![Dominick Cirillo mug shot](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Dominick_Cirillo_mug_shot.jpg)
Dominick "Quiet Dom" Cirillo (born July 4, 1929 in
East Harlem) is a high-ranking member of the
Genovese crime family
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 M ...
, who briefly served as acting boss for the imprisoned Boss
Vincent "Chin" Gigante
Vincent Louis Gigante (; March 28, 1928 – December 19, 2005), also known as "The Chin", was an American mobster who was boss of the Genovese crime family in New York City from 1981 to 2005. Gigante started out as a professional boxer who fough ...
.
Early life
Cirillo was born in
East Harlem on July 4, 1929 to
Colombo crime family
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 duri ...
caporegime
A caporegime or capodecina, usually shortened to capo or informally referred to as "captain" or "skipper", is a rank used in the Mafia (both the Sicilian Mafia and Italian-American Mafia) for a '' made member'' of an Italian crime family who he ...
of
Neapolitan-
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
Alphonse Cirillo who served as a
made man
In the American and Sicilian Mafia, a made man is a fully initiated member of the Mafia. To become "made", an associate first must be Italian or of Italian descent and sponsored by another made man. An inductee will be required to take the oa ...
under
Joseph Magliocco
Joseph Magliocco (born Giuseppe Magliocco; ; June 29, 1898 – December 28, 1963), also known as "Joe Malayak" and "Joe Evil Eye", was an Italian-born New York mobster and the boss of the Profaci crime family (later to become the Colombo cri ...
when it was the
Profaci crime family
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 duri ...
. Alphonse was a first generation
Italian-American
Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...
immigrant from
Potenza,
Basilicata,
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
. In 1961, his father Alphonse was implicated in the attempted murder of Lawrence Gallo, a brother of fellow Profaci crime family soldier Joseph Gallo. Alphonse, Carmine Persico and Salvatore D'Ambrosio were the suspected attempted murderers, but Gallo refused to cooperate and no one was charged in the attack. His father died of unknown causes sometime before 1963 but was later made infamous after he was one of the hundreds of organized crime figures named in the testimony of mob turncoat
Joseph Valachi
Joseph Michael Valachi (September 22, 1904 – April 3, 1971) was an American mobster in the Genovese crime family who is notable as the first member of the Italian-American Mafia to acknowledge its existence publicly in 1963. He is credited wit ...
. His father Alphonse through his lifetime had succeeded in never being arrested for a single criminal act except for "criminally receiving" as an early 1960s era organized crime mob family chart had stated. He is the brother of Gaetano "Wheeg" Cirillo and the father-in-law to mob associate John Caggiano. Dominick grew up on East 117th Street in East Harlem and as a teenager dropped out of
Benjamin Franklin High School.
He was an amateur boxer who boxed at neighborhood youth clubs and briefly pursued a career as a professional middleweight boxer.
He was a husky man who stands at 5'10" and grew to be almost 200 pounds by the 1990s.
He was a close personal friend and criminal partner of
Vincent Gigante
Vincent Louis Gigante (; March 28, 1928 – December 19, 2005), also known as "The Chin", was an American mobster who was boss of the Genovese crime family in New York City from 1981 to 2005. Gigante started out as a professional boxer who fough ...
from a young age, who would later become heir to the Genovese crime family of which Dominick served in. Mob soldier Frank "Frank California" Condo and Frederico Giovanelli often laughed at Dominick's choice of clothing attire that was said to be reminiscent of
Emmett Kelly
Emmett Leo Kelly (December 9, 1898March 28, 1979) was an American circus performer, who created the clown figure "Weary Willie," based on the hobos of the Great Depression in the 1930s. According to Charles W. Carey, Jr.:
:Kelly’s creation of ...
's
clown suits.
In 1949, Dominick who at the time was a twenty-year-old welterweight was knocked out in three matches and had one match drawn before retiring. In 1953, at the age of twenty three he pleaded guilty to overseeing a clandestine heroin trafficking ring that was said to have grossed up to $20,000 a day. For his drug trafficking conviction he served nearly four years in
Federal Correctional Institution, Milan in
Milan, Michigan
Milan ( ) is a city in Monroe and Washtenaw counties in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 6,079 at the 2020 census.
The community was settled as early as 1831. Milan incorporated as a village in 1885 and much later as a city in ...
before returning to East Harlem. Between 1958 and 1965, he was arrested four times for consorting with known criminals, which were all later dismissed.
He is married to an Italian-American woman named Bella who bore him two children, Nicholas and Anne Marie.
Whenever fellow criminal associates would want to mention Cirillo's name they used an adapted clandestine sign language where they put their finger to their lips which would mean that they were discussing Dominick. He claimed to be a retired construction worker and said to live off of $510 a month in social security checks.
He lived in the Country Club section of the northeast Bronx, near Pelham Bay Park and Eastchester Bay.
Boxing career
Dominick started out as a boxer with future Genovese crime family boss
Thomas Eboli
Thomas "Tommy Ryan" Eboli (June 13, 1911 Scisciano, Italy – July 16, 1972 Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York) was a New York City mobster who eventually became the acting boss of the Genovese crime family.
Early life
Born in Scisciano, in the P ...
