Joey Merlino succeeded where Joey Gallo failed ie pass to street punk to boss of his family,for sure the philly mob in 1990s was the shadow of the feared organization inherited by Scarfo.
But Joey was made by his enemy and take the reign after Stanfa was jailed but managed to survive to his puppet boss Natale flipping and choose a old school street boss to rebuilt the family and put his best friends for run his family while is in bocca after 15 y in prison.
For me he was a good boss,what its your opinions?

Mixed opinion.

On the plus side, he did his time quietly. He has rebuilt the family, in so far as he can in today's modern climate. He's sat at the top for a long time, and it's still very much a true mob family as many more recent trials and indictments demonstrate, from Anthony Staino to Anthony Nicodemo. He's got to get some kind of credit for all that.

On the negative side, he craves attention and loves social media. Could you imagine Ducks Corallo posting selfies to Instagram? Or Fat Tony tweeting? This has become more and more the norm I guess but it strikes me as awfully stupid. And by reputation it seemed a lot of the real old school guys like Leonetti didn't think much of him. His past with Natale is painfully embarrassing in hindsight.

I'd give him a mixed grade but I think its clear that like George Anastasia says, if the NY mafia is the major leagues, Philly is triple A at best. Joey's antics would never let him take the reigns of one of the five families - he's not cut from that cloth. Probably a pretty good boss for Philly, by today's (rather lower) standards.

Can't speak on his OC ability but on a social level he wasn't that well thought of by the many bookies he burnt not to mention the numerous bars and restaurants who had the pleasure of serving him and his crew - when they were done eating/drinking they would simply walk out without paying the tab. This activity was witnessed prior to him going to war with Stanfa, he seemed to keep a lower profile during the war and soon after, would only see him cruising through town and didn't seem to frequent the local shore town establishments as often.

What's about the 10th and O gang? Is at the same level with the Philly Mob?

He did his time and is loyal, thats a great thing. The issue is him being born in the wrong decade. He would of done well in the 1920’s.
The guy has balls, no doubt and he is not stupid. Personally, i have no idea what he is the boss of? A few friends maybe?

Merlino is boss of at least 30-40 made men.

Yes theyre not as large as NY 5, but "a few friends" is a silly comment.

30-40 still sounds like a small family, I think even Decavalcante has more made men than Philly?

Philly has about 50 members but only about 20-25 are probably active.

Think the DeCavalcante family has about 40-50 members, don't know how many are active though.

The DeCavalcantes are de facto under the Gambinos and the Philly family answers to the Genoveses.

That sounds like a glorified crew lol.

Think New England only has about 30-40 made guys too. Chicago maybe 10-30.

Yoi must count the active members not the whole chart.
Philly,decavalcante and Patriarcas had more or less 20-30 active members and tge decavalcante had 50 made men before the 2000 and Rotondo and Palermo flipping.

He wouldn't even be a captain in a NY family...

What was his greatest score ??

What's he do, gambling and shylocking ??

He's nothing !!

Guy can keep his mouth shut and he’s not afraid to pull the trigger. Gotta give it to these philly guys there have a good amount of unsolved murders in the past 20 years. Only nyc murder I can think of that is unsolved is the 2009 or 2010 seccafico hit on Staten Island. I’m sure there is other unsolved ones but the philly guys do know how to do a hit. (Minus the Nicodemo debacle) I cant speak on his leadership quality or anything but the guy is as stand up as they come.

Well I'd say individually his biggest score the public is aware of was armored truck robbery in 87 of like $350,000 which in today's money is about $800,000. Other than that who knows. I'd imagine he's got money out on the street or is partners with one of his guys in Philly in loan sharking and I'm guessing he gets a piece of everybody else's stuff, but I'm just speculating.
On a side note I recall reading on this board years ago about a cousin he has up in Scranton or maybe out in the Pittsburgh area that may be involved to some extent, does anybody recall this or am I mixing shit up?

