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Ebook Excerpt: 
The Cicale Files, Vol. 1
Inside the Last Great Mafia Empire
 

Stories of the Bonanno Family
Lots of latecomers signed up last night, so I am resending the newsletter…

I finally wrote my first book -- an ebook submitted to Kindle Singles. It's around 20,000 words, which in paperback format is probably close to 90 pages. Look for it this week, most likely by Friday.

You, my newsletter subscribers, are the first to hear this announcement.

The book is based on the experiences of former Bonanno crime family capo Dominick Cicale, also the co-author. Dominick was tight with Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano.

The following excerpt pertains to Anthony "Tony Green" Urso, a capo who briefly served as Joe Massino's acting boss.
Anthony "Tony Green" Urso was a mobster but also a single male. He had a sharp eye for the ladies.
Vinny Basciano was a hell of a good ventriloquist when he talked out of the side of his mouth.
Anthony "Tony Green" Urso  hooked up with the Bonanno crime family in the 1970s. He became a made member in the crew of Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano. After Napolitano’s 1983 murder, Urso was placed in Joe Massino’s crew. Eventually, he was Massino’s driver and the two became close friends.

When Massino was arrested for the last time, he chose Urso to be acting boss. "Tony Green" commanded the Bonanno family and had major resources to back him up.

Urso sometimes had a problem focusing on business, though. While meeting on the streets with his guys, for example, he was known to stop paying attention to whatever was being discussed to focus on a fetching young woman walking by.

“Tony Green was more interested in the young hotties running around in the streets," Cicale said. “He thought he was God's gift to every woman that passed him by. Tony would make it so obvious, too, looking a woman up and down."

Urso was single and around 70. "He looked good for his age,” Cicale noted.

Tony Green stood about 5'8” fall and weighed around 170 pounds. He was “always hanging at the gym, the tanning bed, and nightclubs.”

Cicale related the story of what happened one time when he and Basciano were waiting in a supermarket parking lot for Urso.

“He steps out of his tricked-out, pimped-out black Hummer H2 wearing bright, shiny royal-blue colored skintight spandex. He actually looked as if he was about to get on stage at a male strip club.

“We watched him park his car farther down the lot from us. He got out of the Hummer in that outfit and Vinny starts whispering shit to me without moving his lips so Tony Green can’t see.”

“Oh my fucking God,” Basciano told Dom. “Is this man crazy or what? Dom, look at his sagging balls. They're huge. This guy is fucking kidding, right?”

“Tony is only several feet away and he’s smiling and I’m trying to hold in a major burst of laughter. Then Vinny whispered again, like a ventriloquist: "Bo, shut the fuck up. You're gonna make me bust out laughing right in this man’s face. You're gonna get us killed.”

“I'm busting a gut inside, thinking if any of the other families see this guy, then we’re all gonna get killed, the whole fucking crime family.”

Urso finally reached the two, arms outspread to give both Vinny and Dom the standard wiseguy greeting of an embrace and kiss.

Basciano’s whispered commentary still rang loudly in Dominick’s head and he was having great difficulty maintaining his composure.

As Vinny and Urso hugged, Dominick suddenly leaned over. “A loud sound had come out of my mouth, and I acted like I was gagging to cover up my laughter. I knew at that moment Vinny wanted to kill me. Finally after what seemed like forever, I stood back up and tears were rolling down my cheeks. I kept acting like I was choking.”

Dominick, now seemingly choking to death, walked back to the car to get a drink as Vinny had thoughtfully suggested.

As he was halfway to the car, Tony started calling out to him, true concern in his voice. “Dom! You sure you’re okay! You need help?”

Dominick raised his hand, indicating he was okay and didn’t require the Heimlich maneuver, which Urso appeared ready to spring into action to apply.

“Once in the car I turning on the engine, placed my head on the top of the steering wheel and started laughing so hard that, no bullshit, I almost pissed myself. It had taken me at least five minutes to compose myself."

In addition to the skintight spandex, Urso wore a toupee—which was crooked. “It was half on and half off his head. And Tony was so overly tanned from hours on tan beds that his scalp, which was normally covered by the hairpiece, was exposed and was a totally different color than the rest of him.”

Dominick finally composed himself enough to rejoin the discussion.

“I knew Vinny's every move and if I hadn’t caused such a scene, Vinny would have told Tony to fix his toupee. But Vinny knew if he did that now or anytime during the conversation, Tony would realize that my coughing fit was not a coughing fit at all, so Vinny was now forced to keep his mouth shut and we were both forced to continue to look at this spectacle.”

Once the discussion ended and Vinny and Dominick were back inside the car, watching Tony Green drive away in his humongous vehicle, they could finally break into uproarious laughter and get it all out of their system. ...


One evening, Dominick went with some guys to a nightclub. Rain was located in the lavish Garden City Hotel in the affluent Long Island town of Garden City in Nassau County. Accompanying him was Anthony “Ace” Aiello and an Irishman named Jimmy.

“Tony Green” was there as well, but now dressed in appropriate attire, his hairpiece properly adjusted.

“Actually he was a good looking guy,” Cicale said. “He was all tanned up and wearing jeans and a tight shirt that showed off his physique.”

Dominick, Ace and Jimmy approached Urso, who was with a few guys. Introductions went all around.

“Tony pulls me to the side and asks me if the big Irishman I am with is a cop. I look at him thinking: Are you kidding me? I am a Bonanno crime family captain. Ace is one of the soldiers in my crew. And he has the fucking balls to ask me if I am hanging out with a cop.

“I keep my composure and tell him, “No, Tony, Jimmy is not a cop, he is a very dear friend of mine who I met in federal prison.”

“Okay, I was just curious,” Tony said. Then he pointed at one of the guys he had introduced to Dominick. The guy and the others had their backs to the Bonanno acting boss and capo and were sucking down drinks at the bar.

“That guy John I just introduced you to… he is a cop,” Urso whispered to a disbelieving Cicale.

“Okay,” Dominick said, feeling like he had fallen through the rabbit hole and was in Wonderland.

An acting boss of a Mafia family hanging out with a cop and introducing him to his guys? To Dominick, this was simply too much to digest, so he reported the matter to Basciano the next day.

“Vinny could not believe what I had told him. He had me repeat it to him—several times—so he could fully absorb the actions of the man who was the acting boss of the family.

“At the end of the day Vinny felt it best to remain silent and continue pulling the strings from behind the scenes...."

Anthony "Tony Green" Urso, who Cicale refers to as “Stripper Man,” was arrested in 2004 as a result of several meetings with wired informant/Bonanno capo James "Big Lou" Tartaglione. Urso was indicted on racketeering, murder, gambling, loan sharking and extortion charges.

Urso was caught on Big Lou’s tape famously proclaiming what he believed should be new mob policy as regards turncoats: "Why should the rats' kids be happy, where my kids or your kids should suffer because I'm away for life? If you take one kid, I hate to say it, and do what you gotta do, they'll fucking think twice."

In February 2005 Urso plead guilty to all charges and was sentenced to 17 years in a federal prison.

Urso’s projected release date is December 5, 2021.
Mine and Dominick's first ebook....
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