Top Biggest SNITCHES In Italian CRIME History 

Every name on this list broke the one rule that held the Italian mafia together for a century. Omeah, the code of silence. The oath sworn on blood and family that said you never cooperate with law enforcement no matter what. You go to prison, you stay silent. You face the death penalty, you stay silent.

 Your family suffers, you still stay silent. That was the code. And every man on this list violated it. These are not minor criminals who gave up a few names to reduce their sentences. These are made members, high-ranking bosses, men who killed dozens of people in the name of loyalty, who preached omarea while holding guns to other men’s heads, who built their reputations on being standup guys.

 And then they flipped. They wore wires. They testified in court. They destroyed entire crime families to save themselves. This is the top 10 biggest snitches in Italian crime history. And by the time we reach number one, you will understand why the American mafia never recovered from the betrayals that started in the 1960s and exploded in the 1980s and 90s.

Number 10, Aladena, Jimmy the Weasel, Fratiano, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Testified 1977. Over 10 murders confessed. In 1977, a 64year-old acting boss of the Los Angeles crime family named Jimmy Fraaniano became the highest ranking mobster to ever cooperate with the FBI up to that point. Fraaniano had been in the mob since the 1930s, was a maid member by 1947, participated in at least 11 murders personally, and ordered several others.

He was called Jimmy the Weasel, a nickname he hated, but that turned out to be prophetic. When Fratiano was passed over for official boss of the LA family in favor of a younger member and when he learned the commission had ordered his elimination for being too public and too reckless, he made a decision. He contacted the FBI, offered to cooperate, became the first acting boss in mafia history to become a government witness.

Fraaniano testified in multiple trials throughout the same late 1970s and early 1980s. His testimony helped convict dozens of mobsters across multiple crime families. He exposed the commission’s structure, named bosses, described initiation ceremonies, detailed murders going back 40 years. The FBI put Fratziano in witness protection.

He lived under an assumed name until his death in 1993 at age 79. But his cooperation opened a door that had been sealed for decades. He showed other mobsters that you could flip, testify, and survive. He proved that Omera Ta could be broken, and once that door opened, dozens of others would walk through it.

 Number nine, Vincent the fish. Cafaro, Genevvesi family testified 1986. In 1986, Vincent Kafaro was a soldier in the Genevese crime family and a close associate of boss Anthony Fat Tony Solerno. Kafaro had been in the life for decades. was involved in lone sharking, illegal gambling, labor racketeering, was present at high level meetings, new organizational structure.

 Then Kafaro was arrested on racketeering charges, facing a long prison sentence at age 55, and he made a choice that shocked everyone who knew him. He agreed to cooperate. Cafaro’s testimony was devastating because he provided detailed information about the Genevese family structure and operations. Most importantly, he confirmed something the FBI had suspected but couldn’t prove.

Vincent, the Chin Gigante, who walked around Greenwich Village in a bathrobe pretending to be mentally ill, was actually the boss of the Genevese family. Gigante’s insanity act had fooled courts for years. Kafaro’s testimony exposed it as a performance. Cafaro also testified about the commission, described how the five families coordinated, named participants in commission meetings.

 His testimony helped convict fat Tony Serno and other Genovves leaders. What made Kafaro’s cooperation particularly shocking was his proximity to power. He wasn’t a street level soldier giving up his crew. He was in the room when bosses made decisions and he gave all of it to the government. Kafaro lived in witness protection until his death in 1998.

But his testimony helped the FBI understand the Geneovves family structure in ways they never had before. Number eight, Philillip Crazy Phil Leonetti. Philadelphia family testified 1989. Over 10 murders confessed. Philip Leonetti was the under boss of the Philadelphia crime family and the nephew of boss Nicodemo, Little Nikki Scaro.

 He was groomed from childhood to be a mobster. Made his bones at age 19 by participating in a murder. Rose to under boss by his early 30s. Was involved in at least 10 murders personally. Participated in the most violent era in Philadelphia mob history. Scarfo’s reign in the 1980s saw over 30 mob related murders, internal killings, paranoia, brutality that went beyond business into sadism. Leonetti was part of all of it.

But in 1989, facing racketeering charges and a potential life sentence, Leonetti did the unthinkable. He agreed to testify against his uncle, against his own blood, against the man who’d raised him in the life. Leonetti’s testimony was extraordinarily detailed. He described specific murders, named participants, explained the Philadelphia family structure, testified about Scaro’s brutality and paranoia.

Most devastatingly, he testified against family. Not just crime family, actual family, his uncle, his cousins, people he’d grown up with. His cooperation helped convict Nicodemos Scaro, and destroy what remained of the Philadelphia mob’s leadership. Leonetti entered witness protection, wrote a book called Mafia Prince detailing his life and cooperation.

