Rockford LCN Associate Angelo "Dingo" Pro 1930-2021

[cavita]

I recently got word from my Rockford friends back home that Rockford LCN associate Angelo Pro died on May 10th in Rockford at the age of 90 years.
Angelo “Dingo” Pro was born August 17, 1930 in Rockford, Illinois to parents who had immigrated to Rockford from Ferentino, Italy. As a youth and up until he was a young man, Dingo was a hell of a baseball player. So much so that there was talk that he had a solid chance of being a professional ballplayer. Dingo was a very tough individual with raw strength and once when he was a young man he was trying to rein in a spirited horse when the horse wouldn’t do what Dingo wanted. Dingo ended up punching the horse so severely in the chest, the horse died.

In July 1951 Dingo took his first official arrest when he and Tom Buscemi were charged with operating an illegal fireworks stand in Richmond, Illinois. Around this time Dingo started getting involved in gambling in the Rockford area and did exceptionally well as he had a knack for money and gambling odds- so much so that (as he told me the story) in the mid-1950s he was able to take future Rockford LCN street gambling boss Phil Emordeno for a bunch of money. Emordeno welched on Dingo’s bet and Dingo took his case straight to Rockford LCN boss Tony Musso. Musso, seeing this would be bad for business, verbally berated Emordeno and made him pay up.

By the late 1950s Dingo was making the rounds to the gambling games in the Rockford area and everyone knew him well. When two of Dingo’s gambling associates, Joe Greco and Donald Burton were found beaten and strangled in the trunk of Greco’s car in May 1959, the Grand Jury called Dingo in to testify along with many other Rockford LCN members and associates.

By the time the 1960s rolled around, the Rockford LCN had already been firmly in control of organized gambling for years and profits were running high at the time. By May 1964 Sebastian “Knobby” Gulotta’s star was on the rise in the LCN and he was operating the West End Smoke Shop at 608 West State Street but this was a front for his bookmaking and gambling business. That month, Dingo was arrested for keeping a gambling establishment there as Gulotta was having him operate the business. Dingo ended up paying a modest fine in this case. What may have also helped Dingo was that his brother-in-law was Frank Giardono, not only an LCN connected gambler in his own right but Frank was also the stepson of Rockford LCN capo Charles Vince.

By the late 1960s and early 1970s Dingo had ingratiated himself into the black community and this was due not only to him knowing how to operate all kinds of gambling games popular with the black culture, but because his wife was also black. Testament to this was an October 24, 1972 arrest as keeper of a gambling house for having an illegal card game at The Shoe Shine Shop, 1014 S. Main Street. Also arrested for gambling along with Dingo were Tyree Dupree, Thomas Brooks, Daniel Hill, Kevin White, Howard Baykin and Herbert Fort, all black men. Another arrest for Dingo came on March 4, 1978 and he was arrested along with 21 other people on gambling charges at 907 Elm Street. Others arrested were Tyree Dupree, 50, Lonnie Fort, 76, Herbert Fort, Roy L. Stone, 55, Daniel E. Hill, 56, Clyde Blake, 45, Charlie Batten, 48, Nathaniel Mullins, 32, Fred Perteete, 34, Bobby J. Dupree, 21, Mager Finklea, 45, Eddie Haynes, 26, Lee R. Saulter, 47, Charles J. White, 50, Thomas E. Brooks, 40, Junior West, 40, Larry J. Purifoy, 21, Stanley Wilson, 31, G.T. McGee, 40, Mack H. Mannery, 61, and Nathaniel Walker, 42. Again, all these gentlemen were black and although there was no mention in the newspapers this was connected to the Rockford LCN, they were given a cut of all the proceeds for allowing the gambling to operate. Charles Vince as Rockford LCN capo had the task of collecting the “street tax” from all illegal gambling games in and around the Rockford area.

Dingo was not only a gambling expert and bookmaker, he was the largest loanshark in Rockford. If you needed to borrow as little as $20 or as much as $10,000 Dingo could easily accommodate you for the required interest rate and for those that had a nice ring or an expensive watch to use as collateral, Dingo only needed to whip out the jeweler’s loupe he wore around his neck to determine a piece’s worth before lending any money. On March 12, 1989 Dingo took another gambling arrest while he was overseeing a gambling game at Earlee Hicks house at 1306 Chestnut Street. Nine other men were arrested in this raid. These games at Earlee Hicks’ house had been going on for quite some time and was continuing on up until the night of January 5, 2000 when Dingo was present for a large game there. The gambling game had just gotten started when sometime around 7:15 p.m. six men, at least three of which were armed, burst in and held the gambling patrons at gunpoint. All six men were wearing gorilla masks and ordered everyone inside to remove all their clothes and they then robbed all the patrons of their jewelry and money. Investigators said there was little info to go on, but said it was very unusual that rifles or shotguns were used in this robbery as they were not commonly used in street crimes. The fact that they used such elaborate masks to cover their faces was also unusual and the robbers made their getaway in a red, “work-type” van with a ladder or ladder racks on top. Police declined to say how many people were inside the house or who was present, but it was also found out that all the robbers were white men which was extremely unusual given that the house was in a predominately black area. Rumors had circulated that Hicks wasn’t cutting the “appropriate” people in on his gambling profits and that perhaps this was a message that was sent to him with Dingo being “robbed” as part of the ruse.

