by PolackTony » Tue Jun 25, 2024 12:29 pm
NorthBuffalo wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2024 6:34 pm
Great information on Martin Accardo Polack - Thank you. Here is what I found on Mary Farrell that confirms he owned JP Graziano Grocery and several other meat distributors in Fulton Market - not sure if this link works or not but it can be found by searching his name. Its quite interesting Martin Accardo did prison time and you wonder if he had a cake walk in there given his brother. He sounds like a bonified gangster himself - a bit more rough around the edges even and definitely low-key. Was he a secret advisor to his brother perhaps? Its interesting we see so many pics of Accardo with Outfit guys and never one with his brother.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... Accardo%22
Great find and good info here. Vincenzo Graziano I believe was also very active in the San Giuseppe di Bagheria Society for many years, and the President of that Society for some time was Chicago LCN member "Little Joe" Aiello. Vincenzo Graziano I believe was also very active in the San Giuseppe di Bagheria Society for many years, and the President of that Society for some time was Chicago LCN member "Little Joe" Aiello. One would also imagine that he had some relationship to Chicago LCN member Sam Aiello as well. That Martin Accardo was the "real" operator of Graziano's makes it seem very likely that the claims that Martin Accardo was also closely tied to Vincent Lima are also true. Vincenzo Graziano got his start in the grocery business via his in-laws, but it would seem that after they were slain he wound up being backed by the Accardos later in his own business (again, seems not at all coincidental that the first location of his store was on the same block of Grand Ave where the Accardos had lived). Recall also that Tony Accardo was very close personally to several successful Grand Ave Sicilian businessmen himself, such as grocer Rosario Marino and wine producer/importer Antonino Paternò, who founded Armanetti liquors (Italian LE was actively investigating Paternò's ties to the Sicilian mafia related to his Italian wine holdings in the 1960s-70s).
---------------------
The entire report that you shared is a very interesting read. It was a 1963 statement that a guy named Frank Marco DiLeonardi gave to the FBI about how his attempt at starting a restaurant, LaBella Villa, in Melrose Park in 1957 fell victim to a "web" of outfit-connected business interests that quickly engulfed and strangled him. DiLeonardi was set to buy an existing liquor license for the address from the building's owner, but then a week before the restaurant opened, an irate Frank Cerone showed up claiming that the liquor license belonged to someone else and directing DiLeonardi to consult Melrose Park realtor Joe Cullotta (a close associate of Joe Imburgio Bulger and a possible relative of Frank Culotta's father Joseph Culotta, as both families were from Cefalù). Cullotta told DiLeonardi that another liquor license could be purchased instead, for a jacked-up price, naturally. DiLeonardi said that he couldn't afford the new price and refused. He said that he was then "summoned" to meet with Rocco DeGrazia at DeGrazia's Melrose Park gambling establishment, the Casa Madrid, where DeGrazia was able to arrange a license for DiLeonardi.
A week after LaBella Villa opened, Jack Cerone (who DiLeonardi said introduced himself as a "beer salesman and golfer" lol), showed up and demanded a private room for an all-night party, accompanied by Tony and Martin Accardo, Phil Alderisio, Phil Mesi, Jimmy Cerone, and "some women". The next day, Jack Cerone contacted DiLeonardi and instructed him that he was to start selling Fox Head 400 brand beer supplied by Dominic Volpe's Premium Beer Sales. DiLeonardi protested that he wished to serve his customers whatever beer they requested, but was told to carry the beer anyway. The next day, a shipment of Fox Head 400 arrived at LaBella Villa. DiLeonardi contacted the distributor, West Town Distributing, and complained that he had never ordered the product, but was told to keep it and then call back when he needed to replenish it. DiLeonardi stated that thereafter, Jack Cerone and Tony Accardo would regularly stop in at the restaurant to ask him about his beer sales. DiLeonardi was also contacted by August "Red" Passarella, another close associate of Tony Accardo, who started "suggesting" which brand of Scotch DiLeonardi should serve.
