Capturing Bloodthirsty Mob Boss Nicky Scarfo: The Great Philly Mob War | The FBI Files | Retold

foreign grab for power tears a city apart a crime family splits in two is The Young and the old fight to the Dead [Applause] the FBI is caught in the middle as they Infiltrate The Syndicate in a desperate attempt to end the brutal War raging on the Streets of Philadelphia foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] in the early 1990s Philadelphia became the scene of a bloody Vendetta streets erupted in mob Warfare authorities feared innocent people would be caught in the crossfire I'm Jim calstrom Farm ahead of the FBI's New York office agents launched a complex and risky surveillance operation their mission to bring down a notorious crime family and to stop a brutal Turf War before more people were killed 1990. quiet morning in South Philadelphia Pennsylvania Joanne druzy is being wired by the FBI he's a 20 year old accounting student at LaSalle University and he's in trouble he's been betting on football through a mafia bookmaker he was winning at first but his luck turned sour he owes the mob one thousand dollars [Music] it's a debt he cannot pay I understand I don't think he'd do something I don't think you got it at all but do you understand what's going on in way over his head and Afraid for his life andrucci contacted the FBI and asked for help with money kid South Philly is a tough place not the kind of place where you want to cross the mob La Casa Nostra the Italian Syndicate of organized crime families runs a profitable and Bloody Business there gambling alone sharking and extortion rackets [Music] for years South Philly was run by Angelo Bruno because of his dislike of violence he took over the city in the 1950s he was brutally murdered in 1980. the man suspected of being behind the hit was nicodemo scarfa Nikki Scarfo took over Bruno's Empire he was a cold-hearted killer who ruled the City by violence but now Nikki scarfa was in jail the FBI wants to find out who is running the Philadelphia mob while the boss is behind bars [Music] andruti's problem with the loan shark gives the FBI the perfect opportunity to collect new information on the organization the college student meets with the bookmaker he plays his part perfectly and is introduced to Salvatore sparaccio a known member of the Philadelphia Mafia huh come on you don't have the money FBI special agent Jim Marr was the case agent on this investigation Salvatore sparaccio didn't make any overt threats but the implied threat I'm the boss of the family you gotta pay 120 a week for 10 weeks the boss offers a repayment plan although the mob is charging little more interest than a credit card company the penalty for defaulting on the loan has a far higher price [Music] all right for the next 10 weeks the FBI gives andrutsy the money to make his payments and each time he takes the money to the bookmaker the FBI records the conversation building their case against Salvatore sparaccio each payment is evidence of the crime of racketeering but the FBI is not interested in making low-level gambling arrests they have a much bigger Target sure it's all there the ultimate goal is to destroy the Philadelphia family as a crime problem tactics we use are to attack the hierarchy the this this structure the the structure is the is the Target and we attack the target through through the hierarchy they need more information so on Christmas Day when they know it will be closed the FBI breaks into the bakery shop we prove to the judge that gambling activity and Loan charting activity was taking place in an Italian bakery the judge authorized us to put microphones in for the next several months the FBI records the conversations inside the bakery we began listening to conversations of Salvatore sparaccio who was claiming to be the boss of the Philadelphia customer family [Music] although sparaccio claims to be the head of the family the FBI wire soon makes it clear that sparaccio is not one of the big Philadelphia Mafia Bosses he is little more than an employee but the FBI doesn't know who he's working for thinking he can lead them to his boss the FBI surveillance tracks burachio to a law office in Camden New Jersey there he meets with other members of the Philadelphia Mafia including one man well known to the FBI John stanfa [Music] John Stanford is a sicilian immigrant and a made member of the Sicilian Mafia he worked as a driver for the late Angelo Bruno AKA The Gentle Don former head of the Philadelphia family Stanford was implicated in the murder of the former mafia boss in 1981 and was apprehended in Maryland he was convicted of perjury in his testimony before a grand jury that was probing Bruno's death he went to jail for eight years when he was released the Philadelphia Mafia put out a contract on his life for the killing of Bruno special agent Fred Walsh is a member of the FBI's organized crime Squad only through the intercession of his Gambino Associates up in New York the contract was taken