Who was Riccardo Biondi, Antonio Caponigro’s capo?

[JoelTurner]

I was reading Antonio Caponigro’s Wikipedia page and it says: “He became a recognized crime figure after being identified by mob turncoat Joseph Valachi in 1963. During that time he served under capo Riccardo Biondi.”

I had never heard of him so I decided to look him up. There didn’t seem to be any information outside of a comment on the Gangsterbb forum.

A poster on the Gangsterbb forum said: “ There was one crew based in North New Jersey. It can be traced all the way back to former Newark crime family member Riccardo Biondi. John Simone took over Biondi crew in the early 1960s but lived in Trenton, so he used Charles Costello and Carl Ippolito as his acting capos most of the time in Newark.”

Other than these two mentions, I could find any other information about him.

There was a Richard Biondi [https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-co ... Source/url] in the 1940 census. There was also a Richard Biondi who died in February 1964 in Paterson according to the New Jersey death records.

So, who was Riccardo Biondo? Where did this information come from?

[chin_gigante]

Probably entirely fictitious

[B.]

The 1960s Valachi chart misidentified Caponigro as a Genovese soldier under "Richard Boiardi" (Ruggiero Boiardo), so this is obviously a reference to that. The chart was a mistake either way and anything else you read about it is fan fic.

[sdeitche]

Never came across that name before. Agree it's prob a bastardization of boiardo.

[sdeitche]

. John Simone took over Biondi crew in the early 1960s but lived in Trenton, so he used Charles Costello and Carl Ippolito as his acting capos most of the time in Newark.”

I don't believe this is true either.

[Antiliar]

I was reading Antonio Caponigro’s Wikipedia page and it says: “He became a recognized crime figure after being identified by mob turncoat Joseph Valachi in 1963. During that time he served under capo Riccardo Biondi.”

I had never heard of him so I decided to look him up. There didn’t seem to be any information outside of a comment on the Gangsterbb forum.

A poster on the Gangsterbb forum said: “ There was one crew based in North New Jersey. It can be traced all the way back to former Newark crime family member Riccardo Biondi. John Simone took over Biondi crew in the early 1960s but lived in Trenton, so he used Charles Costello and Carl Ippolito as his acting capos most of the time in Newark.”

Other than these two mentions, I could find any other information about him.

There was a Richard Biondi [https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-co ... Source/url] in the 1940 census. There was also a Richard Biondi who died in February 1964 in Paterson according to the New Jersey death records.

So, who was Riccardo Biondo? Where did this information come from?

It's either a corruption of Ritchie the Boot Boiardo or it's a made-up name from a poster like Giacomo Vicari. In case you're unaware, there are posters who have been here or gangsterbb or other sites who simply pull out names from their rear ends, make posts including these made-up names, and from there it ends up on Wikipedia.

[dack2001]

Garbage in, garbage out from Wikipedia. Caponigro was direct with Bruno. He unofficially led the North Jersey crew until he was bumped up to Consigliere in 1978. When he went on lam in the early 70's the crew was overseen by John Simone. Day to day due to Simone being in Florida seems to have shifted between several guys. Blackie Napoli headed the crew when Caponigro became administration and he was officially made a capo after Bruno was killed.