Giovanni Riggi
| Giovanni Riggi | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 1, 1925 Newark, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Died | August 3, 2015 (aged 90) Edison, New Jersey |
| Other names | "John the Eagle" |
Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi (February 1, 1925 – August 3, 2015) was a New Jersey mobster and member of the DeCavalcante crime family since the 1940s, before the family had acquired its name. Riggi was the leader of the "Elizabeth crew" in the family when he was a Caporegime. He had been the acting boss during the 1970s and became the official boss around 1980. Riggi was incarcerated at the Federal Medical Center (FMC) Devens, Massachusetts on extortion and labor racketeering convictions. He was released on November 27, 2012.
John Riggi had been a business agent of the "International Association of Laborers and Hod Carriers", in New Jersey for years. He was promoted to the position of official boss of the DeCavalcante crime family (a crime family within the criminal world of "Cosa Nostra") with close ties to the Five Families of New York and represented at meetings of The Commission by the Genovese crime family, Riggi reaped the enormous benefits of large labor and construction racketeering, loansharking, illegal gambling activities as well as a large legitimate income. Riggi also had the family maintain their old traditions. Riggi established a close friendship with new Gambino crime family boss, John Gotti. It was thought that Riggi still ran the family from jail despite being a very sick man in his old age.
His release date was in late 2012, but he was due to stand trial for ordering the shooting and murder of Staten Island, New York resident Fred Weiss, a former journalist for the Staten Island Advance newspaper and real-estate developer in September 1989.
The murder was allegedly a favor for John Gotti, who was worried that Weiss was a government informant and that this would put the Gambino and DeCavalcante families at high risk. Weiss and two mob partners had purchased a vacant property in Staten Island and started illegally dumping large amounts of dangerous medical waste there. When local authorities uncovered the scheme and started investigating Weiss, the two mob families became nervous. Gotti, who worried that Weiss might become a government witness in exchange for leniency requested that the Decavalcantes murder Weiss to protect them. On September 11, 1989, Vincent Palermo and Anthony Capo as well as a crew of twelve other DeCavalcante associates in a convoy of four vehicles drove to the New York condominium of Weiss' girlfriend. As Weiss left the building and climbed into his car, Palermo and Capo got out of their vehicle, approached Weiss and murdered him by shooting him in the face multiple times. Both of them would become "made men" as a result of this.
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