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

[PolackTony]

What I've been told is that Infelise had relatives in Italy working with Rappa who came over and were living in Chicago. Not sure if that was just the connection with the last names, but I think a lot of these drug murders in the 1980s were directly tied to immigrant italian/sicilian orgs. Frank Infelise's wife wrote a book about all of this that was a load of bullshit.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.html

Thanks for this, I think there was quite a bit of this going on under the radar, as these weren't guys who were known as Outfit guys. Aldo Fratto was born on Sorbo San Basile, Catanzaro, right next to the comune of Taverna, where the parents of Lou Fratto were from. This again leads me to strongly suspect that there were still links between some Outfit guys and theor families back on Italy. Tullio Infelise was also from Sorbo San Basile. Rocky Infelise was Calabrese as well, but his parents were from Piane Crati in Cosenza, so not sure if he had any family link to this Infelise.

Another potential link is that the family of Chinatown member "Richie Cat" Catezone was from San Pietro Magisano, Catanzaro, close to Sorbo San Basile and Taverna. I note this as it seems Aldo Fratto and Tullio Infelise had some involvement in Bridgeport too.

[SolarSolano]

Both lived in Bridgeport. I knew Sorrentino through an acquaintance - I believe he was a latin king in the 80s. All those guys had a lot crown tats on their necks. He is still in Statesville today so if these guys were Sicilian connected, I'm not sure the Outfit went after them. Titone had mob connections through his father Salvatore who was originally from Melrose Park.

[PolackTony]

Both lived in Bridgeport. I knew Sorrentino through an acquaintance - I believe he was a latin king in the 80s. All those guys had a lot crown tats on their necks. He is still in Statesville today so if these guys were Sicilian connected, I'm not sure the Outfit went after them. Titone had mob connections through his father Salvatore who was originally from Melrose Park.

Thanks for the info. Very interesting to note Sorrentino and crew's apparent connections to or membership in the LKs, pointing I'm sure to a important angle of their narcotics operations. Crown tats on the neck are pretty diagnostic lol. Do you have any idea which particular LK section they may have belonged to? My understanding is that the main LK chapter around Bridgeport was 33rd and Morgan, founded in the late 70s when the Gaylords chapter by there went defunct. Kings were also starting to make inroads into Melrose Park in the same era.

Dino it seems died in 2007. The Titones came from Sicily (Menfi and Corleone). Plus Dino's mother was Nina Zizzo, who I believe may have been Tony Zizzo's sister (and thus Frank Zizzo's daughter). So I would think it's pretty likely that this Sorrentino/Titone clique had strong Outfit backing. Another name married into the Titone/Zizzo family was LoCoco.

With the Infelice Bros and Fratto, my assumption at this point is that these guys were likely heavy into trafficking and involved with the Catanzaro 'Ndrangheta. The area around Taverna (Sorbo San Basile, San Pietro Magisano, etc) has had a significant mafia presence for decades, controlled by the Pisani and Pane/Iazzolino 'ndrine. These groups have had close ties also to the Grande Aracri group based in Crotone, which I believe was already heavily involved in narcotics trafficking in the 80s. It's possible that as these guys were not members of the Outfit, Sorrentino and crew weren't clipped for robbing them and whacking them out (coupled with Titone's connections).

The Bridgeport mob has had a significant Calabrian component going all the way back to the '20s, so it's very interesting to see Calabrian gangsters operating there many decades later.

[Patrickgold]

What I've been told is that Infelise had relatives in Italy working with Rappa who came over and were living in Chicago. Not sure if that was just the connection with the last names, but I think a lot of these drug murders in the 1980s were directly tied to immigrant italian/sicilian orgs. Frank Infelise's wife wrote a book about all of this that was a load of bullshit.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct- ... story.html

Interesting. What’s the name of the book?

[SolarSolano]

https://www.amazon.com/I-Our-Family-Sen ... 0557175836

There is the book -

[B.]

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.

[PolackTony]

To follow-up on Camillo Gigliotti (apparent Calabrese mobster resident in Chicago). Gigliotti was sentenced to five years for his role in the 1997 murder of Jean Schwarzkopf with Ottavio Volpe and Tony Carcione. At some point after his release, he returned to Italy (not sure if he was deported after completing his sentence). According to his Facebook, Camillo Gigilotti is now residing in Colosimi, Cosenza. His Facebook account is very interesting, as he seems to have an even split in his "friends" between Italy and Chicago. While most of his Italian friends are resident in Calabria, he has several from Sicily as well and posted some pics of himself hanging out with some guys in a carnival in Acireale, Catania. Further, in what really goes to underscore the strange ways that things can come full circle, Gigliotti has a bunch of friends from Colosimi with the surname Colosimo.

Now, the Chicago names are where it really gets interesting. Gigliotti is friends with Vito Salamone (whose profile states that he was born in Cinisi). He's friends with Jackie C Cerone. He's friends with people by the name of Infelise, Talarico, Spizziri, Spano, Greco (with the first three surnames being Calabrese, of course). His Infelise friends are clearly relatives of Tullio and Frank Infelise, as they are all from Sorbo San Basile, Catanzaro. Interestingly, a couple of these Infelises now seem to have moved from Chicago to Motta Sant'Anastasia in Catania, Sicily. As a recent Tribune article revealed, these Calabrian Infelises indeed were related to Rocky Infelise. Who of course was working with Frank Rappa and a bunch of Sicilian narcotics dealers in the 1970s and 80s. Lots of uncrossed "t's" here and suggestive links. My opinion is that there was a lot more happening in Chicago than we realize.

