January 25, 2021 – The boss of the Gangster Disciples in Alabama is going away for 40 years of fed time. Shauntay (Shake & Bake) Craig was nailed in a sweeping 2016 drug, racketeering and murder case targeting GD activity in the south, specifically, Atlanta, Memphis and Birmingham. Authorities point the finger at him for
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January 25, 2021 – It was way more than just Death Row Records. From behind bars, L.A. drug kingpin Michael (Harry O) Harris, was wheeling and dealing in the music industry, making deals for himself, his label and his wife with major record companies through most of the 1990s, according to DEA records. The scope
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January 23, 2021 – Before he funded the birth of Death Row Records, former L.A. drug lord Michael (Harry O) Harris provided the seed money for Houston hip-hop impresario James (Lil’ J) Prince to start the groundbreaking Rap-A-Lot Records that went on to launch the Southern Rap sound, per DEA informants and exclusive GR sources.
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January 22, 2021 – Colombo crime family capo Dominic (Donnie Shacks) Montemarano, a Brooklyn transplant living in Southern California the past 25 years, died recently of the COVID-19 virus. Gangland News was the first outlet to report on Donnie Shacks’ passing. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Donnie Shacks Montemarano was moving and shaking
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The murder of a revenge-minded girlfriend was the beginning of the end for the legendary “Little Melvin” Williams drug empire in West Baltimore and was used as a storyline in the first season of the HBO television show The Wire, based on a fictionalization of the Williams organization. On the night of July 21, 1983,
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January 21, 2021 — No more false starts. On Wednesday, as U.S. President Donald Trump left office, he freed infamous West Coast crime boss Michael (Harry O) Harris in a last-minute pardon spree. A prior sentence reduction got derailed at the eleventh hour. “Harry O” ran a giant cocaine ring in Los Angeles in the
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January 20, 2021 – HBO’s critically acclaimed cop drama, The Wire, was inspired by the Baltimore Police Department’s quest to dismantle the “Little Melvin” Williams drug empire on the city’s Westside in the 1990s as seen firsthand by newspaper crime reporter turned Hollywood scribe David Simon. Premiering in 2002, the setting of the show was
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January 19, 2021 – Baltimore anti-violence activist Dante (Tater) Barksdale, a former member of the city’s notorious West Baltimore drug empire chronicled in the acclaimed HBO television show The Wire turned beloved community leader, was shot to death in the Douglass Homes projects over the weekend. The 46-year old Barksdale has been the face of
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January 16, 2021 – Babyfaced east coast mob aspirant Pete (Peter Pan) Tuccio took a beating for disrespecting a Bonanno crime family crew in an angry text message exchange with crew members in 2015, around the same time he was torching an extortion victim’s vehicle on behalf of a dying Gambino crime family captain, according
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New York’s Gambino crime family kept a crew in Baltimore for many years. Longtime Gambino mob consigliere Joe N. Gallo was in charge of the organization’s affairs in Maryland from the 1950s into the 1980s. The Corbis, Louie Morici, Benjamin (Benny Trotta) Magliano and Thomas (“Red the Wop” Jenkins) Aversa ran the show in B-More
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January 15, 2021 – Rappers Chief Keef and YBN Almighty Jay engaged in a minor tiff last week in an on-line video-game (GTA V) forum over the memory of slain Gangster Disciple Shondale (Tooka) Gregory, gunned down in Chicago ten years ago this week. The YBN crew, which started as a gaming crew and then
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January 14, 2021 – Lil’ Meech is playing his pops and Avon Barksdale is on board, too. Starz announced this week that Demetrius (Lil’ Meech) Flenory, Jr. will play his father, storied drug kingpin Demetrius (Big Meech) Flenory, in the upcoming Black Mafia Family television show and Wood Harris, famous for playing fictional Baltimore drug
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January 13, 2021 – Buffalo mob associate and con man Joe Bella was busted for pandemic profiteering by selling fraudulent COVID-19 test kits at the peak of last year’s Coronavirus lockdown. The Buffalo News first reported on the details of Bella’s case Tuesday. Bella, 48, is connected to recently deceased Buffalo mafia capo Frank (Butchie
