'Skinny Joey' Merlino, reputed Philadelphia mob boss, gets 2-year sentence
NEW YORK _ Joey Merlino is headed back to prison.
"Skinny Joey," the reputed boss of the Philadelphia mob, was sentenced Wednesday to serve two years in federal prison for a gambling-related count to which he pleaded guilty in April.
The sentence, imposed by a federal judge in Manhattan, marks just the latest stint of incarceration for the mouthy celebrity gangster, who has survived assassination attempts, beaten murder charges in court, and spent at least a decade locked up for prior convictions on counts of racketeering, conspiracy, assault or related offenses.
It was the stiffest possible penalty for Merlino, who had opted to plead guilty to a single count instead of facing a retrial on a litany of other charges.
Merlino said afterward that he planned to use the time behind bars to get into shape. And, in an apparent reference to witnesses who cooperated with the government against him, he quipped: "President Trump is right _ they've got to outlaw the flippers."
Manhattan-based prosecutors accused Merlino and 45 other alleged mobsters of operating illegal gambling rings and bribing doctors to write unnecessary prescriptions for topical skin creams, among other alleged schemes.
_The Philadelphia Inquirer
