On This Day in 1902 the Genovese Crime Family mobster, Angelo DeCarlo aka Gyp was born. Gyp was probably most notorious because he was the subject of a two-year FBI undercover operation from 1961 until 1963 which would tie Frank Sinatra to the mob, as well as exposing the extent of corruption in New Jersey.

His main activities for the mob were dominating loansharking operations in the New Jersey area, and running his own crew.

He died from cancer in 1973 at the age of 71, and ironically he died 5 days before the deadline to pay $20,000 for a fine from a 1970 conviction.

DeCarlo is portrayed by actor Christopher Walken in the 2014 film Jersey Boys.

Born on this day in 1902, Angelo DeCarlo was one of the most feared and influential figures in the New Jersey underworld, a made man whose long career with the Genovese Crime Family left a lasting mark on organised crime on the East Coast. Better known by his colourful nickname "Gyp," DeCarlo rose through the ranks to become a powerful capo, commanding respect and instilling terror in equal measure across the Garden State's criminal landscape during the mid-twentieth century.

DeCarlo's primary domain was loansharking, an enterprise he dominated with ruthless efficiency throughout northern New Jersey. Running his own crew with an iron fist, he was the kind of mobster who understood that a reputation for violence was as valuable as cash in hand. Recordings made by the FBI would later reveal a man utterly comfortable discussing brutality, manipulation, and corruption as though they were simply the tools of a legitimate trade. His close ties to the Genovese family, one of New York's storied Five Families, gave him both the protection and the authority to operate with considerable freedom for many years.

That freedom came under serious threat when the FBI launched a two-year undercover surveillance operation targeting DeCarlo between 1961 and 1963. The recordings gathered during this operation proved explosive, not merely for what they revealed about DeCarlo himself, but for the wider web of corruption they exposed across New Jersey's political and law enforcement establishment. Perhaps most sensationally, the tapes drew Frank Sinatra's name into the conversation, suggesting a degree of closeness between the legendary entertainer and the mob world that generated enormous public interest and controversy. The operation remains one of the more remarkable intelligence-gathering efforts of the Hoover-era FBI.

DeCarlo was convicted in 1970 and faced a substantial fine of twenty thousand dollars alongside his prison sentence. In a twist of grim irony, he died of cancer on 20th October 1973, just five days before the deadline to pay that fine, escaping his financial debt in the only way fate allowed. He was 71 years old.

His story was brought to a new generation of audiences when actor Christopher Walken portrayed him in the acclaimed 2014 film Jersey Boys, based on the life of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. DeCarlo's legacy endures as a testament to the deep roots organised crime once had in New Jersey, and the extraordinary lengths law enforcement ultimately had to go to in order to expose it.