So many murders in Philly, 316 as of today and 324 was last year total, this guy was making a statement, he could have rolled him into west kensington and it would not have been spread across the paper as headlines of a mob hit

drug deal gone wrong, it sounds like it was unexpected, i mean if he left the area in his own car it obviously wasnt planned or perhaps they were both ambushed and he manged to escape.

I said the same thing scorsese...we just gutta wait for details

If (and it's a big if right now) this guy is the shooter, the biggest statement that he sent was that he's an imbecile.

I mean, a made guy basically getting caught in the act of murder, smack dab in the middle of his boss's trial? Come on!

And I seem to remember the last time an Italian American guy made a statement around Christmas time. Hmmm, I think it was 1985?? Yeah, things worked out REAL well for that guy .

I don't follow Philly too closely. I don't live there and I don't consider myself an Internet mobwatcher because I basically only post about New York, mostly the Bronx and Manhattan (areas that I'm in every day). But my early opinion is that if this guy Nicodemo pulled the trigger, then it was unsanctioned, unplanned, or both.

And if that's the case, then he is, indeed, an idiot. Either that or he's looking to get himself killed. There are such unfortunates in this world. But only time will tell.

If the guy did do the shooting and does get caught up the feds will be after him to throw uncle joe away because of the earlier murder he may have been involved in

Of course. That's why it was so dumb.

Ahmen pizzaboy...

I would hope in his defense if it is him he has some huge heroin or crystal meth problem and was high as a kite at the time of this situation because what is being reported does make him look like a COMPLETE and utter idiot..... he did run a huge gambling ring out of the borgata in 2007 and kept quite when the jig was up...

That picture isn't helping any, either .

what do you mean by statement exactly?cause he was a jailhouse snitch or something.
Again i think it was probably a spontaneous on the spot situation but then again they guy is a sociopathic gangster so anything goes i guess.

I was perplexed by the "statement" comment also, Scorsese. That's why I made light of it .

statement could mean an image thing letting philladelphia know they can still drop bodies considering the lengths ligambi and co are going to portray themselves as non violent softies, and all that mob lite stuff. I posted an interview george anastasia did recently where even he was saying that joe ligambi wasnt a real gangster when comparing him to this other drug kingpin kaboni savage. Although i think its probably a stretch that this 40 year old man would risk prison for it.

Come on guys, this will have no influence on the trial...This was amateur 101, not some planned and well thought out mob hit.

When you are seen getting away in broad daylight and arrested within an hour, it's not something that was planned.

basically what I was getting at.... but like you said savage was a REAL gangster that was feared all over philly....reading more into this story kind of doesnt make sense, hearing more from dave s and fox 29, just sounds like niccodemo just lost it in some type of rage

http://www.bigtrial.net/2012/12/mob-hit-could-impact-ligambi-trial.html


Thursday, December 13, 2012
Mob Hit Could Impact Ligambi Trial

A mob hit in the middle of a mob trial?

That's never a good thing. Particularly when the defense has spent two months harping on the same theme: this group of South Philadelphia wiseguys was not cut from the same violent cloth as the mobsters who ran the organization in the 1980s and 1990s.

What impact the shooting of Gino DiPietro will have on the trial mob boss Joe Ligambi and six co-defendants is an open question. Whether jurors heard about the hit and whether they connected it to the defendants are questions that can't be answered until the panel returns to the federal courthouse on Tuesday.

The trial recessed Wednesday after the prosecution presented its final pieces of evidence. DiPietro, a 50-year-old South Philadelphia drug deal, was gunned down about three hours later. The defense is not scheduled to begin calling its witnesses until next week. Thursday was devoted to arguments, without the jury present.

But the overriding issue was whether the arrest of mob soldier Anthony Nicodemo in connection with the DiPietro shooting would have an impact on the trial process. Nicodemo, 41, has been taken into custody but not formally charge in the murder. .

Ironically, his name was mentioned on one of the last secretly recorded wiretap conversations played for the jury. One of the speakers in that conversation was Damion Canalichio, a co-defendant in the case.
DiPietro was gunned down outside his South Philadelphia home around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. An SUV seen fleeing from the scene was traced to Nicodemo who was taken into custody a short time later.

At least one and possibly two other men are believed to have been involved.

DiPietro, a convicted drug dealer who several sources say has been cooperating with law enforcement, was shot five times. And according to both law enforcement and underworld sources, there are as many potential motives as there were bullets fired.

