I guess a guy who is a captain at 28 years old isn't considered "high up" in the family? A guy that was killed for several reasons, but one of them being that he was featured on the cover of the Wall Street Journal, in which he was proclaimed the "crowned prince of Philadelphia" and the "fastest rising star" in the Scarfo organization. A guy that Scarfo believed was getting to big for his britches and possibly building his own family of followers, another reason why he was killed.

Yeah, that kid wasn't powerful or anything.

Dam guys, He may have been able to get a made guy to get him a talk to a skipper first or maybe to Paul.

But I will tell you this ,there are not to many old school bosses that are "not" going to send word of a hit on a Boss" back to a Boss".

Hell he may have been hit right there if someone made a call.

Who knows just sayin !

He would be spending life in prison right now regardless.

I think that's part of the game".

Rough game" ,but they love to play" it...

Dead" or in prison , that's the life" they chose ...

King has a point about Nardi & Danny Greene though. Pretty sure Nardi wasn't even made, Danny Greene literally had a handful of guys who killed for him, very few of them were LCN affiliated and was a virtual nobody in the world of OC, but his partnership with Nardi and fearlessness preserved his life for a bit and excelled him further into the underworld than he probably should've ever been. Yet he gets a sit down with Fat Tony Salerno, the front boss of the Genovese, same guy who also sat with Chin g Funzi Tieri during the Caponigro meeting. Technically if they can meet with someone that close to a boss, I don't see why a high ranking, high earning capo from Philadelphia wouldn't be able to. I highly doubt he would've gotten an okay to clip Scarfo nor did I ever imply he'd be taking over any family. But I also doubt they'd tell him basically not to defend himself. Which is the whole point I was getting at before, from all accounts Salvie Testa was prepared to kill for his life, just as much as any other man would be.

Scarfo made mostly younger guys, and mostly all of those guys grew up with Salvie Testa, Grande, Leonetti, Scarfo Jr, the Pungitore's, etc. And not all of those guys were as close to Nicky as Salvie was, and in fact, Salvie brought in most of those guys into the Scarfo circle. So either way, killing Salvie was Scarfo's downfall, because young guys and the very few old guys Scarfo made and kept around from the Bruno days, saw it as, "if he'd kill him, we're all expendable".

The Pung's, Grandes and Testa all had fathers in LCN. Salvie didn't bring those kids around; their fathers did. He was friends with alot of them because of their fathers relationships.

Only reason why Bruno had an audience with Gambino is because they personally went back years and their families were "cousins" or some shit like that, from the old country. And, that move by Gambino to save Bruno, while it appears to make us believe that things like that can happen, was 100% self-serving. It gave Gambino another ally on the commission.

The Genovese were allied with Scarfo. He did everything they asked of him and they sided with him. If testa went up there, he would be dead. No questions asked. And if you think Testa could have appealed to Big Paul, the other heavyweight at the time, that's not happening either. Scarfo also met with Castellano on multiple ocassions. The scarfo/Gambino connection is very well documented. let's not forget who killed Johnny Keys Simone.

Right on Whip as usual ,We all came from NY or Philly , And many Philly people hit NY first and then down to Philly and city's west.

So many of us are related one way or a other.

Looking at all the young guys from scarfo days they cant be to friendly. Didt some kill narduccis fathe then pung robs anothers family milano grande fliped. Merlino and his crew are tight. This is probaly the most guys they had on the street since scarfo days. Not making money like before but alot of capable guys. Theres like 2 dozen convicted killers or not connvicted guys. With all the books wrote that puts them in good company. That guy bent finger lou will be watching his back all summer.

And he is a small fry , Phil has been around a lot ,and he has or is using a place around here . He is doing real good $$$ and it is making him lose.

Not a good idea with the old dudes getting out .
They are holding a couple grudges ,and one is in the family...

I really think with out any big busts all are going to see a little action . Maybe not like the old days ,but just a lot of chiefs and not a real lot of green..but plenty of Indians in south Philly.

Where did you hear this? You piqued my interest!

It HAD to be a list of associates OR maybe Riccobene's crew remnants ....There is no way in heck that ANY made guy would cross Scarfo.

I didn't say any of that, in regards to Salvie Testa getting an audience with Big Paul or getting any Genovese guys to turn on Scarfo. I said King had a point that if an associate like John Nardi and a virtual nobody can have a sit down with Tony Salerno, it's in the air as to who Salvie, a 28 year old, high earning caporegime in the Philadelphia Crime Family, would've been able to talk to.

And it's also common knowledge that the Punges, Grandes, Narducci's & Testa had fathers in the Philly LCN. But in the case of the Pungitores, they followed Salvie Testa into the mob, according to most sources, despite their father being the blonde babe. I'm sure they would've joined anyway, but being best friends with Salvie Testa was definitely extra motivation. Salvie brought Gino Milano into the Scarfo Organization, and the Grande's, Narducci's & Nicky Whip were all made into Salvie's crew. At one point they were all closer to Salvie Testa than Nicky Scarfo and Phil Leonetti. Again, thats according to informants and books. Maybe you know something, I don't, but Salvie did bring some of these guys in according to Caramandi, DelGiorno, Leonetti & the FBI.

