THE BLACK HAND FORUM

Five Felonies wrote:

Stroccos wrote:agree JCB , especally when Merlino is all over social media and sites like tmz. ITs a big fuck you to the goverment. Makes them look bad .

i just don't buy the idea that they're going to come at a guy like joey extra hard over petty stuff like instagram and cars, it just doesn't add up. granted, fbi agents are people like the rest of us so perhaps ego plays a small part but at the end of the day does anyone really believe they're going to devote more time, energy and resources to a guy over anything else besides the level of criminality they think he's involved in? we've seen a bunch of recent trials where guys got off who were most assuredly guilty, so i'd assume the focus is on making airtight cases and i just don't see how a guy driving a fancy car helps them achieve that.

Stroccos wrote:agree JCB , especally when Merlino is all over social media and sites like tmz. ITs a big fuck you to the goverment. Makes them look bad .

JCB1977 wrote:

Five Felonies wrote:

JCB1977 wrote:Somebody mentioned he bought a new cadillac every few years...a caddy is quite different than driving around in a Rolls Royce.

i honestly don't think things like this make much of a difference at all. i doubt ligambi shows up to the dealership with a trunk full of cash and i think it's pretty obviously joey doesn't own that car. there's a real difference between being "low key" in terms of public appearances and being "low key" with the types of illegal activities you're involved in. i think law enforcement puts the same amount of effort into snagging joey whether he's driving a beat up civic and living in some crumby kensington dump or driving a rolls and living the good life in south florida.

again, different times. everyone knows about the mob, so the idea of these guys having to hide and pretend like they're produce vendors or some other silly title is beyond laughable. it's like the pro wrestlers in the old days who stayed in character all the time, beating up reporters and other dumb stunts to prove wrestling is "real", we all know better now.

No doubt...and I hear ya about Merlino driving a Rolls v Civic...however, by driving the Rolls, these agents get a bigger hard on for nailing the guy.

Five Felonies wrote:

JCB1977 wrote:Somebody mentioned he bought a new cadillac every few years...a caddy is quite different than driving around in a Rolls Royce.

i honestly don't think things like this make much of a difference at all. i doubt ligambi shows up to the dealership with a trunk full of cash and i think it's pretty obviously joey doesn't own that car. there's a real difference between being "low key" in terms of public appearances and being "low key" with the types of illegal activities you're involved in. i think law enforcement puts the same amount of effort into snagging joey whether he's driving a beat up civic and living in some crumby kensington dump or driving a rolls and living the good life in south florida.

again, different times. everyone knows about the mob, so the idea of these guys having to hide and pretend like they're produce vendors or some other silly title is beyond laughable. it's like the pro wrestlers in the old days who stayed in character all the time, beating up reporters and other dumb stunts to prove wrestling is "real", we all know better now.

JCB1977 wrote:Somebody mentioned he bought a new cadillac every few years...a caddy is quite different than driving around in a Rolls Royce.

Chucky wrote:I mean, I'll agree in the sense that he was more low key than Merlino, but Ligambi did little to hide his status in South Philly or over the bridge, he was pretty out there. There was also less heat on them after the Merlino trial was blown and the feds put the guys on the street on the backburner until the delaware county thing. Less murders helped too, but that was more out of self-preservation than a calculated move by Ligambi to be the low.

Chucky wrote:Those articles are a decade old, and Anastasia has been wrong on a lot, particularly on Natale and Stanfa, this is nothing new.