LAW enforcement officials have long maintained that the Mafia has extensive influence over officials at every level of government in New Jersey. The Mafiosi apparently feel that way too. In lengthy transcripts of bugged Mafia conversations made public last week, New Jersey hoodlums boasted of their power to control and corrupt public officials throughout the state, from the statehouse at Trenton to the smallest municipal police station.
The transcript was disclosed at the federal extortion trial of Mafia Leader Angelo ("Gyp") De Carlo, 67, and three associates in Newark. It contained conversations recorded electronically by the FBI from 1961 to 1965, primarily at De Carlo's Mountainside, N.J., headquarters. It was the second major revelation of bugged New Jersey Mafia conversations in the past year. Parts of the dialogue had been published in LIFE in 1967. but the full transcript had never before been released to the general public. A sampler from the 1,200 pages of recorded conversations:
Campaign Contributions
De Carlo and his associates talked as if they had been instrumental in electing many public officials, among them Governor Richard Hughes and Newark Mayor Hugh Addonizio. At one point, De Carlo (known as Ray in the transcript) discussed lining up a contribution for Addonizio's campaign:
Ray: I'd like to have the money as soon as possible. $5,000. Tell him I think he never had a better gamble in his life. Now is when he [Addonizio] needs the money.
Jack: You can't wait until two weeks before the election?
Ray: No, sir.
Si: You gotta get him signed up before he makes other commitments.
Ray: Before he makes commitments to everybody else.
Referring to Addonizio's election, Little Joe DeBenedictis told Si Rega: "You know, Si, it's going to take three weeks, but we'll own this Hughie. This guy here, I'll guarantee we'll own him." De Carlo added: "Well, when you see him today, tell him that if he ever does business with more than one guy, he won't last." Another time, De Carlo was quoted as telling an associate: "Hughie helped us along. He gave us the city."
Keeping Up the Payments
De Carlo also discussed political contributions with Daniel ("Red") Cecere after Cecere had given an unnamed Congressman $1,000.
Ray: Don't you give to no politician unless you ask me first.
Red: O.K.
Ray: It's all right—the mayor of the town is worth 500. But I wouldn't have let you give over 300 to the Congressman. Even that was too much.
Red: Well, I figured you was all out for Hughie [Addonizio].
Ray: Well, I was out for Hughie —we give the louse 4,000. And I can't even see the louse when I want to.
The Price of a Town
The key to a successful operation of rackets is control over the police, and often the conversations involved this subject. One, in 1963, deals with Dominick Capello, then recently confirmed as superintendent of the New Jersey state police. De Carlo wanted Capello to keep his troopers from harassing numbers operations in the Jersey shore area. Among the speakers are Ray De Carlo, Lucky (probably Louis Percello) and others:
Ray: Do you know what this Cappy [Capello] wants?