Joey Merlino Facts: Bio, Age, Height, Weight, Family, Wife, Daughters, Podcast, Crime and Net Worth

Joey Merlino Biography

Joey Merlino is an Italian-American mobster believed to be the leader of the Philadelphia crime family. He rose to control in the mid-nineties after he purportedly battled a war for control of the criminal association. He drove the crime family in betting, advance sharking, and extortion. In September 2023, Merlino started the sports betting podcast “The Skinny with Joey Merlino”. He gives out football picks weekly.

In contrast with other conventional crowd leaders who disregarded the spotlight, Merlino communicated normally with the media and the public. He is the child of perished Philadelphia crime family underboss Chuckie Merlino. With the assistance of witness Ralph Natale, Merlino was indicted for a few RICO charges including racketeering, unlawful betting, and coercion, in 2001, and condemned to 14 years in prison.

Since Joey Merlino’s release from jail in 2011, the FBI and composed crime columnists believe he keeps on running the Philadelphia-South Jersey Mafia. Merlino debates this, guaranteeing he resigned from the existence of wrongdoing. Starting in 2015, Merlino separates his time between South Florida and Philadelphia.

10 Quick Facts About Joey Merlino

Here is a list of 10 facts about Merlino

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• Name: Joseph Salvatore Merlino
• Age: 62 Years Old.
• Birthday: March 13
• Zodiac Sign: Pisces
• Height: Average
• Nationality: Italian-American
• Occupation: Crime Boss
• Marital Status: Married
• Salary: $40,000 – $110,500
• Net Worth: $1 Million – $5 Million

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Joey Merlino Age

Merlino is 62 years old, he was born on March 13, 1962, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. He always celebrates his birthday on March 13, every year. Moreover, his birth sign is Pisces.

Joey Merlino Height

Joey Merlino stands at an average height. He appears to be quite tall in stature in his photos, relative to his surroundings, which are anything to go by. However, details regarding his actual height and other body measurements are currently not publicly available. We are keeping tabs and will update this information once it is out.

Early Life and Education

Details pertaining to his early childhood as well as his educational background are currently unavailable. This information is nonetheless currently under review and will be updated as soon as it has been made publicly available.

Joey Merlino Family, Parents

Merlino was born to Italian-American guardians Salvatore “Chuckie” Merlino (1939–2012), his father, and Rita (born 1942), his mother. He was brought up in South Philadelphia and Ventnor City, New Jersey. He is likewise the nephew of deceased Philadelphia crime family mobster-turned-government witness Lawrence “Yogi” Merlino. Joey’s sister was quickly connected with Salvatore Testa.

He had been companions with future made man in the Philadelphia crime family Michael “Mikey Chang” Ciancaglini and his sibling Joseph “Joey Chang” Ciancaglini, Jr. since going to St. Thomas Aquinas grade school in Philadelphia’s Point Breeze neighborhood. Merlino’s dad claimed and worked the 9M Bar in Southwark that Nicky Scarfo utilized as his criminal base camp during his endeavor to turn into the new manager of the Philadelphia wrongdoing family.

Joey Merlino Dating, Wife, and Children

Merlino got married to his wife Deborah. He got married to his lovely and adorable wife in 1997. The couple is blessed with two beautiful daughters known as Nicollete Merlino and Sophia Merlino. However, this information is currently under review and will be updated as soon as we get any related information from his family.

Joey Merlino Salary

Details about his salary are not yet disclosed. However, information about how much he makes will be updated as soon as it is available.

Joey Merlino Net Worth

Joey Merlino net worth is estimated at $1 million and $5 million dollars. This includes his assets, money, and income. His primary source of income is his career as a mobster and crime boss. Through his various sources of income, he has been able to accumulate good fortune but prefers to lead a modest lifestyle.

Facts: Everything You Need to Know About Joey Merlino

Here are some interesting facts you should know about Joey

Joey Merlino Bio.

