The Mystery of Chicago's "Zips": Potential links to Italian OC?

[PolackTony]

Nothing points to Ruggirello specifically owing gambling debts, so far as I know. I’d assume it’s just as likely that he had some investment partners in his business who weren’t getting paid. Based on his business locations over the years one would assume that he had connections to the Cicero crew, but then it turned out the Mandell was likely involved in the murder. Doesn’t mean that Ruggirello was necessarily involved with Grand Ave either, just that Vena had some brutally lethal guys at his beck and call.

We’ll almost certainly never know what actually went down with Ruggirello, but the fact that Governali was staying in Chicago (let’s assume that he wasn’t just hanging out at the local Panera practicing his English on the cashiers) before the whole thing went down and that Ruggirello, apparently without warning or explanation, disinherited his own family to leave everything to Governali makes the Corleone angle very likely. It really doesn’t seem like a flight of fancy to me that both Corleone and Chicago could’ve been involved in this. Which side the order came from, if there was one, is anyone’s guess.

I don’t doubt that LE took this case and its apparent links to both the Outfit and Sicily very seriously (and both local and Federal LE were well aware that Chicago had links to Sicily) but there was never enough to charge anyone or even rule this a murder. If Mandell were going to flip he’d have done it by now. Like Panozzo, this is a guy that is not going to talk and will instead take very heavy time. I’m sure that either of them could’ve easily spilled the beans on Vena and others in the Outfit but didn’t and likely never will. One really has to be impressed with how dangerous and really hardcore these dudes are.

[Patrickgold]

Nothing points to Ruggirello specifically owing gambling debts, so far as I know. I’d assume it’s just as likely that he had some investment partners in his business who weren’t getting paid. Based on his business locations over the years one would assume that he had connections to the Cicero crew, but then it turned out the Mandell was likely involved in the murder. Doesn’t mean that Ruggirello was necessarily involved with Grand Ave either, just that Vena had some brutally lethal guys at his beck and call.

We’ll almost certainly never know what actually went down with Ruggirello, but the fact that Governali was staying in Chicago (let’s assume that he wasn’t just hanging out at the local Panera practicing his English on the cashiers) before the whole thing went down and that Ruggirello, apparently without warning or explanation, disinherited his own family to leave everything to Governali makes the Corleone angle very likely. It really doesn’t seem like a flight of fancy to me that both Corleone and Chicago could’ve been involved in this. Which side the order came from, if there was one, is anyone’s guess.

I don’t doubt that LE took this case and its apparent links to both the Outfit and Sicily very seriously (and both local and Federal LE were well aware that Chicago had links to Sicily) but there was never enough to charge anyone or even rule this a murder. If Mandell were going to flip he’d have done it by now. Like Panozzo, this is a guy that is not going to talk and will instead take very heavy time. I’m sure that either of them could’ve easily spilled the beans on Vena and others in the Outfit but didn’t and likely never will. One really has to be impressed with how dangerous and really hardcore these dudes are.

Did they ever find a cause of death for him? I know they found him dead after the fire but did they ever discover if the fire caused it or if he was dead before the fire. That is weird how he disinherited his family. Could lead to maybe he knew he knew the only way he was going to pay these people back and he had himself killed. Obviously this is only a theory.

[Patrickgold]

Also, does anyone know what Italian social clubs are still in Addison? I know there is one in the same shopping center where demarcos is, not sure of the name though.

[PolackTony]

Nothing points to Ruggirello specifically owing gambling debts, so far as I know. I’d assume it’s just as likely that he had some investment partners in his business who weren’t getting paid. Based on his business locations over the years one would assume that he had connections to the Cicero crew, but then it turned out the Mandell was likely involved in the murder. Doesn’t mean that Ruggirello was necessarily involved with Grand Ave either, just that Vena had some brutally lethal guys at his beck and call.

We’ll almost certainly never know what actually went down with Ruggirello, but the fact that Governali was staying in Chicago (let’s assume that he wasn’t just hanging out at the local Panera practicing his English on the cashiers) before the whole thing went down and that Ruggirello, apparently without warning or explanation, disinherited his own family to leave everything to Governali makes the Corleone angle very likely. It really doesn’t seem like a flight of fancy to me that both Corleone and Chicago could’ve been involved in this. Which side the order came from, if there was one, is anyone’s guess.

