Originally Posted By: Ted
I screwed up the years/details, actually. They were talking about a making ceremony that happened 3 years prior. Don't ever listen to me.

"What follows is a partial transcript from that meeting, with Licata reminiscing about the 2007 “making” ceremony at which Fazzini and others were formally inducted into the Philadelphia crime family, refered to in the document as “LCN” (La Cosa Nostra).

Licata notes that Fazzini and Eric Esposito, a co-defendant in the racketeering case, were made at the same ceremony conducted by Ligambi. He states that Anthony Staino, another codefendant, also was present, along with Michael Lancelotti. Staino and Lancelotti, referred to as “Lance,” have been described as capos or captains in the Ligambi orgnaization.

Five others, including codefendant Damion Canalichio, were inducted in an earlier ceremony, Licata says, noting that Canalichio was initiated shortly before he went to prison (the “can”) for a drug conviction.

Licata references then-jailed mob boss Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino, who he says had proposed three others for membership. Ligambi declined to “make” those unnamed associates, Licata says, because he didn’t know them well. He tells Licata that Merlino can make them himself when he comes home from prison.

Also below, from the detention memo, is the federal prosecutors’ analysis of the transcript.

http://articles.philly.com/2012-05-04/news/31556726_1_racketeering-case-merlino-transcript

So in 2007 Fazzini, Esposito and Canalichio were made along with 4 other unnamed guys. Plus 3 unnamed guys Merlino has not inducted yet. Is it possible Grande was one of these 3 and Ligambi eventually decided to make him in 2011?
The transcript of the conversation is also in the link.


Prosecutors in his first trial (where he faced first-degree murder charges), alluded to Grande being the trigger man in the DiPietro hit. According to state police files, Grande was sponsored for membership in the Philadelphia LCN Family by Nicodemo in a late-200os induction ceremony presided over by Ligambi, recently tapped the Borgata’s consigliere upon his return from a more than two-year stay as a guest of the government in the winter of 2014.

From an article. I guess it was after Joey got out, but I don't know if he was at the ceremony or just gave his okay from Florida after he was out to have Ligambi do the ceremony.

Grande, Joseph Servidio, and cant remember the 3rd