Phil Leonetti wanted to kill Whitey Bulger

Killing the Myth of Whitey Bulger and Why I Suggested Killing Him 30 Years Ago
Philip Leonetti
March 25, 2013


When my uncle Nicodemo Scarfo was in La Tuna federal prison in 1983, he placed me in charge of running the day-to-day operations of our crime family in New Jersey from our headquarters just two and a half blocks from the Boardwalk in Atlantic City. Two other men from our family, Salvatore "Chuckie" Merlino and Salvie Testa, were running our street operation in South Philadelphia and even though we were in the throws of a bloody mob war with a 4'10 old-school gangster known as "The Hunchback," things were going pretty good for us, especially in Atlantic City.

On most days I would meet with gangsters from North Jersey and New York, many of whom came to Atlantic City with an envelope that usually contained several thousand dollars in cash as a tribute payment to my uncle and our family resulting from business they were involved in either Atlantic City or Philadelphia.

On more than one occassion I met with gangsters from the Patriarca crime family, an organization based primarily out of the Boston area, but with a heavy presence in and around Providence, Rhode Island.

During one of these meetings, a guy I knew as a mob associate who was affiliated with the Genovese crime family in New York introduced me to another mob associate from Providence. The two of them wanted to buy an old hotel in Atlantic City and re-develop it into a caberet style nightclub and restaurant and wanted the blessing of our family. After several meetings and after getting the green light to proceed from my uncle who was in jail, I arranged to meet with caporegimes from both the Genovese and Patriarca crime families to ensure that everything was done in accordance with the rules of La Cosa Nostra, i.e., that everyone knew where the money was to be sent.

In this case, monthly envelopes would be sent to Vincent "Chin" Gigante, boss of the Genovese, through his underboss Venero "Benny Eggs" Mangano, Raymond Patriarca, boss of the Patriarca's, through his underboss Gennaro "Jerry" Angiulo, and my uncle, Nicky Scarfo, boss of the Philadelphia/Atlantic City mob, through me.

As things progressed with our proposed joint venture, I first heard the name "Jimmy Bulger" from one of the Boston guys during a dinner meeting. Bulger I would learn, was an Irish drug-dealer and low-life punk from South Boston who was paying the Patriarca's tribute money to stay in business. The problem with Bulger was that he wasn't paying enough and was balking at efforts to pay more.

What's worse I would learn, was that Bulger had reportedly murdered a woman, had once been charged with rape, and may have worked as a male prostitute when he was younger.

The kicker was, he was also suspected of being an informant.

"You gotta kill em," I told the Boston guy, "Immediately. You can't do business with someone like him. I'm disgusted just hearing you talk about him."

A few weeks later I sent word to New York that my uncle and our family wanted nothing to do with the proposed venture and that the Patriarca's were forbidden from conducting any business in Atlantic City.

"They are not our kind of people," I told the Genovese guys from New York and that was the end of it.

Fast forward 30 years to 2013 and I am back in New York promoting my book, Mafia Prince: Inside America's Most Violent Crime Family & The Bloody Fall of La Cosa Nostra, and I overhear a conversation between my co-author Christopher Graziano and another gentlemen we were dining with near our hotel in downtown Brooklyn and I hear Chris say, "I can't believe Johnny Depp's gonna play Whitey Bulger, I thought it was going to be Mark Wahlberg."

I entered the conversation late and when I was asked by one of the reporters that we were eating with if I ever came across Whitey Bulger when I was in the mob, I said, "I never met him and never heard of him until a couple years ago when I saw he had gotten arrested. But there was another Bulger from Boston I had heard about, a guy named Jimmy Bulger. He was a low-life Irish drug dealer I had heard about from one of the mob guys in Boston."

I then went on to tell the story repeated above and ended it with, "I can't believe they kept this guy around. I told them they should kill him immediately. Maybe he was a cousin of Whitey's, who knows."

Everyone at the table looked at me in stunned silence and Chris said, "Philip, Whitey Bulger and Jimmy Bulger are the same guy. The guy you just described is Whitey Bulger. Whitey's real name is James Bulger."

I told them, "No way. The guy I'm talking about, Jimmy Bulger, he wasn't a gangster, he was a drug-dealer paying tribute to the Italian's in Boston's North End. It's definitely not the same guy."

