They may both be daughters of Mafia members, but Victoria Gotti doesn't think she has much in common with Karen Gravano.
At least that's what she implied in a radio interview with Frank Morano on AM 970 The Apple.
Morano asked Ms. Gotti for her thoughts on "Mob Wives" in general and Karen Gravano's attempts to make herself a celebrity. "God bless them, is what I say," Ms. Gotti said. "If you ask me, do I see any major talent there in each of them, or any of them? No."
Ms. Gotti's father was John Gotti, the Gambino crime boss who Ms. Gravano's father, Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, testified against. Gotti died in federal prison.
Ms. Gotti has written several novels and is a former columnist. She was recently voted off Donald Trump's television show "Celebrity Apprentice."
"I'm working since I'm 15," Ms. Gotti told Moran. "What I've done, I would have done if I were Victoria Smith. No one would have stopped me." But long before Ms. Gravano cashed in on being a mob daughter on "Mob Wives," Ms. Gotti and her three sons starred in "Growing Up Gotti" on A&E.
She also wrote her own book about growing up in a Mafia family -- but only when she thought it would help her brother, John "Junior" Gotti, who was facing criminal charges. "I was offered to do a book, God, 10, 15 years ago, and God knows the dollar amounts thrown at me," she said. "I don't do that until it's to help save my brother's life. So we have different mindsets, you know, her and I."
Ms. Gotti called "Mob Wives" a "train wreck," and said it wasn't "real."
"I've never met this girl. I don't know her. I don't like what I see, per se, and hear, but at the same time, I think the whole 'Mob Wives' thing is a complete joke," she said.
Morano, the radio host and a Staten Islander, said on the air he is often asked why he attacks Ms. Gravano but praises Ms. Gotti. "I guess to me the major difference is Karen is herself a convicted criminal, and she really doesn't have any major talents," Morano said.
Ms. Gravano pleaded guilty to being part of her father's ecstasy ring when the family lived in Arizona, after Salvatore Gravano's relatively short stint in federal prison and abbreviated stay in the witness protection program. While her father wound up back in prison, Ms. Gravano was sentenced to probation.
A representative of Ms. Gravano's did not respond to a request for comment from the author and reality show star.
Thanks to Jillian Jorgenson
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
Tuesday, March 06, 2012
Frank "The German" Schweihs' Daughter to Star on "Mob Wives: Chicago"
During his long career as a mob enforcer, Frank “The German” Schweihs gained a reputation as a fearsome hit man relied upon by the Chicago Outfit to eliminate its enemies, including potential government witnesses who might talk out of school.
Schweihs, who was said to be so psycho scary that even other tough guy mobsters went out of their way to avoid him, died of cancer in 2008 while waiting to go on trial in the landmark Operation Family Secrets case.
Later this week, sources tell me, the television network VH-1 is planning to announce Schweihs’ daughter Nora will be one of the stars of the new Chicago spinoff of its hit reality series, “Mob Wives.”
Is there still any doubt in your mind that The Outfit isn’t what it used to be? “Mob Wives,” which bills itself as a docu-soap, has never purported to spill any mob secrets during its now two season run following the exploits of a group of Staten Island women with familial ties to New York organized crime figures. “Mob Wives: Chicago” isn’t expected to be any different.
Instead, the program explores the lives of the women with the goal of showing how their mob surroundings have affected them personally—as mothers, daughters and wives. For anybody who has seen the prolific catfighting among the New York cast, the affect would appear to be pretty straightforward: it’s made them crazy.
Nora Schweihs, 48, is said to be a piece of work herself. I’ve only managed to get her on the phone a couple of times — both occasions resulting in her angrily yelling at me that she didn’t know what I was talking about and to never call again. Still, I can respect that. That’s how a real mobster’s family member is supposed to react when a newspaper reporter calls, not schedule a press conference.
The German’s daughter certainly has the bona fides for the show. Her ex-husband, Michael Talarico, was a mob bookmaker and nephew of mob boss Angelo “The Hook” LaPietra. In fact, when Talarico testified for the prosecution against Frank Calabrese Sr. in the Family Secrets trial, he told the jury he was still working as a bookie.
There’s
a rather unflattering mugshot of Nora Schweihs on the Internet arising from a 2004 DUI arrest in Florida, where she and her father both used to live. She was also charged in the incident with resisting arrest and felony possession of cocaine. She was convicted on the DUI, but the other charges were dropped.
