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Documentary, Inside the American Mob S01E03 - New York Philly War
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00:00When you join the La Cosa Nostra, you're in it for life.
00:11You have to have honor and respect, but when somebody does something wrong, I mean, you
00:15know, they're going to get killed.
00:19Louis DeMarco was a junkie who was sticking up a maiden member of the Philadelphia La
00:23Cosa Nostra.
00:24So, Angelo Bruno told us, find him and kill him.
00:27Me and Vincent Falcone hid in one of the rooms in the hotel, and we waited for Louis DeMarco
00:34to walk to his car.
00:37When he came out, I ran out first and shot him in the back of the head.
00:49The power of the blast of the bullet pushed him so much forward, it looked like he was
00:53running away.
00:54After he fell down, I ran over him, and I emptied my gun into him.
01:01After we shot him, me and Vincent Falcone ran through the alleyway, and when we hit this
01:05certain spot, we threw both guns up onto this roof.
01:09And we continued running to my uncle, where he picked us up in the car.
01:14When I committed my first murder, it felt like I was doing a good deed for our family.
01:18I was killing a bad man.
01:27Mob warfare is on the rise all across the nation.
01:31It's just the latest sign of organized crime in America becoming more and more disorganized.
01:36It's 1980, and the United States government is locked in a battle to the death with New
01:42York's five major mob families.
01:44And that sends the message to these people that they cannot be above the law, and that
01:48they will be brought to justice, and they will be convicted.
01:50But the secret society known as Cosa Nostra still remains immensely powerful throughout
01:56the country, a force for corruption and extreme violence, especially in the city of Philadelphia.
02:04Police say that Calabrese was ambushed by two gunmen in ski masks as he walked to his car.
02:09Home to the most violent crime family in the history of the mob.
02:12These men are witnesses to that secret history, stepping out of the shadows now to tell their
02:27stories firsthand.
02:29A few remain in the shadows, fearing for their personal safety, afraid of an organization
02:34with branches all over the country, like Philadelphia.
02:38What happens here in the 1980s will have a direct impact on the heart of organized crime
02:43in New York, as one of the most prominent figures in the Philly mob decides to cooperate
02:48with the United States government.
02:51This man, Philip Leonetti, still with a bounty on his head, has come out of hiding to tell
02:57his story.
02:58To protect his identity, his face must be blurred at all times.
03:03In Philadelphia, he's known as Crazy Phil.
03:06I got a nickname, Crazy Phil, from a radio announcer, and I told my uncle, I said, can't I do something
03:13about this?
03:15And he told me, no pun intended, he says, are you crazy?
03:18He said, guys would pay money to have a nickname like that.
03:22Your uncle Nick told you that you need two things in life.
03:26What were they?
03:27My uncle Nick Scarfa always told me, you always have to use your brains in this thing, and
03:32you always have to use the gun.
03:34Leonetti's uncle, Nicky Scarfo, is a captain in the Philadelphia mob.
03:39But the mob's rule in Philadelphia isn't autonomous.
03:43They were overseen by the governing body known as the Commission, run by the bosses of the
03:47five families in New York.
03:49The Commission was formed in 1931 in Atlantic City.
03:52It was started by a guy named Lucky Luciano.
03:55Luciano decided that he was going to organize this into a business.
03:59The New York Commission, which truly governed the five families in New York City and had
04:05very specific powers.
04:07Regional bosses sit on the Commission, too, and some of them are independent outfits, not
04:12under New York's influence.
04:14But others are directly under New York's control, and Philadelphia is one of these.
04:18It's been overseen by the Gambino family for decades, thanks to the influence of legendary
04:25old-time gangster Carlo Gambino.
04:28There's always been this strong connection between New York and Philadelphia.
04:31It's only 90 miles away, and Philadelphia's always been in the shadow of New York.
04:35If you look at organized crime at the Mafia Cosa Nostra, New York is the major leagues.
04:40Philadelphia is a triple-A franchise.
04:43The Gambino-Philly connection goes back to 1959, when Carlo Gambino personally backs Angelo
04:50Bruno as the boss of Philadelphia.
04:52Their relationship goes back to when they were young guys, they were bootleggers together.
04:58And all Angelo's power as boss was because of Carlo Gambino.
05:03Bruno sat on the commission, and Carlo Gambino had Bruno's proxy vote whenever Bruno couldn't
05:08be there.
05:08Bruno is known in Philadelphia as the docile Don.
05:13He liked to keep a very low profile.
05:15He was more like a CEO of a company.
05:18He wasn't too much of a gangster.
05:20I mean, he ordered murderers and all that, but he wanted everything done quietly.
05:26He wanted everybody buried.
05:28He didn't want to leave anybody in the street.
05:29This was almost an era of relative stability and peace in the underworld.
05:35Did you ever actually meet Angelo and Bruno?
05:38I did.
05:39There was a time when my great-grandmother died, and we went to the wake, and Angelo Bruno came
05:48in to pay his respects.
05:49And I said, who's that guy?
05:51Because when he was walking in, he had all kinds of, looked like security around him.
05:55My uncle, he told me, that's Angelo Bruno.
05:57He's the boss of our family.
05:58So from a very young age, he realized that he was the boss.
06:03But then Carlo Gambino dies in New York in 1976, and the two cities' relationship changes.
06:14When Carlo Gambino died, Angelo lost a lot of power.
