Felix "Little Felix" Bocchino (6 October 1918 - 29 January 1992) was a capo in the Philadelphia crime family. He was killed by a rival faction within the family in 1992.
Biography[]
Bocchino after being shot dead.
Born 1918 to an Italian family in South Philadelphia, Bocchino was the nephew of future Philly Mob consigliere Antonio "Tony Bananas" Caponigro, and he began his career commiting petty crimes as a swindler. He served a three-year sentence in 1948 for swindling people out of thousands of dollars, and he also engaged in moonshining and gambling. Along with his uncle, he dealt in narcotics trafficking with various other criminals, including Canadian drug dealers and the Pagans MC.
In 1980, Philadelphia mob boss Angelo Bruno was killed in a coup orchestrated by Caponigro, and Bocchino and fellow mobster Anthony "Tony Meats" Ferrante allegedly provided the shotgun used in the killing. Unlike his uncle, he was not murdered for his infraction, instead being made into the family by succeeding boss Nicodemo Scarfo in 1982. In 1991, Bocchino was promoted to caporegime by boss John Stanfa and put in charge of the street tax in Northeast Philadelphia. Stanfa had planned for Bocchino to be his future underboss.
However, Bocchino quickly found himself confronted by a faction of young mobsters and their leader Joey Merlino, who refused to pay up and were looking to make a move to depose Stanfa. After his demands became unbearable, imprisoned mobster Ralph Natale, who was aligned with Merlino, ordered Bocchino's death from behind bars. In January 1992, as Bocchino was walking out of his South Philadelphia apartment and got inside his car, Merlino loyalist Steven Mazzone walked up to him, and shot him four times in the head, killing him.