Veteran organized crime reporter George Anastasia offers a piece in the Philadelphia City Paper on the possible demise of La Cosa Nostra in Philadelphia.
Mob boss Joe Ligambi is back in his stylish corner townhouse in Packer Park, the one with the black, front-door awning embossed with a bold, white letter “L.” The 74-year-old crime boss has also been spotted, on occasion, driving around South Philadelphia in a late-model black Cadillac sedan, his car of choice for years.
But is the veteran wise guy in the driver’s seat when it comes to the local crime family? More important, does he — or anyone for that matter — want to be?
History indicates that the job of Philly mob boss leads to a jail cell or a coffin. Of the six mob bosses who preceded Ligambi, two were brutally murdered and the other four ended up doing long prison terms.
It’s the smart thing to say. But does he mean it? That’s what everyone is wondering.
“The problem for all these guys,” says Steve LaPenta, a retired law enforcement investigator who tracked the mob first as a member of the Philadelphia Police Department and later as an investigator with the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice, “is that it’s not like the old days. The money just isn’t there. Used to be there might be 20 guys sharing a pie big enough for 40. Now, you got 20 guys trying to get a piece from a pie that’s only big enough for four or five.”
Will everyone play nice and share? Or will someone get greedy?
Greed in the underworld leads to violence. That hasn’t changed. That’s what everyone is watching for as South Philadelphia wise guys from two different generations find themselves back on the streets. Ligambi has had a foot in both camps and is perhaps the one mobster who can bridge the divide. But if he is stepping down, then who will play that role?
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