The phrase "going to college" is often used in underworld parlance as a euphemism for "serving a prison sentence." I am using the phrase "attended college" to mean "enrolled in and studied at an institution of higher education."

So far, every entry on this not exhaustive list is the name of an individual who was connected to the American Mafia, e.g. I say "connected to" because the criminal careers of Salvatore Maranzano and Joseph Bonanno predate the emergence of the American Mafia. However, there are men who have both attended college and undergone induction into one of the diverse mobs worldwide and; whose names must be recorded. Hopefully, reader's will help us to augment this record.

Michael Corleone: Fictional Made Man and College Graduate

Aging Vito Corleone, the protagonist of The Godfather, (Reissue edition, December 1995), the Mario Puzo novel, originally published in 1968, Signet, rules his empire with the aid of his four sons. These sons include Santino, i.e. "Sonny," the oldest, hot-tempered, brash and eager; Fredo, inept and weak willed, given minor chores; Michael, the youngest, Ivy League educated, who is torn between family devotion and doubts about his inheritance of violence and power; and Tom Hagen, the Irish-German adopted son. Daughter Connie is married to Carlo, a smalltime hoodlum, whose flagrant womanizing and mistreatment of her is a source of family dissension. Don Vito refuses to join the five families of New York in the narcotics trade, touching off a gang war.

Sonny takes over the family when The Godfather is wounded in an ambush. Michael, who wanted to avoid a life of crime, kills---thereby both avenging his father and making his "bones"--- and escapes to Sicily. There he marries, but his wife is killed when rivals try to assassinate him. Sonny beats up Carlo, the abusive husband of his sister Connie. In retaliation, Carlo arranges Sonny's murder. Heartbroken, Don Vito agrees to join in the drug trade. Michael returns to New York, marries his college sweetheart Kay and promises her he’ll make the family business legitimate. Don Vito "recovers" from the hit attempt and assumes the position of Crime Family consigliere. Michael is installed as the new capo crimini of the Corleone Cosa Nostra Family. Don Vito dies of a stroke. In a grab for power, Michael kills off the heads of the other New York crime families and becomes the new, even more powerful, Godfather.

Despite his ivy league background, social forces and just plain bad luck relegate Michael Corleone to a lifelong underworld career and, make him, arguably, the prototypical "made man who attended college."

SALVATORE “DON TURRIDRU” MARANZANO (1868-1931) - Don Turridru mainly spoke Sicilian. But, he knew several other languages including Latin. which he learned while studying for the priesthood in a seminary in his hometown of Castellammare de Golfo, Sicily. Maybe the achievement of this degree of formal education higher is the factor that caused Maranzano to be a sticker for manners and decorum. According to Joseph Bonanno, Maranzano was as punctilious as an archbishop.

Don Turridru As A Mob Torch Holder

Among gangsters today, and during Don Turridru's time, a mob boss who had attended college is/was as conspicuous as a torch.

Although he mainly spoke Sicilian, Don Turridru knew several other foreign languages. An avid reader and student of political philosophy. Maranzano read The Prince, by Niccolo Machiavelli, and applied its precepts to his underworld intrigue.

Despite the fact that Don Turridru was a mob torch holder, he also is among the most underrated, mob bosses in American organized crime history. Salvatore "Charlie Lucky" Luciano takes credit for many of the things that were at least initiated by Maranzano.

Although he was a very capable mob boss, Salvatore Maranzano, nevertheless, was deceived and destroyed by his rivals. Everybody has a bad day from time-to-time; and, on September 10, 1931, Salvatore Maranzano had a very bad day.

Don Turridru's style of leadership was very ethnocentric. To Maranzano the Sicilian, especially, the Castellammarese, have an ethnic superiority. Don Turridru was an ethnic chauvinist, too, i.e. he had an undue partiality and/or attachment to his own ethnic group and hometown.

In regard to ethnocentrism and chauvinism in organized crime, Don Turridru was not alone. For instance, Meyer Lansky, a criminal mastermind of the twentieth century, and a Maranzano contemporary, was a lifelong Zionist. He was ethnocentric and chauvinist in regard to his Zionism. Charlie Lucky Luciano was an ethnocentric chauvinist, too. But, his expression of these attitudes was tempered by an adherence to the primacy of the profit motive. For better or for worse, Charlie Lucky Luciano was also much more Americanized than Don Turridru.