Joining Schweihs on the show will be her good friend, Renee Fowler Russo, the niece of mob loan shark and killer John Fecarotta, whose own 1986 assassination provided the break that set the Family Secrets dominoes in motion. Nicholas Calabrese, the hit man whose cooperation with authorities was at the heart of the Family Secrets case, is said to have flipped in large part because he left a bloody glove behind when he killed Fecarotta, which years later provided a DNA match.
What qualifies Russo for the show, we’re told , is that she and her mother Barbara, Fecarotta’s sister, lived with “Big John” while she was growing up. Russo, 44, now operates an eye care business in Ukrainian Village and has numerous other past entanglements that could add to the drama.
The other two women in the four-member cast are Pia Rizza, 40, daughter of Vincent Rizza, a dirty Chicago cop who doubled as a bookmaker and juice collector before he turned government witness, and Christine Scoleri, 41, daughter of a small-time Cicero-area hood described to me as a “knockaround guy.”
Rizza’s father was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1982 for drug dealing and ended up in the federal witness protection program. Perhaps most notably, he testified against Harry “The Hit” Aleman, maybe the only Chicago mob guy of his generation more feared than Schweihs.
Scoleri’s father shows up so infrequently in our news clippings that I’m not quite comfortable mentioning him by name with the rest of this crowd. Scoleri, by the way, is her married name.
I’m told there are another one or two Chicago mob women, as yet unrevealed, who aren’t part of the regular cast but might make cameo appearances during the season with an eye toward a bigger role in the future — if our mob women prove as popular as New York’s.
Might there be a “your daddy killed my daddy” story line sometime in the future?
Thanks to Mark Brown
Schweihs, who was said to be so psycho scary that even other tough guy mobsters went out of their way to avoid him, died of cancer in 2008 while waiting to go on trial in the landmark Operation Family Secrets case.
Later this week, sources tell me, the television network VH-1 is planning to announce Schweihs’ daughter Nora will be one of the stars of the new Chicago spinoff of its hit reality series, “Mob Wives.”
Is there still any doubt in your mind that The Outfit isn’t what it used to be? “Mob Wives,” which bills itself as a docu-soap, has never purported to spill any mob secrets during its now two season run following the exploits of a group of Staten Island women with familial ties to New York organized crime figures. “Mob Wives: Chicago” isn’t expected to be any different.
Instead, the program explores the lives of the women with the goal of showing how their mob surroundings have affected them personally—as mothers, daughters and wives. For anybody who has seen the prolific catfighting among the New York cast, the affect would appear to be pretty straightforward: it’s made them crazy.
Nora Schweihs, 48, is said to be a piece of work herself. I’ve only managed to get her on the phone a couple of times — both occasions resulting in her angrily yelling at me that she didn’t know what I was talking about and to never call again. Still, I can respect that. That’s how a real mobster’s family member is supposed to react when a newspaper reporter calls, not schedule a press conference.
The German’s daughter certainly has the bona fides for the show. Her ex-husband, Michael Talarico, was a mob bookmaker and nephew of mob boss Angelo “The Hook” LaPietra. In fact, when Talarico testified for the prosecution against Frank Calabrese Sr. in the Family Secrets trial, he told the jury he was still working as a bookie.
There’s
a rather unflattering mugshot of Nora Schweihs on the Internet arising from a 2004 DUI arrest in Florida, where she and her father both used to live. She was also charged in the incident with resisting arrest and felony possession of cocaine. She was convicted on the DUI, but the other charges were dropped.Joining Schweihs on the show will be her good friend, Renee Fowler Russo, the niece of mob loan shark and killer John Fecarotta, whose own 1986 assassination provided the break that set the Family Secrets dominoes in motion. Nicholas Calabrese, the hit man whose cooperation with authorities was at the heart of the Family Secrets case, is said to have flipped in large part because he left a bloody glove behind when he killed Fecarotta, which years later provided a DNA match.
What qualifies Russo for the show, we’re told , is that she and her mother Barbara, Fecarotta’s sister, lived with “Big John” while she was growing up. Russo, 44, now operates an eye care business in Ukrainian Village and has numerous other past entanglements that could add to the drama.
