Gangland September 12th 2024

[Dr031718]

Philadelphia Mob Puts Skinny Joey 'On A Shelf'

As Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino enjoys his new life as a sports maven and podcaster, his longtime wiseguy pal George Borgesi has taken over the reigns of the Philadelphia crime family, and has been working hard to improve the borgata's status with the Genovese and Gambino crime families, Gang Land has learned.

Sources say that for several months Borgesi — a veteran 61-year old South Philly mobster — has been having regular meetings with Lorenzo Mannino, an Administration member of the Gambino family, about Merlino's status and other topics. Mannino has been identified in court filings as consigliere, although several sources say he serves as a "street boss" for the Gambinos.

The sources — both New York and Philadelphia-based — say that Skinny Joey has been officially put "on a shelf " by the crime family. He's lost all his rights and responsibilities as a wiseguy and now has essentially a persona non grata relationship with wiseguys in Philadelphia and everywhere else. It's the first time that's happened to an East Coast Mafia boss who did not break his vow of omerta.

On his podcasts — his 53d with L'il Snuff, a South Philly car salesman named Joe Perri Jr. aired this week — Merlino also sells SKINNY T-shirts, patches, sun tan lotions, baseball caps, cigars, as well as coffee mugs and clothes that support former mob associate and ex President Trump. You can get a Trump-Merlino '24 sweatshirt for $33 and a mug for $15.

Some mob bosses, like Paul (Big Paul) Castellano and Albert Anastasia have been whacked. Others have been deposed. The Commission booted Joseph (Joe Bananas) Bonanno in 1964. And the soul of former Bonanno boss Joseph Massino, the first mob boss to flip, will burn for eternity in the hearts and minds of wiseguys everywhere. But Skinny Joe Merlino is the first Mafia boss to be put on a shelf since 1966.

That's when the Chicago Outfit banished Sam (Momo) Giancana for the love affair he had with singer Phyllis McGuire, the lead singer of the McGuire Sisters trio he met in Las Vegas in 1961. The Outfit whacked him in 1975.

The sources say that both the Gambino and Genovese families "have expressed concerns" to Borgesi about Merlino's current role on "The SKINNY with Joey Melino," which features Skinny Joey as prognosticator extraordinaire about sporting events, as well as a frequent critic of mob "rats," as well as reporters and other podcasters he says have wronged him.

One law enforcement source told Gang Land that "Lorenzo was not happy about Joey's podcasts and high visibility" and told Borgesi to "put a lid on them."

Another source said Mannino "strongly suggested" that Borgesi "get a hold of Merlino," who's been commuting back and forth from Boca and Philadelphia in recent months and tell him to give it up or tell him "he'll be put on a shelf."

One source tells Gang Land that a joint project that the two crime families were looking to hatch involving the demolition and carting industries in a Philadelphia suburb had been put on hold because of Gambino family fears that Skinny Joey's frequent rants about rats on his podcasts was "not good for business."

In 2001, Borgesi, who was then the family consigliere, and his boss and long time pal, Skinny Joey Merlino, were each acquitted of murder charges but convicted at trial of racketeering charges including gambling, loansharking and extortion and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Merlino did his time and was released without a problem.

But Borgesi was implicated in numerous gambling, loansharking and extortion schemes while serving his time in a West Virginia prison and was charged in a 14-count racketeering indictment along with his uncle, then acting boss Joseph (Uncle Joe) Ligambi, and detained without bail.

At trial, he was acquitted of 13 of the 14 counts, but ordered detained without bail to stand trial on racketeering conspiracy, the one count that jurors were unable to reach a verdict. He was acquitted at his second trial and has not spent any time behind bars or in federal court again since January of 2014, except as a spectator.

That was in 2018, when Merlino went to trial on racketeering charges two years after he, three Genovese capos and 42 other mobsters and associates of five crime families were hit with racketeering charges stemming from an undercover FBI sting operation based out of Pasquale's Rigoletto, the Arthur Avenue landmark eatery in the Belmont section of the Bronx.

Borgesi and Uncle Joe Ligambi were frequent spectators at the Manhattan Federal Court trial of Skinny Joey, who was the only gangster who rejected sweet plea deals that were offered to all the defendants in the case, which ended in a hung jury.

Merlino, 62, copped a plea deal to illegal gambling, served his time, and completed his supervised release in July of 2021, without having any further problems with the law.

Since he began his podcast a year ago, though, Skinny Joey has caused a lot of headaches for Borgesi.

