George Martorano on his father's murder

[chin_gigante]

Martorano described the motive behind his father as he understands it. He says Long John tried to get back involved after getting out of prison but found it wasn't worth it. He travelled to Sicily to meet relatives and was looking to get into the construction business over there but rumour came back that he, like Stanfa, was recruiting Sicilian shooters to take on the Merlino guys.

https://philly-prime-podcast.simplecast ... episode-12

[NJShore4Life]

I always liked him, good guy with a positive outlook.

[Pmac2]

I wonder if the father was welcomed back into the family and he tried to take over something or was he already shunned. He did alot of time. Think its dumb to shelve someone who did there time.

[Pmac2]

They went straight to the hit team probably could have gave him a beating. But they sent a message

[Adam]

The Martorano trying to recruit Sicilians gunmen to take out Philly guys theory seems really really far fetched. I find it hard to believe that would be a reason any of the Philly guys would use to take him out.

[chubby]

The Martorano trying to recruit Sicilians gunmen to take out Philly guys theory seems really really far fetched. I find it hard to believe that would be a reason any of the Philly guys would use to take him out.

Yeah honestly that shit sounds laughable, he wasn’t on his way to get furio and his ponytail to take out Merlinos crew... I don’t understand why people overplay the practically nonexistent relationship between American guys and the Sicilians.... literally the only place it rings true in America is with a lot of the Gambino guys.. but it has to do with actual “family” like marriages, and generations of uncles and cousins, ect... it’s not built from a crime angle... do those guys do business together??? I’m sure 2+2 is always 4... you got deep rooted family ties and both happen to be involved in criminal lifestyle... they probably do more legit business than illegal also...

But yeah unfortunate for long john... I think he was probably pulling a Phil Leotardo using the “I did 20 fucking years in the joint” ad nauseam... and wanted back in and probably in his head had an idea of what he thought he deserved and I’m sure had no issues voicing it to the younger guys now in charge.... Merlino and then are as greedy as they get and I don’t think was going to let go of anything lucrative.... so the easy thing was to just clip him..

[slimshady_007]

They went straight to the hit team probably could have gave him a beating. But they sent a message

You never know, maybe some guys gave him a beating and Long John still didn’t get the message. I remember George Anastasia claimed Long John was the one who convinced Nicky the crow to flip. So i think it’s likely Uncle Joe (who was a Scarfo loyalist) had a hard on for Long John the second he got out.

[dack2001]

By the end of the 80's, it was believed that Long John flipped the Crow in an attempted power move to take control when he got out on his appeal. Long John thought he was close to being released once his appeal was overturned in 86/87. After Crow testified that Long John stroked him into thinking Scarfo was going to kill him and the guys heard Crow testify to whatLong John told him, Nicky put out a hit on Long John and assigned it to his son and George Fresolone in North Jersey. That was in 89/90. All those guys saw Crow testify multiply times, I'm sure they all knew what Long John was up to.

It took 8-9 more years for the court to rule and affirm that Long John and Daidone couldn't be retried on their case. By then Joey had the reins and they were all facing trial and Joe was holding things together. Long John gets out and tries to put something together and the rest was history. I'm sure there was more than one person that had a hard-on for Long John. His power came from his wealth and being around Ang with the unions and dealing drugs, his associates were more of the meth dealing Riccobene/Natale variety. He didn't have a natural power base so his putting out feelers surely raised some eyebrows. I don't doubt that taking trips to Sicily also didn't raise antenna. That's only five years removed from Stanfa bringing Biago and Sergio Battaglia over and Long John was friends with all of Sanfa's guys who were old Riccobene guys. You don't think those zips guys raised eyebrows downtown when they arrived on the scene in the early 90's? I think what George says here makes a ton of sense. He doesn't deny his father made moves to get back in. And he says it very politically too about not wanting to see the guys who did it punished. Very smart.

[stubbs]

By the end of the 80's, it was believed that Long John flipped the Crow in an attempted power move to take control when he got out on his appeal. Long John thought he was close to being released once his appeal was overturned in 86/87. After Crow testified that Long John stroked him into thinking Scarfo was going to kill him and the guys heard Crow testify to whatLong John told him, Nicky put out a hit on Long John and assigned it to his son and George Fresolone in North Jersey. That was in 89/90. All those guys saw Crow testify multiply times, I'm sure they all knew what Long John was up to.

