General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

[Patrickgold]

What about Tornabene? Could he be #44? He was definitely made considering he was part of Calabrese’s ceremony. This goes to say that the FBI was way off on the numbers. They are missing some big names

Tocco was 45 so Tornabene does not fit.

I don't think that they knew about Tornabene yet. Same with other guys like Nick Breeze and Pete DiFronzo.

This list and count is obviously a floor, not a ceiling, of course.

The FBI had been following Tornabene around since 1970. And I asked Red about Victor Spilotro, Jimmy Cozzo and Legs D'Antonio, and according to him none were made up until the time he testified against Frank Schweihs in 1988.

Victor was supposedly made in 1987 or 1988. With regard to Red, if guys like Nick Calabrese don’t know which guy is made, there’s no way in hell Red knows. The guy was not privy to that type of information despite what he says. I just can’t see Cozzo not being made. D’Antonio is different since he was mostly a burglar but a very powerful one at that considering who his good friend was.

[Antiliar]

What about Tornabene? Could he be #44? He was definitely made considering he was part of Calabrese’s ceremony. This goes to say that the FBI was way off on the numbers. They are missing some big names

Tocco was 45 so Tornabene does not fit.

I don't think that they knew about Tornabene yet. Same with other guys like Nick Breeze and Pete DiFronzo.

This list and count is obviously a floor, not a ceiling, of course.

The FBI had been following Tornabene around since 1970. And I asked Red about Victor Spilotro, Jimmy Cozzo and Legs D'Antonio, and according to him none were made up until the time he testified against Frank Schweihs in 1988.

Victor was supposedly made in 1987 or 1988. With regard to Red, if guys like Nick Calabrese don’t know which guy is made, there’s no way in hell Red knows. The guy was not privy to that type of information despite what he says. I just can’t see Cozzo not being made. D’Antonio is different since he was mostly a burglar but a very powerful one at that considering who his good friend was.

Red did say that heard Cozzo was made later on, but he wasn't privy to inside information after 1988. He also didn't know who succeeded Louie Eboli. Frank Schweihs talked like he was running things, and he never heard of Tony Centracchio during his association with the GA crew, so he didn't know everything about it. But he did know Cozzo well - up to 1988.

[PolackTony]

What about Tornabene? Could he be #44? He was definitely made considering he was part of Calabrese’s ceremony. This goes to say that the FBI was way off on the numbers. They are missing some big names

Tocco was 45 so Tornabene does not fit.

I don't think that they knew about Tornabene yet. Same with other guys like Nick Breeze and Pete DiFronzo.

This list and count is obviously a floor, not a ceiling, of course.

The FBI had been following Tornabene around since 1970. And I asked Red about Victor Spilotro, Jimmy Cozzo and Legs D'Antonio, and according to him none were made up until the time he testified against Frank Schweihs in 1988.

Thanks, my impression was that Tornabene was still off LE's radar in '93.

FWIW, Red told me the same about Cozzo and also stated that he heard he was made later. Red did know Cozzo personally quite well (I believe Red about this, he has many personal stories about Jimmy and his family) and said that while these guys weren't supposed to talk about things like who was made, they often did gossip to people they were close to. So Red felt that if Cozzo were made while Red was still on the street he would probably know. I don't think that I asked Red about D'Antonio. Red also told me that he had very little knowledge of Eboli as he was running things out in the suburbs and didn't seem to have much to do with the Grand Ave guys in the city.

[Snakes]

Tornabene was a sleeper in the sense that LE knew who he was but had no real idea of his status until the late nineties.

[Antiliar]

Not to sidetrack the discussion, but this shows that it would be more accurate to designate a crew by its leader rather than its location. I realize it's easier to refer to their location, but this is more effective with those crews that have more stable locations. Going back to Battaglia, his crew included Grand and Ogden to parts of Melrose Park and elsewhere. So calling Lombardo's crew the Grand Avenue crew is convenient, but for the unaware it included much more than that location. Jackie Cerone's crew was based in Elmwood Park, but under Tony Capezio it operated around Grand Avenue. Jimmy Marcello's crew is usually referred to the Melrose Park crew, but he took over the old Joey Aiuppa crew that was called the Cicero crew. However, the Buccieri crew also operated in Cicero. Louie Eboli's crew could have been called the Melrose Park crew also, even though he followed Lombardo and Battaglia, and not Aiuppa. Just an interesting note.

As for Tornabene, I'd say he was off LE's radar in the sense that they ignored or forgot about him, not that they were unaware of him. He got a lot of surveillance from 1970 to 1978, then nothing until 1995 when he was said to be Johnny Apes Monteleone's top man.

[Patrickgold]

Does anyone have any information on Harry Aleman’s brothers? I think there were two, Louie and Anthony. Anthony was listed a lieutenant under Lombardo in one chart. Last I heard he was living in Florida.

