this is audible audible Inc presents mafia prints inside America's most violent crime family and the bloody fall of La Cosa Nostra written by Philip Leonetti Scott Bernstein and Christopher Graziano narrated by LJ Ganser forward they would meet in the Eden Roc hotel in Miami in the restaurant that looked out on the swimming pool Meyer Lansky the aging underworld genius would be sitting at a table in the corner and here would come Nicky Scarfo the Atlantic City gangster who was soon to be the most violent mafia boss in America and Philip Leonetti scarfo's young nephew and future crime family underboss three generations of American mobsters sitting around talking Lansky white-haired and thin in his 70s at the time and fighting hard and stomach problems would dominate the conversation with stories about the old days Scarfo in his late 40s his brown hair combed straight back his eyes darting around the room would nod and occasionally offer an opinion and Leonetti trim and movie star handsome in his early 20s would sit quietly listening learning now one of the most important mafia informants in history Leonetti never said much during those meetings down in Miami he was just happy to be there he looked at Lansky the way others would look at DiMaggio Caruso or Hemingway one of a kind a man who defined the world in which he operated Lansky was there at the beginning when it all started when Cosa Nostra was formed Leonetti who rode to power with his uncle and who for a time controlled the mobs rackets in Philadelphia and Atlantic City there's a man who helped bring it all to an end this was back in the 1970s Leonetti said several years ago as he recounted those trips to Florida any time we went my uncle would call and we'd go over and see my he'd be sitting there in the restaurant him Negroes n' mickey Weisberg they used to get together there every day there was like Meijer hangout they'd go there and play cards Meijer liked us he liked my uncle so we'd sit around and he'd tell stories about the old days about Benny and Charlie and how it used to be Benny was Benjamin Bugsy Siegel Charlie was Charles Lucky Luciano Siegel of course brought the mob to Las Vegas he built the Flamingo Hotel Casino in 1947 and that turned the desert into a money machine for the mob then he forgot who his partners were and so he was killed years later Lansky still talked about it Meyer told us about how upset he was when Benny got killed Leonetti said he really loved Benny but he said Benny was robbing them guys and he wouldn't listen he said Benny never liked to listen to the Italians and that he thought that casino was his which it wasn't it was theirs Benny would only listen to Mayer and Mayer said he kept him under control the best he could but when they decided to whack him there was nothing he could do it broke his heart when they killed him but he couldn't stop it it was business then he looked at my uncle and he said Benny was a stone killer Nick but you know there's a lot of killers in the Mafia my uncle just nodded leonetti would eventually become one himself that's part of his story how he became a hitman for his uncle how he turned on the man who raised him and how he eventually ended up on the witness stand are all part of what this book is about there has never been a mafia witness like leonetti not Joe Valachi not Vinny Teresa not Salvatore Sammy the bull Gravano Leonetti is the essence of what the American Mafia was in the 1980s and what it has become in the years since his life was shaped twisted and nearly destroyed by it his decision to cooperate has turned it upside down called a story of Family Values gone awry bloody story of murder that ends with personal Redemption murder extortion loan-sharking and gambling leonetti did it all then faced with the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison and looking at the possibility that his own teenaged son might be heading down the same road he broke with his uncle with the mob and with the life from the witness stand he helped bring down high-ranking mob figures in Manhattan Brooklyn Boston Pittsburgh Hartford and Philadelphia leaders of the Genovese Gambino Colombo Patriarca and Lucchese crime families are behind bars as a result he was without question the reason Gravano agreed to testify and consequently the reason John Gotti was finally convicted leonetti's story is the saga of the American Mafia it stretches from Lansky to Gotti from Los Angeles to Palermo it's the tale of money murder and treachery that puts the lie to the so-called men of Honor it's the view of a man sucked deep inside the underworld by the pull of a distorted sense of family honor and dignity and it is a lesson in human redemption and second chances orchestrated by someone who had the intelligence the strength and the courage to break the chains that had bound him to the life for months after his defection Leonetti had been trying to explain to the FBI and federal prosecutors what it meant to be part of that life he wanted them to understand the twisted sense of values he had grown up with about the Svengali like influence his uncle a surrogate father in fact had held over him it was like walking with the devil he said as agents and government lawyers nodded and jotted down notes on the yellow legal pads they always brought to his debriefing sessions then they'd go on to the next question the next topic and the next chapter in the saga of the rise and fall of the Scarfo crime family it was clear to Leonetti then that they really didn't understand but Cosa Nostra does to a person how it corrupts your soul but Leonetti wanted them to understand after 20 years he didn't want to be part of it anymore he was tired of the murders worn out by the treachery and sickened by the deceit but unless he could explain unless he could show them he knew he'd never be able to put it behind him finally there was one moment when it all came together when it all made sense he was on the stand in federal court in Philadelphia making his debut as a witness this was in January of 1990 six months after he had broken with the mob and started talking with the feds he was testifying against four of his former associates detailing the operations of the crime family he and Scarfo had once controlled and implicating the four mobsters sitting at the defense table in the organization's activities dressed in a blue blazer and gray slacks with a dark crewneck sweater over a white shirt and tie he looked more like an accountant than a hitman but his testimony was proving to be as deadly in court as his actions had been in the underworld Leonetti would admit his own involvement in ten gangland murders as he testified about the secret organization the code of silence the extortions the loan sharking and the gambling on cross-examination one of the defense attorneys set out to unnerve him asking sarcastically if he knew what it means to be ruthless Leonetti paused briefly to think about the question that's when it all came together that's when he was able to make them see that's when in its own perverse way it made sense I know what it means to be ruthless he said in that quiet firm voice that had the jurors hanging on every word but I don't remember ever doing anything it's a matter of fact I know for sure I never did nothing ruthless besides well I would kill people but that's our life that's what we do in life there was no moral dilemma no debate over what it meant to murder another human being no question of right or wrong it was simply Cosa Nostra Phil Leonetti had finally made them all understand he has left that life far behind him this is the story of where he is and how he got there George Anastacia crime reporter Philadelphia Enquirer preface somewhere near the Atlantic Ocean spring 2011 he was tan and fit and wearing a dark windbreaker type jacket over neatly pressed dress slacks with highly polished black Italian loafers his gray hair was neatly styled combed straight back he was wearing a pair of black designer sunglasses the man seated inside an upscale hotel lobby bar looked like a Country Club golf pro and not a psychopathic mafia killer worthy of the moniker crazy Phil soft-spoken and polite he was understated and handsome and carried himself with an air of confidence after exchanging pleasantries he removed his sunglasses and said you have to understand that come from a very different world than you guys his tone was soft as he spoke his eyes focused we live by a very different set of rules in La Cosa Nostra if you break the rules you get this he said shaping his hand like a gun and pointing it toward the ground and I broke the biggest rule of them all I betrayed my oath Philip Leonetti was right there in plain sight more than two decades removed from his life as the underboss of the Philadelphia Atlantic City mob although he had once been a shark a great white swimming in a sea of other deadly and bloodthirsty sharks he now appeared simply as a man a man with a story to tell over the next three days inside a plush Suite high above the sandy beaches overlooking the Atlanta Oshin Philip Leonetti would provide chapter and verse of his life both inside the mom and out to this book's co-authors this was our first time meeting leonetti face to face but it wouldn't be the last over the next year we would meet several times in major cities all over the United States with our final meeting taking place in winter 2012 back in Atlantic City just steps away from the Georgia Avenue compound where it had all started this is the definitive inside story of the bloody rise and treacherous fall of one of the most ruthless mafia empires in American history at the epicenter our two men Philip Leonetti and his uncle Nicodemo Scarfo crazy film and Little Nicky what you are about to hear is their story told in part by the co-authors based on extensive research and personal interviews and also by Philip in his own voice it is part Godfather and part Goodfellas with shades of Casino Donnie Brasco and The Sopranos spliced throughout but this isn't a Hollywood movie or television show this is the real thing act 1 Little Nicky and crazy Phil December 16 1979 it was a cold winter afternoon the type of day where the frigid air could literally take a man's breath away but on this day it wouldn't be Mother Nature performing this daunting task it would be a 26-year old mob killer with ice in his veins and orders to kill named Philip Leonetti whose nickname crazy Phil said it all as the unmistakable sounds of the powerful and unforgiving white-capped waves pounding the shoreline a few feet away punctuated the crisp air on this dreary day there was no force more powerful and unforgiving more omnipresent in Philip leonetti's life then that of his 50 year old uncle Nicodemo Scarfo the man who had raised him like a son after his own father had abandoned him as a child and had turned him into a heartless stone-cold killer Scarfo who was nicknamed Little Nicky stood five foot five and weighed a mere 135 pounds while he may have been small in stature Scarfo had earned a reputation for committing acts of unspeakable violence that had made him a giant in the criminal underworld by 1979 he was the Philadelphia mobs fastest rising star and had become the de-facto boss of the boardwalk in Atlantic City which with the advent of casino gambling a year before had become a boomtown for the mob his beloved nephew Philip Leonetti had become his right-hand man his most trusted aide and his most able killer during the late 1970s in the burgeoning Atlantic City underworld the ground shook when and where Little Nicky and crazy Phil walked it was common knowledge to those doing business in Atlantic City that the equally feared and respected Scarfo and Leonetti were not to be [ __ ] with so when a young mob associate named Vincent Falcone drew the ire of the extremely volatile Scarfo Little Nicky decided that the penalty would be death and that Philip crazy Phil Leonetti would be the executioner Phil Leonetti spoke to Vincent Falcone as the two men stood in the kitchen of a friend's beachfront home in Margate in upscale New Jersey beach community a few short miles south of Atlantic City come on Vince let's make some drinks inside the living room just a few feet away sat Nicky Scarfo his reading glasses perched low on his nose and his Italian leather shoes resting comfortably on a coffee table as he perused the Sunday edition of The Atlantic City press while watching the Philadelphia Eagles battled the Houston Oilers who were led by a future Hall of Fame running back Earl Campbell Vince bring me a cutty and some water said Scarfo in his trademark high-pitched voice as Falcone said two glasses for the boss one to be filled with cutty sark the blended Scotch whisky favored by Scarfo and the other to be filled with water that little Nikki used to dilute his drink joining the trio of Scarfo Leonetti and Falcone on this fateful afternoon were two aspiring mobsters young wannabe wise guys who like Leonetti and Falcone were members of nicky scarfo's atlantic city crew the five men had gathered to have a pre-holiday celebration Christmas after all was just nine days away but there was nothing festive about what would happen next after placing the model of Scotch that his uncle had requested on the kitchen table the 26 year old Leonetti nodded toward Falcone Vince get some ice the unsuspecting Falcone nodded in agreement and walked toward the refrigerator turning his back to Leonetti and the others as he did Leonetti immediately reached into his black leather jacket and pulled out a small 32 caliber handgun that had been tucked in his waistband without hesitation he moved swiftly behind Falcone and pressed the handgun to the back of his head directly behind his right ear and squeezed the trigger boom propelled by the blast Falcone flew forward and collided with the refrigerator awkwardly landing on his back as a pool of blood began to turn the cheap linoleum floor a dark shade of crimson Nicky Scarfo apparently no longer interested in the Eagles game got up from the couch and without saying a word walked into the kitchen and kneeled down next to Falcone's mortally wounded body pressing his ear to Falcone's chest to listen for a heartbeat he's still alive Scarfo said to Leonetti who was standing over Falcone's body the gun still firmly gripped in his right hand give him another one said Scarfo who added right here as he pointed to Falcone's heart as little Nikki knelt beside the Fallen Vincent Falcone crazy Phil pumped another shot into his heart at point-blank range boom causing Falcone's body to violently jerk as the bullet ripped through his chest and immediately ended his life the big shots dead said a jubilant Nicky Scarfo rising to his feet belittling the dead man as a piece of [ __ ] [ __ ] as he did Philip Leonetti still holding the pistol turned to one of the other men in the kitchen a close friend of Falcone's fixed an icy stare on him and said he was a no-good [ __ ] I wish I could bring him back to life so I could kill him again it wasn't the first time that Scarfo and Leonetti had killed together and it wouldn't be the last over the next decade they orchestrated or personally carried out 20 more killings another half dozen or so that predated the Falcone murder would help define their reign as two of the most notorious gangsters of the 20th century three things figured prominently in many of the murders money power and Atlantic City eventually little Nicky and crazy Phil had them all all the money all the power and absolute control over Atlantic City they had ascended from a lowly mob street crew loaning money to cash-strapped gamblers and shaking down two-bit wise guys and risen to the pantheon of organized crime they were the boss and underboss of the Philadelphia Atlantic City mob the CEO and co o of the nation's bloodiest and most ruthless mafia empire ten years after the Falcone murder the life of crime power and big money was over for Little Nicky and crazy Phil but in many ways life was just beginning for Philip Leonetti in plain sight on May 1st 2011 the world was transfixed by the news that Osama bin Laden the evil mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and undoubtedly the most hated man on the planet had been hunted down and killed by members of the United States military's ultra elite Navy SEAL Team six for most of the decade leading up to bin Laden's long-overdue execution it was widely believed that the world's most notorious terrorist was living inside a network of hidden mountain caves in the Afghan region of Tora Bora under the protection of the terror friendly warlords who controlled the area but when SEAL Team 6 made its now-infamous trip to Atlantic City that is what they called the hit on bin Laden they did not find him inside a dusty mountain cave but rather on the third floor of a carefully built million-dollar high-security compound in Abbottabad Pakistan less than 800 yards from a prestigious Pakistani military academy the country is equivalent to West Point despite a 25 million-dollar bounty on his head the six-foot for bin Laden was hiding in plain sight within hours of his bullet-ridden corpse being ceremoniously dumped into the Indian Ocean the FBI removed him from atop its 10 most-wanted list replacing him with the notorious South Boston Irish mob boss and former FBI informant James Whitey Bulger suspected in more than 20 killings the ruthless and cunning Bulger had vanished without a trace in December 1994 after being tipped off by a corrupt FBI agent that the feds were preparing to wipe out his gang with a massive indictment under the RICO racketeering influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act as the international FBI manhunt for Bulger intensified credible sightings were reported in South Florida New York City London and Chicago from tipsters looking to cash in on a two million dollar reward additional confirmed sightings in nondescript podunk towns like Grand Isle Louisiana Slone Iowa Sheridan Wyoming and Fountain Valley California affirmed the belief that Bolger was traveling with ease always managing to stay one step ahead of the egg faced FBI agents who remained hot on his trail it appeared that Whitey Bulger was everywhere yet nowhere at the same time that would all change during the early evening hours of June 22nd 2011 when FBI agents and US Marshals acting on a tip found the 81 year old fugitive gangster holed up in a posh seaside condominium in Santa Monica California that was located three blocks from the Pacific Ocean and the scenic open-air Third Street Promenade that houses dozens of boutique type shops and trendy restaurants like bin Laden in Pakistan the elusive Whitey Bulger was hiding in plain sight as we watched the television coverage and read the newspaper accounts surrounding their respective captures we wondered where in the world was Philip Leonetti hiding leonetti the one-time underboss of the Philadelphia Atlantic City mob nicknamed crazy Phil was the crowned prince of the Mafia during the mobs long-lost 1980s heyday in the Northeast United States a stone-cold killer he was the nephew and second in command of Nicodemo Little Nicky Scarfo one of the most bloodthirsty and ruthless crime bosses in the history of organized crime if Leonetti was the prince Scarfo was undoubtedly the king of the Atlantic City Philadelphia mob and together they ran their mafia empire from their headquarters on Georgia Avenue in the Ducktown neighborhood of Atlantic City less than three blocks from the world-famous boardwalk and the glitz and glamour of the city's neon lit casinos all of which they controlled with an iron fist a former associate turned government witness once described Scarfo by saying if Nicky had as much power as Hitler he would have outdid him and also said that Leonetti was 100% Scarfo he was just as and deadly as his uncle murder mayhem and wanton violence became the benchmark of the mob under Little Nicky and crazy Phil with more than two dozen mob killings punctuating what would become one of the most volatile and tumultuous periods in the long and celebrated US history of the Mafia or its more proper name La Cosa Nostra which is Italian for this thing of ours Leonetti himself was convicted and participating in ten gangland killings millions of dollars in cash poured in from traditional mob rackets like gambling loan sharking and extortion while millions more came in from scarfo's very lucrative underworld street tax and a seemingly limitless skim from local 54 Atlantic City's largest casino Union which Scarfo and Leonid he treated like their own petty cash fund Scarfo and Leonetti worked closely with New York crime bosses including Vincent the chin Gigante the leader of the powerful Genovese crime family who stymied law enforcement for decades by pretending to be crazy walking around his Greenwich Village neighborhood in a bathrobe mumbling to himself and the dapper Don John Gotti the ambitious Gambino crime family boss known for his $2,000 suits Scarfo and Leonetti were recognized as elite mafiosi highly regarded and equally feared in mob circles throughout the United States in other words they were untouchable or so it seemed as Scarfo and Leonetti grew in power so did the efforts of the FBI and the US Department of Justice to stop them they have become public enemy number one and public enemy number two when it was over the Scarfo organization would be decimated and Little Nicky its supreme leader and Lord High executioner would be sentenced to life in prison narrowly escaping the death penalty following a series of convictions in both state and federal courts in the late 1980s that rocked the foundation of the Philadelphia Atlanta City mob the trials featured testimony from several mob turncoats who had betrayed their sacred oath of omertà and agreed to cooperate with the government by testifying against Scarfo Leonetti and 15 of their men Scarfo now 83 remains behind bars as this book is published currently housed at the high-security US Penitentiary in Atlanta after spending the last 25 years in various maximum-security federal penitentiaries all over the United States Leonetti would receive 45 years in prison for his life of crime which included convictions for murder and racketeering but crazy Phil would only serve 5 years 5 months and 5 days behind bars after agreeing to cooperate with the federal government in 1989 betraying his uncle Nicky Scarfo and his blood oath to La Cosa Nostra to which he'd sworn his undying allegiance less than a decade earlier at the age of 36 Philip Leonetti who had become the youngest underboss in the history of La Cosa Nostra