Vincent Cafaro
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Vincent Cafaro (born August 27, 1933) is a former
Italian-American Italian Americans () are Americans who have full or partial Italians, Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeastern United States, Northeast and industrial Midwestern United States, Midwestern ...
mobster who was a
soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a Conscription, conscripted or volunteer Enlisted rank, enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, a warrant officer, or an Officer (armed forces), officer. Etymology The wo ...
in the
Genovese crime family The Genovese crime family (), also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian Americans, Italian American American Mafia, Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and Ne ...
under the tutelage of acting boss Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, until becoming a government
confidential informant An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a "snitch", "rat", "canary", "stool pigeon", "stoolie", "tout" or "grass", among other terms) is a person who provides privileged information, or (usually damaging) information inten ...
and cooperating witness in 1986.


Labor racketeer

Cafaro was born in the small town of Gambugliano near
Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...
, Italy, but grew up in the
East Harlem East Harlem, also known as Spanish Harlem, or , is a neighborhood of Upper Manhattan in New York City, north of the Upper East Side and bounded by 96th Street to the south, Fifth Avenue to the west, and the East and Harlem Rivers to the eas ...
section of New York, United States. In 1974, Cafaro became a
made man In the Sicilian and American Mafia, a made man is a fully initiated member of the Mafia. In order to become eligible to be "made", an associate must fulfill several requirements, such as being Italian or of Italian descent and sponsored by ...
, or full member, in the Genovese family and was assigned to Salerno's crew, based out of the Palma Boys Social Club in East Harlem. From 1974 to 1986, Cafaro was influential in the N.Y.C. District Council of Carpenters rackets. Cafaro received payoff money from fellow East Harlem native and Genovese captain Vincent DiNapoli. DiNapoli's top associate, Teddy Maritas, was President of the District Council. Cafaro's representative in the Carpenters Union was Onofrio "Frankie Zip" Acramone. Cafaro would have Acramone set up meetings with other union officers to gain further influence in the union. Cafaro and Acramone worked with DiNapoli's representatives Attilio Bitondo, Anthony Fiorino, and
Gambino crime family The Gambino crime family (pronounced ) is an Italian American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. ...
representative Carmine Fiore on labor rackets during the construction of the
Javits Convention Center The Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, commonly known as the Javits Center, is a large convention center on Eleventh Avenue (Manhattan), Eleventh Avenue between 34th Street (Manhattan), 34th Street and 38th Street in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, ...
in
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
. DiNapoli eventually went to prison for labor racketeering; Maritas disappeared after being indicted. While DiNapoli was in prison, he learned that Cafaro was gaining influence in the District Council. Worried about his turf, DiNapoli took the problem to boss Salerno. Salerno sided with DiNapoli and forced Cafaro to return the union rackets to DiNapoli.


Government informant

On March 21, 1986, Cafaro and 14 other mobsters were indicted on federal racketeering charges involving concrete supply companies. In September 1986, while in jail awaiting trial, Cafaro contacted the government about becoming a government informant and witness. In October 1986, the government released Cafaro on bail. From October 1986 to March 1987, Cafaro attended family meetings wearing a recording device. On March 20, 1987, the government revealed in court that Cafaro was now working for them. Cafaro's son Thomas was indicted at the same case, and the government offered him a
plea agreement A plea bargain, also known as a plea agreement or plea deal, is a legal arrangement in criminal law where the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest to a charge in exchange for concessions from the prosecutor. These concessions can include ...
also. However, Thomas decided to plead guilty and go to prison to assure the Genovese family that he was still loyal. Cafaro later testified about the Genovese family involvement in large scale labor
racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercion, coercive, fraud, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. ...
; their control over the New York District Council of Carpenters; and the family's organizational structure. Cafaro also exposed the Genovese family's control over the
New York Coliseum The New York Coliseum was a convention center that stood at Columbus Circle in Manhattan, New York City, from 1956 to 2000. It was designed by architects Leon Levy and Lionel Levy in a modified International Style, and included both a low buil ...
and the Javits Center. He also described how Salerno, after suffering a
stroke Stroke is a medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to a part of the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemor ...
, became a
figurehead In politics, a figurehead is a practice of who ''de jure'' (in name or by law) appears to hold an important and often supremely powerful title or office, yet '' de facto'' (in reality) exercises little to no actual power. This usually means that ...
for new boss Vincent "The Chin" Gigante. This maneuver helped deflect law enforcement scrutiny of Gigante's affairs. When Salerno was eventually convicted and sentenced to 100 years in prison in the Commission case, the real family boss, Gigante, was still free. In October 1987, Cafaro told prosecutors that he was breaking his cooperation deal because of fear for his immediate family. On February 20, 1988, Cafaro refused to answer some questions in court during a drug trial for
Liborio Bellomo Liborio Salvatore “Barney” Bellomo (born January 8, 1957) is an American mobster and boss of the Genovese crime family of New York City. Bellomo was a member of the 116th Street Crew of Saverio "Sammy Black" Santora. Early life Bellomo ...
and three other defendants. In 1989 and 1990, Cafaro testified against Gambino boss
John Gotti John Joseph Gotti Jr.Capeci, Mustain (1996), pp. 25–26 ( , ; October 27, 1940 – June 10, 2002) was an American '' mafioso'' and boss of the Gambino crime family in New York City. He ordered and helped to orchestrate the murder of Gambin ...
and then disappeared into the federal
Witness Protection Program Witness protection is security provided to a threatened person providing testimonial evidence to the justice system, including defendants and other clients, before, during, and after trials, usually by police. While witnesses may only require p ...
.


References


Further reading

*Goldstock, Ronald, Martin Marcus and II Thacher. ''Corruption and Racketeering in the New York City Construction Industry: Final Report of the New York State Organized Crime Task Force''. New York: NYU Press, 1990. *Jacobs, James B., Coleen Friel and Robert Radick. ''Gotham Unbound: How New York City Was Liberated from the Grip of Organized Crime''. New York: NYU Press, 2001. *Jacobs, James B., Christopher Panarella and Jay Worthington. ''Busting the Mob: The United States Vs. Cosa Nostra''. New York: NYU Press, 1994. *Jacobs, James. ''Organized Crime and Its Containment: A Transatlantic Initiative''. Lieden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers, 1991. *Paoli, Letizia. ''Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style''. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. *Raab, Selwyn. ''Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires''. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005.


External links


United States of America v. Vincent Cafaro and the District Council of New York City and Vicinity of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America
United States Southern District Court of New York

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit {{DEFAULTSORT:Cafano, Vincent 1933 births Possibly living people American gangsters of Italian descent Genovese crime family People who entered the United States Federal Witness Protection Program People from East Harlem