off him and he was allowed to live after Nikki scarfa went to jail Stanford returned to Philadelphia he went to work in the construction business and laid low for a while yeah and she was relatively quiet so when he started to come to power and we started to notice he was making a name for himself came as a kind of a surprise to us thanks to the cooperation of the young college student the FBI has now identified the man they believe is running organized crime in Philadelphia we had put away the previous boss and most of the hierarchy of the family we felt if we could put Stanford away that we would go a long way towards the ultimate goal of eliminating the crime the Philadelphia family as a crime problem on the street informants confirmed the FBI suspicion that John stanfa is the new boss of the Philadelphia Mafia once you determined an individual like staff has taken the family over you want to see how he intends to run it contact your informants see what they can provide Stanford maintains a low profile he runs things like the gentle Don before him he engages in traditional mob activities such as loan sharking gambling and extortion [Music] [Applause] the FBI wants to find out where he is conducting business according to FBI informants high-level secret Mafia meetings are being held in the lawyers conference room performance told us that that's where they were meeting that they felt secure there since it was a lawyer's office they felt secure there from FBI eavesdropping we decided that it would be a very very good place to put microphones agents prepare an affidavit to wire the premises recognizing intruding into a lawyer's office was extraordinary the affidavit had to go down to the FBI headquarters the director of the FBI personally signed off on it the federal judge gives the FBI the green light agents installed a hidden video camera outside the law office so they can monitor anyone who enters or leaves the building how about now a special FBI entry unit will install a hidden microphone inside the law offices [Music] agents make a surreptitious entry into the second floor Suite [Music] in terms of the actual entry into the premises it's what I regard to be one of the most dangerous things the FBI does because you're you're burglarizing someone else's property although you have authority to be there person if you if you encounter someone he doesn't know that you have authority to be there inside the agents fear they've been discovered an armed deputy sheriff is inside the building the night before we went in the re-elect the sheriff campaign moved into the ground floor the agents making the entry were surprised by a deputy sheriff fortunately they really seal themselves he got in and got out before there was any problem the technicians install a microphone in the conference room [Music] the surveillance agents will first try to identify each suspect and determine their roles in the organization [Music] there's 18 FBI agents who do nothing but physical and photographic and video surveillances most of their work they did for the organized crime Squad so we've got a lot of Manpower out there and we've got people who who know how like Jose Nostra works and we can a lot of times figure out hierarchy just by watching the way that they behave towards one another that coupled with information coming from informants can tell us who the hierarchy is agents monitoring the conversations have to match the voice on the wire to the face in the video surveillance John Stanford was very easy he had a very heavy Italian accent so it was very easy to figure out when he was speaking but the agents have a problem conversations we intercepted in the office indicated to us that they were leaving the conference room and going somewhere after going to all the trouble to plant the wire the mob boss moves the meetings the surveillance agents will have to find out where the meetings are now taking place they will have to place another bug a few days later the FBI learns from an informant that a high level sit-down is about to take place at the law office between John Stanford and several Associates they need to get the new bug in place before the meeting but they don't know where the meeting will be held agents dispatch an undercover detective to follow Stanford into the office [Music] Philadelphia detective Mark Pinero gets the job we try to come up with a reason to actually go into the law firm to get a closer look at what was going on so we come up with a cover story utilizing a name of an attorney that we knew had left that firm but it does not go exactly as planned it's this unknown individual held the door for me to go in first which kind of set me back because I want to go in second I want to see where there they were going before I was attended to but I was relieved when I walked in and the receptionist greeted John staffa and John Stanford told her let him know I'm here and the receptionist immediately keyed her intercom and let the lead attorney of this Law Firm