Past member(s)
Joseph Abate
Joseph "Joe" Abate (July 8, 1902 – November 28, 1994) was a capo in the family's New Jersey faction. In the 1920s, Abate served as an enforcer for Al Capone in Chicago before settling in New Jersey.Raab, p.1-3 In June 1976, Abate attended Anthony Accetturo's induction ceremony into the Lucchese family. In 1979, Abate went into semiretirement and Accetturo succeed him as boss of the New Jersey faction.Raab, p. 10-11 He moved to Margate, New Jersey, and served as a liaison between families in New Jersey until 1989 when he retired from Mafia affairs. In 1992, his daughter Catherine Abate was appointed New York City's new Correction Commissioner. She was confronted about her father's past and denied that he was ever involved in organized crime. In 1994, Joseph Abate died of natural causes. In 1998, his daughter Catherine admitted she could no longer dismiss allegations that her father belonged to the Lucchese crime family.
Settimo Accardi
Settimo "Big Sam" Accardi (October 23, 1902, in Vita, Sicily – December 3, 1977) served as capo in the family's New Jersey faction up until his deportationDevico, p.161 and was one of the largest heroin traffickers during the 1950s. Accardi emigrated to the U.S. shortly before World War I and associated with mobsters Joseph Sica, Willie Moretti, Joe Adonis and Abner Zwillman. During World War II, Accardi sold counterfeit food ration cards. On January 22, 1945, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen. His naturalization was revoked on July 10, 1953, because he had not disclosed two previous arrests during his naturalization hearing.
In 1955, Accardi was arrested on a federal narcotics charge in Newark, New Jersey. After posting a $92,000 bond, Accardi skipped bail and fled to Turin, Italy, where he continued smuggling heroin into the U.S. and Canada. Accardi later moved to Toronto, Canada, to oversee this operation. In 1960, U.S. authorities finally located Accardi in Turin, Italy and on November 28, 1963, after a long legal fight, Accardi was extradited back to New York. On July 21, 1964, Accardi was convicted on narcotics conspiracy and skipping bail. On August 24, he was sentenced to fifteen years of imprisonment and a $16,000 fine. He died on December 3, 1977.
Joseph Brocchini Joseph E. "Joe Bikini" Brocchini (1933 – May 20, 1976) was a soldier under Joseph "Joe Brown" Lucchese in the Corona crew. Born and raised in Corona, Queens, he was arrested as a 17-year-old along with four other youths for carrying out a series of burglaries that robbed eight businesses in north Queens of $26,000 during a week-long spree in 1950. Police believed that the burglary ring was responsible for approximately twenty robberies in Queens and Nassau County before being apprehended.
Brocchini, who was known as an enforcer, later became involved primarily in loansharking and gambling. By the early 1960s, he was managing a lucrative weekly dice game in Manhattan's Little Italy, and also had interests in auto theft and narcotics. Circa 1967, Brocchini ventured into the pornography business via a partnership with a Jewish associate. He became one of the most successful pornographers in New York City and allegedly owned or controlled at least four pornography distribution companies as well as five adult book shops/peep shows in Times Square. The State Investigation Commission charged in 1970 that his pornography businesses had grossed $1.5 million a year. During this time, Brocchini relocated to the affluent town of Harrison in Westchester County.Joseph Brocchini – "Too Tough For His Own Good" TheNewYorkMafia.com (August 10, 2019) On April 20, 1972, Brocchini was among twelve people linked to the Lucchese, Colombo and DeCavalcante families indicted on charges of wholesale promotion of obscene material. The arrests were made following a four-month undercover police investigation of New York's major pornography distributors.Dirty‐Book Store Run by Police Gains Indictment of 18 Here on Pornography Paul L. Montgomery, The New York Times (April 21, 1972)
In 1976, Brocchini was involved in a dispute with Roy DeMeo, a Gambino family associate at the time, with Brocchini giving DeMeo a black eye. DeMeo and his caporegime Nino Gaggi decided to kill Brocchini in revenge and, knowing that they would never be given permission by the Lucchese family, decided to disguise Brocchini's murder as a robbery-gone-wrong. Weeks later, on May 20, 1976, Brocchini was shot five times in the head in the office of his used car dealership in Woodside, Queens, where he conducted his day-to-day operations, by Roy DeMeo and Henry Borelli. DeMeo and several of his associates had first handcuffed and blindfolded two other employees at the car lot and ransacked the office, giving the killing the appearance of an armed theft-gone-awry. Brocchini was laid to rest at Mount Saint Mary Cemetery in Flushing, Queens.
