Giovanni "John" Stanfa (; born December 7, 1940) is an Italian-born American former boss of the

Philadelphia crime family The Philadelphia crime family, also known as the Philadelphia Mafia, the Philly Mob or Philly Mafia, the Philadelphia-South Jersey Mafia, or Bruno-Scarfo family is an Italian-American Mafia family based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formed and ...

from 1991 to 1995. Convicted of multiple charges in 1995, Stanfa was sentenced to

life in prison Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

Early life

Stanfa was born in 1940 in

Caccamo Caccamo (Sicilian language, Sicilian: ''Càccamu'') is a town and ''comune'' located on the Tyrrhenian Sea, Tyrrhenian coast of Sicily in the Metropolitan City of Palermo. History The official founding of Caccamo was not until 1093, when the No ...

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. In 1964, at the age of 23, Stanfa immigrated to the United States, and listed his occupation as a bricklayer. That same year, he was married to Lena, and settled in New York City, and by the late 1960s, moved to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Mafia career

According to law enforcement, when Stanfa arrived in New York City, his brothers and brother-in-law, who were

made men In the American and Sicilian Mafia, a made man is a fully initiated member of the Mafia. To become "made", an associate first must be Italian or of Italian descent and sponsored by another made man. An inductee will be required to take the oa ...

in the Gambino crime family, introduced him to the family. The Gambino family leaders arranged for Stanfa to work for

Angelo Bruno Angelo Bruno (born Angelo Annaloro; ; (May 21, 1910 – March 21, 1980) was a Sicilian-American mobster, notable for being boss of the Philadelphia crime family for two decades until his assassination. Bruno was known as "the Gentle Don" due to ...

, the boss of the

. On March 21, 1980, Bruno was killed by a shotgun blast in the back of the head as he sat in his car in front of his home at the intersection of 10th Street and Snyder Avenue in South Philadelphia, while Stanfa, his driver, was wounded. It is believed that the killing was ordered by

Antonio Caponigro Antonio Rocco Caponigro (January 22, 1912 – April 18, 1980), also known as Tony Bananas, was the consigliere of Angelo Bruno in the Philadelphia crime family. He is known for ending the peaceful Bruno regime by ordering his murder over a d ...

, Bruno's

consigliere Consigliere ( , ; plural ) is a position within the leadership structure of the Sicilian, Calabrian, and Italian-American Mafia. The word was popularized in English by the novel '' The Godfather'' (1969) and its film adaptation. In the novel, a ...

. A few weeks later, Caponigro's lifeless body was found, battered and nude, in the trunk of a car in

The Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

. The Commission had reportedly ordered Caponigro's murder because he assassinated Bruno without their sanction. Other Philadelphia family members involved in Bruno's murder were tortured and killed. Stanfa testified before a grand jury about the killing, and disappeared shortly after. In December 1980, Stanfa was arrested in Baltimore, where he was working as a baker in a pizza shop, and taken back to Philadelphia on charges that he had lied to the grand jury about meetings with mobsters after Bruno's death. In 1981, he was convicted of

perjury Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...

and sentenced to eight years in prison.

Boss and war

In 1991, Stanfa emerged as the new leader of the Philadelphia family, and the young group of mobsters led by

Joey Merlino Joseph Salvatore "Skinny Joey" Merlino (born March 13, 1962) is an Italian-American mobster and reputed boss of the Philadelphia crime family. He rose to power in the mid-nineties after he allegedly fought a war for control of the criminal organ ...

openly rebelled against him. The "Young Turks" as the press would eventually dub Merlino's tight-knit crew, struck first with the killing of Felix Bocchino on January 29, 1992. While

was in prison in 1990, he met

Ralph Natale Ralph Samuel Natale (March 6, 1935 – January 22, 2022) was an American mobster. He was the boss of the Philadelphia crime family from 1995 until 1999, when he became the first American Mafia boss to turn state's evidence. Natale helped sentenc ...

, and the two allegedly conspired to take over the Philadelphia crime family from Stanfa.Caparella, Kitty. "Recalling A Bloody Hit." ''Philadelphia Daily News.'' April 24, 2001.Anastasia, George. "Mob Boss Natale Tells of 'Descent Into Hell'." ''Philadelphia Inquirer.'' March 31, 2001. Merlino was released from prison in April 1992, after he was convicted in January 1990 of planning the heist and sentenced to three years in prison. In an attempt to quell further violence, Stanfa officially inducted Merlino and his best friend Michael Ciancaglini into the crime family. Stanfa hoped he would be able to keep tabs on the Merlino crew and make it easier to kill them if necessary. While this act of diplomacy temporarily ended the violence, by 1993 an all-out war broke out between Stanfa and Merlino. On August 5, 1993, Merlino survived a

drive-by shooting A drive-by shooting is a type of assault that usually involves the perpetrator(s) firing a weapon from within a motor vehicle and then fleeing. Drive-by shootings allow the perpetrator(s) to quickly strike their target and flee the scene before ...

assassination attempt by two Stanfa gunmen, taking four bullets in the leg and buttocks, while Ciancaglini was shot in the chest and died. On August 31, 1993, Stanfa and his son were recipients of a drive-by shooting while they were driving on the

Schuylkill Expressway The Schuylkill Expressway , locally known as "the Schuylkill", is a freeway through southern Montgomery County and the city of Philadelphia in Philadelphia County, and the easternmost segment of Interstate 76 (I-76) in the U.S. state of Pennsyl ...

. Stanfa escaped uninjured and his son survived being shot in the jaw. On September 17, 1993, a friend of Merlino's was shot and killed by Stanfa gunmen. Stanfa gunman Philip Colletti testified in court that he planted a remote control bomb under Merlino's car several times, but that it failed to go off every time. In November 1993, Merlino was arrested by the FBI, charged with violation of his supervised release, and sent back to prison. Merlino was mainly supported by a group of young mobsters he knew since childhood while Stanfa, in an unusual tactic recruited for his side several men who were not of Italian heritage, including the Veasey brothers. According to the former executive director of the Pennsylvania Crime Commission, Frederick T. Martens, "Stanfa brought in people, like the Veasey brothers, who had no background in the mob but who were willing to break legs and pull a trigger".

Trial and life sentence

Stanfa was indicted on labor racketeering,

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

loansharking A loan shark is a person who offers loans at extremely high interest rates, has strict terms of collection upon failure, and generally operates outside the law. Description Because loan sharks operate mostly illegally, they cannot reasonably ...

, murder and

conspiracy to commit murder Conspiracy to murder is a statutory offence defined by the intent to commit murder. England and Wales The offence of conspiracy to murder was created in statutory law by section 4 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 and retained as ...

on March 17, 1994. On the day of Stanfa's trial on October 5, 1995, William Veasey, John Veasey's brother who was scheduled to testify against Stanfa, was murdered. On November 21, 1995, Stanfa was convicted of 33 of the 35 charges. On July 9, 1996, Stanfa was sentenced to

took over as boss, but Merlino was the real power in the family, allowing Natale to become boss to direct law enforcement attention away from himself. Stanfa is serving his life sentence at the Federal Medical Center in Ayer, MA.

References

*Anastasia, George. ''Blood and Honor: Inside the Scarfo Mob, the Mafia's Most Violent Family''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Stanfa, John 1940 births Living people People from Caccamo American gangsters of Sicilian descent Philadelphia crime family Gangsters from the Province of Palermo American people convicted of murder Gangsters sentenced to life imprisonment American crime bosses American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by the United States federal government People convicted of murder by the United States federal government Italian emigrants to the United States