I misquoted Caramandi. That was my bad.


And a recent Gangland article on Mastronardo mentions the Ligambi & Co bookmaking part of their trial and how all of their bets were between $50-$500 dollars. While Mastronardo a self bookie with no LCN connection had bets coming to him that were between $20,000-$50,000, and how he had no issue covering his losses. The penalty for not paying up with him was simply not being able to place bets with him anymore. While the LCN guys were threatening and beating people up over $50-$500 dollar bets. Shows you how small time Philly LCN has become.

NY micromanaged the hell out of the philly family so scarfo could be boss and they're going to throw that away for a caporegime? Totally different situation, cleveland and philly

Not really, because nobodies saying that they'd take Salvies side, for the third time. I'm just saying, I don't agree that had he wanted to, for any reason aside from murdering Nicky Scarfo, that he'd be unable to meet with the upper echelon of a NY family.


And now that I have the book in front of me, this is what Caramandi said in regard to Salvie Testa being on the defense. First Anastasia says "..Part of the problem was Testa. He was a difficult target, always on the alert. And those stalking him knew that he'd be willing to shoot back." And this is what Caramandi says, I was right in when I said he wasn't hiding and that he'd been conducting his regular business around South Philadelphia. Caramandi says, "He's doing his regular business, but he knows there's something wrong. He suspects he's gonna be killed. He just can't figure out who's going to do it to him."

Then he says that he and Charlie Iannece would discuss to themselves why Salvie didn't just run, hightail it out of Philadelphia, but that it wasn't in his makeup. "He was the type of guy who, if he knew for sure, woulda went after Chuckie or Nicky and tried to kill them. This kid woulda went down in a blaze of glory. But he just wasn't sure. He was aware. He was alert. But he wasn't sure."

Like I said, Salvie would've went after Nicky Scarfo, Chuckie Merlino, Phil Leonetti and whomever else was in on it. He would've gone to war, Caramandi says so. And like I said before, before I was made to feel like I was wrong, Salvie Testa was never hiding, he was conducting regular business, operating his regular rackets, and was still a pretty visible guy leading up to his death, so much so that Caramandi says he played Tennis on a regular basis at the Pier 30 Tennis Club down by the Delaware River waterfront. So like I said, I misquoted Caramandi about having a crew gunning for Nicky, Merlino & Co, but I wasn't incorrect for a second about him still operating his rackets and not becoming a recluse and basically sitting in his house all day like a jackass, and that he would've definitely to war and would've been gunning for Scarfo, Merlino, & Leonetti had he been sure that there was an order for him to be murdered placed by Nicky Scarfo.

No, u said "Salvie put a crew of guys gunning for scarfo" the other day. And I mentioned the crow said no such thing

That is completely different to your post above. Because Crow is simply saying Salvie would have retaliated had he known for sure

But that's the point I'm making, he didn't!

Uhh, I said on the first page I misquoted Caramandi. I said it again when asked by ItalianIrishMix, and I also said it in that post I made right before yours. But for whatever reason, you disregarded that.

You said I took Caramandi out of context when I stated that Salvie was still conducting his business in South Philadelphia. When I didn't, and he said exactly what I said he did. That's what I was referring to in the last part of the post.

There are other reasons why this guy was looked at in a bad light.
I don't know how much of this is out there ,but I know some is not.

But when Salvie was down at the shore he had one of the hottest girls around here.( Before during and after the wedding that did not go on) And many of the guys his age at the time wish they had.I am not saying that had everything to do with it .But when these guys want what he had,they will make stuff worse.(This girl is still hot")

But this may have ,while he was to marry Chuckie's kid he had a girl in Philly that everyone knew about.
Then when he was down here he had this girl that everyone knew about .
He did not hide any of them from the guys, and or Nicky or Chuckie.

Salvie would have everyone over and sit out back on the deck and on the boat that was tied to the deck / dock.
Now of course the guys would talk and the girls would talk more .This was all in the faces and family members of Chuckie.

I don't know if this is in a book ,but salvie was a dealer and he was into meth" and he was with all kinds of people that Nick did not want him with . He was able to make these contacts from doing work for Nick.He took it apon himself to get real deep in dope.

I am not saying anyone should be killed for this. But in his life that he chose" he knew that the things he was doing was going to come back on him and this is why he did not push back .He knew and accepted that he did wrong and he knew that "greed" got the best of him.

This was all possible through the work he was doing for the family.
He stopped hanging with Phil and a few others that he would normally would before he dumped Chuckie's kid.
This made many suspicious when a guy drops out of his regular guys.
I am not talking about his crew ,I am talking about the guys he looked up to and hung with.

Apologies I've been crazy busy and scanned through the posts.

