DeCavalcante Admin Succession

[B.]

- The family's ties to Ribera could be compared to the Bonannos and Castellammare Del Golfo. Both towns played a significant role in the development of their respective US family that is obvious even to outsiders, but insiders also stress the importance of these towns within the family. That said, both families had significant leaders who weren't from those towns (Bonannos - Schiro; DeCavs - Delmore, DeCavalcante, Majuri). Aside from those leaders, though, the various members of the administration throughout their history as well as captains were dominated by men from those towns. Longstanding ties to those towns also remained in these two families long after other families had abandoned direct ties to Sicily.

- Though direct Ribera heritage wasn't a prerequisite to becoming boss, most if not all family leaders have held an important position in the Ribera club and been involved with the orphanage in Ribera. According to the report Felice has, the family also has an open door relationship with the Ribera mafia family that allows men to transfer from one group to the other. This is a completely unheard of arrangement that ceased to exist elsewhere in the US post-1930s and seems to have continued into the modern era solely because of the DeCavalcante family's core relationship to Ribera. Why was an exception made that allows the DeCavalcantes to bend rules that otherwise applied to the rest of the US mafia?

- Despite being the only family that is based in the North Jersey and New York area, they were never included with the "five families" and were much smaller, limited in rackets, and influence. When other families were at their peak size and influence, the DeCavalcantes were said to have between 30 to 40 men, with most of them old and inactive. The active members during this time were mainly the family leaders. Most members seem to have been laborers and the primary benefit of mafia membership was guaranteed work in the labor field. Leaders like Joe Sferra were expected to provide work for members and failure to meet this standard resulted in demotion. Sal Caterinicchio, another significant member, was said to be responsible for arranging work for illegal Sicilian immigrants and collecting tribute from them. Though the family was involved in gambling and loansharking in Elizabeth and Union county, the family's identity was almost completely based around control of the small but valuable local 394.

- Louis Larasso was recorded telling Genovese members that the DeCavs intentionally didn't introduce most of their members to other families. They had fewer than ten men who were actively engaged in leading the family and mingling with other organizations, while twenty to thirty members were left to obscurity and we can only guess who many of them were. The Luccheses are another group said by one informant to have limited introductions to other families, though given the greater number of crimes/activities that Luccheses were involved in and their proximity to other families we have a decent idea what the family looked like during that time. With the DeCavalcantes it's almost entirely a mystery. Personally I think the DeCavalcantes had a structure similar to what we've heard about small Sicilian families, where the boss has little insulation from members/associates. However, the existence of a second underboss plus a capodecina in Connecticut give the indication that this family was actually overstructured in some ways. What would the motivation be for having both an administration member and a captain in a territory where they had only a handful of soldiers and other organizations had a limited presence? Just confusing.

- Three informants point to the DeCavalcantes as one of the earliest mafia organizations in the US, possibly even the earliest. Lucchese leader D'Arco says they were the first and that the Lucchese family can be traced to them, with this information supposedly coming to him from old time member Joe Schiavo. DeCav captains Rotondo and Stango both made comments suggesting that the DeCavs were one of the earliest US families. In Stango's ramblings he seems to say that the five families came from the DeCavalcantes originally, which sort of parallel's D'Arco, while Rotondo said in court testimony that the DeCavs were the earliest family. More reliable research points to New Olreans as an earlier family, but it's worth thinking about the information from these three men even if it's distorted or inaccurate.

- The family's earliest known capodecina was Frank DeCavalcante, who spent most of his career in Trenton before dying in the 1950s. Despite the family's small size, they had family leaders and significant presence in Elizabeth, Long Branch, Trenton, Brooklyn, Queens Connecticut, Marlboro NY, and Sicily (Ribera). In addition, they had ties to the Chicago area through Riberesi that would later be affiliated with the Outfit, including alleged early leader Phil Bacino. The family dominated Elizabeth and surrounding towns, but aside from that they were spread out in some unlikely places and they managed to maintain a foothold in those places for decades despite a limited number of members/associates there.

- The DeCavs deferred to the Gambinos and followed their directives at least as far back as the early 1960s, an arrangement that continues today. One point of contact the DeCavs had was Gambino captain Joe Arcuri, whose heritage comes from Agrigento. The DeCavs have always, to the best of our knowledge, had a membership dominated by men from Agrigento. In their early days the Gambinos had a significant faction from Agrigento spread out among two crews, with Nick Gentile acting as an unofficial consigliere for this faction. It seems possible if not likely that the DeCavalcante family had early connections to this faction given the longstanding relationship between the Gambinos and DeCavs and the importance of Agrigento province in the DeCavs history. It's also worth noting, but maybe not significant, that the Gambinos have a longstanding foothold in Connecticut.

