Mafia Prince: Inside America's Most Violent Crime Family

by Phil Leonetti

  On November 3, 1986, the New Jersey Attorney General’s office unsealed an indictment against Nicky Scarfo, Philip Leonetti, and 16 others, charging them with racketeering, money laundering, and bookmaking. The backbone of the case was a series of secretly recorded wiretap conversations in which a drunken Tommy DelGiorno openly discussed mob business and expressed his dissatisfaction with his mob superiors, namely “Little Nicky” and “Crazy Phil.”

  On the eve of the indictment being announced, detectives from the New Jersey State Police visited DelGiorno at his South Philadelphia home and played the tapes for him in an effort to turn him into a cooperating witness.

  Tommy Del knew that once Scarfo and Leonetti heard the tapes, he would become a dead man walking, as the two mob leaders predictably made bail shortly after they were arraigned, posting $400,000 and $300,000 respectively. The other 16 defendants named in the indictment were given court dates for early January.

  A week later, Tommy DelGiorno became the first made member of the Scarfo mob to defect from La Cosa Nostra and enter into an agreement to cooperate with the government.

  Three days later, Nicholas “Nick the Crow” Caramandi would become the second.

  Both men were now cooperating with the FBI and the US attorney’s office in the multiple investigations that were ongoing against Nicodemo Scarfo, Philip Leonetti, and the entire Philadelphia–Atlantic City La Cosa Nostra—investigations which included all of the unsolved mob murders that Scarfo and Leonetti had ordered and participated in dating back to their early Atlantic City days in the late 1970s up through the Frankie Flowers murder in July 1985.

  I remember Bobby Simone came down after the news of Tommy Del and Nick the Crow broke and said, “Nick, it’s not good,” and my uncle knew it. My uncle said, “How long before they come to get me?” and Bobby said, “It could be a day, could be a week, could be a year, but they’re definitely coming.”

  The next day, me and my uncle went to Angeloni’s for lunch and the mood was very somber. He knew his days were numbered. He told me, “If they lock me up and I can’t make bail and you’re not in the cell next to me, you’re in charge for as long I’m locked up. You will get messages either directly from me, through Bobby, or through Nicky Jr.” I tried to lighten the mood by saying, Uncle Nick, you think any jury is gonna believe Tommy Del or Nicky the Crow? It’ll be just like the Falcone case with Joe Salerno. We’ll get the best lawyers and we will fight them and we will win, just like we did before.

  Now at this time, between the two of us we had almost three million dollars, and my uncle said, “You’re right, fuck ’em. Fuck Tommy Del, fuck Nicky the Crow, and fuck the feds. Fuck ’em all. We ain’t laying down for none of them.”

  As the feds meticulously debriefed DelGiorno and Caramandi in separate locations, they were obtaining an insight into the dark world of La Cosa Nostra under the despotic Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo.

  Right before Christmas of that year, 1986, me and my uncle headed down to Florida to Casablanca South for a few days. Spike was down there and he tried to cheer us up, but it was gloom and doom ever since we found out that those guys had flipped. I went back to Atlantic City right before New Year’s 1987 and my uncle stayed down there a few more days with his girlfriend at the time, who we all called Chicago.

  On January 7, 1987, the remaining 16 defendants in the New Jersey State racketeering indictment were all arraigned and subsequently released on bail. Among those charged were Faffy Iannarella, Scarfo’s Philadelphia street boss; Joseph “Joe Punge” Pungitore; Joseph Grande and his brother Salvatore “Wayne” Grande—all four of whom were allegedly involved in the Salvatore Testa murder—and Joseph Ligambi, the alleged triggerman in the Frankie Flowers murder.

  This arraignment took place five years to the day that Frank “Chickie” Narducci was ambushed and murdered by Salvie Testa and Joseph “Joe Punge” Pungitore for his role in the murder of Testa’s father, Philip Testa. Those five years essentially defined the rise and the fall of Little Nicky Scarfo’s Mafia empire.

  The next day, January 8, 1987, would mark Nicodemo Scarfo’s final day as a free man.

  As the 57-year-old Mafia don emerged from an Air Brit flight from Fort Lauderdale to Atlantic City, he was swarmed by a half dozen FBI agents and taken into custody on charges that he had conspired with Nicholas “Nick the Crow” Caramandi and Philadelphia City councilman Leland Beloff in the attempted $1 million extortion from Philadelphia land developer Willard Rouse.

