Martin "Marty" Taccetta (born May 2, 1951) is an imprisoned New Jersey mobster who was the alleged boss of the Jersey Crew, a powerful faction of the Lucchese crime family. [1]
Martin "Marty" Taccetta (born May 2, 1951) is an imprisoned New Jersey mobster who was the alleged boss of the Jersey Crew, a powerful faction of the Lucchese crime family. [1]
Born in Newark, New Jersey in 1951, Martin Taccetta is the son of Anthony Taccetta, a self-employed building materials supplier who allegedly belonged to the Lucchese family. Martin's older brother Michael "Mad Dog" Taccetta is a capo in the Lucchese family who later served as boss of the Jersey Crew. During the early 1960s, Martin Taccetta, his brother, and his cousins belonged to a tough street gang in Newark, New Jersey. Martin and brother Michael played on the same Little League baseball team as did their cousins, Daniel and Thomas Ricciardi and future mob associate Robert Spagnola.[ citation needed ]
He is the cousin of mobsters Michael Perna, and Daniel, Joseph and Thomas Ricciardi. Michael is also the uncle of Joseph Perna born c.a. 1969, John G. Perna born c.a. 1977 and Ralph M. Perna Junior born c.a. 1972 who are the sons of his cousin Ralph V. Perna and his wife Roseanne. They all followed their father and uncle into organized crime. He is also the uncle of Carlo Taccetta, the son of his brother Michael, and Pamela Abdy, the Hollywood film producer whose credits include "Garden State" that was awarded an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature in 2005 as well as three other movies including "Man on the Moon" in 1999.[ citation needed ]
By the late 1960s, both Martin and Michael Taccetta started working with Lucchese mobster Anthony "Tumac" Accetturo in illegal gambling and loansharking operations. At that time, the boss of the Lucchese family was Gaetano "Tommy" Lucchese. In 1976, the Taccetta brothers and Accetturo all became full members, or "made men", in the Lucchese family, which was now run by new boss Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo, Accetturo's old mentor. [1]
During the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Jersey crew grew in power, wealth, and independence. Based in Northern New Jersey, the crew had 20 members with its own family-like hierarchy. When Accetturo was indicted on state charges during this period, he moved to Florida. While in exile, Accetturo continued to run the Jersey crew through his underboss, Michael Taccetta, with Martin as second in command. [2]
Michael and Martin Taccetta operated large gambling and loansharking operations around Newark, New Jersey, as well as drug trafficking and money laundering activities through their legitimate business, Taccetta Group Enterprises. When Philadelphia crime family boss Angelo "Gentle Don" Bruno was murdered on March 12, 1980, Accetturo took advantage of the ensuing chaos to establish a new Lucchese crew in Philadelphia.
In 1984, the Jersey leadership murdered James "Jimmy Sinatra" Craporatta, a contractor and Lucchese associate. When Craporatta refused to share the proceeds of a video gaming operation he controlled, the Jersey mobsters beat him to death with metal head golf clubs. [3]
In 1985, Taccetta and 19 co-defendants were indicted in New Jersey on 76 counts of labor racketeering, illegal gambling, loansharking, extortion, drug trafficking, money laundering, conspiracy and murder for hire. These indictments were the result of a four-year investigation of the Jersey crew. Much of the evidence came from wiretapped conversations at the Hole-in-the-Wall, a restaurant frequented by mob figures in Newark, New Jersey.
In 1986, when the trial started, the Lucchese family in New York underwent a momentous leadership change with the conviction of Corallo. Facing a life sentence in prison, Corallo designated Lucchese capo Victor Amuso as the new acting boss of the family. Almost immediately, a dispute occurred between Accetturo and Amuso over the independence of the Jersey crew, and the large increase in tribute that Amuso expected from them.
On August 26, 1988, after a 21-month trial that was the longest in U.S. history, all 20 defendants were acquitted. Prosecutors were stunned by the verdict. The general consensus was that jurors did not trust the government witnesses, many of whom were themselves criminals testifying in return for reduced sentences. As the jurors left the courtroom, the defendants cheered and clapped for them. [4]
With the end of the racketeering trial, the Taccettas and the Jersey crew were shaken by conflict. During the trial, the strong relationship between the Taccetta brothers and Anthony Accetturo turned into a bitter rivalry. Michael Taccetta was jealous of the power that Anthony Accetturo Jr. was gaining in the family, along with a feeling that Anthony Accetturo Sr. was not showing Michael Taccetta sufficient respect. The Jersey crew soon split into Taccetta and Accetturo factions. In addition to the crew rivalries, family boss Amuso had finally lost patience with the entire New Jersey crew.