06:18Without the personal backing of Carlo Gambino, Philly boss Bruno is vulnerable, and his long
06:25and relatively stable reign ends in 1980, on a night that sends shockwaves around the
06:31city.
06:31He had gone to a restaurant in South Philadelphia for dinner that night, was driven home.
06:38He's parked in front of his house.
06:39His driver is sitting next to him.
06:42Bruno's smoking a cigarette.
06:43The driver pushes the remote control.
06:44The windows go down.
06:45And then out of the shadows comes this guy in a raincoat, pulls the shotgun out, shoots
06:52Bruno in the back of the head.
06:56Law enforcement left the body in the car for about two and a half hours.
07:00It's on a Friday night.
07:03All the neighborhood comes out, all the media comes out, and there's this Bruno leaning back,
07:09his mouth wide open in kind of a death scream.
07:11The murder of Bruno changed the game.
07:16Everybody in New York was going crazy, like, here's a boss of a Philadelphia, because an
07:21Oster family getting killed.
07:22What's going on?
07:23Talk in the street is that one of New York's other five families, the Genovese, is the force
07:28behind the Bruno hit.
07:30No one's ever been prosecuted for the Bruno murder because they've all turned up dead.
07:34But the underworld and law enforcement theory is a convoluted tale of double-cross or triple-cross.
07:41Bruno didn't want his guys dealing drugs.
07:44And a couple guys, including his consigliere, Tony Bananas Caponegro, was dealing heroin
07:50on his side.
07:50He had to do it on a sneak.
07:52Caponegro's upset about Bruno, and he's grousing up there in Newark about this.
07:56He won't let us do this.
07:57He won't let us do that.
07:58And he talked to some people in the Genovese family about his concerns.
08:03They imply that it's okay.
08:07Do what you got to do.
08:08He thinks he's got the commission approval to whack Bruno, because you can't whack a mob
08:13boss without commission approval.
08:15So Caponegro carries it out.
08:16Then he goes up to, for what he thinks is going to be a meeting, where he's going to be crowned
08:26the new boss of Philadelphia.
08:27And he gets garretted, stabbed, and brutally killed.
08:43And they stick $20 bills in his mouth and in his anus to show that he had been greedy,
08:47and they leave his body in the South Bronx.
08:49And then three other guys that were connected to him at that point also turned up dead in
08:54similar fashion.
08:55The Genovese family is moving behind the scenes to take control of Philly.
09:00They are the most secretive and slippery of all the five mafia families.
09:04Not even the other mob bosses know who's really in charge.
09:07They're considered the Ivy League of organized crime in New York City.
09:12They're smart because they're very screwed.
09:14They're quiet.
09:15They're very intelligent, very sophisticated.
09:16They're the smartest, the most crafty.
09:21They knew what they were doing.
09:22They don't like to get their hands dirty.
09:24The Genovese have their reasons for making such a bold move.
09:28Atlantic City.
09:29For most of the two decades, the Gambinos ruled the Philadelphia territory.
09:34Atlantic City is a quiet coastal resort town in decline.
09:38But in 1976, everything changes.
09:42And Atlantic City becomes a crown jewel of organized crime.
09:461976 is a casino gambling referendum.
09:57Legalization of casinos in Atlantic City.
10:01All of a sudden, that's the boomtown now.
10:04Money to be made.
10:05Construction.
10:06Unions.
10:07Legal gambling.
10:07Illegal gambling.
10:09And so who's our guide down there?
10:10Our guide down there is Nicky Scarfo.
10:12Nicodemo Little Nicky Scarfo, a captain in the Philly mob with a ferocious reputation.
10:20Scarfo's not a large man, but he's a very violent man.
10:23He's a very vicious man.
10:24So I guess he makes up for whatever there may be lacking in height with respect to violence.
10:30You know, it turns out the Genovese family wanted my Uncle Nicky Scarfo to be the boss of the family.
10:35And with that, they knew they would have the Philadelphia family on their side with any votes on the commission.
10:42So my uncle said, well, wait a minute.
10:43You know, Phil Testa is the underboss and he is my friend.
10:46So I don't think it would be right, you know, for me just to step in as boss.
10:51With Bruno out, Phil Testa becomes the new boss of Philadelphia.
10:57My uncle and Phil Testa, they grew up together.
10:59They knew each other for a long time.
11:01That was his best friend who referred to him as lefty because he would always throw zingers at you to see how you would react.
11:08And he always had to be careful.
11:11The Bruno hit paves the way for the rise of Scarfo and his own gang.
11:15When Angelo Bruno was killed, we were really happy about it.
11:18Because Angelo Bruno wasn't doing anything for us.
11:20We were, like, stuck in limbo.
11:21He wasn't going to make us.
11:23He wasn't going to send any work our way or give us an opportunity to make money.
11:30For Scarfo and Leonetti, Bruno's death is the break they've been waiting for.
11:35Their new boss, Phil Testa, is a friend.
11:37And they intend to take full advantage of that relationship.
11:45By the 1980s, Atlantic City is a boomtown thanks to legalized gambling.
11:50And the fortunes of the Philadelphia mob and its boss, Phil Testa, are taking off with it.
11:55There were opportunities for the mob that didn't exist before.
11:59I mean, all of a sudden, the state of New Jersey has legalized a vice.
