Ed Scarpo's Blog, page 43

Mikey Nose's Prison Letters Kick Off Second Cicale Forum

"Mikey Nose" Dom Cicale


















(Commenced 11am, Saturday, Jan. 10)...

We are doing another Cicale Forum. Dominick will answer questions. Comments are closed for now. We are aiming for tomorrow, Saturday morning. (Or sooner, whenever Dom gives the go-ahead.)

We can thank Michael "Mikey Nose" Mancuso for our starting point.... I don't think any other blog or news organization on the planet has ever gotten such direct insight from the man widely considered to be We're certain an interview with Mikey Nose won't be forthcoming, even in 2020, when he's slated for release.






Someone posted letters handwritten by Mancuso from his prison cell in which he used a variety of adjectives to refer to Dominick (including lowlife, dumbbell, lying fuck, etc.)
The issue is: Who wanted to kill Mikey Nose? Was it Dominick Cicale and/or Vincent "Vinny B" Basciano? Mancuso seems to want to believe it was not Basciano... (It's intriguing that the Nose would even doubt Vinny's word over Dominick's in the first place considering how the chips fell.)

Here are the letters; much thanks to whomever posted them....




If you read our ebook, you know where Dominick stands on the situation.

“What a fucking punk," Dominick says in the book, referring to Michael Nose's decision to not show up as a backup shooter for a certain hit. 

"That alone could have easily gotten the ‘Nose’ killed, but Fat Patty loved Michael and saved his ass ..." 

Continuing, Cicale said, “Mikey Nose was always a punk. How could a made man walk around the neighborhood strutting his shit and say hello to the man who murdered his own father? ” 

Cicale was referring to old claims that Mancuso’s father was gunned down by a Bronx street thug who “everyone knew.”  

Mancuso’s father, Cicale related, “was with Arnold “Zeke” Squitieri and Alfonse “Funzi” Sisca, Gambino associates at the time, when Mancuso’s father met his demise. The three had been partying one night, drinking and sniffing cocaine. What great pals [Zeke and Funzi were]… They watch their friend get killed and didn’t do a fucking thing about it…Two more fucking punks.” 

Cicale recalled that Mancuso had a tendency to become scarce when “heavy lifting” had to be done. “Mikey always made some type of lame excuse when called upon to help with a piece of work. He’d say: ‘There's too many people around’ or ‘I don't know where he lives.’”....

Dom is going to offer us the initial comment to get things rolling....

Fappiano, Released by DNA Evidence, Loses Big Time

Alleged Gambino associate Scott Fappiano.
Todt Hill mobster Scott Fappiano, 53, who spent 21 years behind bars until DNA evidence cleared him, lost his "malicious prosecution" case this past week.

On Wednesday, Jan. 7, a Brooklyn judge issued a summary ruling against him.


See Scott Fappiano decision -- click here for PDF.





Fappiano, allegedly an associate of the Gambinos, was released from prison in 2006 following his 1983 conviction on a rape charge. He was accused of raping a woman in front of her husband, an off-duty police officer, in the couple's Brooklyn apartment, while their six-month-old son was present.

He received a $1.8 million settlement from the state for false imprisonment following his 2007 filing of a federal lawsuit against the city (as well as six detectives). The alleged gangster accused law enforcement officials of conspiring to frame him.

He's been nailed twice by the Feds since his release, however. In 2011 he was charged with participating in loansharking, and this year he was nailed in the supposedly "huge racketeering case" against mobsters from three crime families regarding their infiltration of the waste management business.

The FBI made the case against Genovese gangster Carmine "Papa" Smurf Franco and 28 others. However, charges were dropped and deals were cut once it was known that the government's chief witness had been accused of soliciting sex from a woman he thought to be a minor.

Franco, an associate of the Genovese family, had worked with other Genovese mobsters, as well as guys with the Gambino and Luchese families to operate waste disposal businesses in New York City and in several New Jersey counties; they all were initially charged with counts related to extortion, loansharking, mail and wire fraud and stolen property offenses.