The other two women in the four-member cast are Pia Rizza, 40, daughter of Vincent Rizza, a dirty Chicago cop who doubled as a bookmaker and juice collector before he turned government witness, and Christine Scoleri, 41, daughter of a small-time Cicero-area hood described to me as a “knockaround guy.”
Rizza’s father was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1982 for drug dealing and ended up in the federal witness protection program. Perhaps most notably, he testified against Harry “The Hit” Aleman, maybe the only Chicago mob guy of his generation more feared than Schweihs.
Scoleri’s father shows up so infrequently in our news clippings that I’m not quite comfortable mentioning him by name with the rest of this crowd. Scoleri, by the way, is her married name.
I’m told there are another one or two Chicago mob women, as yet unrevealed, who aren’t part of the regular cast but might make cameo appearances during the season with an eye toward a bigger role in the future — if our mob women prove as popular as New York’s.
Might there be a “your daddy killed my daddy” story line sometime in the future?
Thanks to Mark Brown
Monday, March 05, 2012
Oral History of The Sopranos
“I’m still in love with Edie,” says James Gandolfini of Edie Falco, the woman who played his television wife, Carmela, for six seasons on The Sopranos. “Of course, I love my wife, but I’m in love with Edie. I don’t know if I’m in love with Carmela or Edie or both. I’m in love with her.” Falco reveals a similar possessiveness over her HBO-wedded husband. “It was weird to sit down at a table read with the actresses playing Tony’s girlfriends. Occasionally I would get a sharp twinge at the back of my neck,” she recalls. “I’d have to kind of keep my bearings and remember, No, no, no, this is your job, and at home you have your life. Even years later, I remember when I saw Jim in God of Carnage on Broadway, and he was Marcia Gay Harden’s husband, and I had this ‘How come I have to be O.K. with this?’ kind of feeling.”
“In the five long years since the screen went black and The Sopranos went off the air, on June 10, 2007, there has grown up a kind of omertà around the show,” writes Vanity Fair contributing editor Sam Kashner in the April 2012 issue, in which he speaks to David Chase, along with many of the actors, producers, directors, and writers who have never before spoken so candidly, about what it felt like to be part of this extraordinary cultural phenomenon.
James Gandolfini never thought he’d get the part of Tony Soprano. “I thought that they would hire some good-looking guy,” he tells Kashner, “not George Clooney, but some Italian George Clooney, and that would be that.” Edie Falco says she was surprised she got the role of the Mob boss’s wife. “I would have cast me as Dr. Melfi, but, luckily, I was not in charge.” But she tells Kashner that she quickly took to the role of Carmela. “I immediately knew how she felt about things, the way she wanted to look.”
Drea de Matteo tells Kashner that Chase told her, “You don’t look Italian. You look like a hostess of a restaurant.” The actress, who would play Christopher Moltisanti’s girlfriend, Adriana, in the series, played a restaurant hostess in the pilot. “Later on I hated saying ‘Christopher’ with my accent. I would beg David to let me say ‘Chrissy’ because I felt like my accent sounded really, really fake. Now when I walk down the street, people say, ‘Just give me one Chris-ta-fuh.’”
The actors tell Kashner about the emotional toll inherent in playing such complex characters. “I had to suck the life out of myself to play her,” says Lorraine Bracco of her character, Dr. Jennifer Melfi. “I mean, I don’t think Dr. Melfi ever smiled. I wanted her repressed and sad. And she also had to pay attention to not give an inch with Tony, because he would have eaten her up. I wasn’t going to let that happen. So I had that strength, but emotionally I suffered.” James Gandolfini says he used to call the writers the vampires. “Say, what have the vampires come up with this week? What blood are they sucking this week?” he would ask.
Tony Sirico recalls pleading with Chase to not make him kill a woman when his character, Paulie Walnuts, was scripted to do just that. “David, I come from a tough neighborhood. If I go home and they see that I killed a woman, it’s going to make me look bad.” David would not change the script. “Here’s the thing. We did the scene,” Sirico recalls. “I had to smother her. First he wanted me to strangle her; I said, ‘No, I’m not putting my hands on her.’ He said, ‘Use the pillow.’ After it was all said and done, I went back to the neighborhood, and nobody said a word. They loved the show; they didn’t care what we did.”
