Domenico Cefalù

[HoagieNose]

Is he really the boss of the Gambino family?
Anyone have any recent pics of him to share?
Don’t hear much about him.
I’m starting to think he’s not really the boss.

[TommyGambino]

The FBI have him as the acting boss, don't know why people would think otherwise. Go to the mugshot section there's a recent picture of him with his grandkids if I remember right.

[Snakes]

I’m starting to think he’s not really the boss.

He would be delighted if the FBI said the same thing

[Teflon Dom]

The FBI have him as the acting boss, don't know why people would think otherwise. Go to the mugshot section there's a recent picture of him with his grandkids if I remember right.

Can you post it here? I don't have access.

[chin_gigante]

IIRC John Pennisi was once talking about Cefalu and referred to him as the acting boss, then quickly corrected himself and said he was the official boss. It was just a throwaway line I think in one of the MBA & the Button Man podcasts that got taken down, so I can't go back and check. It stuck out to me though at the moment as it obviously contrasted with the Jerry Capeci line that the FBI still carried Cefalu as the acting boss.

I was looking back at some Gang Land News articles that discussed this and I thought it was interesting the extent to which Capeci sticks to the Peter Gotti as official boss idea:

Jul 28, 2011 (https://www.ganglandnews.com/members/column750.htm)

The new Gambino godfather is Domenico (Italian Dom) Cefalu, a 64-year-old Bensonhurst, Brooklyn resident who was inducted into the crime family during John Gotti’s reign. He served six years in prison for a 1982 heroin smuggling conviction, and 20 months behind bars for a 2008 extortion rap. He is now gainfully employed as a salesman for a local bakery.
Sources tell Gang Land that the battered crime family – three brothers of the late Dapper Don, including deposed boss Peter Gotti, and dozens of other wiseguys and associates are behind bars – chose Cefalu, a powerful leader of the family’s Sicilian faction, as its boss earlier this year.
Despite having close ties to imprisoned capo John (Jackie Nose) D’Amico, the swashbuckling Gotti’s longtime aide de camp, Cefalu’s selection as acting family boss clearly marks the end of the crime family’s Gotti era.

Oct 25, 2012 (https://www.ganglandnews.com/members/column815.htm)

Sources say Cali, who has long been viewed as a rising mob star by authorities in the U.S. and Italy, was officially named to the number two slot by family boss Domenico (Italian Dom) Cefalu. The bump up the crime family ladder came shortly after Cali completed the three year period of supervised release in April that followed his 16-month prison stretch for extortion that ended in 2009.

Aug 15, 2013 (https://www.ganglandnews.com/members/column857.htm)

Cali's uncle, capo John Gambino, who served on a three-capo ruling panel that ran the crime family before Cefalu became the official Gambino boss in 2011, remains another key player on the "up front" panel, sources say.

Aug 20, 2015 (https://www.ganglandnews.com/members/column962.htm)

Peter Gotti, 75, who is cooling his heels at a federal prison in Lisbon, Ohio, is still the "official boss." But it's in name only. All agree that the former New York city sanitation worker has no say in the crime family's business.

Aug 27, 2015 (https://www.ganglandnews.com/members/column963.htm)

Everyone agrees on some things: Peter Gotti, residing in a federal prison in Ohio with a release date in 2032 is still the crime family's "official boss," but has nothing to do with running the family business. And what we wrote about Cefalu's ascension to acting boss in 2011, replacing longtime John Gotti top aide and then-acting boss John (Jackie Nose) D'Amico is also not in dispute.
But additional sources weighed in to insist that, while Cali has much influence and clout, he has not taken over as acting family boss, and is still the family's official underboss. And that Cefalu is still the crime family's acting boss.

Mar 31, 2019 (https://www.ganglandnews.com/members/column1149.htm)

Some sources say Cefalu is the official boss. But many say he's an acting boss, and that Peter Gotti, 79, and not due for release from prison until 2032, is the official boss. But the sources agree that Cali was the family's underboss, not the top guy.

