Opinion/Discussion: DeCavalcante Present Day

[Philly d]

Were they ever major players in north jersey? Was under the impression they were always well below the NYC families as far as influence in north jersey.

def below the west side, lukes, and gambinos and even philly crew. I would say above bonannos and colombos.

[newera_212]

The DeCavs really give you a hard on , don’t they?

Just move here to Jersey already or rewatch The Sopranos again (which the Decavs are absolutely nothing like, only similarity is that they’re both Jersey based LCN families) .

-Dante

JoeRock I was just busting your balls, btw
I’m in a fucking terrible mood today

What about the Jonah Hill lookalike Gallo? Who couldnt stop selling coke

That clown just sold drugs here at the Shore, I would use the term Associate here very loosely. He got out of the can and was working at a car dealership on Rt 37 in Toms River and went right back to selling Coke, gets popped again within a month with another moron by the local PD in Toms River. At least this second time he got the job at the car dealership and at least tried.

-Dante

Got ya. So who was he associated with. Is this a Brendan Filone scenario like the sopranos?

That comparison is probably even too big of a stretch. It's simply the case of an Italian kid in Jersey selling coke with, and hanging around, the son of a made DeCav guy who himself had marginal influence and was desperately trying to get back in the game to keep the bills paid after coming out of prison. Calling the Gallo kid an 'associate' may be technically correct but he was literally an Italian kid selling drugs with a friend who has a father that is a made guy. There's dozens and dozens of kids like him all over Jersey - by no means a "young turk" crew that's going to be the "future of the family"

[joerock]

The DeCavs really give you a hard on , don’t they?

Just move here to Jersey already or rewatch The Sopranos again (which the Decavs are absolutely nothing like, only similarity is that they’re both Jersey based LCN families) .

-Dante

JoeRock I was just busting your balls, btw
I’m in a fucking terrible mood today

What about the Jonah Hill lookalike Gallo? Who couldnt stop selling coke

That clown just sold drugs here at the Shore, I would use the term Associate here very loosely. He got out of the can and was working at a car dealership on Rt 37 in Toms River and went right back to selling Coke, gets popped again within a month with another moron by the local PD in Toms River. At least this second time he got the job at the car dealership and at least tried.

-Dante

Got ya. So who was he associated with. Is this a Brendan Filone scenario like the sopranos?

That comparison is probably even too big of a stretch. It's simply the case of an Italian kid in Jersey selling coke with, and hanging around, the son of a made DeCav guy who himself had marginal influence and was desperately trying to get back in the game to keep the bills paid after coming out of prison. Calling the Gallo kid an 'associate' may be technically correct but he was literally an Italian kid selling drugs with a friend who has a father that is a made guy. There's dozens and dozens of kids like him all over Jersey - by no means a "young turk" crew that's going to be the "future of the family"

They list him as an associate along with Jason Vella on the most recent bust, but probably the news trying to hype it up.

[Tonyd621]

The DeCavs really give you a hard on , don’t they?

Just move here to Jersey already or rewatch The Sopranos again (which the Decavs are absolutely nothing like, only similarity is that they’re both Jersey based LCN families) .

-Dante

JoeRock I was just busting your balls, btw
I’m in a fucking terrible mood today

What about the Jonah Hill lookalike Gallo? Who couldnt stop selling coke

That clown just sold drugs here at the Shore, I would use the term Associate here very loosely. He got out of the can and was working at a car dealership on Rt 37 in Toms River and went right back to selling Coke, gets popped again within a month with another moron by the local PD in Toms River. At least this second time he got the job at the car dealership and at least tried.

-Dante

Got ya. So who was he associated with. Is this a Brendan Filone scenario like the sopranos?

That comparison is probably even too big of a stretch. It's simply the case of an Italian kid in Jersey selling coke with, and hanging around, the son of a made DeCav guy who himself had marginal influence and was desperately trying to get back in the game to keep the bills paid after coming out of prison. Calling the Gallo kid an 'associate' may be technically correct but he was literally an Italian kid selling drugs with a friend who has a father that is a made guy. There's dozens and dozens of kids like him all over Jersey - by no means a "young turk" crew that's going to be the "future of the family"

Understood, thank

[NJShore4Life]

The DeCavs really give you a hard on , don’t they?

Just move here to Jersey already or rewatch The Sopranos again (which the Decavs are absolutely nothing like, only similarity is that they’re both Jersey based LCN families) .

-Dante

JoeRock I was just busting your balls, btw
I’m in a fucking terrible mood today

What about the Jonah Hill lookalike Gallo? Who couldnt stop selling coke

That clown just sold drugs here at the Shore, I would use the term Associate here very loosely. He got out of the can and was working at a car dealership on Rt 37 in Toms River and went right back to selling Coke, gets popped again within a month with another moron by the local PD in Toms River. At least this second time he got the job at the car dealership and at least tried.

