John Stanfa

Giovanni "John" Stanfa (; born December 7, 1940) is a Sicilian-American former mobster who served as boss of the Philadelphia crime family from 1991 to 1995. Stanfa succeeded imprisoned Nicodemo Scarfo as boss. Stanfa's time as boss ended when he too was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Early life Stanfa was born in 1940 in Caccamo, Sicily. In 1964, at the age of 23, Stanfa immigrated to the United States, and listed his occupation as a bricklayer. That same year, he married Nicolena Congialdi, and settled in New York City. By the late 1960s, the couple moved to Philadelphia. It is believed that the killing was ordered by Antonio Caponigro, Bruno's consigliere. A few weeks later, Caponigro's lifeless body was found, battered and nude, in the trunk of a car in The Bronx. 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. 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 Joey Merlino was in prison in 1990, he met Ralph Natale, and the two allegedly conspired to take over the Philadelphia crime family from Stanfa. Merlino was released from prison in April 1992, after he was convicted in January 1990 of planning a 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 assassination attempt by two Stanfa gunmen, taking two bullets in the buttocks, while Ciancaglini was shot in the chest and died. On August 31, 1993, Stanfa and his son were victims of a drive-by shooting while they were driving on the Schuylkill Expressway. 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.

Trial and life sentence Stanfa was indicted on labor racketeering, extortion, loansharking, murder and conspiracy to commit murder 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 July 9, 1996, Stanfa was sentenced to life in prison. Ralph Natale 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 Correctional Institution, Danbury in Connecticut.