Philip Leonetti Mafia Prince Part 5 RIP Kobe Bryant (As It happend)

you can see all the lawyers whispering to their clients telling them what happened and every one of them had the same reaction they looked sick about it even the judge in the prosecutors who hated my uncle looked sick how could you not be when a 17 year old kid tries to kill himself but my uncle this [ __ ] he never flinched never batted an eye so now we are all going back down to the holding pen in the basement and waiting for the bus to take us back to Holmesburg no one is saying a word every day after court when we're heading back we'd always be breaking balls you got to remember there was 17 of us and we're all looking at spending the rest of our lives in prison so we had to do something to lighten the mood but on this day no one said nothing it was dead [ __ ] silence and then when we all got into the holding pen and sat on the benches waiting for the bus to come out of nowhere my uncle went nuts and he exploded on me his eyes got real big and he was pointing at me and saying you know I blame this on you and your mother the way she would scream and holler at mark and that vane would come out of her throat this is your fault you and that witch sister of mine you're just like her and then he mumbled something to himself an Italian while this was going on all the guys we were on trial with were all sitting on the benches that were up against the wall staring straight at the floor none of them made eye contact with either one of us and none of them said a word Here I am sitting there absolutely disgusted not only was i disgusted over what had happened with mark I was also disgusted with myself I'm 35 years old and I'm sitting in this holding cell handcuffed and shackled and I'm looking at spending the rest of my life in jail I dedicated every waking moment of my adult life to my uncle and la cosa nostra and this no-good evil [ __ ] is gonna sit there and blame me for his son trying to kill himself but the thing with me the thing that always made me smarter than him is fact that no one including him ever knew what I was thinking or what I was feeling I could read him like a book I always knew what he was gonna do before he even thought about doing it he was predictable mentally he played checkers with me where I played chess with him at that moment sitting in that cell listening to him blame me from mark I don't know if I have ever felt such a combination of raw emotion and such rage both at the same time I'm not the kind of guy who's gonna get into a screaming match with anyone let alone in front of 15 other guys and let my opponent or adversary know what I was thinking and at that very moment he was no longer my uncle he was no longer my boss he was my adversary my enemy I made up my mind right there in that split second that my life was going to go one of two ways number one if I won the RICO case I was gonna take Maria little Phillip and my mother and we were out of here no more Atlantic City no more Philadelphia no more mob no more of my uncle I was done with it all number two if I lost the RICO case I was going to cooperate with the feds even if they still gave me a hundred years I didn't care this was about breaking with my uncle and La Cosa Nostra it wasn't about jail time the time didn't matter to me it never did if I never saw the light of day so be it but I was going to live the rest of my days for me for Maria for my son for my mother not for my [ __ ] uncle and not for his La Cosa Nostra as the RICO trial continued with the unrelenting onslaught from the federal prosecutors and the overwhelming depth of the government's case leonetti knew that his chances for an acquittal were slim at best on November 19th 1988 after two full days of deliberation the jury convicted Nicodemo Scarfo Philip Leonetti and all 15 co-defendants of every charge in the indictment in the end there was too much for us to overcome all the killings all the violence all the treachery it was almost like we had made it easy for them to convict us how could they not with everything they heard I know this sounds crazy but when they found us guilty I felt a huge sense of relief I knew we were finished and I knew that this life La Cosa Nostra was over for me Nicky Scarfo jr. who was running the day-to-day operation of the now decimated crime family with Anthony cousin Tony piccolo Scarfo seniors first cousin came to visit both Scarfo and Leonetti behind bars a few days after the verdict Nicky jr. comes in and he's telling me in my uncle what is going on out in the street he says nobody's paying there's no structure anymore it's every man for himself he says I went and saw Bobby the other day and I told him what was going on and my uncle says what did he say and Nicky says he said it was over and that you have no shot an appeal my uncle said nothing is over as long as we're still breathing and he points to me and him you tell that to Bobby and anyone else who thinks it's over as long as we're around it ain't ever over and Nicky jr. just nodded I said how's Mark doing and Nicky jr. said he's still in a coma but the doctors say he's gonna make it and that maybe we can bring him home at some point my uncle says I can't have him back to Georgia Avenue after what he's done I got up and left the visit without saying another word I went back to the cellblock and I picked up the phone and I called the FBI Philip Leonetti who as a teenager served as a mob messenger taking messages from his imprisoned uncle and the family's boss Angelo Bruno to their soldiers on the street became a mob associate in his early 20s a mob killer at 23 a made man at 27 a capo regime a at 28 an underboss at 33 and an acting boss at 34 had now taken steps at the age of 35 the unthinkable become an informant and cooperate with the government when I called the FBI I get Jim Meyer on the phone he was one of the agents who worked organized crime I said do you know who this is and he said no I don't and I said I thought you were a voice expert he said I am but I don't know your voice I said this is Philip Leonetti and there was dead silence on the phone I said would you like to speak with me an agent Maher said yes I would but if we speak now I have to notify your attorney if we speak after you were sentenced then no one needs to know our sentencing had been scheduled from May which was still six months away and I said in May after I get sentenced I want you to come and see me so that we can talk and he said I absolutely will and that was the end of the call Leonetti would spend the next six months in Holmesburg with his uncle and the rest of the mob waiting to get sentenced but Nicky Scarfo and several others still had one more case to go a trial charging them with the murder of Frank Frankie flowers to Alphonso in 1985 in that case it was my uncle Chuckie Laurence Frankie Narducci Philip Narducci Fafi Gino Milano Nicky whip and Jolla Gumby I wasn't in that case now Jolla Gumby only had a gambling charge in the RICO case so he pled out and got three years and the whip took off and they didn't catch him until after the RICO case they caught him in Las Vegas with spike the guy who took care of my uncle's home in Florida now right before the trial started in March of 89 Gino Milano worked out a deal to cooperate and testify against everyone else including his brother the whip on April 5th 1989 after deliberating for just over 90 minutes the jury found Scarfo and his associates guilty of murdering Frankie flowers at this point all I am focused on is lying low and making it to sentencing which was about a month away and then sitting down with the FBI by this time I told Maria what I was going to do and naturally she supported it and I had spoken to my mother about it and she said do it absolutely do it as Scarfo leonetti and the others counted down the days to their sentencing the mood was nothing but doom and gloom whatever a camaraderie had once existed was all but gone and replaced with jealousy and tension my uncle was still the boss and that's how he continued to conduct himself Nicky jr. was coming a few times a week and letting him know what was going on and he was meeting with Bobby and some of the lawyers about filing an appeal most of the other guys were either keeping themselves or fighting with each other there was a lot of tension during those final weeks I remember junior steno and Joe punch got into it and another time jr. got into it with Wayne grant I was just laying low waiting for my sentencing