Chicago Outfit Places of Origin

[PolackTony]

Excellent find.

He did, in fact, enter the US in 1923 at NYC bound for Chicago, under the name Giovanni Cannistraro. If what he later said was true and he used his brother’s passport, this subterfuge would indicate that he was fleeing serious legal trouble in Sicily, consistent with him having been charged with triple homicide back in Aragona.

In 1924, he applied for naturalization as Alfonso Cannistraro, stating that he operated a grocery store in Chicago’s Little Sicily and lived on the 400 block of W Division (Aiello Ground Zero). He subsequently filed his petition for naturalization in 1929, at which time he stated that he was living at Sedgwick and Division in Little Sicily. The petition was witnessed by two paesani from the Southside Aragonese colony, Alfonso Rotolo and Vincenzo Scifo. The former was president of the Società Aragona Sicula (the Southside Aragona Society, whereas the Northside also had its own Aragona Society). Both surnames have connections to figures subsequently involved with Rockford and Chicago LCN, as noted previously in this thread.

I’d agree that he was deported to face trial in Sicily and did not re-enter the US, as no subsequent records appear for either Alfonso or Giovanni Cannistraro.

[B.]

Great work. Anything we can learn about earlier Aragonesi is valuable especially when they connect to the mafia in Sicily.

[cavita]

Great work. Anything we can learn about earlier Aragonesi is valuable especially when they connect to the mafia in Sicily.

Cannistraro and Galluzzo were Aragonesi but it's interesting that the Frank Longo in the car accident with them was most likely THE Frank Longo that was hooked up with Vincenzo Troia in New Jersey.

[B.]

Great work. Anything we can learn about earlier Aragonesi is valuable especially when they connect to the mafia in Sicily.

Cannistraro and Galluzzo were Aragonesi but it's interesting that the Frank Longo in the car accident with them was most likely THE Frank Longo that was hooked up with Vincenzo Troia in New Jersey.

Yep, great detail. Shows the various Rockford paesani groups were already closely associating.

Aside from Longo and Immordino are you aware of any other Rockford guys who spent time in Frankfort / Utica? Chicago guys like Joe Aiello and Michele Mineo did but trying to recall if any other Rockford guys were ever there. Immordino's father was there very early on, around the turn of the century, and given Immordino was active in the San Giuseppe Jato Family before coming here I imagine his father associated with the mafia if he wasn't a member himself.

Salvatore Polizzi is relevant to those connections as he was in the Utica area and fled a murder investigation to Wisconsin which fits these networks but I don't remember seeing anything about Illinois with him. When I looked into him many years ago I don't think I confirmed his origins but suspected he was from San Giuseppe Jato given his surname and presence in Jatino-linked areas.

[PolackTony]

Salvatore Polizzi was indeed Jatino; confirmed by birth and marriage records in SGJ. There was a Salvatore Polizzi, born in 1881, who died in 1954 in Frankfort, NY, where he had operated a gas station for years. He had previous addresses in Rome, NY, and a stint in New Haven, which matched the known history of the mafioso Salvatore Polizzi.

Polizzi was born in SGJ in 1881 to Giuseppe Polizzi and Vita Gianniantonio. He married Rosa Davi of SGJ (matches the name of the wife of the guy in Frankfort also) in 1904, before immigrating to the US in 1905. Polizzi also returned to Sicily for a bit in the 1920s before returning to the US in 1929, arriving at NYC bound for Frankfort. Passenger manifest states that he was born in SGJ and gives his FIL, Battista Davi, as his contact back in SGJ.

[B.]

Thanks for confirming the suspicion. I figured he had to be from SGJ. I first found him about 7 or 8 years ago and meant to dig into him more but never followed up. Glad you were able to fill in some other details.

He apparently confessed to the murder of John Aiello in Frankfort in 1912 after having an alleged argument with John's brother Joe. Difficult to untangle the relations between various Aiellos and the ones in Frankfort/Utica used multiple spellings but the infamous Joe Aiello and early Utica member/leader Domenico Aiello lived in the area by then.

Polizzi was then accused of the Frankfort murder of night watchman Albert Dade in 1921, and along with fleeing to Rome, NY, and Windsor, Wisconsin, he also went to California where he was accused of another murder, the victim being an alleged underworld killer himself. He then shows up in New Haven as you said where he was reportedly involved in bootlegging. This is followed by Brooklyn where he was again connected to a murder in some capacity. He was also running gambling operations during his time in Rome, NY. Everywhere he went he appears to have been involved in illegal activity and violence.

