by PolackTony » Sat Jan 14, 2023 9:27 am
chin_gigante wrote: ↑Sat Jan 14, 2023 2:58 am
PolackTony wrote: ↑Fri Jan 13, 2023 6:56 pm
Struck that Fino claimed that Chicago had operations in “part of Canada”. Chicago had links to the Giuseppe Cotroni in the ‘50s, but I’m not aware of Chicago itself having any direct interests in Canada. Did Fino give any further detail there?
The full quote is as follows:
Since becoming the business manager of Local 210, and as one of the trustees for the Laborers International Union Training Fund, I came to know many a mobster and union leader in the Windy City. The mob in Chicago possessed a widespread reach in the geographical area covering parts of California (open territory, any family could operate provided it was not stepping on the toes of another family), Nevada, Colorado, Texas, part of Canada and so on. The Laborers' Union, as well as the Teamsters, Painters, Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union, and Maritime Trades Department of the AFL-CIO were the unions that were almost totally mob dominated.
Some of the Chicago guys Fino mentions meeting at different parts of the book include Aiuppa, Accardo, Solano, Sam Carlisi, and John Serpico. His meetings with Accardo, Solano, and Serpico were about the LIUNA, though he singles Serpico out as being very talkative about the Chicago family's history (though unfortunately he doesn't include any of those stories). Associate Nick DiMaggio (nephew of the Carlisis) was with Buffalo until legal trouble in the mid-1980s prompted him to move back to Chicago to be around Sam Carlisi.
The Buffalo members he describes as being the most open with him in discussions about cosa nostra were obviously his father, Salvatore Pieri (who once wanted to straighten him out), and Todaro Sr (who got on well with Ronald Fino despite not getting on with his father). His father once told him for instance that Roy Carlisi was the "youngest member of the Al Capone outfit" before moving to western New York.
In 1977, Fino also by sheer fluke obtained an FBI report from a homeless man who stole it and was looking to trade it for a union job. He tipped off the FBI to come and get it but saw the report listed his father and Steve Cannarozzo as informants. He wasn't surprised that his father was there due to his disilusionment with cosa nostra, but was surprised to see Cannarozzo listed.
I need to check out the Fino book myself.
Tangential, but interesting that Serpico was apparently so knowledgeable. While Serpico was notoriously corrupt and mobbed up, nothing has ever come out to suggest that he was a member (though perhaps him being so talkative was because he wasn’t made). His family, however, was from Acerra, Napoli, an important town in the history of the Chicago Family, so who knows what he heard. I remember that for about 20 years, when one entered the city via the Chicago Skyway from Indiana and passed the Port of Chicago on Lake Calumet, there was a huge billboard proclaiming that John Serpico ran the port. For many, this billboard would have been their first introduction to Chicago. He was Chairman of the International Port District until he got pinched for fraud and money laundering in 1999 with his “comare” and fellow union official Maria Busillo (an immigrant from Salerno), at which point they took his name off the sign.
[quote=chin_gigante post_id=248461 time=1673690312 user_id=5708]
[quote=PolackTony post_id=248430 time=1673661361 user_id=6658]
Struck that Fino claimed that Chicago had operations in “part of Canada”. Chicago had links to the Giuseppe Cotroni in the ‘50s, but I’m not aware of Chicago itself having any direct interests in Canada. Did Fino give any further detail there?
[/quote]
The full quote is as follows:
[quote]Since becoming the business manager of Local 210, and as one of the trustees for the Laborers International Union Training Fund, I came to know many a mobster and union leader in the Windy City. The mob in Chicago possessed a widespread reach in the geographical area covering parts of California (open territory, any family could operate provided it was not stepping on the toes of another family), Nevada, Colorado, Texas, part of Canada and so on. The Laborers' Union, as well as the Teamsters, Painters, Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union, and Maritime Trades Department of the AFL-CIO were the unions that were almost totally mob dominated.[/quote]
Some of the Chicago guys Fino mentions meeting at different parts of the book include Aiuppa, Accardo, Solano, Sam Carlisi, and John Serpico. His meetings with Accardo, Solano, and Serpico were about the LIUNA, though he singles Serpico out as being very talkative about the Chicago family's history (though unfortunately he doesn't include any of those stories). Associate Nick DiMaggio (nephew of the Carlisis) was with Buffalo until legal trouble in the mid-1980s prompted him to move back to Chicago to be around Sam Carlisi.
The Buffalo members he describes as being the most open with him in discussions about cosa nostra were obviously his father, Salvatore Pieri (who once wanted to straighten him out), and Todaro Sr (who got on well with Ronald Fino despite not getting on with his father). His father once told him for instance that Roy Carlisi was the "youngest member of the Al Capone outfit" before moving to western New York.
In 1977, Fino also by sheer fluke obtained an FBI report from a homeless man who stole it and was looking to trade it for a union job. He tipped off the FBI to come and get it but saw the report listed his father and Steve Cannarozzo as informants. He wasn't surprised that his father was there due to his disilusionment with cosa nostra, but was surprised to see Cannarozzo listed.
[/quote]
I need to check out the Fino book myself.
Tangential, but interesting that Serpico was apparently so knowledgeable. While Serpico was notoriously corrupt and mobbed up, nothing has ever come out to suggest that he was a member (though perhaps him being so talkative was because he wasn’t made). His family, however, was from Acerra, Napoli, an important town in the history of the Chicago Family, so who knows what he heard. I remember that for about 20 years, when one entered the city via the Chicago Skyway from Indiana and passed the Port of Chicago on Lake Calumet, there was a huge billboard proclaiming that John Serpico ran the port. For many, this billboard would have been their first introduction to Chicago. He was Chairman of the International Port District until he got pinched for fraud and money laundering in 1999 with his “comare” and fellow union official Maria Busillo (an immigrant from Salerno), at which point they took his name off the sign.