"He's been going up and down the turnpike two or three times a week to smooth things out with Mannino," said one source. All told, three Gang Land sources confirmed the frequent meetings between Mannino and Borgesi, as well as the Philadelphia family's unheard of decision to put its boss on the shelf, with a little help from their "friends" in New York.

The Gambino and Philadelphia crime families have enjoyed a friendly relationship for years. In 2010, Mannino, 65, was one of five Gambino family members who had a luncheon meeting with a quintet of Philadelphia wiseguys who sought their help in resolving a long-running dispute they had with the Luchese crime family.

During the session, which was tape recorded by turncoat Gambino soldier Nicholas (Nicky Skins) Stefanelli, Philadelphia capo Joseph (Scoops) Licata complained to Mannino, then-skipper John Gambino and three others that Luchese boss Vittorio (Vic) Amuso had inducted Nicholas Scarfo Jr., the son of their family's boss 11 years earlier, and that was still a sore spot for them.

"That's a slap in the face to us," Licata said, as he badmouthed Amuso. He also praised then acting boss Steven (Stevie Wonder) Crea for trying to block the move. Amuso, said Licata, "backed Nicky up" even though the elder Scarfo was never going to get out of prison. "He ain't coming home and nobody wants anything to do with him," said Licata.

"I'll tell you one thing about Stevie Crea," said Licata. "He held it up. He didn't want to do it," added Licata, angrily noting that the then-acting boss was overruled by the imprisoned for life Amuso.

"He didn't wanna do it," continued Licata. "And then the other fucking bitch sent word out from the can, 'I want it done.'"

Mannino and the other members of the Gambino contingent listened patiently to the complaints by their Philadelphia counterparts but didn't commit to taking sides in the dispute.

Compassion Delayed Is Compassion Denied For Mark Reiter

Three years after he first gave Mark Reiter hope that he'd receive compassion and get out of prison after serving 34 years for murder, a federal judge has "urged" Bureau of Prisons officials to approve a release for the dying 76-year-old drug dealer so that he can "die with dignity" at home in the coming weeks and not "behind prison walls," Gang Land has learned.

But there's a hitch: Judge Vernon Broderick wrote that he lacks the "authority" to order Reiter's release due to an obscure provision in the law. But the judge nevertheless "urge(d) the BOP" to "reconsider" its prior denial and grant a compassionate release to the old pal of John Gotti. The judge noted that "Reiter is terminally ill," and has "documented" an excellent record while incarcerated for 37 years "in his prior compassionate release motions."

Broderick, however, has urged the BOP to order something it cannot legally do, Gang Land has learned. That leaves Reiter — and his family — in a nightmarish Kafkaesque situation: They need the feds, who have rejected Reiter's efforts for compassion at every turn, as recently as six weeks ago, to come to his aid before he dies.

Ironically — and sadly for Reiter and his family — the judge, who seemed poised to order Reiter's release several times after he appointed an appeals specialist to represent the inmate in 2021, could have done so up until June of this year, when prosecutors realized for the first time, and informed the judge, that there was an "old law" rule that prevented him from releasing Reiter.

Federal Judges in Manhattan had ordered the release of two other "old law" defendants before then, including Guy Fisher, a Harlem drug dealer who was indicted in 1983 and convicted of four murders in 1984, who technically, like Reiter, were not covered by the First Step Act of 2018, which pertains to defendants convicted of crimes committed after 1987.

But hope springs eternal. Reiter, who was moved to the prison hospital in Ayer Massachusetts to "receive end-of-life hospice care" on September 4, the same day Broderick denied his motion for compassion, has one last chance to spend his final days in Merrick at home with Delores, his wife of 58 years, his children, grandkids, and great grandson, according to court filings.

It's definitely a longshot. But if the Manhattan U.S. Attorney's office agrees to waive a provision of the "Old Law" rule that currently blocks the judge from granting Reiter's motion, Broderick would then have the authority to do himself what he urged the BOP to do last week, according to the lawyer that the judge appointed to represent Reiter in April of 2021.

"We respectfully implore this Court to enter an Order" wrote attorney Harlan Protass, "just as this Court did as to the BOP, urging the government to consider waiving (the "old law" rule) so that this Court can consider, on the merits, whether Mr. Reiter's sentence should be reduced."

The lawyer "respectfully urged" the judge to order the government to waive the "old law" rule pertaining to crimes committed before 1987 "as soon as practicable" because, Protass noted, that "Reiter's health is rapidly deteriorating." The rule prohibits prison terms to be reduced more than 120 days after the sentence was meted out.

