Cosa Nostra News

Manhattan prosecutors reportedly angered a judge yesterday by allowing Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino to plead to a gambling charge. Skinny Joey Merlino an d wife, Deborah  at Manhattan Federal Court for racketeering trial on Jan. 31, 2018. They essentially abandoned a years-long effort to convict him of racketeering, health care fraud, loan-sharking, and other counts. And the judge isn't happy about it, as he made clear yesterday, April 27, 2018. In February, Merlino beat the raps when a jury deadlocked, leading to a mistrial. Since then, Manhattan federal prosecutors decided against trying the alleged Philadelphia Cosa Nostra boss again . Judge Richard Sullivan showed his animosity by asking prosecutors why they allowed him to plea to a charge that carries a two-year maximum sentence. "In my experience prosecutors will try the case again. What makes this case exceptional?" Sullivan asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Max Nicholas. ...

Alleged Philadelphia Cosa Nostra boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino won what mob experts describe as the biggest victory yet in his dark, checkered career in crime when the judge declared a mistrial in his federal racketeering case in Manhattan. Merlino and wife Deborah —a Korean-American. Jurors sent U.S. District Judge Richard Sullivan no less than five notes detailing how hopelessly deadlocked they were after deliberating for around four days. In the end, they couldn't decide whether the Feds had proved whether Merlino was guilty of running both an illegal gambling ring and an $11.3 million health care racket (from which “boss” Merlino allegedly got a $100,000 cut). On Tuesday the judge made the call: mistrial. Almost as interesting to us was that big-time Philadelphia wiseguys attended the three-week trial. Supposedly, George (Georgie Boy) Borgesi and former acting boss Joseph (Uncle Joe) Ligambi were there to support Skinny Joey. Will the Feds retry him...

The biggest bombshell in   Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino's federal racketeering trial in Manhattan arguably had nothing to do with any of the crimes listed in the indictment . We love gossip, especially gossip about extramarital affairs. Skinny Joey with wife Deborah Consider that the main charge facing Merlino is his alleged involvement "in a scheme targeting providers of health insurance by causing, and causing others to cause, corrupt doctors to issue unnecessary and excessive prescriptions for expensive compound cream that were then billed to the Victim Insurers." Who really cares about poor victimized insurance companies?  USA Today recently profiled some of the most-reviled companies in the United States, and wouldn't you know: "Few industries are as widely detested as the insurance industry." (FYI, "American consumers appear to especially dislike health insurance giant Cigna.") Genovese turncoat John (JR) Rubeo...

Last year, the Fed's invited Skinny Joey Merlino to what they said was gonna be one helluva party.   Only now they wanna cancel.   Well, too bad for them, Joey says. Now, he's gonna force them to throw it.  Rather than swallow two years inside Merlino is ready for trial. Bradley Sirkin, one of the East Coast LCN Enterprise case's wild cards, was a former driver for Philadelphia Mafia boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino. He had extensive ties to the Mafia -- was associated with several crime families. He seems to have been one of the key threads running from New York to Florida. This mean anything? He's agreed to a guilty plea in the EasIt Coast-whatever case in Manhattan Federal Court. He also copped in Federal court in Tampa. Sirkin said he committed conspiracy to commit health care fraud in what is viewed as a strong case against him and seven co-defendants (unlike the case in New York). Merlino refused to cop and is seeking to push the Fed...

Does the Mafia learn from its mistakes? Whether it does or doesn't, it appears it is greed that wins in the end. New York's greed once destroyed the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra. But based on court testimony, the New York Mafia in fact was so greedy, it appeared willing to commit a very similar move against Philadelphia in the late 1990s by wiping out Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi, probably the best boss to arise in Philadelphia since Angelo Bruno. Nevertheless he was slated for death along with his underboss and consiglieri... Uncle Joe, who New York wanted dead.... The March 1980 murder of mob boss Angelo Bruno shattered what had been for two decades a peacefully run, highly profitable criminal syndicate based in South Philadelphia. The crime family had operations in the City of Brotherly Love's metropolitan areas, as well as in the Delaware Valley, Southeastern Pennsylvania, and in New Jersey, especially South Jersey. Bruno's consigliere, Antonio ...

"Uncle Joe" in cross-hairs? Cosa Nostra News Exclusive The FBI has tripled the size of its squad in Philadelphia and has brought in a well-seasoned supervisory agent from New York to oversee what appears to be the formation of a new Organized Crime Strike Force , reliable sources have told Cosa Nostra News . One of the operation's key goals is reportedly to nail Philadelphia Cosa Nostra boss Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi and his top associates for  three unsolved gangland hits  in the city. Those murders were committed while Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino , reputed official boss, and former consiglieri/Ligambi nephew George Borgesi were in prison. The Fed's also are aggressively investigating a mobster considered Ligambi's chief shooter from back when "Uncle Joe" was tasked with holding together a badly battered and fractured Cosa Nostra family. That was the backdrop against which the three murders, now intensely being s...

