On the morning of January 29, 1992, Felix 'Little Felix' Bocchino, a 72-year-old Italian-American male, began his day in his South Philadelphia neighborhood with a routine that would be his last. After walking his dog and getting the morning paper, he returned home. Later that morning, as he got into his car, he was ambushed and fatally shot multiple times in a brazen, gangland-style slaying. The brazen attack left Bocchino slumped at the wheel of his vehicle.
The killing was not a robbery; it was a clear message within the city's criminal underworld.
Bocchino was a long-time figure in the Philadelphia mob, a capo who had recently been put in charge of collecting street taxes in Northeast Philadelphia by the then-boss, John Stanfa. This promotion, and Stanfa's plan to make Bocchino his underboss, placed him in direct conflict with a younger, ambitious faction of mobsters led by Joseph 'Skinny Joey' Merlino. This rival group disputed Stanfa's leadership and refused to pay the tribute demanded of them, leading to a violent power struggle for control of the city's organized crime rackets.
The order to eliminate Bocchino reportedly came from behind bars. Imprisoned mobster Ralph Natale, who had aligned himself with Merlino's faction, is said to have ordered the hit to remove a key Stanfa loyalist and escalate their bid for power. According to later testimony from government witnesses, Merlino loyalist Steven Mazzone was the triggerman who approached Bocchino's car and fired the fatal shots. The murder was allegedly Mazzone's first killing for the organization, a violent rite of passage to solidify his position within the ranks.
In the immediate aftermath, the Philadelphia police and the FBI launched an investigation into the high-profile murder. However, for years, no arrests were made directly in connection with Bocchino's death, and the case was considered unsolved. It was not until years later, as part of a broader federal racketeering investigation into the Philadelphia La Cosa Nostra, that the details of the crime came to light in a courtroom. In March 2000, Steven Mazzone, along with Joey Merlino and others, was indicted on racketeering charges that included the Bocchino murder as a predicate act. During the 2001 trial, former boss Ralph Natale, who had become a government witness, testified that Mazzone was the shooter. Despite this testimony, Mazzone was not convicted of the murder itself but was found guilty of racketeering charges and sentenced to prison.
