20 Shocking Facts about DeVacalvante crime family

A photo of a pistol gunshot muzzle by kerttu – Pixabay

20 Shocking Facts about DeVacalvante crime family

The DeCavalcante crime family, also known as the North Jersey Mafia, is an Italian-American Mafia organized crime family. It is part of the nationwide criminal network known as the American Mafia. It operates on the opposite side of the Hudson River from the Five Families of New York.

The DeCavalcante crime family remains active today, though its power and influence have declined in recent years. The family has been accused of using violence and intimidation to maintain its power and influence. Also, it has been involved in labour racketeering, particularly in the New Jersey construction industry. In the article are twenty shocking facts about the DeVacalvante crime family.

1. DeCavalcante crime family operates mainly in northern New Jersey

North Jersey comprises the northern portions of the U.S. state of New Jersey between the upper Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean. 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.

The DeCavalcante Crime Family’s decision to establish and maintain their primary operations in Northern New Jersey can be attributed to several factors. One key factor is the region’s proximity to New York City, a major hub of organized crime activity in the United States. Additionally, Northern New Jersey’s densely populated urban areas and bustling ports provided ample opportunities for the family to engage in lucrative criminal enterprises, such as gambling, loan sharking, and drug trafficking.

2. The founding father of the family was Sam DeCavalcante

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. Claiming descent from the Italian royal family, DeCavalcante was nicknamed “The Count”. The McClellan hearings later named the New Jersey Mafia the DeCavalcante crime family since he was the boss of the family at the time of those hearings.

DeCavalcante moved to Florida in 1976. In 1980, he passed control of the family to Giovanni “John the Eagle” Riggi and retired to Miami Beach, Florida. He started planning to build a legitimate resort casino in South Florida; however, the project died when voters rejected casino gambling in a 1986 referendum.

3. The Decavalcantes are considered by some to be the “Sixth Family”

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. A criminal organization deemed a “Sixth Family” may rival the Five Families or may work closely enough with the Five Families that it appears to be a peer or near coequal of the families.

4. The DeCavalcante family has strong relations with the Philadelphia crime family

The Philadelphia crime family, also known as the Philadelphia Mafia, the Philly Mob or Philly Mafia, the Philadelphia-South Jersey Mafia, or the Bruno-Scarfo family is an Italian-American Mafia family based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

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. The family is notorious for its violence, due in particular to its succession of violent bosses and multiple mob wars.

5. Charles Majuri is the current boss of the DeVacalvante Crime Family

Charles “Big Ears” Majuri is the son of former consigliere Frank Majuri. Upon Giacomo Amari’s death, Giovanni Riggi appointed Majuri as one of the members of the Ruling Panel, along with Girolamo Palermo and Vincent Palermo. In 2000, Majuri was indicted on multiple charges including racketeering, loansharking, extortion, and conspiracy to commit murder. He was released from prison on April 28, 2009. Majuri’s position in the family was confirmed in 2021.

6. The DeVacalvante deals with all types of crimes

The illicit activities of the DeVacalvante Crime Family include bookmaking, cement and construction violations, bootlegging, corruption, drug trafficking, extortion, fencing, fraud, hijacking, illegal gambling, loan-sharking, money laundering, murder, pier thefts, pornography, prostitution, racketeering, and waste management violations.

Also, The DeCavalcante Crime Family has been implicated in the illicit distribution of counterfeit merchandise, specifically in the realm of luxury goods such as designer handbags and clothing. This nefarious activity involves the creation and dissemination of imitation products that are designed to mimic the appearance and branding of high-end fashion items, often with the intent of deceiving consumers into believing they are purchasing authentic items.

This illegal trade has been linked to various forms of criminal activity, including money laundering, tax evasion, and the funding of organized crime enterprises. The family’s involvement in such illicit practices highlights their ability to exploit various markets for financial gain, often at the expense of legitimate businesses and consumers.

7. The family has been the subject of several books and films

The DeCavalcante Crime Family has garnered substantial attention from the media and entertainment industry, as evidenced by its portrayal in various books and films, such as the critically acclaimed HBO series “The Sopranos,” which is widely regarded as one of the most influential television programs of all time. While the series was loosely based on the DeCavalcante Crime Family and other organized crime syndicates operating in the northeastern United States, it is a testament to the family’s enduring significance in popular culture and public imagination.

