Some DeCavalcante Family Info (1980s-1990s)

[Angelo Santino]

Masseria is said to have taken Mafia politics by storm following D'Aquila's murder: he was trying to influence Chicago, the Bonannos, Gambinos, Lucchese and arguably Detroit.

Masseria's the Boss of all Bosses. I respect him.


Pogo

We're all bums when the wagon comes - I mean this joint is jumpin!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKe6yH3ZwGo

[B.]

Some guys became bosses as soon as they came over (or very nearly), like Manfredi Mineo, so he could be one them. Judging by immigration records it looks like he came from Corleone. It also looks like he lived in Newark, not Elizabeth. Valachi said that Badami was the boss of the Newark Family and that Sam Monica (Monaco) was the UB. Badami's closest associates were Joseph and Sam Accardi as well as Monaco. It's on pages 235-236 of Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics (The McClellan Senate Hearings, AKA the Valachi Hearings).

Thanks for that info. Sam Monaco's bio on findagrave.com (which isn't necessarily reliable) also says that Monaco was Badami's underboss since the 1920's, but not sure where the author Bill Heneage got the info. It's also strange that Monaco and Luigi Russo (who was... consigliere? captain? soldier?) would be killed but not their boss Badami. Monaco/Russo were said to be Maranzano loyalists, but I wonder if the same is true for Badami. If he was from Corleone, he may have had other loyalties.

I found an article from 1955 that says 66-year-old Badami of South Orange had survived a drive-by shotgun blast a month before his murder. As for the actual murder, he was at a cafe owned by his friend Vito Oddo when two assailants came in and stabbed him 39 times. Frank Monaco (Sam's brother) was found 1/4 mile away from the crime scene with a switchblade but the police wouldn't tell the media anything more. There was speculation that the murder was related to the Italian lottery. Stabbing someone 39 times is definitely not your typical mob hit... sounds personal. If Monaco was getting revenge for his brother's murder, it's pretty incredible he waited over 30 years to do it

Also, the other question would be what Badami's affiliation was by 1955. The Newark family was disbanded but Badami appears to have still been involved with activities in the Newark area.

[Angelo Santino]

Some guys became bosses as soon as they came over (or very nearly), like Manfredi Mineo, so he could be one them. Judging by immigration records it looks like he came from Corleone. It also looks like he lived in Newark, not Elizabeth. Valachi said that Badami was the boss of the Newark Family and that Sam Monica (Monaco) was the UB. Badami's closest associates were Joseph and Sam Accardi as well as Monaco. It's on pages 235-236 of Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics (The McClellan Senate Hearings, AKA the Valachi Hearings).

Thanks for that info. Sam Monaco's bio on findagrave.com (which isn't necessarily reliable) also says that Monaco was Badami's underboss since the 1920's, but not sure where the author Bill Heneage got the info. It's also strange that Monaco and Luigi Russo (who was... consigliere? captain? soldier?) would be killed but not their boss Badami. Monaco/Russo were said to be Maranzano loyalists, but I wonder if the same is true for Badami. If he was from Corleone, he may have had other loyalties.

I found an article from 1955 that says 66-year-old Badami of South Orange had survived a drive-by shotgun blast a month before his murder. As for the actual murder, he was at a cafe owned by his friend Vito Oddo when two assailants came in and stabbed him 39 times. Frank Monaco (Sam's brother) was found 1/4 mile away from the crime scene with a switchblade but the police wouldn't tell the media anything more. There was speculation that the murder was related to the Italian lottery. Stabbing someone 39 times is definitely not your typical mob hit... sounds personal. If Monaco was getting revenge for his brother's murder, it's pretty incredible he waited over 30 years to do it

Also, the other question would be what Badami's affiliation was by 1955. The Newark family was disbanded but Badami appears to have still been involved with activities in the Newark area.

