DeCavalcante Admin Succession

[Angelo Santino]

Here is what B. can piece together. Pogo and JD could correct some of the names and dates I'm sure.

Filippo "Tony Bello" Bacino (?)
Filippo "Big Phil" Amari 19?? - 1957 (Stepped down or deposed)
Nicholas Delmore 1957 - 1964 (Died)
- Simone "Sam the Plumber" DeCavalcante 1962-1964 (Acting)
Simone DeCavalcante 1964-1982 (Stepped down)
- Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi 1970s (you'll have to ask Pogo the exact years) (Acting)
Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi 1982-2015 (Died)
- John D'Amato 1990-1992 (Acting / Murdered)
- Gioacchino "Jake" Amari 1992-1997 (Acting) (Died)
- Ruling Panel 1997-1999: Girolamo "Jimmy Gumps" Palermo, Vincent "Vinnie Oceans" Palermo, Charles "Charlie Ears" Majuri
- (?) 1999-2001
- Ruling Panel 2001-200?: Emanuel "Manny" Riggi, Francesco Papparato
- Joseph Miranda 200?-2007 (Acting)
- Francesco Guarraci 2007-2012 (Acting)

NJ Underboss:
Frank Majuri 195?-1957 (Demoted)
Luciano "Louie" LaRasso 1957-1961 (Demoted)
Simone "Sam the Plumber" DeCavalcante 1961-1964 (Became boss)
Frank Majuri 1964-197?
Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi 197?-1982 (Became boss)
Girolamo "Jimmy Gumps" Palermo 1982-1989
John D'Amato 1989-1992 (Murdered)
- Gioacchino "Jake" Amari 1990-1992 (Acting)
Gioacchino "Jake" Amari 1992-1997 (Died)
(Vacant) 1997-2000s
Joseph Miranda 2000s - 20??

CT Underboss:
Joseph LaSelva 195?-19??

Consigliere -
Salvatore Caterinicchio 19?? - 19??
Frank Majuri (?)
Stefano "Steve the Truck Driver" Vitabile 1976-20??
Frank "Shipe" Nigro 20??-Present

[Angelo Santino]

I seem to recall a discrepancy regarding Filippo Bacino. One informant labeled him an early or founding boss I believe, but the earliest records of the man are from the Chicago Heights / Calumet City and apparently left enough family (lower case f) members there:
http://www.theoriginaljohns.com/history.html

and was active/associated with both the Sicilian LCNers as well as the Caponites dash mainland gangsters of the era:
https://s29.postimg.org/5bg8vuprr/bacino.jpg


So how he became the boss/founder of the Family in Elizabeth, NJ remains a good question. The Capones did overtake Chicago Heights and eventually Chicago proper which transplanted an unknown number of Sicilian mafia refugees to other cities.

[Pogo The Clown]

Here is what I got.


Bosses:
Felippo Bacino (1920s-1930s)
Philip "Big Phil" Amari (1930s-1957) Stepped Down.
Nicolo "Nick" Delmore (1957-1964) Died.
-Simone "Sam the Plumber" DeCavalcante (1961-1964) Became Official Boss.
Simone "Sam the Plumber" DeCavalcante (1964-1982) Retired.
?-Francesco “Frankie Hotel” Polizzi (1972-1974) Stepped Down.
-Giovanni "John the Eagle/Uncle John" Riggi (1976-1982) Became Official Boss.
Giovanni "John the Eagle/Uncle John" Riggi (1982-August 2015) Imprisoned/Released November 2012/Died.

-Ruling Panel-(1990)
-The Ruling Panel included UnderBoss John "Johnny Boy" D'Amato and Capos Emanual “Manny” Riggi and Paolo “Paul” Farina.

-John "Johnny Boy" D'Amato (1990-January 1992) Killed.
-Giaciano "Jake" Amari (1992-1997) Died.

