Understanding Chicago

[Villain]

I read aiuppa fbi file and in it they said who are you working for and he said you know who I work for Maddox! I was very surprised aiuppa would tell the feds anything

Yup thats right but the situation occurred in 1935 when seven gangsters including Aiuppa, were arrested regarding various hold-ups on golf clubs in Chicago. Aiuppa was aksed who he was working for, he answered “You know me, I’m working for Johnny Moore” (Maddox). Story goes that within few minutes Aiuppa and the rest of the gangsters were released.

[Pete]

I read aiuppa fbi file and in it they said who are you working for and he said you know who I work for Maddox! I was very surprised aiuppa would tell the feds anything

Yup thats right but the situation occurred in 1935 when seven gangsters including Aiuppa, were arrested regarding various hold-ups on golf clubs in Chicago. Aiuppa was aksed who he was working for, he answered “You know me, I’m working for Johnny Moore” (Maddox). Story goes that within few minutes Aiuppa and the rest of the gangsters were released.

Maybe it’s just cause I know about later interactions he had with the fbi. Good article

No, this post isn’t about some restaurant in Chicago with great Buffalo wings and baby back ribs.

It’s about a guy who went by Joey O’Brien, Joey Doves, the Old Man — a reference to the late Joseph J. Aiuppa (left), the Outfit’s top boss from the early 1970s to the mid-1980s.

He’s a man the FBI believes ordered scores of murders in numerous states from Illinois to California during his dozen or so years in the top spot. A man who had little respect for human life. A mean old bastard who looked like a mean old bastard.

The FBI was pretty much right on all counts.

On August 7, 1976, the hacked-up remains of has-been, legendary Los Angeles and Las Vegas gangster Johnny Rosselli were found stuffed into a sealed, 55-gallon steel drum floating in an inlet of water near North Miami Beach, Florida. He’d been missing for more than a week.

He’d been strangled to death. A gag was in his mouth, and a rope was still looped and knotted around his neck. His killer or killers also shot him in the chest. For killers, rigor mortis can be a bitch. Rosselli literally turned into a stiff before he was put in the barrel. In order to make him fit, his legs were cut off and put in the drum with him.




Johnny Rosselli had once been a made member of the Los Angeles Mafia family. But that was a long time ago. In early 1956, Los Angeles Mafia boss Jack Dragna died and Frank DeSimone, a man Rosselli didn’t like, became the boss. Rosselli told DeSimone straight out that he was going to leave the LA family and join the Outfit.

Rosselli met with his good friend, Sam Giancana — the Outfit’s newly-anointed top boss — and transferred his membership from the LA family to the Outfit. Giancana put Rosselli in charge of the Outfit’s secret interests in Las Vegas casinos.

Ten years later, in 1966, Giancana fled Chicago for Mexico after the FBI drove him bananas. Rosselli lost his prestige and slowly drifted down the ranks to just another Outfit guy.

Nine years later, in 1975, Giancana was murdered in the basement of his Oak Park, Illinois, home. Now Rosselli lost for good the one man in the Outfit he trusted.

A year later, his body was found in the barrel.

On the afternoon of August 20, 1976, two FBI agents pulled over across the street from 4 Yorkshire Drive in Oak Brook, Illinois. The homeowner was Joey Aiuppa, then the Outfit’s top boss and the man who ordered Rosselli’s murder.

The agents no doubt had their suspicions Aiuppa ordered the Rosselli hit, but they weren’t certain — not yet. FBI headquarters in Washington leaned more towards the CIA, Cubans, and pro-Castro and -Commie sympathizers committing an act of revenge rather than a Mafia hit.

The agents spotted Aiuppa moving a car in his driveway. Four men were busy repaving part of the driveway. The agents approached the driver’s side of the car just as Aiuppa was getting out. They said they wanted to ask him questions about the murder of Johnny Rosselli.

“I respect you gentleman,” Aiuppa said, “and I don’t want to insult your intelligence, but I won’t answer any questions.”

They told him they didn’t want to talk about him. They wanted to ask questions about Rosselli’s past association with the CIA and Mission Impossible-like plots in the early 1960s to kill Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. They wondered if he thought that played a role in Rosselli’s murder since Miami included the largest Cuban community in the U.S.

