La Cosa Nostra

DON'T WORRY ABOUT me, judge. Those Philly wiseguys wouldn't lay a hand on me. I'm untouchable. That's basically what Nicodemo Scarfo Jr., son of former Philadelphia mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, told U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler in Camden yesterday. And it worked. Scarfo, 46, an alleged made member of New York's Lucchese crime family awaiting trial on corporate-fraud charges in New Jersey, will be removed from a protective unit at the federal lockup at 7th and Arch streets.

South Philadelphia and the mob. For decades, they have been intertwined. From Angelo Bruno to Joey Merlino, the cast of characters - and the term is used advisedly - has been the focus of law enforcement and media attention that reinforced that perception. Like it or not, and many in the community clearly do not, La Cosa Nostra has been a neighborhood institution. It is the dark side of the Italian American experience - a negative twist on the ethnic values of honor, family and loyalty.

The hardest part when a mob associate pleads guilty to federal racketeering charges is not admitting the crimes, but acknowledging his relationship with La Cosa Nostra. On July 7, mob associate Ralph "Ralphie Head" Abbruzzi, 51, of 13th Street near Jackson, balked during his change-of-plea hearing when U.S. District Judge Herbert Hutton quizzed him about his role in LCN. Yesterday, Hutton asked mob associate Steven Frangipani, 37, of Passyunk Avenue near McKean Street, to describe the "enterprise" of which he was a part.

Lawrence "Yogi" Merlino knows he may have to spend the rest of his life in prison for murder and other serious crimes. He also says the mob will try to kill him and his family. But Merlino, 45, a former capo in Nicodemo Scarfo's once powerful Philadelphia mob, yesterday predicted he and other informants will help law enforcement authorities put the Mafia out of business within a decade. "I became a witness, obviously, to help myself," Merlino, formerly of South Philadelphia, told U.S. District Judge Franklin S. Van Antwerpen at a hearing in a nearly empty but heavily guarded courtroom in Philadelphia.

In a move that capped one of the most successful and devastating investigations of an American mob family, Philadelphia Mafia boss John Stanfa was sentenced to life in prison yesterday. Like John Gotti, the notorious New York crime boss who is serving a life term, Stanfa was convicted of heading an organized-crime family that used murder as a way to do business. And, like Gotti and his Philadelphia predecessor, Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, Stanfa will likely spend the rest of his days behind bars.

An alleged leader of the so-called "Greek Mob" surrendered to the FBI yesterday at Philadelphia International Airport after spending 16 months as a fugitive writing his memoirs in Greece. As part of a negotiated agreement for his return, George Botsaris, 37, will plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine and distribution of cocaine, said prosecutor Michael Seigel of the U.S. Organized Crime Strike Force. Seigel said the guilty plea could be made before a judge today.

Ex-Philadelphia mob boss Ralph Natale was good at killing rival gangsters, but bad at executing the mob's business plans in Camden. While insisting that he paid out between $30,000 and $50,000 in bribes over a two-year period to Camden Mayor Milton Milan, hoping to win lucrative city contracts for mob-controlled businesses, Natale acknowledged to a jury yesterday that he got no return whatsoever on such a sizable "investment" of time and money...

Convicted mob racketeer Marty Angelina was ordered back to prison for four months yesterday after admitting to a federal judge that he had violated the terms of his probation by meeting with known felons and members of La Cosa Nostra since his release from prison 15 months ago. They were "bad choices," the onetime enforcer for jailed mob boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino said during a probation revocation hearing before U.S. District Judge R....

Prosecutor Louis R. Pichini quickly unloaded a cardboard box, placing 16 handguns and one double-barreled, sawed-off shotgun on a table before the jury in the federal racketeering case of reputed mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo and 16 alleged associates. "This - these guns - represent Scarfo's mindset. They represent how he ruled LCN (La Cosa Nostra). They represent how he ruled with an iron fist," Pichini said. Pichini spent all day yesterday delivering his closing argument to the jury in the trial, which began Sept.

In the underworld, phrases like "good stock" and "comes from a good background" mean that the guy was either born into a Mafia family or has good Mafia connections, according to FBI supervisor James Maher. Not so, testified defendant Salvatore Avena during his second day on the witness stand. His remarks about "good stock," "breeding" and "good background" were tape-recorded by the FBI with court approval at his Camden law firm. Avena told a federal jury at a murder racketeering trial that he was referring to the blood relatives of Gaeton "Horsehead" Scafidi, a co-defendant who pleaded guilty last fall to related federal charges.