The stay in Windsor, WI, makes sense given it is just outside of Madison where Jatini were active in the local Family and he would have found paesans in NYC but I'm not sure where in Brooklyn he stayed. Would be good to know as SGJ / San Cipirello had ongoing links to the Bonannos. There was a Salvatore Polizzi from SGJ of the same age who in 1906 arrived to Brooklyn right where Bushwick, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and Brownsville meet. He apparently had an uncle "John Zucci" in Rome, NY, and Rome being so close to Utica had many links to Utica underworld figures, including the early Calabrians.

I didn't know he returned to Sicily for a time in the 1920s. His return to Sicily would have followed his legal trouble and lamming it around the country so easy to imagine he went back to escape the heat although he'd have quickly found out Mori was dishing even more heat in SGJ. He was described in newspapers as a "Black Hand member" with "Sicilian friends from coast to coast" -- I'm confident he was a member of the Utica Family / decina (likely both since he died in 1954).

I'd say it's a given he knew Troia, Longo, Riela, Immordino, etc. He initially caught my interest too because of the possibility of a relation to Frank Polizzi, himself connected/related to Riela.

[cavita]

Great work. Anything we can learn about earlier Aragonesi is valuable especially when they connect to the mafia in Sicily.

Cannistraro and Galluzzo were Aragonesi but it's interesting that the Frank Longo in the car accident with them was most likely THE Frank Longo that was hooked up with Vincenzo Troia in New Jersey.

Yep, great detail. Shows the various Rockford paesani groups were already closely associating.

Aside from Longo and Immordino are you aware of any other Rockford guys who spent time in Frankfort / Utica? Chicago guys like Joe Aiello and Michele Mineo did but trying to recall if any other Rockford guys were ever there. Immordino's father was there very early on, around the turn of the century, and given Immordino was active in the San Giuseppe Jato Family before coming here I imagine his father associated with the mafia if he wasn't a member himself.

Salvatore Polizzi is relevant to those connections as he was in the Utica area and fled a murder investigation to Wisconsin which fits these networks but I don't remember seeing anything about Illinois with him. When I looked into him many years ago I don't think I confirmed his origins but suspected he was from San Giuseppe Jato given his surname and presence in Jatino-linked areas.

I'm not aware of any other Rockford people that spent time in the Frankfort/Utica area... I can only think of Anthony Basile, Rockford member who was born in Rochester, NY but that is quite a distance from there. I'm not ruling out that some may have spent time there and I haven't found it buried in some FBI files, but maybe some day.

[PolackTony]

Frank Loverde was born 1904 in Chicago to Stefano Lo Verde and Domenica Maisano of Piana dei Greci (today Piana degli Albanesi; another Arbereshe town), Palermo province. His brother, George Loverde -- co-founder of Gino's East pizzeria -- was born in Piana dei Greci in 1907.

During the night of December 7th 1915, alleged "Black Handers" targeted the Little Sicily butcher shop of Stefano LoVerde on the 900 block of N Townsend. A bomb exploded in the basement of the shop and threw the family (including a young Butch LoVerde) from the beds in the apartment upstairs. Also thrown from their beds (the blast was reported to have woken the whole neighborhood up) were the LoVerdes' next door neighbors, the Sciortinos. Father Tommaso "Thomas" Sciortino, who was born in 1886 in Bagheria, owned a grocery store on the same block.

A few interesting points from Frank "Butch" LoVerde's FBI file.

LoVerde was convicted on counterfeiting charges in 1936 in KC, MO, where he was using the alias "Frank Russo" (he also used the alias Frank Rizzo ["clean out ya ears, JACKASS"] at times, as well as going by his mother's maiden name of Maisano). He wound up doing 3 years out of his 7 year sentence at Leavenworth before being paroled. In the 1960s, the FBI caught wind of this conviction, though I was unable to find any further info on who LoVerde's collaborators in KC may have been.

By the early 1960s, Frank Loverde was heavily involved in setting up and managing an array of legitimate businesses interests described by FBI sources as "fronts" for the outfit, allegedly operating under the direction of Phil Alderisio. While he was well-known as a mobbed-up figure, LoVerde had carefully cultivated the public image of a legit businessman, residing in well-appointed apartments in high rise buildings on State St and Michigan Ave, in the Near Northside Gold Coast and Streeterville neighborhoods, managed by his own property company. By this time, LoVerde was said to have controlled a number of lucrative companies for which he delegated the management and on-paper ownership of to associates, while LoVerde himself was frequently out of Chicago, wintering at second homes in Miami Beach, AZ, and SoCal. Given his patronage of AZ, it's unsurprising that an FBI CI source claimed that LoVerde and Alderisio were close friends of Detroit outfit member Pete Licavoli, also an AZ resident during this period. Given his patronage of Miami Beach, it's a safe bet that LoVerde would have also been chummy with Detroit member Joe Massei, as well as various affiliates of other LCN Families who frequented FL and AZ. Further, as I noted on another thread, LoVerde was alleged to have been attending meetings with Alderisio, Giancana, and Genovese member Gaetano "Tony Goebels" Ricci, which presumably focused on LoVerde and Alderisio's operation of mob-backed businesses.

