Nicodemo Scarfo

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Nicodemo Scarfo
Nicky Scarfo
Born	March 8, 1929 New York, USA

Nicodemo Domenico Scarfo (born March 8, 1929) was an American mafioso, member of the U.S. Cosa Nostra, and head of the Scarfo Crime Family which controlled organized crime as far as southern New Jersey.

Nicknamed "Little Nicky" due to his small stature (five feet six), he got his start as a valet, parking cars for a living. Little Nicky was brought into the family by his uncle, Nicholas "Nicky Buck" Piccolo. When he joined the mafia, Scarfo was regarded as a volatile and violent boss. Numerous informants claimed he was quite narcissistic, and would often scan the newspapers in the hope of seeing that he had been mentioned in any crime reports. This ran against the tradition of Mob Bosses as being shy of media attention, such as his predecessor, Angelo Bruno.

Scarfo established himself in Atlantic City in the 1970s and then became boss of the Philadelphia Family after bosses Angelo Bruno and Philip Testa were murdered in 1980 and 1981. Scarfo orchestrated a particularly ruthless regime. He had at least 30 members of his own crew murdered because they either refused to obey orders or were merely suspected of not being loyal enough. After Nicky Scarfo took over, he promoted his cousin Anthony Piccolo as Consigliere and his nephew Phil Leonetti as Underboss.

Scarfo was often thought of as a cold-hearted killer that liked to go out with his soldiers and kill people even when his status as Boss did not require him to, however, many of these claims were exagerations, and their is no formal evidence, suggesting that anything like this had taken place. Joseph Salerno, who testified against Scarfo, Leonetti, and Lawrence Merlino in the murder of Vincent Falcone, claimed that Scarfo stated "I love this!", And mocked the dead body calling him a no good motherfucker while they were trussing it up for removal from the apartment where the murder took place.

During the late 1980s, Scarfo was faced with a federal investigation as he would be charged, but later acquitted of federal drug conspiracy charges on December 12, 1987.

Already serving 14 years imprisonment for extortion, Scarfo was eventually convicted on April 5, 1989, in Common Pleas Court of first degree murder of the 1985 death of rival mobster Frank D'Alfonso, with six of his lieutenants, and sentenced to life imprisonment the following day by Judge Eugene Clark.

His son, Nicky, Jr., was almost murdered on Halloween 1989 in a South Philadelphia Italian restaurant, Dante and Luigi's, by Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino. He was wounded several times in the chest, neck, and arm. Although police never charged anyone with the attempted murder, police and FBI believe Merlino was behind the shooting to avenge an earlier plot by Scarfo Sr. on Merlino's father. Another motive for the attempted hit was to send a clear message that neither Scarfo nor his son were in charge of South Philadelphia any longer. Fearing another Mafia war, Scarfo Sr. got Nicky, Jr. out of town and inducted him into the Lucchese crime family of New York for protection. That same year, he was imprisoned for six months for parole violation for having a gun. While in prison, he was indicted for RICO and the murder of a suspected informant.

Scarfo was sentenced to life imprisonment at Supermax, primarily on the testimony of a number of informants, including his nephew. He managed to overturn his life sentence and get transferred to a FCI in Atlanta, Georgia, where he resides with famous prisoners such as Mutulu Shakur.

Scarfo is scheduled for release in 2033 when, assuming he lives that long, he will be 104.