Anyone have any opinions on what involvement Merlino has in the Philly family? Anyone think he'll eventually be drawn in if he isn't already?

Do he have any legal income?

i believe he was employed by an advertising agency.

the steffanelli tapes of ligambi talking about merlino would be able to make any1 he wants when he comes back implies that it was always the plan for merlino to return and run the family, but could things have changed in the last few years? Ofcourse. In his last interview he claims that hes a new man and is never returning to south philly(which is exactly what he would say whether its the truth or not). But right now hes under pretty strict parole restrictions and what he does when hes off of those restrictions will show his true intention. But im sure that if did decide to get back involved with the family their would still be guys loyal to him, mazzone and borgesi espcially, but also if he ever returned to south philly the feds would be all over him. If he was smart he would stay in florida.

I thought it was a rug and tile company that was legitimizing his income..?

I don't think there's any doubt he's the man in charge and is waiting for his parole restriction to end so he can be seen with other LCN guys. If he was caught right now having dinner in Philly with some NY guys the Fed's would haul his ass in front of a judge.

If I'm not mistaken, after meeting with Steffanelli he called his parole officer and alerted them....??

He going back, Philly love him and he love Philly.He won a war to be boss why give up the boss seat.

Heres the atrticle where it says hes working for an advertising agency,but i guess he could have more than one source of income.
http://aboutthemafia.com/joey-merlino-discusses-life-after-the-philadelphia-mafia

Yes your right he reported the steffanelli meeting to his parole officer right after it happened which was very smart bc they couldve easly have gotten him on a parole violation.

Joey is a smart man and can do whatever he feels like doing at this point. After the formal process of checking in with the parole officer's/ finishing up all that sentencing stuff I just don't see the appeal of returning to the Philly/NJ area for anything other than visiting family being with wife/kids as there isn't really much going on out there besides food and shopping and even the shops with the best stuff are being shut down. As far as legitimate income anyone who gets out of prison is placed in some type of work and it has been confirmed that his legitimate source of income is from rug/tile business. In my opinion anything that involves labor/working with your hands/designing things is fun and good exercise so that is something I would actually want to do. The advertising / tv business is ALWAYS changing and not a consistent form of work/income and is probably just favor's/entertainment/something for him to do in his spare time. If Philly loves him so much the people/city needs to hurry the f*ck up and put some money into rebuilding the city sewage water/construction/ in certain parts of the city and make it a more desirable city to visit. Oh yeah and they also need to stop using cheap material / lead based paint and asbestos in their homes. And the kids in Ambler need to stop sniffing glue and acting like little jerks and give their "friend's" a quick call/email/text message to at least say "what's up"

Phillie don't care if merlino don't come back

Did I just here that right? Joey is a smart man?! Lol.

It's quite obvious that the guy is an idiot. Right up there with the worst bosses in LCN history, probably the worst.

Definitely top 5 worst

merlino was just a kid having fun dont think he cared about his rankings as a lcn boss as long as he was boss.. guy was quite an earner though

Joey is not as stupid as most of you people seem to think he is

Tommy... no one cares what a git jessie like you thinks..

I wouldn't exactly call Joey Merlino a great earner. Where to you get that from?

Fucked up a bunch of hits, , as boss of a family invites television crews to film him, absolute moron.

yeah the tv crew thing was not such a good idea but the guy still went to war and was charismatic enough to amass enough followers to support him and beat every murder charge against him in his indictments and was out of prison before 50

That don't make him a good boss it just makes him lucky, lets see if he learns from his mistakes

I never said he was a good mob boss I'm just saying he isn't as stupid as you people think he is

The followers he amassed were all associates wasn't they? No made guys IIRC in the war against Stanfa.

The Philly family were completely fucked at that point anyway. You think if alot of the Scarfo guys didn't go to prison they would support Joey Merlino? He's have ended up dead in the street if the family wasn't obliterated.

So Tommy.. how many "successful hits" have you completed???

Well all I know is what the documentaries on the Philly mob say. I've done no reading, nor do I have any inside information so I appreciate hearing what you all think. I had another question, big Ron Prevete claims to have been made by John Stanfa very unceremoniously. Anyone know anything about that?

Besides Mikey Chang no none of them were made and I'm not saying the scarfo guys would follow him I'm not saying he's a good mob boss I'm just saying he's far from stupid

Yes previte says he didn't have a ceremony but he was recognized as a made man under both Stanfa and Merlino he was even a captain at one point

Thaddeus. The Previte been discussed ad nauseam (not insulting you just saying) on this board.
Ill tell you my thoughts, from what I have discerned from my research.
If you read the "Last Gangster" by George Anastasia. YOu will see from wire tap convos that he was in fact considered a made guy. He is spoken too by other made guys like John Ciancaglini, Joey Merlino, and Ralph natale as being another wise guy and is spoken to in accordance with mob protocol. \
References by other members as "this thing" and "friend of ours."

He was actually elevated to Captain, however, his status as captain may be debatable because he didn't have any made guys under him.

Moreover, if you look up articles from the 1990's on google (before he was outted) you will see that he was reputed (at least by the media) as being a wise guy and captain who ran south jersey operations for merlino and natale.
Finally, in the book, it talks about how a bunch of made guys from the new York families came to his daughters wedding. That's not something they usually do for a two bit associate.

He never had a ceremony means he wasnt made. If he was introduced by the boss as made no one wouldve questioned it until stanfa died or was succeeded... Assuming he didnt rat, he wouldnt be recognized as made today by the current family

coming up he was a good armed robber. multiple stories of him coming out with 6 figure sums, he networked all over philly creating connections with other groups (mostly drug deals), in his 20s this guy was having ppl pay him instead of scarfo. regardless of scarfo and that getting locked up this guy was in his 20s.

on another note he murdered or ordered lot of ppl dead and he gets out before he is 50 looking all tanned and beefed up. 1 guy that said fuck the protocol im gonna be boss and do it my way. def a bad lcn boss but i really dont think he cared or cares

There's some truth to that. Merlino was able to weather all the internal conflict, including against Stanfa. He's also never been caught on tape.

I agree in spirit Skinny. But clearly in application it wasn't the case. If you read the book and saw the exerpts of the wiretaps they spoke to him like he made. I am not saying they personally felt that, but they never made it known.

I think what happened is that Stanfa didnt give big ron the ceremony becasue he knew it was a violation to make an ex cop. If you look at the guys he made like jon veasey, its clear that Previte iddn't get the ceremony for a reason.
But Stanfa wanted that weakly kick, so I think he gave Big ron the run aruond and told him "your made".
Then again, Veasey could be lying and really didnt get a ceremony.

no they had to treat him like he was made as long as stanfa was boss. He was only recognized out of respect to stanfa.

he wasnt lying, he was really introduced around as a captain.

Except hte timeline is all off. Stanfa went away in 94, and Big Ron started working for Merlino and Natale right after. So there was a 5 year period where big ron was "recognized" in spite of stanfa; whom was hated by Merlino and Natale and was away doing 4 life sentences.