Fellow immigrants from his hometown of Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, e.g. Joseph Profaci, Stefano Magaddino, Joseph Bonanno, were the core of Don Turridru's supportors in the United States. However, Don Turridru's base of support was broader than just Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily natives. Don Turridru's supporters hailed from other areas of Italy as well. The fact that he was trying to establish a Sicilian Mafia-in-America; and, that his power base was growing, are two of the main reasons Charlie Lucky Luciano conspired to have Don Turridru whacked.

Vito Cascio-Ferro's (1862-1945) Masterplan

Salvatore Maranzano had been sent to the United States by Vito Cascio-Ferro. In the 1920s, Vito Cascio-Ferro was busy exporting select Mafiosi from Sicily to destinations in the U.S. A wave of Mafiosi, washed up on American shores, including Carlo Gambino, Salvatore Maranzano, Joseph Bonanno, Joseph Magliocco and Vincent Mangano.

Some have suggested that Maranzano's purpose in organizing resistance against New York's Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria, was preparation for the arrival of Vito Cascio-Ferro himself. But the Sicilian boss would never make that trip. In 1929, he went on trial---on probably trumped-up charges---just as the Castellammarese War (1930-1931) was breaking out in the U.S. Cascio-Ferro was convicted and imprisoned, dying behind bars.

Don Turridru is as important to the history of organized crime in America for the changes he made as he is for the changes he sought to make, but never implemented.

Necessary Changes Salvatore Maranzano Made to the Italian-American Underworld

Using the Sicilian Mafia as his blueprint, Don Turridru reorganized the New York Italian-American underworld using Roman Legion nomenclature. In each Crime Family, Don Turridru managed to institute a "capo crimini," a "sotto capo," "capiregimes" and "soldati." Don Turridr created the Mafia Commission. Il Capo di Tutti Capi, Don Turridru himself, reigned above it all.

Some of the changes that Don Turridru's assassination prevented him from making

If Don Turridru had lived, the American underworld would be quite different than it is today. Don Turridru would have encouraged the proliferation of a Sicilian Mafia-in-America. It is not clear whether this organization would have been ruled from Sicily or directly in the United States.

Charlie Lucky Luciano Americanized Maranzano's Sicilian blueprint, something Don Turridru was unlikely to hold in high priority. Charlie Lucky Luciano instituted the "consigliere" position. It is debatable whether or not Don Turridru would have been in favor of expediting such an initiative. It will be recalled that after his "recovery" from the hit attempt, Don Vito Corleone, the protagonist of The Godfather, by Mario Puzo (Reissue edition, December 1995), becomes Michael Corleone's consigliere. As the former boss of the Corleone Crime Family and the father of its new boss, Don Vito is snug as a bug in a rug.

Charlie Lucky Luciano instituted Murder Inc., the group of hitmen available to the Syndicate on a full time basis. It was Charlie Lucky Luciano who dissolved Don Turridru's de jure Capo di Tutti Capi position. Today the Capo di Tutti Capi remains in the American Mafia only as a de facto position.

The idea of establishing a Sicilian Mafia-in-America has apparently died along with Salvatore Maranzano. An American Mafia aligned with a multicultural Syndicate has been established instead. The ideal of attaining cultural pluralism in the new world was victorious over the institution of ethnocentric and ethnochauvinist ideologies.

Salvatore Maranzano’s career continues to impact upon the American Mafia in an unrecognized and unintended fashion. It was Don Turridru's erudite nature that made it all possible.

With the death of Don Turridru in 1931, 26-year-old Joseph Bonanno emerged as the new leader of the former Marazano Cosa Nostra Family.

JOSEPH “DON PEPPINO” BONANNO (January 18, 1905---May 11, 2002) -Joseph "Don Peppino" Bonanno is the prototype for Don Vito Corleone, the protagonist of The Godfather, the Mario Puzo (Reissue edition, December 1995) novel. Joseph Bonanno was a Salvatore Maranzano protégé. In his discussion of himself at age 11, Don Peppino says "school was a relief from the sometimes grim atmosphere at home."

Almost age 17, the young Don Peppino says "Nearly a man, time to choose a career. It weighed on me because both my parents were dead and the decision was all mine" Young Don Peppino then decided that he would work toward becoming a sea captain. "The first step to b ecoming a sea captain was to attend the nautical preparatory school in Trapani for 1 year to learn technical subjects."...."After my year in Trapani I was accepted at the JOENI TRABIA NAUTICAL INSTITUTE in Palermo. I was a college man!"..."My college idyll lasted until 1924, my 3rd year." Young Don Peppino refused to wear a fascist black shirt and was suspended for 3 months as a rebel. He was 19.

