 Welcome to the original gangsters podcast. I'm your host Scott Bernstein quick hitter edition on Thanksgiving week I want to give a shout out and You know give a little perspective on what's going on in South Philly this week. It's like the 1990s all over again You know, you just need Bill Clinton in the White House I wrote this on on my gangsta report website You just need Bill Clinton in the White House and grunge music on the sound system And it's like it's 1995 1996 all over again Joey Merlino skinny Joey The reputed mafia Don of Philadelphia who no longer lives in Philadelphia lives in Florida He claims he's out of the business all together government claims. He's a mob boss Back in the 90s when he first blasted out of the scene and came into the public eye he was famous for holding turkey giveaways and Charities during the holiday or charity events during the holidays bringing Santa Claus For underprivileged kids giving away food coats and what not got a lot of publicity back in in 95 96 97 It went by the wayside for the last 25 years, but it's back this year Joey Merlino and his new YouTube podcast known as the skinny hosted their turkey giveaway they had Santa Claus they had Warm winter clothes for for the underprivileged Kids got presents. Anybody that wanted a turkey came. It was held in the point resection of South Philly Joey was on hand Giving out turkeys. So, uh, you know shout out to the Merlino camp for for given given back to the community You know, it's it's interesting You know Al Capone started this back in the 20s trying to build goodwill with the community with the media and and would run, you know Capone sponsors soup kitchens and food giveaways and Christmas charity events Thanksgiving charity events and Merlino who was kind of like a Capone like figure in the 90s Pick right up where he left off But then you know this this event had been absent from the South Philly holiday calendar for all of the 2000s all the 2010s and now it's coming back in the 2020s as I'm, you know, finishing up this quick hitter It it should be noted that just like the song The Beatles saying a little help from my friends that that played a role with Joey this past week or this past month as he was been raising money for this through a Crowdsourcing app called spot fund. He's been able to raise about seventy five thousand dollars to give To charity for the underprivileged in South Philly And it through the spot fund app you can see Who donated and what they donated and there were a lot of familiar names for for people that are mob watchers a lot of guys In the Philly regime were given donations a couple that Popped right out Joe scoops Lakata Was one of the guys the capo over in New Jersey old school guy He gave money you had money coming from Uncle Joe legambi And his two sons he just put the money under Uncle Joe Joey Merlino's longtime acting boss and conciliary He had money that came in in memory of Russell Boffolino Joe Pesci in the movie the Irishman looks like his family sent a donation There was a donation that was sent from one of Joey's good friends in the five families The the point man with the Philly Philadelphia mob with the the Lucchese's Little Joe perna. He sent some money. You had money coming in from Massachusetts from some wise guys out there from Canada So a lot of people donating to the cause. We just wanted to say we recognize it wanted to let everybody know what was going on Happy Thanksgiving. I'm glad that Joey Merlino returned to South Philly gave away the turkeys and I'm glad that we had an opportunity To see who was contributing and there were a lot of names So if you're interested go go check out that spot fund app But it's very interesting a lot of those guys get very charitable when Joey's asking for that money because Joey's got that That swagger and that ability to get people to open the pocketbooks. It's a gift Happy holidays from the og pod. I'm scott Bernstein out