On this day in 1941 the mob world would see the birth of a future acting boss of the Colombo Crime Family. Joel Cacace Sr is expected to be behind bars until mid 2020 at least. Cacace is close friends with former acting boss Victor Orena, and it is said that Cacace was the hitman that attempted to kill The Grim Reaper (Greg Scarpa) in 1991 due to his allegiance with the Carmine Perisco factor of the Colombo family.

On this day in 1941, the American underworld gained a future power player with the birth of Joel Cacace Sr., a man who would rise through the brutal ranks of the Colombo Crime Family to become one of its most feared and influential figures. Born into the shadow world of organised crime that had been shaped by the likes of Lucky Luciano and the architects of the Five Families structure, Cacace would carve out a reputation built on loyalty, violence, and an unwavering commitment to the life.

Cacace, known on the streets as "Joe Waverly," climbed steadily through the Colombo organisation, eventually reaching the position of acting boss — a testament to both his longevity and his ability to navigate one of the most turbulent periods in the family's history. His close friendship with Victor Orena, another acting boss of the Colombo family, placed him firmly within a faction that would find itself at the centre of a devastating internal conflict during the early 1990s. The Colombo War, which erupted between supporters of imprisoned boss Carmine Persico and those loyal to Orena, tore the family apart and left bodies scattered across New York.

It was during this bloody civil war that Cacace's name became attached to one of its most audacious episodes. He is widely believed to have been the triggerman in the 1991 attempted assassination of Gregory Scarpa Sr., the notorious FBI informant known throughout the underworld as "The Grim Reaper." Scarpa, a ferocious Persico loyalist who had reportedly killed multiple Orena faction members, was a dangerous target by any measure. The attempt failed, and Scarpa survived to continue his own campaign of violence before eventually succumbing to AIDS-related illness in 1994.

Cacace's criminal career also included a murder-for-hire plot targeting a federal prosecutor — a charge that drew significant attention and ultimately contributed to his lengthy federal sentence. His willingness to sanction such a brazen act illustrated both his ruthlessness and the desperate lengths to which mob leadership would go when feeling the pressure of law enforcement.

Joel Cacace's story stands as a vivid illustration of the chaos and self-destruction that defined the Colombo family during its most fractious decades. His legacy is one of a capable and dangerous mob figure consumed by the very internal warfare that his world both created and could never fully escape.