 Welcome back into the original gangsters podcast. I am your host Scott Bernstein along with my partner in crime the dr Jimmy Bucci Lado. Hey, Jimmy. Hi everyone Hey now and we got our producer extraordinaire Benny Augusta behind The glass on the ones and twos on the wheels of steel So we've been on a kind of a historical retrospective kick in some of our more recent episodes here at the og and we're gonna Stay on that, you know on that same pathway today we're going to discuss the 30 year anniversary of the philly mafia war the philadelphia mafia war between skinny joy merlino who is the current Boss of the philadelphia mafia. He took over 30 years ago via the war that we're going to discuss when as a young 30 year old him and his crew of boyhood pals and you know equally ambitious and Power-minded young men decided young turks decided to take on the old school Sicilian don john stanfa Who had backing from the new york families in a you know all out Slugfest for for power in the in the philadelphia in north jersey rackets The war started in 92 lasted till 94 And ended with john stanford going to prison and joy merlino taking over the crime family and he continues to Hold the reins for the bruno scarf of crime family today in 2022. We've talked about him a lot. He's you know by far the most compelling modern-day mafia figure in america he exudes swagger and just a X factor I think when you're talking about studying these type of people he he jumps off the page or jumps off the the mic or or the video screen and Just really is a a lot of ways. He's a throwback, but at the same time He's the quintessential 21st century gangster because he is what I've What I've coined he is the instagram don Uh got on to social media uh in the last decade and has really embraced it as as His organization so they're they're outliers in that regard. Yeah, he's very comfortable in the public Spotlight. I mean I I suspect he doesn't like people talking about his affiliations of the organized crime But otherwise he likes to be on the front page. He likes to be I think he likes people talking about what a big bad gangster is I mean, I think on the surface he's going to give lip service to the uh, you know, I'm just uh You know a guy from the street corner, and I'm just a gambler and uh, uh, you know a knock-around guy I'm not a mafia boss Um, but I think he likes people thinking and knowing he's a mafia boss That's currency for him. No for sure. And he yeah, he's I think he's what a lot of people who maybe don't have extensive knowledge of the Italian mafia If you were to ask them what they picture in their mind, it's probably Joey Merlino Even though a lot of guys if not most guys are not like that I think that's what a lot of people imagine. You know looks the role. He looks the part. He famously says crime don't pay Meaning he doesn't pay for anything. Yeah. Yeah, right and uh lives his life on everyone else's dime and uh lives a very very gaudy sensational almost like uh, uh, you know, if there was a male version of the real housewives Of la or new york Uh, it's like joey would be the lead character. Uh, he is uh Riveting and compelling and um, I just I'm fascinated by him But I'm also not someone who's going to sugarcoat it. I'm going to tell it like it is. I'm not going to um Make excuses for him like there are people in the media that are uh more uh, kind of water boys for joey than um than actual journalists or researchers or historians that are gonna Give it give it to you. Uh, you know straight down the middle You know, he is he um, I don't want to get ahead of ourselves, but It's an interesting point that he They have this war and he actually wins Because a lot of the time the person who's launching this offensive to have this coup They don't win vicarita most most of the time they don't it doesn't or doesn't work, right? And so it's really interesting that not only a that it worked and be such a young Group of guys. Yeah, and it's really remarkable and joey, uh And and then we're gonna double back But you know joey tells people or has told people um kind of famously That uh, he has the devil on his shoulder And that the the devil is there looking out for him and that and and that's his Explanation for why he has been so lucky uh, when it comes to not ever being Convicted or arrested or I shouldn't say arrested having never been convicted of any major major um Violent crimes has been convicted on racketeering but uh, although he's a suspect in You know murders that that Go up into the double digits. Uh has never been convicted of a murder. Uh, he has averted Over a dozen assassination attempts Um, and it has come out unscathed only one time was he actually wounded in one of those attacks and we'll talk about that in a second Uh, and he's sitting here at 60 years old and he's been playing with house money for three decades and like And and in the 90s and today it's not like it wasn't the 20s or 30s where young guys were running crime families I mean starting in the I would say in the 50 60s, I mean most of the bosses Yeah, or were guys that were either middle-aged or or elderly Yeah, and joey at 30 years old like you said he he launched this offensive this palace coup um and kind of a combination of circumstances of of uh him having The balls and the vision to do what he did and then the fact that john stanfa who was his um enemy, you know his rival Uh, wasn't someone that was very well liked He wasn't popular. He had he did not have the pulse of the streets There was a disconnect between him and a lot of his organization And and joey and his guys uh leveraged that he was always seen as an interloper, right? Because he wasn't eating group. He was a Sicilian guy But he never you know, some Sicilian guys come over And they are able to integrate into And immerse themselves into the the local bergata. It always seems like it always seemed like he was Had more of an outsider. Oh, he was placed. He was placed in philadelphia or in new jersey by the gambinos when he came over here In the mid 70s, you know, there were rumors that he was made on the other side made in sicily and came over here Through the gambino crime family specifically through the cherry hill gambinos And was you know placed with angelo bruno who at the time was the The longtime philadelphia godfather and uh And and stanfield was assigned in so he wasn't someone that had any History or roots in the north jersey or philadelphia area He shows up in the mid 70s as a guy that at the time was I mean he was speaking broken english and In the 90s, I can imagine what it was like when he first got over here And uh, yeah, he was viewed as a kind of a carpet bagger or interloper and he never really ingratiated himself with most of the rank and file and by the time he took over which was you know avoid being