The Feds had grander visions for this case. Genovese capo Tino Fiumara had been running the Lodi crew until his death in 2010. The Feds started the probe with the powerhouse capo as their target. But then the Feds were stuck with an unknown gangster named "Papa Smurf" as the lead figure, until the news broke of the Sopranos-loving gangster who flipped. (We have since learned that "Papa Smurf" was a nickname dreamed up by the Feds' tainted witness, Charles Hughes.)

Fappiano, who faced 20 years if convicted, was among those given sweet deals by the Feds so they would not have to allow defense attorneys to rip their pedaphile witness apart on cross.

This past Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Sandra Townes issued a summary judgment in favor of the city, ruling that Fappiano did not have enough evidence to bolster his claims regarding perjury and witness-tampering.

The real rapist/assailant, who remains at large, as far as law enforcement knows, broke into the couple's apartment as they slept. He tied up the husband with telephone cord then raped the off-duty cop's wife repeatedly. Then he smoked a cigarette and sucked down a beer taken from their refrigerator. The woman escaped, wearing only a towel, and the rapist fled into the night.

Fappiano was chosen by her from a lineup the next day -- despite the fact that he was 5 inches shorter than the 5-foot-10 attacker as the woman had first described. She also testified against him at trial. 
Meanwhile, her husband couldn't identify him from that lineup. Also blood tests based on evidence at the crime scene (including the cigarette) failed to link him.

His first trial ended in a hung jury; the following year following trial number two he was found guilty and charged with 20 to 50 years in prison. His release stemmed from the participation of the Innocence Project.

Junior Testified Against Mob Wives Star Big Ang's Cousin

"Renee thinks we're gangsters, we're girls... "Big Ang
"Big Ang" Raiola.

REVISED SLIGHTLY: Most blogs probably picked up on the idiotic "Ratalie" headline and missed the larger point, in our opinion.

Big Ang is back!
We were concerned last year. As we noted in our end-of-season wrap up, it seemed like all Angela "Big Ang" Raiola did was react...


"Poor, poor Big Ang. We really like her a lot, we respect her. She was the rasping voice of reason on the show. She was practically clipped this season. All she got to do was react--react to Renee and react to Natalie and react to Alicia... "
Well, Big Ang was back last night, deftly complicating the plot of the show and offering us a shot of bourbon to wash down all the frothy milk we've been getting from Renee Graziano and Karen Gravano.

Thanks to Big Ang reminding us, we actually do see a legit reason for those two to have bonded. They certainly have something in common. It's not only "fathers," as they both wished. Now it suddenly makes sense why Victoria Gotti decided to do the show as well... it wasn't to say what she said in the last episode in December; it was to say what she said last night.

Jennifer Graziano, or whoever runs this show, is quite brilliant, actually. But you need to be able to read between the lines to appreciate this.
"Ronnie Petrino"


The big news from last night's episode of "Mob Wives" is that Big Ang is the cousin of "Ronnie," aka Ronnie Petrino, aka Luigi Grasso.

We know there's a time lag between filming and airing, but last night Big Ang was saying she'd just found out that "Junior" was the informant in the James Donovan murder case.

Hector "Junior" Pagan, a well-known gangland character who appeared on "Mob Wives" during the 2010 and 2011 seasons, was in fact the star witness against Grasso and Richard Riccardi. Both were convicted for the murder of James Donovan, whom Pagan himself had shot.

Riccardi and Grasso were sentenced to more than 35 years in prison each.

Pagan basically helped put away his cohorts for murder, when the original plan was for a heist. It only became a murder case because of a decision Pagan made during the Gravesend heist, which netted the trio $50,000 apiece.

Big Ang adroitly kept details to a minimum.She described the heist/murder as a "robbery that went wrong. An innocent bystander was killed."
While Donovan is not, strictly speaking, an innocent bystander, Big And was correct to describe him as such. She certainly summed the situation up correctly when she said: "Junior was the shooter and my cousin is facing life."
Only she doesn't yet know: he got life -- or close to it, 36 years.
Then, she added: "Renee medicates herself to forget what Junior did."

Renee certainly sees and hears things selectively.

Our favorite line goes to Drita D'Avanzo: "The only thing I have seen [of Natalie] is her ability to verbally wreck you."

