Northwest Indiana / Chicago Heights Mafia

[Patrickgold]

Seems like something fishy has been going on. Word on the street is restaurant owners in the northwest Indiana area have been targeted with car explosions to send a message. Can anyone confirm this?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Which restaurants were firebombed? Some of the strip clubs in NW Indiana are Outfit connected like Polekatz and Fantasy. The Owner of Fantasy was found dead in his garage over a year ago. There was talk that it was a hit but from what I’m hearing LE said it was a drug overdose. Supposedly there some people that were invested. He had a lot of enemies. It has been very quiet about his death.!!it was never in the news. He was also part owner of Oceans and Club O. He was under indictment at the time for extortion I believe.

I’ve heard about that as well. It seems there continues to be a few Greeks involved as well. I remember in the 1993 trials forced many to testify due to illegal gambling taking place in their restaurants.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Supposedly Schweihs was extorting the non connected strip clubs in NW Indiana before his indictment in 2005. Not sure about the Greeks. Do you have any names?

[Tonyd621]

Didnt steve mandell want to murder anthony quaranta tje owner of polekatz at one time?

[Coloboy]

I would have to think both Cicero and 26th have some gambling interests down there. Like it was said before, doubtful they are collecting any sort of street tax, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have money down there.

This all just reinforces to me what a mystery the 26 street crew is. We haven’t heard much in the way of even a minor arrest , which we have multiple examples of over the last 10 years with the other 3 crews, and I’m always very curious how active they are.

[Patrickgold]

Didnt steve mandell want to murder anthony quaranta tje owner of polekatz at one time?

Yep, but that was the one in Bridgeview. He was going to kill Tony Q and Demitri Stavropoulos, which might be one of the Greeks that is being talked about as having some interest in NW Indiana. Not sure if Polekatz in NW Indiana was open at that time.

[Patrickgold]

I would have to think both Cicero and 26th have some gambling interests down there. Like it was said before, doubtful they are collecting any sort of street tax, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have money down there.

This all just reinforces to me what a mystery the 26 street crew is. We haven’t heard much in the way of even a minor arrest , which we have multiple examples of over the last 10 years with the other 3 crews, and I’m always very curious how active they are.

They have definitely had the less publicity then the other crews. But wasnt Casey Szaflarski indictment in 2010 connected to the 26th st crew?

[Coloboy]

I would have to think both Cicero and 26th have some gambling interests down there. Like it was said before, doubtful they are collecting any sort of street tax, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have money down there.

This all just reinforces to me what a mystery the 26 street crew is. We haven’t heard much in the way of even a minor arrest , which we have multiple examples of over the last 10 years with the other 3 crews, and I’m always very curious how active they are.

They have definitely had the less publicity then the other crews. But wasnt Casey Szaflarski indictment in 2010 connected to the 26th st crew?

Good call, I forgot about him and yes he was about as directly connected to 26 street as you could get. I believe he was married to one of the Carusos or LaPietras? He was most certainly the front man and took the fall for that indictment.

[PolackTony]

I would have to think both Cicero and 26th have some gambling interests down there. Like it was said before, doubtful they are collecting any sort of street tax, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have money down there.

This all just reinforces to me what a mystery the 26 street crew is. We haven’t heard much in the way of even a minor arrest , which we have multiple examples of over the last 10 years with the other 3 crews, and I’m always very curious how active they are.

They have definitely had the less publicity then the other crews. But wasnt Casey Szaflarski indictment in 2010 connected to the 26th st crew?

Szaflarski is/was a Bridgeport guy, but so far as I understand the activities in his indictment were connected to Cicero. Of course, his son-in-law is Frankie Caruso, so one would suppose that the connection was there.

If, as some have suggested, Chinatown is basically folded into Cicero at this point, then I guess there isn't a distinction anyway. While I certainly think that this latter scenario is fully possible, I'm not personally convinced, same as with Elmwood. We've been over this on the other threads, of course, but I'm on the fence regarding the status of EP and 26 as extant crews. As with all else, time will tell (or it won't). My suspicion is that there remains a bit more happening with Chinatown than the lack of indictments in recent years would suggest. The area remains really the last viable inner-city Italian enclave in Chicago. There are still families concentrated there, tightly knit and intermarried, who have been connected to the Life going back forever. Italian guys I know from Bridgeport tell me that they still have some low-key clubs (apart from ONIAC), they still have card games and book, and that there are still connected guys. I can't substantiate any of that, of course, but that's what I'm told, for whatever it's worth. The area still supports a node of "racket subculture", as defined by sociologist Robert Lombardo, and to the degree which that remains true, the neighborhood presents fertile soil for continued OC operation, clientele, and even recruitment.

