Former mob boss details mob hits

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - One-time mob boss Ralph Natale, cooperating with federal authorities for the past year, has described details about 14 mob hits that include two in the 1970s in which he says he was the triggerman.

FBI memos include Natale's insights into mob ''sit-downs'' called to resolve internal disputes and descriptions of deadly underworld politics, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Sunday.

Natale, a former head of the Philadelphia-South Jersey mob, is testifying in the federal corruption trial of Camden, N.J., Mayor Milton Milan.

The 69-year-old mobster pleaded guilty earlier this year to murder, extortion, gambling and drug trafficking and admitted using an associate to bribe Milan in return for favors to mob-influenced businesses.

The Inquirer reported that Natale told the FBI that a South Philadelphia bookmaker was gunned down because his brother admitted to the 1993 murder of Michael Ciancaglini, a close associate of reputed mobster Joseph Merlino, the newspaper said. It said Natale described another Merlino associate telling him, ''It was a pleasure and a honor to do this for Michael and for us.''

The newspaper also reported that Natale provided information into the 1996 disappearance of mob associate Michael Avicolli, who Natale said was shot and buried in northern New Jersey for ''having an affair'' with the wife of another mobster.

Defense attorneys and mob sources told The Inquirer that Natale embellished and distorted many of the stories to inflate his own self-importance.

''He's well rehearsed,'' said Edwin Jacobs Jr., Merlino's attorney, who described Natale's stories as ''fiction.''

Natale is also a prosecution witness in a federal racketeering case against Merlino and eight others that is expected to begin next year.

Among other information the Inquirer reports that Natale told the FBI:

-Former mob associate Ronald Turchi gave $10,000 to a high-ranking member of Gambino crime family to ''buy'' the position of Philadelphia mob boss. Turchi was later killed.

-Natale authorized the killing of Newark mobster Joe Sodano because Sodano repeatedly failed to come to a meeting.

Though prosecutors have provided Milan's defense attorneys with the memos about Natale, much of the information - including the identity of those involved in Avicolli's death - was removed because it was irrelevant to the Milan case.

No one has been charged with killing Avicolli, but the newspaper cited unidentified sources as saying federal authorities in New Jersey are building a racketeering case against several mobsters that may include suspects in Avicolli's death.