While Dingo never held a regular job, never had any property or cars in his own name, he would always carry a roll of $200 in one-dollar bills in one pocket and in the other pocket have at least $5,000 in hundreds and smaller denominations. Every year Dingo would buy a brand-new Cadillac, having traded in the previous years’ model and paying the difference in cash. Thinking of sticking up Dingo? Not a wise choice as he always kept a .38 pistol in his waistband and would use it if needed. Dingo once relayed the story to me how his son came home from a new job at a construction company a little confused. His son’s paycheck seemed a little light and when questioned, the boss told the boy that he was holding some of his money back and redistributing it back into the company to ensure the growth of the business. Dingo went right to the owner’s trailer at the construction site, walked in and pointed his pistol at the owner’s head and had him pay the young man in cash what he had taken from his paycheck.

When not at gambling games where could you regularly find Dingo in the mornings? At the various downtown Rockford restaurants having breakfast, taking bets, loaning money and socializing. In the afternoons he could be found at the Off Track Betting parlor having lunch, taking bets and loaning out money. Dingo was loud, foul-mouthed and always sported a little moustache with his long, graying hair pulled back in a ponytail. He dominated every conversation with his gravely voice as he stared at you with his beady eyes and I’m going to miss every bit of him. Rest in peace my friend.

[Villain]

Great story cavita and I feel you for losing a friend like that.

Your story reminded me of something recent...meaning few weeks ago I had one heated convo with the widow of one of my long lost firends (like that Dingo guy but died of corona more than few months ago), because she is always saying how her husband was a saint and bla bla bla...while on the other hand i used to know him longer than her since I finished high with him and so I told her that her late husband used to lend money and used to beat up a lot of people (since she acted like she never knew about it). I also explained to her thats called "riba" and its considered a huge sin to spread money for interests or percentege aka loan sharking (even long before the banking systems were invented)...so she went ballistic lol fuck her lol

Enter Hell as a proud individual and admit your sins.

[PolackTony]

Sorry for your loss Cav. He sounds like quite the character, and we all know they don’t make em like that any more....

Was Dingo one of the few non-Sicilian affiliates of the Rockford borgata? I’m sure there were others, of course. Ferentino is in Frosinone, Lazio, where a number of LCN members traced their ancestry, including Raymond Patriarca, Johnny Roselli, and Marco D’Amico. Frosinone is an interesting province culturally, as while it is part of Lazio, in the past it was part of the old Kingdom of Naples, and thus is like a border zone for the Mezzogiorno.

[cavita]

Sorry for your loss Cav. He sounds like quite the character, and we all know they don’t make em like that any more....

Was Dingo one of the few non-Sicilian affiliates of the Rockford borgata? I’m sure there were others, of course. Ferentino is in Frosinone, Lazio, where a number of LCN members traced their ancestry, including Raymond Patriarca, Johnny Roselli, and Marco D’Amico. Frosinone is an interesting province culturally, as while it is part of Lazio, in the past it was part of the old Kingdom of Naples, and thus is like a border zone for the Mezzogiorno.

Early in their history there were many non-Sicilian affiliates. One of the big leaders in the booze business during Prohibition was William "Big Bill" D'Agostin who was from Ferentino, Italy and many Rockford Italians can trace their heritage to that town. In fact, Ferentino is a "sister city" to Rockford. Rockford LCN member Joe "Gramps" Marinelli, though born in Rockford, his parents were immigrants from Ferentino.

[PolackTony]

Sorry for your loss Cav. He sounds like quite the character, and we all know they don’t make em like that any more....

Was Dingo one of the few non-Sicilian affiliates of the Rockford borgata? I’m sure there were others, of course. Ferentino is in Frosinone, Lazio, where a number of LCN members traced their ancestry, including Raymond Patriarca, Johnny Roselli, and Marco D’Amico. Frosinone is an interesting province culturally, as while it is part of Lazio, in the past it was part of the old Kingdom of Naples, and thus is like a border zone for the Mezzogiorno.

Early in their history there were many non-Sicilian affiliates. One of the big leaders in the booze business during Prohibition was William "Big Bill" D'Agostin who was from Ferentino, Italy and many Rockford Italians can trace their heritage to that town. In fact, Ferentino is a "sister city" to Rockford. Rockford LCN member Joe "Gramps" Marinelli, though born in Rockford, his parents were immigrants from Ferentino.

Thanks for the further detail on the Ferentino-Rockford connection, that’s very interesting. I don’t know much about Italian settlement in the Rockford area, apart from the Sicilians involved in LCN. Were there many associates and/or members from Campania, Calabria, or Puglia was well? Apologies if that’s too much of a tangent from the original topic here.

It may not mean anything, but Marco D’Amico’s father was from Guarcino, Frosinone (his mother was from Foggia in Puglia), which is not far from Ferentino and as you have shared Marco had some connections himself to Rockford.

