Suspected/possible Chicago Hits

[PolackTony]

Yes Michael Cutler was killed in Austin neighborhood by black guys wearing masks. That was straight up a hit. That guy had no gang affiliations and was killed by masked guys. They didn’t take anything. Outfit farmed it out. That was in the late 90s so technically it wouldn’t be 21st century. Don Schemel murder is another one that happened right before the 21st century. Owned a water taxi business and stepped on the wrong toes. Was a professional hit. Outfit controls that industry

I didn't count the Cutler kid as of course that was before 2000.

Schemel I don't recall. Can you elaborate on Outfit interests in the water taxi industry?

It happened in 1999 so it wouldn’t be on your list anyway. See below for some articles on it

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.chicag ... y,amp.html

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.chicag ... y,amp.html

Thanks. I had either not seen this when it happened or forgot about it. It would seem that like the food trucks, water taxis were among a number of "unsexy" local industries largely controlled by Outfit interests. Would be interesting to trace out who had these interests and what Outfit players were involved.

[funkster]

Sorry, saw the Jarrett mention and not the 21st century caveat.

[PolackTony]

Sorry, saw the Jarrett mention and not the 21st century caveat.

Jarrett slipped in as he technically died in 2000 lol.

Any suspected late 90s hits are still very interesting, of course, as this gives some hints as to the Outfit's ability to regroup and still project force following the devastating indictments of the prior years. The loss of their control over the old 1st Ward and the court system of course dealt massive blows to their longstanding ability to commit violence with near impunity. It's very useful to get a handle on how and why they clipped people in the period following this, as they adjusted to a very different new reality for their operations.

The Schemel thing, if Outfit-related as it seems, is then a prime example. Whereas before they would've simply used their control over the 1st Ward machine to crush or obviate competetion in the water taxi industry, after this fell apart they had to resort to violence. I'm assuming this was a last resort, and that Schemel would've received escalating threats and intimidation. Maybe he threatened in turn to talk or something.

[funkster]

That's a good find Patrick, first i've seen of that one.

[TommyPastrami]

First time poster here.
Have a few additional ones that could be added and some at least worth considering. Others on here can maybe shed more light on some of these

Since Cutler in 98 that haven’t been mentioned;
Feb 2001 – Richard Hauff (65) – gunned down in his steakhouse in Greencastle, IN
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.html

Jan 2003 Jesse (Stone killer) Stoneking (56) – big outfit guy in the 70s with the downstate/East St Louis crew. Flipped on a bunch of St. Louis and outfit guys in 82. Wore a wire against Art Berne who led the outfit crew down there (Stoneking was his #2). Stoneking been living under a new name in AZ. This guy named Michael Laurella from IL was with Stoneking driving thru the desert when he says Stoneking shot himself in the head with laurella’s 38 revolver. I believe it was looked at as a very possible homicide but never charged. Stoneking was a serious killer in his day and had been charged with murder more than once.

March 2003 James Mancini (40) – found shot multiple times in the head in his garage in suburban Lyons, worked for AAA Chicago Cartage, investigated as OC tied
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.html

Nov 2004 Nick LoCoco (64) – Nick the Stick from Bridgeport caught up in the Hired Truck scandal that bilked City of Chicago out of millions. The fed investigation went pretty high up in the Daley administration and was a major scandal. Hell it has its own Wikipedia page. Shortly after he was indicted he died from head injuries “after falling from a horse” in Will County. There was some additional sketchiness about autopsy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hired_Truck_Program
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi ... story.html
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.html

Nov 2006 Gerald Dhamer (48) – neighbor 3 doors down of Sal Cataudella in Park Ridge, shotgunned in his driveway by masked gunman as his wife looked on, investigated as a hit intended for Sal, possibly related to beef over prostitution business
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.html

April 2008 James “Buffalo Jim” Barrier (55) in Vegas – GHB and Valium overdose in a motel 2 days after outfit man in Vegas Rick Rizzolo got out of jail for tax charges that Barrier had cooperated with the FBI on. The two had an ongoing feud and Barrier had been getting death threats in the days prior. His friends and fam have pointed a lot of fingers at Rizzolo. Many questions here but outfit related murder appears more likely than not. A fair amount has been written on this… The hooker Barrier had been with that night had left the scene after he died.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Barrier

Sept. 2010 Franko Martinelli (32) – was with Frank Obrochta (Mispelled In article) of P-K crew roughing up an old-timer at the guy’s house on West Huron in the patch, when the guy pulled a gun and shot them both, Martinelli died, Obrochta survived, and was somehow charged with murder. Likely trying to collect a debt at the time.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.html

And finally this one I'm least sure about;
June 2012 Ronald Susek (61) – retired Melrose Park cop found shot dead in his backyard, there have been insinuations/chatter this was outfit-tied, but nothing concrete that I'm aware of.