Frank and George LoVerde were well-known figures in this period around the Rush St nightlife district, operating the popular 19 Club (located at 19 E Chestnut) and the nearby Gino's East Pizzeria. While FBI sources asserted that the LoVerde brothers were the real interests behind Gino's East (and also alleged to have been running a sportsbook out of a backroom in the restaurant) operation of the historic pizzeria was delegated to Fred Bartoli and Herman "Hymie" Jacobs. "President" of the Gino's East corporation, formed in the 1960s, was Joseph DeFranco, a Recorder of Deeds for Cook County and Clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court. Apart from his patronage jobs with the County, DeFranco -- born in Chicago to parents from Altavilla Milicia -- was also the operator of the Club LaRue on Rush St, a well-known "strip joint" involved in prostitution.

Bartoli and Jacobs were also, respectively, the President and Vice-President of the Evanston Cab Co., alleged to have been controlled by Frank LoVerde (who appeared on paper only as a supervisor for the company). LoVerde was additionally said to have controlled the Red Top Taxi, Co., while LoVerde's cab companies were further alleged to have been used to transport and arrange for johns for the high end prostitution racket in the Rush St district. High ranking LCN member's were presumably also invested in these companies, as suggested by a 1960s IRS investigation of Giancana's tax history in relation to the Evanston Cab Co.

While the FBI listed Frank LoVerde as a Chicago LCN member on its 1968 and 1973 member lists, IMO, LoVerde's membership status remains inadequately confirmed, as in both cases the sole source for his membership was Lou Fratto (a source of dubious reliability on his own, as I have discussed several times in the past). LoVerde was a well-connected figure and well-known in underworld circles to have been affiliated with the mafia, so the fact that the Feds had no other sources, even by 1973, to confirm LoVerde's membership casts a real doubt on this for me.

In late 1967, an FBI CI source that we can safely presume was Lou Fratto (LoVerde's files were released under FOIA and thus have CI identification codes redacted) was cited for the claim that "there is no question that LOVERDE is definitely a member of the 'outfit'" (as is typically the case, we are left with the FBI's summary of what the source actually said; here, the only word directly attributed to Fratto was "outfit", and it's unclear if Fratto had actually meant that LoVerde was a made guy, specifically). So far as I can tell, this was the sole basis for the FBI subsequently listing LoVerde as made.

FBI sources in the early 60s had claimed that LoVerde was under the direction of Alderisio and was a "front" for managing business investments made by Alderisio and Giancana. If LoVerde was not, in fact, made, I believe that he was an associate under Alderisio during this time, who himself was a soldier reporting directly to Giancana.

Given that he was a Sicilian guy from the Near Northside, the easy assumption would be that LoVerde would have been affiliated with the Prio crew. In 1965, LoVerde was, in fact, arrested in a gambling raid on the Prio crew's social club, the Ramblers SAC (located at 501 N Clark St) along with Prio crew affiliates Ben Policheri, Carl Pio, Frank Orlando, Larry Buonaguidi, Johnny Liberti, and Nate Zuckerman.

Multiple FBI source, however, had stated over the years that LoVerde's operations were not connected to the Prio crew. in 1969, a CI claimed that LoVerde, who was "close to PHIL ALDERISIO", was "not associated with the ROSS PRIO group as he pays a tax to the Prio group to operate" in the Near Northside territory controlled by Prio. The FBI quoted an old 1947 memo, which claimed that at that time "NICK DE JOHN, [redacted] and LOVERDE were on 'bad paper' with the mob and that De JOHN left town at this time and left LOVERDE and [redacted] to settle the dispute". This old memo aligned with a claim made by a CI years later, in 1971, who stated that LoVerde "was formerly with NICK DE JOHN in Chicago [...] LOVERDE was formerly in the NICK DE JOHN group in Chicago before ROSS PRIO took over DE JOHN's area. Since PRIO has been a hoodlum leader, LOVERDE has not been active in his group [...] Informant understands that PHIL ALDERISIO has a piece of LOVERDE's ownership in Gino's East restaurant".

