Monday, September 28, 2026

Joseph Giampa (Lucchese)

J. Giampa (1990s)
Breakdown of known members reporting to Lucchese Captain Joseph 'Joey G.' Giampa by late 1990.

Giampa was born in 1940 to a father believed to have roots in Palermo, Sicily.

On August 23, 1982 he and five others were inducted into the Lucchese Family in a ceremony presided over by Boss Antonio 'Tony Ducks' Corallo.

By mid-1988 Corallo was serving a one-hundred year sentence received in the Commission case and Giampa was reporting to Captain Michael Salerno (1923-1990), a wealthy and highly influential member of the Family's Bronx faction.

In late May 1990 Vittorio 'Vic' Amuso, Corallo's successor, as well as Consigliere Anthony 'Gaspipe' Casso fled New York to avoid indictment in the Windows case.

A. D'Arco
Casso met with Captain Alfonso 'Little Al' D'Arco just prior to leaving and informed D'Arco that he was being entrusted with control of high-level Family matters for the time being.

Casso also passed along the order to have Michael Salerno murdered, claiming that he had received information from a law enforcement source that Salerno was an informant.

M. Salerno
Manhattan Mob Rampage Documentary
D'Arco obeyed but believed Amuso and Casso wanted Salerno dead to remove a threat to their leadership: "[They] didn't try to show their fear, but I knew it was there, that [Salerno] was going to take over the crew; the Bronx branch was going to make a move and take over the mob, the Family. And they used the excuse when they were taking off, they thought that is when Mike was going to make a move and so they called him a rat. That is what I felt and what I believe."

D'Arco, with Casso's blessing, chose Salerno crew member Joseph Giampa to carry out the hit. Giampa enlisted his brother Santo 'Jay' Giampapa, explaining to D'Arco that he could only trust immediate family for the job.

Giampa also noted to D'Arco that Salerno's car was being serviced at the time in Giampa's auto body shop on Boston Post Rd. (D'Arco and Giampa were inducted in the same August 1982 ceremony.)

On June 9, 1990, at approximately 6:00 PM, Salerno was found shot and stabbed to death in trunk of black Jaguar parked across from 2742 Westervelt Ave in Pelham Gardens, The Bronx.

D'Arco informed fugitive Consigliere Anthony Casso by phone:
"
[I] brought up the subject of being that he had said don't trust that guy [re using Giampa in Salerno murder] and now this was done, I said, [is he] going to make him a Captain.

He said, 'Yes, we're going to make him a Captain.'

I said, 'Can I tell him now?'

He said, 'Yes.'

I says, 'So he is a Captain.'

He says, 'Yes. Fine.'

I [then] discussed a few other matters, 'Take care of yourselves,' [then] I beeped Joey and told him to meet me.
"

Giampa summoned to coffee shop on Manhattan's Upper East Side. D'Arco driven to location by Captain Dominic Truscello:
"
It was night. It was dark out and he met me on 75th or 78th Street and Lexington Avenue, there's a coffee shop there.

Joey came down and I told him that they were pleased he did it right away, that he was a Captain in the crew and that he was to take over Mike Salerno's crew.

Joey told me that [there] was $20,000 that he had owed Mike. He had brought up that he paid Mike $200 a week shylock money.

And I said, 'I'll clear it.' I said, 'Just forget about that money because' -- I said, 'I'll clear it.'

...First, [Truscello] was off to the side, I didn't want to -- and then I introduced [Giampa to Truscello] as a Captain.
"

D'Arco: "At the time I introduced him to Dom [Truscello]. I said, 'Dom, don't go around saying that he is a Captain because it's not proper.' I said, 'You've got to introduce him to his own guys first. It's like, you're not in his crew so it's not right.' So we made arrangements for his crew to come to [Brooklyn]."

Meeting where Giampa announced as Captain held at discotheque operated by D'Arco crew Associate Angelo 'Sonny Bamboo' McConnach located on Flatlands Ave in Brooklyn.

Attendees included Captains Anthony 'Bowat' Baratta, Alfonso D'Arco, Frank Lastorino, Possible Acting Captain George 'Georgie Neck' Zappola, Joseph Giampa and the members of his crew, which D'Arco later estimated to number anywhere from six to ten. Lucchese Soldiers George 'Goggles' Conte and Joseph D'Arco, Al's son, remained upstairs as security.