- Though the DeCavs had a few members here and there over the years who lived and/or operated in Newark proper, most of their North Jersey members were not active in that area even though it was nearby. The Newark family was based in Newark proper, as their names suggests, and the men we know to have been members or suspected members were primarily from Palermo province (San Giuseppe Iato, Villabate, Corleone) and inland Trapani (Vita, Gibellina). No known or suspected Newark members were from Agrigento that I know of, nor were there any Newark members active in areas of NJ later associated with the DeCavs. The Newark family is also said by all sources to have been disbanded/broken up and divided among the five families plus Philadelphia. No mention is made of an NJ family keeping any former Newark members. In fact, if dozens of Newark members had stayed within an independent NJ family (the DeCavs), that would mean that the Newark family was never disbanded which would go against pretty much all sources who have commented on the fate of the Newark family. In my opinion the case is pretty well closed on this one.

One wild card is Stefano Badami since the timeline of his reign is confusing and Corleone is near Agrigento, not to mention some potential ties between Corleone and the DeCav family, including Frank Majuri's Corleonese father and Jake Amari, who despite being from Ribera had allegedly spent time there as a youth and had a relationship with figures there later on. Still, it seems unlikely that Badami was affiliated with the DeCavs, as he was close to NJ Lucchese members the Accardi brothers up until his 1955 death and the Luccheses were traditionally a Corleonesi group. His ongoing relationship to other NJ Lucchese figures plus his Corleone heritage most likely puts Badami in with that group in my opinion. Also, Sam DeCavalcante talks on tape about previous bosses Phil Amari and Nick Delmore but never mentions Stefano Badami in relation to his organization even though Badami was killed less than a decade prior.

[OlBlueEyesClub]

Great stuff , B. I enjoyed reading that .

[Pogo The Clown]

Despite the family's small size, they had family leaders and significant presence in Elizabeth, Long Branch, Trenton, Brooklyn, Queens Connecticut, Marlboro NY, and Sicily (Ribera).

We can also add South Florida to the list as a few members were based there.


Pogo

[Cheech]

Not Chicago, we can't even agree on what to label people or who went over who. But also/mostly, there's information that I want to hold back, since the info hasn't yet been published by my partner. which is while I'll abstain from Chicago, LA and New Orleans (which would go back to the 1850's). Detroit I made awhile back for Scott, I wonder if he still has it.

Philly, yes, simple enough.

I was thinking of trying to do a 5 families pin up. I suppose it could be gradually updated as more information comes out.
https://s23.postimg.org/q1bp1chij/fivefams.jpg

Kinda going for the
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/maf ... 1031141113
effect.

Not to toot my own horn I really think the 1982 Philly Chart turned out spectacular and would like to do more period pieces like this.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/or ... 0fa417.jpg

i love the pin up idea of the 5 families

any chance this gets done CC?

[Hailbritain]

Not Chicago, we can't even agree on what to label people or who went over who. But also/mostly, there's information that I want to hold back, since the info hasn't yet been published by my partner. which is while I'll abstain from Chicago, LA and New Orleans (which would go back to the 1850's). Detroit I made awhile back for Scott, I wonder if he still has it.

Philly, yes, simple enough.

I was thinking of trying to do a 5 families pin up. I suppose it could be gradually updated as more information comes out.
https://s23.postimg.org/q1bp1chij/fivefams.jpg

Kinda going for the
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/maf ... 1031141113
effect.

Not to toot my own horn I really think the 1982 Philly Chart turned out spectacular and would like to do more period pieces like this.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/or ... 0fa417.jpg

i love the pin up idea of the 5 families

any chance this gets done CC?

This is a great idea , how good would it be to recreate the original one aswel

[Angelo Santino]

Not Chicago, we can't even agree on what to label people or who went over who. But also/mostly, there's information that I want to hold back, since the info hasn't yet been published by my partner. which is while I'll abstain from Chicago, LA and New Orleans (which would go back to the 1850's). Detroit I made awhile back for Scott, I wonder if he still has it.

Philly, yes, simple enough.