-Ruling Panel-(1997-October 2000)
-The Ruling Panel included
Capo Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo (1997-December 1999) Imprisoned.
Capo Girolamo "Jimmy Gumps" Palermo (1997-October 2000) Imprisoned.
Capo Charles "Fat Charlie/Big Ears" Majuri (1998-October 2000) Imprisoned.

-Ruling Panel-(2000-Early 2000s)
-Soldiers Emanual “Manny” Riggi and Francesco “Frank the Painter” Paparatto

-Joseph Miranda (Early 2000s-2006) Stepped Down.
-Francesco “Frank” Guarraci (2006-April 2016?) Died.
-In March 2015 a FNU “Horse” LNU was identified as the Acting Boss. It is unclear if this was a reference to Guarraci or another individual. Also in March 2015 a FNU “Milk” LNU was identified as the Street Boss. It is unknown who this individual is.


UnderBosses:
Frank Majuri (19??-1957) Demoted.
Louis "Fat Lou" LaRasso (1957-1960) Demoted.
Simone "Sam the Plumber" DeCavalcante (1960-1961) Became Boss.
Frank Majuri (1961-1978) Became Consiglieri.
Joseph LaSelva/Connecticut (1950s-1978) Stepped Down.
-From its inception until the 1970s the family often had two UnderBosses.
Giovanni "John the Eagle/Uncle John" Riggi (1978-1982) Became Official Boss.
-Official UnderBoss Vacant (1982-1990)
-Girolamo "Jimmy Gumps" Palermo (1982-1990) Stepped Down.
John "Johnny Boy" D'Amato (1990-January 1992) Killed.
-Giaciano "Jake" Amari (1990-1992) Became Official UnderBoss.
Giaciano "Jake" Amari (1992-1997) Died.
-Acting UnderBoss Vacant (1992-1997)
-UnderBoss Vacant (1997-Early 2000s)
Joseph Miranda (Early 2000s-2006) Stepped Down.
-Miranda also served as Acting Boss.
-It is unkown who the UnderBoss was after Miranda stepped down. Maybe Guarraci since the DeCavalcante's traditionally had the UnderBoss also serve as the Acting Boss.


Consiglieri:
Salvatore Caterinicchio (1960s-1970s)
Frank Majuri (1978-Early/Mid 1980s) Stepped Down.
-Stefano "Steve the Truck Driver" Vitabile (1976/7-Early/Mid 1980s) Became Official Consiglieri.
Stefano "Steve the Truck Driver" Vitabile (Early/Mid 1980s-20??) Imprisoned October 2000.
-Frank D'Amato (200?-2003) Imprisoned.
Frank “Shipe” Nigro (20??-Present)


Does anyon have the moth of Riiggi's imprisonment in 1990, Jake Amari's death in 1997 and Frank D'Amato's 2003 imprisonment? Thanks.


Pogo

[Antiliar]

Stefano "Don Steve" Badami was the boss in 1930/31 when Joe Valachi went down there to help eliminate Ruggiero Boiardo. He was killed on March 31, 1955. So if Phil "Tony Bello" Bacino was a boss it was for a brief time before him. I checked his records and in fact Bacino was living in Chicago as of 1928, but back then guys traveled around a lot, so who's to say he didn't go to Newark in 1929 and create the Elizabeth Family, so it's possible. Working against that is that he would only been 27 and there were others more senior than he was.

[Angelo Santino]

Was Bedami boss of Elizabeth or Newark as they were two separate families at the time?

I'm still incredibly dubious about Bacino's position given his Calumet ties but a family informant overrules any hesitations I have, especially since I'm hardly an expert on New Jersey. It sucks that Jersey's records aren't as accessible as say Pennsylvania or New York and as far as I'm concerned it's still very much a black hole. Aside from Elizabeth and Newark, you have at least 3 NY Families there as early as the 1900's not to mention Philly in that same era.

Also, if Don Stefano was boss by 1955 then his would be successor Phil Amari was boss for two years as he stepped down in 1957.

