The love affair with Joey Merlino

[HairyKnuckles]

I don't know Thom Jones, never really paid attention to any of his posts.

I don´t like his music, although "Delilah" is pretty cool...

[Rocco]

While I agree he is cocky & flashy, he never had the clout Gotti had.

Your right . the media has made Merlino what he is. Gotti ran a large viable crime family into the ground. Merlino ran a small scale street gang and were anything but LCN. Soldiers don't make guys them name them boss lol. Its like two kids playing pretend mafia in their room .lol Philly really hasn't been LCN since scarfo who basically destroyed it. It hasnt been the same since. All Philly is now is just small scale bookmaking , loansharking that goes with it and nickel dime drug deals. They never recouped the money flow that Scarfo had. Where NY and Jersey were able branch out into new rackets like stock fraud, real estate mortgage fraud and a whole host of rackets...philly has lacked the talent to do so. Most halfway successful legit guys make twice what Merlinos guys do. The days of wealthy Philly gangsters like Long John are long long gone. Ligambis defense was not a stretch when they said that the current family lives off the fear and power the family once had some 35yrs ago. But it just doesn't exist anymore. The average Merlino fan boy is unable to see the truth and think he is the new Al Capone..lol

[JCB1977]

Interesting point. So you're saying that since Stanfa was out of the picture, Merlino operated on a very low scale? Why did NY want Stanfa in the position?

[Rocco]

I wasn't aware that Stanfa was operating on a large scale? From what I have read Stanfa was small potatoes? I don't think that anyone has had the amount of money coming in since the Scarfo or Bruno reign. Their Gambling & Loan Sharking rackets have shrunken. You also have the NY families taking bets in Philly and South Jersey. Not to mention the Non LCN Bookies. They have never really ventured outside of those rackets with the exception of Drugs since Scarfo was inprisoned.. Even the NJ family as small as it is. Have ventured out into other rackets to make $$.

[Teflon john]

Give the guy some respect, he was born into the life. His Dad, Uncle,etc and he also threw a middle finger to the feds basically saying "yeah im a gangster so what, do something about it". Besides when he finally did get locked up he did his time and didnt flip so there you go, what is not to like about the guy? He's like a character right out of a book or a movie but he's a real person. He, just like Gotti, makes LCN interesting. Hell if everybody in the life was like Gravano and Massino who would give a shit,i know i wouldnt.

[East Bronx]

He, just like Gotti, makes LCN interesting. Hell if everybody in the life was like Gravano and Massino who would give a shit,i know i wouldnt.

I thought Gotti was too flashy, too. But you know what? John never layed down on a bet in his life. He'd personally stick up a gas station to pay a bookie if he had to. John never stole money off a bar, either. I don't know Merlino and I don't know much about Philly except what some of the better posters here post (namely Chucky and Company). But if those stories about Merlino are true (beating bookmakers, etc.), while he was the boss of a family, it just screams out no class to me.

I certainly don't want to get into one of those geographical pissing contests about Philly and New York and wherever. But aside from their media portrayal and a common love of the camera, John Gotti had little in common with Joey Merlino. And Merlino's a stand up guy, I'll give him that. So he still has time to accomplish one more common trait with John Gotti----dying in prison. But I don't wish it on him, and only time will tell.

And Happy Thanksgiving, Teflon John. I wasn't sure if you made it over here to the new site .

[Teflon john]

Happy Thanksgiving to you too East Bronx, and to all my OC fanatic friends. Enjoy your food and your families.

[rayray]

Joey Merlino is a character, mob guy or not, characters stand out and with Joey being a mob guy makes him stand out even more so.

Not to go off subject here, but someone mentioned Scarfo ruining the Philly family--I wonder if Bruno didn't have so many side deals with this guy, that group and so forth didn't have a play in the Philly family breakdown? What I mean by that is that Scarfo was a LCN traditionalist and tried to make all these others fall in line and when these guys didn't Scarfo bit and bit hard. Another thing, Scarfo comes across like this crazed killer but he gave guys a lot of chances to follow the rules before he went after them. The way I look at it, Scarfo being boss had no choice to do what he did, the fall of the Philly family was already set in motion.

[Teflon john]

Scarfo had guys killed just for the hell of it. I mean he had Salvie Testa murdered because he broke off an engagement with Scarfo's underboss,or i heard it was because he read a newspaper story that said Sal Testa was a rising star in the Philly family. I mean come on man, how can you say he gave guys a chance? Scarfo was no different than Roy Demeo or Tommy Pitera,he was a power hungry,raving maniac that just happened to make it to be boss because there was nobody else in Philly left to take the job. Read Mafia Prince by Phil Leonetti and you will hear about the real Scarfo. What kind of sick ass bastard takes a little kid with em to get rid of a body. No offense to anybody cause i love to read about the Scarfo years but he was a crazy motherf ker who needed to be whacked by somebody.