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January 13, 2021 – Young, ambitious New York and Philadelphia mob associate Pete (Peter Pan) Tuccio took a plea deal this week and will do 10 years in federal prison for extortion. The 28-year old Tuccio is connected to the Lucchese and Gambino crime families in New York and close to Bruno-Scarfo crime family boss
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January 12, 2021 – The dramatic rise and fall of historic Latin Kings boss Rudy (King Kato) Rangel is still on peoples minds almost two decades later. Particularly, the feds and specifically Rangel’s fall, as in his June 4, 2003 slaying at the Nationwide Cutz barber shop in Chicago located in a converted trailer near
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January 11, 2021 – One-time Chicago street gang section boss Sam (Sammy O) Armstead had five years shaved off his federal prison term for drugs and racketeering via a motion for sentence reduction and will now be home in 2023, not 2028. The 53-year old Armstead ran the Westside of Chicago for the feared Gangster
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January 10, 2021 – Members of the Cleveland Browns were probed for point shaving by the NFL and FBI in the 1980s for their connection to Cleveland crime lord Frank (The Black Godfather) Sumpter, per DEA documents and Sumpter’s FBI file. No charges were ever brought, however, a number of players, battled substance abuse issues
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January 10, 2021 – Chicago mob-connected bookmaker Greg Paloian pleaded guilty to federal gambling charges this week. Paloian was busted for bookmaking back in the fall. He’s been running an Outfit-backed sports gambling operation in Melrose Park and Elmwood Park since 2015 and faces three years in prison at his sentencing hearing in April. The
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January 9, 2021 – Hall of Fame MLB manager Tommy Lasorda, colorful as he was wide, was linked to Los Angeles mob figure Joe De Carlo, a former member of the old Mickey Cohen Gang of the 1940s and 50s. The friendship was revealed in a 1986 Sports Illustrated article on gambling in pro sports.
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January 7, 2021 – Tampa Goodfella Salvatore (Big Sam) Carollo died recently of natural causes in Florida. Before he passed, the retired 83-year old Carollo was one of the last button men left in the dormant Trafficante crime family. The Tampa mob hasn’t been anything resembling a force since the 1980s and the final days
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January 6, 2021 – Former Detroit drug chief and pro boxer Darrell Chambers walks free this week after 25 years in federal prison for narcotics distribution in the Kronk Boxing cocaine case. Chambers, 60, benefited from a sentence reduction for being a non-violent offender. His original sentence amounted to life in prison without parole for
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The Hawaiian underworld of the 1960s and 1970s was particularly brutal, seeing the creation of The Company, a Pan-Asian and Polynesian crime syndicate that controlled state’s gambling, prostitution, loansharking and narcotics trades during the era. The Company left many bodies in its wake, but pretty much died out by the beginning of the 1980s. Their
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January 2, 2021 – New York mobster Joseph (Little Joe) Perna implicated indicted Philadelphia mob figure Domenic (Baby Dom) Grande in two murder conspiracies in a conversation with Lucchese crime family turncoat John Pennisi according to Pennisi’s new Sitdownnews.com blog. Grande, 41, is out on bail awaiting trial on racketeering and drug charges spawning from
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December 31, 2020 — Tim Matouk finally broke his silence on his cousin JoAnn Matouk Romain’s suspicious death more than a decade ago in a recent Zoom video chat he did with Unsolved Mysteries. Those who were closest to Matouk Romain aren’t buying in. The 63-year old Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office Investigator provided a 20-minute
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December 31, 2020 – According to federal prosecutors in New York, the city’s top construction labor boss John Cahill, bragged of his connections to the city’s Italian and Irish mobs, even boasting of being the city’s last remaining “Westie,” on a March 2020 FBI wire. The revelation came this week in a court filing made
