DeCavalcante stepped down as boss officially in 1980, passing leadership to Riggi, [10] who had been a business agent of the International Association of Laborers and Hod Carriers in New Jersey for years. He said: "We agreed that he should be murdered. [26], In March 2017, Stango was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for conspiracy to commit murder. DiMeo crime family is featured in the HBO television series The Sopranos. Giuseppe "Pino" Schifilliti is a former prominent member of the DeCavalcante crime family since the 1980s, heavily involved in labor racketeering and extortion activities. I had not only endangered the entire operation, I had endangered my family.. Family lineage charts are created based on our sources to the best of our ability. Girolamo "Jimmy" Palermo was an Italian-born American mobster and longtime underboss of the DeCavalcante crime family in Elizabeth, New Jersey, under the imprisoned boss Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi. By 1964, with the death of Delmore, his nephew Simone (Sam the Plumber) DeCavalcante would be selected as the . Lee Seglem, assistant director of the State Commission of Investigation, said: This guy may be the last of the old time mob bosses for this region. Mafia bosses and hierarchies heading into 2021. Louis "Fat Lou" LaRasso was an American mobster and the longtime official underboss of the DeCavalcante crime family. The DeCavalcante crime family has maintained close and intricate connections to two of the most powerful and well-known Mafia organizations in the United States: the Gambino and Lucchese crime families. There were several bosses in North Jersey during the Prohibition era controlling transportation of alcohol and whiskey into New York City, and there were two Mafia families based in New Jersey: the Newark family headed by Gaspare D'Amico, and the Elizabeth family headed by Stefano Badami. Rocco was able to gain the confidence of the DeCavalcante hierarchy. Giovanni Rocco tells Gary his experiences as he infiltrated the DeCavalcante crime family AKA The Real Sopranos. That's it.". The members of other crime families sometimes refer to Lucchese family members as "Lukes". A Sixth Family is a crime family or criminal organization, usually an Italian-American or Italian-Canadian crime group, that has become powerful or notable enough to rise to a level comparable to that of the Five Families of the New York City Italian-American Mafia. By acting as a bug by the FBI, the DeCavalacnte crime family was already started being pushed to a far end of a cliff as the whereabouts of its members were revealed. This was the fourth indictment of the family since 1999. Giovanni, a New Jersey police officer, using his undercover name "Giovanni Gatto," infiltrated the crime family and the Newark Division's Organized Crime Task Force, supervised by Anthony, charged and convicted ten members and DeCavalcante associates. Simone Paul Rizzo DeCavalcante, known as Sam the Plumber, was an Italian-American mobster who was the boss of the DeCavalcante crime family in New Jersey. Joe Biden is an associate of the DeCavalcante crime family of New Jersey. Despite this diminished status, the family continues to operate, albeit on a smaller and more restricted scale, employing a range of criminal tactics to sustain their operations and defend against ongoing law enforcement pressure. He wasnt sure if the Gambino soldier had seen him with his wife, kids and his parents. 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. Rocco had to hole up, like a mob rat, as his FBI bosses mulled how to prevent him from getting whacked. My house had to become a fortress. The dealer came across as greedy, and that gave the agents an idea. HELP! End of story. strip club. The DeCavalcante familys organizational cohesion is founded on the principle of omert, or the code of silence, which requires that members keep all criminal activity and involvement within the organization a closely guarded secret. The familys hierarchy is steeped in tradition and loyalty, with the patriarch, or Don, at the helm of their criminal enterprise, supported by a network of ruthless and cunning underbosses and capos. We've received your submission. This reduction in power and reach can be attributed to a variety of factors, including increased law enforcement scrutiny, internal power struggles, and the erosion of traditional criminal enterprises such as labour racketeering and illegal gambling. The DeCavalcantes were no joke they were said to have been the inspiration for HBO hit The Sopranos and many of them were angry at Rocco for taking down his tough-talking target, Charlie The Hat Stango. An example of this would be the introduction of COVID-19 vaccines, where we reported on About The Mafia how many crime families were looking to cash-in on the vaccine