Philly Mob Boss Whacked Natalie DiDonato's Cousin, Frankie Flowers
Philadelphia's Natalie Guercio will soon be joined by Philadelphia's Natalie DiDonato on the VH1 reality show Mob Wives.
We don't know when the new Natalie will appear but she's rolled out her social media accounts and has been stomping on Natalie Guercio's guts.... and deleting at least one earlier tweet that noted a family connection, specifically that "Frankie Flowers" was her cousin.
Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi allegedly "made his bones" by killing DiDonato's cousin -- assuming Frank "Frankie Flowers" D'Alfonso is her cousin.
Ligambi, former Philly mob boss, now consiglieri, was convicted of murdering "Frankie Flowers," who was a wealthy, longtime associate of the Philadelphia crime family under Angelo Bruno; Frankie Flowers was whacked in the mid-1980s by the Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo regime.
As for Ligambi, after serving 10 years for the murder, he was acquitted following a retrial.
Natalie Didonato, when asked on Twitter about her mob creds, threw out the "Frankie Flowers" name as the ladies at M.O.B.Wives caught for posterity:
We don't know when the new Natalie will appear but she's rolled out her social media accounts and has been stomping on Natalie Guercio's guts.... and deleting at least one earlier tweet that noted a family connection, specifically that "Frankie Flowers" was her cousin.
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| Natalie Didonato |
Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi allegedly "made his bones" by killing DiDonato's cousin -- assuming Frank "Frankie Flowers" D'Alfonso is her cousin.
Ligambi, former Philly mob boss, now consiglieri, was convicted of murdering "Frankie Flowers," who was a wealthy, longtime associate of the Philadelphia crime family under Angelo Bruno; Frankie Flowers was whacked in the mid-1980s by the Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo regime.
As for Ligambi, after serving 10 years for the murder, he was acquitted following a retrial.
You see, those tweets are now gone. (We spent what felt like hours reading through Natalie D's Twitter feed and those tweets, posted on Nov. 29, as plainly visible above, are gone.)
Frankie Flowers is probably not one of Ligambi's favorite topics these days. As we noted in an earlier story, the Feds would love to nail him for as many as three gangland hits. And when it comes to organized crime cases, publicity can make one a target (ask John Gotti's inner circle) and there seems to be no such thing as "double jeopardy."
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A couple of our Philly sources talked to us about "Frankie Flowers" D'Alfonso and the common denominator brought up by both was "Uncle Joe" Ligambi. As one source said: "Frankie Flowers was a longtime associate under [Angelo] Bruno. What I heard is that he wasn't kicking up so Scarfo gave the order. Uncle Joe did the work."
Ligambi was convicted of the 1985 slaying of "Frankie Flowers" and spent 10 years in prison before he was acquitted following a 1997 retrial.
In an interesting profile of Uncle Joe, George Anastasia wrote on Philly.com in May 2011:
"Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi is a former bartender and suspected hit man who allegedly took control of the Philadelphia mob a decade ago... He was... part of the Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo crime family, having been formally initiated - "made" - after the slaying of Frank "Frankie Flowers" D'Alfonso back in July 1985. But he was never considered part of Scarfo's inner circle and never part of the mob hierarchy. In fact, before he was arrested in the D'Alfonso case, few outside of the South Philadelphia underworld had ever heard of him. His reign as reputed mob boss, however, is the longest since that of Angelo Bruno, the avuncular Mafia don who ran the family from 1959 until his murder in 1980."
WHO WAS FRANKIE FLOWERS?
He was a longtime, low-key Bruno family associate who, it's been reported, never killed anyone.
He was convicted of bookmaking and served a little time for failing to testify. He supposedly tried to use some muscle to gain control of a union in Atlantic City. He may have earned some money off the drug trade, but that was about all law enforcement knew of him when, at the age of 55, he was whacked on a South Philadelphia Street corner in 1985. He was not a "made member" of Philly's Cosa Nostra.
D'Alfonso earned his nickname because he operated a flower shop, which was often under police surveillance. High-ranking mobsters from Philly, New York, New England and other cities were known to have gone there on occasion.
For a low-key guy, Frank Flowers earned quite a bit of trouble for himself. One night in October 1981, he was nearly beaten to death on the South Philadelphia streets. Despite a busted skull and jaw, fractured eye sockets and a shattered kneecap, he survived.
But still, Frankie Flowers manned up when police questioned him about his near-death experience. "I was hit by a car," he told them from his hospital stretcher.
D'Alfonso's death was said to be part of the shakeout that hit the Philly streets in the wake of the Bruno hit (the "Docile Don" who counted mob boss Carlo Gambino as one of his good friends was shotgunned in a car seated beside John Stanfa. See story.)
Ligambi was convicted of the 1985 slaying of "Frankie Flowers" and spent 10 years in prison before he was acquitted following a 1997 retrial.
In an interesting profile of Uncle Joe, George Anastasia wrote on Philly.com in May 2011:
"Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi is a former bartender and suspected hit man who allegedly took control of the Philadelphia mob a decade ago... He was... part of the Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo crime family, having been formally initiated - "made" - after the slaying of Frank "Frankie Flowers" D'Alfonso back in July 1985. But he was never considered part of Scarfo's inner circle and never part of the mob hierarchy. In fact, before he was arrested in the D'Alfonso case, few outside of the South Philadelphia underworld had ever heard of him. His reign as reputed mob boss, however, is the longest since that of Angelo Bruno, the avuncular Mafia don who ran the family from 1959 until his murder in 1980."
WHO WAS FRANKIE FLOWERS?
He was convicted of bookmaking and served a little time for failing to testify. He supposedly tried to use some muscle to gain control of a union in Atlantic City. He may have earned some money off the drug trade, but that was about all law enforcement knew of him when, at the age of 55, he was whacked on a South Philadelphia Street corner in 1985. He was not a "made member" of Philly's Cosa Nostra.
D'Alfonso earned his nickname because he operated a flower shop, which was often under police surveillance. High-ranking mobsters from Philly, New York, New England and other cities were known to have gone there on occasion.
For a low-key guy, Frank Flowers earned quite a bit of trouble for himself. One night in October 1981, he was nearly beaten to death on the South Philadelphia streets. Despite a busted skull and jaw, fractured eye sockets and a shattered kneecap, he survived.
But still, Frankie Flowers manned up when police questioned him about his near-death experience. "I was hit by a car," he told them from his hospital stretcher.
D'Alfonso's death was said to be part of the shakeout that hit the Philly streets in the wake of the Bruno hit (the "Docile Don" who counted mob boss Carlo Gambino as one of his good friends was shotgunned in a car seated beside John Stanfa. See story.)