DeCavalcante crime family

The official criminal organization began with Simone DeCavalcante, known as "Sam the Plumber" and "The Count". He was born in 1913 and was involved in illegal gambling, murder, and racketeering for most of his life. He died of a heart attack at age 84. He rose to power in 1964, and he was incarcerated in 1969. He doubled the number of made men within his family during the 60s. He owned Kenilworth Heating and Air Conditioning in Kenilworth, New Jersey as a legal front and source of taxable income, for which he gained the nickname "Sam the Plumber". He also claimed to be of Italian royal lineage, earning him the nickname "The Count". He gained much respect because he held a place on the infamous Commission, a governing body for the American Mafia which included the Five Families of New York, the Chicago Outfit, and Miami.

DeCavalcante and 54 associates were charged and tried; he pleaded guilty to operating a gambling racket turning over $20 million a year. At the same time, a New York State report indicated that he and another Mafia family controlled 90-percent of the pornography stores in New York City. DeCavalcante was sentenced to five years in prison. He retired to a high-rise condo in Florida when he was released and largely stayed out of Mafia business, although the FBI believed that he was still advising the family into the early 1990s.

After DeCavalcante left prison in the mid-1970s, he appointed Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi as acting boss of the family while he stayed semi-retired in Florida. DeCavalcante stepped down as boss officially in 1980, passing leadership to Riggi,[11] who had been a business agent of the International Association of Laborers and Hod Carriers in New Jersey for years. Riggi was promoted to the position of official boss, and he reaped the enormous benefits of large labor and construction racketeering,[11] loansharking, illegal gambling, and extortion activities. Riggi also had the family maintain their old traditions, which Sam DeCavalcante saw as unnecessary.

Riggi used his power and influence to place subcontractors and workers at various construction projects around the state, and the DeCavalcantes were able to steal from union welfare and pension funds. Riggi continued to run the family throughout the 1980s, with underboss Girolamo "Jimmy" Palermo and Stefano Vitabile as consigliere,[12] after Frank Majuri died of health problems. It was around the mid-1980s that Riggi fell increasingly under the influence of Gambino crime family boss John Gotti.[13]

After Riggi's conviction for racketeering, he appointed John D'Amato as acting boss of the family in 1990. D'Amato was later revealed to have participated in homosexual acts and was murdered in 1992.[14] Riggi continued to run the family from his jail cell, but he appointed Giacomo "Jake" Amari as his new acting boss. All was seemingly settled until Amari became ill and died slowly of stomach cancer in 1997. This caused a massive power vacuum within the family, with high-ranking members pushing to become the next boss of the DeCavalcante crime family.

After acting boss Amari's death, Riggi organized a three-man ruling panel in 1998 to run the day-to-day business of the crime family,[15] consisting of Girolamo Palermo, Vincent Palermo (no relation), and Charles Majuri,[16] with Stefano Vitabile as the reputed consigliere and adviser to the three.

The Panel, however, infuriated longtime captain Charles Majuri, who had been a hardworking member of the family since his teens and felt that he was wronged when he was not selected as the only acting boss.[16] To gain complete control of the DeCavalcante family, Majuri decided that he should murder Vincent Palermo, leaving himself in charge of the family.[16] Majuri contracted soldier James Gallo to murder Vincent Palermo; however, Gallo was a strong ally and friend of Vincent Palermo's, and told him about Majuri's plans.[16] In retaliation, Vincent Palermo decided to have Majuri murdered. However, after one plot fell through, the murder was eventually called off.[16]

Toward the late 1990s, the Ruling Panel kept running the DeCavalcante crime family with Giovanni Riggi still behind bars as the boss. The downfall of the DeCavalcante family was precipitated in 1998, when an associate named Ralph Guarino became an FBI informant, in an effort to avoid a long prison sentence in connection with taking part with two others in a heist of $1.6 million from the World Trade Center.[16] Guarino spent ten years undercover working for the FBI. He wore a listening device and recorded conversations that mobsters would have about criminal business. During Guarino's time as an informant, fellow mobster Joseph Masella was gunned down on the orders of Vincent Palermo.[16] Using information provided by Guarino, US law enforcement launched a large scale arrest on December 2, 1999 of over 30 members and associates of the DeCavalcante crime family.[17] Palermo realized they would likely spend the rest of their lives behind bars and decided to cooperate with the FBI in exchange for a lenient sentence.[17] This resulted in the arrest of 12 more men less than a year later.[17] This decimated the crime family's hierarchy and put it on the brink of extinction.[17] Other top members, like Anthony Rotondo and Anthony Capo, also agreed to become government witnesses.[18]

In 2001, 20 mobsters were charged with racketeering, seven murders, 14 murder conspiracies, attempted murder, extortion in the construction industry, and stock fraud.[17] This was the fourth indictment of the family since 1999. Since then, several other top mobsters agreed to become government witnesses in exchange for being given lenient or no sentences at all. US law enforcement even put Giovanni Riggi on trial, who was hoping to be released in 2003, and he was sentenced to 10 additional years in prison.[11]

Between 1999-2005, about 45 men were imprisoned, including the family's consigliere and seven capos.[19] With the decline of the DeCavalcante family, New York's Five Families have taken over many of the rackets in northern New Jersey.[16] Riggi was in jail until November 27, 2012, and he died in 2015.[20]