distribution.if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'aboutthemafia_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_2',649,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-aboutthemafia_com-medrectangle-4-0'); Subscribe to About The Mafias weekly newsletter to get the latest organized crime news delivered straight to your inbox: Subscribe for FREE. [15] Guarino spent ten years undercover working for the FBI. Indictment Names 20", "FBI announces 10 New Jersey mafia arrests", "2 Union County DeCavalcante Crime Family Members Admit Selling Cocaine", "Members Of DeCavalcante Crime Family Sentenced To Prison Terms For Distributing Cocaine", "Ten Members and Associates of Decavalcante Organized Crime Family Arrested", "Linden crime family associate gets 6 years", "DeCavalcante Captain Admits Planning Rival's Murder: U.S. Attorney", "Toms River brothel capo gets 10 years in murder plot", "Son of accused 'Sopranos' mobster admits plot to run prostitution biz", "Bringing down 'The Sopranos' for the FBI destroyed my life", "Hanging His Hat At Home Again: DeCalvacante Crime Family Capo Charlie Stango Returns From Prison To Garden State", "DOJ Criminal Complaint: DeCavalcante Family | Sicilian Mafia | Organized Crime", "FBI arrests 10, dealing blow to N.J. mob family that inspired 'The Sopranos', Ten Members and Associates of Decavalcante Organized Crime Family Arrested, Profile of DeCavalcante crime family capo Charles Stango, "Member Of DeCavalcante Crime Family Sentenced To 10 Years In Prison For Use Of Interstate Facility To Commit Murder", "Racketeering Convictions Rejected for 3 in Mob Case", "2 JERSEY MOBSTERS ADMIT BUMPING OFF 'FAT LOU' IN '91", "Reputed N.J. mobster admits road-rage assault caught on tape", "DOJ Press release on DeCavalcante Indictment", "Gang Land News: America's Expert on the American Mafia", "Alleged Garden State Goodfella "Joe Red" Merlo, Jr. Checks Out Of Game Early, Dies Young At 60 & On The Rise", "John Riggi: Leader of the DeCavalcante crime family the notorious real-life inspiration for 'The Sopranos', "FBI agent ID's Greco as suspect in mob hit", "Police Arrest 39 Allegedly Tied To Organized Crime Family", "MOB TURNCOAT SPILLING TO FBI Vinnie Ocean set to scuttle 5 families", "GOTTI SHOWN GIVING SMOOCH TO GAY MOBSTER", "Hit man's confessions Mob turncoat tells court of his blood-soaked life", "SINGING 'SOPRANO' MOB RAT PEGS PETER AS BOSS", "Feds were investigating slain union organizer", "A TONY, BUT NOT SOPRANO Turncoat testifies against N.J. mob", "Da Jersey boys who inspired The Sopranos", "Mob Story - How a crime family turned dysfunctional", List of Italian-American mobsters by organization, Collaborations between the United States government and Italian Mafia, Bootlegging, drug trafficking, extortion, fencing, fraud, hijacking, illegal gambling, loan-sharking, money laundering, murder, theft, pornography, prostitution, racketeering, Various gangs in New Jersey, including their allies, 19551956 Filippo "Phil" Amari retired. To the Mafia and his victims, he was the "devil himself." . Boss: Liborio S. Barney Bellomo/63Street Boss: Michael Mickey Ragusa/55UnderBoss: Ernest Muscarella/76Consigliere: ????? "The DeCavalcante family is the longest standing Italian-American organized crime family," Rocco, 52, told TheToronto Sun. . I was the first task force officer that it ever happened to, he said. [32], A "street boss" will sometimes run several crews at once. Frank "Franky the Beast" Scarabino is a New York City mobster and former soldier in the North Jersey based DeCavalcante crime family. DeCavalcante crime family boss Vincent (Vinny Ocean) Palermo, of Long Island, was the shooter in the Weiss murder. Happy travels! Arranging a buy with Heeney was hardly new territory for Rocco, who presented himself as Giovanni Gatto, an outlaw biker-turned-wiseguy with a gaudy pinky ring the character hed forged years earlier in a previous narcotics sting. Rocco returned home that night, quickly removing his bejeweled ring as if to shed his Mafia alter ego, only to turn on the TV and learn that actor James Gandolfini had died and a tribute to the Sopranos star was playing. Palermo got his nickname after working at a fish business at the Fulton Fish Market. The shows lead character Tony Soprano - played by the late James Gandolfini - is said to have been based on the familys boss, John The Eagle Riggi. The Commission did not recognize the DeCavalcantes as an autonomous crime family until the regime of Sam DeCavalcante. In 1980, he passed control of the family to Giovanni John the Eagle Riggi and retired to Miami Beach, Florida. Rocco successfully worked his way into the DeCavalcante hierarchy, collecting enough evidence to eviscerate the Mafia organization. Crime drama The Sopranos is often considered to be the greatest TV show of all time. He died in 1964, and his nephew Simone DeCavalcante was installed as new boss of the officially recognized "DeCavalcante crime family" of North Jersey. Members refer to the organization as the Lucchese borgata; borgata