General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

[PolackTony]

Yeah, I automatically typed Caruso because of the shared nickname. My brain's version of auto-fill.

Going back to the Gary Family, what I wonder is if this was the Chicago Heights Family. Some Heights figures were from Cinisi like Palazzolo in Gary, so one speculative theory could be Palazzolo took over the Heights Family after the Caccamo leaders were killed in the 1920s, which would explain his prominence at the 1928 Cleveland meeting and may have given the impression of a Family based in Gary when it was actually distributed among the Heights and nearby Indiana. Certainly strong ties between the Heights / Gary elements.

Could be.

Also could be that Costello and these other guys belonged to the Gary crew. Or maybe there was a third crew operating in the region. Given that Pinelli was clearly still quite active in Gary after he had formally relocated to CA, I have a lot of questions about the mysterious Southlands.

[B.]

Reference to "governing Board", but this CI seemingly conflated that with the top made guys in the Northside crew:

Wonder if there was any significance to the number ten (you can see where I'm going). It wasn't just that he knew 10 names, as he specifically said 10 and could only recall 9 names, all/most of which appear to be members.

Too bad that segment about the governing board is redacted -- might add more context as it's not clear if the "governing board" refers specifically to the ten members or if there's something else being said along with it, i.e. crews "in Chicago are ten in number".

[PolackTony]

Reference to "governing Board", but this CI seemingly conflated that with the top made guys in the Northside crew:

Wonder if there was any significance to the number ten (you can see where I'm going). It wasn't just that he knew 10 names, as he specifically said 10 and could only recall 9 names, all/most of which appear to be members.

Too bad that segment about the governing board is redacted -- might add more context as it's not clear if the "governing board" refers specifically to the ten members or if there's something else being said along with it, i.e. crews "in Chicago are ten in number".

Yeah, maybe the names in the redacted space actually comprised the members of the Board, while the CI listed names comprised 9 of 10 members of the Northside decina.

[PolackTony]

Seems like the info above on the Northside crew may have been from Covelli, who testified against Allegretti in 1962:




Frank Orlando is a less recognized Northside guy that seems to have been a major player. The Anthony DeMonte and Dom Nuccio files mention him frequently, and he was a longtime close personal friend of DeMonte. Not sure if it was ever confirmed that he was a member, but I think it's almost certain that he was.

[B.]

Reference to "governing Board", but this CI seemingly conflated that with the top made guys in the Northside crew:

Wonder if there was any significance to the number ten (you can see where I'm going). It wasn't just that he knew 10 names, as he specifically said 10 and could only recall 9 names, all/most of which appear to be members.

Too bad that segment about the governing board is redacted -- might add more context as it's not clear if the "governing board" refers specifically to the ten members or if there's something else being said along with it, i.e. crews "in Chicago are ten in number".

Yeah, maybe the names in the redacted space actually comprised the members of the Board, while the CI listed names comprised 9 of 10 members of the Northside decina.

Phrasing indicates he's referring not to the governing board (a singular entity) but something plural, i.e. "are" ten in number. Have to imagine he's referring to the crews given the example he gave are Prio's guys. Obviously hard to say for sure.

[B.]

Don't know if it was the same source but Prio was referred to as a "board member" in 1968 with the usual suspects here:

[PolackTony]

Don't know if it was the same source but Prio was referred to as a "board member" in 1968 with the usual suspects here:

Yup. Prio was a powerful guy.

Also. Not saying that there were only 5 members on the council, but for obvious reasons, 5 would certainly make sense.

[davidf1989]

PT, I always wondered about your avatar! Porky looks like a sweetheart.

Rosenthal was a duplicitous guy, navigating mob waters for so long, mixing with underworld heavyweights. So it wouldn't surprise me at all if he threw shade on Glick, a rival, to take him down.

Also, did it ever come out that Glick supplied Intel during the 1970s? Again wouldn't surprise me at all if he was talking with the FBI the whole time he was running the casino.

