Valuetainment - March 20, 2026


“If You Hang With A Rat, You’re A Rat!” - Joey Merlino REVEALS How He Beat RICO Cases & Stayed Loyal


Episode Stats


Length

9 minutes

Words per minute

194.84814

Word count

1,944

Sentence count

116

Harmful content

Misogyny

6

sentences flagged

Toxicity

28

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

On this episode of the podcast, the brother and sister duo of the sit down and discuss the life and crimes of former Philadelphia Police Officer Sonny Francis and his son Michael Francis. Michael and his brother discuss how they grew up in a broken family and how they dealt with the stress of growing up in the public eye.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
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00:00:14.800 You beat three Ricoh cases, right, if I'm not mistaken?
00:00:17.520 Maybe four.
00:00:18.380 Three or four?
00:00:19.320 I still don't know where Ricoh is.
00:00:20.760 You still don't know what Ricoh is? 0.99
00:00:21.520 I had three fucking cases. 0.99
00:00:22.740 They named it after an Italian guy. 1.00
00:00:24.480 They named it after an Italian guy.
00:00:27.120 Ricoh.
00:00:27.720 Ricoh. 1.00
00:00:28.180 Who the fuck's Ricoh? 1.00
00:00:30.520 He keeps getting beaten up, apparently, if it's... 0.99
00:00:33.360 So three or four times, the seven alleged murders
00:00:37.620 that you're saying you got acquitted on.
00:00:39.900 So to me, when I met with Sonny Francis,
00:00:43.440 and I don't know what thoughts you have about Sonny.
00:00:46.100 When I met with Sonny...
00:00:47.760 Sonny or Michael?
00:00:48.740 Not Michael, Sonny.
00:00:50.060 Sonny, the father.
00:00:51.540 Sonny did, I don't know what his time is, I think 52, 53 years?
00:00:54.760 60 years.
00:00:55.500 Yeah, 60 years.
00:00:56.460 He did a lot of time.
00:00:57.040 He did a lot of time.
00:00:58.040 What do you think about Sonny?
00:00:59.440 Listen, the guy was a great guy.
00:01:00.620 He did his time, kept his mouth shut. 0.56
00:01:02.300 But when his son put people in jail, if you condone a rat,
00:01:07.380 if I know the way I live, the way I was brought up, 0.98
00:01:09.620 if I know a guy's a rat and I hang with him, I'm a rat. 0.98
00:01:12.660 It's simple as that. 0.98
00:01:13.340 I got an uncle that ratted.
00:01:14.260 I never talked to him again, ever.
00:01:17.000 Disowned him.
00:01:17.500 My family disowned him.
00:01:19.080 Is this the uncle that just recently died?
00:01:21.340 Lawrence, no, he died.
00:01:23.420 He died when I was in jail.
00:01:24.640 When I got pinched, where was I?
00:01:27.800 to say a county jail
00:01:29.420 I
00:01:31.440 I had a murder
00:01:33.160 I had a murder
00:01:34.120 murder case
00:01:34.820 in Rico in Philly
00:01:36.020 one of the murders
00:01:37.480 was Sedano
00:01:38.100 I beat it
00:01:38.800 the next day
00:01:40.420 they indicted me
00:01:41.900 for the same murder
00:01:42.660 in Newark
00:01:43.240 federal court
00:01:43.780 I beat it twice
00:01:44.980 24 people found me
00:01:47.020 not guilty
00:01:47.420 two jurors
00:01:48.160 and I was in the
00:01:50.220 county jail
00:01:50.720 and I called my
00:01:51.380 cousin Ken
00:01:51.920 which is his daughter
00:01:54.020 and she said to me
00:01:56.040 i think it was my my mother called me said you gotta call kim it's it's important so i called
00:02:01.860 her what happened she said my father died i said good your father died good and they didn't talk
00:02:09.540 much they told me they never talked to him i don't think they did i really don't and she said what 1.00
00:02:14.060 should we do i said the what day's trash day she said thursday i said throw him in the fucking 0.99
00:02:19.600 trash stop and i was and then they never talked then they stopped talking to me they stopped talking 1.00
00:02:24.100 They stopped talking.
00:02:24.680 So we never, I never talked to my uncle.
00:02:26.940 I never, you know what I mean?
00:02:27.600 If you, if you, if you know somebody hurt people and lied on people and you talk to them, you're just as bad as them.
00:02:34.560 That's the way I was brought up.