Created because nicky scarfo in that whole 1980s um Bloodthirsty regime All went to prison and and about 87 and then there was an acting boss between 87 and 90 which was nicky scarf was uncle tony bop piccolo and In the in around 1990 the new york What was left of the commission? The gambinos and the genovese Give the family to john stanfield and I think we're going to start now With with doing a little bit of a deep dive and it's had off air We know we pride ourselves here at the og that we're not just going to tell you a great fascinating um Stories that that have historical significance and and really you know grab you with a lot of razzle dowsons We're we're going to always give you that but we're also going to kind of dig in the crates if you will and and go into some nooks and crannies of Narratives that a lot of people have heard or know about but We found these kind of this lens into that same narrative About aspects of it that maybe you didn't know about and probably yeah deep tracks Probably stuff that you didn't know about besides so as we go back and do a 30-year retrospective of of this You know pivotal time in in the american underworld, especially obviously in philadelphia, newark jersey um, I wanted to find an entry point To emphasize that maybe people didn't know about so everybody knows about the war Uh, everybody knows that there was a two-year shooting war between marlino and stanfield But how did it really start? What was the the first domino to fall? What was the the the match that lit Uh, the the the match that lit the fuse that became this five alarm fire of a of a mob war Well, let me I just want to back up for a second and ask you about stanfa um, so When bruno was killed. He's the driver So angelo bruno was murdered in 80 march of 1980 and john stanfa the night of bruno's assassination Uh, and that was a palace coup. Yeah from his own conciliary. Yeah, uh, that was that was unsuccessful and, uh john stanfa was involved in the conspiracy wasn't his nickname 20 bananas caponegrove who ran newark For the philly crime family. Oh, yeah, he was in north jersey. Yeah, and uh had become angelo bruno's conciliary in 1977 after bruno's conciliary for the previous 10 15 years, uh, joe regnetta passed away and I think bruno decided on caponegro because caponegro was a street guy And bruno at that point right was Was kind of in that paul castellano A mode where he was very removed from from the gentleman down or something the docile docile down, right? And and he was someone that didn't have didn't Give a lot of face time To his soldiers. No Was living more isolated and he had his inner circle of guys that he trusted but Wasn't really a man of the people caponegro was someone that was a street guy, but was also Um, I mean he was insane. That's what I call him. Tony bananas. Yeah, and uh, he wasn't happy There was a lot of people that weren't happy with how angelo bruno was running that family Um guys that had nothing to do with the conspiracy to murder him But were happy when he was murdered because they weren't fans of his as soldiers And I think nickie scarfo Was one of those people I don't think I know and there's a famous photo of angelo bruno After he was murdered. He has head blown off Sitting in his car Outside of his row house in south philly It does say something that he stayed in in a row house in south philly now moved out to the suburbs and Bought a mansion like right castellano did or stanfield in this self-jurgy too, but the last image of him was You know his mouth agape. Yeah, uh with his head blown off And uh, I know nickie scarfo was telling people That that the the image was appropriate that his mouth was open Because angelo bruno was trying to eat off everybody else's plate. Well, he wouldn't he he it seemed like he was uh Conceding too much of the gambinos in atlantic city and in the drug right trade And uh, it's interesting you point out that bruno would would not have very much face time with the rank and file But we know he would hold court with the cherry hill gambinos all the time And so that didn't that doesn't go over well with the rank. Yeah, when you'll break bread with These Sicilian imports from a new york family, but not And he didn't want he didn't want to make guys, uh, because he was worried about cooperators and uh, so the family dipped You know, he made guys in the in the 60s, but in the 70s angelo bruno stopped infusing the family with new blood and, uh Just developed this reputation that he was Running the family from a distance without actually being far away from the family Detached. Yeah, it seemed like uh, it was more about minimizing his own risk as opposed to, uh, Running a family and taking lots of organization and taking lots of money from the drug trade While telling his men that they can't deal drugs as martirana was one of his top earners and everyone knew he was a PCP and meth guy kingpin. I mean kingpin. Yeah in the meth kingpin and the cherry hill gambinos he was and the black brotherhood He was getting drug money left and right. So probably uh, ricko beanie too, right? They were dealing drugs. Yeah, so so he was getting drug profits left and right. So caponegro Consolidates a a a group of dissidents and they launch an offensive a murder Bruno thinking that they have the backing of the genovese crime family in reality. They didn't And the doers the Most of the conspirators There's a couple exceptions that we'll get to and that ties into our story are murdered as punishment for killing Bruno caponegro is Called to new york city for a meeting that he's told that he's going to be Anointed the new don and reality is brutally murdered And then his his corpse desecrated with various They stick money up his ass or something like that in his orifices and it was it was very gruesome and Two people that were involved in the conspiracy that were able to get passes and yes, they were involved in the at the lower End of the conspiracy one being john stampa who was driving the car and had lowered the window It was in the was in the driver's seat Bruno was in the passenger seat bruno wants a lighter a lighter cigarette and John stampa If you subscribe to the fact that he was in on the conspiracy, which I believe is pretty factual Knew that caponegro was coming up with a shotgun And lowered the the window of the passenger side to allow the shotgun to get right up next to angelo bruno's Head and and blast away and they think it caponegro was such a psycho That even though he was the conciliary of the family he wanted to carry out the hit himself Yeah, that's unusual for a high ranking guy like that to get his hands, but let me ask you something I know we're digressing a little bit, but it does build up this sort of character study of stampa What's in it for stampa to co-op to Conspire with