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

[cavita]

Great info -- I assumed it would be one of the Agrigento guys. Didn't know of San Giuseppe Jato ties to Rochester (there was a colony near Utica though) or Denver. Sounds like he kept his membership in Rockford which is interesting but there seems to have been a close relationship between Colorado and Rockford just from the few references that came from informants. I know you said the Triolos of Rockford moved there too.

When I get a chance, hopefully tomorrow, I'll post up an FBI excerpt about Basile I think you'll find interesting. His name is redacted but he is clearly the subject.

[cavita]

Great info -- I assumed it would be one of the Agrigento guys. Didn't know of San Giuseppe Jato ties to Rochester (there was a colony near Utica though) or Denver. Sounds like he kept his membership in Rockford which is interesting but there seems to have been a close relationship between Colorado and Rockford just from the few references that came from informants. I know you said the Triolos of Rockford moved there too.

When I get a chance, hopefully tomorrow, I'll post up an FBI excerpt about Basile I think you'll find interesting. His name is redacted but he is clearly the subject.

The redacted subject is clearly Tony Basile as he's the only made member that moved to Denver around the time of this file from 1972. I find it humorous that Zammuto said since Basile was getting old that he could get out. Zammuto was ten years older than Basile.

[PolackTony]

We went to Da Luciano's on Grand Ave one night. It was also very good but I though Donny G's was better. Obligatory stop at Gene and Jude's as well.

Luciano Libreri (who formerly owned the La Gondola restaurants and now runs Da Luciano with his son, Ignazio) is from Càccamo and arrived in Chicago after spending a brief time in Philly (the two places you’d expect a guy from Càccamo to wind up in the US). His name was actually Cruciano Libreri, but he legally changed it to Luciano when he was naturalized in Chicago in 1978. The current boss of the Tèrmini Imerese family is Giuseppe Libreri, a native of Càccamo who was also very close to Antonino Giuffrè, the former capomandamento over Càccamo, Tèrmini, Trabìa (where the LoBues are from) before he flipped in 2002. Very possible that the Chicago Libreris are related (Càccamo is a small town and there aren’t a million Libreris). I note also that when Luciano was naturalized one of his witnesses was an Alessandro Amitrano, who was a recent immigrant himself, I believe from Naples. His family today seems to be connected to both Chicago and Brooklyn.

Some may know this already, but the Libreris were busted for tax evasion back in 2018 (easy to get confused handling all of those cash transactions…): https://klasing-associates.com/chicago- ... tax-fraud/

I believe that they also own the Libreri and Son construction contracting company.

To confirm, Ignazio Libreri is listed as the owner of Libreri and Son Contracting, as well as co-owner of Da Luciano with his father. Libreri and Son was founded in 1974 by Domenico Libreri, who I believe was Luciano's brother. Domenico also arrived in Chicago in the 70s and seems to have gotten the contracting company up and running right away. There was an older Domenico Libreri from Càccamo who arrived in Chicago in the 60s, who was probably a cousin; there were also a number of Libreris already living in Chicago, who arrived decades before in the first immigration wave. The Libreris in Chicago today are active in the Società Beato Giovanni Liccio di Càccamo and their social networks connect them closely to people back in both Càccamo and Tèrmini Imerese.

As mentioned above, Luciano Libreri arrived in the US in 1969, and apparently stayed in Philly for a bit before relocating to Chicago. Along with Chicago, Philly has been the primary place of settlement for Caccamesi in the US. Now, readers may recall that Philly boss Giovanni "John" Stanfa was from a mafia-connected family in Càccamo, with his nephew Antonino Giuffrè becoming capomandamento (and then high-level pentito) over the area. As noted above, current Tèrmini boss and Càccamo native Giuseppe Libreri was personally close to Giuffrè. Now, among the Caccamesi who settled in Chicago during the second migration wave, there were a group of Stanfas who arrived in the 1960s; John Stanfa also arrived in the US in the 60s, but went to NYC. Included in this contingent was a Nicasio Stanfa, born in 1925 in Càccamo, who arrived in Chicago in 1967. John Stanfa's brother was a mafia member in Càccamo, born in the 1920s, who was busted in the 90s. I don't think that these were the same guy, as I'm not aware that the Càccamo member Nicasio Stanfa ever lived in the US, but the shared given name could indicate that they were cousins (San Nicasio is the patron saint of Càccamo, so it's a common given name there. But, again, Càccamo is not a big town and there aren't a million Stanfas there). Of course, there were Stanfas and Giuffrès, from both Càccamo and Tèrmini, already living in Chicago from the first immigration wave. Likely that John Stanfa had multiple relatives in Chicago, I think.

The Stanfas have, naturally, been associated with the Càccamo Society in Chicago. Another mafia-connected surname associated with the Society is Panzeca, with, again, both first- and second-wave arrivals to Chicago. The boss of the Càccamo family in the mid-20th century was Giuseppe Panzeca (a powerful and feared boss who was a member of the first Palermo provincial Commission, Panzeca died in 1967). Given that Chicago has a significant settlement of Caccamesi, who maintain close connections back to their hometown and remain faithful to their traditions with their Society and annual Festa di Beato Giovanni Liccio, one should suspect that mafia ties have existed between Chicago and Càccamo, a town where it's said that "even the stones belong to the mafia".

[PolackTony]

In 1993, Chicago police busted Northwest side crack addict Josue Torres for burglary. Torres informed the cops that he had been fencing stolen goods to feed his habit and named Frank and Sam Lombardo as fences. According to Torres, the Lombardo brothers purchased hot merchandise from him in the rear of their father Antonino Lombardo's restaurant, Congress Pizzeria, located at Milwaukee Ave and Campbell near the border between the Humboldt Park and Logan Square neighborhoods. CPD executed a search warrant for the pizzeria; while Antonino was away at a second home in Florida, son Frank Lombardo was present when police arrived. Although they did not find any stolen merchandise, CPD found over $500k in cash, secreted in a 44-gallon barrel stashed in a sealed-up shaft of the building, as well as three unregistered firearms. Frank Lombardo was charged with possession of the illegal weapons, while the US government stepped in to seize the $500k under asset forfeiture. Antonino Lombardo claimed that the money was his but consistently refused to state where he had gotten it. An affidavit by an IRS agent for the seizure claimed that a witness had told investigators that cocaine was being stored in a restaurant delivery vehicle on-premises, though no narcotics were found during the police search. While Antonino Lombardo signed a statement claiming that he had no knowledge of either narcotics or stolen goods transactions at his restaurant, the US Marshalls refused to return the money to Lombardo on the grounds that it could be presumed to have been gained via illegal activities. Antonino Lombardo and his lawyer Stephen M. Komie challenged the seizure in court with Komie claiming that as an immigrant, Lombardo "does not believe in banks" and that the $500k constituted his life savings earned legally via the pizzeria. In 1997, the US 7th Circuit Court overturned the asset seizure and directed the US Marshalls to return the money to Lombardo, ruling that the US Government had overstepped its jurisdiction (i.e., as the search warrant was executed by CPD, the seizure should have been a local Cook County court issue), and also noted that Federal investigators' claim to have intel regarding narcotics trafficking at the pizzeria was not reflected on the CPD search warrant. The case is cited as asset forfeiture case law today, argued to be an example of the US Government unjustly seizing assets on the presumption of illicit activity without proof. It's worth noting also that Lombardo's lawyer, Stephen Komie, is a very succesful, essentially elite level, Chicago criminal defense attorney.

