Chicago Outfit Places of Origin

[PolackTony]

Bridgeport thug Mario "Mariano" Dispensa was born in 1938 in Chicago to Vincenzo "James" Dispenza and Emanuella "Nellie" Gallo. James was born in Chicago to parents from Termini Imerese, while Nellie was born in Chicago to parents from Sambuca; both families settled near 24th and Wentworth in the Chinatown neighborhood, where Mario was raised. Outfit-connected burglar/hijacker Richie Mara testified that he grew up with Mario Disepnsa and Ronnie Jarrett and that "Mariano" (as he was called in the neighborhood, named after his maternal grandfather Mariano Gallo) was the guy who first introduced Mara to Frankie Calabrese, Sr ~1970. Mara testified that Dispensa, Jarrett, and fellow neighborhood tough-guy Ray Tuminello were working as collectors/agents for Calabrese's juice loan business at that time, which was formally under Angelo LaPietra, then a soldier in the Buccieri crew.

In 1932, a 23-year-old Mario Dispensa first appeared in the Trib when he was suspended from his job in Streets and San after being arrested with over a dozen other men at a floating dice game (this would've been one of Skid Caruso's games at the time) near Cermak and Wentworth. In 1964, Dispensa was pinched with Louie Stubitsch for a traffic violation in the Lakeview neighborhood on the Northside; subsequent investigation identified the two as suspects in a string of burglaries and armed robberies after police found the two in possession of burglary tools and a cache of firearms, among other evidence. Later in 1964, Dispensa (then living at 32nd and Lowe) was arrested along with Ronnie Jarrett and a group of other local men; a black family had attempted to move into a building at 33rd and Lowe, and the Bridgeport locals came out in force to demonstrate the tolerant and welcoming attitude for which they've long been renowned. A full-blown riot ensued, in which the crowd of locals clashed with at least 70 cops brought in to quell the violence; Jarrett was convicted for assaulting a police officer, while Dispensa was convicted for disturbing the peace. In 1970, Dispensa and Frankie Tenuta were acquitted after being pinched in '69 as part of a juice loan ring allegedly targeting newspaper truck drivers, run by Sam Gallo, then living in NW suburban Mount Prospect. Gallo was not related to Dispensa's mother, however, as he was from Taylor St with ancestry going back to Acerra, Napoli, and Campobasso; Gallo was apparently connected to Bridgeport, however, as one of his sisters married a Catizone guy.

In 1971, Mario Dispenza and brother-in-law Anthony Rocco ( ) died after they were severely burned when they torched a restaurant in SW suburban Oak Forest; the gasoline that the two were pouring was apparently ignited by the stove's pilot lights. The restaurant's owner, Bruno Bertucci (who admitted knowing Dispensa and Rocco) was investigated for hiring them to torch his restaurant. I believe that Bruno was the nephew of Marianna Bertucci, wife of Bruno Roti, and likely the same Bruno Bertucci who had been arrested with Jimmy LaPietra in 1952 on burglary charges (later dropped).

There are no records for a Richard Mara, and I'm pretty sure that Richie Mara was Croatian, with his actual surname being Marasovic or something similar. There was a Croatian family named Marasoivc/Marasovich who lived at 32nd and Princeton, and a 1970s hijacking case for a Richard J Mara/Richard J Marasovich.

Raymond Tuminello, who was later indicted along with "Richie Cat" Catizone in the major 1989 Angelini/Cortina/Spadavecchio gambling ring bust, was born in 1940 in Chicago to Francis "Frank" Tuminello (Tominello) and Josephine Taccetta (Taccetto). Frank's parents were from Nicosia, Enna, while Josephine's were from Villarosa and Calascibetta, Enna. The Tuminellos lived at 28th and Union in Bridgeport, where Ray was still living when he was arrested in 1989.

[B.]

Great job. So Dispenza/Dispensa wasn't directly related to Rosario. A reminder too that a Valledolmo genealogy website has Tony D'Andrea having Dispenzas deep in his family tree.

[Antiliar]

Termini was part of the triangle area that we discussed that also includes Cimmina, which is where Rosario Dispenza was from (1869-1914), so it's possible that they were related.

[PolackTony]

^ Note that John's daughter married a Grisafi. Along with Bacino's apparent relative Andrew Triolo, Cavita also identified a Joseph Grisafi of Calumet City (b. ~1905) as a criminal associate of Bacino in 1940.