• Full Names: Joseph Salvatore Merlino
• Popular As: Skinny Joey
• Gender: Male
• Occupation / Profession: Crime Boss
• Nationality: American
• Race / Ethnicity: Not Available
• Religion: Not Known
• Sexual Orientation: Straight 

Birthday

• Age: 62 Years Old
• Zodiac Sign: Pisces
• Date of Birth: March 13, 1962
• Place of Birth: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States
• Birthday: March 13,

Body Measurements

• Height / How Tall?: Average
• Weight: Moderate
• Eye Color: Black
• Hair Color: Black

Family and Relationship

• Father (Dad): Salvatore “Chuckie” Merlino (1939–2012)
• Mother: Rita (born 1942)
• Siblings (Brothers and Sisters): Maria Merlino and Natalie Merlino
• Marital Status: Married 
• Wife/Spouse: Married to Deborah Merlino
• Children: Nicollete Merlino and Sophia Merlino

Net Worth and Salary

• Net Worth: $1 Million – $5 Million
• Salary: $40,000 – $110,500
• Source of Income: Crime Boss

Criminal Activity

In August 1982 at age 20, Joey Merlino and Salvatore Scafidi, child of bookmaker Gaetano Scafidi Sr., beat and wounded two male supporters at the Lido Restaurant in Atlantic City. In 1984 Merlino was seen as blameworthy on two tallies of bothered attack and one check of ownership of a weapon for an unlawful purpose.

In August 1984 he was prohibited by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission from New Jersey casinos. His dad Salvatore would likewise be restricted by the very same commission as his child for his crimes on May 23, 1984. Nicky Scarfo downgraded his dad Salvatore from his situation as underboss to the fighter in light of his dad’s liquor abuse. In 1988 Salvatore was condemned to 45 years in government jail for two checks of racketeering and medication dealing.

Joseph Merlino has been depicted as an especially horrendous individual, fixated on his own open picture, and another rendition of New York’s John Gotti. “Joey was a gathering fellow,” said horde partner Ron Previte, a cop turned hoodlum turned government witness. “He jumped at the chance to go out. He got a kick out of the chance to bet. He loved the high life.” He welcomed TV groups to his yearly Christmas celebration for the destitute and was an apparatus at the city’s dance club, eateries, and wearing events.

Along with his long-term amigos and future mobsters, he was known to thrash individuals, burglarize individuals, and start battles in clubs. On October 31, 1989, Nicky, Jr., the child of detained Philadelphia family manager Nicky Scarfo, Sr., was shot in an Italian café in Bella Vista. The more youthful Scarfo was shot multiple times with a MAC-10, yet was not hit in any fundamental organs. He immediately recouped and left the emergency clinic under about fourteen days after the fact.

Nobody was ever accused of the endeavored murder, however, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and neighborhood law requirements trust Merlino did the shooting to dole out retribution between the Scarfos and Merlinos and to show that the senior Scarfo had no more force in Philadelphia. Merlino denied any association and guaranteed he was at home under house capture the evening of the shooting.

A long time later when a TV correspondent drew nearer Merlino and got some information about a supposed $500,000 abundance on his life, Merlino reacted “Give me the half-million dollars and I’ll shoot myself.” In August 1989, Merlino was accused of interstate robbery and connivance charges coming from an occurrence where $352,000 was taken from a Federal Armored Express truck in 1987. In January 1990, Merlino was indicted for arranging the heist and condemned to three years in jail.

Mob Wars

Joey Merlino carried out his punishment at the Federal Correctional Institution, McKean, where he met mobster Ralph Natale in 1990. Natale was a long-lasting mobster who was carrying out a 15-year jail punishment for torching and medication dealing. As per Natale, he and Merlino started plotting to assume control over the Philadelphia wrongdoing family during this period. Natale named Michael Ciancaglini, Steven Mazzone, George Borgesi, Gaetano “Tommy Horsehead” Scafidi, and Martin Angelina as Merlino’s key partners and co-plotters in the plan.

These men were all dear companions of Merlino since secondary school and began moving in on criminal rackets in Philadelphia. At the point when John Stanfa rose as the new pioneer of the Philadelphia family in 1991, the youthful gathering of mobsters straightforwardly defied him. The “Youthful Turks” as the press would in the long run name Merlino’s very close group, hit first with the execution of Felix Bocchino on January 29, 1992. Merlino was discharged from jail in April 1992.