Lives under an assumed name to this day. But in mob culture, what Leonetti did was worse than what other informants did. He didn’t just break Omea. He broke blood. He testified against his uncle. That violation transcended even the normal rules about cooperation. It was familial betrayal on top of criminal betrayal.

 Number seven, Anthony Gaspipe Casto. Luces family testified 1994 then kicked out of witness protection. Over 36 murders confessed. Anthony Casso was the underboss of the Luces crime family and one of the most violent mobsters in New York history. He earned his nickname gasp pipe after his preferred weapon for pistolhipping victims. Casso admitted to participating in 36 murders and conspiracy in 72 others.

 Was paranoid, sadistic, and absolutely ruthless. When Castle was arrested in 1993, he initially refused to cooperate, said he’d never become a rat. But facing multiple murder charges and seeing his codefendants cooperating, Caso changed his mind, agreed to cooperate in 1994. What made Casso’s cooperation unique was what he revealed.

 He exposed that the Lucesi family had two NYPD detectives on their payroll. Louis Apolito and Steven Carakapa were actual police detectives who were also hit men for the mob. They provided information. They conducted illegal investigations. They even participated in murders using their badges to access victims. This revelation shocked law enforcement.

The idea that made members of organized crime had actual police detectives working for them was unprecedented. Casso’s testimony about the mafia cops was explosive. But Casso’s cooperation didn’t last. He was caught lying on the witness stand. Caught continuing to run criminal operations from within witness protection.

caught threatening prosecutors. In 1998, the government did something almost unprecedented. They kicked Caso out of witness protection, revoked his cooperation agreement, sent him back to prison to serve life. Casso died in prison in 2020 at age 78. Despite his cooperation, despite testifying, he ended up dying behind bars anyway.

 But his testimony about the mafia cops and his detailed descriptions of Lucesy family operations provided invaluable intelligence to law enforcement. Even a lying rat can tell useful truths. Number six, Joseph Big Joey Msino. Bonano family testified 2004. Over seven murders confessed. Joseph Msino was the boss of the Bonano crime family.

 The first boss of a New York family to cooperate with the government while still holding that title. Msino had been a mobster since the 1960s. Became boss in 1991. Under his leadership, the Banano family was restored to the commission after being kicked off in 1981 following the Donnie Brasco infiltration. Msino was smart, banned members from saying his name out loud to avoid surveillance, instituted strict security measures, ran the family efficiently and profitably.

But in 2003, Msino was arrested on racketeering and murder charges. Facing the death penalty for the murder of Dominic Sunny Black Npalitano and Msino made a calculation, he decided his life was worth more than Omea. He agreed to cooperate, wore a wire to record conversations with acting boss Vincent Vinnie Gorgeous Bashiano.

testified in multiple trials, helped convict dozens of Banano members and associates. What made Msino’s cooperation so shocking was his position. This wasn’t an underboss or a soldier. This was the actual boss, the man at the top of a New York crime family. And he flipped. Msino’s testimony helped convict Bashiano and other highranking Bonano members.

 In exchange, Msino avoided the death penalty, received a life sentence with possibility of sentence reduction for cooperation. As of 2025, Msino is still in prison, but has received some sentence reductions for his cooperation. He will likely die in prison, but avoided execution. The boss of a New York crime family became a rat.

 That reality destroyed any remaining mystique the mafia had about loyalty and honor. Number five, Michael the Yepy Dawn Franesi. Columbbo family cooperated 1985. One of the most successful mob earners in history who walked away. Michael Franesi was a cappo regime in the Columbbo crime family and was involved in one of the most profitable gasoline tax fraud schemes in American history.

At his peak in the early 1980s, Frances was earning the Columbbo family an estimated $8 million per week. Fortune magazine listed him as number 18 on their list of the 50 most wealthy and powerful mafia bosses. He was called the Yepy Dawn because he looked more like a Wall Street executive than a mobster. In 1985, Francesi was indicted on federal racketeering charges, faced decades in prison, and he made a decision that was controversial even among law enforcement.

 He agreed to cooperate, but in a limited way. Franes plead guilty, served prison time, but refused to testify against other mobsters in court or provide information that would lead to additional prosecutions of family members. What he did do was walk away from the life entirely. Francesci served his sentence, got out in 1989, moved to California, became a motivational speaker, wrote books, did interviews, discussed his mob life openly, but never named active participants in ongoing criminal enterprises. The controversy is whether

Frances was actually a snitch or just someone who left the life. He didn’t testify in trials, didn’t wear wires, didn’t actively help prosecute other mobsters, but he did cooperate with authorities by pleading guilty and accepting responsibility, which some in the mob world consider cooperation enough to be labeled a rat.