I have Giuseppe Grisafi as born 1905 in Sambuca; looks like he arrived at NYC in 1923, initially bound for Brooklyn.

Not sure exactly when Grisafi arrived in Cal City, but in 1940 he was pinched with a Cal City group that included Phil Bacino and Andrew Triolo in an illegal alcohol ring that was linked to a Frank Forestieri (born 1903 in Cefala Diana) of Benton Harbor, MI (Berrien County); the ring was stated to operate in IL, IN, OH, and Western MI and ran a clandestine alcohol factory in IN, claimed to produce ~300 gallons daily. Papers at the time also reported that investigators linked this ring to an unnamed "gang" in Detroit. The Munster, IN, Times reported that the ring was headed by Bacino, described as a "reputed Capone student", while Triolo and Grisafi were described as Bacino "lieutenants"; Bacino and Triolo wound up sentenced to 6 years in Leavenworth, while Grisafi received 4. It was noted that Bacino was also under indictment at that time for another illegal alcohol charge in Cincinnati. The same article also alleged that Andrew Triolo's nickname was "Nitti".

In 1940, Grisafi also married Vera Concetta Amodeo in Cal City; she was born in Chicago to parents also from Sambuca (her mother's maiden name was given as "Grisaffe") and grew up in the West Englewood neighborhood on the Southside. Her father, Angelo Amodeo, was named as one of the co-conspirators in the 1940 liquor ring, responsible for renting the property where the alcohol factory was set up. On his WW2 draft card, Grisafi stated that he lived in Cal City, where he owned and operated a "store" (I'd guess liquor, given his alleged crimes). In the 50s, Grisafi was noted as the owner of the Yoyo Club on State St in Cal City. He died in 1978 in Hammond.

For the record, Giuseppe Grisafi was unrelated to the Joe Grisafe who was killed with Sam Marcello by Sam Rantis in 1973. That guy was born in 1939 in Chicago and grew up near Polk and Western; his father, Frank Grisafe, was from Westmoreland County, PA, with parents from Santa Caterina Villarmosa.

As B noted, John "Johnny B" Bacino's daughter Gina married Tommy Grisafi, a well-known commodities broker at the CBOT. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that he's the son of Giuseppe Grisafi's son Paul Grisafi and likely named after Paul's father-in-law, Thomas Gambino. Gambino was born 1909 in Ravanusa and lived in Buffalo before relocating to Cal City ~1940, where he wound up being a longtime Cal City PD cop; he died in 2016, while Johnny Bacino died in 2020.

[PolackTony]

Paolo "Big Paul" Palazzolo was born in 1895 in Cìnisi to Girolamo Palazzolo and Maria Di Maria. He first arrived in the US in 1913 at NYC, bound for St Louis where his older brother Benedetto Palazzolo (b. 1885) already lived. It seems that Paolo returned to Cìnisi, as there is a November 1919 record for him re-entering at NYC, though it's unclear if he actually arrived on this ship, as his entry was crossed out. His destination was listed as Chicago, with an address on the 600 block of S State St in the old Italian section of the South Loop, where he stated that his brother Paolo [sic] Palazzolo was living. On his 1928 naturalization document in Gary, Paolo stated that he had entered the US in 1920, though the only entry for a Paolo Palazzolo that I've seen for that year is for a guy who claimed a different father and was bound for Detroit. In 1922, Paolo married Grazia Casabianca in Crown Point, IN. She was born in 1907 in Partanna to Giuseppe Casabianca and Vincenza Accardo and arrived at NYC in 1921 with her mother and siblings bound for "Chicago, Ind" where Giuseppe was already living. The destination was clearly Gary, as Giuseppe Casabianca was living in Gary and occupied as a pool hall owner on his WW1 draft card. Interestingly, on that record Giuseppe listed a Rocco Catansoro [sic] as his relative, living at the same Gary address. The name would seem to suggest a Calabres' rather than a Sicilian, however, and the match that I found was Rocco Catanzarite, from the notorious 'Ndrangheta stronghold of Platì, Reggio Calabria, who initially lived in New Sharon, PA, before moving on to Gary, where he and his family remained.

