John "Jackie" D'Amico (born July 11, 1937) is a
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
mobster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most 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 ...
and
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 head ...
who served as street boss of the
Gambino crime family
The Gambino 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, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Ame ...
from 2005 to 2011. "Street boss" had been the family's number one position ever since official Boss
Peter Gotti
Peter Arthur Gotti (October 15, 1939 – February 25, 2021) was an American mobster. He was the boss of the Gambino crime family, part of the American Mafia, and the elder brother of the former Gambino boss John Gotti.
Early life
Gotti was born ...
started serving a life sentence in prison.
Early life
D'Amico's parents were born in the village of
Vietri sul Mare
Vietri sul Mare ("Vietri on the Sea"; Campanian: ) is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Salerno, in the Campania region of southern Italy. It is situated just west of Salerno, separated from the Port of Salerno by only a harbour wall. The ...
in the
Campania
Campania (, also , , , ) is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islands and the i ...
region of Italy. D'Amico is not related to
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 the A ...
soldier
Joseph D'Amico
Joseph D'Amico (born 1955 in Little Italy, Manhattan), also known as "Joey The Mook," is an American mobster who was a made man in the Bonanno crime family before he turned government informant. " D'Amico was a long-time street soldier who worked ...
.
D'Amico received the nickname "Nose" because of his "
Romanesque nose", one mob informant told the courts during his testimony. At the Gotti trial, mobster Michael DiLeonardo said, "
'Amicohad his nose fixed, a (
rhinoplasty
Rhinoplasty ( grc, ῥίς, rhī́s, nose + grc, πλάσσειν, plássein, to shape), commonly called nose job, medically called nasal reconstruction is a plastic surgery procedure for altering and reconstructing the nose. There are two typ ...
). He had a big, distorted nose at one time", D'Amico was said to have been upset with prosecutors for using the nickname. John Gotti loved him because... Jackie was a fellow gambler who placed all his bets for him
He is an old friend of Irving "Hal" Hershkowitz, the founder and president of the non-alcoholic beverage corporation
Big Geyser, Incorporated,
["A Slice of Mafia With Your Sparkling Water?"]
Village Voice, May 27, 2008 He worked in their
Maspeth, Queens
Maspeth is a residential and commercial community in the borough of Queens in New York City. It was founded in the early 17th century by Dutch and English settlers. Neighborhoods sharing borders with Maspeth are Woodside to the north; Sunnyside ...
warehouse.
[ He maintained the job until he was brought to trial and convicted of extortion. He started as a delivery truck driver with a base salary of $23,000 but later switched to working as a salesman on commission and his salary was raised to $71,000 a year.][ At the same warehouse where D'Amico had an office block, he was a co-worker of Lucchese crime family capo Matthew Madonna who is also listed on the company payroll.][ Assistant U.S. Attorney Roger Burlingame suspected that while ostensibly on the payroll, D'Amico was given a no-show job allowing him to collect health benefits from the company, a Jaguar that was leased by the company, and to claim lawful employment.][ Herskowitz stated to reporter ]Tom Robbins
Thomas Eugene Robbins (born July 22, 1932) is a best-selling and prolific American novelist. His most notable works are "seriocomedies" (also known as "comedy drama"), such as ''Even Cowgirls Get the Blues''. Tom Robbins has lived in La Conner, ...
that he had known D'Amico for thirty years and considered him a good, long-time friend. Hershkowitz and D'Amico attended New Utrecht High School together, the same high school that Sammy Gravano
Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano (born March 12, 1945) is an American former mobster who became underboss of the Gambino crime family. Gravano played a major role in prosecuting John Gotti, the crime family's boss, by agreeing to testify as a ...
attended before dropping out.[
]
Rise to power
By the late 1960s, D'Amico was a bookmaker and soldier in the Gambino family, then ruled by boss Carlo Gambino
Carlo Gambino (; August 24, 1902 – October 15, 1976) was an Italian-American crime boss of the Gambino crime family. After the Apalachin Meeting in 1957, and the imprisonment of Vito Genovese in 1959, Gambino took over the Commission o ...
. In the 1970s, D'Amico became an associate of Ozone Park, Queens
Ozone Park is a neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Queens, New York, United States. It is next to the Aqueduct Racetrack in South Ozone Park, a popular spot for Thoroughbred racing and home to the Resorts W ...
-based capo John Gotti. In 1976, D'Amico began operating loansharking
A loan shark is a person who offers loans at extremely high interest rates, has strict terms of collection upon failure, and generally operates outside the law.
Description
Because loan sharks operate mostly illegally, they cannot reasonably ...
, illegal gambling
Gaming law is the set of rules and regulations that apply to the gaming or gambling industry. Gaming law is not a branch of law in the traditional sense but rather is a collection of several areas of law that include criminal law, regulatory law, ...
, extortion
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...
and labor racketeering
Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit.
Originally and of ...
activities in Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx. After Gambino died in 1976, his brother-in-law Paul Castellano
Constantino Paul Castellano (; June 26, 1915 – December 16, 1985), was an American crime boss who succeeded Carlo Gambino as head of the Gambino crime family. Castellano was killed in an unsanctioned hit on December 16, 1985.
Early life
Cast ...
became the new boss. During the late 1970s, D'Amico was promoted to 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 head ...
in the Brooklyn faction. With income from loansharking
A loan shark is a person who offers loans at extremely high interest rates, has strict terms of collection upon failure, and generally operates outside the law.
Description
Because loan sharks operate mostly illegally, they cannot reasonably ...
, extortion
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...