According to writer and executive producer Terence Winter, who went on to create Boardwalk Empire, even real mobsters loved the show. “One F.B.I. agent told us early on that on Monday morning they would get to the F.B.I. office and all the agents would talk about The Sopranos,” he recalls. “Then they would listen to the wiretaps from that weekend, and it was all Mob guys talking about The Sopranos, having the same conversation about the show, but always from the flip side. We would hear back that real wiseguys used to think that we had somebody on the inside. They couldn’t believe how accurate the show was.”
Thanks to Vanity Fair
“In the five long years since the screen went black and The Sopranos went off the air, on June 10, 2007, there has grown up a kind of omertà around the show,” writes Vanity Fair contributing editor Sam Kashner in the April 2012 issue, in which he speaks to David Chase, along with many of the actors, producers, directors, and writers who have never before spoken so candidly, about what it felt like to be part of this extraordinary cultural phenomenon.
James Gandolfini never thought he’d get the part of Tony Soprano. “I thought that they would hire some good-looking guy,” he tells Kashner, “not George Clooney, but some Italian George Clooney, and that would be that.” Edie Falco says she was surprised she got the role of the Mob boss’s wife. “I would have cast me as Dr. Melfi, but, luckily, I was not in charge.” But she tells Kashner that she quickly took to the role of Carmela. “I immediately knew how she felt about things, the way she wanted to look.”
Drea de Matteo tells Kashner that Chase told her, “You don’t look Italian. You look like a hostess of a restaurant.” The actress, who would play Christopher Moltisanti’s girlfriend, Adriana, in the series, played a restaurant hostess in the pilot. “Later on I hated saying ‘Christopher’ with my accent. I would beg David to let me say ‘Chrissy’ because I felt like my accent sounded really, really fake. Now when I walk down the street, people say, ‘Just give me one Chris-ta-fuh.’”
The actors tell Kashner about the emotional toll inherent in playing such complex characters. “I had to suck the life out of myself to play her,” says Lorraine Bracco of her character, Dr. Jennifer Melfi. “I mean, I don’t think Dr. Melfi ever smiled. I wanted her repressed and sad. And she also had to pay attention to not give an inch with Tony, because he would have eaten her up. I wasn’t going to let that happen. So I had that strength, but emotionally I suffered.” James Gandolfini says he used to call the writers the vampires. “Say, what have the vampires come up with this week? What blood are they sucking this week?” he would ask.
Tony Sirico recalls pleading with Chase to not make him kill a woman when his character, Paulie Walnuts, was scripted to do just that. “David, I come from a tough neighborhood. If I go home and they see that I killed a woman, it’s going to make me look bad.” David would not change the script. “Here’s the thing. We did the scene,” Sirico recalls. “I had to smother her. First he wanted me to strangle her; I said, ‘No, I’m not putting my hands on her.’ He said, ‘Use the pillow.’ After it was all said and done, I went back to the neighborhood, and nobody said a word. They loved the show; they didn’t care what we did.”
According to writer and executive producer Terence Winter, who went on to create Boardwalk Empire, even real mobsters loved the show. “One F.B.I. agent told us early on that on Monday morning they would get to the F.B.I. office and all the agents would talk about The Sopranos,” he recalls. “Then they would listen to the wiretaps from that weekend, and it was all Mob guys talking about The Sopranos, having the same conversation about the show, but always from the flip side. We would hear back that real wiseguys used to think that we had somebody on the inside. They couldn’t believe how accurate the show was.”
Thanks to Vanity Fair
Saturday, March 03, 2012
Bronx Firefighter Arrested for Alleged Ties to Reputed Genovese Crime Family Sports-Betting Ring
A Bronx firefighter has been busted for his ties to an alleged $2 million-a-year, mob-run gambling and money-laundering ring.
Thomas McMahon, of Ladder Co. 38 in Belmont, was one of eight men charged by Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson with running a sports-betting ring tied to the Genovese crime family.
McMahon, 29, was arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court along with reputed mob associates Joseph Sarcinella, 77, Frank Mastracchio, 56, Dominick Totino, 44, Dominick Pietranico, 81, Bruno Travositino, 81, and John D’Ambrosio, 54.
Sarcinella — a longtime reputed Genovese mobster who pleaded guilty to running a gambling operation in 2002 — was in charge of the betting ring, which was run out of a social club and two gambling wire rooms, according to prosecutors.