[Angelo Santino]

Photos needed:

1) Joseph Miranda
2) Manny Riggi
3) Frank Paparatto
4) Joe La Selva
5) Salvatore Caternicchio
6) Steve Bedami

Once we can come to a consensus on the Bacino-Bedami-Amari years or approx years the chart is finito. It was very simple.

I'd like to insert a short paragragh explaining Bacino's place: what informant ID'd him? Rotundo?

[Antiliar]

Bedami was boss of Elizabeth/Newark at the same time D'Amico was boss of Newark. If you can have five Families sharing New York City you can have two sharing Newark...at least until 1937.

[Angelo Santino]

Bedami was boss of Elizabeth/Newark at the same time D'Amico was boss of Newark. If you can have five Families sharing New York City you can have two sharing Newark...at least until 1937.

NYC is the exception, outside of it there was one family per city. But I confused D'Amico and Bedami so that's moot. I'm not here to recreate history I'm just trying to get an understanding of the timeline. If Bacina "formed" the family it was between 1923 and 1928 unless he left Chicago after 1928, went to Elizabeth, NJ under the radar, formed it and then returned back to Chicago by 1933.

Filippo Bacino
Born on 1/4/02 in Ribera to Giovanni Bacino and Palma Triolo.
Arrived in USA 7/10/23 where he went to his uncle Carmelo Giaccobe, 343 E 48th St
Naturalized 12/21/28 in Cook County, Il, during which he lived at when he lived on 2321 W. Ohio St, Chi, IL. (Witnesses were Filippo Cusumano, 2321 W. Ohio St; Peter Lavorata, 1914 N. West St)
Married Jennie Maggio on 3/16/33
1940 Census - 14 163rd St, Calumet City, IL
Died Oct 6/1974 of cardiac failure, final address was 14 163rd St, Calumet City, IL.

Looking up Uncle Carmelo.
Born on 2/14/1875 in Ribera to Antonio Giacobbe and Anna Caternicchia.
Married 2/10/1901 to Corinda Parinisi/Triolo in Ribera.
Arrived 2/18/1921 to brother Lorenzo Giacobbe at 59 Wintrop St, Boston, MA. (He listed his wife as Palma Triolo on the passenger manifest?). NOTE on Lorenzo: he seemed to bounce between NYC (around E 60th St) and New England. He was married in Hartford, CT in 1913 to a Jennie La Bella and their son Antonio was born there in 1914, by 1920 he was back in NYC according to the censuses.
Naturalized 11/7/28 where he lived in NY on 411 E 60th St. (Witnesses were Giuseppe Renda, 308 E 62nd St; Nathan Piazza, 341 E 48th St.
Died 12/8/1948 in Ribera.

[Angelo Santino]

Stefano Bedami doesn't alleviate matters any either. He arrived after Bacino

Born 12/10/1888 in Corleone
Arrived 3/15/1927 with Salvatore Pennino (wife Orsola Gagliano) from Corleone to 630 or 637 W 27th St, NYC, both went to Pennino's bro in law Tomasso Gagliano. Listed his relative in Corleone as wife Culista Bedami.
In 1942 lived at 373 Lincoln Ave, Orange, Essix, NJ

All I can find at the moment.

[Angelo Santino]

At this point I'm just rambling and throwing out observations...

1) The Palermitan Gambinos had a 'Sciaccatani' faction that was active in Lower Manhattan and Midtown and included the paesani from that city, Castrofilippo, Calamonaci, Agrigento and Favara. Ribera is located within this cluster of cities and immigration from this city to NYC is congruent with the rest of the Agrigento population. I would make the argument that if mafiosi from Ribera were to fall into any family it would have been the Gambinos.

2) The Corleonesi were primarily Gen/Luc connected so it makes sense that Bedami's original connections would be with that them. Although we should note that by 1927 Tomasso Gagliano was most likely the Lucchese Underboss, if not by that year then certainly by 1930.

