All the participants in both the Bruno and Testa assasinations were killed. Casella was the only one spared and ordered to retire to Florida. I was just wondering why he was given a pass. Despite being underboss he was never a particularly good earner and he was involved with drugs. I mean Tony Bananas, Frank Sindone, Johnny Keys Simone, Chickie Narducci were all more important guys than Casella and they were killed for their participation

Always wondered the same .My only guess would be close to the west side . There were rumors back in the day that he is was related to someone that had power from west side ....

Teddy dipretoro wasn't murdered either

I think Teddy DiPietro went into WPP because he went to the cops. Chuckie Merlino scared the shit out of him at Bookbinders where he worked and he went right to Frank Friel and spilled the beans. I believe Casella spent his long stint in prison with higher ups in the Genovese and whatever relationship(s) he developed in the joint essentially got him
A pass to get shelved...

Cassela must have had some serious clout with somebody who had some serious clout with Chin.

Not if you are staring down at them from NYC.

Bruno controlled Sindone and Narducci. They were local heavyweights and involved outside of Philly, only as much as Bruno allowed. Bruno always understood that NYC had the power; so he wasn't going to risk his relationships by allowing others in his family to get close to the power.


For some odd reason Narducci was never able to grasp this concept; that NYC had the control. He must have been under a rock when Bruno was killed. Bananas must have been a fool too. He wins a huge sitdown the year before, FROM Tieri, then reconnects with the guy and thinks he's got the power and kills Bruno. And then he ends up dead.

What you should really be asking yourself is how Narducci and Casella could move on Testa AFTER they saw what happened to Bananas and his brother in law Freddy Salerno. You think they didn't know that the commission killed them?


If anything, I would think that Johnny Keys would have been spared. He had that Peanuts Tronolone guy from Clevelend who was tied into the Genovese to go to. I read that he was killed on Scarfo's request because he asked someone in the Gambino family if he had a shot at boss.. But I also read he was a conpirator in the Bruno murder and that's why he was killed.

I agree with PHL_MOB in that that Casella must have had some HUGE heavyweight help to get his life spared. Otherwise, dead.

But the moral of this story is that all of those guys were expendable.

OR, it was a quadruple cross......Casella had the most power and he was in on organizing the whole thing..... Chin told him to get the troops to do it and he would give him a free pass to Florida with a few million to retire with......Just speculating of course

The only one alive that may know the 100% truth is Manna and he ain't squealing!

If I remember right, wasn't there an unnamed Genovese captain who went to bat for Casella and saved his life? Maybe it was in Leonetti's book that I read that.

possibly. I remember from leonettis book that he showed up with rocco marinucci and marinucci was ordered to wait in the car. Also either salerno or the chin spit at casella when they ordered him to retire to florida. Maybe they were pissed they couldnt kill him, i know scarfo wanted to

There is always that chance that Casella was close to the west side like most said.
But he may have been working with them for years ,everyone knows that the west side did get a lot from Philly family through the years.
He may have been feeding them the whole time for favors ...

Yep and Manna" knows and he is not squealing" Mix !

I know many of the old timers from Philly were close to Vito Genovese ...

I'm also guessing he was in on it but after seeing how they triple crossed tony bannas who knows. Or maybe casella was in on that.

I'm sure Ralph Natale will solve it once and for all he was supposed to be boss after Bruno but shit happens. That book will be bad and trust George a will rip it to threads if the author let's Ralph rewrite philly mob history that George been reporting since Bruno.

And neither was Stanfa.

We still don't know what Stanfa's role if any he had. He probably did know since he was Bruno's driver

I personally think Stanfa was involved despite some sources saying he was picked at random to drive Bruno home that night. I just think the fact that he was seen at the hospital conversing secretly with all of the conspirators plus the fact that the Feds have surveillance photos of him up in Newark & NYC with the conspirators literally in the days after the assassination. It's just too much of a coincidence for me... I think he was another case similar to Casella and the Genovese where Stanfa's connections to the NY Gambinos were simply too strong and as such saved his life and got him a pass. On a slightly related note, without knowing the exact traditional LCN rule on this situation, I think that his likely role in that assassination plot further legitimized the Merlino/Ciancaglini/Young Turk rebellion against Stanfa with Stanfa being a key piece of the plot to take down a boss, which ultimately led to the destabilizing and violence of the Philly Family throughout the 80s and early 90s.

In the Leonetti book at a sitdown where Caponigro was killed,the genovese guy thinked that stanfa was scarfo sr and gave him the time to go away from the sitdown.

For Casella,he made 20 y in prison for drugs and as say italianirishmix give many $$$ to a genovese capo to buy the pass.

Ever in the leonetti book scarfo sr say that the siggies (the siciliana) are egual: all money and betrayl.

