Mob Scene : Split Loyalties

Mob Scene with George Anastasia: As prosecutors try to incorporate the Casasanto murder into the charges against Joe Ligambi, new information surfaces about divided loyalties in the Philadelphia crime family.

http://www.philly.com/philly/video/BC1650761199001.html

informative 4 mins thats for sure

Nicodemo might be a little nervous over this, isn't he suspected of being the shooter in that hit?

GA seems to be hinting also that skinny joey may be back in charge

Of course, it already came out in the recent indictment that Merlino was the official boss. But he'd have to move back to Philly to run things directly day-to-day.

If Joe Grande gets back on the streets I think that would be interesting. I was wondering if Dom Grande was one of those guys that Ligambi wouldn't make until Merlino came home. Ive heard rumors that he was going to get made.

When they first got busted this time last year the younger guys were jumping for joy!

As far as the cassanto murder, they can prove a murder was committed.To say that Nicodemo did it and to make it stick I think that would be hard to prove.

Also Scoops is an idiot! I mean his nickname suggest kind of that hes a gossip, they should of killed him in the 80s!

IVY I know that yogi merlino died, but whats up with chucky, has he been drinking bathtub gin out of the toilet the past 20 years in the bing. I'd like to hear words of wisdom from scarfo's old capos.

scarfo was a pycopath that turned on his own guys, at least with ligambi it seems like he at least would listen to his people and try to make decisions without dumping bodies all over the place. scarfo was a street thug and he had the napoleon complex

if the grandes who one of them is a rat have any inkling of getting back in, that would be foolish and show no respect for their own families after being in jail for 20 plus years

Give it time my friend, I am sure the feds got some rats that will be unveiled out of the woodwork soon enough.

hey this is getting crazy. they went from focusing on these petty racketeering lite charges to focusing on merlino and saying ligambi was just a puppet. it looks like merlino is the main focus all of a sudden. did something change

Is Merlino in the case? Could that be another reason for the delay?

Not yet. At least officially. They may be doing their best to add him though. If they get enough to indict him, they'll probably have enough to indict Mazzone and others as well.

Joey is Joey, he grabs the headlines. As long as he is even marginally involved in anything, the feds will not hesitate to try and connect/indict him on a case. Think Gotti Sr and Jr and Basciano. Big name = headlines

Yeah im sure if they had anything on him before the case they would have carted him in right along with the rest of them. Doubt they got anythong on him now.

In a recent Mob Scene, GA said that his sources told him that Joey might have violated his parole down in Florida meeting known OC figures/guys with criminal records and not to be surprised if they bring Joey back up to Philly by the end of the summer and violate his parole.

I am amazed any of these guys could still feel any loyalty to Scarfo! The guy is a certifiable psychopath.

And I agree with Dapper: Joey = headlines = newspaper sales and high TV ratings.

Stay tuned.

The feds know how to play the game perfectly to a tee. They initially indicted Ligambi and co on mostly gambling charges. They let them stew for a bit at the Philly MDC and waited to see if any of them flipped. Bent Finger Lou flipped shortly thereafter, none of the made guys flipped who can potentially talk about murders. So the feds indicted a few more guys (Licata and Fazzini) off the streets and added some more charges to Ligambi (no show job) and released snippets of some incriminating recordings while revealing Nicky Skins was wired up.

Now they just let all those guys stew at the Philly MDC without bail and have them think if any/who of the Philly guys will run to the government first to cut a deal. Remember, whoever cuts a deal first usually gets the best agreement.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out...

Scarfo was a nut job but he was someone who was like a symbol of what a gangster is and what their family once was, he did expand their operations greatly and had a lot of fear on the street. To go from someone like him to ligambi may not be a very appealing thing for some of the guys from that time.Put it this way no one ever gonna make a documentary about ligambi.

well Scorsese i couldnt say it better myself. But if you rememember how Angelo Bruno was then thats more on the lines of ligambi. its just that the feds have more resources now and more people willing to cooperate and last but not least they have rico. A guy like scarfo wouldnt last 2 years now especially when you see a guy like stanfa who only lasted what 4 years tops

They may not make a documentary about Ligambi but he kept making money in s philly and jersey, they had tons of money on the streets and the gambling operations were in full operations like the one at the Borgata Poker room. There was some major dollars going through there. Ligambi just took a page out of angelo brunos book not to make news and be flambouyant and public about an alleged secret society

your right about the feds having more resources. Angelo Bruno was the right type of person for his time. He came up when the community was still a sort of immigrant community and mostly everyone either working with or for him would just do as they were told because thats just how it was if they wanted to survive. He gave them what he wanted to not really what they wanted. Then when drugs came around people underneath him started to see the money they could make within a short amount time and also the power that comes with it. He should have just let his family deal drugs rather than trying to ban it, i know it brings heat but at the end of the day he was not running a play school. I think he got a little too over confident in his title that he forgot that the people that work for him were a bunch of sociopathic murderers and criminals like himself. Then you had a guy like scarfo who was perfect for the family which was in dissaray at the time as someone that could take control and maintain it even if he was a psychopath he did what he needed to do.He was on tv and people knew who he was. he gave them a fearsome rep as well as a sort of fame. Merlino more than stanfa was the same in many respects even if they didn't last as long. Ligambi seems to have backtracked when there are still people that are used to doing things the way they did during the scarfo era. Being part of the ligambi family just doesn't carry the same notoriety or weight in their minds as scarfo did.