gained the more dubious distinction of being the highest ranking member of the nationwide crime syndicate to flip and cooperate with the government the impact on the underworld was akin to that of a plane flying into the World Trade Center before 9/11 it was unfathomable but it happened and the Philadelphia Atlantic City mob would be left in tatters its infrastructure so badly damaged that more than two decades later it has yet to fully recover Leonetti the government witness proved to be just as deadly as Leonetti the mob killer dozens of mobsters and associates were convicted as a direct result of leonetti's testimony and he would figure prominently in the demise of New York mob bosses Vincent the chin Gigante and John Gotti and more importantly La Cosa Nostra itself when he was done testifying Leonetti would settle into a life inside the confines of a top-secret world the witness security wing of a remote federal prison tucked away in a dusty Arizona desert joining him would be Salvatore Sammy the bull Gravano the former underboss of New York's Gambino crime family who followed leonetti's lead and also defected from La Cosa Nostra ironically as Leonetti and Gravano enjoyed life together in the Arizona Sun reminiscing about their glory days in the mob Nicky Scarfo and John Gotti the bosses they betrayed were rotting locked down for all but a half hour of each day inside eight by ten foot concrete cells in one of the nation's toughest federal prisons located in Marion Illinois by the early 1990s the US La Cosa Nostra was still a deadly nationwide criminal organization but it had become a shell of its former self Leonetti the man who brought the mob to its knees was released from prison and disappeared into the witness protection program with a new identity and a new lease on life not yet 40 years old Philip Leonetti had to start over and completely reinvent himself and he couldn't have been happier to do so well Gigante and Gandhi would go on to die inside the federal prisons that became their homes leonetti's uncle Nicodemo Little Nicky Scarfo would remain alive and well in his Scarfo has vowed revenge and has openly plotted to kill his once beloved nephew and his entire family the evil and vindictive Scarfo would place a $500,000 bounty on his nephews head a bounty which according to the FBI still stands today a letter written in the mid-1990s by a deranged Scarfo to his own mother leonetti's grandmother paints a chilling picture as the jailed mob boss makes a not-so-veiled series of threats against Leonetti and his mother Nancy who is scarfo's own sister I will never forget them animals what they did to this family but you still love them which makes me know you lost your mind I want you to live forever but I want you to have your senses so you could see what is going to happen to those wild animals if you love that which you better say your prayers for her and her crazy son because I don't need no prayers and beside all of that [ __ ] God - in another letter this one intercepted by the Bureau of Prisons a tamer Scarfo wrote the following to one of his lawyers I maintain myself to see these people suffer one day this is what keeps me going but keeps Philip Leonetti going is the new life that he started with his family far away from Atlantic City and the mob and for the last decade or so away from the watchful eye of the FBI and the US Marshals who run the witness protection program hiding from both the mom and the government Philip Leonetti we would come to learn was like Osama bin Laden and whitey bulger hiding in plain sight la cosa nostra this thing of ours what we know as the Mafia in the United States is actually an offshoot of several different secret societies in Europe that date back centuries the most prominent of these sects were the Sicilian Mafia the Ndrangheta and the Camorra which originated in Naples originally the intent of such organizations was not criminal they existed to protect the common citizens of these regions from a corrupt and oppressive government that did little to nothing to look out for the interests of the regular working man over time as these groups evolved they became sophisticated criminal organizations as Italian and Sicilian immigrants flooded the streets of major American cities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries a number of loosely organized incarnations of these secret societies began to take form making their presence felt in ethnic neighborhoods across the country street gangs with ties to the old country set up shop and operated a vast array of rackets the onset of prohibition in the 1920s made many early mob leaders incredibly wealthy as their street gangs spearheaded an underworld movement supplying illegal liquor to a thirsty public while causing heaps of newspaper headlines and bloodshed as they battled over turf nowhere was this more evident than in Chicago where Al Capone the most celebrated gangster of his era became the face of organized crime in the United States at first there was little to no connection between the various burgeoning crime conglomerates operating throughout the United States a move toward consolidation slowly began to take form as the bosses began to recognize that true power and strength could only be accomplished by establishing a nationwide crime syndicate this American organized crime syndicate would come to be known as La Cosa Nostra which in Italian means this thing of ours the inaugural summit of this newly organized syndicate would feature the nation's top gangland bosses nearly 50 men operating Street rackets in US cities from coast to coast the meeting took place in the spring of 1929 at the legendary Ritz Hotel on the world-famous Atlantic City Boardwalk Atlantic City known as the world's playground was riddled with Vice and became the original Sin City long before modern day Las Vegas was even contemplated vacuum casinos showgirls looking for a quick buck and a non-stop flow of booze during Prohibition made Atlantic City the perfect choice for such a gathering two years later in 1931 the modern American Mafia was created in the aftermath of a carnage filled mob war in New York City that pitted a group of old-school underworld leaders known as mustache Pete's against a group of young and hungry under room Nerys led by a man born salvatore lucania who had come to be known as Charles Lucky Luciano with Luciano's group emerging victorious the ambitious new godfather called a meeting of fellow mob leaders in Chicago and laid out his vision for what would become La Cosa Nostra Luciano proposed a nationwide crime syndicate made up of regional mob factions called families which would be overseen and governed by a board of directors known as the Commission the Commission will be comprised of only the most powerful and respected mob dons men like Luciano and Capone the syndicate and its rules would be paramilitary and structure each family will be headed by a boss an underboss and a conceal er a or counselor the hierarchy of the family would also include a Kadri of Capo's or captain's who would each be responsible for a crew of family soldiers and associates attendees of Luciano's underworld conference held at the Blackstone Hotel in the heart of the Windy City's famous Miracle Mile on Michigan Avenue unanimously agreed to the proposal and unanimously pledged their allegiance to the newly established La Cosa Nostra following the meeting of the nation's top criminal lines in Chicago 26 American mob families were formed there was one for almost every major city in the country with the New York and Chicago mobs being the most prominent in the city of Philadelphia Jan Avena a long time lieutenant under prohibition era crime lord Salvatori Sabella was named the city's first modern day mob boss Sibella had sided against Luciano in his war with the mustache Pete's and as a result was told to step down and turn over the reins to Avena from the moment he assumed power Avena butted heads with a former ally and one-time Sabella lieutenant named joseph dovey feeling slighted by a venus promotion Dovie immediately challenged his authority the two men and their respective factions battled for control on the streets for nearly five years a war that culminated with Avena the boss being killed in 1936 Dovie took control of the Philadelphia mafia for the next decade expanding the crime family's territorial reach into parts of neighboring states New Jersey and Delaware when Toby died from natural causes in 1946 Joe ADA another former Sabella disciple was named the city's new Don Ida ruled unfettered for over a decade but his reign would end following his arrest at the infamous Appalachian mobs summit in 1957 which ultimately led to his deportation like the Atlantic City Conference in 1929 the Appalachian summit was designed to bring together the top gangland leaders in the nation but many of these men were arrested as they converged on the upstate New York hunting cottage where the conference was to take place law enforcement had been tipped off and was lying in wait as the unsuspecting mobsters converged on the location for a brief period of time following Ida's deportation Antonio mr. Miggs polina was named his successor but Paulina quickly fell out of favor with those within the organization by plotting the murder of a popular mob captain Bourne Angelo and alluro who would come to be known as Angelo Bruno getting wind of polina's plan to murder him Bruno a cunning and even tempered gentleman gangster turned the tables on mr. Miggs using his many connections to the New York underworld which included a deep personal relationship with the powerful Carlo Gambino Bruno got the Commission to depose polina and Bruno was anointed his successor showing a level of mercy not often displayed by men in his position bruno spared polina's life instead of killing him for his indiscretion he banished the defeated former boss into retirement the controversial move earned Bruno the nickname the docile Don what the future would hold for Bruno and those operating in and around the Philadelphia mob which now included rackets in neighboring Atlantic City would be anything but docile especially once Nicky Scarfo and his nephew Philip Leonetti gained control young Philip my name is philip michael Leonetti and i was born on March 27th 1953 in Philadelphia my father's name was Pasquale Leonetti and my mother's name was enunciated Scarfo but everyone called her Nancy I was born into this life the Mafia La Cosa Nostra it was inevitable for me it was literally in my blood both sides of my family leonetti's and scarfo's had immigrated to the United States from Naples and Calabria and both families had strong ties to the Mafia in Italy before I was born my grandfather Christopher Leonetti was a mob-connected hood who ran with a crew of guys Manhattan's Little Italy in the 20s he got killed after his crew tried to shake down a couple of guys they thought were low-level Greaseballs ciggies but turned out to be high-ranking Sicilian gangsters they ended up whacking him and leaving him in the street growing up my uncle Nick would tell me the Sicilians the ciggies they are not like us they can't be trusted it's something I would never forget my father Pasquale Leonetti was a well-respected gambler who was picked by Angelo Bruno to oversee many of the mob controlled card and dice games that operated in and around South Philadelphia in the late 50s and early 60s and lo Bruno was the boss of the Philadelphia mob he was the Don back then the mob had games in the back rooms of almost every restaurant neighborhood bar corner store and social club in South Philly Knockaround Street guys from the neighborhood would come and Gamble drink booze smoke cigars and escape from their wives or girlfriends for a few hours in these joints and the mob was making money catering to them first of all the mob ran the games which means they won more than they lost the house always wins second they were selling booze to the gamblers which means they were making money on the booze and the gamblers would get drunk and end up gambling more than they should that's when one of the mob guys who was working in that joint would pull the gambler aside and loan him money at a high interest rate so that he could keep drinking and gambling or use the money to pay the rent or the electric bill if a guy borrowed $10,000 and the loan shark charged him two points he would have to pay $200 a week in interest which was known as the Vig for the juice every week and he still owed the $10,000 so let's say it took him ten weeks to pay the money back he'd paid $2,000 in juice money and the $10,000 in principle so he'd end up paying $12,000 on a $10,000 loan if it took him a year to pay back he'd pay over $10,000 in interest and still owe the $10,000 in principle this is primarily how the mob makes its money even today illegal gambling and loan sharking now my father had a reputation as a serious gambler not only in South Philadelphia but in Jersey and even New York he was so well known and respected that Walter Winchell the famous journalist wrote a piece on him this is why Ange picked my father to run those games he was that good but when it came to being a father he was no good he was a bum after his luck took a turn for the worse a squall a went from running the mobs top card games to owing the mob the money he lost and couldn't pay back when he gambled himself pasquale Leonetti had crapped out when Philip was just a baby Pasquale left Philadelphia and headed south to Florida leaving Nancy and young Phillip to fend for themselves Angelo Bruno had taken Pasquale's exterminating business as a way of clearing his debts Phillip and his mother were left with nothing by this time Nancy's parents and Catherine Scarfo had also left South Philadelphia moving 60 miles east to Atlantic City the once booming seaside resort known as the world's playground had fallen on hard times and was considered down-and-out by the early 60s it had literally gone from boom to bust the scarfo's purchased two connecting apartment buildings at 26-28 North Georgia Avenue in the city's Italian enclave known as duck town each building stood four stories tall and was two and a half blocks from the world-famous Atlantic City Boardwalk and the sandy beaches leading to the Atlantic Ocean and was surrounded by other similarly structured row homes Nancy's father fellip Scarfo was a laborer who worked at Atlantic City's prestigious Chalfont Haddon Hall Hotel my grandfather Phillip Scarfo was a wonderful man I was named after him when I was little and we lived in South Philadelphia he had a job where he had a horse with a wagon and he used to give me rides around the neighborhood he'd also take me crabbing when I was a little boy he was a hard worker his whole life and was never involved in the mob or anything illegal he was 100% legit Nancy's mother Catherine Scarfo was a homemaker and a devout Catholic who faithfully attended Mass every morning at st. Michael's Church which was located less than 50 yards from the Scarfo family home my grandmother was the typical old-school Italian matriarch all of her grandchildren called her mom mom she went to church every morning not just Sundays and her cooking my god nobody cooked like her she was a real character one of a kind she was well-liked in the neighborhood if someone had a problem or needed advice they'd come and see mom mom her three brothers Nick Joe and Mike piccolo were all well-respected soldiers in the Bruno crime family which was based in Philadelphia but maintained a strong presence in New Jersey particularly in the cities of Trenton Newark at Atlantic City each had been adorned with the same nickname they were known respectively as Nikki buck Joe Buck and Mikey buck and owned and operated Piccolo's 500 anat aureus mob hangout that grew into a popular restaurant and club in south philadelphia michael mikey buck piccolo was Philip lien and his Godfather my great-uncle Mike used to take me fishing when I was a little boy with my cousin Ronald he was a nice man a gentleman my great uncle Nick piccolo Nicky Buck who was on my mother's side was married to my grandfather's sister my Aunt Mary on my father's side this marriage strengthened the Scarfo leonetti bond then there was Philips uncle Nick uncle Nick Nick Odie modem Onix Scarfo was born on March 8th 1929 to Philip and Katherine Scarfo in Brooklyn New York in 1941 when Nick was 12 years old the Scarfo family which now included a younger sister Annunziata Nancy left New York and settled in South Philadelphia which was by then heavily populated with second-generation Italian families as a young boy Scarfo spent his summers working in the sprawling blueberry fields in Hamilton New Jersey known as the blueberry capital of the world Hamilton is a small town located 30 miles east of Philadelphia and 30 miles west of Atlantic City it's it's smack dab in the middle of the 60 mile corridor that connects the two cities with the Atlantic City Expressway Scarfo had learned firsthand about the tireless life of a laborer a life that he wanted no part of as an adult his big dreams didn't involve picking blueberries for a living to him people who worked for a living we're jerk-offs and Nicky Scarfo didn't fancy himself a jerk-off Scarfo who would come to be known as Little Nicky for his diminutive size stood a mere 5 feet 5 inches he was voted most talkative by his classmates at Benjamin Franklin High School which he graduated from in 1947 and his senior yearbook declared the same year that he was out to lick the world but Scarfo lacked in height he made up for in fearlessness despite his size he began to box in his late teens under the name Nick Scarfo and amassed an impressive record in small club fights on the Philadelphia boxing circuit but as the 1950s came the bantamweight Scarfo decided that he was better suited for life outside the ring Nicky Scarfo wanted to be a gangster just like the movie star mobsters he grew up admiring in the shoot-'em-up flicks he would sneak into the theater to see as a kid guys like Paul Muni in the 1932 gangster classic Scarface not the top baseball players of the late 1940s like Stan Musial and Ted Williams were nicky scarfo's idols like the working stiff athletes were also jerk-offs to Little Nicky it's sad to say but my uncle looked down on his own father because he was a hard-working guy and not a gangster he was never outwardly disrespectful to his father but they weren't very close my uncles only ambition in life was to be a gangster even from the time he was young in the late 1940s and early 50s Scarfo began his mob apprenticeship working as a bartender and a bookmaker at Piccolo's 500 where his schooling in the ways of La Cosa Nostra began under the direction of his uncle's the buck brothers while Nicholas Nicky buck piccolo was teaching his nephew about the ins and outs of mob business life like how to be a bookmaker and run numbers felix skinny racer Ditullio one of the mobs most feared hitmen was teaching him how to be a killer my uncle's first hit he did it with skinny razor it was a guy in South Philly who had a fruit stand they called him the huckster the hucksters brother had a problem with skinny razor and skinny razor got the okay to kill him so and my uncle went to the guys store in south philadelphia he was during a real bad snowstorm and the guy left them into the store and they killed him they stabbed him to death when they were done they cut his balls off and put them in the guy's mouth that's how my uncle learned about killing from being around skinny razor felix skinny razor Ditullio took an early liking to the young Scarfo and Little Nicky was an eager student bonding in bloodlust skinny razor taut scar for the art of the mob hit it was a skill he would cherish continue to hone and eventually master by 1954 at the age of 25 Nicodemo Little Nicky Scarfo had acquired the reputation in the underworld that he had sought he was known as a Mad Dog killer thanks in large part to the teachings of his mob mentor skinny razor Ditullio Scarfo was proposed for membership in La Cosa Nostra by Ditullio and his uncle Nicholas Nicky buck piccolo and as a result was formally inducted into the mob by then Philadelphia mob boss Joseph Ida at an official making ceremony held at a restaurant and lounge named San Souci in Cherry Hill New Jersey just over the bridge from Center City Philadelphia two of scarfo's uncle's Tony and Mike piccolo the younger brothers of Nicholas Nicky but piccolo were also inducted into La Cosa Nostra at the same ceremony Nicky Scarfo had achieved his dream he was a bonafide wiseguy a made man the blueberry farms of hammington were ancient history he would never again be a working stiff a civilian a jerk-off back then it was almost unheard of to be made at such a young age in Philadelphia my uncle was only 25 his uncle's Tony and Mike buck who were made at the same time were twice his age they were close to 50 at the time even then Nicky Scarfo was on the fast track in La Cosa Nostra because he was with skinny razor my uncle got to meet a lot of gangsters in North Jersey and New York and they respected him because skinny razor had a reputation of being a stone-cold killer and everyone knew it he was both feared and respected on the streets and my uncle looked up to him he wanted to be just like him in 1957 with Pasquale out of the picture Nancy and four year-old Philip would leave Philadelphia and settled into the Scarfo family compound in Atlantic City which at the time was more than a decade past its prime Nancy would take a job in Atlantic City working from the Bureau of Children Services which functioned like an adoption agency and provided care for underprivileged children with his father out of the picture Philip gravitated towards Nancy's older brother his uncle Nick as a father figure at that time it was just my mother my grandparents and myself living on Georgia Avenue my father was gone that was just a little boy maybe five or six years old my uncle was still living in South Philadelphia but he used to come down a lot to see us or to do business with skinny razor in the 1950s and 60s Felix skinny razor Ditullio was a mob captain at capo regime a and the Philadelphia mobs top guy at the Jersey Shore and Nicky Scarfo was quickly becoming his number one protege when Phillip was seven years old his great-grandmother Katherine scarfo's mother died and the wake and funeral remain etched in Philips memory more than five decades later back then the Italian wakes lasted three days I remember my grandmother and her brothers the piccolo brothers Joe Mike and Nick was standing