date over the course of several days in early May 1989 all of the defendants in the RICO case would be sentenced Anthony punch got thirty years junior Stano got 33 Frankie Narducci got 35 Wayne grant got 38 Joe punch charlie white Phillip Narducci the blade Joey grant and Tory Scaffidi each got 40 Fafi chuckle eenie and chucky each got 45 Nicodemo Scarfo would receive a fifty five year sentence which would run consecutive to the 14-year sentence he received for the rouse extortion plus whatever sentence would be imposed on him for the Frankie flowers murder Little Nicky was likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars Philip Leonetti would receive forty five years but crazy Phil proved not to be so crazy after all and was scheduled to begin negotiations with the FBI for a reduced sentence in exchange for his defection from La Cosa Nostra and his anticipated cooperation with the government no one had any deal when I was doing and the FBI wanted to keep it secret until we were all out of Holmesburg and started getting designated in whatever federal prisons we were going to be assigned to they told me to just sit back and wait and that's exactly what I did one person who didn't sit back and wait was Lawrence Merlino who had once been one of Philip leonetti's closest friends in the mob in early May the 42 year old Merlino reached out to the FBI and struck a deal to cooperate and then was whisked away by the US Marshals my uncle broke Lawrence's balls so bad when we were in homeless burg it's almost like he wanted him to cooperate when my uncle found out about Lawrence he said to me I told you he was no good I should have killed him three years ago I just walked away I know Chucky took it bad when Lawrence became a cooperator but Lawrence had been distancing himself from us for the last couple of years even before my uncle took him and Chucky down I always liked Lawrence me and him were very very close but before we got arrested Pfaff he came down to Atlantic City and told me that he heard Lawrence tell someone don't say nothin in front of Philip unless you want him to go back to his uncle with it which was an absolute lie that bothered me and I didn't have too much to do with Lawrence after that mob turncoat tommy delgiorno would receive a mere five years when he was sentenced in June 1989 and one month later Nick the crow' caramandi would receive eight years in late July 1989 Nicky Scarfo Chucky Marley no Safiye I honor Ella Frank Narducci jr. Philip Narducci Nicky whip Milano and Joe Ligambi would all receive consecutive sentences of life imprisonment without parole following their convictions in the Frankie flowers murder case the federal government had finally succeeded in doing - Nicky Scarfo and his gang where they had done to so many during their reign of terror in the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s on the streets of South Philadelphia and Atlantic City they whacked them out it was all over act 3 goodbye good riddance the federal prison system in the United States is run by the Bureau of Prisons a federal agency more commonly referred to as the BOP any defendant who is convicted of a federal crime and sentenced to a term of imprisonment is classified as a high medium or low security inmate and then designated based upon that classification to serve their sentence at a facility that the BOP deems most appropriate in late July early August 1989 we all got transferred out of Holmesburg and moved to the federal prison in Otisville New York which is upstate me my uncle and Chuckie had all been designated as high-security inmates because of our leadership positions in La Cosa Nostra at the time Otis ville was a federal transfer center where all inmates going into the federal prison system had to pass through before they got to their designation and is where you got classified by the BOP the place was like a big warehouse full of guys who had been sentenced and were on their way to federal prison one of the first guys I bumped into an Otis ville was Bobby manna who was the chins conciliator and helped my uncle become boss he had just been sentenced to 80 years and was waiting to get classified and shipped out he said to me your uncle made the right choice in picking you as his underboss and I thanked him and we talked for a little while Bobby was a good guy a stand-up guy being the Qin's consigliere he had seen it all what happened was Bobby and some of the North Jersey Genovese got convicted of racketeering and trying to kill John Gotti and his brother Jean Bobby told me that gaudy and the Gambino's were trying to move in on the North Jersey gambling loan-sharking operation that the Genovese took from Tony bananas Caponigro after they killed him me and my uncle weren't on the same cellblock but I would see him sometimes in the yard or if we had visits on the same day I see some of the other guys like Fafi Joe punch Philip Narducci and Chucky the same way but we were all on different cell blocks Joe Massino the boss of the Bonanno crime family was on my block and he and I became friendly now this whole time I'm in Otisville I'm calling home and I'm speaking to Maria to little Philip but mostly to my mother who was communicating with the FBI from me she would mention things in code about what they were telling her and I knew that in a matter of weeks I would be out of OTUs ville and shipped off to a WITSEC prison for those in witness protection both my mother and grandmother were just like me and my uncle in that they were very good at speaking in code my mother was telling me what the FBI was telling her but was saying it in a way that no one would know what she was talking about as days went by I began to hear through the grapevine where the other guys had gotten designated and who was going where one day I'm down in the visiting area to see Nikki jr. this is late August 1989 he was still running the operation on the street for his father but he was telling me that things weren't good out there he was telling me that Chucky's son Joey and chicky Chong Collini son Michael were very aggressively trying to muscle in on what had been our operation in South Philadelphia he said they've got guys who should be paying my father paying them because they got six or seven guys and I got me and cousin Tony I told him I said Nick why don't you get out of that and go do something else what do you want to do end up in here I'll get killed and he said you're right Philip now Mickey jr. is my cousin we grew up together on Georgia Avenue I was 12 years older than him so he looked up to me like a big brother I looked him dead in his eye and said you're gonna end up getting killed leave that life alone and he just nodded I knew sitting there that I would likely never see him again and if he didn't take my advice that he would end up either dead or in jail toward the end of our visit I asked him how our mom mom was doing and he told me some story about her chasing some reporter off the steps of our apartment building and we both laughed and then I asked him about mark he just shook his head and said he just lays there it's like he's dead but he's still alive and his voice trailed off we sat there in silence for a minute or two both of us thinking about how my uncle his father had [ __ ] up our family I stood up and hugged him and kissed him I had my hands on his face and I told him that I loved him and I said Nikki remember what I told you this life is no good it's not for you go do something else and he didn't say anything and we hugged and kissed again I told him tell mom mom I love her and as I was walking away I remember getting a little teary-eyed knowing I was never going to see him again and that if he had any problems I couldn't do anything to help him now Nikki Jr's visit was divided between me and my uncle they brought me down first and then when my visit was done it would bring my uncle out so when I'm done the visit they put me in a cell and I am waiting for someone to strip-search me and then for an escort to take me back to my cell block when all the sudden my uncle comes walking in with his escort they put him in the cell directly across from me and they have to strip-search him before they let him go out for the visit everything in federal prison is regimented like this me and him a five feet away from each other now I hadn't seen my uncle and maybe a week or two and in all likelihood this is the last time I am ever going to see him and the first thing he says to me is did you handle that