-Dante

Got ya. So who was he associated with. Is this a Brendan Filone scenario like the sopranos?

That comparison is probably even too big of a stretch. It's simply the case of an Italian kid in Jersey selling coke with, and hanging around, the son of a made DeCav guy who himself had marginal influence and was desperately trying to get back in the game to keep the bills paid after coming out of prison. Calling the Gallo kid an 'associate' may be technically correct but he was literally an Italian kid selling drugs with a friend who has a father that is a made guy. There's dozens and dozens of kids like him all over Jersey - by no means a "young turk" crew that's going to be the "future of the family"

100% spot on

[Grouchy Sinatra]

The DeCavs really give you a hard on , don’t they?

Just move here to Jersey already or rewatch The Sopranos again (which the Decavs are absolutely nothing like, only similarity is that they’re both Jersey based LCN families) .

-Dante

Season 1 was based on the DeCavs. Boss dying of cancer, dispute over successor, etc. The storyline with Tony's mom just comes from the producer's personal experiences.

The later seasons are more based on the Genovese and Lucchese Jersey factions. I also think Tony's star power, so to speak, always being in the news, was just a play on the whole Gotti circus.

[Grouchy Sinatra]

the Young Italians still dumb enough to join OC hook up with the 5 families and not the DeCavs

I thought New York was refusing to make guys from Jersey for a while for this reason.

[Pogo The Clown]

the Young Italians still dumb enough to join OC hook up with the 5 families and not the DeCavs

I thought New York was refusing to make guys from Jersey for a while for this reason.

It was the opposite. NY ruled that the DeCavalcantes couldn't make anyone from NY becuase they had inducted some people who had been turned down for membership in the the NY families.


There were other similarities in S1 like Tony operating out of a strip club just like Vinny Palermo and a Soprano Crew operating out of a pork store just like the Giacobbe Crew. Later seasons have a lot of DeCavacante inspirations sprinkled throughout as well.


There is also this classic exchange.

Decavalcante mobsters taped in March 3, 1999, by family associate turned rat Ralph “Ralphie O” Guarino. Played to a Manhattan jury yesterday.

Joseph “Tin Ear” Sclafani: Hey, what’s this f****** thing, “Sopranos?” What the f*** are they . . .

Guarino: You ever watch it?

Sclafani: Is that supposed to be us?

Rotondo: You’re in there.

Guarino: (Laughs)

Rotondo: They mentioned your name in there.

Sclafani: Yeah, what did they say?

Brooklyn club owner Billy: “Watch out for that guy,” they said. “Watch that guy.”

Rotondo: Every show you watch, every show you watch, more and more you pick somebody. Every show … One week it was Corky (DeCavalcante member Gaetano Vastola). One week it, from the beginning, it was . . . Don Giacomino.

Later,

Sclafani: Yeah, but where do they get this information from?

Rotondo: Ah, where?

Billy: Joey, there’s somebody close to you there, Joe.

[Grouchy Sinatra]

There was an article about who the characters are based on where a cop said the only mobster he knew of that went around in North Jersey with the kind of swagger and appeal that Tony Soprano did was Michael Taccetta.

The war with Phil at the end was definitely based on Amuso's "whack Jersey" order.

It's interesting that The Sopranos used a lot of references to the Neapolitan heritage of most of the characters when the real Jersey family seems to be mostly Sicilians.

[TallGuy19]

Did they mention Sclafani by name?

[Pogo The Clown]

Here is a good documentary on the DeCavalcantes that talks a lot about the similarities with the show. In the very beginning you can hear the tapes of the wiseguys from the above transcript and you can see the Sacco pork store which is less than a block from where the Sopranos fictional pork store was filmed.


The Real Sopranos

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i_WtIeeSuO0

[PolackTony]

It's interesting that The Sopranos used a lot of references to the Neapolitan heritage of most of the characters when the real Jersey family seems to be mostly Sicilians.

The focus on Campanian heritage I think alludes to Chase's own family background in Newark. I also read it as a loose reference to Richie the Boot (Napuletan', but not from Avellino) and the Newark Genovese crew. IIRC, Chase has stated in interviews before that the Boiardo crew sort of formed his Newark-centered image of the mob.

[stubbs]

It's interesting that The Sopranos used a lot of references to the Neapolitan heritage of most of the characters when the real Jersey family seems to be mostly Sicilians.

