by PolackTony » Sun Apr 13, 2025 1:58 pm
PolackTony wrote: ↑Wed Oct 19, 2022 12:58 am
In April 1928, Cook County fire inspector Ben Newmark, who had previously been Chief Investigator under mafia-connected Cook County States Attorney Robert Crowe (discussed several times in the Toto LoVerde thread) was shot to death. Based in initial intel, CPD detectives raided the Little Sicily grocery store of Giuseppe Nicolosi, where they arrested Antonino Ferrara, of Corleone. Detectives also questioned Antonino’s father Arcangelo Ferrara and Nicolosi, described as the younger man’s “uncle” (I believe that Arcangelo’s wife Maria Colletti was a cousin of the Nicolosis on their mother’s side, the Sapataforas; when Arcangelo arrived in Chicago in 1905, he listed the Nicolosi brothers as his contacts). None of the men were charged for the crime; as with almost all other underworld murders in Chicago, police were stymied by a lack of witnesses. Another suspect was Santo “Sam” Gemelli, born in 1882 in Messina, who had arrived in Chicago from New Orleans (it should be noted that already back in Sicily, one of Gemelli’s brothers had married a Tornabene from Lascari, and there were a number of Tornabenes from Lascari connected to the mafia in Chicago). Gemelli (given as “Jamalli” in the press, though I doubt that he was Muslim) had only been released from a stint in Leavenworth on counterfeiting charges two weeks before the Newmark murder, and Newmark had been charged in the same counterfeiting operation. In 1924, Newmark was busted along with several Italians including Gemelli and Antonio “Mops” Volpe in a huge $1,000,000 counterfeit war stamp ring in Chicago. Newmark had successfully gotten himself acquitted under a separate trial while the Italians were convicted and rumor had it that Newmark had co-operated with the authorities; thus, CPD believed that he had been killed in retribution, though they also noted that Newmark had numerous connections to gangsters and criminal rackets. Sam Gemelli was also never charged due to lack of evidence, and in later years moved to St Joseph County, MI, where he resumed a construction contracting business that he had started in Chicago in the 1910s.
As noted above, Benjamin Newmark was closely tied to Cook County States Attorney Robert Crowe, a man who made no attempt to hide his open support from and social connections with leading Chicago mafiosi such as the Gennas.
In this light, it’s interesting to note that Newmark was also the brother-in-law of attorney Stefano Malato, a very prominent and influential social and political leader in Chicago’s early 20th century Sicilian/Italian community, as a leader of the Unione Siciliana, Trinacria Fratellanza, and Società Croce Bianca di Termini Imerese. I’ve discussed Malato a number of times previously, as I very much suspect that he may well have been a mafia member himself. Malato, a native of Termini Imerese (where the mafia was deeply embedded in local patronage politics in the same way that it would become in Chicago), was the former 17th Ward Alderman (the Grand Ave neighborhood) and disgraced assistant Cook County States Attorney, forced to step down after a public scandal erupted when he was accused of using investigators to torture witnesses in order to secure the acquittal of a Sicilian murder suspect. Despite this checkered past (or, more likely, because of it lol), Malato was subsequently appointed Special Investigator under SA Crowe, a role that would have been of obvious utility to Malato’s buddies, including Chicago boss Tony D’Andrea.
In 1907, Malato had married Dora Newmark, Benjamin Newmark’s sister — it seems clear that Malato was Ben Newmark’s clout with Robert Crowe and the Cook County political apparatus. In 1926, Malato divorced Dora and subsequently remarried Frances Prignano, a sister of Taylor St Alderman and mob associate Albert Prignano (Prignano — personally associated with mafiosi like “Jack McGurn” Gibaldi and Tony Volpe, was of course murdered in a mob hit in 1935. As I’ve discussed before, Santo Virruso was the suspected shooter in that assassination and the murder conspiracy also pointed to Vincenzo and Ciro Cutaia, worth noting here given B’s recent post on the old ties better the Cutaias and Giuseppe Carlisi’s former brother-in-law). If Malato had been Newmark’s clout, then presumably that tie was severed in 1926, which may be relevant given that Neemark was then murdered in 1928.
