Since his release from federal prison a few years ago, Philadelphia mob captain George (Georgie Boy) Borgesi has revived the Bruno-Scarfo crime family’s pipeline to New England, according to sources on both sides of the law. The 54-year old always-on-the-move Borgesi has intermediaries traveling to Rhode Island to meet people connected to Patriarca crime family underboss Matthew (Good Looking Matty) Guglielmetti on a regular basis regarding business venture both legal and illegal, per these sources. No longer on any form of parole restriction, Borgesi sometimes even makes the trip himself.
Guglielmetti and Borgesi became close behind bars in the 2000s, while Good Looking Matty was serving a prison sentence for protecting drug shipments being brought through his home base of Rhode Island and Georgie Boy was locked up for a variety of racketeering offenses. Before he went away in 2000, Borgesi was the Philly’s mafia’s consigliere and responsible for a crew operating in Boston. Sources says Borgesi’s current point man with the Patriarca family is Shawn Vetere, a member of Borgesi’s Boston crew in the late 1990s.
Vetere, 50, went down with Borgesi and the entire upper management of the Bruno-Scarfo family in the 2000 bust. A notorious lothario, Vetere allegedly romanced Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron on the 1998 set of the movie The Cider House Rules, where Vetere was working as her bodyguard. He did six years on his case and got out of prison in 2006. Theron, 42, captured an Academy Award for Best Actress for playing serial killer Aileen Wuornos in 2003’s Monster.
Shawn Vetere
Borgesi was in the can for 14 years. He was released in 2014 after beating another federal racketeering case he took while incarcerated. Borgesi often sends his younger brother Anthony and his top henchmen, the Salvo brothers (Dave & Mike), to do his bidding in Rhode Island, according to sources. Many of the meetings with the Patriarcas take place at a bar and restaurant in the city of Westerly owned by a Philly native. Some reports have named the younger Borgesi and the roofer-union tied Salvos as being part of an induction class “made” into the Bruno-Scarfo Borgata in a 2015 ceremony.
*This article’s cover photo is a recent shot of Borgesi (bottom right) with the Salvos and Joseph (Uncle Joe) Ligambi, Borgesi’s mother’s brother and the Philly mob’s consigliere and former acting boss.
The cagey 69-year old Guglielmetti is known in east coast underworld circles as a mob politician of sorts. Over the years he’s developed a well-regarded reputation for building bridges on behalf of Patriarca clan bosses to other crime families and crews in other states outside the traditional Patriarca syndicate turf of Rhode Island and Massachusetts. As an up-and-comer in the mob in the 1970s, Guglielmetti was a favorite of crime family namesake and longtime New England Godfather Raymond Patriarca.
Borgesi is a close advisor to Philly mafia don Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino, a childhood friend of his. Merlino is set to be sentenced to a short prison term this fall for a gambling conviction. Several experts speculate that Borgesi has positioned himself for being the Bruno-Scarfo family’s acting boss when Merlino’s serves out his time. Local mobologists and highly-acclaimed journalists Dave Schratwieser (Fox29 TV) and George Anastasia (Bigtrial.net) recently reported that Borgesi has “stepped back” from underworld affairs.
Last year at Merlino’s trial in New York, Borgesi acted as his driver and sat in on strategy sessions with his attorney. Guglielmetti has kept a low profile in the four years since he walked free from a near-decade prison stint.
“Georgie and Matty are like minded,” one source told Gangster Report. “They’re business-driven, they think outside the box, they both love (mob) history. I think the majority of what they got going together isn’t everyday street shit.”
Matty Guglielmetti (far right) in 1978.
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