Paolo's brother Benedetto remained in St Louis, where he died in 1977. Younger brother Girolamo "James" Palazzolo joined Paolo in Gary (see Mugshots). Girolamo listed Paul LaFata as his brother-in-law on his WW2 draft card, and local papers reported that "Big Paul" Palazzolo was killed in a hail of gunfire from two assailants in front of the home of Paul LaFata, brother-in-law, in Gary, with whom Paolo had been socializing with brother Girolamo. From what I can tell, however, LaFata (who was born in 1896 in Cìnisi and worked as a blacksmith and steelworker in Gary) was married to a Paolina Palazzolo who was born 1901 in Cìnisi but listed her father's name as "Paolo Palazzolo", so she may have been a cousin instead of a sister of the other Palazzolos. At the time of Paolo's murder, local papers reported that his killing was a "coup" in the Gary underworld, as "Big Paul" was reputed to be the "No. 1 bigshot" in Gary criminal rackets. It was also claimed that during Prohibition, "Big Paul" had operated "50 colored speakeasies" in Gary and was reputed to have had major investments in a company called Italian Food Products, suspected of being a large sugar supplier for local stills. After Prohibition, Palazollo had reportedly moved into the policy racket, and at the time of his murder was alleged to have been under financial duress due to major police raids on several "policy wheels" in Gary (he was unarmed at the time of his murder, with a receipt in his pocket from having recently pawned his pistol). During Prohibition, Palazzolo served as de facto bail bondsman to numerous arrested "alky" racketeers and was stated to have been doing the same for busted policy operators in the weeks preceding his murder, apparently arranging to post bail for underlings via frontmen intermediaries. Brother Girolamo Palazzolo operated the Budweiser Cafe, a well-known nightclub in Gary, though "Big Paul" was stated to be the real owner (Girolamo Palazzolo died in Gary in 1963). Palazzolo's murder was the 13th in a string of unsolved killings apparently linked to the Gary underworld, and the papers insinuated that the Gary PD had made little effort to conduct a thorough investigation (e.g., naming no witnesses to the shooting on the police report, even though reporters confirmed that there had been witnesses). Paolo was stated to have lived in Gary for over 15 years, consistent with a 1919 arrival.

Given the local accounts and his arrest at the 1928 Hotel Statler meeting, we can assume that Paolo Palazzolo was an important figure in the mafia in NW Indiana; yet we know so little about the mafia phenomenon in that area that it's unclear whether "Big Paul" had been boss of his own Gary-based "outfit", or if he had instead been a capodecina or important soldier in the Chicago and/or Chicago Heights family (before the latter was merged into Chicago). Whatever he was, a tentative theory I've thought about is that he was clipped so that the Bacino/Pinelli group could take over rackets in the NW IN/Calumet region. Worth noting in this context that Phil Bacino was also arrested (acquitted on grounds of self-defense) for a 1935 killing in Cal City. While we know that Bacino and De George were linked to other Cinisesi operating in that region, such as Onofrio Vitale and Frank Abbate/Agrusa, the fact that Paolo's wife was Partannese raises the possibility that he had links to Vincenzo Benevento.

[B.]

Great job.

Along with the other report where Bompensiero says he didn't think Pinelli had been part of the Gary Family, here he drops Gary among other "small Families who have existed for a long time". Seems to have been under the impression a Gary Family still existed based on the wording, though maybe he was referring to a historic Family and the FBI misunderstood.



I could see Gary and Chicago Heights being one Family that crossed over in the Hammond / Calumet City area but it's anyone's guess.

[PolackTony]

Great job.

Along with the other report where Bompensiero says he didn't think Pinelli had been part of the Gary Family, here he drops Gary among other "small Families who have existed for a long time". Seems to have been under the impression a Gary Family still existed based on the wording, though maybe he was referring to a historic Family and the FBI misunderstood.



I could see Gary and Chicago Heights being one Family that crossed over in the Hammond / Calumet City area but it's anyone's guess.

At face value, the statement is wild, as Bomp was apparently putting Gary in with extant smaller families. Really hard to believe that Gary was still a family as late as the 60s, to say the least. As you suggest, there may have been some issue with how the FBI parsed Bomp's actual comments; alternatively, Bomp was himself mistaken and had heard stories about the Gary family and misunderstood this to mean that they were still around.

