Chicago Outfit Places of Origin

[B.]

These posts remind me of Chicago gangster Tommy Abbott who opposed Capone and was a northsider. I have seen newspapers state his name was possibly Abbate or Abbatini. Research into him has confounded me simply because I can't find his real name. I don't even know if his first name is really Tommaso or Gaetano. He disappeared in the Fall of 1930 most likely murdered. Some reports said he was living a life of luxury in Mexico and another stated he was at the bottom of a water filled quarry in Summit, Illinois. I would find it very interesting if his last name was Abbate.

You know, we went back and forth a while back when I was also trying to figure out WTF this “Tommy Abbott” was, and I was never able to really get anywhere with him either. Thanks for bringing him back up again in this light, because I think that I may have a couple of clues now. In 1913, a Gaetano Abate, born in 1872 in Villarosa, arrived in Chicago, where he stated that his brother Filippo Abate was living near Taylor and Blue Island. Gaetano’s wife back in Villarosa was a Giacoma Solami. I’m thinking that this guy was too old to be “Tommy Abbott”, but it may also be clue as to why Filippo Gnolfo used the “Abbate” alias.

As you note, the papers stated that “Abbott’s” real name was Abbate, Abbotini, etc etc (even his wife they variously referred to as Lillian or Irene). Investigators also seemed to have been confused as to his true allegiances; while in 1930 they stated that he was known to be linked to the Aiello-Moran group, in 1929 it was also reported that “Tommy Abbott” was suspected of being the guy who put the victims of the SVD Massacre “on the spot” to get whacked. Later called a Northside gangster, in 1928 he was referred to as a “Westside racketeer”. In that light, it was also noted in 1929 that “Abbott’s” arrest record claimed that he had been Samuzzo Amatuna’s driver in 1925. Now, we know that later Lucchese NJ capodecina Giuseppe Abate had worked under Amatuna in 1925 and was arrested with Amatuna that same year under the alias “Pino Massei”. Abate later told investigators that he moved to Atlantic City in 1934. Was “Tommy Abbott” actually Giuseppe Abate, and instead of being killed fled Chicago for NJ? If not, given that they both apparently worked for Amatuna, they would’ve known each other well.

Abbate & Castelli: who's on first? More like who is who?

[cavita]

These posts remind me of Chicago gangster Tommy Abbott who opposed Capone and was a northsider. I have seen newspapers state his name was possibly Abbate or Abbatini. Research into him has confounded me simply because I can't find his real name. I don't even know if his first name is really Tommaso or Gaetano. He disappeared in the Fall of 1930 most likely murdered. Some reports said he was living a life of luxury in Mexico and another stated he was at the bottom of a water filled quarry in Summit, Illinois. I would find it very interesting if his last name was Abbate.

You know, we went back and forth a while back when I was also trying to figure out WTF this “Tommy Abbott” was, and I was never able to really get anywhere with him either. Thanks for bringing him back up again in this light, because I think that I may have a couple of clues now. In 1913, a Gaetano Abate, born in 1872 in Villarosa, arrived in Chicago, where he stated that his brother Filippo Abate was living near Taylor and Blue Island. Gaetano’s wife back in Villarosa was a Giacoma Solami. I’m thinking that this guy was too old to be “Tommy Abbott”, but it may also be clue as to why Filippo Gnolfo used the “Abbate” alias.

As you note, the papers stated that “Abbott’s” real name was Abbate, Abbotini, etc etc (even his wife they variously referred to as Lillian or Irene). Investigators also seemed to have been confused as to his true allegiances; while in 1930 they stated that he was known to be linked to the Aiello-Moran group, in 1929 it was also reported that “Tommy Abbott” was suspected of being the guy who put the victims of the SVD Massacre “on the spot” to get whacked. Later called a Northside gangster, in 1928 he was referred to as a “Westside racketeer”. In that light, it was also noted in 1929 that “Abbott’s” arrest record claimed that he had been Samuzzo Amatuna’s driver in 1925. Now, we know that later Lucchese NJ capodecina Giuseppe Abate had worked under Amatuna in 1925 and was arrested with Amatuna that same year under the alias “Pino Massei”. Abate later told investigators that he moved to Atlantic City in 1934. Was “Tommy Abbott” actually Giuseppe Abate, and instead of being killed fled Chicago for NJ? If not, given that they both apparently worked for Amatuna, they would’ve known each other well.

Great insight and it leaves some avenues open to research. I couldn't even find an age for Abbott from the papers and from his photos I just tried to guess that perhaps he was born about 1900. A true mystery man.

[PolackTony]

In May of 1914, Taylor St “black hand” gangsters Joseph Esposito (not that Joe Esposito) and Tony Mucerino were accused of murdering a streetcar conductor. It was alleged that the conductor had admonished Esposito for spitting on the floor of a car on the 12th St (Roosevelt Rd) line and the offended Esposito pulled out a pistol, killing the conductor and wounding a fellow passenger. Mucerino was said to be one of Esposito’s “gunmen” in his company during the shooting (a third man in their company was unidentified). When CPD tracked down Mucerino, he opened fire on detective-sergeant Michael DeVito, who had encountered Mucerino in a tavern at 12th and Desplaines; DeVito was unhurt in the shooting attempt. Both Esposito and Mucerino seem to have been convicted and sentenced to death for the killing. The papers reported that Esposito was “hated and feared” in the Taylor St Italian community, as he was a “Black Hand” leader who was also said to have been a “stool pigeon” who curried favor with the police by informing on other criminals and thus felt that he could act with impunity in his own criminal activities.

Esposito, I believe, was most likely the Giuseppe Esposito born about 1887 in Acerra, Napoli, who arrived in Chicago in 1910. He thus may well have been a relative of the more famous Joe Esposito, though I wasn’t able to find any specific connection. The younger Esposito’s mother also seems to have been a Di Iorio from Acerra, which could indicate a potential connection to Detroit member Ernest Diorio, who was also Acceres’. Mucerino was, I believe, Antonio Mucerino, born about 1886 in Scisciano, Napoli, the hometown of the Ebolis and Ariolas.

In 1980, Salvatore Mucerino, a former employee of Streets and San, was charged (later plead guilty) with theft and fraud for collecting $200k+ in fraudulent work orders to the City of Chicago for snow removal that he never performed during the historic blizzard of ‘79. At the time, Mucerino operated two SW Side towing firms (recall also that Streets and San’s snowplow fleet in this period was commanded by Pete Schivarelli, millionaire manager of the rock band “Chicago” and outfit associate). In 1986, Mucerino was involved in a junkyard that was being used as a chop shop for stolen vehicles. That same year, Mucerino, living in Cicero, was busted with Frank Cardascio, also of Cicero, for contracting an informant to kill a man (the intended victim was not identified by IL state investigators at the time). Investigators described Mucerino to the press at this time as a “foot soldier” for Angelo LaPietra.

Salvatore Mucerino was born around 1933 in Scisciano. By 1950, he was living on Arthington in the Taylor St Patch with his uncle, Nicola Mucerino. Although Mucerino died in 2004, he was listed on that 2007 list of 28 Chicago members. To my knowledge, no info has of yet come to light beyond this list identifying Mucerino as made (thanks to Snakes for also confirming this).

[PolackTony]

Alberto Romano "Chickie" Roviaro was born in 1919 in Chicago to Luigi Roviaro and Elisabetta Del Chiele of Arzignano, a comune in the province of Vicenza in the Veneto region. The Roviaros lived in the Roseland/Pullman area of the Far Southside, which had a large population of both Northern and Southern Italians. In the 1940s and 50s, Chickie Roviaro stated that he was employed as a driver for the Swanel Soda Co., a company that installed soda fountain equipment; in later years, Roviaro was stated to have become the owner of Swanel Soda.

In 1966, Chickie Roviaro was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in Federal prison for leading a major narcotics trafficking ring, claimed by investigators to have been responsible for importing a "river" of heroin from Montreal to Chicago since the 1950s (we've seen already that Pete DiPietto's heroin operation in the 60s was stated by the FBN to have been supplied from both Montreal and NYC, and Montreal heroin kingpin Pepe Cotroni had documented links to Chicago racket operations in the 1950s). Roviaro's heroin importing operation in turn supplied distribution operations in IN, with investigators claiming that Roviaro was responsible for supplying as much as 100% of the heroin sold in Indianapolis in the late 50s through the early 60s. Roviaro was pinched for the operation in '65 after an IN customer flipped and wore a wire on Roviaro for the Feds. Roviaro's primary underling was stated to have been John Capko, who owned Cap's Table, a lounge at 103rd and Michigan Ave on the Far Southside used for holding drug deals. Walter Anderson, a black mobster alleged to have been the "king of Indianapolis crime syndicate policy rackets" was also named as Roviaro's primary point man on the IN side of his operations.

Roviaro, who by the '60s lived with his wife and kids on a 160-acre farm in Lake County, IN, while also operating Swanel Soda in Chicago, had vigorously defended his character in the local papers, describing himself as a "country gentleman" and "businessman-farmer" who had nothing to do with the narcotics trade. Roviaro had, however, been previously pinched and convicted for possessing ~$20k of nearly pure heroin back in 1954, when he was surprised by FBN agents who had been tailing him while conducting a transaction in front of his lavish Far Southside home (he was apparently doing very well for a truck driver). Along with the heroin, Roviaro was found to have a phone number for Joe Iacullo, close associate of Tony Accardo who had been busted earlier that same year for running a major Chicago heroin trafficking operation with Anthony Pape. Roviaro had been sitting the vehicle of Tevell Holmes, an old-school black gangster and tavern owner going back to the Prohibition days, based in the SOuthside Bronzeville neighborhood (basically, the Harlem of Chicago); Roviaro was evidently supplying Holmes with heroin. At this time, it was noted that Roviaro had previously taken pinches for operating an illegal still and working in a counterfeiting ring in the 1940s.

In 1989, the FBI charged that Chickie Roviaro had participated in disposing of the bodies of the Spilotro brothers with Heights Capo Al Tocco and soldiers Dom Palermo and Nick Guzzino. Betty Tocco, Al Caesar's estranged wife, testified that she had picked up Roviaro along with her husband and Palermo following the botched burial. Like Salvatore Mucerino, Chickie Roviaro was named on the 2007 list of 28 Chicago members, though no info has surfaced to date confirming that Roviaro was actually made (thanks again to Snakes for confirming). That he was involved with made guys in a high-sensitivity task like the Spilotro burials would, IMO, seem to suggest that he was likely to indeed have been made; hopefully documents will be released that can confirm or disconfirm his membership.

Chickie Roviaro died in 2003, while living in Cedar Lake, IN, and was buried in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Worth, IL.

[PolackTony]

In the 1960s, Sal Piscopo told the FBI that Johnny Roselli had confided in him that an old partner of his, Tancredi Tortora, was one of only 5 men who would be able to identify Roselli’s true identity. Piscopo had also stated that in the 1920s, Tortora and Roselli had been busted together on narcotics charges, and Roselli was later able to have his mugshot from that arrest destroyed to conceal his identity. Further, Piscopo believed that Roselli and Tortora had been involved in the murder of Chicago gangster Tony Charlando together.

I have Tancredi Tortora as born in 1903 in Acerra, Napoli, and arriving in Chicago in 1920. In April 1922, Tortora’s soft drink establishment on the 800 block of S Blue Island Ave (this was both Genna Ground Zero and an apparent HQ of Camorra activity in the Taylor St Patch) was raided and police recovered opium, morphine, cocaine, and moonshine whiskey. One of Tortora’s co-defendants was named as Ralph Stortoto (which may match a Molisano named Raffaele Storto); another arrestee was given as Gerona Durando [sic]; no mention was made of the names Roselli or Sacco.

In August of 1922, Anthony Charlando, aka Tony Charlando, succumbed to gunshot wounds from a shootout several days prior. According to police, the shootout was due to a feud between Charlando and his brother, Charles Charlando. Tony Charlando had supposedly shown up with members of his “gang” at Charles’ home at 1639 S Sangamon and an argument and then shootout ensued, with men at Charles’ home coming to his aid. John Paladino and Joseph Warno [sic] were also shot in the fracas, while among the arrestees at the scene were Angelo Pascucci, Joseph Parcelli, and a Joseph Phillipe. The last name, who gave his address near Taylor and Vernon, could possibly have been an alias of Filippo Sacco/Roselli (just speculation). Anthony Charlands was born in 1898 in Chicago to Donato Chiarolanzo and Rosa Baraglia of Baragiano, Potenza. In 1913, older brother Joseph Charlands was arrested after he was named by a dying Rosario Talarico, shot near 22nd and Clark (Colosimo, D’Andrea, and Merlo-Ville), as his assailant.

The FBI followed up on Piscopo’s info on Roselli’s connections to Tortora. Tortora fled Chicago after the Charlando shooting and wound up in Boston, where he was arrested for the December 1923 murder of Annibale Stilo; Boston police discovered that Tortora was wanted in Chicago for the Charlando murder. Somehow, Tortora got himself released on bail in Boston with the promise that he’d return to Chicago to answer to the charges there — naturally, Tortora jumped bail and went on the lam. In 1934, Tortora was finally apprehended and tried and convicted for the Stilo murder in Boston. He received a life sentence, but then was pardoned in 1950 and deported to Italy. When the FBI noted that none of the men arrested at the Charlando shootout had a name identical to Roselli, they then continued “however, it is noted that”, with the following passage redacted. The FBI further noted that no files related to the Charlando shooting could be located by CPD, opining that if Roselli had indeed been involved with Tortora in the narcotics venue and Charlando shooting, records relating to his arrest may have been destroyed by outfit connections in the CPD.

Piscopo also related that Roselli had described Tortora as a childhood friend, and recalled that Tortora had arrived in Los Angeles in the 20s around the same time as Roselli in order to hide out from several murders “back East”. Piscopo reported that Tortora eventually turned himself in at the urging of Vito Genovese.

In the mid-1960s, the FBI confirmed that Tancredi Tortora was living in Acerra, were he operated a produce business with his brothers. Upon interview, Tortora identified a photo of Roselli as his old friend, who he stated was really Filippo Sacco. Tortora denied that Roselli had been involved in either the Chicago narcotics case or the Charlando murder (which Tortora claimed he was only involved in as a neighborhood brawl). He stated that in 1923, he and Roselli had travelled from Boston (where Tortora stated that he had originally met Roselli) to Buffalo and Detroit. Tortora returned to Chicago and then relocated to LA, from whence he asked “Eugenio Taddeo” [phonetic] in Chicago to pay Roselli’s train fare to CA as well. Tortora stated that in CA he and Roselli worked as bootleggers for Tony D’Acunto.

As there seems to be no record in Chicago corresponding to “Eugenio Taddeo”, I strongly suspect that this was Aniello Taddeo, a major Avillines’ bootlegger killed in Melrose Park in September 1925 in a war for control of the liquor racket in that area (we know otherwise that MP was the center of serious Napolitan’/Camorra bootlegging activity and violence in this period, evidently with close connections to Taylor St). Reputed Taddeo loyalists Lazzaro Clemente and James Campanille were also slain in Melrose Park, in 1924 and 1926, respectively, in apparent bootlegging conflicts with rival operations. Campanille’s birthplace was given only as Naples, but Taddeo and Clemente were both from Cervinara, Avellino, where Joe Valachi’s father, Domenico Villacci, was from, as well as deported Lucchese member Saverio Valente. Cervinara also borders the Roccarainola/Tufino area of Napoli province where Vito Genovese was from.

Piscopo stated that he had first met Roselli via Tony D’Acunto, allegedly Roselli’s uncle. Tortora told the FBI that both he and Roselli called D’Acunto “uncle” out of respect but that there was no relation. Supposedly, Tony D’Acunto had lived in Chicago before relocating to LA around 1917 (a 1903 naturalization petition for an Antonio D’Acunto in Chicago gives no birthdate or place of origin). An LA WW1 draft card has Anthony D’Aconto, born in 1876, married to a Jane, and working as a real estate broker. This would correspond to a 1917 wedding announcement in Pasadena for Antonio D’Acunto and Jane Hart. The announcement stated that Antonio was Baron D’Acunto, a wealthy broker and nobleman originally from Sorrento, Napoli (I had previously guessed that D’Acunto was an immigrant from Minturno, Lazio, but that doesn’t seem to be correct). The alleged deference paid by Tortora and Roselli to D’Acunto would seem to have been well-warranted. Antonio D’Acunto died in LA in 1930.

Worth noting here that Annibale Stilo, who Tancredi Tortora murdered in Boston’s North End in December 1922 (erroneously given as 1923 above) after fleeing Chicago (and for whose murder Piscopo stated that Tortora was directed in 1934 to turn himself in for at the direction of Vito Genovese), was from Gallico, RC. Gallico also the hometown of Biagio Giordano, Albert Anastasia’s early boss who was murdered in Brooklyn in 1923, during an apparent feud over a bootlegging debt (per the papers at least) that had claimed the life of Vincenzo Busardo, a Palermitano, earlier in 1923. Per the Boston papers, Annibale Stilo was a resident of Brooklyn when he was murdered (they also note after he turned himself in in 1934 that Tortora had used the alias “Albert Bruno” while in Boston at the time of the Stilo murder). Seems like a possibility that the Stilo and Giordano murders may have been related, though of course Tortora never shed any such light on the incident when he was later interviewed by the FBI in the 60s in Acerra.

[PolackTony]

Frank Loverde was born 1904 in Chicago to Stefano Lo Verde and Domenica Maisano of Piana dei Greci (today Piana degli Albanesi; another Arbereshe town), Palermo province. His brother, George Loverde -- co-founder of Gino's East pizzeria -- was born in Piana dei Greci in 1907.

During the night of December 7th 1915, alleged "Black Handers" targeted the Little Sicily butcher shop of Stefano LoVerde on the 900 block of N Townsend. A bomb exploded in the basement of the shop and threw the family (including a young Butch LoVerde) from the beds in the apartment upstairs. