Philly making ceremonies (1990's-present) and misc. research

[mike68]

Vetere was filmed within the past year or two on a street in Philly with other members of the family. I'm wondering what kind of business they could be doing up in Boston at this point? And how are the Patriarcas ok with it? Would they get a cut of anything going on on their turf?

[HoagieNose]

Vetere was filmed within the past year or two on a street in Philly with other members of the family. I'm wondering what kind of business they could be doing up in Boston at this point? And how are the Patriarcas ok with it? Would they get a cut of anything going on on their turf?

I think some of the shit they do is borderline legit. Vertere has a real job, or so it seems on his LinkedIn page haha. And on a companies website if you google his name. Borgesi does a bunch of legit stuff. My guess is it’s really not fully legit though. I don’t think there was anything going on in Boston until Borgesi got out.

And I would assume they all get a cut somehow.

[chin_gigante]

Some more info on the Boston ceremonies in the late-90s from Luisi's latest podcast with Anastasia and Schratwieser:

- Luisi says his crew consisted of eight made guys (including himself) though he wanted to make another dozen
- When making his guys in Boston, Luisi says they would walk around, go into a random hotel, and conduct the ceremony in a room
- Phones and beepers were left in the bathroom during the ceremony
- The inductees were not given advance notice
- He claims to have done this on two occasions
- Gentile was inducted in the "first wave"
- If he split off and formed his own family he would have made Gentile a captain/ the de facto consigliere

Based on this information, we can paint the following picture of the Boston crew in 1999:

Robert Luisi (Captain)
- Paul Pepicelli (Acting Captain whenever Luisi was out of town)
- Thomas Caruso
- Robert Gentile
- Robert Paleo
- David Pepicelli
- Paul Tanso
- Shawn Vetere

[chin_gigante]

Some notes from Paul Tanso's appearance on the Armchair MBA. He's pretty hard to follow because he goes off on about 20 tangents a minute. The main vibe I get from Tanso is he really wasn't at all bothered about getting inducted and considered his friendship with Luisi more important than Cosa Nostra. He expresses no interest in being made with the Patriarca family. He also says the way he reconnected with Luisi was when the Facebook algorithm recommended him a profile of "Alonso Esposito".

- Tanso got involved with Luisi's crew because he wanted to "have fun"
- When he found out Luisi was going to be made in Philadelphia, Tanso told him he "didn't need it"
- Luisi and another captain from Philadelphia were present at Tanso's ceremony
- Tanso doesn't name him but it's almost certainly Borgesi
- The other captain was a straight shooter
- The other captain pulled Tanso aside on three occasions to warn him against dealing drugs
- Tanso stopped dealing the first time he was told
- Tanso's brother took his customer list from him and started dealing himself
- He estimates he got made about a year after Luisi and says it was right before "the end"
- Luisi was straightened out in Fall 1998 so Tanso was probably inducted shortly before the indictments in 1999
- Tanso was in the second group of guys inducted by Luisi at a hotel room
- Other people at the ceremony were one of Luisi's cousins, "the Blur" (Robert Paleo), and a couple of other Philly guys
- Doesn't specify if those mentioned above were attendees or inductees
- They did the "Cincinatti shuffle" around hotels to conduct the ceremony but everything was on Tanso's credit card so they could have been traced easily anyway
- Some guys walked off after the ceremony and "looked at their finger like they were ET"
- After Tanso's finger was pricked it turned black
- Also at the ceremony was "supposedly another captain under Bobby"
- Could be a reference to an acting captain but it's worded strangely - Luisi has said before his cousin Paul Pepicelli served as acting captain whenever he left Boston
- The first thing Tanso did as a member was get drunk, go home, and fall asleep
- Tanso met Merlino three times and thought he was the "coolest guy ever"
- Talking with Merlino felt like talking to a childhood friend
- When Luisi was arrested everything fell apart and people started grabbing things for themselves
- Tanso kept poker machines for himself
- Other wiseguys tried to take the machines off him once or twice
- The fact that Tanso was made didn't matter
- Tanso played a round of Russian roulette in front of "Tony Antennas" and "Tony Sneakers" and they left
- [Not familiar enough with Boston guys to know who the above individuals are]
- The crew was in disarray following the arrests
- Tanso would bring money from the machines to the people Luisi left in charge but it wasn't going "where it was supposed to"
- This frustration led to Tanso deciding not to come in anymore and keeping the machines for himself
- Tanso was still talking to Luisi on the phone
- Luisi's family was being threatened
- Luisi told Tanso that something was going to happen and that he should get his (Luisi's) family out of the way and then make himself scarce
- Tanso stayed where he was and nobody came to ask him to kick up
- It then came out that Luisi was cooperating
- Tanso didn't believe that Luisi would hurt him
- Tanso left for a reservation in Arizona
- When he was in prison in the 2000s, Tanso met Jerry Angiulo but they didn't get along
- Tanso and Angiulo got into an argument and Angiulo sent someone to beat him up
- Tanso put the guy in the hospital, so they sent someone else to talk to him
- Tanso says Angiulo knew he was made
- Tanso was hanging out in prison with Benny Aloi, Danny Piscopo, Sal Catalano, Frank LoCascio, and some other Gambino guys
- The other guys spoke up for Tanso

[davidf1989]

Didn't Luisi try to get into the Patriarca crime family? But Salemme refused to make him.
So he joined up with Merlino, Borgesi, and Natale.

[HoagieNose]

Has there been any making ceremonies over the last two Years ?

[aray22]

Has there been any making ceremonies over the last two Years ?

Nah. They didn't want to disobey New York's indoor COVID guidelines.

[chin_gigante]

Didn't Luisi try to get into the Patriarca crime family? But Salemme refused to make him.
So he joined up with Merlino, Borgesi, and Natale.

He was a proposed guy with the Patriarcas but claims he had a falling out with a captain and realised he wouldn't get made. He went to the Gambino family to try and get straightened out but Peter Gotti told him they couldn't do anything for him. Then a guy called Frank Rossi who had been in prison with Ralph Natale arranged for a meeting with the Philadelphia guys. Goes to meet Natale, gets put on record with Borgesi. Then Natale went to prison, Merlino became acting boss, and Luisi got inducted

[mike68]

https://reverejournal.com/2021/06/09/ml ... -the-city/

Not mob related, but Shawn Vetere was in the news for something good earlier last year. He was a star HS Quarterback at Revere High as well.

[davidf1989]

Didn't Luisi try to get into the Patriarca crime family? But Salemme refused to make him.
So he joined up with Merlino, Borgesi, and Natale.

He was a proposed guy with the Patriarcas but claims he had a falling out with a captain and realised he wouldn't get made. He went to the Gambino family to try and get straightened out but Peter Gotti told him they couldn't do anything for him. Then a guy called Frank Rossi who had been in prison with Ralph Natale arranged for a meeting with the Philadelphia guys. Goes to meet Natale, gets put on record with Borgesi. Then Natale went to prison, Merlino became acting boss, and Luisi got inducted

Thanks for your recent message and was Bobby Guarente part of the Philly LCN? I think that he was a member of the Luisi Crew