Other services were foisted upon DiLeonardi in a similar fashion. A week after opening, Frank Cerone stopped in and told DiLeonardi that a better sign would help his business -- soon after, Jimmy Cerone, a salesman for the Rite-Lite Neon Sign Company, contacted DiLeonardi and informed him that he already had a new sign designed for LaBella Villa and quoted DiLeonardi an "extremely high" price. When DiLeonardi refused, Jimmy Cerone then tried to convince him to pay on the installment plan, which DiLeonardi also refused. Mike Russo started showing up telling DiLeonardi that his driveway and parking lot needed to be resurfaced and that he should use Russo's construction business for the work. LaBella Villa's deserts were supplied by Frank Messessa's Candy Kitchen Ice Cream Company, while DiLeonardi was pressured to use Martin Accardo's J.P. Graziano for meat and Dick Tranchina at the Chicago Produce Company for produce. Over the first year of business, Jack and Jimmy Cerone began holding increasingly lavish, expensive, and long lasting private parties regularly at LaBella Villa, which had the effect of heavily stressing the small business's staff and supplies and driving away much of DiLeonardi's non-mob-connected customers, to the point that the restaurant soon became dependant on an outfit clientele for its business. Then, the Cerones suddenly quit holding parties at the establishment, leaving the restaurant with almost no income and forcing DiLeonardi to approach Frank Cerone for a small loan to keep the business operating. Cerone agreed, but also stipulated that DiLeonardi would have to start using jukeboxes supplied by Julius Zimberoff at Apex Amusement Company, with 50% of the jukebox revenue going to Zimberoff and the other 50% going to pay off the loan. Soon, DiLeonardi was awash in debt and with creditors on his heels tried to secure another loan from Frank Cerone, who refused on the grounds that DiLeonardi hadn't paid off the principal on the first loan yet. DiLeonardi was soon contacted by Melrose Park Attorney Steve Anselmo and dessert supplier Frank Messessa, who then brought DiLeoanardi to meet Peter Giachini, President and Chairman of the Maywood Proviso State Bank, who floated DiLeonardi a $2000 loan on condition that the business account for LaBella Villa be transferred to the bank.
DiLeonardi began scrutinizing his invoices and realized that he was being overcharged for desserts by Frank Messessa, who when confronted replied "I did you a favor, now you do a favor for me". DiLeonardi contacted several other Italian ice cream manufacturers, but they all refused to do business with him once he admitted that he was being supplied by Messessa. He was similarly roundly rejected by alternate "legitimate" (i.e., non-outfit-controlled) meat, produce, linen, and construction companies when he attempted to request their business after it became clear that the suppliers initially foisted upon him were routinely overcharging him and providing inferior products and services. By early 1958, LaBella Villa went under, leaving DiLeonardi unemployed and responsible to creditors.
Soon, Jimmy Cerone offered DiLeonardi a job at the Lowenbrau Restaurant in the Chicago loop, which was closely connected to Dom Volpe. With creditors suing him and his accounts in arrears, Jimmy Cerone instructed Dileoanrdi to talk to attorney Joe Imburgio Bulger, who, upon meeting DiLeonardi, simply smiled and told him to forget all about his legal troubles, which thereafter vanished. DiLeonardi was then, under Bulger's legal backing, roped into being the front operator of the Clark House restaurant, located in the Loop across the street from Chicago City Hall and the Cook County Building. The Clark was frequented by Gus Alex and Lou Arger, while Nick Campi operated a lucrative sportsbook out of the restaurant for a clientele largely composed of judges and attorneys (DiLeonardi stated that he was paid a small sum of money by Campi in return for "not being in the wrong place at the right time"). After the Cook County Sheriff's department ordered Campi to shut down his book, DiLeonardi left the Clark but was unable to secure adequate employment and eventually was directed by Jimmy Cerone to the River Road Motel in the burbs, operated by Giancana's half-brother "Charles Kane" Giancana and a prime base of operations for Jack Cerone. DiLeonardi subsequently went to work at the Villa Moderne lounge, owned by Gus Alguer, until it was torched for insurance fraud, at which point DiLeonardi seems to have finally hit his last straw and approached the FBI to become a confidential informant. An amazing story all around that gives us some great insight into how the mafia business network operated in Chicago back in the day.
-----------------
Interesting to note that Martin Accardo was attending these private parties while the other men attending seem to have all been made guys. Martin may not have ever needed to be made, given who his brother was, but he was also the elder brother and I have long wondered if Martin -- or even their father Francesco -- had been involved before Tony was. Recall also that Francesco Accardo's NW Side home was hit with a bomb in 1929. While this may have been launched by the Aiello faction due to Tony Accardo already being a known "Capone gunman", but it has made me suspect that there was more to the Accardo family connections to the mafia than we would otherwise know.
