Organized Crime Figure. Known as “Sam the Plumber,” he was the boss of the Mafia’s New Jersey based DeCavalcante Family (which is named after him) from the 1960s until the mid 1970s. In 1961, the FBI planted a listening device in the office of his plumbing company, and recorded him discussing criminal activities with other Mafia members and with politicians until they removed the device in 1965. In 1969, Two-thousand pages of the “DeCavalcante Tapes” were made public but were never used against DeCavalcante because the FBI had never obtained a court order to plant the listening device. Decalvacante was convicted of another crime that same year and served three years in prison. He retired to Florida in 1976 and died there of natural causes at age 84.