Cops in the Chicago Outfit

[Confederate]

Michael J. Corbitt was sheriff deputy with Willow Springs connected to the Outfit.

Larner's guy

Also Giancana's guy. Corbitt used to deliver huge bags of money to the other underbosses (territory Bosses) in Chicago who had an interest in Willow Springs. One of those guys was Vince Solano way up in the North. Willow Springs must have been an open area & not exclusively under the Chicago Heights Boss?

Tell you the truth i have no idea if it was an open area, although it seems like that...usually in the old days they had some types of few "half-open" areas such as Cicero or Lake County etc. where almost everyone was able to operate but still they also had to give percentage to the crew boss and also the territorial boss of that same area. For example, when Patrick transfered to Rogers Park, besides kicking up to Alex and Giancana, he also had to give percentage to both Prio and DiVarco, and when he also opened up few shops in Lake County he also had to give something to Les Kruse.

This was a good tactic, meaning if you are a territorial boss and control 4 or 5 areas and districts, you might open just one of those for the rest of the membership, which means more money for everyone.

Yes, I agree. The Outfit was smart that way. Besides, Pilotto probably got a bigger cut than Solano. I would have to reread his testimony but it did seem (from memory) that Pilotto had the biggest "Voice" in Willow Springs.

Could be, but as I already said right now i dont have any clue on Willow Springs and if you fing something, pls share it

Corbitt was sponsored to be a Police officer in Willow Springs by Giancana. Later, Corbitt became Chief of Police. There was a switch in the Police Station that would shut off all the street lights in Willow Springs if there was a raid by the Feds. lol

In addition, Corbitt was a trusted courier of money sometimes for other things. He picked up $1.5 Million Dollars which was money that came from Las Vegas in the mid 1980's that was to be distributed to the different Mafia men on Trial in the Strawman Case including (KC).

Corbitt was very close with Sal Bastone & the Bastone Brothers (Sal & Carmine). they ran their own sub crew under Angelo LaPietra.

[Villain]

Corbitt was sponsored to be a Police officer in Willow Springs by Giancana. Later, Corbitt became Chief of Police. There was a switch in the Police Station that would shut off all the street lights in Willow Springs if there was a raid by the Feds. lol

In addition, Corbitt was a trusted courier of money sometimes for other things. He picked up $1.5 Million Dollars which was money that came from Las Vegas in the mid 1980's that was to be distributed to the different Mafia men on Trial in the Strawman Case including (KC).

Corbitt was very close with Sal Bastone & the Bastone Brothers (Sal & Carmine). they ran their own sub crew under Angelo LaPietra.

Thanks for the info.

Ive seen files in which the Bastones were described as being Larners bodyguards and also couriers around Central America, Spain and south Africa. I also think that by the late 70s they possibly fell under Cicero since Eddie Vogels (Larners first boss) areas were MP and Cicero

[Patrickgold]

Lots of cops in the Outfit. Here is a list of some of them off the top of my head. I’m sure I missed some:

Bill Hanhardt: Chief of Detectives for CPD. I think everyone knows his background

Mark Thanasouras: was commander of 15th district. Worked with Joe Gags in shaking down taverns. Murdered by Outfit in 77

John Gattuso: cook county deputy sheriff that was killed in 1983 after failed Eto hit

Sam Blackie Pesoli: CPD officer. Worked for Roti in the 1st ward. Went to prison in early 90s.

Pierre Zonis: CPD Officer Linked to several Outfit homicides. Bookie and bagman for North Side crew before he joined CPD

Renato DiSilvestro: CPD patrol officer that also was a bookie. Moved to Vegas in early 90s when he retired from CPD and supposedly ran some Outfit operations in Vegas

Philip "Philly Beans" Tolomeo: Former CPD Officer that worked for Frank Calabrese crew. Later testified against him

Richard Cain: CPD and cook county sheriff. Everyone knows his background

Steve Mendell: Former CPD cop that worked for Grand Ave crew. Suspect in multiple Homicides. Doing life

Fred Pascente: CPD detective. Wrote book called Mob Cop

Anthony Twan Doyle: got indicted in family secrets case

Thanks for the list and yeah im familiar with most names. To tell you the truth, besides Cain, i think that Gattuso is the only one who fits my previous examples, meaning he was ready to kill for the organization.

