{"id":169457,"date":"2026-04-18T16:20:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T16:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/169457\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T16:20:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T16:20:09","slug":"the-rise-and-fall-of-the-greek-mafia-in-philadelphia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/169457\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rise and Fall of the Greek Mafia in Philadelphia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Greek<\/p>\n

Steve Bouras and Harry Peetros were prominent members of the Greek mafia in the 1970s. Credit: Public Domain. Illustration: Greek Reporter<\/p>\n

The emergence of the Greek mafia in Philadelphia traces back to the mid-20th century, as waves of Greek immigrants settled in the city, particularly in South Philadelphia. While most assimilated into working-class neighborhoods, a small subset gravitated toward organized crime, carving out their own niche in the city\u2019s mafia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unlike more structured crime syndicates like the Italian-American Mafia<\/a>, the Greek mob operated as a loose confederation of racketeers, loan sharks, and drug traffickers. Their criminal enterprises often intersected with those of the Philadelphia crime family, establishing a mutually beneficial, though occasionally tense, alliance.<\/p>\n

By the 1970s, figures such as Steve Bouras had risen to prominence, expanding Greek control over methamphetamine distribution, illegal gambling, and extortion operations. Bouras in particular was seen as a savvy and well-connected operator, reportedly serving as a key liaison between the Greek mob and the Italian Mafia under Angelo Bruno\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

During Bruno\u2019s reign, which emphasized diplomacy over violence, the Greeks flourished under his protection. However, as power shifted in the early 1980s with the brutal rise of Nicky Scarfo, the Greek mob\u2019s relative independence and influence began to wane, culminating in the violent deaths of key figures like Bouras and Harry Peetros.<\/p>\n

\"Greek\"Greek<\/p>\n

Steve Bouras. Credit: Public Domain
\nGreek mafia leaders\u2019 reign in Philadelphia comes to abrupt end<\/p>\n

In a 1980 report by the Pennsylvania Crime Commission, Bouras was described as a liaison agent between \u201cthe so-called Greek mob\u201d and the larger crime organization headed by Bruno and Martorano. However, this arrangement came to an abrupt end when the exiled mobster, Nicky Scarfo, masterminded the assassination of Bruno on March 21, 1980.<\/p>\n

Bruno\u2019s murder sparked one of the bloodiest mob wars in history. His loyalists fought fiercely to maintain control, while the \u201cnew order\u201d sought to claim dominance. Ultimately, the new order prevailed, with Nicky Scarfo emerging as the de facto boss.<\/p>\n

Amidst this chaotic power struggle, two Greek mob figures, Steve Bouras and Harry Peetros, were also deeply involved. The Greeks had long controlled a significant portion of the drug trade and had enjoyed protection under Bruno\u2019s rule.<\/p>\n

Peetros, a powerful loan shark, and Bouras both operated under the umbrella of the Italian mafia during Bruno\u2019s reign. However, after Scarfo\u2019s rise to power, their days of unchallenged freedom quickly came to an end.<\/p>\n

In May 1981, Bouras was killed, along with his girlfriend Jeanette Curro, 54, by two masked gunmen in the South Philadelphia Greek restaurant Meletis. His companions at the dinner table included Raymond Martorano, a business associate of Scarfo.<\/p>\n

In the following video, the owner of the Greek restaurant describes the scene:<\/p>\n

Who killed the Greek mafia bosses?<\/p>\n

It was reported that Scarfo ordered the hit, as Bouras had refused to pay Scarfo\u2019s street taxes, specifically for his meth ring. There have also been speculations that Martorano arranged the hit for Scarfo because of eyewitness claims that the gunman motioned for Martorano to move out of the way before opening fire. Following the twin murders, the Philadelphia police arrested a suspect named Neil Ferber who was convicted on May 3, 1982 and sentenced to death in the electric chair.<\/p>\n

However, Ferber was exonerated after spending four years in prison<\/a>. Upon retirement, Philadelphia District Attorney Edward G. Rendell admitted to withholding exculpatory evidence from Ferber\u2019s trial and requested that a county judge retry his case. Ferber was acquitted, released, and awarded $1.9 million in a civil suit against the City of Philadelphia for his wrongful conviction.<\/p>\n

To this day, no one else has ever been charged for the Bouras-Curro murder, but police theorize that the killing was ordered by Scarfo.<\/p>\n

As\u00a0The New York Times (NYT) reported<\/a> at the time, Philadelphia detectives expressed strong suspicions that it was related to the killing of Harry Peetros, whose body was found a earlier in the trunk of his gold Cadillac, parked on a quiet street a mile west of city limits.<\/p>\n

\"Greek\"Greek<\/p>\n

Harry M. Peetros. Credit: Public Domain<\/p>\n

The crime commission, according to the NYT report, said Peetros and his brother, James Peetros, were \u201celder statesmen\u201d of the \u201cGreek mob.\u201d Investigators said the two killings were apparently connected to a struggle within the \u201cGreek mob\u201d over a lucrative new sideline, distributing cocaine in downtown Philadelphia and its Delaware County suburbs.<\/p>\n

Although rather prominent in the 1970s and 1980s, the Greek mafia has cooled down and remains dormant. However, there have been some occurrences of members being found loan sharking in Philadelphia in more recent times. The reason for this dormant period could be traced back to the leaders\u2019 loss in the 1980s mob war in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

\"Greek\"Greek<\/p>\n

Scarfo testifies at a Congressional subcommittee in Philadelphia, 1982. Credit: Public Domain.
\nScarfo\u2019s bloody Mafia rule in Philadelphia comes to an end<\/p>\n

When a federal judge in Philadelphia sentenced him to 55 years in prison on murder and racketeering charges in May 1989, Scarfo just shrugged<\/a>. Scarfo and his ensuing war with rivals would result in over twenty deaths in the early 1980s. Only two weeks earlier, Scarfo had been sentenced with seven others to life in prison for the 1985 slaying of bookmaker Frank \u201cFrankie Flowers\u201d D\u2019Alfonso.<\/p>\n

In addition, he was serving a fourteen-year sentence he got in 1988 for extorting a developer to pay a one million dollar bribe to a Philadelphia city councilman, who was to give a share of it to Scarfo. The latter\u2019s life sentence in prison ended in January 13, 2017, when he reportedly died of cancer at the Federal Medical Center in North Carolina. He was 87.<\/p>\n

During the trial, Scarfo\u2019s son, Mark Scarfo, attempted suicide on November 1, 1988. Mark, then only seventeen years old, had been taunted for years by classmates in relation to his father\u2019s criminal activities. Increasingly despondent over his father\u2019s possible imprisonment, Mark Scarfo hanged himself in the office of his father\u2019s concrete supply company in Atlantic City.<\/p>\n

His mother discovered him, and paramedics were able to resuscitate him, though he suffered cardiac arrest and deprivation of oxygen to the brain. He entered a coma where he remained until his death in April 2014.<\/p>\n

Related: Greek Mafia: Houston Inherits Greek Godfather<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steve Bouras and Harry Peetros were prominent members of the Greek mafia in the 1970s. Credit: Public Domain.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":169458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[76327,76328,76329,76330,12328,69,71,70,76331,76332],"class_list":["post-169457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-angelo-bruno","tag-greek-mafia","tag-greek-news","tag-harry-peetros","tag-nicky-scarfo","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-raymond-martorano","tag-steve-bouras"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}