next to the coffin and all of these people were coming in to pay their respects I was standing in the audience with my uncle Nick and in walked a man with several guys around him everybody was going over to pay their respects to him and shake his hand or kiss him on the cheek I remember this man looked very important like the president so I said to my uncle who's that guy and he said that's Angelo Bruno he's the boss of the family and even though I was only seven years old I understood what he was talking about as I got older I started spending more time with my uncle he was like my father because my real father was gone when we were alone he would talk to me about what la cosa nostra was all about how we were different from everyone else and how we had certain rules that we had to follow this is how I was raised from the time I was a little boy when Phillip was eight years old his uncle Nick was given an order by his mentor Felix skinny razor Ditullio a wayward mom associate named Dominic Reds Caruso a disrespected Joseph Joe the boss Renetta a conciliar a or a counselor to the family's boss Angelo Bruno and Bruno had hand-picked skinny razors up-and-coming Protege Nicky Scarfo to oversee Caruso's murder Scarfo was happy to oblige and show Bruno and Ditullio that he was an able killer a real gangster to kill Reds Caruso Salvatore Chuckie Merlino one of scarfo's oldest friends would go to Caruso's home in South Philadelphia and tell him that Scarfo wanted to see him like a scene out of the very type of movie he loved so much as a young boy Scarfo lolled Caruso into a state of relaxation taking him to a bar in Vineland New Jersey that was owned by an associate of the Bruno crime family two more bruno associates Santo little Santo Romeo and Anthony Costello were inside the bar with Romeo working as a bartender shortly after arriving at the bar Scarfo wasted little time and carrying out the hit Little Nicky pulled out a handgun and shot Caruso six times at point-blank range but Reds Caruso was still alive my uncle told me the guy was lying there after he shot him and he said you got me Nick and my uncle grabbed an ice pick from the bar and he stabbed him over and over again in the back until he died he told me he stabbed him so hard that the ice pick got stuck in his back and part of it broke off when he tried to pull it out but killing Caruso wasn't enough the Sicilian born Bruno had wanted him killed in a certain way to send a message and while he wanted Scarfo to oversee the murder he wanted another up-and-coming mobster to actually commit it and shed ordered that this Reds Caruso be strangled to death not shot because he had talked fresh to Joe the boss and he wanted Santo Adoni to strangle him and send a message that his mouth had gotten him killed these ciggies were big into sending messages but what happened is Santo Adoni was late getting to the bar and by the time he got there my uncle had already killed the guy and when the boss says he wants a guy killed and he wants it done a certain way that's the way you got to do it so when Santo got there my uncle had him choked the corpse with some rope and leave marks around the neck so just in case they found the body and she would know that he had been strangled like he ordered Scarfo would also now have a lifelong ally in Santo IDO name who was born in Calabria the same part of Italy where scarfo's family came from my uncle told me that Santo told him thanks for covering for me Nick I won't forget it and my uncle said you and Mia Calabria we gotta stick together around all these ciggies the hit team led by Scarfo would leave Caruso's dead body inside the bar as another team removed the body and moved it to another location where a third team was supposed to dig a hole and bury the body which was doused in lime to accelerate its decomposition but what they did was they got a fourth group to dig up the body and move it somewhere else so that way the guys who did the killing and the guys who moved the body and the group that buried the body the first time had no idea where the body was in case someone flipped and them out as Caruso's a bullet-ridden corpse still with part of a nice creek lodged in his back lay buried in a makeshift grave somewhere in South Jersey Scarfo still had work to do skinny raiser one of my uncle's to take the truck that had been used to transport the body back to Philadelphia so it could be destroyed so no one could trace any evidence from the killing my uncle decided to take me along because he thinks that it would look less suspicious driving this truck if he was with a little boy I was eight years old at the time as we were driving he told me that he had killed a very bad man the night before and he needed my help in getting rid of the truck they used to transport the body here I was an eight year old kid and these guys that I looked up to they needed my help I felt like I was doing what was right because my uncle said the man they killed was a very bad man who had broken the rules and when you break the rules this is what happens this was what la cosa nostra was all about the rules I understood this from a very early age my uncle was always talking about the rules and how you can't break them I remember my uncle describing how he killed the guy now he shot him and stabbed him with an ice pick and what the guy said to him looking back I didn't think there was anything wrong with it in a Phillips young world everyday life and organized crime were interchangeable my uncle taught me about our life the mob La Cosa Nostra from an early age it was natural almost instinctive for me I remember just knowing what it meant without someone having to spell it all out for me I understood what it was all of the men I looked up to were part of this world so naturally I wanted to be a part of it too when I was 10 my uncle taught me how to shoot he used to take me hunting and we would shoot twenty-twos he said it was important for me to know how to use a gun in our life even though I was this young kid my uncle Nick always talked to me like I an adult he didn't treat me like I was 10 or 11 everything he did I wanted to do I wanted to be just like him in my mind he was a man of honor and respect obviously my uncle wasn't your average uncle I mean he wasn't out in the yard playing catch with me or coaching my little league baseball team he was teaching me how to shoot guns and how to commit a murder and then how to successfully cover your tracks that's the kind of stuff I grew up around and it seemed completely normal to me I felt like Marilyn on that old TV show The Munsters the one human member of the family who lived amongst all these strange characters but I didn't think twice about it it's scary to think how natural it all was as Phillip got ready for junior high school in Saint Michael's in Atlantic City his uncle had to deal with his first serious brush with the law in May of 1963 my uncle and Chucky Merlino were in the Oregon diner in South Philadelphia my uncle gets into an argument with this longshoremen this big Irish guy and my uncle's little he's only five five in weighs like 135 pounds so he and the longshoremen get into an argument over a booth and the guy grabs my uncle by the throat and starts choking him as he's choking him he pushes my uncle up against the counter my uncle's getting ready to pass out and he reaches on the counter behind him and grabs a butter knife and stabs the guy in the chest the knife went right into his heart and the guy died my uncle used to love to tell this story about how he gutted this big Irish guy the way he would tell the story you'd think he was talking about hitting a home run to win the World Series he would act it out he'd take his hands and simulate what the guy had done by putting his hands around his neck showing how the guy had choked him then he'd show how he grabbed the knife and thrusted it right into the guy's heart he was so proud of himself that he killed this guy who was bigger than him with a butter knife Nicky Scarfo would plead guilty to manslaughter for the killing of William Dugan the Irish guy in the diner his sentence was a mere twenty three months in prison he was out in less than a year and would join the rest of his family in Atlantic City leaving Philadelphia behind for now ducked down in the mid 1960s Ducktown was a small close-knit to Atlantic City neighborhood populated by prominent working-class Italian families with names like Rondo Formica D Giacinto Matteo Vassili Sacco and Mancuso and now it will be home to the scarfo's and leonetti's spanning a few short blocks Ducktown covered the area of Texas Florida Georgia Mississippi and Missouri avenues from Atlantic Avenue to Fairmount Avenue and to the bay the neighborhood was named duck town for the duck houses that were built along the bay front poultry and waterfowl will raise there and then slaughtered and later resold in neighborhood markets duck town was Atlantic City's Little Italy within two blocks of where we lived on Georgia Avenue you had the white house which is the best sub shop in the world everyone has been there the Beatles Muhammad Ali Frank Sinatra you name it they've all eaten at the White House you have Angelo's and Angelo nice two of the city's best Italian restaurants two blocks away the for Angelo nice became Angelo nice it was called the Madrid there was docks Oyster House right around the corner which had the best seafood in Atlantic City Barbara's fish market and the city's top Italian bakeries Rondo's for me cos and panner Elie's were all a block or two away there was a coffee shop called Tommy house right next to Angelo knees on Arctic Avenue the older men used to go in there and play the number and there was always a card game going when I was a little boy my grandfather used to take me down there when he would go Joe DiMaggio used to go in there every time he was in Atlanta city and I'd see him hanging out with the guys from the neighborhood playing cards and drinking espresso this was not even fifty yards from where we lived on Missouri and Atlantic you had skinny d'amato's 500 club which at the time was the biggest nightclub around people would come from Philadelphia and New York to go there the lines would be around the block every night Frank Sinatra Dean Martin Sammy Davis jr. they all used to perform their skinny was a friend of my uncle so we always got the best seats in the house I remember this guy we used to call blah blah buckets he was older and the neighborhood kids would tease him because he was slow I think he worked at the 500 club it was nuts he'd always be chasing someone up the street cursing and threatening to kill them he was out there every day and the kids never stopped breaking his balls like clockwork if you stayed on the street long enough you'd see a group of kids running and blahblah chasing after them threatening to kill them I had a lot of fun growing up there this was my home Phillips weekly regimen at that time included waking up at 6:30 a.m. on Fridays and walking a block and a half to Barbara's fish market on Mississippi Avenue where he would pick up fresh fish and then deliver it to the nuns who worked and lived at st. Michael's the neighborhood's Catholic Church and the namesake of the adjacent school that Phillip attended the back of the school was directly across the street from the Scarfo compound everyone in the neighborhood went to st. Mike's and went to Mass every morning before school and I'd go on Sundays with my grandmother after my uncle got out of jail for killing the guy on the Oregon diner he left South Philadelphia and he moved in with us on Georgia Avenue living there at the time were my grandparents my mother myself my uncle and his wife Mimi and right around this time Nicky jr. was born things were quiet for a while and a couple years later I was getting ready for high school upon graduating from st. Michael's Philip would move on to Holy Spirit High School located in Absecon New Jersey less than 10 miles from the Scarfo family home in duck town I was on the basketball team at Holy Spirit with a lot of kids from the neighborhood and we were a very good team my uncle used to come to the games and sit in the bleachers and he would take bets on the games right there in the gymnasium it was even this guy named Hoffman they used to write the betting lines on our games in the local paper when our team played it was a very big deal a fellow duck town resident and Holy Spirit teammate named Chris Ford would eventually go on to Villanova University and then to the NBA where he played for both the Detroit Pistons and the Boston Celtics after retiring as a player Ford coached NBA teams in Boston Milwaukee Los Angeles and Philadelphia Chris Ford was a big deal to all of the kids in duck town because he was such an amazing athlete and he was one of us he grew up right there on Missouri Avenue on top of Capone's bar his brother Harry eventually moved into one of the apartments in our building and would always tell us who was coming around when we weren't there he stood all day on the porch above our office which was on the ground floor of 28 North Georgia Avenue smoking a cigarette and just watching what was going on in the neighborhood who was coming who was going he'd also help my mother and grandmother if me or my uncle weren't around my uncle would always have me give him a few bucks while duck town may have been energetic and thriving in the mid to late 60s the rest of Atlantic City was desolate and 20 years past its prime as the world's playground Nicky Scarfo was surviving on traditional mob rackets like bookmaking extortion and loan-sharking to make ends meet skinny razor died in 1966 so my uncle became the top mob guy in Atlantic City he basically inherited with skinny razor hat and ang gave him the OK to run it how he saw fit for the most part he was the only game in town he was making book and writing small loans but he struggling as there wasn't a whole lot going on down there at the time him and a friend of his named Tommy butch opened a place called the penguin Club and he was also involved in a couple of dirty bookstores with this guy named Alvin Feldman who called himself the King of the Jews he wasn't making a lot of money but to him at that time the money wasn't important he would always say the money will come but this thing is about respect and honor it's not about money he was making a name for himself within the Bruno organization and that's what mattered the most to him his reputation while the nuns at Holy Spirit were teaching Philip the basic curriculum of English algebra and history his uncle Nick continued to educate him in the ways of the mob he was constantly talking to me about La Cosa Nostra it was all the time he told me in this life you never rat you keep your mouth shut and you mind your own business he told me we don't ever discuss our business with women and we don't discuss our life without ciders you don't tell nobody nothing it's just me and you talking he would say if you want to get involved with me in this thing just because I'm your uncle I can't help you he told me I had to do things on my own and be my own man at this point I was ready I wanted to be like him I wanted to follow in his footsteps with his uncle ready to begin his second stretch in jail Philip would have his chance to do just that yard ville in 1971 that's Philip was graduating from high school Nicky Scarfo was called to testify before the new jersey state commission of Investigation ASCI that was investigating the infiltration of organized crime into various labor unions after refusing to answer any questions including his name Scarfo was charged with contempt and sentenced to an indefinite prison term he was sent to yard ville state prison just outside of Trenton New Jersey with several other powerful mobsters including the boss of the Philadelphia mob Angelo Bruno Scarfo could have been released at any time had he honored the subpoena and testified before the sei but instead he followed the same rule that he had taught his nephew Phillip and refused to testify Scarfo would spend the next two years behind bars already a proven killer it was now known that little Nicky could keep his mouth shut besides Scarfo and Bruno there was longtime New York mob leader Gerry Katina Trenton mob captain Nicky Russo North Jersey mobster Ralph Blackie Napoli and Genovese crime family Capo's Anthony little [ __ ] Russo Joseph biown Josie Corelli and John Johnny coca-cola lardy Ari and an up-and-coming Genovese soldier named Louis Bobby manna like Scarfo and Bruno the others were also jailed for refusing to testify before the state commission of Investigation organized crime investigators and members of the press dubbed them the yard ville 9 for Scarfo the two-year prison sentence did wonders for his career not only did he get valuable face time with Philadelphia mob boss Angelo Bruno but he also got close to men deeply entrenched in mob operations in North Jersey and New York and forged bonds that he would exploit to his advantage in the years to come for a Philip Leonetti his uncle's prison term would help jump-start his career in the underworld as he acted as an emissary for both his uncle and for Bruno and ingratiated himself with the mob heavyweights from New York whom Philip would interact with when visiting his uncle when my uncle was in yard ville it allowed him to get closer to angelo bruno which was a good thing back then my uncle had a lot of respect for ang and ang respected my uncle because he knew my uncle was a killer a gangster and that my uncle was 100% committed to La Cosa Nostra once a week I used to drive my grandmother to see my uncle and I would take Angie's wife to see him on the way back I would take them both out to lunch before long my uncle and and she had me taking messages back to their guys on the street in South Philly in Atlantic City guys like Phil testa and Chuckie Marley know at the end of each visit me my uncle and aunt would huddle in a corner and they would tell me who to see and what to say I did exactly what they told me I was still a teenager 18 19 years old my uncle also started getting real close to guys like Jerry Catina Nick Russo Blackie Napoli and Bobby manna Gerardo Jerry Katina was a powerful captain in the Genovese crime family and had been a prominent underworld figure for more than 50 years after joining forces with Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky in the 1920s during the legendary Castellammarese se war Katina was the influential boss of the Genovese family's operation in northern New Jersey and was one of four men who ran the family via a structured ruling panel following the imprisonment a family namesake Vito Genovese in 1959 Raphael a Ralph Napoli known as Blackie was a mob soldier associated with the Philadelphia mobs North Jersey operation based out of the down next section of Newark Napoli's capo and direct superior was the powerful and treacherous sicilian-born Antonio Tony bananas Caponigro who would become Angelo Bruno's consigliere and the boss of the family's North Jersey crew Louis Bobby manna was a rising star in the Genovese family and was a trusted member of the notorious Vincent the chin Gigante Greenwich Village crew my uncle and Bobby manna became extremely close when they were in yard ville they were the same age and spent a lot of time together they would walk the track together and talk about their future plans they were both considered up-and-comers in the mob and they were both very committed to La Cosa Nostra my uncle - tell me Bobby is gonna be big one day you watch he would tap his index finger to his head and say Bobby has this meaning he had brains that he was intelligent my uncle would always say in La Cosa Nostra in this thing you need this and he would tap his index finger to his head and you need this and he would shape his finger like a gun and point it to the ground a few years after Scarfo and mana were released from yard ville nicky scarfo's prediction came true about Bobby manna when Manas close friend Vincent the chin Gigante became the boss of the Genovese family and would eventually become the most powerful mob leader in the United States during the 1980s and immediately named the intelligent Bobby manna his consigliere or third in command the relationship Nicky Scarfo cultivated with Bobby manna during their walk talks at yarn Ville state prison would benefit Little Nicky and by extension Philip and play a profound role in shaping the Philadelphia Atlantic City mob in the years and decades to come Philip had graduated from high school and was now becoming immersed in his uncle's secret world La Cosa Nostra during the time my uncle was in yard Ville I flew down to Florida to see my father I hadn't seen him since he left me and my mother when I was a little boy he had an Italian restaurant in the Orlando area called leonetti's we spent a few days together but that was basically the extent of my relationship with him he died a few years later and that was it from that point on I was with my uncle every day college was out life in La Cosa Nostra was in lineThe Co the beginning his uncle's prison term had brought Philip into the mobs inner circle he was acting as a driver for Angelo Bruno's wife and was delivering messages from his uncle and Bruno to their respective crews in South Philadelphia and Atlantic City he was rubbing shoulders with men like Jerry Catina Nicky Russo Blackie Napoli and Bobby manna he wasn't even 20 years old on the dais I didn't drive my grandmother and angeas wife to yard ville I'd go by myself to see my uncle orange and they would give me messages to take back to Philadelphia usually I bring the messages to Phil testa or Chuckie Merlino my uncle would also give me messages for the blade who was in Atlantic City Phillip chicken man testa was a man whose star was on the rise in the Philadelphia mob under Angelo Bruno and would soon be named the family's underboss when scarfo's mentor Felix skinny razor Ditullio died in 1966 his immediate supervisor or captain became an old-time South Philly mobster named Alfred Freddy yet see who was close with testa by extension scar fur who had also become close with Phil testa testa's son Salvatore who was known on the streets as Salvi was only a few years younger than Phillip what scarf I was doing my way of grooming Phillip for life in the mob Phil testa was doing for Salvi I had known Phil testa and Salvi since I was a kid when I was a baby Phil testa would watch me when my mother went shopping on seventh Street in South Philadelphia Sally and I were always very close he was one of my best