Pittsburgh informant Joseph Merola

[Sullycantwell]

a couple questions regarding this document. first, does anyone have any info regarding Joseph Merola? also, is this Scarpa who said that there were only 10 families outside New York?

[B.]

Valachi was the one who named ten Families. I don't know that he said there were definitively only ten or just named some he knew off the top of his head. I'd guess Valachi knew there were more than that but the way the info was carried over makes it sound more limited.

[sdeitche]

Joseph Raymond Merola was an associate of Norman Rothman and the Mannarino brothers.

He was involved with CIA anti- Castro stuff in Cuba and South Florida. Merola was also involved in flying guns to Castro with Rothman, Lou Pessolano, and the Mannarinos. His son showed a photo of Merola with Castro.

Merola was convicted of transporting stolen guns from a National Guard Armory in Canton, Ohio (Pittsburgh Mafia territory) to Castro's forces in 1958. He got five years in prison. I believe that is the case in which Jose Aleman testified for the prosecution.

DOB- 10/9/1925 - Pittsburgh, PA

DOD- 7/14/1994

He also smuggled drugs in the Miami area in the 1979s. He had a lot of ties to mob guys in S Florida, including Trafficante.

[Ed]

As noted, Merola was jailed for running guns into Cuba. He eventually flipped and testified against his associates, including his mob mentor Sam Mannarino. Merola furnished Intel about the Pittsburgh Mafia structure and membership. Merola received a presidential pardon under JFK.

Despite being a known snitch, Merola didn't hide, moving around the Pittsburgh/Florida underworld, and continuing to do deals with other hoodlums. Mannarino admitted to federal agents that he didn't kill Merola for the betrayal because the FBI would know he was behind it.

In 1964, Merola set up the meeting between the FBI and Pittsburgh mobster Al Zeid, which led Zeid to cooperate. A year later, the mob killed Zeid after it suspected he had talked.

I think Merola saw himself as a businessman/secret operative, making a living on the line between the upper world and the underworld in the United States and Caribbean/South America, helping the FBI and the CIA with unsolicited feedback.

Fascinating guy.


Yes, the T-1 quoted in the intelligence report above was Joseph Valachi.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... %201962%22

[sdeitche]

As noted, Merola was jailed for running guns into Cuba. He eventually flipped and testified against his associates, including his mob mentor Sam Mannarino. Merola furnished Intel about the Pittsburgh Mafia structure and membership. Merola received a presidential pardon under JFK.

Despite being a known snitch, Merola didn't hide, moving around the Pittsburgh/Florida underworld, and continuing to do deals with other hoodlums. Mannarino admitted to federal agents that he didn't kill Merola for the betrayal because the FBI would know he was behind it.

In 1964, Merola set up the meeting between the FBI and Pittsburgh mobster Al Zeid, which led Zeid to cooperate. A year later, the mob killed Zeid after it suspected he had talked.

I think Merola saw himself as a businessman/secret operative, making a living on the line between the upper world and the underworld in the United States and Caribbean/South America, helping the FBI and the CIA with unsolicited feedback.

Fascinating guy.


Yes, the T-1 quoted in the intelligence report above was Joseph Valachi.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... %201962%22

His son contacted me back in 2013. He was looking to do a book on his dad. I'm going to follow back with him to see whatever came of that.