Word: catena
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...younger days, Gerardo Catena was convicted of eight felonies, ranging from hijacking to bribing a federal juror, but those inconveniences did not slow his steady rise through the Mafia hierarchy. By the late 1960s he was boss of 600 button men in northern New Jersey and heavily involved in gambling and loan-sharking. Thus it was only logical for the state commission of investigation to summon him in 1970 for questioning about organized-crime activities. Granted immunity from prosecution for his answers, Catena still refused to talk, so a superior court sent him to jail. Under civil contempt procedures common...
...aging mobster (now 73) never broke his silence. But last week the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered him freed. The justices concluded that there was "no substantial likelihood" that Catena would ever cooperate with the commission; therefore, he must be released because further imprisonment would amount to unjustified punishment. Lest other Mafiosi rejoice too much, the court limited its decision to his case alone. As a result, three other recalcitrant witnesses remain in the Clinton Reformatory, and the commission can continue to coerce silent mobsters with threats of imprisonment. To get out of jail without talking, they will have...
Eboli nevertheless became one of three men to inherit the command of the family when Genovese died in 1969. Of the others, Gerardo Catena has since been imprisoned for refusing to answer questions from a New Jersey crime commission, and Mike Miranda is too old, at 78, to want to wield top power. Eboli's murder gives the aging Carlo Gambino effective control of the Genovese family...
...leave him in undisputed control of four of the five New York Families. The holdout would be the Bonanno family, run by Natale Evola, which controls trucking and narcotics rackets in Manhattan. The other clans are the Lucchese gang, run by Carmine Tramunti; the Genovese family, bossed by Jerry Catena; and the Gallos and Colombos (see chart, page...
Strike Force. It would hardly be surprising if it is. New Jersey was for years the domain of the late Vito Genovese, and since his death its rackets have been under the suzerainty of Gerardo ("Jerry") Catena. Nearly two years ago, the office of Essex County Prosecutor Joseph Lordi began to study the relationship between city officials and Mafiosi. In January, the Federal Government got into the act. A strike force of investigators from several agencies descended upon the state. Working with state officials and information developed by Lordi and the Essex County probe, it secured bribery and conspiracy indictments...