General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

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Re: General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

by NickyEyes1 » Wed Jun 18, 2025 12:22 pm

Wayne Bock was another rough guy who was a former football player

Re: General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

by B. » Wed Jun 18, 2025 11:26 am

Yeah records for early NFL can be very spotty if someone never actually played in any games. My friend's Dad growing up played for the Detroit Lions and I think another team in the 1960s (I don't think he ever played an in-game snap or was even on a final roster) and aside from a photo of his Dad in a practice game on my friend's wall I've never found any documentation. Couple other family friends were obscure players for the Seahawks and 49ers / Raiders in the 1980s but they were on the official rosters for years and played in countless regular season games (including Super Bowls for the Niners guy) in a more modern era so of course there are a million references to guys like that.

The obit does say he had a son Joe so I think the Joe Rosanova on Facebook might well have been referring to Lou being on the Bears for a few years as the age does fit, Joe Rosanova posting that his father played for Halas in 1943 (Lou would have been 21). But like you said, if he didn't actually play in official games and was just a practice squad guy in the 1940s he's not exactly Mike Singletary.

EDIT: Yep, what Tony found confirms it. People should look critically at Scott's info but he deserves credit for identifying him as a former Bear even if his playing career was limited.

Re: General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

by PolackTony » Wed Jun 18, 2025 11:20 am

B. wrote: Wed Jun 18, 2025 10:40 am I'm into old NFL stuff and have never come across the name but I did see a Joe Rosanova from Chicago commented on a Facebook post that his father played for the Bears for three years circa WWII. Don't know if Luigi / Lou was Joe's father or how the WWII era matches up with Luigi Rosanova's age but there was at least a Rosanova from Chicago who apparently played for the Bears a long f'n time ago.
Good catch. Lou Rosanova was born in 1922, so he would be of the right age, and did have a son named Joseph.

The below is from an FBI Cerone bug in 1922. Given that Cerone had been locked up for a golf outing earlier the same day by Lou Rosanova, the “Lou Russo” later telling people that he had once played for the Bears is probably him.

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On July 30th of 1944, the Tribune briefly mentioned that a 23-year-old defensive end named Louis Rosanova, a local Chicagoan, had been signed by the Bears; though they had the correct age off by a year, I don’t know of another Lou Rosanova of around the same age in Chicago. August 17th of 1944, the Tribune reported that the Bears had cut Rosanova and this name was never reported in the papers after that in connection with the Bears. If he had in fact had a knee injury, it must have occurred during a preseason scrimmage in the less than three weeks that he was signed, though no such injury was reported either. If this was him, as does seem likely, then the apparently extremely short duration of his tenure with the Bears would explain why none of the reporting on him that I’ve seen, or even his own obituary, mentioned this.

Extra point goes to Scott B, though I remain skeptical about any claims that he was ever an “enforcer” (not that this has a clear and consistent definition anyway). If he was ever involved in rough stuff, it would have been when he was a kid, rather than in the 60s-80s when he was managing country clubs and playing in ProAm golf tournaments.

Re: General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

by Snakes » Wed Jun 18, 2025 11:11 am

B. wrote: Wed Jun 18, 2025 10:40 am I'm into old NFL stuff and have never come across the name but I did see a Joe Rosanova from Chicago commented on a Facebook post that his father played for the Bears for three years circa WWII. Don't know if Luigi / Lou was Joe's father or how the WWII era matches up with Luigi Rosanova's age but there was at least a Rosanova from Chicago who apparently played for the Bears a long f'n time ago.
This is almost certainly the Outfit Rosanova, as he was mentioned being associated with Spilotro, Caifano, and other "mob chieftans" in another article (https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/18/us/e ... esort.html) where he La Costa and investment deals were mentioned (also mentioned in the obit). He was born in 1922 and died in 2003. I also checked Football Reference and could not find a "Rosanova" listed as a former player. Their index is pretty exhaustive, so I would think if he played under that name, that he'd be there. Then again, if he didn't play a snap in the NFL and was only on a practice roster or training camp roster, he may not be included. Then again, again, did someone really "play" for a team if they never played a down in the league? Semantics, I guess. As Tony mentioned, you'd think if he played for the Bears, his obit would mention it.

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Re: General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

by B. » Wed Jun 18, 2025 10:40 am

I'm into old NFL stuff and have never come across the name but I did see a Joe Rosanova from Chicago commented on a Facebook post that his father played for the Bears for three years circa WWII. Don't know if Luigi / Lou was Joe's father or how the WWII era matches up with Luigi Rosanova's age but there was at least a Rosanova from Chicago who apparently played for the Bears a long f'n time ago.

Re: General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

by Snakes » Wed Jun 18, 2025 10:30 am

Yeah, I've only ever heard of him as a golfer that palled around with Outfit guys. Didn't seem to have a rep as a rough guy, unless this was a different Rosanova.

