The Fat Rat: George Anastasia Looks Back At The Life Of Criminal Ron Previte

Veteran organized crime reporter and author George Anastasia looks back at the life of criminal Ron Previte for jerseymanmagazine.com.

They called him the Fat Rat, but he didn’t really care.

Ron Previte always knew who he was and what he had done. And he was okay with that, which made him unique in the underworld and immune to the slurs and epithets other wiseguys threw at him.

For him, it was a game and he always thought he knew how to play it better than they did.

It wasn’t about right or wrong, about morals or ethics. When it came to crime, he was totally amoral. He would smile and say he was a “general practitioner.” He did it all.

And becoming an informant, first for the New Jersey State Police, and then for the FBI, was part of his practice.

Previte died two months ago. He had been sick for over a year, battling various ailments that eventually led to a fatal heart attack. He was 73.

“What would you have bet that it would have been a heart attack that took him out?” an FBI agent asked at Previte’s memorial service. A dozen other law enforcement officials standing in the back of the funeral parlor down in Hammonton, NJ, that night nodded and smiled.

Nobody figured he would die of natural causes.

Ronnie Previte lived life on the edge and most people figured that he would die out there taking another chance, trying to make one more score.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://jerseymanmagazine.com/the-fat-rat/ 

You can also read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of George Anastasia’s book on Ron Previte, The Last Gangster, below:

   

Ron Previte, The Former Mobster Who Brought Down Three Crime Bosses, Dies at 73

Veteran organized crime reporter and author George Anastasia offers a piece at PhillyVoice.com on Ron Previte, who died at 73.

Previte (seen in the above photo), a criminal who helped the FBI convict numerous organized crime figures in Philadelphia and South Jersey, was the subject of Anastasia’s true crime book, The Last Gangster.

Big Ron Previte, the mobster-turned-government-witness whose cooperation brought down three crime bosses and changed the face of the Philadelphia mob, died last week after suffering a heart attack, according to family members and friends.

A former Philadelphia police officer who once said he learned the most about how to be a criminal while working as a cop, Previte was a larger-than-life figure who never tried to sugarcoat who he was or what he had done.

Six-foot tall and sometimes weighing 300 pounds, Previte (pronounced prev-i-tee) was an imposing and intimidating figure, but he also was a shrewd and astute underworld entrepreneur. He described himself as a "general practitioner of crime" and admitted his involvement in almost every mob gambit...with the exception of murder.

"If a guy owes me money and I kill him, how am I gonna get paid?" he asked, explaining that beatings, assaults and intimidation were part of his business, but murder was not.

Born in Southwest Philadelphia, Previte grew up in Hammonton, a South Jersey town that he loved. He opted not to go into the Witness Security Program after testifying in a 2001 racketeering trial that led to the convictions of Joseph "Skinny Joey" Merlino and six co-defendants. Instead, he remained in South Jersey.

"Where am I gonna go?" he asked. "I like it here."

Previte wore a body wire for more than a year, recording conversations for the FBI while helping to make cases against Merlino and titular mob boss Ralph Natale. He often said wearing that wire on a daily basis was the most exciting time of his life.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.phillyvoice.com/ron-previte-former-mobster-who-brought-down-three-crime-bosses-dies-73/

You can also read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of George Anastasia’s The Last Gangster via the below link:

 http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/08/my-philadelphia-inquirer-review-of_7773.html 

No Reservations At Ristorante Merlino's

Veteran organized crime reporter and author George Anastasia offers a piece at Bigtrial.net (with permission from Gangland News) on the closing of the Florida restaurant run by Joey Merlino, the reputed boss of the Philadelphia Cosa Nosa organized crime family.

If you picked up a snazzy Merlino's wineglass on your last trip to Boca, don't throw it away. It may soon be a collector's item. It looks like Joey Merlino is out of the restaurant business.

Reports from Boca Raton, where his posh, eponymous nightspot was located, indicate that the restaurant is closed and the property is for sale. In June, Skinny Joey denied a Miami Herald report that Merlino's had gone belly up. He insisted that his joint was shutting down for the summer season and would reopen in the fall. 

Who knows? That may have been the plan. But that was before the racketeering indictment that snared him and 45 co-defendants for being part of what federal prosecutors have dubbed an East Coast LCN Enterprise. 


You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.bigtrial.net/2016/11/reprinted-with-permission-from-gangland.html

Note: George Anastasia mentions former mobster Ron Previte in the piece. You can read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of his book on Previte and Merlino, The Last Gangster, via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/08/my-philadelphia-inquirer-review-of_7773.html

Former Philadelphia Cosa Nostra Mob Boss Ralph Natale Has A Book Deal

 

There is an old joke about how when mob guys used to discuss a "contract," they were talking about murder. Today a mob conversation about a contract probably means a book or movie deal.

Case in point: Andy Lewis at the Hollywood Reporter offers a piece on former Philadelphia Cosa Nostra mob boss Ralph Natale's book deal. (Natale is seen in the above center photo to the right of Ron Previte).

Ralph Natale, the boss of the Philadelphia Mob in the mid-90s, is set to tell his story with the help of producer Dan Pearson (I Married a Mobster) and New York Daily News investigative reporter Larry McShane.

Lost Lives and Forgotten Vows will be published by Thomas Dunne Books in Fall 2016.

Natale becomes only the second Mafia Godfather to tell his own life story, following New York’s Joe Bonanno. The book pitches “a behind-the-scenes master’s class on organized crime.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bookmark/i-married-a-mobster-producer-806362

You can also read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of George Anastasia's The Last Gangster, which is about Ron Previte, the FBI informant who took down Natale and other Phillly mob guys via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/08/my-philadelphia-inquirer-review-of_7773.html

My Philadelphia Inquirer Review Of George Anastasia's 'The Last Gangster'

You can read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of George Anastasia's The Last Gangster below:

Note: You can click on the above to enlarge.

24 Hours Of Crime: The Ron Previte Mob Story

I just watched an interesting program on youtube.com about Ron Previte, known by the South Philly Cosa Nostra organized crime family as "Big Ron."

After testifying against the mob guys for the FBI, Previte was called the "Fat Rat."

Previte, a former corrupt Philly cop turned mob member turned FBI informant, brought down three Philly mob bosses. Previte makes no bones about being a crook. Unapologetically, he said his life was "24 hours of crime."

You can watch the I.D. Investigation/Discovery Channel documentary via the below link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHYO5cJwqEg  

You can also read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of George Anastasia's book on Ron Previte, The Last Gangster, via the below links:

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/LastGangsterReview1JPG.jpg

http://home.comcast.net/~pauldavisoncrime/pwpimages/LastGangsterReview2JPG.jpg