I don’t doubt that LE took this case and its apparent links to both the Outfit and Sicily very seriously (and both local and Federal LE were well aware that Chicago had links to Sicily) but there was never enough to charge anyone or even rule this a murder. If Mandell were going to flip he’d have done it by now. Like Panozzo, this is a guy that is not going to talk and will instead take very heavy time. I’m sure that either of them could’ve easily spilled the beans on Vena and others in the Outfit but didn’t and likely never will. One really has to be impressed with how dangerous and really hardcore these dudes are.

Did they ever find a cause of death for him? I know they found him dead after the fire but did they ever discover if the fire caused it or if he was dead before the fire. That is weird how he disinherited his family. Could lead to maybe he knew he knew the only way he was going to pay these people back and he had himself killed. Obviously this is only a theory.

The papers reported that he died of smoke inhalation. If he had made an agreement to have himself offed to pay his debtors back (say, for the sake of argument, if they had been threatening his family or something and this was the only way to get them off his back) that’s not a great way to go, to say the least, which makes me think that it wasn’t “consensual”.

[PolackTony]

Also, does anyone know what Italian social clubs are still in Addison? I know there is one in the same shopping center where demarcos is, not sure of the name though.

No idea, haven’t been in that area in some time. As I stated above, the Corleonesi Society is based there but it’s not exactly a “social club”, of course. Back in the 90s Addison/Bloomingdale was full of social clubs/soccer clubs/cafes, like the ones that were involved in the zip gambling busts, but I have no idea about today.

[Patrickgold]

Also, does anyone know what Italian social clubs are still in Addison? I know there is one in the same shopping center where demarcos is, not sure of the name though.

No idea, haven’t been in that area in some time. As I stated above, the Corleonesi Society is based there but it’s not exactly a “social club”, of course. Back in the 90s Addison/Bloomingdale was full of social clubs/soccer clubs/cafes, like the ones that were involved in the zip gambling busts, but I have no idea about today.

I drive down lake st in Addison often and have only seen one, which is next to Demarcos. From that past article it seems most of them use to be on lake st. They must have moved or closed

[PolackTony]

Between Rocky Infelise, DePietto, and Frank Rappa, Rappa is the only Sicilian. I still need to confirm Rappa's date of death. There was a Frank Rappa who died in Henderson, NV in 2007. Obit had him as a retired restaurateur. This guy was born 1932 in Borgetto, Palermo, married a Margaret Calato in Chicago in 1951, and then naturalized in Chicago in 1955. There were also a number of other Rappas in Chicago from Borgetto. So even if it's not the same guy I might suspect that the Rappa of interest was also from Borgetto.

In a 1984 NY Times article after the Pizza Connection bust, a Francesco Rappa was listed as one of the fugitives.

The Pizza Connection Francesco Rappa from Borgetto lived in the US in the 1970s and into the 1980s. I believe he was in Queens during that period. He might be the same Francesco Rappa who was ID'd in the 2000s as boss of Borgetto.

Borgetto boss Francesco Rappa's son Vito Rappa is a Sicilian mafioso who was living in NYC circa 2007 and facing charges for bribing a US immigration official. He was active with his brother-in-law Francesco Nania. They were indicted with members of the Gambino family and believed to be part of the Gambino "zip" faction.

Early Bonanno consigliere Filippo Rappa (murdered 1945 in Queens) was also from Borgetto and related/connected to the family's earliest leaders from nearby Sicilian towns. I looked into the above figures to find a connection to him and couldn't confirm, but we see the Rappa name is deeply linked with the Borgetto family and the USA.

If this Chicago guy was a mafia figure from Borgetto, he might be connected to some of the above figures in NYC / Borgetto.

Good thread -- interested to see how you unravel some of these mysteries.

Was digging into these Rappas again, after looking into Bonanno consigliere Filippo Rappa a bit. Not sure exactly if/how he connects to later Rappas, but given that the Rappa surname has been well-documented since at least the 1920s with the mafia in Borgetto, I'd have to imagine there's some relation.

