Nicodemo ‘Little Nicky’ Scarfo was born on March 8, 1929, in Brooklyn, New York. He lived there until the age of 12, when his family moved to South Philadelphia. After graduating from Benjamin Franklin High School in 1947, he became an amateur boxer, though he failed to become a success in the world of boxing. After giving this up, he became an ‘apprentice’ with his uncle, Nicholas ‘Nicky Buck’ Piccolo – who was a soldier in the Philadelphia crime family at that time. So began Nicky Scarfo’s descent into the criminal world.
Felix ‘Skinny Razor’ DiTullio was owner of the Friendly Lounge in Philly, situated at the corner of of Eighth Street and Washington Avenue. It’s been stated that the bar was akin to a ‘mob school’, a place for beginners to learn their craft. It’s also been alleged that there have been ‘hits’ carried out there too. Skinny Razor became ‘mentor’ to Nicky Scarfo. Indeed, Scarfo’s first murder was carried out alongside DiTullio.
The following is a short extract from the book Mafia Prince by Phil Leonetti (Leonetti is Scarfo’s nephew, and was introduced into the ‘life’ at a young age)
My uncle’s first hit, he did it with Skinny Razor. There was a guy in South Philly who had a fruit stand; they called him the Huckster. The Huckster’s brother had a problem with Skinny Razor and Skinny Razor got the okay to kill him. So him and my uncle went to the guy’s store in South Philadelphia. It was during a real bad snowstorm and the guy let them into the store and they killed him. They stabbed him to death. When they were done, they cut his balls off and put them in the guy’s mouth. That’s how my uncle learned about killing, from being around Skinny Razor.
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