London's comment about "playdates" was a close second....

This show suddenly got even more interesting...

Vinny Gorgeous, Dom Cicale Back in News About "Nose" Murder Plot

Vinny B, left, Dom Cicale.
NOTE: See first comment below, with Mancuso's response in his own handwriting....

We'd be remiss not to mention that our friend and coauthor Dominick Cicale called us today and told us to check out Gangland News (immediately!) wherein we read the following:

The judge also granted Basciano's motion to add a charge of prosecutorial misconduct to his petition for a new trial. Vinny Gorgeous claims prosecutors elicited false testimony from turncoat capo Dominick Cicale about a Bonanno family plot to murder Michael (Mikey Nose) Mancuso, who succeeded Basciano as acting boss and who is currently viewed as the eventual boss when he is released from prison in 2019.

Anyway, he told us he has an interesting story for us... We will be writing more about this.

We touch on a plot to murder Mikey "Nose" Mancuso in our book, Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire, on sale today, $4.99 in Kindle ebook format, $6.99 print. Click here for more information....

The Most Famous Mobster You Never Heard Of

Nicola "Nick" Gentile
Nicola "Nick" Gentile was a Sicilian-born Mafioso who spent decades of his life traveling across the United States witnessing key events that occurred during the formative years of the American Mafia.

He personally knew many of the players who established America's Cosa Nostra.
Gentle, born in 1884 in southern Sicily, arrived in the U.S. in 1903 at the age 19. He was associated with the Black Hand during the early 20th century, the infamous Italian crime ring known for extorting mostly fellow Italian immigrants.

Gentile went on to serve as a confidant, a kind of consiglieri-at-large to the U.S. Mafia throughout the early 20th century up until the Castellammarese War and the 1931 formation of New York's Five Families.



He was a troubleshooter, negotiator, messenger and mediator, and supposedly was a member of what later became the Gambino Family.

He mediated a dispute between the Morello "first crime family" and then-boss of bosses Salvatore D'Aquila in the 1920s. He also cooled down rising tensions stemming from ongoing disputes between mobsters in Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City.


Gentile held temporary leadership roles in the Kansas City, Cleveland and Pittsburgh Mafia families and spent most of his time in those cities. Among his trusted associates for a time were Pittsburgh bosses Gregorio Conti and John Bazzano, and Cleveland's Joe Lonardo and Frank "Ciccio" Milano.

Gentile, a high-profile figure in the underworld during his heyday, was also the target of several hit attempts.
One of his more dramatic close calls occurred when he was called to the Chicago self-coronation of Salvatore Maranzano following the murder of Joe "The Boss" Masseria. Pittsburgh Mafia boss Giuseppe Siragusa had made accusations against Gentile, so he was supposed to participate in a sort of underworld trial that could have concluded with his execution. But first, Gentile met with host Al Capone to deny the charges and threaten to behead anyone who didn't believe him. 
Capone, impressed by Gentile's courage, sided with Nicola, who carried the day probably thanks to Scarface's support.
In 1937, he fled back to his homeland after he'd been arrested for heroin trafficking and then released on $15,000 bail. He assumed a top post in the Sicilian Cosa Nostra and was called "Zu Cola," or Uncle Cola.

After World War II, when Charlie "Lucky" Luciano was deported to Italy, U.S. narcotics enforcement agents believed Gentile joined him to put together a massive drug smuggling operation that reportedly extended to the U.S. (Such an operation was put in place, but most likely Luciano and Gentile had nothing to do with it.)

Later on in in the twilight of his criminal career, Gentile wrote about his Mafia experiences. American agents in Italy obtained a draft and turned it over to the FBI.

In the early 1960s, Gentile rewrote his manuscript with assistance from a journalist, who helped him revise and expand the work. It was released as "Vita di Capomafia." The book hit stores in Italy in 1963, the same year Joe Valachi appeared before the American public to expose the American Mafia. (In fact, it's alleged that Gentile's information was used by U.S. law enforcement officials to corroborate the truthfulness of Valachi's testimony.)
Ultimately, the Sicilian Cosa Nostra issued Gentile's death sentence for authoring the book. However, the men who were given the order, for whatever reason, didn't carry the hit out. Gentile died of old age in 1970. His passing went largely unnoticed by the American press but Gentile lives on as a reference for such mob scholars as John Dickie and C. Alex Hortis.