This trailer packs a wallop... Tigre Hill's new documentary on organized crime features real-life South Philly wiseguys, including Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi, Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino and Angelo Bruno. On Feb. 2, the "Shame of a City" and "Barrel of a Gun" director released the trailer for "The Corrupt and The Dead," his latest film. Hill described the forthcoming documentary as focusing on the detrimental effect of organized crime on society, as well as its impact on the economies of its host cities. The film covers the mob's influence in cities across the country, but tightens its focus specifically on the mob's impact on Hill's native city of Philadelphia, Philly.com noted .

  Uncle Joe and George Borgese.... Philadelphia is seeing a "resurgence of the local crime family," George Anastasia noted on BigTrial. Which may be why there's been talk about known members of New York's Gambino crime family showing up in Philly very recently. As we know from the dear departed Nicholas "Nicky Skins" Stefanelli , the Gambino crime family was known to break bread with the Philly guys. A soldier who flipped and was wired for sound by the FBI for two years, Stefanelli was 69 when he whacked himself in March 2012. Stefanelli — who operated in New Jersey but reported to jailed New York capo Nicholas "Little Nicky" Corozzo — secretly taped countless cronies after he and his son were nabbed in a drug-dealing operation. Nicky Skins decided to cooperate to get his kid off the hook. He made lots of tapes, however, and the recordings live on. (He even caught Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino in a conversation, thou...

Called When Mobsters Refuse to Retire , George Anastasia's story,  which I read in the AARP magazine (don't ask how I got a copy), is online, I noticed . Amusingly enough, the publication placed it in the Work Life Balance section.  Here's a teaser to whet your appetite if you haven't already read it.... From AARP's online page They shared a long lunch of filet mignon, yellowfin tuna, and chicken with broccoli rabe, washing it down with four bottles of expensive Tuscan red. Ten wiseguys sat at an Italian restaurant in New Jersey, laughing and joking and talking. It could have been a scene from TV's The Sopranos . The men, from New York, Philadelphia and Newark, dressed the part — open-collared shirts, pinkie rings and Rolexes. Outside on that May afternoon in 2010, the FBI had set up surveillance cameras. Inside, at the table, a federal informant wore a body wire.

Former Philadelphia mob boss Ralph Natale is writing his memoir, the Hollywood Reporter revealed. Lost Lives and Forgotten Vows, which Thomas Dunne Books is slated to publish, is due to hit bookstores in the fall of 2016. Natale will work on his tome with producer Dan Pearson (of "I Married a Mobster") and New York Daily News reporter Larry McShane, Former Philly boss who flipped inked deal to write book. Natale "becomes only the second Mafia Godfather to tell his own life story, following New York’s Joe Bonanno," THR reported.

George Anastasia writes a column for  JerseyMan Magazine  called appropriately enough  Mob Scene . Anthony Nicodemo could have an everlasting impact on the Cosa Nostra crews in Philadelphia. On Dec. 18, the Philadelphia crime journalist offered a kind of overview of key happenings using a sort of sports story format, only the game was the ongoing battle between the Philly mob and the feds.

Skinny Joey Merlino EXCLUSIVE:  Phil Narducci has been named boss of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra Family, according to several sources who requested anonymity. What is not known is whether he is the official boss or acting boss for Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino , who is serving a short stint down in Florida. Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi and Joseph "Chickie" Ciancaglini, Sr. are sharing the position of consiglieri. The underboss position is officially unfilled, though it is believed that South Philadelphia-based capos Stevie Mazzone and John "Johnny Chang" Ciancaglini may fill the void by serving as street bosses for the often-troubled Philly crime family .

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. Natalie Didonato Joseph "Uncle Joe" Ligambi allegedly "made his bones" by killing DiDonato's cousin -- assuming Frank "Frankie Flowers" D'Alfonso is her cousin.

Merlino violated parole, Feds charge. Philadelphia mob boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino is coming back to Philadelphia -- and may even find himself in prison; the irony is that his court-ordered supervision, which is scheduled to end this coming Thursday, will not -- assuming federal authorities have their way. This is according to a Philly.com report . The 52-year-old "former" Don violated the terms of his release in June with a night on the town with John "Johnny Chang" Ciancaglini, a captain convicted with Merlino back in 2001.

Galati It appears less likely that Ronald Galati, an associate of the Philadelphia Mafia , will flip, according to a recent story on Big Trial Blog by George Anastasia, who reported that the "wannabe wiseguy" is letting the Feds take the case to trial. What's more, he's even "considering taking the stand in his own defense." Galati, who was :arrested shortly before last Christmas, faces a long list of people who have betrayed him -- his daughter and the hitmen he'd allegedly hired to murder his daughter's boyfriend . Galati will square off against three key charges -- the attempted whacking of the boyfriend, Andrew Tuono in Camden, as well as counts related to insurance fraud and witness intimidation in Philadelphia.

Galati's garage was a mob hangout, it is alleged. "I will kill him myself. I will strangle him. I will poke his eyes out. I am going to stab him right in the forehead with this thing."   -- Ron Galati quoted in recent court filings talking to one of his employees while waving an ice pick. Andrew Tuono was dating a raven-haired beauty named Tiffany, 33, when he was shot three times in the belly last year. He'd been warned by acquaintances that the lovely young lady was connected, and that he very well could find himself on the receiving end of an aimed pistol. But, hey -- love is blind.