, and illegal gambling
Gaming law is the set of rules and regulations that apply to the gaming or gambling industry. Gaming law is not a branch of law in the traditional sense but rather is a collection of several areas of law that include criminal law, regulatory law, ...
operations, D'Amico gained much respect within the family
On December 16, 1985, Castellano and his underboss Thomas Bilotti
Thomas "Tommy" Bilotti (March 23, 1940 – December 16, 1985) was an American mobster with the Gambino crime family who served as underboss for two weeks. It was this promotion that helped trigger the 1985 assassination of Gambino boss Paul Caste ...
were gunned down outside the Sparks Steak House
Sparks Steak House is a steakhouse restaurant in New York City, located at 210 East 46th Street (between Second and Third Avenue) in Midtown Manhattan.
History
The restaurant was founded by brothers Pasquale (Pat) and Mike Cetta in 1966. In th ...
in Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. Gotti, who had orchestrated their assassination, now became the Gambino boss. D'Amico became one of Gotti's closest associates. In 1992, Gotti was convicted on racketeering charges and sentenced to life imprisonment
Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
.
When John Gotti went to prison, he created a ruling panel, or "administration", to supervise the family. This panel included D'Amico, Gotti's son John "Junior" Gotti as acting boss, Peter Gotti
Peter Arthur Gotti (October 15, 1939 – February 25, 2021) was an American mobster. He was the boss of the Gambino crime family, part of the American Mafia, and the elder brother of the former Gambino boss John Gotti.
Early life
Gotti was born ...
, and Joseph Arcuri. The four men would meet to discuss business at Hawaiian Moonlighters Club, the new Gambino headquarters in Little Italy
Little Italy is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian culture. There are s ...
. Other accounts state that Nicholas Corozzo, not Arcuri, was on the panel.["Mob Bosses Gotti"](_blank)
TruTV Crime Library After federal law enforcement began focusing on Junior Gotti, John Gotti allegedly designated him as the new acting boss.
In 1998, D'Amico was charged with racketeering and loansharking. On January 19, 1999, he pleading guilty to a single count of operating an illegal gambling operation in Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
whose profits went to Junior Gotti. On July 8, 1999, D'Amico was sentenced to 20 months in prison.
Release from prison
In September 2001, D'Amico was released from prison. According to federal authorities, D'Amico became the Gambino acting boss in 2003. However, with the 2006 release of Nicholas Corozzo, a report stated that both D'Amico and Corozzo were running the family, with Arnold "Zeke" Squitieri as underboss and Joseph "Jo Jo" Corozzo 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 c ...
.
On February 7, 2008, D'Amico was arrested along with more than 60 affiliates of the Gambino family after Operation Old Bridge
Operation Old Bridge is the code name for the February 7, 2008 arrests in Italy and the United States that targeted the Gambino crime family; among the indicted were the reputed acting bosses Jackie D'Amico, Nicholas Corozzo and Joseph Corozzo. ...
picked up an informant named Joseph Vollaro
Joseph Vollaro, also known as "Joey V" and "Joe Andrews" (born 1966), is a Staten Island-based American trucking executive and Gambino crime family associate who is now a government informant and witness.
Vollaro did construction work and worked ...
. The operation went on to terminate the drug trafficking
A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via insuffla ...
between the Gambino crime family in New York and their connections in Sicily
(man) it, Siciliana (woman)
, population_note =
, population_blank1_title =
, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 = Ethnicity
, demographics1_footnotes =
, demographi ...
. While D'Amico was placed at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, Corozzo became a fugitive. On March 14, 2008, D'Amico was released on bail from the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, New York.[Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator](_blank)
/ref> Following the indictments from Operation Old Bridge
Operation Old Bridge is the code name for the February 7, 2008 arrests in Italy and the United States that targeted the Gambino crime family; among the indicted were the reputed acting bosses Jackie D'Amico, Nicholas Corozzo and Joseph Corozzo. ...
, D'Amico was still on trial regarding multiple counts of racketeering
Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit.
Originally and of ...
charges. In May, 2008, D'Amico pleaded guilty to extorting a cement company out of $100,000 and was sentenced on August 18, 2008, to two years in prison at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York City
The Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York (MCC New York) is a United States federal administrative detention facility in the Civic Center of Lower Manhattan, New York City, located on Park Row behind the Thurgood Marshall United States ...
.
D'Amico had been scheduled for release from prison on November 3, 2009. However, in February 2009, the imprisoned D'Amico was charged with arranging the 1989 Weiss murder and was kept in prison. On August 5, 2010, D'Amico pleaded guilty to conspiring to assault Frederick Weiss with a dangerous weapon. The district attorney agreed to a lenient plea agreement because the case against D'Amico was "very, very weak". D'Amico was incarcerated at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York City
The Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York (MCC New York) is a United States federal administrative detention facility in the Civic Center of Lower Manhattan, New York City, located on Park Row behind the Thurgood Marshall United States ...
and was released on June 15, 2012.Bureau of Prisons Inmate Locator
/ref>
References
Further reading
*
* Maas, Peter. ''Underboss: Sammy the Bull Gravano's Story of Life in the Mafia''. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997. .
* Mannion, James. ''101 Things You Didn't Know About The Mafia: The Lowdown on Dons, Wiseguys, Squealers and Backstabbers''. Avon, Massachusetts: Adams Media, 2005. .
*
* Raab, Selwyn. ''Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires''. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:D'Amico, Jackie
1937 births
Acting bosses of the Five Families
American gangsters of Italian descent
American prisoners and detainees
Bosses of the Gambino crime family
Gambino crime family
Living people
People convicted of racketeering
Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government