Franizes has argued he was never a traditional informant, never violated Omera in the way that others did, but the Columbbo family placed a death contract on him anyway. Multiple attempts were made on his life in the 1990s. He survived all of them. Today, Frances lives openly, does podcasts, speaks at churches and events, has built a post-mob career, explaining mob life to people who were never part of it.

Whether he’s a snitch or just someone who left is still debated, but he’s alive, free, and talking publicly about Lacosa Nostra. And that alone puts him on this list. Number four, Nicholas Little Nikki Kurazzo, Gambino family. Testified 2011. Nicholas Curazzo was a highranking member of the Gambino crime family, a tough guy with a violent reputation who’d been in the life since the 1970s.

In 2005, Kurazzo was indicted on racketeering charges along with dozens of other Gambino members and associates faced life in prison. Initially refused to cooperate, but by 2011 something changed. Kurazzo agreed to cooperate with the government, provided information about Gambino family operations, testified in several cases.

 What made Kurazzo’s cooperation significant was timing. This was 2011, the era when everyone thought the mob informant pipeline had slowed down. When people thought Omaha might be making a comeback. Kuraso’s flip showed that even in the 2000s when mobsters faced serious time, they still chose cooperation. Kuraso’s testimony helped convict several Gambino associates and provided updated intelligence on how the family was operating in the 2000s.

 He entered witness protection, location unknown, lives under an assumed name. But his cooperation in 2011 proved that the informant era that started in the 1960s and exploded in the 1980s and ’90s never really ended. It just kept going. Mobsters kept flipping, kept choosing freedom over loyalty, and the mafia kept getting weaker because of it.

 Number three, Salvatoreé, Sammy the Bull, Graano, Gambino family, testified 1991, admitted to 19 murders. This is the big one. The cooperation that changed everything. Salvatorei Graano was the underboss of the Gambino crime family under boss John Gotti. Sammy was a killer. Admitted to participating in 19 murders, was involved in the Paul Castano hit that made Gotti boss.

 Was one of the most feared and respected members of the Gambino family. In 1990, Sammy and Gotti were arrested on racketeering and murder charges. The FBI had recordings from bugs planted in Gotti social clubs. On those recordings, Gotti could be heard insulting Sammy behind his back, blaming him for problems, setting him up to take falls.

Sammy heard those tapes, realized Gotti would sacrifice him to save himself. And Sammy made a decision. He agreed to cooperate. Sammy’s testimony was devastating. He testified about the Castellaniano murder, named participants, explained why it happened, testified about the structure of the Gambino family, named dozens of members, described murders going back to the 1970s.

Most importantly, he testified against John Gotti, the most famous mob boss in America, the Dapper Dawn, the Teflon Dawn, the man who’d beaten three previous prosecutions. Sammy’s testimony convicted Gotti of murder and racketeering. Gotti was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Died in prison in 2002.

Sammy’s cooperation destroyed the Gambino family’s leadership. His testimony led to convictions of dozens of members and associates. He exposed the inner workings of Lacosa Nostra in ways no previous informant had. In exchange, Sammy received a 5-year sentence, was released in 1995, entered witness protection with a new identity, should have lived quietly.

 But Sammy couldn’t stay away from crime. In 2000, he was arrested in Arizona on drug trafficking charges, ran an ecstasy distribution ring, was convicted, served 17 years in federal prison, released in 2017. Today, Sammy lives openly in Arizona, does podcasts, gives interviews, has a YouTube channel, discusses his mob life freely.

 The man who killed 19 people and destroyed John Gotti is now a podcast host explaining Laosa Nostra to the public. Sammy’s cooperation was a turning point. After Sammy flipped, the floodgates opened. If the underboss of the Gambino family could become a rat, anyone could and anyone did. Number two, Tomaso Bushetta, Sicilian mafia, testified 1984.

 Over 100 murders confessed knowledge of Tomaso Busetta was not an American mobster. He was Sicilian, a made member of the Sicilian mafia. And his cooperation didn’t just damage one family. It nearly destroyed the entire Sicilian mafia. Busetta was born in Sicily in 1928. Became a maid member in the 1940s. was involved in international drug trafficking, worked with American mob families, was connected to the French Connection Heroin Pipeline.

In the 1970s and early 80s, the Sicilian Mafia went through a brutal internal war, the Second Mafia War. Over 1,000 people were killed between 1981 and 1983. Busetta lost family members, lost close friends, survived assassination attempts. In 1984, Bushetta was arrested in Brazil, extradited to Italy, and he made a decision that shocked the world.

He agreed to cooperate with Italian authorities, specifically with prosecutor Giovani Falconei, who’d been investigating the Sicilian mafia for years. Bushetta’s testimony was unprecedented. He explained the structure of Kosanostra, described the commission, named hundreds of maid members, detailed murders, drug trafficking operations, political corruption, explained how the Sicilian mafia controlled entire towns and regions.

