Chicago Outfit Places of Origin

[Patrickgold]

Interesting that Condic lived in the New Port Richey area and was said to frequent the Acquafredda’s casino who was connected to the Gambinos. Most of the Chicago guys ended up on the Miami side. It also said that Condic let it be known that he was affiliated with Ron DeAngelis. As far as I know, DeAngelis was just an associate. It also said that Chicago gave the word that Cascio would not be allowed to own his own club. He could only work at Kings Court or manage a second club.

Another Chicago guy mentioned was named Jimmy Falzone. I never really heard him. He owned a club close to Kings Court and was upset that Kings Court was taking business away from him. Besides being from Chicago, I am not sure if he was connected with the Outfit because the book never mentions it. It says he was a local tough guy that was originally from Chicago. Anyone hear of this guy?

I made a mistake. Cascio was not killed by his girlfriend. He was killed by a neighbor who claimed Cascio made a move on his 17 year old girlfriend. See article link below

https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1990/1 ... ving-time/

[PolackTony]

As a young adult, Tolomeo lived in North Austin on the Westside (on Lemoyne by Central; i.e., Sam DeStefano and Spilotro-land). So a connection to guys from the Battaglia/Lombardo crew makes perfect sense. As a young kid, however, Tolomeo lived at 31st and Shields, in Armour Square. His father was Antonino Trovato, who was born in Buenos Aires, apparently to parents from Nicosia, Enna; the Chinatown/Bridgeport area had a significant colony of Nicosiani.

Just to follow-up on Philly Beans. As stated, his original surname was Trovato. Tolomeo came from his stepfather Rosario "John" Tolomeo, who Philly's mother Mamie Villarosa married in 1935, when Philly was 8 (hence, apparently, the move up from the Southside to the NW Side). Mamie Villarosa was born in Chicago to parents from Nicosia and raised first in Chinatown and then Armour Square (her family also lived at 31st and Shields). John Tolomeo was born in Chicago to parents from Ficarazzi and Termini Imerese and raised on the Near Northside/Little Sicily. One thing that comes to mind here is that Chicago member Giuseppe "Joe" Priola (father of Rockford member Phil Priola) was from Ficarazzi, and prior to moving to the Near Northside had initially lived in Chinatown (where he may have befriended the family of Ross Prio's future wife, Marie Teramani). One of John's sisters, Rosaria "Sarah" Tolomeo, married a Giuseppe Aiello from Santa Flavia (worth noting also that another brother married a German-American woman named Seifert, though I'm not sure if she had any relation to Danny Seifert).

[Patrickgold]

At the end of the book they have some charts. I attached them to this post. As you can see, the pizza connection is talked about im this book too

[PolackTony]

Interesting that Condic lived in the New Port Richey area and was said to frequent the Acquafredda’s casino who was connected to the Gambinos. Most of the Chicago guys ended up on the Miami side. It also said that Condic let it be known that he was affiliated with Ron DeAngelis. As far as I know, DeAngelis was just an associate. It also said that Chicago gave the word that Cascio would not be allowed to own his own club. He could only work at Kings Court or manage a second club.

Another Chicago guy mentioned was named Jimmy Falzone. I never really heard him. He owned a club close to Kings Court and was upset that Kings Court was taking business away from him. Besides being from Chicago, I am not sure if he was connected with the Outfit because the book never mentions it. It says he was a local tough guy that was originally from Chicago. Anyone hear of this guy?

I made a mistake. Cascio was not killed by his girlfriend. He was killed by a neighbor who claimed Cascio made a move on his 17 year old girlfriend. See article link below

https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1990/1 ... ving-time/

Cascio, I don't doubt, was a scumbag who probably got what was coming to him.

Most of the Chicago guys did seem to congregate on the East Coast of Florida, though we know that Chicago did have longstanding and close ties to Trafficante. Seems like the issue in the Cascio case was that the Lucchese guys considered the area that he was operating in as their territory and were wary of Chicago trying to muscle in on it.

BTW, Condic died in 1988. It may be completely unrelated, but years later, in 2002, Tony Carcione and Chicago-Barese zip Ottavio Volpe were pinched for a murder/robbery of a wealthy elderly woman in New port Richie (I covered this on the "Chicago zips" thread before). after he was released from prison for one of the 1990s busts related to the Sicilian and Baresi-controlled gambling operations in the Western Burbs, Volpe relocated to New Port Richie where he opened a bakery called "La Cosa Nostra" (I guess these guys just can't resist it), where he first met the victim as a customer and set her up for the robbery. Given Mike Condic's association with New Port Richie, also worth noting that Ottavio Volpe was the husband of Renee Fecarotta (of Chicago Mob Wives "fame"). Clearly, the tentacles of the Bridgeport Octopus have a long reach.