After arguing my point for most of the evening, I went back to the hotel and did some research and realized that Chris was right.

The low-life Irish drug dealer that I said should be killed in 1983 was in fact the infamous Whitey Bulger.

Thirty years later I stand by that.

Bulger should have been killed by the Patriarca's, plain and simple.

How they could do business with someone like him is unfathomable. To call him a gangster is a joke.

He was a psychopathic, drug-dealing serial killer, not a gangster.

I'm glad its Johnny Depp playing Bulger in the movie about his life and not Mark Wahlberg. No disrespect to Johnny Depp, but I like Wahlberg and how he carries himself. Seeing him portray a lowlife like Bulger would have been disappointing.

Philip Leonetti is the former underboss of the Philadelphia/Atlantic City mob and the nephew of imprisoned mob boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky Scarfo. He was the youngest underboss in the history of the modern day La Cosa Nostra and in 1989 was the highest ranking mafioso to break omerta and cooperate with the federal government. In 2012 he wrote the book Mafia Prince: Inside America's Most Violent Crime Family and The Bloody Fall of La Cosa Nostra. He lives in seclusion under an assumed name with a $500,000.00 bounty placed on his head from his jailed uncle Nicky Scarfo.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip-leonetti/mafia-whitey-bulger_b_2945108.html

Haha! Nice post Ivy. That is crazy...but look who's talking there...

Seriously this is tabloid bolshit who didnt he went to kill since he released his stupid fucking book[

its a sad for all involved.if tommy shots beats a cop klling in this day, maybe scarfo had a chane nowadays. just a t.

Wonder if it's true

Cool story but I'd be more interested in who the Capo from NE was along with some back story.

Seems like Phil misses the limelight. Hes been coming out with these stories of all these different guys he met like Meyer Lansky and Bulger. Hes losing credibility.

If I read it correctly, he never said he met Bulger.

I don't think it's Leonetti who writes this blog. I believe is his co writer Scott Burnstein, who is trying every way to promote the book and himself in order to redemm himself for writing such a terrible book. On the RD website, he was at first claiming that Leonetti would come on to answer question, and of course that never happened. Also, he was saying how he (Burnstein) would be going on the book tour with Leonetti. Who would want to hear him? I think he is delusional and by all means a horrible writer. Phil's book should have been a NY Times best seller but it was not even close. I attribute the amateur writing skills of the 2 authors. Who never even took pride in editing their own book! This book should have been as successful as the UNDERBOSS. This blog is bullshit.
In this blog Leonetti claims that he didn't know the difference between Whitey and a James Bulger. Come on. He is smarter than that. I still can't believe that Phil gave up the copyright of his book and shared it with those two want to be amateur writers.

whats this movie they speak ok?

Well it goes without saying there using any and every media outlet they can to try and get more exposure for the book which they should of planned a little better. The claims of Meyer Lansky our complete bolshit as well as the claim to Bulger. As far as a target audience is concerned their spreading that way too far...

If he comes out with another claim of some notorious figure that is a household name he mine as well go to the casino and blow whatever money scotts parents have left. Scott if your reading this buy yourself a wig before you go broke!

I guess in leonetti's mind, snitching on the guy who raised you and and made you tons of money just because you couldn't do the time for your crimes is being a respectable gangster !!

Let's not forget he only cooperated AFTER he was sentenced and was in jail. So I don't buy that he saw the evils of the Life and that he wanted no part of Nicky or it! Who the fuck is he kidding? He loved the Jersey shore and strutting around as the big Mobster in Philadelphia. Be a man and say, I decided to cooperate because I didnt want to or couldn't do the time. I would have more respect for you!

He was sentenced to 45 years after everything was said and done right? Or was he still facing a murder trial on top of this?

Regardless of how despicable Leonetti is/was and regardless of how poorly you might think the book was written, IMO it was still worth the money and a very good book based solely on it's content. It offered insight into some of the inner workings of one of the most interesting regimes in American LCN history.

He had been sentenced along with Nicky and everone else. He got 45 years and Nicky I think got 55.