----------------
Note also that one of the outfit-connected suppliers foisted upon Frank DiLeonardi was produce wholesaler Dick Tranchina. I've discussed the Tranchinas before, as they were another prominent Sicilian Grand Ave family from Termini Imerese. The Tranchinas were related by marriage to both Lee Magnafichi and Johnny DeBiase. Dick Tranchina was the son of Antonio "Tony" Tranchina, who was a son of Vincenzo Tranchina from Termini and another sibling of Bernard and Elizabeth Tranchina mentioned below. Dick Tranchina was thus also the first cousin of Mike Magnafichi's mother.
PolackTony wrote: ↑Fri Jun 30, 2023 4:41 pm
In 1962, Lee Magnafichi married Geraldine Tomaselli, mother of Mike Mags, at the Church of the Holy Ghost in Wood Dale. At the time, the couple lived at 306 Poplar Ave in Bensenville (recall that it was later alleged by Joe Fosco that the home in Bensenville where the Spilotro brothers were killed in 1986 belonged to Jimmy Tomaselli, Lee's BIL). Geraldine Tomaselli was born in 1936 in Chicago to Frank Alaimo Tomaselli and Elizabeth Trankina. Frank Tomaselli was born in 1909 in Chicago to produce merchant Giuseppe Alaimo Tomaselli, of Termini Imerese, and Maria Moscato, born in Chicago to parents from Oliveto Citra, Salerno. Both families lived near Taylor St, and Giuseppe's father, Francesco Alaimo Tomaselli, was a longtime produce commission merchant at the South Water St Market. Elizabeth Trankina was born in 1912 in Chicago to Vincenzo "Vincent James" Tranchina (the spelling of the surname was later changed in Chicago), of Termini Imerese, and Anna Cristofani, born to Toscano parents in Chicago. Vincenzo Trankina was also a commission merchant on South Water St, who founded the J. Trankina & Co. produce wholesaling house. The Trankinas moved from Taylor St to Grand Ave, and from there to Oak Park. In 1920, Vincenzo Trankina and Giuseppe Tomaselli were among the influential Italians who organized an "Italian Club" advocating for the campaign for IL States Attorney of Robert Crowe, a notoriously scandal-plagued and mafia-connected judge. Among the other men in this group were Unione Siciliana leader, and possible mafioso, Constantino Vitello, Arturo Ansani, father of Chicago member Bobby Ansani, and Chicago Heights Family leaders Antonio San Filippo and Filippo Piazza (more info here in the Totò Loverde thread:
viewtopic.php?p=239875#p239875).
One of the witnesses to Lee Magnafichi and Geraldine Tomaselli's 1962 marriage was Bernard Trankina, an uncle of Geraldine and half-brother of Elizabeth Trankina. Bernard Trankina was born in 1929 to Vincenzo Trankina and Angelina DeBiase, who Vincenzo married after Anna Cristofani died in 1918. Angelina DeBiase was born in 1895 in Chicago to Antonio DeBiase and Raffaela Mazzone, of Oliveto Citra. She was the older sister of Chicago member Giovanni "Johnny Bananas" DeBiase, born in Chicago in 1901 (at the beginning of this thread, I stated that Johnny DeBiase's parents were from Napoli, as many of their documents just say "Naples", which was often the case for immigrants from Campania). The DeBiases settled initially by Taylor St, before relocating to Artesian Ave in the Smith Park section of the Grand Ave Patch. In the early 1960s, when Johnny DeBiase was pinched on gambling charges (and was also named as the "bankroll" for a crew of hijackers and burglars), he was living in Oak Park, near his in-laws, the Trankinas, and claimed to police that he was legally employed as a produce merchant. In the 1970s, after the FBI had identified Johnny DeBiase as a Chicago LCN member, it was reported in a file that he was believed to secretly be the owner of Menotti Plumbing and Heating, at 2350 W Grand Ave; an apartment in this building above the plumbing store was previously used as a wireroom raided in 1964. Menotti Plumbing was next door to Armanetti Liquors, owned by Accardo associate and major wine importer Antonino Paternò, who was being investigated by Italian LE in the 70s for connections to the mafia in Sicily, as well as the grocery store of Rosario Marino of Cefalù, another Accardo associate who accompanied Accardo, Nick Nitti, and Al Meo on their trip to Italy in 1973 (
viewtopic.php?p=232539#p232539). Johnny DeBiase, who was said by Freddie Pascente to have been the early mentor of Joey Lombardo, died in Oak Park in 1983.