Of the five guys involved in Testa's murder, 2 (narducci & marinucci) were killed on Scarfo's orders. Anthony Casella, Pete's brother was also involved in the plot. He too was given a pass. Scarfo wanted to kill Anthony, but those who were assigned the task couldn't get him in a position to do it without taking a big risk of getting caught.


Does anybody know if the Casella's were related to Bobby Manna's guy, Martin "Motts" Casella?

Good stuff guys, I do believe that Phil Leonetti had no clue what went down and N.Y. wanted it that way.(and was never told)
This and the Bruno hit was a big triple cross ,but this one (Testa) the cat never came out of the bag...like the Bruno hit..

I really believe Casella was in with the West side for years ..

Casella was in Atlanta Fed Pen at the same time as Genovese and Gigante.

Consensus is he was tight with some of the westside. All we can go with is what leonetti was told by his uncle who also might have been not fully informed by the westside cause of shit he may say to another family. Theres a pic on here of the Pittsburgh boss scarfo and the boss from Buffalo down in Florida that must have been some really talk.

Stanfa was definitely involved in the Bruno hit. After the hit, they had police protection for Stanfa while he was in the hospital, one of the officers reported that Stanfa was visited by Sindone & Salerno, and that they were speaking in Sicilian with each other. After he got out Stanfa was spotted by surveillance with Tony Bananas in NY before he got clipped. Leonetti says in his book that once Bananas got whacked along with his brother-in-law, the Genovese soldiers went back for a guy they believed was Nicky Scarfo, Anastasia says years later that guy was revealed to be Stanfa, through informants.

Stanfa was definitely saved by Carlo Gambino and his family, Stanfa had some sort of deep Sicilian familial connection with Carlo, and he vouched for him and saved his life. I read it was Castellano who also was the main reason why Stanfa was named boss when he finally returned to Philadelphia.

Definitely? That is your proof that he talked in the hospital and after the hit?

OF COURSE HE DID!

Why would he not want to get in with the possible new powers to be? He would be killed if he didnt fall in line.

That evidence is flimsy at best.

Stanfa probaly thought with Bruno dead him with the cherry hill heroin gamnbinos would be able to sell heroin in philly with no problem little did he no the westside killed all the guys who took out Bruno an put his enemy's in charge. Carlo dead by 76 Castellani probaly didn't give a shit about Bruno did he go to the funeral?

Sam Bradford you stink I thought u had something.

Stanfa had family down in Ventnor around Troy ave and were very active in the staples.

All the boys knew what the family bizz was at a young age, I can remember Johns nephew knowing the family bizz in the 4th or 5th grade.
Someone very close to me were like family to them,and it was not a secret ,not that anything in this area was. All of our politicians were crooked from the get go..

Not sure if serious?

The hospital point was just one bullet point basically among the other reasons I've mentioned. Others didn't fall in line and pretty much killed the conspirators. Stanfa would've been among those dead had it not been for his links with the Gambinos. Consider this, Stanfa was Bruno's driver the night he was killed, they were in Stanfa's car. Supposedly, according to the authorities at the time, they believe Bruno's window had either been rolled down after Stanfa saw the gunman, or it was rolled down already, but according to them, it was only the passenger side window which was rolled down. The gun was pointed directly behind Bruno's right ear. They probably didn't suspect Stanfa would be caught by buckshots. Keep this point in mind, days after the shooting, literally days after, Sindone & Salerno (may have been Caponigro) are in Stanfa's hospital room, huddled around his bed and they're all speaking Sicilian, according to the cop guarding Stanfa, who was Italian but didn't speak nor could he understand the dialect. After Stanfa is released from the hospital, he's seen in NY with Caponigro on more than one occasion. According to Leonetti, Stanfa was present at the meeting in NY in which Caponigro & his brother in law were reportedly killed, accompanying them both, but was told by either a member of the Genovese, or Caponigro or Salerno, to stay behind. And this is according to Anastasia, after they rid Caponigro & Salerno off the face of the planet, a soldier was sent back for Stanfa, whom that soldier mistakenly believed was Nicky Scarfo, but once that soldier got back, Stanfa was gone.

Considering all of those things, it pretty much points to Stanfa's involvement in the Bruno slaying. Not to mention his comments at the Crime Commission investigating his murder, in which he was jailed for perjury. The evidence was clearly against him.

mike matthews,police chief dipasquale..

Think I read somewhere Chin was furious with him at sit-down and spit or him or something. A few of older Philly guys had ties with Westside as has been said. If you go look at original LCN Genovese charts which I believe Valachi assisted with, it has Tony Bananas listed as soldier. Also has Snake persico as Genovese soldier which I found interesting. Wasn't Philly Family considered extension of Genovese back then? Middle to late 50s Carlo made his moves with Bruno it is my understanding the were considered part of Genovese prior to that. Could be wrong tho can't quite remember what I read about it.

Foles is better

that is the exact truth,carlo brought bruno into the gambino fold.