00:02:36.280 Who taught that to you?
00:02:37.420 That's just the way I live.
00:02:38.680 I live until I die.
00:02:39.900 That's South Philly code?
00:02:41.260 It should be every code.
00:02:44.580 I mean, it's just the way we were brought up.
00:02:45.640 So to you, when you, when you think about Sonny, you think about a guy that just because he associated with his son.
00:02:52.280 Yeah.
00:02:52.900 He's not supposed to talk to him.
00:02:54.100 I mean, unless he got seen now.
00:02:57.540 So you're saying even if he goes and meets with his son,
00:03:01.020 you're breaking the code because you're meeting with somebody that spoke to the feds?
00:03:04.320 I'm not talking about no code.
00:03:05.820 It's just the way I live.
00:03:07.680 I mean.
00:03:08.080 But that's a code, though, no?
00:03:09.200 My uncle.
00:03:10.100 I would never. 1.00
00:03:11.020 Fuck him. 1.00
00:03:12.240 Good. 1.00
00:03:12.500 I'm glad he's dead. 0.96
00:03:14.400 And he never testified against nobody.
00:03:17.260 But why did you do that to your uncle?
00:03:18.720 Why do you have that feeling towards your uncle, that animosity?
00:03:21.400 He's no good.
00:03:22.500 What did he do that caused you to feel that way?
00:03:25.360 What did he do?
00:03:26.720 He was just not supposed to do what he did.
00:03:29.160 Made up lies.
00:03:30.140 He tried to get out of jail.
00:03:32.200 And he lied, and he was so bad they never used him.
00:03:34.580 Did he ever cooperate or no?
00:03:35.840 Yeah, he cooperated.
00:03:37.600 He sat down.
00:03:38.620 You know, he told them everything, stories. 0.99
00:03:41.460 But they never used him because he was fucking lying. 0.99
00:03:44.320 They must have knew he was lying. 0.99
00:03:46.120 And that was it.
00:03:47.140 They never used him.
00:03:48.040 But he cooperated.
00:03:49.820 So in your eyes, he cooperated?
00:03:51.820 Is that your, is that the uncle, Lawrence?
00:03:55.180 Yeah, that's him, yeah.
00:03:55.980 Yeah.
00:03:57.460 Interesting.
00:03:58.640 Okay, so going back to Sonny, what you said, but Sonny was a good guy.
00:04:01.940 So the only issue you have with Sonny is the fact that he met with his son.
00:04:05.380 Yeah.
00:04:07.060 I mean, I don't know him.
00:04:08.020 I'm just saying, like, he made his son come and visit him in jail,
00:04:10.900 pick him up from jail.
00:04:12.640 If he knows, he put people in jail.
00:04:16.160 And you're talking about Michael.
00:04:17.500 Michael, yeah, whatever.
00:04:18.200 And then he got another son to do.
00:04:19.800 Michael ain't even his son.
00:04:21.380 right that's a that's a you know story that's been discussed many times that Michael doesn't
00:04:26.480 want to talk about but um yeah and his other son he had some issues that uh things that took place
00:04:32.720 with him but with Sonny to me when it comes on to Sonny you know Sonny was one of those guys that
00:04:38.020 one time I went to New York were with him he was staying at this uh I don't know if you call it an
00:04:42.860 old folks homes or hospital that's where we visited three times I took him out one time to
00:04:47.640 lunch his lawyers are there and it's eight or nine of us and we're going out there we're eating at
00:04:52.340 the nice spot and i'm asking him all these questions and he was one of the guys that was
00:04:58.160 true to omerta like he was not gonna say nothing so your challenge with sonny is the fact that he
00:05:04.640 just associated with his son yeah maybe once you know again i don't know he was old i don't know
00:05:09.620 i mean i don't know him i don't know if i'm saying if it was me i would never i would never
00:05:15.480 Even if it was your son?
00:05:16.740 Yeah, even if it wasn't my son.
00:05:19.480 But he's not even his son.
00:05:21.580 So you're saying even if one of your kids turned
00:05:24.580 and went and cooperated with the feds, you would never...
00:05:27.800 Never talk at them, no.
00:05:30.080 Do you have a son?
00:05:31.040 No, I have no son.
00:05:32.040 Do you have any kids?
00:05:32.900 Yeah, I got two girls. 1.00
00:05:34.060 Okay.