“The questions don’t matter,” he said, evenly. “I got nothing to say.”

The agents were nothing if not persistent.

Being who he was, one of them said, they’d like to ask him hundreds of questions, but were now only interested in whether or not he believed the CIA or Commies played a role in Rosselli’s murder.

“I have nothing to say about it.”

Trying to at least continue the conversation, one of the agents — Duncan Everett, a veteran organized-crime investigator — engaged Aiuppa in some friendly banter. It was the kind of conversation he knew Aiuppa would be interested in, and still the kind of conversation where he could let Aiuppa know he knew a lot about him.

“I understand you’re quite a bird hunter,” noted Everett.

“Yeah, they got me with about seven-hundred in my car.”

In October 1962, Aiuppa was caught in possession of hundreds of slaughtered mourning doves killed during a hunting trip in Kansas. They were seized from the trunk of his car shortly after he arrived back at his Elmhurst, Illinois, home. He was in violation of migratory game laws. This incident not only cost him a three-month jail sentence, it also earned him a nickname: “Joey Doves.”

“It was five-hundred-and-six over the limit of twenty-four,” Everett replied, matter-of-factly.

“Oh, you know about that,” Aiuppa said with a smirk.

Then Everett pointed to statues of pointer bird dogs at the entrance of the walkway to his home.

“You apparently like bird dogs.”

“Yes. I have two.”

“You should visit my home area, the sand hills of North Carolina. There’s plenty of quail there.”

Aiuppa said he knew the area.

“There’s no places around here you can bird hunt,” Aiuppa acknowledged, sadly.

“Don’t you have a quail hunting preserve down in St. Anne’s?” Everett asked, already knowing the answer.

“You know about that, too, huh?”

“If the circumstances were not what they are, I’d take you on my next skeet shoot. See how good a shot you are,” the agent said to the mob boss, who not only loved to hunt but was a reputed underworld gunman as a younger man.

“I’m pretty good, but you should take my wife. She’s a very good shot.”

Too much of a good thing is sometimes just that, too much of a good thing. The agents felt it was time to cut the interview.

“Mr. Aiuppa,” Everett said, “I want to leave you my card. It has my name and the FBI telephone number. If in your good conscience after we leave you feel there is something you should have told us, give me a call.”

“I’ll be glad to have your card, but I got nothing to say.”

The mob boss accepted the card. Then he was back to all smiles and ribs.

“You gentlemen are welcome any time. Come by any time at all.”

The agents politely thanked Aiuppa for talking to them. Then they turned around and began walking back to their car.

As the agents were crossing the street, Aiuppa called out, “Maybe I’ll see you in your home area.”

Everett turned back around.

“You know anything about Pinehurst?”

“Sure, I do,” he said, a big shit-eating grim still plastered across his face.

They continued to their car and drove away.

Aiuppa had more to say about the Rosselli murder days later when he met with Rosselli’s good friend, Jimmy “the Weasel” Fratianno, then an acting boss running the LA family. They were discussing mob business when all the sudden Aiuppa decided to feel Fratianno out about Rosselli.

Aiuppa started waving his index finger in a circle near his head like a guy trying to remember something.

“By the way,” Aiuppa said, looking Fratianno directly in the eyes, “do you remember that guy — what the fuck’s his name — you know, the guy they found in a barrel in Florida?”

“Oh yeah,” Fratianno said, knowing what Aiuppa was up to, “what’s his name. I know the guy.”

“You know, he got clipped down there. Used to be a friend of Sam. Don’t you remember his name?”

“Oh, you mean Johnny Rosselli.”

“Yeah, yeah. Johnny Rosselli. What do you think of that?”

Fratianno and Rosselli were best friends. Fratianno knew if he did or said the wrong thing, he’d be killed, too. He knew he had to act like it didn’t bother him that his friend ended up hacked to pieces in a barrel.

“Well, Joey,” he finally replied, “it’s one of them things, so he’s dead.”

Aiuppa definitely ordered the Rosselli killing. It wasn’t some vengeful Commie or a CIA hit job. A mean old bastard from Chicago was responsible for the body in the barrel.

