Old Article about Johnny Chang's release from his first stint in the can.....

'Johnny Chang' Out Of Slammer Mob Watchers Here Ponder His Future

by Kitty Caparella, Daily News Staff Writer
POSTED: January 06, 1995
Whose side are you gonna be on?

Your dead brother's or your disabled brother's - who had been jealous rivals in a deadly struggle to rule the Philadelphia crime family?

Or are you going to sit out the city's bloody mob war, now in remission, and go back to being a master plumber as you told U.S. District Judge Robert S. Gawthrop III and your jailed father?

These are questions mob watchers want to know about reputed mob associate John "Johnny Chang" Ciancaglini, who arrived home from prison yesterday.

Ciancaglini stepped off USAir Flight 244 at Philadelphia International Airport from Tallahassee, Fla., where he served six years in federal prison on 1988 drug-trafficking charges.

His dark hair lightened by the Florida sun, the 6-foot-1 Ciancaglini, 39, was wearing a burgundy turtleneck and charcoal slacks. Ciancaglini's cousin, Frank DiPasquale, one of the pallbearers at Ciancaglini's brother's 1993 funeral, was waiting to take him to a homecoming party to see two young daughters, his fiancee, Donna Rosa, family and friends, according to a mobwatcher.

Ciancaglini's youngest brother, Michael, was killed Aug. 5 1993, in a drive-by shooting while walking with Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino near their now-defunct clubhouse on Catharine Street near 6th. Merlino, the crime family's heir apparent, was wounded.

The two headed a rival faction of mob wannabes that had been engaged in a bloody war with crime boss John Stanfa to take over the crime syndicate.

Ciancaglini's middle brother, Joseph, however, was on Stanfa's side serving as his underboss, the No. 2 position.

On March 2, 1993, Joseph Ciancaglini was riddled with five bullets inside his takeout restaurant next to Stanfa's food-importing business in Grays Ferry.

He is permanently disabled, walks with a cane, has impaired eyesight and wears a hearing aid, say law enforcement sources.

Authorities believe Michael Ciancaglini may have set up his brother Joseph. That's why Stanfa gave his hitman-turned-informant John Veasey the go-ahead to ''take out" Michael.

Ciancaglini's father, Joseph "Chickie" Ciancaglini, is a mob capo serving a 45-year federal sentence for racketeering under the Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo regime.