Hey there,
I'm new to the forum but I've been reading about the Philly Mob for over 5 years now and find it to be a pretty fascinating subject.

I was wanting to ask a question relating to Tore Scafidi in regards to a story that I read from the book "The Last Mouthpiece" by Philly mob lawyer Bobby Simone. One of the chapters in the book involves a murder trial where Bobby Simone served as Tore Scafidi's lawyer.

The murder occurred in the early 80's during the Riccobene War. According to Bobby Simone, there was a physical altercation at a nightclub between two groups of aspiring wise guys- one of the groups consisted of sons and nephews of men belonging to made men loyal to the Scarfo faction while the other group consisted of young men that had fathers and relatives belonging to the Riccobene faction. I guess there was a brief scuffle between the two groups that was broken up but later on that night, a young man belonging to the Riccobene group was gunned down right outside his home. The young man's mother apparently saw the murder and later identified Tore Scafidi as the shooter.

Anyways, Scafidi was eventually found innocent after Simone grilled the murder victim's mother on the witness stand and got her twisted up in a bunch of inconsistencies that made the jury doubt her testimony. Pretty brutal to do that to a mother who just lost her son but I guess he was just doing his job.

What really interested me was that after Scafidi was found innocent, Simone said that the courthouse lobby became jam packed with onlookers that included a large number of men that belonged to the Riccobene faction who were apparently acting belligerent and menacing after the verdict came in. As I recall, Simone said that the cops brought in backup to defuse the situation as it was looking extremely dangerous.

I had never read anything about this event before even though I've read quite a lot about Philly. What really surprised me was that it made the Riccobene faction seem a lot larger in prominent in Philly than I had originally thought. My original impression was that the Riccobene crew was relatively small and not nearly as influential as the Scarfo faction but this kind of made me doubt that. I know Riccobene was active in narcotic's trafficking and I have also read somewhere that Stevie Vento Sr was someone that worked closely with him. I surmised that Riccobene's manpower probably relied more on drug peddlers that actual made members within the Bruno Crime Family.

I know there are some Philly guys on here and I was wondering if anyone could kind of fill me in on what they know about this story involving Tore Scafidi and also tell me a little bit more about the Riccobene faction as far as where he drew his manpower and working relationships with drug dealers like Vento.

Thanks