Vincent Palermo

Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo (b. 1944) is a former defacto boss of the New Jersey DeCavalcante crime family who eventually became a government witness.

Background

Vincent Palermo was divorced once and remarried. For years he struggled financially. In his earlier years he owned and operated a successful wholesale fish business in the Fulton Fish Market, where he earned the name "Vinny Ocean".

In the 1980s he became indebted to the hospital, local doctors and the federal government. The tax liens against his property, which were in his second wife's name totalled $68,000. At the time he was paying a hefty mortgage on a nice mansion located in Island Park, Long Island. He had two social security numbers and paid alimony to his first wife. He also supports his second family-- two daughter Danielle and Tara and a son Vincent Palermo Jr. With Michael (from his first marriage) and Renee. His son Michael is a graduate of Fordham University and a licensed New York stock broker. Vincent has five sisters, including Claire and Nancy and one brother. He was raised old-school Italian in Brooklyn. His father was an Italian immigrant who arrived to New York when he was a teenager. Vincent came from a close knit family and was said to have lived a harmonious lifestyle. Vincent was an altar boy during adolescence. When Vincent was sixteen his father died which forced him to leave school and work two jobs to help support his family because his mother was a bedridden ashtmatic. He was very protective of children having once stopped a man from beating his son and rescuing a toddler relative who had accidentally fallen in a pool. He attended Sacred Heart Church in Island Park and watched Annie with one of his daughters regularly. Vincent drove his daughters to Brownie's meetings. He took in a troubled teenager named Richard and became his godfather, and let him stay in his home every weekend for a year while Richard studied the Catholic sacraments and prepared to be baptized and receive his first Communion and confirmation.

In the early 1960s he met and married the niece of Sam DeCavalcante. DeCavalcante took a liking to his son-in-law and began inviting him to visit his social club in Kenilworth, New Jersey. He worked at the fish markets in the early morning hours and hung out with mobsters on Sunday afternoons.

In 1965, he became a "made" member of the DeCavalcante crime family. Vincent cultivated relationships with others families-- a lucrative loan sharking operation with a Gambino capo and bookmaking with another. He was also a close associate of the Genovese crime family. Vincent up until his racketeering indictment had only been arrested for the misdemeanour of stealing shrimp down at the Fulton Fish Market. He was known to say very little, speaking to only a very few close associates, and stayed away from mob-run social clubs. His daughter Tara and one of her girlfriends were at their Island Park, New York house while his wife was out. The two of them wanted to use the Jet Skis, but Vincent was busy eating lunch. He wasn't paying attention. The two girls stopped waiting for him and went out for a spin. They were both only 13 years old at the time and not of legal age to drive the Jet Skis. The friend was thrown off her Jet Ski and cut her leg which required five stitches and a trip to the hospital. His daughter Danielle was also being stalked at the time by the eldest son of mobster Ralph Guarino which required a sit down and the son receiving a beating.

Murder of Fred Weiss

In 1989, Palermo murdered Staten Island, New York resident Fred Weiss along with Anthony Capo and James "Jimmy" Gallo on the orders from DeCavalcante boss Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi through caporegime Anthony Rotondo. A former journalist for the Staten Island Advance newspaper and real-estate developer, Weiss became associated with mobsters from both the Decavalcante family and the New York Gambino crime family. Weiss and two mob partners had purchased a vacant property in Staten Island and started illegally dumping large amounts of dangerous medical waste there. When local authorities uncovered the scheme and started investigating Weiss, the two mob families became nervous. Gambino boss John Gotti worried that Weiss might become a government witness in exchange for leniency; Gotti requested that the Decavalcante family murder Weiss to protect them. On September 11, 1989, Palermo, Capo and Gallo drove to the New York condominium of Weiss' girlfriend. As Weiss left the building and climbed into his car, Palermo and Capo shot and killed him.