[quote=NorthBuffalo post_id=279698 time=1719279254 user_id=8087]
Great information on Martin Accardo Polack - Thank you. Here is what I found on Mary Farrell that confirms he owned JP Graziano Grocery and several other meat distributors in Fulton Market - not sure if this link works or not but it can be found by searching his name. Its quite interesting Martin Accardo did prison time and you wonder if he had a cake walk in there given his brother. He sounds like a bonified gangster himself - a bit more rough around the edges even and definitely low-key. Was he a secret advisor to his brother perhaps? Its interesting we see so many pics of Accardo with Outfit guys and never one with his brother.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=119607#relPageId=9&search=%22Martin_Accardo%22
[/quote]
Great find and good info here. Vincenzo Graziano I believe was also very active in the San Giuseppe di Bagheria Society for many years, and the President of that Society for some time was Chicago LCN member "Little Joe" Aiello. Vincenzo Graziano I believe was also very active in the San Giuseppe di Bagheria Society for many years, and the President of that Society for some time was Chicago LCN member "Little Joe" Aiello. One would also imagine that he had some relationship to Chicago LCN member Sam Aiello as well. That Martin Accardo was the "real" operator of Graziano's makes it seem very likely that the claims that Martin Accardo was also closely tied to Vincent Lima are also true. Vincenzo Graziano got his start in the grocery business via his in-laws, but it would seem that after they were slain he wound up being backed by the Accardos later in his own business (again, seems not at all coincidental that the first location of his store was on the same block of Grand Ave where the Accardos had lived). Recall also that Tony Accardo was very close personally to several successful Grand Ave Sicilian businessmen himself, such as grocer Rosario Marino and wine producer/importer Antonino Paternò, who founded Armanetti liquors (Italian LE was actively investigating Paternò's ties to the Sicilian mafia related to his Italian wine holdings in the 1960s-70s).
---------------------
The entire report that you shared is a very interesting read. It was a 1963 statement that a guy named Frank Marco DiLeonardi gave to the FBI about how his attempt at starting a restaurant, LaBella Villa, in Melrose Park in 1957 fell victim to a "web" of outfit-connected business interests that quickly engulfed and strangled him. DiLeonardi was set to buy an existing liquor license for the address from the building's owner, but then a week before the restaurant opened, an irate Frank Cerone showed up claiming that the liquor license belonged to someone else and directing DiLeonardi to consult Melrose Park realtor Joe Cullotta (a close associate of Joe Imburgio Bulger and a possible relative of Frank Culotta's father Joseph Culotta, as both families were from Cefalù). Cullotta told DiLeonardi that another liquor license could be purchased instead, for a jacked-up price, naturally. DiLeonardi said that he couldn't afford the new price and refused. He said that he was then "summoned" to meet with Rocco DeGrazia at DeGrazia's Melrose Park gambling establishment, the Casa Madrid, where DeGrazia was able to arrange a license for DiLeonardi.
A week after LaBella Villa opened, Jack Cerone (who DiLeonardi said introduced himself as a "beer salesman and golfer" lol), showed up and demanded a private room for an all-night party, accompanied by Tony and Martin Accardo, Phil Alderisio, Phil Mesi, Jimmy Cerone, and "some women". The next day, Jack Cerone contacted DiLeonardi and instructed him that he was to start selling Fox Head 400 brand beer supplied by Dominic Volpe's Premium Beer Sales. DiLeonardi protested that he wished to serve his customers whatever beer they requested, but was told to carry the beer anyway. The next day, a shipment of Fox Head 400 arrived at LaBella Villa. DiLeonardi contacted the distributor, West Town Distributing, and complained that he had never ordered the product, but was told to keep it and then call back when he needed to replenish it. DiLeonardi stated that thereafter, Jack Cerone and Tony Accardo would regularly stop in at the restaurant to ask him about his beer sales. DiLeonardi was also contacted by August "Red" Passarella, another close associate of Tony Accardo, who started "suggesting" which brand of Scotch DiLeonardi should serve.