D'Arco: "...I introduced Joey. They all sat down. There was cake and stuff, coffee, and it was in the basement. And I introduced Joey to his crew. I said, 'This is your new Captain,' and I gave them the speech that they should stick close to him, report to him and give him all the help he can get. [Afterward] he was introduced to everybody in the place as a Captain."

D'Arco also noted: "[I] was told [Giampa] was going to be an Acting Captain but that he was to be introduced as a Captain until further notice. The only ones that would know is the administration, myself and the people at the meeting that he was to be an Acting Captain but he was supposed to be introduced as a Captain until they gave him an official okay that I would give that he would become a Captain. At that time that's what I did."

Giampa took control of various interests formerly controlled by Salerno:
  • He and others, including Lucchese Soldiers Pat Maselli (a former Salerno crew member) and Anthony 'Blue Eyes' Santorelli as well as Lucchese Associate Frank Salerno (Mike's nephew), began piecing together Salerno's rumored multi-million-dollar loanshark book. D'Arco assisted in collecting the money by attending meetings with, among others, Salerno customers Mario Antonicelli, a Proposed Associate with Gambino Captain Louis Ricco, and an unnamed nephew of Genovese Captain Louis 'Louie Dome' Pacella.
  • D'Arco, Giampa, Maselli and others began overseeing a landfill in Hastings, New York, in which Salerno held a 20% interest; the remaining 80% belonged to the DiNapoli brothers: Vincent ([Former?] Genovese Captain), Joseph (Lucchese Soldier) and Louis (Genovese Associate). D'Arco used the location as a free dumping site for trucks he owned through A&M hauling company.

By Fall 1990 made members of Giampa's crew included:

1.) Joseph 'Joe Capp / Joe Hooks' Capra (1916-1992)

Born in East Harlem, Manhattan to a father from San Polo Matese in Campobasso, Molise and a mother from Castello d'Alife in Caserta, Campania.

Father Michele (1888-1967) a Suspected Member. Several other relatives were confirmed members, including nephew Salvatore Avellino who, like Giampa, was a Lucchese Captain by 1990.

Capra was himself a Captain during the 1960s and into the mid-1980s, when he stepped down or was demoted in the wake of the Commission verdicts.

He may have also served in the administration at some point during the early-to-mid 1970s.

Involved in union activity with his son (below).

2.) Michael 'Mikey Capp' Capra

Born 1941 in Manhattan to Joseph and Gaetana Gagliano.

Mother, from Corleone in Palermo, a niece of Former Lucchese Boss Tomasso Gagliano.

Likely inducted in the late 1970s.

By late 1980s believed served as official with Local 48 in Manhattan, which he and his father controlled for the Family.

The Capras were kicking up $1,100 per week from the union by the time of Giampa's promotion.

3.) Ettore 'Eddie' Coco (1908-1991)

E. Coco (1980s)
Born 1908 in Palermo and a member by the early 1930s, Coco was among the Bronx faction members viewed as a candidate for leadership in the wake of the Commission case.

D'Arco: "Eddie Coco was a very long-time member, very respected member of the Lucchese Family who was actually Tony Ducks' boss going back, and he made an error, he [killed] somebody outside the Family business. He got drunk in Florida and shot a guy, killed him in a gas station and went to prison. He was a very strong leader, a Captain in this Family going back [and a member] for many, many years....[He] wound up being in Mike Salerno's crew when he come out of jail [in 1984]."

D'Arco included Eddie Coco with Michael Salerno and others in the list of Bronx-Harlem members that he felt Amuso and Casso feared would take back the Family from the Brooklyn faction.

Not long after the meeting where Giampa was introduced as the new crew leader, Coco was indicted in Baltimore on Federal racketeering charges involving bingo parlors in that city.

D'Arco offered to help Coco in a dispute with Lucchese Soldier 'Bad Anthony' DiMeglio that involved an arson committed at one of the parlors, however, Coco refused to 'come down' for a meet and the matter was dropped.

He died late the following year.

4.) Daniel 'Squire' Latella (1940-2003)

Born in The Bronx to a father from San Bartolomeo in Galdo comune of Benevento, Campania.

Father-in-law Michael 'Mikey Fish' DeRienzo (1912-1987) was a Possible Member.

Sponsored for membership by Joseph Capra shortly after the books opened in 1976.

By Fall 1984 he reported to Captain Anthony 'Buddy' Luongo and was a partner with Luongo in the Sav on Discotheque in Allerton, The Bronx and in Club A. Disco in Lenox Hill, Manhattan.

Following year began serving two-and-one-half to five year New York State sentence for weapon and drug possession.

