The Goodfella Tapes

As mob families go, the Philadelphia Mafia is the most dysfunctional family of all — with brother turning against brother, sons turning on their fathers. In 1993 an embittered legacy of rivalry and hatred exploded in a brutal, bloody battle between old world mobster John Stanfa and the young, flamboyant Joey Merlino. However, this would be warfare different from any other. This time, the FBI had it all down on tape. Veteran true crimes journalist George Anastasia takes you inside the world of mobsters at war, and FBI agents so close on the heels that they even watched one hit unfold live through a surveillance camera. Drawing on the transcripts themselves, here are mobsters bragging, lamenting, and marking their comrades for death.
John Stanfa, the violent often irrationally paranoid old style mob don battling a new generation of savage young turks. Rosario Bellocchi, the young Sicilian-born hitman in love with his boss’s lovely daughter who would do anything to get ahead — even kill his best friend. John Veasey, the five foot six inch, two hundred pound mad dog hitman who once had to postpone a hit — in order to visit his parole officer. After four years, two thousand conversations, and dozens of shoot outs — some on crowded Philadelphia Streets — the goodfella tapes made a perfect net to catch some of the most vicious mobsters in America.