[Patrickgold]

Since Sarno was the street boss at that time, or at least took a leading role in the Outfit, it would make sense for Szaflarski to being working directly with him. That being said, as you mentioned, the crew lines have become extremely blurred in the Outfit. That is for sure

[Mason_dixon]

The outfit was involved in a concrete club style price fixing that my buddies dad was the whistle blower slash rat on. 4 of the IMI Irving materials brothers went to prison and my buddies uncle got his uncles 2 million dollar house burned down they day they finished it on the lake my grandparents live on. The outfit was said to have burnt it down. We were at purdue at the time and my buddies dad would still sneak in and out of west Lafayette which borders the region for our fraternity stuff. He was down in north Carolina for a minute hiding but I'm not sure if he did Witsec. There are news articles about it. Its was 2008ish.

[Villain]

The Cicero-Chinatown connection never really ceased. We have Spano sending envelopes to Monteleone while both were capos...we have Szaflarski being closely connected to both crews....we also have Nick Ferriola allegedly being connected to the Chinatown boys...we have Ferriola and the LaPietras being called at the same time regarding investigatons on the Vegas scheme...we have LaPietra sponsoring Infelise....and these are only off the top of my head

[Villain]

.....Monteleone was originally a Cicero guy but ended up under Chinatown....

[funkster]

I would have to think both Cicero and 26th have some gambling interests down there. Like it was said before, doubtful they are collecting any sort of street tax, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have money down there.

This all just reinforces to me what a mystery the 26 street crew is. We haven’t heard much in the way of even a minor arrest , which we have multiple examples of over the last 10 years with the other 3 crews, and I’m always very curious how active they are.

They have definitely had the less publicity then the other crews. But wasnt Casey Szaflarski indictment in 2010 connected to the 26th st crew?

Szaflarski is/was a Bridgeport guy, but so far as I understand the activities in his indictment were connected to Cicero. Of course, his son-in-law is Frankie Caruso, so one would suppose that the connection was there.

If, as some have suggested, Chinatown is basically folded into Cicero at this point, then I guess there isn't a distinction anyway. While I certainly think that this latter scenario is fully possible, I'm not personally convinced, same as with Elmwood. We've been over this on the other threads, of course, but I'm on the fence regarding the status of EP and 26 as extant crews. As with all else, time will tell (or it won't). My suspicion is that there remains a bit more happening with Chinatown than the lack of indictments in recent years would suggest. The area remains really the last viable inner-city Italian enclave in Chicago. There are still families concentrated there, tightly knit and intermarried, who have been connected to the Life going back forever. Italian guys I know from Bridgeport tell me that they still have some low-key clubs (apart from ONIAC), they still have card games and book, and that there are still connected guys. I can't substantiate any of that, of course, but that's what I'm told, for whatever it's worth. The area still supports a node of "racket subculture", as defined by sociologist Robert Lombardo, and to the degree which that remains true, the neighborhood presents fertile soil for continued OC operation, clientele, and even recruitment.

I wonder if he is still into bars and what not, I guess he had a few in the patch area back in the 80s/90s.

[SolarSolano]

I think his company Amusements Inc. is still active - its on Harlem in Berwyn. I was always amazed the son and grandson of Mugsy Tortoriello were in Sarno's Cicero Crew.

[Snakes]

I think his company Amusements Inc. is still active - its on Harlem in Berwyn. I was always amazed the son and grandson of Mugsy Tortoriello were in Sarno's Cicero Crew.

One of Mugsy's sons was involved with drugs and killed in Florida in 1982. The killer was the son of a Colombo family member.

[Villain]

Mark Tortoriello was killed in 83 while his dad was killed in 84 i think. Story goes that Mark was fatally wounded during an alleged cocaine deal which obviously went wrong.