Read some old articles on Nick milano he's the same age as merlino so is a couple guys who scarfo made in the 80tys Phil n sal s. Guys got made a 23 24 I wonder if Joey was proposed back then to. He's the ub kid and wasn't a pussy. Maybe it got shot down when his father got demoted. Also gene milano was his older brother flipped right before the first Frank flowers state trail in 89 got a sweet deal got paroled to the streets in 93. Is he back around to? Uncle Joe was the shooter with Phil narducci on flowers. Did Wayne grande also have a brother made guy.

And for whatever its worth merlino the boss I think he grew up with all the scarfo guy to and got made only 6 yrs after them and scarfo probaly would have made him if they all didn't get named up.

And the guy gene testified uncle Joe was the shooter and got him life then after it was reversed gene tried to get them a life sentence again. Joe must really hate any milano.

Tommy Del said Scarfo asked him to kill Joey, So I dont think he would have "made" him lol.

Joey would have been whacked not made they all hated him philip hates the guy I mean they were beating up guys for even hanging around with joey (marty angelni)

Plus evens before scarfo fell out with chuckie he was always solving joeys problems when ever he caused problems philip would have to solve them

Plus philip said that joey was skimming the street tax money

Joey is a survivor. Survived a war, beat severe cases, fooled a lot of people as far as holding the official boss slot from when he went into the can until now...

Merlino is a little smarter, and savvier than people give him credit for

I should have put it another way do you think merlino dad and uncle proposed to scarfo they make Joey before they both fell out with nicky. I'm thinking yes cause all the philly guys proposed there sons or nephews. The pungs also. How did there dad who someone posted a pic sneak threw all the indictments. And we're was he during the last 30 yrs after nicky during stanfa. Natale. And Joey then uncle Joe?

Blackjack you no you can't give Joey credit or your a fan boy. Me I'm a huge persico and merlino fanboy be cause threw all the pressure they come out on top. Or still making the best of there situation meaning making bucks. Read a blogger hating on Mike persico cause he rich because cause his family fought for the riches and are now all doing life but he didn't get his hands dirty so all that shit don't mean shit. Whacky way to look at criminal shit.

Yes. He is so smart, he willed the bullet away from his vital organs and into his ass.

Most of it is luck. He's gotten really lucky.

One or two botched attempts is luck. When you start getting into having dodged half dozen to a dozen its hard to call it luck anymore.

You're kidding, right?

lol he has survived lime two dozen attempt plus his front boss flipping on em, maybe he is smart, why is it so hard to admit he is smart?

Smart he was the under boss of the family who made a living out betting into bookies (including johnny changs book shows he does not understand that gambling is the bread and butter) and swag who was going around trying to sell rolex watches like it was the next big thing could you imagine bruno,scarfo,stanfa or even ligambi doing of this rubbish. Robbing trucks.the only way they made real money was by shake downs the poker machine compnay they were shaking generated some money

People his age were running pump and dump stock scams in New York underboss where making tens of millions in construction and this is how this guy is earning please he is not smart dealing watchers and betting into books

Joey Chang's attempted hit was caught on CCTV in front of a witness.

They attempted to kill John Stanfa on an expressway in broad daylight.

People have already mentioned the getting shot in the ass thing.

A lot of it seems to be dumb luck.

Merlino seems to be the greatest of all mobsters to some of these guys for the simple fact that he's still on the street. He wasn't going to be made under Scarfo, Scarfo hated the kid, and I don't believe he was nominated by his father and uncle either, as he was too young at the time. He was certainly being groomed though, as he sat in on a lot of meetings Scarfo had with the Merlino's, Leonetti, Faffy & Tommy Del, Charlie White & Nicky Crow.