Agreed. Most of those guys besides Cain and Corbitt would not kill. Mandell killed after he left CPD. Hanhardt also killed for the Outfit. A lot of people don’t know but Hanhardt would get a tip off on burglars that were not paying the Outfit and he would be waiting for them coming out of their score and would kill them and make it look like they were defending themselves

[Villain]

Lots of cops in the Outfit. Here is a list of some of them off the top of my head. I’m sure I missed some:

Bill Hanhardt: Chief of Detectives for CPD. I think everyone knows his background

Mark Thanasouras: was commander of 15th district. Worked with Joe Gags in shaking down taverns. Murdered by Outfit in 77

John Gattuso: cook county deputy sheriff that was killed in 1983 after failed Eto hit

Sam Blackie Pesoli: CPD officer. Worked for Roti in the 1st ward. Went to prison in early 90s.

Pierre Zonis: CPD Officer Linked to several Outfit homicides. Bookie and bagman for North Side crew before he joined CPD

Renato DiSilvestro: CPD patrol officer that also was a bookie. Moved to Vegas in early 90s when he retired from CPD and supposedly ran some Outfit operations in Vegas

Philip "Philly Beans" Tolomeo: Former CPD Officer that worked for Frank Calabrese crew. Later testified against him

Richard Cain: CPD and cook county sheriff. Everyone knows his background

Steve Mendell: Former CPD cop that worked for Grand Ave crew. Suspect in multiple Homicides. Doing life

Fred Pascente: CPD detective. Wrote book called Mob Cop

Anthony Twan Doyle: got indicted in family secrets case

Thanks for the list and yeah im familiar with most names. To tell you the truth, besides Cain, i think that Gattuso is the only one who fits my previous examples, meaning he was ready to kill for the organization.

Agreed. Most of those guys besides Cain and Corbitt would not kill. Mandell killed after he left CPD. Hanhardt also killed for the Outfit. A lot of people don’t know but Hanhardt would get a tip off on burglars that were not paying the Outfit and he would be waiting for them coming out of their score and would kill them and make it look like they were defending themselves

Thanks again. Long time ago i had one nice documentary on Hanhardt and i wonder if its on youtube or somewhere else?!

I remember one interesting story on Cain when he was called up by Daddono to bring a lie detector, since it was suspected that there was an informer in one of Daddono's burglary crews, and that he was going to force everyone to take the test.

At the time Cain was still in the force and together with another guy operated a company that performed polygraph tests for Chicago's police. So Cain told his business partner to bring the machine to a certain location and so he was requested to give lie tests to every crew member who participated in some bank heist that went wrong.

There are also some reports saying that Cain was allegedly the main individual who in 1966 helped Giancana to relocate to Mexico. Cain also knew how to speak Spanish quite fluently and he already had a lot of experience with Central America since the late 1950’s, and that he already had everything arrainged in Mexico for his former boss.

In fact, after Cain lost his job as a detective and went to jail, he was released in 1971 and later was sent by Giancana to Madrid, Spain; and also gave him the financials to open up a front, something like a casino, allegedly for their dope peddling and prostitution rackets. Story goes that Cain made a deal with Guido Fidanzi to bring the product in Chicago with the help of the car theft out-of-state transportation business, but as we all know Fidanzi was killed in 72, and Cain the following year.

[Villain]

Another interesting example was Police Captain Frank Pape.

Back during the 1940’s and 50’s Pape had a reputation for his aggressiveness against the underworld and was very well regarded in the community for allegedly being impossible to bribe.

That was a pure myth and false image created by Pape and the media at the time, since the police captain harassed only small time criminals and possibly some Outfit low level guys who refused to pay their freedom.

Reports say that during the old days Pape was on Jake Guzik's payroll, but according to Charles Nicoletti's own words, who in turn was one of the most feared men in the Outfit, during the days when he was still rising in the Mob, he was always receving shakedowns from Pape and it cost him hundreds of dollars in payoffs to Pape and his higher ups.

But that was the old days since by the early 1960's Pape resigned from his long time job as a police captain, and allegedly made a deal with Nicoletti and Guzik's successor Gus Alex, to become security chief of both Arlington Park and Washington race tracks.

So Nicoletti and Alex also told Pape that from that point on he was going to work with Alexs cousins the Bravos bros, Nick and George, and made a deal to pay Pape $1,000 a week so the bookies can operate freely at the race tracks.

Similar situation was also with another former policeman named Tom Downs who was in charge of the Sportsman Park race track. The guy was a degenerate gambler and so he owed the Bravos bros $10,000 in bets which were placed in different mob owned race tracks. The Outfit, rather demanding the money from Downs, they let him “ate it up”, meaning that the amount was reduced whenever Downs won, and in the end they never paid him any money which also allowed them to keep him under control. That’s the way on how the Outfit used to clear their way at the race tracks.

