r/Mafia Feb 16 '23

r/Mafia info thread - new users MUST read (updated 2.16.2023)

101 Upvotes

Posts from accounts with less than 50 comment karma will be deleted by auto-mod.


Welcome to r/Mafia.

This sub-reddit features stories, interviews, documentary and news articles about organized crime around the world with a main focus on Italian Organized Crime. This thread will be used for various functions, The book lists and Ask A Question threads will be rolled into this one. I will also be using it as a FAQ and will begin removing threads which ask questions already here. If you have any questions that should be added to the FAQ, or books that should be added to the list please respond to this thread.

If you wish to contact me directly, please do not send me a chat, I don't see them. Send a message to modmail, DM me directly, or even tag me on our discord (see below).

last edited: 3/30/24

r/Mafia Rules

  • Please only share organized crime related content.

  • Keep self-promotional posts to a minimum. If you are a very active contributor to the subreddit, you are allowed to occasionally submit the best content from your site. If you're not sure if you qualify, please message the mods. Violation can result in a permanent ban of your username and website domain.

  • Vote manipulation on submissions will result in a permanent ban.

  • Be Respectful. Abusive comments will be subject to removal. Continued abuse will result in permanent ban. Remember to follow reddiquette.

  • Picture submissions should NOT include family or random unconnected people. Photos including such individuals should have them censored in some way, leaving only the organized crime subject visible. Exceptions: Long deceased persons, those famous for their relationships with gangsters, and those who have involved themselves via articles, interviews, documentaries and books, i.e. Victoria and Angel Gotti.

  • NSFW submissions (i.e. crime scene photos/videos) MUST use the NSFW option when posted.

  • New Reddit Accounts: Posts from accounts with less than 50 comment karma will be deleted by auto-mod.

  • Sopranos quotes will be removed. Offenders will be banned.

  • Submissions that are links MUST use the "post a new link" option not "Submit new text post".

  • Please report any submissions that violate our rules.


r/Mafia Discord

  • Join our discord server here

  • modded by community members Il Norte and 00NizarSoccer and sub moderator slumpadoochous

  • Don't forget to visit our meme/shitposting subreddit r/OCcirclejerk


r/Mafia FAQ

see:Common Mafia myths debunked


r/Mafia Top Book Recommendations

  • The Five Families : Selwynn Raab
  • Murder Machine : Gene Mustain & Jerry Capeci
  • The Sicilian Mafia: Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia : John Dickie
  • The Sixth Family : Adrian Humphreys & Lee Lamothe
  • The Good Fellas Tapes : George Anastasia
  • Underboss : Peter Maas
  • Paddywhacked : TJ English
  • Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia : Joseph Pistone & Richard Woodley
  • History of The Mafia : Salvatore Lupo
  • Blood & Honour : George Anastasia
  • Supermob : Gus Russo
  • Family Affair : Sam Giancana & Scott Burnstein
  • The Mafia and the Machine: The Story of the Kansas City Mob : Frank Hayde
  • The Milwaukee Mafia : Gavin Schmitt
  • The Life and Times of Frank Balisteri : Wayne Clingman
  • The Quiet Don: The Untold Story of Mafia Kingpin Russell Bufalino : Matt Birkbeck
  • Mob Over Miami : Michelle McPhee
  • Hitman: The Untold Story of Johnny Martorano : Howie Carr
  • The Sinatra Club : Sal Polisi & Steve Dougherty
  • Man of Honour : Joseph Bonanno
  • The Valachi Papers : Peter Maas
  • The Westies: TJ English
  • Mafia Prince : Phil Leonetti, Scott Burnstein & Christopher Graziano
  • Black Mass : Dick Lehr
  • The Black Hand : Chris Blatchford (Mexican Mafia)
  • Garden City Gangland : Scott Deitch

Previous threads: 1 | 2


Mafia news and research resources:


Youtube Channels & Podcasts


Youtube Full Length Documentaries

Please report any broken links

last edited 2.16.2023


r/Mafia Nov 01 '25

r/Mafia Book Recommendations 2025

51 Upvotes

r/Mafia Top Book Recommendations

  • The Five Families : Selwynn Raab
  • Murder Machine : Gene Mustain & Jerry Capeci
  • The Sicilian Mafia: Cosa Nostra: A History of the Sicilian Mafia : John Dickie
  • The Sixth Family : Adrian Humphreys & Lee Lamothe
  • The Good Fellas Tapes : George Anastasia
  • Underboss : Peter Maas
  • Paddywhacked : TJ English
  • Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia : Joseph Pistone & Richard Woodley
  • History of The Mafia : Salvatore Lupo
  • Blood & Honour : George Anastasia
  • Supermob : Gus Russo
  • Family Affair : Sam Giancana & Scott Burnstein
  • The Mafia and the Machine: The Story of the Kansas City Mob : Frank Hayde
  • The Milwaukee Mafia : Gavin Schmitt
  • The Life and Times of Frank Balisteri : Wayne Clingman
  • The Quiet Don: The Untold Story of Mafia Kingpin Russell Bufalino : Matt Birkbeck
  • Mob Over Miami : Michelle McPhee
  • Hitman: The Untold Story of Johnny Martorano : Howie Carr
  • The Sinatra Club : Sal Polisi & Steve Dougherty
  • Man of Honour : Joseph Bonanno
  • The Valachi Papers : Peter Maas
  • The Westies: TJ English
  • Mafia Prince : Phil Leonetti, Scott Burnstein & Christopher Graziano
  • Black Mass : Dick Lehr
  • The Black Hand : Chris Blatchford (Mexican Mafia)
  • Garden City Gangland : Scott Deitch

Previous threads: 1 | 2

Add your recommendations below. A new updated thread will be added in the new year.


r/Mafia 36m ago

Not all kings wear a crown...

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Upvotes

r/Mafia 6h ago

Skinny Joey's Cheesesteaks is now under new ownership

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39 Upvotes

I wonder if it's owned by some multinational conglomerate now? Like Los Pollos Hermanos was.


r/Mafia 9h ago

On October 2, 1963, while testifying in before the McClellan's senate committee, Joe Valachi named Samuel "Red" Levine, a gunman & driver for Meyer Lansky & Lucky Luciano, as the leader of the four-man hit squad, posing as govt agents, that killed Salvatore Maranzano in his Park Ave. office in 1931.

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31 Upvotes

r/Mafia 18h ago

Because of How Terrible Godfather of Harlem and The Westies Is, I Wanted to Make an Appreciation Post for Boardwalk Empire and How It Handled Fictional Gangsters Alongside Historical Gangsters. What Are Y’all’s Thoughts on Boardwalk Empire?

64 Upvotes

I’ll admit that Boardwalk Empire had its weaker moments in its later seasons, but I still found the final season thoroughly enjoyable despite its rushed pacing. Much of this can be attributed to HBO shifting its focus and resources toward Game of Thrones as it exploded in popularity, leaving Boardwalk Empire with fewer opportunities to fully develop its concluding chapters. Even so, the show’s portrayal of the fictional downfalls of Nucky Thompson, Chalky White, Dr. Valentin Narcisse, and others serves as a powerful reflection of a darker historical transition: the decline of the old guard and the rise of the Young Turk faction of American mafiosi, led by figures such as Salvatore “Charlie Lucky” Lucania and Meyer “The Little Man” Lansky, who emerged as dominant forces after the conclusion of the Castellammarese War and the creation of The Commission.


r/Mafia 1h ago

Paul Siciliano: The Man Who Mentored Vito Genovese (Documentary)

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r/Mafia 15h ago

Chicago cooperator Jeffrey Hollingshead (2014 IDOC mugshot)

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28 Upvotes

r/Mafia 9h ago

South Jersey

6 Upvotes

I’ve always been extremely interested in the Philly/South Jersey mob. Specifically the Scarfo years. Recently a good friend of mine moved slightly below Vineland and I’ve been making visits monthly ever since. Coming from North Jersey it feels like an entirely different state. If anyone has any info on mobsters who lived or operated in that area during the 80s/90s or even presently, I’d greatly appreciate it. Always looking for solid OC reading material! Keep up the good content everyone 👍🏻👍🏻


r/Mafia 18h ago

A recent picture of David "Dave" Salvo, a Philadelphia Family soldier.

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29 Upvotes

He served as a loyal driver, bodyguard, and enforcer for former Philadelphia Family acting boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi. Dave owns an Italian American restaurant in Jersey called Saltwater. Said to have been made in 2015.


r/Mafia 59m ago

The time that Gene Borrello was going to have his rat cousin's dog whacked - and Ronnie G vetoed the hit

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I'm assuming that Ronnie was like "we're not doing that - what the hell is wrong with you?".


r/Mafia 22h ago

Gambinos: Alphonse Trucchio reputedly returned to a prominent postion in the organizaiton less than 12 months after being taken off the shelf (from The Gangster Report)

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41 Upvotes

r/Mafia 20h ago

How did Sammy Gravano get made by the Gambinos in 1976 if the only murder he did prior to this was the 1970 murder of Joe Collucci for Tommy Spero of the Colombos?