Given that we have two statements from Bomp that Gary was a family, I think it's getting to be a pretty safe assumption at this point that it really was. Worth noting, again, that not only was Bomp from Milwaukee and very well-connected to members around the country, but he also knew Pinelli, so if Bomp says there was a Gary family, one would think that he in fact was in a position to know. In Bomp's other statement, he specified that Pinelli was a capodecina but had not been a member of the Gary family. From what we see, both Cal city (Bacino) and Gary (Pinelli, Morgano, Formusa) came under the control of Sicilian guys from the Northside over the 30s and 40s. It's still unclear to me when exactly Pinelli began operating in Gary, as he was officially living in the City up until he moved to Sierra Madre in the late 40s. In 1940, Formusa maintained addresses in both the City and Gary. And in 1940, we see that Bacino and his guys were running a major alcohol production and distribution ring HQ'd on both sides of the state line. Though I can't really say for sure, my guess is that Palazzolo's killing coincided with the Northsiders' takeover of the area. 1935 is also proximate to the dissolution of the Newark family; maybe Gary was dissolved around this time and Palazzolo balked? Just a hypothesis.

The Calumet region (Lake County, IN and SE Cook County/Chicago) is closely and intimately tied together, which could strengthen the guess that Gary and the Heights were the same family. But, we can assume that the Heights was folded into Chicago sometime between 1927 and ~ 1930, so I find it less likely that they were one family and then one part was split and merged with Chicago while another faction remained independent. Unless they were one family, and both were merged with Chicago at the same time and Palazzolo was a Chicago member when he was killed. I think it's more likely that Gary and the Heights were separate families, but what do I really know? If so, where was the "border", the state line? Cal City?

We wouldn't have known for sure that the Heights was an independent family as opposed to always having been a Chicago decina/e without Gentile. All it takes is one comment from a reliable source to really shift our understanding here. I think we have enough to conclude that there was indeed a Gary family, but not enough to reliably trace out what wound up happening to it.

On a related note, it came out in 1959 at the Senate hearings that LaRocca nad Kelly Mannarino were close associates of Tony Pinelli, and had been visiting him in Gary. So another Chicago-Pitt connection. Larry Imburgia, who was working with Bacino in Cal City was also the cousin of Charlie Murgie. And then there's this guy from Lati, Reggio Calabria who was apparently close to Palazzolo's father-in-law in Gary and connected (unsurprisingly) to West PA. Another potential link that came out in 1959 was that Pinelli's Gary operations were apparently connected to Gary public servant Rocco Schiralli. The guy was Bares', but he was born in WV.

[PolackTony]

Angelo "Ribs" Jannotta was born in 1908 in Chicago to Nicola and Elisa "Elizabeth" Iannotta of Castellone al Volturno, Campobasso (today part of the comune of Castel San Vicenzo, Isernia, Molise). The Iannottas settled in the Grand Ave Patch, first at Franklin and Hubbard, and later farther west at 545 N Wood. Nicola Iannotta worked for years as a janitor before later opening a cigar store in the neighborhood, where Angelo worked as a clerk as a young man. In the 1930s, Angelo served a sting at Leavenworth on narcotics charges, for selling morphine to an undercover agent. In the 50s, Angelo worked as a licensed insurance broker for the Chicago Title and Trust, Co. ("Buy an insurance policy from me, it would be a shame if something were to happen to your property...") and served as a Precinct Captain for the 28th Ward Democratic Party. In 1952, Angelo and his associate Tony La Pore (who lived on Huron across from Smith Park) were both arrested and questioned as suspects in the murder of Charles Gross, Acting Republican Committeeman of the 31st Ward, though neither were ever charged in the unsolved Gross murder. The Trib described Gross as a "vigorous opponent of recent gangland attempts" to control his ward; Gross was shot to death at North and Kedzie across the street from the National Guard armory in Humboldt Park, near his home at Kedzie and Hirsch (this immediate section of Humboldt Park had a strong history of outfit connections, with figures such as Jim DeGeorge, Nicola Diana, and Onofrio Vitale having lived there in prior years). Gross's opponent in the race for Ward Committeeman at this time was James Mesi, brother of outfit members Salvatore and Phil Mesi. In 1953, Angelo was convicted as an agent of a large bookmaking operation based out of North suburban Desplaines and was described in the papers around this time as a close associate of outfit labor kingpin Joey Glimco. In the early 1960s, Angelo was ejected from several Chicagoland racetracks as an "undesirable patron", on the grounds of his "narcotics peddler" background. He was also arrested in Dade County, FL, during this period for making book at the Hialeah racetrack.