Antonino "Tony" Lombardo was born in 1936 in Altavilla Milicia and arrived in Chicago in 1957 with his wife Antonina "Lena" Lombardo (her maiden name, so they could very well have been cousins), also from Altavilla; they initially settled at Melrose and Lakewood in the Northside Lakeview neighborhood. Now, Antonino Lombardo was the older brother of Francesco "Frank" Lombardo, longtime owner of Mama Luna pizzeria in Chicago who I identified earlier in this thread as the most likely match for the Frank Lombardo who Luigi Ronsisvalle testified was one of the men on the receiving end of a major heroin pipeline to Chicago in the late 70s under Sal Catalano. As noted above, at 19, Francesco Lombardo was a suspect with a bunch of guys from Taylor St -- including Virgil Cimino, soon to be known as an outfit-associated heroin dealer -- for the brutal rape and beating murder of a young woman. On Halloween of 1975, two years before Sal Catalano was running his heroin pipeline to Chicago, rogue independent bookie Anthony Reitinger was brutally murdered by two assailants in Francesco's Mama Luna pizzeria on Fullerton; it was later revealed that one of the assassins was Harry Aleman.

As noted above as well, one of the Lombardo sisters, Carmella, operated Al's/Alessandro's Pizzeria on Cermak Rd in Cicero for many years. Her husband and business partner, Domenico Lo Cascio, also from Altavilla, was allegedly abducted (and apparently murdered) by the mafia while on a visit back to Sicily in 1983; Altavilla during that period was, of course, part of the "death triangle" along with neighboring Bagheria and Casteldaccia, an area inundated by a tidal wave of mafia-related killings. In later years, Al's in Cicero was closely associated with fundraising activities for notoriously mobbed-up Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese, who was convicted along with Big Mike Spano for classically cartoonish Cicero public corruption.

Another sister, Giuseppina, founded Pete's Pizza in the late 1960s (originally it was a different pizzeria founded in the 50s by some Lombardo relatives from Altavilla; it's still located on Western near Grace in the North Center neighborhood on the Northside and possibly named after another Lombardo brother-in-law from Altavilla, Pietro Parisi) with her husband Biagio Cirrincione, also of Altavilla. The Cirrinciones parlayed Pete's Pizza into a mini-empire over the years -- the family today owns and operates the Suparossa Group, with 10 restaurants/catering companies around Chicagoland, including Pete's, the Chicago and Harwood Heights Suparossa pizzeria locations, Cucina Biagio in Harwood Heights, Legno, Belvidere Catering, and the huge Biagio Events and Catering. Antonino Lombardo's family has owned the original Congress as well as the Congress location on Diversey; sons Frank and Salvatore "Sam/Tore" Lombardo (the two guys named by Josue Torres as fences in '93) also ran the now defunct Frank and Sam's Pizzeria in north Suburban Skokie (this Frank Lombardo died very young, at 41, in 2008, though I see no evidence of foul play).

As it so happens, Biagio and Giuseppina's son Salvatore "Sam" Cirrincione, the current owner of the Suparossa group, was just busted two weeks ago for felony tax evasion charges; the State of IL is claiming that Cirrincione has systematically underreported over $100 million in income (lol) and failed to pay $9 million in back taxes to the state (https://patch.com/illinois/skokie/pizze ... rosecutors). This is not the only time that the Cirrinciones have made the local news in Chicago for devious pizza-related criminal shenanigans, however. In the 1970s, Biagio Cirrincione (again, the Lombardo brother-in-law) became a franchisee of Nancy's Pizzeria, owned by Rocco Palese, himself a then-recent immigrant from Potenza province, Basilicata, credited with being the guy who invented Chicago-style stuffed pizza in the '70s (which was derived from old rustic Lucano influences). When Cirrincione attempted to separate from Palese, he demanded that Palese hand over his family's secret stuffed pizza recipe, which was rapidly becoming a smash hit around Chicagoland. Things turned ugly (Biagio reportedly threatened Palese, stating "If you do not give me the right recipe, gasoline is cheap"), and in the early 1980s Biagio Cirrincione and another son, Tom Cirrincione, were convicted for the dynamite bombing of the Nancy's location on Golf Rd in North suburban Niles, as well as the firebombing of the Nancy's location on Broadway in the City.

I should note that I have a strong and nostalgic personal connection to Congress Pizzeria, as this was one of the major neighborhood delivery joints when I was a kid; I must've eaten their pizza hundreds of times growing up (they were famous in the hood for offering the "football pizza", a huge Chicago thin crust pie intended for parties and football games, etc). It was very much a "hood" pizzeria. While today the area has been almost completely transformed by intense gentrification (Congress was itself torn down recently and replaced with a 7-story luxury condo building), for decades the area was a heavily Puerto Rican community with very serious streetgang and narcotics activity. Shockingly, before closing for good, Congress on Milwaukee (then run by Antonino's son Frank's widow Zenia Lombardo and his kid, also called Tony Lombardo; Antonino Lombardo died in 2017) was denied a renewal of their liquor license by the City in 2012, apparently for pulling some funny stuff with back taxes and allegedly harboring unspecified "drug activity". I have wondered also about the still-operating John's Pizzeria, located very close by on Western and Charleston. John's was founded in the 60s by Giovanni Imburgia, also a recently arrived immigrant from Altavilla Milicia, and is still owned by the Imburgias. Apart from neighborhood memories, I also have personal ties to John's, as my wife worked there before we married (she has said that she had always assumed that the place was "connected"; although she never witnessed any illegal activity, she couldn't understand how the place was still operating given manifestly inept management and declining business; they also never received any city inspection visits).

