Philadelphia Mob

A rear courtroom door opened and a slight man shuffled to the witness stand, clad in a black V-neck sweater over a white collared shirt and patterned tie. Now 83, he looked too frail to lift a baseball bat, much less crush it against another man's skull, as he said he once would. "Wow," a defense lawyer blurted out. "He got old," someone else whispered. A dozen years have passed since Pete "The Crumb" Caprio became a turncoat against his associates in the Philadelphia mob. At least three times since, federal prosecutors have trotted out Caprio, a once-feared captain, to tell juries about his life, exploits, crimes, and similar details about others.

Victor DeLuca, a mob hit man who broke the "code of silence" and turned informant, is suffering from throat cancer and has had his voice box removed, sources have told the Daily News. For nearly two years, DeLuca has been providing investigators with details about the inner workings of the Philadelphia mob, and in 1984 his testimony helped convict Harry "The Hunchback" Riccobene of a contract killing. DeLuca, 47, underwent surgery in December at an undisclosed government hospital, sources said.

Santo Idone had been the only ranking member of the Nicodemo Scarfo organized-crime family to avoid arrest during an unprecedented, three-year onslaught by law enforcement authorities. That changed on Tuesday when Idone, 68, was named in a federal indictment in Philadelphia charging him and three of his top associates with racketeering, conspiracy and extortion in connection with the operation of an illegal poker machine distribution network in Chester. The indictment was announced on the same day that another high-profile Scarfo family member, Albert "Reds" Pontani, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in federal court in Newark, N.J., in a drug case.

In the long and lively history of mob trials in Philadelphia, last week's debut of the racketeering case against Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino and six others may have established at least one underworld first. The presence of Merlino at the defense table, former mob boss Ralph Natale on the witness stand for the prosecution, and reputed acting mob boss Joe Ligambi in the spectator section may have been the first time three bosses appeared in the same courtroom at the same time. "It's a real Philadelphia moment," quipped one underworld observer.

Rosario Bellocchi, the suspected mob hit man charged with murder in Camden County last week, was angry. The Sicilian-born pizza maker stood with his hands cuffed behind his back during a March 29 preliminary hearing. A Montgomery County District Court judge had just refused to lower his $250,000 cash bail in a mob-related kidnapping case when he shouted: "What am I, an animal? I'm in jail, I didn't do nothing . . . What did I do?" Who Bellocchi is and what he has done are, in fact, two central questions in a broader organized crime investigation that sources say is aimed at bringing down reputed Philadelphia-South Jersey mob boss John Stanfa.

Joseph Sodano, a New Jersey mobster once heard on an FBI tape boasting about his Mafia pedigree, was found shot to death Saturday night in Newark in what authorities said yesterday appeared to be an organized crime hit. A leader of the Newark branch of the Philadelphia mob, Sodano, 58, was found slumped over the steering wheel of his van in the parking lot of a senior citizen complex shortly after 10 p.m., according to Detective Daniel Collins of...

Salvatore Avena: Did I do somethin' wrong? Salvatore Profaci: Well, we started a lawsuit. Goodfellas don't sue goodfellas. . . . Goodfellas kill goodfellas. Of all the quotes on all the tapes from all the conversations made during the FBI's four-year probe of the Philadelphia mob, none compares to New York mob leader Sal Profaci's succinct and chilling explanation picked up by an FBI bug on June 2, 1992, in Sal Avena's Camden law office. Law enforcement authorities say it captured the essence of wiseguy life.

BOCA RATON, Fla. - Joseph Merlino steps out onto the iron-railed balcony of his $400,000 townhouse. Bare-chested, ripped and clad in nothing but gray skivvies, he looks more like a former Calvin Klein underwear model than one of the most ruthless mobsters of his time. A year out of prison, Joseph Salvatore "Skinny Joey" Merlino isn't so skinny anymore. But he looks almost as boyish at 50 as at 39, when he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for racketeering. Back then, he was a 5-foot-3, 100-pound dapper young don who masterminded the bloody takeover of the Philadelphia mob. Today, he is a two-hour plane ride from the Southwest Philadelphia rowhouse where he grew up to become an underworld icon, both feared and eerily revered in the City of Brotherly Love.

The feds say the go-ahead came from a man known as The Chin, a man who likes to walk the street in slippers and a robe. They say he sanctioned a Philadelphia bloodbath. Reputed New York mob boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante has been identified by federal authorities in Brooklyn as a prime conspirator in six Philadelphia gangland slayings that changed the face of the local underworld in the early 1980s and led to Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo's bloody rise to power. Gigante, considered by many to be the most powerful mob leader in America, approved the murders of the six local mobsters because of their suspected involvement in either the 1980 murder of longtime Philadelphia mob boss Angelo Bruno or the 1981 murder of Bruno's successor, Philip Testa, according to a federal indictment unsealed last week.

