Organized Crime

Latest Articles

By | January 01, 0001

New magazine tells Boston’s war stories

Crime Journal Dept.
It’s not too surprising that Kung-Fu Video owners James Bennett and Aaron Crawford are venturing into another retail niche that is largely considered commercially destitute.
By CHRIS FARAONE | April 26, 2010

‘An honest story’

Chazz Palminteri’s one-man Bronx Tale
As exciting as A Bronx Tale is, its most dramatic moment happened offstage, in 1990 when Chazz Palminteri was performing his one-man show in Los Angeles and turned down a million-dollar deal for film rights because they refused to let him recreate his role in the film.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | April 14, 2010

What's the scam?

Trying to bilk the Scientologists
Back on the morning of June 7, 1982, a man walked into the New York branch of the Middle East Bank on the 25th floor of a Madison Avenue office building and tried to deposit a $2 million check. The man, a native of the United Arab Emirates, left without completing the transaction.
By JIM SCHUH | September 28, 2009

Up for the challenge

Rhythmafia: a new breed of mashup
Rhythmafia have been on the scene for about four years, and in that relatively short time the Providence natives — Rob Cinami (drums and backup vox), Jamie Kearns (guitar), Zack Chagnon (bass), and frontman Sam Montes — have successfully delivered a blatantly unique sound through the course of three albums.
By CHRIS CONTI | August 25, 2009

Swedish schnapps

The Martin Beck mysteries
Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö's Martin Beck mysteries are back in a fourth American printing.
By WILLIAM CORBETT | December 02, 2008

Downsizing the Mob

State Police superintendent Brendan Doherty discusses the fade of OC in RI
The arrest of 17 people last week as part of "Operation Mobbed Up" — as well as the subsequent discovery in East Providence of human remains thought to be those of Joseph "Joe Onions" Scanlon — put front and center the bygone days of the Rhode Island Mob.
By IAN DONNIS | November 26, 2008

Playing to our strength

Nothing like a mass bust for a sense of old-time mobbed-up Rhode Island
Well, despite the fact that Little Rhody has become the poster child for the national recession, leading all states in statistical categories like unemployment and debt per capita, it is nice to know that we are able to deflect public attention from our economic crisis by playing to our traditional strength: organized crime.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | November 19, 2008

The friends of Jack Kelly

In the end, the adventure killed him
This article originally appeared in the July 4, 1978 issue of the Boston Phoenix.
By DAVE O'BRIAN AND TOM SHEEHAN | July 08, 2008

Rhode Island’s famous for you

The time has come to capitalize on our scandalous past
How about a Providence Mobster Museum and Hall of Fame on Federal Hill, to celebrate our bygone years as New England’s headquarters of organized crime?
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | December 12, 2007

Revolver

Call the script doc
Forget whatever you know about Guy Ritchie films.
By TOM MEEK | December 05, 2007

The dirtiest cop

How Times Square corrupted the 20th century
This is what history writing should be.
By CLIF GARBODEN | October 30, 2007

We Own the Night

Gritty, macho, and lacking in grace
James Gray’s film is in dire need of plausibility.
By BRETT MICHEL | October 10, 2007

Making it rain

Sports blotter: "Contrary to the slogan, what happens in Vegas definitely does not stay in Vegas" edition
The hardest-working man in sports these days has to be Worrick Robinson, lawyer for the 23 year-old wunderkind of sports jurisprudence, Adam “Pacman” Jones.
By MATT TAIBBI | February 28, 2007

The Good Shepherd

A blue-blooded Godfather
The CIA and the Mafia have been in bed together at least since the Bay of Pigs in 1961, so why shouldn’t Robert De Niro turn the former’s history into a blue-blood version of The Godfather ? Watch the trailer for The Good Shepherd (QuickTime)
By PETER KEOUGH | February 20, 2007

Fateful Departed

Scorsese haunts the mean streets of Beantown
No wonder the cops and the feds can’t catch Whitey Bulger: they’re too busy beating the shit out of each other. Watch the trailer for The Departed (QuickTime) Whitey wash: Scorsese, Damon, and DiCaprio honor The Departed. By Brett Michel
By PETER KEOUGH | February 20, 2007

For Mollis and Cicilline, it’s all relative

Talking politics
Is it something in the water?
By IAN DONNIS | January 10, 2007

We found Whitey Bulger . . . and he’s still missing

Anniversary party: The FBI celebrates 12 years of failure
I get a lot of calls about Bulger, but this one was different.
By DAVID BOERI | June 24, 2011

The new U

Sports blotter: Buckeye edition
Slowly, imperceptibly, the cumulative arrest record of current and former Ohio State University Buckeye football players is approaching the status of great football crime families, nearing the Olympus where live giants like Miami and Florida State.
By MATT TAIBBI | November 01, 2006

Off with their heads

Recent polls are giving the GOP the willies. So should the movies.
The signs are getting bleak for the man in the White House and the party in power.
By PETER KEOUGH | October 20, 2006

Thug life

In Yakuza , c rime pays in the Japanese underworld
In the course of making Yakuza , producer Toshihiro Nagoshi underwent a strange transformation: in short, he assimilated many of the distinguishing physical characteristics of the Japanese mobster.
By MITCH KRPATA | September 27, 2006

The plot thickens

Oliver Stone rewrites history with lightning in JFK
This article originally appeared in the December 20, 1991 issue of the Boston Phoenix .
By PETER KEOUGH | August 10, 2006

The odd couple

The unlikely story of how a BU professor and a Southie hit man stormed the bestseller charts
Four days after being released from prison, the Whitey Bulger’s protégé was singing like a canary to a grandmother from Newton.
By JULIA DENNIS | April 20, 2006

Brass balls and cold steel

Whitey Bulger soldiers John “Red” Shea and Patrick Nee tell their side of the story
John “Red” Shea’s close-cut hair — the hair that gave him that standard-issue Irish nickname — isn’t quite as fiery as it was when he was a young fighter coming up hard from G Street in South Boston.
By MIKE MILIARD | April 05, 2006

Howie Carr blows up

As Whitey makes him famous, the Bulger -scribe doesn’t have to worry about facts
It’s Friday, and Howie Carr Incorporated is in full flog for his new book, The Brothers Bulger (Warner Books).
By DAVID BOERI | March 16, 2006

Find Me Guilty

Diesel proves his versatility, but does it mean anything?
Incorporating way too much real testimony, this tedious drama presents the ho-hum courtroom antics of Jackie DiNorscio (Vin Diesel), a wise guy intent on proving his loyalty to the Lucchese crime family.
By CHRIS WANGLER | March 14, 2006

Family and fate

The Sopranos finds the Tao
Series creator David Chase could easily have ended The Sopranos last year, in the fifth season.
By JON GARELICK | March 10, 2006

Tough time for Cheney

The Veep is being punished for his misdeeds
If the national media give attention to the totally demented ravings of the Christian Coalition’s ludicrous God-botherer Pat Robertson — most recently about Ariel Sharon — the Associated Press should pick up this following news.
By | January 18, 2006