Paula McMahon at
sun-sentinel.com offers a piece on the reputed Philadelphia Cosa Nostra crime family boss,
Joseph Merlino (seen in the above photo), who is going to trial in New York on racketeering charges.
Reputed Mafia boss Joseph
“Skinny Joey” Merlino has survived more than 25 attempts on his life and been
cleared of the most serious charges — three murder raps — leveled against him
over the years.
When the flamboyant
Philadelphia native, who now lives in Boca Raton, goes on trial next month, he
hopes to beat the feds as they try to put him back in prison for much of the
rest of his life.
The current case began last
year when the feds arrested 46 men up and down the East Coast on charges they
said read like “an old-school Mafia novel.” The men were accused of being part
of an organized crime network that involved the Genovese, Gambino, Lucchese,
Bonanno and Philadelphia major crime families. Their business included
gambling, selling tax-free cigarettes and collecting illegal debts, the feds
say.
Merlino, 55, and Eugene
“Rooster” Onofrio, 75, of East Haven, Conn., are the only two who are going to
trial. Merlino is free on a $5 million bond and his trial starts Jan. 16 in
federal court in Manhattan.
He is considered a “mob star”
by some because he courted media attention, regularly marched in the
Philadelphia Mummers parade and made a holiday tradition of distributing
turkeys to needy families.
Mob crackdown shows South
Florida is still home for organized crime, feds say
It’s no surprise that Merlino
is going to trial, said David Fritchey, a retired federal prosecutor and former
chief of organized crime for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia, who
helped send Merlino to prison in the past.
“That’s his personality. He’s
gone to trial before and he’s dodged some legal bullets – he’s been hit but not
as mortally as he could have been,” said Fritchey. “He’s the kind of guy who
takes his chances.”
“But there’s a cost that
comes with that kind of in-your-face criminality. It attracts the attention of
law enforcement,” he said.
Fritchey said he anticipates
one of the most interesting aspects of the upcoming trial will be seeing how a
Manhattan jury reacts to Merlino. Though Merlino is something of a celebrity in
Philadelphia and South Florida, he’s not so well known in New York City, the
international capital of mob activity.
You can read the rest of the
piece via the below link:
No comments:
Post a Comment