Other services were foisted upon DiLeonardi in a similar fashion. A week after opening, Frank Cerone stopped in and told DiLeonardi that a better sign would help his business -- soon after, Jimmy Cerone, a salesman for the Rite-Lite Neon Sign Company, contacted DiLeonardi and informed him that he already had a new sign designed for LaBella Villa and quoted DiLeonardi an "extremely high" price. When DiLeonardi refused, Jimmy Cerone then tried to convince him to pay on the installment plan, which DiLeonardi also refused. Mike Russo started showing up telling DiLeonardi that his driveway and parking lot needed to be resurfaced and that he should use Russo's construction business for the work. LaBella Villa's deserts were supplied by Frank Messessa's Candy Kitchen Ice Cream Company, while DiLeonardi was pressured to use Martin Accardo's J.P. Graziano for meat and Dick Tranchina at the Chicago Produce Company for produce. Over the first year of business, Jack and Jimmy Cerone began holding increasingly lavish, expensive, and long lasting private parties regularly at LaBella Villa, which had the effect of heavily stressing the small business's staff and supplies and driving away much of DiLeonardi's non-mob-connected customers, to the point that the restaurant soon became dependant on an outfit clientele for its business. Then, the Cerones suddenly quit holding parties at the establishment, leaving the restaurant with almost no income and forcing DiLeonardi to approach Frank Cerone for a small loan to keep the business operating. Cerone agreed, but also stipulated that DiLeonardi would have to start using jukeboxes supplied by Julius Zimberoff at Apex Amusement Company, with 50% of the jukebox revenue going to Zimberoff and the other 50% going to pay off the loan. Soon, DiLeonardi was awash in debt and with creditors on his heels tried to secure another loan from Frank Cerone, who refused on the grounds that DiLeonardi hadn't paid off the principal on the first loan yet. DiLeonardi was soon contacted by Melrose Park Attorney Steve Anselmo and dessert supplier Frank Messessa, who then brought DiLeoanardi to meet Peter Giachini, President and Chairman of the Maywood Proviso State Bank, who floated DiLeonardi a $2000 loan on condition that the business account for LaBella Villa be transferred to the bank.
DiLeonardi began scrutinizing his invoices and realized that he was being overcharged for desserts by Frank Messessa, who when confronted replied "I did you a favor, now you do a favor for me". DiLeonardi contacted several other Italian ice cream manufacturers, but they all refused to do business with him once he admitted that he was being supplied by Messessa. He was similarly roundly rejected by alternate "legitimate" (i.e., non-outfit-controlled) meat, produce, linen, and construction companies when he attempted to request their business after it became clear that the suppliers initially foisted upon him were routinely overcharging him and providing inferior products and services. By early 1958, LaBella Villa went under, leaving DiLeonardi unemployed and responsible to creditors.
Soon, Jimmy Cerone offered DiLeonardi a job at the Lowenbrau Restaurant in the Chicago loop, which was closely connected to Dom Volpe. With creditors suing him and his accounts in arrears, Jimmy Cerone instructed Dileoanrdi to talk to attorney Joe Imburgio Bulger, who, upon meeting DiLeonardi, simply smiled and told him to forget all about his legal troubles, which thereafter vanished. DiLeonardi was then, under Bulger's legal backing, roped into being the front operator of the Clark House restaurant, located in the Loop across the street from Chicago City Hall and the Cook County Building. The Clark was frequented by Gus Alex and Lou Arger, while Nick Campi operated a lucrative sportsbook out of the restaurant for a clientele largely composed of judges and attorneys (DiLeonardi stated that he was paid a small sum of money by Campi in return for "not being in the wrong place at the right time"). After the Cook County Sheriff's department ordered Campi to shut down his book, DiLeonardi left the Clark but was unable to secure adequate employment and eventually was directed by Jimmy Cerone to the River Road Motel in the burbs, operated by Giancana's half-brother "Charles Kane" Giancana and a prime base of operations for Jack Cerone. DiLeonardi subsequently went to work at the Villa Moderne lounge, owned by Gus Alguer, until it was torched for insurance fraud, at which point DiLeonardi seems to have finally hit his last straw and approached the FBI to become a confidential informant. An amazing story all around that gives us some great insight into how the mafia business network operated in Chicago back in the day.
-----------------
Interesting to note that Martin Accardo was attending these private parties while the other men attending seem to have all been made guys. Martin may not have ever needed to be made, given who his brother was, but he was also the elder brother and I have long wondered if Martin -- or even their father Francesco -- had been involved before Tony was. Recall also that Francesco Accardo's NW Side home was hit with a bomb in 1929. While this may have been launched by the Aiello faction due to Tony Accardo already being a known "Capone gunman", but it has made me suspect that there was more to the Accardo family connections to the mafia than we would otherwise know.
