by furiofromnaples » Wed May 05, 2021 3:10 am
https://mycitypaper.com/articles/060701 ... ston.shtml
https://www.phillyvoice.com/former-joey ... -minister/
Luisi said his deal came apart because of problems he was having with a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston. Instead, he went to trial. Previte was a key witness against him. Luisi was convicted and ultimately sentenced to 188 months in prison.
“I never liked Ronnie and Ronnie never liked me,” he said. “But today I’d like to thank him. He saved my life.”
Previte, in a phone interview on Monday, said he never disliked Luisi but thought he was too easily manipulated by Merlino and Borgesi.
“I didn’t dislike him, but I thought he was foolish and being used by them,” the onetime wiseguy said.
Luisi didn’t see it that way. He said he sought out the Philadelphia mob in the 1990s because of conflicts he was having with the Boston-based mob family with which he was associated.
At first, he said, he tried to align with the Gambino crime family in New York. But he said Peter Gotti, who was running the family for his jailed brother John at the time, said, “We don’t need any more friends.”
Luisi said he then used an associate who had spent time in jail with Philadelphia mob leader Ralph Natale to arrange a meeting in Philadelphia. Luisi said he first met with Natale at The Pub, a popular bar-restaurant in Pennsauken. He subsequently met with Borgesi and a crew of mob associates at a dinner in Delaware County and then met with Merlino at Gino’s Café, a South Philadelphia corner bar that the mob controlled at the time.
Those meetings led to an affiliation and Luisi’s formal initiation into the Philadelphia crime family. He became a capo with his own crew in Boston. By his estimation, he was generating tens of thousands of dollars a month through gambling, loansharking and drug dealing.
“When I went to jail, I had a million dollars on the street,” Luisi said of the various mob gambits in which he was involved. The feds would later allege that Luisi was sending $10,000 a month to Merlino as tribute and that, in effect, he bought his way into the organization.
“With Joey it was always pride and ego and money,” Luisi said.
Luisi said his goal at the time was to develop his own organization and eventually split off from Philadelphia.
https://mycitypaper.com/articles/060701/news.boston.shtml
https://www.phillyvoice.com/former-joey-merlino-mob-associate-robert-boston-bob-luisi-now-christian-minister/
Luisi said his deal came apart because of problems he was having with a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston. Instead, he went to trial. Previte was a key witness against him. Luisi was convicted and ultimately sentenced to 188 months in prison.
“I never liked Ronnie and Ronnie never liked me,” he said. “But today I’d like to thank him. He saved my life.”
Previte, in a phone interview on Monday, said he never disliked Luisi but thought he was too easily manipulated by Merlino and Borgesi.
“I didn’t dislike him, but I thought he was foolish and being used by them,” the onetime wiseguy said.
[u]Luisi didn’t see it that way. He said he sought out the Philadelphia mob in the 1990s because of conflicts he was having with the Boston-based mob family with which he was associated.
At first, he said, he tried to align with the Gambino crime family in New York. But he said Peter Gotti, who was running the family for his jailed brother John at the time, said, “We don’t need any more friends.”[/u]
[u]Luisi said he then used an associate who had spent time in jail with Philadelphia mob leader Ralph Natale to arrange a meeting in Philadelphia. Luisi said he first met with Natale at The Pub, a popular bar-restaurant in Pennsauken. He subsequently met with Borgesi and a crew of mob associates at a dinner in Delaware County and then met with Merlino at Gino’s Café, a South Philadelphia corner bar that the mob controlled at the time.[/u]
[u]Those meetings led to an affiliation and Luisi’s formal initiation into the Philadelphia crime family. He became a capo with his own crew in Boston. By his estimation, he was generating tens of thousands of dollars a month through gambling, loansharking and drug dealing.
“When I went to jail, I had a million dollars on the street,” Luisi said of the various mob gambits in which he was involved. The feds would later allege that Luisi was sending $10,000 a month to Merlino as tribute and that, in effect, he bought his way into the organization.
[b]“With Joey it was always pride and ego and money,” Luisi said.[/b][/u]
Luisi said his goal at the time was to develop his own organization and eventually split off from Philadelphia.