Please add to any of these and/or let me know if I got anything wrong.

[PolackTony]

First time poster here.
Have a few additional ones that could be added and some at least worth considering. Others on here can maybe shed more light on some of these

Since Cutler in 98 that haven’t been mentioned;
Feb 2001 – Richard Hauff (65) – gunned down in his steakhouse in Greencastle, IN
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.html

Jan 2003 Jesse (Stone killer) Stoneking (56) – big outfit guy in the 70s with the downstate/East St Louis crew. Flipped on a bunch of St. Louis and outfit guys in 82. Wore a wire against Art Berne who led the outfit crew down there (Stoneking was his #2). Stoneking been living under a new name in AZ. This guy named Michael Laurella from IL was with Stoneking driving thru the desert when he says Stoneking shot himself in the head with laurella’s 38 revolver. I believe it was looked at as a very possible homicide but never charged. Stoneking was a serious killer in his day and had been charged with murder more than once.

March 2003 James Mancini (40) – found shot multiple times in the head in his garage in suburban Lyons, worked for AAA Chicago Cartage, investigated as OC tied
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.html

Nov 2004 Nick LoCoco (64) – Nick the Stick from Bridgeport caught up in the Hired Truck scandal that bilked City of Chicago out of millions. The fed investigation went pretty high up in the Daley administration and was a major scandal. Hell it has its own Wikipedia page. Shortly after he was indicted he died from head injuries “after falling from a horse” in Will County. There was some additional sketchiness about autopsy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hired_Truck_Program
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi ... story.html
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.html

Nov 2006 Gerald Dhamer (48) – neighbor 3 doors down of Sal Cataudella in Park Ridge, shotgunned in his driveway by masked gunman as his wife looked on, investigated as a hit intended for Sal, possibly related to beef over prostitution business
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.html

April 2008 James “Buffalo Jim” Barrier (55) in Vegas – GHB and Valium overdose in a motel 2 days after outfit man in Vegas Rick Rizzolo got out of jail for tax charges that Barrier had cooperated with the FBI on. The two had an ongoing feud and Barrier had been getting death threats in the days prior. His friends and fam have pointed a lot of fingers at Rizzolo. Many questions here but outfit related murder appears more likely than not. A fair amount has been written on this… The hooker Barrier had been with that night had left the scene after he died.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Barrier

Sept. 2010 Franko Martinelli (32) – was with Frank Obrochta (Mispelled In article) of P-K crew roughing up an old-timer at the guy’s house on West Huron in the patch, when the guy pulled a gun and shot them both, Martinelli died, Obrochta survived, and was somehow charged with murder. Likely trying to collect a debt at the time.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.html

And finally this one I'm least sure about;
June 2012 Ronald Susek (61) – retired Melrose Park cop found shot dead in his backyard, there have been insinuations/chatter this was outfit-tied, but nothing concrete that I'm aware of.


Please add to any of these and/or let me know if I got anything wrong.

Welcome to the boards Tommy and thanks for your contribution. Some of these I don't recall and I think these are all worth at least discussing.

I remember the LoCoco incident, of course, but my impression was that he was indeed thrown from his horse. From what I can tell the only issue with his autopsy was that it was even conducted in the first place, given that his death had not been treated as a homicide. I think that given his profile investigators may have just wanted to cross their "t's". The autopsy report concluded that he was killed by a fall from his horse. And wasn't it the case that witnesses saw him being thrown from the horse when it came to a sudden stop?

The Dahmer thing is very suspicious of course. My reading of the Tribune article is that Cautadella's involvement in prostituition was cited in reference to his 1988 busy, not as immediate context for a potential hit. This happened in 2006, a few months after the Zizzo thing. That seems to be important here I think. Maybe there was some lingering resentment betwern Cicero and MP, that was squashed after this potential botched hit.

