Big Sam or The Old Man as he was known was a very underated capo for Bruno and Scarfos. Now most know him as Capo of DelCo and it is widely believed that he lost this post when he was busted. Sam was so under the radar and intelligent that most dont know he had the African American Bosses in Chester paying him tax for about 40 years and had them tied into his poker business and was there drug connect thru much of this time. My father was very close to him and though its known he was respected I dont think many know how big he was. Tho Chester fell under Philly's rule he was the boss of that city and took over every aspect of illegal business in his neighborhood and the African American dominated projects in Chester. Though he officially lost his post when indicted in 90 he was still collecting and making money for himself and those loyal to him until his death. When the war in 90s happened the Chester guys left on street were left alone by Philly and I'm not sure they would have kicked up anyway to either guy, defintley not Stanfa and the kids tho some had a relationship with Chester guys they were short sighted at the time and were focused on getting thier own city on board.

did he die in the pen? i read a few things about him on here. he only had that 1 soldier who also had a brother who was made in the buffalino family. names escapes me. but seems scarfo had a respect for him. never badmouthed him to the nephew. wasnt there a story him and scarfo were surpoed to make there bones together but santo was late and scarfo shot the guy, when santo shows up he tells him to shoot the guy to or stabb him. then there was something like the genovese or gambinos wanted santo to go to north jersey or nyc for a sitdown and he wouldnt go. scarfo assured him nothing would happen. it was over a gambling dispute. scarfo either killed or demoted like every guy in power in the family except him

He died in fl had a house in st petes for years.

And they were alleged to have been the hitters of the guy Reds in the 60s. He went against Gambinos trying to move in his video poker business but Gotti ended up ruling with him when Scarfo and Gotti had sit down about it.

Idone still had soldiers Santo Romeo, Domenic Rugnetta, Joseph Scalleat and Antonio Sciglitano reporting to him during the 80's. Scalleat was the soldier with a brother in the Bufalino family. When they were looking for Thomas Auferio during the Riccobene conflict they believed he had run off to Hazleton, so Scalleat was given the contract to kill him only he found out that Auferio wasn't in Hazleton anyway

https://gangsterreport.com/the-gold...TEmMGU_K2PY3l_lQTucw-oGV-M-sdZqtTpi89Fw4

The Gold Standard: Video Poker Beef With Gambino Mob Brought Down Philly Mafia Figure “Chester Sam”
Scott Burnstein

Philadelphia mob captain Santo (Chester Sam) Idone had his tenure as a mafia administrator derailed by a dispute with New York’s Gambino Crime Family over a video poker machine, snippets of which were caught on tape by the FBI for posterity. Idone, who led a Philly mafia crew out of Delaware County, Pennsylvania for two decades, was indicted 30 years ago on federal racketeering charges and sent away to prison, effectively bringing an end to his career as a power in the underworld.

“Chester Sam” ran his crew out of Chester, Pennsylvania, the oldest city in the history-steeped state. He was tapped as a capo by Philly mob don Angelo Bruno in the early 1970s. Upon Bruno’s assassination in 1980, Idone remained in the post under Bruno’s direct successors, Phil (The Chicken Man) Testa and Nicodemo (Little Nicky) Scarfo.

The beef with the Gambinos occurred in 1986 when a vending machine business in Chester placed a pair of video poker machines in a mob-controlled lounge and club called The Gold Room. The machines came from Action and Automatic Vending — companies owned by the Sanbe family, father, Alphonse, son Ronnie and grandfather Nick — and replaced machines owned by Danny Eufrasio, the son of Idone’s right hand man Mario (Murph) Eufrasio.

The Sanbes believed their actions were protected by Freddy Lupi, a Gambino associate about to be released from prison. Lupi was a silent partner in their business. By the start of 1986, with the knowledge that Lupi was on his way home, the Sanbes had made the owner of The Gold Room a better deal on the machines than the younger Eufrasio had been giving him.

In March 1986, Idone stepped into the situation and threw his weight around. He instructed Danny Eufrasio to move the Sanbes machines out of The Gold Room and reinstall the Idone-crew backed ones. Nick Sanbe filed a police report for theft, drawing the ire of the Idone crew. The day after filing the report, he was contacted via phoned by Murph Eufrasio and told in no uncertain terms to drop the complaint immediately.

