GR EXCLUSIVE: Turncoat New Jersey Mafia Capo Anthony Rotondo Dies Down South In Witness Protection Program At Age 67
March 11, 2025 — Living out the final two and a half decades of his life under an assumed identity in the Witness Protection Program, former DeCalvacante crime family skipper Anthony Rotondo passed away this week in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. He was 67 years old and went by Anthony Russo in his latter days away from the mafia.
According to federal court records, Rotondo was “made” into the DeCalvacante mob in a 1982 ceremony and would be promoted to capo status upon his dad getting whacked six years later. His father, Vincent (Jimmy the Gent) Rotondo, was a captain in the DeCalvacante clan who was slain in January 1988 outside his home in Brooklyn’s Bergen Beach neighborhood. “Jimmy the Gent” had been the New Jersey mafia’s point man in New York City, head of waterfront labor union affairs and a liaison for DeCalvacante leadership to communicate with the Five Families.
The younger Rotondo blamed the Gambino mob in NYC for pushing for his dad’s murder due to him becoming too powerful and copped to participating in a trio of gangland homicide conspiracies himself; the 1989 killings of LCN associates Freddy Weiss and Joey Garafano and the 1992 mob execution of New Jersey mafia acting boss John (Johnny Boy) D’Mato. Indicted in December 1999 along with a majority of the top tier of the DeCalvacante organization, Rotondo eventually flipped and testified at the trials of DeCalvacante mob shot callers Girolamo (Jimmy Dumps) Palermo, Stefano (Stevie the Truck Driver) Vitabile, Phil (The Wizard) Abramo and Giuseppe (Pino) Schifilliti and Gambino mob dons John (Junior) Gotti and Peter (Petey One Eye) Gotti, respectively.