Joseph Bonanno's consanguineal family, the Bonannos (patrilineal) and the Bonventres (matrilineal) were involved in a feud with another local family/clan when, in 1924, still 19-years-old, he arrived in the United States from Sicily. It was during the height of the Prohibition era and he quickly moved into the booming bootleg liquor industry.

Young Joe Bonanno first met Maranzano while he was accompaning his father on a visit. Using powerful Sicilian Mafia connections – in his 1983 autobiography, A Man of Honor: The Autobiography of Joseph Bonanno, St. Martin's Press, ISBN: 0312979231, Bonanno implied that his father had been a made man in Sicily – he joined the family of Salvatore Maranzano.

When, on September 10, 1931, Salvatore Maranzano was killed, Joseph Bonanno, at the tender age-of-26, was the youngest of 24 Mafia bosses to be sanctioned by the newly formed National Mafia Commission. He had 33 years at the helm of power as the J. Edgar Hoover-led FBI denied that the mob even existed.

Joseph Bonanno's (January 1, 2003) comments in A Man of Honor about his contemporary, Al Capone, filled with condescension, are revealing. Despite the fact that Al Capone had an unprecedented criminal career in an unprecedented American era, Joseph Bonanno (January 1, 2003) seemed to think of him, so to speak, as an underworld plebian.

Maybe Joseph Bonanno's condescension was an effort to undermine any attempt to make a comparison between himself and Al Capone. After all, Al Capone was only 26-years-old in 1925, when he assumed command of the organization that was to become "The Chicago Outfit." These developments concerning Joseph Bonanno and Al Capone remain unparalleled in the history of the American Mafia.

When he created the Mafia Commission, Maranzano laid down some rules; among other things, he outlawed random killings, and he prohibited anyone in The Commission from talking about the Mafia or its activities to anyone outside, even if the outsider was just the gangster's wife. Anyone who broke any of these rules would be punished by death. Joseph Bonanno might have heeded the rules that Maranzano had laid down when he created the Mafia Commission.

Some internal Mafia secrets were revealed in A Man of Honor, For instance, Joseph Bonanno (January 1, 2003) corroborated the existence of the National Mafia Commission. He was asked by a jury to elaborate on what appeared in print, be he refused. The judge ruled contempt of court and Joseph Bonanno was jailed to serve a short sentence.

Because of Joseph Bonanno's authorship of A Man of Honor, Joseph Massino, the boss of the Bonanno Crime Family, lobbied the Family to change its name from the "Bonanno" to the "Massino" Cosa Nostra Family.

Joseph Bonanno had a nickname that he hated, "Joe Bananas." He died of natural causes on May 12, 2002 at the age-of-97.

SALVATORE “BILL” BONANNO (1932- ) - As a youth, Bill Bonanno, Joseph Bonanno's son, learned to ride horses/brand cattle. The blondes who Bill Bonanno was apt to date were a part of his larger, very American, mid-western upbringing.

Bill Bonanno attended a boarding school, the Ranch school, in Tucson, Arizona. He was evicted from boarding school. While Bill Bonanno's boarding school education gave him an advantage in high school, this advantage did not exist for him in college.

Bill Bonanno attended the University of Arizona where he became a member of the ROTC. As a student at the University of Arizona, Bill Bonanno led a platoon of cadets across the field before each football game to help in the raising of the stars and stripes before the singing of the national anthem. At the University of Arizona, Bill Bonanno contemplated a degree in pre-law but switched to agricultural engineering. Bill spent part of his summers at the ROTC camp preparing for a commission to the army. He was promoted to drill sergeant in the Cadets Elite Marching Unit (The Pershing Rifles). He eventually did military service with the army reserves.

Bill Bonanno's college career was undistinguished. He had not studied hard, he did not concentrate on any one subject. Bill Bonanno did not pass the courses necessary for a degree. "As a student he had little power of concentration, seeming to lose interest in subjects that he could not master quickly."

Together Joseph and Bill Bonanno were convicted four times for relatively minor crimes. Bill, who was inducted into the Bonanno Cosa Nostra Family at age 22, served about three years in prison.

