On this day in 1933 the protege of Fat Tony Salerno would be born. Vincent Cafaro was a high-ranking member of the Genovese Crime Family during the 70’s and 80’s.

In 1986 he was indicted with 14 other members of the Mafia for racketeering charges, and whilst serving his time in jail awaiting trial he decided to turn informant. During the next few years he would wear a wire during family sit downs. He would later go on to testify about Genovese family operations and opened up about Tony Salerno being just a figurehead for the actual boss, Vincent Gigante.

By 1987 he no longer wanted to answer questions for fear of a Mafia retaliation on his family. His last act was to testify against Gambino crime boss John Gotti before he went into Witness protection around 1990.

He is now 81 years old.

Born on this day, the 27th of August 1933, Vincent "Fish" Cafaro would grow up to become one of the most consequential figures in the history of American organised crime — not for his criminal exploits alone, but for the remarkable decision he would eventually make to betray the very organisation he had served for decades. A high-ranking member of the Genovese Crime Family, one of New York's notorious Five Families whose roots stretched back to the era of Lucky Luciano, Cafaro's story is one of loyalty, betrayal, and the unravelling of a criminal empire.

Cafaro rose through the ranks of the Genovese family under the wing of Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, one of the most recognisable mob figures of the twentieth century. With his trademark cigars and gruff demeanour, Salerno projected the image of a powerful boss, and Cafaro operated comfortably within his shadow throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s. During this period, the Genovese family remained one of the most powerful and disciplined of the Five Families, maintaining a stranglehold over labour unions, construction rackets, and illegal gambling operations across the north-east.

In 1986, the net finally closed in. Cafaro was indicted alongside fourteen other members of the American Mafia on sweeping racketeering charges. It was whilst awaiting trial in custody that he made the fateful decision to cooperate with federal authorities, agreeing to wear a wire during family meetings. The intelligence he gathered proved invaluable, and his subsequent testimony before the courts was nothing short of explosive. Most significantly, Cafaro pulled back the curtain on one of the Mafia's most closely guarded secrets — that Fat Tony Salerno was merely a front, a carefully maintained illusion designed to shield the true boss of the Genovese family, the enigmatic Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, who famously wandered the streets of Greenwich Village in a dressing gown to feign mental illness.

By 1987, fearful of reprisals against his family, Cafaro grew reluctant to continue cooperating fully with investigators. Nevertheless, he delivered one final act of significance, testifying against Gambino boss John Gotti before entering the federal Witness Protection Programme around 1990. Gotti, known as the "Teflon Don," was a towering figure in the mob world, making Cafaro's willingness to face him in court all the more remarkable.

Cafaro's testimony helped dismantle the carefully constructed mythology surrounding the Genovese leadership and contributed to the sustained federal assault on organised crime that would define the late 1980s and 1990s, leaving the Five Families permanently weakened.