 Welcome into the Original Gangsters podcast, another quick hitter edition, some breaking news out of New York the last couple days. A global plea has been agreed upon by the remaining hierarchy of the Colombo crime family that were all indicted about two years ago. I'm your host Scott Bernstein, Jimmy Bucciolato will be with us, my co-host, the doctor, will be with us in the in the long form show this week, but today I just want to do a quick breakdown of these plea deals that wraps up 99% of the 2021 racketeering case that brought down the hierarchy, the top brass of the Colombos all tied to the extortion of labor unions. So the top defendant in the case was the boss of the Colombos, one of the remaining, had been one of the remaining staples of the Perseco mafia dynasty, Andy Mushrosso, Mushrosso died a year into the lead up to the adjudication and was locked up and died. He was in his late 80s, they were going after a lot of old timers. So the biggest three remaining defendants were really the meat and potatoes of this global plea and within that plea you have kind of this mystery that has gotten into the ether that is asking the question, who is the boss of the Colombo crime family right now in 2023? Andy Mushrosso died in 2022 and according to this, according to paperwork in this case, first reported on by Jerry Capace over at Gangland News, we tip our hat to the Dean, that the government got it wrong. They thought that Skinny Teddy Perseco was the new boss. It's now come out that he is just a very high ranking capo, very possibly a future boss, but he is not the guy that the government initially thought was taken over for Mushrosso, who he's related to by blood, the Colombo mafia dynasty or sort of say the Perseco mafia dynasty within the Colombo crime family, the patriarch Carmine Perseco, the snake or junior, depending on if you were a friend or foe, he passed away four years ago after leading the family for 40 years, pretty much most of that time being behind bars. He staved off just a earth shaking insurgents back in the 90s that ripped the streets of New York apart with the arena faction, Little Vic Arena challenging in prison Perseco for the throne, about a two and a half year shooting war. Now we have kind of the next generation that's been being groomed for this, which is Skinny Teddy, a nephew of Carmine Perseco, but it looks like his reign hasn't started yet, and the government believed it had, but let's just really quickly break down who else has pled out in this case, what they're looking at in terms of prison sentences, and then we'll finish up by speculating or I'll tell you what I'm hearing in terms of who's the number one shot caller in the Colombo crime family right now, whether that person is keeping the seat warm for Teddy Perseco or not. So with Andy Mushruzo passing away, the top three defendants in the case, Teddy Perseco just talked about Skinny Teddy, Underboss, Benji Castelazo, aka the Claw, 85 years old, and then the number three guy in the family, the conciliary, Ralph Di Matteo, who was about 68, and this is a guy that really kind of came out of nowhere in terms of mob watchers. One of these guys that you didn't even know they were a made guy, at least in terms of federal indictments and whatnot, and then something hits and you realize they're, oh wow, they're in the administration. So Ralph Di Matteo obviously valued counselor and advisor. So all three of those guys have caught please. It looks like Skinny Teddy and Di Matteo are going to do five-year bids. Well, Castelazo looks like he's going to do a two-year bid. And then you also have Vinnie Ricciardo, aka Vinnie Unions, who was the point man, boots on the ground for the labor union, racketeering extortion case. And a lot of these, or this global plea can probably be traced back to Richie Ferrara, who was a capo, who was the person directly overseeing Vinnie Unions, and Richie Ferrara flipped at the end of last year, and that kind of forced the hand, I think, of the defendants. A global plea, if people don't know what that means, it's when all the remaining defendants in the case all agree to a certain plea agreement, and it's done kind of in tandem amongst multiple defendants. So with sentence and recommendations going along accordingly, that's agreed upon before the plea deal. So if Teddy Persico isn't the boss, and he's only been out of prison for a couple years, and part of the plea deal is he's copying to supervise release violations, meeting with members of the Colombo family, well, then who's the boss? So, and I want to credit again, Jerry Capesi, who I can at least maybe two years ago, possibly at some point in the last two years, put out a column talking about the fact that the, if you want to call it the race to succeed, Mush Russo was down to Skinny Teddy Persico and Joe Waverly, who was a longtime Colombo OG, former conciliary, a capo, a guy that shed blood for the family, was wounded in that big war back in 92, and what's interesting is that Joe Waverly was a part of the arena insurrection. He was not, at least at the time of the war, was not a Persico loyalist. So there's a lot of people right now looking back at what Capesi reported two years ago and saying, well, if it's not Skinny Teddy per Capesi's own reporting this past week, then it's probably Joe Waverly. I talked to a number of people that have said that that's what they believe, guys that are either on the streets in New York, in parts of Brooklyn, or guys that are retired, either voluntarily or involuntarily, from the Colombo crime family that were part of the wars back in the day, that still kind of keep in touch with what's going on the street. The hot rumor, I guess, would be that it looks like Joe Waverly has taken the reins, and he came out of prison three years ago, and he's a guy that's been in and out of the can through his kind of bumpy road to the top, but that's what it looks like right now. I can't confirm it. I'm going to do a little bit more digging, but that seems to be the speculation and the best guesstimate, especially based on Jerry's reporting this past week. So keep an eye out for that. Joe Waverly is an old timer. I believe he's in his 80s right now, late 70s at least, and a guy that is, like I said, he's an old G, man. I mean, this guy dates back to the 70s and did some wet work for the Persicos, and was involved in some gangland murders and then some gangland murder conspiracies. He's done his time for that. It looks like he could have been rewarded for that and could be the king of the Persicos right now, but for my betting dollar, I would say it's probably, if we find out that that's true, that it's probably on an acting basis and that Teddy, when he comes back out of prison, Teddy's only 59. So I would predict by his mid 60s, Teddy Persico will be the boss, and the Persico mafia dynasty will extend into the late 2020s, 2030s. Teddy is, he's a gangster to the core from what we hear. A guy that, again, has been being groomed for a long time, knows the rules, has a lot of respect, people fear him, and he's got a lot of loyalists and just based on the fact that that dynasty's been up and running now for 40 plus years. So that's the update from the Colombo crime family. When I can get confirmation on whoever's the boss, whether it's Joe Waverly or somebody else, we'll be reporting it. For Jimmy Bucciolato, who you'll see later this week, I'm Scott Bernstein. Thanks for Ben behind the glass. OG pod, quick hitter episode out.