----------------
Note also that one of the outfit-connected suppliers foisted upon Frank DiLeonardi was produce wholesaler Dick Tranchina. I've discussed the Tranchinas before, as they were another prominent Sicilian Grand Ave family from Termini Imerese. The Tranchinas were related by marriage to both Lee Magnafichi and Johnny DeBiase. Dick Tranchina was the son of Antonio "Tony" Tranchina, who was a son of Vincenzo Tranchina from Termini and another sibling of Bernard and Elizabeth Tranchina mentioned below. Dick Tranchina was thus also the first cousin of Mike Magnafichi's mother.
[quote=PolackTony post_id=263972 time=1688168462 user_id=6658]
In 1962, Lee Magnafichi married Geraldine Tomaselli, mother of Mike Mags, at the Church of the Holy Ghost in Wood Dale. At the time, the couple lived at 306 Poplar Ave in Bensenville (recall that it was later alleged by Joe Fosco that the home in Bensenville where the Spilotro brothers were killed in 1986 belonged to Jimmy Tomaselli, Lee's BIL). Geraldine Tomaselli was born in 1936 in Chicago to Frank Alaimo Tomaselli and Elizabeth Trankina. Frank Tomaselli was born in 1909 in Chicago to produce merchant Giuseppe Alaimo Tomaselli, of Termini Imerese, and Maria Moscato, born in Chicago to parents from Oliveto Citra, Salerno. Both families lived near Taylor St, and Giuseppe's father, Francesco Alaimo Tomaselli, was a longtime produce commission merchant at the South Water St Market. Elizabeth Trankina was born in 1912 in Chicago to Vincenzo "Vincent James" Tranchina (the spelling of the surname was later changed in Chicago), of Termini Imerese, and Anna Cristofani, born to Toscano parents in Chicago. Vincenzo Trankina was also a commission merchant on South Water St, who founded the J. Trankina & Co. produce wholesaling house. The Trankinas moved from Taylor St to Grand Ave, and from there to Oak Park. In 1920, Vincenzo Trankina and Giuseppe Tomaselli were among the influential Italians who organized an "Italian Club" advocating for the campaign for IL States Attorney of Robert Crowe, a notoriously scandal-plagued and mafia-connected judge. Among the other men in this group were Unione Siciliana leader, and possible mafioso, Constantino Vitello, Arturo Ansani, father of Chicago member Bobby Ansani, and Chicago Heights Family leaders Antonio San Filippo and Filippo Piazza (more info here in the Totò Loverde thread: https://theblackhand.club/forum/viewtopic.php?p=239875#p239875).
One of the witnesses to Lee Magnafichi and Geraldine Tomaselli's 1962 marriage was Bernard Trankina, an uncle of Geraldine and half-brother of Elizabeth Trankina. Bernard Trankina was born in 1929 to Vincenzo Trankina and Angelina DeBiase, who Vincenzo married after Anna Cristofani died in 1918. Angelina DeBiase was born in 1895 in Chicago to Antonio DeBiase and Raffaela Mazzone, of Oliveto Citra. She was the older sister of Chicago member Giovanni "Johnny Bananas" DeBiase, born in Chicago in 1901 (at the beginning of this thread, I stated that Johnny DeBiase's parents were from Napoli, as many of their documents just say "Naples", which was often the case for immigrants from Campania). The DeBiases settled initially by Taylor St, before relocating to Artesian Ave in the Smith Park section of the Grand Ave Patch. In the early 1960s, when Johnny DeBiase was pinched on gambling charges (and was also named as the "bankroll" for a crew of hijackers and burglars), he was living in Oak Park, near his in-laws, the Trankinas, and claimed to police that he was legally employed as a produce merchant. In the 1970s, after the FBI had identified Johnny DeBiase as a Chicago LCN member, it was reported in a file that he was believed to secretly be the owner of Menotti Plumbing and Heating, at 2350 W Grand Ave; an apartment in this building above the plumbing store was previously used as a wireroom raided in 1964. Menotti Plumbing was next door to Armanetti Liquors, owned by Accardo associate and major wine importer Antonino Paternò, who was being investigated by Italian LE in the 70s for connections to the mafia in Sicily, as well as the grocery store of Rosario Marino of Cefalù, another Accardo associate who accompanied Accardo, Nick Nitti, and Al Meo on their trip to Italy in 1973 (https://theblackhand.club/forum/viewtopic.php?p=232539#p232539). Johnny DeBiase, who was said by Freddie Pascente to have been the early mentor of Joey Lombardo, died in Oak Park in 1983.
[/quote]