While trying to suppress further savagery, Stanfa authoritatively enlisted Merlino and his closest companion Michael Ciancaglini into the wrongdoing family. Stanfa trusted he would have the option to watch the Merlino group and make it simpler to execute them if fundamental. While this demonstration of strategy incidentally finished the viciousness, by 1993 a full-scale war broke out between Stanfa and Merlino.

On August 5, 1993, Merlino endures a drive-by shooting death endeavor by two Stanfa shooters, taking four projectiles in the leg and backside, while Ciancaglini was shot in the chest and died. On August 31, 1993, a drive-by shooting was performed on Stanfa and his child while they were driving on the Schuylkill Expressway. Stanfa got away unharmed and his child endures being shot in the jaw. On September 17, 1993, a companion of Merlino’s was fired and killed by Stanfa gunmen.

Stanfa shooter Philip Colletti affirmed in court that he planted a remote control bomb under Merlino’s vehicle a few times, yet that it neglected to go off each time. In November 1993, Merlino was captured by the FBI, accused of infringement of his regulated discharge, and sent back to jail.

Mob Leader

Stanfa was arrested for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act infringement in March 1994, was indicted in 1995, and condemned to life in 1996. With the greater part of Stanfa’s supporters additionally captured and sentenced, Merlino, discharged from jail in November 1994, won the war and named Ralph Natale as the new chief while situating himself as his underboss.

During Natale’s rule, Merlino was the genuine force in the family, permitting Natale to get the supervisor to coordinate law implementation consideration away from himself. Nevertheless, Merlino picked up a reputation as a flashy, big-name criminal who frequently went out celebrating with an enormous company.

The press named him the John Gotti of Passyunk Avenue because of his open aura before news cameras (Passyunk Avenue being a road in South Philadelphia). He additionally welcomed the press when he held Christmas celebrations for the destitute and parted with turkeys at Thanksgiving in lodging projects.

The haughtiness and forcefulness of Merlino’s young group killed a ton of hoodlums from working with the wrongdoing family. Merlino would regularly make huge wagers with bookies and decline to pay when he lost. This training, known as swallowing, was utilized on both autonomous and horde-run bookies. During this time, Merlino and Natale directed the wrongdoing family’s betting, advance sharking, blackmail, and taking merchandise rackets.

In 1995, Louis Turra, pioneer of the Philadelphia medicate pack the Tenth and Oregon team (otherwise called the Tenth and O posse), was seriously beaten by Merlino’s men, supposedly for neglecting to pay a Mafia road charge on the group’s unlawful earnings. Angered by the beating, Turra looked for retribution. His dad Anthony facilitated a gathering at his home during which Anthony, Louis, and his group talked about slaughtering Merlino.

In January 1998, Louis Turra obviously draped himself in a New York City prison while anticipating preliminary. In March 1998, Anthony Turra, being investigated on charges of plotting to execute Merlino, was shot dead outside his home by a shooter in a dark ski veil. He was shot twice as he left for the government town hall, where a jury was thinking in the racketeering and medication body of evidence against him and four other men. “We think about this as a sorted out wrongdoing death, a crowd hit,” Police Inspector Jerrold Kane said.

Three years after the fact, Merlino was put being investigated for coordinating the homicide, however, was cleared. By the late 1990s, Merlino avoided in excess of two dozen endeavors in his life. Merlino was companions with Steve “Gorilla” Mondevergine, leader of the Pagans MC cruiser club. Merlino in some cases utilized the Pagans to help settle hidden world disputes. During the 1990s, Merlino was additionally lined up with individuals from the Junior Black Mafia. Following Natale’s capture for parole infringement in 1999, Merlino authoritatively assumed control over the wrongdoing family, cutting off Natale.

Racketeering Conviction

On June 28, 1999, Joey Merlino was prosecuted and confined without abandoning one charge of scheme to disseminate in excess of five kilograms of cocaine and one charge of unlawful utilization of a correspondence office comparable to a medication dealing offense. The charges were later extended to incorporate racketeering and requesting or endorsing three homicides and two endeavored murders. Six other men were additionally put being investigated.