Bedami being underboss might have come from Valachi. When he was describing Newark he mentioned a name that sounded to him like Bonanno, when pressed if it was Joe Bonanno he answered no, Sam Monaco was the name he finally gave. I believe he cited Bedami as Under, but that could be faulty memory on my part as I'm recalling it from 10 years ago.

Also, weren't Monaco and Russo tied to Maranzano because years later someone thought to account for those 50-70 murders that occured in night and the closest they could find in that range were certain murdered gangland figures. I believe some author once even stated Bazzano was once tied to Maranzano'r murder as well.

As for Vincenzo D'Amico, Gentile said that he was murdered by Troia who was murdered in retribution. It's wrong. D'Amico survived and went back to Sicily and lived (I think) to the 60's, and Gentile's recollection of D'Amico and Troia's relationship might be wrong also. This is important because roughtly 70% of FBI's documented early history was influenced by Gentile. If you go through the 25 Years After Valachi book, you'll find a typed out Mafia timeline, alot of that came from Gentile, in fact I'll put it another way: without Gentile, we might have never heard of Lo Monte, Troia, Umberto Valente, certainly Dr Gregorio Conte's name would not have Mafia Boss next to it, same for Dr. Rosario DeSimone, Vito Di Giorgio, La Scaglia, Lanza, and etc etc etc.

You can find these names now in newspapers and documents, but without Gentile's confirmation of these men, they would have never been identified as members. So when he gets things wrong, and he does, he needs to be forgiven. But Gentile's words were often ambiguous and rambling, he could focus on one topic for 4 pages and then abruptly jump to another without any conclusion of his first narration. So people extracted what they could and it was open to interpretation. For instance, Al Capone being part of the Camorra who merged with the Mafia, portions of that story came from Gentile, but Gentile never specifically said Al was a camorra boss. Others have looked at the info and wrote out their take on it, and it just kept snowballing. That's why there's Al Capone and Lucky Luciano the Legends and then the actual story. Today when you look for sources you might find 4 that were influenced from one primary source through different means, and while it looks validating, it's skewed.

[Angelo Santino]

This chart might relate to the discussion regarding Tampa and New York, Bedami and Profaci.


http://www.gangrule.com/2/wp-content/ga ... _chart.jpg

[Antiliar]

I checked last night on the Valachi Hearings and he said that Badami was the Newark boss and Monica (sp) was the underboss, and its on pages 235-236. I think if somehow Monaco's brother was responsible for killing Badami in revenge, then he believed that Badami was responsible for killing Sam Monaco, not Luciano. But again, as B said, thirty years is a long wait, which leads me to believe that if Frank Monaco did it, then it was for something more recent that happened between them. I'm also led to believe that Badami stepped down when Maranzano was killed and was replaced by D'Amico. That makes sense chronologically. So what was Badami after that? He was either retired or a member of another crime family operating in Newark, either with the Luccheses or the Genoveses due to his Corleone birth. More speculation: I think it's possible that Badami was the one who formed the Newark Family, similar to how Mineo formed his Family. They basically just got off the boat to become bosses, as if those positions were pre-arranged. Considering his Corleone origin I would guess that it was arranged by Masseria and Morello AFTER D'Aquila was killed. Would have given Masseria another vote for the Boss of Boss position. Again, speculative, but makes a lot of sense. Then with the Luciano takeover Monaco was slain and Badami was forced to abdicate. Monaco's death could have been a message to Badami to step down. COULD HAVE. Then he was replaced by a guy from Villabate, a guy close to Profaci, Gaspare D'Amico. Gentile obviously confused who was killed: it was D'Amico's father. Domenico D'Amico, 77, was slain, while 50-year old Gaspare was wounded. He moved to Puerto Rico, where he lived for the rest of his life.

As for Troia, yes, we did confirm that the guy mentioned in the Allegra confession was him. Same guy.

