Can anyone tell me about this guy? I've been looking into him lately but haven't found too much. His Wikipedia page says a good amount but not as much as I'm looking for. Thank you.

His father was from Avellino, his mother from Teora, two cities in the Naples region. According to Gyp DeCarlo, Catena was made in around 1946 or 1947. Became a captain around 1951, split Moretti´s old rackets with DeCarlo. Became Vito Genovese´s underboss in 1957. Catena made a ton of money, largely through fully legit companies but was once a prominent bootlegger, partners with Costello, Luciano, Zwillman, Lansky and others. His rapsheet includes robbery, hijacking, bribing a federal juror and suspicion of murder. Very big in the vending machine industry in northern NJ. Catena served an indifinite prison term, starting in 1970 for contempt of court when he refused to answer questions in front of a grand jury, released in 1975 due to illness if memory serves me. Although in semi retirement, Catena may have served as a special counselor at times to the Genovese bosses throughout the 1970s, but was definitely retired when Gigante took over the Family. Lived almost to be a hundred!

Yep, Catena was definitely an underrated power in the underworld, although avoiding headlines probably allowed him to amass his fortune, serve minimal jail time, and retire to Florida.

Someone said he was worth almost 1 billion dollars at the time of his death. Is that true? And he was very respected in NYC and NJ.

Definitely had enough money to set his family up nicely. One of his sons has that car dealing empire in Jersey. Epitome of what a mobster should be.

Catena was a major stockholder of the Bally Manufacturing Company. I think he actually might of financed it when it started up. Bally was or might still be the biggest maker of slot machines, gaming devices and later actual casinos. I think he was forced to sell his stock by the Nevada Gaming Commission.

"Original financing of Bally Manufacturing under its former name was provided by Gerardo "Jerry" Catena, a Cosa Nostra underboss of the New Jersey Genovese Family, who took control for a time when Vito Genovese was incarcerated."

Gyp DeCarlo was heard on a wire tap saying at that time the only gangster who had more money then Catena was Lansky. DeCarlo's office(?) was bugged between 1961 and 1963.

I also think Catena was a major reason Nixon granted DeCarlo a pardon. Though Nixon claimed it was due to DeCarlo's health condition.

Sounds like Catena was making tens of millions of dollars a year. Maybe even hundreds who knows.

It seems like a lot of the big earning gangsters were into a lot of legitimate businesses and made a lot of their money there.