Not watched it yet but may be good..

https://youtu.be/i_K0FIVZP_w

I watched it, that guy really hates merlino

. Honestly he isn’t wrong. Merlino seems like he was a punk. I’ve heard that from a lot of people. Leinettinloved Chuckie but I think the general consensus was that his kids were not well liked. Maria was a brat and Joey was robbing people and causing trouble

I'm 18 minutes into the interview. About to grab some beers. Interesting interview.

So Scarfo never got banished into Atlantic City; Leonetti says he went there on his own. Also interesting that he said Bruno feared Scarfo.

Thanks. I will definitely watch that.

Just like the recent Gravano itw, you know this one is going to get a lot of coverage.

This was better than Gravano. I like his style. Doesn't glamorize the life. He's been clean ever since and he revealed new things. His last word about his uncle was priceless. I thought he was going to say something else but he had class with what he said and how he said it. I hope he stays off the radar for another twenty years.

This sounds awesome!

The first English show I saw on the Philly Mob, was the A&E American Justice, about Scarfo, Leonetti, etc. It was pretty awesome as well.

It was live?? No Announcement prior?? Still so cautious, after all these years

Not trying to spoil the interview but a few points.

Who is Pappy Eppolito?

I got a feeling that Leonetti and Chickie Narducci Sr. Didn't like eachother. Leonetti said Chickie was no good when it came to him having Phil Testa whacked. (Anyone know the relationship between Chickie and Leonetti?)

Leonetti had a friendly and good relationship with Gotti and Frank DeCicco

Who is Tony Casella (Pete Casella's brother) I never knew he had a brother that got whacked.

One last thing; Leonetti stated that Phil Testa had no good relationship with anyone in NYC.

I liked this interview more then the Gravano one.

Leonetti also implies.that John Stanfa knew about the plot to end Bruno's life. "He rolled the window down" Kinda knowing that Caponigro was about to kill Bruno

Spoil the interview I can't watch a black shadow talking for 1hour give me the highlights and anything knew

@pmac. My bad man.

@ pmac.

Phil Leonetti and Chickie Narducci Sr were def not close
Want to know what went wrong there..

Leonetti let's on that Stanfa knew about the hit on Bruno and rolled.the window down.

Carl 'Pappy' Ippolito was a member from South Jersey who was in John Simone's crew. He and Charles Costello were believed to be acting capos for Simone on a few occasions. Ippolito was indicted as part of a gambling RICO case in 1981 with Phil Testa, Chickie Narducci, Chickie Ciancaglini, Harry and Sonny Riccobene, Pat Spirito, Charles Warrington, Frank Primerano and Joseph Bongiovanni. Ippolito never went to trial in that case for health reasons and he died in the 1980s.

Tony Casella was made by Phil Testa in 1980 along with Leonetti, Chuckie Merlino, Lawrence Merlino, Salvie Testa, Frank Narducci Jr, Wayne Grande, Bobby Lumio and Blonde Babe Pungitore. He was involved in his brother's plot to take over the family by killing Phil Testa. When Scarfo took over, they considered killing Tony Casella but never did. He just became kind of a shut in and got put on the shelf. He wasn't active after that and died in the 1990s.

. Yeah I never got the sense Leonetti liked Narducci. Chickie was a big money maker but he craved getting power. Turned out to be his downfall. I didn’t know he had much of a relationship with Decicco but I knew he was right with Sammy. Obviously we know Sammy organized the Johnny Kets Simone killing in 1980. I’m not surprised Testa didn’t have much of a relationship with NY. Scarfo was real tight with Bobby Manna so naturally he had a lot of support from the Genovese Family

The itw was alright.

It's always interesting to hear stories from guys who had a high ranking position in a Mafia family.

In this case, there wasn't really any new material compared to his book. The one story i didn't know about was the connection between Scarfo and Meyer Lanski. That was interesting.

I wish he would have talked about his induction ceremony and the circumstances of him being made. I 'm always interested in that.

Finally, in the itw, he said Phil Testa made Pete Casella Underboss and not Scarfo because Casella was Sicilian like Testa (Scarfo being Calabrian). I don't think that was the reason. My guess is that Testa knew Scarfo had a lot of power and was close to NY so makin him the Nr.2 would have threatened his leadership. We all know what happen then.

@JCrusher

Yea; You could tell Leonetti didn't like Chickie Narducci. They prolly had a falling out some where... He says Pete Casella and Narducci knew the rules when it came to blowing up Testa..

@Malavita

I agree with you. Casella being Sicilian was not the reason he became Underboss. Scarfo had alot of power and Testa didn't want that tooo close to him. This has been debated much; Do anyone think Scarfo had Testa blown up?

I disagree for a couple of reasons.

I think if Testa seriously considered Scarfo a threat rather than an ally we would know about it already through Leonetti (either in his book, interviews or in the information he provided to reports from the NJ SCI). We haven't seen any information to lead us to believe that Testa and Scarfo's relationship was strained at this point and in fact, the evidence we do have points to the contrary.

I.e., Scarfo pushing for Testa to become boss in the mid-late 1970s; Testa wanting Scarfo to replace Joe Rugnetta as consigliere; Scarfo siding with Testa in his dispute with Bruno; Scarfo promoting Testa to take over following Bruno's murder; their joint involvement in killing threats to their new leadership (John Simone, Frank Sindone).

