Relationship between Philly and Gambino’s now

[SonnyBlackstein]

And personally, Ralph Natale should be used as a source once about, never.

[Wiseguy]

Merlino is a hard one to gauge because he sort of drifts around, is well known to spend money as fast as he makes it, and is also known to live high on other people's money.

For the sake of the discussion, an easier example is the one I brought up before - Ligambi. Here is a guy who has been in the organization for decades and rose to acting boss. At least up until the 2011 bust he had a $50,000 no show job with a local carting company, reported interests in real estate and a towing company, his partnership with Staino and Massimino in their video poker business (which appears to have had around 100k a year split between them), and of course whatever he was receiving as acting boss from the family as a whole. Also reportedly cash gifts from independent operators at Christmas.

You can look at how he lives - a nice row house in South Philly but hardly a mansion. He's comfortable, maybe has a good chunk of money stashed away over time, but not fabulously wealthy by any means. And this is a guy at the top of that family. An admittedly small one.

I've said before that the average mob guy appears to be more or less middle class. Both the rich ones and the brokesters are in the minority.

[Confederate]

No personal shots from me. Just pointing out that you refuse to look at any of the evidence presented. I, and others, have provided the statements of several informants over the years showing what these guys are involved with and what they were making, indictments showing what these guy were involved with, LE statements on what some of these operations were making, etc and you have rejected it all and instead chose to go with your own personal beliefs and assumptions. I'm done here.


Pogo

What you have stated is 100% correct and that's all with which anyone can base any intelligent opinion. Everything else that was said in this whole thread about money was a bunch of hypothetical maybe this, maybe that, could be bullshit which meant nothing. This Thread started to sound like some things I read on GBB. Evidence from Informants, indictments and LE Statements might not be 100 % accurate but much better than hypotherical situations presented to further some personal belief.

[SonnyBlackstein]

No personal shots from me. Just pointing out that you refuse to look at any of the evidence presented. I, and others, have provided the statements of several informants over the years showing what these guys are involved with and what they were making, indictments showing what these guy were involved with, LE statements on what some of these operations were making, etc and you have rejected it all and instead chose to go with your own personal beliefs and assumptions. I'm done here.


Pogo

What you have stated is 100% correct and that's all with which anyone can base any intelligent opinion. Everything else that was said in this whole thread about money was a bunch of hypothetical maybe this, maybe that, could be bullshit which meant nothing. This Thread started to sound like some things I read on GBB. Evidence from Informants, indictments and LE Statements might not be 100 % accurate but much better than hypotherical situations presented to further some personal belief.

Not really.

There is no real evidence to speak of. Natale, Previte etc. What serious weight do we give their self serving, likely severely limited perspectives? Or perhaps we could say there is evidence proving both points to a limited degree. So there’s really no concrete answer except general speculation IMO.

TJ’s simple point is, much like any industry, you have a wide range of incomes. Some do well, some grudge along the middle. And some fall behind.

Can’t see why this is so objectionable.

[Sol]

i have no beliefs or assumptions, and you havent pointed out the assumptions as i asked..you take what info you like from a guy like natales testimony, not anyone elses, i have no beliefs or assumption, my point only is these guys are no different than the rest of society when it comes to income, some are at top of food chain, some in middle, some at bottom..my only assumption here was that you jerked off to 302s, that i apologize too, but the rest i didnt state any fact or assumption, you stated natale testimony is fact, so you must believe gambino and bruno burn the saint for him, if so, then i guess im done as well

That is "the life" right there. The mob is just like society in general, some are rich, some are in the middle, and some are poor.......Soliai

[Confederate]

It's true that most Mob guys are middle class, some are rich, and some are poor. Everybody knows that's true. However, TJ said on 6/11/18 at 4:26AM that the GNP of the Philly Mob (I assume he meant Gross) was the same as always and that Pogo was wrong to say these guys makes less. In 2018, the Philly Mob, just like every other Mob Group In America, is way down from what they were years ago. There is no question about it. That is based upon the Feds, Informants and LE Documents. Saying that there are all kinds of guys in the Mob from rich to poor has nothing to do with the fact that the Philly Mob in 2018 is nowhere near what they used to be compared to years ago. That's the point. Anything else is wishful thinking.

[TJ]

Confederate, there were brokesters.in the 30s, 40s and 50s..as i also said, i used the daily number, but what i mean is yes the take from the illegal acts, the book, the shakes the shy are definetly left, if thats what u mean , then yes..but there are guys that own millions in property, bellomo, anguilo, ferrara, and there are guys subsistence, i get it, so we can never prove my statement false or correct...pogo, u listed posts, none of which were mine,so dont attach them.to me..

[TJ]

Wiseguy post above.is pretty much exactly what inwas trying to say..

I've said before that the average mob guy appears to be more or less middle class. Both the rich ones and the brokesters are in the minority.

[Rocco]

And personally, Ralph Natale should be used as a source once about, never.

those tv docs with him in it pretty much kill his credibility. bullshit artist to make himself more important then he was

[Pogo The Clown]

It's true that most Mob guys are middle class, some are rich, and some are poor. Everybody knows that's true. However, TJ said on 6/11/18 at 4:26AM that the GNP of the Philly Mob (I assume he meant Gross) was the same as always and that Pogo was wrong to say these guys makes less. In 2018, the Philly Mob, just like every other Mob Group In America, is way down from what they were years ago. There is no question about it. That is based upon the Feds, Informants and LE Documents. Saying that there are all kinds of guys in the Mob from rich to poor has nothing to do with the fact that the Philly Mob in 2018 is nowhere near what they used to be compared to years ago. That's the point. Anything else is wishful thinking.