28 Upvotes

Gravano says in Mafia States of America that he got made in 1976 and the only murder he did prior to this would have been the Collucci murder in 1970 for Tommy Spero. Why would the Gambinos make him if this was the case?

On top of this, Gravano left the Colombos prior to this (I believe) due to beef with the Speros?


r/Mafia 8h ago

Dom Cicale apologized to Jeff Nadu in his stream last night

1 Upvotes

Did anyone else see that?

He said that he'd been fed false information by someone he now knows is not a good guy. He didn't say what he was actually apologising for though. He's claimed a bunch of stuff about Nadu, so it could be any, or all, or none of these.

e.g.

- Jeff had a paranoid crashout and thought Joey Merlino was trying to kill him, so he went running to the feds.

- Jeff was getting paid by the Geneovse to lie and discredit Dom

- Jeff was getting paid by Joey Merlino to act as his PR front and damage control guy

- Jeff got banned from all Genovese-owned clubs in Jersey by Hippy Zanfardino

He followed that up by saying that he's willing to let bygones be bygones and forgive Jeff for Jeff's lies about him.


r/Mafia 17h ago

Were any respected made men suspected to be gay but never confirmed?

10 Upvotes

r/Mafia 1d ago

What's the Mafia's history in New Orleans?

23 Upvotes

r/Mafia 1d ago

Now that the mafia is more of a white-collar deal, do you reckon some of the guys ever dream about doing something more action-packed?

21 Upvotes

Yaknow, like - "wouldn't it be exciting to go out and jack a truck, or rob an armored car, just the one time?".

Or something like going to visit some bikers, beating the crap out of them and stealing their meth.


r/Mafia 12h ago

RAT FICTION | Lying Informant Jeff Lowman: “I’m not a mob guy. I’m not a street guy.” (2017)

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1 Upvotes

r/Mafia 1d ago

Naples' Via Cavalleggeri: Gunfire hits the boss's nephew's house overnight.

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11 Upvotes

A low-intensity feud. Little blood, a lot of lead, tension constantly above the limit. But the latest entry in the notebook of the investigators called to monitor the criminal turmoil in western Naples is one that will leave one sleeping uneasy. A window, in the heart of the Fuorigrotta neighborhood, is riddled with five gunshots. This alone would be enough to give an idea of a brutal raid, which only by pure chance did not have dramatic consequences. That's not all, however. What makes one's blood run cold is the target of the mysterious intimidation: a former child killer, with a "hefty" surname behind him. The one targeted is Domenique Giannelli, nephew of the repentant boss Alessandro, fresh from a twelve-year prison sentence for a brutal murder committed as a minor and now under semi-liberty. With the former area bosses imprisoned and at least four groups of young men with aspirations to become Mafia bosses at large, the risk of a new outbreak of violence is far from a possibility.

The alarm was raised shortly before dawn on Saturday. With darkness still shrouding the city streets, the Carabinieri received a call for intervention from some residents: "They've been shot, run." A few minutes later, the first police cars rushed to Via della Grotta Vecchia, a stone's throw from the commercial heart of Fuorigrotta. No bullet casings were found on the asphalt, nor even traces of blood. However, the Carabinieri needed only to look a few meters up to verify the veracity of the report. The window of an apartment was riddled with gunshots: the five entry wounds left little doubt that that home was the true target of the armed raid. The investigation continues, and the Carabinieri of the Bagnoli company are also tracking down the possible recipient of the "message": the scion of the Phlegraean mafia, Dominique Giannelli, already definitively convicted for being the perpetrator of the murder of Pasquale Zito. Questions have long surrounded the motive for the crime, even recently investigated by informants, but so far it has been classified as a settling of scores sparked by a passion: jealousy over advances the victim allegedly made towards the then-16-year-old's girlfriend.

While waiting for the images captured by local security cameras to provide the first answers, the state's reaction has not been long in coming. The men of the Bagnoli police station's investigative team went into action, conducting a search that culminated in a significant seizure. The raid took place in a building on Via Bagnoli, just meters from the epicenter of Coroglio's nightlife. It was here that, while searching a condominium area, police seized forty-nine rounds of ammunition and twenty grams of marijuana. Investigators consider the building to be one of the strongholds of the emerging Maiorino group, a gang of "terrible boys" long linked to the Troncone clan of Fuorigrotta and, at times, already on a collision course with the new recruits of the clan led by the now former boss Alessandro Giannelli, who joined the ranks of the justice system in early April. This seizure captures a volatile reality.

