Joseph Merlino: The Mobster Next Door (In Boca Raton)

 

Julie K. Brown at the Miami Herald offers an interesting piece on Philadelphia organized crime figure Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino, who now resides in Boca Raton, Florida.
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A year out of prison, Joseph Salvatore “Skinny Joey” Merlino isn’t so skinny anymore. But he looks almost as boyish at 50 as at 39, when he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for racketeering. Back then, he was a five-foot-three, 100-pound dapper young don who masterminded the bloody takeover of the Philadelphia mob. Today, he is a two-hour plane ride from the Southwest Philadelphia row house where he grew up to become an underworld icon, both feared and eerily revered in the City of Brotherly Love.
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“How’d ya find me?” he asks, his Philadelphia accent unmistakable.
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 You can read the rest of the story via the below
link:
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 http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/29/3026287/joseph-merlino-the-mobster-next.html#
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Note: Merlino grew up in South Philadelphia, not Southwest Philadelphia.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/29/3026287/joseph-merlino-the-mobster-next.html#storylink=cpy