Salvatore "Bill" bonanno's son, Joseph Bonanno, a "citizen," i.e. an individual not actively involved in Cosa Nostra, graduated from college and, at the very least, attended medical school.

In 1964, Joseph Bonanno and his lawyer were kidnapped by his own enforcer, Mike Zaffarino. Bonanno was held captive for 19 days in New York, after which he agreed to retire, give The National Mafia Commission the Bonanno Crime Family's assets, which amounted to 2 billion dollars a year, and move to another country.

Joseph Bonanno complied and moved to Haiti, but in 1965, his son Bill suffered an attempt against his life. Much of the Bonanno Crime Family membership and all of the Mafia Commission objected to Bill's succession to the helm of the Bonanno Crime Family, leading to a civil war in the Bonanno Crime Family in the late 1960s.

Joseph Bonanno realized the attempt on Bill's life had been ordered by the man who took over for him in the United States, Paul Sciacca, and soon he began to retaliate, beginning what became known as The Banana War. This split the Bonanno crime family into two sides, those who supported Joe Bonanno and those who supported Paul Sciacca. Joseph Bonanno was proving to be too strong for Paul Sciacca and The Commission realized that. However, Joseph Bonanno suffered a heart attack which made him retire for good, ending the Banana War.

Organized crime historians are likely to remember Bill Bonanno (June 15, 2000) more favorably as the author of critically and commercially successful books, like Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story, St. Martin's Paperbacks, ISBN: 0312971478, than he is as a mob boss.

A Brief Comparison: Joseph and Bill Bonanno

Joseph and Bill Bonanno are similar to the extent that they tend to characterize themselves as members of some sort of underworld aristocracy. They are underworld elitists. But, it remains unclear as to exactly what credentials a man must have before he is eligible to become a member of this Bonanno nuclear family elite.

Together, father and son were convicted four times, for relatively minor crimes. Bill, who was inducted into the Bonanno Cosa Nostra Family at-age-22, served about three years in prison.

Joseph Bonanno was once fined $450.00 and was jailed for terms of 8 and 14 months for contempt of court for refusing to answer questions.

At the point that Joseph Bonanno assumed the leadership of the former Maranzano Cosa Nostra Family, a smaller group of former Maranzano Crime Family members went on to become a part of the Profaci Cosa Nostra Family under the leadership of Joseph Profaci. The former Profaci organization is known today as the Columbo Cosa Nostra Family.

VINCENT M. "THE ANIMAL" FERRARA (1950 - ) - (Added April 19, 2005) -a Boston College-educated capo of the Patriarca Cosa Nostra Family headquartered in Providence, R.I.

THOMAS GAMBINO (1925- ) - (Added May 17, 2005) - has been a capo for many years in the Cosa Nostra Family that bears his father's name. But, Thomas Gambino never really wanted to be a gangster. He has never been charged with a violent crime. Released from prison in 2000, Thomas Gambino behaved like the man he is, a college educated business executive. He enjoys his grand-children and donates some of his considerable wealth to worthy causes. According to some sources, Thomas Gambino is still actively engaged as a Gambino Crime Family capo. Others say he is engaged in his "retirement."

JOHN PATE (1940- ) - (Added May 17, 2005) - is a turncoat who was formerly a capo in the Columbo Cosa Nostra Family. Pate has a bachelor's degree in history from Wagner College. Pate also earned graduate school credits in art design at several schools, including Columbia University and the New York Institute of Fine Arts. He became straightened out with the Columbo Cosa Nostra Family in 1982.

ALPHONSE “LITTLE ALLIE BOY” PERSICO (1954- ) - Allie Boy had taken some pre-law classes in two-and-one-half-years at St. John's University before he dropped out to follow his father, Carmine, and his uncles, Alphonse and Theodore, into the Columbo Crime Family and federal prison. Uncle Alphonse, i.e. "Big Allie Boy," died in federal prison in 1989 at the age of 59. Uncle Theodore, 67, is due out of federal prison in 2013, Carmine, 67, i.e. "The Snake," a/k/a "Junior," is scheduled for release from federal prison in 2043.

The Snake still functions as the sitting boss of the Columbo Crime Family from behind prison walls. As a leader of one of the five families of New York, The Snake was convicted in 1987 in the Mafia Commission Trials. Also convicted were Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, the boss of the Genovese Cosa Nostra Family of New York and Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo, the boss of the Lucchese Cosa Nostra Family. Paul "Big Paulie" Castellano, the boss of the Gambino Crime Family was also indicted in that case; but before he could be brought to trial Big Paulie was murdered.

