IN 1990s Philadelphia two mafia factions went into battle – and the city’s streets became a bloody warzone.
Brutal killings, mob hits and gangland violence ensued that was look tame.
Police investigate the scene of a shootout in a hotel parking lot on the eastern edge of downtown Philadelphia in 1996Credit: AP
Detectives examine and try to recreate the trajectory of three bullets that struck and seriously injured 73-year-old ‘Long John Martorano’Credit: Getty
A young boy rides his bicycle on a street in a troubled area of North Philadelphia’s Kensington section in 1998Credit: AP
It was down to the to save the city and take down the entire Philadelphia mafia operation known as ‘’
Stephen Lapenta, a former organised crime investigator, says: “We had to cut off the head of the snake.”
Now a new hears from and the cops who used months of surveillance to decimate the mob.
After brutal 80s mob boss Nicky Scarfo was jailed, the FBI were desperate to know who would take charge of the Philly mob.
“Nicky Scarfo was a psychopath,” says ex-detective Stephen Lapento. “I’ve spent 40 years in law enforcement and he was the most vicious person I have experienced in my life.
“I will give you an example, he killed a man with a butter knife. Do you know the amount of force you have to use to penetrate the human body with a butter knife?”
His successor was John Stanfa – an old school Sicilian who had the backing of the mafia families.
Stephen Lapenta says: “The old school mafia was make money, not headlines. And the five families trusted John Stanfa to try to calm down the violence seen under Nicky Scarfo and bring back order.”
The FBI discovered Stanfa was holding meetings at the office of long-standing mob lawyer Salvatore Avena – so they bugged the building.
Every time the mobster met his associates, the Feds were listening, and the intel they got was dynamite. Stanfa was captured on tape naming La Cosa Nostra.
Charlotte Lang, FBI supervisor for organised crime, explains: “Any mob guy that was arrested – their defence is there is no such thing as La Cosa Nostra. There is no mob. This is just a social club with older Italians playing cards. The defence was to deny that this organisation existed.
“We thought that the Avena office was going to be our goldmine and I just really felt we had a chance here to have another major takedown of the Philadelphia mob.”
But the police also received more worrying information. Stanfa had enemies and not everyone in Philadelphia was happy that he was the boss.
According to word on the street, the younger guys in Philadelphia didn’t respect John Stanfa. He was an outsider and that created conflict.
This younger group, known as the Young Turks, were led by Joey Merlino alongside his best friend Michael Ciancaglini. The son of Philadelphia underboss Chuckie Merlino, he was mafia royalty by birth.
Charlotte Lang says: “The Young Turks, they were rough and tumble street kids, very immature, prone to violence, extorting business and drug dealers. They were going to make a name for themselves, they wanted to be famous.”
US prosecutor Barry Gross adds: “A number of their fathers had been high level people under Scarfo and were going to be in jail for the rest of their lives. They felt their fathers had paid their dues, now it was their time and this was their birthright.”
And John Stanfa just didn’t get it.
Then old mobster Felix Bocchino, part of the Stanfa group, was shot dead in a gangland hit.
In retaliation, gunmen fired shots into the home of Merlino’s right hand man Michael Ciancaglini where he was with his wife and children. It was out and out war.
Brutal 80s mob boss Nicky Scarfo, who was eventually jailedCredit: Getty – Contributor
Angelo Bruno, a reputed Mafia kingpin, lies shot to death in his automobile
Scarfo, right, handcuffed along with reputed associates Joseph Ligambi, left, and Francis IannarellaCredit: AP
“This was unprecedented and it was shocking,” says Barry Gross. “It was just craziness and it had to be stopped.”
Next Stanfa made Joey Ciancaglini – brother of Michael – his underboss. Two brothers were now on opposite sides trying to kill one another.
Stanfa owned a restaurant where Joey Ciancaglini was the manager, so the FBI set up surveillance.
On the first morning being watched by cops, Joey Ciancaglini was shot five times in a mob hit and was left seriously injured.
The paramedics wouldn’t even let him blow his nose as they were afraid he would blow part of his brains out of his nostrils.
The FBI knew Stanfa was going to have to do something about this younger faction, who were so brazen that they would go into his diner and pull off a hit.
But they still had his lawyer’s office under surveillance – and shockingly they heard him plotting the murders of Joey Merlino and Michael Ciancaglini.
Stanfa even described in Italian how he would cut out one of the men’s tongues with a knife and send it to his wife.
Charlotte Lang says: “To hear a mob boss so angry that he would describe in detail how he would kill somebody. I have never heard of that before. It was always done in code.”
Desperate measures
John Stanfa was desperate. He wanted to kill Joey Merlino. But he made a major mistake. He went outside of the mob and got someone crazier, uncontrollable and very dangerous.
That man was John Veasey. “I burned people,” he says. “I drilled them, I will say this. I had no morals.”
Veasey had just been released from prison and started working at a construction firm owned by Stanfa.
One of Stanfa’s underbosses approached him and offered him $10,000 to kill Joey Merlino – and he accepted.