From a previous discussion of Malato on the Totò LoVerde thread, just as a reminder:
PolackTony wrote: ↑Thu Sep 29, 2022 2:36 pm
Another name in this pro-Crowe “club” [the Italian Club formed to re-elect Crowe as SA in the 1920s] was Stefano “Stephen” Malato, a longtime and highly prominent Chicago attorney and politician from Tèrmini Imerese. Malato hasn’t really gotten his due inspection to date, but he was almost certainly closely connected to the mafia if not a member himself. Malato, said to have a university degree in linguistics from Italy (Tony D’Andrea was a prominent language teacher in Chicago), was involved in Chicago politics as early as 1893, when he became IL State Rep. in 1911, he became Assistant Cook County States Attorney; he had also been the attorney for and a founder of the White Hand Society, organized by prominent Italians to combat “black hand” extortionists (but very likely controlled by the mafia itself, which I suspect may have weaponized the organization to control independent extortionists). In 1914, there was a scandal where Malato was accused of improper conduct for allegedly roughing up witnesses in a case to secure the acquittal of a Pietro Saitta (likely from Piana dei Greci) on a murder charge. It seems that Malato then left the SA’s office and became Alderman for the 17th Ward (Grand Ave). In 1900, Malato lived by the intersection of Grand, Halsted, and Milwaukee (the photo in my avatar, BTW). That same year, Giuseppe Morici, who may have been an early leader of the Chicago mafia, was based at the same intersection at a tavern owned by him and his brothers; the Moricis were also from Tèrmini. Early Chicago mafioso Pasquale “Charles Calta” Caltabellota, of neighboring Trabìa, was based there as well, operating a barber shop on Grand Ave; Caltabellota was a close associate of Tony D’Andrea. Malato went on to marry a Prignano woman from Ricigliano, Salerno, who was a relative of notoriously mobbed-up politician Daniel Serritella. With Malatao, we’re likely seeing one of the primary actors involved in the interpenetration of mafia power with official politics in Chicago. It should be clear that this process was already underway very early on. One imagines that a guy like Malato was quite familiar with the figure of Raffaele Palizzolo, a notorious mafioso-politician in the late 19th century from Malato’s hometown of Tèrmini Imerese. Transplanting the mafia from Tèrmini, where mafia involvement with political patronage networks was already developed and sophisticated, to a floridly corrupt city like Chicago had predictable results, as we know well from the following decades.
[quote=PolackTony post_id=241488 time=1666166334 user_id=6658]
In April 1928, Cook County fire inspector Ben Newmark, who had previously been Chief Investigator under mafia-connected Cook County States Attorney Robert Crowe (discussed several times in the Toto LoVerde thread) was shot to death. Based in initial intel, CPD detectives raided the Little Sicily grocery store of Giuseppe Nicolosi, where they arrested Antonino Ferrara, of Corleone. Detectives also questioned Antonino’s father Arcangelo Ferrara and Nicolosi, described as the younger man’s “uncle” (I believe that Arcangelo’s wife Maria Colletti was a cousin of the Nicolosis on their mother’s side, the Sapataforas; when Arcangelo arrived in Chicago in 1905, he listed the Nicolosi brothers as his contacts). None of the men were charged for the crime; as with almost all other underworld murders in Chicago, police were stymied by a lack of witnesses. Another suspect was Santo “Sam” Gemelli, born in 1882 in Messina, who had arrived in Chicago from New Orleans (it should be noted that already back in Sicily, one of Gemelli’s brothers had married a Tornabene from Lascari, and there were a number of Tornabenes from Lascari connected to the mafia in Chicago). Gemelli (given as “Jamalli” in the press, though I doubt that he was Muslim) had only been released from a stint in Leavenworth on counterfeiting charges two weeks before the Newmark murder, and Newmark had been charged in the same counterfeiting operation. In 1924, Newmark was busted along with several Italians including Gemelli and Antonio “Mops” Volpe in a huge $1,000,000 counterfeit war stamp ring in Chicago. Newmark had successfully gotten himself acquitted under a separate trial while the Italians were convicted and rumor had it that Newmark had co-operated with the authorities; thus, CPD believed that he had been killed in retribution, though they also noted that Newmark had numerous connections to gangsters and criminal rackets. Sam Gemelli was also never charged due to lack of evidence, and in later years moved to St Joseph County, MI, where he resumed a construction contracting business that he had started in Chicago in the 1910s.
[/quote]
As noted above, Benjamin Newmark was closely tied to Cook County States Attorney Robert Crowe, a man who made no attempt to hide his open support from and social connections with leading Chicago mafiosi such as the Gennas.
