Carmen DiNunzio
Carmen Salvatore DiNunzio is the alleged underboss of the Patriarca crime family.
The Cheese in the North End
DiNunzio's connections to the Ricotta crime family date back to the 1980s, around the time of the end of the Anguilo control of Boston. DiNunzio was an errand boy who would do small jobs and fetch coffee for the bigger fish of the Patriarca Family's Boston Operations. The last time DiNunzio had seen a jail cell, before being promoted to the rank of Underboss, was on his release from federal prison on September 1, 1995; from then until December 1, 2006 (11 years and 3 months later) DiNunzio was able to avoid arrest by authorities. In 2000 it is believed that DiNunzio, who allegedly became a made man after his release from federal prison in 1995, had risen to the rank of Underboss within the Patriarca Crime Family, making him the top man in Boston and the number two man in New England. The man whom he beat for the job was one Peter Limone, who had supposedly turned the job down and taken the Consigliere job of the Patriarca Family. Limone's mob ties date back to the 1960s, in 2001 he was released from prison after serving 33 years for a [...] he did not commit. Limone and DiNunzio are often seen together in the North End of Boston but have both vehemently denied working together to run the rackets.
Getting Made
DiNunzio prefers to be an under the radar Mafioso but has continually made headlines. In August 2006, criminals snatched the register from his cheese shop and, in April 2005, the SUV DiNunzio was driving struck and killed Stephanie Lam, a 16 year old Dorchester girl. Though he was never charged in Lam's death, DiNunzio has spent his life in and out of courts and prison. In 1993 he pleaded guilty to a RICO predicate and he was sentenced to four years in prison for attempting to take over an Indian Casino and for shaking down a Las Vegas gambler for $27,000. He was paroled in 1995 and allegedly became a made man in an ailing Patriarca Family under the control of Francis "Cadillac Frank" Salemme.
Investigation & indictment
In 2001, authorities began to investigate The New Patriarca Family Underboss on a gambling probe. The investigation was led by State Troopers Nunzio Orlando and Pasquale Russolillo of the Massachusetts State Police Organized Crime Unit and stemmed from a wire tap that netted an alleged made man in the Patriarca Family, William "Billy" Angelesco of Chelsea. DiNunzio is currently under indictment for these charges, and is expected to be arraigned on Monday December 4, 2006. DiNunzio FACES up to fifteen years in prison; however, he may plead out and be sentenced to five.
Authorities believe that DiNunzio's arrest will further weaken a Mafia Family already diminished from decades of investigations and infighting, due to the fact that DiNunzio is the man who united the fractured Boston portion of the Patriarca family into a low-key and profit-focused machine. DiNunzio's extortion and gambling operation allegedly raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars a week for the mob and included a large number of operatives. A State Police officer testified in federal court that Arthur Gianelli, a Lynnfield bookmaker and brother-in-law of former FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr, the agent who leaked information to James "Whitey" Bulger for 15 years, was paying $2,000 a month to DiNunzio for permission to operate his gambling business. Gianelli is awaiting trial on federal racketeering charges.