Exactly. Some guys are more successful than others? No shit. I said that earlier in this thread. That is not the point. The point is that as a whole the post Scarfo Philly family is no longer a big money operation. Every piece of evidence says so. I don't get why that is so hard to understand. I mean really I didn't even know that was up for debate until this thread. I mean have people read The Goodfella Tapes or The Last Gangster? Have they been reading the same stuff that has come out on this group over the last 20 years? If so I can't see they ever walked away with the impression that this is still a big money family.


Pogo

[TJ]

Again, where did i say that, please point it out

[phatmatress777]

One only has to look at the Stanfa case, the 2001 Merlino case and the Ligambi case to see that Philly (with few exceptions) is a family of brokesters post Scarfo era.

That business where Servidio was selling fentanyl pills that he hand-made himself was the most pathetic thing I've ever heard of an actual "made" guy doing. I can't think of anything worse in any family. It made Merlino's ceiling fan salesman routine looking like the Lufthansa Heist in comparison.

They were wholesaling it to other gangs though according to mob talk.

wholesale or not it just seems very... lowlife.... type.
do you know how many ppl were probably effected by that?? an addict who was sick spent 100$ on basically NOTHING..... someone was held responsible for that...

what was really odd was they said he sold the UC agent a kilo of meth like substance but tested ZERO PERCENT meth... and then 2 other occasions where it was pure meth...

how does this happen??? and wouldn't he find It off these guys bought a fake meth kilo and kept doin it?

Pressed pills are a huge thing on the streets. It started with silk road. Many cash docs and pill mills are gone. I wld say that 7/10 times if you illegally purchase xanax they are illegally pressed by a home chemist or large supplier of bootlegs.

Sent from my LGL158VL using Tapatalk

[Rocco]

Merlino is a hard one to gauge because he sort of drifts around, is well known to spend money as fast as he makes it, and is also known to live high on other people's money.

For the sake of the discussion, an easier example is the one I brought up before - Ligambi. Here is a guy who has been in the organization for decades and rose to acting boss. At least up until the 2011 bust he had a $50,000 no show job with a local carting company, reported interests in real estate and a towing company, his partnership with Staino and Massimino in their video poker business (which appears to have had around 100k a year split between them), and of course whatever he was receiving as acting boss from the family as a whole. Also reportedly cash gifts from independent operators at Christmas.

You can look at how he lives - a nice row house in South Philly but hardly a mansion. He's comfortable, maybe has a good chunk of money stashed away over time, but not fabulously wealthy by any means. And this is a guy at the top of that family. An admittedly small one.

I've said before that the average mob guy appears to be more or less middle class. Both the rich ones and the brokesters are in the minority.

All very true. The rich ones are the opposite of Merlino. They invest the money into legit business instead of blowing on gambling night life. Ligambi did alright has a place at the shore and a nice house in the city. Not rich but a middle class life. I believe he put one or two sons thru college. Did he have the smarts to have a legit middle class life from the getgo without being involved in LCN? Maybe Though there are allot of brokesters on the bottom end getting by score to score. This Joey Electric is a prime example. He has been around for ever and never really made any serious money. He obviously didn't have the brains to run a successful Electrician Co. Being that he is from North Jersey and has rubbed elbows with crews from allot of the NY families for the last 30yrs he should have been able to get into Commercial Contracts. But he has always been into drugs for the quick buck. You find allot of the not so smart guys in the drug trade . Allot of the smarter guys ran large sports books. Speaking of which now that is legal in NJ. It will have an impact on LCN sports books. Yes they will still have clients that need to bet on credit. But for example of that 2.2billions in bets from the 2007 Lucchese bust...a very large chunk of that was your typical gambler betting not so large bets online with no need to bet on credit. They will loose that. And you will see more pill pressers and other scams coming out because of that lack of income.

[Wiseguy]

But for example of that 2.2billions in bets from the 2007 Lucchese bust...a very large chunk of that was your typical gambler betting not so large bets online with no need to bet on credit. They will loose that.

How do you figure that? To not bet on credit means a player would either have to use a credit card or deposit money in an online account, neither of which the standard mob bookmaking operation does as far as I know. And I don't recall any mention of that in the press release, affidavit, or articles about the Operation Heat bust.

[Rocco]

But for example of that 2.2billions in bets from the 2007 Lucchese bust...a very large chunk of that was your typical gambler betting not so large bets online with no need to bet on credit. They will loose that.

How do you figure that? To not bet on credit means a player would either have to use a credit card or deposit money in an online account, neither of which the standard mob bookmaking operation does as far as I know. And I don't recall any mention of that in the press release, affidavit, or articles about the Operation Heat bust.

When I say bet on credit. I mean when the degenerate gambler(most have shitty credit and have maxed out credit cards that they pulled cash advanced out of) can take a loan and pay the vig every week. Every degenerate gambler I know has maxed out credit cards that they stop paying Missed mortgage payments etc then they turn to their mob connected bookie for the juice loan so they can keep betting. That's how it works. And its obvious that you have never gotten a website username and password from the local bookie to place bets online because based on what you wrote you DONT know how it works