Another interesting thing to note is how many of these Chicago Italians with connected names have "friends" and relatives in/from Italy on FB, people commenting in Italian on their posts, etc. Even a guy like Cerone. All of this has very much made me re-evaluate the kind of tacit assumption that Outfit guys were all highly "Americanized'. I think that many of these guys over the years kept much closer links to their relatives back in Italy than we would assume. While heavily Sicilian-based or derived families unsurprisingly have had Sicilian "zip factions", unsurprisingly in Chicago we see a mix of Sicilians, Pugliesi, Calabresi, Napuletani with likely Outfit connections (and potentially cross-cutting connections to each other).

[funkster]

I mean, that would certainly lend credence to the "unicorn" Italian article that people claimed said that many Sicilian/Italian guys were sent over here to make Outfit connections, or however you want to put it.

Good detective work Tony.

[B.]

Great thread/info.

All it takes sometimes is one little pocket of guys to make and maintain these connections.

[PolackTony]

In the "General" Chicago thread, I noted that the license holder of the now-shuttered Cafe Cappuccino location on Grand Ave (near May St) was a Francesco Lappo. Lappo is a typical surname in Taranto. Both Cafe Cappuccino locations (Harlem Ave and Grand Ave) were known as Outfit hangouts and Aldo Cardellicchio was working at the Harlem Ave location when he was extradited back to Italy. Worth noting that one of the individuals charged in the early 90s gambling busts of these Italian social clubs was a Tomasso Lappo (from 08/05/1992 Tribune):



As a reminder, at the time of Giuseppe Vicari's murder in his Harlem Ave cafe, it was stated by LE that Vicari was associated with a Pugliese gambling faction in the Western burbs. Pedone is another Pugliese surname, while Fucarino I believe was probably Sicilian (the Fucarino surname seems to have been concentrated around Corleone and Prizzi). Gerardi is pretty widely distributed and could be from Sicily, Puglia, Campania.

[funkster]

lol i would be very curious where these places are now in Addison. Does anyone know if any of these guys are still around, or have they gone back to Italy?

[PolackTony]

Calogero Pedone died later in the 1990s. Vicari was of course whacked. Carlo Fucarino and Gerardi (I believe) still live in Addison and Tommaso Lappo in the city. These guys should be like around 60 (I think). Lappo seems to be on the City’s payroll (surprise, surprise) as a concrete laborer.

Of course, LaBalestra appears to also still be living in Addison, and Vito Salamone is around doing his thing.

[Frank]

With theprevious mention of Marco Diamicos tie to the chicago and Rockford Zips, does this lead to the power and or respect given to John DiFronzo. Were these Zips possibly loyal to the Elmwoodpark faction and DiFronzo.

[PolackTony]

With theprevious mention of Marco Diamicos tie to the chicago and Rockford Zips, does this lead to the power and or respect given to John DiFronzo. Were these Zips possibly loyal to the Elmwoodpark faction and DiFronzo.

That is my suspicion. Some of these Italians may have previously worked with or belonged to Cicero and/or Chinatown, such as Fratto and Infelise. But over time EP seems to have become the major player in that area. In the story surrounding the Florida jewel robbery and murder, a witness against the Carciones claimed that he was told he would be killed by the “Elmwood Park mafia” (someone should’ve told the kid that he had nothing to worry about, as DiFronzo had “shelved” it by that point and they were all just white-collar businessmen). The Carciones seem to have been connected previously to the Rappa (Rocky Infelise/DePietto) narcotics ring. If Carcione was with Elmwood Park by 1997, it would be consistent with rumors that I’ve seen that LaBalestra took over the old Rappa drug operations. Maybe when DiFronzo transferred D’Amico to EP (in the 80s) the “zip” faction came under EP. Or maybe later in the 1990s when Rocky got pinched. There’s way too much that we don’t know.

I think we can get a sense of a faint outline here, however, tracing from the Rappa group, to the Calabresi in the 80s (presumably under Rocky Infelise), to the 1990s with the zips in Addison (apparently a mix of Pugliesi and Sicilians). Camillo Gigliotti was a Calabrese who was associated with Addison Pugliese Ottavio Volpe, but who today seems to spend his time palling around with “Ross” Infelise back in Italy. Gigliotti and Carcione thus suggest a direct link between the Addison “zips” of the 1990s and 2000s, the earlier Rappa operation, and the 1980s Calabresi drug guys. Despite their different Italian origins, all these guys seem to be held together by some common thread. We don’t have a grasp on how much of a role D’Amico played in it, though I strongly suspect he was involved. Worth noting again that both he and DiFronzo (not to mention Lombardo) are of Pugliese background, so it shouldn’t be surprising that in the 90s the Pugliese may have emerged as a significant element in the Chicago underworld.

[funkster]

Just so many unknowns there. I feel like this zip connection, using zip just as a catch all, has been really under discussed so this thread is very helpful.