Originally Posted By: PHL_Mob
Also, does anyone have any info or idea on why Joey would have been meeting with Parello and the Genovese family 22 years ago (1994 roughly)? My guess is this was when he was taking over the Family officially because Stanfa was arrested in 1994. This would further reinforce speculation that Merlino and Natale were backed by the Genovese Family in their attempt to pry the family away from the auspices of the Gambino Family who backed Stanfa. Other that that maybe it was over Louis Cirillo Jr who was married to Maria Ciancaglini who was the daughter of Joe Chickie Ciancaglini (father of John, Michael, & Joey Chang). Louis was murdered by the Genovese shortly after he was married to Maria. Can't imagine why Joey Merlino would have any involvement in that murder though since that was Genovese business regardless of the Chang connection, which makes me speculate that Merlino/Natale were in fact backed by the Genovese Family going into the '93 Merlino-Stanfa War and has since been linked to the Genovese and under their auspices to varying degrees. However, you could argue that he wasn't backed by them due to the fact that Tino Fiumara supposedly called him to a meeting in New York and Merlino told them to either meet him in Philly or go screw themselves as he didn't want to end up like Tony Bananas, as well as the whole Genovese/Gambino plot to murder the Merlino Admin and take over the family through Pete The Crumb Caprio as their surrogate. Who knows? But any thoughts or insights would be appreciated!
Stanfa was backed by the Gambino Family. Formerly Nicky Scarfo was backed by the Genovese through Bobby Manna and the Chin. I think Ralph Natale had a connection to Joseph Gatto of the NJ Jersey crew or it might have been his father Louis Streaky Gatto who went to jail in 1991. Maybe both I can't remember. They wanted Genovese backing, but I think it didn't come to fruition as Stanfa went to jail. They made connections to the Family though.