In this light, it’s interesting to note that Newmark was also the brother-in-law of attorney Stefano Malato, a very prominent and influential social and political leader in Chicago’s early 20th century Sicilian/Italian community, as a leader of the Unione Siciliana, Trinacria Fratellanza, and Società Croce Bianca di Termini Imerese. I’ve discussed Malato a number of times previously, as I very much suspect that he may well have been a mafia member himself. Malato, a native of Termini Imerese (where the mafia was deeply embedded in local patronage politics in the same way that it would become in Chicago), was the former 17th Ward Alderman (the Grand Ave neighborhood) and disgraced assistant Cook County States Attorney, forced to step down after a public scandal erupted when he was accused of using investigators to torture witnesses in order to secure the acquittal of a Sicilian murder suspect. Despite this checkered past (or, more likely, because of it lol), Malato was subsequently appointed Special Investigator under SA Crowe, a role that would have been of obvious utility to Malato’s buddies, including Chicago boss Tony D’Andrea.
In 1907, Malato had married Dora Newmark, Benjamin Newmark’s sister — it seems clear that Malato was Ben Newmark’s clout with Robert Crowe and the Cook County political apparatus. In 1926, Malato divorced Dora and subsequently remarried Frances Prignano, a sister of Taylor St Alderman and mob associate Albert Prignano (Prignano — personally associated with mafiosi like “Jack McGurn” Gibaldi and Tony Volpe, was of course murdered in a mob hit in 1935. As I’ve discussed before, Santo Virruso was the suspected shooter in that assassination and the murder conspiracy also pointed to Vincenzo and Ciro Cutaia, worth noting here given B’s recent post on the old ties better the Cutaias and Giuseppe Carlisi’s former brother-in-law). If Malato had been Newmark’s clout, then presumably that tie was severed in 1926, which may be relevant given that Neemark was then murdered in 1928.
From a previous discussion of Malato on the Totò LoVerde thread, just as a reminder:
[quote=PolackTony post_id=239875 time=1664487372 user_id=6658]
Another name in this pro-Crowe “club” [the Italian Club formed to re-elect Crowe as SA in the 1920s] was Stefano “Stephen” Malato, a longtime and highly prominent Chicago attorney and politician from Tèrmini Imerese. Malato hasn’t really gotten his due inspection to date, but he was almost certainly closely connected to the mafia if not a member himself. Malato, said to have a university degree in linguistics from Italy (Tony D’Andrea was a prominent language teacher in Chicago), was involved in Chicago politics as early as 1893, when he became IL State Rep. in 1911, he became Assistant Cook County States Attorney; he had also been the attorney for and a founder of the White Hand Society, organized by prominent Italians to combat “black hand” extortionists (but very likely controlled by the mafia itself, which I suspect may have weaponized the organization to control independent extortionists). In 1914, there was a scandal where Malato was accused of improper conduct for allegedly roughing up witnesses in a case to secure the acquittal of a Pietro Saitta (likely from Piana dei Greci) on a murder charge. It seems that Malato then left the SA’s office and became Alderman for the 17th Ward (Grand Ave). In 1900, Malato lived by the intersection of Grand, Halsted, and Milwaukee (the photo in my avatar, BTW). That same year, Giuseppe Morici, who may have been an early leader of the Chicago mafia, was based at the same intersection at a tavern owned by him and his brothers; the Moricis were also from Tèrmini. Early Chicago mafioso Pasquale “Charles Calta” Caltabellota, of neighboring Trabìa, was based there as well, operating a barber shop on Grand Ave; Caltabellota was a close associate of Tony D’Andrea. Malato went on to marry a Prignano woman from Ricigliano, Salerno, who was a relative of notoriously mobbed-up politician Daniel Serritella. With Malatao, we’re likely seeing one of the primary actors involved in the interpenetration of mafia power with official politics in Chicago. It should be clear that this process was already underway very early on. One imagines that a guy like Malato was quite familiar with the figure of Raffaele Palizzolo, a notorious mafioso-politician in the late 19th century from Malato’s hometown of Tèrmini Imerese. Transplanting the mafia from Tèrmini, where mafia involvement with political patronage networks was already developed and sophisticated, to a floridly corrupt city like Chicago had predictable results, as we know well from the following decades.
[/quote]