There’s tons of young wannabes and associates in South Philly, trust me....
If the amount of activity in threads about the Philly Mob and the number of posters from the Philadelphia/South Jersey area at this forum and the one across the street, is any indication of the ''popularity'' and attraction of the organization, then they indeed aren't short on the supply of new blood..
I think some of it has to do with Joey Merlino's looks strangely enough. A young, good looking guy (don't take my word for it) who local journalists and TV stations keep getting soundbites from, unwittingly perpetuating a glamorous image of the mob to impressionable kids and teenagers. We're talking ages 13-19 when he was at his peak. A lot of the guys who post about Philly and a lot of the hangers-on seem to be early-thirties to mid-thirties. They probably listened to Joey Merlino being interviewed about sports teams, saw him on the news channeling Gotti by giving away turkeys/helping his PR, and heard about his "friendships" with hockey players and thought "this guy's pretty cool".
A lot of these guys probably had pictures of him in their bedrooms, like a teen idol or something.
I mean, there has got to be some reason why, per capita, there is more interest in the mob in Philly then there is anywhere else (it's dormant in most of the country). I'm presuming if the head cheese in Philly looked like Phil Testa and had the presence of Angelo Bruno a lot of these young men wouldn't give a shit?
Or look at it another way: why do rap artists worship John Gotti?
Magnetism - either you have it or you don't.
Cult of personality.
