TRAILER: Black Mass

TIME recaps:

Johnny Depp is famous for taking on roles that require some serious transformations, but decades into his career, it’s still a shock to see him as Boston crime boss Whitey Bulger in the trailer for Black Mass. The actor is nearly unrecognizable in the somewhat unconventional trailer, which mostly consists of one derailed dinner party scene to convey just how creepy and threatening Bulger, a convicted murder currently in prison, could be. Black Mass, which also stars Kevin Bacon and Benedict Cumberbatch, hits theaters Sept. 18.

Pope Francis Excommunicates The Mafia

Via the Guardian:

Pope Francis has issued the strongest condemnation of organised crime groups by a pontiff in two decades, accusing them of practising "the adoration of evil" and saying that mafiosi were excommunicated. It was the first time a pope had used the word excommunication – a total cutoff from the church – in direct reference to members of organised crime. "Those who in their lives follow this path of evil, as mafiosi do, are not in communion with God. They are excommunicated," he said in impromptu comments at a mass before hundreds of thousands of people in one of Italy's most crime-ridden areas. To sustained applause he told the crowd on Sunday: "This evil must be fought against, it must be pushed aside. We must say no to it." He called the local crime group, the 'Ndrangheta, as an example of the "adoration of evil and contempt of the common good" and said the church would exert its full force in efforts to combat organised crime.

A Vatican spokesman later clarified that the Pope's words did not constitute the "formal legal process" of excommunication but were meant to isolate mafia members from their communities.

The Smoking Gun: Al Sharpton Was A 1980s Mob Informant For The FBI

The Smoking Gun yesterday claimed it has conclusively proven that decades-old rumors about Al Sharpton having been a mob informant for the FBI are true.

TSG’s account of Sharpton’s secret life as “CI-7” is based on hundreds of pages of confidential FBI affidavits, documents released by the bureau in response to Freedom of Information Act requests, court records, and extensive interviews with six members of the Genovese squad, as well as other law enforcement officials to whom the activist provided assistance. Like almost every other FBI informant, Sharpton was solely an information source. The parameters of his cooperation did not include Sharpton ever surfacing publicly or testifying on a witness stand.  Genovese squad investigators--representing both the FBI and NYPD--recalled how Sharpton, now 59, deftly extracted information from wiseguys. In fact, one Gambino crime family figure became so comfortable with the protest leader that he spoke openly--during ten wired face-to-face meetings--about a wide range of mob business, from shylocking and extortions to death threats and the sanity of Vincent “Chin” Gigante, the Genovese boss who long feigned mental illness in a bid to deflect law enforcement scrutiny. As the mafioso expounded on these topics, Sharpton’s briefcase--a specially customized Hartmann model--recorded his every word.

Sharpton has confirmed some of the allegations to the New York Daily News, but takes issue with the term "informant."

“If you’re a victim of a threat, you’re not an informant — you’re a victim trying to protect yourself,” he said. He said his conversations with mob figures were recorded, though he denied he used a bugged briefcase. He said he was never paid, but was occasionally reimbursed for car travel. “I encourage kids all the time to work with law enforcement,” he said. “You’re acting like it’s a scandal for me to do that?” He said the role of his information in bringing down mob figures was vastly exaggerated. “I was never told I was an informant or I had a number or none of that,” he said. “Whether or not they used some of the other information they got during that period for other purposes, I don’t know.”

The Smoking Gun story opens with several paragraphs which detail Sharpton's relationship with President Obama and recent visits to the White House.

Mobster Kingpin Of NYC Gay Bars Dies

The mafia kingpin who ran dozens of NYC gay bars in the years before and after Stonewall has died at the age of 92.

Matthew "Matty The Horse" Ianniello, the one-time acting boss of the Genovese crime family who was involved in the gay bar industry in New York City from the 1950s through at least the mid-1980s has died at his Long Island hiome in Old Westbury, NY as reported by Anthony M. DeStefano for Newsday. According to former Daily News reporter and editor Thomas Collins Jr. in his 2002 memoir NewsWalker, Ianniello "was sponsored into the Genovese crime family by Frank 'Funzi' Tieri." Ianniello perhaps is most infamous for the dozens of gay bars and discos he was behind during New York City's sleazy days, and he was convicted in 1985 with several associates for skimming profits out of several establishments including the tranny bar Gilded Grape and the hustler bar Hay Market.