know that John was there and to send him in So Not only was he able to get her to identify John staffa who was able to stand there and watch him go down to the actual office of the sleet Attorney At This Law Firm that's real good okay with this information a federal court approves an affidavit for a second break-in at the office agents install hidden microphones in the attorney's office shortly after the new bugs are placed in agents hear some alarming news on The Wire the mob bosses are afraid they are being watched they hire a private counter surveillance contractor to sweep the law offices for bugs finds a listening device the entire operation could be destroyed [Music] the FBI in Philadelphia is closing in on Mob Boss John Stanford they learn he is conducting mob business in an attorney's office [Music] agents Place listening devices in the office but Stanford calls in a man to sweep for bugs agents watch as the sweeper enters the building their entire case could collapse if he finds their bugs going on here but after a few tense minutes the private contractor completes his suite without finding anything it sort of brought a smile to everybody's face because they basically brought in an expert who didn't detect anything so that would bring sort of a feeling of Ease on their pardon I guess our expectations were that they would be even more ideas to discuss further criminal activity now with microphones in the conference room in the lawyer's private office the information begins to come in the FBI learns that John Stanford is having problems with a group of young Mobsters born and raised in South Philly their allegiance is still with Nikki Scarfo in the mafia regime before Stanford took over they are known as The Young Turks as far as they are concerned Philadelphia isn't always has been their turf and The Young Turks deserve to be running the crime family not newcomer John Stanford [Music] Boss Of The Young Turks Michael changlini is the number two man Joey and Michael have known each other since grade school FBI special agent Gary Langan is the Cold Case agent they didn't like the fact that John Stamford who what they considered an outsider would come in and take over the mob family and so they were trying to organize them all in a group even though they were part of the overall picture and they wanted to be in charge [Music] informants tell the FBI that The Young Turks are not taking orders from John Stanford [Music] they bragged about the who they were and who they were aligned with Brad how they were going to take the city over they were the legitimate successors to the previous mob members under Nikki scarfa they were going out and shaking down bookmakers drug dealers and even in shaking down legitimate businesses and weren't sharing the profits you know kicking upstairs to Stanford The Young Turks feel they're entitled to run the city and the Philadelphia Mafia the Aging John Stanford the old world Sicilian boss resents the ostentatious lifestyle of The Young Turks The Young Turks if you will were very very flamboyant they'd go into the clubs on Delaware Avenue throw the weight around push people around trade on the fact that they were connected to the local kozanoster family and in general call attention to themselves which is not a good thing if you're running a kozanoster family you should be located hey girls get in the car Jake come on get out of here slide it up the Young Turk boss Joey Merlino has a different idea of how a kosa Nostra boss should live the life he was the kind of guy who felt that when he went into a restaurant because of who he was he shouldn't have to pay this was easily adopted by his Entourage and they became a problem for everybody there was there were fights there were shootings there were it's just not the way to run a kozanoster family attracting all that attention to yourselves the police begin to know then where you are and who you are and it's just not a good thing John Stanford was particularly angered by The Young Turks involvement in the sale of illegal narcotics that was the wave of the future an easy way to make money traditionally the mob frowns upon having its members engage in drug dealing now that that's not to say that they don't do it they get around that by uh having an associate or something uh deal drugs and then they'll tax that individual and take a percentage of it but Stanford you know he thought drugs were a dirty business and it draws a lot of attention again to the family and he didn't want to do that and these guys were just defying him and doing it once we heard that there was friction developing we were looking to see how Stanford was going to handle it okay was he going to be aggressive and uh you know take Extreme Measures or was he going to try and mollify these people and to quiet them down and get them under his uh uh Wing so to speak [Music] but Joey Merlino isn't going under anyone's Wing The Young Turks strike back at Stanford foreign is one of mafia boss John Stanford's most