Last month’s Netflix docuseries Mob War: Philadelphia vs the Mafia portrayed the internecine Cosa Nostra mob war in Philadelphia in the early 1990s between the South Philadelphia “Young Turks,” reportedly led by Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino, and John Stanfa, the Sicilian-born boss of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra organized crime family.
The young mobsters, the sons and nephews of the previous generation’s Cosa Nostra mobsters under then-Philadelphia mob boss Nicodemo “Little Nicky” Scarfo, were South Philly “corner boys” who bristled under the strict leadership of a Sicilian boss to whom they felt no loyalty.
At the time I covered the gang war as a crime reporter and columnist for the South Philadelphia weekly newspapers.
I spoke to several mob guys on both sides, some of whom I’ve known since childhood. They told me what was happening, but I could not use their names as it would surely lead to them being murdered. (I was later able to interview Philadelphia Cosa Nostra underboss Philip Leonetti and Philadelphia Cosa Nostra boss Ralph Natale after they became cooperating government witnesses).
I also knew and interviewed many of the people who were featured in the Netflix docuseries.
One of the principal people featured in the Netflix docuseries was Charlotte Lang, the former FBI organized crime squad leader in Philadelphia. She was my quest when I was an on-air host and producer of Inside Government, a public affairs radio program that aired on WPEN AM and WMGK FM on Sunday mornings in the Philadelphia area,
Lang, who then looked more like a blonde mid-western schoolteacher than a racket-busting fed, noted that the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra members were not as sophisticated as the New York City mobsters she previously investigated during the famous Rudy Gulliani-led Cosa Nostra “Five Families Commission” case.
“The South Philly gangsters deal in traditional Cosa Nostra money-making crimes, such as loan sharking, illegal gambling, extortion and drug trafficking, but they are not involved with the type of high-level corruption and complicated criminal schemes that we see New York gangsters engaged in,” Lang said.
George Anastasia, the author and former crime reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, also appeared prominently in the Netflix documentary. I’ve interviewed George Anastasia several times over the years, and I’ve reviewed his fine books about organized crime for the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Washington Times.
George Anastasia I first encountered him back in 1998 when I went to hear him speak about his then just published book,
The Goodfella Tapes: The True Story of How the FBI Recorded a Mob War and Brought Down a Mafia Don.The book is about how the FBI secretly recorded the mobsters during an internecine mob war, and brought down the local crime boss, John Stanfa.
George Anastasia made an appearance at Borders bookstore in Center City Philadelphia. He read passages from his book and fielded questions from the crowd of about 30 people.
Like his two previous outstanding books on the Philly mob,
Blood and Honor and
Mobfather, South Philadelphia is featured so prominently in
The Goodfella Tapes that it’s practically a character.
“The Philadelphia mob is probably the most dysfunctional crime family in America,” I recall Anastasia saying. “It’s kind of
The Simpsons of the underworld.”
How it got that way, he said, is what the book is all about.
Anastasia talked about the 1993-95 mob war in and around South Philadelphia, noting that one failed hit man used the wrong size shells in a shotgun (which was right out of Jimmy Breslin’s great comic novel
The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight) and how another mob guy called off a hit because he had to report to his parole officer.
Anastasia explained that one side was old world Sicilian and the other side was born and bred South Philadelphians, the offspring of the previous mob leadership.
And the Feds got it all down on tape.
A minor gambling investigation led to the bugging of a law office in New Jersey, where the mob guys met secretly (and they thought safely) to discuss mob gossip, philosophy and tactics. Over the course of two years, the FBI recorded 2,000 conversations.
“Goodfellas don’t sue goodfellas," one mob philosopher advised a mob associate and potential litigant as the FBI listened in. “Goodfellas kill goodfellas.”
The book offers a good number of other insightful comments as well.
Anastasia said he became interested in organized crime having been born in South Philly and the fact that his grandfather came from Sicily. “I was fascinated because it’s the dark side of the Italian-American experience,” Anastasia said.
He began covering crime when he was assigned by the
Philadelphia Inquirer to cover Atlantic City at the time of the gambling referendum in 1976. There was much talk about keeping the mob out, but as Anastasia noted, they were already there. He later covered more and more mob-related stories.
As I’m half-Italian and grew up and still live in South Philly’s “Little Italy,” I asked him how he responded to criticism from Italians that his extensive coverage of the “dark side” as he put it, offered a negative image of Italians, the vast majority of whom were not criminals.
“These guys are taking the positive values of the Italian American experience; honor, family and loyalty and bastardizing them for their own end. I think you should shine a light on that,” he said.
On the other hand, Anastasia said he took great pride in the positive contributions that Italians have made to America and to the world.
The docuseries is still streaming on Netflix, and I recommend that anyone interested in
Cosa Nostra organized crime history watch it.