The only problem there is bullshit on there about how he hated the life and how he was going to leave the life if he was found not guilty. Also how he thought sbout wacking Nicky. I don't think so! He is rationalizing, He loved the life, he killed in the life and you can't change that. I think this book is 15 years to late, Also, I wish it would have been done by a better writer. Soldier is spelled Sodlier? Come on?

absolutely !!!

I can't argue with anything you posted except to say that I only put stock in his recollection of actual historical events. The last part of the book where he went through and gave his opinions on everyone and how he was going to leave the life was all stuff I took with a grain of salt.

I'm really getting tired of people taking everything with a grain of salt I think you need to go 40lb bag of rock salt at Walmart. Can we just say Phil was along for the ride and was a fucking dumbass?

Sure we can, it's only a matter of semantics. I still found his "stories" interesting and my opinion of him as a man doesn't make them less interesting. That was my only point.

Over

phil leonetti comes across as a weasel in interviews. i just dont buy that he carried power like that in 83 to decide whther patriarca could hit atlantic city. He was a kid. In interviews he pisse me off. i remember he was trying to justify murder and say that he hate his uncle and thought of killing him. wat a lying piece of shit. he got sentenced then flipped simple. he loved the life had the u.b power for a small period at the end so he obviously got along with scarfo. the man who raised him. even his old mates and teachers didnt think he was mob material. piece of shit. rant over lol. that guy gets to me worse than all the others. just dont buy him as a tough guy no way. im sure the ranks at the time thought he was riding on his uncles back. fa***t

There you go. Hahahaa!

Exactly.

Wow, what an article... I agree with what someone said earlier, seems like Phil misses the limelight...thing is, once your book is published, you're "it" for only a few months, then people forget about you. You're no longer relevant because you already told your life story, what else do you have to say?

He could be just talking sh*t, maybe the whole story is not even true...But, I always wondered why the NE guys could get stevie to knock off Bulger and just run their interest himself.

Then Flemmi would have been just another glorified crew and not a competing entity...

He must have lacked in managerial skills.

Whitey would've been tough to kill. Too dangerous, too smart, and way too connected. The Boston mob did try to recruit Flemmi and have him made. They wanted a mole inside their biggest partner/competitor but Flemmi wanted no part of it. Apparently he told the guys in Winter Hill about it afterwards and they all had a laugh.

I personally don't believe this about Leonetti and Bulger. Seems weird he would remember an inconsequential "Irish drug dealer and low life" like that so many years after the conversation. Besides Bulger wasn't paying tribute. He was paying debt owed by Winter Hill for a loan.

leonetti is full of crap. as if whitey isnt well known. the blockbuster with john nicholson and MARK WAHLBERG based on whiteys life? his capture all over the news. unless this idiot has been living under a rat rock he knows and this is an unbelievable publicity stunt. hate that guy. wish someone could cah in that 500 000 from scarfo!

*cash

Phil Leonetti must be losing his marbles, and it is laughable claim at best that he did not know who james bulger was. Whitey bulger was a master manipulator, arch criminal, and cold blooded bastard. Dont get me wrong phil leoneti squeezed a couple triggers here and there, but whitey bulger killed people over the span of several decades and ruled with an iron fist. Not to mention he came to power and ruled for a span of time that mine as well be an eternity on the streets. It is also a fact that he was not paying tribute, but in fact paying back a loan that he assumed and then told the creditor he would be reducing. All of this was taking place with the mafia in close proximity and may I add this was not todays mickey mouse mob, but a much more powerfull organization of days passed.

All that being said, I actually enjoyed Mafia Prince and feel a lot of the criticism for the book is unwarranted.

Didnt the boston LCN used to kick up to Bulger? I thought Bulger was the main man in Boston and the LCN was below him?

False

No. Traditionally speaking, the Italians controlled the north side of the city while the Irish controlled the south. They worked together in some ways but respected each other's territory.

Mabye they didnt kick up to Bulger, but I don't think Bulger felt like he needed to kick up or be subserviant to the Italians.

I agree.

He was too busy double crossing and ratting out the mob to his FBI buddy.

And molesting young girls! The guy was a total creep

He owed the Italians around $250K. They kept him around because they wanted to get paid. He strung them along because he knew (based on him ratting to the FBI) that his $250K would never be paid once he helped put them all in jail.

I venture to guess that if he owed the North End $10K instead of $250K, they would have buried him a long time ago.

