New Jersey mobster with Hudson County roots dies of natural causes
Monday, September 20, 2010In a business filled with mean men, Tino Fiumara, a mobster with Hudson County roots, had a reputation for being a particularly scary one.
"He was a real murderer," said once source about Fiumara yesterday. "His eyes were black...He was very intimidating."
The boss for the Genovese crime family in New Jersey, and considered next in line to take control of the crime family, Fiumara died Thursday in New York from natural causes, authorities said yesterday. He was 71.
Also known as "The Greek" and "T," Fiumara controlled labor rackets on the New Jersey waterfront, as well as illegal gambling, loan-sharking, extortion and narcotics.
A powerful figure in New Jersey organized crime for three decades, Fiumara operated out of a Hoboken social club in his younger days, a source said.
Fiumara, who lived in Long Island before he died, was convicted of racketeering and extortion in Manhattan federal court in 1979 and convicted of extortion in Newark federal court in 1978.
He was linked by law enforcement to numerous murders, including the piano-wire strangulation of an associate and the shooting of a childhood friend during a dispute.
Fiumara was released on parole in 1999, but federal agents locked him up again for associating with known felons and he was finally released from prison in 2005.
Until his conviction, authorities viewed Fiumara as next in line to head the Genovese family, the dominant mob organization in New Jersey and New York. In 1983, State Police Lt. Col. Justin Dintino called Fiumara "a callous killer who has resorted to violence with little provocation."
In 2005, Genovese mobster Lawrence Ricci's decomposing body was found in the trunk of a car in New Jersey and it was said Fiumara approved the hit because Ricci refused to plead guilty in an ongoing racketeering trial.
"Nobody was more feared than Tino," the source said of Fiumara. "They all were feared, don't get me wrong, but you didn't want to get called in by Tino."
Fiumara's attorney, Salvatore Alfano of Bloomfield, said yesterday that Fiumara died from "a very fast-moving cancer."
"I've represented the man for over 10 years and he was always a gentleman with me," Alfano said. "I am deeply saddened by his loss."
http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2010/09/a_top_new_jersey_mobster_with.html
