Nicolas (Nicky Dell) Delmore – An Early DeCavalcante Family Boss

Although a very small Family by comparison, with an estimated 30 to 35 members at that point in time, Elizabeth’s Delmore Family under Nicky’s aggressive leadership was still able to secure for itself several very lucrative racket operations to call their own.

Nicholas Delmore - Early Life

Nicola (Nicky Dell) Delmore - aka “Nicholas Delmore,” “Nicholas Delrino” “Nicky Carlo” “Nicola Amoruso” (RN) - was born back in Nicosia, Sicily, on September 24, 1888.

As a young man in America, he married Ernestine (nee’ Wakefield,) and they had one son together named Frank.

For many years they lived in Berkeley Heights, and then New Providence. In later years, they chose to reside at 340 Westwood Avenue, in Long Branch.

Nicholas Delmore

Known as a physically tough guy, Nicky was said to always stay in “fighting shape” so to speak, taking care of his health.

He stood about 5-feet 8-inches tall and weighed in at 185 pounds. He had grey eyes, dark brown hair, a ruddy complexion, and a medium build.

Gyp DeCarlo once commented about how at the age of 75, Nicky Dell could still give three guys half his age a battle for their money.

Delmore was said to be an avid golfer who tried to hit the greens at least three times a week. In the winter, he often flew to South Florida for golf weekends.

FBI # 319465, NJSP # 35457 Union Co-PD # 6109, INS # E-16324

Boss of the DeCavalcante Family

Nicholas Delmore was the longtime boss of the Elizabeth-based DeCavalcante Family all through the mid-1950s until his death in 1964.

He had taken over the leadership from the previous “Representante” Filippo Amari, who had chosen to retire back to Italy.

For many years, up until the mid-1960s, the FBI had mistakenly thought that Delmore was only a caporegime in the Genovese Family . They did not realize that he was indeed the boss of his own separate Mafia Family.

By mid-1963, Nicky’s nephew, Sam DeCavalcante , who had previously been named underboss around 1960, started to assume full control of the borgata.

And with his uncle’s deathbed blessing, Sam the Plumber became the official boss with Delmore’s death in February of 1964.

Nicholas Delmore had been an aggressive, well-respected alcohol bootlegger back during the Prohibition era.

Over the years, he figured into several major bootlegging investigations, until one day on September 19, 1930, when he was nabbed by a raiding party of six Treasury Agents red-handed during a raid on a large alcohol still and illicit liquor storage warehouse he was operating at the Rising Sun Brewery in Elizabeth.

During the ensuing raid and arrests, Nicky Delmore allegedly shot and killed a Treasury agent named John G. Finiello. Nicky allegedly escaped and went “on the lam” to California, while a nationwide bulletin was issued for his arrest.

Delmore’s “wanted poster” on murder

In a seeming effort of futility, he would be subsequently hunted, nabbed, arrested, and tried. But at his federal trial in 1933, twelve jurors found him innocent, and he was released from custody to continue his underworld career unabated.

During his three years as a fugitive, while police and federal agents continued their search for him, they made it a point to try and bring pressure to bear on him and shut down his racket operations.

In July 1931, four separate police raids on his operations confiscated 18 gambling slot machines and large quantities of untaxed liquor at bars and locations he owned or ran including the popular Pine Tree Inn, the Valley Grove Inn, and the Lackawanna Inn.

“Nicky Dell” Delmore in his prime

Additionally, he was also tied into a huge, continuing conspiracy to manufacture illicit beer at two previously legitimate liquor bottling factories; the Harrison Beverage Company, and the Peter Hauck Brewery, both located in New Jersey.

With his growing racket profits, by the 1930s, the forward-thinking Delmore and his wife had formed the Delmore Realty Corp., a holding corporation that would go on to either buy, build, and own numerous parcels of land and structures around the Northern New Jersey area and South Florida. From there on out he listed himself as in “real estate.”

Delmoreland - Elizabeth, NJ

He also invested money in Delwake Farms, a large dairy farm he owned in Freehold, New Jersey.

Over time, Nicky was said to also have been heavily invested in several hotels, taverns and nightclubs, properties and rentals, and other legitimate businesses.

By the mid-1950s, Delmore acquired part ownership, along with a partner, in the Kenworth Corporation, of 21 North Michigan Avenue, in Kenilworth, New Jersey, a large plumbing and heating contracting business. The offices also doubled as his underworld headquarters in order to oversee his Union County-based Family.

This contracting company become a pivotal piece and tool for various labor extortion rackets Delmore operated with other Family soldiers.

After his death, his ownership interest passed to Sam DeCavalcante as the new boss of the Family. Partner Larry Wolfson was a close aide and mob associate to both Delmore and DeCavalcante.

Delmore’s nephew, Sam DeCavalcante

As far back as the early 1930s, Nicky Delmore was considered one of the Garden State’s premier bootleggers and racketeers. And by all accounts, he was a very active racketeer at that.

