| abstract
| - The Philadelphia Crime Family, also known as the Bruno Crime Family, Scarfo Crime Family, Philadelphia Mob, Philadelphia Mafia, or Philly Mob, is a powerful, ruthless and extremely violent Italian-American criminal organization based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is one of the most active American Mafia families outside of the Five Families of New York. The Philadelphia crime family has been known to hold territory or influence in other nearby areas outside Philadelphia, including Atlantic City, South Jersey, Trenton, Camden, Chester, Delaware, Baltimore, and Newark. The Philadelphia family is notorious for brutality, ruthlessness, extreme violence, murder, and igniting external and internal wars, and for being a particularly dysfunctional family, mostly due to having a succession of extremely violent bosses. The Philadelphia crime family is one of the most violent, ruthless, deadliest and warring crime family's in America. The Philadelphia crime family is also one of the most vicious, ruthless, and deadliest criminal organization's in America. The Philadelphia family enjoyed it's most peaceful and prosperous time under the extremely powerful, long time mafia don Angelo Bruno. He was murdered in 1980, and his underboss, Philip Testa, took over until his own murder almost one year to the day later in 1981. Following the unsanctioned hits of both Bruno and Testa, the New York bosses installed Nicodemo Scarfo, Testa's consigliere, as the new boss. He involved the family in narcotics, which Bruno had refused to do. The 1980s through the 1990s was a bloody and brutal reign and nonstop internal and external warfare took place. Scarfo's tenure saw the murder of over 30 of his own men and around 1,200 other people. during Scarfo's regime he was considered by the FBI to be one of the most ruthless, dangerous, and feared crime bosses in America, but for a decade Scarfo was the most violent crime boss in America. described by his associates as extremely cold, ruthless, brutal, sadistic, heartless, ferocious, psychopathic, crazy, warring, fearless, relentless, vengeful, paranoid, narcissistic, bloodthirsty, and power-hungry. In 1985, Scarfo had a net worth of nearly $200 Million (which is equivalent of $750 Million as of 2017), and the Philadelphia Crime Family is a $500 Million a year vast criminal enterprise, The Commission allowed Scarfo to control Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia crime family with an iron fist. In 1982, around 6 months after Scarfo became boss, he ruled Philadelphia through murder, extreme violence, brutality, fear, and intimidation, Scarfo often ordered bombings, and many murder's in public to instill a constant atmosphere of fear throughout Philadelphia. Scarfo wanted everyone in Philadelphia to fear him, which is another reason why he ordered his men to kill people in public. Nicodemo Scarfo also demanded every pimp, prostitute, drug dealer, criminal, biker gang and street gang in Philadelphia to pay "street tax" to him and the Philadelphia crime family, Scarfo demanded anywhere from 25% to 75% every month from anyone who operated illegally in Philadelphia, including a vicious and notorious biker gang known as the Pagans Motorcycle Club or the Pagans MC, which is known as the most violent biker gang in America, However, the Pagans Motorcycle Club was no match for one of the most powerful, dangerous, and feared crime bosses in America, Nicodemo Scarfo, or the powerful and lethal Philadelphia crime family. According to Scarfo's nephew, and former Underboss Phil Leonetti "My uncle Nicky Scarfo demanded an outrageous amount of "street tax" from pimps, prostitutes, drug dealers, drug lords, bookmakers, criminals, biker gangs, and street gangs, he normally demanded 25% to 40%, but he sometimes demanded as high as 50% and on some cases he even went as high as 75%, my uncle Nicky Scarfo was that powerful and dangerous, where if they didn't pay "street tax" to us, then my uncle Nicky Scarfo would send out a large heavily armed hit team to kill them all, but they all normally paid. My uncle Nicky Scarfo ran everything in Philadelphia, he controlled Philadelphia with an iron fist, for years he controlled everything, he had Cops, Judges, District Attorneys, U.S. Attorneys, DEA Agents, FBI Agents, ATF Agents, and even Senators, councilman, Congressman, and dozens of other Politicians in his pocket and on his payroll. But we had a real problem with these bikers known as the Pagans Motorcycle Club, the president of the pagans MC did not want to pay that much street tax to us or my uncle Nicky Scarfo, which enraged my uncle, he stated in front of me "were gonna kill all of these fucking bums, because we run Philadelphia, this is my fucking City!, they can't say no to me, they made a big fucking mistake, there a bunch of nobodies, we are a part of La Cosa Nostra. These pussies need to understand that if you fuck with us, its a death sentence." so my uncle was determined to take as many as them out as possible. therefore it started a bloody war between us and them, and it lasted 2 years, and we killed around 60 or 70 of their guys, and they took out only about 2 or 3 of our guys, and then the Pagans MC finally realized that we won, and they decided that they want a truce, and we made an arranged a sit-down with them, we came to a reasonable understanding, and we handled business amicably, we came to the agreement, for them to pay us 20% of street tax, of whatever they make from their businesses, and they immediately accepted, and we went on with business as usual, and became allies with them, and we used the Pagans MC to do our dirty work, for a couple years they were our enforcement arm or our hit-squad." During Scarfo's regime, The Scarfo crime family was making an annual income of $500 Million thru Drug Trafficking, gun running, Extortion, Loan Sharking, Illegal Gambling, Construction, building trade, Garbage Hauling, Pornography, Prostitution, Stock Fraud, Market Manipulation, Stock Schemes, Burglary, Armed Robbery, Bank Robbery, Protection Rackets, Cigarette Smuggling, Labor Unions, Labor Racketeering, Waste Management, skimming, numbers racket, bookmaking, and Truck Hijacking, Scarfo had Cops, Judges, Jurors, Lawyers, District Attorneys, U.S Attorneys, Federal Agents, and Politicians on his payroll. Eventually, he and his supporters were put in prison and John Stanfa took over. After a three year reign plagued by an all out street war with a younger faction led by Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino, dubbed the 'Young Turks', Stanfa was given five life sentences and was ultimately replaced by Merlino. A young and flashy gangster, Merlino shared the personality type of John Gotti. Like Gotti, he attracted too much attention from the media and law enforcement. He was also put in prison in 2001 on a racketeering conviction, and close Merlino ally Joseph Ligambi was tasked with trying to stabilize the weakened family as acting boss ever since. Other powerful members have included mobsters such as Philip Testa, Salvatore Merlino, Joseph "Chickie" Ciancaglini, Nicholas Caramandi, Salvatore Testa, Antonio Caponigro, Phil Leonetti, and Harry Riccobene.
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