I have heard from some on here the family is basically just a crew and almost non-viable. How much truth is there to this and can it be changed? Unlike some other areas of America I thought that the family would have a relatively large recruitment pool with a large Italian-American population.
Can anyone hazard a opinion on current numbers of made guys in the family? Also info on key current players? Thanks.

Yes, they will re-organize like all families/crews do. Hopefully they still have a strangle on the unions.

Current estimates put the total DeCavalante membership at 40-50 made guys. So, they're roughly the same size as the other small families that remain outside of NY - New England, Philadelphia, and Chicago.

That said, I think they will be the next to cross that line from "viable" to "non-viable." In the big case that spanned the late 1990's and early 2000's, the family had it's boss, 3 acting bosses, it's consigliere, 5 captains, and several soldiers and associates indicted. For a small family, that is a devastating blow in so short a time.

Since then, which is over a decade ago now, there has been relatively little discernible activity by the family. I'm not ready to write them off completely but they seem to have been running on fumes for some time now. There's only been a handful of small cases involving a few guys here and there being into sports betting, trafficking in bootleg cigarettes and stolen tax refunds, loansharking, and extortion - the last which included the family's acting boss Frank Guaracci.

Probably most importantly was the family's long time cash cow - Laborers Union Local 394 - being put under oversight in 2006.

The DeCavalcante family has never beem a powerful family really. in fact they were known as the minor league of the mob by other families

Do you think its possible they will be absorbed into a NY family in the future?

No, because there's really no need to. Heck, the NY families (especially the Genovese) control most of the gambling, loansharking in New Jersey anyway. The Genovese also have the waterfront.

The DeCavalcantes main source of power, at least in the past, was their involvement in the construction industry through Local 394. But most of the family was kicked out of the local and, as I mentioned, it was put under oversight 5 years ago.

In my opinion, the family will just be further marginalized to what they have left in Union county. It would be impossible for them to be officially "absorbed" by another family; i.e. become the same family. But I suppose it's possible they could eventually get to the point where they're "with" a certain family, sort of like the Trafficante guys were "with" the Gambinos.

So the Sopranos portrayal is complete nonsense? I mean the power and influence they had. There rackets were mostly unrealistic?

The basic idea of a small family based in Jersey came from the DeCavalcantes. But beyond that, Chase and the other writers used material from the whole NY/NJ underworld for their scripts.

The Soprano's involvement in construction would be accurate. As well as other things like gambling, stock fraud, stolen goods, the strip club, etc. But not their involvement in the garbage business, the waterfront, etc.

And their relationship with NY, where they're dealing almost as equals, was overblown. Especially when they went to war. But you have to allow for some dramatic license, I guess.

They did use certain characters from real guys like jackie aprile for example. However the power that the sopranos depicted is complete nonsense. Let me put it this way one of us could probably get made in jersey that how weak they are/were lol

i still hold my stance in my mind that the sopranos are more related to the lucheesse nj faction! but we have had this argument on this board numerous times on numerous threads.

^^agreed i think they have aspects of both the lucchese jersey crew and the decalvacante's

I've thought that too, but the fact that they have a real boss, Tony, make me think strictly DeCavalcante

well if ya wanna get down to it...michael tacetta was kinda a boss for the luchesse's. (in nj) tony to resembles tacetta more than vinny ocean....wich is who ive heard alot of documentarys compare him too.

Personality wise, I'm sure Tony may have resembled Taccetta more. Though anytime that comes up, Palermo's association with producers is mentioned. Though that rat brags a lot. Speaking of, are Martin and Michael still locked up? I've locked for them using the U.S. BOP's inmate locator, later finding out they're in New Jersey state prison; they still in there?

I think gandolfini became tony soprano because he was the best man for the role, not for who he resembled !!

not talking about his physical apperance...but yes he was the best man for the job...

The Soprano's resemble the Decalvacante's.

In fact they propositioned Ray Liotta (who turned it down for fear of type casting hahahaha). This sort of proves that they were looking for the best actor, not a look alike.

Lol and th Dr tried out to be Carmela, ha Goodfellas all over again, Tony and Henrey shared a mother in law as well.

As somebody else mentioned the Decalvacantes was a weak mafia family. now the Sopranos made them out to be as strong as New York which is ridiculos but they were basically the minor league mafia in a sense

They were pretty weak nationally under Sammy DeCavalcante's reign, but I think they were fairly respected when Vinny Palermo was running things. Of course, when he flipped the domino effect did some irreversible damage. That's the way I see it.

depends on what is meant by comeback. compared to the late 90's/early 2000's they seemed to have stabilized a bit, so that could be considered a comeback to a degree. im not sure at what time they were at thier peak, but they werent ever considered the top mob crew even within new jersey, that has always seemed to be the genovese jersey crew. i think they will be around for a while, unless something big happens in the near future.

They were still much weaker than other other new york family. I mean gotti ordered them to do stuff and they did it which shows that they were basically a glorified crew

Haven't the Decavalcante Family made a pseudo comeback? I know they lost control over their local Liuna 394 but haven't they made like 10 guys in the past 10 years?

I'm not sure if it's fair to say they were subservient. I'm not sure its been fully pieced together. In whichever case, Gotti basically destroyed the DeCavalcante family by ordering the Fred Weiss hit. Some friend.

every family outside new york at one time or another followed the orders from ny. after the bruno hit, new york put the pieces in place that they wanted, i would hardly call philly a glorified crew. if you ask me, that term gets thrown around way too often. imo a glorified crew would be families such as LA, tampa, cleveland ect.

when sam the plumber got caught on tape in the 60tys he had a family of 30 guys that was there limit and it only newark and elizabeth. but they had a crew in brooklyn to. when they opened the books i think they went up to 75 guys. i think of course they could get back up there, there a italian stronghold. they still had the philly guys complain to the gambinos recently. there alined with the luchese big crew. sam the plumber was a smart don he had all his guys have jobs but did crime on the side, those guys grandkids run there companies today.that was there thing to be a small new jersey family they got in trouble in the 90tys for making guys from new york. i think it was nick corozzo giving them a lecture. weird thing that guy nicky skins was in nick corozzo's crew, thats not a good thing.

I never said philly was a glorified crew they were the real deal. Just trying to be honest from what FBI agents and ex mobsters have called jersey. Im mean i just try to be honest as possible nothign against the jersey mafia lol

no you didnt say that. the point that i was trying to make was that you implied that the decalvacantes took orders from new york, which relegated them to "glorified crew" status. i was simply trying to point out that other, more powerful families have done the same thing seeing as new york is the epicenter of the mob in north america.