In the Fall of 1988, the dispute with Amuso turned to crisis when he demanded that henceforth the Jersey crew turn over 50% of their earnings to him. Both Accetturo and the Taccettas refused his demand. An enraged Amuso summoned the entire Jersey crew to a meeting in New York. Fearful of being the killed, the crew boycotted the meeting and all went into hiding. At this stage, Amuso gave his famous order "Whack Jersey", kill the entire Jersey crew, especially Accetturo. Over the next 12 months, as Amuso calmed down, Jersey crew members started returning to the family. During this period, Martin and Michael Taccetta reaffirmed their loyalty to Amuso.
To weaken the Accetturo faction in New Jersey, Michael Taccetta told Amuso that Accetturo was plotting with a Colombian drug gang to assassinate the Lucchese family leadership. [5] Amuso agreed to the murder contract and allowed the Taccetta brothers to assume control of the Jersey crew. [6]
Michael was now leader of the Jersey crew, with Martin Taccetta serving as his consigliere. However, the long racketeering trial and the conflict with Amuso had hurt the crew, and their legal problems were not over. Michael Taccetta was soon convicted of tax evasion and sent to prison in Minnesota. At this point, Martin took over the crew. [2]
On December 5, 1989, Martin Taccetta was indicted in California for fraud over the operation of an adult film company. The company had bought video equipment on credit, sold the equipment, and then closed without paying the suppliers. [7]
Also in 1989, Taccetta was indicted in New Jersey on conspiracy to defraud the Joint Underwriters Association of more than $400,000 in phony auto insurance claims. During this time period, Martin Taccetta began cooperating with Gambino crime family captain Thomas "Tommy" Gambino on activities in New Jersey. [2]
In 1991, Accetturo and the Taccetta brothers were indicted on charges of racketeering, narcotics, illegal gambling, extortion, loansharking, conspiracy and the 1984 Craporatta murder. Reacting to the indictments and the murder contract from Amuso, Accetturo decided to become a government witness and testified against both Martin and Michael Taccetta. In 1993, Martin Taccetta was acquitted of murder, but convicted of racketeering charges and, along with his brother, was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison. [3] [8]
In 2001, Martin Taccetta's lawyers uncovered a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) memo that said their confidential informants cleared Taccetta from the Craporatta murder. For some reason, this memo was not produced during Taccetta's trial. The lawyers were planning to use this information to appeal his conviction. [9]
On December 8, 2005, after serving ten years in prison, Martin Taccetta was released on appeal. A state Superior Court judge ruled he had not received adequate legal representation prior to his 1993 trial. [10] Taccetta had rejected a plea bargain deal from the government based on inadequate advice from his attorney. [11]
On May 8, 2008, Martin Tacchetta was indicted along with 23 other New Jersey gangsters for racketeering. Taccetta's charges included conspiring to use extortion to collect a loan from an unidentified debtor and for conspiring in 2007 with Gambino mobster Andrew Merola to extort $20,000 from contractors to allow non-union labor on a construction project in Morristown, New Jersey. [10] [12]
In August 2009, the New Jersey Supreme Court overturned the Superior Court ruling and reinstated Martin Taccetta's 1993 racketeering sentence. [3] New Jersey State Attorney General Anne Milgram made the following statement,
For decades Marty Taccetta was one of the most prolific members of organized crime, whose power and control over the Lucchese family threatened the residents of New Jersey and illegally impacted commercial activity. We are gratified that the Supreme Court's decision will ensure that he will be returned to state prison to serve the remainder of his sentence of life plus 10 years for racketeering and extortion. [11]
On June 10, 2010, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman moved to dismiss the pending counts against Taccetta "because further prosecution of these charges is not in the interests of the United States at this time," according to a court order. [13]
As of November 2011, Martin Taccetta is serving his life sentence at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton, New Jersey. [12] [14] He will be eligible for parole after serving 30 years in prison.
On September 30, 2015 Martin Taccetta was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to racketeering in Operation Heat. [15]
The Genovese crime family, also sometimes referred to as the Westside, is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the American Mafia. They have generally maintained a varying degree of influence over many of the smaller mob families outside New York, including ties with the Philadelphia, Patriarca, and Buffalo crime families.
The Colombo crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and is the youngest of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City within the criminal organization known as the American Mafia. It was during Lucky Luciano's organization of the American Mafia after the Castellammarese War, following the assassinations of "Joe the Boss" Masseria and Salvatore Maranzano, that the gang run by Joseph Profaci became recognized as the Profaci crime family.
Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo was an American mobster and boss of the Lucchese crime family in New York City. Corallo exercised tremendous control over trucking and construction unions in New York.
The DeCavalcante crime family, also known as the North Jersey Mafia, is an Italian-American Mafia organized crime family that operates mainly in northern New Jersey, particularly in Elizabeth, Newark, West New York, and various other North Jersey cities and the surrounding areas in North Jersey. It is part of the nationwide criminal network known as the American Mafia. It operates on the opposite side of the Hudson River from the Five Families of New York. It maintains strong relations with many of them, as well as with the Philadelphia crime family and the Patriarca crime family of New England. The Decavalcantes are considered by some to be the "Sixth Family".