Apr 18, 2019 (https://www.ganglandnews.com/members/column1153.htm)

Gang Land's sources waffle on the specific ranks of Cefalu, whom the FBI has carried as the family's acting boss since 2011, and Mannino, who has been identified by the feds in recent court filings only as a "powerful capo." Some law enforcers say Cefalu is still the boss, but others say Mannino is the real leader right now, even if he doesn't have the official title.

Jul 4, 2019 (https://www.ganglandnews.com/members/column1164.htm)

It's not clear whether the ailing mob boss [...] has already informed his bourghata that he is stepping down. Regardless, the crime family will immediately depose Gotti from his mob post, said Michael (Mikey Scars) DiLeonardo, the turncoat Gambino capo who testified against Gotti at his 2004 trial.
DiLeonardo told Gang Land that the crime family, which has been controlled by its Sicilian faction for more than a decade, will be hard pressed not to depose Peter if he is still the "official boss," of the crime family, as he and many mob busters believe.
"If they do it the right way," said DiLeonardo, "the captains will take a vote, and take him down, and put him on a shelf."
"They have to do that," Mikey Scars continued. "He's doing the same thing that John (Junior) did, he's quitting the mob."
In the wake of the murder of Gambino underboss Francesco (Frank) Cali in March, law enforcement sources say that the two wiseguys at the top are Sicilian faction members, Lorenzo Mannino, 60, and Domenico (Italian Dom) Cefalu, 72, and that the third member of the Administration is consigliere Michael (Mickey Boy) Paradiso, 79.
Family leaders will have to strip Peter Gotti of whatever title he has, even if he's only a soldier, not only to retain credibility with their members, but "also with the other families," said DiLeonardo. "They can't have the boss of the family, or even a made guy, violate omerta without punishment. He's not a rat, he's not giving anybody up, but he's violating the oath."

Feb 6, 2020 (https://www.ganglandnews.com/members/column1192.htm)

In 2011, Domenico, now 73, was named acting boss, a position that some sources say is now held by fellow Sicilian-faction wiseguy, Lorenzo Mannino.

May 20, 2021 (https://www.ganglandnews.com/members/column1253.htm)

Lorenzo Mannino, who was then the Gambino family's consigliere, and now its underboss, according to most mob watchers.

[JohnnyS]

It seems the feds were even carrying Cefalu as the official boss in 2014.

"Dominic Cefalu’s roots in the Gambino crime family run deep: his father, Ricardo Cefalu, is a Gambino family soldier and his first cousin, Domenico Cefalu, is the current boss of the Gambino crime family."

[Pmac2]

andrew rusoo became official boss after persicos death i wonder if it went that was after pete gotti died a few months back

[Little_Al1991]

Cefalu has had a very impressive reign so far
He’s been at the top since 2011…In this day and age, that is quite rare

[davidf1989]

Is there a Sicilian faction of the Gambino crime family that Cefalu and Cali were a part of?

[don-shunter]

Cali was with the 18th avenue crew and Cefalu was with the Conte crew.

[TommyGambino]

11 years at the top of a big family and no indictment. Them zips are no fools, barely hear anything about them. Got to wonder how many of they're kids are made.

[B.]

Anyone know where in Palermo he's from? The Sicilian member he and his uncle were arrested with in the early 80s looks to have been a member of the Brancaccio Family who was killed the following year. Doesn't mean they were from Brancaccio, but somehow they partnered up.

[Frank]

With Pete Gotti dying, I wonder if they already have an official boss. The most logical choice would be Cefalu, but nothing official has come out yet. Remember also there was talk of Gotti being taken down as boss when he denounced the life. So he could have been replaced then

[Rocco]

The FBI have him as the acting boss, don't know why people would think otherwise. Go to the mugshot section there's a recent picture of him with his grandkids if I remember right.

who is he acting boss for? Peter Gotti's corpse? He has to be the official boss.

[stubbs]

Cali was with the 18th avenue crew and Cefalu was with the Conte crew.

Is Conte still alive? Either way, who runs his old crew now?

I assume Mannino's crew before he got upped was the 18th Ave crew?