[cavita]

There were some, specifically from Naples but to my knowledge none from Calabria or the Puglia regions.

[Ed]

Great job. I love reading about Rockford's "characters."

[B.]

Yep, I see Cavita's Rockford posts as a great "series". So much we'd never otherwise know without his work.

You said he had mainland heritage and was an associate. Did Rockford make non-Sicilians?

[cavita]

Yep, I see Cavita's Rockford posts as a great "series". So much we'd never otherwise know without his work.

You said he had mainland heritage and was an associate. Did Rockford make non-Sicilians?

The only confirmed member I'm aware of so far that was not Sicilian was Joe "Gramps" Marinelli whose parents hailed from Ferentino. According to FBI files Capo Charles Vince once told Milwaukee's Augie Maniaci that Marinelli should never have been made because he was always getting into trouble and involved in "kid stuff" that aggravated the other members.

[PolackTony]

So we only have one non-Sicilian confirmed member for Rockford. While Rockford was always a smaller family, that’s still gotta be among the lower range for any US family, no? Apart from the really small/old school families like Madison and Springfield, what other families seem to have had such a low proportion of non-Sicilians inducted? I don’t know enough about Detroit and KC, but my impression has always been that they were very strongly Sicilian in membership as well.

[B.]

Detroit, Kansas City, St. Louis, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Tampa, New Orleans, and Pittston are others that seem to have stayed almost entirely Sicilian with just a couple exceptions that we know of.

Colorado was mostly Sicilian but the Denver (and apparently Wyoming) group was mostly non-Sicilian. We have so few confirmed Colorado members it's hard to say.

San Jose was heavily Sicilian as well but had some important Calabrian members who transferred to SJ.

Dallas is interesting because they were small and had longstanding Sicilian roots but had Calabrian representation across the state.

Kind of interesting how aside from Cleveland and Chicago, most of the midwest families were heavily if not entirely Sicilian.

[cavita]

Rockford had a few early non-Sicilian influential men that may or may have not have been members. Peter Sanfilippo was from Renella, Italy near Salerno, Filippo Vella (who I suspect was a member for sure) was from Naples and William "Big Bill" D'Agostin was from Ferentino, Italy

[PolackTony]

Detroit, Kansas City, St. Louis, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Tampa, New Orleans, and Pittston are others that seem to have stayed almost entirely Sicilian with just a couple exceptions that we know of.

Colorado was mostly Sicilian but the Denver (and apparently Wyoming) group was mostly non-Sicilian. We have so few confirmed Colorado members it's hard to say.

San Jose was heavily Sicilian as well but had some important Calabrian members who transferred to SJ.

Dallas is interesting because they were small and had longstanding Sicilian roots but had Calabrian representation across the state.

Kind of interesting how aside from Cleveland and Chicago, most of the midwest families were heavily if not entirely Sicilian.

Thanks, the families that you cited are of course all ones that I’ve always thought of as mostly if not all Sicilian. I didn’t know about the non-Sicilians in CO and Dallas, however.

Chicago and Cleveland have/had the largest Italian communities in the Midwest (Detroit also, but they might just be an outlier here), so I wonder if part of it is simply that there was a much larger community within which LCN took root, leading to different recruitment dynamics and social networks. Chicago was of course more like NYC, Boston, or Philly in terms of the scale of Italian settlement and community formation than the cities where these smaller Sicilian “colony” type families emerged. I suspect that Cleveland was similar, but I don’t know enough about the patterns of settlement and community development there.

[PolackTony]

Rockford had a few early non-Sicilian influential men that may or may have not have been members. Peter Sanfilippo was from Renella, Italy near Salerno, Filippo Vella (who I suspect was a member for sure) was from Naples and William "Big Bill" D'Agostin was from Ferentino, Italy

Thanks, I had assumed that Sanfilippo was Sicilian.

[Philly d]

Detroit, Kansas City, St. Louis, Milwaukee, San Francisco, Tampa, New Orleans, and Pittston are others that seem to have stayed almost entirely Sicilian with just a couple exceptions that we know of.

Colorado was mostly Sicilian but the Denver (and apparently Wyoming) group was mostly non-Sicilian. We have so few confirmed Colorado members it's hard to say.

San Jose was heavily Sicilian as well but had some important Calabrian members who transferred to SJ.

Dallas is interesting because they were small and had longstanding Sicilian roots but had Calabrian representation across the state.

Kind of interesting how aside from Cleveland and Chicago, most of the midwest families were heavily if not entirely Sicilian.

Thanks, the families that you cited are of course all ones that I’ve always thought of as mostly if not all Sicilian. I didn’t know about the non-Sicilians in CO and Dallas, however.

Chicago and Cleveland have/had the largest Italian communities in the Midwest (Detroit also, but they might just be an outlier here), so I wonder if part of it is simply that there was a much larger community within which LCN took root, leading to different recruitment dynamics and social networks. Chicago was of course more like NYC, Boston, or Philly in terms of the scale of Italian settlement and community formation than the cities where these smaller Sicilian “colony” type families emerged. I suspect that Cleveland was similar, but I don’t know enough about the patterns of settlement and community development there.

Cleveland more than Detroit?