Yeah he was Nick the Blade's son and later on was in the Merlino crew and despite having Tourette's was rumored to be a formidable hit man for Merlino. Rumored to be the guy who got Anthony Turra in the late 90s.

nice pics PHL_Mob

R u kiddin'me?? Chang should have told that fuckin punk ass 2 pull up his pants & suck a real gangster's dick..fuckin rappers wish they could b a real deal like chickies kid.

Nick "the Blade" Virgilio's son..nick v. was one of scarfo sr.s oldest & dearest friends..also the 1 who whacked judge ed helfant among other things..a legend in his own right..

Dont know 'bout jr.s early death.

article on mason and merlino

http://articles.philly.com/1989-08-30/news/26149193_1_italian-mob-mob-underboss-jbm

Hoodlum : in the post above I think you are saying that The Blades kid was a friend of Nick sr. If so not the case . The daddy was but his son was not. He was excepted but that's it. I can explain if you want but penknife was a Outsider of sorts For reasons.

Same person?

The article refers to Joey as "thin Joey"....interesting

What hits was he suspected of doing? Was it ever out there in a book or article? I read blood and honor and cant recall anything

never heard too much about this fellow

Anthony Turra I know that's one... Natale called him out and they made him stand up in court

Hey Serp,long time no hear..no, i know penknife wasn't a friend of scarf sr.,,his dad was i meant ..sorry if i sounded mixed up.

I heard that he did the Turra hit, it was pretty gruesome shot the old man through the eye. I remember the day that hit went down though, and the suspect was described as stocky with a pot belly, the opposite of the pen knife.

Bet it was Mikey Lance.

Mikey or penknife as he was known was a quiet guy. When he was young 15ish I am guessing co I was older but he was always alone .

There were times when we would "not "see him for weeks then drinking age dropped to 18 it brought him into bars even if he was younger cos bars were serving everyone especially the corner bars in our neighborhood .

We would see him more he would sit alone till he or someone spoke to him. Every now and then one of Nicks guys would say hi to him or pat him on the back and say a few words.

What ever he had going on with his health was not known about back then to neighborhood people so he was look down upon sort of even a little freakish .i know he was not in the inner circle of Nicks guys or even Jr. but jr did speak to him but we're not close .

The guy put up with a lot with his dad away often and people breaking his balls constantly but I never seen him go off he never said a word. Most time someone would tell the person messing with him who he was and it would stop.

But him having that Tourette's syndrome that was not excepted and very much look down upon so he was not let into the inner circle when it came to mob stuff.

I am sure this is why he gravitated toward Skinny later he did know him from Philly and A.C. so had no problem hookiing up with him cos he was not treated right by the guys down here when Nick was on top don't get me wrong he was looked out for but not tight.

Imagine having Tourette Syndrome and being in Nicky Scarfo's inner circle. The guy would be floating in The Delaware River within days.

I don't think Nicky would take too kindly to being called a cocksucking, motherfucking, goat blowing, vaginal bloodbelching dwarf.

Or maybe he has the twitchy Tourettes?

Apparently when he didn't take his meds he twitched uncontrollably... When Natale accused Mikey Lance and him of being the shooters in the Turra hit and made him and Lance stand up in court he was apparently twitching uncontrollably and the defense was like yeah how could this guy be an effective hit man? Natale's response was he didn't twitch like that when he was on his meds he didn't twitch at all. It sounds to me like he might not have been a factor in Nicky Sr's day but for whatever reason Merlino took him and as mentioned used him in hits supposedly... Whether Merlino was just taking advantage of/using a guy who was starved for acceptance or if Merlino legitimately was accepting of him is up for debate I suppose?

No doubt PHL-MOB he was still young when it was going down here and he was just starting to meet the older guys from coming in our local bars. He was not the type to just go hang in front of the office where we would unless his old man came with him.

He would twitch violently now and then but he was always twitching when he lived a block and a half from us never knew him to attend school down here he must of gone to school in his mothers town.

I saw Lance and Borgesi doing a walk talk the other, I had to keep myself from busting out laughing, Borgesi is a weird looking guy. He is still jacked up from prison, but has a peanut head. I live close to Lance and I've walked by him countless times, but I don't think I've heard his voice.

Never seen together in the same room.

Moe have you tried calling the Howard stern show to get your fix?

Was down there eating lunch on11th and they were out near the church, door wide open because its perfect spring day but they are in there playing cards drinking and enjoying the day, some tatted up monster sitting out front w his pitbull haha

Is Borgesi juicing or pumping iron everyday? It's hard to add muscle mass when you're in your 50's I would imagine , I mean I have a hard time doing it in my early 30s....

He probably is, I saw him a few months after he got out and he looks much bigger now. It was my first time ever seeing him in the flesh (when he first got out), and mentioned here he didn't look as bad as he did in pictures. Now he is looking straight freakish.

By all accounts Borgesi was a bully before he started taking steroids.

Imagine how bad he is now with roid rage.

Mazzone pumps a ton of iron I heard, I also heard when he got out of prison his halfway house employment he went to was as a personal trainer in South Philly. It seems like that whole crew is now heavy into lifting weights in their 50s, Merlino works out everyday and Angelina is in great shape these days- he used to be a pudgy fat guy. Borgesi must work out with his brother Anthony, who was always into the weights scene....How did we get on this topic lol?

I guess Grande let his gym membership expire.....

I bet you Grande's weight gain and greying of his hair is stress related. Imagine being the known shooter of a hit were everyone and their mother knows you did it but they can't prove it and your accomplice in that hit is sitting in prison for the next 25 years while all the government wants more than anything is to have that accomplice flip? I would be stressed everyday of my life and funneling cash non stop to Nicodemo's young wife and kids....

Why is everybody always on about Grande's hair going grey?!

The guy is in his mid-thirties.

I know 22 and 23 year olds who are starting to get grey hairs.

At least the guy isn't orange and dying his hair like Steven Mazzone.

Penknife is someone who is commonly spoken about on forums like these by the "Phillyites", but is rarely if ever mentioned in articles and police reports. I just recall him being mentioned during the Natale testimony and I think he even went down in some investigation with a bunch of other Merlino guys. Think it had something to do with trucking. Not too sure on that though.