00:05:34.980 So if one of your girls did, you would never talk to her ever again? 0.59
00:05:38.640 My girls would never be in that situation. 0.80
00:05:40.940 Why do you say that?
00:05:42.660 They would never be in a situation where they have to make up stories
00:05:45.400 in line are both successful one's an attorney and one's an advertisement wow so you know i've never
00:05:52.360 put my kids in that situation you would never put them in a situation like that huh interesting to
00:05:57.400 me when i when i hear uh so who else when this concept of uh you're saying this is how we do
00:06:04.540 things if somebody you know snitches or does something we don't associate with them anymore
00:06:07.880 where does this code come from though it's just the way i am the way i was brought up what did
00:06:13.260 What did your pops teach you?
00:06:14.360 Because your dad was a low-respectful guy.
00:06:15.940 Listen, my mother taught me when I was a kid, don't tattletale.
00:06:19.120 Did you like tattletales when you were a kid?
00:06:20.480 No.
00:06:21.060 Nobody likes them. 1.00
00:06:22.180 Fucking tattletales. 1.00
00:06:24.920 I went to school. 1.00
00:06:25.940 Like, if we got in trouble in school, you never tell them whatever.
00:06:30.000 The nuns used to beat us with iron rulers. 0.99
00:06:32.240 Who broke the window?
00:06:33.220 Who threw this?
00:06:33.820 Who did that? 0.91
00:06:34.460 We don't know.
00:06:35.120 We don't know.
00:06:35.700 Just the way we're brought up.
00:06:37.060 Nobody likes tattletale.
00:06:38.380 Okay.
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00:07:10.800 my center my soul is gone from academy award nominee taylor sheridan mine is not a family
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00:07:38.000 yeah but you you know the the okay so that's one what else what else was certain rules that's it
00:07:45.160 that's just the way we grew up never you know mind your business if it don't affect you just
00:07:52.080 mind your business how how tough was it growing up in south philly i was tough philly's tough
00:07:57.040 neighborhood south philly's tough but it was a good neighborhood close-knit everybody looked out
00:08:02.100 for each other you can leave your door open so what made it tough just the neighborhood you know
00:08:09.000 blue collar everybody worked and it was just we all grew up we hung in school yards you know like
00:08:14.420 old kids we i'm still friends with the kids i went to the kiddie garden with and we all grew up
00:08:19.180 together and we just that's just the way we were joe how how many people of of friends of yours
00:08:26.680 that you had how many were true to this code no tattletail no snitching no talking to feds
00:08:33.140 how many guys were the core guys that you could trust with anything my whole neighborhood everybody
00:08:37.960 was like that when you say whole neighborhood you mean you're talking about hundreds of people 0.98
00:08:41.180 yeah like everybody that we hung out with every it's just the way it was today it's all fucked up 0.98
00:08:45.240 what happened well no i'm saying like we used to hang in the schoolyard we played basketball we
00:08:50.000 played baseball we played every sport you could take a hockey you don't even see a kid in the 1.00
00:08:53.560 school yard no more they play fucking video games they're all fucked up they can't even talk 1.00
00:08:58.060 so you know it's just that i'm glad i was born when i was born kids they are all fucked up my 1.00
00:09:05.520 name is joey merlino any questions you have on my neck you want to ask me i'm an expert in sports 0.97
00:09:11.520 gambling restaurants we got the best cheesesteaks in philly anything you want to know about philly
00:09:18.000 South Philly, Atlantic City, reach out, and I got you.
00:09:23.120 If you enjoyed this video, you want to watch more videos like this, click here.
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00:09:37.420 Getting ready for a game means being ready for anything, like packing a spare stick.
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