12:03Casinos made a ton of money after they're built.
12:05But to get them built, it cost them, at that time, I think it was like $500,000 a day.
12:10We laid the foundation for what we wanted to do.
12:13We started with the unions and got all of them under our control.
12:17We were in a position to make big, big money.
12:21The mafia became more powerful than any organized crime group had ever become because they had morphed into an organization that had economic power, political power, controlled industries.
12:32The Philadelphia mob starts a company to take advantage of the construction boom, naming it after the man in charge, Testa's trusted consigliere, Nicky Scarfo.
12:43I formed Scarf, Inc., which was a concrete company.
12:47I was doing all union jobs, but I was a non-union contractor.
12:51Nobody bothered me because naturally they knew who I was.
12:54If you don't want labor problems and delays, then your general contractor better hire Scarf, Inc. as the sub who's going to pour the cement.
13:03And that's the way they legitimized some of what they were doing.
13:07No criminal organization in the history of our country has ever infiltrated legitimate institutions of society the way the mafia was able to do.
13:16And there's another mob growth industry in this new gambling mecca, loan sharking.
13:21We started lending people money for so many points.
13:25Like on $10,000, if you charge them five points, you'd be making $500 a week just in interest until they paid it $10,000 back.
13:33You already have a reputation for violence.
13:37So for someone to come to borrow money from us, they've got to be really desperate.
13:43It's Scarfo's job to collect, and Phil Leonetti is his indispensable man, born and bred to be his uncle's soldier.
13:50Phil Leonetti was a fairly intelligent kid.
13:53He played basketball for Holy Spirit High School, was a point guard.
13:58And at one point, he wanted to go to pharmacy school.
14:00But his uncle, he said, pharmacist or sissies, you don't want to be a pharmacist.
14:04His uncle has groomed him since childhood to be a soldier in his mob.
14:08When I was about eight years old, my uncle, Nick Scarfo, came to me and said,
14:12Philip, I want you to take a ride with me.
14:14While we were in this pickup truck, he was telling me the story of this guy, this bad guy, Reds Caruso, who he just killed.
14:25And he said he was a very bad man, and we used the truck to dump his body.
14:30Now what we're going to do is bring the truck to Philadelphia to get it chopped up, to get rid of it.
14:35And he says, I'm bringing you with me, so it doesn't look too suspicious.
14:40I don't want to be stopped by the police or anything.
14:44You know, it made me feel big, because he was actually telling me I was an eight-year-old kid.
14:50He was making me feel like an adult.
14:51My mother hated him, and my mother always told me, what are you doing hanging around with this man?
15:01Stay away from him. He's crazy.
15:04My mother always referred to him as Hitler.
15:07Leonetti sees firsthand how people regard his uncle on the boardwalk as a celebrity.
15:13My uncle would take me to the beach in the summertime.
15:16And this one time, we were walking down from the boardwalk onto the beach,
15:20and there was fellas there, these really big guys with tattoos all over the place,
15:24which scared me half to death, because I was about ten years old.
15:27But as we got closer, when they seen my uncle, they went absolutely crazy.
15:32They called him, said, Nick, how you doing?
15:34They did everything but kiss his feet.
15:36I mean, they showed him all kinds of respect, and I said, wow.
15:39They made a big impression on me.
15:42You know, in my mind, that's the type of person I wanted to be.
15:45A big part of Scarfo's aura is his reputation as a stone-cold killer.
15:50A rep that goes back decades to a notorious incident in a diner.
15:57My uncle Nick Scarfo is in a diner, and he got in a fight with a real big fella.
16:03This man was choking my uncle, and he was ready to pass out at the counter.
16:17But as he was being choked, he reached back on the counter and grabbed a butter knife.
16:21And stabbed this guy in the heart.
16:29And the guy died.
16:30The way he stabbed him, it just happened to hit the guy's heart.
16:41And if it didn't pierce his heart, I mean, it would have been just a regular stab wound.
16:46Now he's arrested, and he ends up being convicted of manslaughter.
16:49His argument was it was in self-defense.
16:51But he made out pretty good because he got six to 18 months, he served like six months, and was released.
16:57And that's just the beginning of one of the bloodiest careers in the history of the American mob.
17:01In the 1980s, New York's five mafia families rule organized crime in America with an iron fist,
17:12exerting their power through regional bosses like Phil Testa and his henchman Nicky Scarfo in Philadelphia.
17:19If we have a problem with someone, we don't call the police.
17:24We take care of ourselves.
17:26And Scarfo grooms his nephew, Phil Leonetti, for years towards his one true goal.
17:31Becoming a made man in his crime family.
17:34My Uncle Nick Scarfo always told me that to get involved with the La Cosa Nostra, you got to commit a murder.
17:40And with him, he wanted me to kill two people.
17:42Of course, he wanted me to have a reputation as a killer, like he did.
17:48A lot of people watching killing for them is the furthest thing from their experience.
17:52Maybe you could help us understand what's in your mind.
17:56I had no feelings one way or the other.
17:58I didn't enjoy it. I didn't dislike it.
17:59I just did my job.
18:01My duty.
18:02I didn't kill no legitimate people, no nice people.
18:05All the guys I killed were guys like myself.
18:08Everybody was a bad guy.
18:10I mean, this was our life in La Cosa Nostra.
18:13But Leonetti is Nicky Scarfo's nephew, which means the bar to becoming a made man is higher and bloodier.