Tensions remain high in Fuorigrotta and Bagnoli.


r/Mafia 1d ago

Why did mafia members start to dress more casual?

38 Upvotes

I knew of a few mafia guys, from leaders to associates in the 2000s-2010s in Queens. They always dressed very casual, like a typical blue colllar worker. In the 90s I did remember seeing some guys in fancy suits, but that might have been a special occassion..

Is it just a Hollywood stereotype that they dressed sharp? Or was it more common in the older generations?


r/Mafia 1d ago

Anyone else watching or have seen Godfather of Harlem?

5 Upvotes

It's a MGM+ series on Bumpy Johnson


r/Mafia 1d ago

Sammy the Bull Gravano Rejected by Tommy Karate Pitera – Then Fires Back - James Proctor

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6 Upvotes

James summarizes Sammy The Bull's latest livestream.

Sammy apparently said that he still considers Tommy Karate to be a friend and fully understands why he's protective of his daughter - and that he's welcome to come live at his house when he gets out.

There were also negative comments about Greg Scarpa Jr. Sammy says that Greg is a rat who knew his fawtha was a rat. Carmine Persico was also a rat who knew that Scarpa was a rat. As did many of the Colombos.


r/Mafia 1d ago

Whitey and Knuckles ☘️

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15 Upvotes

r/Mafia 1d ago

How a Cleveland Cop Worked for the Mafia’s Cocaine Trade (Part Three)

11 Upvotes

The final story in this three-part Substack series is here.

The story details how Robert Dumas, a Cleveland police official, who was once the city’s Assistant Safety Director, ended up working as an armed enforcer for Carmen Zagaria, the man who ran the city's Mafia-financed cocaine and drug trade through the late 1970s and into the 1980s.

The story begins in 1980 with Dumas as one of two men Zagaria turned to for a robbery of one of his own drug runners at a hotel on West 150th in the West Park neighborhood of Cleveland. The other man involved with the robbery was Fritz Graewe, another known accomplice of the drug ring and brother of Hans Graewe.

The relationship between Dumas and Zagaria deepened when Dumas brokered Zagaria's introduction to Dr. Lambert DePompei, a renowned physician who also turned to corruption to enrich himself. Dr. DePompei served as the ring's inside doctor and built an insurance fraud scheme out of staged accidents.

The Substack series is a companion to my forthcoming book, Unraveling the American Mafia: Angelo Lonardo, Carmen Zagaria, and the Beginning of the End in Cleveland (Bloomsbury, 2027). Before it arrives, I'll be publishing side stories from this world on my Substack. Some didn't make the book and others simply deserve more attention than the book allowed or was focused on. Subscribe to follow along. That way, the stories will come straight to your email inbox. I'll periodically post here though.

Please note that while the first two stories in this series were free, the final story is for paid subscribers only. However, you can redeem a free seven-day trial to finish the story. Subscriptions are $8/month, all of which goes to supporting the ability to continue this Substack by acquiring trial transcripts, court documents, and other pieces of evidence.

Here is the final part of this story.

https://open.substack.com/pub/timgill924/p/how-a-cleveland-cop-worked-for-the-ab4?r=1ixz1x&utm_medium=ios


r/Mafia 1d ago

Anyone else find it bizarre that, at its peak, the Mafia could have just legitimately run its casinos, waste management companies, construction businesses, and other ventures and made millions legally instead of relying on corruption, scams, and sketchy tactics to squeeze every cent out of them?

56 Upvotes

For example, my old man (RIP) sold waste management equipment to Genovese crime family associate Carmine “Papa Smurf” Franco, whose waste management company generated millions of dollars. They could have simply run the business legitimately by collecting and disposing of trash legally and still made substantial money. Instead, they started taking medical waste and illegally dumping it so they could pocket the higher fees.

Another example is Mafia-controlled construction projects, where materials would be stolen and then resold to contractors on other jobs. Obviously, they were criminals, not Harvard graduates, but it’s still striking that many of these businesses could have been highly profitable on their own. They could have leveraged the Mafia’s influence to gain contracts and a competitive advantage while operating mostly legitimate businesses instead of constantly engaging in overtly criminal schemes.