these guys because stampa is a gambino guy and we know angelo bruno is the most Loyal gambino ally so gambino is dead at that point castellano is the boss But but castellano is on good terms with bruno too though like way more so so like it just seems like stampa It just I find it unusual that a gambino guy would conspire to take out a gambino ally That makes sense. I bet tony caponegro was promising stampa He was going to be a copo fast track that he would be a copo in in the tony caponegro regime of the 80s That never happened. Yeah, so if he's thinking whatever loyalty he has to the gambino's The gambino's aren't going to fast track him to where he wants to be whereas bananas is probably offering him whatever That makes sense. So because stampa has these ties to new york And even though it's acknowledged Pretty much by both sides of this Conflict that stampa had been involved. He's given a free pass. He goes into hiding and I believe he was in maryland hiding dodging Supinas eventually he goes to prison for five four five six years um for for contempt And he re-emerges in the late 80s eventually to take over the family with the blessing of the Gambino's and jenna vase one of stampa's co-conspirators and caponegro's co-conspirators was a guy named little felix bachino And little felix was a bruno He wasn't a soldier. He hadn't been made yet. Uh bruno associate that um Ran a lot of the jersey gambling operations for the for the bruno scuffle crime crime family And even though he was involved in the conspiracy and it actually had delivered according to a testimony from Informants bachino's job was delivered bachino's job was to deliver the murder weapon um To the shooter and For whatever reason I have not been able to get a a clear answer on this But the bachino was was spared and the new Testa and subsequently scarfo regimes um Embrace little felix and little Little nicky scarfo actually made felix into the filly mob. I believe in 82 um Little felix goes to prison uh for a tax evasion He comes out in the ladies and and links up with stanfa and they get The okay from from the genovase And the gambinos to take over the family stanfa is the boss bachino was never officially named under boss But it was understood at that time that he was stanfa's number two um his His street boss his a guy that was speaking on stanfa's behalf When he was doing his his shakedowns to get everyone in line under the new stanfa regime One of the guys This is the part and we digress for about 10 minutes and I I was saying how I like to try to find these entry points. That's good that People maybe don't know even though they know The the narrative in the narrative has been explored, you know pretty extensively over the years some great books George anesthesia's the last gangster and the good fellow tapes are the best at Giving you a deep dive on this mob war Is anyone to talk to stanfa like george does he does he talk to anyone from prison like right, you know Stanfa's in prison. Um, I don't know if he's in talks with anyone on the outside. I know that he Just like everybody wants on coveted. He uh appealed to his judge for a medical compassion You know didn't go anywhere. He's like 92 right now. I think oh He's really all he's having one of the older inmates in the federal bureau of prisons I just in some ways. I think he's just as fascinating as any of these other guys because We don't know a lot about him. He's mysterious and he's just functional. He's mysterious. Yeah, so he's got a interesting combination Mysterious and dysfunctional. I agree, but it's intrigue. It makes it really intriguing. So as stanfa's taking over in 1990 91 And sending little felix boccino on this kind of this street campaign to get all the bookies and loan sharks and drug dealers in line kicking up a tribute He starts Extorting or little felix and john stanfa begin extorting a guy by the name of michael cheeky baldino Now it's a name most people probably have never heard of and But he has a very valuable bloodline And that is that via joey marlino's mother's side cheeky baldino is joey marlino's uncle and So he's brother-in-law's with He would be brother. He would have been brother-in-laws with chucky and yogi yogi who were joey's dad and uncle who were big shots in the scarfo regime And had gone to prison with scarfo in the late 80s yogi flipped Chucky kept his mouth mouth shut and went into prison. He was scarf was under boss and At the same time that stanfa is taking over Really, I would say actually my research tells me a good year or two before stanfa was taken over as as early as 1987 1988 joey marlino And his best friend mikey changalini Whose dad cheeky changalini was also a part of of the scarfo administration was in prison They had decided even though they were 27 28 years old they decided they were going to take over the city And replace their dads and their uncles This was before new york had come in and had named stanfa the boss. This is when scarfo was still trying to Puppet from behind bars and had his uncle tony piccolo in in the boss's seat as an acting and You know, I was able to get my hands on some fbi uh documents from You know, like I said as far back as late 1987 Which was about six months after the scarfo regime was decimated and joey and mikey chang are Approaching people saying it's our time now Now it took him five years Uh, but they they eventually reached a point where they went to the mattress. So Joey marlino's uncle's being extorted by little felix and john stanfa at the same time Joey marlino is being sent to prison for a short sentence on a Armored car heist that he had participated in And walked away with uh, maybe half a million dollars, maybe quarter million dollars and uh Stole basically stole it from the guys that had He had guys go out and steal the money He took the money from the guys that stole it and never paid them. Who is this join marlino? Oh, yeah And the guys that marlino had steal the money from the bank And then marlino decided to stiff You know made a deal and cooperated with the government joey had to go do uh I think it was three years that he did about two years of And it just so happens that he gets placed in a federal correctional facility with ralph natali who was a angelo bruno Uh confidant and uh lieutenant was a hitman drug labor racketeer hitman drug dealer labor racketeer Had worked very closely with with bruno in the 60s and 70s had been sent to uh, federal prison in the late 70s for arson and drug dealing and Had an out date of uh 1994 This would have been 1989 or 1990 And both marlino and stanfa. Sorry both marlino and natali See each other at this kind of meeting of the minds in a prison cell Joey gets assigned to ralph's Cell they're cellmates. They're both from philadelphia. They had never really met before Ralph had been