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December 30, 2020 – Black Mafia Family boss Demetrius (Big Meech) Flenory was about to head to Houston for Southern Rap pioneer Bun B’s birthday party when he was taken into custody in Frisco, Texas, just outside of Dallas, on October 21, 2005. The seemingly ubiquitous Big Meech, one of the most storied crime lords
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December 30, 2020 – Always suave Philadelphia mafia underboss Steven (Handsome Stevie) Mazzone is coming home for New Year’s Eve.  Handsome Stevie was granted bail in his federal racketeering case Tuesday after more than a month being held on the charges. He’ll be turning in his jailhouse scrubs for the finely-tailored duds him and his
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December 29, 2020 – Washington D.C. gangland titan Rayful Edmond eliminated a lieutenant-turned-rival in a nightclub parking lot slaying in the summer of 1988. It was at this same exact time that Edmond, the then-23-year old drug lord who owned the District’s crack game, was fraternizing with members of the Georgetown University Hoyas men’s basketball
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December 27, 2020 — Rising Detroit rap star Kash Doll has experience with drug lords. It will serve her well as she embarks on her acting career in her first major role, 50 Cent’s Starz-bound Black Mafia Family television drama, set to begin shooting in Michigan and Georgia in the coming months. Black Mafia Family
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December 27, 2020 – Skinny Joey, Mikey Lance and Baby Dom weren’t the only heavy hitters in the Philadelphia mob to get facetime with New York mafia heavyweight, Patsy Parrello, a powerful Genovese crime family captain who runs the organization’s Bronx faction. It wasn’t a Christmas party invite like the sly Skinny One got, but
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December 24, 2020 – One of New York mafia power Anthony (Gas Pipe) Casso’s men entered the Witness Protection Program in 1992, only to reemerge as a mob associate in the Motor City less than a decade later, per federal records and first-hand accounts. In September 1999, Lucchese mobster Bobby Molini was rechristened “Bobby Sorrento”
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December 22, 2020 – The upcoming Starz scripted-television drama, Black Mafia Family, has begun making casting announcements for hip-hop mogul 50 Cent’s feverishly-anticipated follow-up to the smash-hit Power. The show is scheduled to begin shooting in Michigan and Georgia in 2021. Black Mafia Family tells the true story of the notorious Flenory brothers, who rose
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December 20, 2020 – The storied face-to-face between Hall of Fame Georgetown University basketball coach John Thompson and hoop-happy Washington D.C. drug kingpin Rayful Edmond was a cordial meeting of the minds, not a heated scolding as has been commonly reported for the last thirty-plus years, according to Thompson’s posthumously released autobiography I Came As
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December 19, 2020 – Texas restaurant mogul and NBA owner Tillman Fertitta’s family ran the mafia in Galveston during the first half of the 20th Century. Fertitta, 63, owns the Houston Rockets and is the star of CNBC’s Billion-Dollar Buyer reality television show. His great-great uncles, Sam (The Velvet Glove) Maceo and Rosario (The Iron
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December 16, 2020 – Larger-than-life New York Godfather John Gotti brokered peace for the Patriarca crime family after a mob shooting war erupted in New England more than 30 years ago at a series of meetings held in New York City in late 1989, per FBI informant files. Gotti’s famous right-hand man during his reign
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December 16, 2020 – Esteemed Midwest biker boss James (Big Frank) Wheeler, The Outlaws Motorcycle Club’s International President in the late 1990s and early 2000s, died behind bars last week of natural causes at 78. Wheeler’s era atop the sprawling criminal organization was a time of transition, coming on the heels of the prosperous near
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December 15, 2020 – Alleged Philadelphia mob captain Domenic (Baby Dom) Grande will be home for Christmas after all. The 41-year old Grande was finally granted bail Monday in his drug and racketeering case that dropped last month in the days before Thanksgiving. He’s been behind bars for three weeks. Fox Philly 29 and Mob
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December 13, 2020 – He conquered the coke game in his twenties. Now, he intends on taking over the legal weed game in his fifties. Fresh out of prison on home confinement, Black Mafia Family co-founder Terry (Southwest T) Flenory released his own-branded marijuana flower called “Black Magic” in his home state of Michigan last