friends we were basically raised the same we were both taught about La Cosa Nostra when we were very young me and my uncle would go see them in Philly or they would come see us at the shore Chuckie was also close with Phil testa and Salvi Salvatore Chuckie Merlino was nicky scarfo's closest friend Marilee gnome who was 10 years younger than Scarfo looked up to him like an older brother and Scarfo mentored him in the ways of La Cosa Nostra just like skinny raised had done for him merely no had assisted Scarfo in the Reds Caruso killing and was by his side when he killed William Dugan in the Oregon diner now with Scarfo behind bars Chucky's Merlino was running scarfo's operation in south philadelphia and Atlantic City carrying out scarfo's orders in the messages that Philip delivered to him messages that soon included murders that the imprisoned Scarfo wanted carried out Chucky was a great guy and he loved my uncle he understood La Cosa Nostra from being around my uncle my uncle had mentored Chucky the same way skinny razor had mentored my uncle Chucky was a bookmaker and had his own crew in South Philadelphia and they were all under my uncle so they treated me with a lot of respect when I'd go see him we'd hang out together at the nine M bar downtown that was one of Chuckies main hangouts he also had a social club at the corner of shunk and Sartain streets in south philadelphia where there were always a handful of neighborhood guys playing cards or we would go to the city's best restaurants like the saloon or bookbinders Chucky was a lot of fun and I enjoyed being around him he was a very classy guy and always dressed real sharp he looked like the singer Al Martino who was also from South Philadelphia and had played Johnny Fontane in the Godfather movies but most importantly he was fiercely loyal to my uncle my uncle used to confide in him he trusted Chucky another one of scarfo's close underworld associates was Nicholas Nick the blade Rogelio who was two years older than Little Nicky and a boyhood friend of Scarfo going back to their teenage days on wharton street in south philadelphia he would later join Scarfo in Atlantic City in the mid-1960s becoming one of his bodyguards and top enforcers like Scarfo and Leonetti Rogelio and his family had left South Philadelphia and settled in a duck town row home right to round the corner from the Scarfo compound on Georgia Avenue we called him the blade because he stabbed a guy 11 times and killed him the guy was a sailor and him and the blade got into an argument it happened in 1952 the year before I was born in South Philadelphia if someone who didn't know him would ask him why do they call you the blade he'd say because I'm a sharp dresser sharp as a blade but Virgilio would prove to be versatile in his murderous ways while Scarfo was in yard ville Virgilio had killed a man on an Atlantic City street corner shooting him right in front of a marked Atlantic City police cruiser and as a result was looking at a long prison stretch the blade had a girlfriend whose stepfather was abusing her and she'd always cried to him about it so one night when he was drunk he sees the stepfather on the street and he shoots him right in front of the cops that was the blade he didn't give a [ __ ] that the cops were right there he'd shrug it off and say that [ __ ] guy had it coming I don't care who was watching from jail Scarfo had arranged for the blade to get a lenient sentence using a wheeler dealer Atlantic City lawyer and part time Municipal Court judge named Edwin Eddie hell fent health and was paid $6,000 to pay off the judge in virgilia's case in exchange for a reduced sentence helfen took the $6,000 and Virgilio got 15 years not the lenient sentence he or Scarfo had in mind the blade was like dr. Jekyll and mr. Hyde he was the nicest guy in the world when he was sober but when he was drunk he was evil he was like skinny razor and my uncle in the sense that was a no-nonsense stone-cold killer the three of them used to hang together in Atlantic City in the early days before skinny razor died when my uncle got out of yard ville the blade was in prison judge hellephant had made a big mistake by crossing the blade but an even bigger mistake by crossing my uncle on the very day he was released from yard ville my uncle told me he was going to kill helfen the fact that hell that was a judgment solutely nothing to my uncle my uncle didn't give a [ __ ] he'd say this Jew [ __ ] wants to play games with me we'll see about that a few days later he told me we were going to wait until the blade got out of jail because the blade had gotten word to my uncle from jail that he wanted to do it himself you've heard the phrase forgive and forget my uncle would never forgive and he would never forget once he got something in his mind that was it it was over when Scarfo got out of yard ville and returned to Atlantic City in the summer of 1973 his gang was beginning to take shape and things were on the upswing in addition to Philip who was now 20 years old and well schooled in the ways of La Cosa Nostra scarfo's two childhood friends Salvatore Chuckie Merlino and Nicolas Nick the blade Rogelio formed the inner circle of scarfo's gang with the blade in jail and Marley no based in South Philadelphia Scarfo decided it was time to infuse some new blood into his Atlantic City crew among the new faces was Chuckie Marino's younger brother Lawrence who had recently relocated from South Philadelphia and was living in an apartment inside the Scarfo family compound on Georgia Avenue in Atlantic City Lawrence was a great guy and like his brother Chuckie he was very loyal to my uncle he and I were closer in age so we spent a lot of time together one time I was at a bar in Atlantic City with Vince Falcone and a few girls and I got into a fight with some kid who was involved in a local motorcycle gang we were at a place called the sand bar and this guy tried to pick up the girl that I was with so me and him got into it we got into a fight and it had gotten broken up and we ended up leaving the bar so I go home and I grab a ski mask and a pistol and I go back to the bar I walk right in and the kid was still there with his whole gang a bunch of wannabe tough guys I walked right up to him raised the gun and shot him in the arm I wasn't trying to kill him but I did want to send a message to him and his friends now you don't raise your hands to us that's something my uncle always taught me the guys he was with start running out of there they are going out every exit every door they could find I think one of them jumped out the [ __ ] window this kid I shot this [ __ ] Punk [ __ ] his screaming he's going nuts he's crying like a little girl this is in the early 70s before the casinos later that night around 1:00 a.m. here comes all these motorcycles down Georgia Avenue revving up their engines making all this [ __ ] noise they woke the whole neighborhood up the leader of the gang is in the middle of the street and he is hollering where's Philip Leonetti he started banging on the door and he woke up my grandparents these guys are looking for me because they knew I shot their friend lucky for him neither me nor my uncle were home at the time we would have killed him right there on the street and left him in the gutter the next day we hear all about it from my mother and my grandparents my uncle asks me what happened at the bar and I tell him the whole story about the fight and me shooting the guy in the arm the whole thing was no big deal to me now my uncle is furious he tells me you find out who this bigmouth [ __ ] jerk-off is and where he lives and we're gonna send this [ __ ] and anyone connected to him a message before they come around here and bother our people again you want to stand my uncle told me to use Lawrence and he said I want everyone down here to get the message loud and clear so I tell Lawrence what my uncle said and we find out who the guy was and that he lived on Chelsea Avenue my uncle takes me and Lawrence down there and we see his house and we work out a route back to Georgia Avenue for after we shoot him so one night me and Lawrence are watching his place and we see him leaving and Lawrence jumps out with a 22 and he shoots him in the stomach a few times which is exactly what my uncle had ordered my uncle had said if he dies he dies if he doesn't he doesn't him and his friends will get the message either way lucky for the guy he didn't die after that we didn't have any more problems with him or his gang and my uncle was happy all the other tough guys in Atlantic City had gotten the message Lawrence proved to my uncle that he would follow orders to a tee and that he wasn't afraid to use a gun it showed my uncle that Lawrence was a solid guy and the Chucky had taught him all about La Cosa Nostra to local cement contractors named Alfredo Ferraro and Vincent Falcone who had befriended both Scarfo and Leonetti and were constantly in their presence and a business savvy street smart Jewish gangster named Saul Kane who had relocated to the Jersey Shore from North Philly rounded out the core of nicky scarfo's atlantic city crew in the mid-1970s I used to hang around a lot with Vincent Falcone me and Lawrence he was with me that night at the sand bar when I had the problems with the motorcycle guys Vince was a few years older than me and he was married but he used to go out and drink several nights a week he always had a lot to say he was very opinionated and had a bit of an ego Vince was always complaining about money who he owed who owed him how much he was making how much other guys were making just constant complaining my uncle liked him but would always say he's not cosa nostra meaning he didn't have the right mindset or attitude Alfredo was a bit older and he and Vince were very close their families had come to the United States together from Argentina they were both Italian but they were from Argentina my uncle he'd say things like these two guys they're not like us meaning they didn't think like us both Alfredo and Vince were cement contractors and Alfredo had taught me the ins and outs of the concrete business now saw cane was a character he loved Meyer Lansky and he was Jewish so we called him Meyer years later my uncle arranged for Saul to meet Meyer Lansky down in Florida it was like a Catholic priest meeting the Pope Saul was in heaven so it was a great guy and a lot of fun to be with he owned a bar in Atlantic City the MyWay lounge and he worked as a bail bondsman he used to hang out a lot with me and Lawrence either at the my way or Teddy's West End lounge on Trenton Avenue my uncle loved Saul and would do like he did with Bobby manna tap his index finger to his head meaning Saul was smart but he'd say he can never get this and he'd rub his thumb and index finger together meaning his button because he was Jewish and not Italian and this thing la cosa nostra you had to be 100% Italian to be made that was one of the rules we could do business with Saul and he could be with us but he could never get straightened out and become a full-fledged member as Scarfo continued to build his mob crew Atlantic City the down-and-out seaside resort which Scarfo controlled was about to be brought back to life with legalized casino gambling coming to town as a way to stimulate the once thriving resort overnight both scarfo's and Atlantic City's futures began to look much brighter the world's playground the city on the Atlantic was founded in 1854 its name was a testament to its location which was buttressed by the picturesque seascape of the Atlantic oceans waterfront this new city was uncharted territory and quickly became a real estate developers dream ripe with commercial opportunity and promise from the moment that Atlantic City was incorporated it was designed to appeal to tourists from all over the world as a premier resort locale and vacation destination with sandy beaches fine dining world-class entertainment and some of the nation's most luxurious and lavish hotels the city's crown jewel the Atlantic City Boardwalk would be constructed in 1870 and was a seven mile stretch of oceanfront property that featured a diverse array of decadence and commerce in 1878 the Philadelphia to Atlantic City Railroad was constructed as a means of bringing tourists to the seaside resort in 18 80 the city was officially open for business within five years Atlantic City was one of the top tourist attractions in the world and by the turn of the 20th century the area experienced a massive real-estate boom finding itself on the cutting edge of both hotel architecture and high society culture extravagant hotels and posh restaurants and nightclubs dotted every inch of the boardwalk and its surrounding area and the city became a playground for the country's rich and famous during Prohibition Enoch Nucky Johnson the colorful Atlantic County Treasurer and racketeer assured in an era that bolstered more corruption and decadence than the notoriously crooked coastal Enclave had ever seen controlling the state's extremely powerful Republican political machine with an iron fist Johnson became the unofficial ambassador for Atlantic City and oversaw a wide array of Vice rackets that included bootlegging illegal gambling and prostitution Nucky encouraged racketeers from all over the country to set up shop in Atlantic City and many obliged him paying him for the opportunity to do so the city by the Atlantic was now the world's playground with booze and broads by the boatload it became the mecca of vice in essence the original Sin City long before modern Las Vegas was even contemplated Nucky Johnson's life would forever be memorialized in HBO's popular television series Boardwalk Empire which chronicled Atlantic City in the 1920s from the perspective of a corrupt political boss named Enoch Nucky Thompson a character played by actor Steve Buscemi and loosely based on Johnson and his political regime Nucky Johnson's reign as both Atlantic city's political balls and top vice Lord crumbled in 1941 when he was convicted on charges of tax evasion for hiding proceeds from several policy lottery operations he was running throughout the city he was sent off to federal prison for the next few years as World War two came to an end so did Atlantic City's tenure as the world's playground by the 1950s Atlantic City had lost its luster year-round tropical destinations like Florida Cuba and the Bahamas had become cheaper and more popular alternatives with everyday Americans and the rich and famous also heading west for Las Vegas the up-and-coming desert oasis that had by then eclipsed Atlantic City as the new mecca of Vice with the Atlantic City Boardwalk decaying and poverty engulfing the city's economy most of the grand hotels of yesteryear like The Breakers the Shelbourne the Traymore the Mayflower and the Marlboro were all demolished drugs and crime replaced fun-in-the-sun as the region's most prominent features press coverage of the city's plight stemming from the conditions encountered by the national media when they descended on Atlantic City for the 1964 Democratic convention sent tourists scurrying as the late 1960s became the early 1970s the once bustling resort town had gone bust it was practically a ghost town it wouldn't be for long and the boardwalk empire that Little Nicky was building would make Nucky Johnson wet his tweed trousers the resurrection the date was June 2nd night 77 and early that Thursday morning there was something in the air something that had not been present in these parts for more than three decades hope hope that the big announcement scheduled for noon at Kennedy Plaza the ceremonious Pavilion in front of the mammoth convention hall on the Atlantic City Boardwalk would restore the city to prominence hoped that the governor's announcement would breathe life into a city rapidly decaying under an increasing influx of crime poverty and neglect hope that the second coming of Atlantic City was imminent and that the world's playground was about to be resurrected it was hoped that filled the air that Thursday morning hope mixed with optimism skepticism and a palpable sense of excitement that things were about to change as the crowd swelled nearing 1,000 the dignitaries began to take their seats behind the podium on the makeshift stage Francis HAP Farley the once powerful state senator who succeeded Nucky Johnson as the boss of the Republican political machine the controlled Atlantic City was already seated once considered the most feared politician in the state Farley was now a shell of his former self and on this day he was merely a spectator seated near Farley was the man who D throned him Atlantic City's new state senator dr. Joseph McGann the co-sponsor of the bill that was about to change Atlantic City forever the man who was once lauded by the New York Times as the principal architect that made that change possible but the star of the show on this day the man everyone came to see was New Jersey Governor Brendan Byrne Byrne was here to announce that legalized casino gambling was coming to the Atlantic City Boardwalk the Byrnes message of a renaissance for Atlantic City came with a warning a warning for men like Angelo Bruno Phil testa Nicky Scarfo Nicholas Nick the blade Virgilio and Philip Leonetti I have made this pledge before or to all law-enforcement agencies and I will repeat it again we will keep the limelight of public opinion focused upon organized crime I've said it before and I will repeat again to organized crime keep your filthy hands off of Atlantic City keep the hell out of our state at that very moment less than four blocks away in a small ground floor office located at 28 North Georgia Avenue Nikodim Oh Little Nicky Scarfo and Philip crazy Phil Leonetti precisely two of the men that burned was speaking of we're watching the pomp and circumstance on live television what's this guy talking about Scarfo said out loud to Leonetti doesn't he know we're already here Leonetti just laughed there was nothing funny about what would happen next becoming a killer in fact Scarfo had been Atlantic city's primary underworld figure for more than a decade having assumed the position long before anyone even dreamed of legalized casino gambling and a rebirth for Atlantic City my uncle had built a nice little crew for the most part it was me Chucky Laurence and the blade we were all with my uncle and my uncle was basically reporting directly to Phil testa who by now had become Angie's underboss we were the top guys in Atlantic City everything down there went through us nobody made a move or thought about making a move without checking with my uncle first my uncle had two posters that hung on the wall of our office on Georgia Avenue each showing a baseball field with all of the bases and home plate my uncle never watched a game of baseball a day in his life and he thought baseball players athletes and anyone who wasn't in the mob were jerk-offs but these posters weren't about baseball to my uncle they symbolized his philosophy of being a gangster the first poster had the words this is a homerun at the top and showed the hitter rounding the bases touching each base and eventually crossing home plate the second poster had the words this is not a homerun at the top and showed the hitter rounding the bases but missing second base my uncle would show people those posters and say you see what happened and he would point to the second poster and say this [ __ ] hit a home run but he didn't touch the base so it didn't count this thing we're doing this ain't baseball and this ain't a game in this thing if you don't touch the base you'll get this and he would make his sign like the sign of the gun he wants to know what everyone was doing at all times touching base with your superiors in the mob was also one of the rules by this point scarfo's reputation as a killer had made him the premier force to be reckoned with in Atlantic City and in 1976 and when a low-level card shark in hustler named Louis DeMarco had run afoul of the Bruno mob and was hiding out in scarfo's town Angelo Bruno sent word from Philadelphia down to Nicky Scarfo in Atlantic City that DeMarco was to be killed Scarfo was happy to oblige this kid Louis DeMarco was Robin chickie Narducci scrap games in Philadelphia chickie Narducci was one of Angelo Bruno's top guys his crap game is brought in a lot of money for the family so chickie Narducci goes and sees Phil testa and Angelo Bruno and makes a beef about what is going on Bruno and testa tell Narducci they are gonna find louie DeMarco and have him killed disrespecting a made guy is against the rules and chiquinha du chà was a made guy so what happens is Phil testa waits a week before calling my uncle and telling him that he wants us to kill Louis DeMarco for robbing chicken or du chà Phil testa and chicken are doochie had a kind of love/hate relationship they were always on again off again and at the time they were having problems so Phil testa was kind of dogging it my uncle was unhappy because Phil testa waited a week and didn't tell him right away my own wanted people to know what kind of people we were that if we were asked to kill someone we would do it right away without any hesitation our philosophy was bang bang and that was that so my uncle assigns the killing to me and Vince Falcone so he can prove to my uncle and guys like Ange and Phil testa that we were killers and that we were serious men like my uncle so we put some feelers out on the street to see if anyone has a line on where this Louis DeMarco might be hiding out at we hear that he is staying at the Ensign motel on Pacific Avenue so I go see a guy I know named Harry the Hat who had a coffee shop on Missouri Avenue it was like a hangout everybody would hang there Harry the Hat was skinny razors brother-in-law and he knew everybody in Atlantic City so I asked him if he knows who Louis DeMarco is and Harry the Hat pointed him out to me it was actually sitting right there in the coffee shop playing cards so I have Vince Falcone with me and we stay for a little while and when Louis DeMarco leaves we follow him to the Anson motel he has no idea who we are or that we are following him there was a local bartender who was with us who had a room at the ensign and he gave us the key to his room so that we could wait until DeMarco came out of his room so that we could get him Philip Leonetti just 23 years old was about to commit his first murder I remember my uncle telling me and Vince the chicken on duty wanted this guy real bad and then if we killed him it would put me and Vince on the map with Philadelphia which meant Angelo Bruno and Phil testa and