NOTE: The above-linked site is frequently cited on Free Republic as it often examines the seamier aspects of gay nightlife.

Wanna Be A Gotti Juror?

The NYC district attorneys' office is having a hard time finding New Yorkers willing to serve on the jury for the murder trial of notorious mobster John Gotti, Jr. That's a shocker.

The Dapper Don is long dead and three of his brothers are in jail forever - but the name "Gotti" still inspires fear. That's the long and short of comments from the more than 300 men and women in the pool of prospective jurors for next week's murder/conspiracy trial of John A. (Junior) Gotti, the son of the late mob boss John Gotti. "I don't want to mess with John Gotti," one prospective juror said. "People involved with John Gotti have mysteriously 'disappeared,'" said another. Both were later bounced. "I do have a fear of the Mafia looking me up if the jury found him guilty," a third offered. These are just some of the excuses prospective jurors have floated to try to get out of serving on the jury in Gotti's fourth federal trial.

Prospective jurors are being given a 29-page questionnaire asking whether they had any family members working in law enforcement, whether they could accept the testimony of convicted mob informers, and even what TV shows they watch. I'd pull a Liz Lemon and show up dressed like Princess Leia. Whatever it took.

Yes On 8 Launches Blackmail Campaign

The lovely folks at Protect Marriage have sent letters to major corporations that have donated to No On 8 to demand a donation for themselves - or else face the wrath of an ad campaign denouncing them.

ProtectMarriage.com, the umbrella group behind a ballot initiative that would overturn the California Supreme Court decision that legalized gay marriage, sent a certified letter this week asking companies to withdraw their support of Equality California, a nonprofit organization that is helping lead the campaign against Proposition 8.

"Make a donation of a like amount to ProtectMarriage.com which will help us correct this error," reads the letter. "Were you to elect not to donate comparably, it would be a clear indication that you are in opposition to traditional marriage. ... The names of any companies and organizations that choose not to donate in like manner to ProtectMarriage.com but have given to Equality California will be published."

The letter was signed by four members of the group's executive committee: campaign chairman Ron Prentice; Edward Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference; Mark Jansson, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; and Andrew Pugno, the lawyer for ProtectMarriage.com. A donation form was attached. The letter did not say where the names would be published.

Equality California head Geoff Kors: "It's truly an outrageous attempt to extort people. They are going after our long-term funding and trying to intimidate Equality California donors from giving any more to the No on 8 campaign and from giving to Equality California ever again."

Demanding protection money seems more Sicily than Utah. Finally the Catholic Church and the Mormons are working together! Praise Jeebus Smith!

The Real Velvet Mafia

An Italian prosecutor who has brought down several local mafia families says that gay mafiosi are "too scared to come out of the closet", but that American crime families are more forgiving of homo wiseguys.

Antonio Ingroia, who has helped bring several bosses to justice, said: "Being gay is still a taboo for Italian society in general, let alone the Mafia, which is an archaic organisation. "These bosses have to cover their homosexuality; they're afraid because they risk being ridiculed and killed." Mr Ingroia said that the American Mafia had "a more broad-minded attitude towards gays and so gay bosses can come out."

Times have certainly changed. In 2003, a mob informer told a New York court that the gay head of the mafia family on which The Sopranos series based was executed by his own men because they feared the family would be ridiculed by the rest of the underworld. Anthony Capo told the trial: "Nobody's gonna respect us if we have a gay homosexual boss sitting down discussing Cosa Nostra business." John "Johnny Boy" D'Amato, head of the De Cavalcante family, the biggest in the state of New Jersey, was shot dead in 1992 after it was rumoured that he had relationships with other men. Capo told the court: "It shocked me he couldn't be acting that way - he was a leader of men."

Well, the American mafia did historically run the NYC gay bar scene.