Mafia used "double-decker" coffins to bury victims, court told

Yahoo! ^ | Tuesday, October 7, 2003 | Agence France Presse

[Willie Green]

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.

NEW YORK (AFP) - A New York gangster family said to be the inspiration for the hit TV mob drama "The Sopranos" used "double-decker" coffins to dispose of their murder victims, a Manhattan court has heard.

According to the New York Post on Tuesday, mafia turncoat Anthony Rotondo told jurors that the DeCavalcante crime family had used the coffins to secretly bury the victims of mob "hits" along with the bodies of those who died more natural deaths.

Rotondo said the double-decker coffins were being used as early as the 1920s and were the brainchild of Carlo Corsentino, an undertaker member of the DeCavalcante family who lived to be more than 100 years old.

"The family would put the body of the murdered victim below the regular customer, thus disappearing forever," Rotondo explained while giving testimony in the trial of reputed DeCavalcante family boss Girolamo "Jimmy" Palermo.

According to Rotondo, the unusual body disposal method risked being exposed at times because of the surprise of pall bearers as they carried the two-for-one coffins.

"Everyone would kind of look at one another," he recalled. "There would be six grown men carrying someone's 80-pound (36-kilo) grandmother, and they looked like they were having a problem."

Corsentino's son, Carl Corsentino, still runs the family's funeral home in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

[Willie Green]

Family Angry Over 500-Pound Woman's Burial

[mewzilla]

Wonder who got stuck with Jimmy Hoffa?

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[steveegg]

Could we order one of these for Gray-Out Davis and Cruz Bustamove?

[Mike the Conservative]

I hate to burst the media's bubble, but when I was a kid in upstate NY, the Mafia used double bottomed coffins. The Maggadino(sp)Family, who was associated with the Gambino's, owned a funeral home in Niagra Falls and they used this useful burial tool.

[tall_tex]

Probably both participants still voting, except for Hoffa of course.

[lilylangtree]

Well, Jimmy Hoffa must be at the bottom of some graveyard pile.

[John Beresford Tipton]

I read this in the Post today. They were treating it like a new revelation. I was told that as a kid.

[John Beresford Tipton]

FYI

[Knute]

It has been a few years since I read "The Godfather", but I recall reading about this method there

[First_Salute]

"more natural" deaths?

As distinguished from just plain natural?

Meaning somewhere in between "blown away" or dropped of one's own accord?

[ErnBatavia]

Wonder who got stuck with Jimmy Hoffa?

The peristyle end of Giant Stadium...about 5 feet up the third concrete support column from the ladies room.