is Mafia slang for criminal gang, which itself was derived from Sicilian word meaning close-knit community. The Panel 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. Capo was a former soldier and hitman for the DeCavalcante crime family. Giovanni spent nearly three years working his way into the DeCavalcante hierarchy. I was being treated like a gangster. In 1998, agents employed an associate of the group - Ralph Guarino - to work undercover as an informant. )Street Boss: Andrew Andy Mush RussoUnderboss: Benjamin The Little GuyCastellazzoActing Underboss: ?? Formed and based in South Philadelphia, the criminal organization primarily operates in various areas and neighbourhoods in Philadelphia, the Greater Philadelphia Metropolitan Area like the Delaware Valley and New Jersey, especially South Jersey. Moreover, the familys once-pervasive presence has been steadily eroded by the emergence of new and diverse criminal organizations that have supplanted the DiMeo familys role in various illicit activities. The Lucchese crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, in the United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. Rocco and another agent met up with Heeney in Atlantic City, buying a 200-gram sampler of coke at a casino steakhouse. It operates on the opposite side of the Hudson River from the Five Families of New York. It is part of the nationwide criminal network known as the American Mafia. Philip Abramo, also known as "The King of Wall Street" and "Lou Metzer", is a caporegime in the New Jersey DeCavalcante crime family who was allegedly involved in security fraud and murder. He uses the tough guy characters he saw as he grew up in a . Make a deal. He said the DeCavalcante crime family had used the coffins to secretly bury the . The organizations name is derived from the original Mafia or Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian Mafia, with American Mafia originally referring simply to Mafia (or Cosa nostra) groups from Sicily operating in the United States, as the organization initially emerged as an offshoot of the Sicilian Mafia formed by Italian immigrants in the United States. As such, the connection between the DeCavalcante crime family and political corruption serves as a reminder of the need for robust and vigilant mechanisms of oversight and accountability to prevent the unchecked spread of illicit activities in the public sphere. The downfall of the DeCavalcante family was precipitated in 1998, when an associate named Ralph Guarino became an FBI informant, 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. As a distinct toponym, North Jersey is a colloquial one rather than an administrative one, reflecting geographical and perceived cultural and other differences between it and the southern part of the state. Once I left I couldnt come back for anything, even a funeral for a guy I worked with. Tony Soprano is said to have been based on John Riggi, Riggi was described as being 'the last of the old time mob bosses'. The DeCavalcante crime family, also known as the North Jersey Mafia, is an Italian-American Mafia organized crime family. "Pursuant to the agreement, Fred Weiss was murdered. ), *Michael Mikey Lance Lancelotti,previous acting boss, has taken a step back due to battles with cancer, Phil Narducci is now independent. It maintains strong relations with many of them, as well as with the Philadelphia crime family and the Patriarca crime family of New England. Last edited by NYMafia; 04/03/23 07:16 PM. The real Sopranos Paul Davis June 22nd, 2021 "Giovanni's Ring: My Life Inside the Real Sopranos," written by Giovanni Rocco with Douglas Schofield, covers the true story of a former FBI undercover operative and his successful infiltration of the DeCavalcante Cosa Nostra crime family. UB 2.PHILIP ABRAMO Boss: Alphonse Allie BoyPersico(? document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. We left our house with toys on the floor, Rocco said. 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Anthony Zampogna served 22 years with the FBI. Release date: June 1, 2021 EPUB ebook. In an interview with Deadline, David Chase revealed that he went to Newark every Saturday to have dinner with his grandparents. Riggi continued to run the family throughout the 1980s, with underboss Girolamo Jimmy Palermo and Stefano Vitabile as consigliere, after Frank Majuri died of health problems. He was considered the new head of the New Jersey organization, but his reign proved to be very short, as there were multiple factions operating underneath who all conspired to take over. He was released from prison on April 28, 2009. When Joseph Iacobacci died earlier this year of natural causes, his death marked an end of an era for the Cleveland Mafia. Riggi was incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Devens, Massachusetts, on extortion and labor racketeering convictions. 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