Little Allie was named the acting boss of the Columbo Cosa Nostra Family in 1999. He took over a weakened Cosa Nostra Family, one hurt by civil wars and federal indictments.

In December of 2001, while pleading guilty to a racketeering, loansharking and money laundering indictment that accused him of being "the acting boss of the Columbo Crime Family," Little Allie essentially admitted he was a high-ranking member of the Mafia. While, as per Salvatore Maranzano's 1931 Mafia Commission edict, Little Allie's plea violated Mafia rules, it is unlikely that he will suffer any serious consequences.

On December 8, 2004, Joel "Joe Waverly" Cacace, 63, the Colombo Crime Family acting boss, drew a 20-year sentence for the murder of 79-year-old George Aronwald, an administrative law judge who ruled on city parking tickets.

The feds contended that in 1987, Cacace delivered the order from The Snake, the jailed Colombo boss, to kill William Aronwald because he had prosecuted mobsters in a "disrespectful" manner. Cacace scrawled "Aronwald" on a scrap of paper and gave it to the hit team. However, the hapless killers targeted the wrong "Aronwald."

The feds indicted Little Allie Boy and John "Jackie" DeRoss, the Columbo Crime Family underboss, on October 14, 2004 for the May 26, 1999 murder of Columbo Family underboss William "Wild Bill" Cutolo, and for obstruction of justice related to the investigation of Cutolo's murder. On that day, William Cutolo had been picked up and driven to what he was told would be a top-level meeting of the Columbo Cosa Nostra Family. Wild Bill thought he was headed for a session with Little Allie Boy but at that moment, Persico---the man the feds say was the architect of Cutolo's murder---was in Garden City, L.I. discussing strategy for a then-pending case with his attorney. Cutolo's body has never been found. In November 2002, following a hearing in Surrogates Court, Cutolo was officially declared dead.

In an affidavit describing some of what the feds learned about Cutolo's disappearance, FBI agent Margaret Carmichael reported that Cutolo had been scheduled to attend a family Administration meeting on Tuesday, May 25, the day before he disappeared. But Little Allie Boy paged Cutolo and postponed it until Wednesday, May 26, 1999.

ANTH0NY ROTUNDO (1957- ) - Brilliantly scholastic, a graduate of a Roman Catholic institution, i.e., the Nazareth High School, Anthony Rotundo, the former DeCavalcante Cosa Nostra Family capo, has a business degree from St. Francis College in Brooklyn, New York.

In late December 2002, before the Christmas holidays, Anthony Rotundo joined Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo, the former DeCavalcante acting boss and soldier Anthony Capo, as a mob defector to Uncle Sam. Anthony Rotuno admitted to having lead an "evil" existence---ordering home invasions, the fire-bombing of school buses and gangland hits on suspected snitches---but says he also thought about quitting the mob at one point.

Anthony Rotundo is the son of the late Vincent "Jimmy the Gent" Rotundo, a former capo and underboss of the DeCavalcante Cosa Nostra Family. In the Peter Gotti federal conspiracy trial in mid-November 2004, Anthony Rotundo testified that he became "disheartened" about the way his father, Jimmy the Gent Rotundo was gunned down in 1988."

Jimmy the Gent was found dead with a bag of rotting fish in his spanking new Lincoln Continental. In front of his house in Brooklyn, The Gent had been riddled with bullets over some unknown and unspoken rule that he broke.

The Gent wanted Anthony to become a lawyer. But Anthony wanted to be a made man and, The Gent finally agreed.

In the Peter Gotti federal conspiracy trial in mid-November 2004, Anthony Rotondo testified as a government witness at the racketeering trial of Peter Gotti, the acting Gambino crime boss, that he had collected protection money from the owners of Interstate — Frank and Peter DiTommaso — to assure labor peace while employing non-union workers.

Anthony Rotondo confirmed accounts by other DeCavalcante turncoats that Frederico "Fritzi" Giovanelli, the Genovese Crime Family of New York soldier, alerted them in late 1999 that one of their associates was cooperating with the feds and they were about to be indicted. Fritzi was convicted of that charge.