On the "Night of the Sicilian Vespers," yes, Monaco and Russo were two names that came up as well as Joseph Siragusa (the Pittsburgh boss before Bazzano) and even Joe Ardizzone of Los Angeles. Recall that Maranzano had supporters from California when he met with Gentile and Troia. The other casualty was the Philadelphia boss who was forced to step down.

1931/32 represented a big sea change in the world of Cosa Nostra: I think Joseph Roma of Denver was killed in that time period too (but not connected to the C-War), Al Capone went to prison and was replaced, Gaspare Messina of Boston retired and succeeded by Phil Buccola, in Cleveland the Milanos won over the Porrellos, and maybe a couple other changes that I'm forgetting.

On the Tampa Bedamis, they were from Alessandra della Rocca in Agrigento (not far from Ribera), and was not, as far as I could find out, related to Badami (which is spelled a little differently too) from Corleone. On another topic, in 1918 Angelo Bedami was living in Chicago and moved to Tampa in the early 1920s. I think Joe Profaci was in Chicago around that time (early 1920s -- he arrived in America in 1921), and Profaci said his father was close to Ignazio Italiano, the old Tampa boss who was at the 1928 Cleveland meeting. So they could have been connected back in Sicily although they were from different parts. Italiano was from Santo Stefano Quisquina near Alessandra della Rocca and Bivona. Recall that a couple Mafiosi involved with the Morello-Lupo counterfeiting scheme were from Bivona and Tampa. Just shows that the connections go wayyyy back.

[B.]

Really interesting stuff, Rick.

Monaco and Russo were allegedly killed for being Maranzano loyalists, and like I said up above, I wonder if Badami was not killed because his loyalties were elsewhere. If Masseria and Morello installed him as boss, which you theorized, then that could be an explanation for why he wasn't killed along with the other Maranzano guys. It could also mean that he was taken down as boss after Masseria was killed.

I wonder if it could look something like this:

Badami > Possible Masseria ally, possibly the first boss > Deposed following Masseria's death.
Troia > Maranzano ally, takes over for Badami > Deposed following Maranzano's death
D'Amico > Profaci ally, takes over for Troia > Wounded, deposed, family broken up

This might also explain why Troia was in a position to be boss of bosses during that short window of time after Masseria died and before Maranzano became the top guy.

edit: actually, Valachi's story throws a wrench into this because Maranzano sent him to help "Don Steve". Badami couldn't have been that close to Masseria by that point if Maranzano was helping him. Maybe there was a change in alliance when Morello died, since he would have known Badami through the Corleone connection.

[HairyKnuckles]

If I remember correctly, Bill Bonanno said that after the Masseria killing, the Newark bosses were not happy about Luciano striking a deal with Maranzano. This sounds to me that they were close allies of Masseria and looked upon Luciano as a betrayer. I think Bill said that they wanted to take up arms against the new coalition of Luciano/Maranzano. So if Bedami was deposed of right after Masseria´s killing, it could mean that the group was lead by Monaco/Russo until they were killed.

[Antiliar]

Sounds like our speculation is approaching a possible working solution.

On age 232 of the Hearings Valachi affirmed that Sam Monica (sic) was the underboss and that Don Steve was the boss, and this was at the time of Maranzano's death. That means Badami couldn't have been deposed while Masseria was still around or while Maranzano was Boss of Bosses. The other problem with Troia is that at that time he was in Rockford or Springfield and part of one of those groups. He was in the local newspapers all the time. That makes it clear that he came to Newark when D'Amico was the boss.

On Bill Bonanno's story -- which he got from his father -- I think there's a lot of confusion. I think it's more likely that Badami was unhappy that Luciano made a deal with Joe Bonanno. The death of Monica and Russo and the deposing of Badami may have been connected with the death of Maranzano, that's what Valachi thought, but it could also be some revenge slayings from Luciano/Genovese just like they killed their former consigliere, Saverio Pollaccia. Maybe Luciano/Genovese thought that Badami was going to interfere in the peace process. I could see Luciano telling him that he was going to kill Maranzano then reaching out to the other leaders for peace and Badami saying that with Maranzano out of the way, he would wipe out Maranzano's former borgata. Since Joe Profaci sold himself as a neutral party during the C-War, Badami was replaced a paisan of his from Villabate. Again, speculative, but we have a few facts that we can use as a frame for our theories. I'm just throwing this out there, but it does seem to fit with what we know.

