Anthony Accetturo

Anthony "Tumac" Accetturo (born 1938) is a former caporegime and leader of the New Jersey faction of the Lucchese crime family, popularly called "The Jersey Crew."

Accetturo was born in 1938 in Orange, New Jersey.

His father was a butcher, his mother a seamstress.

Accetturo dropped out of school after completing the sixth grade.

At age 16, Accetturo moved to Newark, and became the leader of a large street gang.

He gained a reputation as a ferocious street fighter, which led several of his fellow gang members to call him "Tumac," after the caveman hero of the 1940 adventure film One Million B.C.

At age 17, Accetturo was recruited by Anthony "Ham" Delasco, the boss of the Jersey Crew.

The membership books of the Mafia had been closed since 1957, which meant that Accetturo was not an official member yet.

This made his promotion even more remarkable, since Corallo chose him over several made men who had previously been his superiors.

Nonetheless, in the eyes of Corallo, Abate, and the family leadership, Accetturo represented the Mafia ideal: loyal, trustworthy, and a good earner.

During his absence, Accetturo designated his lieutenant, Michael "Mad Dog" Taccetta of Florham Park, to run the day-to-day operations of the crew.

By the early 1960s, he had become Delasco's driver.

Accetturo became Delasco's protégé, learning trades in illegal gambling and loansharking, which allowed him subsequent control of the Newark area.

Delasco died in the late 1960s, and Accetturo became a major earner under his successor, Joseph Abate, as well as a major player in his own right in the New Jersey underworld.

He soon grew rich in the family, netting about $500,000 yearly.

In 1970, Accetturo moved to Florida to avoid an investigation of his gambling operations in Newark.

Another reason for his move was that South Florida was open to all the crime families for exploitation.

In the early 1970s, Abate went into semi-retirement, and Lucchese boss Anthony "Tony Ducks" Corallo put Accetturo in charge of the entire Lucchese operation in New Jersey.

In February 1973, Accetturo was indicted for loansharking and extortion.

He was eventually arrested in Miami, with his bail set at $10,000.

In 1976, with Abate as his sponsor, Accetturo finally became a made man in the Lucchese crime family, along with the Taccetta brothers, Michael and Martin.

Accetturo described getting inducted into the family as “the greatest honor of [his] life” at the time.

He recalled that his ceremony was somewhat less elaborate than was normally the case for someone who was due to become “a friend of ours.” Although the ceremony—spilling a drop of blood on a picture of a saint, and burning it—was ostensibly secret, its broad lines were very well known in the Italian-American community.

Accetturo was thus surprised when Corallo simply told him to burn a picture of a saint, and swear not to betray the Lucchese family.

He later found out that the top leadership of the family thought so highly of him that they felt they could dispense with the usual formalities.

In 1976, the State of New Jersey tried to extradite Accetturo from Florida, however, he fended off the order due to poor health.

Based in Hollywood, Florida, Accetturo would continue to elude federal authorities while remaining involved in Lucchese interests in New Jersey.

Accetturo would finally become the official boss of the Jersey Crew by 1979 when Abate retired.

In 1980, the murder of Philadelphia crime family boss Angelo "The Gentle Don" Bruno created a power vacuum in that family, with rivals Philip Testa and Nicodemo Scarfo fighting for control.

On October 18, 1985, Accetturo was indicted on charges of threatening government witnesses, and posing a threat to public safety.

He was later charged with intimidating of competitors of the Lucchese-controlled Taccetta Group Enterprises, along with credit card and wire fraud.

Facing a number of federal prosecutions, Accetturo was granted a stay of sentence, and was allowed to live in his Florida residence.

In 1987, Accetturo, Taccetta, and several other Jersey Crew members went on trial for narcotics and racketeering charges.

The 21-month trial became one of the longest in U.S. history.

When the verdict was read, the defendants were pronounced not guilty on all counts, a stunning rebuke to the government.

As it turned out, however, the trial had been compromised by jury tampering—a common problem for Mafia trials.

When the Luccheses got word that the nephew of an unidentified Jersey Crew capo was on the jury, they paid him $100,000 to vote for acquittal.

Acceturo thus went into the courtroom knowing he was assured of at least a hung jury.

During the RICO trial, the relationship between Accetturo and Taccetta deteriorated into an outright power struggle.

Taccetta was jealous of the rise of Accetturo’s son, Anthony Accetturo Jr., within the New Jersey crew.