In the mid-'60s, Angelo Jannotta was described in the papers as a close associate, "gambling advisor" and "lackey" of capodecina Sam Battaglia. A 1967 CI, who may have been Rocco Pranno, told the Feds that Angelo was a Chicago member; based on what little is known of him, he seems to most likely have been a soldier in the Battaglia crew. In 1968, Jannotta was convicted for insurance license fraud and had his license pulled by the state of IL when it came out that he held a license in spite of his felony (narcotics, gambling) background. Jannotta may have been criminally inactive after this point and died in Chicago in 1984.

[PolackTony]

Antonino "Tony" Pinelli was born in 1899 in Calascibetta to Antonino Pinelli of Calascibetta and Giuseppa Trigona of neighboring Villarosa (both comuni were in the province of Caltanissetta prior to the formation of Enna province in 1927). Tony arrived in NYC in 1913 with mother Giuseppa and elder sister Marianna Pinelli (born 1894 in Calascibetta). They were bound for father Antonino Pinelli, already living in Chicago at 522 S Ewing in the Taylor St Patch. They were accompanied by members of the Barbagallo and Trigona families, also bound for the same address. In 1914, Marianna Pinelli married Luigi Barbagallo, whose siblings had arrived in the US with the Pinellis. In 1917 the Pinellis lived on Gilpin near Halsted; Tony was already working as a tailor in a Westside Jewish garment factory. I'm unsure what wound up happening to father Antonino Pinelli; he may have returned to Calascibetta and died there, as I cannot find a death record for him in IL.

Tony's relatives, the Barbagallos, were evidently linked to the mafia in Chicago and Rockford. Older brother Francesco Barbagallo, who was married to Tony's aunt Angela Trigona, ran a barber shop near Taylor St with brother Luigi (married to Tony's sister); in 1921, Luigi was arrested for shooting and killing Francesco in an apparent dispute over money. Rockford papers noted at this time that the Chicago Barbagallos were well-known to "local Italians" there as well, making frequent trips to visit their relatives in Rockford. Brother Vincenzo "James" Barbagallo settled in Rockford after Chicago, where he and his wife Angelina Bonsignore (also from Calascibetta) operated the Venice Restaurant (which had apparently relocated from Aurora, IL) along with another brother, Rosario Barbagallo. In 1922, Vincenzo and Angelina were busted as part of a bootlegging, burglary, and arson ring in Rockford and southern WI that also included Calogero and Gaspare Alfano (apparently from Sambuca). In 1926, Tony's brother-in-law Luigi Barbagallo was found shot to death in suburban Stickney (Caponeville). Papers stated that Luigi was an alleged bootlegger who had been part of the "Genna gang" on Taylor St and was alleged to have previously threatened to kill Alderman John "Johnny De Pow" Powers, political rival of slain Chicago rappresentante Tony D'Andrea. The Barbagallo link to the Gennas does not seem to be spurious, as Luigi's 1923 naturalization was witnessed by Genna brother-in-law Henry Spingola, himself shot to death earlier in 1926. Police theorized that Luigi had been killed by "Northside" rivals of the "Genna gang", in revenge for having allegedly tipped off Federal agents who raided a large "Northside"-controlled still operation at Grand and Kilpatrick on the NW side. Police also sought another brother, Sam Barbagallo, stated as living in Bridgeport on the Southside, for questioning in the case. "Sam" seems to have been Rosario Barbagallo, who died the following year in Rockford, apparently of natural causes.

In 1923, Tony Pinelli married Maddalena "Madeline" Miceli (see Mugshots) in Chicago. Madeline was born in 1905 in Manhattan to Antonino Miceli and Caterina Camastra of Baucina. The Micelis subsequently moved to Chicago and settled at Division and Frontier on the Near Northside, adjacent to Little Sicily. Interestingly, that same block of Frontier Ave also had an address that was associated with Giuseppe Casabianca of Partanna in the 1920s -- Casabianca, who had another address in Gary, was the father-in-law of apparent Gary family boss Paolo Palazzolo. In 1930, the Pinellis were living at 62nd and Albany on the SW Side, and Tony stated that he owned a restaurant. In 1940, the Pinellis were living at 6054 W School (at Meade) in the Belmont Central neighborhood on the NW Side; Tony stated that he was working as a tailor.

