Phil Leonetti - Early Years

Early Years

Leonetti was born in Absecon, New Jersey and was abandoned by his father at an early age. He grew up in Atlantic City, where he lived in an apartment located in a boarding house at 26 North Georgia Avenue in Ducktown. He attended elementary school at Saint Michael's Grammar School, located around the corner from his house. As a child, like Joseph Salerno said about living in South Philadelphia, "We were always having fights with Irish kids that came into the neighbourhood. Nothin really serious, not like gangs today; we never had any weapons. Its just that we were taught to stick with our own kind, the Italians and to keep the others out". He was a standout guard on the basketball team at Holy Spirit High School in Absecon. Lean and muscular with piercing dark eyes and thick black hair, Leonetti had movie star good looks that enhanced his reputation as a local celebrity. He wore Fila track suits and Armani leather over hand-painted ties and three piece suits. Leonetti was known to win favor with female reporters with his dark charm, many going as far as reporting on it in their stories. By the age of thirty he was implicated but not convicted of three murders, including contractor Vincent Falcone and a local tailor who was found shot in the head, his car parked near a dump just outside Atlantic City. There was a eyewitness who later recanted his testimony. The county prosecutor had no case without the witness. His maternal uncle, eventual Philadelphia crime family boss Nicky Scarfo, helped his sister Nancy Leonetti raise Phil. In fact, the boarding house where they lived was owned by Nicky and Nancy's Scarfo's mother Catherine. Nicky came to Atlantic City as caporegime of the Philadelphia crime family's crew there after being banished by Philadelphia boss Angelo Bruno. From the time he was a young boy, Leonetti was complicit in his uncle's crimes. In 1962 Nicky implicated his nephew Phil Leonetti as an accessory after the fact in the murder of Dominick (Reds) Caruso. Caruso was murdered for disrespecting Joseph (Joe the Boss) Rugnetta, who was the consigliere of the family that served under Angelo Bruno. Caruso tried to extort Rugnetta for money and slapped him at his home in Southwark, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After Caruso’s body was dropped off at the intended burial site in Vineland, New Jersey Scarfo drove the pick-up truck to his parents’ apartment building in Atlantic City where Leonetti lived. Leonetti was about nine years old at the time. Scarfo picked up Leonetti and took him for a ride to Philadelphia to use him as a decoy. Scarfo figured that if anybody saw the killers using the truck in the murder and reported it to the police, the police would never think that a truck with a little kid in it had been used in a murder. Scarfo told Leonetti on the day of the murder that he had just “killed a very bad man” and explained to Leonetti why he wanted Leonetti to ride with him to Philadelphia. Scarfo drove the truck to Philadelphia for it to be destroyed so that it could never be used as evidence. Dominick “Reds” Caruso was reported missing by his wife on January 30, 1962. As of this date, Caruso’s body has not been found. When Nicky Scarfo was behind bars as part of the "Yardville 7" during the 1970s, Leonetti served as a messenger between Nicky and allies like Bruno family underboss Phil Testa and close associates Salvatore (Chuckie) and Lawrence Merlino.