Some law enforcers say Cefalu is still the boss, but others say Mannino is the real leader right now, even if he doesn't have the official title.
Luchese
Wiseguy Gets A Break; But It Could Have Been Better
On the surface, Luchese mobster Joseph Venice did well when he received 18 months in prison last month for being part of a $3.2 million overbilling scheme against Bronx Lebanon hospital. It was six months less than the bottom number of his guidelines, and he and his lawyer each thanked the judge for giving him a "break" because he had a minor role in the huge scam.
More
Plea Deals In Chin's Son's Case? Or Will Frankie G And Mad Dog Roll The
Dice?
Following the surprise guilty plea by Vincent Esposito last week, prosecutors stated they were involved in plea negotiations to resolve the charges against the remaining defendants, Genovese wiseguys Frank (Frankie G) Giovinco and Steven (Mad Dog) Arena. But that assertion — in a court filing with the judge — seems like wishful thinking at this stage in the 15-month-old case.
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.
