Harry Riccobene stood just under five feet tall. He had a curved spine that earned him a nickname he probably hated, though he never let it stop him from becoming one of the most formidable figures in the history of the American Mafia. When you look at the grainy black-and-white photos of Harry the Hunchback Riccobene, you don't see a Hollywood gangster. You see a small, elderly man with thick glasses who looks like he should be feeding pigeons in a South Philly park.
Appearances lie.
Riccobene was a stone-cold survivor. He didn't just exist in the Philadelphia crime family; he was a bridge between the old-world "Greaseball" era and the bloody, chaotic reign of Nicodemo "Little Nicky" Scarfo. While most mobsters were flashy, Harry was quiet. He was a thinker. He was also the catalyst for one of the most lopsided, yet fiercely contested, mob wars in the 1980s.
The Riccobene War: David vs. Goliath in South Philly
By 1981, the Philadelphia mob was a mess. Angelo Bruno, the "Gentle Don," had been blasted in the back of the head while sitting in his car. His successor, Philip "Chicken Man" Testa, lasted about a year before a nail bomb blew him off his front porch. Then came Nicky Scarfo.
Scarfo was a different breed. He was paranoid. He was violent. He wanted everyone to kick up a percentage of their earnings, and he didn't care if you'd been a "made" member since the Prohibition era. Harry the Hunchback Riccobene had been around forever—literally. He was inducted into the Mafia in the 1920s. To a guy like Harry, Scarfo was a dangerous upstart with no respect for the "honored society."
When Scarfo demanded a cut of Harry's gambling and loan-sharking operations, Harry basically told him to pound sand.
👉 See also: Why the Recent Snowfall Western New York State Emergency Was Different
A deadly game of hide and seek
Scarfo didn't take "no" for an answer. He sent out his best hitmen to eliminate the "Little Guy." This is where the legend of Harry Riccobene really takes off. He wasn't just some helpless senior citizen. He had a crew of loyalists, including his half-brothers, and they were ready to fight back.
The Riccobene War wasn't fought with sophisticated strategy; it was fought with desperation.
In June 1982, Scarfo’s top assassins, including the notorious Wayne Grande, caught Harry while he was walking to his car. Grande, a massive man, emptied a .38 caliber revolver into Harry. Most people would have died on the spot. Harry Riccobene didn't. Despite being shot in the back and the arm, the 71-year-old Harry actually wrestled with the gunman. He grabbed the gun. He fought him off. He survived.
Imagine that for a second. A five-foot-tall man with a severe physical disability, in his 70s, fighting off a professional hitman in broad daylight. It sounds like a movie script, but it’s just Philly history.
Why Harry Riccobene Stayed Relevant for Six Decades
You’ve gotta wonder how a guy like that stays in power for sixty years. It wasn't just about being tough. Honestly, it was about his brain. Harry was a scholar of the underworld. He understood the economics of the street better than the hotheads who just wanted to shoot everyone.
✨ Don't miss: Nate Silver Trump Approval Rating: Why the 2026 Numbers Look So Different
- Longevity: He outlasted almost every contemporary from the 1930s.
- Intelligence: He reportedly spent his time in prison studying philosophy and literature.
- Loyalty: His crew wasn't huge, but they were fiercely devoted to him, mostly because he treated them better than Scarfo treated his own men.
The Mafia in Philadelphia was built on "The Code," but by the 80s, that code was essentially garbage. Harry was the last holdout. He represented a version of the mob that didn't exist anymore—one that valued silence and steady profits over headlines and body counts.
The fallout of the conflict
The war between Scarfo and Harry the Hunchback Riccobene eventually tore the family apart. Scarfo’s side had the numbers, the money, and the youth. Harry had the grit. But grit only gets you so far when the FBI is breathing down your neck.
Eventually, the violence became too much for the city to ignore. The Riccobene faction was decimated by arrests and internal defections. Harry’s own half-brother, Mario, ended up becoming a government witness. That was the nail in the coffin. In 1984, Harry was convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the retaliatory killing of Frank "Chickie" Narducci.
Life Behind Bars and the End of an Era
Harry didn't go out in a hail of bullets. He died in a prison hospital in 2000 at the age of 89. He spent his final years at the State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill. Even in prison, he was a figure of curiosity and respect. Younger inmates looked at this tiny, hunched-over old man and couldn't believe he was the same guy who stood up to the most murderous boss in the country.
He never flipped.
🔗 Read more: Weather Forecast Lockport NY: Why Today’s Snow Isn’t Just Hype
In an era where every mobster seemed to be running to the Witness Protection Program to save their own skin, Harry Riccobene stayed silent. He took his life sentence and did the time. Whether you view him as a criminal or a relic, you have to acknowledge the sheer willpower it took to remain "Omertà" until the very end.
What the history books get wrong
A lot of true crime fans think the Riccobene war was a quick skirmish. It wasn't. It lasted nearly three years and changed the trajectory of the Philadelphia underworld. If Harry had won, or at least stayed independent, the Scarfo era might have been less volatile. Instead, Harry’s conviction gave Scarfo total control, which ultimately led to the entire family's downfall in the late 80s.
Scarfo’s reign was a bonfire; Harry Riccobene was the slow-burning ember that refused to go out.
Actionable Lessons from the Riccobene Legacy
If you’re researching the history of organized crime or looking for the "real" story of South Philadelphia, there are a few things you should do to get the full picture beyond the sensationalist headlines.
- Read "The Plumber" by Stephen J. Rivele. While it focuses on a different figure, it captures the atmosphere of the Philly mob during the years Harry was active.
- Visit the Philadelphia Archival Collections. Look for court transcripts from the 1984 murder trials. These documents provide a chilling, unfiltered look at how Harry ran his operations and how the hit on Narducci was planned.
- Differentiate between the "Greaseballs" and the "Young Turks." To understand Harry, you have to understand the cultural shift between Italian-born mobsters and the Americanized, flashier generation that followed. Harry was the last of the former.
- Analyze the geography of the hits. Mapping out where the Riccobene-Scarfo war took place in South Philly shows how close these people lived to one another. It wasn't a war fought in boardrooms; it was fought on street corners and in front of row homes where grandmothers were sitting on the stoop.
The story of Harry Riccobene is a reminder that in the world of power and influence, the most dangerous person in the room isn't always the biggest or the loudest. Sometimes, it's the guy everyone else underestimated.