Philadelphia mob boss Joseph (Skinny Joey) Merlino foreshadowed his brash and rules-flouting reign at the helm of the Bruno-Scarfo crime family with his bold antics in the years before he fought and won a shooting war for power in the organization. A batch of newly-acquired FBI documents, including a series of informant “302” reports shows Merlino tried taking over the mob in Philly as far back as the late spring of 1987, directly on the heels of the arrest and imprisonment of bloodthirsty mafia don Nicodemo (Little Nicky) Scarfo in March of that year. His own jailing for a armored car heist in early 1990 put his plans for assuming the throne on hold.
The 57-year old Merlino is finishing up a brief federal prison term for a gambling offense. He’ll be in a halfway house this fall. Salvatore (Chuckie) Merlino, Skinny Joey’s dad, was Little Nicky Scarfo’s underboss until his demotion in 1986 for excessive drinking. The Merlinos, father and son, were banished from the Philly mob, ordered by Scarfo to be placed on the pay-no-mind list.
With Scarfo and virtually his entire command structure, including Chuckie Merlino, behind bars facing federal racketeering and murder charges in the spring of 1987, the younger Merlino didn’t stay on the sidelines for much longer. One 302 report describes how in late April or May of 1987, Skinny Joey, then just 25 years old, and the Ciancaglini brothers, sons of jailed Scarfo capo Joseph (Chickie) Ciancaglini, started approaching bookmakers, bar owners, loan sharks and drug dealers who had previously been paying tribute to Scarfo and demanded that they start paying them instead. Scarfo’s son Nicky Jr. and his uncle Anthony (Tony Buck) Piccolo, who he appointed acting boss in his stead, were trying to keep what was left of the Scarfo mob regime afloat and still expected envelopes every week for Little Nicky.
It was a confusing time.
“Nobody knew who to pay, so some stopped paying all together,” said one source making a living on the street in that era. “Joey and Mikey Chang were coming on heavy right off the bat. Everybody assumed they had the backing of their dads. They were grabbing with both hands pretty much the second Nick got locked up.”
Merlino’s best friend was Michael (Mikey Chang) Ciancaglini, the most ambitious and fearless of the three “Chang brothers,” and equally eager to snatch power away from the Scarfo camp. Mikey Chang was bigger and broader than Skinny Joey and known for his quick temper and even quicker trigger finger.
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