Salvatore Testa - Courtship With Maria Merlino

Courtship With Maria Merlino

Maria Merlino, the daughter of Salvatore Merlino, sister of Joseph Merlino and niece of Lawrence Merlino had nursed the nearly dead Testa back to health after the Italian Market shooting, and they had been inseparable afterward. Nicky Scarfo drew on his contractor friends to rebuild the Testa home, vacant since the explosion that had killed Testa's father, Philip, as a wedding gift for the newlyweds. Testa didn't love Maria but saw the match as a way to gain power in the family. After being an underboss's son for twenty-five years he was used to being close to the top. One day he goes to Salvatore Merlino, who was the current underboss, and says, "I would like to go out with your daughter, take your daughter out."

Testa and Merlino were soon engaged, but they had decided to wait for Nicky Scarfo to come out of jail before they married. By that time Testa was in love with someone else who lived in an apartment at Ninth and Christian at the Italian Market, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and he didn't want to marry Merlino. He thought when Nicky was released from prison that Nicky would take the brunt of his not marrying Chuckie's daughter because of what a good job Testa had done during the Riccobene war. It is also rumoured that he had struck Maria during their courtship and spit in the face of Salvatore Merlino during an argument.

The wedding was all planned and scheduled to be held in April 1984. They had bought gowns and had the church. They even bought special tablecloths. There were going to be over seven hundred guests. There were also talks of having pop singer Michael Jackson perform at the wedding celebration. The wedding ceremony was to be held at The Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Center City, Philadelphia.

Merlino's father bought her a lot of jewellery and she was redoing the house with French toilets and Jacuzzis. Testa was old-fashioned and wanted to live in his father's footsteps. He didn't like these types of fancy possessions. This led to an argument between the two. Testa canceled the marriage two months before it was supposed to occur.

Salvatore Merlino, Maria's father, allegedly told Nicholas Carramandi over a dinner following their separation, "You know, I'm not mad because he didn't marry my daughter. If he would just take himself down and start all over again, he would be forgiven. You know, this thing comes first. If he didn't want to marry my daughter ... he coulda did it in a different way." Merlino had wanted Testa to relinquish his title as capo and become a mob soldier again but he did not.

Had Testa honored Salvatore Merlino's wishes to marry his daughter, he would have been the son-in-law to underboss Salvatore and Rita Merlino, and Salvatore's brother, Philadelphia crime family capo Lawrence Merlino and Phyllis Merlino, and brother-in-law to his son, Philadelphia crime family rival capo Joseph S. Merlino and Deborah Wells-Merlino.