Salvatore Testa - Inherited Criminal Empire

Inherited Criminal Empire

In March 1981, when Testa was twenty-five years old, his father Phil was killed by a nail bomb consisting of six sticks TNT that was remotely operated as he unlocked the front door of his house. The explosion was so powerful that it blew Testa's father through the front door of his home. After the murder of his father, Testa became a protege of Nicky Scarfo and was thought of as a son to Scarfo and a brother to Phil Leonetti. Testa "inherited" most of his father's business, including a loan-sharking operation in South Philadelphia. He also developed a lucrative financial arrangement with several local drug dealers, including the Black Mafia that supplied parts of North Philadelphia and West Philadelphia ghettos. Testa maintained a residence at the shore near Atlantic City and kept a boat in Ventnor, New Jersey. His legitimate and illegitimate businesses made him a millionaire. Testa's father had left him an estate worth $800,000 that included a run-down bar in Ducktown, Atlantic City on a site where casino developer Donald Trump decided to build the Trump Plaza (Atlantic City) in 1984 at 2500 Boardwalk. Trump paid Testa $1.1 million for the right to tear the bar down.

Read more about this topic:  Salvatore Testa

Famous quotes containing the words inherited, criminal and/or empire:

    Certainly ordinary language has no claim to be the last word, if there is such a thing. It embodies, indeed, something better than the metaphysics of the Stone Age, namely, as was said, the inherited experience and acumen of many generations of men.
    —J.L. (John Langshaw)

    How many condemnations I have witnessed more criminal than the crime!
    Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)

    Thy blood and virtue
    Contend for empire in thee, and thy goodness
    Share with thy birthright! Love all, trust a few,
    Do wrong to none. Be able for thine enemy
    Rather in power than use, and keep thy friend
    Under thy own life’s key. Be checked for silence
    But never taxed for speech.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)