Mafia Prince: Inside America's Most Violent Crime Family

INSIDE AMERICA’S MOST VIOLENT CRIME FAMILY

AND THE BLOODY FALL OF
LA COSA NOSTRA

BY PHILIP LEONETTI

with
Scott Burnstein
and
Christopher Graziano

© 2012 by Philip Leonetti, Scott Burnstein and Christopher Graziano

Published by Running Press,

A Member of the Perseus Books Group

All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions

This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher.

Books published by Running Press are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail
[email protected]
.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012938752

E-book ISBN 978-0-7624-4687-2

9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1

Digit on the right indicates the number of this printing

All photos courtesy of Philip Leonetti

Cover design by Whitney Cook

Edited by Greg Jones

Typography: Garage Gothic, Sentinel, and Forza

Running Press Book Publishers

2300 Chestnut Street

Philadelphia, PA 19103-4371

Visit us on the web!

www.runningpress.com

THEY WOULD MEET IN THE EDEN ROC HOTEL IN MIAMI, IN THE RESTAURANT THAT LOOKED OUT ON THE SWIMMING POOL.

Meyer Lansky, the aging underworld genius, would be sitting at a table in the corner. And here would come Nicky Scarfo, the Atlantic City gangster who was soon to be the most violent Mafia boss in America, and Philip Leonetti, Scarfo’s young nephew and future crime family underboss.

Three generations of American mobsters sitting around talking. Lansky, white-haired and thin, in his 70s at the time and fighting heart and stomach problems, would dominate the conversation with stories about the old days. Scarfo, in his late 40s, his brown hair combed straight back, his eyes darting around the room, would nod and occasionally offer an opinion. And Leonetti, trim and movie-star handsome, in his early 20s, would sit quietly.

Listening.

Learning.

Now one of the most important Mafia informants in history, Leonetti never said much during those meetings down in Miami. He was just happy to be there. He looked at Lansky the way others would look at DiMaggio, Caruso, or Hemingway. One of a kind. A man who defined the world in which he operated.

Lansky was there at the beginning, when it all started, when
Cosa Nostra
was formed. Leonetti, who rode to power with his uncle and who for a time controlled the mob’s rackets in Philadelphia and Atlantic City, is a man who helped bring it all to an end.

“This was back in the 1970s,” Leonetti said several years ago as he recounted those trips to Florida. “Any time we went, my uncle would call and we’d go over and see Meyer. He’d be sitting there in the restaurant. Him, Nig Rosen. Mickey Weissberg. They used to get together there every day. It was, like, Meyer’s hangout. They’d go there and play cards. Meyer liked us. He liked my uncle. So we’d sit around and he’d tell stories about the old days, about Benny and Charlie and how it used to be.”

Benny was Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel. Charlie was Charles “Lucky” Luciano. Siegel, of course, brought the mob to Las Vegas. He built the
Flamingo Hotel Casino in 1947 and that turned the desert into a money machine for the mob. Then he forgot who his partners were. And so he was killed.

Years later, Lansky still talked about it.

“Meyer told us about how upset he was when Benny got killed,” Leonetti said. “He really loved Benny. But he said Benny was robbing them guys and he wouldn’t lilsten. He said Benny never liked to listen to the Italians. And that he thought the casino was his, which it wasn’t. It was theirs. Benny would only listen to Meyer and Meyer said he kept him under control the best he could, but when they decided to whack him, there was nothing he could do. It broke his heart when they killed him, but he couldn’t stop it. It was business.

“Then he looked at my uncle and he said, ‘Benny was a stone killer, Nick. But you know, there’s a lot of killers [in the Mafia].’ My uncle just nodded.”

Leonetti would eventually become one himself. That’s part of his story. How he became a hitman for his uncle, how he turned on the man who raised him, and how he eventually ended up on the witness stand are all part of what this book is about.

There has never been a Mafia witness like Leonetti. Not Joe Valachi. Not Vinnie Teresa. Not Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano.

Leonetti is the essence of what the America Mafia was in the 1980s and what it has become in the years since. His life was shaped, twisted, and nearly destroyed by it. His decision to cooperate has turned it upside down.

Call it a story of family values gone awry.

A bloody story of murder that ends with personal redemption.

Murder, extortion, loan sharking, and gambling, Leonetti did it all. Then, faced with the prospect of spending the rest of his life in prison and looking at the possibility that his own teenaged son might be heading down the same road, he broke with his uncle, with the mob, and with the life.

From the witness stand he helped bring down high-ranking mob figures in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Boston, Pittsburgh, Hartford, and Philadelphia. Leaders of the Genovese, Gambino, Colombo, Patriarca, and Lucchese crime families are behind bars as a result.