You could reach out for him, and he would listen, he wrote. Nov. 1, 2011 — -- The son of a Philadelphia mob boss infamous for his violent reign was indicted today for a bloodless, white collar crime: a scheme to defraud a Texas financial firm out of $12 million. In 1983, the year Trump Tower opened its doors, the future president reportedly met the Genovese family boss. In this clip, Michael Franzese spoke about his relationship with former Philadelphia mob leader Nicky Scarfo, whose son comitted suicide while Nicky was embroiled in a federal trial. The son and would-be heir of jailed mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo has taken refuge with old allies of his father in northern New Jer Wednesday, June 13, 1990 - SCARFO JR. FOUND GUILTY . Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. Scarfo had been behind bars since police arrested him at Philadelphia International Airport on suspicion of extortion back in 1987. Everybodys dead, Mr. Sheeran, one agent says. However, his tenure as Boss would be a short one. Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, the tyrannical mob boss who ruled the Philadelphia underworld in the 1980s, has died while serving a 55-year prison sentence at a federal medical center in North Carolina. Scarfo headed the Philadelphia-South Jersey Mob starting in 1981, and his ensuing war with rivals would result in more than 20 deaths in the early 80s. The man tapped to keep watch over him was the late George Fresolone, a crime family soldier heavily involved in gambling and loansharking. He made it to the fountains dressed only in a bathrobe, but police on the scene said he faced arrest if he took it off, so he kept it on and partied inside the hotel. The attention drawn by that incident did not sit well with the familys don, Angelo Bruno, who exiled Scarfo to the gambling rackets in Atlantic City. [13] Phil Testa became the new Boss of the Philadelphia crime family, appointing Scarfo as his Consigliere. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures. Pinterest. So did Mr. Leonetti, Mr. Scarfos nephew and now an author, who was the familys second in command at the time and was known as Crazy Phil. He was out of the hospital in week, but the shooting effectively ended the Scarfo family's control of the Philadelphia mob. ", At a press conference Tuesday in Camden, New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman said "the defendants gave new meaning to 'corporate takeover' by looting a publicly traded company to benefit their criminal enterprise. Within months, four co-conspirators in Brunos murder turned up dead. Manage Settings We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. [4], It was in 1978 that he gained the moniker "Crazy Phil" from a local radio talk show host. [24][25], Scarfo began his sentence at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. There were some political ads that would run in the local newspaper every day in the last week before election, and the lawyer didnt want them to run. And it has been 30 years since the brazen attempted hit on mob boss Nicky Scarfo's son, Nicky Scarfo Jr. onHalloween night 1989. Watch the latest Mob Talk report (and a previous episode) below, and, SEPTA to purchase 10 zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell buses, Bryce Harper to give command to start engines at NASCAR race in Las Vegas, Eagles name Alex Tanney QB coach, plus other coaching staff updates, The food you eat impacts the health of your eyes, Construction of Penn's Landing park over I-95 finally approved to begin, PennDOT says, Joanna McClinton becomes first woman elected as speaker of Pa. House. When he and 16 others in the Scarfo gang were convicted in November 1988 in a racketeering conspiracy involving 13 murders, jurors found Scarfo guilty of directly participating in eight of the slayings, as well as loansharking, bookmaking, drug dealing and 17 cases of extortion. A reporter for the Philadelphia Daily News watched inside the Four Seasons as about 75 partiers, many of them Scarfos relatives and friends, celebrated loudly drinking from $160 bottles of champagne and $1,200 bottles of Louis XIII cognac, racking up a $10,000 tab the afternoon of the jurys verdict. While making book for the Philadelphia-South Jersey family in 1963, he stabbed a longshoreman to death in a South Philadelphia diner in an argument over a booth to sit in. He was resuscitated by paramedics, Ms. Spatz said. This would not be his last murder for Scarfo. Another figure in the book is Testa's successor, Nicodemus "Little Nicky" Scarfo, whose associates tried to lease . That, in large part, explains why Nicodemo S. Scarfoknown as Nicky Jr.is currently serving a 30-year federal prison sentence after being convicted in a multi-million dollar financial fraud case several years ago. But less than a year later, in 1989, Scarfo would get the life sentence. May 1, 2016 - Recent prison photo of former Philly mob boss Nicky scarfo. [7], Leonetti has alleged that, at 8 years of age, he was used as a decoy by Scarfo to dispose of a dead body, explaining to the young Leonetti that he had brutally stabbed a man in a New Jersey bar with an ice pick for disrespecting him. There wasnt room enough for everyone to make it into Scorseses epic Mafia biopic, but Salerno does and with good reason. We are a community partnership that business professionals can trust to expand their personal and professional lives. As a young adult, bookmaking served as his entry to Phillys underworld. Related No one has ever been charged with the Dante & Luigi shooting which ranks among the most audacious in Philadelphia mob underworld history. Scarfo jr. is currently serving a 30-year sentence on . But a few men in Testas gang resented the new boss. Then in November 1986, two of Scarfos thugs, Nicholas Nicky Crow Caramandi and Thomas Tommy Del DelGiorno, who believed they were in danger from the violent Scarfo for what they knew, went to the feds, agreed to tell all and testify about it. Scarfo is already under indictment for allegedly running a South Jersey gambling operation. Little Nicky had a penchant for Rolls Royce cars, motor yachts, and Florida vacations, as well as newspaper headlines and violence. No one was ever charged with carrying out the attempted hit. Scarfo survived the attack, but Philly Mob expert George Anastasia says the shooting marked the end of Nicky Scarfo Sr.'s rein as leader of Philadelphia organized crime. He was, by most accounts, a computer geek who could have built a legitimate and lucrative career as a software technocrat. The only thing he is guilty of is being a loyal son to my uncle. Salerno arranged things so his concrete company got a $7.8 million contract at Trump Plaza. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. In May 1988, he was found innocent with eight other defendants in the 1984 murder of Salvatore Testa, the son of Scarfos former boss, Philip Chicken Man Testa. Little Nicky died in jail serving what amounted to a life sentence. In addition to his two sons, Mr. Scarfo is survived by his second wife, Domenica, Mr. Riley said. 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To go with that, he was also serving a 14-year stretch he got in 1988 for extorting a developer to pay a $1 million bribe to a Philadelphia city councilman, who was to give a share of it to Scarfo. Tony was the Tip ONeill of the underworld and would reside forever in Rudy Giulianis mind, wrote the legendary New York columnist Jimmy Breslin. Mr. Scarfo nurtured his reputation early. Capone supposedly said, You can go a long way with a smile; you can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun. Mr. Scarfo preferred just the gun. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. The problem was that he rubbed many of his superiors the wrong way. The oldest, Chris, married and took his wifes maiden name to get out from under the infamy that came with his birthright. The elder Scarfo was trying to run his crime family from prison by using his son as a proxy. thetotalpackage7 He married Vincent Falcones girlfriend after he murdered him. Testa was killed by a nail bomb under his porch in 1981, on orders of his Underboss and drug trafficker Peter Casella and Capo Frank Narducci Sr., which later resulted in Narducci being gunned down and Casella being banished from the Mob and fleeing to Florida. In the wake of scarfo's death, Michael Riley, who represents Scarfo's son, Nicodemo Scarfo Jr., asked for privacy on behalf of the family. Increasingly despondent over his father's possible imprisonment, Mark Scarfo hanged himself in the office of his father's concrete supply company in Atlantic City. A mob hit, a miss and a well-known mob cooperator are among topics discussed. Trump Melts Down Over Murdoch Admitting Fox Lied About Election Fraud The Dante & Luigi shooting came amidst a bloody power struggle that had its roots in a friendship gone bad. Records show him graduating from Benjamin Franklin High School in 1947. His brother, Lawrence Yogi Merlino, became a capo. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. As recently as 2011, he was named in a companion indictment to the extortion of a financial group based in Texas that led to his son Nicky Jr.s conviction in 2015. Nicky Sr.s eldest son, Chris, changed his surname to escape the familys shadow, and his youngest son, Mark, died two years ago. Scarfo was a mob boss for the 1980s, a greedy, ruthless despot whose family coat of arms could have been a pair of crossed .357 magnums mounted on a blood-red shield embossed with the words Kill or Be Killed, George Anastasia wrote in Blood and Honor: Inside the Scarfo Mob the Mafias Most Violent Family (1991). News of the injury reached federal court in Philadelphia late in the afternoon and brought a halt to the elder Scarfos trial. Shortly after the shooting Nicky Jr. headed to North Jersey where he was under the care and protection of the Newark branch of the Scarfo organization. Philip Michael Leonetti (born March 27, 1953)[1] is an American former mobster who became the underboss of the Philadelphia crime family under his mentor, uncle and former boss, Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, before becoming a government informant in 1989 after being sentenced to 45 years for racketeering. The Museum is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization with a mission to advance the public understanding of organized crime's history and impact on American society. (The title is a reference to the special kind of painting Sheeran did that left his victims brains on the wall.) The president and his associates have long histories with the Mafia figures who populate Scorsese's film, Photo of real estate developer Donald Trump taken during an interview at Trump Tower in Manhattan on April 4th, 1985, The Real-Life Mob Families of The Irishman? He prepared lists of people to target in Riccobenes sphere for murder. Scarfo served almost two years in prison from 1971 to 1973 for refusing to testify to the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation. Scarfo's youngest son, Mark, tried to commit suicide during his father's 1988 racketeering trial. [20], In 1985, Scarfo plotted to extort $1 million from major commercial developer Willard Rouse, sending his soldier Nicholas Caramandi and another associate to do it. His time at the top was one of the bloodiest in underworld history. At the time, Fresolone was secretly cooperating with the New Jersey State Police. During Scarfos reign, about 25 made members and associates of the crime family were killed. The war would cost him his little brother's life, his brother Mario to become a government informant and Riccobene himself to be given a life sentence for first degree murder. Along with the lengthy prison sentence Scarfo has also been ordered to pay over $14 million dollar in restitution for money stolen from First Plus Financial. As Giuliani finds himself in the crosshairs of prosecutors with the U.S. attorneys office he once ran, its worth pondering what was on those tapes. November 2, 1988. Oscar Goodman, the former mayor of Las Vegas and prominent defense lawyer for accused organized crime figures starting in the late 1960s, defended reputed Scarfo underboss Phillip Crazy Leonetti in three trials in Philadelphia in the late 1980s, sitting in federal court beside Scarfo and Scarfos attorney, Robert Simone. 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