Hope you guys enjoy. I'll try to post another 1982 Scarfo article soon.

THE SCARFO STORY
'LITTLE NICKY': MAKING OF A MOBSTER

By KATHY SHEEHAN
Daily News Staff Writer

Tuesday, September 7, 1982

When the 11 a.m. mass ended one recent Sunday at St. Michael's Church in Atlantic City, three parishioners fell into conversation as they walked back to their homes in Ducktown, the city's Italian neighborhood.

The conversation was about a neighborhood man named Nicky Scarfo. Scarfo had been sent to prison in La Tuna, Texas, just three days earlier, and one of the parishioners, a young man, said to the middle-aged woman walking with him along N. Georgia Avenue: "Texas. Man, they don't even care. Look, his mother is here. His wife, his children. He has three kids. It's not right."

As they passed Scarfo's four-story brick and stucco home, the woman, dressed in black, nodded in agreement and clucked her tongue.

"They do that to him," the man added in disgust, "but look at the Black Panthers. What do they do to them?"

The topic of the neighbors' conversation, according to federal, state and local law enforcement authorities, has gained control of organized crime in Philadelphia and Atlantic City.

Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo, 53, is a "made member" of La Cosa Nostra, they say, meaning that he committed and/or ordered beatings and killings in the 1960s in order to join the "family."

A product of the Philadelphia public school system whose high school class voted him one of two students who were "out to lick the world," Scarfo has been described by the Pennsylvania Crime Commission as "a man who thinks nothing of physical violence."

Scarfo's quick temper may have developed in compensation for his 5-foot, 5- inch frame, several investigators speculate. Even his associates appear overwhelmed by his temper and his violent history.

". . . I'll end up like Little Nicky. Nuts!" said Frank Sindone, an alleged member of Philadelphia's organized crime family, two years before his death in 1980.

But to residents of Ducktown, where Scarfo and his family have lived for nearly 20 years, a nicer neighbor than Scarfo would be hard to find.

"They don't bother anybody. They are very nice to us," said one longtime resident of N. Georgia Avenue. The woman, who declined to give her name, talked about Scarfo's "lovely" wife, Dominica; his mother, Catherine, who is active in St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church on the next block; and his three sons, who often help neighbors carry groceries from a corner store.

It is a quiet block between Atlantic Avenue, Atlantic City's main thoroughfare and business district off the Boardwalk, and Arctic Avenue, a one-way street lined with modest homes and neighborhood storefronts.

Residents said they know of Scarfo's criminal background only through reading the newspapers. "It would be like picking up a paper and reading about a guy in Nebraska," said another neighbor.

"Why don't you ever say anything nice?" asked a parish priest who politely ducked questions about his most famous parish family and scolded a reporter for working on a Sunday.

Until Scarfo was sent to the Federal Correctional Institution in La Tuna on Aug. 19 to begin serving a two-year sentence for illegal possession of a handgun, he had lived in an apartment house owned by his mother at 26 N. Georgia Ave.

Philip's Apartments is named after his father, who died in the mid-'70s. It was through his father, alleged to have been a member of New York's Genovese crime family, and through three of his mother's brothers, Joseph, Michael and Nicholas Piccolo, who have been identified as members of the Angelo Bruno crime family, that Scarfo got his start in organized crime, law enforcement sources say.

Scarfo, named Nicodemo Domenic Scarfo when he was born on March 8, 1929, in Brooklyn, N.Y., spent his first few years in Brooklyn.

He has a sister, Nancy (whose son, Philip "Crazy Phil" Leonetti, was to become a co-defendant with Scarfo during a murder trial in 1980). He may also have two brothers, according to one law enforcement source, but their whereabouts are unknown.

By the time Scarfo began school in 1935, his name had been Americanized, the family had moved to South Philadelphia, and Scarfo had enrolled in first grade at St. Paul's Catholic School as "Nicholas D. Scarfo."

School records indicate the family lived on Warnock Street near Fitzwater and that Scarfo was taught by nuns at the school on Christian Street near 9th for three years.

After that, he entered the public school system, where - for reasons that could not be determined - he attended four different schools before earning his high school diploma.

School records indicate he attended the now-defunct Hawthorne and Campbell schools in South Philadelphia as well as Bartlett Junior High School (now Frank Palumbo School).

Then he went to high school at Benjamin Franklin, on Broad Street near Green, and studied airplane maintenance, graduating in June 1947. The airplane maintenance program was instituted before the start of World War II and was later phased out.