18:21He must kill again.
18:23And the target this time is Vincent Falcone, his partner on the first murder.
18:27In the case of Vincent Falcone, yeah, he deserved to get killed the way he was talking about my uncle, saying crazy things about him.
18:37And my uncle went completely berserk and decided to kill him.
18:42So we made believe we were going to have a party at this house of Margie.
18:50He was getting a little suspicious.
18:51So I tried to break the ice a little bit by telling him, go make some drinks, get the scotch.
18:56We'll, you know, we'll have a few drinks and all.
18:58Pulled the gun out that I had in my waist.
19:14And shot him behind the head.
19:20He fell down.
19:22And my uncle checked out Vince's body, listened to his heart.
19:25He says, give him another shot.
19:27Shoot him again in his heart.
19:28Scarfo looks in to the face of the corpse of Vincent Falcone and says, I love this.
19:41I absolutely love this.
19:44He loved murder.
19:46He loved killing people.
19:48He always says, you got to kill and you got to keep on killing them.
19:52My uncle just kept saying, I love this so much.
19:55The big shot's dead.
19:56And he drank so much scotch that he got drunk.
20:00He was falling down drunk.
20:01That's how happy he was.
20:03This is the first time and only time that he hugged me and kissed me and told me he loved me.
20:08And then he said, this was big.
20:10It's on record now that we did something for the family.
20:12And I'm a proposed member.
20:14So I'm on my way to be made.
20:16Traditionally to get involved in the mafia, I mean, you would be an associate at first.
20:19Maybe you're picking up some money, taking money here to there.
20:22If you get involved and you become an earner, somebody who can be trusted, you become a higher associate.
20:29Eventually, you may be proposed for membership.
20:33Becoming a made man is the pinnacle in the American mob.
20:36The moment when a wannabe gangster becomes the real thing.
20:39It's called making your bones.
20:41And these mob families, in a making ceremony, they pay allegiance, not to the flag.
20:49They pay allegiance to the gun and the knife.
20:52Those who become inducted into it to pledge their allegiance to the criminal society and not to turn on or cooperate with law enforcement or reveal the secrets of this criminal gang.
21:03Leonetti's allegiance to mob boss, Phil Testa, is now secure.
21:08My uncle told us that Phil was opening up the books to La Cosa Nostra to make people.
21:14There was a big circle formed.
21:17And I walked in the center of the circle.
21:19And who's sitting down at the head of the table is Philip Testa and my uncle, Nick Scarfo.
21:25And the first question Philip Testa asks me is, do you know why you're here?
21:31Naturally, I know why I'm there, but you're supposed to say no.
21:37And when you say that, everybody laughs because everybody knows you know why you're there.
21:44And then he says, if I needed you and your mother was dying on a deathbed, would you come to me or would you go to your mother?
21:52I said, I would come to you here first, Phil.
21:54He says, I know you would.
21:57He said, do you see this gun and this knife on the table?
21:59I said, yeah.
21:59He says, would you use that to protect anybody here?
22:03I said, yes, I would.
22:06He says, okay, what we're going to do is, I got a picture of a saint here.
22:09He says, your uncle's going to prick your finger.
22:14And then I want to light the picture of the saint on fire and put it in your palms.
22:18He told me, cup your hands and as the picture of the saint is burning, I want you to juggle it in your hands.
22:25And as you're juggling it, I want you to say, may I burn like this saint if I betray my friends.
22:34And at that point, I was a fully initiated member.
22:37And it meant more, actually, me being me to my uncle than it did to me.
22:42He felt like, he felt proud.
22:45It was like, I'm part of his world now.
22:50Then overnight, that world is rocked to its foundations.
22:54Philip Chicken Man Testa, blown up by a bomb on his front doorstep.
22:58Philip Chicken Man Testa is probably the only gangster celebrated in a Bruce Springsteen song.
23:03And there's a line in the song, they blew up the chicken man last night.
23:07Testa walks through his front door and a bomb detonates, blowing him to pieces.
23:13A noise so loud, the neighbors think the nearby gas refinery has exploded.
23:19It's the dawn of a bloody new era in Philly.
23:23Testa's assassination allows Nicky Scarfo to rise to the throne of Boss.
23:27The struggle for Philadelphia between the two of New York's prominent mafia families,
23:33the Gambinos and the Genovese, now tips towards the Genovese.
23:39They know and trust Nicky Scarfo.
23:42Scarfo has a line to New York with the Genovese family.
23:45The reason he has that line is he was in jail with a couple other wise guys from New Jersey,
23:50including Louis Bobby Manor.
23:52So after they got out of prison, they kept that relationship going.
23:57But the question remains, who killed Phil Testa?
24:02Vincent Gigante was the boss of the Genovese family and a ruling member of the commission.
24:07He was concerned about what happened in Philadelphia,
24:12namely the unsanctioned, unapproved by the commission murders, hits of two mob bosses.
24:20First Angelo Bruno in 1980, and now Phil Testa in 1981.
24:24If that went unchecked, people in Cosa Nostra would get the idea that you could kill a boss of a family
24:32without commission approval, without consequence.
24:35The Genovese family now has its man at the top in Philadelphia, but there's some unfinished business.
24:41They told my uncle, whoever was involved, kill him.
24:43And that's what we did.