Re: General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

by PolackTony » Wed Jun 18, 2025 10:10 am

Louis Frank “Louie the Tailor” Rosanova was a real guy, I’ve posted a bit about him before. The only “source” that I can recall seeing for the claim that he was an NFL player was Scott Burnstein. Rosanova was a pretty well-covered guy by LE and the Chicago press in the 1960s/70s, and no such claim was ever made in that coverage (if he had played for the Bears, this fact certainly would have been reported, so this claim is probably bullshit). He was a well-known Pro-Am golfer, however. The idea that he was an “enforcer” also seems to come from Gangster Report and I believe is similarly spurious. He was the manager of a fancy suburban country club, not some goon. I can post what I have on him later.

Re: General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

by Aunt+Baby » Wed Jun 18, 2025 9:04 am

Anyone have any info on Luigi Rosanova? Apparently a former Chicago bears football player, who had a tailor shop in Elmwood park and became one of that crews primary enforcers. Cerone and Difronzo were constantly meeting at this shoppe during the early 80s. I can’t find any info on him, not even when searching for his alleged football career

Re: General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

by Coloboy » Wed Jun 18, 2025 8:36 am

Aunt+Baby wrote: Wed Jun 18, 2025 6:54 am
Proletarian187 wrote: Sat Jun 14, 2025 2:01 pm I just wanted to drop a podcast tip. Gary Jenkins of Gangland wire had an episode recently about Jerry Scalice. He interviewed a lawyer/business man who did time with him in the feds and apparently they became friends.

Interesting fella that Scalice, I love stories about wiseguys who spread their wings outside of the typical mafia sphere. Seems like a unique guy.

I haven't vetted the lawyer, David Grosky so I'm not co signing anything. I don't think he's full of shit, but he is a lawyer who committed health care fraud so beware haha..
Listened to it. The most interesting thing I got out of it was that he also did time with Big Mike Spano, who is one of the most interesting outfit figures of all time, and whose son I firmly believe to be a major player today. He runs his crew out of a bowling alley in Berwyn.

Scalise doesn’t interest me all that much. But anyways, it’s very clear that these Outfit Guys don’t discuss *anything* with outsiders, and possibly not even amongst themselves. Polar opposite of NY, and seem to be more in line with Italy/canada.
I think this might be even more strict today. I think about the PK Crew bust, and how Hollingshead was giving the feds info on that group. He was verified as hanging with and socializing with Vena as part of that crew. Yet, no indictment on Vena came of that. This tells me that Vena was really strict about protocol, and likely only discussed real "business" with Panozzo, and kept his stuff with Hollingshead strictly social.

It seems like this type of protocol got a lot more serious in the Difronzo era, even though it goes back a good ways to the 70's, when orders came down (according to Calabrese Jr. at least), that you were only supposed to hang with your immediate group and not socialize with outsiders.

Re: General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

by Aunt+Baby » Wed Jun 18, 2025 6:58 am

I remember hearing a while back that while Marco DAmico was in Milan Michigan, he didn’t talk to anyone else from the Life who was in there with him at the time. That’s some discipline for sure

However, on that fat fuck chef Joe Merlino lackey’s (Angelo something) old podcast or whatever it was, he states that he and Merlino buddied up to Marco DAmico and Tony Dote. Not sure what prison that would have been in, but it was obviously sometime during the 90s. I don’t know if Merlino was ever in Milan. And I don’t know which years Dote was locked up

Re: General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

by Aunt+Baby » Wed Jun 18, 2025 6:54 am

Proletarian187 wrote: Sat Jun 14, 2025 2:01 pm I just wanted to drop a podcast tip. Gary Jenkins of Gangland wire had an episode recently about Jerry Scalice. He interviewed a lawyer/business man who did time with him in the feds and apparently they became friends.

Interesting fella that Scalice, I love stories about wiseguys who spread their wings outside of the typical mafia sphere. Seems like a unique guy.

I haven't vetted the lawyer, David Grosky so I'm not co signing anything. I don't think he's full of shit, but he is a lawyer who committed health care fraud so beware haha..
Listened to it. The most interesting thing I got out of it was that he also did time with Big Mike Spano, who is one of the most interesting outfit figures of all time, and whose son I firmly believe to be a major player today. He runs his crew out of a bowling alley in Berwyn.

Scalise doesn’t interest me all that much. But anyways, it’s very clear that these Outfit Guys don’t discuss *anything* with outsiders, and possibly not even amongst themselves. Polar opposite of NY, and seem to be more in line with Italy/canada.

Re: General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

by FrankWhiteIs9P » Wed Jun 18, 2025 4:37 am

Shows how well insulation of bosses worked in practice considering the upper level of bosses go unnamed in the report. Report complied after 1969 crackdown on juice loans operations.

Re: General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

by FrankWhiteIs9P » Wed Jun 18, 2025 4:12 am

Cool site on juice loans

Re: General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

by FrankWhiteIs9P » Wed Jun 18, 2025 4:11 am

Re: General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

by Proletarian187 » Sat Jun 14, 2025 2:01 pm

I just wanted to drop a podcast tip. Gary Jenkins of Gangland wire had an episode recently about Jerry Scalice. He interviewed a lawyer/business man who did time with him in the feds and apparently they became friends.

Interesting fella that Scalice, I love stories about wiseguys who spread their wings outside of the typical mafia sphere. Seems like a unique guy.

I haven't vetted the lawyer, David Grosky so I'm not co signing anything. I don't think he's full of shit, but he is a lawyer who committed health care fraud so beware haha..

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