Anthony Salvatore Casso, nicknamed "Gaspipe", was an American mobster and underboss of the Lucchese crime family. During his career in organized crime, Casso was regarded as a "homicidal maniac" in the Italian-American Mafia. He is suspected of having committed dozens of murders, and had confessed to involvement in between 15 and 36 murders. Government witness Anthony Accetturo, the former caporegime of The Jersey Crew, once said of Casso, "all he wanted to do is kill, kill, get what you can, even if you didn't earn it". In interviews, and on the witness stand, Casso confessed involvement in the murders of Frank DeCicco, Roy DeMeo, and Vladimir Reznikov. Casso also admitted to several attempts to murder Gambino family boss John Gotti.
Anthony "Tumac" Accetturo is a former caporegime and leader of the New Jersey faction of the Lucchese crime family.
Vittorio "Little Vic" Amuso is an American mobster and the boss of the Lucchese crime family. He was described as "The Deadly Don" by Assistant United States Attorney Charles Rose. Amuso's reign is considered one of the bloodiest periods in American Mafia history during the late 1980s and early 1990s, alongside his former underboss and close protégé Anthony Casso, who turned informer against him in 1994. Since the death of Colombo crime family boss Carmine Persico in March 2019, Amuso is currently the longest-serving crime family boss of the Five Families and American Mafia, dating back to 1987. Amuso has been serving a life sentence since 1992 and is currently located at the Federal Correctional Institution, Cumberland, in Maryland, on murder and racketeering charges.
Steven L. "Stevie" Crea is an American mobster and former underboss of the Lucchese crime family. In August 2020, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and racketeering.
Matthew Madonna is a member of the Lucchese crime family who served as acting boss before being imprisoned in 2017.
Nicholas Angelo "Nicky Mouth" Santora was the reputed underboss of the Bonanno crime family.
Michael Salvatore Taccetta, also known as "Mad Dog," is a high-ranking member of the Lucchese crime family, who controlled the family's New Jersey faction in the 1980s.
The Lucchese crime family's New Jersey faction, also known as the Jersey Crew, is a powerful crew within the Lucchese crime family. The members operate throughout the Northern New Jersey area. During the 1970s into the late 1980s, the crew was led by Anthony Accetturo and his protégé Michael Taccetta. In 1987, Victor Amuso took over the family and began demanding a higher percentage of tribute from the crew. Accetturo refused and a war erupted between the New Jersey members and the New York members. This left brothers Michael and Martin Taccetta in charge of the crew as they tried to have Accetturo and his family murdered. In 1993, Accetturo defected and became a government witness. He helped convict Michael and Martin Taccetta. The crew was most recently controlled by Ralph Perna.
George "Big Georgie" DeCicco was a New York mobster and longtime captain in the Gambino crime family. DeCicco is one of the last captains of the old John Gotti administration in the 1980s who have not been under any indictment until now. DeCicco is the brother of former Gambino underboss Frank DeCicco, who was killed in a car-bomb meant for his boss John Gotti, ordered by then boss of the Genovese crime family who is now deceased, Vincent "Chin" Gigante, and Lucchese crime family leaders Vittorio "Vic" Amuso and Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso as revenge for the murder of former Gambino crime family boss, Paul Castellano, a strong ally of both the Genovese and Lucchese crime families.
The Lucchese crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, in the United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. Members refer to the organization as the Lucchese borgata, the meaning of borgata is Mafia slang for criminal gang, which itself was derived from Sicilian word meaning close-knit community. The members of other crime families sometimes refer to Lucchese family members as "Lukes".
Giacomo "Jackie" DiNorscio was a member of the Philadelphia and later the Lucchese crime families. He acted as his own lawyer in the United States v. Anthony Accetturo et al. RICO trial, famous for being the longest federal trial in history. This trial was conducted while DiNorscio was already incarcerated on separate drug charges. He was ultimately found not guilty after a short deliberation by the jury. After the trial, DiNorscio went back to prison; he was released on November 23, 2002, after serving 17.5 years of a 30-year sentence.
The Genovese crime family's New Jersey faction is a group of Italian-American mobsters within the Genovese crime family who control organized crime activities within the state of New Jersey. The New Jersey faction is divided into multiple crews each led by a different caporegimes who oversees illegal criminal activities in labor racketeering, illegal gambling, loansharking and extortion. Since the prohibition era the Genovese family's New Jersey faction has maintained a strong presence in the Northern Jersey area. A number of members within the New Jersey faction like Guarino "Willie" Moretti, Gerardo "Jerry" Catena and Louis "Bobby" Manna held positions within the administration of the Genovese family. From the 1990s until his death in 2010, Tino "the Greek" Fiumara was one of the most powerful caporegimes in the New Jersey faction.
The Bonanno crime family is an Italian-American Mafia crime family and one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, and in the United States, as part of the criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia.
