The Philly / Gambino connection

Interesting regarding Stanfa. Initially Stanfa and the Merlino guys got along until Stanfa started getting greedy and disrespectful.
Ronny Turchi went to NY for a meeting with Lenny DiMaria and Nicky Corozzo whom he was close with from being locked up. He complained about the beef everyone was having with Stanfa and how he was extremely greedy and taking money from all the guys. They gave Turchi the ok for the Merlino guys to go after Stanfa. Thats how it started. im talking Turchi senior. He had the backing of the Gambino’s. I never knew that.

I'm a bit surprised by this because Stanfa was backed by the Gambino's in 1991 or so to become boss. Stanfa was close with the Cherry Hill Gambino's and as a favor to them; Gotti backed Stanfa to be boss in Philly.

Why would Corrozzo; and Lenny DiMaria want to undue the relationship.

Yea Stanfa s power came from Gambinos. When he was hiding out in Baltimore after Bruno hit he was set up with Gambino s there. I have never heard of them backing the younger guys, was under impression Natale reached out to Genovese guys he was locked up with. That being said Merlino and Ciancaglini were being guided by there fathers before Stanfa was handed the spot after not being in philly for almost a decade.

I don't understand why Stanfa became the boss of Philly; This guy was most likely involved in the Angelo Bruno hit. Stanfa ran to the Cherry Hill Gambino's for protection.. He was close with them in the 1970's. I've read that Paul Castellano; and Tony Ducks Corallo gave Stanfa a pass for the Bruno hit; John; and Rosario Gambino had a meeting with the two bosses to settle things.

I don't understand why Gotti backed Stanfa to be boss of Philly; Only reasonable explanation is; He thought he could control Stanfa; and I believe John Gotti was actually afraid of the Cherry Hills; so he wanted to help put one of their guys in (Stanfa) as boss of Philly. He let them Drug Deal; and pretty much left them alone. I think the Cherry Hills; and their sicilian counterparts had enough firepower to whack Gotti.

Anyone agree?

Gotti backed Stanfa so the Gambinos could control Philly. The Genovese did the same tactic in the 80s

@JCrusher

Do you believe Gotti was afraid of the Cherry Hills; He left them to earn; and was not really trying to interfere in their drug dealing? I believe he backed Stanfa also to make the John; and Rosario Gambino happy.

What do you think?

Possibly. Despite what some believe there were definitely people Gotti didn’t want to piss off. Vic and Gas is one example. After the whole debacle with Angelo Gotti desperately tried to make peace with them. They did make peace but they still ended up killing Gottis guys like Ed Lino and Bobby Boriello and Gotti didn’t do anything to retaliate lol

Gotti was afraid of Vic; and Gas; He didn't want to piss off Vincent ''Chin'' Gigante. I believe he was afraid of Nino Gaggi; and Roy DeMeo when they were in their prime...Last but not least; He didn't mess with the Cherry Hill Gambino's.

Corrozzo and DiMaria were rivals to John Gotti. They didn't care if it weakened the family as a whole just as long as it made John Gotti look bad and get him out of the way.

Gotti was afraid of Nino Gaggi, Gaggi was in trouble when Gotti became boss, and he did not have the crew of killers he once had. According to what Gotti heard was during the making of the new Boss meeting between Castellano and Dellacroce, he learned that Gaggi was armed with a hideaway, and had a hit team on stand by, this was only Gaggi nephew Dom. Vincent Gigante has gone over many a times. The Cherry Hill Gambinos had hitters of their own and could import killers if need be. There is one more Gambino member I forget his name. For the Bonannos it was Anthony Spero, Bruno Indelicato, and Tommy Pitera. The Colombos it was Greg Scarpa. There are others.

Gotti left those Cherry Hills alone for sure; He didn't want trouble. You're talking about trouble in their crew and those in Sicily. That's two fronts that Gotti had to fight.

Speaking of Gaggi; He was out on the streets for a few months with Gotti as boss. I'm surprised that he disrespected Gotti by not showing up to any meetings or kissing his a**. John never did anything about it.

What do the rats say about this when Gotti first took over ?

Did he really have most of the skippers or were they just looking to stay on the side that just whacked out a boss because they figure everyone was going that route ?

Gaggi was dead in water he knew he was going away. Now there must of been many skippers in that family that knew it was wrong to take a boos and with Chin and Lukes and Persicos still a power .

Sure its only the rats telling it but why did nobody push back ???

Now of course i was around when this happened and yes i herd shit ton of stories and even some close to guys in the life but bet your ass guys that were in the know were not sharing .

There was no books and of course no internet so it was easy to keep shit from spreading.

But that was a big family and Gotti was not loved.