Vincenzo Aloi (born September 22, 1933) is an American mobster involved in stock fraud who briefly served as the acting boss of the

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 ...

. Vincenzo was also a figure in the Third Colombo War alongside his brother

Benny Benny or Bennie is a given name or a shortened version of the given name Benjamin or, less commonly, Benedict, Bennett, Benito, Benson, Bernice, Ebenezer or Bernard. People Bennie Given name * Bennie M. Bunn (1907–1943), American Marine o ...

Made man to acting boss

Vincenzo Aloi is the son of the former Profaci ''caporegime'', Sebastian "Buster" Aloi. He is the brother of mobster Benedetto "Benny" Aloi, a former underboss of the family. Vincent Aloi is the godson of

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 th ...

patriarch,

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 ...

. No other details of his early life are available. On November 19, 1970, Aloi was indicted on stock fraud charges involving the illegal takeover of an investment firm in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...

. However, on December 23, 1971, Aloi was acquitted on all charges. On June 28, 1971, boss Joseph Colombo was shot at an Italian American Anti-Defamation League rally in Manhattan. Colombo survived, but in a vegetative state.

Carmine Persico Carmine John Persico Jr. (; August 8, 1933 – March 7, 2019), also known as "Junior", "The Snake" and "Immortal", was an American mobster and the longtime boss of the Colombo crime family in New York City from 1973 until his death in 2019. He h ...

and his family essentially took control of the family after the Colombo shooting. However, unlike Colombo, Persico preferred to hide behind

figurehead In politics, a figurehead is a person who ''de jure'' (in name or by law) appears to hold an important and often supremely powerful title or office, yet ''de facto'' (in reality) exercises little to no actual power. This usually means that they ...

bosses. At this point, Persico designated either Aloi or mobster Joseph Yacovelli as the front boss for the Colombo family. In 1972, after giving his men permission to kill

Joey Gallo Joseph Nicholas Gallo (born November 19, 1993) is an American professional baseball outfielder for the Minnesota Twins of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Texas Rangers, New York Yankees, and Los Angele ...

in a Manhattan restaurant, Yacovelli fled New York out of fear of reprisals from the Gallo crew. Later in 1973, Aloi definitely became acting boss because Persico had been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on hijacking charges. On June 26, 1973, Aloi was convicted of

perjury Perjury (also known as foreswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an inst ...

in state court. Prosecutors had charged that Aloi lied to a

grand jury A grand jury is a jury—a group of citizens—empowered by law to conduct legal proceedings, investigate potential criminal conduct, and determine whether criminal charges should be brought. A grand jury may subpoena physical evidence or a p ...

when he claimed to have not visited a Colombo family

safe house A safe house (also spelled safehouse) is, in a generic sense, a secret place for sanctuary or suitable to hide people from the law, hostile actors or actions, or from retribution, threats or perceived danger. It may also be a metaphor. Histori ...

Nyack, New York Nyack () is a village located primarily in the town of Orangetown in Rockland County, New York, United States. Incorporated in 1872, it retains a very small western section in Clarkstown. It is a suburb of New York City lying approximately no ...

, before the murder of Joe Gallo. He was later sentenced to seven years in state prison. However, after numerous court appeals, Aloi's perjury conviction was overturned in federal court. On December 22, 1973, Aloi was convicted for stock fraud involving an automobile leasing company. On February 5, 1974, Aloi was sentenced to nine years in federal prison. Aloi was incarcerated at the Allenwood Federal Penitentiary in

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. Now that Aloi was also in prison, Persico demoted him from acting boss back to capo.

Senior family member

In the early 1980s, Aloi was paroled from prison, returning to his crew in the Brooklyn faction of the Colombo crime family. In 1991, Aloi sided with Colombo underboss

Victor Orena Vittorio "Little Vic" Orena (born August 4, 1934) is a New York City mobster who became the acting boss of the Colombo crime family. A challenge by Orena to boss Carmine Persico triggered one of the bloodiest Mafia wars of the late 20th century, ...

in his bloody rebellion against the imprisoned Persico. However, there is no evidence that Aloi had a direct role in the conflict, and Persico allowed him to remain as caporegime when the Third Colombo War ended in 1993. Later in the decade, Persico appointed Aloi and his brother Benedetto as acting

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 ...

s. During the mid-1990s,

capo Nicholas "Little Nick" Corozzo became involved in a dispute over the

DeCavalcante crime family 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 Jer ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

inducting

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 ...

residents. A meeting was called to resolve the problem and Aloi attended it as the Colombo representative. It was decided in the meeting that the DeCavalcante crime family could no longer induct associates outside of New Jersey and South

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

. As of December 2008, Vincenzo Aloi was residing in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

and is today assumed to be in retirement.

References

Notes Sources *United States Congress. House Appropriations Committee. ''Departments of State, Justice, and Commerce, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations for the Fiscal Year''. 1975

*Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice United States Congress. House Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Courts. ''Witness Protection Program: Hearings Before the Subcommittee on Administrative Practice and Procedure of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary''. 1985

*United States Congress. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. ''Organized Crime: 25 Years After Valachi : Hearings Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs''. 1988

*United States Congress. House Committee on Commerce. Subcommittee on Finance and Hazardous Materials. ''Organized Crime on Wall Street: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Finance and Hazardous Materials''. 2000

Further reading *Sifakis, Carl. ''The Mafia Encyclopedia: Third Edition''. Checkmark Books; 3 edition (June 30, 2005) *Capeci, Jerry. ''The Complete Idiots Guide to the Mafia''. Indianapolis, Alpha, Alpha; 2 edition (January 2005) *Raab, Selwyn. ''Five Families: The Rise, Decline, and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires''. New York: St. Martin Press, 2005. {{DEFAULTSORT:Aloi, Vincenzo 1933 births Living people American gangsters of Italian descent Colombo crime family Gangsters from New York City Acting bosses of the Five Families Consiglieri American people convicted of fraud