There were (at least) two Francesco Rappas from Borgetto who emigrated to Chicago. It's possible that neither was the Francesco Rappa who was arrested in NYC in 1971 for receiving a heroin shipment packed into a Jaguar vehicle, as papers reported that the Rappa in question there was born in 1942 (if they had his age right) -- also still not 100% clear about the Francesco Rappa who became boss of the Borgetto family, though Italian articles state that he was born in the 1940s also.

One Chicago guy, Francesco Timodeo "Frank Timothy" Rappa, was born in Borgetto in 1932 and arrived in the US in 1949, settling in Chicago in 1950. In 1955, he filed his naturalization documents, listing his occupation as a baker. It is well-worth noting that at the time, this Rappa was living at Keeler and Waveland in the Old Irving Park neighborhood on the NW side (near Schurz HS). From 1950 on, Jim DeGeorge's Chicago home was located immediately around the corner, on Kedvale (while we know that DeGoerge temporarily relocated to WI in the late 1940s, FBI intel had DeGeorge as present and living at his Chicago address at least from the 1950s on. My assumption is that he split his time between his WI cattle ranch and his Chicago home). This Rappa I believe is the former restauranteur who died in Henderson, NV, in 2007. In 1951, he married Margaret Calato, born in Chicago to a Little Sicily family of Vicari and Bagheria heritage.

The likely link to DeGeorge could be very significant if this Rappa was connected to the other Rappas (which I think is quite likely, as the same given name will pop up repeatedly in the same family lineage, of course). When the Jaguar/heroin Rappa was put on trial in the 70s, one of their French connects, Richard Verdin, who testified against Rappa and his partners (Lorenzo D'Aloisio, also of Borgetto, and D'Aloisio's brother-in-law, Giuseppe Giacomazzo), stated that their ring was part of a larger ring under the Cinisi mafia that was shipping large quantities of heroin into the US in cars in the late 1960s/early 1970s (later Sicilian investigation in 1974 linked Badalamenti and Tomasso Buscetta to this operation; there's obviously a lot more to that story that I'm not covering here). We know that DeGeorge connected directly to the Cinisi group in Chicago back in the 1930s/40s, to guys like Onofrio Vitale (and presumably, to other Cinisesi operating in Cal City, such as the Impastatos and Manzellas).

The other Francesco Rappa in Chicago was born in 1935 in Borgetto and arrived in Chicago in 1957, having married his wife Rosa Morici the previous year in Borgetto (the only info I have on her is that her father was a Vincenzo Morici who died fighting in WW2; the Rappa-Morici family has been very active socially in the Chicago-Sicilian immigrant community over the last couple of decades [i.e., feste and other events]). This info is per his 1961 naturalization document in Chicago. This Frank Rappa died in Chicagoland in 2020.

According to a 1980 article in the Newark Star-Ledger, the Jaguar/heroin Francesco Rappa entered the US illegally in 1961 (around the same time that the Outfit-connected Salamone family from Cinisi also fled Sicily -- ostensibly because the mafia were stealing their cattle -- and settled in Chicago). He operated a location of Michael Piancone's "Pizza Palace" chain in Woodbridge, NJ. In 1971, he was living in Flushing, QU, with his father-in-law, Michele Gambino, when he was busted for the Jaguar thing and apparently received a 15-year sentence.

Now, I don't know whether this Francesco Rappa was the same individual mentioned in this 1982 Daytona Beach Morning Journal article:


To be clear, there is no "Schlumberg, IL". This is the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, and there are records that the Frank Rappa born in 1935 who emigrated to Chicago in 1957 had a past address in Schaumburg (with respect to Giuseppe Randazzo, there were also Rappas in Chicago from Borgetto married to Randazzos, and the Salamones from Cinisi had/have Randazzo relatives as well). In this light, it's worth reposting this from an early post in this thread:

According to a Daily Herald article published during the Rosemont casino saga with Vito Salamone:

[…] Salamone is "close" to Frank Rappa and Marco D'Amico, [an FBI] report charged. D'Amico is a bookmaker, the report said, and Rappa, it said, was affiliated with the mob both here and in Sicily and dealt cocaine. He left the Chicago area in 1967 but returned in 1984. At the same time he returned, the report noted, there was a marked increase in Sicilian cocaine dealers in Elmwood Park, Addison and Itasca. In 1971, Rappa was arrested at Kennedy Airport in New York with 80 kilograms of heroin [.]

