He just doesnt know it yet.". Deborah Ann Merlino, 68. This may contain information such as company name, job title, address, and time period of service. Website design, managed and hosted by DEP Design, depdesign.com, a New York interactive agency. Behind in a car were law-enforcement agents who photographed them during the trip. Each faces up to 20 years in prison, according to a media release fromthe U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of New York. Why was the one-legged bodyguard hiding under the bed? A lawyer for. The neighborhoods of South Philly, a stronghold of Italian-American culture for over a century, have always been a place where law enforcement and neighborhood customs have uneasily coexisted. Deborah Merlino is far from the stereotypical mob wife, however. "He liked to go out. Sometimes Deborah goes by various nicknames including Deborah Scafidi, Deborah A Scafioi, Deborah S Merlino, Deborah Scafidi Merlino and Deborah Scafidi-merlino. His father Anthony hosted a meeting at his house during which Anthony, Louis and his gang discussed killing Merlino. Members of the Bath Avenue Crew were as young as 8 years old when they began to align themselves with the biggest, baddest gang in America: Cosa Nostra, specifically the Five Families. This profile was gathered from multiple public and Deborah Merlino, the defendant's wife, is pictured in Palm Beach in August 2016 after his arrest. deborah merlino nationality. Copyright 2023 My City Paper :: New York City News, Food, Sports and Events. Genovese associate Thomas Poli. He ended the relationship with her. Merlino's wife Deborah (seen in August 2016, after his arrest) was reportedly stunned by the claim about her husband's infidelity. 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PHILADELPHIA -- Testifying at his own murder trial, a friend of jailed mob boss Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino said he and Merlino's wife drove to Maryland so that she could get an abortion after an affair he said she had been having with a New York football player. He said, We can only hope that by time Pagan is released we have prepared him for re-entry into society to mitigate the risk of what would happen if Pagan returned to a life of crime. When you register, youll get unlimited access to our website and a free subscription to our email newsletter for daily updates with a smart, Catholic take on faith and culture from. Witnesses said her face froze and she was later seen speaking in . It was his connection. Wondering why we ask for your email, or having trouble registering. Merlino, 52, has been living in south Florida since 2011, when he left prison after more than a decade from a Philadelphia racketeering conviction. At the time, Joeys lawyer dismissed Rinicks claim as made-up retaliation against Deborah for testifying against him. According to Natale, he and Merlino began plotting to take over the Philadelphia crime family during this period. DeSimone disappeared, meaning there's zero evidence as to how he was killed; in fact, it can't be said with absolute certainty that he was killed. The younger Testa was himself later killed in a gangland hit because of fears from Mr. Scarfo that he would take over Philadelphias criminal rackets, a crime for which Mr. Scarfo was convicted as part of a wide-ranging indictment in 1989. Message to Skinny Joey: Next Time You Greet a Juro Did NYPD Know They Nailed a Colombo Wiseguy? The thugs tawdry tale was blasted yesterday in closing arguments by prosecutor Ed Cameron, who told jurors that Rinnick would say anything to avoid a death sentence. Mr. Merlinos trial followed his arrest along with 45 other alleged members of an East Coast La Cosa Nostra Enterprise, on various criminal charges in August 2016. Browse Locations. Not according to friends and relatives in South Philadelphia, who see him and his associates as something else: the adult versions of the corner boys who grew up with them in the tight-knit Italian-American Catholic neighborhoods of South Philly, locals who made their first holy Communion at St. Pauls or St. Monicas or Epiphany of Our Lord, where the boys went to St. John Neumann and the girls to St. Maria Goretti, two Catholic high schools that combined into a single school in 2004. [32] Three years later, Merlino was put on trial for helping orchestrate the murder, but was acquitted. While this act of diplomacy temporarily ended the violence, by 1993 an all-out war broke out between Stanfa and Merlino. (He also allegedly sold a run-down bar in Atlantic City to Donald J. Trump so that a casino could be built on the property.) [59] Instead, Merlino officially worked there as a matre d' until the restaurant closed in 2016. His name is William "Billy" Rinick, a wealthy South Philadelphia resident involved in real estate and, according to police sources, the boss of a large drug-trafficking organization. Thanks for contacting us. Natale was a longtime mobster who was serving a 15-year prison sentence for arson and drug trafficking. Merlinos friends are united in their support of Joey Merlino, but divided in what they believe about Deborahs situation. The Mario Lanza Museum was nearby. Join Facebook to connect with Deborah Merlino and others you may know. Deborah's ethnicity is Caucasian, whose political affiliation is currently a registered Republican; and religious views are listed as Christian. In January 1998, Louis Turra apparently hanged himself in a New York City jail while awaiting trial. Dom Cicale at St. Joseph School for Girls. The nicknames of Mr. Merlinos alleged associates, mentioned over the years in government documents, are straight out of central casting: Beeps, Horsehead, Snitch, Scoops, Chickie, Mousie, Penknife, Windows, Handsome Stevie,Baby Dom, Uncle Joe and many more. [41] On December 3, 2001, Judge Herbert J. Hutton gave Merlino a 14-year prison sentence. The local numbers rackets compete with the state lottery, which offers a daily payout little different from that of neighborhood enterprises; sports bettors can legally place wagers in Atlantic City or Las Vegas; fans of games of chance can legally gamble at the Sugarhouse Casino in Philadelphia or at various other locales; even loan-sharking, with its notoriously high interest payments, has its legal counterpart in the payday loan operations found everywhere in South Philly, all charging extortionate interest. Deborah Merlino got one. Merlino was arrested at his home in Florida and put on trial in New York City. When John Stanfa emerged as the new leader of the Philadelphia family in 1991, the young group of mobsters openly rebelled against him. Eventually, she got pregnant and she didnt want South Philadelphia to know, Rinnick said. In addition to the podcast, Dom has something else potentially in the works with another podcaster, category killer (, This story from 2014 is one of the most popular on this siteand we didn't even know it until very recently (for reasons stemming from the fallibility of generalized analytics data.) to see possible education history including where and when they attending high school and college, and a complete list of his high school class list. As the Merlino trial and sentencing dragged on from March until December 2001, Rita's relationship with her daughter-in-law, Deborah Wells Merlino, became strained. [34] Merlino sometimes used the Pagans to help settle underworld disputes. So has the rest of New York's Cosa Nostra, according to FBI documents and Peter Pasta himself. Currently, Joseph is single. Facebook gives people the power to. In August 1982 at age 20, Merlino and Salvatore Scafidi, son of bookmaker Gaetano Scafidi Sr., beat and stabbed two male patrons at the Lido Restaurant in Atlantic City. [10] He is also the nephew of deceased Philadelphia crime family mobster-turned government witness Lawrence "Yogi" Merlino. [69] In October 2019, Merlino was granted an early release and moved to a halfway house to finish the rest of his sentence, later given supervised release in South Florida. Merlino was accused of entering into illegal business arrangements with New York criminals in the Genovese crime family. Yes, thats what he told me, the former Genovese crime-family associate said. 1. Lorem Ipsn gravida nibh vel velit auctor aliquet.Aenean sollicitudin, lorem quis bibendum auci elit consequat ipsutis sem nibh id elit lorem quis bibendum elit. 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