April 5–12, 2001

city beat

Hit Recordings

Defense attorneys say that government tapes prove Ralph Natale ordered a North Jersey mobster to whack Joey Merlino’s crew.

by Jim Barry and Howard Altman

During the 1993 mob war between Philly crime boss John Stanfa and Joey Merlino, Ralph Natale was in prison. But he wasn’t out of touch. He called Merlino almost every day to give him pep talks. In one tape played in Merlino’s federal racketeering trial, Natale warns Merlino about Stanfa’s men. "They’re dogs. You know they are, they’re wild dogs out there, cuz," Natale said. "And… somebody’s gonna’ hunt ‘em down… those kind of wild people get theirs, but you can’t take nothing lightly." Merlino replied, "No, I never did."

City Paper has learned that there is something else Merlino and his associates are not taking lightly. Defense attorneys speaking anonymously allege that while Natale was a government witness, he tried to order a hit on Merlino’s co-defendants, Georgie Borgesi and Stevie Mazzone.

Defense attorneys told City Paper that the government has tape-recorded phone conversations of Ralph Natale, calling from prison to urge his North Jersey crew to kill Merlino’s men and assume the leadership of the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Gross vehemently denied the allegation. "That’s absolutely false. I don’t normally comment during a trial, but I’ll address this. That is an absolute lie."

According to underworld insiders, Natale’s plot to kill Merlino’s crew began with a reputed mob associate from South Philadelphia named Danny D’Ambrosia.

According to mobster friends of D’Ambrosia, he was regarded by Natale as an earner, a man who made a lot of money. And Natale’s North Jersey capo, an old Newark gangster named Pete "The Crumb" Caprio, was broke. Again. According to D’Ambrosia’s friends, Pete The Crumb needed money and D’Ambrosia lent him $40,000. D’Ambrosia never saw that money again.

"Pete was always broke. Everything he made, he couldn’t hold onto it," said a friend of D’Ambrosia’s in a recent interview with City Paper at a Center City deli. "So Natale put Danny up with the North Jersey guys. That was the beginning of Danny’s problems."

Depending on who is telling this latest underworld tale of intrigue and betrayal, either Ralph Natale ordered reputed mob associate D’Ambrosia to work with the North Jersey crew early in his reign or he sent D’Ambrosia to work for the Newark crime captain in 1998 — not long after Natale was arrested and sent back to prison on a parole violation.

Regardless of when Natale sent D’Ambrosia north, underworld pals of both Natale and Merlino say D’Ambrosia found himself in the middle of a bizarre murder plot engineered by Ralph Natale. Some of the defense attorneys representing Merlino and his co-defendants charge that there are tape-recorded conversations between Natale, Pete The Crumb and Danny D’Ambrosia in which Natale appears to be using his North Jersey crew to kill Merlino’s men.

Even more incredible, according to the attorneys who have heard the tapes, is that Ralph Natale had those conversations after he had become a federal witness — conversations with members of the underworld who at that time were still running the North Jersey faction of the Philly Crime family.

"Imagine a government-protected rat, plotting with gangsters still on the street, to take out his enemies. Now that’s what I call a vendetta," said a former associate of Natale’s recently interviewed at the Omni Hotel bar.

In a telephone interview Tuesday afternoon, an angry Gross acknowledged that the government had recorded conversations between Natale and D’Ambrosia and Natale and Caprio, but that there was never any discussion about a murder plot.

Underworld insiders tell a different story.

In June 1998, Ralph Natale was arrested for violating his parole by associating with known organized crime figures including Joey Merlino. Turns out the feds had photos of Natale with Merlino at the Greenhouse restaurant in Margate, New Jersey and at a March 1998 birthday party for Merlino at a South Philadelphia restaurant that was also a front for a mob meeting. Natale was there. So was Merlino. And Pete The Crumb.

Even Billy D’Elia, the reputed boss of the Scranton crime family, was there. Natale, however, didn’t have permission from his parole officer to leave New Jersey, even though he was forever sneaking off to South Philadelphia and New York and even Florida.