The indictment’s case was supported by a few of Merlino’s previous Mafia associates consenting to help out the legislature. Natale consented to collaborate so as to get away from tranquilizing dealing charges in 1999. Gaetano “Tommy Horsehead” Scafidi consented to coordinate in 2000 while completing a jail sentence because of fears that he would be killed by Merlino’s team.

Diminish “the Crumb” Caprio consented to help out the legislature in 2000 in the wake of being accused of two murders and Ron Previte affirmed in the wake of turning into a covert source quite a while earlier. They all affirmed that Natale and Merlino began a horde war to assume control over the Philadelphia wrongdoing family and that Merlino carried out different criminal acts in the 1990s.

On July 20, 2001, the jury restored a blended decision. Merlino has absolved all three checks of homicide and two tallies of endeavored murder, in any case, was seen as blameworthy of racketeering charges including blackmail, bookmaking, and getting taken property. Alongside Merlino, six of his companions were additionally indicted for different racketeering-related charges. On December 3, 2001, Judge Herbert J. Hutton gave Merlino a 14-year jail sentence.

Remarking on his conviction, “Ain’t terrible,” Merlino said. “Better than the passing penalty.” A month after the decision, Merlino was prosecuted in government court again for the 1996 homicide of Joseph Sodano, in spite of a jury finding the homicide accusation “not demonstrated” as a RICO predicate act. In March 2004, Merlino was cleared of Sodano’s homicide as vicious wrongdoing with the help of racketeering.

Merlino carried out his jail punishment at the Federal Correctional Institution in Terre Haute, Indiana. Merlino was discharged from the remedial office on March 15, 2011, subsequent to serving right around 12 years of his sentence. He was moved to an asylum in Florida for a half year and afterward was on directed discharge until 2015.

On January 4, 2015, not long before his parole limitations lapsed, Judge Richard Barclay Surrick gave Merlino a four-month jail sentence for abusing his administered discharge by meeting with sorted-out wrongdoing figures in Florida. On April 24, 2015, Merlino was discharged from the Federal Detention Center, Miami after his sentence was cleared. He was discharged 10 days ahead of schedule and was liberated from any post-discharge limitations after he won an intrigue from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Move to Florida

After his release in 2011, Joey Merlino moved to Boca Raton, Florida. In a 2013 meeting with George Anastasia, Merlino denied any current association with the Philadelphia Mafia and has expressed that his life as a criminal is finished. He was cited in the meeting expressing “I need no piece of that” and that there were “an excessive number of rats.” In November 2014, Merlino opened a café in Boca Raton named Merlino’s, that highlighted his mom’s recipes.

The eatery was claimed by a gathering of financial specialists; Merlino is prohibited from possessing a foundation that serves liquor because of his criminal record. Instead, Merlino authoritatively worked there as a maître d’ until the café shut in 2016. On September 7, 2016, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board restricted Merlino from all clubs in Pennsylvania.

On August 4, 2016, Merlino was one of 46 individuals captured all over the east coast in a RICO arraignment. Merlino was captured at his home in Florida and put being investigated in New York City. Merlino was accused of one check of racketeering, one tally of extortion, and two tallies of illicit betting. Merlino was blamed for going into unlawful business game plans with New York hoodlums in the Genovese wrongdoing family.

Merlino was likewise blamed for partaking in huge clinical extortion conspire in Florida that had specialists endorse patients with pointless (and insufficient) clinical items and charging patients’ insurance agencies. On August 12, Merlino was discharged on a $5 million bond.

The other 45 men charged in the wide prosecution acknowledged great request deals and confessed to diminished charges. Merlino denied any supplication offer and went to preliminary on January 30, 2018. The preliminary closed following fourteen days of declaration. On February 20, Judge Richard J. Sullivan announced a legal blunder after the jury couldn’t arrive at a consistent decision on any of the four means something negative for Merlino.

To keep away from a retrial, Merlino went into a request to manage government investigators on April 27. He consented to concede to one charge of encouraging illicit betting exchanges by means of an electronic gadget in return for the U.S. Lawyer’s Office dropping the rest of the charges against him and suggesting a jail sentence between 10–16 months. On October 17, Merlino was condemned to the limit of two years in prison. In October 2019, Merlino conceded an early discharge and moved to an asylum to complete the remainder of his sentence.

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