Scarfo's portrait is not in the yearbook and none of his former teachers is still at the school. Several of his former classmates said they were not aware that the man authorities say is currently the mean-tempered boss of the local mob had been in their graduating class.

One former classmate, however, remembered Scarfo as a teenager and described him as "nothing like you read about." He said Scarfo was "the quietest man I ever met" and "never looked for trouble . . . He must have made a big change if what I read about him is true."

But the yearbook indicates he was anything but shy.

In a class poll, Scarfo was voted "loudest," "most talkative," "best cutter ( of classes ) " and as one of two graduates "who are out to lick the world."

One of Scarfo's attorneys in Atlantic City, Harold Garber, said he knew little of Scarfo's early years except that he had been head of the newsboys at 30th Street Station at about age 15 and had toyed with the idea of becoming a boxer.

Scarfo had one boxing match when he was 16, knocking out a larger opponent, but Garber said he "quit the boxing game after that fight because he didn't like the violence."

Since Scarfo did not come to the attention of law enforcement authorities until the 1960s and not as an identified member of the mob until the 1970s, law enforcement files are sketchy on his early years.

A source with the Pennsylvania Crime Commission said Scarfo's father was alleged to have been a member of the Genovese crime family, but little is known of Philip Scarfo's activities in Philadelphia or Atlantic City.

The source said there was a rift between the elder Scarfo and former Philadelphia don Angelo Bruno and other organized crime associates here, and none of them attended Philip Scarfo's funeral.

An organized crime investigator in New York could not confirm Philip Scarfo's ties with the mob there, but said two other relatives, Frank Scarfo and Pasqualino Scarfo, were members of New York's Sardeno group, an organized crime unit that started in Calabria, Italy, and deals in narcotics.

Investigators at the Crime Commission and other law enforcement agencies in Pennyslvania and New Jersey agree, however, that relatives on Scarfo's mother's side had a great influence in inducting Scarfo into the mob.

At some point after he graduated from high school, sources said, Scarfo began tending bar at Piccolo's 500 Club, 11th and Christian streets.

The bar, now Cous' Little Italy, was owned by Scarfo's uncles, Nicholas " Nick Buck" Piccolo, Michael " Mike Buck" Piccolo and Joseph Piccolo, all identified as members of organized crime.

The bar was actually a front for an illegal gambling operation headed by Bruno, sources said, and Scarfo, through his uncles, was employed as a " runner" from the 1940s to the early 1960s.

It was with a nephew of the Piccolos, Anthony Piccolo, that Scarfo made one of his first appearances in court.

Scarfo and Anthony Piccolo were arrested in February 1950 after police raided a large numbers bank in South Philadelphia. When police smashed through a rear door of the place, Scarfo ran upstairs to the third floor in an apparent attempt to destroy some of the evidence, police said.

He was put on a year's probation and fined $75 in that case.

Just two years earlier, police records show, Scarfo was arrested on a charge of aggravated assault and battery, and law enforcement officials point to that incident, among others, as evidence of Scarfo's legendary temper. Records do not indicate whether Scarfo was convicted in that case.

His temper also showed on the night of May 25, 1963. Scarfo and two other men scuffled with a longshoreman in the Oregon Diner, Oregon Avenue near 3rd Street, over who should sit in a booth. The longshoreman, William F. Dugan, 24, was fatally stabbed.

Scarfo, who told police he was an unemployed maintenance worker, surrendered about two weeks later and pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He was sentenced to between six months and two years in jail.

Scarfo's violent display did not go over well with Angelo Bruno, whom some investigators had dubbed " the Gentle Don."

" He ( Scarfo ) got sent down to Atlantic City in 1964 because he was being exiled by Bruno," said Col. Justin Dintino, chief of the New Jersey State Police organized crime division. " I don't think Bruno was too happy about that ( the killing ) . That wasn't Bruno's style, so he got exiled to Atlantic City, which was a nothing for years."

But Scarfo kept busy in his new town and quickly became involved in large- scale bookmaking in the Atlantic City area during the 1960s and early '70s, sources said.

And despite being banished by Bruno, he upheld the mob's code of silence in 1971 when he and five others were called before the New Jersey State
Commission for Investigation to answer questions about mob activity in New Jersey.

The six men, including Scarfo and Bruno, refused to answer and were cited for contempt, and served terms at Yardville Correctional Center.

It was in Yardville, sources say, that Scarfo took up chess, often playing with Bruno. He became a proficient player during his nearly three years of imprisonment.