I agree that Glick probably didn't order the murder, more like he brought it to the attention of his superiors that Rand was a problem.

So did the Chicago Outfit order Spilotro to murder Rand with Bompensiero?

[SolarSolano]

Was this Bobby Covone who used to run numbers of the Infelise crew?
https://patch.com/illinois/joliet/2-koh ... olice-cops

Bobby Covone's nickname should've been "Bobby Gavone". If not, major opportunity lost there. Also, James Coniglio should've been called "Jimmy the Rabbit".

Could be the same guy.

I'm pretty sure it is the same guy -- age matches with the Covone in the BOP search.

I was told Bobby Covone is a very active drug dealer and his daughter has a kid with the famous Chicago rapper Little Dirk.

[PolackTony]

Was this Bobby Covone who used to run numbers of the Infelise crew?
https://patch.com/illinois/joliet/2-koh ... olice-cops

Bobby Covone's nickname should've been "Bobby Gavone". If not, major opportunity lost there. Also, James Coniglio should've been called "Jimmy the Rabbit".

Could be the same guy.

I'm pretty sure it is the same guy -- age matches with the Covone in the BOP search.

I was told Bobby Covone is a very active drug dealer and his daughter has a kid with the famous Chicago rapper Little Dirk.

He was arrested with a black chick here, I note.

[SolarSolano]

Was this Bobby Covone who used to run numbers of the Infelise crew?
https://patch.com/illinois/joliet/2-koh ... olice-cops

Bobby Covone's nickname should've been "Bobby Gavone". If not, major opportunity lost there. Also, James Coniglio should've been called "Jimmy the Rabbit".

Could be the same guy.

I'm pretty sure it is the same guy -- age matches with the Covone in the BOP search.

I was told Bobby Covone is a very active drug dealer and his daughter has a kid with the famous Chicago rapper Little Dirk.

He was arrested with a black chick here, I note.

Polack wasn't there a bar on Grand Ave in the patch during the late 70s early 80s called Cavone's or was it something else? It was like the hangout for all those white gangs for a long time and Frank Calabrese Jr. would go there.

[PolackTony]

Was this Bobby Covone who used to run numbers of the Infelise crew?
https://patch.com/illinois/joliet/2-koh ... olice-cops

Bobby Covone's nickname should've been "Bobby Gavone". If not, major opportunity lost there. Also, James Coniglio should've been called "Jimmy the Rabbit".

Could be the same guy.

I'm pretty sure it is the same guy -- age matches with the Covone in the BOP search.

I was told Bobby Covone is a very active drug dealer and his daughter has a kid with the famous Chicago rapper Little Dirk.

He was arrested with a black chick here, I note.

Polack wasn't there a bar on Grand Ave in the patch during the late 70s early 80s called Cavone's or was it something else? It was like the hangout for all those white gangs for a long time and Frank Calabrese Jr. would go there.

That’s before my time. Offhand, I don’t recall hearing about a bar called Cavone’s, but there were plenty of bars around.

[B.]

What do you think of this one Tony? Haha



- If they were referring to Campise as an "avugad" along with someone else (if that's the right interpretation, conversation seems broken), can only assume they used "avugad" to refer to made members. Not crazy to think of a member's role as an "avvocato", but the typical use of "avugad" as a Commission member is what makes it weird and maybe Chicago-centric.

- Could also be using avugad to refer to a member representing someone in a dispute. Nothing in this transcript indicates the context was a dispute but it's vague. I took it to mean Campise is the "avugad" over his crew of associates, maybe you have another take.

- Doesn't seem there would be a racket-based use of that term and this is the only conversation I saw where the Prio crew whispers about something. They talked fairly openly about other incriminating subjects (gambling, starting a fire on a farm and lying to LE about it, etc.). I noticed on the recordings they will go to another room in the building to discuss certain matters, too, so even though the FBI captured them talking we're in the dark about what those more secretive meetings we're about. This one was more secretive given they whispered.