The extended Lombardo family from Altavilla Milicia in Chicago seems to be an interesting case, as we can see an extended pattern of criminal activity and potential mafia ties with them. In my opinion, they are "high suspicion" for possibly having ties to both the mafia in Sicily and the local outfit. Was Antonino Lombardo simply a hardworking immigrant businessman stashing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash as his life savings, in a scaled-up version of the classic "shoe box under the bed", as his attorney Komie claimed? Congress Pizzeria was raided in '93, the same year that the previously cited FBI report on Italian OC in Northern IL claimed that they had knowledge that multiple "crews" composed of affiliates of both Sicilian cosa nostra and the Sacra Corona Unita were moving large volumes of coke "on behalf" of the Chicago outfit. While I can't be sure, I suspect that the Feds may have had info that the Lombardos were involved with narcotics trafficking, but CPD unknowingly blew up the spot when they executed a raid on the pizzeria looking for stolen goods. The Feds tried to step in and claim possible narcotics activity to seize the money, but were unable to support that as it was most likely based on surveillance or CI intel and had nothing to do with the CPD search warrant (just my guess).

Altavilla is, of course, nestled within an absolute mafia hotbed and a large portion of the town has close connections to Chicago, so we could've a priori predicted that some Milicioti immigrants in Chicago would be connected. Worth noting again that in the late 70s, another recent immigrant restauranteur family from Altavilla, the Incandelas, were evidently so trusted by the outfit's admin that the entire family's leadership structure felt safe enough -- in an era of heavy Federal LE scrutiny -- to assemble in person and snap photos at their Harlem Ave restuarant for the famous "Last Supper" meeting. While I don't know as of yet that the Incandelas were personally involved with criminal activities, as the Lombardos clearly have been, one has to wonder exactly through what avenues they made links to the local mafia and how they came to secure this much trust.

[Patrickgold]

In 1993, Chicago police busted Northwest side crack addict Josue Torres for burglary. Torres informed the cops that he had been fencing stolen goods to feed his habit and named Frank and Sam Lombardo as fences. According to Torres, the Lombardo brothers purchased hot merchandise from him in the rear of their father Antonino Lombardo's restaurant, Congress Pizzeria, located at Milwaukee Ave and Campbell near the border between the Humboldt Park and Logan Square neighborhoods. CPD executed a search warrant for the pizzeria; while Antonino was away at a second home in Florida, son Frank Lombardo was present when police arrived. Although they did not find any stolen merchandise, CPD found over $500k in cash, secreted in a 44-gallon barrel stashed in a sealed-up shaft of the building, as well as three unregistered firearms. Frank Lombardo was charged with possession of the illegal weapons, while the US government stepped in to seize the $500k under asset forfeiture. Antonino Lombardo claimed that the money was his but consistently refused to state where he had gotten it. An affidavit by an IRS agent for the seizure claimed that a witness had told investigators that cocaine was being stored in a restaurant delivery vehicle on-premises, though no narcotics were found during the police search. While Antonino Lombardo signed a statement claiming that he had no knowledge of either narcotics or stolen goods transactions at his restaurant, the US Marshalls refused to return the money to Lombardo on the grounds that it could be presumed to have been gained via illegal activities. Antonino Lombardo and his lawyer Stephen M. Komie challenged the seizure in court with Komie claiming that as an immigrant, Lombardo "does not believe in banks" and that the $500k constituted his life savings earned legally via the pizzeria. In 1997, the US 7th Circuit Court overturned the asset seizure and directed the US Marshalls to return the money to Lombardo, ruling that the US Government had overstepped its jurisdiction (i.e., as the search warrant was executed by CPD, the seizure should have been a local Cook County court issue), and also noted that Federal investigators' claim to have intel regarding narcotics trafficking at the pizzeria was not reflected on the CPD search warrant. The case is cited as asset forfeiture case law today, argued to be an example of the US Government unjustly seizing assets on the presumption of illicit activity without proof. It's worth noting also that Lombardo's lawyer, Stephen Komie, is a very succesful, essentially elite level, Chicago criminal defense attorney.

Antonino "Tony" Lombardo was born in 1936 in Altavilla Milicia and arrived in Chicago in 1957 with his wife Antonina "Lena" Lombardo (her maiden name, so they could very well have been cousins), also from Altavilla; they initially settled at Melrose and Lakewood in the Northside Lakeview neighborhood. Now, Antonino Lombardo was the older brother of Francesco "Frank" Lombardo, longtime owner of Mama Luna pizzeria in Chicago who I identified earlier in this thread as the most likely match for the Frank Lombardo who Luigi Ronsisvalle testified was one of the men on the receiving end of a major heroin pipeline to Chicago in the late 70s under Sal Catalano. As noted above, at 19, Francesco Lombardo was a suspect with a bunch of guys from Taylor St -- including Virgil Cimino, soon to be known as an outfit-associated heroin dealer -- for the brutal rape and beating murder of a young woman. On Halloween of 1975, two years before Sal Catalano was running his heroin pipeline to Chicago, rogue independent bookie Anthony Reitinger was brutally murdered by two assailants in Francesco's Mama Luna pizzeria on Fullerton; it was later revealed that one of the assassins was Harry Aleman.

As noted above as well, one of the Lombardo sisters, Carmella, operated Al's/Alessandro's Pizzeria on Cermak Rd in Cicero for many years. Her husband and business partner, Domenico Lo Cascio, also from Altavilla, was allegedly abducted (and apparently murdered) by the mafia while on a visit back to Sicily in 1983; Altavilla during that period was, of course, part of the "death triangle" along with neighboring Bagheria and Casteldaccia, an area inundated by a tidal wave of mafia-related killings. In later years, Al's in Cicero was closely associated with fundraising activities for notoriously mobbed-up Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese, who was convicted along with Big Mike Spano for classically cartoonish Cicero public corruption.

Another sister, Giuseppina, founded Pete's Pizza in the late 1960s (originally it was a different pizzeria founded in the 50s by some Lombardo relatives from Altavilla; it's still located on Western near Grace in the North Center neighborhood on the Northside and possibly named after another Lombardo brother-in-law from Altavilla, Pietro Parisi) with her husband Biagio Cirrincione, also of Altavilla. The Cirrinciones parlayed Pete's Pizza into a mini-empire over the years -- the family today owns and operates the Suparossa Group, with 10 restaurants/catering companies around Chicagoland, including Pete's, the Chicago and Harwood Heights Suparossa pizzeria locations, Cucina Biagio in Harwood Heights, Legno, Belvidere Catering, and the huge Biagio Events and Catering. Antonino Lombardo's family has owned the original Congress as well as the Congress location on Diversey; sons Frank and Salvatore "Sam/Tore" Lombardo (the two guys named by Josue Torres as fences in '93) also ran the now defunct Frank and Sam's Pizzeria in north Suburban Skokie (this Frank Lombardo died very young, at 41, in 2008, though I see no evidence of foul play).