The game became almost a passion for Scarfo 10 years later, when - under a court order not to leave the Atlantic City area - he became a virtual recluse.

Then casino gambling was legalized in Atlantic City in 1976, and Scarfo's Atlantic City address became a bonanza rather than a punishment.

Law enforcement sources say Scarfo formed close ties to the leadership of Local 54 of the Hotel, Restaurant Employees & Bartenders International Union.

The union has come under intense scrutiny by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, the police arm of the casino industry, because officials fear Scarfo's influence in the union could lead to threats of a massive strike at the casinos, where most of the union members work.

Despite his move into the labor scene, investigators continue to characterize Scarfo as a small-time hoodlum and a punk.

On Dec. 23, 1979, Scarfo and two of his close friends, his nephew, Leonetti, and Lawrence " Yogi" Merlino, were arrested in the execution-style killing of a Margate cement contractor, Vincent Falcone. Authorities said Falcone had done business with Scarf Inc., a small construction company owned by Leonetti and located next to Scarfo's residence.

The three men were acquitted in September 1980 despite an eyewitness account that Leonetti had shot Falcone in the back of the head and that Scarfo then had lifted Falcone's jacket so Leonetti could shoot him again.

The witness, Joseph Salerno, told the jury Scarfo had stood by during the killing. Salerno quoted Scarfo as saying: " I love this. I love this. The big shot is dead."

The trio then bound the body and left it in a car trunk, " like old times," Salerno testified.

After the trial, the Scarfos held a " God Bless America" party. They painted those words and a Liberty Bell on the front of a storage garage in Scarfo's back yard.

A search of Scarfo's home for evidence in that killing led to his most recent jailing. Investigators found a .22-caliber derringer - not the murder weapon but incriminating. Because of his manslaughter conviction in 1963, Scarfo is not allowed to own a gun.

He was convicted on a weapons charge and sentenced in July 1981 to two years in prison, but had been released on bail and ordered not to leave the Atlantic City area while he appealed the conviction.

Then, suddenly it seemed, authorities revoked his bail in mid-August and ordered him to begin serving his sentence.

The ostensible reason for revoking Scarfo's bail was his association with known criminals, in violation of the bail order. But it has also been reported that authorities suspected him in the Aug. 10 shooting of Salerno's father.

It wasn't just a hunch that led authorities to suspect Scarfo of getting revenge for Salerno's testimony in the 1980 trial. (Salerno is now living under another identity in the federal witness protection program.)

For several days after the shooting of Joseph Salerno Sr. in Wildwood Crest, N.J., by a man wearing a jogging suit, Scarfo, Leonetti and Merlino had become unusually visible in the Atlantic City area.

They were seen around town every day, wearing jogging suits.

The arrogance - even if they were innocent of the shooting - was too much for New Jersey investigators, and they quickly moved to revoke Scarfo's bail.

Scarfo, who is normally nattily dressed in a dark suit or a dark shirt, was picked up wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a drawing of a chess champion, and green jogging pants.

" After a while," said one investigator who has tailed Scarfo for many years, " when you do so many things and continue to get away with it . . . you think you are above the law."

Scarfo, now in the Texas jail, can receive no phone calls and is allowed limited visiting privileges.

His mother, who sells funeral wreaths through St. Michael's Church in Atlantic City, declined to talk to a reporter. Neighbors say other family members often attend mass at St. Michael's, but Scarfo rarely did.

Investigators said Scarfo did not often leave his home during the year he was confined to Atlantic County, apparently fearing he could be the next victim of a hit by the Philadelphia mob. A steel mesh fence was constructed in the driveway of his home recently.

While at home, Scarfo - fond of his gangster image - read books about Al Capone. His attorney, Garber, said he also read a lot about chess. " He leads a dull life," Garber said.

At least one investigator agreed. " Unlike a lot of people in that type of business," he said, " Nicky is the kind of guy who doesn't come out hardly at all."

But once or twice a week he dined out, with Leonetti and Merlino, at Scannicchio's, Angeloni's, the Brajole Cafe or the Easy Street Pub, restaurants close to his home. They would drink, but only moderately; Scarfo is not a heavy drinker.

Sources said the men signed the check at those restaurants - at casino restaurants they paid cash - and the owners wouldn't quibble about when and if they would be paid.

Scarfo's volatile temper was dramatically demonstrated at those dinners, one investigator said. He said Scarfo would " snap out" for no apparent reason. " His veins would come out and he would be screaming at the top of his lungs," the investigator said. " Then he would turn to the guy he was talking to like nothing had happened."

