For nearly four decades, Jerry Capeci has been a reporter, columnist and author based in New York. He has won numerous journalism awards; he often appears as an organized crime expert on numerous network and cable television news programs, and has written several books about the mob. In 2002, after reporting and writing about John Gotti for 17 years, he co-authored “Mob Star: The Story of John Gotti.” His latest book, “The Complete Idiot’s Guide To The Mafia,” a comprehensive look at American wiseguys and the way they make their money, was published in 2005.

In 1989, Capeci began writing “Gang Land,” the first column in a daily newspaper devoted exclusively to organized crime at The New York Daily News. The column appeared in The Daily News from 1989 through 1995. He took the column online in 1996. It’s been there ever since. Gang Land returned to the newspaper world for a five plus year run in The New York Sun from August, 2002 until October of 2007. You can visit his website at www.ganglandnews.com.

Blog Entries by Jerry Capeci

Mob Boss Tied To 1999 Murders Of Stock Swindlers In NJ Mansion

Posted November 23, 2009 | 05:21 PM (EST)


Mob prince Alphonse (Allie) Persico, who is serving life for the 1999 rubout of then-underboss William (Wild Bill) Cutolo, has been linked to the gangland-style slayings of two high-flying penny-stock promoters who were killed that same year in a Colts Neck, N.J. mansion where one of the men lived, Gang...

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Junior Plays Hide and Seek as Gotti IV Goes to the Jury

Posted November 16, 2009 | 11:59 AM (EST)


Two weeks ago, the show in Manhattan Federal Court was 'Blowing Up Gotti,' as matriarch Victoria (Mama) Gotti blew a gut at the judge, accusing him of lynching her son. Last week's episode could be dubbed 'Showing Up Gotti' since it was John (Junior) Gotti himself who threw a snit,...

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Mama Gotti Blows Her Stack; Mob Big OK'd Hit On Junior

1 Comments | Posted November 9, 2009 | 10:26 AM (EST)


Gotti IV: Another week, another circus.

Victoria (Mama) Gotti yelled at the Judge. The Judge bounced two jurors. And a former prosecutor who spent four years in the organized crime unit of the prestigious Manhattan U.S. attorney's office testified that he had never heard of legendary mob capo John (Sonny)...

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Gotti IV Becomes A Farce

Posted November 1, 2009 | 12:57 PM (EST)


And in the seventh week, Gotti IV became a farce.

It happened on the day that the defense began its case. This was last Tuesday, which coincidentally, would have been the 69th birthday of the late Mafia Boss John Gotti, the onetime Dapper Don who died in prison, the same...

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Intrigue at Gotti IV; Sammy Bull for the Defense?

Posted October 19, 2009 | 11:37 AM (EST)


Salvatore (Sammy Bull) Gravano helped sink Mafia boss John Gotti but mob scion John (Junior) Gotti thinks Sammy Bull just may be the lifeline he needs right now.

In a mind-boggling turn of events, Gravano is one of three federally protected mob turncoats that the onetime Junior Don may call...

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30 Years Later, Waterfront Racketeer Todo Anastasio Is Still At It

Posted October 12, 2009 | 11:05 AM (EST)


Anthony Scotto may have quit the mob, but a close relative who was convicted along with the former dockworkers' union boss 30 years ago of extorting $350,000 in payoffs from waterfront companies -- Anthony (Todo) Anastasio -- is clearly still in "The Life."

Anastasio was only a bit player back...

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Alite: Junior and Gottis Taught Me Treachery of Mob Life

Posted October 5, 2009 | 10:01 AM (EST)


John (Junior) Gotti may have met his Sammy Bull.

John Alite took the stand last week in Gotti IV to testify against his old pal and quickly evoked the image of perhaps the most famously devastating mob turncoat witness.

Gambino family defector Salvatore Gravano, the first Mafia underboss to take...

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Blood on Junior's Hands as Gotti IV Opens With a Flourish

Posted September 27, 2009 | 09:12 PM (EST)


The feds pulled out all stops last week as they began efforts to send John (Junior) Gotti to the same death sentence behind bars that they served up for his dad, the late John Gotti, the swashbuckling Dapper Don whom the son emulated and followed to the top of the...

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Gotti Turncoat: We Had Lots Of Cops Working For Us

Posted September 20, 2009 | 08:29 PM (EST)


Mob turncoat John Alite has had a lot to say about his old buddy John (Junior) Gotti -- but he's also found time to tell the feds some amazing stories about corrupt cops and detectives.
Alite -- set to be a key witness at Gotti IV -- has given...