It took 8-9 more years for the court to rule and affirm that Long John and Daidone couldn't be retried on their case. By then Joey had the reins and they were all facing trial and Joe was holding things together. Long John gets out and tries to put something together and the rest was history. I'm sure there was more than one person that had a hard-on for Long John. His power came from his wealth and being around Ang with the unions and dealing drugs, his associates were more of the meth dealing Riccobene/Natale variety. He didn't have a natural power base so his putting out feelers surely raised some eyebrows. I don't doubt that taking trips to Sicily also didn't raise antenna. That's only five years removed from Stanfa bringing Biago and Sergio Battaglia over and Long John was friends with all of Sanfa's guys who were old Riccobene guys. You don't think those zips guys raised eyebrows downtown when they arrived on the scene in the early 90's? I think what George says here makes a ton of sense. He doesn't deny his father made moves to get back in. And he says it very politically too about not wanting to see the guys who did it punished. Very smart.

Great post. There’s an old saying that an account with cosa nostra is never closed. Once you cross the line from civilian to criminal, you can go legit but you can never undo crossing that line.

By that, I mean you can leave the criminal life behind and work a 9-5, but if the guys still in the streets think you’re a liability they can still come after you. Look at Gino DiPietro. Maybe Gino really had turned his life around, but to the mob he was no civilian, just an ex-criminal.

If you want to get out of the life, move far away. But the only true way not to lose the game is to never play.

[NJShore4Life]

You guys got to remember when Long John went away in the early 80s Ligambi was just a bartender who wasn’t even straightened out, then Long John gets out and Ligambi is boss and his #3 Joe Crutch hates Long John because he killed his family member who was a civilian and a woman. I bet it was a combination of many things. My personal opinion and it is just that an opinion is that Joe Crutch the #3 at the time ordered it in retaliation for killing a civilian, woman family member.

[slimshady_007]

You guys got to remember when Long John went away in the early 80s Ligambi was just a bartender who wasn’t even straightened out, then Long John gets out and Ligambi is boss and his #3 Joe Crutch hates Long John because he killed his family member who was a civilian and a woman. I bet it was a combination of many things. My personal opinion and it is just that an opinion is that Joe Crutch the #3 at the time ordered it in retaliation for killing a civilian, woman family member.

Who was the women that was killed? I never heard anything about that.

[dack2001]

Was it Jean Curro that got killed? That may well have played a role. I'm sure he was not welcomed by many when he came back around.

[Pogo The Clown]

I don't doubt that taking trips to Sicily also didn't raise antenna. That's only five years removed from Stanfa bringing Biago and Sergio Battaglia over and Long John was friends with all of Sanfa's guys who were old Riccobene guys. You don't think those zips guys raised eyebrows downtown when they arrived on the scene in the early 90's?

Stanfa didn't bring them over. Battaglia came over with his family when he was a teenager and if I'm not mistaken Biagio Sdornetto was a civilian already here when he hooked up with Stanfa.

Who was the women that was killed? I never heard anything about that.

Jeannette Curro. She was the girlfriend of Greek mobster Chelseas Bouras. Long John orchestrated the hit on Bouras and she got cought in the crossfire. George Martorano was reportedly one of the gunmen in that hit.


Pogo

[PHL_Mob]

Long John definitely didn't respect Merlino let alone Ligambi. Here's a guy who was in business with Bruno since the 50's and then Testa and Scarfo in the 80s and Ligambi wasn't even IN the picture until early 80s. It's my understanding that when Long John got out he felt like a lot of the book and there was a big NE Philly book and loan operation that is still around today that Long John claimed to have funded and backed and was his before he went away in 83/84. Ligambi basically told him to fuck himself. There was also another thing I heard about that happened when Tommy Del went bad. Before he went bad Tommy Del owned a piece of the Cous' Little Italy, which later on was called Torano's. I forget exactly what happened if it was before or after Tommy Del went bad, but basically it was sold and Long John's piece either went to Scarfo or someone else and long story short he was trying to get like $150k from the selling of the restaurant, which he claimed went to back and fund book/shy. I don't think they would've clipped Long John just cuz of the Caramandi thing even though I'm sure that pissed them off. For all they knew Nicky Crow was just lying and saying that to make him flipping seem more "reasonable"? I think he basically thought he had more claim to South Philly and he was definitely muscling in on the sports and video, etc, and wouldn't back off and there simply wasn't any room for another big player like Long John. He opened up a social club down in Bella Vista for a little when he got back to south philly and I was definitely trying to re-establish himself. Georgie's story is just a nice story for him to tell people and makes it all more neutral for his dad and Ligambi, etc. Georgie still sits at the bar at the Saloon and you can still see him there sitting at the bar most nights if you're ever down there... very nice guy and true gentleman.

[dack2001]

The mortgage is old news. Caramandi was spooked as spooked gets. Thats a fucking fact, He testified over and over to that.