Black Book member Masterana dies in the Dominican

Frank Masterana, a gambler and bookmaker known from the Strip to Santo Domingo, died Sunday at age 80 in the Dominican Republican, according to a longtime family friend.
A member of Nevada’s list of excluded persons, better known as the Black Book, Masterana was born in Canton, Ohio Jan. 26, 1929, and moved to Las Vegas to work for “Doc” Stacher in the early 1950s.
An illegal bookmaker much of his adult life, Masterana’s name was placed in the Black Book on Oct. 19, 1988. He became known as an associate – a reluctant one, to hear Masterana tell it – of Anthony Spilotro in the early 1980s.
Following a couple trips to prison, Masterana moved his base of operations to the Dominican Republican, and according to reliable sources at the time of his death he ran more than a dozen sports betting outlets in Santo Domingo.
I met Frank many years ago when he was between government staycations. He was an intriguing character whose life was defined by illegal gambling and his son Frank's quadruplegic condition. In those days, in part to avoid detection, Masterana looked a little like Willie Nelson with a long ponytail and salt-and-pepper facial hair. He was an old-school survivor, an outlaw with a soft spot for his kids. John L. Smith Las Vegas Review Journal

Martin Scorcese to direct Frank Sinatra biopic

Martin Scorsese, the Oscar-winning director, is to make a film about Frank Sinatra's life. After two years of wrangling with the singer's family on how to tell his colourful story. Sinatra has been portrayed several times on screen, including by Ray Liotta in the 1998 film The Rat Pack, but there has never been a feature film devoted to his life.
No actor has yet been announced for the lead role but initial speculation has focused on Leonardo Di Caprio, who has starred in four previous Scorsese films. Cathy Schulman, the co-producer of the new film, provisionally titled "Sinatra", said it would be "an unconventional biopic". It remains to be seen how Scorsese, like Sinatra an Italian-American, tackles the most contentious area of the singer's life – his reported links with the Mafia.While Scorsese has made several Mob-related films such as Goodfellas, the involvement of Sinatra's family – his daughter, Tina, is executive producer in the new project – has prompted speculation that it will steer clear of this area.
"In any family, you're dealing with a precious life, and in this case, you're dealing with an extraordinary life," said Miss Schulman.
"We knew Scorsese would lead the troops to a true, fair, exciting and entertaining portrait of the man."
A screenplay, based on 30,000 pages of research, has been written by Phil Alden Robinson, who won an Oscar nomination for Field of Dreams, the sentimental Kevin Costner film about an Iowa farmer who builds a baseball pitch in a field.
"It's not a cradle-to-the-grave traditional portrait of the consecutive events in a man's life," said Miss Schulman, president of Mandalay Pictures, which is making the film with Universal Pictures. "Instead, it's more of a collage and, in many ways, it will feel like an album itself. It's a collection of various moments and impressions in his life and together we hope they'll tell the full story and present full themes."
It took two years to secure the rights to Sinatra's life and music.
Warner Music Group and the Sinatra estate are partners on the project.
Sinatra's daughter, Tina, said it was "personally pleasing" to know Scorsese would oversee the celluloid version of her father's life story.
The FBI kept a file on Sinatra for decades, detailing his heavy drinking, bouts of depression, liaisons with prostitutes and his friendship with various Mafia bosses.
The singer and actor, who died in 1998, performed on more than 1,400 musical recordings, was awarded 31 gold records and earned 10 Grammys.
He made his first recording in 1939 and continued recording almost until his death, being responsible for such classics as "Strangers in the Night" and "My Way".
He also appeared in 58 films and won a supporting-actor Oscar for From Here to Eternity in 1953.

Rocco Balliro Mobster

It was one of the best-known Boston shootouts of the 1960’s. Cops cornered prison escapee Rocco Balliro, his twin brother Sal, and an associate at the Roxbury home of Rocco’s ex-con girlfriend Toby Wagner. They tried to shoot their way out, and when it was over, Rocco’s girlfriend and her 7-year-old son were dead. That was in February 1963, and six months later, here he is in custody at Division 1. Handcuffed to Rocco’s left had is Sgt. Tom Gavin of DA Garrett Byrne’s office. On the right is Det. Eddie Walsh, soon to be the cop mentor of future FBI agent Zip Connolly.