I was thinking of trying to do a 5 families pin up. I suppose it could be gradually updated as more information comes out.
https://s23.postimg.org/q1bp1chij/fivefams.jpg

Kinda going for the
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/maf ... 1031141113
effect.

Not to toot my own horn I really think the 1982 Philly Chart turned out spectacular and would like to do more period pieces like this.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/or ... 0fa417.jpg

i love the pin up idea of the 5 families

any chance this gets done CC?

Yes, it will take me quite awhile though. And given that I don't photos of everybody alot of names may be left off it though, especially at the soldier level.

This is a great idea , how good would it be to recreate the original one aswel

Problem is I never seen many of those photos and can barely read what's on there.

[Cheech]

CC send me the names you need photos on.

[Cheech]

I am off for the next 4 days. I'll dig

[Hailbritain]

Send me names also , I've got tons of photos

[Angelo Santino]

If you gentleman would like, I can start a new thread on this project, I'll start going through the photos I have, the ones I don't I'll make a rest for on the forum. Perhaps if you guys have particular photos you want used for someone, just post them and I'll do. You'll both receive credit of course.

As per B. Great post, I enjoyed it reading it.

[Rocco]

Not Chicago, we can't even agree on what to label people or who went over who. But also/mostly, there's information that I want to hold back, since the info hasn't yet been published by my partner. which is while I'll abstain from Chicago, LA and New Orleans (which would go back to the 1850's). Detroit I made awhile back for Scott, I wonder if he still has it.

Philly, yes, simple enough.

I was thinking of trying to do a 5 families pin up. I suppose it could be gradually updated as more information comes out.
https://s23.postimg.org/q1bp1chij/fivefams.jpg

Kinda going for the
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/maf ... 1031141113
effect.

Not to toot my own horn I really think the 1982 Philly Chart turned out spectacular and would like to do more period pieces like this.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/or ... 0fa417.jpg

i love the pin up idea of the 5 families

any chance this gets done CC?

Yes, it will take me quite awhile though. And given that I don't photos of everybody alot of names may be left off it though, especially at the soldier level.

This is a great idea , how good would it be to recreate the original one aswel

Problem is I never seen many of those photos and can barely read what's on there.

under the Colombo chart you got that Rat under the name Tom Farase. Not Tom. just and FYi.

[Hailbritain]

Not Chicago, we can't even agree on what to label people or who went over who. But also/mostly, there's information that I want to hold back, since the info hasn't yet been published by my partner. which is while I'll abstain from Chicago, LA and New Orleans (which would go back to the 1850's). Detroit I made awhile back for Scott, I wonder if he still has it.

Philly, yes, simple enough.

I was thinking of trying to do a 5 families pin up. I suppose it could be gradually updated as more information comes out.
https://s23.postimg.org/q1bp1chij/fivefams.jpg

Kinda going for the
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/maf ... 1031141113
effect.

Not to toot my own horn I really think the 1982 Philly Chart turned out spectacular and would like to do more period pieces like this.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/or ... 0fa417.jpg

i love the pin up idea of the 5 families

any chance this gets done CC?

Yes, it will take me quite awhile though. And given that I don't photos of everybody alot of names may be left off it though, especially at the soldier level.

This is a great idea , how good would it be to recreate the original one aswel

Problem is I never seen many of those photos and can barely read what's on there.

under the Colombo chart you got that Rat under the name Tom Farase. Not Tom. just and FYi.

Yeah that's reynald maragni

[sdeitche]

Back to Decavs and Newark, Stefano Badami lived at 373 Lincoln Avenue in Orange in 1942, west of Newark. It's looking more and more like he wasnt a part of the early Decavs. Though there were a few Badamis that lived in Elizabeth in the 1920s, I didnt find a direct familial connection.

[Angelo Santino]

Yes, back to the DeCavs, I tried with the new thread to shift the separate topic aside and admitably failed.

B's post on the subject is just good reading from an insightful poster. I have no corrections but perhaps some addendums, respectfully.

- The family's ties to Ribera could be compared to the Bonannos and Castellammare Del Golfo. Both towns played a significant role in the development of their respective US family that is obvious even to outsiders, but insiders also stress the importance of these towns within the family. That said, both families had significant leaders who weren't from those towns (Bonannos - Schiro; DeCavs - Delmore, DeCavalcante, Majuri). Aside from those leaders, though, the various members of the administration throughout their history as well as captains were dominated by men from those towns. Longstanding ties to those towns also remained in these two families long after other families had abandoned direct ties to Sicily.

