Let's say Joe Punge grew a pair and warned his "best childhood friend" that there was a contract out on him. Do you think Salvie would have had a chance at coming out on top? I know he had many young followers loyal to him and that some already viewed him as the successor to Scarfo. Caramandi has said that if Salvie knew for certain there was a contract on him he would have gone out in a blaze of glory trying to take everyone out. I know this is purely hypothetical but what are your opinions?

Thank you for your time.

Scarfo had the backing of the Genovese family, unless Salvie somehow got them on his side it would seem unlikely that he would come out on top.

Yah but sometimes NY chooses to stay out of internal conflict amongst other families. The Gambino`s `backed`Stanfa but did nothing to assist him in his war witht he Merlino faction.


Obviously if the Genovese got involved Salvie would be in trouble but the Caponigro situation was different from a guy trying to kill his killers before they got him.

I think in the early 80s NY families did physically act to back an ally, like when Gravano whacked that Scarfo rival on Castellano's behalf. So I don't think Salvie would stand a chance against Scarfo.

That's an interesting "what if" situation. I don't know enough of Salvie other than he was an up and comer. I guess it would depend on how much he was earning and working with the other new york families to bring in money.

It would be interesting too to consider that IF somehow Salvie managed to patch things up with Scarfo, would he most likely get 20+ years sometime during the late 80s?

He would have gotten life no question about it.

Things were running relatively smooth in the early 80s compared to the early to mid 90s. By the time Stanfa was running things the New York families had alot of problems of their own.

Interesting topic for sure.

Like Sonny said in Bronx Tale its better to be feared than loved.

Salvie was loved by everyone and Scarfo was feared espcilly after everyone knew he wanted Salvie Testa gone. Most of the Scarfo crew didnt want to do it since they all loved Sal but did it out of fear for Scarfo.

Im sure many of the guys debated amongst themselves and perhaps with each other about it. Scarfo would have had 3 rock hard allies, His nephew Leonetti, and Yogi and Sal Merlino being that Sal Merlino was the one who pushed to have him gone after he stood up his daughter for their wedding.

The rest of the crew was there for a taking by Sal, I think it would have been much wiser of Pung and the rest of them to go with Salvie in the long run since I think Testa would have been a much better boss. Taking out Scarfo would have meant taking out Leonetti and the Merlino brothers all in a quick time and then dealing with New York afterwards.

Salvie all the way. Salvie would have told New York to go fuck themselves. This was Philly business. I never got that bullshit about asking permission from NY. Salvie owned the city, when he was in his mid 20's. When the philly mob was powerful as shit.

Nevertheless the commission felt betrayed by Cappanigro and the Genovese wanted him whacked out long before he hit Bruno. Salvie was well liked and trusted by everyone so I don't know that the NY families would have interfered if they thought Salvie could do a good job. Remember they knew he was good stock because of his father and the mob is all about the $. Part of the reason ( probably the main reason) Capponigro was hit is because Funzi wanted his sports book which reportedly brought in 5-6 million a year. I really think the financial gain was the main reason for Cappanigro getting hit as opposed to "upholding the rules" which the mob bends and breaks routinely when they stand to profit.

Speaking of the whole Scarfo/Salvie thing I remember listening to a documentary where Phil leonetti said the Phil testa asked scarfo to look after salvie if anything happened to him and scarfo said he would. Its ironic how that whole thing worked out lol

I think if Scarfo asked Gino Milano to set up Salvie, Gino would have ran back to Salvie. Gino was close only to Testa, who brought him in. He really did not like alot of those guys.Thats why he took the witness stand.

"Phil Testa said Nick god forbid anything happens to me make sure you take care of my son. And that's how they took care of him" Phil Leonetti

Scarfo and his wife were Salvies god parents too IIRC.

Bump for a few more opinions.

This murder never made any sense. i mean Testa was Scarfo's most loyal guys who also was a top hitman and earner. It wasn't like he was under investigation like roy demeo was where ther was a chance he would talk

Scarfo returning from prison in Texas, Salvy by his side at airport

Ya even when salvie knew he had a problem he was still loyal. I mean what boss would want to lose a guy like that unless you are nicky scarfo of course lol

While I agree with you for the most part I'm going to play the devils advocate. Look at how the 2 bosses before Scarfo died. I think he dreaded Salvie marrying Chuckie's daughter as the potential Merlino/Testa alliance would be a threat to his leadership and when Salvie broke it off Scarfo decided to take him out so the problem couldn't arise again. After all, ambitious underlings were what got the 2 previous bosses killed.

Grande didnt like salvie either ...quick to help wih the murder n then scarfo split up salvies books n such.salvie was a good earner n so was chickenman so salvie was able to get some stuff passed down to him.he also made a ton of money off the relastate deal with trump n then was in the magazine n then it was downhill from there. Sorry for bad grammar posting from phone having trouble with computer

Has anyone here read or got that wall street journal article?

I have it somewhere, I got a copy in 1991. If I find it I will post it somehow.

It was posted on another form. Does posting the link here violate the rules? If not I will try and dig it up and post it.

Thanks

That would be awesome Mussolini if you could, thanks!

Is it against the board rules to post links to other sites? If I get confirmation that it is not against the rules I will post it.

I'm not sure 100% but I have seen others post links to other sites and its been ok.

Not a problem from my experience, but J Geoff is very fast with response time over questions like these.

As long as it's not a pay site (like Capeci's), I think it's okay. But check with Geoff first.

Salvy with his father wearing his cowboy hat. City kid wearing a cowboy hat.lol

Phil and salvie looked like they ahd a pretty close relationship which is not always the case with mob fathers/sons. If Phil Testa never died i think the Philly mob would have stayed strong for a long time