During Latella's incarceration Anthony Luongo was murdered for plotting against Antonio Corallo.

Paroled December 1989.

By 1990 owned Gun Hill Paper Inc. located on E Gun Hill Rd in Williamsbridge, The Bronx.

Also operated a luncheonette / social club in the same area that was used for meetings between D'Arco and members of the Giampa crew.

D'Arco: "Danny Latella was involved on behalf of the Lucchese Family and himself [in] gambling, joker poker machines which were controlled by part of the Family. And he also [had] his own shylock business and numbers and other types of gambling and selling cars and everything -- lot of different things on his own for himself."

Latella was part of a group that fugitive Underboss Anthony Casso conspired to murder upon his planned return to New York for 'taking advantage of him' while he was on the lam. (Casso was apprehended in January 1993 and made a failed attempt at cooperation.)

Died September 2003.

5.) 'Miggs / Mig' LNU

D'Arco could only identify this individual by his nickname and described him as approximately eighty years old.

Former Acting Consigliere Mariano Macaluso is referred to as 'Miggs' in some reports, although D'Arco makes it clear elsewhere that he knew who Macaluso was.

A probable match is Dominic 'Miggs' Galluccio (1910-1996).

Born to a father from Sant'Agata di Militello, Messina, Galluccio grew up in Van Nest, The Bronx before moving to the village of Tuckahoe in Westchester County.

By the 1960s his close associates included Mariano Macaluso and other Bronx-Harlem members; in 1969 he was indicted with Acting Boss Carmine 'Gribbs' Tramunti and the Capra brothers Joseph and Daniel, the latter a member who died in 1982. (Tramunti may have already been elected the official Boss.)

Died March 1996.

6.) Unsub (possibly aka 'Buster')

D'Arco: "[In Giampa's crew] there is a guy I never met, I know the guy, Buster or something, I never met him."

This could be referring to Sebastian Nuccio (1936-2010), included in a 2006 government membership list posted on the forum.

Nuccio's father, along with several other relatives, was a made member in the Family's Prince Street crew.

It's also possible that 'Buster' refers to another member entirely or that D'Arco misremembered the nickname.

7.) Other(s)

D'Arco: "[Crew included the above] and yes, there [was] a couple of more guys I can't think of right now."

Associates of interest included:

1.) Joseph 'Joey Blue Eyes' Cosentino

Born 1943 in Manhattan and by the late 1980s an Associate in the Family's Bronx faction.

D'Arco: "Joey Blue Eyes is supposed to be a nephew of Tom Santoro. At that time [early 1990s] he was a nonmember, but he was supposed to be related to Tom Mix, Tom Santoro, who was the Underboss."

He and Anthony Magana (below) were convicted of involvement in the September 1989 murder of Lucchese Soldier John Petrucelli. Family Boss Vittorio Amuso specifically ordered that Cosentino participate in the hit.

The pair's legal fees were partially covered by crew leader Michael Salerno and subsequently by Giampa.

Approved for membership and scheduled to be inducted by March 1991, Cosentino was unable to attend due to incarceration in the Petrucelli case.

Released in 2016 and, according to Lucchese Member turned CW John Pennisi, has since become a member.

2.) Santo 'Jay' Giampapa (1936-1994)

Brother to Joseph, Santo was inducted for his role in the Salerno murder in March 1991, the same ceremony that Cosentino and Magana missed.

In 1992 the brothers were acquitted at trial in a Federal racketeering case brought in the wake of D'Arco's defection.

Santo died July 1994.

The following month Joseph was charged in another Federal racketeering indictment, this one out of Newark, and convicted. Released in September 2001.

3.) Anthony Magana

A. Magana (1989)
Born 1945 in The Bronx, Magana was another Associate in the Salerno crew by the late 1980s.

He and Joseph Cosentino were directed to participate in the Petrucelli murder; Magana was caught at the scene and Cosentino was apprehended some time after.

Also scheduled to be made in the March 1991 ceremony.

Served approximately twenty-five years for murder and released in 2016.

4.) 'Big Marco' Minuto (1936-2026)

Pointman for Giampa with Local 202 at Hunts Point Market in The Bronx.

Inducted by Joseph 'Little Joe' DeFede, D'Arco's successor as Acting Boss, around 1995.

Died August 2026.

More Lucchese Family posts can be found in the Index.

Update

J. Giampa New Posts: 1. Joseph Giampa (Lucchese) : Breakdown of Captain Joseph Giampa's known crew members circa 1991. 2. Salvatore Ave...