in prison since joey had been 16 or 17 And the ralph even fuck with his dad and i'll call that yeah ralph ralph new chuck. He does it okay, okay, uh, and and joey sees ralph as a way to be taken seriously in his Desire or his plan to take over the philadelphia because ralph is a old he's an og And in prison ralph had made and then when he was out on uh on the streets in the 60s and 70s ralph had Deep connections in new york. Yeah And when joey and mikey chain were going around trying to take over the family in the late 80s the new york guys were laughing at him So he sees ralph as someone that can vouch for him with the new york guys and ralph who had always been a Minor player. I mean he was a a minor player in the in the in the realm of the organization with in bruno's orbit I think he was a relatively big deal. He spoke for bruno in the labor rackets, which was uh, something that wasn't Critical. Yeah. Yeah, but in terms of the Bruno scarfo crime family ralph and the tally was a non entity And he sees joey merlino and all of joey merlino's boys that are all 28 29 30 They all come from a omer to pedigree They all are chomping at the bit to take their piece of the pie And there's animosity between stanfa and natalia and book or there's animosity between natalia towards bachino and stanfa for kelly and bruno who he was very close with And he sees that the merlino crew is a as a group that he can ride To the top of the philly mafia. So they come to this understanding in prison in 1990 91 as stanfa's regime is getting off the ground merlino and natalia make a pact to Oppose him what's really remarkable. I think about this is Remember at this time correct me if i'm wrong Joey and ralph neither one of them are made guys Right, so we're not talking about a captain and a street boss or something like that I mean, this is there's another layer of what makes this so exceptional right You guys it and right joey's got some street cred natalia. He's got people know who he is He's an og but they still don't have their buttons neither one of them I don't believe true natalia claims he did but i don't think that's no he never did He then if that was true if that was true that he purged himself under oath Yeah, yeah in his book that full disclosure. I had a A pardon early on And ralph natalia's book. I left the project because of this very thing Um, you know under oath in a trial. He said he was made in the 90s by joey But in his book he talks about secretly being made in the 60s By bruno and gambino and yeah, and that's just not true uh, so It just shows you again how audacious these two guys are yeah that neither one of them Made guys and they're plotting but it also shows you The disarray of the official borgata that these two could even that this would even be just fantasy That this was even possible plausible that it was even plausible was what shows you the state of the family Because otherwise you'd be like this is just fantasy But it also shows you the force of nature joey marlino is that at 28 29 He could rally You know two three dozen guys Uh that were all Capable Yeah, um, and that would get behind him for what might look like a suicide mission That's right. Yeah, a lot of guys would have been like are you freaking crazy? Right? No I mean doing that but to joey's credit you know, he wasn't someone who Talked the talk and had other people walk the walk for him He was someone that was like we're going to war and i'm gonna be in the foxhole with you And i'm gonna be leading the battalion as we go out to take the hill. Yeah, I seem fearless so Merlino and natalie really It was before 92 92 so that you know, we're talking about the 30 year anniversary of this war um it wasn't related really to Stampa marlino conflict but in 1990 Right when joey got into prison uh him and natalie conspired to murder uh organized crime figure in philadelphia named louis irish diluca Who wasn't paying them street tax because he didn't recognize them and they wanted to send a message um, and this is Right before stantha took over so stantha wasn't I don't think cutting into them It I don't think stantha was cutting into diluca. So I don't think it was like diluca was paying stantha and not paying marlino Right, he wasn't paying marlino. So natalie encouraged joey and these guys on the street To to whack them out joey was in prison that when the when the hit happened, but louis irish's I know we're again, we're throwing out a lot of names. So I apologize and try to bear with us louis irish had a protégé Who unlike joey all of joey's main guys Were all guys that had dads and uncles and cousins that were philadelphia mobsters in the bruno and then the scarfo regime There emerged A major figure in the marlino camp that didn't have that pedigree But eventually rose to be joey's number two his underboss and he is on and he's joey's underboss if you believe the federal government today in 2022 His name is stevie mazone. They call him handsome stevie very good looking a lot of swagger just like like joy marlino very capable very very savvy And stevie had nothing to do with louis diluca being murdered that came from Marlino and natalie and and stevie mazone has never been Implicated in that But he had a tie to diluca diluca was really the first body to drop but i wouldn't consider it the body That led to the war now you fast forward in 1992 And or let's say let's fast forward to end of 91 And joey is getting out Of prison and going back to the streets with this plan that him and natalia had hatched And the first order of business for joey is to get his uncle out of this extortion plan or this extortion This this Extortion play yeah, baldino is being shaken. Yeah, cheeky baldino is being shooken down by little felix and and john stanfa and joey arranges for ralph or Joey tips ralph off to where little felix is going to be at a christmas party in 91 It's going to be at a i think a bar in jersey Ralph from prison knows the guy that owns the bar calls the bar And actually gets little felix on the phone And says, you know, hey felix, you know, we haven't spoken in 12 13 years I hope you're doing all right But you got to understand what the situation is right now i'm Getting behind, you know, joey and mikey chang and these guys and I don't know what you're what's going on with you in stanfa, but whatever is going on with you in stanfa You got to keep your hands off of cheeky. Who's joey's uncle and felix? Fraun tension purposes told ralph to go fly a kite and go fuck himself Well, yeah, because you can't a non-made guy. I can't tell a made guy who to who to shake down and I mean, he pretty much hung up pretty much hung up on a traditional protocol is he has no right to Talk to him like that. He says He hangs up on him. But before he hangs up on him. He says, hey, man, we're not telling