The program’s nuanced portrayal of the family’s criminal operations, power dynamics, and intricate social structures has contributed to a broader understanding of organized crime and its impact on American society. Additionally, the family’s depiction in popular culture has underscored the complex relationships between crime, power, and morality, prompting ongoing debates and discussions about the role of organized crime in contemporary society.

8. The DeVacalvante Crime Family works closely with the Patriarca crime family

The Patriarca crime family is also known as the New England Mafia, the Boston Mafia, the Providence Mafia, or The Office, an Italian-American Mafia family in New England. It has two distinct factions, one based in Providence, Rhode Island, and the other in Boston, Massachusetts. The family is currently led by Carmen “The Cheese Man” Dinunzio, who is part of the Boston faction. The family is primarily active in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut with another territory throughout New England.

The New England family is estimated to have about sixty made members active in the New England area, especially in the cities of Boston and Providence. In recent years, the family has been hit with several RICO indictments, and two Caporegimes (Mark Rossetti and Robert DeLuca) have become government informants. The power structure was said to have moved back to Boston entering the 2010s.

9. The family is the inspiration for the fictional DiMeo crime family

DiMeo crime family is featured in the HBO television series The Sopranos. The DiMeo crime family is a notorious and shadowy organization that exerts considerable influence over the criminal underworld, both within their native territory of New Jersey and beyond. This enigmatic family is shrouded in secrecy and employs a wide array of nefarious tactics to maintain their grip on power, including extortion, racketeering, and assassination.

The family’s 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. Members of the family operate with a strict code of conduct and adhere to a strict omerta, or code of silence, which emphasizes the importance of maintaining the secrecy and avoiding law enforcement detection at all costs.

Despite the efforts of various law enforcement agencies to dismantle the organization, the DiMeo crime family continues to operate with impunity, leveraging their extensive network of connections and resources to outmanoeuvre and eliminate their rivals. In the world of organized crime, the DiMeo family is an elusive and powerful force, one that is feared and respected in equal measure.

10. Anthony Capo worked for the family as a hitman

Capo was a former soldier and hitman for the DeCavalcante crime family. He served as the driver during the murder of Fred Weiss on September 11, 1989. In late 1991, Capo received information that DeCavalcante’s acting boss John D’Amato was a closet homosexual. He testified in court that consigliere, Stefano Vitabile, ordered D’Amato’s murder.

D’Amato was lured to a parked car in Brooklyn and allegedly sat in the back of the car, Capo turned around from the passenger seat and shot him 4 times.[65] During one incident in the mid-1990s, he stabbed Gambino associate Renee “Remy” Sierra in his face and eye, for disrespecting him in front of a female in a Staten Island bar.

In 1999, he became a government witness. He pleaded guilty to 11 murder conspiracies, participating in 2 murders, several assaults and many other crimes. He also testified against the New York Colombo and Genovese mafia families. Capo died in 2012 at the age of 52 from a heart attack.

11. The DeCavalcante crime family is part of the larger Italian-American Mafia

The American Mafia commonly referred to in North America as the Italian American Mafia, the Mafia, or the Mob, is a highly organized Italian American criminal society and organized crime group. The organization is often referred to by its members as Cosa Nostra and by the American government as La Cosa Nostra (LCN).
The organization’s 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.

12. The family’s influence has declined over time

The DeVacalvante crime family’s influence and power have undergone a significant decline in recent years, resulting in its current status as a comparatively less formidable and influential Mafia family within the broader context of organized crime in the United States. 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.

Moreover, the family’s once-pervasive presence has been steadily eroded by the emergence of new and diverse criminal organizations that have supplanted the DiMeo family’s role in various illicit activities. 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.

13. The family experienced deadly leadership wrangles as of 1998

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, consisting of Girolamo Palermo, Vincent Palermo, and Charles Majuri, with Stefano Vitabile as the reputed consigliere and adviser to the three.

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. To gain complete control of the DeCavalcante family, Majuri decided that he should murder Vincent Palermo, leaving himself in charge of the family.

Majuri contracted soldier James Gallo to murder Vincent Palermo. Gallo was a strong ally and friend of Vincent Palermo’s and told him about Majuri’s plans. In retaliation, Vincent Palermo decided to have Majuri murdered. After one plot fell through, the murder was eventually called off.

14. John Riggi was the immediate successor of the crime family after Simone DeCavalcante

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 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 labour construction racketeering, 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, 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.