I honestly don't think any of them---Bruno, Gambino, Accardo, Costello, any of the guys who basically spent their entire criminal careers outside of prison---would be able to avoid long prison stretches under today's FBI scrutiny. But a guy like Ligambi would have done well back in that era, as low-key and bright as he seems to be.

you are probably 100% correct because the feds will get wires so easily and the federal laws so ramped up to go around the 4th amendment just for being in certain arenas as they are now. The prison sentences are so tough now, that flipping is a much easier choice than it may have been back in the day

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Originally Posted By: merlino

They may not make a documentary about Ligambi but he kept making money in s philly and jersey, they had tons of money on the streets and the gambling operations were in full operations like the one at the Borgata Poker room. There was some major dollars going through there. Ligambi just took a page out of angelo brunos book not to make news and be flambouyant and public about an alleged secret society

Bingo!
It was quite remarkable to see a boss (acting or not he was the guy in charge) for 11 years straight...especially in the Philly\South Jersey family.

Now we'll see if Merlino (and\or whomever gets the driving seat) has learned his lesson.

It's why I've always given Chin a lot of credit. He took over in the early 1980's, just as the FBI was getting it's act together, and lasted for the next 17 years as the boss of a NY family before finally being convicted. Of course, he had to go to some pretty extreme lengths to do it.

Who has scarfo even got on the streets to have any sort of influence over anyone?

Real Family is locked up or in Jersey or in the witness protection program, so good question? Are guys like scarfo that are not locked up in maximum federal pens allowed to give interviews TV or otherwise?

If David Berkowitz and Charles Manson can give interviews, I don't see why not.

Would love to see a new interview of Scarfo. Don't really hear anything about him anymore. I wonder how his health is. He has to be in his mid 80's by now

Yea but Scarfo pretty much brought the Philly Mob down all by himself. The Philly Mob was running like a well oiled machine in the 50's, 60 and 70's. They were making loads of money, not attracting to much attention from the feds and were still feared on the streets. The way Scarfo ran things with all the killings it brought WAY to much attention and did them in. He was the worst thing to ever happen to the Philly Mob

It's also important to remember that law enforcement efforts against the mob were rather lackluster during the 50's, 60's, and 70's. Had Bruno not been killed in 1980, he probably would have been indicted when the heat came on in the 1980's. And things would not have run so smoothly in the family as a whole.

I still think it would of ran much better then with Scarfo at the head. During Bruno's leadership period what was there maybe 7 or 8 murders in the 20 years or so that he ran the ship. Scarfo beat that in less then one year running the ship and they were WAY to greddy. I'm suprised he lasted as long as he did. He did nothing but draw all kinds of unwanted attention. Uncle Joe ran it like Bruno did. They still make loads of money and stayed out of the rader until recently that is.

your right and the feds are sweating this one out looking for somebody to flip that is a major player cause with the lawyers the defendants have in this case i wont be surprised if they get convicted on only a few counts or maybe even walk

if you get a chance to read an article mob Steve Volk the generalist wrote in philly mag last year they might just get away with it. no violence is a major issue for the feds

I was talking more about his notoriety and status than just how he ran the family. He was like the pablo escobar of the mob at the time. And also you got to take into count the scope of scarfos criminal activity during the 80s compared to ligambi during the late 90s till 2011. Scarfo had unions, atlantic city, gambling,loansharking, fraud,drug trafficking and the street tax he had put in place. He withstood a whole bunch of feuds and wars with rivals, he had a lot of killers around him that respected him but feared him more. Ligambi may have been keeping things quiet and earning money but he's never gonna reach the same heights or fear scarfo brought to the game.

True. When does Chucky Merlino, and chicky get out? It seems chicky will die in there, but isn't chuckys release date coming up fairly soon?

Both arguments are correct. Scarfo was good in the sense that he brought in a lot of money from all different areas. At the end of the day, that is what it's all about to most of these guys, and the Philly Mob was as powerhouse. For that, Scarfo doesn't get enough credit. On the other hand, Ligambi ran things as flawlessly as one can in the modern age. It's no doubt he and John DiFronzo were two of the strongest dons of the new millennium, and they run things in a very similar, back to basics, low profile way.