Now, the Daily Herald article does make it seem that either the FBI report that they cite believed that the Chicago Frank Rappa was the same individual as the 1971 Jaguar/Woodbridge Rappa who was a Cherry Hill Gambino in-law, or that at least the Daily Herald reporters thought so (I'd very much like to see this report myself). Maybe this Frank Rappa was a relative of but not identical to either of the Chicago Rappas I discussed above, but who was also connected to Chicago. Or, the naturalization that he filed in Chicago in 1961 (the same year that it is later stated that Francesco Rappa entered the US illegally) was falsified (shocking, I know). If it was the case that he returned to Chicago in 1984, then it seems pretty unlikely that he was the Pizza Connection fugitive Rappa who then probably became boss of Borgetto. But then, if that Pizza Connection guy was a fugitive, why was he never extradited by Italian authorities to face trial in the US? And if the Francesco Rappa who was busted in Sicily in 1982 was a fugitive from Chicago, did he somehow return to the US in 1984?

I'm not an expert, by any means, on either the Cherry Hill Gambino and Bonanno zip guys from this era; nor am I an expert on the Pizza Connection stuff, apart from looking a bit into the local Chicago/Rockford-area Sicilian-immigrant connections that Pietro Alfano and people around him have had. So, maybe someone else who knows more about these dynamics can figure out what the deal was with this/these Rappa/s. But, at the moment at least, things seem to suggest that the Jaguar/Gambino Rappa could've been the Rappa born in 1935 who initially emigrated to Chicago and then returned in 1984. That guy was very likely a cousin of the other Francesco Rappa, born in 1932. Either way, in the '80s, the FBI and local LE were well-aware that Chicago, Rockford, and adjacent areas in Northern IL had a bunch of Sicilian drug activity tied to both Sicilian Cosa Nostra and local LCN; exact involvement of Rappa, possibly via connections including D'Amico and Infelise, remains opaque, though (per the Daily Herald) this FBI correlated the Chicago-area activity to Rappa's return in 1984. To conclude, given that I just brought up Infelise (and he also figures, along with Rappa, in a number of posts in this thread), it's also worth noting that an FBI informant in the early 1980s stated that the Torello/Ferriola crew was actively involved in financing narcotics operations for the Outfit in the 1970s and 80s. During this period, both Infelise and D'Amico were associates with that crew, of course.

[B.]

The Piancones were "with" the Colombo Family and not even Sicilian. For whatever reason they played a big role in employing the Sicilian zips despite the Colombos having little to no direct involvement.

[PolackTony]

The Piancones were "with" the Colombo Family and not even Sicilian. For whatever reason they played a big role in employing the Sicilian zips despite the Colombos having little to no direct involvement.

Yeah, I haven’t looked into the Piancones’ ancestry, but I’d bet it’s a Pugliese surname.

[B.]

Yep they're from Corato, Bari.

If I remember right they were on record with one of the NJ-based Profaci cousins but no clue how they went from that to helping out Sicilian mafia members and Gambino / Bonanno zips. These relationships are often a lot simpler than we imagine.

DeCavalcante leader Joe Merlo Jr. was listed as a top salesman for Roma in his recent obit. Crazy how many people were connected to the Piancones over the years. They're sort of a modern version of one of those mafia-linked "super companies" we read about from generations ago.

[PolackTony]

Yep they're from Corato, Bari.

As in directly from Bari? Goes without saying that were/are a ton of Baresi in Chicago and according to the FBI, Sicilian Cosa Nostra members were working with Baresi SCU people moving drugs for the Outfit in the 80s/90s (we also see the Sicilian-Barese connection in Chicago with the suburban gambling busts in the 90s). Could be significant given Rappa’s connection with the Piancones as well as his apparent connection with Chicago narcotics operations.