[Pogo The Clown]

"Sam (Monica) had an iron pipe hammered up his ass." - Joe Valachi


Pogo

[B.]

Sounds like our speculation is approaching a possible working solution.

On age 232 of the Hearings Valachi affirmed that Sam Monica (sic) was the underboss and that Don Steve was the boss, and this was at the time of Maranzano's death. That means Badami couldn't have been deposed while Masseria was still around or while Maranzano was Boss of Bosses. The other problem with Troia is that at that time he was in Rockford or Springfield and part of one of those groups. He was in the local newspapers all the time. That makes it clear that he came to Newark when D'Amico was the boss.

On Bill Bonanno's story -- which he got from his father -- I think there's a lot of confusion. I think it's more likely that Badami was unhappy that Luciano made a deal with Joe Bonanno. The death of Monica and Russo and the deposing of Badami may have been connected with the death of Maranzano, that's what Valachi thought, but it could also be some revenge slayings from Luciano/Genovese just like they killed their former consigliere, Saverio Pollaccia. Maybe Luciano/Genovese thought that Badami was going to interfere in the peace process. I could see Luciano telling him that he was going to kill Maranzano then reaching out to the other leaders for peace and Badami saying that with Maranzano out of the way, he would wipe out Maranzano's former borgata. Since Joe Profaci sold himself as a neutral party during the C-War, Badami was replaced a paisan of his from Villabate. Again, speculative, but we have a few facts that we can use as a frame for our theories. I'm just throwing this out there, but it does seem to fit with what we know.

So Troia was in Illinois when he may have been considered for the chairman spot? I remember when this came up before I thought it was significant that both the Newark and Elizabeth families had their own Illinois connections, but there doesn't seem to be much if any crossover, just relationships to their respective paesans.

If the lead pipe and signs of torture are true, the Monaco/Russo hits bring to mind the killing of Tony Caponigro and Freddy Salerno, which was punishment for killing a boss. Whatever the reason for their killings, it seems they had either committed a serious infraction against the powers-that-be or it was deeply personal. If your theory is close to the truth, it could also be that Luciano and his allies were making an example out of them before anyone else got out of line.

Frank Monaco killing Badami in early 1955 might not be a coincidence given Badami's connections to Sam Accardi. Accardi was facing serious legal problems and fled to Italy in 1955, though I don't know the month. Accardi was among the most powerful members in NJ at the time, so it seems possible that Frank Monaco saw Accardi's departure as an opportunity to finally get back at Badami for what happened to his brother. I'd be curious if Frank was a member himself. It seems likely that all of these guys were part of the Lucchese NJ crew.

There might have been very little drama related to Badami stepping down himself... he could have been like Frank Scalise, Angelo Caruso, and others who briefly held spots but stepped down/were deposed for political reasons and still kept influential positions.

[Antiliar]

"Sam (Monica) had an iron pipe hammered up his ass." - Joe Valachi


Pogo

Would be interesting to get the coroner's report on him to see if that really happened.

[Angelo Santino]

According to various sources [ Gentile, Valachi, FBN, FBI, ect. ] there was an official Family in Newark, NJ from the 1920's to the late 1930's or early 1940's. It was then disbanded, and the members shared-out between the 5 NYC Families and a new Family in Elizabeth, NJ. I have never seen a chart for this Family, so here is a list of the most likely members.

