Sam DeCavalcante

DeCavalcante died of natural causes at age of 84, at a hospital in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on February 7, 1997. He is buried at Greenwood Cemetery in Hamilton, New Jersey.

DeCavalcante moved to Florida in 1976. In 1980, he passed control of the family to Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi and retired to Miami Beach, Florida. He starting planning to build a legitimate resort casino in South Florida; however, the project died when voters rejected casino gambling in a 1986 referendum. While officially "retired", many suspected that DeCavalcante was still involved with the crime family, providing advice to Riggi through his son Simone Junior.

2,300 transcript pages of taped conversations compiled by the FBI in the "DeCavalcante Papers" were released to the public by David M. Satz Jr., the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, at the request of DeCavalcante's lawyer Sidney "Chris" Franzblau in relation to the Trevose extortion case. Franzblau requested the release in order to learn whether or not any information leading to the indictment against his client was obtained via illegal wiretapping. The transcripts were physically released by Satz's successor, Frederick B. Lacey, on January 6, 1970. Franzblau was responsible for inadvertently revealing organized crime secrets as the DeCavalcante transcripts were made public because he had not asked that the disclosure be made only to the defense counsel. DeCavalcante subsequently dismissed Franzblau as his defense attorney and replaced him with Raymond A. Brown. The beginning of the trial, which was initially scheduled to commence on February 16, 1970, was delayed when Brown notified the U.S. Attorney's office that he would require time to familiarize himself with the case. The wiretap recordings were inadmissible as evidence because they had been made illegally and covered a period between 1961 and 1965, prior to the 1966 extortion specified in the indictment. The government contended that the illegal wiretap was not the source of information that led to the indictments of DeCavalcante, Vastola and Annunziata. On September 24, 1970, following an eight-day trial, DeCavalcante was convicted by a federal jury in Newark of three counts of conspiracy to extort money from the operators of the Trevose dice game. It was the first criminal conviction of DeCavalcante, who was 57 years old at the time. He "received the verdict impassively", according to The New York Times. DeCavalcante's co-defendants, Annunziata and Vastola, were convicted on one count each. On October 2, 1970, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

DeCavalcante was among 55 men and women indicted by a federal grand jury on December 16, 1969 in connection with a $20 million-per-year interstate numbers racket centered in Newark and Troy, New York. He was formally charged with gambling offenses on January 2, 1970. The following day, he attended the wedding of his son, Carl DeCavalcante, a senior at the University of Vermont, to Cynthia Ann Snyder at St Michael's Church in Trenton. Although he had initially barred news reporters from entering the ceremony, DeCavalcante relented and invited news people into the reception, saying: "You can drink what we drink, eat what we eat on me, but I don't want any of my guests embarrassed." Plainclothes policemen also photographed the wedding from outside.

DeCavalcante masterminded a plot to extort thousands of dollars over a six-week period in 1966 from the operators of an illegal dice game in the Philadelphia suburb of Trevose, Pennsylvania. On September 28, 1966, he sent two Mafiosi, Daniel Annunziata and Gaetano "Corky" Vastola, to the game with the intention of feigning surprise at discovering that the dice were loaded, then staging a holdup, demanding $20,000 and suggesting that DeCavalcante arbitrate the matter. Four gamblers were robbed at gunpoint at the game, which was held at a Trevose motel. After three meetings, one held at DeCavalcante's company in Kenilworth, one at a diner in Lawrence Township and other at a second motel in Trevose, a $12,000 settlement was arranged by DeCavalcante. He was eventually paid $3,800 by the robbery victims as the adjudicator. On March 21, 1968, DeCavalcante, Vastola and Annunziata were arrested and indicted on charges of conspiring to violate federal extortion statutes following a 17-month racketeering investigation by three federal agencies. DeCavalcante was taken into custody at his Kenilworth plumbing and heating firm, where FBI agents seized three pistols and a shotgun from his office.

From 1961 to 1965, DeCavalcante was the subject of a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation known as the "Goodfella Tapes" or the "DeCavalcante Papers". The FBI used a wiretap to record conversations among DeCavalcante and his associates which revealed detailed information on the day‐to‐day operations of the Mafia and crimes including labor racketeering, corruption, loansharking and murders. During these conversations, DeCavalcante repeatedly referred to himself as the "father" (boss) of his "borgata" (crime family). This investigation confirmed claims by informant Joe Valachi, provided crucial information on La Cosa Nostra, and revealed the existence of the Mafia Commission. However, since no court order was issued for the wiretap, none of tapes could be used to indict DeCavalcante.

Simone Rizzo "Sam" DeCavalcante (March 3, 1912 – February 7, 1997), known as "Sam the Plumber", was an Italian-American mobster who was boss of the DeCavalcante crime family of New Jersey. Claiming descent from the Italian royal family, DeCavalcante was nicknamed "The Count". The Kefauver hearings later named the New Jersey Mafia the DeCavalcante crime family since he was the boss of the family at the time of those hearings.

DeCavalcante oversaw illegal gambling, loansharking, and labor racketeering in New Jersey. Living in the Lawrenceville section of Lawrence Township, but working in Newark, DeCavalcante commanded a crime family of around 60 "made men" active in the tri-state area of New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. His legal business front was the Kenilworth Plumbing and Heating Co., a plumbing supply store in Kenilworth. He and his wife Mary (née Abrams; 1912–1988) had three sons, Carl, Frank (1942–2020) and Robert. After the retirement of family boss Nicholas Delmore (real name Nicholas Amoruso) between 1960 and 1964, DeCavalcante replaced him. Shortly after that, he acted as a liaison between the Mafia Commission and the Bonanno crime family after the beginning of the Bonanno War between the New York Five Families.