Joe Chang Sr update - Scott Burnstein

[Chucky]

Chickie Ciancaglini back in the game, long-jailed Philly mob capo returns on radar

From practically the moment jailed Philadelphia mob bigwig Joseph (Chickie) Ciancaglini landed back in the City of Brotherly Love almost two months ago, envelopes filled with cash have been headed in his direction, according to law enforcement sources.

Ciancaglini, 80, has been incarcerated for over 30 years and was recently transferred to a Philadelphia halfway house. He’ll be released in the spring from serving time on a series of racketeering busts (1981, 1987) and, per police and gangland sources, is expected to take some sort of administrative post in the Family he once held captain-status in during the early-1980s the minute he becomes a free man.

“Chickie is revered, he’s king to these guys (the current syndicate),” said one source. “Most of them grew up running errands for him and looking up to him to begin with. Back then he had a reputation as a hitter and an earner. That endears you to guys on the street. Then, he does three decades in the joint without blinking, that’s only enhanced the aura that surrounds him. We’re hearing they’re already starting to shuffle money to him.”

Right now, the FBI believes Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino runs the Family from afar (as a burgeoning restauranteur in South Florida), with his boyhood chums Steven (Handsome Stevie) Mazzone and John (Johnny Chang) Ciancaglini looking after things back in Philly in his stead.

Mazzone is being tabbed, “acting boss.” Johnny Chang, Chickie Ciancaglini’s eldest son, has been pegged the underboss.

Former acting boss Joseph (Uncle Joe) Ligambi is serving as consigliere, according to sources, however openly telling people he’d step down and give the position to the elder Ciancaglini, if Chickie desires the job.

Ligambi, 75, fronted the Philadelphia mafia on behalf of the imprisoned Merlino throughout the whole decade of the 2000s and the early 2010s, stabilizing a syndicate that had been careening out of control on and off for two decades. He recently dodged a racketeering conviction, surviving two mistrials and three years held in federal custody because he was denied bail in the case.

Skinny Joey, 52, Mazzone, 51, and the younger Ciancaglini, 59, weren’t as lucky back in the day. All three were convicted in a 2001 federal racketeering trial charging mob activity and the participation in a bloody shooting war for power in the local underworld throughout the 1990s, a carnage-filled conflict that cost Johnny Chang his two baby brothers (one killed, the other maimed). Handsome Stevie and Johnny Chang came out of the clink in 2008. Merlino joined them three years later in 2011.

Merlino’s dad, Salvatore (Chuckie) Merlino, the Family’s underboss in the first half of the 1980s, was close friends with Chickie Ciancaglini and passed away in October 2012.

There is speculation amongst “insiders” on the street that Chickie might be in line for any of the three top spots in the Philly mob and informants are telling the FBI that it will be up to him which one he wants, if any. If and when that happens, things would reshuffle in the Family’s administration, with Mazzone, Johnny Chang and Uncle Joe Ligambi filling whatever slots he doesn’t choose.

Chickie Ciancaglini is a legendary old-timer tracing his roots in the underworld to the old Angelo Bruno-Phil Testa-and-Nicky Scarfo mobs, which represented the final golden eras in the area’s mafia landscape. He first made a name for himself as a Teamsters union goon in the 1960s and then became a bodyguard, loanshark and bookie for Bruno soldier Frank (The Barracuda) Sindone in the 1970s.

After Sindone was caught as a perpetrator in the unsanctioned palace coup that resulted in Bruno’s assassination in March 1980, Ciancaglini was given the contract on his mentor’s life. He and Chuckie Merlino subsequently murdered in the fall of that year, according to court filings. Following the Sindone hit, Ciancaglini was promoted to capo of his crew.

When Scarfo’s underboss and nephew Philip (Crazy Phil) Leonetti entered the Federal Witness Protection Program in 1989, he told the FBI that Chickie Ciancaglini killed Jewish gangster Alvin Feldman by stabbing him to death with an ice pick. His 1987 indictment included his participation in the 1981 murder of fellow wiseguy Johnny Calabrese. Multiple Confidential Informants have clued the Feds in on his alleged ordering the January 1983 slaying of New Jersey drug dealer Robert Hornickel, reputed to have been carried out by aspiring mobsters Ronald (Cuddles) Di Caprio and Joe Gavel. Di Caprio was nailed with a 20-year prison-term on related charges.

While Ciancaglini was away serving his 45-year sentence, his two sons, the then-also jailed Johnny Chang’s two younger brothers, Joseph (Joey Chang) Ciancaglini, Jr. and Michael (Mikey Chang) Ciancaglini, found themselves on opposite sides of the war that ripped the Philadelphia mafia apart at the seams in the 1990s.

Joey Chang was Sicilian-born Godfather John Stanfa’s No. 2 in charge, named underboss as a measure to alleviate fast-growing tensions between Stanfa, the homicidal Scarfo’s successor, upon Scarfo’s imprisonment on murder and racketeering charges, and a group made up mostly of sons and nephews of Scarfo-era mob lieutenants and headed by Skinny Joey Merlino and Mikey Ciancaglini.

It was a measure that didn’t work.

Sources intimately-familiar with the situation claim Chickie and Johnny Chang were counseling opposite strategies from behind bars as the war erupted in the spring of 1992 and bodies began dropping in the streets – starting with Mikey Chang and Stevie Mazzone allegedly orchestrating the murder of Stanfa confidant “Little Felix” Bocchino.