Mobster Vincent "Big Vince" Filipelli wanted to make one thing perfectly clear yesterday after pleading guilty to an extortion-related charge that could keep him behind bars for the next several years. Signaling to reporters who had shown up in U.S. District Court in Camden to cover his plea hearing, the bulky former professional weight lifter slashed his hand through the air and then said with a smile, "Remember, no cooperation. " Filipelli, 53, wanted to underline what his lawyer had emphasized during the 30-minute session before Judge Noel Hillman - there was no plea agreement and no cooperation deal with federal authorities.

THE SELF-DESCRIBED "CFO" of the Philadelphia mob has pleaded guilty to racketeering and illegal gambling rather than face a retrial. Anthony "Ant" Staino had been convicted of two loan-sharking counts at a sweeping mob trial this year. But the jury acquitted him or deadlocked on most counts. The jury also deadlocked on the central racketeering charge against reputed mob boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi and his nephew, George Borgesi, who will be retried. Staino, 55, of Swedesboro, N.J., entered his plea late Thursday.

A North Jersey mobster, who admitted to participating in the affairs of Philadelphia's La Cosa Nostra, was sentenced today to a 55 month term in federal prison. Louis "Big Lou" Fazzini, 45, pleaded guilty in October to a racketeering conspiracy charge linked to a mob-controlled gambling and loan-sharking operation. A self-described "made" member of the mob, Fazzini, of Caldwell, operated a sports bookmaking business and ran a social club in northern New Jersey where illegal gambling on card and dice games occurred regularly.

A photo caption Jan. 30 with a story on the Homeless Hospitality Network wrongly identified a woman helping with the program. Mary Jane Winkel is pictured above. A photo Wednesday in a graphic on the outcome of the Philadelphia mob trial was wrongly identified as being of defendant Gary Battaglini. It was actually of defendant Anthony Staino. The photo identified as Anthony Staino was also a photo of Staino, but was an older one. A story Wednesday, relying on information from Cherry Hill Township that was erroneous, reported an incorrect amount for the taxes paid last year by Subaru of America Inc. to the township.

A day after declaring themselves at an impasse, jurors in a Philadelphia mob racketeering trial deliberated for nearly six hours Sunday but failed to reach a verdict. The panel of eight men and four women offered no clues about their progress on Day 19 of talks in the case against reputed mob boss Joseph Ligambi and six others. They met behind closed doors but, unlike previous days, had no questions or requests. On Saturday, jurors reported to U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno for the first time that they were at an impasse but didn't elaborate.

A day after declaring themselves at an impasse, jurors at the Philadelphia mob racketeering trial deliberated for nearly six hours Sunday but failed to reach a verdict. The panel of eight men and four women offered no clues about their progress on Day 19 of talks in the case against reputed mob boss Joseph Ligambi and six others. They met behind closed doors but, unlike previous days, had no questions or requests. On Saturday, the jury reported to U.S. District Judge Eduardo Robreno for the first time that it was at "an impasse," but didn't elaborate.

On Day 13 of jury deliberations at the Philadelphia mob trial, two bets were stone-cold locks: The jurors would ask to listen to more FBI tapes. And Mousie would have something to say. Around 11 a.m., the jurors delivered, asking to hear another batch of recordings played at the 10-week racketeering trial. Then Joseph "Mousie" Massimino did his part, escorted into the room with his codefendants, hands cuffed but mouth, as always, unrestrained. "Keep the glasses chilled," he quipped to friends in gallery, part of his running prediction for a get-out-of-jail-party.

Lawyers for accused leaders of the Philadelphia mob railed against prosecutors and their case Friday, urging jurors to acquit the men and reject an FBI probe they said took more than a decade because it was built on petty crimes, flimsy evidence, and unreliable witnesses. "They were investigating for 13 years," Gregory Pagano told jurors. "They were waiting for something bigger and better than video poker machines and sports betting to come along, and it never did. " A day after a prosecutor spent more than three hours delivering his closing argument, Friday was reserved for defense lawyers to fire back.

Anthony Nicodemo, a reputed mob soldier, was charged Thursday night in the daytime slaying Wednesday of Gino DiPietro outside his home in South Philadelphia, city police said. Authorities matched a bullet fragment found on DiPietro's clothes with a gun found in an automobile registered to Nicodemo, a police source confirmed Thursday. Nicodemo, 41, of the 3200 block of South 17th Street, was charged with murder and related offenses. Also Thursday, a federal judge said he would individually question the 15 jurors in the federal racketeering trial of seven alleged Philadelphia mobsters when court resumes Tuesday to see if they had been exposed to news coverage of the slaying.

A rear courtroom door opened, and a slight man shuffled to the witness stand, wearing a black V-neck sweater over a white collared shirt and patterned tie. At 83, he looked too frail to lift a baseball bat, much less crush it against another man's skull, as he said he once would. "Wow," a defense lawyer blurted out. "He got old," someone else whispered. A dozen years have passed since Pete "the Crumb" Caprio became a turncoat against his associates in the Philadelphia mob. At least three times since, federal prosecutors have trotted out Caprio, a once-feared captain, to tell juries about his life, exploits, and crimes, and similar details about others.