[B.]

The Chicago guys spent a lot of time in Miami Beach like basically every mafia snowbird. Can think of one instance where Cerone was surveilled having dinner with Philly and Genovese members.

[PolackTony]

Since he came up as part of the truck hijacking ring with Michele and Rocco DeStefano that involved Dominick and Peter Panzica, I have Ralph Buglio as born in 1897 in Chicago. His father was Nicola Buglio of Teggiano, Salerno, near the border with Potenza (Teggiano and the neighboring comune of Sala Consilina had a sizeable settlement on Chicago's Southside) and his mother was Josephine Manuel, born in Chicago. According to several documents, she stated that her father was from North Carolina and her mother was from Germany, though I wasn't able to confirm her parents' ancestry myself. In 1900, the Buglios lived at 25th and State on the Near Southside. Nicola died in 1908, and in 1910 Josephine was living with Ralph and his siblings on the 5000 block of S Armour in Back of the Yards. Interestingly, the census taker recorded the race of Josephine and her kids as "mulatto" (the US census dropped that racial category after 1920). The family lived on a block that was a mix of Italians along with many people recorded as black and/or mulatto (all the other individuals recorded as "mulatto" had Anglo names and roots in Southern states, while all of the Italians were recorded as "white"). In other documents, Josephine Manuel's race is given as white. In 1930, her and son Frank Buglio lived on the 4900 block of S Federal (where the DeStefano's liquor warehouse and HQ was located) in the overwhelmingly black Bronzeville neighborhood, where every neighbor on the block apart from one Italian family was recorded as "n*gro" (in the 1930 census the "mulatto" and "black" categories were collapsed into "n*gro") [apparently the forum doesn't allow one to type the word "n*gro", not sure what Spanish speakers are supposed to do, lol]. This entire area around Federal was later demolished for the construction of the massive Robert Taylor Homes housing projects.

Her apparent parental ancestry from North Carolina certainly makes it possible that she could've been of partly African ancestry, of course, and perhaps otherwise "passed" as white. Either that or the census taker made a mistake. Either way, Ralph Buglio was not full Italian.

[Antiliar]

Interesting. I thought Buglio might have been an early made guy, possibly connected with Rocco DeGrazia's crew in Melrose Park. If course in Chicago you never know.

[PolackTony]

Interesting. I thought Buglio might have been an early made guy, possibly connected with Rocco DeGrazia's crew in Melrose Park. If course in Chicago you never know.

Yeah, he certainly seemed to have had the rep that leads one to think he may have been made. Maybe he wasn't, though. Or maybe he was and the Outfit either didn't know about his mother (maybe he just told people that his family was Salernitan' and that was good enough) or did and didn't care. Given the general scarcity of half-Italians confirmed as Chicago members, my guess is that either he wasn't made but was an important associate, or he was made and they didn't know.

Why DeGrazia? Buglio spent his whole life on the Southside, so far as I know, and was clearly associated with the DeStefanos (his mother and brother even living next to their HQ on South Federal; the DeStefanos lived on the next block up).

[Antiliar]

Interesting. I thought Buglio might have been an early made guy, possibly connected with Rocco DeGrazia's crew in Melrose Park. If course in Chicago you never know.

Yeah, he certainly seemed to have had the rep that leads one to think he may have been made. Maybe he wasn't, though. Or maybe he was and the Outfit either didn't know about his mother (maybe he just told people that his family was Salernitan' and that was good enough) or did and didn't care. Given the general scarcity of half-Italians confirmed as Chicago members, my guess is that either he wasn't made but was an important associate, or he was made and they didn't know.

Why DeGrazia? Buglio spent his whole life on the Southside, so far as I know, and was clearly associated with the DeStefanos (his mother and brother even living next to their HQ on South Federal; the DeStefanos lived on the next block up).

I believe a certain document focusing on Melrose Park placed him there, but I could be wrong. I hadn't followed up on him. I intended to, but you beat me to it.

[PolackTony]

Interesting. I thought Buglio might have been an early made guy, possibly connected with Rocco DeGrazia's crew in Melrose Park. If course in Chicago you never know.