loyal employees yatone is a bookmaker a collector of Street taxes four gunshots Shadow the daily routine of Joseph good tone the old man's blood marks the beginning of a deadly Civil War on the FBI and the Philadelphia organized crime Task Force surveilled top bosses of the Philadelphia Mafia friction between feuding factions of the crime family increase and a bloody Civil War breaks out Philadelphia police officers arrive at the scene of the shooting the victim's keys are still in the ignition and the engine is still running two bullets penetrated the victim's neck a third bullet entered his Temple a fourth grazed the bridge of his nose and shattered the passenger side window when agent Marr arrives on the scene police have already checked the registration of the car but they don't yet know who the victim is agent Marr recognizes the victim from previous investigations a long time member of the Philadelphia crime family currently under the leadership of John Stanford several of gatton's neighbors witnessed the shooting but no one can identify the lone hooded gunman special agent Jim Marr suspects Joey merlino's Young Turks are behind The Killing where he was killed the manner in which he was killed indicated to me that the Molino faction was sending a message to Stanford and his people we're here and we are to be reckoned with John does Agents monitor their wiretaps but no one is talking about the murder special agent Fred walls initially at the time that this bookmaker was murdered we weren't sure who was involved there was nothing definitive on The Wire after the bookmaker had been murdered there was a reference to the fact but nothing that would indicate us that Stanford had a belief someone had done it or someone hadn't done it investigators are certain the murder is Mob related but they have no proof when they speak to Stanford himself he claims to know nothing but Stanford Strikes Back five weeks after the murder of John Stanford's bookie and tax collector Michael changlini The Young Turks number two man is coming home after a basketball game two men armed with shotguns opened fire somehow janglini his wife and two children were uninjured in the attack investigators recovered 12-gauge shotgun shells from the front yard and shotgun pellets from the ceiling of the living room and dining room despite the Brazen attack on changlini and his family he won't cooperate with the detectives he wasn't going to say anything they just don't talk to law enforcement they they feel they're going to handle it themselves it's business okay and it's none of our business so you're not going to get anything out of them The Young Turks number two boss isn't talking but the FBI suspects the attack is payback for the murder of John stamford's bookie after the bookmaker's murder and then the attempt on Michael chinglini we believed that we were going to see an increase in violence there was going to be a potential mob War fearing this the FBI petitions a federal court to expand the eavesdropping [Music] in the spring of 1992 they get the court order they need agents Place bugs in seven new locations including lawyers private offices the law library the television room and the lunchroom the new wires immediately start paying off early in May of 1992 FBI cameras catch Stanford arriving at the law office with his conciliary and Joseph changlini brother of the young Turk's second in command side John Stanford angrily announces that he knows The Young Turks are looking for him they want him dead foreign but Stanford doesn't want a war he wants to make one last attempt at diplomacy his first move is to make Joseph changlini his new underboss I guess he thought as a concession to them he would be able to control them this is saying keep your friends close keep your enemies even closer this was the way to keep an eye on them they we fully anticipated that we were going to see an increase in violence but we were surprised by what did happen informants tell the FBI that stanfa invites Joseph changlini's younger brother Michael and the Young Turk boss Joey Merlino to a secret meeting here Joey and Michael become made members of La Costa Nostra code of America you have to swear to place the family before anything else in your life God your per you know your your own personal family your mother your father your wife your children if the family calls you you come before them now as made members of La Costa Nostra the two young Turks enjoy special privileges the benefits that come with that are that uh you can conduct your rackets whatever they may be without fear of interference from someone who is not a member the family in a dispute will always decide in your favor if you are a member and the other person is not a member cannot be killed unless the boss of that family to which he's a member approves for John Stanford promoting The Young Turks is his final Act of diplomacy [Music] the FBI and the organized crime task force will keep a Vigilant watch to see if Stanford's bold