Philadelphia LCN Profiles

[chin_gigante]

Inspired by gohn and maxie, I plan on writing relatively brief articles on every current confirmed member of the Philadelphia LCN family. Some, such as the following piece on Domenic Rugnetta, will be shorter than others, depending of course on the public profile of each individual.

Domenic Rugnetta

At 95 years old, Domenic Rugnetta is the oldest living member of the Philadelphia LCN family, as well as its earliest living inductee. Born 26 February 1924, Domenic was a nephew of future family consigliere, and leader of the Calabrian ‘faction’, Joseph Rugnetta. Inducted on the night of 16 January 1965, Domenic was assigned to the Chester/ Delaware County crew and answered to capo Santo Idone during the 1970s and 1980s. At the time of his induction, Domenic worked as a bartender at the South Philly Grill, a restaurant on 12th street that had been operated by his uncle since its opening in 1935. The property and its liquor license were transferred to Domenic in July 1969, and he operated the family business for the next 19 years, before handing it over to his son Rocco in 1988.
Rugnetta, along with many other members and associates, attended 1984 and 1985 Christmas parties thrown by family boss Nicky Scarfo at LaCucina in Philadelphia. Rugnetta was listed as an active member of the organisation by the Pennsylvania Crime Commission in its 1990 report, however, little information exists on his exploits since then. Considering he was in his mid-sixties at the time of the fall of the Scarfo regime and Idone’s 1990 conviction on racketeering conspiracy charges, Rugnetta could have conceivably retired during the early-nineties.

[maxiestern11]

I like it Chin.... keep it up! Good luck

[aleksandrored]

I liked the idea, it was incredible.

[gohnjotti]

Awesome work Chin!

[johnny_scootch]

Good stuff chin!

Mid-60's is an early age to retire from Cosa Nostra.

[chin_gigante]

Good stuff chin!

Mid-60's is an early age to retire from Cosa Nostra.

I think the shrinking share of the criminal pie and the violent methods of regime change during the 1990s made it easier for some of the older guys in Philadelphia to fade away and let the younger generations take over. I think especially after the fall of the Stanfa regime there was an opportunity for the guys who wanted to, to 'retire'. It's speculative, but it's one explanation for why we hear nothing about some guys like Rugnetta since the 1980s

[chin_gigante]

I'm working on a profile of Joseph Ciancaglini Sr. Obviously, there's much more information on him than a guy like Rugnetta so it's taking a while longer to gather interesting information and write it up in a concise manner. Should be up in the next couple of days or so

[Pogo The Clown]

I think the shrinking share of the criminal pie and the violent methods of regime change during the 1990s made it easier for some of the older guys in Philadelphia to fade away and let the younger generations take over. I think especially after the fall of the Stanfa regime there was an opportunity for the guys who wanted to, to 'retire'. It's speculative, but it's one explanation for why we hear nothing about some guys like Rugnetta since the 1980s

Yeah you can even go back to the Scarfo era. Seems that a lot of the Ida and Bruno era members either stepped back or were pushed back due to all the young blood Scarfo was bringing in. After the Scarfo indictments and defections a lot of the older members either retired or were barely active. During Stanfas reign it seems that barely any of them were still in the game.


Pogo

[chin_gigante]