you he he makes a He said he uses the term green light and he says, hey, man, we're not telling you What you can or cannot do this was kind of before this was as stanfa's Power is growing but at that point Stanfield wasn't trying to have joey and mickey chain kick up to him stanfa was saying Hey, whatever you're doing you can do stay out of my way. So little felix tells ralph. Hey, man, listen You guys got the green light to do whatever the fuck you want to do stay out of our business Then he hung up And you know three weeks later or less than a month later Little felix is murdered in front of his His home in south philly It was an early morning hit that was pulled off by a a single trigger man and Ralph Natali when he eventually cut a cooperation deal And this was the the baccacino hit lights the fuse that turns into the two-year war between stanford melino and you have Over half a dozen bodies Um Just you know it captured the the the headlines in philadelphia on the on the television set in the newspapers for for a good two years and it really pushed joey melino into the national conversation Of american lakosa nostra. Yeah, because at that time This was before game tax So detroit wasn't the detroit family familia wasn't really in the news a lot So for me visiting family in south jersey It was it was a real contrast to read about an ongoing shooting mafia war as opposed to detroit where Even even within the italian american community. We all y'all know toko jack alone. He's really but they're not killing each other They're not killing each other. Yeah Uh, so the little felix murder on january 29th 1992 um allows for this boiling festering rivalry between natali and melino against stanfa and formally little felix to to really break out into the open and uh, it was you know, two years of bloodshed and bodies dropping and it it propelled joy melino into the national conversation when you're talking about the mafia in america and and He went from a local brand to a national brand. I think It wasn't 92, but within a couple years. I remember uh, 2020 came in And uh, did something when he was doing one of his famous, uh, al Capone turkey giveaway. Oh, yeah Yeah, and uh, you know it all started with this january 1992 Little felix hit and we're on the 30th anniversary of that war uh 92 was a was a It was the year that started it, but by the end of the year things had actually tamped down um They came to a detente for a while. Yeah, so right so So in 92 January 92 they killed little felix there were some attempts on joey's life and on mikey chang's life uh throughout 90 You know early part of 92 By the fall of 92 there is a ceasefire a Very very temporary Meaning of the minds I guess where stantha felt like he could Nip this problem in the bud by bringing Joey Merlino and mikey chang closer to him I feel like the whole time it was just a plot to bring them close so he could kill them And they suspected but ostensibly it was a a plot for everyone to kind of make nice and uh They hit their button will induct you joey and mikey John stantha says I will make you and you kind of you guys kind of have your own little faction of the Of the family and we all kind of you know let bygones be bygones That Only lasted a couple months one of the other things that stantha did as a Kind of an olive branch Gesture was to name Mikey chang's older brother Joey chang as his underboss now on its face It seems like a great idea. I'm going to name One of your people meaning joey and changalini's people as my number two in the whole family But it was just been made to go right from being made. Yeah, joey had been I think joey had been made Either in 91 right when right when stantha got okay, and he made joey chang And what If you know the backstory And obviously stantha didn't Joey chang and mikey chang hated each other so Having joey come on board with stantha All it did really was drive a wedge further between the groups as opposed to Bringing the groups together which it looked like You know on the surface so you know within A couple months joey chang is almost killed in the first ever mafia had to be caught on camera march 93 at a Diner that joey chang ran In an industrial area of philadelphia that I think stantha had a headquarters in and He was there and was he was the type of gangster that didn't sleep till 12 o'clock In the in the afternoon and he was up at 4 or 5 in the morning and working that Managing this diner and the marlino camp knew this And if you believe certain informants In that camp and certain intelligence Reports that have come out from that incident in march 93 Mikey chang was the shooter Or some was was trying to kill his own brother And his brother almost was almost died, but survived it, but he was Handicapped for the rest of his life put on the shelf could no longer really function as an organized crime figure And mikey chang was proud of it Uh now What led to that was a incident months before that where mikey and really where the the ceasefire Fell apart was a couple months before the joey chang attempted hit mikey chang who was uh You know a quintessential neighborhood guy A lot of people say it, you know as as fearless as joey marlino is mikey chang was 10 times More fearless more fearless um, some people even claim that it was really mikey chang Leading this young group more than joey was yeah, and joey was kind of the the fate that was the front man sure sure um, so mikey chang everything and everyone i've Spoke to that knew him personally, you know the guy was just a real uh force of nature Of a human being in multiple ways. There could be truth to that. I mean sometimes you get a perfect storm of two You think of like totorina and provanzano in corleone. He really it really has to be Totorina is the face everyone knows him and they're afraid of him, but we know that provanzano behind the scenes is is Very much part of that. It's a one-two combination. Yeah, so mikey chang's coming back from this is a couple months after I believe a couple months after mikey and joey are made Um mikey is coming back from a basketball game. He would play Uh during the spring and summertime There was a game that was at a local park. They'd play every like thursday night And uh mikey chang was was coming back It just played basketball for two hours Was headed back to his house and when he got to his house Two men with shotguns, you know blasts out of a the bushes in a car and and start shooting at him in front of his wife and kids and You know god forbid One of those shots goes into the front window and kill you know kills one of his daughters or you know It was very it was a very personal hit that that really Didn't take any anyone's safety into account. No, they didn't they didn't lure him to like some Back of some factory and mikey chang swore That he