I'd call that a safe assumption.

i feel that while some overestimate bulger, some are equally guilty of underestimating him. its alot easier to say the mob should have just wacked him out, as opposed to actually going through with it. forget the fact that he was an extremely dangerous person on an indivudual basis, the guy had a seemingly endless supply of killers at his beckoned call.

with regards to who held more clout in the city, i think it depends on what your definition of power is, as well as what time period we are talking about. i think its fair to say that lcn made more money than winter hill, but i think its also a fair point to say that even with the much looser structure of winter hill, they were far more vicious and prone to violence.

it seems that during the late 80's/early 90's, with a good portion of the leadership of lcn locked up or under investigation, that a case could be made that winter hill held more clout in the boston underworld. i think that during this time, the state police agreed citing winter hill as the biggest criminal threat in the city. nowadays, the balance of power has shifted way back towards lcn, as the remnants of winter hill seem to be even less coordinated and less structured than ever before, and we never really hear too much out of them. i think the last we heard was that george hogan was running what was left. still, winter hill is the last bastion of anything resembling irish OC in the united states.

That part was a "self fulfilling prophecy" and not due to the hard work that he put in to gain traction. That's what Whitey planned all along. He would inform on the (more powerful) LCN and get them all put away so he could become the underworld king in Boston. It worked but without him double crossing the LCN he would have been nothing more than a drug dealing pimp.

there is alot of truth to that, but at the end of the day, getting to the top of the criminal underworld by any means necessary seems to be the most important. we see this kind of stuff all the time with the mexican drug cartels, contacts in high levels of government being used to get a leg up on the competition. one thing that i think often gets overlooked is the fact that bulger seemingly got WAY more information than he gave, which was one of the main scandals with the whole relationship: the fact that loads of intelligence related to the mafia was said to come from whitey, but never did. what info did he ever even give them? something about a making ceremony, some other smalltime street stuff?

my point is, that while whitey's relationship with the fbi definatly contributed to him being a top crook, i would argue that his organizations ruthlessness contributed just as much to their overall success. the streetgang/OC hybrid that was winter hill seemed to be alot more feared within their own community in and around southie, compared to the mafia run territory in the north end. with that said, both organizations were more than capable of taking out the trash, and i remember kevin weeks saying something along the lines of "the mafia has alot of teeth!"

I was under the impression that it was Steve Flemmi who gave the FBI most of the info they got on the mafia in Boston, not Whitey. Flemmi supposedly had good relations with a lot of the mobsters, and was even proposed to have a shot at getting made, but turned it down.

Yes whiteys number two Stevie flemmi turned down his button to stay with winter hill.

I read brutal, black mass and the new whitey book and not sure if I missed something but now he was a child molester, drug dealer and a pimp? Didn't scarfo have a street tax shaking down meth dealers and etc? Never heard or read anything about whitey preying on kids or being a pimp

http://arthostage.blogspot.com/2008/09/stolen-art-watch-whitey-bulger-reward.html?m=1

Read toward end, it states where the FBI was close to putting out a child molester warrant! The guy was a scumbag. There's plenty online if you look

nicely put

Indictment of James Bulger and his other friends:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/06/25/us/25legal-bulger-doc.html?ref=jamesjbulger&_r=0

ehi thanks for showing me that, like I said I have read Brutal, Black Mass, Hitman and Whitey and I never heard that before, except possibly from Howie Carr which we all know is not exactly a legit source lol

according to this they wanted to make stevie in 1974 and he said no thanks. that really puts it into perspective for those who underestimated whitey and the hill.

as far as whitey being a child rapist, it could be true seeing as how the guy was never all there, especially considering the large amount of lsd that the government gave him. lets keep in mind though, that the fbi claims could have been nothing more than leaked rumors in a vain attempt to have him brought to justice. if the rumors had any basis, don't you think that since his capture, he would have been charged? the fbi would like nothing more than to make him look as bad as possible, yet there are no charges. food for thought.

good point FF, in the article or blog (whatever it is) it flat out directly says that the fbi making theese claims might help someone justify cooperating against him. I just found it curious because in all the books everyone says he was allways into some hot pussy (not underage) and that obvi doesnt fit with him being a tree jumper.