Joseph Ciancaglini – Part 1

Born 1934, Joseph ‘Chickie’ Ciancaglini is one of the ‘old heads’ of the Philadelphia crime family, with a reputation as a tough guy and earner that emerged back in the 1960s and 1970s through his involvement in loan-sharking and labour unions. Ciancaglini worked primarily for major loan shark and mob soldier Frank Sindone, acting as a collector and intermediary in Sindone’s illicit operations. Tall and physically imposing, Ciancaglini was well-suited to work as an enforcer. A onetime Teamsters official and goon for Local 107, Ciancaglini was reportedly shot with a small calibre firearm during a period of union infighting, but the round ‘didn’t do nothing’ to the huge wiseguy. Loan shark-turned-witness Harry Brown testified that in January 1973 Ciancaglini and another man accompanied him to the house of Russell Wilmerton on two occasions, as Wilmerton was unable to repay a $9,000 loan. While Brown and the other man threatened Wilmerton, and on one occasion used physical force, Ciancaglini remained silent, his presence intimidating enough.
Brown was the general manager of the Chestnut Hill Lincoln-Mercury car dealership in Philadelphia and had himself borrowed money from Sindone since 1969, having to seek permission from Sindone and underboss Philip Testa to later lend money to Wilmerton. Struggling to repay his debts to Sindone and Testa, in April 1975 Brown staged a $175,000 cash robbery at the Chestnut Hill dealership. For his part in Brown’s criminal operations, Ciancaglini received a free car. On the day of the robbery, receipts were forged to show a cash payment from Ciancaglini of $3,000 for the vehicle, and, when questioned by the police, Ciancaglini backed up the story and denied any knowledge of the theft. Though Ciancaglini was not immediately scathed by these incidents, Brown was quickly charged and convicted of his role in the Wilmerton loan and the dealership robbery, eventually agreeing to testify against Ciancaglini at a racketeering trial in the early 1980s.
Ciancaglini became involved in more serious criminal activity with the 1974 murder of Alvin Feldman. Calling himself the ‘King of the Jews’, Feldman was a mob associate and business partner of Atlantic City-based soldier Nicodemo ‘Little Nicky’ Scarfo. Together, they were involved in gambling and loan-sharking activities; they briefly owned an Atlantic City nightclub called the Haunted House; and they operated three adult bookstores. Scarfo was not making a lot of money with Feldman and, to make matters worse, suspected his partner of skimming cash from their joint ventures. Feldman had a reputation for greed and a history of killing, or attempting to kill, his rivals with car bombs, so when Scarfo discovered that his partner had made a duplicate of his car keys, he went to family boss Angelo Bruno for permission to kill Feldman.
Scarfo and associate Nick Virgilio made attempts to execute Feldman outside his house, but their plans were put on hold after both men found themselves in legal trouble. Scarfo was sent to prison for 2 years in 1971 for refusing to testify before a New Jersey State Commission and, shortly after, Virgilio was sentenced to 12 to 15 years for a 1970 murder. However, instead of saving Feldman’s life, his would-be killers’ legal problems only cemented his fate.
In a bid to secure a lighter sentence for his friend, Scarfo had arranged for a $6,000 bribe to be sent to the Superior Court judge overseeing Virgilio’s murder case. Edwin Helfant, an attorney and municipal court judge associated with the crime family, offered to pass on the bribe and get Virgilio a more lenient sentence. Scarfo gathered the funds, only Helfant kept the $6,000 for himself, giving a split to with Feldman, and resulting in Virgilio's 12 to 15 year sentence. Outraged, Scarfo approached Bruno again to have Feldman killed. Bruno, who was also serving time for contempt, would not approve the murder immediately because Feldman owed $60,000 to Trenton-based family soldier Carl Ippolito. By 1974, Feldman had repaid his debt, and the murder contract was approved.
Mob soldier Joseph Scalleat contacted Feldman with a proposal to set fire to a warehouse in Pennsylvania as part of a moneymaking scheme. Feldman, an arsonist, agreed and was driven to the warehouse by Scalleat, only to find made members Santo Idone and Frank Narducci, and then-associate Joseph Ciancaglini waiting for them. Idone grabbed Feldman while Narducci began to stab him with an ice pick. However, in the struggle, Narducci accidentally stabbed Idone in the arm, which allowed Feldman to wriggle free and start to run. Ciancaglini gave chase and caught Feldman, holding him down while Narducci finished him off. The hit team then buried the body at an undisclosed location. For his role in the murder, Ciancaglini was later inducted into the family by Bruno.
Now a made man, Ciancaglini continued to work for Sindone and became heavily involved in the family’s gambling operations by the latter half of the 1970s. In addition to working as a collector for a numbers game run by Sindone and Phil Testa, Ciancaglini oversaw a numbers operation run by Sindone associate Charles Warrington and collected cash from another operation run by soldier Harry Riccobene and his brother Mario. Ciancaglini would visit the Riccobene brothers at their office every Wednesday to collect a share of the week’s profits and coordinate the games. On one occasion, after meeting the Riccobenes one Wednesday, Ciancaglini was observed delivering a large sum of cash directly to Bruno.