Several FBI sources, from the late 1940s to the 1960s, indentified LoVerde as a close associate of Chicago LCN member Dominic "Hunk" Galiano (shot to death in 1966 in front of a Near Northside club operated by LCN member Jasper Campisi). Galiano and LoVerde were reputed to have been partnered in the operation of multiple nightclubs and other businesses over the years. In 1962, a CI told the Feds that Galiano and LoVerde "are independent of JIMMIE ALLEGRETTI and ROSS PRIO. LOVERDI [sic] and GALIANO are directly connected with SAM GIANCANA". Again, we othewrise know LoVerde to have been closely connected to Alderisio, who we know was a soldier direct with Giancana, so this claim here merits consideration. As the FBI also noted, while LoVerde had past ties to KC, Galiano was himself "closely associated with the Kansas City group".

Frank LoVerde died in Riverside County, CA, in 2003, a month short of turning 100. LoVerde had ceased to be listed on the FBI's Chicago member lists after 1973, which goes to further suggest that he was likely not a made guy.

Based on this fragmentary body of intel, a good guess is that LoVerde was originally an associate with Nick De John's crew. After De John was forced to flee Chicago and subsequently murdered, LoVerde was probably with Galiano, who may have later reported directly to Giancana. At some point, prior to or following Galiano's murder, LoVerde was probably with Alderisio. By the time of Alderisio's later imprisonment and 1971 death, LoVerde was reported by CI sources to have been largely "retired" and inactive, unknown to publicly associate with other outfit figures.

[B.]

Great work. LoVerde is one of those guys I always assumed to be a member but after your dissection of Fratto's member identifications it does seem questionable even though he was obviously well-connected.

Didn't know a source linked him to DeJohn's crew. Noteworthy because they both came from Arbereshe towns and the KC tie-in complements the reference to DeJohn's faction in the 1940s war getting support from KC, KC having members from the same region.

[PolackTony]

Longtime Elmwood Park crew associate and DiFronzo lackey Eugene "Lefty" Cacciatore is best known for operating Gene's Deli, located at Harlem Ave and Palmer on the border between Elmwood Park and the City of Chicago, a frequent hangout for affiliates of the Elmwood Park crew. In his younger days, however, Lefty Cacciatore was a prolific criminal from the Grand Ave neighborhood before later moving out to the burbs.

Eugene Cacciatore was born in 1930 in Chicago to Giuseppe Cacciatore, a native of Lercara Friddi, and Lena Leto.

Lena was born in 1907 in Des Moines, IA. Her mother was Giovanna Annaloro, who was born in Corleone. Lena's birth father was Vincenzo Quartarolo, a native of the Arbereshe town of San Basile, in the province of Cosenza, Calabria (the Des Moines Italian community was heavily Calabrese). Lena's parents separated soon after her birth, however, and mother Giovanna remarried Francesco Leto, a produce dealer from Santo Stefano Quisquina, Agrigento, in Des Mooines in 1908.

In the early 1920s, the Letos relocated from IA to Chicago, where Francesco Leto worked for years in the South Water St Produce Market. They settled at Erie and Ashland in the Grand Ave neighborhood. In 1924, Lena married Giuseppe Cacciatore. Giuseppe had arrived at NYC in 1920 from Lercara Friddi, bound for Chicago, where he told authorities that his "uncle", Salvatore DiGregorio, lived. This was presumably a relative of the Nicola DiGregorio, a Grand Ave shoe shop owner, who later witnessed Giuseppe Cacciatore's 1930 naturalization; a fellow native of Lercara, Nicola was probably also an in-law of Lena Leto, as his wife was also from Des Moines, and her mother was also an Annaloro. The Cacciatores lived at Erie and Wolcott for years, around the corner from the home where the DiFronzo lived after arriving in Chicago from Bari, so we can presume that Eugene Cacciatore had known the DiFronzos his entire life. In later years, the Cacciatores also lived at Erie and Damen, and Race and Damen.

As previously discussed by JD on LCNBios, Genovese member Frank "Cheech" Cacciatore's father, Salvatore Cacciatore, was also a native of Lercara Friddi (best known in US mob history as the hometown of Charlie Lucky). While Giuseppe Cacciatore's father was also named Salvatore, I could confirm no relation between the two families. A relation is possible, however, as the surname Cacciatore is not terribly common in Lercara. The Chicago Cacciatores seem to have also have had a number of close relatives who settled in Jersey City.