("Tommy Ryan") as his manager and world heavyweight champion
Tommy Ryan
Tommy Ryan (born Joseph Youngs; March 31, 1870 – August 3, 1948) was an American World Welterweight and World Middleweight boxing champion who fought from 1887 to 1907. His simultaneously holding records in both weight classes was a rar ...
worked as his trainer. Cirillo gradually drifted towards the criminal side of the neighborhood, along with another boxer and associate,
Vincent "Chin" Gigante
Vincent Louis Gigante (; March 28, 1928 – December 19, 2005), also known as "The Chin", was an American mobster who was boss of the Genovese crime family in New York City from 1981 to 2005. Gigante started out as a professional boxer who fough ...
. As a boxer he weighed between 151 and 156 pounds. He was an unsuccessful professional middleweight boxer in 1949. His first professional fight was against Matt Ward on March 9, 1949 held at
Westchester County Center
The Westchester County Center is a 5,000-seat multi-purpose arena in White Plains, New York. It hosts various local concerts and sporting events for the area.
The County Center was conceived by the Westchester Recreation Commission in 1924 as a m ...
in
White Plains, New York
(Always Faithful)
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, seal_link =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Country
, subdivision_name =
, subdivision_type1 = U.S. state, State
, su ...
which he lost. He fought Emerson Charles on March 23rd with Emerson Charles also at Westerchester County Center. He fought Bobby Holt at
Manhattan Center
The Manhattan Center is a building in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1906 and located at 311 West 34th Street, it houses Manhattan Center Studios, the location of two recording studios; its Grand Ballroom; and the Hammerstein Ballroo ...
on April 6, 1949. He fought Mike Gillo at the
New Haven Arena
New Haven Arena was an indoor arena on Grove Street in New Haven, Connecticut, that served as a venue for ice hockey, concerts, and circuses.
The first arena opened in 1914 but burned down in 1924. The new arena was started but went bankrupt; it ...
in
New Haven, Connecticut
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...
on May 4, 1949 and Johnny Kohan at Laurel Garden Arena in
Central Ward, Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.[Newark, New Jersey
Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.][Manhattan Center
The Manhattan Center is a building in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1906 and located at 311 West 34th Street, it houses Manhattan Center Studios, the location of two recording studios; its Grand Ballroom; and the Hammerstein Ballroo ...]
.
Genovese crime family
His first conviction came in 1952, when he was imprisoned on
narcotics charges.
In subsequent years, he grew closer to Gigante, who was seen, in the mid-1980s, as the ''de facto'' boss of the Genovese crime family.
While Gigante served as boss on the streets, Cirillo served in a 'messenger' between Gigante and the other ''caporegimes'' of the Genovese crime family, as Cirillo's low-key style earned him his nickname "Quiet Dom" and helped him avoid the gaze of the authorities for many years.
Gigante's acting boss
After Gigante was imprisoned in 1997 for
racketeering and
conspiracy
A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agre ...
charges, the leadership of the Genovese crime family passed to a committee/ruling panel, known as the "Administration," ostensibly led by Cirillo. In this capacity, Cirillo represented the Genoveses in their dealings with the other
Mafia families of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, though Gigante remained in overall charge of the family. In this way, Cirillo served as "acting boss" and was seen by US authorities as the most powerful member of the Genovese family. However, in 1998 Cirillo stepped down as acting boss because of a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...
, and recovered his position as caporegime in the Genovese crime family that same year.
Nick Cirillo missing
Cirillo's son, Nicholas, who was not believed to be a made man, disappeared on May 9, 2004.
Three weeks later his abandoned car was discovered, but Nicholas Cirillo has never been found.
Investigators believe the younger Cirillo was killed after he insulted the son of acting
Bonanno crime family
The Bonanno crime family (pronounced ) 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 ...
boss Vincent "Vinny Gorgeous" Basciano and ''caporegime'' Dominick Cicale.
It remains unclear whether this would have been allowed to happen without the explicit permission of Dominick Cirillo.
Sources in 2010 say that Dom ordered the death of Nicholas on Mothers Day of 2004.
On December 4, 2004, Randolph Pizzolo, who allegedly bragged about his role in the murder and disappearance of Nicholas, was found shot to death.
Trial and guilty plea
On October 18, 2005, Cirillo, who again was recognized as "acting boss" for Gigante, and four Genovese ''capos'',
Lawrence "Little Larry" Dentico,
John "Johnny Sausage" Barbato and
Anthony "Tico" Antico, pleaded guilty on charges of
racketeering and racketeering conspiracy.
Cirillo was sentenced to 48 months in prison and forced to pay $75,000 restitution.
Consigliere
On August 22, 2008, the 79-year-old Cirillo was released from federal prison after serving more than three years.
After being "acting boss" following the death of longtime family godfather Vincent "Chin" Gigante in December 2005, Cirillo began to serve as
consigliere
Consigliere ( , ; plural ) is a position within the leadership structure of the Sicilian, Calabrian, and Italian-American Mafia. The word was popularized in English by the novel '' The Godfather'' (1969) and its film adaptation. In the novel, a ...
of the Genovese family.
It appears that he had stepped down in 2015 to allow former street boss Peter "Petey Red" DiChiara to serve as consigliere.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cirillo, Dominick
1929 births
Living people
Acting bosses of the Five Families
American boxers of Italian descent
American drug traffickers
American gangsters of Italian descent
Consiglieri
Genovese crime family
People convicted of racketeering
People from the Bronx
American male boxers
Boxers from New York (state)
People from East Harlem