An English-language version of the book is unavailable.


If anyone out there has a copy, I'd very much like to read it...

Half Wits Write Pro-Renee Mob Wives Blog

Renee Graziano, courtesy of Instagram.
(She lost a lot of weight!)
While doing research, I caught a few "news" headlines that invited scrutiny. 
I honestly still wonder what the world's coming to.... 
Every single one of the stories was from the blog I have previously mentioned, which I am now certain is written and not edited by half wits so obviously biased about the VH1 reality show "Mob Wives" that it's ridiculous. 




Here is a few passages I left verbatim from one story.

Fans on Twitter are calling Mob Wives reality star a rat for calling the police after her boyfriend was stabbed in a Brooklyn night club. 

Reality star Natalie Guercio has thrown the word rat around a lot this season, and now it looks like she may actually be the cop caller of the group....

While the duo {Natalie and London] may have found the suspect, fans are now calling Guercio a snitch and a cop caller, and they are also blamming her for Rene's stabbing.

Guercio made a statement backing up her decision to call the police assuring people that she's not a snitch, but it looks like some people think differently.

Yes, the last segment actually says that... I will repeat: Guercio made a statement backing up her decision to call the police assuring people that she's not a snitch, but it looks like some people think differently.

By now, it is widely known that Natalie Guercio's boyfriend, London Rene, was slashed across his face, torso and arm (the wounds required more than 200 stitches) by Rudolph "Rudy" Lopez, whose charges have been upgraded to attempted murder, according to Guercio.
The stabbing  took place at Club Output (which somehow outlaws the taking of photographs, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where mob bosses Carlo Gambino and Vito Genovese once recruited members).
Now, I will be blunt here (and if you don't like "Mob Wives," you might want to stop reading instead of grumbling in the comments; I wasn't going to post anything tonight). 
You have to be some kind of moron to think that calling the police when someone is critically wounded by a knife-wielding sociopath is the equivalent of ratting someone out. You also have to be a moron if you appear to condone and/or support this kind of irrational behaviour.
London's wounds were life threatening so I suppose Natalie should've just stood there and watched a man she loves bleed out so some fans of a reality show ("on Bravo," as the blog written by halfwits says) won't go tweeting nonsense about her being a rat.
This simply shows one of the dangers of possessing a kind of mentality that I sought to point out in my previous comments to someone asking me how I could not despise Mafia turncoats. 
To those who ask me that question, here is my answer, or the "bottom line" part, to spare the space:
[U]nless you're benefiting in some way from organized crime why would you applaud its efforts? Do you despise the notion of "betrayal"? OK, then go kill everyone in your life who betrayed you.... Or just beat them up... or give them a nasty pinch.... Most of us have been betrayed by lots of people -- could be over something small or something major,... Or if you're a guy who lives vicariously through the "exciting" lives of gangsters then maybe you should ponder your personal values.

One of the stories on the blog of half-wits has a headline that reads:
Renee Graziano Throwing Shade At Natalie On Twitter & Replaces Her With New Cast Mate
WTF does it mean to "throw a shade?" Am I missing something here? Is there a different way to read the word "shade?" Honestly, I feel like I might be missing something, some kind of popculture reference....

Or is a shade still:a mixture of a color with black (often generalized as any variety of a color)(shadow), the blocking of sunlighta process used in art and graphic design
Okay, I am over it. But not for long....
Graziano threw a little bit of shade at Guercio in her Twitter post on Tuesday, and things between the sworn enemies could get worse.

Renee's Twitter post, according to the blog, read:
"I'm not in agreement with what happened but a word of advice from the [heart] if you would life people to respect your privacy, lay off social media and stay off TMZ."

It's good not to agree with someone butchering someone else, however, this is not an issue that has anything to do with privacy; this has everything to do with not being a moron....
The reality star still wasn't done. On Thursday Guercio also took to Instagram to share a photo of she and what seems to be the "new Natalie." [They mean Graziano, not Guercio, in that last part.]