Nice bit of info! We can only speculate as to why Salvie stopped hanging with these guys u mention... Perhaps he was planning ahead and knew there would be trouble once he announced the bad news to Chuckie. And wanted to distance himself in advance

So has anyone got a pic or seen Merlino's sister? Can't find anything on google

I really wish that I had known that there would be interest" about this stuff" the day or a week after it happened, I would have paid more attention .
I was not part of any inner circle" I was a life long neighborhood guy that lived with in a shout, and around the same age as Phil.

Wish I got to sit in that office and hear what was said when "Philly guys came down or others.(us locals were asked to go on the sidewalk)but that usually meant Angeloni's for a attitude adjustment..a drink !

Man they did not hold back out front when they would stand out there for hours talking and waiting on word from Phil or Nick .
Philly guys are a loud and boisterous bunch .

I'll tell you one person that knew and herd a lot of stuff ,and I will say it cos she is since passed,Nick's sister Phillip's mom .Her apartment was shared with the office ,right behind it .(with a door)

The fact that it is well known Salvie was doing something in dope that he was not on record doing .This is all Chuckie needed let alone the fact that Salvie would be in AC with a girl and not keep it to him self and let his father inlaw hear it and then dump his kid and he is Salvie's boss.
It is not like it was a side piece ...he toted her around.

How are they gonna kill Salvie for "being deep in dope" and then go and make Long John Martarano though?

I agree with this and MAYBE, just MAYBE, an LCN family transfer could have been arranged in this manner.
I BELIEVE this was his ONLY option at still breathing oxygen. Keeping his rank in Philly is what probably led him to not explore the option of starting over in another family.

I KNOW that this has been done before. Family transfers have been done AND especially if the guy has the talent to EARN!

Few names that come to mind:

Gravano
Albert Gallo & Punchy
Scarfo Jr.
I am not as knowledgeable as others may be in this area but I am sure there are others.

And let's not forget the most dangerous of them all, Mr.Joseph D. Pistone....(Kidding on this one)

I got what you mean , Nick had a zero drugs policy .
I know about the meth chemical they were smuggling and I will bet that it was behind Nick's back .
I also know at the end when something went down and he got wind of it ,that he was lied to or the deal was" twisted ".

If there is one thing I know for sure Nick would have never been into dope.
Now don't mistake this for a shake down ,cos he would take 10 dollars or 10 million for a shake down.

Long John was into dope ,but I think he was away through the years Nick was on the move.
Not just that ,the guy was able to make money other ways.
I know if Long John was dealing under Mick he would not last the week.

But everything that came along with it was fair game .
The money could be loaned ,the guys could be killed if they did not pay tax .
But no way drug dealing,,it was a death sentence "period"

Yeah I agree Serp and plus I think a lot of those guys back then enforced "deal and die" policy but they sure as well weren't turning away envelopes nor did they want to know where it came from half the time (Castellano, Bruno, etc). I'd imagine based on your comment a few up that Salvie was more "hands on" as opposed to shaking them down, financing deals, etc.

Serp - Great posts. I too heard that Salvie Testa was doing things that he shouldn't have been doing (off-record shit). I didn't know about the girlfriend flaunting shit in front of Chuckie and Yogi; he should have been killed for that. It's a rule and NY wouldn't/couldn't have helped him with that.

But, I heard that Scarfo knew about the P2 (meth oil) deals. Before the other guys on this site say it, I know that Scarfo wasn't convicted of drug dealing. It's a technicality.

He knew it was used to make the speed, and he knew that all the guys bringing it in were "The crank guys" in the city and south jersey. None of those guys who were smuggling it in were LCN Family, but it was clear who was doing what.

I know, first-hand that the guys bringing in the P2 were told to "keep doing it and kick up, or get killed". Plain and simple.

Don,t if it was put the way I said it or they you herd it .but if you were dealing ,importing ,smuggling ,you had to pay tax . Did Nick put it that way so he felt he was not involved ,like they chose to deal ,I am just getting paid to allowing them to operate. I know that it is almost the same thing ,but I also know in Nicks mind he was not involved in dope . I know he thought it was there buzz and it was on them how they made there money ,but he wanted royalties.....I think I said it right ..

I agree with you 100%. That's why i said technicality. He didn't want to know where the money was coming from and he always had a few guys between him and the shit.

Was he involved with the bike gangs when dealing with the P2 or the meth?

I don't know if that was his or a other skipper (Tommy) possibly . But he was involved in the meth after it was made ,so I would just think guilt by association.There was big money in that shit then .It was coming in pure and made right here ,unbelievable profits and the bikers moving it throughout the United States .

Serp

Someone mentioned it above and it got me thinking given all the NY moves to get Philly and their AC rackets , was there any chance for salvie to switch to the Gambinos under the protection of the cherry hill bunch if a testa and Nicky war was Imminent .

It seems like something that could have been at least discussed tho unlikely to happen . However for the Gambinos it would have been a nice coup since they lost the whole fam and AC to the WS with Bruno's death . Thx in advance