[PolackTony]

Not to sidetrack the discussion, but this shows that it would be more accurate to designate a crew by its leader rather than its location. I realize it's easier to refer to their location, but this is more effective with those crews that have more stable locations. Going back to Battaglia, his crew included Grand and Ogden to parts of Melrose Park and elsewhere. So calling Lombardo's crew the Grand Avenue crew is convenient, but for the unaware it included much more than that location. Jackie Cerone's crew was based in Elmwood Park, but under Tony Capezio it operated around Grand Avenue. Jimmy Marcello's crew is usually referred to the Melrose Park crew, but he took over the old Joey Aiuppa crew that was called the Cicero crew. However, the Buccieri crew also operated in Cicero. Louie Eboli's crew could have been called the Melrose Park crew also, even though he followed Lombardo and Battaglia, and not Aiuppa. Just an interesting note.

I agree and have also begun to adopt this myself. At different points in time, we've seen four or five different crews with operations in MP, for example (including also the Daddono and Cerone crews). I find it more clear and precise to refer to the Battaglia, Daddono, Buccieri, Accardo/Cerone, and Aiuppa crews. The Heights and the Northside obviously had more stable and clearly defined geographic power bases over time, but even then the Northside had overlaps with operations from the Westside crews in areas like the Near North, Logan Square, Lakeview/Town Hall district.

[PolackTony]

Tornabene was a sleeper in the sense that LE knew who he was but had no real idea of his status until the late nineties.

They may have known who he was, but they didn't seem to have been aware that he was a member, given his absence from this list?

[Snakes]

Tornabene was a sleeper in the sense that LE knew who he was but had no real idea of his status until the late nineties.

They may have known who he was, but they didn't seem to have been aware that he was a member, given his absence from this list?

Well, by the time this list was made (June 1993), the FBI had updated their standards for identifying made members. They probably just did not have the necessary information to include him in the list.

[Snakes]

As far as the crews are concerned, I tend to use the geographic designations by the late 70s and early 80s. Anything before then, I have tried to use names.

[PolackTony]

Tornabene was a sleeper in the sense that LE knew who he was but had no real idea of his status until the late nineties.

They may have known who he was, but they didn't seem to have been aware that he was a member, given his absence from this list?

Well, by the time this list was made (June 1993), the FBI had updated their standards for identifying made members. They probably just did not have the necessary information to include him in the list.

Did they ever indicate they thought he was made in their earlier intel from the 70s, before the updates?

[Antiliar]

Did they ever indicate they thought he was made in their earlier intel from the 70s, before the updates?

In his heavily redacted file they note that he was part of the Aiuppa group and a cousin of Roy Carlisi of Buffalo. Most files don't say whether or not a person is a made member, they do that in their lists. I don't have any Chicago member list from the FBI that's more recent than what's in Mary Ferrell, and none of those are more recent than the 1960s. The charts the FBI put out are very incomplete. So I can only say that the documentation in his file is consistent with other made members for the period 1970 to 1978. Then it has a gap until 1995.

[Snakes]

I've seen a list as late as 1973 that didn't have him but again, if there wasn't an informant that knew of his status, it would have been easy for him to fly under the radar. Like Antilliar said, the information is consistent with other made members of the time, especially as we have him meeting with guys like Aiuppa, Lombardo, DiBella, etc. in 1974/75.

[Snakes]

Had a brain fart and remembered that Senese died in 1992, so the guy between Roti and Spadavecchio cannot be him. It may be Albert Rossetti, who was a sleeper from the Heights.

[SolarSolano]

Out of all the names mentioned here, the only one that I would be confident in claiming was made at the time was Mike Castaldo. Everyone else I believe was never made or made on a later date.

I cross-checked a lot of the names I used as suggestions with other files I have access to, which is how I was able to determine Cozzo, Senese, and Spillone's potential inclusion. Including Rockford guys on this list probably led to a couple of false leads for some of the redactions but Cavita is trying to help me out with some of those.

As for the LaMantia situation, LaMantia had introduced Sr. to some members from the East Coast as a made guy. Sr. was discussing this with Jr. and Jr. remarked something to the effect of "and he wasn't even..." before Sr. interrupted. I had always interpreted this to be that LaMantia wasn't made. I suppose it could be something else but based on the anger Sr. reacted with, I could believe it. You would also have to assume that Sr. would know LaMantia's status, considering they were in the same crew. I will see if I can find the exact quotations.

Snakes, are you in agreement that Victor Spilotro was made? I have not confirmed this but have always heard that he was made about a year or so after his brothers were killed to kind of reward him for staying loyal despite what happened to his family. I do find it interesting that he died less than 10 years later in a nursing home in Wheeling West Virginia. I wonder how he ended up there

There was a reference to Victor Spilotro in the early 90s within the Infelise case where he essentially gave up a bettor to Infelise. I just think Victor was allowed to 'live' and earn by the Outfit - nothing more. He was never on par with Tony in terms of earning potential - from what I've observed, he was more of a knockaround guy and very much a gopher for Irv Weiner and other guys around Lombardo.