That's right, it look like Guercio is being replaced. Graziano and "new Natalie", Natalie Didanato, are traveling to Vegas on Friday for a fun girls getaway.

It didn't seem to be--I assure you, it was Natalie Didonato, who Tweeted that she was related to a former associate of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra crime family, Frankie Flowers. Whether she has anything to do with Andrew DiDonato (see photo below) I hope to find out. 
I've been hearing different things. Andrew does apparently have relatives in Pennsylvania.... I just don't know, I can't get him on the phone....

Salud, Andrew! (Call me back!!!!)

"There's really no telling how Guercio will respond to Graziano's shade..."
She won't give a shit, I'd think. The best way to deal with haters, Natalie, is to ignore them.... don't give them real estate in your thoughts....
And what better way to end this story than with my favorite quote of all....
The season 5 drama of Mob Wives returns next week at 9 p.m. on Bravo!
Go and see it yourself....

"Skinny Joey" Starts New Year Back in the Can

Skinny Joey, back in October 2014.
Philadelphia Mob Boss Joey Merlino is back in prison.

Yesterday, he was supposed to report to a federal detention center in Miami by 2:00 p.m. But not before opening his new restaurant, Merlino's, as the Boca Raton Tribune reported.

He was seen "on a drizzly [late-December] Friday night" darting around the dining area, "greeting diners."

"Merlino hugged. He kissed. He shook hands, laying his hand on a shoulder, leaning in close to talk.





"It went on hour after hour. The restaurant opened this month, built around recipes his mother, Rita, cooked when the man known as “Skinny Joey,” was growing up in Point Breeze, Pa. Would Merlino be willing to share one of them, perhaps for his favorite, crab gravy?

“I went to jail for not telling,” he quipped. “I’m not giving up a recipe. I’m not telling.”



As Philly.com noted: "He's probably the only maître d' in the country who can do a four-month prison stint and still have a job waiting for him when he returns."

Merlino, 52, texted at least one newspaper before turning himself in yesterday:

"I'll be in great shape for when I get out on Cinco de Mayo,"

Merlino will be eating prison grub for four months while on what some call his "winter vacation."

A federal judge sided with prosecutors back in October, who said that Merlino had violated his parole by associating with a fellow convict in Florida.

Merlino was out on supervised release after spending a decade in prison.

Merlino was convicted of racketeering in 2001 and sentenced to 14 years in prison. He was released in 2011 after serving about 12 years following his 1999 arrest and has been living in South Florida.

As we previously noted, last October Merlino was sentenced to four months in jail following several hours of testimony and debate during a probation violation hearing.

The convicted Mafioso's period of "supervised release" will be over once he's out, so for the first time in a long time he will be free to meet and associate with whomever he chooses, wherever he chooses.
Meeting with three friends for dinner and a cigar was the cause of all his trouble in the first place.

At the same time, it's not all blue skies for Skinny Joey, who remains a person of interest--the focus of an ongoing investigation by a South Florida organized crime task force, which has kept Merlino squarely in its sights since he moved there.

Although the reasons for the investigation have been kept under wraps, during the hearing a Broward County detective testified that Merlino had shown up in certain surveillance activities, though a prosecution objection allowed the detective to not answer a question regarding what was under investigation.

In May, Merlino invoked his right against self incrimination when questioned at length by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Troyer about his finances. 
Skinny Joey is living it up in the lap of luxury down in Boca, but how is that possible?


"He reports almost nothing.... a paltry sum," one prosecutor said during the hearing.

Merlino remained silent during the hearing.

The four-month sentence was the culmination of a filing in Philadelphia federal court in early September after authorities in Broward County, Fla., conducted surveillance on a June 18 dinner at which Merlino joined a trio that included Philadelphia mobster John "Johnny Chang" Ciancaglini for dinner at an Italian restaurant in Boca Raton. The foursome later departed for drinks at the Havana Nights Cigar Bar & Lounge, which one of the group owned.

The terms of his probation prohibited Merlino from associating with convicted felons or Cosa Nostra members.

