Giuseppe Schifilliti

Giuseppe "Pino" Schifilliti (born 1938) is a former prominent member of the DeCavalcante crime family since the 1980s, heavily involved in labour racketeering and extortion activities.

Toward the mid 1970s, Giuseppe Schifilliti was inducted into the DeCavalcante crime family, under the leadership of Simone "Sam the Plumber" DeCavalcante and early underboss, Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi. By starting out as a soldier, Schifilliti was hired in the same "Laborers' International Union of North America" at Local 1030, where he used to extort and bribe union officials to influence the power of the DeCavalcante crime family in construction sites, throughout the 1970s, alongside Riggi, who was then seen as the new boss of the family.

During the early 1980s, Giovanni Riggi was in total charge of the DeCavalcante crime family, as he promoted Schifilliti to the rank of caporegime or Captain within the family. Operating out of the Elizabeth, New Jersey faction, Schifilliti became a top member of the family alongside Girolamo "Jimmy" Palermo and Stefano "Steve the Truck Driver" Vitabile, with labor and construction racketeering, extortion, illegal gambling, loansharking and money laundering as criminal activities. Schifilliti also reputedly went under the radar, and operated with huge muscle throughout the 1980s, and early 1990s without a single indictment.

In 1989, Riggi and several others were tried for racketeering and extortion charges, as well as internal rivalry was brought up between the Newark and Elizabeth factions of the family. In 1990, Riggi was convicted on the charges and he was sentenced to 15 years. To make sure everyone knew he still ran the family, he made Schifilliti and consigliere Stefano Vitabile, to organize the murder of former underboss, Louis "Fat Lou" LaRasso, who was reported missing in 1991, as well as rumors went around North Jersey that the current acting boss, John "Johnny Boy" D'Amato was gay, and was found murdered in his car later in 1992. Schifilliti was reportedly involved in both cases, as he cooperated much with Vitabile and the imprisoned Riggi.

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