In a state known for its mobsters, few mafiosi ever reached the notoriety of a wily old Genovese Family caporegime by the name of Angelo DeCarlo. Better known in the underworld as Gyp or Gyp the Blood, and to his close friends as simply Ray, in his time, Gyp DeCarlo gained an infamous reputation as one of New Jersey’s most respected but dangerous and vicious racketeers.
He headed a crew of soldiers and associates who controlled horse and sports bookmaking operations, a sprawling policy-numbers business that spanned multiple counties, shakedowns and extortion, and a large loansharking operation that preyed on anyone desperate or stupid enough to borrow money from them.
Gyp DeCarlo was also well known to have been a contract killer early in his career. It was a nasty little habit that he continued well into his senior years.
He and his men and, by extension, their fellow mafiosi in other Genovese Family crews who also operated in Northern New Jersey, concentrated on infiltrating and corrupting a whole swath of key government officials and law enforcement personnel over the years to indemnify their underworld rackets.
Through systematic bribery and payoffs to local and state police and key politicians, the Counties of Hudson, Essex, Monmouth, Union, Atlantic, and Middlesex became “protected” territory for the Mafia to run its gambling rackets and other activities as they wished.
By the 1950s, The Garden State had gained the unsavory reputation of being the most corrupt place in the United States. Through numerous FBI investigations, it was discovered that the underworld had corrupted entire cities, townships, and villages all across New Jersey, to its very core.