Merlino is certainly smart as in dodging wiretaps, and not spilling the beans to informants, because he's wary of that. But that's about it. He isn't smart for getting lucky and dodging hits. Him running back and forth down the block, while Colletti & Veasey were shooting at him, already having killed Michael Chang, isn't smart. He probably would've been better off just ducking behind a car or something, then perhaps he wouldn't of been hit at all. He got lucky, by the grace of god, or in his opinion, "The Devil", he survived that attempt with just an ass wound. He could've easily had been killed just like his best friend. Thats luck, not wisdom. Him driving off with a bomb tied beneath his car is also luck, but moreso stupidity on the part of Colletti & Veasey for putting a bum explosive underneath his car and expecting it to detonate. Most of those attempts were being done by Colletti & Veasey. Joey definitely got lucky that the two hitmen assigned to gun for him, just so happened to be perhaps two of the dumbest mobsters in Philadelphia.


If Merlino was so smart during his reign as "Underboss" with the lighting rod Natale in place, he would've found ways for his family to earn. He couldn't. He couldn't generate any money making schemes, and when he rarely did make money, he pocketed most of it and then spent it placing bets with his own guys using proffers, so he wouldn't be found out. And he didn't have the money to do so, because he'd never pay when he lost. Thus, putting a clamp on the earning power of some of his own guys who were deep into bookmaking, like Johnny Chang, and Big Ron Previte, just to name a few. The guy would sign off on truck hijackings, but then would have no one to sell the goods to, so the trucks would sit in some warehouse for months until they just decided to get rid of them. Most of the time the products in the trucks were little more than worthless anyway. His greatest heist that he signed off on, was a load of baby diapers, most of which he got for free to take home for his own new born children. Then he sold the rest on the street at an inflated price and again pocketed the cash and gambled it away. He also had a major hit with some toy trains, tv's & computers, but him and Ralphie Head moved those off, you think anyone else in the family saw any money from that? And that was literally the only heist he made any real money off of. Seriously, the guy couldn't earn at all, according to the informants from the era.

so true him and ralphie head tryed to set up a sports book they went out of business after one week.
He bet over 200k into prevites book never paid. He also ruined many legit bookies livelyhoods. He bet and never paid.


hjackers were regually scammed by joey and his guys they never paid.

Here is a story of of ron prevites book that shows his crews stupidity ralph natale got from a friend in Cleveland a Lamborghini worth 90k on the street (i forgot what car) now he gave it to joey as a present. Now joey gave it to marty angelni and he cant move it he has it for months sitting in steve mazzones yard then eventually finds a buyer (a FBI agent) and they want 30k for it (its worth 90k thats how desperate they were to move it) the agent says 20k or nothing and they take the deal those idiots selling a 90k car for 20k then the real stupidity comes in they try to move the car but instead of using flatbed truck they use a fucking rented ryder panel truck then they tried to get the car into the vehicle by driving it up a ramp made out of wooden planks

the car slipped of the fucking ramp a car worth 90k. They dropped the car and ended up selling it for 5k reduced because they dropped it. Then it all ended up in the 2001 trial against marty.

what a fucking idiot shows the sort of crew joey had

The guys with joey remind me more of neighborhood corner guys who will go the end for one another, kind of like how south boston was portrayed in the town and the group of armored car robbers who stuck together, as pointed out there is now and was back in the 90s ways to make millions in stocks and whatever...and then more recently with real estate scams, which not sure if niccodemo was involved in that but him grande did own a lot of properties....there is a bunch of money to be made working on the fringe of the legitimate world in philadelphia with internet scams, etc. The neigborhood brick and mortar bookie is giving way to the betting online, they have legit sports book in delaware and might get it in new jersey...great summerizing by gangster and sinatra above on there money making scams or lack thereof

You have to be kidding with that angelina story. Wow.

LMAO, I remember that story in Previte's book. That's hilarious.

Has been lucky but also deserves credit u don't survive as many attempts as him and still play off as just luck

IDK if my comment was unclear but I agree people on here act like surviving 20 plus attempts is all luck. Never ratted never would balls three times size of his own body and people still try to act like he rose to top alive and free all from luck. Gotta be fucking kidding me, give credit when credit is due.