If I were to paint a scenario, without jumping to conclusions or making any broad brushes, it appears the nucleus of the original Elizabeth Family might/could/would have been a hybrid of Gambino-Lucchese 'associates' (I used that word not in the traditional mafia lingo sense, so below:).

This scenario is eerily similar to what we know of the Philadelphia Family, with members from Caccamo and Belmonte Mezzagno (Scafidis and Barrale) and with those from CDC (Sabella, Navarra, Chiodo etc) eventually coming under one Family, one boss, despite being from different regions in both Sicily and Montgomery County/South Jersey. There's a report that Traina (of Belmonte Mezzagno and most likely D'Aquila's underboss) was instrumental in Sabella (who would have been with the DiGaetano-Schiro-Bonanno network before) becoming Boss. If that was the case such a brokerage would had to have the sanction of the Gambino and Bonanno Families. I wonder/speculate if perhaps the Elizabeth Family was brokered out of a similar arrangement involving the Gambinos and Luccheses?

One would have wonder why the NYC Families would be concerned with assisting in forming other groups around them in neighboring areas. But in the case of Philly they really didn't form anything in 1918. as the Mafia or at least Mafiosi in that area (including S. Jersey) were around since the 1880's and 1900's. I can further speculate that having a known/recognized Rappresentante in those areas is like that of a branch manager and someone the other Families can seek out regarding that area's local matters. Mafia Families aren't created out of nowhere and there needs to be a certain biosphere (Sicilian demographics, racket potential) for a family to form. 1923 (Bacino) and 1927 (Bedami) seem kinda late and its most likely activity/mafiosi representation existed before the 1920's.

Curious as to Antiliar and B's thoughts on the topic.

[Pogo The Clown]

I thought Bedami was Boss of the Newark family which was a totally seperate group from the DeCavalcantes?


Any way here is the original info Felice posted that came from the informant/s.

Filippo Bacino (b.1902) - Was an early Family Boss along with Amari. His brother Luciano was a Ribera Family Member.

[B.]

I don't believe there was any connection between Badami and the DeCavalcante family. We had a pretty good discussion on this in the other DeCavalcante topic a while back. It looks like Badami was the Newark boss and stepped down during or immediately after the Castellammarese war, being replaced by D'Amico. Badami went on to associate with the Lucchese NJ crew until he was killed, which makes sense as he was from Corleone.

We know that the core of the DeCav family is from Ribera and there were Riggi, Merlo, and Caterinicchio/a relatives in Elizabeth shortly after the turn of the century. The Ribera club/association was started in Elizabeth in 1923, and given how closely linked the family has been to this club I think it's safe to assume that the DeCavalcante family has been in Elizabeth since then, if not earlier.

Bacino was close to fellow Ribera native Pasquale Lolordo, who was a top mafioso of some kind in the Chicago area and it has been learned the Lolordos were related to Phil Amari through marriage. His brother Joseph Lolordo fled to New York after Pasquale's death and became a DeCavalcante captain. The Bacino family of Illinois/Calumet City still maintains contact with Ribera descendents in New Jersey, which tells me that this group must have been incredibly tight knit decades ago. So there is some affiliation between the Chicago and NJ Riberesi, but we have very little to go on.

Bacino continued to associate with Amari through the 1950s and they met in Ribera for the founding of the St. Joseph's orphanage. According to a non-member source who was close to these guys in Elizabeth, Phil Amari started the family in the 1920s when he moved from New York to Elizabeth, though this source was not privy to the internal workings of the family, only the basic set-up in Elizabeth.

According to Felice's files, Rotondo specifically cites Bacino as an early boss. This is an odd name for someone to just pull out of a hat. Bacino ended up with Chicago, but we don't know much about Lolordo and Bacino's affiliation/activities before that. It would have made more sense if he had said Lolordo was an early DeCav boss as he was older and in New York for longer before heading to Illinois, plus he was clearly of significant stature in the years leading up to his death. Bacino seems to have been more of an aide to LoLordo.

