NJ Genovese

[CornerBoy]

Can someone pls give me the geneology (last few generations) of the Dentico's and Gatto's

Also can someone pls discuss who was more powerful between the Two families and what are the key differences and similarities.

Key guys key associates-- any overlap between the 2 families.
Thanks

[JoelTurner]

Larry Dentico:

- Born Aug 22 1923
- Father: Frank Dentico from Gioia del Colle, Bari, Puglia
- Mother: Madeline Palazzo, family from Cosenza, Calabria
- Brother: Joseph “Joe Bari” Dentico, E Harlem dope guy and member
- Part of the Greenwich Village crew
- Moved to Jersey City in the late ‘50s
- Lived at 333 Sip Ave, Jersey City, NJ in 1966
- Grandson Lawrence is involved in drugs with other mob guys

—————

Louis Gatto:

- Born Sep 2 1916 in Patterson, NJ
- Father: Matthew Gatto from Sarno, Salerno, Campania
- Mother: Josephine Mautone from Cuccaro Vetere, Salerno, Campania
- Wife: Josephine DeStefano
- Daughter was married to Alan Wolshonak, his right-hand man. He was Italian through his mother and later took her maiden name “Greco”
- Inherited the LaPlaca crew in ~1979
- His sons Joseph (d.2010) and Louis Jr. (d.2000) were also made men

————-

Dentico was definitely more powerful as he was a part of the Genovese family’s ruling panel. He may have been consigliere too.

Gatto strikes me as being more blue-collar, involved in theft, gambling, etc. He had a large crew but a lot of the guys were old. The most notable member was Tino Fiumara.

[moneyman]

I think Fiumara crew and the Gatto crew both came from pete laplaca and are basically just one crew again today.

[HairyKnuckles]

Larry Dentico:

- Born Aug 22 1923
- Father: Frank Dentico from Gioia del Colle, Bari, Puglia
- Mother: Madeline Palazzo, family from Cosenza, Calabria
- Brother: Joseph “Joe Bari” Dentico, E Harlem dope guy and member
- Part of the Greenwich Village crew
- Moved to Jersey City in the late ‘50s
- Lived at 333 Sip Ave, Jersey City, NJ in 1966
- Grandson Lawrence is involved in drugs with other mob guys

—————

I would like to add a detail here. Dentico was born and raised in East Harlem, NY and may have moved to Yonkers before living in Jersey. So Dentico is one of them 6 or 7 (or more) Genovese Greenwich Village crew members with origin in East Harlem/Bronx. Some of the others were of course Valachi, the Pagano brothers and later Angelo Prisco.

[CornerBoy]

great details, thank you so much for taking the time!

how about their sons?

I had no idea that dentico was that much more powerful than Gatto. Gatto, from what I've heard from a good source in Mulberry area, has a huge gambling package and I've read a lot about them on here but bits and pieces.

[TSNYC]

Larry Dentico:

- Born Aug 22 1923
- Father: Frank Dentico from Gioia del Colle, Bari, Puglia
- Mother: Madeline Palazzo, family from Cosenza, Calabria
- Brother: Joseph “Joe Bari” Dentico, E Harlem dope guy and member
- Part of the Greenwich Village crew
- Moved to Jersey City in the late ‘50s
- Lived at 333 Sip Ave, Jersey City, NJ in 1966
- Grandson Lawrence is involved in drugs with other mob guys

—————

I would like to add a detail here. Dentico was born and raised in East Harlem, NY and may have moved to Yonkers before living in Jersey. So Dentico is one of them 6 or 7 (or more) Genovese Greenwich Village crew members with origin in East Harlem/Bronx. Some of the others were of course Valachi, the Pagano brothers and later Angelo Prisco.

I always thought Dentico grew up on the West Side of manhattan / Chelsea area, and that’s how he crossed paths with a lot of Irish and Italian waterfront racketeers on the West Side piers.

[CornerBoy]

both he and gatto are very interesting to me.

wish we had more info on the sons and the 1st generation. There has to be more out there........

[eboli]

Dentico rose into a position of power very late. It happened after Baldy Dom's incarceration when Dentico got appointed acting capo. He got his own crew after the Greenwich Village Crew split. By that point, Dentico was in his 70s. From the looks of it, Dentico got promoted because he was close to the Genovese bosses, specifically Chin and the two Doms. He spent some of his early life as a 'Yonkers guy.' You can describe his ascent in the chain of command as living long enough to be his turn. In the early 1980s, he was still in Yonkers -- 75 Carlton Road. The Yonkers Police Department organized a 'surveillance group' to track his activities in the 70s and 80s. In the mid-1990s, Dentico inherited *some* of the remnants of Gatto's gambling operations in Bergen County.

Gatto's crew was blue-collar, but they had white-collar activities and quite a few of them. He basically inherited what remained of the Catena crew, which remained almost unchanged under LaPlaca. And he did quite a good job maintaining the crew's influence. Gatto spent the 80s actively running Fiumara's operations, too. FBI informants described him as an elder statesman for the family in NJ, so he was pretty much the informal leader of the New Jersey faction of the family during this period. He was the guy to see if there were problems between NYC crews and NJ of the family + problems with other LCN families in NJ. Wolshonak did the grunt work -- cracking heads, supervising the gambling empire, white-collar intimidation, etc. So, you can describe their work method as Gatto being the head, while Wolshonak was the body.

P4P Gatto probably had more money & influence than Dentico due to the era he operated in, but it's also kind of like a big fish in a little pond situation with that pigmy shit over there in Jersey.

[HairyKnuckles]

Larry Dentico:

- Born Aug 22 1923
- Father: Frank Dentico from Gioia del Colle, Bari, Puglia
- Mother: Madeline Palazzo, family from Cosenza, Calabria
- Brother: Joseph “Joe Bari” Dentico, E Harlem dope guy and member
- Part of the Greenwich Village crew
- Moved to Jersey City in the late ‘50s
- Lived at 333 Sip Ave, Jersey City, NJ in 1966
- Grandson Lawrence is involved in drugs with other mob guys

—————

I would like to add a detail here. Dentico was born and raised in East Harlem, NY and may have moved to Yonkers before living in Jersey. So Dentico is one of them 6 or 7 (or more) Genovese Greenwich Village crew members with origin in East Harlem/Bronx. Some of the others were of course Valachi, the Pagano brothers and later Angelo Prisco.

I always thought Dentico grew up on the West Side of manhattan / Chelsea area, and that’s how he crossed paths with a lot of Irish and Italian waterfront racketeers on the West Side piers.

From the 1930 Census:

Dentico.png

[JoelTurner]

Larry Dentico:

- Born Aug 22 1923
- Father: Frank Dentico from Gioia del Colle, Bari, Puglia
- Mother: Madeline Palazzo, family from Cosenza, Calabria
- Brother: Joseph “Joe Bari” Dentico, E Harlem dope guy and member
- Part of the Greenwich Village crew
- Moved to Jersey City in the late ‘50s
- Lived at 333 Sip Ave, Jersey City, NJ in 1966
- Grandson Lawrence is involved in drugs with other mob guys

—————

I would like to add a detail here. Dentico was born and raised in East Harlem, NY and may have moved to Yonkers before living in Jersey. So Dentico is one of them 6 or 7 (or more) Genovese Greenwich Village crew members with origin in East Harlem/Bronx. Some of the others were of course Valachi, the Pagano brothers and later Angelo Prisco.

Fiore Siano, Michael Nicolene, Vincent Mauro and I think James Battaglia too

[JoelTurner]

both he and gatto are very interesting to me.

wish we had more info on the sons and the 1st generation. There has to be more out there........

Louis Gatto Jr

- Born Mar 9 1948
- Lived at 306 E 46th St, Paterson, NJ in the ‘70s
- Was heavy in gambling and by 1982 had convictions for burglary, bribery, obstruction of justice, bookmaking and maintaining a gambling resort
- Had a no-show job at Arid Waterproofing alongside Alan Grecco
- Got pinched for racketeering in 1989
- Died on Jan 4 2000 in prison

Joseph “The Eagle” Gatto

- Born Oct 29 1944
- Served in the army in Vietnam
- Lived at 89 Prescott Ave, Hawthorne, NJ in the ‘70s
- In prison from 1999-03 for gambling and shylocking
- Inherited his father’s crew
- Infiltrated Suprema Specialties, a cheese company and committed fraud
- Got pinched in Operation Jersey Boyz; he controlled the Catalina Sports wire room in Costa Rica
- Died Apr 9 2010

[CornerBoy]

Thanks!!

[TommyNoto]

both he and gatto are very interesting to me.

wish we had more info on the sons and the 1st generation. There has to be more out there........

Louis Gatto Jr

- Born Mar 9 1948
- Lived at 306 E 46th St, Paterson, NJ in the ‘70s
- Was heavy in gambling and by 1982 had convictions for burglary, bribery, obstruction of justice, bookmaking and maintaining a gambling resort
- Had a no-show job at Arid Waterproofing alongside Alan Grecco
- Got pinched for racketeering in 1989
- Died on Jan 4 2000 in prison

Joseph “The Eagle” Gatto

- Born Oct 29 1944
- Served in the army in Vietnam
- Lived at 89 Prescott Ave, Hawthorne, NJ in the ‘70s
- In prison from 1999-03 for gambling and shylocking
- Inherited his father’s crew
- Infiltrated Suprema Specialties, a cheese company and committed fraud
- Got pinched in Operation Jersey Boyz; he controlled the Catalina Sports wire room in Costa Rica
- Died Apr 9 2010

Catalina was probably one of the biggest mob sports books of all time , was spread thru all north jersey

[moneyman]

I think there were only two main NJ based Genovese crews.

Gallo crew was based in Lodi that went to Tino Fiumara and then Mike Borelli.

Gerardo based in Newark/Essex County and seems to have gone to Devita.

I have zero connection to organized crime but I wouldn’t be surprised if these crews were consolidated into one crew when Depiro went to prison. Now that Coppola is out maybe there are two again.

I think an NJ gambling report in 2004 said there were 5 NJ Genovese crews, but I think guys like Dentico/Ninni Bruschi/Vito Alberti etc come from NY based crews.

[CornerBoy]

Catalina lol long time ago.