Some notes from the first episode of the Philly Prime podcast:
- 20-30 made guys identified on the street, including the Scarfo-era people
- Without referring to him specifically as the boss, Merlino is identified as still being a ‘major player’ and the ‘lightning rod’
Ligambi as consigliere is consistent with everything else that's come out about him since his release from prison in 2014; he's either been the acting boss or the consigliere
Lancellotti and Borgesi mentioned as examples of guys who have been identified as running things on the street (though they reiterate that Borgesi claims to be ‘at the bottom of the totem pole’ and not involved)
GA guesses that there are 4 or 5 capos and about a dozen soldiers, with 3 or 4 reporting to each capo
DS also mentions that the capos are now being referred to as 'street bosses' (this could be significant, because when GA reported that there was a committee running the family in 2015, he described Mazzone, Ciancaglini and Narducci as 'street bosses'; before this Ciancaglini was identified as a capo by LE so it's possible there was some conflation of terms there)
Licata is still running the Newark crew
DS mentions he’s heard of guys paying to get made, GA clarifies that today (due to the lack of mob murders) being an earner is how to get in
One guy didn’t want to contribute an envelope to Joey Merlino’s legal funds for his trial in New York, saying he had already given Joey 27 envelopes, meaning he served 27 months in prison
Unclear who the above guy is. It could be Angelina, he served about 27 months before being released to a halfway house after being sentenced in September 2012 (though he was held without bail since his indictment in May 2011)
GA questions whether any big indictment will come down on the organisation if nothing happens this year
GA and DS reiterate the point that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of activity on the street and it’s unclear how guys are making money
Unrelated to the podcast, I have some thoughts on the wider point of Ligambi's position in the family post-indictments:
GA identified Ligambi as having moved over to consigliere in a 2014 article
I think in 2015 he identified Ligambi and Chickie Ciancaglini as serving as 'dual consiglieres'
By 2016 GA reported that Ligambi was back as acting boss and in 2018 Ligambi was described as 'in consigliere mode' by DS - importantly, not stating explicitly that he was officially serving as consigliere - while Lancellotti was seen as the one running the street
Since then, it came out that Lancellotti is once again in ill health, and at the time of Ligambi's 80th birthday 'retirement' last year he was once again referred to as the acting boss of the organisation
Lancellotti was introduced to New York figures as Merlino's 'main man' in late 2014, pre-dating GA's report that Ligambi had returned to the role of acting boss
Scott Burnstein also first reported Lancellotti's increased stature in the organisation in 2015, specifically describing Lancellotti's role as assisting Mazzone in the running of the family rather than serving specifically as an acting boss for Merlino
This is more speculative on my part, but I'd argue that the most likely scenario is Ligambi was put back in as acting boss around 2015, 2016, (replacing Mazzone) but functioned more as a semiretired advisor while leaving Lancellotti to handle the day to day business of what's left of the Philly mob
I don't want to get bogged down in hierarchy and suggest that a family the size of Philly has a boss, underboss, consigliere, acting boss, street boss and 4 or 5 capos, but it's possible that Lancellotti was functioning as a kind of top captain, as has been described in other families