Merlino was said to have sworn off the mob before moving to South Florida after his release from federal prison around three years ago.

As reported, "Johnny Chang" and Steve Mazzone are reportedly running the Philadelphia family for Skinny Joey. Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi has reportedly stepped out of the limelight to serve as the family's lowkey consiglieri.

Highly Inflammatory Op-Ed Compares the Mafia to Islam

Benny Eggs was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross
and an Air Medal with four Oak Leaf clusters and three Battle Stars.
Recently, I came across an article about the Mafia that is so inflammatory, I initially decided not to even write about it. But there is free speech in this country...

I write this blog to examine all mob-related topics and news that pique my interest , so I realized that I have no reason not to shine my spotlight here.

Now, I find myself for the first time in the position of defending Cosa Nostra.




I disagree passionately with this article. It sounds an alarm that resonates far beyond earshot of its intended niche audience. (It is an opinion piece published by the Jewish Voice.).

Need I remind the writer of the piece that the Mafia is an ongoing criminal enterprise; its goal is reaping the profits spun from ill-gotten gains; murder, torture, violence, however and whenever committed is with a criminal purpose. All the players know the rules of the game when they sign on.

The Mafia does not try to spread its ideology because it has no ideology. On its most basic level, it is a secret society believed to have started centuries ago among the lemon groves of Sicily. The Mafia's roots do not extend back to the days when Arabs dominated the island. (Here we speak of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra only; other groups on the mainland such as the Ndrangheta have their own history, yet the article makes no distinction. "Mafia" refers to several organized crime rings begun in Italy.)

It is the irrevocable mirror image of capitalism itself, and the shadow that covers the underworld also covers many a captain of industry of this nation's present and past, from the prototypical robber baron to the corrupt CEO and financier.

I disagree that the article even refer to mainstream Islam as purported; rather, it invites the reader to compare the Mafia with Terrorism, an exercise that helps nobody. It downplays terrorism, if anything.

(My personal belief is that terrorists need to be made extinct, period, end of sentence. Nothing about it is of even remote interest to me personally. Just wipe them out. All of them. End of game...)





The Mafia, in America and Canada, does not kill innocent women and children.

The Sicilian and Italian Mafia groups, which hold various names, have committed extreme acts of violence and murder when challenged, overstepping boundaries that the North American Mafiosi would never cross. But it has to do with money and protection from law enforcement. Again, indulging in this kind of rhetoric is not helpful to anybody.

I don't care what "HBO personality Bill Maher" said. He was wrong when he proclaimed from his bullypit: Islam is "the only religion that acts like the mafia, that will f***ing kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book."

Comparing terrorists and mobsters shows a lack of perception, at best. At worst, it's an attempt to use the Mafia to sensationalize.

This was picked up from the end of an article titled Ten Ways the Mafia and Islam are Similar; it is part three of a series.

I did not write this and I don't claim to hold similar views. I am offering a diverse opinion to make known what is being said by The Jewish Voice (and I welcome any and all comments below).

"The mafia rationalizes its collection of "protection money" by portraying it as money that buys mafia protection against "outsiders"—when, as mentioned, the money/tribute serves only to protect the client from the mafia itself—so too do Islam's apologists portray the collection of jizya as money meant to buy Muslim protection from outsiders, when in fact the money/jizya buys protection from Muslims themselves. 

Conclusion: Mafia—What's In a Word? 

What accounts for all these similarities between Islam and the mafia? One clue is found in the fact that the very word "mafia," which means "hostility to the law, boldness," is derived from an Arabic word, mahya, which in translation means "bragging, boasting, bravado, and swaggering." 

This etymology is a reminder that Sicily, birthplace of the mafia, was under Arab/Islamic domination for over 200 years. Aside from a borrowed etymology, could some of the mafia's modus operandi also have been borrowed from Islam? Isolated on their island, could native Sicilians have co-opted the techniques of social controls that they had lived under and learned from their former overlords—albeit without their Islamic veneer? 

