by PolackTony » Mon Mar 10, 2025 11:43 am
SonnyC wrote: ↑Mon Mar 10, 2025 11:13 am
PolackTony wrote: ↑Fri Mar 07, 2025 4:58 pm
PPPP wrote: ↑Fri Mar 07, 2025 12:54 pm
Patrickgold wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2025 8:11 pm
New podcast called crookcounty. It’s supposedly about a Chicago hit man nobody knew about. His name is Kenny “the kid” Tekiela. Anybody hear of him?
They mention, IIRC, he started working in the early 80's for a made guy who was the son of Chicago's Chop Shop king. Who would that be? Whose son? Al Pilotto's? Jimmy Catura's? Later he goes on to say he then worked for another made guy who was a crew boss who was a well kept gangster. And who ran all the whorehouses for the outfit in the unincorporated parts of cook, dupage and kane counties.
My guess is that they were referring to Catuara. He had one son, Carmelo “Carl” Catuara. Carl Catuara was not at all unknown to Federal investigators, but I’ve never seen anything that would suggest that he was a made guy (not that this necessarily means that he was not made, of course).
Carl Catuara was a longtime employee of the IL Secretary of State’s office, under which he managed a drivers license facility on the Westside of Chicago. In 1989, he was questioned by Federal investigators because of personal and financial ties to an executive of an armored car company that operated an armored vehicle from which over $2mil in coins belonging to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago were stolen. In 1996, it was also revealed that Carl Catuara was a target of Operation Silver Shovel, a major Federal investigation of political corruption in Chicago in the 90s. In 1993, FBI mole John Christopher had purchased two drivers licenses from Carl Catuara under a false name; Catuara was summarily fired from his position with the State of IL, but died soon after.
While the Chicago press reported in coverage of both events that he was the son of Jimmy Catuara, Carl himself was never described as an associate, member, or otherwise affiliated with the outfit.
Yea, Carl was certainly not a made guy. He managed the Secretary of State's DL facility on Lexington, my grandfather was the assistant manager. They had somewhat of an adversarial relationship. Carl's clout was obviously his father. My grandfather's was Angelo Fosco, who was my grandmother's first cousin. As far as I can remember, Carl got transferred out after his father was killed.
SO far as I'm aware, at least, he remained manager until he was fired in 1996 when the Silver Shovel stuff dropped. At the least, he was a manager of a Westside DL facility apparently up until '93, when he sold fake licenses to John Christopher (aka "John DiVito"). The only DL facility that I am aware of on the Westside was that same one out west on Lexington by Laramie (Columbus Park) and I don't think there were any others in the 80s/90s.
I couldn't say categorically that he was *not* made, but nothing I have ever seen would indicate that he was and I personally don't think he was. As you say, his clout would have been his dad (whatever happened there), though it wouldn't surprise me if someone else put him on record later, given that he still would have been a useful guy given his position.
[quote=SonnyC post_id=290695 time=1741630387 user_id=6489]
[quote=PolackTony post_id=290594 time=1741391887 user_id=6658]
[quote=PPPP post_id=290584 time=1741377245 user_id=1833]
[quote=Patrickgold post_id=289297 time=1738465877 user_id=6577]
New podcast called crookcounty. It’s supposedly about a Chicago hit man nobody knew about. His name is Kenny “the kid” Tekiela. Anybody hear of him?
[/quote]
They mention, IIRC, he started working in the early 80's for a made guy who was the son of Chicago's Chop Shop king. Who would that be? Whose son? Al Pilotto's? Jimmy Catura's? Later he goes on to say he then worked for another made guy who was a crew boss who was a well kept gangster. And who ran all the whorehouses for the outfit in the unincorporated parts of cook, dupage and kane counties.
[/quote]
My guess is that they were referring to Catuara. He had one son, Carmelo “Carl” Catuara. Carl Catuara was not at all unknown to Federal investigators, but I’ve never seen anything that would suggest that he was a made guy (not that this necessarily means that he was not made, of course).
Carl Catuara was a longtime employee of the IL Secretary of State’s office, under which he managed a drivers license facility on the Westside of Chicago. In 1989, he was questioned by Federal investigators because of personal and financial ties to an executive of an armored car company that operated an armored vehicle from which over $2mil in coins belonging to the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago were stolen. In 1996, it was also revealed that Carl Catuara was a target of Operation Silver Shovel, a major Federal investigation of political corruption in Chicago in the 90s. In 1993, FBI mole John Christopher had purchased two drivers licenses from Carl Catuara under a false name; Catuara was summarily fired from his position with the State of IL, but died soon after.
While the Chicago press reported in coverage of both events that he was the son of Jimmy Catuara, Carl himself was never described as an associate, member, or otherwise affiliated with the outfit.
[/quote]
Yea, Carl was certainly not a made guy. He managed the Secretary of State's DL facility on Lexington, my grandfather was the assistant manager. They had somewhat of an adversarial relationship. Carl's clout was obviously his father. My grandfather's was Angelo Fosco, who was my grandmother's first cousin. As far as I can remember, Carl got transferred out after his father was killed.
[/quote]
SO far as I'm aware, at least, he remained manager until he was fired in 1996 when the Silver Shovel stuff dropped. At the least, he was a manager of a Westside DL facility apparently up until '93, when he sold fake licenses to John Christopher (aka "John DiVito"). The only DL facility that I am aware of on the Westside was that same one out west on Lexington by Laramie (Columbus Park) and I don't think there were any others in the 80s/90s.
I couldn't say categorically that he was *not* made, but nothing I have ever seen would indicate that he was and I personally don't think he was. As you say, his clout would have been his dad (whatever happened there), though it wouldn't surprise me if someone else put him on record later, given that he still would have been a useful guy given his position.