make my uncle stature in the family stronger because everyone would know that his crew was serious and that we were gangsters and killers I remember being nervous but I wasn't scared I didn't think I was doing anything wrong Louis DeMarco was robbing chicken or du chà and chicken our dude she was in our family Louis DeMarco had broken the rules and when you break the rules you get killed this is what my uncle had always taught me this is what la cosa nostra was all about before the money before the power before everything came the rules Louis DeMarco was getting ready to leave his room at the ansan motel and he had no idea what was coming so we see him walking out and we run up on him me and Vince had masks and gloves on we were behind him he never saw us coming I was the first one to shoot and I blasted him right in the back of his head after I shot him I thought he was running away but it was the force of the bullet that made him fly forward and he landed facedown then me and Vince just emptied our guns into him I think the first shot killed him we did it right in the parking lot right on Pacific Avenue in broad daylight I remember standing over him and emptying my gun into him I remember the feeling I had I felt cold and I didn't feel any remorse Louis DeMarco was dead and Philip Leonetti was now a bonafide mob killer just like his uncle Nicky Scarfo my uncle had me and Vince go over an escape route a few days before the killing we walked that route several times to make sure we knew where we were going my uncle told us that after we killed him he wanted us to throw the guns on the roof of a nearby building which we did we then followed the route that we had planned and my uncle was waiting there in a car to pick us up we get in the car and no one says a word we just drive to the apartment on Georgia Avenue now a few days before the killing my uncle took me and Vince for a walk and talked through the neighborhood my uncle didn't discuss killings in the house and he was paranoid about listening devices he didn't own a phone everything with him was face to face so while we are walking he's telling us that he can't wear any jewelry when we do a hit in case it came off and could be traced back to us he told us not to say a word when we got in the car and not to speak about the murder when we got back to Georgia Avenue he told us we had to immediately take a shower and wash real good under our nails and make sure that we had gotten rid of any possible gunpowder residue he take all the clothes that we had worn and to put them in a trash bag after we got cleaned up we would have to go somewhere outside of Atlantic City and dump the bag with the clothes in it that's what we did after a killing that was the routine just like the lessons his uncle had repeatedly taught him about the rules of La Cosa Nostra when he was a young boy Nicodemo Scarfo was still the teacher and Phillip was still his student his most prized pupil only now the lessons had advanced on how to commit murder and with the DeMarco killing under his belt Phillip had just graduated into the big leagues chiquinha Gucci came down to see us to thank us for what we had done my uncle was ecstatic the killing had enhanced not only his reputation within the mob but mine as well the guys in Philly knew what we were about that we were killers real gangsters it's what my uncle always wanted ever since he was around skinny razor it was a reputation that both Nicky Scarfo and the Philip Leonetti would enhance time and time again sending a message shortly after the DeMarco killing Philip had gone into business with a friend of his from the neighborhood named Vince Bank Ari we needed $12,000 to buy equipment so we could start our own concrete company I had been working with Alfredo but I told my uncle I wanted to do my own thing and he agreed so I went into a business with a friend of mine from the neighborhood my partner Vince Vaughn Carey burned his house down and we used the insurance money to start our company so one night me and Vince go out and we stop by the Flamingo motel on Pacific Avenue they had a lounge that a lot of people like to go to judge health and the guy that had double-crossed the blade owned it my uncle still wanted to kill him but the blade was still in jail so he put killing him on the back burner for the time being my uncle would say let it simmer let it be until our friend comes home so when we go into the lounge we see this kid named Pepe leva who was a bookmaker who hung around judge health and then the Flamingo Vince had loaned him $3,000 and Pepe leva was talking bad about Vince like threatening him to people around Atlantic City saying he wasn't gonna pay him back so Vince tells me about it and I called Pepe lever over and asked him to step outside I told him that I wanted to speak with him so we go outside and I tell him you really shouldn't be threatening people I tell him that Vince is my friend and I said you owe him the money do the right thing and pay him I'm talking to him like a gentleman that's how I talked it to people I never came off like a tough guy unless I had to and usually at that point it wasn't me it was the gun doing the talking well this Pepe lever starts talking sideways to me and I don't go for that so I punched him right in the mouth and knocked his tooth out there was no more talking nice to him this is in the parking lot right in front of the Flamingo Judge helfen comes running out and he is going nuts yelling and screaming he has no idea that we are going to kill him when the blade gets out of jail he thinks we don't know that he kept the six thousand dollars for himself he just sees me punched this Pepe lever and he goes crazy so me and Vince leave the next day judge health an appointment to see my uncle I think they went to the Lido restaurant judge health and says to my uncle Nick your nephew hit this kid and he wants to press charges my uncle is placating him telling him to relax he says take it easy we're all friends tell the kid to relax and not to press charges and we will straighten it all out On June 28th 1977 two days after his fight with Philip Leonetti giuseppe pepe leva filed a criminal complaint in the Atlantic City Municipal Court charging Philip Leonetti with assault so what we did was my uncle worked it out through one of his lawyers Harold Garber and judge helfen that me and Pepe levar were gonna meet and we were gonna shake hands and bury the hatchet between us so the next day Pepe leva and I meet up at my way lounge which was Saul Caine's place and my uncle makes us shake hands he tells him we're all Italian we need to stick together my uncle tells him to go to the court and to drop the charges and to come back around the next day so Pepe leva comes back around the next day and tells me and my uncle that he dropped the charges and they he doesn't want any problems with us my uncle put his arm around him and said we have no problem with you you're a friend of Judge elephants we're all friends so as Pepe leva is leaving he apologizes again and shakes hands with my uncle and then he shakes my hand my uncle says see it's all over we shake hands like gentlemen and that's the end of it four days later on July 3rd 1977 Pepe leva was found shot to death with the remnants of 432 caliber slugs in his head his body was found near a landfill in the Farmington section of Egg Harbor Township less than 10 miles from the Georgia Avenue apartment building where Nicky Scarfo and Philip Leonetti lived right after this Levitt kid filed the charges against me my uncle went to Philadelphia and got the OK from Angelo Bruno and Phil testa to pop him to kill him this guy was gonna testify against me and I might go to jail my uncle wanted him dead even if that wasn't gonna happen because he had dropped the charges to my uncle it was a mortal sin that anyone would raise their hands to us or treat us with anything other than respect that's why he wanted me and Lawrence to shoot the guy from the motorcycle gang and that's why he wanted Pepe Levitt dead he wanted to send a message to everyone that we weren't [ __ ] around so he got permission to whack him out that was another one of the rules you always had to clear a murder with the boss or you might be the next one to get killed I was present when my uncle ordered the hit Don Pepe levar a guy on our crew asked Pepe for a ride home from the city on the way home he said to Pepe pull over I gotta take a piss they get out to take a piss and that's when he shot Pepe in the head they had pulled into a trash dump a landfill he emptied his gun into Pepe and then finished taking his piss he then walked several miles through the woods to his home in the middle of the night when we saw him a few days later he was all cut up from the bushes my uncle said to him Jesus Christ what the [ __ ] happened are you when he told my uncle what had happened and how he ran through the woods to get home my uncle said why didn't you take the [ __ ] car it was right there he tried to explain himself but my uncle just shook his head and walked away that's how he was nothing was ever good enough for him nicky scarfo's gang had all participated in murders which ingratiated them to the bloodthirsty Scarfo and to the mob leaders in Philadelphia men like Angelo Bruno Philip testa and Frank chickie Narducci and would one day make them eligible for initiation into La Cosa Nostra Chucky was with my uncle on the Reds Caruso hit the blade was in jail for murder me and Vince Falcone had killed Louie DeMarco Lawrence had shot the motorcycle guy and now Pepe leva was dead my uncle loved it he loved the killings he used to say do it cowboy style bang him right out in the street in broad daylight he wanted people to know that we were serious that we weren't playing games the Atlantic County Prosecutor's Office knew that Nicky Scarfo and his gang were serious and charged Philip Leonetti with the murder of Pepe leva the detectives know I didn't kill Pepe leva because they have me under surveillance the night that he got killed I was in a bar the whole night and they were in there watching me the whole time those [ __ ] but they tried to pin it on me anyway they got a guy who worked at the trash dump where we did the killing to give a statement and identifying me as the shooter a couple weeks later the owner of the trash dumps wife called Harold Garber who was one of our lawyers and told him what had happened and that the cops had made the guy say that it was me and that he wanted to set the record straight and tell the truth that it wasn't me my uncle always hated the police he called them all no-good dirty [ __ ] now this woman used to hang out at the old penguin club that my uncle owned with Tommy butch so Harold has to bring the guy to Vince South DOS insurance office and he takes a statement from him where he says it wasn't me who did the killing which it wasn't now at the time the witness was being watched by two detectives from the prosecutor's office who were protecting him from us they were convinced that me and my uncle were going to kill this guy so he wouldn't be able to testify against me the cops thought he was going to do some insurance business with Vince so they waited outside had no idea that Harold was inside the office and that the guy was coming to give a statement that would ultimately kill their case against me the guy turned out to be a stand-up guy and just wanted to tell the truth based on the witness recantation the murder charges against Philip Leonetti were dropped Scarfo and leonetti's reputations were not only known in Atlantic City in Philadelphia but in mob circles in North Jersey and New York where guys like Tony bananas Caponigro and Bobby manna were updating their crews on what the gangsters in Atlantic City were up to what was about to happen next would put them in a whole different stratosphere the payback one of Nicky's our foes oldest friends and top associates Nicholas Nick the blade Rogelio had received 12 to 15 year sentence for a 1972 killing that occurred while Nicky Scarfo was locked up in yard Vil from behind bars Scarfo through his nephew Philip Leonetti an attorney Harold Garber had arranged for a $6,000 bribe to be paid to the judge and the blades case in exchange for a lenient sentence the deal had been brokered using a wheeler dealer Atlantic City lawyer and shyster named Edwin Eddie health and himself a part-time Municipal Court judge who is facing an indictment for fixing cases in the Somers Point Municipal Court elephant owned the Flamingo Hotel in Atlantic City where Philip Leonetti and Pepe leva had gotten into a fight eight days before he was killed instead of paying off the judge in the blade's case health ins kept the money for himself and split it with a friend an associate of nicky scarfo's named Alvin Feldman the blade received a substantial prison sentence the double-cross would eventually cost both Eddie health and and Alvin Feldman their lives back in 1972 when my uncle was in Yarn Ville and he found out what judge helfen tanned Alvin Feldman did to the blade he went nuts it was furious I had never seen him this angry adding to that my uncle believed the judge health and gave testimony to the SC eye the same commission my uncle Angelo Bruno Jerry Catina Bobby manna and those guys refused to testify in front of and that he had talked about my uncle and Anne's to the SC I my uncle also believed the judge hell that was talking to the FBI he would say this guy is a double agent he's no [ __ ] good Scarfo shared the same sentiment about his partner alvin Feldman this Alvin Feldman was no [ __ ] good he called himself the King of the Jews he had a couple of dirty bookstores with my uncle and the word going around Atlantic City was that Alvin Feldman was going to kill my uncle by putting a bomb in his car in addition my uncle knew that he was him off skimming money from the businesses this was going on before my uncle went to prison my uncle used to say he was a backstabbing [ __ ] but my uncle couldn't get the okay to kill him because at the time Alvin Feldman owed $60,000 to Pappy Eppolito who was one of angeas top guys Anne's told my uncle that once Pappy got his money back my uncle could have him killed I remember my uncle saying to me I wish I had the $60,000 I'd pay the Jews debt to Pappy myself that's how bad I want to whack this [ __ ] some one day my uncle approached engine yard ville and told him he wanted to kill three people he told him he wanted to kill his two partners in Atlantic City Tommy butch and Alvin Feldman and that he wanted to kill Judge health and after my uncle gave his reasoning for each of the killings and told ang that he knew Pappy Eppolito had gotten his money back from Alvin Feldman ang gave him the okay to kill all three Thomas Tommy butch Buchi ran the penguin club with Nicky Scarfo in the late 1960s and early 70s on Atlantic Avenue near the corner of Virginia in Atlantic City the lounge which featured strippers was considered a bust out joint where the working girl's tried to hustle male customers by enticing them to buy overpriced bottles of champagne the penguin Club was a dump but my uncle was making money there my uncle was loaning money and making book out of there but when my uncle went to jail tommy butch stopped paying off the cops and eventually the place got shut down this made my uncle furious and this is why he wanted to kill tommy butch he would say if this cheap [ __ ] didn't stop paying those no-good greedy [ __ ] I'd still be making money over there Buchi knew that Scarfo would want him dead and within weeks of the penguin club left Atlantic City and Rhee settled himself in South Philadelphia working for Fonzie and Mark Marconi two guys that Scarfo knew well the move would save poochie's life when my uncle was young he and mark Marconi were the best of friends but they had a falling it was a big mess and it put a strain on their relationship my uncle told me if Tommy butch starts coming back down to Atlantic City I want you to tell the blade to kill him on the spot if he stays in Philadelphia I will leave him alone for now this was before the blade went to jail probably in 1971 while tell me butch got a pass the King of the Jews wasn't as lucky Joseph Scalia was a member of our organization who was based in northeastern Pennsylvania he was part of Santo IDO neighs regime Joseph Scalia reaches out to Alvin Feldman and tells him that he wants his help in torching a warehouse in Pennsylvania and Alvin Feldman goes for it thinking it's a score this guy never turned down an opportunity to make money my uncle used to say this [ __ ] is so greedy he'd kill his own mother for $200 so once Scalia gets Alvin to the warehouse Santo redolent chicky Narducci and shiki-chan Collini run up on him and start roughing him up Santo a the only grabs him from behind and chicky Narducci goes to stab him with an ice pick but Alvin gets away and chicky ends up stabbing Santo as Alvin is running away Chung Collini grabs him and Chang Collini is big and as strong as an ox the king of the jews didn't have a chance Chiqui ended up killing him with the ice pick while chang Collini held him and they dumped his body down some sort of sewer out in the woods when my uncle heard the details he loved it he said I hoped the rats in that sewer ate the eyeballs out of his [ __ ] head Eddie helfen the third person the Scarfo had gotten permission to whack was living on borrowed time only he didn't know it my uncle decided to wait for the blade to get out of jail before they would kill him he wanted to give the blade the opportunity to kill him himself when my uncle got out of jail judge helfen came to see him and had concocted some story about the judge in the blades case taking the money and not doing the right thing my uncle pretended like he bought it but we knew he was lying he was no good and my uncle had had enough of him but Scarfo decided to lull the unsuspecting he'll faint into thinking everyone was ok that all had been forgotten judge Chalfont was having problems with his own indictment for fixing cases and he came to see my uncle for help he wanted my uncle and Harold Garber to fly down to Atlanta and talked to one of the witnesses about not testifying so my uncle flies down to Atlanta with Harold and meets with the witness and lo and behold the guy doesn't want to testify and now judge healthily beat his case so one day I'm having lunch with my uncle at the Madrid Chucky's and Laurence were with us and Loren says Nick why would you go all the way to Atlanta to help this guy after everything he has done so my uncle says I don't want him to go to jail I want to kill him that's the extent that he went to to set the trap for this guy like Louis DeMarco and Pepe leva judge helfen never saw it coming loud and boisterous and somewhat tipsy health and was in good spirits as his legal team expected to win a motion to dismiss his indictment in two days thanks to nicky scarfo's recent trip to Atlanta ending what had been a decade-long fight by prosecutors to put the crooked judge in jail Eddie elephant was sitting on top of the world he had less than 30 seconds to enjoy the view judge health and his wife and another couple were sitting at a table the Muhammad Ali Leon Spinks fight was showing in a closed-circuit television behind them as the snow fell on this cold February night no one thought anything of the tall and somewhat lanky man who walked into the Flamingo with a snow shovel in his right hand and wearing a black ski mask the man placed the snow shovel near the door and moved swiftly toward the judges table which had been pinpointed moments earlier by a spotter who relayed the information to the man with the shovel the lounge was packed and dimly lit and no one seemed to pay attention to the man in the ski mask swiftly approaching the judge's table that was about to change placing his left hand on the back of the man seated at judge elephants table the man in the black ski mask raised his right hand carrying a 38 caliber handgun and a six-year old grudge and fired four shots at his target one in the head and three in the chest as his wife shrieked in horror the judge was dead before his body crumbled to the floor the man in the black mask calmly walked through the lounge toward the door and back out into the flamingo's parking lot the same lot where judge helfen had broken up the fight between Philip Leonetti and Pepe Levin now less than a year later both Pepe leva and Judge health and were dead and the man in the black mask Nicolas nicked the blade Virgilio fresh out of jail after serving six years had gotten his revenge as the blade walked the escape route from the murder scene at the Flamingo his old friend Nicky Scarfo was parked in a predetermined spot to drive him away just as he had done when Philip Leonetti and Vincent Falcone killed luis de março less than five blocks away three years earlier this was big big news in Atlantic City and Philadelphia the fact that a judge got killed it made all the papers everyone was talking about it the mob guys in South Philly and up in North Jersey knew it was us and a lot of the guys in New York took notice my uncle loved the attention especially the fact that other mob guys were talking about how ruthless we were he would say to me we can hold our head high when we are around our friends meaning other mob guys and other families because everyone knows who we are and what we are and there ain't too many guys out there like us my uncle saw himself as an old-school gangster even though by this time he wasn't even fifty years old he looked up to the old-time guys the Capone's and Luciano's and especially The Killers like skinny razor and he was right there wasn't too many guys like him in La Cosa Nostra in fact I don't think there was anyone who enjoyed killing as much as he did except maybe the blade but the blade wasn't all bad he had a good side when he wasn't drinking or killing people there was this kid who was around at that time who we called bit of beep he was a bookmaker and he was a good kid he didn't bother anybody he used to go to Harry the Hatt's coffee shop and play cards and some of the older guys in there used to cheat him and take his money because he didn't know how to play all the games they were hustling him I guess the blade had heard about it and one day when bit of beep was playing cards in the coffee shop who comes walking in but the blade everyone in that shop know who he was and that he was a serious no-nonsense guy who was a killer and was around me and my uncle the blade goes over to bit of beep and taps him on the shoulder and says let me play your