A former Philadelphia Mob boss known as “Skinny Joey” is living not quite inconspicuously in a $400,000 townhouse in Boca Raton a year after getting out of prison, The Miami Herald reported.
Joseph Salvatore Merlino says he’s now in the carpet installing business. The owner of Merlino’s residence is Bruce DeLuca, the CEO of a primary flooring and carpeting subcontractor for Home Depot – but he told the Herald through a spokesperson that he didn’t lease the home to Merlino and would never have rented it to the convicted Mobster if he’d known who would be living there.
Neighbors report that Merlino has thrown loud parties replete with “beefy men and scantily clad women coming and going at all hours” at his Mediterranean-style townhouse on Broken Sound Boulevard, the Herald reported.
They also say that he gets a lot of visitors, and that they hear disturbing banging noises in the middle of the night, like furniture or equipment is being moved about, according to the newspaper.
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Merlino, 50, wore few clothes as he spoke with a Herald reporter from his iron-railed balcony, asking “How’d ya find me?” in an unmistakable Philly accent, the paper said.
The onetime leader of the Philadelphia-South Jersey La Cosa Nostra was sentenced to 14 years in prison for racketeering and served much of that before his release in 2011, according to the Herald.
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Asked to speak about evidence suggesting he is back atop the Philly La Cosa Nostra, and about a possible movie deal about his life, Merlino responded, “Don’t believe everything you read,” the Herald reported.