saw joey chang's face that one of the two guys that was Shooting at him and shooting into his house where his wife and kids were what was his own brother. So that's how Bitter this got this is how she experienced this conflict got How's the old man wasn't the old man trying to so right so there's and that's another thing Right, so let's let's clear up some of that and I think there's been some Misconstruing of what chicky changolini from behind bars was or wasn't Advising and This is another kind of entry point that I don't know a lot of people know but I want people to know Chickie changolini was not backing Mikey chang and joy Merlino's palace coup and I think That narrative has made it out that chuckie merlino and chickie changolini. Yeah, mikey and joey's dads. Yeah, who are you know kind of a semi tandem on the outside back in the 70s and 80s That they were coaching right from behind bars joey and mikey on how to take the family over And I can't speak for what chuckie merlino was telling joey but I think I can speak for what was coming from prison from chickie To his two sons at that time that were both Fighting in this war or on our opposite sides and chickie was was telling Mikey and joey to stand down. Yeah, he was saying this is You're kind of like what we talked about in uh with godi and and dale croche and you saw it in the oh, yeah Yeah, right, you don't have to like who's your boss. Yeah, but la cosa knows the boss la cosa nosa la cosa nostra And that this is the system the system that was in place before you will be in place after you and you have to respect the system Yeah, and chickie was saying, you know Uh Remember he stopped he says assate says to his guy. He says are you okay with that? He's like doesn't matter Doesn't matter if i'm okay with this like that's this is how this is how it works So chickie doesn't fucking matter chickie was telling them to even if you don't Keep kicking up to to stanfa Uh in that regime you have to stop shooting at them Yeah And mikey chain was not listening to what his father said The brother the the the middle brother johnny chain Who's still around and is an active member of the of the crime family has been acting under boss cop or regime He got caught on a wire talking about how he was Smack dab in the middle of this he was neutral, right? He was well. He was in prison, too Yeah, so he couldn't have taken a side, but he was he was calling both brothers in Early 93 late 92 saying Just wait till i get home i'll be home in a year and i will solve this i will fix this You two our brothers stop trying to kill each other Just wait for me to get home And uh, you know was lamenting his brother mike saying i love the kid You know, he had my heart But he was one hard-headed bastard that wouldn't listen to one word i said Yeah, and was convinced that our other brother was trying to kill him so he was gonna retaliate now this this all happened The the the murder that was or the attempted murder that was caught on camera was march of 93 august of 93 mikey ching is murdered not by joey ching but by Trigger men sent by john stanfa They were in a you know at that point was the the height of the shooting war and joey and uh mikey ching and their guys had Rented a storefront to be their War room if you will it's an old green piece Building and it became their clubhouse they're hanging out and you gotta i mean if you think of the the god We'll think of the godfather. Yes the godfather and think of Sopranos like when there's a mob war going on you can't you can't go about your daily activities That's the mattresses Yeah, right that's where the term comes from You know you need to you gotta hide out and sleep somewhere So none of these guys were going home because Each hit teams on both sides were patrolling the neighborhoods For for for targets and joey and mikey Felt safe at at this clubhouse And it was early august 1993. It was a real hot day and mikey and joey uh Realizing that the clubhouse was most likely bug Uh went outside to have a walk and talk And I think they were going across the street to Grab something at the local liquor store like a coke or a lottery ticket and stantha's uh Shooters saw them and you know ripped off some shots from a passing vehicle Joey was hit in the back and in the butt Mikey only got caught once but uh it went right through his heart And uh He died in joey's arms. I mean that I mean that's something something out of him. Yeah, I was there. I was in South Jersey. I remember the and the images of the funeral with joey with the cane and all that I remember that was on tv It was in the news. So he died in joey's arms. I mean according to joey Who was caught on a wiretap discussing The last moments of mikey chang You know mikey chang looked up to joey and said I'm dying here like It's bad And joey talked about how when they both went down At first he didn't think Oh, he's fine. He's I don't see blood and then he right Turns him over and realizes that he's that he's dying out right there in front of him And then as jimmy said uh the funeral was all over the news joey was in the hospital for a couple days Comes out, you know with a cane is one of the paul bearers Stevie mazone is is one of the paul bearers. So let's try to tie this all together here and wrap it up in the next 10 minutes Stevie mazone was considered The top suspect in the felix bachino hit He was never charged and uh When mikey chang died Stevie mazone became joey's right hand mikey chang had been joey's right hand and uh stevie took joey's Or sorry stevie took mikey's place next to joey and really the triumvirate since that august 1993 assassination has been joey Handsome stevie mazone as the number two and george boy borgesi as the number three that the conciliary Right now my sources tell me that george is actually the acting boss And joey's you know living down in florida Stevie's about to go to prison Just got caught up in another racketeering case in the last couple years He'll be sentenced in first week of november looking at six or seven years And uh You know just like joey and george, they beat a bunch of murder cases When ralph eventually flipped ralph uh came out of prison in 94 Stanford goes into prison in 94 which pretty much ends the war Um a couple months after stanford goes in natalie comes out First time in 15 years joey and his boys see this as a perfect opportunity to just Put ralph in place as a lightning rod as a front boss Let ralph think that he's he's don corleone When as as george anesthesia has always uh analogized Make him think he's don corleone in reality. He's uncle junior or freto And uh that uh that generation gap War really thin between the guys that were in their 30s And then ralph who was in the 60s trying to rediscover His 30s right um ralph uh was you know, he was 60 going on 25 