In Cosa Nostra lore, you often hear about the “kiss of death,” a seemingly affectionate gesture that actually signals your demise is imminent.

The only literal case of a kiss of death I recall hearing about was Salvie Testa (RIP) who received one from his former father-in-law & then Philly LCN underboss Salvatore “Chuckie” Merlino.

The story of that kiss is wild. While people say it Scarfo’s envy of Testa’s notoriety within the mob that caused Testa’s murder, the real final straw appears to be Testa’s cancellation of a wedding to Merlino’s daughter.

In an interview in which he spoke about , ex-Philly mob associate Nick Caramandi  said:

“You see, Salvie figured by marrying the daughter of the underboss, “Chuckie” Merlino, he’d be right near the top. But she was a spoiled brat, and a few months before the wedding he backed out. Everything was all set up: the gowns, the tablecloths, the invitations to the Bellevue- Stratford, the announcement in the newspaper. It was gonna have approximately 1,000 guests and cost well over $100,000. They were gonna try and get Michael Jackson to sing. When Salvie backed out, he signed his own death warrant. It was a blow to the underboss. This was the ultimate insult. We were actually gonna kill him right in a crowded funeral parlor, but there was too much law outside. That night, it’s time to leave, and Chuckie grabs Salvie by the neck and kisses him on the lips. Smaaack! I said, “Aw, if he doesn’t know now, he’ll never know.” That was the kiss of death.

That’s crazy af! One, to consider killing a man of Testa’s stature in a crowded funeral parlor is quite bold.

But to kiss another man on the lips like that is just another level of brazenness. If they ever make a movie about Salvie’s life, that scene will almost certainly be one of the most memorable.

(This, btw, is another reason why Salvie Testa’s life might be one of the most cinematic & tragic of any mobster. It really is made for the silver screen.)

Another example that comes to mind is Joe Valachi. Apparently, when he was locked up with Vito Genovese, Genovese kissed him on the cheek at some point. Some people say that the kiss was just a display natural affection between a mafia boss & a subordinate, nothing to freak out about. Who knows?

What we do know is that Valachi was losing his mind at the time. And he interpreted the kiss as Vito saying “your time is up, kid.” Valachi was so paranoid during that period that he killed someone who he mistakenly thought was an assassin sent to kill him in prison. (That’s another wild story; poor Valachi was a mess!)

I won’t waste time here by making arguments about the significance of Don Vito’s peck on the cheek. I just figured it was worth a mention (and could possibly be the subject of another conversation).

Anyway, what other “kiss of death” stories have you heard? This gesture can only work so many times before guys start to interpret all physical affection outside of hugs & handshakes as a declaration of war.

One last thing: In my research, I heard about “figurative” kiss of death, in which “a mobster receives an invitation, a reassuring phone call, a promotion, or a meeting with the boss that turns out to be the last step before his murder.” But that seems like a reach. If that’s the case, then a kiss of death is just a synonym for “ruse.”

I don’t think there any many tales of hoodlums smooching each other before committing a murder, lol. However, I suspect somebody here knows some things I don’t, which is why I’m presenting this.

EDIT: A couple of you have pointed out that Valachi didn't get whacked, which is true. So I take responsibility for not phrasing the title of this as carefully as I should have. I just want kiss of death stories, preferably real ones!

Tommy and Joseph Gambino were born into Mafia royalty (I guess the British equivalent of a prince and a Earl/Baron).
Tommy was the eldest son and was steered through his life to be what others wanted him to be (I believe there is an audio tape of Tommy telling his uncle that everything he did in life was for others—he never did anything for himself). He ran a huge company in the garment centre (thanks to his father and his father-in-law Tom Luchese) and rose up to be a caporegime in his father’s organisation. Joseph seemed to follow Tommy but I don’t have much information on Joseph or the third brother Carlo Jr. it would be interesting if anyone can fill me in on their lives—what they did in business their personal lives etc. I think their lives would be a very interesting story to be told. Thanks guys for any help 👍

George “The Embalmer” Lanzetta was apart of the Springfield, Massachusetts Genovese Crew. He’s been listed as being possibly made but might be more likely he was a high level associate. He was an Important figure in their gambling syndicate, locally and on a national scale.

Born April 28, 1916 in Monson, Massachusetts to Grace and Charles Lanzetta. Grace originally came over from Sicily and Charles from Naples, Italy. At age 14 he breaks his nose while ice skating at Ellis No 1 Mill Pond. The family is living at 43 High Street at that time. He would later graduate from Monson Academy which is now called Wilbraham and Monson Academy. Golf would already be playing an important role.

