by B. » Fri Feb 03, 2017 2:28 pm
A flashy, violent psychopathic Mafia Godfather with a Napoleon complex, the John Gotti of Philadelphia who loved the limelight almost as much as he loved ordering hits. He was banished from Philadelphia by the peaceful old world Sicilian Don Angelo Bruno because of his erratic and murderous behavior, only to return and go on the warpath against anyone and everyone who looked at him wrong.
That's what sells books.
What's missing from that? Scarfo was a killer with a bad temper, but also a stickler for the rules of the organization, both when he was a loyal Bruno soldier and for the most part as a boss. When Scarfo killed the Irishman in the diner, FBI documents from the 1960s show that Bruno didn't banish Scarfo and in fact held at least one meeting with Scarfo and Merlino where he tried to pull some legal strings to help them. That is one of the perks of being a member -- under most circumstances, the leadership of the family will defend and even try to help a made member in any kind of dispute or conflict with a non-member especially an Irish guy who wasn't connected to the family. For Bruno to have gone against Scarfo would have been a major controversy within the family, especially the Calabrese faction who already had issues with Bruno.
Scarfo moved to AC because he had come up under Skinny DiTullio who controlled the family's AC interests for a time and Scarfo's parents had bought an apartment building in AC where Scarfo and his wife lived. There was no banishment. Later in the 1970s as Leonetti talks about, Scarfo and Bruno had an amicable relationship which included their jail time together. It's true that the Testa/Scarfo faction had grown apart from Bruno before his death, but they seem to have stayed perfectly in line and didn't violently plot against him, only expressed frustration which is an almost constant at high levels in the mob anyway.
When Scarfo became boss he was very flashy and did try to send a message by having high profile hits right in the city for everyone to see, that's undeniable. He inherited the boss position right after two prior bosses had been killed along with other powerful members -- the family was at war, essentially. Scarfo ordered many hits but the majority of them were due to "legitimate" infractions, with the most notable exception being the Joe Salerno Sr. shooting, which was an extremely vicious and coldblooded way to try and punish or silence an informant.
He did create an atmosphere where members felt they would be killed for relatively minor reasons, which led to two members turning witness, though that's open for interpretation. DelGiorno did have a contract on him, as he had been frequently drunk as a captain, abusing his soldiers and badmouthing Scarfo and the leadership. There's no evidence that Caramandi had a contract on him, he had simply fallen out of favor with Scarfo for bringing informant Pastorella around despite Scarfo's repeated requests that he not do that. Caramandi was told he would be killed by Martorano who was working on getting his own sentence appealed and allegedly looking to usurp the Philly family with Scarfo in jail. The other big witnesses all flipped as a result of their sentences, not due to fear of being killed.
But that's pretty wordy and saying "Scarfo was a flashy and murderous mob boss, but it's kind of complicated" doesn't really sell books or make people want to read articles.
A flashy, violent psychopathic Mafia Godfather with a Napoleon complex, the John Gotti of Philadelphia who loved the limelight almost as much as he loved ordering hits. He was banished from Philadelphia by the peaceful old world Sicilian Don Angelo Bruno because of his erratic and murderous behavior, only to return and go on the warpath against anyone and everyone who looked at him wrong.
That's what sells books.
What's missing from that? Scarfo was a killer with a bad temper, but also a stickler for the rules of the organization, both when he was a loyal Bruno soldier and for the most part as a boss. When Scarfo killed the Irishman in the diner, FBI documents from the 1960s show that Bruno didn't banish Scarfo and in fact held at least one meeting with Scarfo and Merlino where he tried to pull some legal strings to help them. That is one of the perks of being a member -- under most circumstances, the leadership of the family will defend and even try to help a made member in any kind of dispute or conflict with a non-member especially an Irish guy who wasn't connected to the family. For Bruno to have gone against Scarfo would have been a major controversy within the family, especially the Calabrese faction who already had issues with Bruno.
Scarfo moved to AC because he had come up under Skinny DiTullio who controlled the family's AC interests for a time and Scarfo's parents had bought an apartment building in AC where Scarfo and his wife lived. There was no banishment. Later in the 1970s as Leonetti talks about, Scarfo and Bruno had an amicable relationship which included their jail time together. It's true that the Testa/Scarfo faction had grown apart from Bruno before his death, but they seem to have stayed perfectly in line and didn't violently plot against him, only expressed frustration which is an almost constant at high levels in the mob anyway.
When Scarfo became boss he was very flashy and did try to send a message by having high profile hits right in the city for everyone to see, that's undeniable. He inherited the boss position right after two prior bosses had been killed along with other powerful members -- the family was at war, essentially. Scarfo ordered many hits but the majority of them were due to "legitimate" infractions, with the most notable exception being the Joe Salerno Sr. shooting, which was an extremely vicious and coldblooded way to try and punish or silence an informant.
He did create an atmosphere where members felt they would be killed for relatively minor reasons, which led to two members turning witness, though that's open for interpretation. DelGiorno did have a contract on him, as he had been frequently drunk as a captain, abusing his soldiers and badmouthing Scarfo and the leadership. There's no evidence that Caramandi had a contract on him, he had simply fallen out of favor with Scarfo for bringing informant Pastorella around despite Scarfo's repeated requests that he not do that. Caramandi was told he would be killed by Martorano who was working on getting his own sentence appealed and allegedly looking to usurp the Philly family with Scarfo in jail. The other big witnesses all flipped as a result of their sentences, not due to fear of being killed.
But that's pretty wordy and saying "Scarfo was a flashy and murderous mob boss, but it's kind of complicated" doesn't really sell books or make people want to read articles.