  Sporting a business suit and a cashmere overcoat, Scarfo had a deep winter tan as he smiled for reporters and photographers documenting his arrival and subsequent arrest.

  Scarfo was taken to FBI headquarters in Linwood, New Jersey, for processing, and then held overnight at the Cape May County jail, some 30 miles south of Atlantic City.

  Scarfo would then be transferred to a detention center in Philadelphia to await a bail hearing, and less than a week later, Little Nicky was formally denied bail.

  His 33-year-old nephew, Philip Leonetti, was now the acting boss of the Philadelphia–Atlantic City mob.

  When my uncle went to jail, we were in bad shape. It wasn’t like when he was in La Tuna and me, Chuckie, Lawrence, and Salvie kept things going. This time around, there was nobody left. Salvie was dead; Chuckie was in a jail cell in Camden; and Lawrence wasn’t really around anymore. It was basically me and Faffy, and guys like Joe Punge. We all had cases pending, and we knew we were gonna get locked up; it was only a matter of time.

  For the first two months of 1987, Philip Leonetti attempted to use men like Francis “Faffy” Iannarella in Philadelphia and Pasquale “Patty Specs” Martirano in North Jersey to carry out his uncle’s orders—orders that basically consisted of making sure that Scarfo’s street tax and tribute money were being collected and sent down to Leonetti in Atlantic City for his uncle’s safekeeping.

  I was meeting a couple times a week with Bobby Simone, and Bobby had introduced me to a lawyer friend of his named Oscar Goodman from Las Vegas. Bobby told me, “Oscar’s one of the best lawyers in the country. If you get arrested, I want him sitting next to you.”

  I was going to see my uncle once or twice a week in Philadelphia and I would go and see Faffy when I got done visiting my uncle to pick up our money or to hear what was going on in Philadelphia. I was basically going through the motions, doing what my uncle wanted, but my heart wasn’t in it anymore, I knew it was only a matter of time before it was lights out.

  In early March, Leonetti and Maria boarded a plane and headed to Scarfo’s South Florida estate, Casablanca South, for two weeks of rest and relaxation.

  It was me and Maria, and we had a ball down there. It was the two of us and Spike. Spike and Maria were both amazing cooks and they would try to outdo one another, but she would always win. We would sit by the pool all day or take the boat out. Those two weeks were like being in heaven, with everything that was going on. I knew the reality of the situation we were in, but I didn’t want to face it.

  Several weeks later, on April 9, 1987, Philip Leonetti would be forced to face that reality when he was arrested as he drove from Atlantic City to Philadelphia to meet with Bobby Simone.

  It was me and Tory Scafidi in the car, and I noticed the whole time we were driving that we were being followed by what seemed like at least five cars. I said to Tory, “I think I’m going to be arrested.” We drove over the Ben Franklin Bridge and into Center City and headed towards Bobby’s office, which was near Rittenhouse Square. When we got to 19th and Walnut, the cops were everywhere. They came from behind us; they came the wrong way down Walnut and got in front of us; they came from the park; they were everywhere. They grabbed me and Tory and handcuffed us and put us in separate cars. Bobby must have seen all of the commotion and came down from his office and when he came over to the car and I said, “Bobby, what am I being arrested for?” And he said, “The murder of Salvie Testa.”

  Police records show that Leonetti and Scafidi were arrested at 1
:40 p.m. and 15 minutes later, at 1:55 p.m., Francis “Faffy” Iannarella was arrested inside the Scarfo mob’s primary clubhouse, a social club at the corner of Camac and Moore in the heart of South Philadelphia, a half block away from Passyunk Avenue and the candy shop where Salvie Testa was executed.

  By 6:00 p.m. that night, Joseph “Joe Punge” Pungitore, Salvatore “Wayne” Grande and his brother Joseph—all former members of Salvie Testa’s Young Executioners crew and the three principles charged in his murder—were behind bars with Leonetti, Iannarella, and Scafidi.