- Also might shed light (or more confusion) on the Accardo conversation about making "the Jew" (Lansky) an "avugad". We know Lansky wasn't a made member so could have been a sarcastic comment about Lansky's unique position, or maybe Lansky was representing someone/something in a dispute. The Prio/DiBella convo at least tells us they didn't use it in Chicago only to mean Commission seat like we see in other cities.

[PolackTony]

What do you think of this one Tony? Haha



- If they were referring to Campise as an "avugad" along with someone else (if that's the right interpretation, conversation seems broken), can only assume they used "avugad" to refer to made members. Not crazy to think of a member's role as an "avvocato", but the typical use of "avugad" as a Commission member is what makes it weird and maybe Chicago-centric.

- Could also be using avugad to refer to a member representing someone in a dispute. Nothing in this transcript indicates the context was a dispute but it's vague. I took it to mean Campise is the "avugad" over his crew of associates, maybe you have another take.

- Doesn't seem there would be a racket-based use of that term and this is the only conversation I saw where the Prio crew whispers about something. They talked fairly openly about other incriminating subjects (gambling, starting a fire on a farm and lying to LE about it, etc.). I noticed on the recordings they will go to another room in the building to discuss certain matters, too, so even though the FBI captured them talking we're in the dark about what those more secretive meetings we're about. This one was more secretive given they whispered.

- Also might shed light (or more confusion) on the Accardo conversation about making "the Jew" (Lansky) an "avugad". We know Lansky wasn't a made member so could have been a sarcastic comment about Lansky's unique position, or maybe Lansky was representing someone/something in a dispute. The Prio/DiBella convo at least tells us they didn't use it in Chicago only to mean Commission seat like we see in other cities.

Wtf? This one is hard to parse. I think there’s just so little that we know about how Chicago members thought and talked about the mafia organization that it’s hard to contextualize what they might’ve actually meant by avugad.

On the Costello tape, it’s clear that he’s referring to Giancana as avugad, which made sense in that Giancana of course was on the Commission and the rappresentante can be thought of as an “avvocato” in his role of representing the membership.

But here it almost sounds as if they’re saying that Campise and the redacted guy were like capos (he’s got a pretty good crowd). So maybe it was that these were made guys who had a crew of associates under them, and they were “avugad” in that they represented those associates to the family. So the use of avugad was like an analogy to how the boss was vis-a-vis the made members. But that would’ve been the case for pretty much most made guys, they presumably pretty much all had associates under them. So why would they need to demarcate these two individuals in this way?

Also, Campise was a member of their crew, why would DiBella need to be telling Prio what Campise was?

[B.]

That's why I wonder if it was in context with a dispute. If a made member has to sit down for someone, he is acting as the representative / lawyer and "avvocato" is used in Italy to mean lawyer.

Campise being a member of their crew makes it weird, as even if Campise was serving as "avugad" in a dispute it would mean Prio likely approved or at least knew it. Not something DiBella would need to share like gossip with Prio, and then Prio trades gossip about someone else being avugad. I know Campise was ID'd as a member under Solano but is he confirmed to have always formally reported to that crew?

I don't interpret it to be like a captain -- the impression I have going through all these Chicago files is that made members' role as "lieutenants" to their capodecina was much more apparent. That's true for other cities too though -- I've been trying to argue for years that "soldier" is one of the misleading terms for a made member, as becoming made makes you a boss / lieutenant over associates and various interests. Not all made members / lieutenants are created equal either. There were so many members in NYC that this was probably less apparent, but in a city with a smaller membership it would be obvious that made members were not "soldiers" but lieutenants in their own right.

Plays into what CC was saying about Toledo the other night -- people have assumed Detroit's member there was a captain because he represented their interests, but the evidence is he didn't have rank. As a made member though he was no doubt a "lieutenant" repping Detroit's Toledo interests.



- This one confused me, as I thought it was saying Prio was "made" along with 20-30 members around the same time, but it's just saying Prio is "made" and the informant estimates 20-30 made members in Chicago. No doubt they had more but interesting they had a very conservative view of the size.