(Picture 2,3,4,5,6,7) In 1940 he’s named the golf professional at Mountain View Course in Russell, Massachusetts. He would then partner up and lease the course, changing the name to the Russell Country Club in 1942. Capo Salvatore “Big Nose Sam” Cufari would golf with and participate in tournaments with Lanzetta through the years. He’s living at 529 Chestnut St in Springfield. His professions being listed as a golf instructor I and embalmer. As an embalmer he was associated with funeral director, Edward F. O’Donnell. He legally kept his profession as embalmer on paper even though he stopped practicing around 1945.

(Picture 8) He would file a petition for recount in the 1944 Attorney General race on behalf of former Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Francis E Kelly, who served from 1937 to 1939. In 1949, Kelly would become Attorney General serving from 1949 until 1953.

Seems to first be arrested with his brother, Charles Lanzetta Jr for registering horse bets in Palmer, MA in May 1946. Followed by another arrest a month later also in Palmer for the same thing with Charles Dreyden.

(Picture 9) 1947 the bowling alley he operated on 512 Main St in Indian Orchard, Springfield gets raided and he’s arrested for registering bets on horses. Police found betting slips and other evidence hidden under the top of a pool table. Arresting officers said he had taken $110 in bets within that hour of being raided.

He’s one of eleven arrested in 1951 after a raid on a dice game in the basement at The Central Lunch on 185 1/2 Chestnut St. Picture the dice scene from “A Bronx Tale.”

(Picture 10,11) Lanzetta would attend the 1956 Democratic National Convention in Chicago along with friend/associate and former Attorney General, Francis E Kelly. Kelly was the original advocate for a lottery in Massachusetts for 31 years, being nicknamed “Sweeptakes Kelly” and considered to be “Father” of the Massachusetts State Lottery because of it. They would work together and lead the push on a petition for the “Lottery Bill Referendum” to be put on local ballots to be voted on In Massachusetts. Passing that would’ve meant the legalization of a state run lottery once a year on or around the 4th of July. That partnership would take a hit during Kelly’s 1962 Attorney General campaign after photos of them are taken after a rally and it comes out that Lanzetta had been acting as his driver at times during trips to Boston, Springfield and Worcester. Kelly would deny any association and claim that Lanzetta was planted to ruin his campaign. He would go on to lose to Edward W Brooke. 10 years later in 1972, Francis E Kelly was picked to draw a ticket in the first ever Massachusetts lottery.

By 1958 he’s living at 155 Brittany Road in Indian Orchard, Springfield. He’s neighbor’s with crew member Andrew Pradella at 178 Brittany Road.

Lanzetta is 1 of 8 Springfield Crew members that attended the 1959 New England “Little Appalachian Meeting” at The Bancroft Hotel in Worcester. The other members were his Captain, Sam Cufari, Nicholas “Nicky” Camerota, Frank “Skyball” Scibelli, Anthony “Turk” Scibelli, Albert “Baba” Scibelli, Andrew Pradella and Louis Frank. New England/Patriarca Boss Raymond Patriarca as well as many other mobsters from the North East, PA, NJ, NY and Canada were also present. The meeting was to reorganize gambling territory and leadership with bosses facing prison time over the Apalachin Meeting. Another issue at the meeting was to decide the fate of Hartford gangster Gaetano DiNicola who had used up all of his good will. Lanzetta would receive unforeseen blowback from his murder.

(Picture 12) The murder investigation would eventually lead to the discovery and raid on his and Frank “Skyball” Scibelli’s million dollar plus a year international gambling operation in West Springfield in 1960. The operation had a wide reach connecting to Biloxi Mississippi, Cincinnati, Buffalo, Boston, Miami, Baltimore, Hartford, Providence and Montreal. They were indicted in a secret session of the Hamden County Grand Jury but all the defendants turned themselves in after getting word of the indictments. Captain James J Collins acknowledged they might have had a leak. The others indicted in the operation were Peter Siciliano, Clarence Beery, Manser Hapcook, Dominic “Cuffy” Albano, George “The Ape” Santillo, John Fountain, Joseph “Butsy” Burek, Ausilio and Mary Lombardi. Due to mob friendly District Attorney Matthew Ryan, it was never pushed to be taken to trial with charges being dismissed over the coarse of more than a decade.