  A separate indictment unsealed the next day charged the already jailed Nicodemo Scarfo and the entire hierarchy of his criminal organization with numerous racketeering offenses, including: the murder of Judge Edwin Helfant in 1978; the murder of Vincent Falcone in 1979; the murder of John Calabrese in 1981; the murder of Frank “Chickie” Narducci Sr. in 1982; the murders of Pat Spirito, Sammy Tamburrino, and Robert Riccobene in 1983; and finally, the murder of Salvatore “Salvie” Testa in 1984.

  Several attempted murders and dozens of other crimes were included in the indictment, which was based primarily on the testimony from cooperating witnesses Thomas “Tommy Del” DelGiorno and Nicholas “Nick the Crow” Caramandi, both of whom had defected from the mob in November 1986.

  We were all in jail and none of us got bail. The only guy that they let out on bail was Joe Punge’s brother Anthony. The rest of us were locked up in one of two prisons, either Holmesburg or the Detention Center, both of which were in Philadelphia. I was in Holmesburg with my uncle, Joe Ligambi, Lawrence, Joe Punge, Faffy, and a couple other guys. I think Tory was with us and the Narducci brothers. My uncle was getting ready to go on trial in the Rouse extortion case, and the rest of us were just getting acclimated to being locked up. Prior to that, none of us had ever been locked up for more than a couple of days, except for my uncle. I remember one day out in the yard we were all together and my uncle said, “We’re gonna stick together and we’re gonna beat this thing.”

  A few weeks later, on May 6, 1987, a federal jury convicted Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo of conspiracy and extortion stemming from his involvement in the attempted extortion of Philadelphia land developer Willard Rouse.

  On August 4, 1987, Nicky Scarfo was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison following his conviction in the Rouse case.

  The next thing that happened is that me, my uncle, Chuckie, Faffy, Junior Staino, and Charlie White all got hit with an 848 Continuing Criminal Enterprise on the P2P case, which they unsealed when we got locked up. Of all of the cases they tried to bring, this one was the absolute worst. We did a lot of stuff: murder, loan sharking, extortion, you name it. But we weren’t drug dealers.

  The jury in that case agreed and acquitted Scarfo, Leonetti, Merlino, and Iannarella of all charges. Ralph “Junior” Staino and Charles “Charlie White” Iannece were both fugitives and, at that time, neither had been caught.

  When the jury found us not guilty, the courtroom went nuts. During the commotion, my uncle walked over to the jury box and shook hands with one of the female jurors and one of the marshal’s came over and grabbed him. My uncle said, “I just wanted to shake their hands, thank God for them. This is the beginning of the end of the lies and those liars.” He was talking about Tommy Del and the Crow. The judge was banging his gavel and saying, “Order, order” and the US attorney Barry Gross said something under his breath to my uncle, telling him to “Shut up,” and my uncle screamed back, “No, you shut the fuck up!” As they were leading us from the courtroom back to jail, my uncle stopped and screamed at the prosecutors, “Who lied? Caramandi and DelGiorno, that’s who! Two lyin’ no good fuckin’ rats—that’s all you got!” Then in the direction of the FBI agents in the room, my uncle said, “And you, you stay the fuck away from our women!” You shoulda seen their faces; they looked like they wanted to cry.

  Down in the holding cell we were celebrating, hugging and kissing each other on the cheek. It was the first time in almost two years that me and my uncle were together with Chuckie and everything seemed normal between us, like old times. We were all so happy that we beat the case.

  When we got back to Holmesburg, the whole place went nuts. They had seen that we won on TV. Guys were banging on their doors and cheering, and when we got back to our cellblock, which was D block, everyone was lined up waiting for us—Lawrence, Joe Punge, Joe Ligambi, Philip and Frankie Narducci. It felt real good to beat the government again.

  Philip Leonetti, now 34, had been found not guilty in the 1980 trial for murdering Vincent Falcone the year before, and now in 1987, he was found not guilty in the P2P drug case.

  As 1987 came to a close, a reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer who happened to be taking a tour of Holmesburg for a story he was writing about the prison was amazed when he saw Nicky Scarfo exiting his cell on D block.

  The reporter, John Woestendiek, wrote the following:

  “Wearing a spotless white T-shirt tucked into prison-issued blue pants, his gray hair neatly swooped back from his forehead, inmate 87-00475 walked easily through the open doorway of cell 425 on D block at Holmesburg Prison.”