As it so happens, Biagio and Giuseppina's son Salvatore "Sam" Cirrincione, the current owner of the Suparossa group, was just busted two weeks ago for felony tax evasion charges; the State of IL is claiming that Cirrincione has systematically underreported over $100 million in income (lol) and failed to pay $9 million in back taxes to the state (https://patch.com/illinois/skokie/pizze ... rosecutors). This is not the only time that the Cirrinciones have made the local news in Chicago for devious pizza-related criminal shenanigans, however. In the 1970s, Biagio Cirrincione (again, the Lombardo brother-in-law) became a franchisee of Nancy's Pizzeria, owned by Rocco Palese, himself a then-recent immigrant from Potenza province, Basilicata, credited with being the guy who invented Chicago-style stuffed pizza in the '70s (which was derived from old rustic Lucano influences). When Cirrincione attempted to separate from Palese, he demanded that Palese hand over his family's secret stuffed pizza recipe, which was rapidly becoming a smash hit around Chicagoland. Things turned ugly (Biagio reportedly threatened Palese, stating "If you do not give me the right recipe, gasoline is cheap"), and in the early 1980s Biagio Cirrincione and another son, Tom Cirrincione, were convicted for the dynamite bombing of the Nancy's location on Golf Rd in North suburban Niles, as well as the firebombing of the Nancy's location on Broadway in the City.

I should note that I have a strong and nostalgic personal connection to Congress Pizzeria, as this was one of the major neighborhood delivery joints when I was a kid; I must've eaten their pizza hundreds of times growing up (they were famous in the hood for offering the "football pizza", a huge Chicago thin crust pie intended for parties and football games, etc). It was very much a "hood" pizzeria. While today the area has been almost completely transformed by intense gentrification (Congress was itself torn down recently and replaced with a 7-story luxury condo building), for decades the area was a heavily Puerto Rican community with very serious streetgang and narcotics activity. Shockingly, before closing for good, Congress on Milwaukee (then run by Antonino's son Frank's widow Zenia Lombardo and his kid, also called Tony Lombardo; Antonino Lombardo died in 2017) was denied a renewal of their liquor license by the City in 2012, apparently for pulling some funny stuff with back taxes and allegedly harboring unspecified "drug activity". I have wondered also about the still-operating John's Pizzeria, located very close by on Western and Charleston. John's was founded in the 60s by Giovanni Imburgia, also a recently arrived immigrant from Altavilla Milicia, and is still owned by the Imburgias. Apart from neighborhood memories, I also have personal ties to John's, as my wife worked there before we married (she has said that she had always assumed that the place was "connected"; although she never witnessed any illegal activity, she couldn't understand how the place was still operating given manifestly inept management and declining business; they also never received any city inspection visits).

The extended Lombardo family from Altavilla Milicia in Chicago seems to be an interesting case, as we can see an extended pattern of criminal activity and potential mafia ties with them. In my opinion, they are "high suspicion" for possibly having ties to both the mafia in Sicily and the local outfit. Was Antonino Lombardo simply a hardworking immigrant businessman stashing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash as his life savings, in a scaled-up version of the classic "shoe box under the bed", as his attorney Komie claimed? Congress Pizzeria was raided in '93, the same year that the previously cited FBI report on Italian OC in Northern IL claimed that they had knowledge that multiple "crews" composed of affiliates of both Sicilian cosa nostra and the Sacra Corona Unita were moving large volumes of coke "on behalf" of the Chicago outfit. While I can't be sure, I suspect that the Feds may have had info that the Lombardos were involved with narcotics trafficking, but CPD unknowingly blew up the spot when they executed a raid on the pizzeria looking for stolen goods. The Feds tried to step in and claim possible narcotics activity to seize the money, but were unable to support that as it was most likely based on surveillance or CI intel and had nothing to do with the CPD search warrant (just my guess).

Altavilla is, of course, nestled within an absolute mafia hotbed and a large portion of the town has close connections to Chicago, so we could've a priori predicted that some Milicioti immigrants in Chicago would be connected. Worth noting again that in the late 70s, another recent immigrant restauranteur family from Altavilla, the Incandelas, were evidently so trusted by the outfit's admin that the entire family's leadership structure felt safe enough -- in an era of heavy Federal LE scrutiny -- to assemble in person and snap photos at their Harlem Ave restuarant for the famous "Last Supper" meeting. While I don't know as of yet that the Incandelas were personally involved with criminal activities, as the Lombardos clearly have been, one has to wonder exactly through what avenues they made links to the local mafia and how they came to secure this much trust.

Tony, great write up. Very fascinating. It’s funny you talk about Pete’s Pizza which is also owned by relatives of the lombardos. Not sure if you saw this but earlier month they got into some trouble. Looks like it’s all in the family business. They pizza places don’t like paying taxes

https://patch.com/illinois/barrington-i ... rosecutors

[PolackTony]

In 1993, Chicago police busted Northwest side crack addict Josue Torres for burglary. Torres informed the cops that he had been fencing stolen goods to feed his habit and named Frank and Sam Lombardo as fences. According to Torres, the Lombardo brothers purchased hot merchandise from him in the rear of their father Antonino Lombardo's restaurant, Congress Pizzeria, located at Milwaukee Ave and Campbell near the border between the Humboldt Park and Logan Square neighborhoods. CPD executed a search warrant for the pizzeria; while Antonino was away at a second home in Florida, son Frank Lombardo was present when police arrived. Although they did not find any stolen merchandise, CPD found over $500k in cash, secreted in a 44-gallon barrel stashed in a sealed-up shaft of the building, as well as three unregistered firearms. Frank Lombardo was charged with possession of the illegal weapons, while the US government stepped in to seize the $500k under asset forfeiture. Antonino Lombardo claimed that the money was his but consistently refused to state where he had gotten it. An affidavit by an IRS agent for the seizure claimed that a witness had told investigators that cocaine was being stored in a restaurant delivery vehicle on-premises, though no narcotics were found during the police search. While Antonino Lombardo signed a statement claiming that he had no knowledge of either narcotics or stolen goods transactions at his restaurant, the US Marshalls refused to return the money to Lombardo on the grounds that it could be presumed to have been gained via illegal activities. Antonino Lombardo and his lawyer Stephen M. Komie challenged the seizure in court with Komie claiming that as an immigrant, Lombardo "does not believe in banks" and that the $500k constituted his life savings earned legally via the pizzeria. In 1997, the US 7th Circuit Court overturned the asset seizure and directed the US Marshalls to return the money to Lombardo, ruling that the US Government had overstepped its jurisdiction (i.e., as the search warrant was executed by CPD, the seizure should have been a local Cook County court issue), and also noted that Federal investigators' claim to have intel regarding narcotics trafficking at the pizzeria was not reflected on the CPD search warrant. The case is cited as asset forfeiture case law today, argued to be an example of the US Government unjustly seizing assets on the presumption of illicit activity without proof. It's worth noting also that Lombardo's lawyer, Stephen Komie, is a very succesful, essentially elite level, Chicago criminal defense attorney.