24:51After Philadelphia mob boss Phil Testa is blown up in his own home in 1981,
24:56the Genovese crime family summons the leaders of the Philly mob to New York for a sit-down
25:01and quickly identify the case.
25:03It's a guy named Frank Chiquinarducci, a capo, who was considered a prime mover behind the test of murder.
25:11Newly appointed Philly mob boss Nicky Scarfo is given a contract to administer mob justice.
25:16They told my uncle, whoever was involved, kill him.
25:20Phil Leonetti and his friend, Salvi Testa, carry out the death sentence.
25:27Scarfo gets Testa's son, Salvi Testa, to be one of his main shooters in all of this.
25:32And Salvi was on him.
25:34It was his father, and he wanted justice.
25:36He wanted to kill everybody.
25:40Salvi Testa was on Chiquinarducci every day,
25:45until finally one day he caught him just right.
25:50Hey, Chiquin.
25:57Salvi told me,
25:58Philip, I just gave him enough time to look at my face before I shot him.
26:06When Salvi Testa shot and killed Frank Narducci,
26:10according to a couple of wise guys I talked to,
26:13Salvi Testa said,
26:13I wish he would come back to life so I could shoot him again.
26:16Salvi Testa's on the warpath to avenge his father's murder,
26:19and Narducci is not the only one to feel his wrath.
26:22The guy who planted the bomb was a mob associate named Rocco Maranucci.
26:26He's found dead a year to the day of the test of murder.
26:31His body is in an abandoned lot in South Philadelphia,
26:34and he's got three large firecrackers stuck in his mouth.
26:38That was the vengeance that he wanted because of the death of his father.
26:42But the Scarfo gang's wave of violence starts bringing real law enforcement heat,
26:47and they soon charge Scarfo's soldier, Phil Leonetti, for the murder of Vincent Falcone.
26:53They found Vincent Falcone's body a day later in the trunk of his car in Margate, New Jersey.
26:58And once they found his body, then, you know, they're starting to investigate the murder.
27:02The cops squeezed a local plumber named Joe Salerno.
27:06They went to go see Joe Salerno, just as a flu, because they'd seen him around us.
27:12They never suspected that he would be involved with a murder.
27:15And he just spilled the beans.
27:17And so I told them everything, and they were shocked.
27:19They couldn't believe it.
27:21Salerno witnessed the Falcone murder and gives them all up.
27:24The government now has its star witness and arrests the ranking leaders of the Scarfo gang.
27:30We were facing life.
27:32If we get convicted, we're going to go away for 25 years.
27:36And we were ready for it.
27:37I mean, we all accepted it.
27:39Salerno describes the crime in gruesome detail.
27:42He was one of the most compelling witnesses that we had,
27:46because the way he described it, the emotion with which he described it,
27:52he could not be making that up.
27:54But then, on cross-examination, there was too many statements that they made
27:59that were used against them.
28:02The state had hoped an eyewitness account of the December murder
28:04would be enough to put the three behind bars,
28:06but the defense managed to successfully discredit the state's key witness, Joseph Salerno.
28:11As we were walking out of the courtroom after the verdict was read,
28:14a television guy came up to him and says,
28:16What do you got to say, Nick?
28:17He said, Thank God for the American jury system.
28:20An honest jury.
28:21My uncle said that we got away with murder.
28:24I mean, we beat this thing.
28:26There's no way we should have beat this case.
28:28How does it feel to be home?
28:30Not power.
28:31It's just one more example of the power of the American mob.
28:35Even in the 1980s, it's immune from prosecution.
28:39Scarfo is back on the streets looking untouchable,
28:41the new boss of Philadelphia.
28:44Once my uncle becomes the boss,
28:47it was a great moment for us and for our family,
28:50because now we had all the unions in Atlantic City,
28:52and we had all the unions in Philadelphia,
28:54so we were in a position now to make money.
28:58Since my uncle is the boss,
28:59all the captains have to start handing in whatever they make,
29:03a piece of every illegitimate business out there,
29:06and giving him his end.
29:08And now he's got this honeypot in Atlantic City
29:10who wants everybody to pay tribute,
29:12so now he's starting to collect street tax.
29:15Anybody who's making money has got to give him money.
29:17We called that the elbow,
29:18us shaking down all these illegal businesses,
29:20because it's strong-armed,
29:22and that's what it meant.
29:22So we didn't have to say it.
29:23If we were out talking,
29:25and we were worried about getting picked up,
29:27in surveillance, we just went like this.
29:29We were making millions of dollars every year from the elbow.
29:34We make scores sometimes with drug deals
29:36for $200,000, $300,000 at a time.
29:38But unlike former boss Angelo Bruno,
29:41mere wealth may not be enough for Nicky Scarfo.
29:46Someone said,
29:47you should never make a poor man the boss,
29:51because he gets greedy,
29:52and he loses sight of what it's about.
29:54I mean, Bruno saw himself, I think,
29:57as the caretaker of an institution.
29:58And he made plenty of money.
30:00But the idea was to ensure the continuation
30:03of the institution.
30:05Scarfo was just about,
30:06it's mine now, give me the money.
30:08But money and success don't dampen Scarfo's appetite
30:11for violence.
30:12If anything, they increase it.
30:14His reign becomes a reign of terror.
30:18Scarfo was like a Molotov cocktail.