[B.]

As in directly from Bari?

Luigi Piancone came to the US in 1951. From the Roma site:

The story of Roma starts with Louis G. Piancone who left his home of Corato, Italy, and headed for the United States in 1951 at the age of 20. After several years working at a delicatessen in New Jersey and delivering cheese, Piancone decided to pursue his own American dream and opened a deli in Bradley Beach, New Jersey, in 1955.

After noticing a need for wholesale distribution of quality Italian products in the area, Piancone switched his focus. In 1964, he sold the retail side of his business and began importing the Italian products he knew and loved to sell to area restaurants. Roma Food was born.

[PolackTony]

As in directly from Bari?

Luigi Piancone came to the US in 1951. From the Roma site:

The story of Roma starts with Louis G. Piancone who left his home of Corato, Italy, and headed for the United States in 1951 at the age of 20. After several years working at a delicatessen in New Jersey and delivering cheese, Piancone decided to pursue his own American dream and opened a deli in Bradley Beach, New Jersey, in 1955.

After noticing a need for wholesale distribution of quality Italian products in the area, Piancone switched his focus. In 1964, he sold the retail side of his business and began importing the Italian products he knew and loved to sell to area restaurants. Roma Food was born.

Thanks. In later decades, some of Lou Piancone’s partners also came to the realization that the US had a need for “quality wholesale products”, clearly.

[PolackTony]

1985 Sun-Times article reporting that Cicero pizzeria owner Domenico Lo Cascio had been kidnapped and disappeared in Sicily in 1983:



Al's Restaurant and Pizzeria, aka Alessandro's (named after Domenico's son Alessandro), opened on Cermak Rd in the magic year of 1961. Not entirely sure if Domenico Lo Cascio actually ever turned up alive or not. In the '90s. when Al's was reported to be associated with Outfit-linked corrupt Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese (and, naturally, receiving parking exemptions from the Town as "members of the clergy"), the Tribune cited the operator as a Dominick LoCascio, though I think that was Domenico's grandson, Alessandro's son, and the current owner of the Al's location in Palos Heights. Given that other evidence points to the later owners of Al's in Cicero as Alessandro LoCascio and his mother Carmela Lombardo (died in 2008), Domenico's wife, I'm thinking that Domenico may have been murdered while back in Sicily. There were a number of Lo Cascios in Chicago from Altavilla Milicia, so these Lo Cascios could be from there as well.

From what I can tell, a relative of Domenico Lo Cascio, Paola Lo Cascio (not sure if daughter or sister), married the Joe Greco of Palermo Bakery in Norridge. I'm not 100% certain, but my guess is that these Grecos are related to the well-known Grecos of the Greco and Son's food business empire (e.g., Eddie Greco, long rumored to be an Outfit associate. Bokabreeze also once posted a photo on Reddit of Sam Greco hanging out with Rocky Lombardo and Jimmy Inendino). Notably, current reputed Chicago made member Matteo LoBue (from Trabia), the CEO of RFD Foods, a division of Bellissimo Foods, who are a featured vendor for Greco and Sons, is also listed as the President of Greco and Sons. Eddie Greco has been stated (on the old ANP comments) to be close to Sardinian-Chicago business impressario Benvenuto "Benny" Siddu (owner of the Volare restaurants and the Via Volare Import company). This is true, at least to the extent that Siddu is friends on FB with Eddie and a number of other Grecos (he's also FB buddies with alleged current made member Jason Nitti). Siddu was also linked in the past to Italian immigrant cop and Outfit associate Renato "Ray" DiSilvestro, as well as alleged to have personally been close to Marco D'Amico. All of this goes to at least suggest that the LoCascios were/are probably at least within the social circles of the mafia both in Chicago and Sicily.

[B.]

LoCascio was the name of the Profacis' alleged relatives in Chicago but I don't know their first names or hometown. Tom Hunt's article indicates interrelation between Villabate and Bagheria clans connected to Profaci (specifically the Zarcones). We know how big the Greco name is in the Ciaculli and Croceverde mafia right next to these towns.