While firmly involved in the family’s illicit activities, Ciancaglini was not a core member of the enterprise until the early 1980s. The event to shape Ciancaglini’s future, as well as that of the entire family, was the March 1980 murder of Angelo Bruno.
Although his tenure as boss was long and peaceful, Bruno was reluctant to induct new members, he preferred to make money through his own schemes, and he was generally seen by his soldiers as too ‘old-fashioned’ and restrictive. Towards the end of his reign, Bruno had also alienated himself from his top aides. A 1976 referendum on the legalisation of casino gaming in New Jersey had virtually turned Atlantic City into an ATM for the mob and local wiseguy Nicky Scarfo. However, Bruno clashed with Scarfo and his friend Phil Testa over key positions in mob-run Local 54, with Bruno and Testa’s relationship eventually turning sour. In what turned out to be the final nail in his coffin, Bruno prohibited his soldiers from dealing in narcotics, which frustrated ambitious, Newark-based capo Antonio ‘Tony Bananas’ Caponigro. Bruno attempted to placate Tony Bananas by promoting him to consigliere in 1978, but Caponigro conspired anyway, finally striking on the night of 21 March 1980, orchestrating Bruno’s assassination outside his home in South Philadelphia.
Caponigro, who had been tricked into killing Bruno by the Genovese family, was executed in New York a few weeks later on orders of the Mafia Commission. Phil Testa was installed as the new boss and tasked with eliminating Caponigro’s co-conspirators, including Frank Sindone.
The night of his murder, Bruno had dined at Cous' Little Italy, a restaurant owned by Sindone and associate Tommy DelGiorno. Sindone had been close to Caponigro, frequently attending Tuesday-night banquettes thrown by Tony Bananas in Newark; so close in fact that Sindone was rumoured to be made underboss when Caponigro took over. Now that Caponigro was dead, Sindone was next.
Viewed with suspicion due to his closeness to Sindone, Ciancaglini was called in to meet with the new administration (Testa, underboss Peter Casella and consigliere Nicky Scarfo) with a ‘gun to his head’. Ciancaglini insisted that he wasn’t involved in the conspiracy, with Scarfo interceding on his behalf, saying that Ciancaglini was ‘innocent of [Sindone’s] tricks’. With his loyalty determined, Ciancaglini was used to set up Sindone to be killed. In October 1980, Sindone was lured to a house where he was shot by members Frank Monte, Salvatore ‘Chuckie’ Merlino and Salvatore ‘Salvie’ Testa and then dumped on the street. Ciancaglini was rewarded with a piece of his former boss’ criminal operations and assigned to work for Monte.
In February 1981, Ciancaglini’s world was rocked again, as he was named in a federal racketeering indictment along with new boss Phil Testa and several other defendants. ‘Operation Gangplank’ charged Ciancaglini, Testa, Frank Narducci, Carl Ippolito, Harry Riccobene, Joseph Bongiovanni, Frank Primerano, Mario Riccobene, Pasquale Spirito and Charles Warrington as part of a RICO enterprise involved in gambling and loan-sharking. Ciancaglini was specifically charged with RICO conspiracy, running craps games with Warrington and overseeing the Riccobene numbers operation. Though a total of 10 individuals were charged in the case, only 7 would go on to face trial.
On the night of 15 March 1981, Phil Testa was killed by a nail bomb planted under the porch of his south Philadelphia house. This time the main conspirator was ambitious capo and co-defendant Frank Narducci, who had expected to be given an administration position in the family reshuffle a year earlier. Narducci manipulated underboss Pete Casella into joining his conspiracy to take over the family and, remembering what had happened to Caponigro, blamed the murder on the local Irish K&A gang. Scarfo saw through this lie and, sensing that he was next on Narducci’s hit list, arranged a meeting with New York. Casella was brought before the Genovese family and confessed to his role in the conspiracy, though his life was spared thanks to his connection to a Genovese capo. Instead, he was shelved and banished to Florida, where he died a few years later.
Scarfo, having gathered the support of most of the Philadelphia capos, was installed as the new boss and quickly went about rearranging the family. In April, at an induction ceremony held in the basement of La Dolce Vita (later LaCucina) on South Street, Scarfo elevated Chuckie Merlino to underboss and Frank Monte to consigliere. To fill the vacancy in Monte’s crew, Scarfo promoted the 46-year-old Ciancaglini to capo.

[Dr031718]

Great write up

[CabriniGreen]

That was really good!!

[chin_gigante]

Working on Joseph Ciancaglini part 2. Might end up being a 3 parts in total (one part focusing on Ciancaglini's activities 1981-1983, the other on his time in prison and presence upon release) as so far the remaining notes I have are longer than the complete prose of part 1

[chin_gigante]

Sorry for the delay on part 2. Moved countries so I've been busy recently. Also thinking of changing my part 1 profile. Might start a new thread for Ciancaglini once I finish the whole thing rather than delete and repost Ciancaglini part 1