Gioacchino Amari

Gioacchino "Jake" Amari (March 14, 1945 – June 14, 1997) was an Italian-American mobster who served as acting underboss and later acting boss of the DeCavalcante crime family of New Jersey.

Criminal career Amari served as a "consultant" for Local 394 of the Laborers' International Union of North America, a local union that represented hod carriers, common laborers and other construction workers in Northern New Jersey. The DeCavalcante crime family had dominated Local 394 for years, using their control over that union to extort construction employers, provide "no-show" jobs, and loot the union's treasury and its pension and benefit funds.

According to the testimony later provided by Vincent "Vinny Ocean" Palermo, who became the acting boss of the DeCavalcante crime family after Amari's death, Amari was a prominent and ruthless captain before being promoted to the acting underboss after the imprisonment of longtime family boss Giovanni "John the Eagle" Riggi in 1992. Riggi appointed a ruling panel to take control of the DeCavalcante crime family until his release, but the acting boss of the panel, Gaetano "Corky" Vastola, was arrested and jailed as well.

John D'Amato was then appointed as acting boss. D'Amato's reign was short, as it soon became clear that he had been recruited by the Gambino crime family and had been conspiring to murder Vastola. Later in 1991, D'Amato got into an argument with his girlfriend, who was also involved with Anthony Rotondo. She told Rotondo that when she and D'Amato were out at clubs during the evenings, D'Amato would be swinging and have sex with other men.

Rotondo reportedly became quite upset that someone within the family was taking part in homosexual acts and shared his suspicions with Amari, the crime family's underboss, and Stefano Vitabile, the powerful consigliere. They decided to have D'Amato murdered after informing the incarcerated Riggi. They later obtained the other captains' approval of D'Amato's murder, but without informing them he had already been killed.