While initial news reports quickly labeled this a "mob hit" because of Nicodemo's alleged involvement, DiPietro was described as someone who burned many bridges in the underworld and at least one high ranking law enforcement official cautioned that the motive could have been tied to the drug underworld rather than the Ligambi organization.

Whatever the motive, Nicodemo being linked to the investigation causes problems for the Ligambi defense team. A request for a mistrail in the two-month old case is a possibility. So is a time-consuming questioning of the 17 jurors (there are five alternates) when they return Tuesday to determine what, if anything, they heard about the shooting and whether it impacted their judgment.

If Nicodemo was involved, several sources said Thursday, then this was either a spur-of-the-moment action or "one of the stupidest hits" in the history of the Philadelphia mob. It is hard to imagine that any of the mob leaders on trial -- Ligambi, underboss Joseph "Mousie" Massimino or Anthony Staino -- would have approved an act of violence while their fates were being weighed by a federal court jury.

It also is a departure from typical mob protocol to use you own, quickly traceable vehicle for a hit.

That being said, the Philadelphia mob in recent years has been populated by hitmen who are not brain surgeons. Philip Colletti and John Veasey carried out the 1993 ambush of Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino and Michael Ciancaglini while driving in a Ford Taurus leased in Colletti's name.

Ciancaglini was killed and Merlino was wounded in that drive-by shooting which, like Thursday's, occurred in broad daylight in South Philadelphia.

The DiPietro hit was also similar to the gangland slaying of Raymond "Long John" Martorano who was shot by two gunmen in his car less than a block from his home near Sixth and Fitzwater Streets in 2002. No one has ever been charged in the Martorano murder.

In fact, it is one of four gangland slayings (the others are the murders of Ron Turchi and Ralph Mazucca) that remain actively under investigation, a situation that adds another potentially devastating dynamic to the DiPietro investigation. If Nicodemo is charged in that crime, he could face a potential death sentence.

Would that be enough, law enforcement sources wonder, to get him to cooperate? He has already been mentioned in a New Jersey State Police affidavit as a suspect in the November 2003 slaying of John "Johnny Gongs" Casasanto.

Canalichio, one of Ligambi's co-defendants, has also ben mentioned in connection with that investigation.

Nicodemo's most recent arrest was in connection with a mob-linked illegal sports betting operation being run out of the Borgata casino-hotel in Atlantic City. He got a four-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty in Atlantic County Superior Court.

But several sources said Thursday that in addition to the Casasanto hit, he also has information about the murder of Mazucca, another South Philadelphia drug dealer killed in the 1990s in what authorities believe was a mob connected slaying.

Mob informant Roger Vella has confessed to that murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison after agreeing to cooperate. Vella, according to an FBI debriefing memo, has linked nearly a dozen members of the Philadelphia crime family, including George Borgesi, another co-defendant in the current case, to that murder.

The question as the trial resumes next week, said several law enforcement and underworld sources, is what is going through the minds of Canalichio and Borgesi.

"If Nicodemo is charged with murder," said a former South Philadelphia mob figure who cooperated with authorities back in the 1990s, "then somebody is going to make a deal. They're all thinking that. And they've got to decide. Whoever comes in first (agrees to cooperate) gets the best deal."

And if you wait too long, the source added, "there might not be a deal at all."

Read more at http://www.bigtrial.net/2012/12/mob-hit-could-impact-ligambi-trial.html#QpKfjLR2C8LukHVt.99

couple hours after this south philly shooting the cameras catch this west philly shooting on tape from the septa station

http://www.myfoxphilly.com/story/2033975...atform-shooting

Dave S on fox 29 just reported that the philly cops matched the gun nicodemo had with the bullets recovered at scene...done

Nicodemo is a piece of shit. I'm glad he got busted. Fuck him.

Wow, what a moron. If the Feds ask for a mistrial anytime soon, that means they're going to try to flip this kid. Now I'm not saying he'll flip. I don't know these guys. But I know how the Feds operate. A mistrial would NOT be a good thing for these guys right now. If that happens, the Feds will take their sweet ass time to re-try them, and try to flip Nicodemo in the interim.