John and his accomplice Phil Colletti drove around the streets for days until they spotted Merlino and Michael Ciancaglini.
They put their guns out of the car window and fired, shooting Michael dead and wounding Merlino.
The pair fled and burnt out their car – but it led cops directly to them.
Joey Merlino’s empire included this townhouse in Boca Raton, FloridaCredit: Getty
Two Philadelphia cops look at the weapon used in the shooting of the son of imprisoned mob boss ScarfoCredit: AP
Paperwork proved the car had been leased to Colletti from a firm owned by Sergio Battaglia, who had been caught on tape plotting with Stanfa to kill Merlino and Ciancaglini.
Far from conquering the Young Turks, Stanfa had put himself front and centre of the police’s investigation and in Joey Merlino’s firing line.
Just a few weeks later Stanfa and his son Joseph were shot at in broad daylight as they drove along the freeway in a rush hour ambush, leaving Joseph seriously injured.
Barry Gross says: “There was outrage. It was becoming like the wild west, shoot outs on the expressway.”
But Barry and Charlotte Lang did not have enough evidence to charge anybody.
Stanfa was furious about his son being shot – and his orders were clear. Anyone who was part of Merlino’s crew was on the hitlist.
John Veasey says: “We just drove every day looking to kill people. I just got in my car looking to find somebody on the other side just to kill ‘em.
“There was no plan. We just shot every bullet we had. Just kill, Just kill. And that’s what I did.”
Joseph ‘Scoops’ Licata, the reputed head of a faction of a Philadelphia crime familyCredit: AP
The murder trial of Lawrence Merlino, Phillip Leonetti and Nicodemo Scarfo (seated l-r)Credit: Getty
The FBI were under huge pressure to stop the violence. So Joey Merlino was arrested for a probation violation for a previous unrelated crime and sent back to jail.
With Merlino behind bars and Ciangalini dead, Stanfa was back on top of the tree and threw a big party to celebrate.
The FBI put the party under surveillance – and as the mobsters began to arrive they got a picture of shooter John Veasey standing right next to mob boss Stanfa.
But they didn’t expect Veasey’s next move. Persuaded by his brother Billy, he turned up at Barry Gross’s office, confessed to two murders – and turned supergrass.
“He told us about all the people he had extorted on behalf and on the direction of John Stanfa,” says Barry.
“What made him so believable was he didn’t try to clean himself up. He was who he was. I felt confident because we had our witness. We had the man who did two of the murders.”
But being a star witness against the mob is a risky business – and John was shot and stabbed in an ambush. But miraculously he survived.
The FBI had what they needed and Stanfa was arrested, along with many of his associates, and charged with ten counts including murder, kidnap and extortion.
But on the morning John Veasey was due to take the stand in the trial, his brother Billy was shot dead in the street.
Rather than scare John off, his brother’s murder only strengthened his resolve and he took to the stand.
Stanfa was found guilty and jailed for life.
Final twists
But that wasn’t the end of the story. Billy Veasey had not been shot by one of Stanfa’s men.
Word on the street was that Joey Merlino, now out of jail, had ordered the hit as revenge for the murder of his best friend Michael Ciancaglini.
Charlotte Lang says: “The focus was on Stanfa for so long, I think we probably ignored Joey Merlino.”
With Stanfa out of the picture, Joey Merlino now had the streets of Philadelphia all to himself.
He set himself up as a man of the people – feeding the homeless, throwing parties for the local kids. But the cops maintained he was a mobster not a philanthropist.
But under surveillance, Merlino and his cronies were much more careful about what they discussed.
So once again they tried to get a witness to finger the mob – and this guy was Ron Previte, a former casino security guard and well-known hustler.
He killed a man with a butter knife. Do you know the amount of force you have to use to penetrate the human body with a butter knife?
He had to gain Merlino’s trust so the FBI gave him a Rolex Submariner watch to give to Merlino as a mark of respect. And Merlino – obsessed with money and status – fell for the bait.
Previte started to work for Merlino – buying and selling stolen goods – all the time wearing an FBI wire.
Eventually they got Merlino on tape giving a coded go-ahead for a major drug deal.
But while Merlino had the power of the streets, the man in charge of the Philadelphia mob was Ralph Natale, who had got the kiss from the five families to take over the city.
Natale was arrested and charged with drug offences. Facing life in jail he agreed to talk – the first sitting mob boss in American history to cooperate.
Flipping Ralph into ‘King Rat’ helped the FBI add charges of murder and attempted murder to Merlino and his crew.
Despite Natale’s crucial evidence and Ron Previte’s wire tapes, the jury cleared Merlino of drug dealing and murder charges.
Instead he was found guilty of racketeering and jailed for up to 14 years. But he was off the streets.
Retired FBI agent John Terry says: “In the 1990s the FBI took out the leadership of the Philadelphia mob as well as several made members and associates. The Philadelphia mafia was decimated and has never been the same.”
Joey Merlino, who was released in 2011, denies being involved in violence or being part of the mafia. He has never been convicted of Mafia violence. The FBI are still watching him.
Mob War: Philadelphia vs The Mafia is on Netflix now
