Numerous amateur and professional mafia researchers and authors alike regularly designate John Stanfa as "inept" and/or "moronic" and generally have a low opinion of him in regards to his tenure as boss. My question is why do people hold this bottommost opinion of Mr Stanfa and was he deserving of this criticism? If so I would greatly appreciate it if you could inform me on what some of his half witted, imbecilic decisions as boss were.

Thank you for your time.

Initiated Ron Previte.

Apparently he didn't even have a making ceremony, stanfa just told him ur now a made guy. I think stanfa could of been an alright boss if everyone had fallen in line behind him. The Gambino famiy backed him, he would of been a low key boss, like an old school Sicilian but he was too distracted with the Merlino faction.

Well if initiating a guy who eventually turns rat makes you incompetent than I suppose virtually every boss from the 1970's forward is also incompetent. Previte sounds very bitter to me and I take everything that guy says with a grain of salt. The reason he flipped was because he was caught on tape bad mouthing the chin.

RON PREVITE WAS A FORMER COP!!!!!!! STANFA WAS SO HUNGREY THAT HE THOUGHT HE COULD OVERLOOK THAT!

Then there was the Veasey Brothers. John Veasey, a guy of non-Italian ethnicity who was delegated only to collecting protection money, was made a capo. He didn't even have a crew. Bizarre! There were other made guys of non-Italian ancestry as well. It was a piss poor move by Stanfa because picking a guy up off the street who hasn't grown up around the mob and inducting him in to your inner circle is not a wise move at all. To be fair, Stanfa thought he could just whack guys like John Veasey when he was done with them, but it was still an overly complicated move.

However, I actually intended to ask this question as well. There's no full answer that I'm aware of, except it would seem a little bit obvious that making a random construction worker could have consequences. In the end, Stanfa did his time. Maybe the bigger question, is why did Merlino have so many followers at the time?

Veasey was never a capo, what are you smoking? Veasey reported to Martines. The only person who's ever referred to him as a capo is Dave Schratweiser, but he calls everyone a capo or captain.

The Capos under Stanfa were Luigi "Gino" Tripodi, Salvatore "Shotsie" Sparacio, Joseph "The Nodder" Sodano and Vincent "Al Pajamas" Pagano. Veasey's mother also happened to be italian.

Stanfa should have appeased the Merlino/Ciancaglini faction as they were already operating before Stanfa became boss. He made a bad move making Joey Ciancaglini the underboss considering he had a falling out with his brother and Merlino in the 80s.

Is Veasey at least half Italian?

Phillykid- was Veasey really made by Stanfa?


BTW- In every Mob Talk Episode featuring Stanfa and in several other videos he is always seen with a huge gorilla of a man, who looks like he could rest a glass or a pop can on his chest standing up. Any idea who this guy is? Is he still around?

Yes, Veasey was half italian and was made by Stanfa.

That gorilla of a man is Vince Fillipelli, he gets out in August. He made peace with Merlino & Natale when they took over and reported to Staino until he was indicted in 2006. He was also made by Stanfa.

Was this Dave Schratweiser? Link. I remember hearing him referred to as a capo again in a news report where he talks about his life after the mob and torturing a guy with a power drill. To be honest, I don't know why they even let him talk about that on the news, or if it is even true, I suspect it's exaggerated. Although I could be wrong, I have a habit of mixing up my sources.

This is just a personal theory about where Stanfa went wrong, none of it proven. Stanfa's other mistake was even making Merlino to begin with. Maybe Stanfa thought made ceremonies are a simple reward for good work or good earning, and nothing more. But of course, there's a reason you don't go around inducting cowboys in to the family. As a made man, Merlino could technically start stepping on associate's toes, he could technically become a boss. That was good enough for him, we all know what happened.

They say a couple of Stanfa's major mistakes was his inept crew.The botched hit when Bellochi went into the restaurant and fired point blank at Biagio Adornetto only to find he used the wrong shotgun shells.He runs out reloads and by the time he comes back in Adornetto has now gone out the backdoor.Stanfa was livid because there was no back up shooter.Adornetto apparantley goes right to the FBI and when Stanfa sends everyone out looking for him again Bellochi and Gary something kidnap a waiter at a restaurant on City Line Ave.,basically right in front of a cop,needless to say they are caught after a high-speed chase.Then you had the incident at that apartment on 7th st.when Martines and Al Pajamas try to whack Veasey,needless to say he escapes and goes right to the Feds.So there you have it.Stanfa has no one to blame but himself for his troubles.

Thanks for all the info guys.

I always wondered how Stanfa was able to survive the fallout from the Bruno hit. He was the driver, and walked away with only supreficial wounds, and after that he supposedly went underground for years. I also heard he was about to call it a career and head back to Sicily before he was indicted, as one of his capos, Gino Tripodi did.

What I didn't understand about Stanfa was he always complained that the American mob guys were weak and that they had no morals or values,yet all the Sicilian guys he brought over all turned out to be rats namely Rosario Bellochi,Sergio Battaglia,and Biagio Adornetto.So much for that theory.Also that guy I said was Gary something was Gary Tavelli.

Sergio Battaglia was an american mobster.

My bad there Flamingo Kid your right.

Anyone care to elaborate?

Plenty of discussion about the Chang's and Merlino's but don't think anyone has explained what they fell out over.

Born in Italy. Emigrated to America in his teens.

Left a well paid job at a car dealership to play mob tough guy and ratted as soon as the going got.

Stanfa generally doesn't have a rep a genius among people who have been around him.

I mean forget his heritage...Veasey was a construction worker fresh from jail/detox and he just up and asks him to go out and kill merlino.

He didn't just up and ask him to kill Merlino. For one, he wasn't in a detox, he reportedly quit cold turkey in '91 while serving a sentence for robbery, assault and possession. And Veasey had a rep of scumbag, but a brutal scumbag who was capable. And Stanfa didn't choose Veasey, he was actually recruited by Stanfa underboss Frank Martines, he was a part of Martines' killing crew, whom held the responsibility of killing Merlino. The group consisted of Phil Colletti, Sal Brunetti, Herb Keller, and Sergio Battaglia, as well as Veasey.