Stefano Badami - Boss - Demoted 1931-32.
Gaspare D'Amico - Boss - Retired 1937 [ survived shooting ].
Sam Monaco - U/Boss - Killed 1931.
Filippo Amari - Capo [Elizabeth].
Vincenzo Troia - Capo - Killed 1935.
Sam Accardi - Capo.
Peter Giallombardo - Capo / Sol.
Louis Russo - Capo / Sol. - Killed 1931.
Joseph Accardi - Sol.
Carmine Battaglia - Sol.
Emanuele Cammarata - Sol.
Pietro Campisi - Sol.
Francesco DeCavalcante - Sol.
Nicolo Delmore - Sol.
Andrew Lombardino - Sol.
Salvatore Lombardino - Sol.
Francesco Longo - Sol. - Killed 1935.
Benjamin Pizzolato - Sol.
Anthony Riela - Sol.
Emanuele Riggi - Sol.
Michael Russo - Sol.
Aniello Santagata - Sol.

There are also several future Elizabeth members who could have been Newark members.

The 1950 FBN Report listed several NJ Mafiosi with a Newark address.

Anybody got any additions or thoughts ?

Limey.

[Angelo Santino]

Back on RD years ago, I got into a discussion which got heated with mob bloodline royalty Don Barzini, who used his fresh street talk to argue that NJ was the first Mafia family in the US (surpassing 1850's New Orleans even) because Joe Schiavo told Joe D'Arco and his dog Buggy one night over a glass of dago red. But in the course of the argument I looked up external information on NJ's Italian colonies which may be of interest to this topic as to how or when these formations occurred... People might wonder as to the methodology of my obsession with demographics. The reason: it's how the Mafia exported itself, there was never a Mafia in 1830's Philadelphia or 1930's Utah because there wasn't ever any significant Sicilian colony to warrant it. One does not start a mafia family, it's not a simple process as naming an underboss and captains and sending them out, there has to be a certain biosphere to warrant a Mafia cell in a location and a pretty significant one to warrant it's long endurance. It warrants a population they can bastardize, a political and legal climate that can be corrupted/bought, and an economy (leg or illeg) in which to thrive on. Italians were in Philadelphia, probably longer than any other cities since 1800, but they were from Genoa, it was the western Sicilians who brought the Mafia there in the 1880's-1920's. And that coincides with immigration and formation of Sicilian colonies in that period. It's the tracks that the train ran on so to speak.

I'm not trying to be an asshole or wiseguy here, but you need tracks to drive a fucking train on. There couldn't have been an Italian Mafia family in Jersey that early back when the state had no population to warrant it.

The earliest population of Italians in New Jersey was in the Newark area. In 1873 there were 105,509 residents in Newark. Total Italian population: 29. Most from Genoa. Later on in the 1880's, Neapolitans in NYC began leaving Mulberry Bend in NYC to Boyden Street. In 1880, that number of Italians (* Neapoltians all) were 407. Immigration shot up in between '80 and 1910 by 20,000, In 1920 there were 27,465 Italians in Newark.

So unless those 29 Genoanesi were Mafia, it's not feasable. Immigration from S.Italy shot up between '80 and 1910 and peaked in 1920, so I would suggest it started in that period. However, if people want to argue that something existed beyond that point, I'll shut the hell up and let people discuss. I have no ego in this.

And when it comes to the Jersey Mafia, it's still a black hole. The state has not opened up its archives like NY has, so we are very limited on early sources.

However, as early as 1900, you had NY Mafia members doing business in the Garden state (legitimate and illegitimate) and you also had an early Philadelphia Mafia boss living in S. Jersey in 1905. Angelo DeCarlo had an early record, we don't know how early the Genovese family began absorbing members, it seems to be the 1920's but it may have been before that. But the evidence is nonexistent.

In the 1930's, Gaspare D'Amico was head of a Newark Group that eventually got dissolved and a new family was allegedly formed, the modern DeCavalcante family. We don't know when the Newark family officially started, we can speculate, I think it's a fairly good guess it existed prior to 1910, but without evidence its pretty hard to prove.