  The story goes on to say that Scarfo “appeared relatively comfortable, at ease among friends in Philadelphia’s toughest and most run-down prison” and quoted prison officials who said that Scarfo was “courteous and polite to correctional officers and spent a lot of time reading the newspapers, exercising, and working on his legal case, never straying too far from his inmate bodyguards.”

  One prison official said, “The young black kids treat him like he’s a god—it’s ‘Yes, Mr. Scarfo,’ ‘No, Mr. Scarfo.’”

  For the most part, we didn’t bother anyone and nobody bothered us. One time I got into an argument with an inmate, a big black guy—they said he was a drug kingpin or something. He had a big mouth on him and he was always breaking somebody’s balls, usually the younger, smaller black guys. One day I told him to knock it off and he didn’t like being challenged. One thing led to another and we had a little altercation and the guards broke us up before it got serious.

  As a result of the altercation, Leonetti got five days in solitary confinement, locked in an eight-by-ten-foot concrete cell for 24 hours a day, and the prisoner was immediately transferred to another prison amidst internal reports that Leonetti planned to kill the big black guy over the incident.

  We never saw him again, and the other kids that I stood up for were so happy that he got transferred that when I came out of the hole after doing the five days they were cheering for me.

  Scarfo, Leonetti, and the rest of their gang would sit behind bars as 1987 turned to 1988, awaiting the Salvie Testa murder trial, which was scheduled for April, and for the massive RICO trial, which was set for September.

  With all of us locked up, most of what was going on outside—the street tax and the rest of the stuff we were involved in—had all but dried up. My uncle put his cousin Anthony Piccolo, who he made the consigliere right before he went to jail, in charge out on the street. He was now the street boss. It was him and Nicky Jr. who would collect the money and keep things in order. Nicky Jr. would come and see me or my uncle once or twice a week and let us know what was going on and who was paying and who wasn’t paying and who was playing games. We’d send messages through him to guys on the street, but our main focus was meeting with the lawyers and fighting the cases.

  As the Testa murder trial began in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, Leonetti felt confident in facing Caramandi and DelGiorno, having just prevailed several months prior in the P2P case.

  It was me, my uncle, Chuckie, Faffy, Joe Punge, Tory, Wayne Grande, Joe Grande, and Charlie White that were on trial. Bobby Simone represented my uncle; I had Oscar Goodman; and Chuckie had Ed Jacobs. I’ll never forget how Bobby told the jury in his opening statement that, “You will never hear testimony from people more corrupt and disgusting,” meaning the Crow and Tommy Del.

  Apparently, the jury agreed with Simone, and on May 10
, 1988, after deliberating for only six hours, the jury found Scarfo, Leonetti, and the seven others not guilty of murdering Salvie Testa.

  A few days after we beat the Testa case I was out in the yard playing basketball and my uncle comes over and motions for me to come over to where he was standing. He says, “I talked to Bobby and he thinks there is a good chance that you can make bail and get out of here.” So I said, “Wow, that’s great news.” And he replies, “If you do, I want you to slit that motherfucker’s throat when you get home.”

  The “motherfucker” that Scarfo was referring to was his wife, the mother of his two youngest sons, Nicky Jr. and Mark.

  My uncle’s wife had gambled away a lot of money in the casinos, and when my uncle found out about it, he went nuts. He said, “I want you to slit her fuckin’ throat,” and he put his hand up to this neck to demonstrate that he wanted me to cut her from ear to ear. He said, “Just make sure Nicky Jr. doesn’t know it was us.” This is how evil he was; he wanted me to kill the mother of his children, which I never would have done in a million years. He hated her, he only called her “that motherfucker”—that’s the only way I ever remember him referring to her.

  My uncle also wanted me to kill both Joey and Wayne Grande if they made bail, because he heard that they had gotten one of my cousins involved in dealing drugs. My uncle said, “If you find out it’s true, both of ’em get this,” and he made the sign of the gun.

  A few weeks later, Leonetti’s application for bail was denied.

  You have to understand, I was charged in the Pepe Leva murder and that case got dismissed. I was found not guilty in the Falcone murder, not guilty in the P2P case, and not guilty in the Testa murder. I was four for four. I knew Bobby and the other lawyers had Tommy Del and the Crow’s number down pat, and I was very confident going into the RICO case. Then those guys won their RICO in North Jersey and I started thinking, I’m getting the fuck out of here. I thought I had the government on the run.