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December 12, 2020 – Heralded Detroit drug baron Milton (Butch) Jones, the self-proclaimed “Henry Ford of Heroin,” is seeking a compassionate release from a 30-year federal prison term for racketeering, narcotics-distribution and accessory to murder due to his contracting the Coronavirus behind bars. Jones’ lawyer, renowned criminal defense attorney Harold Gurewitz, filed the motion in
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December 10, 2020 – Reputed Philadelphia mob street boss Michael (Mikey Lance) Lancellotti conducted a 2015 making ceremony held by the Bruno-Scarfo crime family and recorded by turncoat soldier Anthony Persiano, according to the Dean of American mob writing, Jerry Capeci and his Gangland News column this week. Capeci also reported longtime North Jersey mafia
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December 10, 2020 – The feds struck a blow to The Pagan’s Motorcycle Club this week, indicting 30 Pagan’s from the Pittsburgh area on Wednesday in three interrelated cases for largescale narcotics trafficking and firearms offenses. The No. 1 defendant in the bust is the Steel Town USA chapter’s aptly named Sergeant-At-Arms William (Pittsburgh Billy)
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December 9, 2020 – Like many songwriters and recording artists of his era, John Lennon bumped heads with music mogul Morris (Mo) Levy, a New York mob associate and confidant of legendary Genovese crime family boss Vincent (The Chin) Gigante. Levy and the former king Beatle went toe-to-toe in the courtroom multiple times over licensing
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December 8, 2020 – Operation Red October wasn’t to be. The DiFronzo brothers dodged a bullet and remained at the forefront of organized crime in Chicago instead. ABC Channel 7 TV News in Chicago and Chicago mob expert Jack Binder broke the news of the fruitless joint CPD and FBI investigation into the DiFronzo brothers
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December 8, 2020 – The Blue Wave mandate instituted by The Pagan’s Motorcycle Club boss Keith (Conan the Barbarian) Richter has hit Northeastern Pennsylvania. The Pagan’s have opened up shop on two new chapters in the Scranton-Wilkes-Barre area, part of the east coast expansion effort dubbed the “Blue Wave Initiative,” when he enacted it three
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December 7, 2020 – Retired Chicago mob chief Peter (Greedy Petey) DiFronzo died of complications resulting from the Coronavirus late last week at 87. For decades, DiFronzo operated day-to-day affairs for the Elmwood Park crew and was his brother, Chicago Outfit boss, John (Johnny No Nose) DiFronzo’s top lieutenant. He did nine years in federal
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November 30, 2020 – The Buckeye State has lost a boss. Gary (Rambo) Hohn, a former leader of The Outlaws Motorcycle Club in Ohio, died of natural causes this fall. The 71-year old Hohn ran the Dayton chapter of the Outlaws MC in the late 1990s and early 2000s. He passed away surrounded by friends
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November 28, 2020 – A detention memo filed by the U.S. Attorneys Office in eastern Pennsylvania on Friday details the taping of a mob making ceremony in Philadelphia and includes transcripts of defendants Steven (Handsome Stevie) Mazzone and Domenic (Baby Dom) Grande talking crime. News of the bombshell memo was first reported by Mob Talk
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November 25, 2020 – Slain Philadelphia mafia figure Dominick (Mickey Diamond) DeVito was found hog-tied and shot to death in the trunk of Kenny Arabia’s Caddy almost 40 years ago. Arabia was DeVito’s nephew and driver. DeVito had been driving Arabia’s silver-colored Cadillac Seville the night he went missing in 1982. Displaying a keen gangland
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November 24, 2020 – The house of cards that is the Philadelphia mafia had its shaky foundation hit with a sledgehammer Monday morning with the indictment of 15 leaders, members and associates of the Bruno-Scarfo crime family on federal drug, gambling and extortion charges. Alleged Philly mob underboss Steven (Handsome Stevie) Mazzone and rising-star capo
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November 23, 2020 – Montreal underworld figure Shane (Wheels) Maloney was granted a full parole this week after serving eight years for drug and firearms offenses. The 43-year old wheelchair-bound Irish wiseguy says he will be moving to British Columbia. Wheels Maloney was a leader of Montreal’s Irish mob, known locally as The West End
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