thing I asked you to do I knew by his tone that he was annoyed that I hadn't done whatever it was and I said what thing and he said the thing for joe black and I said I looked into it but I couldn't get an answer one way or the other which was [ __ ] my uncle says I'll look into it and I'll get the answer and I could tell by his tone that he was worked up about something then he says I heard you and Bobby were talking meaning Bobby manna so I said I bumped into him so what and he said you weren't going to tell me and I said you want to know everybody I bump into him here there's a thousand guys in here and then I could hear the guards coming he says did Nicky jr. tell you where I'm going where these [ __ ] are sending me and I shrugged my shoulders and shook my head no he said Marian Illinois I said Jesus Christ that place is the worst right then a guard came and yelled Scarfo and they led my uncle into another room to search him as they were walking him out my uncle said [ __ ] Miriam these [ __ ] ain't never gonna break me and they starts giving me instructions on what to do when I get to whatever prison I get designated to he says call Bobbie Simone and have him tell Nicky jr. so he can let me know where you are and who you are with and with that they opened the big steel door and I know that in about 20 seconds when that door shuts behind him that I may never see him again or have to hear that [ __ ] voice of his barking out orders at me as the guard yells gate the door is electronically going to closed and my uncle is still talking he says did Nicky tell you what those two [ __ ] snake kids are doing downtown which was a reference to Joey Merlino and Michael Chung Collini in south philadelphia and with that the door shut and it was quiet he was gone that would be the last time Philip Leonetti would ever see his uncle Nicodemo Scarfo as Scarfo would be shipped the next day from the federal transfer center in Otisville to the nation's toughest and highest security federal prison the one in Marion Illinois inmates at Mae typically spend 23 hours a day inside their 8 by 10 concrete cells and did not eat exercise or attend religious services with other inmates they would get 30 minutes out of their cells to exercise alone in a small fenced-in area that resembled a dog kennel with high barbed wire fences that were enclosed on all sides including the roof they would shower alone three times per week and would receive 300 minutes each month in which they could make telephone calls which were recorded and monitored by the Bureau of Prisons the party was over for Little Nicky who had spent his 58th 59th and 60th birthdays behind bars and would now spend the rest of his life inside a cage a few days after scarfo's transfer out of Otisville the u.s. marshals came for Leonetti they called me down but I had no idea where I was going the marshals took me and turned me over to the FBI two special agents Jim Marr and Gary Langan they drove me from Otisville to an office somewhere in New Jersey maybe in the Cherry Hill area which was outside of Philadelphia we talked the whole ride down trying to get to know one another they seemed like decent guys and only kept saying was if you tell us the truth we can help you if you lie to us there is nothing we can do to help you or your family and I told them that I understood when we got to the office there were a few more FBI guys and one of the US attorneys the US attorney told me if I find your cooperation to be 100% truthful I will recommend to the judge that he consider giving you a lower sentence you have to understand the judge is not bound by my recommendation and that in fact even if you do cooperate you may still have to serve your entire 45 year sentence do you understand and I said yes I do Philip Leonetti would spend the next several days being debriefed by the same FBI agents and US attorneys who had brought the Scarfo to its knees they put me in protective custody in a County Jail in South Jersey either Salem or Gloucester County under an assumed name and every morning they would come and pick me up and take me to the same office and they would ask me a series of questions about everything you could imagine about la cosa nostra historical stuff they asked about ang Phil testa my uncle the Ricoh Bennie's Sally you name it they were very very thorough and they treated me well they were always respectful they knew everything even stuff from the early 70s when we first got started all them years we thought we had them outsmarted they had us down pat after a week of intensive debriefings the FBI agents surprised Leonetti by bringing his mother Maria and little Philip to the office one day I hadn't seen them in a few months this was now late September 1989 Jim Mara and Gary Langan had brought them up and I was very happy to see them we had a nice lunch together and the mood was light and then Jim Mara told us tomorrow morning while it's still dark out two things are going to happen the first thing is Phillip is going to be picked up by the marshals and put on a plane and taken to a federal prison we won't know which one until he gets there they are going to put him in a top-secret witness security unit and no one will know who he is or where he is including you guys and they were talking to my mother Maria and little Phillip who was now 16 years old and then Gary Langan said but don't worry about him he will be safe then I jumped in and said what about my family and Jim Maher said the other thing that is going to happen tomorrow morning while it is still dark out is we are going to send a moving van down to Georgia Avenue and your family needs to leave there before the Sun comes up they need to bring only what is essential and they cannot say goodbye to anyone or tell anyone that they are leaving this has to all happen before sunrise tomorrow I said where are you taking them and Jim Maher said we can't tell you that and Gary Langan said but don't worry about them they will be safe I said listen this is very serious and we have to do what they tell us nobody can know what we are doing not even mom mom we can't take the chance that she says anything to niki jr. or his father you guys need to stick together lay low and only concern yourselves with your safety don't worry about me I can take care of myself wherever they put me we all told each other we loved each other and we said our goodbyes it was very emotional and very scary we were all taking a very big risk once my uncle learned what I was doing I knew for certain that he would try and kill all of us me my mother Maria and even my son Philip that's how dangerous this situation was and we all knew the stakes the next morning at approximately 4:00 a.m. a team of heavily armed US Marshals picked up Philip Leonetti from the County Jail where he was staying and took him to the Philadelphia International Airport where they boarded a chartered flight and flew him under an assumed name to El Paso Texas I didn't ask where they were taking me because I knew they wouldn't tell me but when we got to El Paso I knew they were taking me to Allatoona the same place my uncle had been in 1982 and 83 during the war with the Rico Benny's I remembered flying to El Paso with Bobby Simone on that trip that got cut short when Bobby saw the two guys in our room and then flying down to pick my uncle up when he got out in January 1984 on one of those trips Bobby had told me that latina is where Joe Valachi was kept when he became the first member of La Cosa Nostra to become a government witness in the early 60s Bobby said they even built this [ __ ] his own cell they called it the Valachi suite sure enough when I get to intake in La Tuna one of the guys processing me says you ever heard of Joe Valachi and the Valachi suite and I knew that's where they would be putting me as Philip Leonetti was on a plane heading to Texas his mother Maria and little Philip had quietly loaded their belongings into a moving van with the assistance of a handful of heavily armed FBI agents under the direct supervision of special agents Jim Maher and Gary Langham they were then whisked away from the Scarfo compound on Georgia Avenue in Atlantic City and taken to an FBI safehouse deep in the Pocono Mountains almost three hours away the operation was successful leonetti's were safe and sound for now the end of an era once I got settled at letona I was placed in the Valachi suite which was separate from all the other prisoners even the other guys who were in WITSEC I was all by