So the feds, who had bugged the South Philadelphia eatery, revoked Natale’s parole.

Merlino then became acting boss, and Natale’s friends claim that within two months, Merlino stopped kicking money back to Natale. And they stopped sending money to Natale’s girlfriend, Ruthann Seccio — which made Natale very angry.

Danny D’Ambrosia is one of the guys who allegedly made payments from the mob to Natale’s girlfriend.

"Remember, you and I are one," Natale had told Merlino when they were planning to take over the mob in the early ’90s. In telephone conversations that the feds were secretly taping while Natale was in prison, Natale told Merlino, "I love you, Joey. I’m in your belly. I feel the street in my bones."

But by November 1998, Natale was furious with Joey Merlino and spent his time behind bars plotting revenge against a man who was his closest friend.

In June 1999, while still in jail, Natale was indicted on drug charges, as was Joey Merlino.

Merlino was jailed but his friends still ran things on the street. At some point in the fall of 1999, Ralph Natale decided to become a government witness to take down Merlino.

Even though Natale was now a government witness it didn’t stop him from reaching out to Danny D’Ambrosia — who was not a government witness and was still allegedly reporting to Merlino capo Pete The Crumb.

Natale’s calls from prison to D’Ambrosia were recorded. On the calls, Natale ranted and raved about Merlino and spewed venom at Merlino’s associates.

On other tapes, according to defense lawyers who have heard them, Natale is sending coded messages to Pete The Crumb in Newark to kill Merlino allies Stevie Mazzone, Georgie Borgesi and Borgesi’s uncle, Joseph Ligambi, the guys who were allegedly running the mob for Merlino.

But in March 2000, Pete The Crumb was arrested for racketeering and soon after, he and his right-hand man, a hit man and convicted child molester, Philip "Philly Faye" Casale, became government witnesses.

For Ralph Natale, however, the phone calls continued.

The conversations, hundreds of them, continued between Natale and Caprio up to January of this year.

That’s 300 tapes’ worth of mob informer talk, but the federal government doesn’t want to release them because they claim the tapes are not relevant and it would cost too much money to transcribe them all.

The defense attorneys argue that the tapes, if released, would prove that Natale used the government to settle his own vendetta against Merlino and his allies. A government source denies that, saying prosecutors have turned over everything and that there is nothing on those tapes about a murder plot by Ralph Natale.

Regardless of what’s on those tapes, Danny D’Ambrosia has another problem, according to underworld sources.

The wise guys want to know why D’Ambrosia was talking to a "rat."

They want to know why he took part in treasonous conversations with Pete The Crumb. According to friends of Natale, Merlino and D’Ambrosia, Danny D has a lot of explaining to do.

So in February and March of this year, sources said, D’Ambrosia went around South Philadelphia explaining that he was in a dangerous position himself and he didn’t want to piss off Pete The Crumb by disagreeing with him about the murder plot against Merlino’s associates. "Danny thought Pete would have him whacked, so he said ‘Yeah’ to the guy," explained D’Ambrosia’s friend.

A Natale associate told City Paper that D’Ambrosia was afraid that "Ralph would rat on him if he didn’t act like he wanted to hear what Ralph had to say."

Underworld sources said that last month, D’Ambrosia was called to explain himself to "Uncle Joe" Ligambi, the man police say is the acting boss of the mob.

When City Paper asked the source if Ligambi bought D’Ambrosia’s story, he just arched his eyebrow and shook his head to indicate that Ligambi was skeptical.

Last week, nine reputed mobsters in North Jersey were indicted on federal racketeering charges.

Six of them were described as being members of the North Jersey crew of the Philadelphia Mafia.

One of them was Daniel D’Ambrosia.

"That kid, Danny," said a Merlino associate, "just can’t catch a break. It’s Newark, right? Wouldn’t have happened if he’d have stayed here in South Philly!"

Daryl Gale contributed to this story.

For more information, see our ongoing coverage section, The Mob Trials.