Note: I no longer believe Elizabeth was a direct result of Newark.

I looked up some more shit since the "Sicilian aspect" as that's important here since we're discussing the Mafia. Between 1900 and 1910, there were 4 quarters formed in Newark of Italian colonies, the 2nd colony on 14th avenue was the Sicilian Colony, which sprang in 1905-1910. The others in the 1st Ward, East Ward etc all seem to be from Teora, Caposele, Calabritto, Lioni, Conza, etc. It's all the Compagna exterior region of Naples. Calabrians lived on Garside and Factory street by 1912. One of these Calabresi, Anthony Minisi appears to have become the city commissioner. The Sicilian demographics are mostly lumped with Calabresi and Abruzzi IE- Southern Italians. They were the minority to a larger Neapolitan Italian population. Maybe that's where David Chase got his inspiration for the Neapolitan aspect of the Sopranos from.

It's similar to Philadelphia, the Sicilian population was 10% of the overall Italian pop, vs a Calabrian 25% and Abruzzi 25%. It explains how Philly looked to NY traditionally and how the incorporation of Italians rather than Sicilian or Eastern Sicilian changed the outfit. One FBI informant in the 1960's stated that the Philadelphia crew was mostly Calabrian with fewer Sicilian members.

[B.]

If there wasn't the right population to support a functioning mafia family, then it makes sense that the Newark family wouldn't have been formed until later. I don't know how realistic it is that the family would have been started in 1927 (when Badami arrived in the US) or 1928 (when D'Aquila was killed), only that it sounds like they weren't one of the earlier families in the US.

The DeCavalcantes are different to me, though, because they never required a large Italian population. As JD said, they apparently had a cap of 75 members, but I don't know if they ever had that many. When Sam DeCavalcante took over, they apparently had between 30 to 40 members, with most of them being old timers. For the sake of argument, even if they had 75 members at some point before or after DeCavalcante got the spot, they still didn't have a large associate group. It wasn't like NY, where each member might have a full crew of associates. Associates and soldiers both had access to the administration, and the soldiers themselves often made their living through local 394 and whatever they could pull in on their own, which was sometimes nothing.

On wiretaps from the 1960's, a recurring theme from other families is how broke the DeCavalante members were... and of course broke could be a relative term i.e. they weren't starving, they were simply living a middle class life. Sure some DeCavalcante members, especially those in NY, had your more typical east coast mob approach and the money to show for it, but these types were the exception in that family. Like I said, they had limited associates and the members were mostly low-key.

The reason they were able to operate this way is because they had not only been established with a strong Riberese power base, but they were also continuing to bring fresh immigrants from Ribera into the family. It wasn't like the Bonanno, Lucchese, and Profaci families who had a foundation in a certain town but stopped importing members from there... the DeCavalcantes had a foundation in Ribera and continued to bring new men into the family who were born in Ribera well into modern times, possibly still today. This foundation was only enhanced by occasional members from elsewhere who had proven themselves (i.e. Frank Majuri, who I believe might have an unproven Ribera connection anyway).

So I guess to close off this rambling, I don't think the DeCavalcantes would have required much in terms of "biosphere" as they were more dependent on having 1) a small but loyal immigrant population from their hometown of Ribera, 2) a way to support those immigrants (Local 394 and local businesses), and 3) basic acknowledgement from other US mafia families. In my opinion, the family could have existed as soon as Riberesi immigrants started coming to the US.

[Pogo The Clown]

Yeah the DeCavalcante's always seemed to have a small associate to member ratio compared to other families. A 1988 estimate had them at 80 Associates and a 2004 estimate had them at 50 Associates. That is roughly a 1-1 and 1.3-1 ratio. Even adjusting for associates that flew under the radar of the estimate I doubt it even reaches a ratio of 2-1. During this time frame they had about 7 Crews so their crews must have been pretty tiny.


Pogo