The FBI eventually found out he was behind it, especially after Jimmy Fratianno flipped in 1977 following his indictment on capital murder charges back in his hometown of Cleveland.

“Joey Doves” Aiuppa — a mean old bastard who liked to kill birds and tease people.
J.P. at 7:48 PM
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[B.]

Is that the full source for Alex being on a ruling panel? It shows Alex was important and trusted by Accardo but it's fairly vague.

When Joe Massino was in prison, he used non-Italian lawyer Tommy Lee to promote Vincent Basciano to acting boss and send messages concerning other family affairs, even murder contracts involving Basciano. No doubt Alex had worlds more influence and authority than Lee, but there are examples of non-members/non-Italians being used to direct high-level affairs in other cities without actually being members.

--

Glad we agree on those above points!

But didn't he use Lee for the purpose of taking advantage of the attorney-client privilege and the privacy of communication?

I'm not out to say Lee was the defacto acting boss of the Bonannos, only that the official boss of the family used a non-Italian lawyer to promote Basciano to acting boss, carry messages relevant to the internal workings of the Bonanno family, and even discuss murder contracts with Basciano on behalf of Massino. The comparison ends there, but it does fit the theme we see with all of these figures, whether it is Meyer Lansky, Joe Watts, Milton Rockman, Tommy Lee, or the Chicago non-Italian figures -- they were all authorized by the official mafia boss in each family to conduct high-level affairs with mafia members. The mafia members of each organization accepted it because the boss authorized those individuals. It's a similar process even if the individual non-Italians were not equivalent to each other in terms of merit/stature/activities.

[UTC]

I didn't think you were positing Lee as the de facto boss, and am not challenging your overall point. I just thought Lee was closer to being a messenger than the other non-Italian figures we've mentioned, who were regular operational executives, but his role is certainly not inconsistent with the general theme.

[Villain]

I read aiuppa fbi file and in it they said who are you working for and he said you know who I work for Maddox! I was very surprised aiuppa would tell the feds anything

Yup thats right but the situation occurred in 1935 when seven gangsters including Aiuppa, were arrested regarding various hold-ups on golf clubs in Chicago. Aiuppa was aksed who he was working for, he answered “You know me, I’m working for Johnny Moore” (Maddox). Story goes that within few minutes Aiuppa and the rest of the gangsters were released.

Maybe it’s just cause I know about later interactions he had with the fbi. Good article

Thanks

[Villain]

.

B read this...

Lawrence Mangano/William O'Donnell crew

This was one of those rare Outfit's groups, in which the non-Italians were more like a sub-crew, since it was headed by a Sicilian leader. It means that this was more of a CN traditional crew where the non-Italians answered to their Italian caporegime, instead of reporting directly to the Outfits boss or underboss.

At the beginning the whole crew was headed by one old time Sicilian mobster known as Lawrence Mangano from the West Side, who by the late 1920s joined the Capone Mob and later became a capo. According to some reports, dont know if true, he was allegedly related to the Vincent Mangano family in New York.

The other part of the crew was headed by another old time West Side Irish racketeer who went by the name of William O'Donnell. The so-called O'Donnell gang was created during the start of Prohibition on Chicagos West Side, and in a short time period they made an alliance with the John Torrio mob from the South, and this alliance opened another door for the Torrio mob to that same area.

Later when Capone became the boss, he had several top representatives around West Side area, including Mangano and according to sources or should i say my own research, the so-called West Side faction was more traditional and very rarerly, almost never, had a non-Italian as a crew boss with his own crew made out both made members and non-Italians, such as the previous examples. It is also possible that this was one of the main reasons for which they controlled the organization most of the time, possibly with the backing of some of the New York crime families.

Mangano was involved in all kinds of illegal schemes, while O'Donnells main racket, during and after Prohibition, was union racketeering and as a matter of fact, many infamous Mafia names rose up through his ranks and later entered the Mangano group.

First Im going to show you the made guys who allegedly reported to Mangano and after that, you will see O'Donnel's sub-crew.

