WARNING: EXPLICIT MATERIAL

Salvatore Testa

AKA:

Salvie, The Crowned Prince of the Philadelphia Mob

Birth Name:

Salvatore A. Testa

Birth Date:

March 31, 1956

Birth Place:

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Death Date:

September 14, 1984

Place of Death:

Something Sweet, 951 E Passyunk Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Age:

Cause of Death:

Murdered - mob hit

Cemetery Name:

Holy Cross Cemetery

Claim to Fame:

Crime and their Victims

Associates:

Philip Testa

Salvatore "Salvie" Testa, nicknamed "The Crowned Prince of the Philadelphia Mob", was an Italian-American mobster who served as a caporegime and later acting underboss for the Philadelphia crime family. Testa made his reputation as a hitman for the Philadelphia family during a period of internal gang conflict. The son of former boss Philip “The Chicken Man” Testa, Salvatore Testa was an emerging figure in the mob until he was killed on the orders of Philadelphia crime family mob boss Nicky Scarfo. Mobster-turned-informant Thomas DelGiorno said close friend and associate of Testa, Joseph Pungitore, reluctantly agreed to join the plot to kill Testa during the summer of 1984. Scarfo was worried that Testa was forming his own crew and began gaining too much power. Scarfo was also angry when Salvie broke his engagement with the daughter of a high-ranking mob official. Testa was lured to a sweet shop in South Philadelphia where Salvatore 'Wayne' Grande shot him twice in the head. Testa's body was dumped in a ditch in then rural southern New Jersey. As a result of the slaying Joseph Grande, Charles Iannece and Nicholas 'Nicky Crow' Caramandi were initiated into the mob. But don't let the "Prince" moniker - Salvie Testa was a violent psychopath who enjoyed killing, even once ordering the hit on a rival including the children in the family. It has been reported that he was directly responsible for the murder of, at a minimum, 15 people.

Not-S0 Fun Facts

Philip Testa was the head of the Philadelphia crime family for about a year when he opened the door to his twin home at 2117 Porter Street when a nail bomb exploded under his front porch. His death was allegedly ordered by his underboss and drug trafficker Peter Casella and capo Frank Narducci Sr. with Rocco Marinucci detonating the bomb from his van parked outside the home. After the murder of mob boss Angelo Bruno, Casella and Narducci attempted to become the new head of the Philadephia criminal organization. Unfortunately for them they did not have permission from the Commission to enact the hit on Philip Testa. Testa’s son Salvatore Testa was given permission by new mob boss Nicky Scarfo to kill those responsible for his father’s death.

Underboss to Philip Testa, Peter Casella was banished from the mob and moved to Florida where he lived with his daughter until his death in 1992 of natural causes.

On January 7, 1982 Frank “Chickie” Narducci exited his car in front of his home at 3200 South Broad Street in Philadelphia, where Salvatore Testa (son of murdered mob boss Philip Testa) confronted him. Testa called his name, and he let Frank turn around long enough to look at his face, before proceeding to shoot him in the head with a pistol. So not even a year after the hit on Philip Testa, Frank “Chickie” Narducci was shot 10 times about 30 yards from his south Philadelphia home.

On the one-year anniversary of Philip Testa’s murder, Rocco Marinucci was brutal tortured and killed by Salvatore Testa on March 15, 1982. Marinucci’s body was found on Federal Street in Southwark, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with bullet wounds to the neck, chest, and head. His mouth was stuffed with three firecrackers.

Cemetery Information:

Final Resting Place:

Holy Cross Cemetery

626 Baily Road

Yeadon, Pennsylvania, 19050

USA

North America

Map:

Map of Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, Pennsylvania

Grave Location:

Section 21, Range 3, Grave 3

Grave Location Description

As you enter the cemetery from the second Baily Avenue entrance, drive straight ahead to the first roundabout and take a right turn and drive 3/4 of the way around the roundabout and look to the right. The short-lived mob boss Philip Testa and his son Salvadore are in exactly the center of Section 21. Look for the large DiGenova memorial on your right and on your left the huge, round Bartholomew mausoleum and standing between these two memorials you will see the Testa headstone.