myself except for a garden who stayed with me in the suite twenty-four hours a day seven days a week they had like three or four guys who would rotate in and out and these guys weren't regular CEOs corrections officers they were part of a special unit we'd watch TV together and play cards but for the most part I kept to myself as far as being in prison they called the place of sweet because it was like a little condominium that was connected but separate from the rest of the jail I had a living room with a TV a kitchen with a big dining-room table I had a treadmill in there a nice sized bathroom and then in the back was a cell where I would sleep at night but on a regular bed not the normal cot the other prisoners slept on during the day I had access to the roof of the suite which was like a concrete patio where I could exercise and get some Sun I set up there and read and let me tell you that Sun was [ __ ] hot down there I could see the Rio Grande from one of the windows in the suite that's how close to Mexico I was up on the roof it had a big black tarp so that the other prisoners couldn't see me from their cells or when they were in the yard they had no idea who was in there only that it was someone important to a significant even the guards the rest of the prison had no idea I was there because the crew that guarded me had no contact with them and didn't work at Latona I had been in Allatoona for maybe a week or so and Jim Marv and Gary Langan flew down to see me this is late September early October 1989 they came right to the Valachi suite and we all sat together at the dining room table the first thing Gary Langan said was your family is safe and they are in a great place I told him great I am very happy to hear that and then Jim Marrs said we received some information that your uncle found out that you were with us now I don't know the specifics just yet we are waiting for the Bo P to send us recordings of his phone calls but we think it came from either Bobbie Simone or Nicky jr. I said it makes sense with my family disappearing from Georgia Avenue and Jim Marv is looking at me like he didn't finish his sentence and he says and from what we know your uncle isn't too happy I said not too happy my uncle's not happy on Christmas he's gonna go [ __ ] nuts and try and have all of us killed me my mother my girl and my son Gary Langan said I will personally assure you that you and your family will remain safe that is my guarantee you Phillip I grew to like all of the agents I dealt with especially Jim Marv Jem Darcy Klaus roar and Gary Langham and found these to be honorable men and 100% straight shooters with these guys there was no [ __ ] especially Gary me and him became very close if they said they were gonna do something they did it they always kept their word they told me that they were coming back down in a month or so with some agents from New York to do some more debriefings they said the agents they were coming with were involved in ongoing investigations into John Gotti and the chin and La Cosa Nostra in New York I said I'll be here I ain't going anywhere except maybe up on the roof and we all laughed Jim Marr then told me that Nicky jr. was having major problems at on the street he said he's getting a lot of resistance in South Philly and from what we are hearing New York is moving in up in North Jersey and taking a lot of what you guys had up there the only place he seems to be keeping under control is Atlantic City at that time it was Nicky jr. cousin Anthony and a few little guys that they were using to try and keep control of the family for my uncle Patty specs who was the capo in charge of North Jersey had fled to Italy and some of the other Capo's loyal to my uncle like Santo Adoni were locked up with their own cases according to Jim Mar the only guys in the street with any muscle was the crew that was led by Chucky's son Joey and chickies son Michael I told Jim Mara and Gary Langham listen to me when I say this my uncle's gonna get my cousin killed Chucky son is no [ __ ] good and one of those guys downtown is gonna make a move against my cousin and kill him I told that kid to get out of that life but he didn't listen whatever happens to him it's because of his father Philip Leonetti spent the rest of October 1989 settling into the Valachi suite in the latina federal prison in Anthony Texas while his mother girlfriend and 16 year old son were adjusting to a new life under assumed names in a small rural Pennsylvania town in the Pocono mountain several hundred miles away from them sat Nicodemo Little Nicky Scarfo the 60 year old jailed for life Mafia don at the same time he was growing accustomed to spending the rest of his life inside an eight-by-ten concrete cell Scarfo was also full of rage and vengeance angered over the stunning betrayal of his sister and his nephew little Nicky would vow revenge from the confines of his cage the word on the street was that there was a five hundred thousand dollar bounty that would be paid to anyone who found and killed his sister Nancy and his nephew Philip Leonetti but what was most pressing in the tortured mind of Nicky Scarfo was keeping his son Nicky jr. safe from a blossoming rival mob faction and preserving both his power and legacy as the undisputed boss of the Philadelphia Atlantic City La Cosa Nostra despite being sentenced to spend the rest of his life behind bars Nikki jr. 24 was the only one of nicky scarfo's three sons who gravitated toward la cosa nostra scarfo's oldest son chris that legally changed his last name and was working as a legitimate businessman in the atlantic city area having very little if anything to do with his imprisoned father scarfo's youngest son mark still a teenager remained in a comatose state following a suicide attempt on november 1st 1988 in the middle of his father's Rico trial Nicky jr. who is not yet a formally made member of La Cosa Nostra was acting as his father's proxy and as such was tasked with meeting underlings and carrying out his father's orders working side by side with his father's cousin Anthony cousin Tony piccolo who had briefly served as Scarfo seniors conciliar II and was now his hand-picked Street boss on October 31st 1989 almost a year to the day of his brother Marc's suicide attempt Nicky jr. traveled from Atlantic City to Philadelphia in the late afternoon to meet with Bobby Simone to discuss his father's appeal after meeting with Simone Scarfo jr. and a companion headed downtown for a dinner meeting with several associates in set of Dante and Luigi's one of South Philadelphia's premier Italian restaurants and one of Nicky seniors favorites inside the restaurant the young son of a jailed mob soldier stopped by Nicky juniors table and said hello a few minutes later what appeared to be a trick-or-treater entered the restaurant wearing a black costume with a yellow mask and carrying a bag this individual did not attract any immediate attention as it was in fact Halloween night and the neighborhood was crawling with kids out looking for candy the trick-or-treaters moved quickly into the dining room and headed straight for Nicky Junior's table swiftly removing a mac-10 machine gun pistol from his candy bag and started pumping bullets into Scarfo juniors chest and neck hitting him nine times in the process as the gunmen fled into the night he symbolically dropped the mac-10 outside of the restaurant an odd perhaps to Al Pacino's character Michael Corleone in The Godfather Scarfo jr. was bleeding and badly wounded but he would survive his father's plan to run the beleaguered crime family from prison would not when I heard what happened to my cousin I immediately believed Chucky's son and Michael Chang Collini were behind it but there was nothing I could do about it I tried to talk to my cousin in Otisville and warned him but he didn't listen instead he listened to his father and it almost got him killed the whole thing made me sick I knew my uncle was going absolutely bananas and Marion when Nicky jr. got shot that was it that was basically Philadelphia telling my uncle to go [ __ ] himself immediately after being released from the hospital where he spent nine days following the shooting Nicky Scarfo jr. left Philadelphia and sought refuge under the protection of the North Jersey branch of the Bruno's Scarfo La Cosa Nostra staying for a few weeks at a Sheraton hotel near the Newark Airport and then moving to another Sheraton Hotel in nearby Woodbridge Nicky Junior's movements were carefully measured he