The mafia is not the only historical example of a non-Muslim criminal organization to be influenced by Islam. For example, the Thuggees — whence we get the word "thug" — were a brotherhood of allied bandits and assassins who waylaid and savagely murdered travelers in India, often by first feigning friendship. Although they were later associated with the Hindu cult of Kali, the original Thuggees were all Muslim. As late as the 19th century, a large number of Thuggees captured and convicted by the British were Muslim. 

The similarities are clear: Along with assassinating his opponents, including, as seen, through treachery, Muhammad also personally engaged in banditry, ransacking the caravans of enemy tribes. 

And if the words "mafia" and "thug" have Arabic/Islamic etymologies, the words "assassinate" and "assassin" are derived from a Medieval Islamic sect: the Hashashin, who pioneered the use of political assassination—with promises of a hedonistic paradise for the assassin who almost certainly died—in the name of Islam. 

At any rate, when HBO personality Bill Maher recently proclaimed that Islam is "the only religion that acts like the mafia, that will f***ing kill you if you say the wrong thing, draw the wrong picture, or write the wrong book," he was barely touching on the similarities between the mafia and other criminal organizations, and Islam."

Mob Wives Hottie Natalie Sees the Frame; Gravano's "Breakdown"

We have written that Karen Gravano departed her Arizona home, hopped on a plane (leaving behind her husband and children, as she herself admitted during what we can only call a "dramatic breakdown" during the last episode of "Mob Wives") and flew cross country to New York so she could defend and/or support and/or whatever her good friend Renee in the face of a vicious tweet Natalie posted.

As I have learned this past week, Karen Gravano did not come to New York to defend Renee because Natalie posted a nasty Tweet. Natalie never even posted the nasty tweet in the first place. In fact, Karen had been bashing Natalie and others on Twitter long before anyone else, and Natalie was simply defending herself and friend Alicia DiMichele.




As noted on one of our new favorite blogs, Reality Ashhole: "I remember when Karen attacked them first. She was bitter about being fired and she went after the new girls. I don't know why Karen can't just be honest about starting this drama herself."

But then we have to wonder, since when were Karen and Renee best friends in the first place? Karen was indeed very bitter about getting fired and attacked a lot of people, including Renee.

A headline and a few tweets from another one of my favorite blogs: Karen Gravano Calls Renee Graziano A Coward - The Real Housewives | News. Dirt. Gossip.: "Yesterday, Renee tweeted “b clear my sis put it on the line 4 u girls!! SHE FED US ALL U were GREEDY n now unemployed be angry at urself NOT HER #bossbloodline.” She then oddly added how her love for Karen Gravano is unconditional. Karen Gravano has since responded to Renee via twitter insinuating that she is a coward "


Come to think of it, it was Gravano herself who started off the whole New Blood season, giving the show additional exposure (and us one of our top 10 most-read blog posts in the process; see previous link).

Reader, I once swore to myself that I would never write a story based on a tweet or any other form of social media whatsoever. But as shown in a previous story, I have since changed my tune. Some of these tweets are valuable from a journalistic viewpoint; therefore, we now view as indispensable the various blogs that have preserved these tweets. As we know, tweets can be deleted, especially when they offer what we can only call "inconvenient truths."

One tweet Natalie posted caught our attention:


Some other tweets we read about but couldn't find had to do with a "setup" and breaking confidentiality clauses, never a good idea, Natalie. The outfits behind some of these reality shows are worse than the mob...

But as we noted, it is pretty clear what is going on this season: punish Natalie Guercio because she helped make the novelist (Renee, I refer to) look foolish. (Yes, we know it is a reality show, but the fact is, reality show or not, nobody ever wants to look bad , except for fools who don't even know when they look bad....)

Renee certainly doesn't need much help on the making-oneself-look-foolish front.

Take Renee at her own words:



Piece of advice for Renee: it helps if you don't write on social media while drunk and stoned...

Natalie (we don't bother to make the distinction as to which Natalie we refer to; when we refer to the other one, you will know), we see the frame up happening....


ALSO SEE: Cosa Nostra News: UPDATED: Mob Wives Season Five: Reality Check

Cosa Nostra News: Philly Mob Boss Allegedly Whacked Cousin of New Mob Wife

Philly Mob Boss Allegedly Whacked Cousin of New Mob Wife

Natalie DiDonato
Philadelphia's Natalie Guercio will soon be joined by Philadelphia's Natalie DiDonato on the VH1 reality show Mob Wives.

