Vincent Cafaro

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Vincent "Fish" Cafaro (b. August 27, 1933) was a New York City mobster and, a protege of Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, who was a top lieutenant in the Genovese crime family. In 1986, he would agree to become a government informant, later testifying against the Genovese's involvement in large scale heroin trafficking, labor racketeering and their control over the New York District Council of Carpenters as well as detailed information on the organizational structure of the crime family, stating that after Fat Tony suffered a stroke, he would go into semi-retirement and then used by the new boss Vincent Gigante as a front boss to deflect law enforcement scrutiny of Gigante's affairs. [1].

Cafaro grew up in East Harlem, and in 1974 became a made man in the Genovese family, assigned to the crew of Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, which was based out of the Palma Boys Social Club. Cafaro, from 1974 until 1986, was influential in the N.Y.C. District Council of Carpenters rackets. Cafaro would receive payoff money from fellow East Harlem native, and Genovese captain Vincent DiNapoli whose top associate Teddy Maritas was President of the District Council. Maritas would disappear after being indicted with DiNapoli.

Cafaro's representative in the Carpenters Union was Onofrio "Frankie the Zip" Acramone, and would have Acramone set up meetings with other union officers to gain further influence in the union. Cafaro and Acramone would work in tandem with captain Vincent DiNapoli's representatives Attilio Bitondo, Anthony Fiorino, and Gambino family representative Carmine Fiore in regards to the Javits Center rackets. While Vincent DiNapoli was in prison, he learned of Cafaro's growing influence in the District Council and had his men sit down with Anthony Salerno, where Salerno decided to have Cafaro give back the rackets to Vincent DiNapoli.

In 1986, after being indicted on racketeering and drug charges, Vincent Cafaro decided to cooperate with the federal government [2]. Cafaro's son Thomas was indicted in the same case, and the feds offered to drop the charges against him but Thomas decided to plead guilty and face jail time to assure the Genovese family that he was not a rat. Cafaro would exposed the Genovese family's control over the Coliseum, and then the Jacob Javits Center. Cafaro would also explain that after Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno suffered a stroke in 1981, he would be made a "front boss" for the real power in the family, Vincent "the Chin" Gigante. This meant that when Salerno was convicted and given a 100 year sentence in the Commission case for being the Genovese family boss, he was not actually the family's true boss.

[edit] 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. ISBN 0-8147-3034-5
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. ISBN 0-8147-4247-5
Jacobs, James B., Christopher Panarella and Jay Worthington. Busting the Mob: The United States Vs. Cosa Nostra. New York: NYU Press, 1994. ISBN 0-8147-4230-0
Jacobs, James. Organized Crime and Its Containment: A Transatlantic Initiative. Lieden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers, 1991. ISBN 90-04-08551-3
Paoli, Letizia. Mafia Brotherhoods: Organized Crime, Italian Style. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-19-515724-9
Raab, Selwyn. Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. ISBN 0-312-30094-8