Lucchese Arrests NJ State Case - April 2025

[Wiseguy]

Not that it means anything, but Cross is the 2nd seemingly non-Italian individual identified as a member in 2025. In January the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office arrested a drug network with ties to the Gulf Cartel and among the arrested was Walter Bassett, who they say is a documented Genovese member.
viewtopic.php?p=288841&hilit=Bassett#p288841

While perhaps some argument can be made for the possibility Cross could be made (and I'm still not convinced), I'd feel comfortable taking any bet that "documented member" is being applied very loosely and generically to Bassett.

[B.]

Agree, would need to see more of the evidence if they're actually identifying Cross as made, i.e. did someone identify him as amico nostra or were there recordings, circumstantial evidence, etc. that pointed to it.

If it's true he's 3/4 Italian though that would be the one guy I could see them making exception for although having a father with an Italian last name still seems to be a must. Has mostly Italian ancestry, grew up with all of the NJ Luccheses, and was direct with the admin.

[OcSleeper]

Not that it means anything, but Cross is the 2nd seemingly non-Italian individual identified as a member in 2025. In January the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office arrested a drug network with ties to the Gulf Cartel and among the arrested was Walter Bassett, who they say is a documented Genovese member.
viewtopic.php?p=288841&hilit=Bassett#p288841

While perhaps some argument can be made for the possibility Cross could be made (and I'm still not convinced), I'd feel comfortable taking any bet that "documented member" is being applied very loosely and generically to Bassett.

I agree. I asked Arillotta about Bassett as well and said he was around the Connecticut guys and he didn't know him as a member

Just thought it's an interesting trend (of two) that has appeared in 2025.

[Ivan]

I'd feel comfortable taking any bet that "documented member" is being applied very loosely and generically to Bassett.

Agreed. Though there really have been half-breed made guys with Anglo surnames before (off the top of my head, John Veasey and Chuckie Porter), the term "soldier" gets misapplied to associates all the time by people who aren't being precise with the term.

The string "soldier Henry Hill" gets a couple dozen Google hits.

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22sold ... ry+hill%22

[Pogo The Clown]

I'd feel comfortable taking any bet that "documented member" is being applied very loosely and generically to Bassett.

Agreed. Though there really have been half-breed made guys with Anglo surnames before (off the top of my head, John Veasey and Chuckie Porter), the term "soldier" gets misapplied to associates all the time by people who aren't being precise with the term.

The string "soldier Henry Hill" gets a couple dozen Google hits.

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22sold ... ry+hill%22

Louis Campbell (Philly) is another one. Also wasn’t Andrew Merola’s birth name Knapik before he changed it or was Knapik just an alias? I forgot.


Pogo

[aray22]

I'd feel comfortable taking any bet that "documented member" is being applied very loosely and generically to Bassett.

Agreed. Though there really have been half-breed made guys with Anglo surnames before (off the top of my head, John Veasey and Chuckie Porter), the term "soldier" gets misapplied to associates all the time by people who aren't being precise with the term.

The string "soldier Henry Hill" gets a couple dozen Google hits.

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22sold ... ry+hill%22

Louis Campbell (Philly) is another one. Also wasn’t Andrew Merola’s birth name Knapik before he changed it or was Knapik just an alias? I forgot.


Pogo

I believe Merola is Italian, and that Knapik was his step father's last name who later adopted him. He then changed his last name from his step father's name to his mother's maiden name so he could be made.

[PolackTony]

I'd feel comfortable taking any bet that "documented member" is being applied very loosely and generically to Bassett.

Agreed. Though there really have been half-breed made guys with Anglo surnames before (off the top of my head, John Veasey and Chuckie Porter) [.]

What’s funny about Chucky Porter too is that he wasn’t your typical white mixed-ethnic guy either (e.g., Irish, Polish, Jewish, Greek, etc.), as his dad was an Anglo-Texan Medigan from San Antonio. Not one you see every day.

[PolackTony]

I'd feel comfortable taking any bet that "documented member" is being applied very loosely and generically to Bassett.

Agreed. Though there really have been half-breed made guys with Anglo surnames before (off the top of my head, John Veasey and Chuckie Porter), the term "soldier" gets misapplied to associates all the time by people who aren't being precise with the term.

The string "soldier Henry Hill" gets a couple dozen Google hits.

https://www.google.com/search?q=%22sold ... ry+hill%22

Louis Campbell (Philly) is another one. Also wasn’t Andrew Merola’s birth name Knapik before he changed it or was Knapik just an alias? I forgot.


Pogo

I believe Merola is Italian, and that Knapik was his step father's last name who later adopted him. He then changed his last name from his step father's name to his mother's maiden name so he could be made.

I posted about this before, if anyone’s interested. Merola was not his mother’s maiden name, so far as I know. I suspect that he *may have* been adopted and if so, Merola might have been his birth name (of course, even if so, he might well not be full Italian in blood, but I doubt anyone would likely care enough to go past whatever story Merola may have given about his background when he was proposed). From what I was able to find, his parents as listed in public documents were married years before his birth, so it seems clear that it’s not a stepfather deal, whatever the real story is.

The Knapik surname doesn’t come from a stepfather and Merola wasn’t his mother’s maiden name.

Andy Merola spent most of his life as Andrew Knapik Jr. He was born in 1967 and his parents were Andrew Charles Knapik Sr and Rosemarie Ann Luzzi. Andrew Sr was born in 1934 in rural SW PA near the WV border to Slovakian parents. In the late 50s, he moved to North Jersey and was attending Newark Engineering College in 1960 when he married Rosemarie. She was born in 1938 in Essex County to Angelo Luzzi, of San Demetrio Corone, Cosenza, Calabria, and Rosa Lavelli of Troina, in what is today the province of Enna, Sicilia. Rosemarie grew up in Verona and Caldwell and went on to become a teacher’s aide and then an executive secretary at Nabisco, while Andrew Sr was an engineer at Bel Fuse in JC. Both also were highly active in St Rose of Lima Parish in East Hanover and the Knights of Columbus/Columbiettes. Totally belies the low class vibes that Merola had always given me from his past cases and appearances in the papers.

Now, I’ve heard before that Merola was adopted and that Merola was his birth father or birth mother’s name. It could well be the case that he was in fact adopted, as his parents seem to have been rather devout Catholics and he looks, IMO, nothing like either his mother or older sister. It could also be that he made this up to qualify for membership. I have no idea myself. No one in his family tree, at least for the people who were his parents legally, had the surname Merola.

[Ivan]

What’s funny about Chucky Porter too is that he wasn’t your typical white mixed-ethnic guy either (e.g., Irish, Polish, Jewish, Greek, etc.), as his dad was an Anglo-Texan Medigan from San Antonio. Not one you see every day.

Cool shit, I didn't know that even though he was the underboss over local Ohio heroes like Joey Naples. And I had to look up "Medigan" haha -- its probable etymology (not the one where it's "dog shit" in Italian, that seems like folk etymology to me) reminds me of slang terms like "Murica" that are used as a jokey way of referring to how "America" is pronounced by nationalistic white Americans.

I'm a weird mix too, incidentally; my father's family are these old-stock American 17th century Appalachian settler people and my mother's family are Eastern European types. I like to joke that I'm half hillbilly and half vampire. Not too often you meet rednecks named Ivan, but here I am.

[johnny_scootch]

but I doubt anyone would likely care enough to go past whatever story Merola may have given about his background when he was proposed).

I forgot who it was that supposedly proposed Merola but his background was looked into and the right people vouched for him so Jackie Nose agreed to make him but only after he changed his last name.

Why wouldn’t just confirming his background be enough for them? I believe (speculation) the fact that Merola was from Jersey and not very well known amongst a good portion of the other families causing the Gambino’s to want to avoid a shit ton of questions directed towards them when they pass around a list with the name Andrew Knapik on it.

[PolackTony]

but I doubt anyone would likely care enough to go past whatever story Merola may have given about his background when he was proposed).

I forgot who it was that supposedly proposed Merola but his background was looked into and the right people vouched for him so Jackie Nose agreed to make him but only after he changed his last name.

Why wouldn’t just confirming his background be enough for them? I believe (speculation) the fact that Merola was from Jersey and not very well known amongst a good portion of the other families causing the Gambino’s to want to avoid a shit ton of questions directed towards them when they pass around a list with the name Andrew Knapik on it.

Yup, that’s my guess too, given that it seems like the name change likely coincided with his induction. Whatever his actual ancestry and the story that he told them (or whatever they may or may not have found out if they looked into
It), there’s also a larger context beyond just getting approval to be proposed by his Family. While it’s not like another Family would necessarily be able to blackball him over his name (though that raises some interesting questions too), I don’t doubt that it was agreed that it would make for better appearances to just have him go by Merola. I mean, *we’re* always asking questions about him and wondering what his deal really is every time he comes up on the boards, so one can imagine what guys might’ve said if a list with “Knapik” on it got passed around lol.

[B.]

What's funny is Knapik Sr.'s obituary lists his son as "Andrew Merola".

"Why'd you change your name, son?"
"So I could get made, Dad."
"Oh, of course."

[PolackTony]

What's funny is Knapik Sr.'s obituary lists his son as "Andrew Merola".

"Why'd you change your name, son?"
"So I could get made, Dad."
"Oh, of course."

It’s funny too given that his parents were both middle-class professionals, with no apparent mob connections, and devout Catholics very active with the church. He seems to have totally come out of left field with respect to his familial background, which was what really led me to suspect that the adoption rumors might well be true (he also doesn’t look anything like his parents, and devout Catholics are exactly the kind of people you’d expect to adopt a kid). The name change could also have spun for his parents as him trying to reconnect with his roots or whatever, as that’s sort of a trope or cliche when it comes to adopted kids coming of age and having a crisis of identity.

[Ivan]

It’s funny too given that his parents were both middle-class professionals, with no apparent mob connections, and devout Catholics very active with the church.

It's interesting when people with bougie non-mob backgrounds like that end up as gangsters somehow. Harvey Rosenberg was like that apparently; his parents are described as in Murder Machine feeling "blameless" about how their kid turned out.

[B.]

What's funny is Knapik Sr.'s obituary lists his son as "Andrew Merola".

"Why'd you change your name, son?"
"So I could get made, Dad."
"Oh, of course."

It’s funny too given that his parents were both middle-class professionals, with no apparent mob connections, and devout Catholics very active with the church. He seems to have totally come out of left field with respect to his familial background, which was what really led me to suspect that the adoption rumors might well be true (he also doesn’t look anything like his parents, and devout Catholics are exactly the kind of people you’d expect to adopt a kid). The name change could also have spun for his parents as him trying to reconnect with his roots or whatever, as that’s sort of a trope or cliche when it comes to adopted kids coming of age and having a crisis of identity.

He has that "nth generation Italian-American guy" look where he can pass for having Italian heritage but also looks like he could have any number of other genetic backgrounds.