In 1948, son Anthony "Tony" Pinelli, Jr (born 1924) married Louise, daughter of Jim DeGeorge, in 1948 (in 1950, they were living with Jim DeGeorge at his Chicago home on N Kedvale). Tony, Jr went on to become a major Chicago lawyer, who represented a number of outfit-connected figures over the years. Brother Salvatore Pinelli (born 1927) was later identified as a member of the LA outfit in the 1960s. 1948 was also the year that Tony Sr and Madeline moved to Sierra Madre, CA. FBI intel from the late 1950s stated that Pinelli maintained an empire of lucrative real estate and business interests, many under the names of relatives. Likening the Pinelli interests to an "octopus" the Feds theorized that Pinelli served an active and vital role for the Chicago family as an agent for laundering the family's vast illegal earnings, in concert with senior Chicago members such as Accardo. During this period, Pinelli was also observed traveling frequently between CA and Chicago/Gary. Pinelli owned the Villa Restaurant on Taft St in Gary, which the Feds and local LE stated was an active HQ for the mob in that area (I don't know if this was the same restaurant that Pinelli claimed to have owned in 1930). Pinelli was alleged to control vice, gambling, and vending machine rackets in the Gary/Lake County region in NW IN; he was also suspected of overseeing narcotics activity there, though no substantiating evidence seems to have ever confirmed Pinelli's rumored connections to the dope trade. Pinelli maintained his Chicago home on W School during this period as well; mother Giuseppa Trigona was living at that address when she died in 1963.

There remains much that we don't know about Pinelli's career in the mafia. He seems to have taken over as the top man for outfit activity in Gary in the 30s/40s, possibly when apparent Gary boss Paolo Palazzolo was killed in 1935. As we've seen, it's very possible that Pinelli's in-laws, the Micelis, could've had connections to Palazzolo's in-laws the Casabiancas, who were from Partanna. Longtime outfit associate Teddy DeRose claimed that Pinelli was one of the supporters of Vincenzo Benevento, an apparent leader of the rebel faction involved in the bloody 1940s war within the Chicago outfit; Benevento was himself from Partanna, and could possibly have been connected to both the Micelis and Palazzolo via his Partannes' paesan' Giuseppe Casabianca. That Tony Pinelli was already a big man within the Chicago Italian community by the 1930s is underscored by the fact that he was documented as President of the Calascibetta Society (Societa Maria SS della Catena) in 1935. The Society most likely constituted a lodge of the Italo-American Union (the old "Unione Siciliana") during that period; Benevento himself was said to have been President of a "Unione" affiliated Society (possible a Partannes' Society, though I don't know for sure).

LA member Frank Bompensiero reported that Tony Pinelli had transferred his membership from Chicago to LA around 1965, allegeldy due to the fact that he could no longer perform his duties as Chicago capodecina from a distance. This information suggests that Pinelli was an active capo in the Chicago family for nearly 20 years after moving to CA. While we don't know for sure, I believe that the most likely scenario is that Pinelli was captain of the Gary crew, which probably descended from a once-independent Gary family, and probably had "lieutenants" such as Gaetano Morgano (his 'Scibettane paesan') and Frankie Zizzo running things on the scene in Gary and/or serving as acting captain or "sotto capo" in Pinelli's stead while he retained official captain status. It's also worth noting (again) that Pinelli was alleged to have been personally close to prominent Pittsburgh outfit members Vincenzo Capizzi, John LaRocca, and Gabriel "Kelly" Mannarino from the 1930s to the late 1950s; Capizzi and LaRocca were both Pinelli's Villarosani paesani.

Tony Pinelli, Sr died in 1974 n Riverside, CA, and was interred in Resurrection Cemetery in Montebello.

[B.]

Incredible work on Pinelli. The intermarriage with the DeCavalcante boss and a Chicago capodecina, plus his partnership with the Pittsburgh boss and strong communal role show him to be a real force within mafia politics and the national network.