You're 100% correct, but just so we're all up to speed: every family was diversified. The Gambinos, Bonannos, DeCavs, Detroit all were tied to specific areas whereas other cities like the Philadelphia, LA, Chicago, Genovese were more diversified in their factions. Regardless they all had oddballs, people who seem to have little connections/reasoning for being members but they obviously were so we just leave it at that and wait for more info.

- Though direct Ribera heritage wasn't a prerequisite to becoming boss, most if not all family leaders have held an important position in the Ribera club and been involved with the orphanage in Ribera. According to the report Felice has, the family also has an open door relationship with the Ribera mafia family that allows men to transfer from one group to the other. This is a completely unheard of arrangement that ceased to exist elsewhere in the US post-1930s and seems to have continued into the modern era solely because of the DeCavalcante family's core relationship to Ribera. Why was an exception made that allows the DeCavalcantes to bend rules that otherwise applied to the rest of the US mafia?

It seems to me that each family at various times had different protocol for accepting families, mostly before 1930. But afterwards, the Gambinos and Bonannos recognized them somewhat more than the Genoveses. Cafaro said in testimony regarding Italian nationals: "We don't recognize them, you don't know who could be a rat or in law enforcement." The origins to this logic may or may not derive from the fact that they were the least Sicilian-Mafia oriented compared to the Gambinos who've had their Palermitan faction since the 1870's. But the Gen's started out as Corleonesi dominated and if the FBI is correct that Bellomo is boss it's just an example of the "leftover" genes appearing several gen's later. But we've also heard rumors of the Gambinos and Bonannos recruiting mafiosi from Sicily in the past. We don't have any names who came over Furio Giunta style though. I believe on record we have people having to be "remade" into the American LCN.

- Despite being the only family that is based in the North Jersey and New York area, they were never included with the "five families" and were much smaller, limited in rackets, and influence. When other families were at their peak size and influence, the DeCavalcantes were said to have between 30 to 40 men, with most of them old and inactive. The active members during this time were mainly the family leaders. Most members seem to have been laborers and the primary benefit of mafia membership was guaranteed work in the labor field. Leaders like Joe Sferra were expected to provide work for members and failure to meet this standard resulted in demotion. Sal Caterinicchio, another significant member, was said to be responsible for arranging work for illegal Sicilian immigrants and collecting tribute from them. Though the family was involved in gambling and loansharking in Elizabeth and Union county, the family's identity was almost completely based around control of the small but valuable local 394.

- Louis Larasso was recorded telling Genovese members that the DeCavs intentionally didn't introduce most of their members to other families. They had fewer than ten men who were actively engaged in leading the family and mingling with other organizations, while twenty to thirty members were left to obscurity and we can only guess who many of them were. The Luccheses are another group said by one informant to have limited introductions to other families, though given the greater number of crimes/activities that Luccheses were involved in and their proximity to other families we have a decent idea what the family looked like during that time. With the DeCavalcantes it's almost entirely a mystery. Personally I think the DeCavalcantes had a structure similar to what we've heard about small Sicilian families, where the boss has little insulation from members/associates. However, the existence of a second underboss plus a capodecina in Connecticut give the indication that this family was actually overstructured in some ways. What would the motivation be for having both an administration member and a captain in a territory where they had only a handful of soldiers and other organizations had a limited presence? Just confusing.

- Three informants point to the DeCavalcantes as one of the earliest mafia organizations in the US, possibly even the earliest. Lucchese leader D'Arco says they were the first and that the Lucchese family can be traced to them, with this information supposedly coming to him from old time member Joe Schiavo. DeCav captains Rotondo and Stango both made comments suggesting that the DeCavs were one of the earliest US families. In Stango's ramblings he seems to say that the five families came from the DeCavalcantes originally, which sort of parallel's D'Arco, while Rotondo said in court testimony that the DeCavs were the earliest family. More reliable research points to New Olreans as an earlier family, but it's worth thinking about the information from these three men even if it's distorted or inaccurate.

I'm trying to think of the "something there." I agree. But looking at Elizabeth and New Jersey as a whole, there's very little Sicilian presence there before 1900. The mainlanders predated them by 20 years. In NYC before modern Little Italy you had Mulberry Bend which was south of that. It housed the early Italians arriving and it's conditions is what lead to political reforms so the area was town down. Before it happened, Neapolitans were sizable enough to be noticed leaving NYC for Newark by 1880. Unless someone wants to argue that before 1900 there was a large Sicilian presence that slipped the radar and the DeCav's predate that? If not, we put that aside and ask how else could this be possible? Ribera was mafia connected in Chicago, Eizabeth and Birmingham. Could there have been an early Riberese faction in New Orleans, not exactly it's own group but represented in the Palermitan dominated area? Or perhaps had an early presence in what became the Gambino Family in the 1860's-1880's? That's really the only way this group could be the first group, represented as an early faction... I'm trying not to be dismissive, I agree with you, there's "something there."

- The family's earliest known capodecina was Frank DeCavalcante, who spent most of his career in Trenton before dying in the 1950s. Despite the family's small size, they had family leaders and significant presence in Elizabeth, Long Branch, Trenton, Brooklyn, Queens Connecticut, Marlboro NY, and Sicily (Ribera). In addition, they had ties to the Chicago area through Riberesi that would later be affiliated with the Outfit, including alleged early leader Phil Bacino. The family dominated Elizabeth and surrounding towns, but aside from that they were spread out in some unlikely places and they managed to maintain a foothold in those places for decades despite a limited number of members/associates there.

- The DeCavs deferred to the Gambinos and followed their directives at least as far back as the early 1960s, an arrangement that continues today. One point of contact the DeCavs had was Gambino captain Joe Arcuri, whose heritage comes from Agrigento. The DeCavs have always, to the best of our knowledge, had a membership dominated by men from Agrigento. In their early days the Gambinos had a significant faction from Agrigento spread out among two crews, with Nick Gentile acting as an unofficial consigliere for this faction. It seems possible if not likely that the DeCavalcante family had early connections to this faction given the longstanding relationship between the Gambinos and DeCavs and the importance of Agrigento province in the DeCavs history. It's also worth noting, but maybe not significant, that the Gambinos have a longstanding foothold in Connecticut.

Given that the Gambinos had a Agrigentesi faction since 1900, if any mafiosi from Ribera landed in New York 1880-1920, he most likely would have gone with the Gambinos given the way the factions aigned. But this is an area of Sicilian descendants that where shared with the Corleonesi (Gen/Luc). You see Bisacquina going both ways: Cascio Ferro and DiLeonardo. So I wouldn't be suprised if you see two links extending to those families like three branches.

- Though the DeCavs had a few members here and there over the years who lived and/or operated in Newark proper, most of their North Jersey members were not active in that area even though it was nearby. The Newark family was based in Newark proper, as their names suggests, and the men we know to have been members or suspected members were primarily from Palermo province (San Giuseppe Iato, Villabate, Corleone) and inland Trapani (Vita, Gibellina). No known or suspected Newark members were from Agrigento that I know of, nor were there any Newark members active in areas of NJ later associated with the DeCavs. The Newark family is also said by all sources to have been disbanded/broken up and divided among the five families plus Philadelphia. No mention is made of an NJ family keeping any former Newark members. In fact, if dozens of Newark members had stayed within an independent NJ family (the DeCavs), that would mean that the Newark family was never disbanded which would go against pretty much all sources who have commented on the fate of the Newark family. In my opinion the case is pretty well closed on this one.

Speculation on my party, but knowing how information gets muddled, I've wondered if they were part of some New Jersey Mafia like Philadelphia was and got broken up with Newark being absorbed and the Ribera element being allowed on their own. Without evidence I'm not going to present this as a plausible theory I'm just throwing out the possibility. But on paper, it makes sense that they were two different families.

One wild card is Stefano Badami since the timeline of his reign is confusing and Corleone is near Agrigento, not to mention some potential ties between Corleone and the DeCav family, including Frank Majuri's Corleonese father and Jake Amari, who despite being from Ribera had allegedly spent time there as a youth and had a relationship with figures there later on. Still, it seems unlikely that Badami was affiliated with the DeCavs, as he was close to NJ Lucchese members the Accardi brothers up until his 1955 death and the Luccheses were traditionally a Corleonesi group. His ongoing relationship to other NJ Lucchese figures plus his Corleone heritage most likely puts Badami in with that group in my opinion. Also, Sam DeCavalcante talks on tape about previous bosses Phil Amari and Nick Delmore but never mentions Stefano Badami in relation to his organization even though Badami was killed less than a decade prior.

Agreed.

Great post. Again, my responses weren't arguments but rather a way to get back to this discussion. One I'm curious about learning more on.

[bronx]

Chris you can put joe n gallo's father and the rumore's with ferro and delenardo