The focus on Campanian heritage I think alludes to Chase's own family background in Newark. I also read it as a loose reference to Richie the Boot (Napuletan', but not from Avellino) and the Newark Genovese crew. IIRC, Chase has stated in interviews before that the Boiardo crew sort of formed his Newark-centered image of the mob.

Yeah, Chase said Richie Boiardo was his main influence. And it’s clear they used bits and pieces from several different real life families to use as storylines.

At the end of the day, it’s fiction not a documentary or even fiction “based on a true story”. So, they took some real life events and changed some stuff, other stuff is completely made up, etc.

[stubbs]

The Decavs are still around and kicking, concentrated mainly in three areas of the state with majority of the guys being First and Second Generation Sicilians who actually speak Italian.

They’re still heavy Into Construction and all the ancillary things that go with construction and construction workers. Heard they dabble in prostitution a little bit too with massage parlors in the Elizabeth/Hillside area. They’re again majority old school First and Second Generation Sicilians , they’re quiet. That Stango crew were outliers within the family and they were mainly brokesters who sold drugs at the shore.

They’re also into owning legit Italian Restaurants here in Jersey, for example Giralamo Palermo owned Rockafella’s by the Sea in Ortley Beach, his kids still own it to this day. My friend in HS worked there as a busboy in the late 1990s/early 2000s, he had some wild stories back then there was a lotta shit going down before the big DeCav bust that took down most of the guys .

They were Never were really big into Sports Betting at all as the West Side and Luchese Crews here in Jersey have that market cornered with their huge sports books. The Gambinos and Philly Newark crew also have Jersey based sports books although nothing compared to what west side and Lucchese have here.

My next door neighbor growing up as a kid who was about 7 years older than me and our Mothers were also good friends married a very high ranking DeCavs daughter.

In all, they’re around still just quiet and very Sicilian/Construction orientated. They’re different than the other crews you see here in Jersey. Like you would never see someone like a Johnny Perna or a Joey Merlino have anything to do with those old Sicilians. The Stango idiots and that crew were the exception and not the norm with that family. That Fat Sweaty wigger barely even knew his Father Beeps as he was incarcerated for 95% of his life. Those other wigger kids selling drugs here at the shore I will almost 100% guarantee met with the other Wigger Whitey Stagno and only that moron, they weren’t “real” associates of that family but were more than likely on record with Beeps through his idiot son.

-Dante

Great post Dante!

Just speculating here - Part of me thinks the remaining members, at least the ones who are straight off the boat zips, or second gen, are running the family like the old school Sicilian families did... like the way they did things way before Toto Riina went to war.

When also reading about how the US families operated in smaller towns outside of NYC, they were more like racketeers, businessmen using the mafia more like a trade association, or a chamber of commerce amongst Italians. Like, those old families were very small and mostly never even dominated the underworld in their own cities. They simply ran their few rackets and made money, and a lot of that money was legit via their businesses.

Guessing the DeCavs are intentionally very low-key, and involved mostly in some less flashy white collar rackets like construction to avoid the heat that drugs would bring. They’re also only dealing with other Sicilians from Ribera and don’t involve themselves with outside groups (ex: Perna or Merlino like Dante mentioned). The less they involve themselves in cross-family mafia politics, the less likely they’ll pop up on law enforcement radar or get caught on a wire.

With that Philly dinner meeting someone else posted about earlier in this thread, between the Philly guys and the Gambinos, when they said they had no idea what’s going on with the DeCavs, that’s how it’s supposed to be. It’s supposed to be a very secret society. Many made members in Sicily back in the day worked civilian day jobs. Michele Navara was a doctor.

Like I said, I’m just speculating. And I could be projecting a lot more competence onto the DeCavs than is warranted.

[Wiseguy]

Guessing the DeCavs are intentionally very low-key, and involved mostly in some less flashy white collar rackets like construction to avoid the heat that drugs would bring. They’re also only dealing with other Sicilians from Ribera and don’t involve themselves with outside groups (ex: Perna or Merlino like Dante mentioned). The less they involve themselves in cross-family mafia politics, the less likely they’ll pop up on law enforcement radar or get caught on a wire.

With that Philly dinner meeting someone else posted about earlier in this thread, between the Philly guys and the Gambinos, when they said they had no idea what’s going on with the DeCavs, that’s how it’s supposed to be. It’s supposed to be a very secret society. Many made members in Sicily back in the day worked civilian day jobs. Michele Navara was a doctor.

Like I said, I’m just speculating. And I could be projecting a lot more competence onto the DeCavs than is warranted.

It actually seems to be the other way around. Since they lost control of LIUNA Local 394, they've had more cases with drugs, albeit on a limited, relatively small-time basis.