hand bitte beep has no idea what's going on but what's he gonna do say no to the blade so he jumps up and the blade sits down and tells the guy dealing to deal the cards the guy deals and the blade never turns his cards over and looks around the table at every one of the guys who have been robbing bit of beep and says I won deal another hand the dealer deals the next hand and the blade does the same thing he never looks at his cards and he says how about that I won again deal another hand this went on for almost an hour he took every penny off of those guys several thousand dollars and handed it all to bid a beep no one ever cheated him again the Scarfo gang was now thriving in Atlantic City but things in South Philadelphia were going from bad to worse for scarfo's boss Angelo Bruno losing control in nineteen casino gambling was in full swing and Atlantic City was in the midst of a comeback real estate development was thriving and construction was booming so were traditional MA brackets like bookmaking loan-sharking and extortion Nicky Scarfo and his crew had positioned themselves to cash in on all of it while things were looking up for the Scarfo crew in Atlantic City longtime Philadelphia mob boss Angelo Bruno was slowly starting to lose control of the crime family he had overseen since 1959 when Ange became boss he aligned himself and the Philly mob with the Gambino family in New York and Jan Carlo Gambino the boss of the Gambino's were very close and had worked together as bootleggers when they were younger Carlo Gambino had used his influence on the Commission to help Eames win the dispute with mr. Miggs and that's how hands became the boss and he remained loyal and indebted to Carlo Gambino at the time the Gambino's were the most powerful family in La Cosa Nostra and Carlo Gambino who was known as Don Carlo was V L capo di tutti capi the boss of all bosses who sat at the head of the Commission but in 1976 the 74 year old Gambino would die from a heart attack and almost overnight it seemed that Angelo Bruno's power began to wane around this time Angelo Bruno and Phil testa started having problems with each other ann's was the boss and Phil testa was the underboss but they were at odds about money and how to run the family hands was more of a white-collar guy and Phil testa was a blue-collar guy a street guy so they both had different philosophies there's an old saying that Sicilians love their money more than they love their children and that they really love their children with the Sicilians and I always came down to money and both ang and Phil testa were hard-headed Sicilians we called them ciggies which is slang for Sicilian so one day we're at the office on Georgia Avenue and Anne's come down to see my uncle it was in the summer and Anne's used to have a home in ventnor sometimes when he was down I would be his driver Anne's knew that my uncle was 100% la cosa nostra that he knew all the rules all the moves and knew all the angles better than some guys who had been around this thing for 50 years he knows that there was no bullshitting my uncle you had to always give it to him straight he got to know my uncle real well when they were in yard ville together and me as well we had already done the de Marco hit for chicken or do Chi and chicky was one of Angie's top guys one of his top earners he too was a hardheaded ciggy at the time chickie Narducci was also having problems with Phil testa so Ange comes in and says Nick you know that me and Phil testa are having problems and I just wanted to see what side you were on now here's the boss of the family and coming to see us about a problem he was having with the underboss that's how far we had come Angelo Bruno was the guy at my great-grandmother's wake the guy I thought was the president when I was 7 years old and now he's coming to see us because he needs our help he told my uncle that if you come with me and be on my side it will be $1,000 per week for you and the kids meaning me Laurence and Vince Falcone would make $500 per week ann's was trying to get us lined up against Phil testa so that they could take him out to make chicken or do Chi the underboss my uncle listens to all of this and says to Bruno what do you mean whose side am I on this is una familia one family let me think it over my uncle always told me don't matter what the guys in South Philly say it matters what the guys in New York say he goes only they can make or break a boss that's something that skinny razor had taught him way back in the 50s and he never forgot it now around this time my uncle and I were going to North Jersey quite a bit and spending time around guys like Caponigro and Bobby manna and getting their take on things my uncle was a great listener and had an ability to get people to say more than they should when we'd come back my uncle would say if you want to know what you're looking at you've got to look at the whole picture otherwise what's the [ __ ] point what he was saying was that there was more going on than we were aware of with this beef between ants and Phil testa and with my uncle he always got to the bottom of things before he made his move Nicky Scarfo the boss of the family's Atlantic City operation knew from his one-on-one meetings with Antonio Tony bananas Caponigro the boss of the family's North Jersey operation that Bruno was quickly losing his grip over the North Jersey faction of the family Scarfo also confirmed this in his private meetings with Bobby manna his old pal from yard ville who told him that Bruno's days as boss might be numbered my uncle would always check things out and if there was a way to double-check he'd double-check he always knew what everyone else's moves were gonna be before he made his move he'd say and this thing in La Cosa Nostra if you go off half-cocked you end up with this and he made the sign of the gun scarfo's separate meetings with capo Negro and mana and his belief that Bruno was a sinking ship more so than his loyalty to Phil testa were the reasons for Little Nicky to turn down Bruno's request so about a week or so later and comes around and him and my uncle go outside for a walk and talk up George Avenue towards the Madrid I'm walking a few feet behind him I had a pistol on me I'm keeping an eye out for the law and anyone who may have tried to hit either one of them I remember things were tense in the family at this time and everyone was on edge I hear my uncle's say listen edge this is onna Familia I'm not on anyone's side I know for a long time and I'm friends with him and I know you a long time and I'm friends with you I know you guys will eventually work things out so basically my uncle told him no he turned Anne's down and Anne's wasn't happy scarfo's refusal to side with the boss in his dispute with Phil testa did not sit well with Bruno but scarfo's decision was carefully measured you have to understand our family the Philadelphia mob controlled Philadelphia Trenton Atlantic City North Jersey and all points in between Bruno was the boss of the family and testa was the underboss but they were both in South Philadelphia my uncle was the boss of Atlantic City and Caponigro was the boss of North Jersey my uncle and Caponigro were very much alike in the sense that they were both killers that they both had strong crews and that they both had strong connections to New York and remember his hands was driving away my uncle told me I think left he's got some trouble coming his way and when it does he ain't gonna know what the [ __ ] hit him as he was walking away he said to me always watch out around these ciggies we can't trust them they're not like us the only things on their brain agreed and treason as 1979 was drawing to a close Angelo Bruno had been the undisputed ruler of the Philadelphia mob for two decades nicknamed the docile Don Bruno was an underworld diplomat who preferred a conciliatory approach to dispute resolution a sentiment not shared by his subordinates in Atlantic City namely Philip Leonetti and Nicodemo Scarfo and his consigliere Antonio Tony bananas Caponigro based out of Newark in La Cosa Nostra you're either a racketeer or you're a gangster and was a racketeer we were gangsters my uncle started sensing things changing with him and ang after he turned him down on the thing with Phil testa my uncle started calling and Lefty because he started throwing curveballs at us my uncle would come back from meeting and say left he threw us another curve little stuff like that I know that at the time chickie Narducci was an Angie's ear talking subversive about Phil testa you see chicky Narducci was an earner a multi-millionaire but he wanted power the money wasn't enough for him he wanted ang to make him the underboss so that he could take over the family when Anne's retired and was just like my uncle said with the ciggies it was always greed and treason they were treacherous people by their own nature my uncle would say it's in their [ __ ] blood as if the growing rift between Bruno and his underboss Philip testa wasn't bad enough bruno began to have problems with Little Nicky Scarfo in Atlantic City as Scarfo grew more powerful and ambitious when they announced that the casinos were coming to Atlantic City this was going to be the biggest moneymaker yet better than bookmaking and loan sharking if we control the Union we controlled the union's money which meant we would have access to millions of dollars at any given time Frank karate was a bartender and he was always around his mother lived in one of the apartments on Georgia Avenue in our building now when my uncle went to Philly about the union's no one else had gone on record about it which means it should have directly gone to us without any interference you have to remember by this time my uncle had been the only made guy in Atlantic City for more than 10 years since skinny razor died so he felt entitled to the unions and he was right they should have gone to us no questions asked but what ang did he told my uncle Nick let me think about it and I'll get back to you now this is what my uncle did to him on the Phil testa thing and now Anne's was kind of giving it back to him I remember driving back to Atlantic City after the meeting my uncle wasn't happy but we never discussed business in the car when we got back to Atlantic City we went to skinny Chios for dinner the owner Vince Sal stow was a good friend of ours and he always took good Carolus sometimes I'd go there for lunch and I'd end up eating lunch and dinner staying for hours talking and laughing with Vince he was a great guy and a terrific friend it was the absolute best Vince was also an insurance agent and we had used his office to take the statement from the guy in the Pepe lever case but on this night following his meeting with Angelo Bruno regarding control of the unions in Atlantic City Nicky Scarfo wasn't in the mood for laughing and joking my uncle said if this [ __ ] lefty tried to throw us a curve with this Union business there's gonna be resistance and we ain't back and down now in all the years that I had been around my uncle I had never once heard him curse Angelo Bruno this was the first time his colors changed he really went in on him you have to remember Anne's was the boss and my uncle was all about La Cosa Nostra the rules the boss was the boss and that's it you never question the boss you never talked subversive about the boss if you did you'd be killed those were the rules and my uncle lived by those rules 24 hours a day seven days a week 365 days a year that's how committed he was to La Cosa Nostra I remember saying yeah but what can we do he's the boss and my uncle's response was not all of our friends are happy with Lefty Nicky Scarfo knew from his conversations with Genovese power broker Bobby manna that Bruno's conciliating Antonio Tony bananas Caponigro the family's North Jersey boss was starting to question the effectiveness of Bruno's leadership man and didn't learn this from Caponigro himself as Caponigro aware of manners close relationship with Scarfo circumvented Menem and spoke directly to another powerful old-school Genovese mobster named Frank Fonzie Thierry he thought that he could trust Thierry relayed everything that capo Negro was telling him to both mana and Vincent the chin Gigante the soon-to-be boss of the Genovese family Tre mana and Gigante saw a major opportunity for the Genovese family when Caponigro started putting out feelers regarding a change in leadership should something unfortunate happened to Angelo Bruno and shad aligned the Philly mob with the Gambino's and had been very close to Carlo Gambino and when he died and became close with his successor Paul Castellano Philadelphia occupied a seat on the Commission and under Bruno Philadelphia was essentially a proxy vote for the Gambino's if Bruno was eliminated and Caponigro succeeded him Caponigro had assured Thierry that Philadelphia's proxy vote would go to the Genovese tipping the balance of power on the Commission in favour of the Genovese the problem for Caponigro was that Bobby manna had solicited similar information from Nicky Scarfo regarding the underboss Philip testa Bobby manna asked us to come see him in Hoboken it was me my uncle Chucky and Bobby we went to Casillas a restaurant where Bobby did some of his business while we were eating Bobby asked my uncle he said Nick if God forbid something were to happen to Angelo and Phil testa were to succeed him I'd like to know where we would stand with your family my uncle responded to him in Italian and said una familia which means one family my uncle was basically telling him that should something happen to Ange and Phil testa was named boss that Philadelphia would align themselves with the Genovese I remember Bobby saying my friends are going to be very happy to hear that the friends men are referred to were the other members of Vincent the chin Gigante inner circle who were on the verge of assuming control of not only the Genovese crime family but had their eye on a much bigger prize control of the Commission the governing body of La Cosa Nostra my uncle said to him tell this guy and he touched his chin that's how we referenced Gigante that we know who our friends are and that's something we never forget Bobby nodded and smiled and patted my uncle on the head the ambitious Genovese mobsters led by Bobby manna and his boss Vincent the chin Gigante were now in a powerful position having assurances from Bruno's underboss and conciliar II that should something happen to Bruno Philadelphia would become their proxy vote Antonio capo Negroes top lieutenant in the North Jersey faction of the Bruno mob was Ralph Blackie Napoli the same Blackie Napoli who used to walk the track yard ville state prison with Bobby manna and Nicky Scarfo man and knew that should something unfortunate happened to capo Negro that Blackie Napoli would take over North Jersey and that the Genovese could influence him and in essence insert themselves into a position of power over the Bruno family's vast North Jersey operation which included a thriving multi-million dollar gambling and loan sharking business that the powerful capo Negro controlled with an iron fist this Machiavellian plot of treachery made both Angelo Bruno and Antonio Caponigro expendable too forward-thinking mafiosi like Fonzie Thierry Bobby manna and his boss Vincent the chin Gigante to them the Bruno's the capo Negroes and the Napoli's were pieces on one big La Cosa Nostra chessboard now around this time Ann's gets back to my uncle and what he wants to do with the union's in Atlantic City and just like my uncle predicted he throws us a curve ball he tells us that he wants to put John McCulloch who is with the roofers Union in Philadelphia and Ralph Natali who was in the bartenders union out of Camden in place to organize the hotel restaurant and casino workers in Atlantic City ultimately shutting my uncle out Seguin our duty was very close with McCullough and this was another example of what he and Anne's were up to no end typical siggy [ __ ] now what they don't know is that it's easy to control a local but if you want real power with the Union you have to control or have influence over the national and when my uncle talked to Angie about the unions in Atlantic City what he didn't tell him was that he had also talked to Bobby manna because the chin and the Genovese family were calling the shots so there was absolutely no way for my uncle to lose but ang and Narducci didn't know this ants thought that if he put his local in there that was it but the Genovese were backing my uncle by the end of 1979 Angelo Bruno had no idea what was happening around him while he and chicken are doochie were trying to box out Phil testa in South Philadelphia and now Nicky Scarfo in Atlantic City he had no clue what was in store for him in 1980 the Big Shot is dead as 1980 approached things in and around Atlantic City were starting to heat up for Nicky Scarfo and his gang after we killed judge health and there was a lot of heat on us in Atlantic City our names and pictures started appearing in the newspaper and everyone knew who we were my uncle couldn't have been happier he loved the publicity there was this local radio talk show host named Mike Sherman who started calling me crazy Phil I hated the nickname but my uncle said are you kidding guys would pay money for a name like that around this time Philip Lee and his partnership with Vince Vaughn Carey ended and he and his uncle formed their own concrete company and named it scarf Inc our office was on the ground floor of our building at 28 North Georgia Avenue in Atlantic City my cousin Chris who was my uncle's oldest son came to work for scarf Inc he was totally legit and never involved in anything connected to la cosa nostra him and my uncle would constantly argue about everything they fought like cats and dogs despite all of the heat on Nicky Scarfo and Philip Leonetti scarf Inc was able to secure site work on for casino projects that were being built in Atlantic City including the short-lived playboy casino and what would eventually become Harrah's in the Marina District and Little Nicky and his nephew crazy Phil weren't the only gangsters moonlighting as contractors the Merlino brothers trusted members of scarfo's inner circle formed a rebar company called NAT NAT and they too were doing site work on several casino projects Chucky and Lawrence started NAT NAT right around this time and they worked out of the same office we used for scarf Inc every day it was the same crew hanging around George Avenue wedding to speak to my uncle or waiting to speak to me so that I would speak to my uncle for them it would be me and Lawrence the blade Saul Kane my cousin's Chris and Nicky jr. and a couple of other guys if Chuckie was down from Philly he'd be there usually with his son little Joey and Phil test his son Selvi I always got along with Chucky but I never liked his son he was a fresh kid and I always thought he was no good him and Nicky jr. were the same age and they used to hang together with Lawrence's kids me and Sally were very close I had known him my whole life what my uncle was doing with me teaching me about La Cosa Nostra Salvi's dad was doing with him this included learning not only the rules but learning how to become a killer as well right after we killed judge helfen my uncle went to fill test him and Angelo Bruno and told them he wanted to kill a guy in South Philadelphia named Mickey Coco who had sold drugs to the son of Frank Monti who was a made guy and had been close with my uncle since they were kids drugs were against the rules and my uncle did tested drug dealers that ruffled a lot of feathers with the old-timers that my uncle would come up to South Philadelphia and tell the boss and the underboss that they needed to kill a guy in their own backyard in South Philadelphia we were killing all of these guys in Atlantic City and everyone in the mob knew it they knew we weren't playing around that we were gangsters but on the Mickey KOCO hit my uncle was basically telling hams and Phil testa this guy's selling drugs to the son of a member of this family he's breaking the rules of let Cosa Nostra he's got to go he needs to be killed and you guys shouldn't need me to come up from Atlantic City 60 miles away and tell you when it's time to do a killing what he was saying basically was that this is how gangsters act pay attention reports of scarfo's moxie regarding ordering the hit on mickey coco began to circulate to neighborhood bars and social clubs in South Philadelphia Newark and on Mulberry Street in New York's Little Italy just like it had after Scarfo whacked out crooked judge Eddie helfen it was no doubt about it Angelo Bruno was a racketeer Nicky Scarfo was the gangster following scarfo's lead the plan to execute michael mickey' coco chi felly began to take form and would manifest itself in a cold day in January when Salvatore Chuckie Merlino and Salvatore salvie testa both wearing ski masks and carrying handguns entered a neighborhood bar at the corner of 10th and Wolfe in South Philadelphia and shot chi felly at point-blank range as he sat at the bar sipping a beer and waiting to meet with Bobby loomio a Scarfo associate who was conveniently talking on a pay phone when the masked gunmen entered the bar my uncle wanted Chuckie to be one of the shooters because he had proposed him from membership into La Cosa Nostra and in order to be made you had to be 100% Italian and you had to have participated in a murder Philip testa wanted Sally to be the other shooter because like my uncle was doing with Chuckie Phil testa was proposing Salvi from membership my uncle had also proposed Bobby loomio from membership for his role in setting Micky Coco up as Nicky Scarfo became more of a force in La Cosa Nostra he started to distance himself from members of his Atlantic City crew that he thought were deadweight two men who fit that description were alfredo Ferraro and Vincent Falcone both of whom had been trusted members of nicky scarfo's gang since the early 70s my uncle decided he didn't want either of them around us anymore he would say things like these two guys are useless or these two guys are holding us back he grew to detest both of them what happened next is vintage Nicky Scarfo now Alfredo and Vince were the best of friends they were Italian but they came to the United States from Argentina and they came over together they were very close these two so my uncle decided that he wanted to kill Alfredo and he wanted Vince to be the shooter now if Vince doesn't kill Alfredo my uncle will have him killed and then we'd kill Alfredo anyway it's like killing