How long was Merlino a made man before he took over the family via Natale?

[B.]

I agree. As long as the names are approved and the admin authorizes someone to do it, there wouldn't be an issue. Or we've even seen where people get inducted without proper authorization but they get grandfathered in and recognized later.

[stubbs]

Why didn’t Nick Sr make Nick Jr into the Philly family before he went away for life in 88/89? Jr wouldve been in his early twenties, so young but not too young.

[dack2001]

He got locked up the first week of January in 1987 and was in custody ever sine. He was coming off a plane from Florida. He then fought four consecutive trials. I'm guessing he wasn't aware that he needed to do so until Jr. got shot in 1989.

[stubbs]

He got locked up the first week of January in 1987 and was in custody ever sine. He was coming off a plane from Florida. He then fought four consecutive trials. I'm guessing he wasn't aware that he needed to do so until Jr. got shot in 1989.

Makes sense!

[newera_212]

Matty madonna came home , got made, and made capo pretty quick. He was a rare breed. He just was the original dope boy when drug dealing was forbidden for real. He knew the life as good as anyone and was as stand up as they have ever come.

Another topic, but do we know if Madonna was even officially with the Luccheses before he got locked up? Or around anyone specifically? I always assumed he was, and assumed he would have been someone who would made back in the 70s when everything was opening up, if he wasn't away - but someone (I think Pennisi) said in one of his videos that Madonna got close with Amuso in prison, and that's what put him around the family and fast tracked when he was released. Now I'm curious if he's always been around the Lucchese since back in his heroin/east harlem days, or potentially around someone else

[Mikeymike12]

Matty madonna came home , got made, and made capo pretty quick. He was a rare breed. He just was the original dope boy when drug dealing was forbidden for real. He knew the life as good as anyone and was as stand up as they have ever come.

Another topic, but do we know if Madonna was even officially with the Luccheses before he got locked up? Or around anyone specifically?

Good question

[Mikeymike12]

Not sure we can use anything Natale said @B

They were making fun of him pretty good on the last show they said he took the picture for the last supper

How can they not make fun of what Ralph said.... lol. Then few years back he did a couple interviews and said so much outlandish things. The Last supper comments were great lmao

[TSNYC]

Matty madonna came home , got made, and made capo pretty quick. He was a rare breed. He just was the original dope boy when drug dealing was forbidden for real. He knew the life as good as anyone and was as stand up as they have ever come.

Another topic, but do we know if Madonna was even officially with the Luccheses before he got locked up? Or around anyone specifically? I always assumed he was, and assumed he would have been someone who would made back in the 70s when everything was opening up, if he wasn't away - but someone (I think Pennisi) said in one of his videos that Madonna got close with Amuso in prison, and that's what put him around the family and fast tracked when he was released. Now I'm curious if he's always been around the Lucchese since back in his heroin/east harlem days, or potentially around someone else

Madonna was convicted along with Sal Larca, and was referred to as connected to the mafia during his federal narcotics trial.


Wife of Witness Reported Kidnapped After a Jury Convicts 3 in Drug Case

By Arnold H. Lubasch

Nov. 17, 1976
The prosecutor in a Federal heroin smuggling trial reported yesterday that the wife of the Government's chief witness had “apparently been kidnapped” in an attempt to prevent the witness from testifying.

John P. Flannery II, the prosecutor, made the assertion to Judge Robert L. Carter in Federal District Court do Manhattan after the jury had convicted Matthew Madonna, a Bronx man reputedly associated with the Mafia, and two other defendants. They had been tried on charge of conspiracy to smuggle heroin into this country from Thailand.

Mr. Flannery said that the whereabouts of the wife, Leslie Boriello of the Bronx, remained unknown. A grand jury is investigating her disappearance.

In addition to Mr. Madonna, who 41 years old and lives at 1180 Rhinelander Avenue in the Bronx, the defendants convicted in the trial were Salvatore Larca of 2177 Mulliner Avenue, the Bronx, and Richard Klinger of Orange, Calif.

A jury of five men and seven women found the defendants guilty at the end of a two‐week trial. Four others pleaded guilty before the trial and testified for the prosecution, including Joseph Boriello, the husband of the missing woman.

Judge Carter set Dec. 21 for sentencing the three men convicted in the trial. The judge remanded Mr. Madonna and Mr. Larca to jail to await sentencing and set bail for $50,000 for Mr. Klinger. All three could face up to 15 years in prison on each count against them.

The three men were convicted of one count of conspiracy involving the illegal importation of 12 pounds of pure heroin last July from Bangkok, Mr. Madonna and Mr. Larca were also found guilty of one count of possessing heroin with the intent to distribute it.

A Federal prosecutor, at an earlier bail hearing for Mr. Madonna and Mr. Larca, said that they were connected with organized crime. Mr. Flannery told the judge after the conviction that Mr. Madonna was a supplier of heroin for Nicky Barnes whom he described as allegedly one of the country's major narcotics dealers.

The judge, in ordering Mr. Madonna and Mr. Larca to prison without bail, described them as “partners in a continuing heroin enterprise.” If their plans had succeeded, Judge Carter added, “a vast amount of poison would have been unleashed in New York.”