His brother-in-law Alfred "Sonny" Scotti and others took over his operations.The King Is Dead; Long Live The Smut Empire William Federici and Thomas Collins, New York Daily News (April 14, 1977) Brocchini's murder remained a mystery to law enforcement and to the Lucchese family for several years. At the time, police detectives believed that he was killed because of suspicions that he was skimming profits for himself without permission from his boss.Mobsters Skim New York City Sex Industry Profits Selwyn Raab and Nathaniel Sheppard Jr., The New York Times (July 27, 1977) Gambino associate Dominick Montiglio would later reveal the events surrounding Brocchini's murder after becoming a government witness in 1983.
Robert Caravaggio Robert "Bucky the Boss" Caravaggio (1939 – July 28, 2017) was a soldier who led the New Jersey faction during the 1990s until the early 2000s. From 1986 to 1988, Caravaggio was one of the twenty defendants in the 21-month-long trial of Lucchese crime family's New Jersey faction.Rudolph, p.13-14 In August 1997, Caravaggio, along with other members of the Lucchese family's New Jersey faction, was indicted and charged with racketeering, loan-sharking and gambling. In 2004, the New Jersey Commission of Investigation stated that Caravaggio was the head of the Lucchese crime family's North Jersey faction. Caravaggio was overseeing operations in Northern Jersey, especially in Morris County. Caravaggio died on July 28, 2017, from pancreatic cancer.
Frankie Carbo
Joseph Caridi Joseph "Joe C." Caridi (November 20, 1948 – June 29, 2024) was a former acting underboss, and Consigliere in the family. He resided in East Northport. He was nicknamed by the media the "Tony Soprano of Long Island" for running his crew from "Sinderella" a strip club in Brentwood similar to the "Bada Bing!" in the TV crime drama The Sopranos. In the early 2000s, he worked closely with former acting boss Louis Daidone and was picked up in wiretaps discussing loan sharking, extortion and drug dealing with Daidone and other Brooklyn faction mobsters.Capeci, p.384 (Complete Guide 2005)
On November 14, 2002, the Suffolk county police arrested Caridi who was listed as the underboss along with Aniello "Neil" Colello, Ronald Galiano, Milton Bialostok, John Cerrella, Vincent Mancione, Carmelo Profeta, Vincent Salanardi and other wiseguys, who were charged with enterprise corruption. The charges included loan-sharking, gambling, construction payoffs, restaurant extortion and other profit-skimming operation that stretched from Suffolk County to the Bronx. In December 2002, Caridi, along with capo John Cerrella and others, was indicted on extortion charges. Caridi's crew took control of the Hudson & McCoy Fish House restaurant in Freeport, Long Island, after the owner asked him for help. The owner's partner, Lewis Kasman, a Gambino crime family associate, had been stealing money from the restaurant. Caridi's crew successfully removed Lewis and started stealing up to $10,000 per night from the restaurant. He also forced the owner to buy his Italian bread from a Colombo crime family soldier. After the indictment soldier Vincent Salanardi began cooperating with the government while he continued to collect gambling debts. On March 23, 2003, Caridi pleaded guilty to extortion, to federal tax evasion and to running a sports betting operation from his home in East Northport. As part of this federal plea agreement, the State of New York dropped its November 2002 charges. On November 27, 2009, Caridi was released from prison. Caridi died on June 29, 2024.
Alfonso Cataldo Alfonso T. "Tic" Cataldo (April 18, 1942 – August 21, 2013) was a soldier in the New Jersey faction. Cataldo grew up in Newark, New Jersey with his cousins Michael and Martin Taccetta.Rudolph, p.104 From 1986 to 1988, Cataldo was one of the twenty defendants in the 21-month-long trial of the Lucchese crime family's New Jersey faction.Rudolph, p.13-14 During the trial Cataldo was listed as a member supervising numbers and loansharking operations in New Jersey. In 2002, Cataldo was indicted on illegal gambling charges and for the October 7, 1981, murder of William Kennedy. In 2004, the New Jersey Commission of Investigation stated that Cataldo was running illegal gambling operations in New Jersey. In December 2007, Cataldo was indicted, along with capos Joseph DiNapoli, Matthew Madonna and Ralph V. Perna and others, on gambling, money laundering and racketeering charges. On August 21, 2013, Cataldo died of natural causes. Alfonso is a blood relative to Genovese capo Augustino "Crazy Augie" Cataldo and Genovese soldier Pete "Scarface" Cataldo.
Samuel Cavalieri Samuel "Big Sam" Cavalieri (April 11, 1911 – November 4, 1987) was a former capo of the Harlem crew. In 1980, Cavalieri and Thomas Mancuso were under investigation for corruption of Local 29 of Blasters, Miners and Drill runners Union. The investigators suspected that Cavalieri illegal paid off Local 29 President Louis Sanzo and Local 29 secretary-treasurer Amadeo Petito. The investigation revealed that in 1978, Petito met in Cavalieri's social club in East Harlem. In 1981, Cavalieri was found guilty of criminal contempt and sentenced to years in prison. On November 4, 1987, Cavalieri died of natural causes.
Ettore Coco