Edwin Helfant, a 51-year-old male lawyer and part-time municipal judge from Atlantic County, New Jersey, found his life cut short in a brazen, gangland-style execution on the evening of February 15, 1978. While seated with his wife, Marcie, and a business associate at the Flamingo Motel's cocktail lounge on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, a man posing as a motel employee approached their table carrying a snow shovel.
In a swift and shocking moment of violence, the man steadied himself and fired a. 22 caliber pistol multiple times at Helfant, striking him in the head and chest at close range before fleeing the scene. The murder was quickly suspected to be a mob contract killing.
At the time of his death, Helfant was a man embroiled in controversy. Known as 'the Fining Squire' for his stringent enforcement of ordinances against underage drinking, he also maintained a private law practice and had known associations with organized crime figures. His legal career was under a cloud, as he was currently on trial for allegedly accepting a $700 bribe to fix an assault and battery case years earlier. His name had also surfaced in connection with the investigation into the murder of a local tailor the previous year, a case that involved the nephew of a prominent mob figure.
The investigation into Helfant's murder ultimately unraveled a story of mob retribution. Authorities determined that the seeds of the killing were sown years earlier when Nicodemo 'Little Nicky' Scarfo, a powerful figure in the Philadelphia crime family, gave Helfant $12,000. The money was intended as a bribe for a judge to secure a lenient sentence for a fellow mafioso, Nicholas 'Nick the Blade' Virgilio, who was facing a murder charge. However, Virgilio received a lengthy prison sentence, and upon his parole in 1976, he sought revenge, believing Helfant had double-crossed him and kept the money.
In 1987, a grand jury indicted both Scarfo and Virgilio for the murder of Edwin Helfant. The prosecution alleged that Virgilio was the gunman who entered the Flamingo Lounge, while Scarfo acted as the getaway driver. The following year, as part of a larger racketeering case that brought down numerous members of the Philadelphia mob, Scarfo and Virgilio were convicted for their roles in Helfant's murder, among other crimes. Virgilio was sentenced to a 40-year prison term and later died of a heart attack while incarcerated.