30:21You never knew it was going to explode,
30:23and you never knew when it was going to explode
30:25in your presence,
30:26and you were going to be a victim.
30:27When Bruno ruled with an iron fist
30:29covered with a velvet glove,
30:30Scarfo saw no need for the glove.
30:32And where Bruno murder was a negotiating tool
30:35of last resort,
30:36for Scarfo, murder was a calling card.
30:38Scarfo enforces his street tax without mercy.
30:42Every conflict was settled
30:43through the barrel of the gun.
30:45A mob war that has left 18 men dead
30:47in the last four years.
30:49This is what the Scarfo mob was about.
30:52This captures the cold-bloodedness
30:55of the Scarfo mob.
30:57The body count keeps rising,
30:59and the fear escalates,
31:01permeating the streets of Philadelphia.
31:03We went to Bobby Stone's jewelry store,
31:06but on our way to the store,
31:09Salvi said,
31:09let's go see this Enrico Riccobini.
31:13Let's go shake him up.
31:14But Enrico Riccobini is no gangster.
31:19He's a legitimate jeweler.
31:21So we go to his window
31:22in front of his store there,
31:24and we're banging on the window,
31:26and Salvi's yelling,
31:27open the door,
31:27we want to talk to you.
31:30Riccobini is terrified
31:31and retreats to the back of the store.
31:33So we didn't think nothing of it.
31:40About 10, 15 minutes went by.
31:42Oh, cops surrounded us,
31:43picked us up,
31:44took us in.
31:45I didn't know what was going on.
31:49Come to find out later on,
31:50the kid got so scared
31:51that we were banging on the window
31:52wanting to talk to him.
31:57He blew his brains out.
32:00People were scared of us.
32:01Most of us were sons of made guys.
32:05So people were scared to death of us.
32:08Salvi said that
32:09we don't even have to kill
32:09these guys anymore,
32:10he was telling me.
32:11They'll kill themselves.
32:16In the streets of Philadelphia
32:18in the 1980s,
32:19mob boss Nicky Scarfo
32:20grows angry with the popularity
32:22of one of his own captains.
32:25This man, Salvi Testa,
32:27the son of former boss Phil Testa.
32:29Scarfo and his gang
32:32are raking in millions,
32:33but money doesn't stop
32:34his paranoia
32:35about one of his own men.
32:37Salvi Testa would be known
32:39as a real deal lobster.
32:41He was someone
32:42who was very loyal
32:43to Scarfo.
32:44Everyone else looked up to,
32:46they admired,
32:47somebody that they wanted
32:48to follow.
32:49Leonetti and Salvi Testa
32:52were contemporaries.
32:53Salvi Testa's father
32:54was Chicken Man Testa,
32:55the underboss.
32:56Leonetti's uncle,
32:57father figure,
32:58was Scarfo,
32:58the consigliere.
32:59They came from the same place
33:01in that respect.
33:02And Philip Testa
33:03was my uncle's best friend.
33:04And Philip Testa
33:05even told my uncle,
33:07if anything ever happens to me,
33:09please take care of my son.
33:10But Salvi's high profile
33:14puts him squarely
33:15in Scarfo's crosshairs.
33:17The Wall Street Journal
33:18does a front page article
33:19calling him
33:20the mafia prince of Philadelphia.
33:22And they call him
33:23this charismatic,
33:24and he was a handsome young guy,
33:25stocky, well built.
33:27The girls loved him.
33:28His father was the boss
33:30who had been killed.
33:31He had the bloodlines.
33:33Scarfo apparently went nuts.
33:34This guy did, you know,
33:35ultimately he's going
33:36to come after me.
33:37And Leonetti kept his mouth shut
33:39when all this was going on.
33:41I didn't know what to do.
33:43He was my best friend
33:44and we grew up together.
33:47I didn't,
33:48I thought about killing my uncle.
33:51A different, you know,
33:52but I couldn't kill him
33:54because I just couldn't do it.
33:58I was like, you know,
33:59I was just,
34:00I was just there.
34:03But Scarfo issues the order
34:04and that's all it takes.
34:07Salvi knew, he felt, you know,
34:09he felt the vibes.
34:12When we were saying goodbye,
34:13he's chalky,
34:14kiss Salvi,
34:15uh, kissed him on the lips
34:17like the kiss of death.
34:18Well, when it happened,
34:25what, what, what happened to you?
34:28Well, I knew he was going to get killed.
34:29I couldn't do nothing about it.
34:32Oh, I just let it happen.
34:35Joey Punch drove him over
34:37to the store that was empty.
34:39When he went to go shake
34:41Wayney Grandy's hand,
34:42Joey Grandy shot him
34:43in the back of the head.
34:46I wanted to tell him,
34:47but he was not the type of kid
34:49if I told him,
34:49he was going to run away.
34:50He was going to shoot it out.
34:54I did what I had to do,
34:56uh,
34:56because that's the way
34:58I was brought up.
34:59I thought I was doing
34:59something good,
35:00but
35:01that's how I am.
35:05Uh,
35:05that was my life.
35:16I mean,
35:16his murder,
35:17I think,
35:18epitomized
35:18all that was wrong
35:20with the Scarborough organization.
35:21And again,
35:21it's not to say
35:22that any murder
35:23is ever right,
35:24but Salvi Testa
35:25literally put his life
35:26on the line
35:27for Scarborough
35:28when Scarborough
35:28became the boss.
