No way. Absolutely not. Never. Forget it. The ONLY reason that the Genovese "supported" Merlino, was because he was on the opposite side of the Gambino-backed Stanfa.

Merlino filled a void with the support of several local friends who wanted in on the action too. As far as the relationship with Philly and NYC goes, the strong power was done after Scarfo.

Like him or not, Scarfo was the last Powerhouse boss in PHilly that had the backing of NYC. Stanfa was an outsider, who did nothing but support a heroin connection from Sicily. He was spared as a favor to Gambinos (Paul Castellano) by Scarfo.

The last time that Philly worked with NYC, in any large capacity, it was under Scarfo Regime. Gotti abandoned Stanfa in his time of need, UNLIKE the Genovese and Castellano, who assisted in revenge of Bruno's death. Regardless of who pulled the original strings. Gotti never sent guy 1 down to help Stanfa beat Merlino; neither did the Chin. Why?? B/C they didn't give a shit about two-bit punk gambling.

Once and for all: The philly mob is a gang. It is not LCN. You can't be a soldier, then make a guy, then promote him to boss.

And name for the sake of this discussion, the last rackets that put up big $$$ in philly? Scarfo era... Why?? Because he had the support of NYC.

And finally, if Merlino was so respected in Philly, why was Pete the Crumb and all the North Jersey-based PHilly LCN plotting, along with NYC families to wipe out his whole administration, and pick up the scraps. AND DON"T say they did it while Merlino was in Jail because of respect.

fact: Stanfa made Previte, Veasey, and Merlino. Why is it that only Merlino is recongnized by the fanboys on here as real deal LCN? If we are talking strictly ORGANIZED crime, Merlino is a criminal.

But, speaking of ITALIAN LCN, Previte made so many more moves than Merlino did. LIKE IT OR NOT, Previte had real power in SJ/Philly in the 80s-90s. Just because his name wasn't in the paper means shit.