Nicholas James Maschuci, 60, walked out of his Hamilton Avenue home in Kearny around 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 18, 1974, and told his family he had a business meeting to attend in Brooklyn. He never showed up at the Arlington Diner in Kearny, where he had promised to meet his son later that night, and by 2 a.m. his son was on the phone with police reporting him missing. Fifty-two years later, Kearny detectives have reopened the cold case, betting that someone still alive today remembers a detail that could finally explain what happened to him.
Maschuci had borrowed a white 1974 Mercury Grand Marquis from a Union City auto dealership before he vanished, according to Kearny Life. New York City police later recovered that car stripped, its trunk forced open, near East 28th Street in Manhattan, per a 1975 FBI memorandum the outlet reviewed. No body was ever found, and no one has been charged in connection with his disappearance.
A Meeting With a Genovese Caporegime
In an interview with CBS News New York, Maschuci's daughter said her father left for a meeting in New York City that day and simply never came home.
Historical FBI documents reported by the outlet indicate Maschuci was actually traveling to meet James "Jimmy Nap" Napoli, a Genovese crime family caporegime who ran an illegal gambling and numbers operation out of Brooklyn that reportedly grossed more than $150 million a year in the 1970s. Napoli was later convicted on federal gambling charges in 1978, according to Wikipedia's account of his career.
Decades of Alleged Bookmaking in Jersey City
Historical FBI reports and 1940s Hudson County prosecutor records had previously identified Maschuci and his brothers as "the royal family of numbers in Jersey City," alleging he ran one of the region's largest illegal bookmaking operations, the outlet's report notes. He is said to have operated local storefronts and gambling rackets in the area for decades before his disappearance, per the same account.
Sgt. John Fabula of the Kearny Police Department Detective Bureau formally reopened the investigation last month, saying detectives believe people alive today may hold conversations or memories from 1974 that could finally resolve the mystery, according to Hudson County View.
Physical Clues Investigators Hope Someone Recalls
Federal records filed under case MP9701 with NamUs, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, describe Maschuci as 5-foot-8 to 5-foot-9 and about 210 pounds, with an artificial right eye, gray balding hair, blue eyes and gold-rimmed bifocal glasses. He also had clear nail polish and crossed pinky toes on both feet, and went by the street alias "Nicky Gary," the database notes.
The same file, cross-referenced by the Charley Project, lists what Maschuci was wearing when he disappeared: a 4-carat diamond pinky ring with side diamonds, a white gold watch, a silver Blessed Mother pendant, white half-patent leather boots and a ribbed white shirt with a gold zipper. That jewelry remains officially cataloged in his missing person file to this day.
A Daughter's Long Fight for Cold-Case Reform
Maschuci's daughter, who has recalled her father kissing her three times before he left home that day, has spent years advocating for missing persons reform and federal legislation meant to strengthen cold-case investigations, according to Newark News Today. Relatives have kept up search efforts for more than five decades, per the same report.
New Jersey's Mounting Backlog of Missing Persons Cases
Maschuci's case is one of roughly 1,000 unsolved missing persons cases in New Jersey, which ranks among the top states nationally for unresolved cases and maintains more than 400 unidentified remains files, according to NamUs data. More than 600,000 missing person reports are filed nationwide each year, the federal database shows.
Tips Sought From Anyone Who Remembers
Police are asking anyone with information to contact the Kearny Police Department confidentially, by calling 201-283-5656 or emailing [email protected], according to Daily Voice. Investigators have stressed that no detail from 1974 is considered too small to review.