35:30The Salvatore Testa
35:31funeral procession
35:32arrived at St. Paul's
35:33Catholic Church
35:34in South Philadelphia
35:35shortly after 10 this morning.
35:36Scarborough had a fatal flaw.
35:39His fatal flaw
35:40was a bloodlust.
35:42And that bloodlust
35:43psychopathically
35:45drove him
35:46and his decisions.
35:48And
35:48it was his decision
35:51to murder Salvi Testa
35:53that was really
35:54the breaking point.
35:56Salvi Testa's murder
35:57sends a clear signal
35:58to everyone
35:59in the Philadelphia mob.
36:01No one is safe.
36:03All the made guys,
36:06all the tough guys,
36:07all the gangsters
36:07are scared to death
36:09of what my uncle did
36:11because they're saying
36:12if he could kill Salvi,
36:14who was like his son,
36:16we don't stand a chance here.
36:18By 1984,
36:20everyone under Scarborough
36:21now begins fearing
36:22for their own safety.
36:24Scarborough is a psychopath
36:25and he's paranoid.
36:27He's always worried about
36:28who's going to turn on him
36:30and who's going to come out
36:31and because that's his mindset.
36:33You know,
36:33he's always,
36:34you've got to kill somebody
36:34before they kill you.
36:36After Testa's death,
36:37Scarborough shakes up
36:38the family structure,
36:39demoting even old friends
36:41like Chucky Merlino.
36:42He had a meeting,
36:42he took Chucky down
36:44that's on the boss
36:45and he made media on the boss.
36:47It was that wanton,
36:49unnecessary violence,
36:50the treachery,
36:51the turning on guys
36:52that had put their life
36:54on the line for you,
36:55all of that,
36:56which flied in the face
36:57of the whole
36:57godfather,
36:58honest society,
36:59all of that nonsense.
37:01Leonetti,
37:01like other members
37:02of the organization,
37:03realized he's taken us
37:05all over a cliff.
37:05I lost faith in my uncle
37:07and I lost faith in Lacoste
37:09and also because
37:09he was the boss,
37:11he didn't follow
37:12any of the rules
37:13that he wanted
37:14everybody else to follow.
37:16Scarborough's bloodlust
37:17is bad enough,
37:18but things get worse
37:19when the law closes in
37:21on him and his gang.
37:24By the mid-1980s,
37:26the walls are closing in
37:27on Philly mob boss
37:28Little Nicky Scarborough.
37:30First, he starts killing
37:31any of his gang
37:32he can't trust
37:33and then the law
37:34starts arresting the other.
37:36Nick Caramondi,
37:37who was friendly
37:38with my uncle,
37:38who was a con man.
37:39So he wind up
37:40getting in trouble,
37:41he wind up taking a fall
37:43and getting indicted
37:44and he knew my uncle
37:45was mad at him
37:46and he thought
37:48my uncle was going
37:48to kill him.
37:49So from prison
37:50he calls the FBI.
37:52Virtually at the same time
37:53Tommy DelGiorno
37:53is being told
37:54by the New Jersey
37:55State Police,
37:56you got this problem,
37:57he flips.
37:58Now two Scarborough
37:59family members
38:00have turned,
38:01increasing the heat
38:02on the boss,
38:03Little Nicky.
38:04He is the only one
38:05who can okay
38:06the crime of murder,
38:07DelGiorno said,
38:08and went on to list
38:0914 hits ordered
38:11by his boss.
38:12All the law enforcement
38:13agencies never had
38:15a mobster become
38:16a government witness.
38:18We now did.
38:19We had it because
38:20the two individuals
38:21felt that they had
38:23become sideways
38:23with Scarborough.
38:25So the choice
38:26isn't so hard then
38:27to become a government witness.
38:29In 1986,
38:30the Justice Department
38:31indicts Scarborough
38:32and most of his leadership
38:33on charges
38:34of conspiracy
38:35and murder.
38:36The Enterprise
38:37was known as
38:38the Bruno family
38:39and then the Scarborough
38:40family of La Casa Nostra,
38:41the Sting of Horace.
38:43The indictment
38:44charges not only
38:46Nicodemo Scarborough
38:47and Philip Leonetti,
38:48but several other individuals.
38:50This was going
38:50to be the last time
38:52that we would be able
38:53to go in
38:54and prosecute Scarborough.
38:56and this time
38:58the setting
38:58was not only Scarborough.
39:00It was all his mob members.
39:01It was the capos,
39:02it was the soldiers.
39:03We had 17 defendants
39:05in the courtroom,
39:0617 lawyers.
39:07This time,
39:09law enforcement
39:10truly not only
39:11was energized,
39:12it was galvanized.
39:13Nicodemo
39:13Little Nicky Scarborough
39:14has reigned over
39:15Philadelphia
39:16and Atlantic City
39:17as one of the nation's
39:18most violent
39:19mafia bosses.
39:20But the reputed
39:21Scarborough crime family
39:22may be about to crumble
39:23from within.
39:24I'm praying.
39:26I said,
39:26I hope I beat this case.
39:27I'll get out of here
39:28and get away from him.
39:30And if I don't beat it,
39:31I'm going to get my family,
39:32my kid,
39:33out of here.
39:34I'll call the feds up
39:35and start cooperating.