avoided South Philadelphia at all costs and he only sporadically visited his mother and grandmother on Georgia Avenue in Atlantic City the shooting sent a clear message the Scarfo era was over but unfortunately for the man Leonetti and Scarfo senior both believed was the messenger there would be little time to rejoice in early January 1990 less than two months after the shooting at Dante and Luigi's Joseph skinny Joey Merlino the 28 year old son of former Scarfo underboss Salvatore Chuckie Marlene Oh and the man Leonetti believed was involved in the plot to kill Nicky Jr was sentenced to more than two years in federal prison following a conviction for participating in a 1987 armored car that netted the aspiring young mob leader more than $350,000 two weeks later Santo big Santo I don't one of the last remaining pillars of the crumbling Scarfo organization was convicted in federal court on racketeering charges thanks in large part to the testimony of the federal government's newest assassin Philip crazy Phil Leonetti I never took any pleasure in testifying against anyone but this is what I had to do to get away from La Cosa Nostra and break free of my uncle when I testified against Santo they flew me from El Paso to Philadelphia they had me with so many armed u.s. marshals you would have thought I was the president when I was done testifying they flew me right back back in the Valachi sweet and latina leonetti's marathon debriefing sessions continued a couple times a month a different group of agents or US Attorney's would come down and ask me questions about La Cosa Nostra the structure the rules who was who Santa was the only made guy from our family that I testified against but they used me against the Lucases from North Jersey the the cheddar brothers to Mac and Tommy Ricci Rd they used me in Pittsburgh New England and in New York against four of the five families there in the summer of 1990 Philip Leonetti would figure prominently in the federal government's civil racketeering suit that resulted in a court-ordered takeover of local 54 the casino union that Leonetti and his uncle Nicodemo Scarfo controlled during the early 80s lien Annie's testimony formed a basis for the reasoning why several key local 54 officials who had once been aligned with the Scarfo mob were removed from their positions back inside the Valachi sweet and latina lien Annie would watch helplessly as his prophecy regarding his cousin Nicky jr. continued to be fulfilled when on August 21st 1990 Nicky Scarfo jr. was arrested along with 30 other North Jersey based mobsters charged with various racketeering offenses the case against Nicky jr. was built in large part on secretly recorded conversations between Scarfo jr. and a North Jersey mobster named George fresh alone who was one of the men assigned to protect the young mob Sian following his October 1989 shooting unfortunately for both Scarfo senior and junior fresh alone was cooperating with the New Jersey State Police and was wired for sound I told the FBI that my uncle was gonna get my cousin killed or put in jail and within 10 months of me saying that he gets shot nine times and indicted for racketeering because he's hanging with the guy that we didn't know and the guy is wearing a wire I mean Jesus Christ the writing was on the wall but my uncle didn't give a [ __ ] that's how obsessed he was with the power of being the boss but little Nicky's days as boss were coming to an end in October 1990 less than two months after Nicky jr. was indicted Anthony cousin Tony piccolo the 68 year old caretaker Street boss of his cousin Nicodemo Little Nicky Scarfo decimated crime family was summoned to a meeting in North Jersey with Robert Bobby K Bert be Satya the capo in charge of the Gambino family's North Jersey operation be Satya informed piccolo that John Gotti and the Commission had decided to take little Nikki down and replace him as boss of the Philadelphia Atlantic City La Cosa Nostra with John Stanfill the 50 year old Sicilian born South Philadelphia based mobster who drove Angelo Bruno home on that fateful night in March of 1980 basashi informed piccolo that he would be named Stanford's conciliar II those are the rules New York always makes the boss the Commission they made Ang the boss they made Phil testa the boss and they made my uncle the boss so when they call cousin Tony up and they tell him they are taking my uncle down and making John stand from the boss that's it my uncle might not like it I know he didn't like it but there is absolutely nothing he could do about it those are the rules I think Gaudi was pushing stamfa in large part so that the Philadelphia proxy vote on the Commission would swing back to the Gambino's like it had under Ange I think by this time the chin had zero interest in my uncle or the Philly mob especially with us losing local 54 and with Bobby manna in jail not to mention I had heard from one of the agents that when we all got locked up that the Gambino's and the Genovese chopped up most of North Jersey leaving us Philadelphia with practically nothing remember this is the same territory that the Commission gave to Caponigro in the 70s when him and Fonzie Thierry were fighting over it and it's the reason why the chin and his guys set Caponigro up and whacked him out so they could take over more of North Jersey me and my uncle never really dealt with stanza I think I met him maybe he wants it twice I know that he was involved with Caponigro and sin dawn when they hit Ange and I know that he got very lucky that time he came to New York and the Genovese guys thought he was my uncle otherwise he would have ended up like Caponigro and Freddie Salerno he disappeared for a while and then got locked up because he wouldn't testify about what happened the night Ann's got killed the next time I heard anything about him was when me and my uncle went to Staten Island to meet Gotti and Gravano and I remember Gaudi asking my uncle if we would give Steph a pass and let him return to Philadelphia when he got out of jail my uncle said I don't know any problems with him as long as he comes home and does the right thing and doesn't cause any problems with Nicky Scarfo spending the rest of his life behind bars and now formally deposed as boss leonetti's federal handlers turned their attention to a new target the dapper Don John Gotti in the fall of 1990 I spent a lot of time with the FBI and the US Attorney's from the Eastern District of New York we're building a racketeering case against John Gotti and Sammy the bull Gravano I remember one of the agents from new saying to me you are the highest-ranking member of La Cosa Nostra to ever cooperate did you know that and I told him that I did not they told me that they wanted to bring the indictment against Gotti by the end of the year and that when the case went to trial I was going to be one of their main witnesses based upon all of the things that me and Sammy had done together different things he had told me and most importantly the meeting me and my uncle attended on Staten Island with John and Sammy and 1986 where John laid out the details on the Castellano head they put me in front of a grand jury and I testified about both John Gotti and Sammy the bull Gravano I wasn't trying to hurt anyone all I did was tell the truth it was all business nothing personal on December 11th 1990 armed with a RICO indictment that charged five murders including the hit Don Paul Castellano a swarm of FBI agents and New York City police detectives raided the ravenite social club in Manhattan and arrested John Gotti his underboss Salvatore Sammy the bull Gravano and his consigliere Frank Frankie Lok LoCascio all three men would be held without bail while awaiting trial the indictment was based in large part on intelligence cold during debriefing sessions with Philip Leonetti in the Valachi suite and from his top secret testimony before a New York grand jury by this point I had been in Allatoona for more than a year you got to remember even though I was in the Valachi suite which beat being in a regular cell I was all by myself with the exception of the guards who watched me and the agents and prosecutors who came to debrief me I told Jim Mar and Gary Langan you got to get me out of here I'm going stir-crazy being in here by myself put me in WITSEC somewhere anywhere but I gotta get out of this Valachi suite on the road again in early 1991 they moved me from La Tuna into the WITSEC unit at FCI Phoenix out in Arizona this place was about 25 miles outside