Very interesting about the Giaccobe who had ties to the Hartford CT area. Maybe the family's CT decina can be traced back to someone like that. I've found other Riberesi immigrants who settled in CT as well.

[Angelo Santino]

Valachi makes Bedami sound like he was close to the original Newark Family.

Valachi:

Right after the Joe Baker affair I was loaned to Newark for about five Weeks as I was supposed to drive a truck as they were after a very important man. I remember his name but it is a hard name and I will try to do the best I can -- his name was Pordanor. He was a rich man and is important in Newark today. While I was in Newark I met quite a few boys. I met Tom Bell, Sam Accardo, Sam Monicor, Don Steve, a fellow named Joe and they were also after Richie. This Richie was shot in the head by Steve Ranelli with a shot gun and he hit him with all the blast in the head but Richie did not get hurt as the powder in the shells was very weak and we did not get anyone on the job that I was assigned to so I came back to N.Y.C. and right after I came back I was sent to the Haunted House on Long Island.

Copied from: http://mafiahistory.us/a023/therealthing.htm#328

Source info:
 Valachi, Joseph, "The Real Thing
The Autobiograph of Joseph Valachi," The American Mafia, mafiahistory.us, accessed Dec. 19, 2016.

Copyright © Joseph Valachi

Now to more. Now I went home and before I left he told me to call the office at a quarter to two the next afternoon and he gave me special orders not to tell Bobby Doyle anything. I knew he was able to do such a thing now before I left he had told me that this was his last appearance at the office and I turned and said Mr. Marnazano why don't you let Angelo Crusio go in your place why must you take a chance going to the office you know I never liked that order about us coming down the office without any guns. Gee after all anything happened to you we will all be out in the street. He said he had to make this last appearance. Well I left sadly and I went straight home and I started to think that he did not mention Tom Gagliano, Frank Scalise, Return to top of web page. - 363 - Don Steve from Newark so I was wondering if these guys were in on it. Well I thought most of the night and I did not come up with anything but fear. So the next day I went 110 Street at Lexington Ave., and I waited until a quarter to two. I made my call at a quarter to two and Charlie Buffalo answer the phone and he told me that I should hold on then he answer and told me that everything was alright now the Gap comes around two o'clock and he tells methat he met two girls from Brooklyn and we shall go and spend the whole day out there as they were very pretty and it didn't take long to make up my mind and we went to Brooklyn and we met the girls in East New York Brooklyn as this was thirty miles from N. Y. C. We decided to stay out in Brooklyn. We got there about four o'clock in the afternoon and we went to their house and then we went to a show and then went to one of these girls' sister house and then we left for N. Y. C. We reach 14 Street at about one o'clock or 1:30 and we went to Charley Jones Restaurant and we order a nice meal but we were there about fifteen minutes when a guy came in and he was looking us over. He left then a second guy came in and he was looking us over, he left and a third guy came and he was looking us over, that was enough for me. I said Gap have you noticed what I noticed. He said yes, let's go.

Copied from: http://mafiahistory.us/a023/therealthing.htm#363

Source info:
 Valachi, Joseph, "The Real Thing
The Autobiograph of Joseph Valachi," The American Mafia, mafiahistory.us, accessed Dec. 19, 2016.

Copyright © Joseph Valachi

[B.]

One thing Felice shared from Rotondo was that the DeCavalcantes had a Corleonesi faction led by Frank Majuri. Frank's father (Calogero Maiuri) was from Corleone but the Majuris have a maternal link to Ribera. I'm not familiar with any other members descended from Corleone, so this "faction" is a mystery. If Badami was in fact a boss of this family, this could play into this "faction".

[Angelo Santino]

Years ago on RD there was a discussion over whether or not Elizabeth and Newark were two Families or always one. I wish I had saved that as I don't remember the details.