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Sam DeCavalcante


Simone Rizzo "Sam" DeCavalcante (March 3, 1912 – February 7, 1997), known as "Sam the Plumber", was a member of the New Jersey Mafia. Claiming descent from the Italian royal family, DeCavalcante was nicknamed "The Count". The Kefauver hearings later named his crime family the DeCavalcante crime family since he was the boss of the family current to those hearings.

DeCavalcante oversaw illegal gambling, loansharking, and labor racketeering in New Jersey. Living in the Lawrenceville section of Lawrence Township, Mercer County, New Jersey, but working in Newark, DeCavalcante commanded around 60 mafiosi. His legal business front was a plumbing supply store in Kenilworth, New Jersey. After the retirement of family boss Nicholas Delmore (real name Nicholas Amoruso) between 1960 and 1964, DeCavalcante replaced him. Shortly after that, he acted as a liaison between the Mafia Commission and the Bonanno crime family after the beginning of the Bonanno War between the New York Five Families.

From 1961 to 1965, DeCavalcante was the subject of a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation known as the "Goodfella Tapes". This investigation confirmed claims by informant Joe Valachi, provided crucial information on La Cosa Nostra, and revealed the existence of the Mafia Commission. However, since no court order was issued for the wire tap, none of tapes could be used to indict DeCavalcante. In 1969, after compiling almost 2,300 transcript pages of taped conversations, the FBI released them to the public.


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