DeCavalcante oversaw illegal gambling, loansharking, and labor racketeering in New Jersey. Living in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, but working out of Newark, DeCavalcante commanded around sixty mafiosi. His legal business front was a plumbing supply store in Kenilworth, New Jersey. After the retirement of family boss Nicholas Delmore (real name Nicholas Amoruso) between 1960 and 1964, DeCavalcante replaced him. Shortly after that, he acted as a liaison between the Mafia Commission and the Bonanno crime family after the beginning of the Bonanno War between the New York Five Families.