On other days, Leonetti or Merlino would shuttle to Philadelphia to take care of Scarfo's " business," sources said. Occasionally, Scarfo and his friends attended professional boxing matches at the casinos, but he was
rarely, if ever, seen on the casino floor.

Before his gun conviction, sources say, Scarfo took care of his Philadelphia " business" personally, traveling here almost daily.

In conversations of alleged organized crime members secretly recorded by the FBI in the late 1970s, Scarfo's high-pitched voice was often heard, and references to him were made in conversations when he was not present.

In 1978, Sindone, a high-ranking member of the local mob who was killed in 1980, was talking about extricating himself from organized crime.

" This business is gonna make me steal all my life," Sindone said. " I'll get out . . . change my name. This way they can't call me no more. If I stay here, I'll end up like Little Nicky. Nuts!"

The man who allegedly preceded Scarfo into power, the late Philip Testa, was also heard on several tapes vouching for and agreeing with Scarfo on several matters.

Because of his close alliance with Testa, law enforcement sources say, Scarfo was the logical choice to succeed Testa when he was killed in a bomb explosion at his home in March 1981.

Whether Scarfo can retain his hold on local organized crime while he is locked in a Texas prison is open to speculation.

Federal and state sources say Scarfo has made his uncle, Nicholas " Nick Buck" Piccolo, a consigliere in the family. And if no one else looks out for Scarfo's interests, Piccolo - who allegedly gave him his start - will.

Maryanne Desmond, assistant U.S. attorney in New Jersey, speculated that it would be difficult at best for Scarfo to retain control. " Certainly the move to Texas will make it more difficult," she said.

Another police source, however, said he was " not impressed that they put him away." The source had a quick response when asked whether Scarfo could remain in control.

" Of course," he said. " That's why it's called organized crime."

Curiosity can you find the 1984 article on salvie testa that ade scarfo jealous of salvie and that gave a "reason" to order to whack Salvie ?

In Phil Leonetti's book he said that they ate at Angeloni's every single day at 5pm. I see a contradiction here....This article is off on a few other subjects as well.

Interesting how he was a recluse and basically stayed inside his home all day long.

It was the fear of be killed like Bruno or Testa.

Dante: they did "not" eat there every night. There were times when things were going on that They would be seen more then others but no way every night ever.

Now the Blade when on a bender would be in there every evening .


And it was not always all of them sometimes just Phil and sometimes just Lawrence or both it was one spring and summer after Nick was back from Texas that they were in there more then ever don't know if it has anything to do with anything other then feeling very comfortable ther. What's strange I don't think there is one surveillance tape or picture of them in there but they sat at same table most times.

The Wall Street Journal article? Yeah, I'll try to find it.

I remember me and Serp having a Scarfo discussion a while back, and we both came to an agreement that Scarfo was never "banished" to Atlantic City like shows like Mobsters and certain so-called researchers always claimed. This article also confirms it was a move that Scarfo did under his own will, and that he was chosen to oversee the families interest in AC. And it wasn't because Bruno didn't like him either, but quite the opposite. FBI files that was also spoken about on this forum in the past alluded to Bruno offering legal assistance to Scarfo & Merlino after the Oregon diner stabbing. Makes me wonder where the hell that paper clip story comes from.

Sinatra, Atlantic City until the casinò legalization in 1976 was a dead city,why a young mobster would on his will to leave Philly for a ghost town.
For me Scarfo understand that if he will stay in philly Bruno will lost the patience and will order to whack him.
For the legal assistance in the Bruno time the boss musnt pay the lawyer whatever was the soldier charged ?

Furio, Bruno didnt banish Scarfo, thats just inaccurate information. Atlantic City was dead as far as Casinos go, but there was still bookmaking and sports-betting going on down there. And clearly Scarfo was the soldier Bruno trusted to keep an eye on things. Leonetti explains it in his book that Scarfo & Angelo Bruno were close up until shortly before Bruno was killed when Bruno supposedly asked Scarfo to choose between him or underboss, Phil Testa and Scarfo never gave him a straight answer. Another thing mentioned elsewhere that I've thought about is that the guy Scarfo stabbed at the Oregon, was a nobody, he most likely was never going to have Scarfo killed because of that, as mob protocol usually would have called for Bruno to take the side of his soldier. Especially considering it was a fight and Scarfo didn't outright seek to assault and kill the guy. The article mentions why he'd voluntarily move to AC, he moved with his family and his wife. Bruno most likely had given it his blessing and assigned Scarfo to look over the AC rackets. Which FBI files, Leonetti, and articles from the time, confirm was actually the case. Scarfo being banished by Bruno to AC is a myth. That has continued to be disproven over time.

