After spending a little more than four months behind bars, the once reputed boss of Philadelphia’s mob became a free man again.
Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino, the reputed head of Philadelphia's La Cosa Nostra in the 1990s, served four additional months for failing to report a meeting with a former co-defendant at a Boca Raton, Florida, cigar bar.
Circuit Judge Thomas Vanaskie signed an order Thursday releasing Merlino from a federal corrections facility in Miami, Florida.
"He's out. He's a free man, Merlino's attorney Edwin Jacobs told Philadelphia's Daily News.
Earlier, Merlino denied the meeting that landed him back behind bars.
"I never had dinner with Johnny Ciancaglini. I bumped into him," said Merlino, appearing fit and tan on a return trip to Philadelphia. "I didn't report it. ... It just slipped my mind."
Merlino, now 53, has lived in south Florida since 2011, when he left prison after more than a decade from a Philadelphia racketeering conviction. His lawyer maintains that Merlino plans to work as a maitre d' at a new Boca Raton restaurant that will bear his name.