In March 2015, the FBI arrested 10 members and associates of the crime family on charges of conspiracy to commit murder and distribution of drugs, including 71 year-old captain Charles "Beeps" Stango and 72 year-old consigliere Frank Nigro.[21] Associates Rosario Pali and Nicholas DeGidio were convicted on April 4, 2017, after pleading guilty to distributing more than 500 grams of cocaine. DeGidio was sentenced to 1½ years in prison, and Pali was sentenced to over 6 years.[22][23][24] Luigi Oliveri was charged with the possession of contraband cigarettes.[25] In March 2017, Stango was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit murder.[26][27] Stango reportedly wanted Nigro and associate Paul Colella to get permission from the New Jersey hierarchy to kill Luigi Oliveri, but the murder was not committed because Stango did not get an answer. Prosecutors claimed that Stango and his son had plans to open a high-end escort service in Toms River, New Jersey. In 2016, Anthony Stango Jr. was sentenced to 6 years in prison after pleading guilty to using a telephone in interstate commerce to conduct a prostitution operation, conspiring to distribute five grams or more of cocaine, distributing more than $70,000 worth of cocaine, and possessing a shotgun as a convicted felon.[28]

(excluding Gaspare D’Amico[29])

• 1920s–1955 — Stefano Badami (murdered)[30]
• 1955–1957 — Filippo "Phil" Amari (retired)
• 1957–1964 — Nicholas "Nick" Delmore
  • Acting 1962–1964 — Sam DeCavalcante (became boss)
• 1964–1982 — Simone "Sam the Plumber" DeCavalcante (retired)
  • Acting mid-1970s-1982 - Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi (became boss)
• 1982–2015 — Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi (died of prostate cancer August 3, 2015)
  • Acting 1990–1992 — John "Johnny Boy" D'Amato (murdered)
  • Acting 1992–1997 — Giacomo "Jake" Amari (died of stomach cancer)
  • Ruling panel — 1997-1999 - Girolamo Palermo, Vincent Palermo and Charles Majuri (members arrested)
  • Ruling panel — 2000-2004 - Girolamo Palermo, Stefano Vitabile and Giuseppe "Pino" Schifilliti
  • Acting 2005–2007 – Joseph "Joe the Old Man" Miranda (stepped down)
  • Acting 2007–2016 – Francesco "Frank" Guarraci died April 14, 2016 [31]
• 2016–present — Unknown

A "street boss" will sometimes run several crews at once.[32]

• Unknown–present — "Milk" – A figure referenced by Charles Stango in wiretaps, the unidentified member known as "Milk" is thought to be serving in the capacity of street boss.[32]

• 1920s–1931 — Sam Monaco (murdered on September 10, 1931)[33]
• 1931–1955 — Filippo "Phil" Amari (promoted to boss)
• 1955–1956 — Nicholas "Nick" Delmore (promoted boss in 1957)
• 1956–1957 — Francesco "Fat Frank" Majuri (stepped down and became consigliere)
• 1957–1980s — Louis "Fat Lou" LaRasso (only official underboss, demoted, murdered in 1991)
  • Acting 1970s–1980s – Girolamo "Jimmy" Palermo – (held most of the power, became official underboss)
• 1980s–2004 — Girolamo "Jimmy" Palermo
  • Acting 1991–1992 — Giacomo "Jake" Amari (became acting boss)
  • Acting 2003–2005 — Joseph "Joe the Old Man" Miranda (became acting boss)
• 2007–unknown — Joseph "Joe the Old Man" Miranda

• 1920s–1957 — Unknown
• 1957–1982 — Francesco "Fat Frank" Majuri
• 1982–2006 — Stefano "Steve the Truck Driver" Vitabile (sentenced to life in 2006, overturned in 2008, released in 2013)
  • Acting 2002–2003 — Frank D'Amato (arrested)[34]
• 2006–unknown — Frank D'Amato
• Unknown–present — Frank Nigro (arrested 2015)[35]

• Boss – Unknown
• Street Boss Unidentified Name, aka "Milk" – was figure referenced by Charles Stango in 2015 wiretaps, the unidentified member known as "Milk" is thought to be serving in the capacity of street boss.[32]
• Underboss – Unknown
• Consigliere – Frank "Goombah Frankie" Nigro – the current consigliere. On March 12, 2015 Nigro was indicted along with other members on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, drug trafficking and prostitution.[36]

Northern New Jersey Faction

• Charles "Beeps" Stango – is a capo who was indicted with other members, including his son Anthony Stango, on March 12, 2015 on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, drug trafficking, and prostitution.[36][37] On March 28, 2017, Stango was sentenced to 120 months after being convicted.[38]

• Goldstock, Ronald; Marcus, Martin & Thacher, I.I. (1990). Corruption and Racketeering in the New York City Construction Industry: Final Report of the New York State Organized Crime Task Force. New York: NYU Press. ISBN 0-8147-3034-5.
• Jacobs, James B. (1994). Busting the Mob: The United States Vs. Cosa Nostra. New York: NYU Press. ISBN 0-8147-4230-0.
• Jacobs, James B.; Friel, Coleen & Radick, Robert (1999). Gotham Unbound: How New York City Was Liberated from the Grip of Organized Crime. New York: NYU Press. ISBN 0-8147-4247-5.
• Smith, Greg B. (2003). Made Men: The True Rise-and-Fall Story of a New Jersey Mob Family. Berkley Books. ISBN 0-425-18551-6.
• United States Congress, Senate, Committee on the Judiciary (1983). Organized Crime in America: Hearings Before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate. Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O.

• UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. RIGGI, John M., Appellant in 90-5974; UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. TIMPANI, Salvatore, Appellant in 90-5975. UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT. 1991. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28.

• Rashbaum, William K. (October 20, 2000). "Crime Family Dealt a Blow, Police Say". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 29, 2003.
• Rudolph, Robert (May 9, 2003). "Mob Story - How a crime family turned dysfunctional". The Star-Ledger.
• State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation (1989). The Mafia in New Jersey.
• Tuohy, John William (January 15, 2000). "Round Up The Usual Suspects". Rick Parnello's AmericanMafia.com.