39:39State of New Jersey
39:40versus Nicodemo Scarborough,
39:42Philip Leonetti,
39:44and others.
39:45I'll ask counsel first,
39:46please enter their appearances.
39:47I would waive
39:48a reading of the indictment.
39:50Simply enter places
39:50not guilty.
39:52After a two-month trial,
39:53Scarborough,
39:54Leonetti,
39:54and 15 other members
39:55of the Philadelphia mob
39:57are convicted
39:57on racketeering charges
39:59in November 1988.
40:02I was charged,
40:04I believe,
40:04with four murders,
40:06extortions,
40:07gambling,
40:08beatings.
40:10I was facing 45 years.
40:12And at that point
40:13where he got 45 years,
40:15he decided to cooperate.
40:18And I remember on a Sunday,
40:20I get a call from another reporter
40:21who covers federal court.
40:23And she says to me,
40:25Leonetti has flipped.
40:26My decision to cooperate
40:27was a very, very hard decision,
40:30even though I was so disgusted
40:31with my uncle.
40:33But it was a decision
40:34I wanted to make.
40:34I didn't want my son
40:35to grow up
40:36in this environment.
40:39And I mean,
40:39that sent shockwaves.
40:41People in law enforcement
40:42couldn't believe it,
40:43number one.
40:44And people in the underworld
40:45were, you know,
40:47this is a guy
40:47who was inside
40:49the inner circle.
40:50You know,
40:50it was a circle
40:51within a circle
40:51kind of thing.
40:52He was there.
40:53Leonetti was really,
40:54at that point,
40:55the highest ranking
40:56mob member
40:58ever to turn
41:00and become
41:00a government witness.
41:02On top of that,
41:04Leonetti was
41:05Scarfo's nephew.
41:07That made his cooperation
41:08then even more significant.
41:10And as a witness,
41:11he was probably
41:12one of the most effective
41:13that I've ever seen.
41:15In vivid detail,
41:16Leonetti describes
41:17the scene of the crime
41:18when he murders
41:19Vincent Falcone
41:20in cold blood.
41:21He makes clear
41:22that Scarfo
41:22is calling the shots.
41:24I was watching TV
41:25and she was making slings.
41:27That's out.
41:28Thank you for where?
41:31Yes, sir.
41:32That's...
41:33That's our license.
41:35You're not going
41:36to get you through.
41:37Yes, sir.
41:39I'm going to be safe.
41:40See you again.
41:42One, two, seven.
41:45Leonetti's testimony
41:46does permanent damage
41:48to the Philadelphia mob,
41:49which never fully recovers.
41:51Scarfo himself
41:52is currently serving
41:53out a life sentence
41:54in a maximum security prison
41:55in North Carolina.
41:57And Leonetti testified
41:58and he ultimately
41:59had his sentence
42:00reduced to five years,
42:01five months,
42:02and five days.
42:03And today,
42:04Leonetti's a free man
42:05with a family of his own.
42:06I have a new life now.
42:08A lot of the guys
42:09that I was friendly with
42:11went away for 20, 30 years.
42:13But, you know,
42:14most of my friends,
42:15like Salvi,
42:16he's dead.
42:17Lawrence Merlino,
42:19he died.
42:20My uncle's still living,
42:22but he'll live forever
42:22until I get killed,
42:23until he kills me.
42:25That's why Leonetti
42:26remains in the shadows.
42:28Even now, every day,
42:30he fears the possibility
42:31of his uncle's wrath
42:32in the form of an execution.
42:34There's a contract
42:35out on my life.
42:37He wants to kill me,
42:38my family.
42:39My uncle knows
42:40a lot of people,
42:41especially in New York,
42:42and he can find help
42:44to have me killed.
42:45So I've got to be careful.
42:50Law enforcement
42:51would not have been successful
42:53without Scarfo's
42:55commitment to violence.
42:57His decision
42:58to murder Salvi Testo
43:00was his Waterloo
43:01and the death knell
43:03for the Philadelphia mob family,
43:05and it was the death knell
43:07for Omerta
43:09within the Philadelphia mob.
43:11Whatever relationships
43:12they have,
43:13those don't exist anymore.
43:15Whatever power they had
43:17doesn't exist anymore.
43:19They have been reduced
43:19to a street gang.
43:21As the old mafia dies,
43:22so will more of its members.
43:25It's a very bad time
43:26for the mob.
43:27Leonetti's cooperation
43:28is the beginning
43:29of a domino effect
43:30within the five families
43:32of the New York mob.
43:34A sign that the old traditions
43:35of loyalty and secrecy
43:36of what's called Omerta
43:38are giving way
43:39to the pressure
43:39of a newly invigorated
43:41Justice Department.
43:42We have proven
43:43that La Costa Nostra
43:44can be taken on,
43:46that the community
43:47can be protected.
43:48A department
43:49which will use men
43:50like crazy Phil Leonetti
43:51to attack an entire
43:52generation of mobsters.
43:54As the arrests continued,
43:56the FBI said
43:57it was the worst night
43:57ever for the mafia.
43:58And it will serve
43:59as the death knell
44:00of New York's
44:01infamous five families.
44:02There's nothing to say,
44:03Tony.
44:04There you go.
44:06Oh, God.
44:08There you go.
44:10All right.
44:10All right.
44:11All right.
44:11All right.
Recommended
44:12
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