Antonino "Tony" Lombardo was born in 1936 in Altavilla Milicia and arrived in Chicago in 1957 with his wife Antonina "Lena" Lombardo (her maiden name, so they could very well have been cousins), also from Altavilla; they initially settled at Melrose and Lakewood in the Northside Lakeview neighborhood. Now, Antonino Lombardo was the older brother of Francesco "Frank" Lombardo, longtime owner of Mama Luna pizzeria in Chicago who I identified earlier in this thread as the most likely match for the Frank Lombardo who Luigi Ronsisvalle testified was one of the men on the receiving end of a major heroin pipeline to Chicago in the late 70s under Sal Catalano. As noted above, at 19, Francesco Lombardo was a suspect with a bunch of guys from Taylor St -- including Virgil Cimino, soon to be known as an outfit-associated heroin dealer -- for the brutal rape and beating murder of a young woman. On Halloween of 1975, two years before Sal Catalano was running his heroin pipeline to Chicago, rogue independent bookie Anthony Reitinger was brutally murdered by two assailants in Francesco's Mama Luna pizzeria on Fullerton; it was later revealed that one of the assassins was Harry Aleman.

As noted above as well, one of the Lombardo sisters, Carmella, operated Al's/Alessandro's Pizzeria on Cermak Rd in Cicero for many years. Her husband and business partner, Domenico Lo Cascio, also from Altavilla, was allegedly abducted (and apparently murdered) by the mafia while on a visit back to Sicily in 1983; Altavilla during that period was, of course, part of the "death triangle" along with neighboring Bagheria and Casteldaccia, an area inundated by a tidal wave of mafia-related killings. In later years, Al's in Cicero was closely associated with fundraising activities for notoriously mobbed-up Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese, who was convicted along with Big Mike Spano for classically cartoonish Cicero public corruption.

Another sister, Giuseppina, founded Pete's Pizza in the late 1960s (originally it was a different pizzeria founded in the 50s by some Lombardo relatives from Altavilla; it's still located on Western near Grace in the North Center neighborhood on the Northside and possibly named after another Lombardo brother-in-law from Altavilla, Pietro Parisi) with her husband Biagio Cirrincione, also of Altavilla. The Cirrinciones parlayed Pete's Pizza into a mini-empire over the years -- the family today owns and operates the Suparossa Group, with 10 restaurants/catering companies around Chicagoland, including Pete's, the Chicago and Harwood Heights Suparossa pizzeria locations, Cucina Biagio in Harwood Heights, Legno, Belvidere Catering, and the huge Biagio Events and Catering. Antonino Lombardo's family has owned the original Congress as well as the Congress location on Diversey; sons Frank and Salvatore "Sam/Tore" Lombardo (the two guys named by Josue Torres as fences in '93) also ran the now defunct Frank and Sam's Pizzeria in north Suburban Skokie (this Frank Lombardo died very young, at 41, in 2008, though I see no evidence of foul play).

As it so happens, Biagio and Giuseppina's son Salvatore "Sam" Cirrincione, the current owner of the Suparossa group, was just busted two weeks ago for felony tax evasion charges; the State of IL is claiming that Cirrincione has systematically underreported over $100 million in income (lol) and failed to pay $9 million in back taxes to the state (https://patch.com/illinois/skokie/pizze ... rosecutors). This is not the only time that the Cirrinciones have made the local news in Chicago for devious pizza-related criminal shenanigans, however. In the 1970s, Biagio Cirrincione (again, the Lombardo brother-in-law) became a franchisee of Nancy's Pizzeria, owned by Rocco Palese, himself a then-recent immigrant from Potenza province, Basilicata, credited with being the guy who invented Chicago-style stuffed pizza in the '70s (which was derived from old rustic Lucano influences). When Cirrincione attempted to separate from Palese, he demanded that Palese hand over his family's secret stuffed pizza recipe, which was rapidly becoming a smash hit around Chicagoland. Things turned ugly (Biagio reportedly threatened Palese, stating "If you do not give me the right recipe, gasoline is cheap"), and in the early 1980s Biagio Cirrincione and another son, Tom Cirrincione, were convicted for the dynamite bombing of the Nancy's location on Golf Rd in North suburban Niles, as well as the firebombing of the Nancy's location on Broadway in the City.

I should note that I have a strong and nostalgic personal connection to Congress Pizzeria, as this was one of the major neighborhood delivery joints when I was a kid; I must've eaten their pizza hundreds of times growing up (they were famous in the hood for offering the "football pizza", a huge Chicago thin crust pie intended for parties and football games, etc). It was very much a "hood" pizzeria. While today the area has been almost completely transformed by intense gentrification (Congress was itself torn down recently and replaced with a 7-story luxury condo building), for decades the area was a heavily Puerto Rican community with very serious streetgang and narcotics activity. Shockingly, before closing for good, Congress on Milwaukee (then run by Antonino's son Frank's widow Zenia Lombardo and his kid, also called Tony Lombardo; Antonino Lombardo died in 2017) was denied a renewal of their liquor license by the City in 2012, apparently for pulling some funny stuff with back taxes and allegedly harboring unspecified "drug activity". I have wondered also about the still-operating John's Pizzeria, located very close by on Western and Charleston. John's was founded in the 60s by Giovanni Imburgia, also a recently arrived immigrant from Altavilla Milicia, and is still owned by the Imburgias. Apart from neighborhood memories, I also have personal ties to John's, as my wife worked there before we married (she has said that she had always assumed that the place was "connected"; although she never witnessed any illegal activity, she couldn't understand how the place was still operating given manifestly inept management and declining business; they also never received any city inspection visits).