Anthony Rotondo turned rat simply to shave off a sentence which most certainly could be life for his participation in four murders, three conspiracies to murder, extortion, holdups and home invasions. Anthony Rotundo made $30- to-$35-million over a period of 37 years in a life of crime.

Why "We Would All Be Dead"

The mob's soldiers commonly break the American Mafia's rules, Anthony Rotundo, the former DeCavalcant Cosa Nostra Family capo---who turned rat,---tells us.

Anthony Rotundo recalled that while the mob's version of the death penalty is always there for any rule breaker, if it were judiciously applied "we would all be dead." Apparently the mobster's working wisdom is, "Rules are made to be broken, if you can get break them without being sentenced to death."

An Example of How Organized Criminals Exploit Higher Education

Michael "Mikey Scars" DiLeonardo, the former Gambino Cosa Nostra Family capo who turned rat, has said that the son of a Mafia leader has been employed as the "house counsel" of the Gambino Crime Family. Mikey Scars said Joseph Corozzo has been the go-to-lawyer when mobsters like himself needed help.

Corozzo is the son of Joseph "Jo Jo" Corozzo, consigiliere of the Gambino family, the third-highest position in the family. And his uncle is Gambino big shot Nick "Little Nicky" Corozzo, the heir apparent to the capo crimini position in the Gambino Cosa Nostra Family.

U.S. Assistant Attorney Michael McGovern asked DiLeonardo, who was testifying at the Peter Gotti trial, whether lawyer Corozzo was employed by John "Junior" Gotti "on behalf of the Gambino family." "Yes. Joseph Corozzo was like house counsel for us," DiLeonardo testified.

Federal authorities are irked by Corozzo's continuing role in representing Gambino mobsters while his father and uncle allegedly help run the criminal enterprise.

Corozzo is now representing Michael Yannotti, a co-defendant in the upcoming racketeering trial of Junior Gotti, who is identified as a soldier in the Gambino crime family. Yannotti is accused of trying to kill a radio talk-show host in a cab at Junior's behest.

Joseph Corozzo is not a made man. But, his career as a mob lawyer is an indication of one of the ways the mob uses higher education on its own behalf.

Corozzo's father and uncle are both alleged to be high-ranking members of the Gambino crime family. Yannotti was serving under Corozzo's uncle, Nicholas (Little Nick) Corozzo, at the time Sliwa was shot, according to prosecutors.

Joseph Corozzo was kicked off the upcoming racketeering trial of Junior Gotti Monday, December 20, 2004, after prosecutors said he had ordered a mob pal to shoot someone during a late-1980s traffic confrontation. Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin said attorney Joseph Corozzo's close family ties ran too deep to allow him to continue representing Michael Yannotti, the accused shooter in the 1992 ambush shooting of radio talk show host Curtis Sliwa.

With Corozzo as his attorney, Yannotti would be unlikely to agree to cooperate with the government - because the lawyer wouldn't want his client to rat out any Corozzo kin, Scheindlin said.

As we progress into the twenty-first century, the percentage of the total population of inductees into the American Mafia, and into other mobs throughout the world, who graduate from an institution of higher education, will continue to grow.

JAMES J. “WHITEY” BULGER’S TEN YEARS ON THE LAM - Whitey Bulger, who is now wanted for 19 murders, got the tip from his retired FBI handler John J. Connolly Jr. to leave town before state police and a DEA agent could arrest him on a racketeering indictment on December 23, 1994.

The corrupt agent, who is now serving a 10-year sentence for racketeering, made good on an old promise to give Bulger a head start in return for decades of ratting on the Italian Mafia.

Meanwhile, in an unrelated case, after hearing a jailhouse confession from another prisoner who allegedly admitted to killing two potential witnesses, the same John J. Connolly Jr. has become an informant. Connolly admits that he hopes his cooperation will lead to a reduced sentence.

Connolly is expected to soon seek a new trial now that Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme, one of the mobsters who testified against him, who has been re-arrested and faces criminal charges of lying to federal agents about a 1993 killing.

The bureau claims the last credible sighting of Bulger was in Manchester, England, in 2003. An old friend who knew Bulger from a London gym claims Bulger snubbed him during a chance meeting in 2002 and denied his identity.

SICILIAN MAFIA HIT BAN

The National Mafia Commission in the United States banned mob hits in the early nineteen-nineties. So many mobsters were facing life long jail terms, and; the feds were getting so much leverage against the mob with the murder raps, that too many guys were turning state's evidence. The mob called a moratorium on hits. That does not mean the mob is no longer in the business of homicide. Rather, it means homicide has become the mob's very last alternative.