Yeah, he certainly seemed to have had the rep that leads one to think he may have been made. Maybe he wasn't, though. Or maybe he was and the Outfit either didn't know about his mother (maybe he just told people that his family was Salernitan' and that was good enough) or did and didn't care. Given the general scarcity of half-Italians confirmed as Chicago members, my guess is that either he wasn't made but was an important associate, or he was made and they didn't know.

Why DeGrazia? Buglio spent his whole life on the Southside, so far as I know, and was clearly associated with the DeStefanos (his mother and brother even living next to their HQ on South Federal; the DeStefanos lived on the next block up).

I believe a certain document focusing on Melrose Park placed him there, but I could be wrong. I hadn't followed up on him. I intended to, but you beat me to it.

I don't recall seeing Buglio mentioned in that document, maybe I missed it or the name was butchered (there was a Tony Bagno in MP mentioned, closest that I recall seeing to Buglio). My assumption is that he was either a member or associate of the D'Andrea/Roti crew.

The earliest mention of Buglio in the press that I'm aware of was following the 1920 Mossie Enright murder, when Buglio's car was ID in the hit. Jimmy Vinci told investigators that he, Buglio, Mike Carrozzo, Vincenzo Cosmano, and Big Tim Murphy were involved in the Enright hit. At the time, Buglio was described as a dues collector for the Street Sweepers Union under Dago Mike. Later articles, of course, mention him as a Capone enforcer/"beer baron", and the guys mentioned in connection with him in later activities are the DeStefanos and Joe Fusco (in the early 1950s, before his death in 1952, Buglio was living in the Grand Crossing neighborhood on the Southside, where Fusco, Guzik, and Humphreys also lived at that time and very near to where Phil D'Andrea's father and brother lived).

BTW, I have Vincenzo Cosmano as born in Molochio, Reggio Calabria. The Vincis were also from Reggio province, and it's interesting that they were connected as later on we see almost no guys with ancestry from Reggio province in the Chicago mafia (there just weren't that many of them in Chicago, compared to the large numbers of Calabresi from Cosenza, Catanzaro, and Vibo Valentia provinces). Like Buglio and the DeStefanos, Cosmano also lived on S Federal.

[Antiliar]

Yes, I probably interpreted Bagno as Buglio. A lot of names are misspelled in that document, and the two surnames are similar. Sometimes it's hit and miss.

Re Cosmano, a lot of books assert that he was Sicilian. I did look into his background and just about everything they wrote about him was false.

[PolackTony]

Re Cosmano, a lot of books assert that he was Sicilian. I did look into his background and just about everything they wrote about him was false.

Maybe people confused his surname with “Cusumano”. The surname Cosmano, OTOH, is concentrated specifically in Molochio, Reggio Calabria, which is where Vincenzo Cosmano was from based on my info.

Any guesses as to who “Bagno” could’ve been? Haven’t been able to match that name to anyone thus far. Could’ve been Bagnola or something else, though Bagno is also Polish surname FWIW.

[Antiliar]

It turns out that I already had info on Tony Bagno. It was alias for Tony Bagnolia, AKA "Mouth." According to one report, he was 50 in 1931/32 and used to bodyguard for John Torrio. He was close to Capone and Willie Heeney. He was allegedly the man who notified Capone that Ragtime Joe Howard attacked Jack Guzik and badmouthed Al Capone.

In 1920, Bagnolia lived at 216 West Twenty-fourth Street in Chinatown. He was under indictment for shooting John Norris, evidently targeting a Dan Carboni. Mario Gomes says that his real name was James Russell Bagnolia, AKA Tony Bagno. There's a WWI draft registration card that matches the 1920 article. It says he was foreign born on Feb 24, 1884, and married to Marie Bagnolia. Ostensibly he was a fireman. He married Marie Helmer in Chicago in 1916. In 1930 he lived at 1350 Hood Street with his wife and nephew. The census record says that he arrived in 1889 and his occupation was cigar store clerk. According to his WWII draft card, his name was Anthony Bagnuolo. He lived at 75 West Jackson (in the Loop) in 1942. There's also a 1900 census in Chicago (511 S. Clark St.) for Vito Bangoli, his wife Vitantonia, and their children, including Nufrio (Anthony). His death record indicates that he died on July 31, 1960, and his mother's maiden name was Parrillo.

