Richard “Shellackhead” Cantarella, a former capo for the infamous Bonanno crime family, has come out of hiding to star in his very own reality TV show.
There’s been a number of popular shows featuring friends of friends and family members connected to the mafia, Mob Wives comes to mind, but Unprotected removes all degrees of separation as it centers around one of the most high-profile government witnesses in the history of organized crime in America.
In the press release for the show premiering on April 11, Oxygen details how it will be a “quirky” docu-comedy that examines the Cantarella family as they try to adjust to life in the Arizona suburbs:
“Now out of the program and raising two teenagers in Scottsdale, Arizona, viewers will get an up-close and amusing glimpse into the lives of this New York family as they adapt to their unfamiliar suburban surroundings, try to shred old habits and stay true to themselves.”
A little digging into Cantarella’s history reveals a man with an extremely violent past whose testimony is largely responsible for the dismantling of the Bonanno crime family.
The New York Daily News reports that Richard Cantarella was arrested in October of 2002 by the FBI at his Staten Island home. Cantarella remained loyal for a time, but eventually decided to cooperate with authorities after his wife, Lauretta Castelli, was leaned on following money laundering charges.
Cantarella faced life in prison for his involvement in three mafia hits:
Cantarella had killed men suspected of being rats, including Enrico Mazzeo, a corrupt deputy commissioner of the city Marine and Aviation Department who had awarded no-bid newsstand concessions to the Bonannos at the Staten Island ferry terminals.
According to a report in the New York Post, Cantarella shot Mazzeo in the head. The pair were involved in a lengthy friendship and a number of scams together before Cantarella became concerned that Mazzeo might flip.
In 1982 Cantarella kept watch and drove the getaway car as fellow family member Joseph D’Amico shot cousin Anthony Mirra in the head. Joseph Massino put out a contract for Mirra because he was responsible for introducing undercover officer Joe Pistone to the family. Pistone’s story was later made famous in the film Donnie Brasco.
Cantarella, Castelli and his son Paul Cantarella, who had become a wiseguy in 1995 after being introduced to the life by his notorious father, all agreed to cooperate in the cases against Joseph Massino and his successor Vincent “Vinny Gorgeous” Basciano.
The Cantarella family then disappeared into the Witness Protection Program until they surfaced again in 2013 for sentencing. The presiding judge made it clear that their deeds had been paramount in the government’s case against what was the most powerful organized crime family in New York City.
“It is not hyperbole to say that this historic and epic cooperation led to the decimation of the Bonanno family,” Judge Garaufis said.
Each were set free that day and went back into hiding until now, to surprisingly detail their lives for all to see on cable television.
The family owns Classic Car Wash in Phoenix and Classic Auto Car Wash in Sun City West.
Unprotected features Richard and Lauretta, daughter Tracey Accardo, son Paul and his wife Kim and their two kids, Toni Ann and Richie.
