Chris Christie wrote: ↑Wed Oct 14, 2020 4:32 pm
If we, as researchers, wish to get to the bottom of this we'd have to find out the sources behind this claim. Did a member in Phila. state this on wiretap? Did Natale state "Seven Boston boys were made into our family" or was it: "Philly's crew in Boston, had 6-7 guys around them." So much is lost in misunderstanding what is being spoken. Conclusions are easily jumped to. Do we have a source beyond Luisi himself describing him as Caporegime (sorry Gene, it's used among the members)? Anastasia did but does he state where he got that source from?
Looking at the sources for Luisi being a captain this is what I have:
Philadelphia Daily News
08 July 1999
Kitty Caparella and Joseph R Daughen
'Can the Mob Survive?'
Last Oct. 6, according to an affidavit by FBI Agent Ralph J. Saturno, Merlino told the "cooperating witness" that he was "taking over" the local mob. Natale had been returned to prison in June 1998 on a parole violation.
Three days later, what investigators say was an unprecedented event occurred when Merlino let it be known that he was promoting a Boston man to the position of capo.
Saturno said the Boston man, Robert Luisi Jr., would have "the responsibility of supervising criminal activity in Boston" for the Philadelphia family.
"That's the craziest thing I ever heard of," said one longtime organized crime investigator. "What is Joey Merlino doing making members from Boston?"
Philadelphia Inquirer
29 June 1999
George Anastasia and Joseph Slobodzian
'Merlino Arrested On Drug Charges'
Arrested in the Boston area and charged with Merlino were Robert Luisi Jr., 38, Shawn Vetere, 31, Bobby Carrazzo Jr., 39, and Thomas Wilson, 48. Luisi is the son of a notorious Boston mob associate, Robert Luisi Sr., who was gunned down with four other men, including another son, as they sat in the 99 Restaurant & Pub in the Charlestown section of Boston in 1995.
Robert Luisi Jr., according to the charges disclosed yesterday, was named a capo by Merlino this year.
United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit
10 April 2007
UNITED STATES V. LUISI
https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-1st-circ ... footnote_8
Luisi was the sole witness to testify for the defense. He testified to several additional pertinent points. He admitted that he had been a captain in the LCN since the fall of 1998, and he agreed that the LCN was properly described as “the Mafia” and as “the mob.”
As a captain, one of his jobs had been to make “tribute” payments to Merlino, and these payments had come out of Luisi's earnings from the criminal enterprises conducted by his “crew” in Boston. Luisi explained that the LCN was extremely hierarchical, and he stated that when the head of the LCN ordered him to do the cocaine transaction, he felt that he had no alternative other than to fulfill the order.
On the Philadelphia family inducting more than one Boston guy:
Philadelphia Daily News
07 June 2001
Kitty Caparella
'Lifetime Gangster Tells His Tale As Liaison to Philly Mob'
After approving Natale as boss, the Genovese family wanted to OK Natale's major decisions, Caprio said. So Natale asked Caprio to be his liaison.
After Natale was jailed on a parole violation in 1998, Caprio said, he continued his same role for Merlino.
Merlino asked him to get approval from the Genovese family to initiate two Boston mobsters into the Philadelphia LCN, he said.
"Tell Merlino not to make them," Caprio testified he was told. Merlino inducted them anyway.
Philadelphia Daily News
29 June 1999
Kitty Caparella and Jim Smith
'Big Blow For Big Joey'
According to the criminal complaints, Natale directed five co-conspirators, including his son-in-law, in manufacturing and selling seven pounds of methamphetamine between October 1995 through March 1998.
Six months later, Merlino was allegedly directing four Boston-area men, two of whom he inducted into the Philadelphia mob, in obtaining and selling 11 pounds of cocaine. The Merlino dope plot was unfolding as recently as 11 days ago, according to one of the complaints.
Merlino's alleged criminal activity in the Boston area without reprisal from New England's Raymond Patriarca crime family is unheard of under traditional Mafia rules.
According to the complaints, Merlino promoted Robert Luisi Jr. to be a Philly capo to supervise Boston operations. He also inducted Bostonian Shawn Vetere into the Philly mob without the approval of other crime families - a testament to the disintegration of mob past practices.
While the above only makes specific reference to Luisi and Vetere getting straightened out, it should be noted they were the only made guys involved in that drug case.
On Robert Gentile's membership:
Hartford Courant
28 March 2012
Edmund H Mahoney
'Feds Believe Mobster, 75, Involved in Gardner Art Heist'
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.couran ... y,amp.html
[Assistant US Attorney John] Durham said Gentile was associated with a crew active in Boston and led by Capo Robert Luisi, but associated with Philadelphia's mafia family. It was Luisi who "made" Gentile by inducting him into the Philadelphia family, Durham said in court Tuesday.
When Luisi was arrested and confronted with a long prison sentence for selling cocaine about a decade ago, he implicated Gentile and other alleged members of his crew in a long list of criminal activity, Durham said.