Vincent "Al Pajamas" Pagano (20 December 1929–20 February 2019) was a capo in the Philadelphia crime family. He was arrested along with boss John Stanfa in 1994 and sentenced to life in prison.
Biography[]
Vincent Pagano was born in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to an Italian-American family on 20 December 1929. He became a bookmaker as part of Philadelphia crime family capo Frank Sindone's crew during the 1970s, and gave himself the nickname "Al Pajamas" due to his supposed reputation for "putting people to sleep". Shortly after Sindone's murder in 1980 as retaliation for the killing of family boss Angelo Bruno, Pagano retired temporarily from mob business, moving to Florida and leaving behind organized crime. However, when John Stanfa came to power as boss of the family in 1991, he requested Pagano's help in restructuring the family, and he was promoted to made man status as well as being made a capo in charge of his own crew. He also participated in the war against Joey Merlino and his crew of rebellious mobsters, putting together hit teams to dispatch Merlino loyalists. In 1994, Stanfa learned that his top enforcer John Veasey had turned states, so on 14 January, he had Pagano and Frank Martines lure Veasey to a South Philadelphia apartment under the pretense of giving him his own sports betting operation. As Pagano sat across the desk from Veasey, Martines shot him four times in the head and chest, but Veasey survived, lunging towards Martines; Pagano attempted to pin him down, but Veasey broke free and wrestled a knife from Martines, stabbing him in the face before running away with his life. On 17 March 1994, Pagano was arrested along with Stanfa and 23 other underlings on racketeering and murder charges and sentenced to 80 years in prison in 1996. He died in a federal penitentiary on 20 February 2019, aged 89.