The DeCavalcante crime family, also known as the North Jersey crime family or the North Jersey Mafia, is an Italian American Mafia crime family that operates mainly in North Jersey, particularly in Elizabeth, Newark, Linden, West New York and the surrounding areas. The family is part of the nationwide criminal network known as the American Mafia.
The DeCavalcante family operates on the opposite side of the Hudson River from the Five Families of New York City, and maintains strong relations with each of the New York families, especially the Gambino family, as well as with the Philadelphia crime family and the Patriarca crime family of New England. The organization is considered by some to be the "Sixth Family".
The family's illicit activities include bookmaking; corruption; drug trafficking; extortion; fencing; fraud; hijacking; illegal gambling; money laundering; murder; prostitution; and cement, construction, and waste management racketeering.State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation Report (1989) Crime Family Dealt a Blow, Police Say William K. Rashbaum, The New York Times (October 20, 2000)
History Early Newark family In the city of Newark, New Jersey, Italian criminals were divided into two ethnic factions; the "Sicilians" and the "Neapolitans". The Sicilian Mafia faction was headed by Stefano "Don Steven" Badami, while the Neapolitan faction was led by Ruggiero "the Boot" Boiardo.
In 1920, Prohibition began in the United States, presenting many gangs with the opportunity to make a lot of money through bootlegging, the production, importing, transportation and selling of illegal alcohol. With large amounts of money to be earned, violence erupted throughout cities and towns in New Jersey as criminals fought for control of illegal bootlegging rackets, with the two most powerful bosses in Newark being Boiardo and Jewish gangster Abner "Longie" Zwillman.
By the early 1920s Boiardo had controlled a number of lottery games, a large extortion racket from shaking down merchants for protections money, and a large bootlegging operation. Boiardo was very overweight but a very flashy dresser, often wearing a belt buckle studded with 150 diamonds that had an estimated worth of $20,000, a five-carat diamond ring, and a fifteen-diamond pin to hold his tie in place.
Boiardo secured control of the First Ward, which was known as Newark's Little Italy, and operated an extensive bootlegging operation in Newark and throughout New Jersey. Zwillman was based out of the Third Ward, where he controlled one of the largest bootlegging enterprises in New Jersey.
In early 1930, Boiardo ordered his First Ward gang to expand into the Third Ward territory and began demanding that saloon owners buy liquor from him. This started the Newark bootleg wars, which lasted several weeks as Boiardo's First Ward gang waged war against Zwillman's Third Ward gang. In late 1930, both Boiardo and Zwillman decided to end the war after numerous failed assassination attempts against each other.
During Thanksgiving week of November 1930, more violence erupted as another assassination attempt was made against Boiardo which he survived after a gunman fired a shotgun into his car, hitting his neck, mouth, chest and arm with thirteen slugs. In early December 1930, Boiardo was released from the hospital, only to be arrested by the police for having a gun in his possession during the assassination attempt on him. Later he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
At the same time that Boiardo was on trial for gun possession, Zwillman was imprisoned for assault and began serving six months in jail. After being released from prison, Boiardo and Zwillman ended the fighting.
Meanwhile, across the river, a bloody Mafia war, known as the Castellammarese War, broke out in New York City in February 1930 as Sicilian Castellammarese Mafia boss Salvatore Maranzano challenged New York City Mafia boss Joe "The Boss" Masseria for the position of capo dei capi. In Newark, the Sicilian boss Badami joined Maranzano's alliance, while Neapolitan boss Boiardo sided with Masseria.
On April 15, 1931, Masseria was murdered, leaving Maranzano the most powerful mobster in America. Maranzano appointed Badami the boss and Sam Monaco the underboss of the Newark family.
On September 10, 1931, Maranzano was murdered, leaving Badami without protection from his enemies. Days later on September 13, 1931, the bodies of Badami's underboss Sam Monaco and top member Louis Russo were found floating in Newark Bay. The loss of Monaco and Russo caused Badami to flee Newark, leaving the family without leadership. The Newark family broke apart, as many members joined the Gagliano family's Jersey crew, while the remaining members stayed with Gaspare D'Amico.
D'Amico had moved to Newark during the early 1920s, settling in the Northeastern neighborhood of Woodside. After D'Amico took over as boss, he faced a number of rebellions against his leadership. In 1935, D'Amico was challenged by Vincenzo Troia for control of the Newark family, but he acted quickly and ordered Troia and his associates murdered.
The second challenge to D'Amico leadership occurred in 1937, when Salvatore Lombardino and others attempted to murder him but failed. During the assassination attempt D'Amico's father was murdered. Fearing for his life, D'Amico fled to Puerto Rico, where he died in October 1975. It was later discovered by the Commission that Profaci family boss Joseph Profaci had backed Lombardino and had ordered the assassination attempt on D'Amico.
