After reputed captain John "Johnny Boy" D'Amato stepped up as acting boss for Riggi in 1991, Amari developed a great partnership with reputed consigliereStefano "Steve the Truck Driver" Vitabile, who was also one of the most powerful figures in the DeCavalcante crime family at the time. After longtime official underboss Louis LaRasso disappeared in the summer of 1991, Amari was reportedly promoted to LaRasso's position and fully in charge of all labor and construction racketeering operations, as well as AMI Construction, from Elizabeth, New Jersey.
Promotion
While serving as a "consultant" for Local 394 in the "International Association of Laborers and Hod Carriers", Amari would soon be promoted again, as then-current acting boss John D'Amato was recruited by Gambino crime family boss John Gotti into take over the DeCavalcante crime family, and put Riggi aside. However, after an alleged fight with his girlfriend, rumors started going around that D'Amato was homosexual, and as Anthony Capo heard this, he shared it with current administration members Amari and Stefano Vitabile, who quickly acted on prior knowledge and decided to have D'Amato murdered while informing the incarcerated Riggi. In 1992, D'Amato was shot to death in his car, as Amari believed it would have been an embarrassment if a homosexual represented their family in Cosa Nostra. His body was never recovered. It was around this time that Amari was promoted within the organization and placed as acting boss of the DeCavalcante crime family in 1992.
During the mid-1990s, Amari and Vitabile, now the most powerful members of the family, were present in a sitdown with representatives of the Gambino and Colombo crime families in New York City, as the DeCavalcante crime family had been recruiting reputed Mafia associates Louis "Louie Eggs" Consalvo and Gregory Rago, who together operated a social club on Mott Street and held criminal interests in New York City. The only problem was that, since these two mobsters were based in New York, their profit and activities should have gone to one of the Five Families, in this instance, either the Gambino crime family or the Colombo crime family. Reputed Gambino family captain Nicholas "Little Nick" Corozzo and Colombo family consigliere Vincenzo "Vinny" Aloi were present during the sitdown. The conflict was eventually resolved peacefully when it was ruled the DeCavalcante crime family could no longer 'make' members outside of New Jersey and South Philadelphia, which was another area that the DeCavalcantes had traditionally recruited from.
Death
In 1995, it was reported that Amari was diagnosed with stomach cancer, and could no longer run the family as much as he could before. It was around this time that prominent family capos Vincent Palermo, Girolamo "Jimmy" Palermo and Charles "Big Ears" Majuri were promoted into the family Ruling Panel as Street bosses in aide to Amari, who slowly began to die. Jake Amari, the most powerful member of the DeCavalcante crime family at the time, died of stomach cancer in 1997.
Aftermath
However, after Amari's sudden death, there were three faction leaders who were eager to gain control of the DeCavalcante crime family, as a massive power vacuum was being developed into the crime family. Two attempts on the lives of both Vince Palermo and Charles Majuri were conspired and hatched by one and another, but none of the assassination plots succeeded. The Ruling Panel kept controlling the DeCavalcante family throughout the 1990s as massive indictments were mounted. These indictments eventually led to Vince Palermo and captain Anthony Rotondo becoming state's evidence.
Popular culture
A strong resemblance suggests that the fictional character Giacomo "Jackie" Aprile, Sr. of the HBO hit-series The Sopranos, was loosely based on Amari. They both become acting boss of the New Jersey crime family, only to die of cancer and spark a massive power vacuum between rival factions within their crime families.
