Opinion/Discussion: DeCavalcante Present Day

[TallGuy19]

In the two appearances he made on the Philly Prime Podcast he briefly mentions that the family still has a NY faction.

He also says they were looking to open the books in November 2015 and were looking to make Stango the underboss (which contradicts what's in the book about Merlo staying on as number two and Stango staying a captain).

When talking about how the different families interract, he mentions how the DeCavalcantes were under the Gambinos, if they needed anything in Philadelphia they could get it in an hour, and about how Stango still had contacts in Chicago.

I always thought that Charlie's son (the fat wigger) was running the crew, but Giovanni said that the son was reporting to him. I wonder if the son was scheduled to get made at the same time as Giovanni.

[Dave65827]

In the two appearances he made on the Philly Prime Podcast he briefly mentions that the family still has a NY faction.

He also says they were looking to open the books in November 2015 and were looking to make Stango the underboss (which contradicts what's in the book about Merlo staying on as number two and Stango staying a captain).

When talking about how the different families interract, he mentions how the DeCavalcantes were under the Gambinos, if they needed anything in Philadelphia they could get it in an hour, and about how Stango still had contacts in Chicago.

I always thought that Charlie's son (the fat wigger) was running the crew, but Giovanni said that the son was reporting to him. I wonder if the son was scheduled to get made at the same time as Giovanni.

No way where both of these guys on the path to be made. The son was a retard in the book barely scraping by selling a total of 4 pounds of coke from what I can remember. The Gio guy maybe because Stango was so proud of him but no way

[TallGuy19]

In the two appearances he made on the Philly Prime Podcast he briefly mentions that the family still has a NY faction.

He also says they were looking to open the books in November 2015 and were looking to make Stango the underboss (which contradicts what's in the book about Merlo staying on as number two and Stango staying a captain).

When talking about how the different families interract, he mentions how the DeCavalcantes were under the Gambinos, if they needed anything in Philadelphia they could get it in an hour, and about how Stango still had contacts in Chicago.

I always thought that Charlie's son (the fat wigger) was running the crew, but Giovanni said that the son was reporting to him. I wonder if the son was scheduled to get made at the same time as Giovanni.

No way where both of these guys on the path to be made. The son was a retard in the book barely scraping by selling a total of 4 pounds of coke from what I can remember. The Gio guy maybe because Stango was so proud of him but no way

Both of them were running crews and were connected/related to a captain. Those are probably prime candidates for membership in the modern Decavalcante family.

[Pogo The Clown]

He also says they were looking to open the books in November 2015 and were looking to make Stango the underboss (which contradicts what's in the book about Merlo staying on as number two and Stango staying a captain).

Did he mean November 2014? He and Stango were both off the street by March 2015.


Pogo

[chin_gigante]

He also says they were looking to open the books in November 2015 and were looking to make Stango the underboss (which contradicts what's in the book about Merlo staying on as number two and Stango staying a captain).

Did he mean November 2014? He and Stango were both off the street by March 2015.


Pogo

Stango told him in advance they were gonna look to open the books for November 2015. Then the operation ended before that could happen

[Pogo The Clown]

Thanks. Strange that they would schedule a ceremony for a specific month so far in advance.


Pogo

[B.]

Thanks. Strange that they would schedule a ceremony for a specific month so far in advance.

The winter holidays tend to be "induction season" for the mafia, so maybe they typically hold inductions near the end of the year.

He also says they were looking to open the books in November 2015 and were looking to make Stango the underboss (which contradicts what's in the book about Merlo staying on as number two and Stango staying a captain).

Did the book say Merlo was going to be underboss, or just continue on in his "street boss" role?

[chin_gigante]

I looked back in the book and in my head I was conflating two different passages. First, from chapter 19:

It was pretty much understood that Charlie “Big Ears” Majuri was going to take the top chair when Riggi either died or stepped down. The question, as always, was whether there was going to be resistance. I spoke to Charlie Stango about it, mentioning that I’d heard there was going to be “some movement on our team.” “It doesn’t change anything for us.” He and Big Ears were close, he told me, and he would stay on as capo. All would go smoothly. “It’s a good thing,” he said. “I stay who I am.”

Then the second one is from chapter 27:

On one trip, in January 2015, I took Charlie out for dinner. While we were eating, and not for the first time, he explained all the ins and outs of the Administration to me, and how they were planning to restructure it after John Riggi died. “Big Ears is gonna take the seat as the boss, the number one, and Milk is staying number two, the street boss, and that’s how it’s gonna be.”

[B.]

Saw a photo of Merlo from November 2019 where he looked robust, then another photo in April 2021 where he was completely wrecked. Whatever illness he got moved quickly and did a number on the guy. I read an interview with his son Joe III, the gay theater actor, and the kid said he found out about his gay great-uncle Frank Merlo from his father, Joe Merlo Jr., who the son says was very excited and happy to find out Frank Merlo was Tennesee Williams' "lover". The kid said he was shocked because his father was normally a macho Italian guy yet was excited about Frank Merlo. Sounds like Merlo was supportive of his son being gay, interesting considering this is the family that killed D'Amato.