Donato "Danny" Angiulo, part of notorious mob family, dies

Former New England Mafia capo regime Donato "Danny" Angiulo, who was part of a powerful mob family that ruled Boston's underworld from the 1960s through the mid-1980s, died Sunday night at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center after a long illness. He was 86.
His brother, Gennaro "Jerry'' Angiulo, was the underboss of the Patriarca crime family until an FBI bug planted in his North End headquarters in 1981 captured conversations about murder, extortion, illegal gambling, and loansharking that led to Boston's first sensational Mafia trial and the end of the Angiulos' reign.
In 1986, a federal jury convicted Donato Angiulo and his brothers, Gennaro and Francesco, who was the mob's accountant, of racketeering charges, and a third brother, Michele, of illegal gambling.
An Angiulo associate was caught on FBI tapes boasting that South Boston crime boss James "Whitey" Bulger and his sidekick, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi were friends of the Mafia and would kill for them. More than a decade later it was revealed that Bulger and Flemmi were longtime FBI informants who had provided information about the interior of Angiulo's headquarters that assisted agents in planting the bug.
Donato Angiulo's nickname was "Smiley," but prosecutors alleged during his trial that he had a fierce reputation on the street and served as a capo regime, running a crew of Mafia soldiers. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison for racketeering, gambling and loansharking. He was freed from federal prison in 1997, after serving 11 years, and returned to his Medford home.
"He was a great family man and a very decent guy,'' said Boston attorney Anthony Cardinale, who represented Donato Angiulo's brother, Gennaro, during the eight-month federal racketeering trial.
Cardinale recounted that he had been stricken by a virus and hospitalized just before final arguments were about to get underway in the trial.
"I remember waking up in the hospital and there was Danny, just sitting there...he had come to the hospital and sat there to see how I was,'' Cardinale said. "That was typical of the kind of guy he was."
Before Donato Angiulo became ill and was hospitalized, he often was spotted in the North End, having lunch. He was the son of Sicilian immigrants, who ran a North End grocery store, and was raised on Prince Street with five brothers and a sister.
The Dello Russo Funeral Home in Medford confirmed today that it is handling arrangements for Donato Angiulo and said visiting hours will be Thursday from 4 to 8 pm. at the funeral home. A Mass is scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m. at St. Leonard Church in Boston's North End.

Compulsive gambler and loser may have lost his bet as FBI informant

Mafia Cops

Las Vegas has always been an attractive place for the hail-fellow, the hustler, and the man on the make.
With its shadowy history, seductive setting and proximity to a limitless river of cash, it brims with dreamers, scufflers and schemers. It's a spot where a guy who knows a guy can make a good living.

It was perhaps the ideal spot for the FBI to turn a man like Stephen Corso loose with a recording device. By all accounts, Corso was the street-wise guy Las Vegas tourists fantasize about and most locals rarely experience, the one who exists in dimly lighted bars and nondescript strip mall offices

Corso was an accountant by training, a salesman by calling, and a high-rolling degenerate gambler by compulsion when he got caught swiping clients' money to feed his blackjack Jones and penthouse lifestyle. He spent $5 million that didn't belong to him and was on his way to a prison stretch when he began cooperating with the FBI in 2002.

From what I've pieced together from public documents and street sources, the smooth-talking accountant found his true calling as an undercover informant. Reliable sources say Corso worked his way into the local mob scene and pulled the pants off some very experienced wiseguys.

According to a federal document from the Eastern District of Virginia, where Corso's efforts helped nail securities attorney David Stocker on a "pump and dump" stock manipulation scheme with connections reaching into the Securities and Exchange Commission, the accountant was a one-man La Cosa Nostra census worker.

"He provided information related to the activities of individuals with ties to several LCN organized crime families to include: the Chicago Outfit, Lucchese LCN, Bonanno LCN, Genovese LCN, Colombo LCN, Philadelphia LCN, Decavalcante LCN, and Gambino LCN," the document states. "Corso was also instrumental in providing FBI agents with information on individuals with ties to Russian organized crime, Youngstown, Ohio gangsters, and the Irish Mob which exists in the Boston, Mass. area."

Sounds like the guy did everything but dig up Jimmy Hoffa. Corso back-slapped his way into the Las Vegas underworld, then used his accounting and tax preparation skills to give the wiseguys a financial endoscopic treatment

He played an integral role in sealing the deal in the lengthy "Mafia Cops" case, in which Las Vegas residents and former NYPD detectives Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa were found guilty of acting as contract killers for the Lucchese crime family. Corso's work in Las Vegas proved beyond reasonable doubt that the Mafia Cops continued their criminal conspiracy years after leaving New York.

Corso's testimony was critical to the ... conclusion that the conspiracy continued into the limitations period," one government document states.

It's as simple as this: No Corso, no Mafia Cops conviction.

And it will be intriguing to see whether the government gets a victory in a related drug case involving Eppolito's son, Anthony Eppolito, and Guido Bravatti now that Corso has been sentenced to a year and a day for his own transgressions.