move stops the violence but agents still need to collect more information about the crime family to shut them down for good [Music] foreign true and informant they learned the law office is not the only place where Stanford and his associates are congregating we found out that the staff had opened up a dinette next to another business he owned which was a food distribution business and surprisingly Stanford actually worked at this place every day you know it's a John Q citizen he would go to work and he'd actually worked there you'd see him out there sweeping and cooking and handling stuff but he was also meeting his family members there and discussing my business so the next step logically is to attempt to get a title III bug installed in the dinette so that we can listen to the conversations he's having with these these members and Associates of the family once the microphone is installed inside the dinette the FBI hears that an angry John Stanford is still having problems with The Young Turks he requests a final sit down with Joey Merlino Joy Merlino and Michael changlini pay a visit to Stanford there's a complaining that The Young Turks are not honoring their bets [Music] Molino assures the boss you'll fix the problem and make good on the debts [Music] the meeting ends amicably perhaps there can be peace within the family early in March FBI surveillance agents observed Joseph changlini and a waitress opening up the Stanford Dinette it's almost exactly one year after his brother Michael was nearly gunned down at his home his activities were easy to document he was regular he uh he got up in the morning and he went to work but on this morning Joseph changlini's routine takes a terrifying twist four men pull up and open fire on changlini and the waitress reigniting the bloody war between the old and the new mafia of South Philadelphia [Music] on March 2nd 1993 in South Philly underboss Joseph Chang glini and a waitress opened John Stanford's Diner [Music] shortly after 6 30 a.m four gunmen launch an attack changlini is gunned down the surveillance agent alerts fbihq and calls 9-1-1 for an ambulance the FBI agent on surveillance arrives on the scene Joseph changlini has been shot repeatedly in the head neck and chest the waitress is on hard changuini has somehow managed to survive the deadly attack though severely wounded he can talk you couldn't get a statement out of him and even if he knew who did it he wasn't going to implicate anybody he was he was part of the mob the omerta the Code of Silence and and they would take care of this on their own they had to know who they were he saw them uh we suspected that it was a group from The Young Turks and but he basically told us he didn't know anything hoping to identify the shooters FBI agents reviewed the surveillance tapes but in the early morning Darkness the images are too dark to identify anyone the video was very grainy very blurry it was very hard to identify with any kind of particularity of features where you would recognize who actually went in but you could see four shapes going in then you go to the audio and you hear uh screaming and you hear shots and then you hear someone yelling move move and then they exit the place and they drive away that's basically all we had but you couldn't say with any reasonable certainty who actually went in there and shot Joseph but agents are still surveilling the law office in the listening post wiretaps record a chilling conversation between Stanford and a mob associate John Stanford suspects Michael changlini was behind the attempt to kill his own brother Joseph at the restaurant hey Michael and Joey were on the opposite sides of internal wall of the Stanford family they were half Brothers and it didn't make any difference he wanted to he thought his brother Joey was on the wrong side and he's going to take him out for John Stanford there is only one choice eliminate Joey Merlino and The Young Turks so he starts to recruit the his own muscle to send them out and to start stalking these young Turks and trying to uh kill Joey Merlino Michael chinglini and the people associated with him undercover FBI agents deliver a warning to Merlino and Michael changlini [Music] when we're aware of the fact that violence is going to occur or may occur and we think we know who the violence is going to occur against we have an obligation to go out and warn them John Stanford is sending hit teams into the streets with orders to Gun Down Merlino and changlini The Young Turks shrug off the FBI warning even though they know their lives are in danger they refuse to cooperate The Young Turks should have listened to the FBI a Stanford hit team tracks them down and opens fire in broad daylight Michael janglini is shot in the heart and dies on the street Joey Merlino is wounded it is clear to the FBI that John Stanford means business he's uh taken up the challenge and he's retaliated with a lot of force so that's where we are right then and there we believe that stanfa is responsible for now we have to prove it [Music] three hours after the shooting South Philadelphia police officers respond to a burning vehicle [Music] the car matches the description of one seen by Witnesses at the shooting police run a trace and learned that it was leased to a member of the Stanford crime family that night police questioned Phil colletti and his wife she tells police she reported the car stolen Coletti says he's been home all day [Music] the FBI views the couple's Alibi with skepticism Coletti becomes the first suspect in the shooting murder of Michael shanglini several days later the FBI gets a lead on the second shooter the FBI had received a call from a a physician who said that he had treated an individual who came in with Burns he felt rather suspicious FBI agents find John Vesey at home he too is a known member of the Stanford crime family agents ask VC what happened to his hand and he says he had an accident with his barbecue grill his hand was burned when he spilled lighter fluid VC insists the burn was an accident he says he knows nothing about the murder of Michael changlini in the shooting of Joey Merlino but when investigators check out the grill they discover it runs on propane which conflicts with VC's story that he was using lighter fluid when he burned himself that aroused our suspicion and kind of uh pointed us toward VZ more so than anybody else the FBI suspects two members of the John Stanford crime family and the murder of Michael changlini and the shooting of Young Turk boss Joey Merlino [Music] bi can bring the shooters to Justice kimberlino and The Young Turks try to get their own Revenge John Stanford is riding in a 1976 Cadillac Seville he's headed south on the Schuylkill Expressway with his son Joseph and a trusted driver pulls up next to the Cadillac two gunmen thrust nine millimeter machine pistols through portholes cut in the side of the van and they opened fire a full-scale mafia Civil War rages on the Streets of Philadelphia violence explodes with a Brazen Rush Hour attack on Sicilian mob boss John Stanford the gunfire misses John Stamford but his son Joseph is hit in the face Stanford's driver Rams the van forcing it off the highway what was really Brazen about it was on a highway like that random shots could have struck and hurt even killed any any innocent people were on there investigators have no doubt the attack on stanfa is Joey merlino's revenge for the murder of Michael changlini showed you the extent of the violence these people were willing to employ and The Grudge they wore against the Stanford police find Stanford at the hospital despite the Brazen attack on him and his innocent young son the kosa Nostra boss claims he has no idea who tried to kill them and of course it's the old I don't know who would have done this to me and we don't get anything out of him it is only a matter of time before innocent civilians get caught on the crossfire [Music] and it's time to turn up the heat on the warring mob any known Stanford or Merlino associate seen driving around South Philadelphia becomes the subject of a routine traffic stop authorities arrest eight Mobsters for carrying weapons they confiscate 380 45 and 38 caliber semi-automatics it has no doubt The Young Turks boss ordered the hit on John Stanford but feds can't prove it foreign Joey Merlino has to be yanked off the streets FBI arrests him for a parole violation of a 1990 armored truck robbery with Joey Merlino off the streets it is now time for the FBI to focus its sights on John Stanford's crew the agents Target murder suspect John vesi the professional Hitman is one of John Stanford's soldiers but tonight thanks to a New Jersey Firearms violation and the threat of a long jail sentence VC has agreed to wear a wire for the FBI he's a very tough tough individual and he did some construction work as a hired labor for uh John stamford's brother-in-law who was in construction and he caught the eye of Staff in Stanford and realized this kid was a tough kid and he could you know he intimidated people under Stanford VC became a loan collector an enforcer and a killer now he claims he feels the weight of the murders he committed all these things plus the fact that his brother who really cared for him was convinced that John was going to go down and never see the light of day his brother convinced him that he should cooperate VC was made into the family by John Stanford and now he wants to get out alive you couldn't measure the significance of it it was uh it was like a coup for us that he came on board VC quickly becomes comfortable wearing the wire he has several meetings but the conversations don't provide any new evidence against John stanfa he's out for a little while he I think he met with one or two people Nothing great he was a little he was a little down about the fact that he wasn't getting the conversations you know he wanted to he was really into it we told him look don't worry about it you know we've got a lot of time we'll do it again until we