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Steven Mazzone
Steven Mazzone (born 1964) is an American mobster and underboss of the Philadelphia crime family. After the family was decimated by prosecutions during the Nicodemo Scarfo and John Stanfa eras, Ralph Natale was released from prison in 1994. It was at this time Mazzone became a major organized crime figure in Philadelphia. Mazzone is a childhood friend of Joey Merlino. They both grew up in South Philadelphia and started their criminal careers together. According to Natale and law enforcement, Mazzone was inducted into the crime family in 1995 and made him a caporegime in 1996. Following Natale's 1998 arrest for drug trafficking, Merlino officially took over the family and become the new boss. However their reign was short. Mazzone was indicted and held without bail in 2000 along with Merlino, George Borgesi, and others for racketeering and murder. A year earlier, Natale, feeling slighted and now realizing he may have been a puppet for Merlino all along, decided to end his life ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Underboss
Underboss ( it, sottocapo) is a position within the leadership structure of certain organized crime groups, particularly in Sicilian, Greek, and Italian-American Mafia crime families. The underboss is second in command to the boss. The underboss is sometimes a family member, such as a son, who will take over the family if the boss is sick, killed, or imprisoned. However the position of street boss has somewhat challenged the rank of underboss in the modern era. The position was installed within the Genovese crime family since at least the mid-1960s. It has also been used in the Detroit crime family and the Chicago Outfit. The power of an underboss greatly varies; some are marginal figures, while others are the most powerful individual in the family. Traditionally they run day-to-day affairs of the family. In some crime families, the appointment is for life. If a new boss takes over a family with an existing underboss, that boss may marginalize or even murder the underboss ap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philadelphia Crime Family
The Philadelphia crime family, also known as the Philadelphia Mafia, the Philly Mob or Philly Mafia, the Philadelphia-South Jersey Mafia, or Bruno-Scarfo family is an Italian-American Mafia family based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formed and based in South Philadelphia, the criminal organization primarily operates in various areas and neighborhoods in Philadelphia, the Greater Philadelphia Metropolitan Area (i.e. the Delaware Valley) and New Jersey, especially South Jersey. The family is notorious for its violence, due in particular to its succession of violent bosses and multiple mob wars. As the Bruno crime family under the 20-year reign of boss Angelo Bruno (1959–1980), the family enjoyed an era of peace and prosperity. A complex dispute involving disgruntled subordinates and territory claims by New York's Genovese crime family led to Bruno's murder in 1980. The killing marked the beginning of years of internal violence for control of the Philadelphia family, leading ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicodemo Scarfo
Nicodemo Domenico "Little Nicky" Scarfo Sr. (March 8, 1929 – January 13, 2017) was a member of the American Mafia who became the boss of the Philadelphia crime family after the deaths of Angelo Bruno and Phil Testa. During his criminal career, Scarfo had a murderous reputation, also engaging in organized crime activities such as drug trafficking and gambling. In 1988, he was convicted of multiple charges including conspiracy, racketeering and first degree murder. His trial was met with damaging testimonies of several informants, who had carried out his murders. Scarfo died in prison on January 13, 2017, while serving his 55-year sentence. He is also the father of Nicky Scarfo Jr., a Lucchese family soldier, who was sentenced in 2015, to 30 years in prison for security fraud, racketeering, and illegal gambling. Early life Scarfo was born on March 8, 1929, in Brooklyn, New York, to Philip and Catherine Scarfo, Italian immigrants from Naples and Calabria. At the age of 12 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Stanfa
Giovanni "John" Stanfa (; born December 7, 1940) is an Italian-born American former boss of the Philadelphia crime family from 1991 to 1995. Convicted of multiple charges in 1995, Stanfa was sentenced to life in prison. Early life Stanfa was born in 1940 in Caccamo, Sicily. In 1964, at the age of 23, Stanfa immigrated to the United States, and listed his occupation as a bricklayer. That same year, he was married to Lena, and settled in New York City, and by the late 1960s, moved to Philadelphia. Mafia career According to law enforcement, when Stanfa arrived in New York City, his brothers and brother-in-law, who were made men in the Gambino crime family, introduced him to the family. The Gambino family leaders arranged for Stanfa to work for Angelo Bruno, the boss of the Philadelphia crime family. On March 21, 1980, Bruno was killed by a shotgun blast in the back of the head as he sat in his car in front of his home at the intersection of 10th Street and Snyder Avenue in South ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ralph Natale
Ralph Samuel Natale (March 6, 1935 – January 22, 2022) was an American mobster. He was the boss of the Philadelphia crime family from 1995 until 1999, when he became the first American Mafia boss to turn state's evidence. Natale helped sentence Joey Merlino to a 14-year sentence in 2001, but in January 2005, was also sentenced for racketeering, receiving a 13-year sentence. He was released in May 2011 and entered the witness protection program. Early life Natale was born on March 6, 1935, in South Philadelphia to Italian American parents; he had one younger brother. Natale's grandparents were Italian immigrants, and his paternal grandparents died in the 1918 flu pandemic in Philadelphia. Michael, Natale's father, was an associate of the Philadelphia crime family and operated a numbers operation for them. His relationship with his father was very poor; he had once repeatedly kicked him because Natale missed his curfew. Natale was mentored by hitman Felix "Skinny Razor" DiTullio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Philadelphia