His biggest score was the millions and millions him and brad Sirken made in south Florida off of the pain cream..150 million dollar indictment

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/owne...n-100-million-compounding-pharmacy-fraud

Joey Merlino was his partner

the genovese family invited him to there xmis party. gambino members sitdown with him. what else do you need. hes respected. hes beat murder trials in philly, new jersey. they indict him in nyc he gets a hung jury or whatever. guy has clout in the underworld. who cares he cant earn he has guys who go do it for him

Nice boy, misunderstood.....

I personally think he’s overlooked, he went to war, got shot, got jailed over and over never said a word and maintained his status and credibility on the street. With all the technology and informants around today it’s a lot harder to stay on top. And he’s done it for years. No one challenges him and his guys are loyal. The idea he couldn’t run any family is pure silliness. If he’d been raised in the ny families what makes anyone think he lacked the intelligence to adapt to their ways? Just because the philly family was more gangster than criminal is the reason he operates the way he does. And he dominated it. I suspect he would’ve been very successful in ny or anywhere for that matter. Pure and simple the guys got balls, heart and intelligence just because he was groomed in philly doesn’t make him less a boss anywhere else. Final thought, a good sign of a leader is the ability to have those follow you, he’s got unquestioned loyalty.

Say what you like about Merlino, but he's the boss!

He was able to groom and keep 20+ guys with him who have shown him amazing loyalty, and for that I commend him. A rare feat nowadays in the mob.

They're small, they have limited rackets and money. But they stick together through thick and thin. Isn't that what CN is "supposed" to be about?

So in many ways they are a solid (if small) crew!.... and active

I can’t say enough of the person he was growing up .... terrible..... but in that life 90% were just like him .... as a member he is the kind of guy you would want if you were involved in that life .... he keeps his mouth shut and is slippery as fuck.

I can fully appreciate what you've said Serpiente, and I cannot say that you are wrong. Many or these guys (most) are dog eat dog, thats how they survive.

But as a boss, I'm sure he's smart enough to treat his palace guard well, otherwise one day they'll bite his leg.

Right on Louie and many more that we will never know about.

Extremely lucky .... always said even though he served a lot of time he is still as lucky as you get just in inter family wars he is lucky .... plenty of guys tried to kill him we don’t even know about.

What I always find interesting is how these small guys, 5 ft 5 and 150 pounds can have such a powerful influence over people. Think about it.
Just goes to show, its not the size of the dog.
Another interesting thing, Merlino never used steroids. Its all about how one carries himself.

Just a question, how do we know this to be true if we don't know it? "plenty of guys tried to kill him we don’t even know about". And if true, doesn't that make him even stronger? I just think folks tend to look down on the Philly family in their opinions for unjustified reasons. Just like when they put down the Columbo. I tend to take the other side of it and look at the endurance of the family and individuals. If they're around a long while they can't be as incompetent as some say. It's just like when they say if Costello or Luciano would have went legit they would have been legal millionaires. I don't know how you prove that either. Apples and oranges in my opinion anyway.

If you are asking me .... it’s a figure of speech. But you can bet that Scarfo , Stanfa, the branch of the Luke’s that try to lure him and his UB an SB to NY to clip them . You can bet that there were some rich connected guys tried to have him clipped back when him and that fuck Natalie were robbing powerful rich guys
. Hands down the luckiest in Philly history possibly other citys .


Understand if you are not from this area and don’t get what a figure of speech is here .

I love when a poster asks a question, and the response is dressed in sarcasm and then questions where the questioner comes from. I could write a long pedigree which means nothing cause no one can prove or disprove anything anyone here writes. As far as where I'm from, I was born and raised in NY, live in NJ now past 20 years. What does that prove? I was just asking a question and giving my opinion. I always enjoyed your input Serpiente doesn't mean I cant ask a question. But thanks, I still disagree. Merlino is a boss to be reckoned with whether you like him or not.

Nope think u got it wrong .... i am agreeing with you . I am just saying he was a terrible kid and young man ... but so were most of those guys in the life.