Lawrence Mangano active (early 1920s - 1944) capo (early 1930s - 1943) major capo (1944) killed (1944)

Crew members under Mangano: Louis Clementi, Phil Mangano, James Adducci, Rocco Fanelli, Jimmy Belcastro, Frank, Louis and Joe Laino, Mike Pontillo, Dan Beneduce, Joe Mondo, Louis Schiavone, Nick Circella, Harry Belcastro, Louis Romano, Lawrence and Tony Russo, Willie Daddono, Leonard Gianola. In addition, I also believe that by the early 1930s the so-called Elmwood Park crew with Tony Accardo and Tony Capezio was under Mangano and then broke off as a separate crew.

William O'Donnell active (early 1920s - early 1950s) sub-crew boss (1931/32 - 1944) elder statesman for the crew (mid 1940s - early 1950s) died (?)

Crew members under O'Donnell (1931/32 - 1943): Bernard O'Donnell, William White (killed 1934), George Barker (killed 1932), William Hanley, John Barry, Jack O'Keefe, Tony Kissane, Joey Glimco, Daniel Considine, Thomas Stapleton, James Connors, William Bioff (informant 1943), George Browne (informant 1943), Martin O'Brien, Jack Perno, Max Podolsky

At the start, O'Donnell's younger associates at the time such as Joey Glimco, Daniel Considine, Jack Perno, Max Podolsky and Martin O'Brien, all began as enforcers or reps in the union racketeering busniess for some of his prime lieutenants such as his brother Bernard O'Donnell, William Hanley, Tony Kissane and John Barry, and later some were recognized as legit members of the Mangano group.

Also sometimes some of Manganos close members in the union business such as Louis Romano, Nick Circella and Louis Schiavone also received orders from O'Donnell but only with Manganos ok.

Other close associates of Mangano and O'Donnell who rose through their ranks were the infamous duo Willie Bioff and George Browne. Story goes that through Mangano and Circella, these two fellas were introduced to the Outfits commission, and they represented their operation which led to the infamous Hollywood extortion scheme. Also, it seems that later both Mangano and O'Donnell were left out from the operation, or they simply stayed away from it, or even maybe they protected themselves quite good, since there are few reports of some of their fellas who were labeled as runners or bagmen in the operation.

So with the 1943 imrpisonment of the Outfits top admin, followed by the 1944 execution of Mangano and the 1945 natural death of Jimmy Belcastro, the whole situation caused a lot of disruption within the crew. From that point on, most of Manganos younger members joined the Sam Giancana/Lenny Caifano crew, and few years later guys such as Joey Glimco and Willie Daddono formed their own separate crews.

It seems that during that period O'Donnell was considered as elder statesman for the West Side mob regarding all union matters but under Glimco's jurisdiction, who in turn became a caporegime in his own right and had the last word on all union matters in that particular group.

[Eline2015]

Love you’re posts, Villain. Can’t wait post about Aiuppa

[Villain]

Love you’re posts, Villain. Can’t wait post about Aiuppa

Thanks man.

If you are talking about the crew then i already did...check out the last post...

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=5917&start=280

[Eline2015]

Love you’re posts, Villain. Can’t wait post about Aiuppa

Thanks man.

If you are talking about the crew then i already did...check out the last post...

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=5917&start=280

No, big article, like ricca, battaglia ant etc.

[Villain]

Love you’re posts, Villain. Can’t wait post about Aiuppa

Thanks man.

If you are talking about the crew then i already did...check out the last post...

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=5917&start=280

No, big article, like ricca, battaglia ant etc.

Oh ok sorry lol ill get back to work as soon as i repair my old PC

[Villain]

I completely forgot about the Joe Arnold crew, although i currently have limitied info on him or should i say until the late 1960s, so maybe some of the guys can fill in...

This group was almost the same as the previous Mangano/O'Donnell crew, again mainly because most of the time was headed by more traditional Sicilians.

When Capone became the boss in Chicago, he already chased away the old Sicilian faction from Cicero and the West Side area, and pushed them back all the way to W Grand Av and further along the Near North and far North Side.

