Tag Archives: italian mafia

Mafia boss found working as pizza boss after 16 years on the run

By Barbie Nadeau, CNN

Updated 11:44 PM ET, Fri February 3, 2023

Rome (CNN)Italian anti-Mafia police have arrested another mobster on the run, just two weeks after the sensational arrest on January 16 of Sicilian Cosa Nostra superboss Matteo Messina Denaro at a health clinic in Palermo, Sicily.

This time it was Edgardo Greco, 63, who was apprehended in Saint-Etienne, France, where he was working under the alias Paolo Dimitrio as a pizzaiolo — or pizza chef — at the Caffe Rossini Italian restaurant.

Greco, associated with the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta, was convicted in absentia in 1991 for the double homicide of brothers Stefano and Giuseppe Bartolomeo, who he is alleged to have killed with iron bars before dissolving their bodies in acid, according to court documents. He had evaded Italian law enforcement officials since his conviction.

Described as a “dangerous fugitive” by Nicola Gratteri, the anti-Mafia prosecutor who led the investigation as head of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Catanzaro, Calabria, Greco was also convicted of the attempted murder of several prison officials, earning him the nickname “prison killer.”

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Luigi Ronsisvalle was the Forrest Gump of the mafia—in the middle of everything

During his two decades as Brooklyn’s top mob-busting homicide prosecutor, Michael Vecchione dealt with all manner of wiseguys, but none was less impressive than Luigi the Zip.

Short, overweight, disheveled and speaking in broken English, Sicilian import Luigi Ronsisvalle — dubbed “the human bowling ball” by Vecchione for being as wide as he was tall — embodied his Zip moniker, a slur American gangsters used for their overseas brethren, whom they regarded as backwater yokels. No one, it seemed, took Luigi seriously.

“He was just a schlub,” says Vecchione of the focus of his new book, “Homicide Is My Business” (Camino Books), out now.

“He was never sharp in the way he dressed. He was never able to carry on conversations. He was just a guy who knew how to do what they wanted him to do, which was kill people.”

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Pointing to reduced sentences of 2 killers, Staten Island mob graveyard defendant asks for early release

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Despite two previous attempts for a compassionate release that were shot down by a federal judge — including one earlier this year — a former mobster who committed two heinous murders more than 30 years ago is trying his luck again with a new petition.

Back in July, Judge Margo K. Brodie denied Vincent Giattino’s request for a compassionate release, citing he “committed two heinous murders using guns equipped with silencers and trafficked narcotics as a devout member of BCF (Bonanno Crime Family).”

The nature and seriousness of Giattino’s crimes “support his continued detention,” Brodie previously stated.

This time, attorney Anthony Cecutti, is hoping two recent decisions will help in Giattino’s situation.

The life sentences for Anthony Russo and Paul Moore, who were both convicted of murders and other violent crimes after trial and sentenced to life imprisonment, were reduced to 35 years. “We respectfully request that this court do the same and reduce Mr. Giattino’s life sentence to 35 years,” he asked in a Nov. 26 filing in Brooklyn federal court.

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All 19 Ways The New York Mafia Makes Money | How Crime Works

Former New York Mafia made member John Pennisi speaks to Insider about all the ways the mob make their money. John Pennisi was born and raised in an Italian New York neighborhood where the mob had huge influence. He became a made member of the Lucchese crime family in 2013. Pennisi says he decided to leave the mob in 2018 after members of his crew falsely accused him of cooperating with law enforcement. Since leaving the mob, Pennisi has been writing blogs on sitdownnews.com and producing a podcast covering topics of organized crime on

For decades a ruthless mafia has ruled in southern Italy. Now the state is fighting back

From the windows of Vittoria Sicari’s top-floor apartment in Vibo Marina, a village on the southern Italian coast, you can see the blue expanse of the Tyrrhenian Sea stretching out to the horizon. It’s a view Vittoria hasn’t seen in 23 years. Back then, she claims, her apartment was stolen.

According to Vittoria, in the late 90s, as she was getting ready to sell the property, a man attended the open house inspection. When he put in an offer, all the other buyers suddenly lost interest. It was the first hint of trouble ahead. But sensing her chance to make a quick sale, she accepted a holding deposit and agreed to hand over a set of keys so he could go inside to measure up.

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