From the photos, Merlo looked healthy enough to have continued as street boss through the end of 2019 and into 2020. The undercover agent in his interview said he believes the family is still being run by Charlie Majuri and his group. I wonder if they have intelligence confirming him as official boss by now.

While I do believe the family has continued to induct members over the last 20 years and is larger than we publicly know (by what amount, who knows), the way Paul Colella talked about having nobody to replace captain Manny Riggi with and now seeing key upcoming leaders like Merlo die young doesn't bode well.

[TommyNoto]

Very Interesting about his open mid ness , Merlo seemed to be a sleeper. Fabulous find B

I agree , the future is grim but I give them credit for hanging around. They ain’t dead yet lol

[joerock]

Saw a photo of Merlo from November 2019 where he looked robust, then another photo in April 2021 where he was completely wrecked. Whatever illness he got moved quickly and did a number on the guy. I read an interview with his son Joe III, the gay theater actor, and the kid said he found out about his gay great-uncle Frank Merlo from his father, Joe Merlo Jr., who the son says was very excited and happy to find out Frank Merlo was Tennesee Williams' "lover". The kid said he was shocked because his father was normally a macho Italian guy yet was excited about Frank Merlo. Sounds like Merlo was supportive of his son being gay, interesting considering this is the family that killed D'Amato.

From the photos, Merlo looked healthy enough to have continued as street boss through the end of 2019 and into 2020. The undercover agent in his interview said he believes the family is still being run by Charlie Majuri and his group. I wonder if they have intelligence confirming him as official boss by now.

While I do believe the family has continued to induct members over the last 20 years and is larger than we publicly know (by what amount, who knows), the way Paul Colella talked about having nobody to replace captain Manny Riggi with and now seeing key upcoming leaders like Merlo die young doesn't bode well.

Where can we find these photos? Charlie majuri and his group consists of “Shipe” and Charles himself along with Merlo. Wonder who will step up to fill merlos role

[Cheech]

its a really bad book.

[Cheech]

who uses some fake names and some real. cant make out whats what? are those gambino names real?

[JohnnyS]

who uses some fake names and some real. cant make out whats what? are those gambino names real?

I'm certain 'Nino Molinelli' is a fake name and could actually be Alphonse Sisca. Daniel Bertelli might be real I found a guy by that name living in Hillsdale, NJ aged around 45.

[chin_gigante]

I went back to the interview on Philly Prime and took down some relevant quotes verbatim that I mentioned earlier:

[John Riggi] had a lot of respect within the family and the fact that he had stepped down, and he was looking to retire - within the family, at this point in my time with them, I was going to different capos' houses to pay tribute to them because I had done jobs with their crews. So if I did a job and made a score, I insisted on Charlie [Stango] sending me to that capo's house, or wherever I meet him, to pay - to kick up to that captain. Because it had to come from me. And I always put the spin on Charlie. So even when I went to meet these other captains they would always say to me - they would have open conversations. "Look, you know, we're with you guys, we're with you on this. Our family's divided because we don't know who's gonna take the torch right now but we can't do anything. Everybody wants to do something but everybody is afraid to act because of the old man. Once the old man steps down, then we'll do what we gotta do. But out of respect for him -" So he did hold that much respect that they didn't want to start an internal war. They were ready, they were all gearing up for it if they had to, but they didn't wanna do it out of respect for Riggi. That says a lot. Without naming names, I can tell you Louie [Oliveri] wasn't the only one originally on the chopping block. There was - there were other names that I was tasked with and they eventually took them back out of respect for Riggi.

Charlie was due to be upped again. He made captain and then with the restructuring of the family, we were gonna fall on the right side of the administration. [...] I had a conversation with Chatlie about the hit on Louie - one of the last conversations I had - that the books were gonna get opened in November, everything was gonna get straightened out with the new administration, and he was gonna be proposed to be the underboss. [...] And he pointed at me and he says, "I go up", and he pointed at me and he says, "You go up".

We talked about all the families. I mean, you know, because there was business. The day that he opened up and explained to me how we fell under the Gambinos - you know, that was an eye-opener for intel purposes. That was huge for us because he really gave me - the day he gave me a schooling on that he gave the bureau a schooling on how organised crime operates internally. And how all of these guys exist because of all the other families. They all survive off each other, they all feed off each other. So to have Kyle Ragusa and Nicky the Whip walk in - it was no big deal. That's who we had to go do business with. I was down there all the time with these guys. He would bring names up - Merlino - he would bring them up and say if they were doing something right, if they were doing something wrong. He would bring it up if there was a teaching lesson in there. If we needed somebody, we have people down there. He explained to me who we have in Chicago. You know, this went all across the country. So because of who Charlie was he was able to tap into several resources. You know, anything we needed.