of Phoenix smack dab in the middle of nowhere all the way out in the desert and was surrounded by what they called the Black Canyon mountains I thought the Sun was hot in letona my god that Sun in Arizona some of the guys would cook things right on the asphalt that's how hot it was out there in 1991 Philip Leonetti was arguably the most significant federally protected witness in the United States now housed with approximately 70 other protected witnesses Leonetti had to settle into his new home I liked it there I played basketball every day out in the Sun I ran five miles every day on the track I was an absolute tip-top shape and the view of the desert and those mountains was amazing there were a lot of Mexican guys down there guys from the Mexican Mafia but everyone kept to themselves and it was easy doing time there now when you're in WITSEC they don't use your name only your initials but eventually everyone knows who you are and what you were there for one day I get done playing basketball and this kid comes up to me and says aren't you Philip Leonetti nicky scarfo's nephew and I say who are you and he says my name is Willard Moran but everyone calls me jr. I remember thinking to myself Jesus Christ what a small world this is the kid they said whacked out John McCullough the union boss and I had never met him a day in my life and here we are 11 years later in the same unit in a prison in Arizona he was a good kid I got to know him and I grew to like him a few months later I'm walking the track and I see this guy coming towards me making a beeline for me don't forget I'm still in jail with a bunch of killers so my antenna is always up the guy gets closer and I think he could tell I had a defensive posture and he says Phillip don't you recognize me it's me Gino Milano now Gino was one of Salvi's top guys it was him and Joey punch Gino was on trial with us in the RICO case and then he flipped before the flower's case and he testified in that case against my uncle and everybody including his own brother Nicky whip so me and Gino catch up and he tells me that he was in prison for a while in Minnesota with Lawrence and he tells me what was going on in there with him he's telling me about the flowers trial bringing me up to speed on a lot of stuff but never once did either of us mention Salvi I think he knows it bothered me as much as it bothered him it was like Salvi and all that stuff was in a different life it's hard to explain both of us were out here doing our time hoping that when we got resentenced we get better deals and we could go home don't forget we were both young I was 38 at the time and Gino was 32 prosecutors in New York would call Leonetti as a witness in the infamous windows case which featured mobsters from several New York crime families including Peter Gotti and venero Benny eggs Mangano the underboss of the Genovese family who Leonetti played cards with while his uncle met with Vincent the chin Gigante on the day that Scarfo was formally named balls from the Philadelphia Atlantic City La Cosa Nostra as Leonetti was growing accustomed to life inside FCI Phoenix his mother Maria and little Philip decided to leave the Poconos and relocate to a small town near Tampa Florida now that I was out of La Tuna I had better communication with my family and I knew that they were doing really good Maria got a good job and little Philip was doing well in school I learned that my mom was secretly calling my grandmother back in Atlantic City and that she was doing okay but that she was having some minor health problems and that my uncle was torturing her from jail which didn't surprise me he tortured everybody that came in contact with him around this time is when the feds started asking me questions about Bobby Simone 56 years old Robert Bobby Simone was widely regarded as Philadelphia's most prominent criminal defense attorney his client dossier read like a who's who of the Philadelphia mob elite of the 70s and 80s Angelo Bruno Philip testa salvie testa Frank chicky Narducci Frank sin Doan and Joseph chicky Chong Collini but Simone became best known as nicky scarfo's attorney of choice following Simone's performance in the Vincent Falcone murder trial which resulted in an acquittal for Scarfo leonetti and Simone's client at the time Lawrence merely no I've seen a lot of lawyers throughout the years and by far bobby was the best he had this way about him that made it tough not to like him unless you were a judge or a prosecutor and juries [ __ ] loved him especially the women he can't look like Phil Donahue my uncle loved Bobby and so did I and even though he wasn't formally a part of La Cosa Nostra we always treated him like he was one of us but she was and that was Bobby Samoans problem dogged for years by federal prosecutors on charges ranging from tax evasion to racketeering Simone found himself in the exact same situation as all of those clients he had represented throughout the years under indictments and facing years in prison I did everything I could not to hurt Bobby in those debriefing sessions but the deal was if I got caught lying about anything I was done so I had to tell the truth all those years I was in La Cosa Nostra I followed the rules now when I'm out of the mob and cooperating with the government I was following their rules as federal prosecutors in Philadelphia built their case against Simone federal prosecutors in New York scored a major victory they flipped John Gotti's underboss Salvatore Sammy the bull Gravano the number two man in the Gambino crime family and leonetti's close friend Gravano told the same FBI agents and US attorneys who had debriefed Philip Leonetti that once leonetti flipped he knew that it was over the mole told them I knew what Philip knew what me and John had told him especially about the hit on Paul I knew that with him testifying we didn't have a chance Gravano was whisked out of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan and taken to the United States Marine base in Quantico Virginia where he was debriefed at length regarding the inner workings of the Gambino crime family and La Cosa Nostra in and around New York City by the end of 1991 after Gravano had spent several months at Quantico the feds needed a new place to stash Sammy the bull someplace he could relax before being brought back to New York to testify against Gotti when I was in FCI Phoenix you got to remember there are only 70 to 75 inmates in our unit so anytime someone new came it was a big deal so one day one of the guards comes up to me and says you're never gonna guess who's here and I said who and he said Sammy the bull Salvatore Sammy the bull Gravano who had 46 had followed Phillip leonetti's lead and defected from La Cosa Nostra was now being held in a segregated area less than 50 yards from where leonetti's cell was located for a week they keep you in isolation to make sure you're not sick or carrying a disease once you're medically cleared they release you into the unit a week after arriving at FCI Phoenix Sammy the bull was reunited with crazy Phil and while Leonetti was helping Gravano get acclimated to life inside the WITSEC unit at FCI Phoenix Gravano was updating leonetti on everything that had been going on in the world of La Cosa Nostra you have to remember by this time I had been in jail for almost five years Sammy had only been locked up for a year he told me they had made John Stanford the boss because the ciggies and the Gambino family were pushing for him he told me that the chin was definitely behind the car bombing that killed Frankie the Chico and that there was bad blood between Gotti and the chin Sammy told me that he was there when Frankie the chicle got blown up and when he went to grab Frankie's body there was nothing man Sammy said his hands went through him Sammy used to talk about Frankie to Chico all the time he said he was a man's man a real gangster Sammy told me that when John Gotti came to him and Frankie about killing Paul Castellano Frankie did Chico said to Sammy I got no love loss for Paul so if this guy meaning gotti wants to whack let him whack him and then if this guy don't work out me and you will kill him [ __ ] John Gotti he told me that him and Gotti had had a falling-out in the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York over some things Gotti had said about Sammy that the feds had picked up with a listening device and that God he was worried about me being a witness against him and I said I bet he's more worried now about you and