His limited, but serious criminal record listed arrests since 1930 for:

1930 - federal violations of liquor tax laws

1930 - murder of a federal officer

1933 - resisting a federal officer and conspiracy

1937 - maintaining a gambling house

1953 - violation of immigration laws

With the repeal of the Volstead Act in 1931, fast forward some 20 years later.

By the early 1950s, he was said to control all numbers racket operations in Union County in partnership with his two top lieutenants, Francesco (Big Frankie) Majuri and Luciano ( Fat Louie ) Larasso. Majuri was later elevated to underboss, as would Larasso.

Underboss - Frank Majuri

Capo - Louie Larasso

Soldier Nicholas (Nicky Quarino) Quaranta was often utilized to make the rounds, gambling payoffs, and collections.

Although a very small Family by comparison, with an estimated 30 to 35 members at that point in time, Elizabeth’s Delmore Family under Nicky’s aggressive leadership was still able to secure for itself several very lucrative racket operations to call their own.

It would be their financial base for years to come.

One was their successful push into Local #394, of the Hod Carriers & Common Laborers Union (AFL-CIO). He utilized soldier Emanuel Riggi as the primary union delegate and business agent who ran this union locally. Soldier Salvatore Caternicchio was in charge of extorting laborers, shakedowns, and kickbacks.

He also hooked into the International Longshoreman’s Union - Local # 1814 in Brooklyn. Delmore infiltrated a second longshore related, dock union called the New Jersey Shippers Assn., based right at Port Elizabeth, where he was listed as an “advisor.”

Looking outward, it was said that Delmore had tapped a close racket associate named Joseph ( Joe Buff ) La Selva, to take control of and oversee all future rackets in the city of Waterbury, Connecticut.

Connecticut underboss - Joe La Selva

He elevated La Selva to a capo post and later named him an underboss. He also initiated his two brothers Tommy and Tony La Selva. “The Buff Brothers” as they came to be called, watched things for Nicky Dell in The Nutmeg State.

Around the 1940s, he started visiting Miami, where he became active in floating crap games, horse bookmaking, and dabbled in real estate speculation. As time went on he became a regular on the Miami nightly social circuit.

Back home in Elizabeth, Delmore tightened his borgata’s control over local gamblers and their activities, in all areas Delmore considered his territory and domain.

Among others, the following bookies, numbers runners, card and dice game operators fell in line and coughed up a weekly or monthly envelope, or “tribute” to the borgata. Louie Larasso was said to be in charge of this particular group of bookmakers: Nicky Carta, Dominick Russo, Philip Ciccia, Angelo (Pickles) Piccolello, Peter Fiorini, George Sherman, Johnny Nigito, and Patsy Guida.

Nicky Delmore as a seasoned mafioso

Delmore also started to organize and operate a “Family” loan shark bank. Any member of the family could now borrow money as needed, at favorable 1% weekly vigorish rates, in order to start their own shylock loan business if desired.

He was well acquainted with most top racketeers and mafiosi. Aside from the aforementioned hoodlums, among his closer associates were:

• Vito (Don Vitone) Genovese

• Francesco (Frank Costello) Castiglia

• Quarico (Willy Moore) Moretti

• Gerardo (Jerry) Catena

• Eugene (Gene) Catena

• Vincent (Jimmy Blue Eyes) Alo

• Angelo (The Gyp) DeCarlo

• and Philadelphia’s Angelo Bruno

...All top racket bosses and mafiosi.

All his racket activity, as well as his court acquittal for the killing of a federal agent, did not go unnoticed by authorities. By the early 1950s, Delmore was under a deportation order by the United States Government.

After a contested inquiry, Delmore was later declared a citizen of the United States on January 30, 1953, and all deportation proceedings were dismissed.

Side Note: As a curious aside, years back four hoodlums, including future Genovese boss Jerry Catena, were charged and convicted of attempted jury tampering in Nicky Delmore’s 1933 murder trial acquittal. Catena and his associates were fined and jailed for several months as a result.

“Nicky Dell” in his later years

In his last years, Nicky Dell was said to have retreated to the shadows. He lived his last years quietly, splitting his time between Jersey and Florida. He was the boss but utilized his nephew and close aides to buffer him from the day-to-day trials and tribulations of being a mafia leader.

After suffering a serious heart attack in the summer of 1963, he died seven months later on February 2, 1964, at his home in Long Branch. Nicholas Delmore was said to have been 75 years old, and active until nearly the very end.

Until next time...”The Other Guy!”

Nicolas (Nicky Dell) Delmore – An Early DeCavalcante Family Boss

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Nicolas (Nicky Dell) Delmore – An Early DeCavalcante Family Boss

Nicholas Delmore – Early Life

Unlock This Door to the Underworld

Take the Journey!

You May Also Enjoy

Racketeer Snapshot: Connecticut’s Frank (The Cigar) Piccolo

The Anthony Strollo Regime of NY/NJ

The Day Charlie (the Bug) Workman Saved a Horse

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