The Commission decided to disband the Newark family, while declaring Newark an open city and dividing the family's territory among the Five Families of New York. The Luciano-Genovese family's New Jersey faction grew in power as Richard Boiardo became the family's caporegime of the Newark crew and powerful New Jersey mobster Willie Moretti became the family's underboss, while also controlling operations in Bergen county. The Gagliano family's Jersey crew caporegime was Settimo "Big Sam" Accardi, a former member of Badami's Newark family, who controlled operations in Newark and North Jersey. The Mangano family's Newark crew was controlled by Antonio Paterno, a former member of the Newark family. The Profaci family's New Jersey crew was led by Salvatore Lombardino, the man behind the attempted murder of Newark boss D'Amico. The Bonanno family's Newark crew was led by Antonio Riela. The city of Newark also had other gangsters fighting for dominance and territory, including the Philadelphia crime family, which had formed their own North Jersey crew, Zwillman, who maintained strong ties with Luciano and Moretti, and former Newark boss Badami, with his own small group.
Early Elizabeth family In the city Elizabeth, New Jersey the Mafia faction was made up of mostly immigrants from Ribera, Sicily. The Mafia group was based out of the Peterstown section of Elizabeth. The earliest known boss the Elizabeth Mafia faction was Filippo "Big Phil" Amari. He was born in Ribera, Sicily and arrived in Elizabeth in the early 1920s. During Amari's time as boss he recruited Emmanuel Riggi, Louis "Fat Lou" LaRasso and Frank Majuri into his Mafia faction. Over the years Amari continued to grow in power and was recognized by US law enforcement as being heavily involved in extortion, labor racketeering, loansharking, and narcotics activities in Elizabeth and Newark.
After fleeing Newark "Don Steven" Badami relocated in Orange, New Jersey. Badami continued operating a small Mafia group while working alongside other Mafia families. Badami was unsuccessful in taking over the Elizabeth Ribera Mafia faction because he had been born in Corleone, Sicily.
On March 31, 1955, Badami was murdered in a Newark restaurant, being stabbed 40 times. The police held Frank Monaco as a witness in the murder; he confirmed that he was the brother of Sam Monaco, a former associate of Badami who was murdered in 1931.
In 1956, Nicholas "Nick" Delmore Delmore's real name was Nicholas Amoruso. became boss after Amari retired and moved back to Sicily. Delmore was a longtime member of the Elizabeth faction, going back to the Prohibition era, when he owned the Maple Shade Inn in Berkeley Heights and worked with Abner Zwillman in some brewery operations.
In September 1930, Delmore became a fugitive following the killing of a federal Prohibition agent. Delmore was arrested in 1933 and charged with murder, but was later acquitted. In 1957 Delmore attended the infamous 1957 Apalachin Convention to represent the Elizabeth family of New Jersey, with his underboss Frank Majuri and capo Louis LaRasso.
Delmore ran the Elizabeth family until the early 1960s, when he became ill. In 1964, Delmore died and his nephew Sam DeCavalcante was installed as new boss of the Elizabeth family. Under DeCavalcante's regime the Commission began to recognize the Elizabeth family as an autonomous crime family and officially recognized it as the "DeCavalcante crime family" of North Jersey.
Sam DeCavalcante The official criminal organization began with Sam DeCavalcante, known as "Sam the Plumber" and "The Count". He was born in 1912 and was involved in illegal gambling, murder, and racketeering for most of his life. He rose to power in 1964, and he was incarcerated in 1969. He doubled the number of made men within his family during the 1960s. He died of a heart attack in 1997 at age 84.
DeCavalcante 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".
DeCavalcante and 54 associates were charged and tried in 1969. He pleaded guilty to operating a gambling racket turning over $20 million a year, and was sentenced to five years in federal prison. At the same time, a New York State report indicated that his family, as well as another Mafia family, controlled 90 percent of the pornography stores in New York City. In the early 1980s, DeCavalcante retired to Florida, leaving capo Giovanni Riggi as acting boss of the family. He largely stayed out of Mafia business, although the FBI believed that he was still advising the family into the early 1990s.
John Riggi 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, who had been a business agent for Local 394 of the Laborers' International Union of North America in New Jersey for years.
Once Riggi was promoted to the position of official boss, he reaped the enormous benefits of large labor and construction racketeering operations, as well as loansharking, illegal gambling, and extortion activities. Riggi also had the family maintain their old traditions, which Sam DeCavalcante had seen as unnecessary. In 1981, bosses and underbosses of the DeCavalcante and Colombo families attended a conclave in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, to divide territory in Miami.
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, after Frank Majuri died of health problems. Around the mid-1980s Riggi fell increasingly under the influence of Gambino crime family boss John Gotti.
After Riggi's conviction for racketeering in 1990 he appointed John D'Amato as acting boss of the family. D'Amato was later alleged to have participated in homosexual acts and was murdered in 1992. Riggi continued to run the family from his jail cell, but appointed Giacomo "Jake" Amari as his new acting boss.