Ten alleged members of the Gambino crime family were arrested in New York on an array of mob-related charges as part of an international round-up that also involved arrests in Italy. On Wednesday, Nov. 8, prosecutors unveiled a 16-count indictment against the 10 U.S. defendants, accusing them of “racketeering conspiracy, …
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The Last Yakuza: Life and Death In The Japanese Underworld is the first book that I was ever asked to write. The yakuza are Japan’s mafia. They’re not a monolithic group — it’s a blanket term for over 20 different criminal organizations that share some similarities, particularly a quasi-family structure …
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Watching Mafia Mamma, a slapstick farce about a middle-aged American woman who abruptly inherits an Italian mob empire, you can imagine its star, Toni Collette, in an episode of The Sopranos. She’s got Carmela‘s icy-blonde look and, by the end of the movie, commands a room like Tony. But here, …
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Sammy Gravano is reflecting on the old days. “I grab him in a bear hug, the [van] door comes flying open, guys come running out,” he says, sitting back in a leather armchair, his voice gravelly. But Gravano isn’t reminiscing about some rough-and-tumble prank from his youth; he’s recounting the …
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