It's also been reported Corso worked in connection with the Crazy Horse Too investigation. I imagine former Crazy Horse official Bobby D'Apice, who now resides at government expense, won't be sending his former tax consultant, Corso, a letter of reference

.
At his February sentencing in Connecticut, U.S. District Judge Janet Hall seemed almost apologetic. Although she called Corso's crime "an extraordinary violation of trust," she admitted, "I can't find the words to describe the value, at least in my judgment, of this cooperation."

thanks John L. Smith Las Vegas Review Journal

Nick Bianco Mobster

Meet Nicholas Louis Bianco aka “Nicky” aka “ Nicky B” Nicky Bianco was a Gallo Gang shooter before he became a member of the Patriarca Crime Family

Nicky was like Joey Gallo, he was a warrior..His ethos was.”I was born a man, I will die a man”. Unlike the flamboyant Crazy Joey, Nicky was low-key, and level headed.. .In a finger snap, he would kill for Raymond “RayPat” Patriarca Sr.. Raymond loved his composure, and courage, and he moved Nicky up the leader ladder to a spot in the Patriarca high command.. Nicky was Raymond’s acting boss while he was in the slammer
..

I knew Nicky and I will go into greater detail in my new book . But here is a tasty tidbit
.
Nicky had a ton of heat on him from a beef he had in Providence.. He went west to Hollywood to hide out until things cooled off back home. Nicky stayed with a friend of mine. While he was with my pal, he knifed a guy . I had occasion to meet with Nicky years later. I mentioned this incident to Nicky,
and it knocked him for a loop…. Anthony Fiato

Reputed N.Y. Mafia boss arrives in Quebec

The man named as the boss of one of New York City's notorious Mafia families has arrived in Canada - under the watchful eye of the RCMP - in a forced relocation to the country of his birth.
Salvatore Montagna, 37, nicknamed "Sal the Ironworker" because of his successful metal working business, was sent back to his native Montreal on Tuesday morning after being ejected from the United States, where he has lived since he was 15.
Arriving aboard a direct flight, accompanied by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials but none of his family, he was quickly processed at the airport by Canada Border Services Agency officers who quizzed him about his luggage - which had been packed by his wife - and about telephone numbers he was carrying.
As a Canadian citizen who is not wanted for any crime, he was allowed to enter Canada a free man.
He checked in under his real name at the four-star Sheraton Hotel in Laval, a 25-minute drive from downtown Montreal, for the night and at 10:35 yesterday morning checked out, well aware that he was under police surveillance.
A call by the National Post to his room went unanswered.
Mr. Montagna, who owns a multi-million dollar steel firm in Brooklyn, made headlines in 2006 when he was named as the acting boss of the Bonanno Family at the age of 35. Because of his youth he was dubbed the "bambino boss" by New York tabloids.
The Bonanno organization is one of the Five Families of the New York Mafia and for decades it maintained close ties to the Mafia in Montreal.
Mr. Montagna has denied the allegations.
"He wants to live a normal life there," said George Stavropoulos, his New York lawyer.
"He has had a few years of people following his every move. Now he wants to settle down again, learn French and move on; try to run his company from Canada."
Mr. Montagna was aware police had their sights on him here.
"It's something he is used to. He was hoping not to have to deal with that sort of thing in Canada as well," said Mr. Stavropoulos.
Canadian authorities have little to say about Mr. Montagna.
Neither the RCMP nor the Canada Border Services Agency would confirm Mr. Montagna was in Canada.
"He's not wanted so there is no arrest warrant or anything," said Corporal Caroline Letang, spokeswoman for the Montreal RCMP.
"We cannot confirm or deny any investigations."
A spokesman for Peter Van Loan, Minister of Public Safety, said the minister is aware of the file but could say nothing about it for privacy reasons. The Montreal police declined to comment.
The Bonanno Family has been hard hit by U.S. prosecutions since 2002, with more than 70 members and associates convicted for murders, gambling and racketeering.
That includes the conviction of Vito Rizzuto, godfather of the Montreal Mafia, for his role in killing three rivals in New York during a struggle for control of the Bonanno Family.
Facing lengthy prison terms, many Bonanno members agreed to co-operate with authorities.
The informants include the former boss of the family, Joseph "Big Joey" Massino. He was replaced by Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano who was, in turn, imprisoned. That left the family in need of an "acting boss" who was free on the streets.
Authorities say that man was Mr. Montagna.
"He's a very below-the-radar type of person who came out of left field," said John Marzulli, a reporter with New York's Daily News, who first reported Mr. Montagna's alleged ascent.
"They were looking for some kind of stabilizing influence to put the pieces back together," he said.
The theory is the organization was looking for someone who had little past contact with the informants.
Mr. Montagna was born in Montreal but left with his family for Sicily at a young age. Over the years the family shuttled back and forth between Canada and Italy until, at the age of 15, they moved to New York. He never became a U.S. citizen.
In 2001, a prosecutor was unsatisfied with Mr. Montagna's testimony in a gambling case and charged him with criminal contempt. His guilty plea in 2003 gave the U.S. government the ability to revoke his residency status.
Despite intense scrutiny by authorities, he was never charged with any other offence.
Mr. Stavropoulos said the government ejected Mr. Montagna unfairly, describing it as "sour grapes."