There's a gravestone in Winona, Minnesota that bears the name of Anthony Bagnolia, 1884-1960, but his wife's name was Stella Buchon. The Winona Daily News indicates that this is a match. It says that he died in his Chicago home, but he married (remarried) to Stella Buchon of Winona. His sisters were Mrs. Donata Frieri and Mrs. Della Serritella. The Munster (Indiana) Times indicates that he married Stella Lewis at Crown Point in June 1942. Vito and the other Bagnolias arrived around 1889 when most passenger arrivals did not name the town they came from, but most other Chicagoans with that surname (or Bagnuolo) came from Ricigliano, Salerno.

[PolackTony]

It turns out that I already had info on Tony Bagno. It was alias for Tony Bagnolia, AKA "Mouth." According to one report, he was 50 in 1931/32 and used to bodyguard for John Torrio. He was close to Capone and Willie Heeney. He was allegedly the man who notified Capone that Ragtime Joe Howard attacked Jack Guzik and badmouthed Al Capone.

In 1920, Bagnolia lived at 216 West Twenty-fourth Street in Chinatown. He was under indictment for shooting John Norris, evidently targeting a Dan Carboni. Mario Gomes says that his real name was James Russell Bagnolia, AKA Tony Bagno. There's a WWI draft registration card that matches the 1920 article. It says he was foreign born on Feb 24, 1884, and married to Marie Bagnolia. Ostensibly he was a fireman. He married Marie Helmer in Chicago in 1916. In 1930 he lived at 1350 Hood Street with his wife and nephew. The census record says that he arrived in 1889 and his occupation was cigar store clerk. According to his WWII draft card, his name was Anthony Bagnuolo. He lived at 75 West Jackson (in the Loop) in 1942. There's also a 1900 census in Chicago (511 S. Clark St.) for Vito Bangoli, his wife Vitantonia, and their children, including Nufrio (Anthony). His death record indicates that he died on July 31, 1960, and his mother's maiden name was Parrillo.

There's a gravestone in Winona, Minnesota that bears the name of Anthony Bagnolia, 1884-1960, but his wife's name was Stella Buchon. The Winona Daily News indicates that this is a match. It says that he died in his Chicago home, but he married (remarried) to Stella Buchon of Winona. His sisters were Mrs. Donata Frieri and Mrs. Della Serritella. The Munster (Indiana) Times indicates that he married Stella Lewis at Crown Point in June 1942. Vito and the other Bagnolias arrived around 1889 when most passenger arrivals did not name the town they came from, but most other Chicagoans with that surname (or Bagnuolo) came from Ricigliano, Salerno.

Thanks for the great summary. I thought that there was someone named Bagnoulo/Bagnola that was connected back in the day but didn't have any further info. I agree that the surname Bagnuolo would almost certainly be Riciglianes'. After Taylor St, the majority of Richies settled in Chinatown/Bridgeport, so that also fits. The fact that his sister married a Serritella further reinforces this, as "Richies" in Chicago were said to mainly marry each other, often even a generation or two after settlement (my own genealogical research has suggested that this reputation wasn't ill-founded).

Too bad Tony Mouth didn't work with a guy named Jimmy Ears, they could've had a one-way conversation all day.

EDIT: The MN obituary match was a good find. Confirmed that "Tony Bagnolia's" sister Della Serritella was the Vitella Bagnuolo/"Bagnoli" who married Giuseppe Serritella in 1902. She appears on the 1900 census that you noted. That census also suggests that Tony's birth name may have been Onofrio. Parents were Vito Bagnuolo and Vitantonia Parrillo, so it all matches. Per his death record, Vito was, of course, from Ricigliano, and I don't think there's any doubt that Vitantonia was as well. Younger sister Donata married a Michele Frieri who was born in Detroit to parents who were almost certainly from Ricigliano (his mother was also a Bagnuolo); they named one of their sons Anthony Onofrio Frieri (another son, Joseph Frieri, was living with her brother Tony "Bagnolia" on the 1930 census you mentioned). BTW, the 1350 W Hood Ave address in 1930 for Tony is interesting, as it's in the Far Northside Edgewater neighborhood and completely out of the range of other addresses that Tony Bagnolia or his relatives had (maybe his wife was from up there); worth noting that, IIRC, the Vincis owned property very near there, by Ridge and Peterson, and the Vincis were, of course, also associated with the Chinatown area.

[Antiliar]

I haven't looked them up, but I wonder of Joseph Serritella was related to some of the other better-known Serritellas, or if Vitantonia Parrillo Bagnolia was related to Republican politician William Parrillo, the father of Don Parrillo.