get it right you know Friday night now you know you've worked long and hard for us go home go home and relax don't go out we'll hook up with you again we'll do it again later that night John vesi runs out of luck and the FBI's organized crime task force is dealt a crippling blow in a bloody South Philadelphia mob War the FBI's number one informant is gunned down by Mafia Hitman and the FBI's best chance at busting up a notorious crime family is shattered [Music] FBI special agent Fred walls is devastated by the news that informant John vesi has been shot well when you hear that someone's been shot in the head you think the worst but Against All Odds after three 22 caliber slugs slammed into his skull John vesi is still alive I'm shocked this guy was shot in the head he's given an interview and he proceeds to tell what happened earlier that night after he removed the wire and the FBI agents went home VC ran into John Stanford's underboss and one of his soldiers and they tell him we've been looking for you we want to get you started in your own bookmaking operation show you how to do it we're going to go over to this location in South Philadelphia Above This meatsburg provisi it was just another late night business meeting he wasn't wearing the wire anymore and he thought he had nothing to fear he says he goes up to the room the main guy is sitting down with him at a table going over figures telling him how to take bets how to write stuff down the underboss excuse himself he has to go to the bathroom John vesi heard the sound of the flushing toilet and the door to the bathroom opening and then he heard the gunshots three 22 caliber slugs impacted John VC's skull but he didn't go down really turns around looks at the guy and says what the frick you doing of course I think of the shooter now he's he's in shock so he throws the gun down and he pulls out a knife well VZ takes the knife away from when Cuts him and basically incapacitates and throws him on the ground who turns to the other guy the main guy who's an older guy and the guy looks at him and he says John John he said this has all been a mistake it's a misunderstanding we're a gentleman here we can settle this and VZ says get out of the way or I'm going to take you down too and Against All Odds John Vici walks out of the room alive that's just good to show you how tough this kid was I mean he was tough and the bullets went into the back of his head and we later found out they had hit the head and come around okay I guess the Slugs weren't as strong it was 22 caliber 22 caliber long rifle slug and he took three in the head and survived two weeks later ex-mafia Hitman John Vici makes his first appearance before the Federal grand jury and testifies against his former crime family the information he provides is invaluable to the FBI VC names names and gives the FBI what they need to move against the Philadelphia mob and the FBI increases the pressure other Mobsters make deals with the prosecutors and become informants for the FBI and The Dominoes Begin to Fall on St Patrick's Day in 1994 24 suspects are arrested on racketeering charges of murder murder conspiracy extortion arson kidnapping gambling and obstruction of justice among those arrested is Frank Martinez he is found guilty of assault and the attempted murder of John Vesey Vincent Pagano is also arrested and found guilty of assault in the attempted murder of John Vesey on the same day John Stanford is arrested on racketeering charges of murder murder conspiracy extortion arson kidnapping gambling and obstruction of justice it was a nice clean easy sweep we brought the people in and uh we were very satisfied with it ultimately 27 people are charged with conspiracy and racketeering under the RICO Act 24 defendants are either convicted or plead guilty to the charges I felt pretty good that we did make Philadelphia a little bit safer uh my job it was my life's work um I thought we did a good job and I thought the the that we served the citizenry very well with what we did we took a very very violent group uh and sent a lot of them to jail for a long long time and we made Philadelphia a little safer on July 9 1996 John Stanford is sentenced to five consecutive life terms he is serving them at the United States penitentiary in Leavenworth Kansas [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]

Channel: Retold - Documentaries & Reconstructions

Views: 569,386

Keywords: Crime Drama Series, Crime Scene Analysis, Crime Scene Evidence, Crime Scene Forensics, Criminal Conspiracies, Documentary Filmmaking, Murder Investigations, Nicky Scarfo, Retold - Documentaries & Reconstructions, Witness Testimonies, crime scene analysis, criminal activities, criminal conspiracies, criminal justice system, criminal network exploration, criminal syndicate wars, criminal underworld stories, gang warfare, hitman documentary, law enforcement, true crime stories

Id: FS1pFvgt_ew

Length: 49min 35sec (2975 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 29 2022