His testimony led to the Maxi trial in Polarmo, Italy. From 1986 to 1987, 475 defendants, the largest mass trial in Italian history, 360 convictions, dozens of life sentences. The Sicilian Mafia’s leadership was decimated, but the mafia fought back. In 1992, they assassinated Giovani Falconei, the prosecutor Bushetta had worked with, killed him with a roadside bomb that used 400 kg of explosives.

Two months later, they assassinated Paolo Borcelino, another prosecutor who’d worked on the Maxi trial. Busetta lived in witness protection in the United States until his death from cancer in 2000 at age 71. But his cooperation changed Italy showed that even the Sicilian mafia, more secretive and ruthless than the American version, could be penetrated by informants.

 Busetta broke on a massive scale and the Sicilian mafia never fully recovered. Number one, Joseph Velacei, Genevesei family testified 1963. The first, the man who exposed the American mafia to the world. Joseph Velace was a soldier in the Genevese crime family. Low level, not to particularly important, involved in narcotics trafficking, in and out of prison, nobody special.

In 1959, Velacei was arrested on drug charges, sent to federal prison in Atlanta. While in prison, he became convinced that his boss, Veto Genovves, who was also in the same prison, had ordered him killed. Valashi believed Genovves thought he was an informant. In 1962, while in the prison yard, Velashi attacked and killed another inmate.

 he mistakenly believed was a hitman sent to kill him, killed the wrong man, was charged with murder, facing the death penalty. And Velace decided that if Genevves wanted him dead anyway, if he was going to be killed either by the mob or by the state, he might as well tell his story. In 1963, Joseph Velace became the first maid member of the American Mafia to publicly testify about Lacosa Nostra.

Appeared before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Senator John Mlelen chaired the hearings. The testimony was televised, watched by millions of Americans. Valishi confirmed that the mafia existed. Before Velace, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover had publicly denied the existence of organized crime in America.

Velace proved Hoover wrong. AKI explained the structure of Lacos Nostra. The five families of New York, the commission, the initiation ceremony, the blood oath, the rules. He named names, identified bosses, described the hierarchy, explained how organized crime worked in America. The Velace hearings shocked the nation.

 The American public learned for the first time about this secret criminal organization that had operated in their country for decades. Valai’s testimony didn’t convict many people. Most of what he knew was dated. His information was often secondhand. But what Velace did was expose the mafia, made it public, gave the FBI a road map for investigating organized crime, proved that made members could be turned, could testify, could break Omar.

Valashi spent the rest of his life in protective custody. Died of a heart attack in 1971 at age 68 in a federal prison in Texas. But his legacy is permanent. Joseph Velace opened the door. Every informant who came after him, from Jimmy the Weasel to Sammy the Bull to Joseph Msino, walked through the door, Valashi opened in 1963.

He was the first and the first is always the most important. Before Velashi, the American mafia operated on the assumption that Omera was absolute. That made members would never cooperate, never testify, never break the code. Valashi proved that assumption wrong. And once one man broke, others realized they could too.

 What followed was 60 years of informance, hundreds of maid members cooperating, thousands of convictions, the systematic destruction of La Kosa Nostra in America. Today, the American Mafia is a shadow of what it was in the 1960s. Families that once had hundreds of members now have dozens. Bosses are arrested and convicted routinely.

The mystique is gone. The power is diminished. And the primary reason is informants. Men who swore blood oaths and then broke them. Men who killed for the mob and then testified about those killings. Men who preached loyalty and then chose survival. Every war on this list, every betrayal, every cooperation agreement connects to one reality.

Omera Ta was never as strong as the mafia claimed. When faced with life in prison or death, when shown tapes of their bosses insulting them, when offered a way out, mobsters chose themselves over the organization. They flipped. They testified. They destroyed what they’d built. And the mafia fell because the one rule that held it together turned out to be breakable after all.

 From Joseph Velace in 1963 to Sammy Graano in 1991 to Joseph Msino in 2004, the list of informants kept growing. And with each new rat, the mafia got weaker. Today, when young criminals are recruited into what remains of Laos and Nostra, they know the history. They know the statistics. They know that facing serious time even made members even bosses flip.

 That knowledge has poisoned the well. Nobody trusts anyone. Paranoia is constant. And the code that supposedly made the mafia special, that supposedly separated them from common criminals, has been exposed as a lie told by men who broke it the moment it became inconvenient. 10 men on this list.

 Hundreds more not mentioned. All of them rats. All of them snitches. All of them men who broke Omega and destroyed the organization they’d sworn to protect. The biggest snitches in Italian crime history. And the reason the American mafia will never be what it