By Summer of 1988 John D'Amato was reporting weekly to Gambino Boss John Gotti at the Ravenite Social Club in Little Italy, Manhattan. It may have been at one of these meetings that Gotti first received word of the DeCavalcante Family's unorthodox induction ceremonies. Since at least 1977, most or possibly all new members were brought in without use of the traditional method, wherein the inductee had their trigger finger pricked and their blood dripped onto the image of a saint, after which the image was burned and a verbal oath recited. The DeCavalcante Family had instead been inducting new members solely with the verbal oath, foregoing the blood and fire aspect altogether.
Word of Gotti's reaction to the news soon filtered out to the DeCav membership. Captain Anthony Rotondo was summoned for a talk with Boss John Riggi: "[Riggi] said to take a walk with him. And then he asked me if I had ever heard of any members of the Family divulging secrets to anybody in the Gambino Family. I told him, no, I hadn't. He told me that he heard a serious thing. And the thing was that [Gotti] had gotten word that we weren't using the proper induction method..[Riggi] was pretty sure it was John D'Amato [who told Gotti]..He said we'd have to remake everybody who wasn't properly inducted [the first time]." Vincent Palermo, a Soldier in Rotondo's crew at the time, suspected another DeCav Soldier, Daniel Annunziata, was responsible for the leak, not John D'Amato. Regardless of the source, word was handed down: a sizeable portion of the DeCavalcante Family would have to be re-inducted.
Details on two of these re-induction ceremonies are available. Both were held in the basement of an unspecified residence located in New Jersey, and both were presided over by John Riggi (Boss), Stefano Vitabile (Consigliere) and Paolo Farina (Captain).
Those re-inducted at one of these ceremonies included:
Rudolph Farone (Captain)
Anthony Rotondo (Captain)
Daniel Annunziata (Soldier) [Farone Crew]
Carmelo 'Melio/Buff' Cocchiaro (Soldier) [Farone Crew]
Rosario 'Russell' Cocchiaro (Soldier) [Farone Crew]
Michael 'Mickey' DePietro (Soldier) [Rotondo Crew]
Anthony 'Marshmallow' Mannarino (Soldier) [Farone Crew]
Louis Telese (Soldier) [Rotondo Crew]
Those re-inducted at the other ceremony included:
John D'Amato (Capo)
Philip Abramo (Soldier) [D'Amato Crew]
Louis Consalvo (Soldier) [D'Amato Crew]
Vincent Palermo (Soldier) [Rotondo Crew]
Paolo Farina was given the responsibility of carrying out the blood and fire method for each new member and Stefano Vitabile handled the oath.
Notes
- John D'Amato may have already been Underboss by this time. D'Amato replaced Girolamo 'Jimmy' Palermo, who resigned in 1988 but sources differ as to exactly when. Palermo's resignation and D'Amato's subsequent rise to power was another result of John Gotti's influence. Following D'Amato's promotion Philip Abramo was made captain over the former D'Amato crew.
- Those named above as being re-inducted were all members of New York based crews. There are no specifics re the New Jersey membership. Available CW information does confirm nearly the entire Family was forced to go through the second ceremonies, but no further details given.
- The reaction by the Gambino Family is understandable when taken on its own. The DeCavs did not follow the commonly accepted traditions for inducting new members and had to correct that error. However, further research has revealed that these unorthodox methods were practiced continuously, over a period of at least twenty-five years, by New York's own Bonanno Family. Unlike the DeCavalcante situation, word of the Bonanno Family's break with tradition either failed to leak out or, if it did, doesn't appear to have garnered nearly the same response. Details on known Bonanno ceremonies will be the subject of a future post.