The auto body shop the Idone crew hung out at and talked business every day was wired for sound throughout all of 1986.

“You’re fooling around with the wrong people, this ain’t worth getting hurt over,” Eufrasio was recorded admonishing Sanbe. “Look, if you don’t drop this thing, somebody’s going to get hurt and it’s probably going to be you or someone close to you. So just leave it alone, alright?”

The threat didn’t deter Nick Sanbe though. That fall, he sent his grandson Ronnie into The Gold Room and other Idone crew-controlled bars and taverns and had him vandalize several video poker machines.

Idone called for a sit down with Lupi and at the meeting held inside a Chester townhouse the mob chief told Lupi to tell the Sanbes to stand down and that somebody in that family had to catch a beating for the poker machine vandalizations. Lupi responded by demanding his machines be returned to The Gold Room and Idone threatened to kill him if he didn’t back off. Idone informed then Philly mob boss Little Nicky Scarfo of the situation and Scarfo had a sit down with Gambino Don John Gotti about the matter. Scarfo got a ruling in Idone’s favor — the two had been involved in the 1962 gangland hit of wiseguy Vincent (Reds) Caruso together and Idone was one of Scarfo’s strongest supporters in his bid for the throne in 1981 in the aftermath of Testa’s assassination.

“If they want to start a fight, we’ll crack their skulls…..smash their poker machines,” Idone was caught telling Murph Eufrasio in an intercepted conversion from December 1986. “It’s possible we’ll work things out. But if we don’t, we will just have to use other methods, that’s all. Then, we’ll beat the guys up, take it to the streets.”

Gotti’s intervention on behalf of Scarfo and Idone worked. The Sanbes moved their machines out of Chester in January 1987 and no violence resulted from the feud.

Scarfo was arrested two months later in March 1987 and charged with multiple murder and racketeering counts he would go on to be convicted of. Idone and Eufrasio were indicted on bookmaking and extortion stemming from The Gold Room dispute, in 1989.

Idone was found guilty at a 1990 trial and served eight years in federal prison, forced to relinquish his capo spot and Delaware County territory. The well-liked veteran wiseguy lived out his final years in retirement down in Florida, dying in 2005 at 85 of prostate cancer.

Action & Automatic vending is still there in Chester.

It's two seperate companies or at least two different buildings

just looking on a map looks like 15 miles from south philly. there a highway strait there so its probaly a 10min ride. is it a nice town or a shit hole like camden? was santo from philly to? he must have been close to scarfo look at sal testa capo is killed, lawrence merlino and chuckie demoted, tommy del demoted, the noth jersey capo blackie is demoted replaced with someone younger. only phil leonetti and idone kept there position or rose up. did the family show up for his wake and funeral??? theres a few pics joe ligambi and crew showed up to the familys wakes like the old days.

Didn't Chickie Ciangalini keep his position of captain? Even when he was jailed?? Also is there a list of captains during the Scarfo reign?

Idone was assigned to carry out the Dominic Caruso murder with Scarfo in 1962 and was a member of the hit team in the Alvin Feldman killing in 1974 after Scarfo got permission to have him murdered. Idone was also one of the capos supporting Scarfo to become boss in 1981

Ciancaglini kept his rank but his crew was reassigned.

At the time Scarfo became boss the family capos were John Cappello, Santo Idone, Alfred Iezzi, Frank Monte, Fank Narducci, Nicholas Piccolo and Joseph Scafidi. After becoming boss he made Monte consigliere and promoted Joseph Ciancaglini to capo of that crew, he also promoted Ralph Napoli to capo of the Newark crew, which had been officially leaderless since Tony Caponigro's murder.

Later in 1981 Scarfo demoted John Cappello and Joseph Scafidi and promoted Philip Leonetti and Lawrence Merlino (though whether they took over Cappello and Scafidi's crews or had new ones formed, I think the latter is most likely, is unclear. Sam Scafidi was reporting to Leonetti anyway during his stint as capo). Tommy DelGiorno testified that Scafidi was demoted in January 1982 and then Merlino was promoted though it's unclear how accurate this is as it conflicts with Leonetti's information from the period. In his book, conflicting with his previous info, Leonetti claims Scafidi lasted longer than Cappello into Scarfo's reign.

