Joel Cacace

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Joel Cacace Sr. (b. 1941) aka Joe Waverly, is a New York mobster and acting head of the Colombo crime family who tried to assassinate a federal prosecutor.

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[edit] Tough Guy

In 1976, Cacace was ambushed by three gunmen near his florist shop and shot in the chest. He killed one gunman, drove off the other two, and then drove to a police station for assistance.

[edit] Wrong Hit

In early 1987, imprisoned family boss Carmine Persico ordered Cacace to kill William Aronwald, a federal prosecutor. Persico felt that Aronwald was disrespectful to him during his 1986 trial. Killing a prosecutor was risky business for the Colombo family as the murder of public officials and policement was normally forbidden in Cosa Nostra tradition. Nevertheless, Cacace, then a top enforcer for the family, arranged for brothers Vincent and Eddie Carnini to murder Aronwald outside his Brooklyn law office. Cacace literally showed the hit men a piece of paper with the name Aronwald on it. However, Aronwald's father, George Aronwald, was also a lawyer and the two gunmen mixed them up. Later that year, George Aronwald was gunned down in a laundromat near his home.

Furious at the murder, the heads of the other New York "Five Families" demanded that the Colombos kill the Carnini Brothers. Cacace, who was also angry at the failed hit, ordered Colombo mobsters Carmine Variale and Frank Santora to eliminate the Carninis. At the Carninis' funeral, Cacace allegedly pointed out Variale and Santora to yet another pair of hitmen. In September 1987, Variale and Santora were murdered outside a Brooklyn social club in broad daylight. This extraordinary caution helped to temporarily conceal Cacace's involvement in the Aronwald murder.

[edit] Later Years

Despite the Aronwald fiasco, Cacace's brutal reputation gained him a large following among his men. One family member supposedly commented, "With Joe dealing the cards, you never know where the next card is coming from - the top or the bottom or the middle of the deck." Following the murders of the Carnini brothers, Eddie Carnini's widow, Kim T. Kennaugh, moved in with Cacase. The two eventually separated and in 1995 Kennaugh married Ralph C. Dols, a New York City housing police officer. In August 1997, Dols was ambushed and shot to death outside his apartment building in Brooklyn.Although Cacace was a suspect, no arrests were ever made in the murder.

On February 26, 1992, during the 1990's Colombo War, Cacace was ambushed and shot outside a social club in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn. Two gunmen in a station wagon parked across the street fired 14 shots. Although wounded, Cacace drew a handgun and exchanged shots with the men. Cacace had orginally supported acting boss Victor Orena during the early stages of of Orena' rebellion against Persico. However, Cacace eventually switched sides to the Persico faction, which ultimately won the war.

[edit] Prison

In January 2003, Cacace was indicted on the murders of Aronwald, Variale, and Santora. Cacace pled guilty to charges of extortion, gambling and murder and was convicted on August 14, 2004. On September 8, 2004, Cacace was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the Aronwald murder in the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. Cacace was later transferred to the United States Penitentiary (USP) in Beaumont, Texas. As of May 2008, he is still encarcerated at Beaumont. His projected release date is June 23, 2020.

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Preceded by
Alphonse Persico		 Colombo crime family
Acting boss
2000–2004		 Succeeded by
Carmine Persico