Took a girlfriend that was one of joey and his guys's you know childhood friends that Ralph wanted them to then start treating like she was Princess die and they were just like hey man, it's ruthi and he don't call her ruthi It's ruthan now and they're like it's been ruthi since we were in elementary school It's ruthi now like don't tell me what I should be able to call my Yeah, uh, you know my my childhood friend and and that was you know kind of the tip of the iceberg and Ralph was a um Very boastful Was a like it was more like a football coach than a mafia boss. He would hold these these like pep rallies and get everyone all riled up and excited of all this rah rah siskumba and then Really at the end of the day when it was all said and done Ralph Natali was just a drug dealer He couldn't do any of the things that he was telling people he could do right or that they should do and That he was going to take over the city and get involved in all this political You know government police corruption that he was able to that he thought he was going to be able to get to benefit the family It wasn't 1970s. He didn't seem to appreciate he couldn't put anything together He talked this huge game and all of his deals kind of died on the vine and He made all of his money via Drug dealing. That's how he made his money in the 70s And then when he had no no way out no way else to make money in the 90s he went to his son-in-laws And uh, they they started, you know selling meth again, and that's how he was able to um Keep himself, you know in the life that he Felt accustomed to in addition to the whatever tribute he was he was getting made But eventually that those tribute checks stopped coming because joey and his guys You know by by early 98 There any light Uh Nope Do you think if do you think if natalie doesn't get busted that They kill those and guys kill him. Yeah, that's our mat. You're right. I think if if natalie got picked up on a parole violation in june of 98 Yeah, I think if he would have stayed on the street He probably would have been dead by christmas or if not by christmas, you know by the new millennium. Yeah Um and the second he got in there He was angling for a deal. He didn't make the deal till the fall of 99 So it was like almost a year and a half later But he was making overtures of the government. He wanted to you know flip on joey felt betrayed But joey and steve and and george, you know Remain at the forefront of that family today They all were indicted based on based on a lot on on ralth's Well, I shouldn't say they were indicted based on They went to trial ralth was a star witness at that trial They were indicted on a bunch of other things that had happened before ralth flipped Mainly the cooperation of ron previty Who was a stanford guy and then jumped over jumped over by basically waving a bunch of cash in joey's face Right and saying I know that I was on the side of the the mob that was trying to kill you these last couple years But I can be a benefit to you if you let me come on board And the reason why he was such a big earner is because the feds The feds paid this guy this guy was on the payroll. I think for Three years and he got paid well over a million dollars. Yeah back in the 90s That's that's another it's not as bad as the boulder thing, but it's bad. Yeah, that was that was And he was a gangster that whole time and they were paying given him that how about the fact that he started off as a cop Yeah, it should have never been made in the first place stanford made him right? Yeah, he shouldn't have right Which is ironic for stanford being the I'm the old school. So shliano like it came down to the same thing That's that's a rule that goes back to polermo back to the 1800s that you don't make a guy It was a cop But it also it comes down to this, you know one of the oldest edges in the book when you're talking about the mafia Green talks man If you're someone And you're coming up to the to the don or your capo or whoever and every week you're handing them a envelope that's stacked with hundred dollar bills And it's and you know what and the in the the the the Superior never has to tell the subordinate. Hey, I'm looking for my money. I'm waiting for my money It's just a subordinate. It's just always coming up to him. They're giving him envelopes. They can't resist it Well, you're gonna get on that guy's good side real fast. Yeah, and any any suspicions Yeah, are going to be blinded by the desire to keep getting that envelope every no I've read about these examples. Not only the ten you don't pay three times Right. No, that's right. It's exactly what happens with sopranos Tony was hesitant to to cut ties with veto because the veto is making him a lot of money, right and uh the We've had she was self-promotion. They had an episode with kerry droben who wrote a book about the hell's angels and the jay dobbins case And there's rank and file hell's angels who starting to suspect. He's he's a cop And they tell the the president that And as soon as the president starts to get suspicious dobbins comes home with a big or comes back with a bigger envelope And each time the president say, ah, this guy's all right. This guy's all right Meanwhile the money is coming from uncle sam Uncle sam, right, but they can't they can't resist the the big envelope But it's it's with the italians too. I mean, isn't that what happened with gigante? Yeah, that guy who was an associate Right who who ended up flipping on him? um, because uh He was an earner, right? They can't they can't resist So but but we're sitting here and then let's kind of wrap it up here, you know 30 years later Joey stevie and georgie are running the philadelphia mafia allegedly They are living their best lives and you can follow these guys on social media Uh, they are the go filly. They have it. They are there from what I can understand They are traveling right now with the fillies Going to all the world series games going all the playoff games. There's like a group of them That have been during the playoffs. They were flying out to san diego Yeah, and now i'm sure they'll be descending on houston So these guys are and you gotta you gotta understand if you're not and i'm not from philadelphia, but I make philadelphia part of my my coverage and uh If you're not from there and you don't know about it It's hard to grasp the way that the mob Family in philadelphia is covered by the press. It's different. Oh, yeah, Chicago is different than new york It's much different than detroit They cover the philadelphia press the mainstream press Covers the philadelphia mob family as if they're a sporting Organization as if they're covering the 76ers or the eagles or the fillies We'll ask them for a quote go right up to them ask them for So it's not crazy to think that these guys that are like