August 30–September 6, 2001

news|underworld

Nicky Slick

He may be a bad guy, but sources say Nicodemo DiPietro did not kill Tad Green.

by Jim Barry

His friends call him "Nicky Slick." In South Philadelphia, where he was born and raised, that’s his nickname. But it was under his real name, Nicodemo DiPietro, that a jury in Common Pleas Court found him guilty of first-degree murder several weeks ago. DiPietro faces a life sentence for shooting to death Tad Rice-Green inside Club Deco, near Delaware Avenue, a year and a half ago.

"Give the devil his due," a friend of DiPietro told City Paper in a telephone interview earlier this week. "DiPietro’s done of a lot of things. He’s been arrested more than 20 times and he knows all the wrong people. He even did federal time in the toughest prison in America — Marion, Ill. He was there when John Gotti was there, but he never met Gotti because everybody is kept in separate cells so they never get to see the other cons. DiPietro did a lot of things, but he didn’t gun down Tad Green."

In an interview in Java Dot coffee shop in Old City earlier this week, a source familiar with details of the shooting said that "Nicky Slick was there. But it was another guy who shot Green. It was a stupid, drunken argument. It wasn’t a mob hit. One of the shooters gave Nicky the gun afterward and told him to get rid of it. Nicky was there. He saw what happened, but he’s not going to rat on anyone else. He’s a standup guy."

A court official who knows about the murder investigation said that the original description of the shooter was "a white male with blond hair, about six-feet, one-inch tall. And he was thin. Nicky Slick has dark hair. He stands five-foot, seven-inches and he is stocky."

DiPietro’s attorney, Stephen Jarrett, plans to appeal the verdict. In a phone interview, Jarrett said, "I truly believe Nicky DiPietro is innocent, and the appeals process will center around information that the Commonwealth should have provided in pretrial."

Cathie Abookire, spokeswoman for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, said the DA had no comment on the case.

DiPietro is in jail and City Paper was unable to reach him for comment.

One friend of DiPietro who is willing to go on the record about his case is Ruthann Seccio, the former girlfriend of mob-boss-turned-informant Ralph Natale.

Seccio attended DiPietro’s trial and said that she "grew up with Nicky. I know him from the neighborhood, and I love him to death. He’s a good friend, and I believe he’s innocent. He is a very good guy and very loyal to his friends."

One underworld source said that it’s DiPietro’s loyalty that got him into this trouble in the first place. "DiPietro knows the shooter. The shooter is a guy from the 10th and O crew, and he’s in the bar where they all hang out every single day. But Nicky is friends with the shooter, so Nicky ain’t gonna dime him out."

Police sources have identified DiPietro as both an associate of convicted mobster Stevie Mazzone as well as the 10th and O gang. According to police sources, the 10th and O crew is a criminal gang that engages in drug trafficking and has been around, in one form or another, for nearly 40 years.

Sometimes the 10th and O gang has been allied with the mob, and at other times they’ve gone to war against the local Mafia.

In 1995, members of the 10th and O crew tried to assassinate Joey Merlino before making peace with the Philadelphia Cosa Nostra later that same year.

10th and O gangsters are considered the prime suspects in the shooting of Steven "Gorilla" Mondevergine, the South Philly chapter president of the Pagans motorcycle gang.

In August 1999, Mondevergine was shot eight times in front of his mother’s South Philadelphia rowhouse. The barrel-chested, 250-pound man gasped, "They got me," before he passed out. Mondevergine was rushed to the hospital with gunshot wounds to his face, stomach and chest, but he survived.

Police sources suspect Mondevergine was gunned by the 10th and O gang after the Pagans roughed up patrons of the King Dome bar at 12th and Oregon.

Allegedly, the Pagans, on behalf of the Mafia, beat some members of the 10th and O crew because they refused to pay protection money to the mob.

Last November, in South Philadelphia, Mondevergine tried to gun down a man who, police sources claim, is a member of the 10th and O gang. Police detectives familiar with the shooting told City Paper that Mondevergine was trying to shoot the man he holds responsible for the bloody attempt on his own life.

"The 10th and O mob has some itchy trigger fingers. And unfortunately, Nicky Slick was hanging with some of the more violent members of that crew," said one mob insider. The source said that "Slick Nicky" DiPietro was with members of the 10th and O crew when he entered the after-hours club in February 2000.

"DiPietro walked into the middle of a drunken argument between Green and some 10th and O’ers. After the shooting went down, DiPietro left, but he kept his mouth shut. He went to trial and lost. Now he’s gonna do life for something he didn’t even do. But that’s the way Slick Nicky was raised. You don’t turn your friends in. Even the bad ones."