As Gang Land disclosed last month, Protass informed Broderick on June 18 that Reiter had been diagnosed with "gastric (stomach) cancer that has metastasized to his liver" and renewed his request for a "time served" sentence on the grounds that "dying of cancer" was an "extraordinary and compelling reason" for him to receive compassion.

On July 11, after receiving two more letters in which the lawyer reported that a cancer specialist who had examined Reiter for the BOP stated that his cancer "is not at [a] curable stage," and that family members had "started developing a plan for Mr. Reiter’s medical care should he be released from custody, Broderick asked the government whether they still opposed his release.

Not only did they oppose it, the Judge wrote. "For the first time since Reiter filed his initial motion on May 28, 2020," Broderick wrote, the government argued that Reiter was "ineligible for relief" under the First Step Act since it applied only to defendants who were convicted of crimes they committed after 1987.

Broderick "rejects" the government's argument that "its oversight" in failing to note he lacked the authority to release Reiter years earlier "does not matter," the judge wrote. "Reiter, defense counsel, and the Government have spent a number of years litigating this motion" as if the First Step Act "did apply to Reiter," Broderick wrote, and at "no point between then and now" has the government raised the issue or explained its failure to do so."

"Despite my lack of authority," Broderick wrote, "I urge the BOP Office of General Counsel to consider whether Reiter has presented 'extraordinary and compelling' circumstances" for compassionate release" because Reiter, like "those who have committed serious crimes should be granted the opportunity to die with dignity, surrounded by family and friends, not suffering and living their last days behind prison walls."

Two days later, Protass told Broderick that the BOP could not reduce Reiter's life without parole sentence unless the feds waived the 120 day rule. The feds refused to waive it when he asked, the lawyer wrote. But an order from the judge would carry more weight, and he urged the judge to order the feds to consider waiving the rule so he could release Reiter, as he asked the BOP to do.

Mob Lifer Gets 25 More Years For Whacking FBI Snitch Whitey Bulger

Fotios (Freddy) Geas had nothing left to lose. The Genovese gangster was already serving a life sentence for the 2003 contract killing of capo Adolfo (Big Al) Bruno, then skipper of the family's Springfield Massachusetts crew. Now he's got life plus 25 more years, thanks to his sentencing last week for brutally bludgeoning the sickly 89-year-old killer and FBI informer James (Whitey) Bulger to death in his prison cell six years ago.

The prison term closes the book on the controversial decision to transfer Bulger, a notorious FBI snitch who was marked for death by gangsters everywhere, to a general population unit in one of the most dangerous federal prisons in the country where his life was sure to be in danger as soon as he got there.

Geas, 57, was quickly identified as the likely killer by New York law enforcement officials involved in his original conviction, as well as by a former Geas attorney and private eye who remained friendly with the convicted killer. The murder, on October 30, 2018, occurred less than 12 hours after Bulger arrived at USP Hazelton in Bruceton Mills, WV.

"Freddy hated rats," private investigator Ted McDonough told the Boston Globe when the paper told him Geas was suspected of beating Bulger to death shortly after he got to Hazelton. "Freddy hated guys who abused women. Whitey was a rat who killed women. It's probably that simple," said McDonough.

Geas's ex-lawyer shared the suspicions: "Freddy is a dying breed," Springfield attorney Daniel Kelly told Springfield Republican reporter Stephanie Barry. "He has great disdain for informants," said Kelly.

Geas, his brother Ty, and former Genovese acting boss Arthur (The Little Guy) Nigro were convicted of Bruno's murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2011.

Freddy Geas and cell mate Paul DeCologero, a Boston-based racketeer serving 25 years for heading up a violent drug-dealing gang, allegedly denounced Bulger as a rat and told other inmates they planned to kill him as soon as they heard he was being transferred to their prison. DeCologero, who acted as the lookout and pleaded guilty to assault, was sentenced to four years.

Kevin Cullen, a columnist for the Boston Globe, opined at the time that "it doesn't make any sense that the Bureau of Prisons would put him [Bulger] within striking distance of people like Freddy Geas or Pauly DeCologero. It was like, 'Whitey's coming and we're going to kill him.'"

Sean McKinnon, an inmate who was tape recorded telling his mother that everyone in his prison unit knew that Bulger was arriving at Hazelton, according to the Guardian, was initially charged with acting as a lookout. He pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the killing, and received a time served sentence of less than two years.