. the feds are gonna threaten this guy with the death penalty and he's gonna give them everybody, joe merlino better catch the plane to brazil and hide in the jungle this fool got caught with the smoking gun and mask and car at the scence. theres a needle for him unless he flips, like massino this guy will. even if he did it on his own maybe this guy he killed was with him in the other hit which someone order. sucks to be connected with anyone there. if or when he flips it wouldnt surprise me if the gov ask's for a mistrial and just reindict everyone this time this time murders. can we all agree that he may not of been the shooter but it was his car gun and mask= 1st degree murder, not manslaughter when you drive to his house with gun and mask and shoot him 5 times.

Yup.

A high ranking police source tells FOX 29 News that ballistics tests on a gun recovered from the SUV of mob soldier Anthony Nicodemo match bullets taken from the body of the murder victim in Wednesday's suspected mob hit.

Sources also tell FOX 29 that investigators have recovered a sweatshirt and a mask believed to be used in Wednesday night's homicide.

Police sources say the evidence was taken to the police forensic crime lab.

While the current power brokers of the local members of the mob were held up in their South Philly hangout Thursday, mob soldier Anthony Nicodemo was still with the homicide unit as detectives continued to build a murder case against the 41-year-old wise guy.

"We do have someone that we're very interested in that we're talking to now," said Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey.

Nicodemo was taken into custody Wednesday afternoon when a witness to the murder of 51-year-old Gino DiPietro at 13th and Johnston gave police a description of a getaway SUV and the tag number.

Minutes later, police found that SUV at Nicodemo's house and took him in for questioning.

"The case is moving forward and it is developing," Ramsey told FOX 29. "There's a lot of information out there and we're trying to do some things forensically."

"We are not charged with a single act of physical violence," said defense attorney Edwin Jacobs.

The Mob hit came as the defense was about to open its case in the eight-week racketeering trial of Mob Boss Joe Ligambi and six others. The defense has claimed all along that Ligambi and the others had no ties to any mob violence.

"I'm sure the judge will do his best to insulate the jury from any of this news exposure," Jacobs told FOX 29.

Mob Expert Frank Friel says the timing of this hit couldn't be worse. Several sources say DiPietro may have been killed because he was talking about the unsolved 2003 mob hit on Johnny "Gongs" Cassasanto. Nicodemo has been called a "prime suspect" in that murder.

"To leave a body in the street in the grotesque manner that they left this guy in the street is stupid, just plain stupid," Friel explained.

Crime scene experts are performing DNA tests on items they recovered from Nicodemo's car and home.

Police are concerned about more mob violence as a result of this hit. Two police cars were stationed at Nicodemo's 17th Street home overnight.

The judge in the Ligambi racketeering case is expected to question each of the jurors in the case on Tuesday about whether they saw news accounts of the mob hit and whether it will affect their ability to reach a verdict. The jury could get this case in early January.

Sources say Nicodemo is not being cooperative with investigators and he remains in custody. No charges have been filed.

http://www.fivefamiliesnyc.com/2012/12/cops-recover-gun-and-mask-used-in.html

They interviewed on of the lawyers and he looked and sounded pissed and then a former phill fbi mob agent and he said this is one of the most stupid things that could have happened and the way it happened...and your right this may nail several of these guys with the mistrial

this has to be a "heat of the moment" type thing. I doubt this guy would bring his own car (with his OWN plate on it)to clip someone at 3 in the afternoon.Now IF it was sanctioned it had to be merlino who gave his ok. anyone remember the billy veasey hit? Billy got killed the day his brother was to testify. so it aint too far fetched for people to think IF IT was sanctioned it would be joey. thats his style

Ballistics match, mask found, gun found, getaway car and plate number matches multiple witnesses statements, DNA evidence on the way...barring an act from the almighty, I think Nicodemo is going to go down for this one.

I predict they are going to have to slap him just to shut him up!

who knows, he has a reputation as a tough guy, but if he did flip then its a race for either borgesi or canalichio to make the best (first) deal since both are also suspected to be involved in the other murders with nicodemo...

As you well know Dapper there's been a lot of tough guys who have flipped. Canalichio is going to have a problem as he is suspected to be in on the Johnny Gons hit. I'm sure Canalichio is very concerned right about now!

oh yea i def know, but its too early to tell at this point whether he will flip imo.

question for the philly people is it still a death penalty state? either way why the hell wont this guy flip he's 41 a soldier and his life is over one way or the other.does he flip by friday 4pm. that lawyer jacobs is gonna have to break the bad news to all his clients in the fed pen.