Angelo DeCarlo

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Angelo "Gyp" DeCarlo (September 2, 1902-October 20, 1973) was a New Jersey mobster and member of the Genovese crime family who dominated loan sharking operations during the 1960s. The subject of a two year federal undercover operation, DeCarlo's conviction would reveal existing widespread corruption of New Jersey public officials as implicating Frank Sinatra's ties to organized crime.

Born in Sicily, DeCarlo represented Genovese business interests in the New Jersey's underworld as an associate of Abner "Longey" Zwillman and Gerardo Catena. Based in the suburban Newark neighborhood of Mountainside, New Jersey, DeCarlo had risen to the position of Capo after gaining control over the majority of loansharking or the "juice" racket, as well as involved in illegal gambling and murder for hire, after systematicly eliminating rival mobsters over a period of several years during the late 1950s.

Between 1961 and 1963, conversations between DeCarlo and mob associates revealed incriminating evidence to federal agents via a wire tap including information on corruption among law enforcement, prominent businessmen and state officials, including Congressmen Peter Rodino, Newark Mayor Hugh Addonizio and influential Hudson County politician John J. Kenny (after the publication of the transcripts both Addonizio and Kenny were among those whose careers were ruined) as well as mentioning musician Frank Sinatra. DeCarlo would also discuss murder methods regarding murder contracts, describing one of his "humane" hits in which he had shot a victim through the heart as it was supposedly a painless way to die.

DeCarlo remained in control of his New Jersey criminal operations until 1970, when he was arrested and convicted of extortion, relating to the arsenic poisoning of Louis Saperstein, and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment. However, he was granted a presidential pardon by then President Richard Nixon after serving a year and a half on the grounds that DeCarlo was in poor health, and was released in December 1972. DeCarlo, who clamed to be dying of cancer, was approved by U.S. Attorney General Richard Kleindienst who submitted it to White House Council John Dean who delivered it directly to Nixon (possibly influenced by Vice President Spiro Agnew, a personal friend of Frank Sinatra [1]). Although the matter was investigated by Special Watergate Prosecutor Archibald Cox, no evidence was found of corruption.

DeCarlo died on October 20, 1973 in Mountainside, only five days before a federal deadline to pay a $20,000 fine from which was issued during his 1970 conviction.

[edit] Further reading

Clarke, Thurston and Tigue, John J. Jr. Dirty Money: Swiss Banks, the Mafia, Money Laundering, and White Collar Crime. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1975. ISBN 978-0-671-21965-9
Kwitny, Jonathan. Vicious Circles: The Mafia in the Marketplace. New York: W.W. Norton, 1979. ISBN 978-0-393-01188-3
Volz, Joseph and Peter Bridge. The Mafia Talks. Greenwich, Connecticut: Fawcett, 1969.
Zeiger, Henry A. The Jersey Mob. New York: New American Library, 1975.

[edit] References

Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 978-0-313-30653-2
Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0-8160-5694-1