Family scandal

Over time, Palermo was appointed caporegime and given his own crew of soldiers. When Riggi was sent to prison in 1989, he appointed John "Johnny Boy" D'Amato as his acting boss. However, in 1992 D'Amato's disgruntled girlfriend revealed that he was bisexual. D'Amato would take her to so-called "swingers" parties and engage in homosexual activity with other men. To avoid embarrassment to the DeCavalcante family, especially among the New York crime families, Riggi ordered Palermo and other family members to murder D'Amato. It was decided that he was an embarrassment to the family and therefore he had to go to make sure nobody from the New York families found out. In early 1992, D'Amato disappeared and his body was never found; it was rumored that D'Amato was shot and killed in his car. Following D'Amato's disappearance, Giacomo "Jake" Amari became the new acting boss for Riggi. He ran the family until his death from cancer in 1997.

Power struggle

With Amari's death, there was no clear candidate to become the new acting boss. To avoid potential fighting for power, boss Riggi, still in prison, restructured the family and created a ruling panel to run it. Riggi appointed long time family members Vincent Palermo and Girolamo "Jimmy" Palermo (no relation to Vincent) to the panel. One individual not chosen for the panel, Charles Majuri, was infuriated. Majuri decided to murder the two Palermos and take effective control of the DeCavalcante family. Majuri asked Jimmy Gallo to murder Vincent, but Gallo instead told Vincent about the plot.

To protect himself, Vincent decided to murder Majuri instead. Over the years, Majuri had made many enemies by removing fellow mobsters from a union he controlled and taking their money. Vincent was able to recruit DeCavalcante members Joseph Masella, Anthony Capo, and James Gallo to find Majuri and murder him. However, on the one occasion when they were ready to kill Majuri, they became nervous and decided not to do it. When they reported their failure back to Vincent, he decided that Majuri didn't pose a threat after all and cancelled the murder contract.

FBI informant

In 1998, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) recruited a mob informant who devastated the DeCavalcante family. This informant was DeCavalcante associate Ralph Guarino, who had been arrested for robbing an armored truck carrying $1.6 million to the New York World Trade Center. To avoid 20 years in prison, Guarino agreed to work undercover for the FBI. Guarino soon started informing on the actions of DeCavalcante members to the FBI. The agency gave him cell phones rigged with surveillance equipment to distribute to other family members. In October 1998, Vincent's trusted lieutenant, Joseph Masella, was shot to death, leaving an opening in the family. Due to secret assistance from the FBI, Guarino's status had been rising in the family. After Masella's murder, Vincent and the rest of the DeCavalcante leadership promoted Guarino to made man.

In 1999, the FBI finally moved in on the DeCavalcante family. Vincent had recently proposed to murder mobster Frank D'Amato and Guarino successfully recorded the conversation. On December 2nd, the FBI arrested Vincent and 39 other members of the family. Vincent was charged with the attempted murders of Frank D'Amato and Majuri and many other offenses. Hitman Capo implicated also implicated Palermo in the 1989 Weiss killing.

Government witness

Facing serious charges and possible capital offenses, Vincent decided to become a government witness. He confessed to killing Weiss and mobster Louis LaRasso and to planning the murders of John D'Amato, Joseph Masella, Charles Majuri, Frank D'Amato and Tom Salvata, the manager at his strip club. Palermo also implicated other DeCavalcante family members in various crimes.

After testifying for the government, Vincent Palermo and his family entered the federal Witness Protection Program. However, prosecutors later discovered that Vincent allegedly gave his son Michael Palermo $1 million in cash, possibly jeopardizing his status as a protected witness.

References

* "Made Men: The True Rise-and-Fall Story of a New Jersey Mob Family" by Greg B. Smith

External links

* [http://ganglandnews.com/column240.htm Jersey Mob Had Sights on Informer] by Jerry Capeci
* [http://americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_251.html American Mafia.com The 'Sopranos' Trial Part Three: Reversal of Fortune for Mob Canary] by James Ridgway de Szigethy
* [http://www.geocities.com/OrganizedCrimeSyndicates/VincentPalermo.html Organized Crime Syndicates: Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo]
* [http://americanmafia.com/Cities/New_Jersey.html American Mafia.com: New Jersey] by Devin McDonald