Johnny Chang was telling his brothers to work out their differences and if they couldn’t to wait until he came home and he would mediate the dispute. Chickie was instructing Merlino and Mikey Chang to point-blank stop their insurgence and go underneath Stanfa’s banner.

Neither ended up happening….at least successfully.

Instead, Mikey Chang is suspected as being part of a hit team that unloaded a barrage of bullets into Joey Chang in a diner in March 1993, an attack he miraculously survived (though leaving him physically impaired) and in retaliation Stanfa-dispatched gunmen John (John John) Veasey and Phil Colletti shot Mikey Chang dead on a South Philly street corner in August 1993. Further tit-for-tat in the warfare is alleged to have seen Johnny Chang acting as the triggerman in the fall 1995 early-morning execution of Billy Veasey, a fringe gangland player and John John’s older brother, hours before John John himself was slated to testify at Stanfa’s murder and racketeering trial. Johnny Chang was tried and acquitted of the Veasey murder.

Now both Johnny Ciancaglini and his father are fixing to be on the street together for the first time in some 30 years in only a short few months.

“If Chickie wants back in, which people thinks he does, he’s going to get back in,” said a source close to the Ciancaglini clan. “Nobody’s giving him any grief over it. They all know he’s earned it.”

[Angelo Santino]

After 27 years hopefully he doesn't come onto the scene like Feech...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rpa15hVj7UA
(I laugh every time I see Paulie steal the fuckin lawnmower!)

[Dellacroce]

Cocksucker came outta the tree at me with a chainsaw, i gotta right to defend myself!

[Cheech]

Chucky what's your thoughts?

[JBELL]

Chickie was born close to 1930 Johnny Chang is pushing 60 they've had legit business's I don't know what the hype is about their well-off he'll get his $$ he's owned he'll get respect maybe he'll join us in a discussion on here about the evolution of mankind and the planet of the apes when he gets his new Macbook Pro Uncle Joe got him for Christmas. I heard he doesn't like the "urban" clothing he's had to wear living in the all black half-way house he's in up on kip & cambria

[Chucky]

Chucky what's your thoughts?

Chang Sr is a stone gangster so I'm not surprised, I mean had the guy not been dragged into the Scarfo case he would have gotten out and been the new boss, not Stanfa. If he wants to take a top spot I guess he has no beef with Merlino, can't blame Ligambi for wanting out while the feds cook up a new case after beating the last one.

[Cheech]

thanks Chaluz. i have to believe the smartest move for Uncle Joe is to call it a day. and you are the only guy I pay attention to when it comes to Philly. so thanks for the input. and B. does a wonderful job with history.

[Chucky]

For the record, I don't know if I buy it, and I say that with all due respect to Scott. The guy just did 30 years, is 80, and by the time he gets off supervised release he'll be 83...why not enjoy the time left cause there aint much. I mean back in the day (late 80s, early 90s) his name carried a lot weight even though he was just starting his sentence. It's not like fat fucking Phil Narducci who has been making waves since '97 after the flowers retrial, he's still a fairly young man, Chang isn't.

[Cheech]

I for one def dont buy it. but im in connecticut so what do i know. just doesnt make sense. he can have any spot he wants? just dont see it.

[Teflon john]

If he doesn't call it quits and get out it's because the life is all he knows,these guys do a stretch and get out and go back into the only thing they know. Look at Sonny Franzese,guy was locked up forever and wasn't out long at all before they nabbed him again. He knew they were just waiting on him to mess up but the lure of easy money and wanted respect makes alot of these guys to cocky and they think they are to smart for the Feds,but you still have to give credit to anyone who keeps there mouth shut and does there time.

[SonnyBlackstein]

Burnstein reminds me of that Soprano line "What? Every fuckin photo's a news story!"

I think he see's a major story in every shadow.

[Five Felonies]

Burnstein reminds me of that Soprano line "What? Every fuckin photo's a news story!"I think he see's a major story in every shadow.

i think it's important to keep in mind that not every article or story is meant only for the small group of hardcore mob watchers/researchers.

you know what else i think, certain people on these boards think it's somehow edgy and hip to shit on the guy for no real reason at all.

[B.]

His presence could mediate the tensions between the former Scarfo guys and the crew who came up around/under Joey Merlino. As the article says, most of the Merlino guys looked up to the people around Ciancaglini and especially Ciancaglini himself. He is basically the last real tie to the Angelo Bruno era and you have to assume his word carries a lot of weight. I don't pretend to know what all of these guys really think of each other, but through all of the research, conversation, and my own independent knowledge over the years, it's been clear that Ciancaglini Sr. was one of the most universally respected guys both when he was on the street and after he was sent away. I assume it continued given the role that his son has had since the 1990's.

One thing is for sure... he's not Junior Staino.

[SonnyBlackstein]

you know what else i think, certain people on these boards think it's somehow edgy and hip to shit on the guy for no real reason at all.

Well thats funny because I think certain people on these boards want to believe a story, any mob story, for no real reason at all.

[Rocco]

No disrespect to Scott but these Philly articles on the philly mob are like rag mags about the mob with their unnamed sources. Lol Schratwiesers articles take the cake though. His are like the national enquier that covers the Philly mob. And what's funny is that they are only covering like 6 guys??? Its not like Capeci where they write about all five families. What's next a reality show with Borgesi , merlino any Chang arguing about Fat Ange's Pork Chops Joey dish? Who gets the $3 of every pork chops Joey dish sold? Its true according to Schreitwisers unnamed source! Lol