McMahon took bets for the Bronx ring, created accounts and worked as a runner, picking up money and disbursing winnings, according to the DA’s office. “McMahon is close with Mastracchio. He calls him his ‘uncle,’ ” a source told The Post.
Prosecutors said the ring, which had been under NYPD surveillance, collected more than $2 million on NFL, NBA and NHL bets between December 2009 and June 23, 2011.
McMahon faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. The seven-year FDNY veteran was suspended without pay. An FDNY spokesman declined to comment on the arrest.McMahon could not be reached for comment.
Thanks to Jamie Schram and Douglas Montero
Thomas McMahon, of Ladder Co. 38 in Belmont, was one of eight men charged by Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson with running a sports-betting ring tied to the Genovese crime family.
McMahon, 29, was arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court along with reputed mob associates Joseph Sarcinella, 77, Frank Mastracchio, 56, Dominick Totino, 44, Dominick Pietranico, 81, Bruno Travositino, 81, and John D’Ambrosio, 54.
Sarcinella — a longtime reputed Genovese mobster who pleaded guilty to running a gambling operation in 2002 — was in charge of the betting ring, which was run out of a social club and two gambling wire rooms, according to prosecutors.
McMahon took bets for the Bronx ring, created accounts and worked as a runner, picking up money and disbursing winnings, according to the DA’s office. “McMahon is close with Mastracchio. He calls him his ‘uncle,’ ” a source told The Post.
Prosecutors said the ring, which had been under NYPD surveillance, collected more than $2 million on NFL, NBA and NHL bets between December 2009 and June 23, 2011.
McMahon faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. The seven-year FDNY veteran was suspended without pay. An FDNY spokesman declined to comment on the arrest.McMahon could not be reached for comment.
Thanks to Jamie Schram and Douglas Montero
Thursday, March 01, 2012
Mob Daughter: The Mafia, Sammy "The Bull" Gravano, and Me!
From Karen Gravano, a star of the hit VH1 reality show Mob Wives, comes a revealing memoir of a mafia childhood, where love and family come hand-in-hand with murder and betrayal.
Karen Gravano is the daughter of Sammy “the Bull” Gravano, once one of the mafia's most feared hit men. With nineteen confessed murders, the former Gambino Crime Family underboss—and John Gotti’s right-hand man—is the highest ranking gangster ever to turn State’s evidence and testify against members of his high-profile crime family.
But to Karen, Sammy Gravano was a sometimes elusive but always loving father figure. He was ever-present at the head of the dinner table. He made a living running a construction firm and several nightclubs. He stayed out late, and sometimes he didn’t come home at all. He hosted “secret” meetings at their house, and had countless whispered conversations with “business associates.” By the age of twelve, Karen knew he was a gangster. And as she grew up, while her peers worried about clothes and schoolwork, she was coming face-to-face with crime and murder. Gravano was nineteen years old when her father turned his back on the mob and cooperated with the Feds. The fabric of her family was ripped apart, and they were instantly rejected by the communities they grew up in.
This is the story of a daughter’s struggle to reconcile the image of her loving father with that of a murdering Mafioso, and how, in healing the rift between the two, she was able to forge a new life.
Karen Gravano is the daughter of Sammy “the Bull” Gravano, once one of the mafia's most feared hit men. With nineteen confessed murders, the former Gambino Crime Family underboss—and John Gotti’s right-hand man—is the highest ranking gangster ever to turn State’s evidence and testify against members of his high-profile crime family.
But to Karen, Sammy Gravano was a sometimes elusive but always loving father figure. He was ever-present at the head of the dinner table. He made a living running a construction firm and several nightclubs. He stayed out late, and sometimes he didn’t come home at all. He hosted “secret” meetings at their house, and had countless whispered conversations with “business associates.” By the age of twelve, Karen knew he was a gangster. And as she grew up, while her peers worried about clothes and schoolwork, she was coming face-to-face with crime and murder. Gravano was nineteen years old when her father turned his back on the mob and cooperated with the Feds. The fabric of her family was ripped apart, and they were instantly rejected by the communities they grew up in.
This is the story of a daughter’s struggle to reconcile the image of her loving father with that of a murdering Mafioso, and how, in healing the rift between the two, she was able to forge a new life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)