After Toto Loverdes demise in 1931, another Sicilian known as Jimmy DeGeorge became the major capo of that same area until 1947 or 48. DeGeorge was succeeded by one of his Sicilian crew bosses Ross Prio, who in turn besides being a hardcore Sicilian Mafioso, still he was more "Capone fashioned", meaning he worked with anyone who was loyal and brought a lot of cash to the table, no matter the ethnicity.

So by the year of 1960, few of Prio's main crew bosses were Dominick Nuccio, Joey DiVarco and Jimmy Allegretti. All of them had made guys and also many non-Italians in their own ranks but by that time only one stood high among them and that was Joe Arnold.

Story goes that during the late 1950s Arnold first worked under Allegretti as some type of messenger and he also worked as his personal bodyguard, chauffeur and collector.

When Allegretti went to prison in 1962, Arnold took over the crew and was next to DiVarco and Nuccio. According to sources, Arnold became a crew boss but it seems that he was still under the jurisdiction of one of Prios top guys DiVarco.

So ill try to distinguish the members who answered to both DiVarco and Arnold, and the members who allegedly answered to Nuccio...

Crew members who both under DiVarco and Arnold (1962 - 1970): Sam Luzi, Tony DeMonte, Gus Giovenco, Victor Musso, Lawrence Buonaguidi, Jasper Campisi, Tony Cirignani, Tony Monaco, Lawrence Moretti, Joe Capizzi, Mike Glitta, Tony Policheri, Joseph Amari, John Liberti, Libero Ingignoli, Carl Pio, Thomas Immerso, Henry Kushner, Pat Moriello, Joe and Frank Maiola, Mike Albergo, Tony Cascio, Frank DeMonte

In addition here are some interesting surveillance photos...


Arnold (right) talking to Tony Policheri. Some sources say that Policheri was in fact Allegrettis brother.


John Liberti coming out of Arnolds joint


Arnold (left) and DiVarco

We must not forget that there was another part of Prios faction which was first headed by Dom Nuccio but by the late 1960s his group was inherited by Dom DiBella. Some of the most prominent guys were Dom Brancato, Vincent Solano, Ernest Sansone, Ken Eto, Eddie Sturch, Victor Locallo, Aaron Oberlander, Joe Vazzano, Pat Faraci, Jimmy Marcello, Milton Ruthstein, Al Emody, Tom Yoshii, Leonard Franzone, Sebastian Licato, Russel Scimeca, Pablo Rivera, Puro Pinzon, James Williams, Louis and Charles Parrilli.

By the same time, West Side crew boss Rocco Potenza sold most of his interests to both members from the North and West factions, and so according to reports he fell under Prios jurisdiction.

As you can notice, this used to be one quite large group but by the early or mid 1970s, most of these fellas were dead, retired or in jail.

After Prios death in 1972, Dom DiBella became the major capo of the whole North Side, with DiVarco and Arnold being beneath him, followed by another rising member Vincent Solano.

Now from this point on, I currently dont have any inside info on what went down with Arnold, although it seems that he and Glitta continued to work under DiVarco until the early 1980s but as i already said, maybe some of the guys from around here can tell us on what really happened...

[Villain]

So with the so-called Arnold crew, I believe that i finished the list regarding all of the non-Italian crews within the Outfit, so next are the leading non-Sicilian crew bosses....both types of crews are very important to understand on who headed the organization and also on who created all policies, something which made that same organization different than most of the families...stay tuned

[B.]

.

B read this...

Lawrence Mangano/William O'Donnell crew

This was one of those rare Outfit's groups, in which the non-Italians were more like a sub-crew, since it was headed by a Sicilian leader. It means that this was more of a CN traditional crew where the non-Italians answered to their Italian caporegime, instead of reporting directly to the Outfits boss or underboss.

At the beginning the whole crew was headed by one old time Sicilian mobster known as Lawrence Mangano from the West Side, who by the late 1920s joined the Capone Mob and later became a capo. According to some reports, dont know if true, he was allegedly related to the Vincent Mangano family in New York.

The other part of the crew was headed by another old time West Side Irish racketeer who went by the name of William O'Donnell. The so-called O'Donnell gang was created during the start of Prohibition on Chicagos West Side, and in a short time period they made an alliance with the John Torrio mob from the South, and this alliance opened another door for the Torrio mob to that same area.

