Apparently Joe Ligambi, the reputed boss of the Philly mob who will stand trial on racketeering charges this October, is quite the Chatty Cathy as reported by George Anastasia for The Inquirer: "secretly recorded conversations from a mob meeting at a New Jersey restaurant two years ago offer a rare opportunity to listen in as Ligambi breaks bread in a gossip-filled gabfest with several other mobsters."
The conversations were taped by Gambino soldier and government informant Nicholas "Nicky Skins" Stefanelli, and "it's Ligambi, in his own words, discussing the murderous and the mundane as the wine flowed during a five-hour luncheon meeting at La Griglia, a restaurant in Kenilworth."
A federal judge ruled that he will allow the tapes into evidence at trial but Nicky Skins won't be around to enjoy the show. Last year the 69-year-old Stefanelli took his own life in a hotel room with a drug overdose two days after whacking video poker machine vendor Joseph Rossi. Apparently, the bloody drama played out after Stefanelli developed remorse over wearing a wire for the feds against his paisanos, and he blamed Rossi who previously snitched for his predicament.
