PHILADELPHIA -- A waiter faces life in prison for the March 1981 gangland slaying of reputed mob boss Philip 'Chicken Man' Testa when a nail bomb exploded in front of his home.
Theodore DiPretoro, 23, of South Philadelphia, was sentenced to serve the term concurrently with another life sentence he currently is serving for the unrelated 1980 murder of Edward Bianculli Jr., 21, also of Philadelphia.
Common Pleas Judge Lisa Richette ordered the concurrent term over the objections of Assistant District Attorney Robert Campolongo, who said DiPretoro cooperated with authorities.
Campolongo argued DiPretoro was an 'assassin' who killed Testa in order to raise his standing in the mob and become a mob-related drug dealer in South Philadelphia.
Meanwhile, fire officials were investigating a suspicious blaze that damaged the home of DiPretoro's mother. No one was injured in the fire.
DiPretoro, a former waiter at Old Original Bookbinders Restaurant, pleaded guilty Sept. 20 to the Testa slaying. He said he helped another man, Rocco Marinucci, kill Testa because he was afraid he would be killed if he refused.
Marinucci, 30, was found dead with firecrackers stuffed in his mouth March 15, 1982, in apparent retaliation for the Testa slaying.
Testa, 56, who reputedly succeeded Angelo Bruno as head of organized crime in Philadelphia, was killed March 15, 1981, when a bomb filled with nails exploded as he entered his South Philadelphia home.
The slaying occurred exactly one year to the day after Bruno was gunned down in his car.
The fire at Mrs. DiPretoro's house, reported at 1:32 a.m. Thursday, appeared to have been caused by a Molotov cocktail, an incendiary device usually made of a bottle filled with gasoline, authorities said.
The fire was brought under control within five minutes, but damaged the front of the house, authorities said.
