Kaboni Savage

Kaboni Savage (born January 1, 1975) is an American drug dealer, organized crime leader, and mass murderer who is currently on federal death row for ordering the firebombing of a house where a federal witness lived, killing six people (including four children).

He is the first man from Philadelphia in modern history to receive a federal death sentence.

He has twelve convictions for murder in aid of racketeering, one fewer than the Pennsylvania state record, and the most for anyone in Philadelphia.

Savage was the first person sentenced to death by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania since the federal death penalty resumed in 1988.

Savage, a former student of Frankford High School, began boxing at the Front Street Gym in North Philadelphia.

He had one professional boxing fight, which he won.

Savage's father died of cancer when he was 13 years old.

Savage began his operations as a drug dealer in Hunting Park and became a higher-level dealer.

According to federal authorities, Savage, from 1998 to around 2004 distributed hundreds of kilograms of cocaine in the Philadelphia area.

Authorities accused Savage of personally killing a stranger, Kenneth Lassiter, after Lassiter's car bumped into Savage's while the two were trying to park their respective cars.

Savage was acquitted of Lassiter's murder after the lead witness in the case, Tybius "Tib" Flowers, was also murdered.

Savage is suspected of ordering Flowers' murder.

There were no survivors; it was the deadliest mass murder in Philadelphia since the Lex Street murders in 2000.

Included in the death toll were Coleman; her 15-month-old son Damir Jenkins; three other youths ⁠related to Coleman, ⁠10-year-old Khadjah Nash, 12-year-old Tahj Porchea, and 15-year-old Sean Rodriguez ⁠; and 34-year-old Tameka Nash, Coleman's cousin and the mother of Khadjah Nash.

The family dog, a pit bull, also perished.

After learning that Eugene had been temporarily released from prison to attend the funeral of his relatives, a bug in Savage's cell recorded him remarking "They should stop off and get him some barbecue sauce … pour it on them burnt bitches."

Savage's sister, Kidada Savage, known as "Da" or "Lil' Sis", helped plot this crime by recruiting Lamont Lewis, the hitman.

Savage ordered the deaths of others, including that of Carlton Brown, a drug dealer and competitor of Savage who was shot by hitman Lamont Lewis in 2001.

Savage also ordered five other deaths of adult men and engaged in multiple attempts at intimidation while held at Federal Detention Center, Philadelphia (FDC Philadelphia,), threatening to kill children of those who testified against him.

Less than one week after he was acquitted in the Lassiter case, Savage was arrested and accused of heading a drug trafficking network.

He was convicted of 14 out of 16 charges and received a 30-year sentence.

Savage was convicted of multiple charges, including money laundering, witness intimidation, and drug offenses.

Savage was imprisoned in a federal facility near Florence, Colorado.

Lewis had been previously acquitted of killing Carlton "Muhammad" Brown, who died in 2001.

Lewis in turn asked Robert "B.J."

Merritt, Jr., his cousin, to help him.

Kidada Savage showed the hitman where the house was located.

According to federal prosecutors Merritt was the one who lit a gasoline can and threw it, and another one into the house.

Lewis said that both he and Merritt tossed cans into the house.

In March 2003, after Coleman murdered his friend, 26-year-old Tyrone Toliver of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, federal agents encouraged Coleman's 54-year-old mother, Marcella Coleman, a prison guard at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, to move to a new house; believing that she could defend herself, she refused.

Savage was convicted partly due to Coleman's testimony.

In return, Savage ordered Marcella Coleman's house in North Philadelphia to be burned down.

At the time, Savage was in custody at FDC Philadelphia.

Eugene "Twin" Coleman, who was previously working with Savage, was arrested and put in federal custody on October 8, 2004 and agreed to testify against Savage in a drug trial.

At about 5 ⁠a.m. on October 9, 2004, the rowhouse was firebombed.

The fire originated in a living room on the first floor, traveled quickly, and was extinguished after about 20 minutes.

Savage's daughter, Ciara "CeCe" Savage, a student at Ross Elementary School, died at age 9 during a gang shooting in York, Pennsylvania on Mothers Day, 2009.

The shooter, Nigel Maitland, was convicted of first degree murder for her death and was sentenced to life in prison.

Police and Jasmine Vadell, Ciara's mother, said the shooting was unrelated to Savage's gang activities in Philadelphia.

Vadell had raised Ciara alone and had not been romantically involved with Savage for years.