two birds with one stone so my uncle gives Vince the order to kill Alfredo and right away Vince is dogging it making up excuses how afraid I must have started getting vibes and he just disappears he stops coming in to Atlantic City we stopped seeing him but one night Vince is out drinking with Alfredo and Chucky and Laurence bump into them and they both get drunk and they tell Chucky and Laurence that my uncle is crazy and that we shouldn't be in the concrete business a few days later my uncle and Chucky end up going on vacation together to Italy and while they are there Chucky tells my uncle what Vince and Alfredo had said about us my uncle told Chucky when we get back I'm gonna whack them both and so begins the plan to kill Vincent Falcone my uncle never really liked Vince he didn't think he was cut out for La Cosa Nostra my uncle would say about Vincent Alfredo they are not meant for this thing meaning La Cosa Nostra this thing of ours now Alfredo had stopped coming around he even stopped doing business in Atlantic City with his concrete company and even though my uncle wanted to kill him it wasn't a top priority at the time but now with Vince Falcone not following orders and then talking subversive to Chucky and Lawrence about me and my uncle my uncle became obsessed with killing him he used to call Vince the Big Shot when he spoke about killing him he'd say things like we're gonna show the Big Shot who's in charge and things like that Vince had been around long enough to know how my uncle was and I think he knew that we were going to kill him so like Alfredo did Vince stopped coming around now at the time Vince was married but he was seeing a young girl who lived on Georgia Avenue right across the street from us the girl's name was Maria and she and her family had moved from South Philadelphia to duck town just like we had she was a beautiful young Italian girl with dark hair and a pretty face now when Vince would pick her up or drop her off he would never drive down Georgia Avenue because he knew we wanted to kill him I used to tell her that Vince was no good and that she should stop seeing him but she was young and she didn't listen to me there was something special about that girl even back then I felt it but not every murder had to take place right away some were business like the Louis de Marco and Pepe leva murders and some were more personal like the judge health and killing - Nicky Scarfo killing the big shot Vincent Falcone had become personal and just like he did with judge health and Scarfo set out to low Falcone into a comfort zone and then kill him when he least expected it now around this time a position opens up in the concrete Union and my uncle puts the word out that he wants Vince Falcone to get it this was a big deal and something that Vince had always wanted so my uncle sets the trap and Vince goes for it my uncle is acting like everything is fine and now Vince starts coming around Georgia Avenue again we are playing along like nothing ever happened me Chucky Lawrence the blade and Vince is doing the same because he really wants being the boss of the concrete union now at this time Alfredo isn't around anymore and Vince is hanging with a kid from South Philadelphia named Joe Salerno who was a plumber Joe Salerno had borrowed $10,000 from me and my uncle and was paying us two and a half points or 250 per week in interest on top of the $10,000 he owed us it was a standard juice loan and at the time we were doing a lot of loan sharking every week I'd go out and pick up envelopes well guys would come to the office everybody paid because they knew our reputation these types of loans were our bread and butter with the holidays approaching and the promise of a new job waiting for him in the new year Vincent Falcone thought he had a lot to look forward to he thought wrong my uncle organized a little party at a house in Margate nine days before Christmas he was already there waiting for us to arrive Lawrence had a Thunderbird at the time and he was driving I was sitting in the passenger seat and Vincent Falcone and Joe Salerno were in the back seat it took us about 10 minutes to drive from the office on Georgia Avenue to the house in Margate which was right on a beach now my uncle's in the living room of the apartment on the second floor and to get up there you had to climb a set of wooden steps that were adjacent to the outside of the house the house was a two-story duplex it was cold and windy and starting to get dark and you could hear the wind coming off of the ocean looking back on it it was kind of eerie I was wearing a black leather jacket and it was zipped all the way up and I had a 32 revolver tucked into my waistband Lawrence and Joe Salerno were ahead of us and talking as they went up the steps Joe Salerno had no idea what was going to happen but Lawrence did now Vince is a few feet in front of me and I am behind him as we are going up the steps but he's kind of hesitating like he's uncertain of what's going on he said where's everybody at I thought Chucky was coming down I put my hand on his back and said he'll be here let's go inside and have some drinks and kind of ushered him up the steps his antenna was definitely up but I have positioned myself behind him so that if he decided enough to go up the steps or if he tried to get away somehow I would have blasted him right there when the four men reached the top of the steps they walked into the apartment where a little Nicky Scarfo was seated on a couch watching a football game waiting for them little Nicky didn't just want Vincent Falcone to be killed he want to be present when it took place this wasn't business it was personal while most powerful mob leaders would seek to insulate themselves from the murders they order Scarfo wanted to bask in them and personally savor the experience in any way he could the Falcone killing also provided Scarfo with the opportunity to commit a murder alongside his nephew to literally bind the two men together in what was becoming scarfo's never-ending bloodlust to Little Nicky the entire universe seemed to revolve around three things the mob murder and family specifically in that order the killing of Vincent Falcone in the manner he foresaw gave him the chance to combine all three of these at the same time in one giant orgy of death lineage and La Cosa Nostra when we walked in Vince kind of froze and I continued to usher him inside and to break the little bit of tension that was in the room I said come on Vince let's make some drinks my uncle who was still in the living room watching TV said hey Vince bring me a curry and some water now at the time Lawrence was in the dining room area talking with Joe Salerno kind of distracting him that was all happening within seconds of us walking into the apartment so he grabbed the bottle of scotch from my uncle and put it on the kitchen table and then I said Vince get some ice when Vince started to walk away towards the refrigerator to get the ice I reached into my jacket and took the gun from my waistband and I walked right behind him and blasted him right behind his right ear as soon as I shooting his body propelled forward just like what happened to Louis DeMarco and then he crashed into the refrigerator and crumbled to the floor all the sudden Joe Salerno starts going nuts he says to my uncle Nick I didn't do nothing and then to me Phillip I didn't do nothing he's like hyperventilating my uncle watched the whole thing he was watching as I shot him now he gets up from the couch and comes in and tries to calm Joe Salerno down he says I know you didn't do nothing Joe relax everything is gonna be okay now Lawrence was standing two feet away from me when I hit him and somehow his eyebrow caught on fire it got singed from the flame of the gun so my uncle is trying to calm down Joe Salerno Vince is on the ground bleeding and Lawrence starts complaining about his eyebrow being on fire so I say Jesus Christ Lawrence you knew I was gonna shoot him why the [ __ ] were you standing so close to him with all this going on my uncle manages to calm down Joe Salerno my uncle comes over to where Vince is lying and kneels down next to him and says he's still breathing give him another one right here and he moves Vince's jacket a bit and points to his heart so Vince is lying there and there was a pool of blood forming underneath of him and he's like gurgling trying to breathe and I stood over him and raised the gun and shot him one more time in the chest the impact of the second shot caused his body to jerk and then that was it he was dead at this point my uncle was ecstatic he jumped to his feet and said the Big Shot is dead look at him and he kind of mocked him by gesturing to the body and call him a piece of [ __ ] [ __ ] he was actually cursing at the corpse now I have the gun in my hand and I turned to Joe Salerno who was standing right there and I look him dead in the eye and I said he was a no-good [ __ ] I wish I could bring him to life so I could kill him again I was prepared to kill Joe Salerno to I didn't give a [ __ ] I would have shot him right there on the spot without any hesitation but he stopped carrying on Scarfo then resumed his role as coach and articulated precisely what would happen next he didn't miss a beat he said to Laurence you drive Phillip back to the office and bring back Vince's car me and Joe will stay here and clean up now Laurence drives me back to Georgia Avenue and they take all of my clothes off put them in a bag and I get right into the shower I'm scrubbing under my nails the whole bit just like I had done after the DeMarco hit now I'm dressed and I go downstairs to the office and Chucky and the blade were there we were all waiting for my uncle to get back now I see someone walked by the window and I recognize that it's Maria from across the street so I go outside to see what she wants and she tells me that she noticed that Vince's car had been moved and did I know where he was now what was I gonna tell her yeah he's in the trunk of his car I can't say nothing so I said I don't know where Vince's after she leaves I go back in the office with Chucky and the blade and while we are waiting for my uncle to get back I call up a friend of mine named Joe disco who was a DJ at a local radio station he picks up and he says hey Philip do you want to hear a song so I tell him yeah Joe play that song do or die and he plays it now Joe disco was related to Sam Scaffidi who was a captain under Angelo Bruno based out of Vineland New Jersey Sam Scaffidi was one of the guys who helped my uncle when they killed Reds Caruso I'm thinking if I ever get charged I can bring Joe disco in as a witness and he would testify that I had called the radio station Joe disco never knew the real reason I called Joe Salerno would later testify that while he and Nicky Scarfo cleaned the apartment Scarfo told him you're one of us now and patted him on the back before doling out more instructions tie him up a cowboy with his hands and feet tied up behind him when Lawrence Merlino arrived back at the home about thirty minutes later he discovered that Vince Falcone's body had been wrapped up in a blanket and tied up exactly as Scarfo had instructed he also discovered something else Lawrence told me when he got there that my uncle was falldown drunk and he couldn't even stand up according to Salerno while he followed scarfo's instructions on tying up the body and cleaning the kitchen Little Nicky sat at the kitchen table and drank the entire bottle of scotch that had been used as a ruse to trap Falcone and was belittling the dead man and waxing philosophical about what the future held not only for the Scarfo gang but for the entire Philadelphia mob when left he goes I'm gonna be right next to Phil testa and you're gonna be one of us said a slurring a little Nicky to a shell-shocked Joe Salerno following scarfo's instructions the men loaded Falcone's corpse into the trunk of the car they had retrieved and Scarfo continued to celebrate saying I love this as Falcone's body was lowered into the trunk Lawrence Merlino then got behind the wheel of Vince Falcone's car with Falcone's dead body in the trunk and abandoned it several blocks away on a desolate Street as another car being driven by Salerno with Little Nicky in the backseat pulled up beside him and the three men drove back to Atlantic City Margate was a resort town that was full of summer vacationers from Memorial Day to Labor Day but nine days before Christmas it was a ghost town the perfect place to commit a murder and dump a body that night following the killing Scarfo Lawrence Merlino and Joe Salerno would return to the Scarfo compound on Georgia Avenue where they encountered Philip Leonetti Salvatore and Chucky Marino and Nicholas Nick the blade Virgilio Molino greeted them by saying lights out huh and gave celebratory hugs and kisses on the cheek to everyone present the five men then settled into scarfo's dining room and feasted on a large homestyle Italian meal extremely drunk and elated Little Nicky held court and talked in a hushed tone about who his next victims would be I want to cut the self Fredo's guts out and fry him in a pan he makes me sick him in that no-good [ __ ] mad dog DePasquale we're gonna do him next Philip had never seen his uncle in such a state of delirium you would have thought he won the lottery that's how happy he was that we had killed Vince Val cone I remember him kissing me on the cheek and telling me that he loved me that was the first and only time that he did that and he did it because he was drunk my uncle never loved anyone or anything in his entire life except for La Cosa Nostra that's all he lived for he didn't give a [ __ ] about nothing else that's how sick he was Nicky Scarfo even planned a holiday of sorts for the men involved in the killing telling them that they would travel to Philadelphia the next day for a relaxing steam bath in the schvitzing room of a decades-old Russian style bathhouse on kmac Street in South Philadelphia to be followed by a celebratory dinner at one of scarfo's favorite restaurants the saloon scarfo's jubilation would be short-lived within a matter of days the body of Vincent Falcone was found and detectives from the Atlantic County Major Crimes Squad were soon knocking on both Scarfo and leonetti's doors so I'm in the office and these guys come around to detectives they had pictures of the body tied up in the trunk of the car they say look Phil can you help us out we're not looking at you guys for this we know that you and your uncle were friends with Vince we want to show you what they did to him I looked at the pictures and pretended I was sad and I said guys I don't know nothing I wish I did this was my friend I don't know who would do this to him so after these guys leave I Drive down to Long Port and grab my uncle we had bought a house for him down there but no one except for he and I knew about it how code name for the house was toothpaste because it was on Colgate Avenue he always had a girlfriend on the side and whoever he was seeing lived in that house so I go down and I tell him what had just happened with the detectives he was happy he said tell Lawrence and Joe Salerno to lay low for the next couple of weeks let's let this thing die down he tells me to pick him up in a couple of hours and then he wants to go to skinny Kiyo's for dinner Vince South's those place when I get back to the office Lawrence was already there waiting for me and we went outside and I told him what had happened and what my uncle said about laying low Lawrence said got it and told me he was gonna go to Philly for a couple of days now me and my uncle are eating dinner at skinny Chios and we're both relaxed we feel good that we're not being booked for killing Vince all the sudden who comes in but Joe Salerno and he looks like he hasn't slept in a week he's all worked up he starts saying Nick they're gonna know that that was my gun that killed him because it was a 32 my uncle says calm down Joe there's a lot of thirty twos out there no one's gonna know nothing just keep your mouth shut and everything's gonna be fine now a couple weeks before the killing my uncle asked Joe Salerno hey Joe do you have any guns Joe told him he had a 32 and my uncle said bring it around let me take a look at it so a few days later Joe Salerno brings the gun around and my uncle tells him let me hold on to this for a while what's Joe Salerno gonna do say no to my uncle so we kept the gun and we ended up using it when we killed Vince Falcone now the next day the same detectives go see Joe Salerno at his house in Brigantine because they knew he hung around Vince it's the same drill they did with me in the office we know it was your friend we want to know who did it and Joe Salerno cracks right on the spot he says Philip Leonetti killed him and I was right there now these detectives can't believe what they're hearing because they really didn't think that we were involved but the more Joe Salerno talks they realize he's telling the truth and they are ecstatic because they hated me and my uncle with a passion I mean these guys wanted us dead one time after we had Pepe Levesque killed a couple have scooped me up and threw me in a van and drove me out towards nee FAC which is like a military airport 20 miles away from Atlantic City they thought that I had threatened one of them which I didn't but as we were driving on this deserted road out by the airport they slide open the door of the van and I hanging me outside like they are gonna push me out the van was going like 60 miles per hour at the time they are telling me if anything happens to one of us we will kill all of you do you understand they've got a gun to my head while I'm dangling out of the van I stopped paying attention to them and started thinking about jumping and how I would land if I did I remember thinking to myself these are the good guys but after a few minutes they pulled me back in the van and took me back to Atlantic City so I know that when Joe Salerno gives us up to these guys it was like winning the Super Bowl within a few hours Joe Salerno was in protective custody giving law enforcement officials a play-by-play account of exactly what had happened to Vince Falcone it was clear that Joe Salerno had chosen not to accept nicky scarfo's invitation to join the mob the next thing you know me my uncle and Lawrence are sitting in the Atlantic County Jail and guess who's not there with us Joe Salerno we found out that the cops from Major Crimes went right to Joe Salerno Houston Brigantine and he gave us right up now my uncle is pacing like a tiger in a cage me him and Lawrence are sitting in the holding cell my uncle is talking out loud to himself and me and Lawrence is just sitting there this isn't good he said this is gonna be bad or in trouble with this one now I'm sitting there thinking to myself Jesus Christ I can't believe how stupid I was to get arrested again for murder first the Peppe lever thing and now this I was also angry with myself because I knew I should have shot Joe Salerno the way he was carrying on I should have blasted him right there and instead of ratting us out to the cops he'd be in the trunk of the car with Vince so while we were in the holding cell my uncle says to me call this [ __ ] Joe Salerno and see if you can get a read on him so I called Joe's house and his wife answers and she puts him on so I said hey Joe what's going on and he said what's going on with you guys I saw on TV that you guys got locked up I know your uncle has to be going nuts in there with his allergies and all the dust in there he was all worked up just like he was the night we killed Vince so I told him my uncle is fine me and Lawrence are fine we're all doing good then I asked him did you go see that job in Brigantine there was a contracting job that me and him were supposed to go look at it we were going to work on it together so Joe's says I can't do nothing the cops are everywhere so I said hey Joe lunch come down and see us I'd love to see you and I know my uncle and Lawrence would love to see you and Joe says I can't Philip I got 9,000 cops here asking me questions so I said Joe we didn't do nothing wrong did you do something wrong he said I didn't do nothin wrong Philip I said don't worry about this this is a big misunderstanding he said I know Philip I said just tell the truth Joe we didn't do anything to Vince he was our friend and Joe says ok Philip so I hang up and I tell my uncle what he said and he just shakes his head he sits down on the bench and he tells me in Lawrence look we got our hands full on this one with this Joe Salerno but we're gonna make bail and we're gonna fight the case we're gonna do whatever we got to do to beat this thing Scarfo leonetti and Marlena would spend the Christmas holiday in the Atlantic County Jail as detectives from the Atlantic County Major Crime Squad packed up Joe Salerno and his family and moved them out of town and into the witness protection program our bails were 150,000 dollars and we had the lawyers working on getting that together my New Year's Eve all three defendants were out of jail and back on Georgia Avenue awaiting a trial that was several months away as the clock struck midnight and the ball dropped in time we're the 1970s were over it was 1980 the Ides of March part 1 1980 as Nicky Scarfo Philip Leonetti and Lawrence Marley Noah settled into life outside of the Atlantic County Jail they were not entirely free our bail restricted us from traveling outside of Atlantic County that meant we weren't able to meet with guys like Caponigro or Bobby manna to know what was going on in North Jersey or New York now remember a few months before we killed Vince Falcone we had that dinner with Bobby manna in North Jersey and that got my uncle's antenna up that something was going on that maybe there was gonna be a move against ang also we were still going back and forth with answer with the union dispute with our bail we couldn't go to Philadelphia either Chucky and Salvi were coming down from Philly a few times a week to see us and let us know what was going on but they didn't know anything about Caponigro or Bobby manna all they knew was the stuff in South Philly so at the time we were basically stuck in Atlantic City and out of the loop of what was really going on my uncle said we're gonna let things play out and see what happens with lefty meaning Ange and we're gonna lay low for a while and get ready for this trial if we don't win this trial nothing else matters because we're dead at the time I was busy with scarf ink and Lawrence was busy with net-net his rod company