15. The DeCavalcantes have been linked to several political corruption cases in New Jersey

The DeCavalcante crime family has been implicated in several instances of political corruption throughout the state of New Jersey. This association with malfeasance within the political sphere serves to underscore the family’s entrenched and far-reaching influence in the region, as well as their ability to leverage their resources and connections to engage in illicit activities with impunity.

The family’s involvement in political corruption can take a variety of forms, including bribery, extortion, and the manipulation of political campaigns and elections. The effects of such corrupt practices can be far-reaching and can have a profound impact on the integrity of the political process, undermining public trust in government institutions and the rule of law. 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.

16. The downfall of the DeCavalcante crime family came in 1998

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, 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.

Guarino spent ten years undercover working for the FBI. He wore a listening device and recorded conversations that mobsters would have about the criminal business. During Guarino’s time as an informant, fellow mobster Joseph Masella was gunned down on the orders of Vincent Palermo. 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.

17. Some members of the family were convicted and taken to a law court in 1999 and 2001

Using information provided by Ralph Guarino, US law enforcement launched a large-scale arrest on December 2, 1999, of over 30 members and associates of the DeCavalcante crime family.[16] 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. This resulted in the arrest of 12 more men less than a year later,[16] decimating the crime family’s hierarchy and putting it on the brink of extinction.[16] Other top members, like Anthony Rotondo and Anthony Capo, also agreed to become government witnesses.

In 2001, 20 mobsters were charged with racketeering, seven murders, 14 murder conspiracies, attempted murder, extortion in the construction industry, and stock fraud. 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.

18. The family has had close ties to the Gambino crime family and the Lucchese 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. These inter-organizational relationships are based on shared interests and mutual benefits, such as the provision of support and resources in various criminal endeavours, as well as the cultivation of strategic alliances to counteract the power of rival organizations.

The ties between these criminal groups are often characterized by a complex web of personal and professional relationships, which can be forged through a range of means, including intermarriage, socializing, and the exchange of favours and information. Such associations have been central to the success of many criminal organizations in the past, as they allow for the pooling of resources and expertise, thereby increasing the chances of success in various criminal ventures.

The close relationship between the DeCavalcante family and their counterparts in the Gambino and Lucchese crime families is therefore indicative of the extent to which these organizations have coalesced around shared criminal interests, and of the pervasive and entrenched nature of organized crime in the United States.

19. Vincent Palermo was the former acting boss during the 1990s

He married the niece of Sam DeCavalcante during the early 1960s. He was inducted into the DeCavalcante family in 1989. As a favour for Gambino crime family boss John Gotti, DeCavalcante boss Giovanni Riggi “ordered a contract” on Fred Weiss on 11 September 1989. Palermo and Jimmy Gallo shot Weiss 7 times. Palermo allegedly orchestrated the October 1998 murder of his bodyguard and DeCavalcante associate Joseph Masella, who was found shot several times at a golf course in Marine Park, Brooklyn.

In December 1999, he was arrested on murder, extortion, bookmaking, loansharking, illegal gambling, robbery, the sale of stolen property and counterfeit goods, and mail fraud charges, alongside 38 other mobsters from the DeCavalcante and New York crime families, including 2 DeCavalcante captain’s, Joseph Giacobbe and Anthony Rotondo.

He allegedly oversaw an illegal bookmaking operation with the New York Gambino and Colombo crime families. He agreed to become a government witness in 1999, several weeks after his arrest. In October 2000, Palermo pleaded guilty to 4 murders, 7 murder conspiracies, extortion, loansharking, gambling and obstruction of justice charges.

20. Loyalty is the first trait of the crime family

The DeCavalcante crime family is renowned for its tight-knit organizational structure, which is characterized by a deep sense of loyalty and mutual support among its members. This familial and intimate structure is a hallmark of the Mafia, where personal relationships and trust are integral to the success of criminal enterprises. The DeCavalcante family’s organizational cohesion is founded on the principle of omertà, or the code of silence, which requires that members keep all criminal activity and involvement within the organization a closely guarded secret.

This emphasis on secrecy and trust has contributed to the family’s longevity and success in avoiding detection by law enforcement agencies. Moreover, the family’s close-knit structure has facilitated their ability to operate with relative autonomy and independence, allowing them to engage in a variety of criminal enterprises while avoiding conflicts with rival organizations.

The DeCavalcante family’s unwavering commitment to its members and its intricate internal networks of support and trust has thus helped to solidify its position as a prominent and formidable criminal organization.