By his late teens, Lefty Cacciatore was already making the local papers for his criminal hijinks, catching a pinch on drunk driving charges in 1948 after leading CPD on a high speed police chase. In the following years, he was arrested several dozen times and was alleged to have been a close associate of notorious burglars and stick up men such as Johnny DiFronzo, Paul "Peanuts" Panczko, Steven "Steve The Greek" Tomaras, and Joe D'Argento. The following year, Cacciatore, Guy Mendolia, and Russell Dolce, where apprehended after an intense police chase in Oak Park, where OPPD opened fire on the vehicle of the three armed men -- suspected in the hijacking of an armored car -- and eventually cornered them after a train almost hit the squad car during pursuit. It was probably at this time that Cacciatore was severely beaten by the Oak Park PD, as an account many years later claimed that his eye was permanently damaged in an assault in his youth by the Oak Park PD following an arrest. Later that year, Cacciatore and fellow Grand Ave hoodlum August "Augie" LaCapra (his cousin, Dolores Formento, was married to hoodlum Russell Dolce, noted above) were arrested with Johnny DiFronzo at Hamlin and Chicago Ave in Humboldt Park -- DiFronzo was found in possession of an automatic weapon believed to have been used in the murder of a NW Side tavern owner. In 1950, Cacciatore was arrested when police intervened at the scene of a clothing store burglary in progress near 75th and Cottage Grove on the Southside -- Cacciatore's accomplices escaped the scene after opening fire on CPD, and Cacciatore subsequently refused to name them when authorities attempted to compel him to testify at a grand jury.

In 1952, Cacciatore was one of 19 men rounded up in a CPD "dragnet" investigating mob-directed political violence on the Westside following the assassination of 31st Ward Republican committeeman Charles Gross (at this time, the 31st Ward was Humboldt Park). Others arrested in the same sweep included noted hoodlums Johnny DiFronzo, Leo Guardino, Mario Lupo, Albert Tomasello, Edward Rava, Steve Tomaras, Al Matroci, Nick Catalano, and Michael Malmenato. By this time, the papers reported that Cacciatore had already racked up at least 20 prior arrests on various charges. In 1953, Cacciatore was arrested and questioned along with Steve Tomaras, Frank Guardino, and Eddie Panczko in relation to an incident in which a group of assailants had opened fire on the old Racine Ave police station on the Westside, allegedly in retaliation for CPD crackdowns on the serious problem of burglary and armed robbery rings operating in the area. In 1956, Cacciatore was charged along with Al Matroci for the burglary of P.H. Kroll Jewelers on the Westside; the two were later acquitted on these charges in a 1958 jury trial.

FBI files recorded that Cacciatore was arrested several times in the early 1960s on armed robbery, burglary, hijacking, and cartage theft charges. In late 1967, Cacciatore was arrested along with James "Jimmy Legs" D'Antonio on Federal charges of armed robbery and interfering in interstate commerce for a 1964 hijacking of a large container of furs from a truck at O'Hare airport. Cacciatore's Melrose Park apartment was searched by the FBI, where they recovered an automatic weapon and contact info for a number of mob-connected figures (the DiFronzos, the Spilotros, Joe and Bruno Andriacchi, Joe and Nucci Lombardo, Cheech Furio, Willie Tenuta, and Jack Cerone, among others). Per a memorandum in the FBI file of Richard Scalzitti Cain, Federal CW Mike LaJoy had informed the Feds that Cacciatore, along with Joe D'Argento, Peanuts Panczko, Frank DeLegge Jr, and Thomas "Tom Cheese" Fornarelli, had participated in the fur truck heist, while a truck registered to Jimmy D'Antonio was used in the commission of the robbery. LaJoy further asserted that Cacciatore had participated in several other truck hijackings with the same crew in this period. Although the papers reported that Cacciatore was indicted as part of the large mob-connected hijacking and bank robbery ring targeted by the Feds in December of 1967 -- with LaJoy's court testimony leading to the conviction and imprisonment of Chicago captain Willie Daddano, among other co-conspirators -- later reporting is unclear as to whether Cacciatore was ever actually charged or convicted in this case.

Either way, following this case, Cacciatore seems to have maintained a low profile, subsequently opening Gene's Deli. In his later years, Cacciatore served as close companion and driver for John DiFronzo. With DiFronzo's star rising in the Chicago outfit in the 1970s, one can imagine that Cacciatore's fortunes as an associate of DiFronzo rose commensurately, also motivating the move away from blue collar crimes like hijacking and burglary to the acquisition of legitimate businesses and real estate. Cacciatore operated gene's deli until his death in 2000, at 70 years old. The deli was run by his widow, Jackie Cacciatore, for several years after, until the deli wad closed and the building housing it demolished to make way for a condo development.