Nicky Scarfo

Nicky Scarfo
Federal Bureau of Investigation · Public domain · source
Name	Nicodemo "Nicky" Scarfo
Birth date	March 8, 1929
Birth place	Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Death date	January 13, 2017
Death place	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Nationality	American
Other names	Nicky Scarfo
Occupation	Mobster, Crime boss

Nicky Scarfo

Nicodemo "Nicky" Scarfo was an American organized crime figure who rose to prominence as boss of the Philadelphia crime family during the late 20th century. A central figure in the history of Italian-American organized crime, Scarfo's tenure intersected with major personalities and institutions across New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and federal law enforcement agencies. His rule generated extensive legal prosecutions, internecine violence, and lasting influence on criminal networks and prosecutorial strategies.

Early life and background

Born in Brooklyn, Scarfo grew up amid Italian-American neighborhoods shaped by immigration, labor unions, and ethnic clubs such as the Colombo crime family-linked social circles and local Sicilian communities. He served in the United States Marines and later worked in service industries and small businesses in South Philadelphia where he forged ties with established figures in the Philadelphia crime family and affiliates of the Lucchese crime family, Gambino crime family, and Genovese crime family. Early associations included contacts with veterans of Prohibition-era networks and mid-century racketeering operations, and he developed relationships with union leaders in sectors tied to the International Longshoremen's Association and construction unions in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Rise in organized crime

Scarfo's ascent reflected the shifting alliances among East Coast families after the deaths and imprisonments of prominent bosses like Angelo Bruno and Carlo Gambino. He consolidated power through alliances and violent confrontations with rivals and independent crews operating in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, leveraging contacts with figures from New York City organized crime to expand loansharking, illegal gambling, extortion, and labor racketeering. During this period he interacted with notorious operators from the Franklin Avenue Crew, and his network overlapped with operators linked to the Philadelphia waterfront and interstate narcotics trafficking routes that also involved contacts in Atlantic City and Camden, New Jersey.

Leadership of the Philadelphia crime family

As boss, Scarfo oversaw a period marked by aggressive enforcement and territorial consolidation against competitors and perceived informants, including conflicts with crews tied to South Jersey rackets and factions formerly loyal to Bruno-era leadership. His administration used violence against rivals, enforcers drawn from local Italian-American neighborhoods, and strategic relationships with New York Commission-aligned families such as the Bonanno crime family and DeCavalcante crime family. Scarfo directed operations in extortion of businesses in Center City, Philadelphia, control of contracts in construction trades, and influence over illegal gaming in casinos in Atlantic City following legalization trends and the rise of organized gambling enterprises. During Scarfo's rule, law enforcement attention intensified from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, and local prosecutor offices.

Legal troubles and convictions

Extensive investigations culminated in indictments that invoked federal statutes used against organized crime, including RICO-style prosecutions spearheaded by prosecutors who had previously targeted figures such as Al Capone and later high-profile defendants like members of the Gotti organization. Trials featured testimony from former associates and turncoats who cooperated with the Department of Justice and FBI operations employing wiretaps and surveillance techniques developed after notable cases against mobs in New York City and Chicago. Convictions against Scarfo and his lieutenants paralleled prosecutions of other bosses such as John Gotti and led to prison sentences based on murder, conspiracy, extortion, and racketeering charges. The cases contributed to legal precedents used by prosecutors in subsequent actions against the Patriarca crime family and other Mid-Atlantic organized crime groups.

Imprisonment and later life

Following convictions, Scarfo served lengthy sentences in federal and state correctional institutions often housing notorious inmates convicted in cases linked to figures like Vito Genovese and defendants from the Apalachin era prosecutions. While incarcerated he continued to attract attention from journalists and law enforcement agencies tracking shifting power dynamics among families including the Philadelphia crime family successors and New Jersey factions. After release or periods of medical furlough, Scarfo's later years involved legal battles, civil suits, and limited public engagements in Pennsylvania medical facilities and correctional supervision programs. His death in 2017 drew responses from former prosecutors and chroniclers of American organized crime, echoing public discourse shaped by books and documentaries about figures such as Meyer Lansky and Lucky Luciano.

Criminal impact and legacy

Scarfo's tenure reshaped violent norms and enforcement responses within the Philadelphia underworld and influenced prosecutorial strategies that later targeted organized crime in the Northeast, including innovative uses of witness protection modeled after programs that aided prosecutions of high-profile bosses. His era saw the entrenchment of federal multi-district investigations linking local rackets to interstate enterprises, affecting subsequent law enforcement approaches to the DeCavalcante crime family and other regional groups. Historians and criminologists compare Scarfo's methods and the resulting crackdowns to transformations in organized crime following infamous incidents such as the Apalachin meeting and the mid-20th-century decline of traditional syndicates. His legacy informs scholarship on violent criminal governance, the evolution of Mafia families in the post-Bruno period, and continuing studies of organized crime in Philadelphia, New Jersey, and New York City.

Category:American mobsters Category:People from Brooklyn Category:1929 births Category:2017 deaths