Arcuri served for a time as acting boss, as well as a valued member of a committee of capos who aided John A. (Junior) Gotti as his father’s hand-picked stand-in. 

In the 1940s and 50s, Arcuri owned a liquor store on the Upper East Side, two blocks north of the five story building where he lived on East 76^th Street, (which he still owned in 2005, according to the most recent real estate records at Gang Land’s fingertips.) Among other family duties, he serviced Anastasia’s needs for bubbly and other spirits, according to 50-year-old NYPD reports acquired by Gang Land. Four times a year, Arcuri sent boxes of booze to Anastasia at his home, or at several Manhattan hotels where he had guest suites. 

When death came to the Executioner in a hotel barbershop on October 25, 1957, Arcuri behaved the same way he would three decades later when his boss of that moment was blown away in a steak house: He kept his head down and tested the prevailing mob winds. Fear and wisdom surely played roles in his decision. But for whatever reasons, he threw in with the new boss without skipping a beat. 

When detectives came calling in 1957 after Anastasia’s murder, they learned nothing of value: that the crime boss’s chauffeur picked up and delivered the liquor that Anastasia purchased, and that Anastasia himself had been to the store once in the last four years. When they noted that Anastasia had called his liquor store 32 times in the four months before his murder, Arcuri recalled that Albert’s son had “made some calls when he was making arrangements to visit” Arcuri’s country house in Lake Hopatcong, N.J. that summer.  

If he wasn’t wealthy then, Arcuri became a very rich man under the reigns of the next two bosses, Carlo Gambino and

Paul Castellano. (right) He earned millions of dollars for the crime family over the next three decades through labor racketeering, according to FBI documents and testimony at proceedings before the Laborers’ International Union of North America.  

Through his control of two little known LIUNA Pavers Unions, Locals 1010 and 1018, Arcuri oversaw bid-rigging schemes involving multi-million dollar blacktop paving contracts throughout the city, according to the testimony. Until their ousters for corrupt actions in recent years, his nephew, Gambino soldier Salvatore Franco, and Franco’s son Anthony – who were each seen accompanying Arcuri on dozens of visits to Gotti during his heyday – were officials of both unions. 

The Victory Star Social Club – a storefront at 311 East 76^th Street, the building where he lived in the 1950s – was Arcuri’s base of operations, according to law enforcement officials. 

During many of those years, Arcuri would often pass FBI agents whose main office was at 69^th Street on their way to lunch, or also to check out the goings on at his club. “He was always a very dignified gentleman, very respectful,” recalled one former G-man.  

Because Arcuri knew and was quick to cite Cosa Nostra protocol, Gotti was often heard referring to him as a “pain in the ass oldtimer.” But the sentiment of the overflow crowd who paid their respects at the Frederick Funeral Home of Flushing last week was that Arcuri was a much-loved man of honor. 

Said noted mob attorney (left) Joseph Corozzo: “He was always the epitome of a gentleman, a class act all the way. I have never heard anyone – from any circle – say a bad thing about him.”

Death also claimed seven other members of the Class of 1991: Joseph (Joe Butch) Corrao, Frank (Frankie Dap) D’Apolito, James (Jimmy Brown) Failla, Natale (Big Chris) Richichi, Ralph (Bones) Mosca, Anthony (Tony C) Carminati and Mario Traina. Only Carminati and Traina avoided prosecution before the Grim Reaper called. 

Four, Gotti’s brother Peter, Robert (Bobby Cabert) Bisaccia, Anthony (Sonny) Ciccone and Louis (Big Lou) Vallario, are in federal prison. Only Ciccone, 73, due to be released in 2015, and Vallario, 66, due out in 2013, have any chance of getting home again. 

Eight others, including Junior Gotti and the family’s current boss, John (Jackie Nose) D’Amico, have served time for various crimes and been released. Pasquale (Patsy) Conte, John Gambino, Thomas Gambino, John (Handsome Jack) Giordano, Daniel Marino and Louis (Braciole) Ricco round out the group that was busted and did their time. 

Judgment still awaits George DeCicco whose trial for racketeering is pending.

It’s easy to fathom how an out-of-towner, or a New Yorker with a casual interest in mob doings, or even a regular Gang Land reader might not know that during the bloody Colombo war, capo Joel (Joe Waverly) Cacace (left) was a member of the rebel faction headed by Victor (Little Vic) Orena. 

Cacace was involved in two blazing gun battles with Gregory Scarpa, the top gun on the side of official boss Carmine (Junior) Persico – and had taken a bullet in the chest in one – but it’s hard sometimes to keep all those nicknames, and Italian-American surnames straight. 

You would think, however, that any mobster who lived through that period, especially a top Administration member of a rival family who was involved in mob efforts to end the raging feud that took 12 lives, would surely know that Cacace wasn’t with the Persico faction. Right?

Wrong. Asked that question repeatedly last week at the racketeering and murder trial of Alphonse (Allie) Persico, turncoat Bonanno underboss Salvatore (Good Looking Sal) Vitale testified that Joe Waverly was on the Persico side during the 1991-1993 war. 

He learned that directly from Joe Waverly during the conflict,

when he met Cacace four or five times, he told Persico attorney Sarita Kedia. 

“Joe Waverly told you that he was on the Persico side,” she asked. 

“Yes,” replied Vitale, (right) adding that Joe Waverly “was always on the Persico side.” 

When assistant U.S. attorney John Buretta got a chance to correct Vitale’s blunder after Kedia sat down, the prosecutor ignored the gaffe, apparently deciding it would have been a futile exercise. 

Buretta’s sole purpose for calling Vitale – to have him tell the jury that Persico had admitted killing William (Wild Bill) Cutolo during a 1999 meeting – didn’t seem to go too well either. 

On that point, Vitale testified: “He said that a person can’t take what’s not his, leading me and (Bonanno boss Joseph) Massino to believe that that’s why they killed him.” 

Maybe, as the old saw goes, you had to be there. But Gang Land would be hard pressed to conclude from that remark – Vitale repeated the exact words a few times (“a person can’t take what’s not his”) – that Persico admitted to Vitale that he whacked Cutolo.