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Police Reports In Cop Killling Point To Russian Gangsters

Posted September 13, 2009 | 10:36 PM (EST)


Who killed Police Officer Ralph Dols?

The feds say the cop's 1997 murder in front of his Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn was a mob hit, one that was ordered and orchestrated by a jealous high-level mobster who was outraged that the young, muscular housing cop had married the wiseguy's ex-wife.

...
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Mafia Sons Play For Reel Cash

Posted September 6, 2009 | 08:46 PM (EST)


Mob stories continue to be such a hit with movie audiences that you can't blame Mafia sons -- whose dads did the crimes and the time -- from trying to cash in.

The latest picture is from Fred Carpenter, an independent filmmaker who has written, directed and produced quite a...

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Top Sportswriter's Wife Unsung Hero in Mafia Cops Case

1 Comments | Posted August 31, 2009 | 04:17 PM (EST)


Before their downfalls, Mafia Cops Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa had to be on the lookout for all kinds of threats: Prosecutors, FBI agents, disgruntled mobsters, even fellow cops. But even in their worst nightmares, the rogue detectives never would have dreamed that they would be brought down by an...

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Another Corozzo Earns A Trip To The Big House

1 Comments | Posted August 24, 2009 | 12:45 AM (EST)


The feds say he's a mob associate who engineered a sophisticated $100,000 tax fraud scheme. His lawyer, who happens to be his cousin, says he's just a hard-working, hard-luck guy who strayed off the straight and narrow a few years ago when his ice cream parlor business went belly up.

...
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G-Man's Mom Cops Plea Deal In Tragic $4.5M Investor Scam

Posted August 17, 2009 | 01:39 PM (EST)


In a case tinged with irony, intrigue and tragedy, the mother of a top FBI organized crime supervisor has pleaded guilty to swindling investors out of $4.5 million through several bogus global recycling companies she ran with her late husband.

Milana Murcia - who allegedly funneled hundreds of thousands of...

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Feds: Even If Junior Did Quit The Mob, He's Still Guilty Of Murder

1 Comments | Posted August 10, 2009 | 01:30 PM (EST)


It was just a pre-trial session but the Gotti IV case was already an SRO event last week.
Lawyers, FBI agents, prosecutors, news reporters, sketch artists and other spectators took up so many seats on Tuesday morning, that a few late-arrivals to courtroom 520 had to scurry to locate...

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New Gotti Jr. Charges on the Way?

Posted August 3, 2009 | 09:51 AM (EST)


Federal prosecutors have soured on controversial FBI informer Lewis Kasman, the turncoat "adopted son" of the late John Gotti, as a trial witness in Gotti IV, the pending racketeering case against the Dapper Don's beleaguered son Junior. And a sudden cancellation of a court session in the case last week...

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Gotti Junior Plans All-Out Court Assault On FBI Agent

1 Comments | Posted July 26, 2009 | 08:30 PM (EST)


Mob trials often have a scene in which an FBI agent takes the stand and tells the court all about the accused gangster's many dirty deeds. But turnabout is always fair play, and in Gotti IV - the upcoming trial of John (Junior) Gotti - the defense is planning to...

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Slain Wiseguy Linked To Murder Plot Against Federal Prosecutor

Posted July 13, 2009 | 07:35 AM (EST)


The Bonanno crime family mobster who was whacked in a pre-dawn hit in Staten Island as he waited for a bus to take him to his city construction job was allegedly thinking the unthinkable, Mafia-wise.

Sources tell Gang Land that soldier Anthony (Little Anthony) Seccafico was being investigated for possible...

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Tangled Tale Of Lawyer And FBI Informer

Posted July 6, 2009 | 08:00 AM (EST)


The already tarnished credibility of FBI snitch Lewis Kasman, a key prosecution witness at the upcoming racketeering and murder trial of John (Junior) Gotti, was further sullied last week.

Kasman - the self-proclaimed "adopted son" of the late John Gotti who has already admitted stealing $80,000 while working as a...

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The Junior Gotti Chronicles

1 Comments | Posted July 2, 2009 | 07:00 AM (EST)


Prosecutors are still focused on some very old, very violent - and pretty astounding - crimes that they want to raise at John (Junior) Gotti's upcoming trial, in addition to the three specific murders that he is charged with in his indictment.

The crimes involve two murders - one...

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