" He ( Scarfo ) got sent down to Atlantic City in 1964 because he was being exiled by Bruno," said Col. Justin Dintino, chief of the New Jersey State Police organized crime division. " I don't think Bruno was too happy about that ( the killing ) . That wasn't Bruno's style, so he got exiled to Atlantic City, which was a nothing for years"

It seems as though Bruno sent Scarfo away to take away some heat? I cant fathom why Scarfo would voluntarily leave Philly for a depressed city like AC. yeah, there was some bookmaking but AC was hardly a place where a young guy would want to start a new venture. It just doesnt make sense for him to pack up and leave on his own just to set up shop in AC. There was no money to be made there at that time.

It's a myth that Bruno exiled him. The truth is Scarfo's parents, sister, and nephew went to Atlantic City in the early 60s. Scarfo went to jail for a little while after killing the longshoreman. When he got out of jail, he moved to Atlantic City to be with his family.

It's also a myth that murder wasn't Bruno's style. That's obviously false. Just because he didn't have people's bodies left in the street didn't mean people weren't being murdered.

True Sinatra Nick was close to Bruno before casinos they had a rift with the local union Bruno tried to make a move on him but was shut down. But they talked and visited often for a guy that was banished !!!

Furio:Atlantic city was not a ghost town in the 60's it's a term that is used cos it was so dam popular in the 20,s 30's 40's and so on that a decline was called a ghost town . This town was a mobsters and a families playground.


Atlantis City is now closer to a ghost town more then ever it's in real bad shape.

Not to mention the most glaring error here. Nicky's father Philip wasn't made in the Genovese and wasn't in that life. Anastasia had this wrong too.

serp..... recently read "the quite don" story of Russell buffalino, who was influential in lcn in pennslyvania, the book
doesn't mention scarfo, wondering if they ever crossed paths.

I think Bufalino was more Bruno era. He's known to have been very friendly with Bruno and would visit him and have dinner with him at Cous' often. According to Frank Sheeran of course. Interestingly enough, in Sheeran's book, he mentions having been recruited by Bruno through Bufalino to murder a mob guy under him who was also a member of the Philly mob, but for whatever reason the hit never happened and Bruno was killed. Sheeran rarely mentions names, this was one of the instances where he didn't. Now in Leonetti's book, he tells the story of Bruno and Scarfos falling out, much later than the Oregon incident, he says he'd heard that Bruno had contracted some big Irish guy out of Pennsylvania to kill his uncle and that this guy made it to Atlantic City and was asking questions about he and Scarfo. Leonetti says he had gotten the drop on this "big Irishmen out of Pennsylvania", and threatened him, and the guy supposedly left town. You think and compare the two stories, and it definitely seems like that Irishman was Sheeran. Thats just my personal analysis after reading the two books. I haven't been able to factually prove myself correct, so don't take this as the absolute fact of the situation. Just thought that was pretty interesting.

There is an old pic in the rare photo section of Bufalino and Todaro from Buffalo in Philly for a meet with Nick Sr.

The picture you're speaking of was Edward Sciandra from the Bufalino Family, not Russell...It was taken at Scarfo's house in Florida, "Casablanca South".

Leonetti threatening Sheeran?

The shrimp needed to wield a gun around a high school campus just to try and intimidate a few jocks.

My bad, too many beers last night

That didn't make him any less of a cold blooded killer. They both killed people, well, we know Leonetti did. Sheeran simply claims he did, there's never been any actual proof I think as far as trials that support his claims though. Other than him being named in the Hoffa memo and investigation.

Serp!! Have u stopped by that new Bikini Sports bar we were talking about yet?

I've also thought the same thing..very coincedental & interesting.

Netflix could make a great doc series like making a murderer with leonetti based on his crazy uncle like a 5 part one. If done right by good people be classic.

No Dante I have been traveling with the kids and grandkids we are home now I will look into who it is also.

Serp,,I was wondering where u were, u have grandkids also..i guess so..were all getting old as fuck .. mine have been old enough 2 tell me what the fuck 2 do..."poppy fill the pool soon 'cause it's gonna b nice weather"..."poppy go get wood 4 the outdoor fireplace".. I am not old , but it's hard hearing this shit when your only 49..Dont ask..i started young,I love my kids & thier mother.

this is true.