[JBELL]

Dysfunctional is a kind adjective used to describe the Philly LCN Family EB. It would have been interesting to see what Stanfa would have done had the Turks not acted like a group of gang bangers from the Bloods & Crips. Anyhow, my opinion is that guys like Merlino should learn to duck and stay out of the limelight, he's just pissing off the Feds even more. I do believe Nicodemo will flip after his verdict and I think the midget's freedom will be short lived.

He will considering he'd be in the state pen the rest of his life. If he was in the fed system there's generations of mobsters and serious criminals that are still running their operations from the can. That has to suck being where he's at CFCF. They have a few different units on the property HOC(House Of Corrections) the place is mid evil. I don't care how mentally tough people say he is, I've been in that place with 99% of the population being ape and 1 % being man and then he gets convicted goes upstate for life it AIN'T going to happen. Why do you think Ronnie Nics is selling fake cartons of cigarettes and other shit for the holidays, I wouldn't be surprised if the whole extended family wants out of S.P. the feds pay your past due bills and let you keep your property

He should jump for joy if they offer him A 15-30 year sentence being eligible after the first 15 to get out. Tag knows this maybe one or two other people I got subpoenaed for a murder trial two years ago. This kid hit one of his tenants with a bat and killed him, the kid was severely bi-polar he wasn't going to take the deal. I felt bad for the motherfucker he's not even 5'2 more then likely they'll send him to the pysheward out of general population. The judges won't buy that crazy act has the kid tried putting it on. The judge was like Do you know where you are? Do you know who I am? The guy reppin him looked fukin stressed to the max

[rayray]

Scarfo had guys killed just for the hell of it. I mean he had Salvie Testa murdered because he broke off an engagement with Scarfo's underboss,or i heard it was because he read a newspaper story that said Sal Testa was a rising star in the Philly family. I mean come on man, how can you say he gave guys a chance? Scarfo was no different than Roy Demeo or Tommy Pitera,he was a power hungry,raving maniac that just happened to make it to be boss because there was nobody else in Philly left to take the job. Read Mafia Prince by Phil Leonetti and you will hear about the real Scarfo. What kind of sick ass bastard takes a little kid with em to get rid of a body. No offense to anybody cause i love to read about the Scarfo years but he was a crazy motherf ker who needed to be whacked by somebody.

Salvie Testa got murdered for a few reasons: disrespecting the underboss, Salvatore Merlino, by leaving his daughter at the alter, others around him jealous, being a homicidal maniac causing others to fear him, possibly running a drug ring and not sharing the profits and more importantly those that were really close to Scarfo telling him the kid had to go for this and that until the Little guy gave the order. Scarfo didn't have Testa killed just for the hell of it. And Scarfo was nothing like Demeo, Pitera or even Amuso and Casso.

And I'm not buying Phil Leonetti's word--the guy was fine with everything until he faced 45 years in prison. I haven't read the book but I heard enough to come to a conclusion that he wanted a certain spin on what went down in Philly. He wants the reader to have an image of himself and an image of his uncle.

[Teflon john]

Im not saying i believe Leonetti's book word for word but other info on Scarfo sure does point to the fact that he was a homicidal sick maniac. And i didn't think of it until you said it but i would put him in the exact same class as Amuso and Gaspipe. Everyone is entitled to there own opinion but Scarfo was not a good boss or man of honor and he was a sick bastard in my opinion.

[Five Felonies]

Im not saying i believe Leonetti's book word for word but other info on Scarfo sure does point to the fact that he was a homicidal sick maniac. And i didn't think of it until you said it but i would put him in the exact same class as Amuso and Gaspipe. Everyone is entitled to there own opinion but Scarfo was not a good boss or man of honor and he was a sick bastard in my opinion.

the narrative of scarfo as some homicidal maniac has been vastly overblown. the fact is that family was in turmoil for some time when he took over due in large part to external power struggles, it didn't just turn to shit overnight when he became boss. as far as him being paranoid, the last 2 bosses were turned into hamburger meat and given a shotgun blast to the brainstem so who wouldn't be? nicky seemed to take the "follow the rules at all costs" route very seriously, murder was the end result of that. as far as casso, totally different. i'm not an expert by any means, but aside from indictments, the luchesse's seemed to be relatively stable until casso was in charge, then all hell broke loose.

[Pogo The Clown]

the last 2 bosses were turned into hamburger meat and given a shotgun blast to the brainstem

This cracked me up.


You guy's are correct on the image of Scarfo bing overblown. He was justified in most of his killings (the reprisals for the Phil Testa hit, guy's refusing to kick up and the Riccobene War that resulted from that).


Pogo

[Chucky]

Testa has become the martyr of the Scarfo era and Scarfo was the Hannibal Lector of bosses...

In reality, Chucky Merlino's bitterness got Testa killed, not Scarfo's paranoia. The only example we have of Scarfo's paranoia was his falling out with the Merlino's...but hey, makes for a great book or documentary.