- I'm on the fence about Gary since there's so little info on the formalities -- could easily see it being part of the Chicago Heights Family. The assumption is the Heights was disbanded in the late 1920s but again there's such a lack of inside info.

- Bompensiero doesn't mention the Heights Family so it's hard to gauge if it was distinct from the Gary group as he perceived it. Maybe there continued to be a Heights-Indiana Family in the area through 1935 when Palazzolo was killed. Bompensiero was made by that time and traveled to Chicago in the early 1930s, so he could have been aware of a Family there and was never properly clued in on when/how it disbanded. It's similar to Valachi saying there was a Family in Utica -- he spent time there in the early 1930s and met the Falcone brothers, so he may have known of a Family there but wasn't properly informed when they merged with Buffalo (assuming that's what happened).

- Alternately, if there truly was a distinct Gary Family in addition to Chicago Heights, it could mean there were many more small Families around the US than we previously knew. As you know I'm very open to this idea but I try to be conservative about it given the tendency for Families to also have remote members / decine. What makes this situation more confusing is compaesani from Cinisi and Caccamo appear to have been in separate Families before they all merged under Chicago. This is comparable to Milwaukee and Madison where compaesani from Bagheria area formed distinct Families instead of one Wisconsin Family.

Since there appear to have been multiple Chicago Family decine in the area between the Heights and Gary (Pinelli, LaPorte, and Costello's captain) it opens many different possibilities as to how these crews were formed and when. I wouldn't rule out a Chicago Heights decina of the Chicago Family forming while the Heights and/or Gary Family still existed, much as the NYC Families may have had members living in New Jersey before Newark disbanded. Adding to this is that Bomp was under the impression Pinelli was never a member of the "Gary" (and/or Heights?) Family.

If nothing else, my opinion is that the existence of multiple decine in that area was likely informed/influenced by the earlier Families in the area.

[PolackTony]

Incredible work on Pinelli. The intermarriage with the DeCavalcante boss and a Chicago capodecina, plus his partnership with the Pittsburgh boss and strong communal role show him to be a real force within mafia politics and the national network.

- I'm on the fence about Gary since there's so little info on the formalities -- could easily see it being part of the Chicago Heights Family. The assumption is the Heights was disbanded in the late 1920s but again there's such a lack of inside info.

- Bompensiero doesn't mention the Heights Family so it's hard to gauge if it was distinct from the Gary group as he perceived it. Maybe there continued to be a Heights-Indiana Family in the area through 1935 when Palazzolo was killed. Bompensiero was made by that time and traveled to Chicago in the early 1930s, so he could have been aware of a Family there and was never properly clued in on when/how it disbanded. It's similar to Valachi saying there was a Family in Utica -- he spent time there in the early 1930s and met the Falcone brothers, so he may have known of a Family there but wasn't properly informed when they merged with Buffalo (assuming that's what happened).

- Alternately, if there truly was a distinct Gary Family in addition to Chicago Heights, it could mean there were many more small Families around the US than we previously knew. As you know I'm very open to this idea but I try to be conservative about it given the tendency for Families to also have remote members / decine. What makes this situation more confusing is compaesani from Cinisi and Caccamo appear to have been in separate Families before they all merged under Chicago. This is comparable to Milwaukee and Madison where compaesani from Bagheria area formed distinct Families instead of one Wisconsin Family.

Since there appear to have been multiple Chicago Family decine in the area between the Heights and Gary (Pinelli, LaPorte, and Costello's captain) it opens many different possibilities as to how these crews were formed and when. I wouldn't rule out a Chicago Heights decina of the Chicago Family forming while the Heights and/or Gary Family still existed, much as the NYC Families may have had members living in New Jersey before Newark disbanded. Adding to this is that Bomp was under the impression Pinelli was never a member of the "Gary" (and/or Heights?) Family.

If nothing else, my opinion is that the existence of multiple decine in that area was likely informed/influenced by the earlier Families in the area.