Antonino Giuffrè, the rat, revealed that the Sicilian Mafia is currently involved in a hit ban, too.

As a former right-hand man of Bernardo Provenzano, the still reigning capo di tutti capi of the Sicilian Mafia who has been wanted by the police for more than 40 years, Antonino Giuffrè claimed in testimony leaked to the Italian press this week that the Sicilian Mafia also had close and continuous relations with their cousins in America.

The Sicilian rule of Toto Riina came to an end when the shocking assassinations of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, the anti-Mafia investigators, in 1992 brought down the wrath of the Italian state and the Mafia came closer to extinction than at any time since the days of Benito "Il Duce" Mussolini, the Italian dictator.

Giuffrè’s next boss, Bernardo Provenzano, is credited with having ordered the Sicilian Mafia to stop killing people. Provenzano thereby ensured the Sicilian Mafia's survival. Mafia watchers in Sicily believe Provenzano has maintained his iron grip, and enabled the mob to recover much of its wealth and influence despite its renunciation of homicide.

And according to Giuffrè, Provenzano also succeeded in keeping cordial relations with the New York Cosa Nostra Families and other Mafia cousins in the U.S., through a relative called Johnny Stanfa, a Sicily-born immigrant to America who became head of the mob in Philadelphia.

MORE CRIMINAL CHARGES FOR GENE GOTTI and JOHN CARNEGLIA?

Three insurgent Bonanno Cosa Nostra Family capos Philip "Philly Lucky" Giaccone, Dominick "Big Trin" Trinchera and a third Bonanno gangster, Alphonse "Sonny Red" Indelicato, were gunned down in a bloody mob coup in May 1981 inside a social club in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, several Mafia informants told the FBI.

A few weeks after the hit, Indelicato's body was found by children in the Ruby St. lot, wrapped in a white sheet, tied with a clothesline and wearing a nice watch. He'd been shot once in the head and twice in the body. Giaccone and Trinchera's bodies were never found. That is, not until recently...

In a two week long excavation of the Ruby Street lot in Queens, New York near its border with Brooklyn, the FBI uncovered Philly Lucky and Big Trin's bones. Investigators worked with New York City's Medical Examiner's Office to conclusively identify the remains by matching samples of DNA provided by families of the Bonanno captains.

Federal officials confirmed on Monday, December 20, 2004 that these are the remains of Philip "Philly Lucky" Giaccone and Dominick "Big Trin" Trinchera.

Joseph "Big Joey" Massino, the current boss of the Bonanno clan, was convicted in United States of America v. Joseph Massino et al. Defendants, 2004 in July, 2004 of engineering the murders of the three men. Salvatore "Goodlookiing Sal" Vitale, in cooperation with the government, described how the three men were gunned down. Goodlooking Sal is the former underboss of the Bonanno Crime Family and Big Joey Massino's brother-in-law.

Goodlookiing Sal told federal officials that the bodies were taken in a van to Howard Beach, where Gambino Crime Family members Gene Gotti, John Carneglia and the late Angelo Ruggiero took the vehicle away.

It will be interesting to see whether or not this revelation will result in more criminal charges against Gene Gotti and/or John Carneglia. Who are Gene Gotti and John Carneglia?

Gene Gotti, the first Gotti brother to become a "made man," is the younger brother of Peter and John J. Gotti. Gene Gotti and John Carneglia were nailed for heroin trafficking in 1989 and sentenced to 50 year prison terms.

In the aftermath of the heroin bust, Gene Gotti lost his crew and was reduced to the rank of soldier. But, Gene Gotti continues to play a role in the Gambino Cosa Nostra Family's rackets from federal prison.

Gene Gotti's, 58, projected release date is June 26, 2019. John Carneglia's, 60, projected release date is August 14, 2018.

Since he went to prison, Gene Gotti has also retained a lucrative loansharking operation that Peter Gotti and other mob associates run for him, using the proceeds to provide for his wife and children. The loanshark operation is valued at $500,000 but has more than $1 million on the street earning from 100---to---200 percent interest a year.

Because he has kept his mouth shut, Gene Gotti maintains the respect of the Gambino Crime Family. There's even been talk of making Gene Gotti the Gambino Crime Family's consigliere.