South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south and the Schuylkill River to the west.The Political and Community Service Boundaries of Philadelphia ." ''''. Retrieved November 8, 2008. A diverse community of many neighborhoods, South Philadelphia is well-known for its large |
Caporegime
A caporegime or capodecina, usually shortened to capo or informally referred to as "captain" or "skipper", is a rank used in the Mafia (both the Sicilian Mafia and Italian-American Mafia) for a '' made member'' of an Italian crime family who heads a "crew" of soldiers and has major social status and influence in the organization. ''Caporegime'' is an Italian word, which is used to signify the head of a family in Sicily, but has now come to mean a ranking member, similar to captain or senior sergeant in a military unit. In general, the term indicates the head of a branch of an organized crime syndicate who commands a crew of soldiers and reports directly to the don (boss) or an underboss or street boss. The shortened version "capo" has been used to refer to certain high-ranking members of Latin American drug cartels as well. Background The Mafia, particularly the American Mafia, is typically divided into distinct and partially independent "crews" headed by a "capo" or lead ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Racketeering
Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and often still specifically, racketeering may refer to an organized criminal act in which the perpetrators offer a service that will not be put into effect, offer a service to solve a nonexistent problem, or offer a service that solves a problem that would not exist without the racket. However, racketeers may offer an ostensibly effectual service to solve an existing problem. The traditional and historically most common example of such a racket is the "protection racket", in which racketeers offer to protect a business from robbery or vandalism; however, the racketeers will themselves coerce or threaten the business into accepting this service, often with the threat (implicit or otherwise) that failure to acquire the offered services will lead ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Ligambi
Joseph Anthony "Uncle Joe" Ligambi (born August 9, 1939) is an American mobster and former acting boss of the Philadelphia crime family. Ligambi is known among law enforcement circles to have a more "old school" approach, in sharp contrast to boss Joseph Merlino's, flamboyant, high-profile style. Ligambi was credited by the Philadelphia Police Department's Criminal Intelligence Unit with "quietly bringing stability back to the troubled Philadelphia-South Jersey branch of the American Mafia" during the 2000s. The Five Families, New York Mafia families have been pleased with Ligambi and his approach, as well as his ability to turn the Philadelphia crime family back into a stable group. Early life Ligambi was born on August 9, 1939, in South Philadelphia, one of four children born to Italian immigrant parents. His father was a cab driver. He attended South Philadelphia High School before dropping out his junior year to join the United States Air Force, where he eventually earned his h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joseph Merlino
Joseph Salvatore "Skinny Joey" Merlino (born March 13, 1962) is an Italian-American mobster and reputed boss of the Philadelphia crime family. He rose to power in the mid-nineties after he allegedly fought a war for control of the criminal organization. He has led the crime family in gambling, loan sharking, drug trafficking, and extortion. In comparison to other traditional mob bosses who shunned the limelight, Merlino has interacted regularly with the media and the public, often openly providing charity and hosting events to benefit indigent people in Philadelphia, drawing comparisons to the similarly outgoing, conspicuous, and ostensibly charitable late New York crime boss John Gotti. He is the son of deceased Philadelphia crime family underboss Chuckie Merlino. With the help of boss-turned-informant Ralph Natale, Merlino was convicted of several RICO charges including racketeering, illegal gambling and extortion, in 2001, and sentenced to 14 years in prison. Since his relea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
WTXF-TV
WTXF-TV (channel 29) is a television station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios on Market Street in Center City and a transmitter on the Roxborough tower farm. History Early years The station signed on the air on May 16, 1965, as independent station WIBF-TV. The station was founded by the Fox family, who held real estate interests in the Philadelphia suburb of Jenkintown; William L. Fox was the station's principal shareholder, along with his brother Irwin C. Fox, their father Benjamin Fox, and business associate Dorothy Kotin. The Fox family, who had already been operating WIBF-FM (103.9, now WPHI-FM) since November 1960, was awarded a construction permit to build channel 29 in August 1962. Channel 29's original studio was co-located with WIBF-FM in the Fox family's Benson East apartment building on Old York Road in Jenkint ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1964 Births
Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 - In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople meet in Jerusalem. * January 6 – A British firm, the Leyland Motor Corp., announces the sale of 450 buses to the Cuban government, challenging the United States blockade of Cuba. * January 9 – '' Martyrs' Day'': Armed clashes between United States troops and Panamanian civilians in the Panama Canal Zone precipitate a major international crisis, resulting in the deaths of 21 Panamanians and 4 U.S. soldiers. * January 11 – United States Surgeon General Luther Terry reports that smoking may be hazardous to one's health (the first such statement from the U.S. government). * January 12 ** Zanzibar Revolution: The predominantly Arab government of Zanzibar is overthrown by African nationalist rebel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