my uncle was meeting a lot with Harold going over the discovery in the Falcone case with the lawyers meanwhile up in North Jersey Antonio Tony bananas Caponigro the conciliar II of the Bruno crime family was doing everything but lying low he was planning to assassinate his boss longtime Philadelphia mob Don Angelo Bruno and take over the family the Chicago born Caponigro earned his nickname Tony bananas from his early days in the underworld when he ran a profitable sports book and juice loan operation out of a produce market in the down neck of Newark at 1979 turns in 1980 he was the head of a growing intra-family movement that opposed the old-school Bruno's strict opposition to allowing mobsters to engage in the extremely lucrative distribution of narcotics and his continued resistance to exploit the families Atlantic City operation beyond the traditional street rackets which at the time consisted primarily of gambling loan sharking and extortion under the careful watch of Nicodemo Little Nicky Scarfo who ran Atlantic City much like Caponigro ran North Jersey in the months prior to his death Angelo Bruno had all but lost control of the crime family he had led for the previous two decades Bruno and his longtime underboss Philip chicken man testa were feuding over money and power and not speaking with one another Bruno was involved in a dispute over control of the Atlantic City casino unions with Nicky Scarfo whom he had unsuccessfully tried to turn against testa a few months prior and unbeknownst to the boss the biggest threat came from Antonio Tony bananas Caponigro his trusted conciliar a who seemed to revel in the backstabbing politics and ruthless violence of mob life that Bruno had shunned for two decades the ambitious and treacherous capo Negro has started flirting with the idea of killing Bruno's sometime around the summer of 1979 after a series of clandestine mobs sit-downs with frank funky tre the powerful Genovese gangster who Caponigro thought had given him the green light to kill Bruno by telling him our friends on the commission said do what you gotta do for more than two decades beginning in 1959 Bruno ran the Philly mob like a business not like a gangster he was considered a racketeer and was dubbed the docile Don by the local media while the manner in which he ruled the underworld may have been docile the manner in which he was about to die was not the spectacled soft-spoken Bruno was known as ang to those who knew him well and mr. Bruno to those who didn't at around 10:30 p.m. on March 21st 1980 Bruno was sitting in the front passenger seat of a Chevy Caprice being driven by a young sicilian-born mom associate named John Stanfill Bruno's normal driver his trusted aide Raymond Long John Martorano had conspicuously made himself unavailable a short time earlier when it was time to drive the Don home from a dinner meeting with subordinates at a popular South Philadelphia restaurant named coos Little Italy which was owned by one of Bruno's Capo's a seee named Frank sind owned and had previously been the site of Piccolo's 500 club which had been owned by nicky scarfo's uncles the piccolo brothers over the last few months sind own who was known as the Barracuda had become close with Antonio Tony bananas Caponigro sin dome who ran a very large gambling and loan sharking operation in South Philadelphia seemed to share a capo Negros belief that Bruno was no longer the best fit to run the family Bruno was not aware of any of this as he accepted a kiss on the cheek from sindh own as he was leaving coos Little Italy that night some underworld observers believe that CIN down had purposely marked Bruno with the kiss of death as the Stamford driven Caprice approached Bruno's home which sat at the corner of ninth and Snyder in the heart of South Philadelphia Bruno had no idea he was living the final seconds of his life waiting in the shadows with a sawed-off shotgun under his trench coat was Bruno's executioner Antonio Tony bananas Caponigro the power-hungry and treacherous North Jersey mob leader who was Bruno's consigliere and had set in motion the palace coup to remove Bruno from power it was all about greed and treason which was the Sicilian calling card according to Nicky Scarfo as stamfa pulled the car to the curb he lowered the front passenger window so that Bruno could flick his cigarette into the gutter as he did Caponigro emerged from the shadows removed the sawed-off shotgun from under his trench coat aimed its square at the back of head and fired from close range the blast instantly killed the 69 year old mob Don things would never be the same in the Philadelphia mob on the night that Ange got killed I was at Caesars with the blade we had just finished eating dinner and we were downstairs in the lobby getting ready to leave as we were leaving we bumped him to Saladino who was Angie's longtime lawyer so Sam was making small talk with me about the Falcone case when all the sudden some guy he was with comes running up to him and says oh my god they killed Angie it's on TV they shot him outside his home he's dead now Sal Avena is going nuts he's saying oh my god oh my god I mean the blade tried to calm him down but he was very upset he and Ange were very close so me and the blade leaves Caesars and we are welcome back to Georgia Avenue which is a few blocks away now as we are walking home a black cat runs in front of us and the blade goes nuts he's very superstitious he tells me first Ann's gets killed and now this meaning the cat he says come on Phillip we got to walk a different way to undo the bad luck from the cat there was no arguing with him he was dead serious here's this guy who was a stone-cold killer and he spooked by this stupid black cat so we walk a few blocks out of our way until the blade thinks we have undone the curse and we make it to Georgia Avenue I go right up to my uncle's apartment and I ask him if he heard the big news he was sitting on the couch reading a newspaper with his reading glasses on he put the paper down took off his glasses and motioned for me to follow him outside when we got outside he said what's the big news what's going on so I tell him Ange is dead he got shot outside his home my uncle made a face like he was both happy and surprised and we went into the scarf Inc office and watched what was going on on TV it was live on TV all the Philly stations were carrying it a little while later Lawrence comes to the office and says he spoke to Chuckie who was in South Philadelphia and that ever one down there was going nuts trying to figure out what happened Chucky's also sent word that Phil testa was sending Salvi down first thing in the morning with a message for my uncle now at the time we couldn't leave Atlantic County because of our bail and Phil testa couldn't come to New Jersey because the same SC I that had sent my uncle to yard ville wanted to give him a subpoena to testify if he had gotten served he wouldn't have testified and he would have wound up sitting in jail like my uncle and aunt when they went to yard ville so everything was being done through messengers the morning after the most sensational gangland killing in the history of the Philadelphia La Cosa Nostra the heinous picture of the slain Godfather's corpse his mouth a gate and missing most of his cranium was splashed across newspaper front pages throughout the world and has since become an iconic image of crime in the 20th century used in hundreds of print and television gangland retrospectives over the last three decades first thing in the morning like clockwork here comes Salvi it's like 7:30 in the morning and he's by himself me him and my uncle take a walk up Georgia Avenue towards Atlantic there was a little coffee shop there that we used to go to called the cup and saucer while we're walking Salvi says to my uncle my dad needs you to go to New York and find out what's going on nobody knows nothing no one knows who did it and no one knows who's in charge it's chaos out there my uncle says I'll see what I can do but we can't leave Atlantic City because of our bail restrictions and these [ __ ] watch us all day they don't let up as we're eating our breakfast my uncle pulls me aside and tells me to call Harold Garber and to have him meet us on Georgia Avenue so I excused myself and I call Harold and give him the message and he says you'll be there in 20 minutes as we're walking back my uncle says to Salvi tell your father he's in charge he's the underboss that's the way it works in this thing in La Cosa Nostra and don't let nobody tell him any different my uncle says you make sure you guys are careful watch out for this and he shakes finger like a gun because this plot may not be over he says give me a few days and I'll find out what is going on from my friends in New York Salvy says goodbye and he drives off as Harold is pulling up my uncle says to Harold I need to go to North Jersey tomorrow I need you to make it happen Harold says Nick you can't go to North Jersey you can't leave Atlantic County you know that my uncle cuts him off and says find a way Harold worked your magic but I need to be in North Jersey tomorrow that morning scarfo's lawyer Harold Garber filed an emergency motion with the judge in the Falcone case seeking permission for a Nicodemo Scarfo to travel from Atlantic City to Newark to meet with a criminal defense attorney he wanted to interview regarding the possibility of adding him to the defense team for the Falcone case so later that day Harold calls and he tells my uncle he's all set he can go to Newark and meet with the lawyer the next day at 1:00 p.m. Harold had a lawyer friend in Newark and this guy gave Harold the OK to let my uncle use his office for the meeting now my uncle wants to get word to Bobby manna that he wants to meet him but my uncle didn't use telephones and neither did Bobby manna normally we'd get word to Bobby using Blackie Napoli but my uncle didn't want any of the North Jersey guys to know that he was coming up there and even though my uncle and Blackie were tight Blackie was kappa negroes right-hand man so my uncle has Laurence called Chuckie and tell him that my uncle needs to see him right away in Atlantic City an hour later here comes Chucky my uncle tells him I need you to go to New York and get word to Bobby manna that I need to sit down with him tomorrow and he gives Chuckie the address to the lawyer's office in Newark and on the paper it says 1:00 p.m. now Chuckie doesn't know these guys in New York like we do but Bobby knew Chuckie and that he was with my uncle so Chuckie leaves Atlantic City and goes to New York to Greenwich Village where my uncle told him to go I think it was a bakery Chuckie leaves the message with the guy at the bay curry and turns around and drives back to Atlantic City he never sees Bobby but this is how it was done so me my uncle Chucky and Laurence go for an early dinner at Angelo knees this is the day after Ange is killed all this happens within a few hours the meeting with Salvi Chucky going to New York and we start hearing bits and pieces about what happened we knew that John Stanfill was the driver and my uncle tells us at dinner I think the guy in North Jersey meaning Caponigro and the Barracuda meaning sin don't have something to do with this and if I'm right they have a few more names on their list meaning Phil testa chicky Narducci and maybe even my uncle my uncle says tomorrow when I meet with Bobby I'll find out exactly what's going on Chucky says Nick you want me to ride up with you I mean Christ you could be walking into an ambush my uncle said nothing's gonna happen to me Bobby is with us I'll be fine the next day my uncle is up early and he is showered and shaved and he is wearing a suit and heads up to Newark by himself we had a black Cadillac at the time and that's the car that he drove the night before I parked it a few blocks away so that he could sneak away on foot and get in the car without being picked up by any surveillance now I'm in the scarf Inc office all day and it seems like everyone and their brother is stopping in Lawrence was there the blade was there Chucky and his son came down Harold came by saw Kane was hanging around everyone was anxious worried about my uncle going up there alone and also anxious at what Bobby manna was going to tell him so around 4:00 p.m. the office phone rings my cousin Chris answers it and hands it to me and says it's my dad I get on and he's talking to me in code he says I'm gonna lie down and get some rest call and wake me in about two hours which meant he would be back in Atlantic City in two hours then he said I'm starting to feel a lot better ever since I saw the doctor which meant everything went well with Bobby manna then he said if I'm feeling better I want to have dinner with my friend tonight set it up I knew by that he meant he wanted to have dinner with Phil testa everything was always in code with my uncle he constantly talked in circles sometimes Chucky on the blade would say you losing me Nick which always made me laugh but I was able to follow everything he was saying I know what he was gonna say before he said it that's how well I knew him so I hang up and I clear the office out I tell Chucky that we need to get word to Salvi in Philadelphia and tell him that my uncle wants to see him and his father for dinner in Atlantic City Chucky says no problem so around 6:30 7:00 my uncle pulls up and maybe 20 minutes later here comes Sally he had already dropped his father off at the restaurant to avoid us all being seen we went to skinny Chios and Vince sat us in the back and made sure that no one was seated around us where we were was very private secluded it was me my uncle Chucky Laurence Salvi and Phil testa my uncle starts off by saying it was North Jersey Tony bananas and his crew Tony's making a play to take over the family and the Barracuda is with him Phil testa just shook his head said something in Italian and slammed his fist into the table and then said okay Nick so what happens next my uncle said let New York get to the bottom of this plot and figure out what they're gonna do about it but in the meantime you step up you were the underboss and you become the acting boss and we sit back and wait for New York Phil testa proposed a toast to Angie's memory and we all toasted and then my uncle proposed a toast to the future and we all toasted to that as well while we were eating Phil testa said if I get straightened out with this thing meaning if New York made him the boss you guys are all gonna get made meaning me Chucky Salvy and Lawrence and then we toasted to that while Scarfo leonetti the testa's and the Molina brothers were toasting the past present and future at skinny Kia's Antonio Caponigro and his crew were toasting to a very different future at capo Negros Club in Newark the 3-1-1 Club that toast saw Tony bananas as the new Don and the Barracuda Frank's end own as his underboss see Caponigro thought that he had the okay to kill ang when he went to Fonzie Tre Tre told him that he had gotten the okay from the Commission but she arey never presented it to the Commission they would have never sanctioned it for one ang was close with Paul Castellano who had the top seat on the Commission and to our family was aligned with the Gambino's if Fonzie Thierry who is with the Genovese comes to the Commission and says Tony bananas wants to kill Angelo Bruno castellana would have known it was designed to empower the Genovese castellana wasn't stupid but apparently Antonio Tony bananas Caponigro was so when Caponigro is talking to funds et Airy about killing ang he thinks he's talking to the boss because everyone thought that tre was the boss but he wasn't the chin was so tre strokes Caponigro along and all the while tre the chin and Bobby manna are manipulating the whole thing they want ang dead so that my uncle gets the Union which benefits them they also want ang dead so that Philadelphia's Commission vote now goes with the Genovese and not the Gambino's which benefits them and on top of it they want Caponigro dead so they can take his gambling and loan sharking operation which is worth several million which also benefits them a few years before all this there was a beef between Caponigro and fuzzy tre over a North Jersey bookmaking operation the Caponigro controlled but Thierry was trying to move in on they took the dispute to the Commission and ang backed Caponigro and since the Gambino's had the votes and we were with the Gambino's the Commission voted in favor of Caponigro instead of Thierry while the ambitious Caponigro double-crossed bruno the ruthless old-school Brooklyn bred gangster Thierry triple crossed Caponigro within a few days of Bruno's killing Caponigro was called to a meeting inside a dingy social club in New York City's Greenwich Village that served as the primary headquarters of the Genovese crime family kappa negro thought he was being called to the sit down to be named the new boss of the Philadelphia mob and once again Tony bananas thought wrong joining the 67 year old Caponigro on this fateful trip was his 64 year old brother-in-law Alfred Freddy Salerno who was made to wait at the bar of a nearby Italian restaurant as Caponigro was ushered into a private meeting with the hierarchy of the Genovese crime family which included the cigar-chomping Anthony Fat Tony Salerno the treacherous Frank Fonzie Thierry the underworld power broker Bobby manna and the supreme leader of the Genovese crime family himself Vincent the chin Gigante Bobby man had told me in my uncle what happened next so Caponigro is called in and he sits down in a chair and faces Fat Tony Thierry Bobby manna and the chin who are seated across from him behind a table so the chin says we're here to find out who gave you permission to whack out your boss Angelo Bruno can you tell us so kappa negro looks at Thierry and Thierry looks back at him stone-faced so Caponigro says Fonzie told me I had the okay that the Commission approved the hit so the chin says Frank what's he talking about and Thierry looks at Caponigro and says I told you to straighten it out not to kill him sensing he had been double-crossed Caponigro began pleading for his life with the men but was already being beaten by Genovese enforcers who had suddenly appeared in the room at the direction of Vincent the chin Gigante Caponigro was brutally and unmercifully tortured sodomized and murder sending a powerful message to the entire United States underworld that the unsanctioned killing of a boss would not be tolerated certainly not by the likes of Vincent the chin Gigante who was now in prime position to be the head of the Commission as Kappa Negros corpse lay dead in the clubhouse basement several genevese enforcers walked a few blocks to a nondescript little italy-- cafe to retrieve Kappa Negros brother-in-law Alfred Freddie Salerno under the ruse that Tony bananas had asked them to come and get him when the men arrived they discovered that Salerno was conversing with a man at the bar that one of them mistakenly believed was Nicky Scarfo and another man whose identity they did not know with the knowledge of what had just happened to Caponigro and what was about to happen to Salerno one of the would-be Genovese hitmen told the man they believe to be Scarfo in his companion to wait at the bar for Caponigro and salerno to return the men walked Freddie Salerno into the pre-arranged death trap Salerno like Caponigro never saw it coming he too was brutally beaten tortured sodomized and murdered his corpse left to rot next to Kappa Negros when the Genovese death squad reported back to gigantic mana and the others that Kappa [ __ ] and Salerno were dead one of them mentioned that they believed Nicky Scarfo was sitting at a bar around the corner with another guy they didn't recognize mana immediately ordered the man to go back to the bar and bring the two men to the Genovese Clubhouse as he knew that his men were mistaken the man at the bar was not Nicky Scarfo it was John Stanfill the young sicilian-born mob associate who had driven Angelo Bruno home on the night that he was killed and the man he was with was longtime Bruno mob captain Frank the Barracuda sindh own when the men returned to the bar moments later stamfa and Sinden were gone the next day after they killed Caponigro in New York Blackie Napoli comes down to Atlantic City and tells us Tony's dead his brother-in-law Freddie too he then says to my uncle Bobby wants to see when Phil testa in New York tomorrow now with Caponigro dead Blackie is the top guy in North Jersey he was one of the guys in yard ville with my uncle and Bobby manna Blackie told me in my uncle that he is the one who gave Caponigro the shotgun that he used to kill ang so my uncle calls for Sammy to come down from Philadelphia and he tells him tell your dad me and him got to take a drive tomorrow now me my uncle and Lawrence are still restricted meaning we can't leave Atlantic County because of our bail and the Falcone case so my uncle says to me find a way I can sneak out of here tomorrow through one of the back alleys and I will meet Phil testa and Salvi a couple blocks away Salvy was gonna drive his dad and my uncle to New York my uncle says parked the car right in front of the office on Georgia Avenue and I want you to stay outside all day in front of the office he's saying this because he wants me to attract the attention of the detectives that would watch us so that he could sneak away and then sneak back without getting caught the Scarfo compound on Georgia Avenue backed up to a maze of alleys and terraces that went in many different directions if you knew your way around back there you could go a few blocks without anyone seeing you it was perfect for us when we were trying to avoid the law so my uncle and Phil testa go up to New York and meet the same group that killed Caponigro it's basically the same setup except this time the chin tells Phil testa that the Commission has decided that he is now the boss of the Philadelphia mob and that the Commission wants him to name my uncle either underboss or conciliating and that the Commission wants anyone and everyone involved in Angie's death to be identified and killed he also tells him that Blackie Napoli is to remain as boss of the family's North Jersey operation now what Phil testa doesn't know but my uncle does is that the main reason Ange is dead and now Caponigro too and the four guys sitting across from him in this room they set it all up and now they want everyone who had a hand in it to be killed that's how sure as they were but to them this was all about money and power it was business and nothing personal