Later when Capone became the boss, he had several top representatives around West Side area, including Mangano and according to sources or should i say my own research, the so-called West Side faction was more traditional and very rarerly, almost never, had a non-Italian as a crew boss with his own crew made out both made members and non-Italians, such as the previous examples. It is also possible that this was one of the main reasons for which they controlled the organization most of the time, possibly with the backing of some of the New York crime families.

I've seen Mangano ID'd as having Messinese heritage, so unlikely for there to be a Mangano/NYC relation if that's true. I am curious about Lawrence Mangano, though. Would be interesting if he connects in any way to others from Messina backgrounds like Antonio Lombardo, Salvatore Pisano, or the LaPietra brothers, though the LaPietras couldn't have had a direct relationship. Seems unlikely there would be a connection between them but worth considering.

Interesting though that Mangano's crew was more traditional. Seems unlikely he would have come from a traditional Sicilian mafia background, at least compared to members of the North Side and Chicago Heights crew, who trace their roots to some of the same Sicilian villages that produced early Chicago mafia members. A lot more to say about this at some point, and some of it might be coincidence, but I've found that many of the Chicago members with Sicilian heritage trace back to the same villages even in later decades.

[Snakes]

Your hunch was correct; as far as I know, the LaPietras were not related to any other LCN members, Chicago or otherwise.

[Villain]

I've seen Mangano ID'd as having Messinese heritage, so unlikely for there to be a Mangano/NYC relation if that's true. I am curious about Lawrence Mangano, though. Would be interesting if he connects in any way to others from Messina backgrounds like Antonio Lombardo, Salvatore Pisano, or the LaPietra brothers, though the LaPietras couldn't have had a direct relationship. Seems unlikely there would be a connection between them but worth considering.

Interesting though that Mangano's crew was more traditional. Seems unlikely he would have come from a traditional Sicilian mafia background, at least compared to members of the North Side and Chicago Heights crew, who trace their roots to some of the same Sicilian villages that produced early Chicago mafia members. A lot more to say about this at some point, and some of it might be coincidence, but I've found that many of the Chicago members with Sicilian heritage trace back to the same villages even in later decades.

Thanks for clearing that up, meaning regarding the Chi and Ny Manganos.

Mangano was close with Orazio Tropea and during the mid 1920s together they operated the Annex café located on 522 South Halsted St, which is one of the reasons I believe that Mangano belonged to the old organization and was probably made before Capone.

His territory was Taylor St and the Near West Side area, including interests around W Grand Av and the Near North Side. Those were the same areas where big time Sicilians such as DeGeorge, O'Neglia, DeAngelo, Benveneto, Pisano, Onforio, Prio or DeJohn also operated. I also strongly believe that younger and Americanized Sicilians from the Northwest area like Tony Accardo first started under Mangano and later broke off in a separate crew.

Another interesting thing to note is that Mangano was eliminated during the same time period when almost all of the previously mentioned Sicilians were also murdered. I call this situation the last stand of the old time and more traditional Sicilians in Chicago, a second conflict that lasted from 1943 until 1947 and the only top Sicilian who was left alive was DeGeorge but he had to transfer to Wisconsin.

During the conflict or in 1945 i think, Tony Pinelli fled the city and went to LA. Later in 1952 or 53 he was brought back to Chicago as head of the Indiana crew which again was a mixture of old time Sicilians from the Near North Side like Gaetano Morgano and the Cardinale or Gruttadauro bros, joined by fellas from other crews such as Frank Zizzo and George Dicks. But this time, the Sicilians answered to the non-Sicilian faction from the Chicago Heights area under Jim Ammirato and that type of tradition continued until the early 90s.

It is obvious that they still didnt fully trust these guys. When Giancana took over, besides being Sicilian there was nothing traditional about this guy and so he used the situation by infiltrating his own guys all around the North Side. He even infiltrated Lenny Patrick in Rogers Park but this guy had to pay percentage to Prio. The so-called North Side mob never held a high position on the Outfits top panel