Pilly Soldier Tony "Meats" Ferrante

[Pogo The Clown]

Does anyone know anything more about him? We know he was made in the June 1982 ceremony by Scarfo and died in 2001. Caramandi makes only one reference to him whhen he talks about all of the guy's Scarfo was making. That he didn't know what he (Ferrante) did to deserve it. Other than that his name never comes up during the Scarfo era up until his death. He seems to have been a real sleeper in the family.


Pogo

[HairyKnuckles]

He was a former fight manager who was accused of having interests in bootlegging/operations of illegal alchol stills back in the 1950s. He was arrested in 1964 by the FBI in Newark on suspicion of being involved with a high stake floating card game. Another one arrested in same case was Peter Martella, later allegedly killed by Tino Fiumara. Ferrante was convicted in the case. He was arrested again for operating a numbers game (I believe it was) in mid 1960s. I think he was called "Meat" because he operated a meat store in South Philly after his licence for managing boxers had been revoked. He was born in 1920 and lived at some point in Atlantic City which could explain why he was close to Nicky Scarfo. In 1968, when a state trooper was being investigated for bribery, Anthony Ferrante was linked to the case with Alfred Salerno. They were both charged for bribery later on and pleaded guilty.

He was born in 1920, so by the time of 1982 when he was made (at the age of 62), it seems that he slowed down considerably as far as his criminal ventures are concerned. At least, it doesn´t seem that he was pinched for a crime after becoming made. That´s basically what I have on him. Perhaps someone who is better versed on Philly can fill in the blanks?



Anthony Vito Ferrante

[B.]

Also supposedly a cousin of Tony Caponigro, who he was close to and may have been his connection to Newark. There is info that he was originally an associate of the Newark crew before he moved to Margate, but given his history in Philly I'm not sure if he was officially with the Down Neck crew or not. He would have been in either Leonetti or Merlino's crew once he got made, and probably an associate of the Iezzi crew before that.

[Pogo The Clown]

Many thanks for the info HK and B. Great stuff.


Pogo

[Pogo The Clown]

I wonder if he took part in any murders since that was pretty much a requirement for membership under Scarfo (at least for the Philly guy's). Did any of the informants from that era link him to any murders?


Pogo

[B.]

I wonder if he took part in any murders since that was pretty much a requirement for membership under Scarfo (at least for the Philly guy's). Did any of the informants from that era link him to any murders?


Pogo

Not that I know of, but given his age and history with Caponigro, he was bound to have done some work at some point.

I've also wondered about Pungitore Sr. and whether he was involved in any hits.

There were a few guys like Pungitore, Ferrante, and Martorano who had been highly placed associates of the family forever but for whatever reason couldn't get made under Bruno.

[Pogo The Clown]

Another one I wonder about being involved in hits before getting made is Shotsie Sparacio.


Pogo

[B.]

Another one I wonder about being involved in hits before getting made is Shotsie Sparacio.


Pogo

Never seen anything about it. A lot of these guys were around for so long that they were bound to have helped with something at least once. Sparacio and his cousin Blaise Salvatore were big time bookmakers in the family for decades.

Back to Ferrante, I did a little more research and found that he was born and raised in South Philly for sure and he was definitely Caponigro's cousin. Caponigro used the alias "Ferrante" on occasion.

[Ivan]

Not that I know of, but given his age and history with Caponigro, he was bound to have done some work at some point.

For whatever it's worth, Natale claims in his book that Ferrante (and Bocchino) were additional conspirators in the plot to kill Bruno.

[B.]

Not that I know of, but given his age and history with Caponigro, he was bound to have done some work at some point.

For whatever it's worth, Natale claims in his book that Ferrante (and Bocchino) were additional conspirators in the plot to kill Bruno.

Phil Leonetti claimed that Bocchino supplied the shotgun used in the murder but I haven't seen any other context. Sucks that Natale ruined his credibility, as he very well might have heard a thing or two about the Bruno murder.

[Ivan]

Not that I know of, but given his age and history with Caponigro, he was bound to have done some work at some point.

For whatever it's worth, Natale claims in his book that Ferrante (and Bocchino) were additional conspirators in the plot to kill Bruno.

Phil Leonetti claimed that Bocchino supplied the shotgun used in the murder but I haven't seen any other context. Sucks that Natale ruined his credibility, as he very well might have heard a thing or two about the Bruno murder.

If you are wondering why I actually bothered to read Natale's book, I was waiting in Barnes & Noble until my brother was done with some concert he wanted to go to before we took care of something else that we needed to get done. They had the book there so I read the parts about the Bruno hit specifically. It was interesting but, like you said, his credibility is shot and there's no way of knowing what was and wasn't bullshit. I guess Ferrante helping his pal Caponigro with the hit is plausible enough. Also the book has a picture of Bocchino in it.

[PHL_Mob]

Little fun fact... The butcher shop that he owned was on 7th Street and they made book out of there forever even into the Stanfa years. It's a Chinese bakery now, but it was called Ferrante Meats into the 90s. Same butcher store with the apt on top where they tried to kill John Veasey he stumbled out etc.

[B.]

Didn't know that. Thanks for the info!

[PHL_Mob]

No problem- for any of you guys who like to a Google Map/Street these sites, the Ferrante's Meat shop and the apartment above that they used for bookmaking and to try and kill John Veasey is still pretty much exactly as is with the exception of the signage, which is for an Asian Pastry shop ('this is a major theme on 7th street these days). The address is 1826 S 7th Street, Philadephia, PA

[B.]

Not that I know of, but given his age and history with Caponigro, he was bound to have done some work at some point.

For whatever it's worth, Natale claims in his book that Ferrante (and Bocchino) were additional conspirators in the plot to kill Bruno.

Phil Leonetti claimed that Bocchino supplied the shotgun used in the murder but I haven't seen any other context. Sucks that Natale ruined his credibility, as he very well might have heard a thing or two about the Bruno murder.

If you are wondering why I actually bothered to read Natale's book, I was waiting in Barnes & Noble until my brother was done with some concert he wanted to go to before we took care of something else that we needed to get done. They had the book there so I read the parts about the Bruno hit specifically. It was interesting but, like you said, his credibility is shot and there's no way of knowing what was and wasn't bullshit. I guess Ferrante helping his pal Caponigro with the hit is plausible enough. Also the book has a picture of Bocchino in it.

Bocchino's involvement could be one reason he laid so low during the 1980s, only to pop back up when Stanfa took over. There are a couple examples like that... John Grande for example was a supporter of the Narducci/Casella group that took out Phil Testa and his name barely comes up after that despite his sons being part of Scarfo's inner circle. Seems possible that guys who were suspected of being part of the Bruno/Testa conspiracies (as supporters of the rebel factions if nothing else) were informally pushed away rather than being shelved/killed like the main conspirators. Just speculation, though.