In January 1982 Narducci was killed and Salvatore Testa promoted (again, likely as leader of a newly formed or rearranged crew). Before Scarfo went to prison in mid-1982 he promoted Piccolo to consigliere following Monte's murder and his crew reassigned - Anthony Piccolo was later reporting to DelGiorno (in his book, Leonetti claimed conflictingly that Piccolo was promoted after Scarfo was released in 1984).

In 1983 Ciancaglini went to jail, retaining his rank while his crew was reassigned to Testa. In 1984 Testa was killed and his crew split between acting capos Thomas DelGiorno and Francis Iannarella. Napoli was also taken down and replaced as capo of Newark by Pasquale Martirano.

In February 1986 DelGiorno and Iannarella were made official capos, Lawrence Merlino was shelved and Leonetti was promoted to underboss to replace Salvatore Merlino who was also shelved and sent to prison. Leonetti retained control of his crew as underboss. Later in 1986 DelGiorno was demoted and he and his crew were assigned to Iannarella, who was now the de facto street boss in Philadelphia while Scarfo and Leonetti were in Atlantic City.

In 1987 Iannarella is arrested with Scarfo, Leonetti et al. and held without bail to await trial for murder and racketeering.

In 1988 Martirano goes on the lam to avoid being indicted, leaving Anthony Attanasio and Joseph Licata in charge of his crew as 'first among equals' rather than official acting capos. In early 1989 Idone is arrested and charged and is convicted in 1990. Alfred Iezzi dies of natural causes 1989.

By 1990 Martirano is the acting underboss and Licata is reported to be an acting capo. George Fresolone is inducted and either made capo or promised to be made capo but flips shortly after and then Martirano dies of natural causes. In December 1990 I think Licata and Joseph Sodano go down to see the soon-to-be boss John Stanfa to complain about Ralph Napoli, saying he should be demoted from capo, indicating Scarfo bumped him back up, possibly after Martirano's death.

By this point (just before Stanfa's promotion to official boss) the family hierarchy consists of Scarfo as the incarcerated boss; Ciancaglini, Iannarella and Idone as incarcerated capos; Anthony Piccolo as acting boss; Licata and Napoli possibly as co-capos of North Jersey; and in Philadelphia and South Jersey key soldiers, rather than official capos, like Stanfa, Salvatore Sparacio and Felix Bocchino are running things (while the Michael Ciancaglini crew of associates are doing their own thing).

The Sabenes still own Action idk if they have Automatic too but I believe they r front

It's a shithole but it has same nice places. It was nicer when I was coming up. Idone was from Chester or at least he moved there before I was born. Like ive said previously he was old school so Scarfos didnt have a reason to take him down and with his connections with black racketeers in Chester and having his finger in those pies he was content with having Chester and wasnt a threat to take over. I often wonder if Scarfo knew how much Sam had his hands in in chester and if so what of it he kicked up. He was busted from the beef with Gambinos the wired up my familys autoshop during that time. He escaped the big bust by staying away from philly when bodies were coming up everywhere and he only ended up with ten years considering a lifetime of level he was at or got to pretty impressive

A lot of people say Merlinos were shelved for this or that but the reason was Scarfo was worried about the power they had in Philly with guys coming up and was worried theyd be more loyal to Chuckie then him. Joey and Mikey didnt just run in and take shit over they were told by there fathers where to go who to see and collect from etc etc.

Absolutely , and the guys just under Chuckie were in Nick’s ear before and as soon as he was knocked down they were there looking to stab him in the back , same guys that he thought had his back .

The life is so cut throat ! especially when you have a volatile guy as boss like Nick it makes all the guys have a lust of taking there skipper spot even the guy that the skipper would put up as acting , is the guy dropping shit in boss or under bosses ear, just to climb and cash of course.

I remember going out with Lawrence his first night back after being knocked down , he finally came back around Ducktown, he was not far Ventnor or Philly but he was not shy, we were at Angeloni’s when he said Nick knocked us down , we went around the corner Mississippi and Atlantic to play pool, I remember everything about that night because I thought for sure something was going to happen.

And it did , but not what I thought, he got waisted and he was verbal about it .

I think I remember that scarfo shot the guy before Santo got there. But the instructions had been to strangle the guy with a rope. So they strangled him after he was dead lol

This OC Bars document based on Phil Leonettis information covers a ton of the moves made by the Scarfo/Bruno family during the time he was involved.

https://www.state.nj.us/sci/ocbars2.shtm