The extended Lombardo family from Altavilla Milicia in Chicago seems to be an interesting case, as we can see an extended pattern of criminal activity and potential mafia ties with them. In my opinion, they are "high suspicion" for possibly having ties to both the mafia in Sicily and the local outfit. Was Antonino Lombardo simply a hardworking immigrant businessman stashing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash as his life savings, in a scaled-up version of the classic "shoe box under the bed", as his attorney Komie claimed? Congress Pizzeria was raided in '93, the same year that the previously cited FBI report on Italian OC in Northern IL claimed that they had knowledge that multiple "crews" composed of affiliates of both Sicilian cosa nostra and the Sacra Corona Unita were moving large volumes of coke "on behalf" of the Chicago outfit. While I can't be sure, I suspect that the Feds may have had info that the Lombardos were involved with narcotics trafficking, but CPD unknowingly blew up the spot when they executed a raid on the pizzeria looking for stolen goods. The Feds tried to step in and claim possible narcotics activity to seize the money, but were unable to support that as it was most likely based on surveillance or CI intel and had nothing to do with the CPD search warrant (just my guess).

Altavilla is, of course, nestled within an absolute mafia hotbed and a large portion of the town has close connections to Chicago, so we could've a priori predicted that some Milicioti immigrants in Chicago would be connected. Worth noting again that in the late 70s, another recent immigrant restauranteur family from Altavilla, the Incandelas, were evidently so trusted by the outfit's admin that the entire family's leadership structure felt safe enough -- in an era of heavy Federal LE scrutiny -- to assemble in person and snap photos at their Harlem Ave restuarant for the famous "Last Supper" meeting. While I don't know as of yet that the Incandelas were personally involved with criminal activities, as the Lombardos clearly have been, one has to wonder exactly through what avenues they made links to the local mafia and how they came to secure this much trust.

Tony, great write up. Very fascinating. It’s funny you talk about Pete’s Pizza which is also owned by relatives of the lombardos. Not sure if you saw this but earlier month they got into some trouble. Looks like it’s all in the family business. They pizza places don’t like paying taxes

https://patch.com/illinois/barrington-i ... rosecutors

Thanks, man. I covered this recent tax evasion case in the post. Sam Cirrincione is the nephew of Francesco and Antonino Lombardo and had clearly been living large AF in South Barrington.

[AAA-DK]

great work guys keep it up

[Coloboy]

Great research and write up.

One of the most interesting statements to me was "moving large volumes of coke on behalf of the Chicago Outfit."

As many have pointed out over the years, the outfit "didn't deal drugs" narrative is pretty much smashed. However, it would be very interesting to learn more about what the "rules" were and how that business was to be conducted. Was it an organized racket that was well known to the top administration? Was it something guys did on their own to make extra cash?

Even into more recent times (post 2010), we know that Vena and his guys were directly or in-directly connected to drug dealing, and Antiliar's Cicero source claims some of those active members push drugs as well.

[PolackTony]

Great research and write up.

One of the most interesting statements to me was "moving large volumes of coke on behalf of the Chicago Outfit."

As many have pointed out over the years, the outfit "didn't deal drugs" narrative is pretty much smashed. However, it would be very interesting to learn more about what the "rules" were and how that business was to be conducted. Was it an organized racket that was well known to the top administration? Was it something guys did on their own to make extra cash?

Even into more recent times (post 2010), we know that Vena and his guys were directly or in-directly connected to drug dealing, and Antiliar's Cicero source claims some of those active members push drugs as well.

From the late 50s on, what we see are associates directly involved in the handling of outfit-connected narcotics operations. The MO seems to have been that made guys invested capital from their gambling and juice rackets into drug operations, allowing them to collect a ROI without having to have the risk of being near the actual operation of the business (with the apparent exception of Jimmy Cordovano, at least). Prior to that, it’s possible that made guys were directly involved, though we don’t have any specifics (Rocky DeGrazia seems to almost certainly have been involved in drugs going back to at least the 30s, for example). When Teddy DeRose got pinched in the 60s and started talking to the FBI, he told them that narcotics was financed by the outfit but that made guys were prohibited from directly handling it — thus, associates such as himself were needed to actually carry out the trafficking and sale of narcotics to lower-level distribution operations. In the 70s, there was the big Chris Cardi heroin operation bust; when Cardi was subsequently whacked, CPD investigators told the Tribune that they had intel that Cardi’s operation was financed by high-level “syndicate” figures, who had Cardi murdered both because he lost their investment when he got busted and because they feared that he was going to talk to the authorities about the “syndicate narcotics racket”.

In the early 80s, CW Jack Walsh (an outfit-connected construction contractor who the Feds got to wear a wire on some aldermen that he was bribing for city permits) told the FBI that the Torello-Ferriola crew was specifically responsible for financing outfit narcotics operations with juice loan money. Several years later, Chicago FBI SAC Ed Hegarty testified before Congress that the FBI had intel that outfit figures were financing the drug trade using juice loans. The Carlisi crew was also definitely involved in narcotics during this time as well. I recall seeing info that in the 80s, Al Tornabene and Tony Zizzo were meeting with narcotics operatives. This may have been the Vic Plescia group, though I don’t recall for certain. Plescia was busted in 1990 with Frank Bonavolante and a bunch of guys who worked for Plescia in trafficking Coke from FL to Chicago and then selling it to local distribution operations; Bonavolante, who was an associate and gambling supervisor for the Carlisi crew, of course, was accused and convicted as the financier of the ring, investing proceeds from outfit gambling operations in return for a cut of the sales profits. Was this stuff greenlit explicitly by the guys at the top of the family? Hard to say for sure. The system that they had in place was clearly designed to insulate the made membership from narcotics investigations, so it’s unsurprising that from the time that the Feds convened a grand jury in 1959 to attempt to ensnare Accardo as an alleged narcotics kingpin (it didn’t work), we don’t see any other examples of high-level guys being publicly implicated in alleged drug operations. It does sound to me like it’s likely that Tornabene and Zizzo were involved in some capacity (at least in directing it); there was only a handful of made guys in that crew, so far as we know, and it’s hard for me to believe that if they were in on it Carlisi didn’t know.

With these zip “crews” that the FBI summarized, we have very little info to go on. Were some outfit guys investing in it? I don’t know that for a fact but given the general picture, I think it’s a good bet that at least some were. Were they instead just essentially giving the guys from Italy a “concession” to operate in their territory and collecting street tax from them? Certainly possible. Perhaps some of both, who knows.

