John "Johnny Boy" D'Amato (died January 1992) was a New Jersey mobster and former acting boss of the

DeCavalcante crime family The DeCavalcante crime family, also known as the North Jersey Mafia, is an Italian-American Mafia organized crime family that operates mainly in northern New Jersey, particularly in Elizabeth, Newark, West New York, and various other North Jer ...

. After being recruited by Gambino crime family boss John Gotti to take over the family, he was suspected of engaging in homosexual activity and was murdered in January 1992.

Captain

After being promoted

caporegime A caporegime or capodecina, usually shortened to capo or informally referred to as "captain" or "skipper", is a rank used in the Mafia (both the Sicilian Mafia and Italian-American Mafia) for a '' made member'' of an Italian crime family who he ...

during the 1980s by Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi, D'Amato became heavily involved in large labor and construction racketeering operations with prominent

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

mobsters Giacomo "Jake" Amari and Girolamo "Jimmy" Palermo. D'Amato of the powerful

Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...

faction of the DeCavalcante crime family, was soon cooperating with high-ranking members Charles "Big Ears" Majuri and Gaetano "Corky" Vastola in

illegal gambling Gaming law is the set of rules and regulations that apply to the gaming or gambling industry. Gaming law is not a branch of law in the traditional sense but rather is a collection of several areas of law that include criminal law, regulatory law, ...

and

loansharking A loan shark is a person who offers loans at extremely high interest rates, has strict terms of collection upon failure, and generally operates outside the law. Description Because loan sharks operate mostly illegally, they cannot reasonably ...

operations.

Recruited by John Gotti

After longtime boss Giovanni Riggi went on to be

indicted An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offence is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use the felonies concept often use that of ...

for labor racketeering and

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

charges in late 1989, Vastola stepped up as the new acting boss of the North Jersey Mafia while Riggi was on trial. It was around this time, rival Gambino crime family boss John Gotti reached out to several members of the family, in an attempt to gain full control of it. One of these mobsters was D'Amato, who reportedly conspired with Gotti and his

underboss Underboss ( it, sottocapo) is a position within the leadership structure of certain organized crime groups, particularly in Sicilian, Greek, and Italian-American Mafia crime families. The underboss is second in command to the boss. The under ...

Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano into murdering Vastola. (Gotti was later convicted of this conspiracy.) Soon, Riggi was convicted of his charges and sentenced to 15 years in 1990, which meant that Vastola kept running the day-to-day activities. Only after Riggi's conviction, Vastola was convicted in major extortion charges and sentenced to eight years in prison. From behind bars, Riggi promoted D'Amato as acting boss of the DeCavalcante crime family.

Murder

In January 1992, Anthony Capo participated in the murder of D'Amato. Earlier in 1991, D'Amato's girlfriend, retaliating against D'Amato over an argument, told Anthony Rotondo that D'Amato was an active bisexual. She described swinging encounters that D'Amato had in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

sex clubs with both women and men. Rotondo shared this information with underboss Giacomo Amari, and

consigliere Consigliere ( , ; plural ) is a position within the leadership structure of the Sicilian, Calabrian, and Italian-American Mafia. The word was popularized in English by the novel '' The Godfather'' (1969) and its film adaptation. In the novel, a ...

Stefano Vitabile. As Capo described it in court testimony in 2003,

"Nobody's going to respect us if we have a gay homosexual boss sitting down discussing La Cosa Nostra business."

In addition, many family members believed that D'Amato was controlled by Gambino boss John Gotti. The three men ordered D'Amato's execution and gave the job to Capo, Vincent Palermo and James Gallo. In contravention of

Cosa Nostra The Sicilian Mafia, also simply known as the Mafia and frequently referred to as Cosa nostra (, ; "our thing") by its members, is an Italian Mafia-terrorist-type organized crime syndicate and criminal society originating in the region of Sicily ...

rules on the killing of a family boss, the plotters did not ask permission from the Mafia Commission in New York. On the day of the attack, Capo and another man picked up D'Amato a block from his girlfriend's house in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

to drive to lunch. With D'Amato sitting in the back seat, Capo turned and shot D'Amato four times, killing him."Hit man's confessions Mob turncoat tells court of his blood-soaked life"
by Greg B. Smith, ''New York Daily News'', July 26, 2002 Capo and Rotundo left the body at a safe house, where other mobsters disposed of it. D'Amato's body was never recovered. Informed in prison of D'Amato's execution, Riggi appointed Amari as the new acting boss.Mob Boss 'Hit' Over Gay Encounters
by Jaime Holguin CBS News February 11, 2009"Mobster Killed For Being Gay"
BY GREG B. SMITH New York Daily News June 15, 2001

Aftermath

In 2003, capos Philip "Phil" Abramo, Giuseppe "Pino" Schifilliti and the reputed consigliere Stefano Vitabile were charged in organizing various crimes, including the murder of D'Amato. Reputed men involved in the murder conspiracy, Palermo, Capo and Rotondo would later testify about this murder against their former associates. In 2006, Abramo, Schifilliti and Vitabile were sentenced to life imprisonment.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Amato, John 1990s missing person cases 1992 deaths American victims of anti-LGBT hate crimes Bisexual men DeCavalcante crime family Kidnapped American people LGBT people from New Jersey Missing person cases in New Jersey Murder convictions without a body Murdered American gangsters of Italian descent People murdered by the DeCavalcante crime family People murdered in New Jersey Violence against men in North America Year of birth missing

Captain

Recruited by John Gotti

Murder

Aftermath

See also

References