Regarding the Sicilian and Calabrian factions, Leonetti's claim is supported. From 1959 to 1981 you have an uninterrupted pattern when it comes to the top administration positions. Angelo Bruno and Phil Testa were Sicilians and they chose fellow Sicilians as their underbosses (Ignazio Denaro and Testa for Bruno; Casella for Testa). The consigliere on the other hand was always Calabrian (Rugnetta, Caponigro, Scarfo). In the case of the Philadelphia family, the position of consigliere in the 1960s and 1970s was viewed as not simply the number three man in the hierarchy but as the head of the Calabrian faction. When Joe Rugnetta died in 1977, the only serious* contenders to replace him were all Calabrians (Testa wanted Scarfo, others speculated that Nicholas Piccolo would get it and, finally, the Calabrian faction chose Caponigro for the position). One could make the argument that, while the consigliere is often generalised as the number three role in the family, the consigliere can hold more influence than the underboss at any time (e.g., Philip Rastelli considered Stefano Cannone, his consigliere, as his number two). The general consensus appears to be that Scarfo, as consigliere, carried more weight in the family than Casella did as underboss.

Casella also didn't come out of nowhere. His appointment was a surprise and, ultimately, a very bad decision but it wasn't without reason. Casella was a long-time member who had done considerable prison time for the family and he had also set up a couple of meetings for Testa in New York after Bruno was killed.



*while not seriously considered for the role, the Sicilian Antonio Pollina made it known he wanted to be consigliere after Rugnetta and was politely turned down by Bruno

I very much oppose the notion that Scarfo was behind Testa's bombing. If that were the case then Phil Leonetti and Larry Merlino would almost certainly have been in on it and they would have been compelled to reveal that when they started cooperating. Not only that but neither of them ever expressed as much as a suspicion that Scarfo was involved in Phil Testa's murder.

I wish a qualified person would interview Phil and ask the right questions..... that guy was not from the streets that did the interview.


I agree i never herd Nick was in on 1st.Testa hit . Nick would not of used a bomb , unless Westside gave the okay.

There were some weird moments when he would ask the same question twice or when he would talk about an individual that has nothing to do with what Leonetti was talking about at the time.

I am sure he offered a lot of money to Leonetti for this itw. It's obvious that Leonetti wasn't too confortable during the itw. He had a few emotional moments and, at some point, he even said that talking about his former life bring back memories he hasn't think about for a long time. He has moved on.

I don't think he did it to promote his book because he would have done itws when the book was published. So the only reason i can think of is that Valuetainment made him a nice offer.

Fucken came at Skinny heavy .... not a good idea to keep at him.

Not that Skinny would put a hit out but it can make it difficult for many family members around here.

Serp
Nicky Scarfo went to AC on his own volition. My question. Why did Nicky choose Ac ? Was any of nicks relatives living in AC at the time? He could of went anywhere but chose atlantic city.

Parents and his sister and he was familiar with it also .

At that time scarfo was the only made guy in ac so that would make him a "defacto" capo, and I believe he always had ambitions of being boos so I think he wanted to stay close to the power

Serp
A bigger question would be how did nick’s parents and sister find their way to AC? What made them go there and how long were they there before nick moved there?

Good watch. Nothing new whatsoever compared to the book (The Meyer lanksy story is in book too). a good watch nonetheless and might read book again now.

One thing that always is a bit annoying the way he talks about his uncle like he was the evil one. Like Phil didn’t go into that enthusiastically wanting the power and the life. Like he didn’t enjoy the money and I bet he loved Nicky when things were going well. Wish the guy just said I got a guilty Rico which means majority of my life in jail and I flipped cos I was Young with young wife and kid. He falls back on the “evil uncle that I hate” narrative as an excuse for flipping and everything that he done. If that’s what gets him to sleep at night then fair enough I suppose

Phil did a few interviews when Mafia Prince came out in 2012/13 and the Inside American Mob episode but has been silent since then. When he got out of prison he took part in a couple of documentaries in the 90s and he did that one interview in 96 where he wasn’t in the shadows. Other than that it looks like he totally moved on from that life. I do agree that he does tend to push everything on his uncle. Nicky was a psychopath no doubt but Leonetti still participated in that life. However at least in the interview he took ownership of Salvie’s death which many have speculated that he had more to do with than he lets on

Didnt know Loenetti had kidney cancer 10 years ago. He kind of slipped that in. He has one kidney and his doctor was from italy.

I enjoyed this interview. Interesting he still wanted to be “disguised”. Never knew he had a second son which he named after Salvatore Testa. I could tell he got emotional when talking about Testa and saw him swipe his picture away at one point. Then the interviewer highlighted that moment again after the interview. I remember watching another interview when Leonetti and got got choked up for a split second when talking about Testa (the A&E video and it’s almost impossible to catch). Just hammers home how senseless and tragic the Testa hit was. Also was interesting when he mentioned all the young eager guys talking about how they would have helped if they knew there was a hit on Sal. I’m not sure if I believe that Leonetti opposed the hit at the time, but I think he feels really bad about it now that he sees how everything turned out. You can hear his emotion when it got brought up.

The small Italian neighborhood of Ducktown was a very attractive place to raise a family , and many many families from NY and Philly were here.Atlantic City is on a small island and was and is a product of its people and back then we had some good people.

Yes it was segregated and it flourished for years until the casino gambling and the city and towns just a couple miles away started to turn into that product . The people that came did not care about there property or did not take care of anything for that matter .

The government there is a product of itself and when the pool of people get to a point that there is almost zero quality people left, and along with financing the entire state especially north Jersey “ the money that was supposed to go to the city and its residents funded the entire state.