I hadn't ever heard of this Hauff guy. Always entertaining to note these weirdos that gravitate around the margins of the mob lol. My take is that it just doesn't seem likely to be an Outfit thing unless there's some context or info not in the article you posted.

The Stoneking thing is very suspicious of course. Given that it happened in AZ there's some potential this was Outfit related. So far as I can tell this Laurella guy was from Downstate IL originally. Not sure if he had links to the Chicago or STL outfit in the past. Here's a lengthy write-up of the incident and it's context:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/stlreporte ... -dark/amp/

The Martinelli thing I remember well as it happened right by my house. While Martinelli and Obrochta were/are of course connected guys I don't see that this was an Outfit hit. Everything points to the old man shooting them during their attempted home invasion. These Grand Ave guys were of course thugs and burglars (Martinelli was a C-Note, as I suspect Obrochta was also), everything to me seems consistent with the official account.

[TommyPastrami]

Thanks for the feedback Tony. I used to live on Huron myself. I'll come back in a bit with a few more thoughts on some of these.
Some of these as you rightly point out depend on how you define it, you did call this thread hits, I guess I was more thinking outfit-related murders/killings - so I was thinking to include any that were outfit-connected guys that died violent deaths. But indeed it's your thread. I have read a fair amount on most of these, just posted the trib articles for some as a reference.

As far as LoCoco goes, I don't think I'll ever be convinced it wasn't an outfit hit, especially given the timing and outfit history of killings that never even get classified as homicides.

I also recall this quote from an old John Kass article I dug back up;

"One of these isn't even called a murder. It's called an accident. A Chinatown accident in Will County. Nick LoCoco, 64, an Outfit bookie and retired City Hall hack -- also indicted in the City Hall Hired Truck scandal -- died in November 2004.
LoCoco died of a crushed skull while taking a horseback ride during football season. How odd. I'm not a gambler, but I've never heard of a bookie deciding to take a horsey-back ride on a Sunday afternoon between NFL games. But LoCoco apparently did, and he died for it.
If you believe that bookies take horseback rides during NFL games, you might be what Twan Doyle calls a "chumbolone," Chinatown slang for someone lacking the necessary wits."

Not calling you a chumbolone I promise, just thought it was a funny quote. Back from the days when Kass still had a sense of humor!

Cheers

[Frank]

It seems like alot to just say they all were not Outfit connected

[PolackTony]

It seems like alot to just say they all were not Outfit connected

Its certainly worth discussing them, at least. I'm no ciombolon', of course, but I just don't see where LoCoco is a hit. Blows to the head, for example, can usually be pretty clearly distinguished on autopsy from a fall. Plus, there were witnesses... If the Outfit hit the guy it wouldn't have been out in public like this. He would've wound up like the guys in the OP -- disappeared or found dead with no witnesses. If someone wanted to make it look like a horse accident they would've at least done it in the stables or something when no one was around. People die every day from all sorts of stuff and I just see nothing compelling (motive ain't enough) that LoCoco was whacked.

Of these so far, the Dahmer thing is by far the most compelling. The Stoneking thing was also pretty suspect.

[funkster]

Man, I forgot about some of these. As I recall, maybe Fosco?, was certain that the Susek thing was Outfit murder. I vaguely remember someone setting up a pretty amateurish website about it?

[Snakes]

Man, I forgot about some of these. As I recall, maybe Fosco?, was certain that the Susek thing was Outfit murder. I vaguely remember someone setting up a pretty amateurish website about it?

You're thinking about the Catalano kid who had the website for him. Unless there was another.

[PolackTony]

Man, I forgot about some of these. As I recall, maybe Fosco?, was certain that the Susek thing was Outfit murder. I vaguely remember someone setting up a pretty amateurish website about it?

Yeah the Susek killing is of course another one of high suspicion. I mean, long time retired MP cop killed in his backyard, no witnesses, MPPD "fails" to properly examine the crime scene leaving evidence to degrade (plus, for some classic Chicago fun, dirty cop Greg Salvi claiming disability for being hurt during the investigation: https://www.bettergov.org/news/taking-a ... t-bruised/). I would guess this had something to possibly do with the Vito Scavo thing, but I suppose the MPPD is been so dirty for so long any number of things could be at play there.

What I still would question is whether or not Susek was likely to have been killed on Outfit orders, or if this was just an inside job of crooked cops taking out one of their own?

