Joseph D'Amico (born 1955 in

Little Italy, Manhattan Little Italy (also it, Piccola Italia) is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City, known for its large Italian population. It is bounded on the west by Tribeca and Soho, on the south by Chinatown, on the east by the Bowery and Lowe ...

), also known as "Joey The Mook," is an American mobster who was 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 ...

in the

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 ...

before he turned government informant. " D'Amico was a long-time street soldier who worked under his cousin, Richard Cantarella. He later served as Acting Capo.

Biography

D'Amico was born and raised in the

Knickerbocker Village Knickerbocker Village Limited is a housing development situated between the Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge, in the Two Bridges section of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City. Although the location was generally considered to f ...

public housing Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is usually owned by a government authority, either central or local. Although the common goal of public housing is to provide affordable housing, the details, terminology, def ...

tenement A tenement is a type of building shared by multiple dwellings, typically with flats or apartments on each floor and with shared entrance stairway access. They are common on the British Isles, particularly in Scotland. In the medieval Old Town, i ...

building where his uncle Albert Embarrato, Anthony Mirra, cousin Richard Cantarella and fellow mobster Benjamin "Lefty Guns" Ruggiero resided. He was also a cousin of Paul Cantarella and Frank Cantarella. He was a close friend of ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' Superintendent of Deliveries,

Robert Perrino Robert Francis Perrino, also known as "Bobby Perrino" (February 9, 1938 in Fordham, Bronx – May 4, 1992 in Port Richmond, Staten Island) was the superintendent of deliveries at the ''New York Post'' from the 1970s until 1992, when he was murdere ...

and Anthony Mirra. In the 1970s, he met undercover

FBI agent The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...

Joseph Pistone, but did not suffer the vicious aftermath as his cousin Mirra did. D'Amico is not to be confused with Gambino crime family acting boss

Jackie D'Amico John "Jackie" D'Amico (born July 11, 1937) is a New York City mobster and caporegime who served as street boss of the Gambino crime family from 2005 to 2011. "Street boss" had been the family's number one position ever since official Boss Peter ...

, to whom he is not related, nor is he related to sports analyst Joseph D'Amico.

Murder of Anthony Mirra

In mid-1981, when Pistone was revealed as an FBI agent, "Sonny Black" Napolitano, "Lefty" Ruggiero, and Mirra were all on the firing line for initially allowing the infiltration. Mirra went into hiding.

Joseph Massino Joseph Charles Massino (born January 10, 1943) is an American former mobster. He was a member of the Mafia and boss of the Bonanno crime family from 1991 until 2004, when he became the first boss of one of the Five Families in New York City to tu ...

ordered Mirra's two cousins D'Amico and Richard Cantarella, and their uncle Alfred Embarrato, to kill him. On February 18, 1982, D'Amico, lured him to a parking garage in Lower Manhattan. Embarrato and Cantarella were waiting in a getaway car. The pair went to the parking garage, climbed into Mirra's car, and drove up to a locked security gate. D'Amico later described in a testimony, "He took out his key, put it in the box, but he didn’t get a chance to turn the box... I shot him at close range several times on the side of his head."

Acting Capo and government witness

With Sal Vitale's demotion to Captain, Richard Cantarella became acting underboss in 2002. He appointed D'Amico as his acting captain. It is unknown if he held this position at the time of his conviction and ultimate cooperation.

References

*Crittle, Simon, ''The Last Godfather: The Rise and Fall of Joey Massino'' Berkley (March 7, 2006) *Pistone, Joseph D. and Woodley, Richard, '' Donnie Brasco: My Undercover Life in the Mafia'' Random House 1990 {{DEFAULTSORT:D'Amico, Joseph 1955 births Bonanno crime family American gangsters of Italian descent Living people