On the “deal and die” thing being a myth, I think that it’s abundantly clear that by the 70s/80s, at least, there was quite a lot of outfit-connected drug activity going down. I once listened to a great interview with Joe “the Shark” Lopez, who represented Plescia in his initial case. Lopez stated unequivocally that the notion that the outfit wasn’t involved in drugs is complete BS.

[PolackTony]

I don't believe that the exact west suburban restaurant in which the Calabrese brothers had their 1983 ceremony has ever been confirmed (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Per trial transcripts, Nicky C testified that he and Frank drove with Jimmy LaPietra to a restaurant on Roosevelt Rd west of Mannheim. While Nick didn't say how far west of Mannheim, I'd suspect this was on the strip of Roosevelt in Hillside between Mannheim and Wolf, adjacent to Mt Carmel Cemetery, as one has to go considerably farther west (past the "Hillside Strangler"/Tri-State Tollway spaghetti bowl of expressways) to get to a section of Roosevelt with businesses (Oak Brook Terrace). I think that a prime candidate restaurant would have been Villa Mar-Fredo, located at 4750 Roosevelt at the corner of Wolf (it's now a Shell station).

Villa Mar-Fredo had been a longstanding Italian restaurant, Cotugno's, with a lounge and live entertainment (owned by Joe Cotugno). In 1978, it was changed to Villa Mar-Fredo, and remained in operation until 1986. Interestingly, the master chef and co-owner of Villa Mar-Fredo was Mario Palazzolo. I'm not 100% certain, but I suspect that he was the Mario Palazzolo who immigrated from Cinisi and was married to Domenica "Mamie" Catalano, who immigrated from Ciminna. Given the topic of this thread, these particular surnames should raise some major red flags, of course. If my guesses here are correct, I think that it would be very significant if the outfit held a making ceremony in a restaurant owned by a family from Cinisi and Ciminna, as we already know that the 1976 "Last Supper" meeting was held in a restaurant owned by a family from Altavilla Milicia. It would also have been poetically fitting if they held a ceremony a literal stone's throw away from Capone's grave in Mt Carmel, across the street.

The former Villa Mar-Fredo restaurant at Roosevelt and Wolf:

[cavita]

I don't believe that the exact west suburban restaurant in which the Calabrese brothers had their 1983 ceremony has ever been confirmed (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Per trial transcripts, Nicky C testified that he and Frank drove with Jimmy LaPietra to a restaurant on Roosevelt Rd west of Mannheim. While Nick didn't say how far west of Mannheim, I'd suspect this was on the strip of Roosevelt in Hillside between Mannheim and Wolf, adjacent to Mt Carmel Cemetery, as one has to go considerably farther west (past the "Hillside Strangler"/Tri-State Tollway spaghetti bowl of expressways) to get to a section of Roosevelt with businesses (Oak Brook Terrace). I think that a prime candidate restaurant would have been Villa Mar-Fredo, located at 4750 Roosevelt at the corner of Wolf (it's now a Shell station).

Villa Mar-Fredo had been a longstanding Italian restaurant, Cotugno's, with a lounge and live entertainment (owned by Joe Cotugno). In 1978, it was changed to Villa Mar-Fredo, and remained in operation until 1986. Interestingly, the master chef and co-owner of Villa Mar-Fredo was Mario Palazzolo. I'm not 100% certain, but I suspect that he was the Mario Palazzolo who immigrated from Cinisi and was married to Domenica "Mamie" Catalano, who immigrated from Ciminna. Given the topic of this thread, these particular surnames should raise some major red flags, of course. If my guesses here are correct, I think that it would be very significant if the outfit held a making ceremony in a restaurant owned by a family from Cinisi and Ciminna, as we already know that the 1976 "Last Supper" meeting was held in a restaurant owned by a family from Altavilla Milicia. It would also have been poetically fitting if they held a ceremony a literal stone's throw away from Capone's grave in Mt Carmel, across the street.

The former Villa Mar-Fredo restaurant at Roosevelt and Wolf:

Excellent legwork my friend!

[PolackTony]

I don't believe that the exact west suburban restaurant in which the Calabrese brothers had their 1983 ceremony has ever been confirmed (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Per trial transcripts, Nicky C testified that he and Frank drove with Jimmy LaPietra to a restaurant on Roosevelt Rd west of Mannheim. While Nick didn't say how far west of Mannheim, I'd suspect this was on the strip of Roosevelt in Hillside between Mannheim and Wolf, adjacent to Mt Carmel Cemetery, as one has to go considerably farther west (past the "Hillside Strangler"/Tri-State Tollway spaghetti bowl of expressways) to get to a section of Roosevelt with businesses (Oak Brook Terrace). I think that a prime candidate restaurant would have been Villa Mar-Fredo, located at 4750 Roosevelt at the corner of Wolf (it's now a Shell station).

Villa Mar-Fredo had been a longstanding Italian restaurant, Cotugno's, with a lounge and live entertainment (owned by Joe Cotugno). In 1978, it was changed to Villa Mar-Fredo, and remained in operation until 1986. Interestingly, the master chef and co-owner of Villa Mar-Fredo was Mario Palazzolo. I'm not 100% certain, but I suspect that he was the Mario Palazzolo who immigrated from Cinisi and was married to Domenica "Mamie" Catalano, who immigrated from Ciminna. Given the topic of this thread, these particular surnames should raise some major red flags, of course. If my guesses here are correct, I think that it would be very significant if the outfit held a making ceremony in a restaurant owned by a family from Cinisi and Ciminna, as we already know that the 1976 "Last Supper" meeting was held in a restaurant owned by a family from Altavilla Milicia. It would also have been poetically fitting if they held a ceremony a literal stone's throw away from Capone's grave in Mt Carmel, across the street.

The former Villa Mar-Fredo restaurant at Roosevelt and Wolf:

Excellent legwork my friend!

Thanks, man.

[PolackTony]

Altavilla is, of course, nestled within an absolute mafia hotbed and a large portion of the town has close connections to Chicago, so we could've a priori predicted that some Milicioti immigrants in Chicago would be connected. Worth noting again that in the late 70s, another recent immigrant restauranteur family from Altavilla, the Incandelas, were evidently so trusted by the outfit's admin that the entire family's leadership structure felt safe enough -- in an era of heavy Federal LE scrutiny -- to assemble in person and snap photos at their Harlem Ave restuarant for the famous "Last Supper" meeting. While I don't know as of yet that the Incandelas were personally involved with criminal activities, as the Lombardos clearly have been, one has to wonder exactly through what avenues they made links to the local mafia and how they came to secure this much trust.

