Arguably, the most powerful and durable mafioso to ever operate in New Jersey was the infamous Ruggiero “Ritchie the Boot” Boiardo.
Born in 1890, dating as far back at the late 1910, he was already active as an up-and-coming gangster. By the early 1920s, Boiardo had established himself as one of the most aggressive and unpredictable wildcard gangsters on the streets of Northern New Jersey.
Known variously as either ‘Diamond Richie’ and ’Richie the Boot’ — Ruggiero’s deadly reputation was such that few men ever dared tangle with him. And those who foolishly did ended up badly.
With an insatiable lust for money and power and a nasty disposition to go along with it, “Richie the Boot” had little compunction about killing at the mere drop of a hat. In fact, his well-known proclivity for unbridled violence is one of the things that enabled him to quickly become one of the most recognized and feared hoodlums around.
One would not be off the mark to even say that Boiardo had something of a macabre fascination with murder — many of his underworld contemporaries seemed to recognize that trait about him and often spoke in hushed tones about the old man’s devilish enjoyment of slaughtering someone — both enemies and friends, alike.
His criminal career started in the years proceeding Prohibition and continued unabated for nearly 70 years — until the Grim Reaper decided to snatch him from this life in 1984. But by that point in time, Boiardo had already long established himself as head one of the largest criminal organization’s in the State of New Jersey — indeed, one of the largest criminal organizations in the country.
With a total membership comprising well over 400 soldiers and associates, what became known as the “Boiardo Regime” was virtually, and quite literally, a “Family” with a Family.
Although, technically speaking, Richie Boiardo headed but a single regime within the larger Luciano-Genovese Crime Family, his crew was so large that it eclipsed the entire membership ranks of almost every other regime of any Cosa Nostra borgata in the United States. In fact, Boiardo’s crew was so big that it dwarfed that of even full-fledged Mafia Families in both size and influence — especially those Families operating outside the New York-New Jersey Metropolitan area.
Note: Through months of extensive research Button Guys was able to recreate the vast majority of the infamous Boiardo regime. This chart names a total of 392 hoodlums and racketeers of various size and stripe — including crew bosses, 45 soldiers, and a whopping 344 associates — a herculean task to say the least — and features a photo gallery of more than 60 hoodlums.
Despite our best efforts, we have little doubt there are still others missing who have yet to be added to this chart. As Button Guys uncovers more names, we will periodically add them accordingly.
You can read more about his regime below and view this massive, one-of-a-kind chart after the conclusion of this story.
You can also read more about Richie the Boot’s life via our article: Ruggiero (Richie the Boot) Boiardo: The Powerful New Jersey Madman. Or watch our documentary — The Most Treacherous Mobster in Mafia History: New Jersey’s Ruggiero (Richie the Boot) Boiardo — on our official YouTube channel, Mob Fireside Chat.
The Most Corrupt State
For many years, New Jersey had the well-deserved reputation of being the most corrupt state in the nation. Many government officials was often rotten to the core, with local elected politicians lining their own pockets at the expense of their constituents.