Yeah, my tentative hypothesis is that Gary was it’s own family, independent of both Chicago and the Heights. But this is absolutely provisional and just what I think is most plausible given the very little that we actually know. And what do we know? We know that there was a Heights family, and that San Filippo and Piazza were bosses there and both were killed. The working assumption has been that after Piazza got clipped, the family was folded into Chicago. We know that this happened at some point, and given that we know of the Rubertos, Ammiratos, and Liparotas as Chicago members, it’s a reasonable assumption that this merger happened sometime rather soon after the Piazza, as Ruberto seems to have become the dominant power in that area. But, organizationally, what did this process entail? The mafia would’ve had to approve this action at the level of the national organization, and we have no accounts from Gentile or anyone else that have surfaced that mention it. Was Dom Ruberto originally a Heights family member? Was he originally a Chicago member in a Chicago crew operating in Heights territory? Was he an outsider who wasn’t formally brought into the mafia until after Piazza? Was he boss of the Heights family after Piazza, did some unknown span of time before merging with Chicago? We really just don’t know. Hard to really say what was happening in Gary without knowing more about the Heights family. How many crews did they have? Did they operate only in and immediately around the Heights, or did they already have operations in Cal City, Joliet, IN, even the Far Southside of Chicago? We’re they already in the process of inducting Mainlanders into their family under San Filippo and Piazza?

What we know about Gary is limited to the very little bit we can glean about Palazzolo and Bompensiero’s statements about Gary having a family. Bomp, of course, knew both Pinelli and Frank LaPorte, so I’d think it’s a good chance that he’d have some clear historical info on the mafia in both the Heights and Gary. That he referred to it as the Gary family, and not the Heights, leads me to think that they really were two different things. That’s not conclusive by any means and I’m not at all wedded to this; it’s just where I see the sparse info most likely pointing right now.

Gary having its own family, despite its proximity to Chicago, is quite plausible IMO. While Gary is in the Chicagoland metro area, structurally/functionally it isn’t a suburb or even a satellite city of Chicago. It developed as its own city, with a massive industrial base of its own, it’s own entirely self-sustaining commercial and entertainment districts, etc. Chicago Heights was similar, though smaller. I see Gary and the Heights as roughly analogous to Newark and Elizabeth. Both within the immediate NYC metro area but fully formed cities in their own right, with their own industries and local dynamics. And we know that both Newark and Elizabeth developed their own families in the shadow of NYC, so both Gary and the Heights each developing their own families isn’t far fetched, IMO. Doesn’t mean that they necessarily did, of course, but I could easily see it happening.

[Antiliar]

Tony and I are on the same page. I think the preponderance of the evidence strongly suggests an independent borgata operating in Gary. It was probably small and under the influence of Chicago and Chicago Heights (with Chicago being dominant). It probably survived into the mid or late 1930s before it became part of the Outfit. Paolo Palazzolo was almost certainly one of its bosses.

I wonder if there's any connection between the Casablanca related to Pinelli and Vito Di Giorgio's maternal line. If so, it could provide an additional reason for him to visit Chicago in 1922.

[Antiliar]

I forgot to mention that John Formusa could have been the first Outfit member tasked with running Gary after the borgata ended. Hopefully when his file arrives we'll get some answers.

[B.]

I'm leaning the same way. Because I've pushed hard on the theory of more early Families I try to push back on my own confirmation bias, but Gary is emerging as a real contender. The Newark / DeCavalcante comparison is a good one.

Bomp is very specific when referring to the formalities so his multiple references to a Gary Family have weight. He was also aware of LaPorte's presence in Chicago Heights as a distinct area separate from Gary so I don't think he was generalizing. The FBI asked him specifically about Gary and Lake County, too.

Here is the report where Bomp said Pinelli was never a member of the Gary Family:



^^^ The second source is someone different from Bomp, but their belief that Pinelli was made when Accardo was boss would fit Pinelli not having been made when Gary was still a Family. Curious who the source was, as he ID'd Pinelli as a member of the "outfit" / "Family", suggesting he was more acquainted with the organization than the average street guy.

^^^ Curious if the info on Angelo Cardinale came from the second informant or if the FBI was adding that in on their own. If it came from the informant, his knowledge of Cardinale's birth year, birthplace, and paesano relationship with Pinelli and Morgano makes me wonder if the source was Cardinale or someone close to him.

[B.]

Early on the FBI was only able to confirm Frank Zizzo as a member in Lake County but noted the following names as suspected members and/or associates in the area along with Zizzo:



Also on the list were Fred Brennan, Anthony Pinelli, and Tommy Morgano but I didn't have room to crop them in.