not me he told me that the feds wanted to use both me and him to help build a case against the chin we caught up on old times and had some laughs and we always worked out together we walked that track every day but Sammy still wanted to be Sammy the bull and I didn't want to be crazy Phil anymore to be honest I never did it's what my uncle wanted not me on the one hand it's great to see someone you know like it was for me with Gino Milano but on the other hand mentally I am done with La Cosa Nostra so seeing Sammy while it was nice to see someone I had been close with that part of my life was over and I was really ready to just move on as 1992 got underway Philip Leonetti continued to be debriefed by FBI agents and federal prosecutors who are now focusing their attention on Vincent the chin Gigante the boss of the Genovese crime family they told me they were going to use me to testify against John Gotti and they wanted to use me against the chin they flew me and Sammy from Phoenix to New York and late February early March for the Gotti trial and they had us staying in what looked like hotel rooms that were in the basement of the courthouse this is where the u.s. marshals would stay when they were traveling once Sammy flipped they really didn't need me in the Gotti case but I think they brought me as an insurance policy on April 2nd 1992 the jury convicted the one-time Teflon Don on all charges in the indictment and Gotti was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole the 51 year old chief of the Gambino crime family was immediately shipped out to the maximum security federal penitentiary in Marion Illinois which had been Nicodemo Little Nicky Scarfo home for the past two-and-a-half years when I got back to Phoenix it was early April 1992 and I had been locked up for the last five years when we got sentenced we were under the old federal sentencing guidelines which meant we had to serve 2/3 of our sentence I got 45 years so unless I got a reduction I would have had to do 30 which means I had 25 years to go today the feds make everybody do 85 percent of their sentence around this time I get a phone call from Jim Morrow and Gary Langham and they say Phillip we have to bring you back to Philadelphia to see the judge he's gonna hear your motion for a new sentence Philip Leonetti was now 39 years old and everything was riding on his motion for a new sentence without it he would spend at least the next 25 years behind bars and wouldn't be eligible for release until he was 64 years old when I started cooperating there are no promises no guarantees you go into it knowing that you could testify against a thousand guys and no one can make the judge do anything to help you in other words everything I had done or everything I would do it was all meaningless at least in the sense of helping me personally unless the judge reduced my sentence in early May - just three years after he was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison Philip Leonetti was back inside the same federal courtroom before the same federal judge asking for a reduction of his sentence the room was packed with FBI agents and prosecutors that at one time hated my guts when I was with my uncle and La Cosa Nostra and we're now coming to court to speak on my behalf and tell the judge everything that I had done since I began cooperating before the hearing started I got a chance to catch up with most of them and they treated me with respect like a human being not like the monster they had made me out to be three years before in the same courtroom the government appointed a lawyer to represent me named Frank D Simone who I got along with and it was a good guy I remember feeling jittery when they said all rise and the judge whose name was Franklin Van antwerpen came out this was just like waiting for the jury to say guilty or not guilty in every case I had been in even though I was nervous I always felt lucky in court or when I got charged with something remember I had beaten the Pepe Levin murder case the Falcone murder case the extortion case with Mike Matthews who was the mayor of Atlantic City the p2p case and the salvie testa murder case my only loss had been the RICO case so the US attorneys are talking the agents were talking my lawyer talked and then the judge asked me if I had anything to say I told him that I decided that I no longer wanted to be associated with my uncle or with La Cosa Nostra and that since that day I have done everything in my power to prove to the federal government that I am 100% done with that life I told the judge that I wanted to join my family and raise my son and live a peaceful law-abiding life I told him I wanted a shot at going straight and doing the right thing doing it all over judge Van Antwerpen called Philip Leonetti the most significant crime figure who had ever chosen to co-op and hailed his cooperation and his transformation as a human being both extraordinary and outstanding the judge then reduced Lee in any sentence from 45 years to a mere six and a half years with the time he had already done Philip Leonetti would be a free man in less than four months I will never forget that feeling I felt like I had a shot at a whole new life where I could just be a regular guy and be around regular people I spent my whole life around vicious and treacherous murderers and I was just like them but now I had a chance to start over to do things right Leonetti would return to the WITSEC unit at FCI Phoenix but the news of his courtroom victory was not made public I never involve myself in other people's business and I didn't like it when people got involved in mine when I got back to Arizona no one knew that I was getting out in a few months and that's the way I wanted it I spent that summer doing what I had done the whole time I was there playing basketball exercising hanging with Sammy and reading books but I gotta tell you that last stretch the summer of 1992 it was the longest four months of my entire life the anticipation of getting out of jail and being reunited with my family made it difficult to sleep I was very antsy starting over on September 1992 at the age of 39 philip michael Leonetti the former underboss of the philadelphia Atlantic City mob walked out of the FCI Phoenix federal prison near Mesa Arizona a free man and was immediately greeted by his one-time nemesis turned friend FBI agent Jim Marr June ma flew all the way from Philadelphia to Arizona to make sure that everything went smooth when I got out a guy who was the special agent in charge of the Philadelphia FBI office who didn't like me told Jim Maher not to come and he came anyway because that's what type of stand-up guy he was Jim and I drove from the prison to the airport in Phoenix and we got on a plane and headed for the Tampa area where my mother Maria and little Phillip were living both of us flew under assumed names and we had a detour stopping in Houston and then boarding another plane I remember it was late maybe 9 or 10 o'clock when we landed and it took us maybe another hour or so to get to the house shortly before midnight a small rental car being driven by FBI agent Jim Mar with Philip Leonetti in the passenger seat pulled into the driveway of a nondescript 2-story house in a quiet residential neighborhood about 30 miles outside of Tampa inside the house where leonetti's mother Nancy his longtime girlfriend Maria is now 18 year old son Philip and FBI agent Gary Langham it was very very emotional there was a lot of hugging and kissing and crying it was one of the best feelings in my life it was like being born again and getting to start my life all over away from my uncle and la cosa nostra as Leonetti spent his first night as a free man sleeping in what had now become his family's home the two FBI agents who had befriended him and assisted him in leaving La Cosa Nostra stayed in a nearby hotel the very next morning I was up early before anyone in the house I remember going to the kitchen and making a cup of coffee and then walking out onto the back porch and just sitting there looking at the grass and the trees and thinking there's no walls here there's no barbed wire no guards I'm free the thought of being free was very surreal to me I went upstairs and told Maria I'm going for a run and she said you have no idea where you are how are you gonna find your way home and I said I made it here didn't I I'm sure I can find my way back that morning at approximately 7:30 a.m. Philip Leonetti started out on what had become his daily ritual of running five miles only now instead of running around a track in the recreation yard of a federal prison surrounded by men like Sammy the bull Gravano he was running through the streets of the small suburban town where his family had chosen to relocate one about running I'm seeing people leaving for work kids going to school dogs running around barking people's sprinklers going on Oh basic stuff that most people see every day and take for granted but not me not on this day I must have had the biggest smile on my face and it was the best run I had ever taken I was waving at the people in the neighborhood and no one had any clue who I was or where I had just come from I could have run a hundred miles that day and the best part was that I did find my way home back at the leonetti home Jim Mar and Gary Langham were treated to a continental breakfast courtesy of Maria and the two agents spent several hours sitting on the back porch talking with Philip they told me that they knew my mother had been communicating with my grandmother back in Atlantic City and that if my grandmother even by accident knew anything about where we were and had come back to my uncle that he was going to send somebody down to kill us Jim Mara said you guys have to be extremely careful you are all in very serious danger if anyone finds out who you are and where you are and Gary Langan said and it's not just your uncle it's the Gambino's the Genovese the Lucchese z-- it's everyone you testified against if given that all of them would kill you and your family and it's going to be like that for the rest of your lives I told them I knew that going in and I know the situation I have put myself and my family in it is what it is but I am going to be careful and do the best I can that's all I can do for the next several hours the agents went through the proper protocol of how Philip Leonetti was going to transform into a John Doe with a new name and a new background that night the Leonetti family and the two FBI agents went out for a huge celebratory dinner at one of the Tampa area's top restaurants and they reminisced over the past and waxed philosophical over something that was undoubtedly uncertain for Philip Leonetti the future leonetti had mastered the rules of La Cosa Nostra and life as a federally protected witness in latina and fci Phoenix that was easy to him those skills were innate he was a survivor but mastering the rules of living life as someone else a civilian would be Philip leonetti's toughest challenge yet those first couple of weeks I was just driving around learning the area and seeing what was going on down there every day was like a new adventure for me I laid low for the first two months I was just getting acclimated to the area my new identity and life away from la cosa nostra and then they called me back to Philadelphia to testify in the Bobby Simone trial while Leonetti may have been released from jail he was still required to appear as a witness if called to do so by the federal government testifying against Bobby Simone was the hardest thing I ever had to do it was easier killing Vincent Falcone and getting sentenced to 45 years than it was to testify against Bobby Bobby was always good to me and I considered him a dear friend but I had to tell the truth and the feds knew what the truth was the evidence was so overwhelming I couldn't have lied even if I wanted to there were a lot of times when I was testifying in that case that I had tears in my eyes that's how difficult that was for me any chance I got to try and help Bobby I did I wasn't trying to hurt him and he knew it there were a lot of questions that were asked of me where my answer was I don't recall or I don't remember and trust me if I had remembered it wouldn't have been good for Bobby when it was over Bobby Simone was convicted of racketeering and sentenced to four years in federal prison with a concurrent 15-month sentence in a separate tax case around this time I think it was the spring of 1993 we moved from where we were staying in bought a four-bedroom house right outside of Naples Florida which was a few hours south of where we had been living the place was gorgeous and was right on the water I started a small landscaping company and things were going good for us even though he was done with la cosa nostra in the early part of 1993 Philip Leonetti decided it was time to take another oath Maria and I got married she had stuck by me through everything I remember her telling me I'm not going anywhere and that was after I got the 45 years I don't know if I would have been able to do what I did without her by this point little Phillip wasn't so little he was now 19 and was going to a big university in Arizona he had come out to see me a few times while I was in FCI Phoenix and he told me that he wanted to go to school there I couldn't have been prouder that he turned out the way he did considering everything he had to deal with when he was a kid he had just turned 13 when we got locked up in 1987 looking back I remember his 10th birthday we had a party for him on Georgia Avenue we had it inside the scarf Inc office and in the courtyard that separated our two buildings they didn't have Chuckie Cheese back then all of his friends came to the party and I remember being in the scarf Inc office with Lawrence my uncle who was home at the time never came down to the party that's the kind of guy he was always the big shot always a jerk-off so me and Lawrence are in the office and I look out the window and I see this shadow move back and forth very quickly you could see it was a person but it looked like they were wearing a mask and you could tell they were right on the other side of the door I said to Lawrence what the [ __ ] is that and he says I don't know I told him go out the back door and sneak through the alley and when I opened the door I want you to grab the guy from behind so Lawrence does what I tell him and when I know that he is in position I open the door and Lawrence grabs the guy and the guy is wearing a dinosaur costume we dragged the guy into the scarf Inc office and we are punching and kicking him and trying to get his mask off I think this is a hit that someone sent this guy to kill either me or my uncle so Lawrence gets the mask off and we see that it's a teenager and the kid is crying and he's scared to death I'm trying to help him but he's shaking like a leaf and Lawrence is trying to give him cake and soda to calm him down I tell him I'm sorry that this happened we just didn't know who you were please let us give you some money in case we damaged your costume that kid said I don't want your money I just want to go home and he runs out the door crying right in front of little Philip and all of his friends this is my son's 10th birthday party me and Lawrence beat up the dinosaur who someone got to come to the party and entertain the kids because we thought the dinosaur was there to kill us this is how [ __ ] up our life was this is what my kids saw on his 10th birthday so the fact that he made it into a prestigious university coming from where he came from was a [ __ ] miracle I couldn't have been prouder Philip Leonetti was a now 40 years old happily married running a landscape company and putting his son through college I felt normal like everybody else but I knew there was nothing normal about my life normal people hadn't killed people and lived the type of life that I had led but that was in the past well it seemed that Philip Leonetti was living in a dream it seemed like anyone still associated with what remained of La Cosa Nostra in Philadelphia and city was living in nightmare for starters raining mob boss John Stanfill was engaged in a war with a faction that was dubbed The Young Turks and consisted of Michael Mikey Chang Chang Collini Joseph skinny Joey Merlino and a half dozen of their friends many of whom with the sons brothers and nephews of the defendants who were convicted with Nicky Scarfo and Philip Leonetti in the late 80s what happened was

Channel: The Real Gambino Family

Views: 262,702

Rating: 4.5080647 out of 5

Keywords: Mafia, mafia, the mafia, Philip leonetti, Phil Leonetti, Nicky Scarfo, Mafia Prince, John Gotti, Sammy Gravano, Sammy The Bull Gravano, Sammy The Bull, New York, Joey Merlino, Salvi Testa, Salvatore Testa, Gambino Family, Philly Mob, Philly, Alpo, Italian, Rocky, Angelo Bruno, The Irishman, Jimmy Hoffa

Id: 6nxYbcgt6lk

Length: 77min 42sec (4662 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 19 2020