[funkster]

Man, I forgot about some of these. As I recall, maybe Fosco?, was certain that the Susek thing was Outfit murder. I vaguely remember someone setting up a pretty amateurish website about it?

You're thinking about the Catalano kid who had the website for him. Unless there was another.

Nah, I remember that one but there was one put up for Susek too. Or a blog post or something that went in depth about it, i'll have to dig.

[Patrickgold]

First time poster here.
Have a few additional ones that could be added and some at least worth considering. Others on here can maybe shed more light on some of these

Since Cutler in 98 that haven’t been mentioned;
Feb 2001 – Richard Hauff (65) – gunned down in his steakhouse in Greencastle, IN
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.html

Jan 2003 Jesse (Stone killer) Stoneking (56) – big outfit guy in the 70s with the downstate/East St Louis crew. Flipped on a bunch of St. Louis and outfit guys in 82. Wore a wire against Art Berne who led the outfit crew down there (Stoneking was his #2). Stoneking been living under a new name in AZ. This guy named Michael Laurella from IL was with Stoneking driving thru the desert when he says Stoneking shot himself in the head with laurella’s 38 revolver. I believe it was looked at as a very possible homicide but never charged. Stoneking was a serious killer in his day and had been charged with murder more than once.

March 2003 James Mancini (40) – found shot multiple times in the head in his garage in suburban Lyons, worked for AAA Chicago Cartage, investigated as OC tied
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.html

Nov 2004 Nick LoCoco (64) – Nick the Stick from Bridgeport caught up in the Hired Truck scandal that bilked City of Chicago out of millions. The fed investigation went pretty high up in the Daley administration and was a major scandal. Hell it has its own Wikipedia page. Shortly after he was indicted he died from head injuries “after falling from a horse” in Will County. There was some additional sketchiness about autopsy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hired_Truck_Program
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi ... story.html
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.html

Nov 2006 Gerald Dhamer (48) – neighbor 3 doors down of Sal Cataudella in Park Ridge, shotgunned in his driveway by masked gunman as his wife looked on, investigated as a hit intended for Sal, possibly related to beef over prostitution business
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.html

April 2008 James “Buffalo Jim” Barrier (55) in Vegas – GHB and Valium overdose in a motel 2 days after outfit man in Vegas Rick Rizzolo got out of jail for tax charges that Barrier had cooperated with the FBI on. The two had an ongoing feud and Barrier had been getting death threats in the days prior. His friends and fam have pointed a lot of fingers at Rizzolo. Many questions here but outfit related murder appears more likely than not. A fair amount has been written on this… The hooker Barrier had been with that night had left the scene after he died.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Barrier

Sept. 2010 Franko Martinelli (32) – was with Frank Obrochta (Mispelled In article) of P-K crew roughing up an old-timer at the guy’s house on West Huron in the patch, when the guy pulled a gun and shot them both, Martinelli died, Obrochta survived, and was somehow charged with murder. Likely trying to collect a debt at the time.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.html

And finally this one I'm least sure about;
June 2012 Ronald Susek (61) – retired Melrose Park cop found shot dead in his backyard, there have been insinuations/chatter this was outfit-tied, but nothing concrete that I'm aware of.


Please add to any of these and/or let me know if I got anything wrong.

I’m not much of a conspiracy guy when it comes to suicides . I have heard that before about Stoneking but does anyone know who this Luarello guy is that was with him? Ron Lawrence wrote a great book about Stonewall after he died. Another Outfit informant James Lavalley committed suicide and There are also people that say LaValley was really killed. Tom Venezia who was the Outfit’s rep in East St Louis after Art Berne, also committed suicide in 2005 but there was suspicion that he was also murdered. He too became an informant and testified in court. In my opinion these guys fell from grace and lost everything. Eventually they couldn’t handle it anymore.

John Kass helped to spread the Lococo conspiracy and I don’t buy his claim.

Also, another mystery that I have heard that could have Outfit connections is the murder of maywood cop Tom Wood. Very mysterious circumstances and that he might have be involved in a Outfit drug ring based out of Melrose Park.

[Patrickgold]

Also, the Dhamer killing happened around the same time of the Zizzo disappeared. We all know Sal Cataudello was a Sarno loyalist. I wonder if this was an attempted retaliation for Zizzo being killed that obviously went wrong.