the equivalent of professional athletes Are running around following the professional athletes and and we know that Plus a lot of money on those and we know with joey at least uh, you know back in the day He was running around with eric lindrass was his buddy. He was dating ledgerly. It was dating eric lindrass's sister I didn't know that um And there's always been a lot of uh, uh crossover joey loves sports everyone knows that like he's a big jock Yeah, and he bets he bets heavy on his teams So like when villanova won the uh, uh, ncda basketball a couple years ago Made a fortune because his daughters all went to villanova and he wanted to bet villanova and he's a filly guy And I've heard he's been betting huge on the eagles betting huge on the fillies Well, it's a good time to be in Philadelphia If I don't know how the flyers are 76ers doing but the eagles and the fillies are so you know So the 30 years later these guys, uh, these guys really had the last laugh and I'll I'll conclude with There's been All of these rumors. I mean we're 20 years of rumors about how these Murders from the 90s are going to come back and bite Joey and his guys all these murders from the from the, uh, stantha Merlino war and then murders that took place in the late 90s and early 2000s Trying to lose under under what do you say tying up loose and right time up some loose ends jola gambi who, uh Is the conciliary now de facto conciliary along with cheeky changalini who's out now and uh, kind of advising a little bit. I've heard That they're still lingering animosity between cheeky changalini And joy merlino for what happened brother between the 90s that cheeky doesn't think Finally of joey and blames joey for what happened to his two sons How old is he now? He's cheeky's in the 90s. I was just gonna say wow pushing 90 and so Guys like they call him uncle joe, right joey. They called Joe the gambi uncle joe and they called joe changalini was he was he made by scarfo Was he made by stantha like joe the gambi was made by scarfo? okay, so there were Scarfo guys During this who were out on the streets because a lot of those guys either got clipped or they went to prison But so there were some scarfo guys who just kept their head down. No didn't like Legambi was in prison. Okay, so he was in prison He came out in 97 when he got his murder conviction tossed. Okay. He did 10 years with the scarfo guys So were there any scarfo guys on the street that keep but he but but legambi came out and then became that kind of bridge they think that or that They they bridge the key bridge the gap between the older and the younger right between scarfo and merlino Which was good because is is audacious and bold and fearless as merlino and those guys were I I have to think that that was smart. Legambi is one of the most underrated mafia guys in american history He gets no love because he's so quiet. He's so understated But he came in after all of this stuff that we talked about for the last hour all of this bloodshed and dysfunction and this Shakespearean duplicity And everybody goes to prison and the family is decimated And legambi is walking out of prison at that point and as a guy that I've always kind of Analyzed him to like a pati parisi In terms of like he was never a major player in the scarfo regime He was a guy that everyone liked and recognized as a great handicapper um and someone who was capable because he allegedly had taken place in a murder taken part in a murder, but I there's some Visionist history now when I've heard some people say oh People predicted in you know in the early to mid 80s that joe legambi would be a you know a great leader I don't know if that's true But so the joe legambi comes out of prison in 97 He was this very minor player in the scarfo regime and not only does he take the family over He stabilizes it right gains the respect again of the new york families He gets everybody on the same page and he basically keeps that family Well above water and functioning in a pretty high clip for 20 years Yeah, and I think that's important because some of those old scarfo guys Probably weren't to be trifled with so when they get out, I think they're doing their own thing now Yeah, so the we've talked about this before on the show. I mean the philly mafia right now is Split really like in three different directions. You have the traditional Family that joey runs and his crew runs and you have phil narducci who's one of those scarfo guys that came out of prison and isn't Isn't friends with joey, but does his own thing. I believe there's some Tribute being passed from from narducci to mazone and legambi, which keeps him Able to to to control that. Yeah Faction within a faction and then there's some other old school scarfo guys that are neither under narducci Normally, you know and that are kind of doing their own thing And they and they Probably pay I don't think I don't think the guy. I don't think this the non-affiliated scarfo guys Which are led by the pungent to our brothers Who I've heard have made tens of millions of dollars and legitimately in real estate rehabbing and flipping And then they also I've heard coal mingle some of that with gambling and loan shark, you know when that allegedly Uh, I don't think that they really have any affiliation with anybody And they just keep their head down And they're made and yeah, these are guys that were made and by scarfo in the early 80s It's philadelphia is such an anomaly. It's just that's not that's not like if you're a made guy You're supposed to punch it to our guys. The pungent tours were the best friends of salvi Oh, yeah, yeah, and they made the pungent tours set salvi up. He's a guy that some people said could have been boss Yeah, he would have been but salvi test Which is why scarfo right salvi Salvi test those for people that don't know was the joy mulino before joy mulino and he was murdered In 1984 before he could really Spread his wings as a mafia leader. There's a lot about that in mafia prince. Yeah, shameless Promotion for yes from my book mafia prince was written about the scarfo underboss crazy philionetti So this was fun. I liked I love deep diving this stuff the night now the 90s and philly That you know to me, that's my most If I had to pick one group in one era To study it would be philadelphia early to mid 90s Yeah, well, thanks for listening. Thanks for watching. Please subscribe to our youtube channel Please follow us on social media twitter facebook instagram We've got more content coming on the way more authors more underworld people More just us deep diving some historical stuff. We have a hollywood director That we're going to be talking to very soon So, uh, thanks for listening and go fillies go fillies Um original gangster podcast i'm jimmy butchillado scott bernstein for benny. We're out