Worth noting here that Rosaria "Rose" Incandela, a niece of Joey Caesar DiVarco (she was the daughter of a younger brother, also called Joseph DiVarco), married a Salvatore Incandela from Altavilla Milicia who immigrated to Chicago in the 70s. Caesar DiVarco was himself, of course, at the "Last Supper" meeting at the Incandela family's Sicily Restaurant.

As mentioned above, Luciano Libreri arrived in the US in 1969, and apparently stayed in Philly for a bit before relocating to Chicago. Along with Chicago, Philly has been the primary place of settlement for Caccamesi in the US. Now, readers may recall that Philly boss Giovanni "John" Stanfa was from a mafia-connected family in Càccamo, with his nephew Antonino Giuffrè becoming capomandamento (and then high-level pentito) over the area. As noted above, current Tèrmini boss and Càccamo native Giuseppe Libreri was personally close to Giuffrè. Now, among the Caccamesi who settled in Chicago during the second migration wave, there were a group of Stanfas who arrived in the 1960s; John Stanfa also arrived in the US in the 60s, but went to NYC. Included in this contingent was a Nicasio Stanfa, born in 1925 in Càccamo, who arrived in Chicago in 1967. John Stanfa's brother was a mafia member in Càccamo, born in the 1920s, who was busted in the 90s. I don't think that these were the same guy, as I'm not aware that the Càccamo member Nicasio Stanfa ever lived in the US, but the shared given name could indicate that they were cousins (San Nicasio is the patron saint of Càccamo, so it's a common given name there. But, again, Càccamo is not a big town and there aren't a million Stanfas there). Of course, there were Stanfas and Giuffrès, from both Càccamo and Tèrmini, already living in Chicago from the first immigration wave. Likely that John Stanfa had multiple relatives in Chicago, I think.

The Stanfas have, naturally, been associated with the Càccamo Society in Chicago. Another mafia-connected surname associated with the Society is Panzeca, with, again, both first- and second-wave arrivals to Chicago. The boss of the Càccamo family in the mid-20th century was Giuseppe Panzeca (a powerful and feared boss who was a member of the first Palermo provincial Commission, Panzeca died in 1967). Given that Chicago has a significant settlement of Caccamesi, who maintain close connections back to their hometown and remain faithful to their traditions with their Society and annual Festa di Beato Giovanni Liccio, one should suspect that mafia ties have existed between Chicago and Càccamo, a town where it's said that "even the stones belong to the mafia".

To follow up on this, I was able to successfully confirm that John Stanfa's family in South Jersey is directly connected today to Stanfas in Chicago, as well as to a number of people in Càccamo, who are in turn also connected to Chicago. It's what I suspected but wanted to confirm.

[B.]

Great work on the restaurant and pretty interesting who the owners were.

For some reason I always like having a visual for where they held inductions.

[cavita]

Altavilla is, of course, nestled within an absolute mafia hotbed and a large portion of the town has close connections to Chicago, so we could've a priori predicted that some Milicioti immigrants in Chicago would be connected. Worth noting again that in the late 70s, another recent immigrant restauranteur family from Altavilla, the Incandelas, were evidently so trusted by the outfit's admin that the entire family's leadership structure felt safe enough -- in an era of heavy Federal LE scrutiny -- to assemble in person and snap photos at their Harlem Ave restuarant for the famous "Last Supper" meeting. While I don't know as of yet that the Incandelas were personally involved with criminal activities, as the Lombardos clearly have been, one has to wonder exactly through what avenues they made links to the local mafia and how they came to secure this much trust.

Worth noting here that Rosaria "Rose" Incandela, a niece of Joey Caesar DiVarco (she was the daughter of a younger brother, also called Joseph DiVarco), married a Salvatore Incandela from Altavilla Milicia who immigrated to Chicago in the 70s. Caesar DiVarco was himself, of course, at the "Last Supper" meeting at the Incandela family's Sicily Restaurant.

As mentioned above, Luciano Libreri arrived in the US in 1969, and apparently stayed in Philly for a bit before relocating to Chicago. Along with Chicago, Philly has been the primary place of settlement for Caccamesi in the US. Now, readers may recall that Philly boss Giovanni "John" Stanfa was from a mafia-connected family in Càccamo, with his nephew Antonino Giuffrè becoming capomandamento (and then high-level pentito) over the area. As noted above, current Tèrmini boss and Càccamo native Giuseppe Libreri was personally close to Giuffrè. Now, among the Caccamesi who settled in Chicago during the second migration wave, there were a group of Stanfas who arrived in the 1960s; John Stanfa also arrived in the US in the 60s, but went to NYC. Included in this contingent was a Nicasio Stanfa, born in 1925 in Càccamo, who arrived in Chicago in 1967. John Stanfa's brother was a mafia member in Càccamo, born in the 1920s, who was busted in the 90s. I don't think that these were the same guy, as I'm not aware that the Càccamo member Nicasio Stanfa ever lived in the US, but the shared given name could indicate that they were cousins (San Nicasio is the patron saint of Càccamo, so it's a common given name there. But, again, Càccamo is not a big town and there aren't a million Stanfas there). Of course, there were Stanfas and Giuffrès, from both Càccamo and Tèrmini, already living in Chicago from the first immigration wave. Likely that John Stanfa had multiple relatives in Chicago, I think.

The Stanfas have, naturally, been associated with the Càccamo Society in Chicago. Another mafia-connected surname associated with the Society is Panzeca, with, again, both first- and second-wave arrivals to Chicago. The boss of the Càccamo family in the mid-20th century was Giuseppe Panzeca (a powerful and feared boss who was a member of the first Palermo provincial Commission, Panzeca died in 1967). Given that Chicago has a significant settlement of Caccamesi, who maintain close connections back to their hometown and remain faithful to their traditions with their Society and annual Festa di Beato Giovanni Liccio, one should suspect that mafia ties have existed between Chicago and Càccamo, a town where it's said that "even the stones belong to the mafia".

To follow up on this, I was able to successfully confirm that John Stanfa's family in South Jersey is directly connected today to Stanfas in Chicago, as well as to a number of people in Càccamo, who are in turn also connected to Chicago. It's what I suspected but wanted to confirm.

Interestingly there was a lone Stanfa family in Rockford starting in the 1920s with Ciro Stanfa but I can't find where he was from- wouldn't surprise me at all if it was Caccamo. My buddy knew Ciro's son Salvatore and always said he was "connected."