Brian T. Kelly, a prosecutor on the team that convicted Bulger of 11 murders in 2013, told the New York Times that "incredible bureaucratic buffoonery" had allowed Bulger to be sent to one of the most dangerous federal prisons and placed in general population. "It was the worst possible group to mix him in with because the threat goes up 10 times if you’re a notorious mob informant surrounded by other mobsters,” said Kelly.

“If they can’t figure out that this high-profile prisoner can’t go into the general population with the Massachusetts Mafia, and that one of them was a hit man, then the system has some serious flaws," Kelly told Times reporter Serge Kovaleski.

Justin Tarovisky, a corrections officer at the West Virgina facility called "misery mountain" by inmates, told Kovaleski he had been "shocked" the warden had not placed the feeble-looking Bulger in protective housing. "He looked very old and very frail and had to be pushed into the facility on a wheelchair," Tarovisky recalled. "It almost looked like someone could have knocked him over with a pinkie."

Still, many mob watchers think Bulger got what he deserved. One recalled the comment that lawyer F. Lee Bailey famously said about Boston-gangster-informant Joseph (Joe The Animal) Barboza when he was tracked down and killed in San Francisco by New England mobster J.R. Russo in 1976, and said it also applied to Whitey Bulger.

"With all due respect to my former client," said Bailey, "I don't think society has suffered a great loss."

[AntComello]

Thanks for posting. Wonder if the Gambinos had anything to do with Joeys cheese steak fire.

[TommyGambino]

So basically Mannino shelved him lol

[JohnnyS]

Great Gangland this week.

[TommyGambino]

Capeci with the scoop, scott had to come out with his own 'exclusive' about Mannino travelling to Philly just now, he can't help himself lol

[dack2001]

Capeci bringing his A game this morning. Not sure if I believe it, but certainly could see Joey agreeing to "retire".

[Ivan]

To be fair to Burnstein he had the story about Mannino specifically being pissed about the podcast back in February with most of the details given here, including people from Philly meeting with Mannino, and has had Borgesi as the acting boss for about a year. The meeting he's reporting on today is unrelated to the podcast controversy and has to do with the Par Funding thing and construction.

[TommyGambino]

To be fair to Burnstein he had the story about Mannino specifically being pissed about the podcast back in February with most of the details given here, including people from Philly meeting with Mannino, and has had Borgesi as the acting boss for about a year. The meeting he's reporting on today is unrelated to the podcast controversy and has to do with the Par Funding thing and construction.

Not got a problem with anyyhing he's saying, just the timing of it was funny, don't blame him btw

[SonnyBlackstein]

Curious as to the technicalities of protocol.

How can one boss shelve another? There's hardly a commission anymore. Why couldn't Joey just say F U to Mannino?

Borgesi going against his childhood friend of 50 years, if true is huge.

All a ploy, IMO

[Ovation32]

Does anybody else have a sneaking suspicion that Lorenzo Mannino has been the Gambino Boss since shortly after Petey was deposed?

[Ovation32]

It feels to me as though Cefalu is the (far less interesting) Fat Tony in this situation. Mannino was close to John G. and Cali. Just a gut-feeling.

[Snakes]

Curious as to the technicalities of protocol.

How can one boss shelve another? There's hardly a commission anymore. Why couldn't Joey just say F U to Mannino?

Borgesi going against his childhood friend of 50 years, if true is huge.

All a ploy, IMO

If it's preventing Philly from working with NY on some things (as Capeci alluded to), that would hold a lot of weight.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Curious as to the technicalities of protocol.

How can one boss shelve another? There's hardly a commission anymore. Why couldn't Joey just say F U to Mannino?

Borgesi going against his childhood friend of 50 years, if true is huge.

All a ploy, IMO

If it's preventing Philly from working with NY on some things (as Capeci alluded to), that would hold a lot of weight.

Skinny as been fighting for 30 years for boss. Stood up to possible life sentences. His boyhood brothers.

For a podcast? Cmon.

Borgesi going to throw Joey under the bus for some garbage route? Nope.

It's a ruse.

Again, how does Mannino place Joey on a shelf?

[SonnyBlackstein]

It feels to me as though Cefalu is the (far less interesting) Fat Tony in this situation. Mannino was close to John G. and Cali. Just a gut-feeling.

Or Mannino is Fat Tony

[jmack]

Capeci bringing his A game this morning. Not sure if I believe it, but certainly could see Joey agreeing to "retire".

I have to agree. I don’t see Joey being told anything. More than likely just a conversation where he says fuck it, I have my own thing going on and don’t need the headaches anymore. That said, if the podcast and cheesesteak shop go belly up I can’t imagine anyone telling him he’s on the shelf and can’t earn anymore.