There on the street for a reason. If this was a job at NASA, you'd have good point.

Uhm, I don't know about that, not too sure I agree on that analogy. The overall point of the Mafia in the 20th-21st century was power, in order to be the ones with all the power, you needed money, the primary goal was to earn. Regardless of if you're on the street or doing white collar crime, or legit jobs, earning money was the goal. You're saying it's okay for a mafia family of any sort to be brokesters? If they are that means that family is no longer viable, no longer a factor in the overall underworld. It's no wonder they were being compared with the common street gang during that time. Ligambi took over and he tried the best he could to revert it back to the old days where money was the goal, but along with Merlino & the Bruno/Scarfo Crime Family, the illegal ways of earning outside of drugs went on the decline as well. Now instead of cases involving 500k loans, guys are being sent to prison for assaulting debtors over 500 bucks.

Anybody else find it ridiculous that Scott is out there pretending like Merlino is John fucking Gott?

I've never seen Scott refer to Joey Merlino as a John Gotti. The only thing that may even remotely draw that comparison is Joey being everywhere, basically not hiding from the camera's and whoever may be watching him. That's basically what most of his Merlino articles boil down to, and what capacity, if any, does Merlino have his prints on modern day Philly LCN and it's rackets.

love the story about the lambo.. I remember when I first heard about it I couldn't believe it..
was joey really fucking betting into johnny changs book like that? I know hes infamous for pulling that shit but I didn't think he would go as far as to do it to another made guy in his family and also a good friend of his.. he really cant earn for shit. he takes, takes,takes an gets handouts from rich squares that he can leech off of. I wonder how fucking pissed chang was when he found out joey was betting into him and stiffing him? I would want to kill the guy.

Heres one example of Joey being smart and clever: deciding to hit Nicky Scarfo Jr on Halloween while utilizing a Halloween mask to cover his face without causing any notice and taking advantage of his 5"3" height so that when people saw him in a batman mask and costume they thought he was just a little kid out trick or treating... That's BRILLIANT

Wouldn't call him smart, part luck and part having loyal friends around him. Interesting to know he couldn't earn for shit.

I give him credit it for being a stand up guy thats how far I will go

I don't see your point at this time there was kids in New York running stock scams which were earning huge money joey merlinos age guys who were underboss were making tens of millions in construction.

This guy was earning by betting into bookies and some swag and he was the underboss/boss he was constantly trying to get Ron previte to sell him watches so he can move them on to jewerls now this is a underboss/boss of a family being a hustler thinking this was the next big thing and don't come out with its just philly guys nonsense the scarfo guys earnt very well and guys like stanio,mikey lance (borgata indictment) and Johnny chang had been/still are earning very well even in today's mob


A lot people forget the bad things he has done he ruined a lot of legit bookies betting into there books and never paying his debts
And not surprising some of them flipped shows his stupidity

Gambling is the root the bread and butter of the mafia everything comes with it joey and those guys could not run a book joey and ralphie heads book went bust after one week. George had a book but he gave it to Ron because like joey they would rather bet into the book it meant they were limiting there earnings they forget that gambling is such a big earner.

Johnny chang had alot of things going on and the friendship between johnny and joey is exaggerated joey still shot joey chang and Johnny is considered in the middle of it all and Johnny does not like the way they operate but what is he going to do when ligambi went away he wanted johnny chang to be acting boss but joey merlino wanted steve so steve got it. Steve is well liked but he has alot of skeletons look at duchie

No doubt there are millions of people out there financially wiser then skinny. Fronting people money to start books or "becoming partners" with them, then gutting the book out isn't as rewarding in long term as running a legit book as you pointed out. I will point out if you know Philly and its economic opportunities, you know that it doesn't belong in same convo as NYC. That being said, these guys used a rainy day hustle everyday and did damage but Who makes mistakes often between 14-40? EVERYONE.