Francesco Guarraci

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Francesco "Frank" Guarraci (c. 1955 – April 14, 2016 [1] ) was an Italian-born American mobster. He was a prominent member and reputed acting boss of the DeCavalcante crime family. [2]

A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Some gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster. Gangs provide a level of organization and resources that support much larger and more complex criminal transactions than an individual criminal could achieve. Gangsters have been active for many years in countries around the world.

The DeCavalcante crime family is an Italian-American organized crime family that operates in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and surrounding areas in the state and is part of the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the American Mafia. It operates on the other side of the Hudson River from the Five Families of New York, but it maintains strong relations with many of them, as well as with the Philadelphia crime family and the Patriarca crime family of New England. Its illicit activities include bookmaking, building, cement, and construction violations, bootlegging, corruption, drug trafficking, extortion, fencing, fraud, hijacking, illegal gambling, loan-sharking, money laundering, murder, pier thefts, pornography, prostitution, racketeering, and waste management violations. The DeCavalcantes are, in part, the inspiration for the fictional DiMeo crime family of HBO's dramatic series The Sopranos. The DeCavalcante family was the subject of the CNBC program Mob Money, which aired on June 23, 2010, and The Real Sopranos TV documentary directed by Thomas Viner for the UK production company Class Films.

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Early inducted member

Francesco Guarraci was born in Ribera, Sicily in 1955, to where the DeCavalcante crime family's origins can be traced. In 1967 he emigrated to the United States, and in 1989, Guarraci was inducted into the crime family during a ceremony led by John Riggi himself, according to Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo, who turned state's evidence in 2000. He was a regular habituate of the Ribera Social Club in Elizabeth, New Jersey. However, Guarraci wasn't recognized as an inducted member by US law enforcement until years later. In 2010, he was indicted for attempted extortion of Lenny's Brick Oven Pizza in Washington Township, New Jersey. [3]

United States Federal republic in North America

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi 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.

Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo is a former Italian-American mobster who was de facto boss of the New Jersey DeCavalcante crime family before becoming a government witness. Fictional mob boss Tony Soprano, the protagonist of the HBO series The Sopranos, is said to be based upon Palermo.

DeCavalcante captain

Guarraci was listed as a soldier for the DeCavalcante crime family throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, as the family was broken down by federal law enforcement and internal rivalry, as well as the longtime acting boss, Vincent Palermo who turned state's evidence in 2000. At some point between 2005 and 2006, Guarraci was promoted in the family, as he was listed as a caporegime by New Jersey law enforcement in the beginning of 2006. Guarraci's official job is as a foreman in Laborers' Local 394.

Caporegime

A caporegime or capodecina, usually shortened to just a capo, is a rank used in the Mafia for a made member of the crime family who heads a "crew" of soldiers and has major social status and influence in the organization. Caporegime is an Italian word, which is used to signify the head of a family in Sicily, but has now come to mean a ranking member, similar to captain or senior sergeant in a military unit. In general, the term indicates the head of a branch of an organized crime syndicate who commands a crew of soldiers and reports directly to the Don (Boss) or an Underboss or Streetboss.

New Jersey State of the United States of America

New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is located on a peninsula, bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, particularly along the extent of the length of New York City on its western edge; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware River and Pennsylvania; and on the southwest by the Delaware Bay and Delaware. New Jersey is the fourth-smallest state by area but the 11th-most populous, with 9 million residents as of 2017, and the most densely populated of the 50 U.S. states; its biggest city is Newark. New Jersey lies completely within the combined statistical areas of New York City and Philadelphia. New Jersey was the second-wealthiest U.S. state by median household income as of 2017.

Riggi's acting boss

In early 2007, it was confirmed that after the convictions of consigliere Stefano "Steve the Truck Driver" Vitabile and Girolamo "Jimmy" Palermo from 2003 to 2006, Guarraci was promoted to "acting boss" along with underboss, Joseph "Joe" Miranda, to run the day-to-day activities of the DeCavalcante crime family. As of May, 2009, Francesco Guarraci at age 54 was still in charge of the family, along with Miranda, on the orders of the imprisoned boss Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi. The Ribera Social Club, where family members hang out, had been run by Guarraci since 1989. The prospects for a strong organization existed due to the induction of 12 new members by Joseph Miranda. As Guarraci continued to consolidate his power in the area the hopes for a return to the days of much higher mob power increased.

Consigliere is a position within the leadership structure of the Sicilian, Calabrian and American Mafia. The word was popularized by the novel The Godfather (1969) and its film adaptation. In the novel, a consigliere is an advisor or counselor to the boss, with the additional responsibility of representing the boss in important meetings both within the boss's crime family and with other crime families. The consigliere is a close, trusted friend and confidant, the mob's version of an elder statesman; he is an advisor to the boss in a Mafia crime family, and sometimes is his 'right-hand man'. By the very nature of the job, a consigliere is one of the few in the family who can argue with the boss, and is often tasked with challenging the boss when needed, to ensure subsequent plans are foolproof. In some depictions, he is devoid of ambition and dispenses disinterested advice. This passive image of the consigliere does not correspond with what little is known of real-life consiglieri, however.

Girolamo "Jimmy " Palermo was an Italian-born American mobster and longtime underboss of the DeCavalcante crime family in Elizabeth, New Jersey, under the imprisoned boss Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi.

Underboss underboss is second in command in a criminal organization

Underboss is a position within the leadership structure of Sicilian, Greek, and American Mafia crime families. The underboss is second in command to the boss. The underboss is sometimes a family member, such as a son, who will take over the family if the boss is sick, killed, or imprisoned. However the position of street boss has somewhat challenged the rank of underboss in the modern era. The position was installed within the Genovese crime family since at least the mid 1960s. It has also been used in the Detroit crime family and the Chicago Outfit.

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References

  1. ↑ New Jersey mob boss Francesco Guarraci dies at age 61 - Gangsters Inc
  2. ↑ Epstein, Sue (2010-08-24). "Reputed head of mob crime family, N.J. man are indicted on extortion charges". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved 2012-02-10.
  3. ↑ Epstein, Sue (2010-08-24). "Reputed head of mob crime family, N.J. man are indicted on extortion charges". The Star-Ledger. Retrieved 2012-02-10.

Further reading

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