Joseph (Joe C) Caruano, aka; Joe Carrano, Joseph Carano, Joseph Cararo — was born in New York City on August 23, 1931. Other sources say Joe was actually born and raised in Elizabeth, NJ, and later moved to the nearby town of Rahway around 1986. Government records show the Caruanos had four children, including three daughters named Carmela, Bessie and Josephine.
Their parents were Emanuele Caruano and Caterina (nee’ Gioglio). Historical records list their father Emanuele as being born in Ribera, Sicily and arriving in the United States in 1920.
Later records show two of Joe’s sisters married names listed as Carmela Majuri and Bessie Tango. (It appears the families of various DeCavalcante crew members intermarried between themselves, because Majuri and Tango are both well known surnames of DeCavalcante mafiosi.)
At the age of 21, during the Korean War, he enlisted in the U.S. Army. He served several tours over the course of eight years, starting on February 13, 1952. He was honorably discharged on February 12, 1960.
When Joe returned home from the war, he quickly found work as a construction laborer through his family’s connections to Laborers Union Local 394, where his brother Giacomo (Jack) Merlo was employed as an organizer. Merlo was a lifelong member of Local 394 and after 40-years eventually ascended to the presidency of the local.
Side Note: Despite their different surnames, it appears that Joe and Jack were siblings, possibly half-brothers. That said, there were actually five children born to the family.
Around this same time in 1960, Joe was residing at 263 1st Avenue, Elizabeth. He had also become a member of the infamous Ribera Club in Elizabeth, New Jersey, a private “members only” social club frequented by many recent immigrants from the town of Ribera, Sicily and others who traced their family’s ancestral lineage back to that particular part of Sicily.
For many decades, the Ribera Club also served as the “unofficial” headquarters of New Jersey’s only homegrown mafia network, headed by Family boss Simone Rizzo (Sam the Plumber) DeCavalcante.
New York City records show that in 1973 Joe married a woman named Kathleen (Cathy) Zinkiwito in Manhattan. But, at some point, they may have divorced because some years later, official documents show his wife’s name listed as Marion Caruano.
By 1969, the Caruanos were residing at 529 Walnut Street, Roselle Park, N.J. Later that same year Joe would face his first major arrest.
we see all scrapers. don’t be a rat.
Often Imitated. Never Duplicated. Button Guys of The New York Mafia...There's Only One!