We don't know when the new Natalie will appear but she's rolled out her social media accounts and has been stomping on Natalie Guercio's guts.... and deleting at least one earlier tweet that noted a family connection, specifically that "Frankie Flowers" was her cousin.

Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi allegedly "made his bones" by killing DiDonato's cousin -- assuming Frank "Frankie Flowers" D'Alfonso is her cousin.




Ligambi, former Philly mob boss, now consiglieri, was convicted of murdering "Frankie Flowers," who was a wealthy, longtime associate of the Philadelphia crime family under Angelo Bruno; he was whacked in the mid-1980s by the murderous Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo regime.

As for Ligambi, after serving 10 years for the murder, he was acquitted following a retrial.

Natalie Didonato, when asked on Twitter about her mob creds, threw out the "Frankie Flowers" name as the ladies at M.O.B.Wives caught for posterity:



You see, those tweets are now gone. (We spent what felt like hours reading through Natalie D's Twitter feed and those tweets, posted on Nov. 29, as plainly visible above, are gone.)
Frankie Flowers is probably not one of Ligambi's favorite topics these days. As we noted in an earlier story, the Feds would love to nail him for as many as three gangland hits. And when it comes to organized crime cases, publicity can make one a target (ask John Gotti's inner circle) and there seems to be no such thing as "double jeopardy."

Lovely Facebook selfie of Natalie D.
A couple of our Philly sources talked to us about "Frankie Flowers" D'Alfonso and the common denominator brought up by both was "Uncle Joe" Ligambi. As one source said: "Frankie Flowers was a longtime associate under [Angelo] Bruno. What I heard is that he wasn't kicking up so Scarfo gave the order. Uncle Joe did the work."



Ligambi was convicted of the 1985 slaying of "Frankie Flowers" and spent 10 years in prison before he was acquitted following a 1997 retrial.

In an interesting profile of Uncle Joe, George Anastasia wrote on Philly.com in May 2011:

"Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi is a former bartender and suspected hit man who allegedly took control of the Philadelphia mob a decade ago... He was... part of the Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo crime family, having been formally initiated - "made" - after the slaying of Frank "Frankie Flowers" D'Alfonso back in July 1985. But he was never considered part of Scarfo's inner circle and never part of the mob hierarchy. In fact, before he was arrested in the D'Alfonso case, few outside of the South Philadelphia underworld had ever heard of him. His reign as reputed mob boss, however, is the longest since that of Angelo Bruno, the avuncular Mafia don who ran the family from 1959 until his murder in 1980."


WHO WAS FRANKIE FLOWERS?He was a longtime, low-key Bruno family associate who, it's been reported, never killed anyone.

He was convicted of bookmaking and served a little time for failing to testify. He supposedly tried to use some muscle to gain control of a union in Atlantic City. He may have earned some money off the drug trade, but that was about all law enforcement knew of him when, at the age of 55, he was whacked on a South Philadelphia Street corner in 1985. He was not a "made member" of Philly's Cosa Nostra.

D'Alfonso earned his nickname because he operated a flower shop, which was often under police surveillance. High-ranking mobsters from Philly, New York, New England and other cities were known to have gone there on occasion.

For a low-key guy, Frank Flowers earned quite a bit of trouble for himself. One night in October 1981, he was nearly beaten to death on the South Philadelphia streets. Despite a busted skull and jaw, fractured eye sockets and a shattered kneecap, he survived.

But still, Frankie Flowers manned up when police questioned him about his near-death experience. "I was hit by a car," he told them from his hospital stretcher.

D'Alfonso's death was said to be part of the shakeout that hit the Philly streets in the wake of the Bruno hit (the "Docile Don" who counted mob boss Carlo Gambino as one of his good friends was shotgunned in a car seated beside John Stanfa. See story.)

Next  we consider: Natalie DiDonato -- Andrew DiDonato.... Is another mob connection there?

Preferably one that doesn't have the potential to piss off a former acting boss?