Ron Previte, wiseguy informant who brought down mob bosses, dead at 73
Ron Previte — a onetime cop-turned mob capo-turned FBI informant — whose testimony helped take down three Philadelphia mob bosses and send more than a dozen other members and associates to prison, has died.
Previte suffered a fatal heart attack last week. He was 73.
A longtime South Jersey resident who openly described himself as a “general practitioner of crime,” Previte was not shy about discussing his three-decade criminal career first as a dirty cop on the Philadelphia force where he shook down pimps and drug dealers, later as a top earner for Philadelphia’s crime family, for whom Previte once estimated he earned millions of dollars.
It was his years spent wearing a body wire for federal investigators in the ’90s that ultimately kept him out of prison and earned him a measure of public notoriety.
About the only thing, he never did, his longtime lawyer Joseph P. Grimes said Tuesday, was kill anyone.
“He always used to say, ‘Why would I kill people who owe me money?’” the lawyer said.
The hundreds of conversations Previte secretly recorded in the ‘90s — and his testimony at their trials — helped put towering criminal figures like Philadelphia dons Ralph Natale, Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino and John Stanfa behind bars.
“He was a con man and he was a witness and he never denied any of it. It’s hard to have a larger impact,” Grimes said. “He was absolutely considered by law enforcement to be one of the most pivotal undercover operatives ever.”
Link: http://www.philly.com/philly/obituaries/ron-previte-dies-informant-mob-bosses-philly-20170829.html
