Nicky Scarfo Jr.

Nicodemo Salvatore "Nicky" Scarfo Jr. (born June 9, 1965), sometimes known by the nicknames "Junior", "Nick Promo", and "Mr. Apple" is an American mobster and a member of the Lucchese crime family. Scarfo Jr. is the son of former Philadelphia crime family boss Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo Sr.

In 1989, Scarfo Jr. was the victim of a notorious assassination attempt by a masked gunman on Halloween. The attempted hit, by a gunman wearing a Batman mask, occurred at Dante and Luigi's, an Italian restaurant in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After the murder attempt, his father arranged for him to be inducted into the Lucchese crime family in the mid-1990s. Scarfo Jr. became the caporegime of the Lucchese family's Jersey Crew in the early 2000s before getting arrested.

Nicky Scarfo Jr. was born to Nicodemo and Domenica Scarfo. He has an older half-brother, Chris (born in 1957), also another older half- brother, Garibaldi (born in 1963), and a younger brother, Mark (born in 1970). Nicky is the first cousin of Phil Leonetti, an admitted former underboss of the Philadelphia crime family.

The Scarfo family moved from Philadelphia to Atlantic City, New Jersey before Nicky Jr.'s birth. Nicky Scarfo Jr. grew up on North Georgia Avenue in the Ducktown section of Atlantic City. His grandmother, Catherine Scarfo, owned the building and lived there. Nancy and Phil Leonetti also lived in the building. Despite his father's position within the Philadelphia mob, the Scarfos were not wealthy while Nicky was growing up.

In 1980, Scarfo Sr. became Philadelphia crime family's consigliere, and then in 1981 he was named family boss. Only then did the Scarfos begin to live a more lavish lifestyle. In 1983, Nicky graduated from Holy Spirit High School in Absecon, New Jersey. By one account, Nicky Scarfo Jr. was not involved in crime during his teens and did not intend to become involved in the syndicate. As one classmate noted, "When I knew him, he was a good guy. He was just a regular guy who tried to do the right thing and everyone knew who his father was, but we never talked about that."

After graduation, Nicky Scarfo Jr. allegedly became involved in organized crime. He became a close friend of Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino, the son of Scarfo crime family underboss Chuckie Merlino. However, the relationship with Joey Merlino was to prove inauspicious. Their friendship, which was very close, ruptured in 1988 when Chuckie Merlino was convicted of racketeering and sentenced to 45 years in a federal penitentiary. Merlino was then demoted by the elder Scarfo, and Nicky Scarfo Jr. allegedly ended his friendship with Joey Merlino at this time. Philadelphia crime family boss Ralph Natale later testified in court that Merlino "hated" Scarfo from this time onward.

In the late 1980s, Nicky Scarfo Sr. came under increasing legal pressure as the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted a massive investigation of the Scarfo crime family's operations. Twenty members of Scarfo's organization were imprisoned, and many more came under indictment. Five members of the Philadelphia crime family turned state's evidence against the elder Scarfo, including soldiers Nicholas Caramandi and Eugene Milano, capos Thomas DelGiorno and Lawrence Merlino (Chuckie Merlino's brother), and underboss (and Scarfo relative) Phil Leonetti.

During the trial, Mark Scarfo attempted suicide on November 1, 1988. Mark, then only 17 years old, had been taunted for years by classmates about his father's criminal activities. Increasingly despondent over his father's possible imprisonment, Mark Scarfo hanged himself in the office of his father's concrete supply company in Atlantic City. He was discovered by his mother, and paramedics were able to resuscitate him. He suffered cardiac arrest and his brain was deprived of oxygen. He entered a coma where he remained until his death in April 2014. On November 4, 1988, just three days after Mark's suicide attempt, Nicky Scarfo Jr. and a friend assaulted a woman in an elevator at Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia. The woman said the two men had looked menacingly at her, and she pretended to reach for a gun in her coat. The two men then punched her, pushed her to the floor, and kicked her several times. Scarfo was arrested for assault, convicted, fined, and put on probation for the incident.