[Patrickgold]

There is a book about Pape called the Toughest Cop in America. Made him look like a serpico. My grandfather knew him. All the papers loved him but he was on the same page as Hanhardt. He did set ups for the Outfit. I forget the number he is credited with killing while “on duty” but it’s close to 10 people

[Villain]

There is a book about Pape called the Toughest Cop in America. Made him look like a serpico. My grandfather knew him. All the papers loved him but he was on the same page as Hanhardt. He did set ups for the Outfit. I forget the number he is credited with killing while “on duty” but it’s close to 10 people

Thanks. The guy was an animal and was dirty, and thats why the boys loved him, if not, he was probably going to end up like that Drury fella

[Mason_dixon]

Does Chicago have any cops on the payroll today? Any opinions?

[Peppermint]

Does Chicago have any cops on the payroll today? Any opinions?

Can’t imagine they do, police corruption has been getting cracked down on nationwide and has been for awhile now. They’re basically a bunch of bureaucrats now with guns and badges, too much red tape and accountability now for that kind of corruption to still be taking place. This isn’t the good old days where information and data is widely suppressed. Everyone has a smart phone now, all cars have gps, and radio transmissions can be pinged easier than ever before. As soon as even a hint of the possibility one of the boys and blue is doing anything criminal, internal affairs is gonna come down hard and over every inch of every piece of the data trails their officers and detectives have left behind and find out exactly what it was they were up to. If it is still a do-able thing, can’t imagine a cop in their right mind knowing how advanced things have become would risk being on the take of any kind for any organized crime ring.

I could see DEA operatives being on the take however, much less accountability, much more freedom of discretion too. In most cases, they commit crimes themselves as is in order to apprehend their target. So I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a couple of these guys in their pocket turning a blind eye. This is already a thing with cartels in Latin America, so why not here? If anything, especially here.

[Patrickgold]

Not like before. There are Outfit relatives and friends on the job and maybe they do favors or maybe they don’t. Just like the gangbanger relatives. Nick Roti ran the organized crime section for a while not too long ago and he was relatives with the Outfit Rotis. It might even have been during his time as head of the Organized Crime section that they stopped investigating gambling. There is only so much a copper could do to help you these days with all the cameras and gps around.

[Villain]

Not like before. There are Outfit relatives and friends on the job and maybe they do favors or maybe they don’t. Just like the gangbanger relatives. Nick Roti ran the organized crime section for a while not too long ago and he was relatives with the Outfit Rotis. It might even have been during his time as head of the Organized Crime section that they stopped investigating gambling. There is only so much a copper could do to help you these days with all the cameras and gps around.

I agree. They had blood relatives in the force since the old days and there are probably still some grandkids or nephews in it, but as you already said most of them are probably legit or maybe even tied to different gangs. Although for one cop to get corrupted, he doesnt need to be related to some Mafia member.

[Villain]

Few "honorable" mentions mainly from the Prohibition era...

Michael J. Ryan (police captain in Levee district), Michael Hughes (citys chief of detectives), William F. Russell, Peter B. Hoffman (Cook County sheriff), Hugh McCarthy (police captain), James Roger LeFevour, Theodore Svoboda (police captain in Cicero)

[Villain]

In addition, according to one FBI file, by the early 1960s hundreds of thousands of dollars in “fix money” were given to numerous policemen of the Chicago Police Department for numerous favours received.

The “fix money” were left in an envelope for the police officials, who in turn picked it up from a certain location and that each envelope was numbered which indicated the specific policeman to receive the envelope.

For example, Gus Alex had his own courier and trusted individual known as Julius Epstein and his job was to drop the envelopes filled with cash at certain restaurants.

A confidential source for the FBI named several policemen that received these envelopes from Epstein during the past 8 years or from 1955 until 1963, including Deputy Commissioner of the Chicago Police Department Kyran Phalen, Police Captain James Hackett, Sergeant Pete Harlib, Sergeant John O’Shea, Sergeant Edward Kirby, Police Captain Rosey McLaughlin, Police Captain Harold Enright, Lieutenant Nick McLean and Captain Frank O’Sullivan.

While looking at this list, it seems that the Outfit had the whole police force in their back pocket at the time. The cops also had their own main bagman known as Detective Brian Connelly who mostly handled the payoffs in the First District Police Department.

Also Colonel John Gottlieb, who was a close associate of Alex and Sidney Korshak, was instrumental in obtaining promotions on the Chicago Police Force for many Mob associates, like for example Howard and Charles Pierson, two brothers who were on the Outfit’s payroll.

[Heathen]

Dont know if they have been mentioned but Anthony Chiavola and his son is are two more. Was a Chicago police sergeant, that was involved in the Vegas skim.

[Villain]

Dont know if they have been mentioned but Anthony Chiavola and his son is are two more. Was a Chicago police sergeant, that was involved in the Vegas skim.

Thanks