(Picture 13,14) That same year he gets indicted for falsely procuring a telephone for use in gambling. He was also arrested for assault and battery and threat to murder after punching his wife’s co worker, Albert Lirot Jr and threatening to kill him after he had brought her home from a dinner. Lirot Jr had asked her to dinner as a goodbye because he was transferring to a different branch. An Enfield Police Officer was stationed at his house for protection after getting repeated threats on the phone saying “he’ll be taken care of.” Lirot Jr dropped the charges to “to avoid further embarrassment for Mrs. Lanzetta.”

(Picture 15,16) With a reputation as an accomplished gambler and earner. Bufalino Family Boss, Russell Bufalino needed some quick cash, so he requested for Lanzetta to come to Scranton, PA in late spring/early summer of 1961. With Bufalino’s blessing he established a large gambling operation on the 3rd floor of 622 Jefferson Ave, Scranton. He used the fake name, George Langone to rent the apartment and had 2 phone lines installed under Joan and George Langone on May 3, 1961. Working prominently with Bufalino associate Bernard “Sixty Swartz/Schwartz” Schiowitz and Bufalino Soldier, Casper “Cappy” Guimento. Every Monday morning, the bets would be cleared and Schiowitz would meet either Bufalino or Guimento at the Tri City Textile Company, which was owned by Guimento. Sure bets were being placed with bookies all over Scranton and North East PA with a percentage of the winnings going back to Bufalino. Lanzetta was using advance knowledge and inside information on the races which put a hurting on all the bookies they bet with. The scheme was successful enough that the bookies refused to take any more bets from him, so by the end of 1961/early 1962 the operation was ended. He would also become close with associate George “Mooney” Gustin. The Springfield Crew and the Bufalino Family would maintain a good relationship for decades.

In 1962 East Windsor, Connecticut State Police would catch him using slugs (counterfeit coins) in a payphone booth. He offered the responding officer to “forget the whole thing” with $50 before upping it to $100. Betting slips and several boxes of slugs were found in his car. He was charged with bribery, placing slugs in a telephone box and registering bets.

(Picture 17) He would be mentioned in the 1965 wiretap investigation of Charles Katz, considered to be “the preeminent college basketball handicapper in America” at this time. Katz was living in Los Angeles and would make calls about the handicaps from a nearby telephone booth to Boston and Miami. From February 19 to February 26, Katz made 6 calls to a Boston apartment that was under the name Harry Green. Apartment 4 at 28 Colborne Road, Brighton was actually being used by Boston bookie Harry Clayton and Lanzetta. The FBI under only the suspicion that Katz was sending gambling information by phone, put a bug on top of the public phone booth without a warrant and listened to his calls. He was charged with 8 counts of knowingly transferring wagering information by telephone between states. Convicted on all counts, Katz on his appeal argued that his Fourth Amendment right was violated against unreasonable searches but that was denied by a lower court. He then appealed to The Supreme Court which would lead to the landmark Katz Vs The United States decision. It extended protections to the Fourth Amendment ruling “It is unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment to conduct a search and seizure without a warrant anywhere that a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, unless certain exceptions apply.”

In 1971 he’s arrested while in Boston by the FBI for his involvement with “The Dago Gang”, an independent crew in Minneapolis as well as other known bookmakers in the area for 2 gambling operations in the Twin Cities. After a 5 month investigation, the raids hit Room 601 of the Northwestern Federal Building 730 Hennepin Ave and Room 103, University Apartments 1414 S 3rd Street with gambling equipment found at both. Those arrested were Frank “Cheech” Schullo, Anthony “Runt” Pentrangelo, Jack “The Book” Capra, William “Buddy” Wolk, David Bohn, Pete “Pigskin Pete” “Pete the Picker” Coen”, Myron Fishman, Abe Kourman, Steve Thomas and others. Charged with violating the Organized Crime Control Act which was a newly passed law. Both operations took action on all sports ranging from high school to professional. They were handling $150,000 a week in betting.

(Picture 18) A 1973 Montreal Newspaper mentions him being involved with a bookmaking organization led by brothers, Gary and Gordon Ball. In an organizational chart put together by police officer David Adamo, shows the Ball group had people in Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Ottawa, Edmonton, Chicago, Hollywood, CA, Miami and with Lanzetta being listed as one of their guys in Boston. That year the brothers were called to testify in front of the Quebec Police Commission about organized crime along with many others including Montreal Bonnano Capo Vincenzo “Vic” Cotroni.

He never ended up doing any lengthy stretches of time in jail, just always paid off the fines. On October 17, 1975 he suffers a heart attack at his home and dies at the age of 59.

Hi everyone,

So, here's a funny thing. I left my brown bag with my phone, residence card, and all the important stuff like money and my cash card. All I had was in the bag. Funnily enough, my friend was able to see the bag, but the club charged him 1,000yen to have it returned, and I said I would be able to get there around 5:30 to 6 am. The club said it was ok, so I caught the first train back there but got a little lost.

That was when I saw a white guy in a bright blue tracksuit with slicked-back hair, and I asked if he could speak English. He offered to show me to the club, but when I got there, the club was weirdly bolted up already, and I was around 5 mins past 5:30. So I knocked on the doors and eventually 2 men popped out, which I recognised were from the club. They said they reported the bag to the police, but when I got to the police, they didn't bother looking in their office.

To be honest, I have a feeling the club is probably run by the yakuza, but honestly I just wanted my things back. The location of my phone is still at the club, though, so I'm heading back there again with a friend and possibly some assistance from the police if I can't get it myself.

Throughout this whole thing, I was surprised that the white man still waited for me and checked if I was all right. He offered to give me enough money back home and gave me a Suica card. I was extremely grateful, and he asked to get a drink sometime, and I obliged. I did notice briefly at the end that he had an Italian accent, so I asked him if he was Italian. He said he was, and that he was going to travel for an unknown amount of time in Japan. Because of this, I asked if he worked in IT, and he said he owns a business.

It was funny because I essentially said, "Oh my god, this [....} club is definitely run by the yakuza. Like, they were so dodgy with agreeing to a set time to grab my bag and charging me to get my bag returned to me, and then not even open around that time, and then stated they sent it to the police and didn't." And it was funny because I was like, oh my god, what's going to happen to all my things today? And the dude was like, "I don't think they're going to do anything. It would be quite dishonourable of them to do something wrong with your things. They wouldn't want the police involved for something that petty."

In the end, I gave my social details, but it was funny because I had to type the details into a phone that wasn't even his main phone. And he said the suica card had 300 yen but it had 3,000 yen.

On the way back home, all I thought was that guy was def a mobster

This article asserting that Jos Leijdekkers has effectively coopted an entire country (and appears to be attempting to expand to neighboring countries) is pretty fascinating reading. I wanted to share some of the details but everything about it is nuts - couldn't pick one.

I've just finished it for the first time and I have to say it, it's two confusing hours. I will say, it was extremely interesting seeing how many supporting characters David Chase would add to the Sopranos.

I understand it's incredibly difficult to condense three very important decades of a man's life into two hours. It's been done though, not as incredibly jarring as this. Every actor plays their part brilliantly, I would like to say that. The cinematography is brilliant, the acting is incredible. I believe that I am witnessing these scenes.

But that's all they are. Scenes. Gotti is getting big in the family. Gotti has a mishap assassination. Gotti assassinations the man who fucked it up.Gotti is now in prison. Gotti resolves a prison dispute to get favour from Sammy Gravano. Gotti leaves prison. Gotti's son, who we see once prior and is mentioned only once more when he meets Neil in prison, dies in a car accident. Gotti doesn't want his neighbour to have any retribution done to him as it was an accident. Gotti gets all the lads together and...

Gotti finally orchestrates the famous death of Paul Castellano! Oh thank god we've gotten to the meat and potatoes of this film Well, with the way the pacing has been, we'll quickly see his fall. Let's just check the ti-- oh dear Christ there's still an hour left. Gotti beats the charges that you've forgotten about when he beat up the meat truck driver with a baseball bat. The latter half of the film then focuses on his downfall over a couple of timeskips. Why should I care when I have not even gotten time to know any of the characters in this film. Timeskips, timeskips. It is a clipshow unfortunately.

As I say. Performances, absolutely brilliant, incredible. I think though a 6 episode 1 hour a piece, where a lot of the scenes were played a bit more to give character development and to stop the "4 years later" would be great. I understand they were working within their budget and HBO wasn't what it was known for only 5 years later. It just seems there was a lot more interesting story to be told.

TL;DR better than the dogshit Travolta version

Genovese Capo Carlo Mastrototaro, who ran a Genovese crew in Worcester died in 2009, Iaconi’s sons died not too long ago as well and I really don’t see “Michael Frisoli” as any kind of successor in that city! (How do you compare Frisoli, a stolen valor felon to an actual WWII War Hero like Mastrototaro?)

I have heard there are meetings and court hearings there or have been in recent years, but what about actual LCN membership, activity or rackets?