John Ciancaglini, a notorious Philadelphia mobster, charged in Chickie’s and Pete’s brawl

One of the men accused of taking part in a brawl at Chickie’s & Pete’s in South Philadelphia earlier this month is a well-known Philadelphia mob figure with decades of ties to the city’s underworld.

John “Johnny Chang” Ciancaglini, 68, was charged with crimes including simple assault, conspiracy and reckless endangerment for his role in the Aug. 2 brawl at the sports bar and restaurant on the 1500 block of Packer Avenue.

According to charging documents, Ciancaglini showed up at the restaurant around 5 p.m. and almost immediately tried to punch a 37-year-old man in the head. That move set off a wild chain of events, the documents say: Two restaurant employees were choked and beaten when they tried to stop the fight from escalating, Ciancaglini’s wife later showed up with a three-foot metal pipe and began threatening people with it, and another man punched a police officer in the face.

At the end of the episode, four other people, including Ciancaglini’s wife Kathy, were to be charged, authorities said.

However, Ciancaglini’s arrest was not his first run-in with the law.

In 2001, Ciancaglini, then a reputed Mafia leader, was convicted of racketeering along with alleged boss Joseph “Skinny Joey” Merlino. Ciancaglini served about eight years in federal prison.

Years later, in 2014, a meeting between Ciancaglini and Merlino at a Boca Raton cigar bar led to a judge sending Merlino back to prison for a few months. Under the terms of Merlino’s parole, he was not to have any contact with alleged mobsters.

But if Ciancaglini is to be believed, he is certainly no longer involved with La Cosa Nostra – and never has been.

“No sir,” he said Friday when reached by phone. “Don’t believe everything you read.”

Ciancaglini was similarly silent when asked about the Chickie’s & Pete’s brawl. “I can’t comment on it,” he said, referring to the ongoing lawsuit.

An affidavit of probable cause for the arrests in this case gave the following account of what happened:

At approximately 5:00 p.m. on August 2, Ciancaglini walked into Chickie’s & Pete’s, walked directly up to a table where Michael DiBella was sitting with other people, and struck DiBella in the head. Ciancaglini missed, but it took several people to stop the men from fighting further.

Two Chickie’s & Pete’s employees were among those who tried to calm the situation, but both were attacked in the maelstrom. One of them was pushed against a wall by DiBella and put in a chokehold by DiBella’s brother, Richard, 45. Michael DiBella then punched the other employee in the jaw, a blow that knocked her to the ground, left her “dizzy” and had difficulty moving.

However, the situation calmed down and everyone involved remained on the scene until police arrived. Officers arrested the DiBella brothers and one of their friends, Joseph Baldino, 39, who “continually obstructed officers’ efforts to defuse the situation and conduct their initial investigation,” the statement said. After about an hour, officers advised everyone to leave and told them not to return. No arrests were made.

But just after 7 p.m., John Ciancaglini returned with his wife, who “reignited the situation as she was armed with a large metal pipe,” the affidavit said. She began swinging it and “held it in a baseball player’s stance” as she looked out at a crowd that included the DiBella brothers and Baldino.

Officers had to intervene to prevent the groups from attacking each other, and when they went to arrest people, including Baldino, he punched a sergeant in the face several times.

Baldino, of Packer Park, was charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and related offenses.

Kathy Ciancaglini, 62, was charged with disturbing the peace and related offenses.

Richard and Michael DiBella, ages 45 and 37, respectively, were charged with crimes including aggravated assault and simple assault.

Court documents show Ciancaglini is due back in court next month for a status review.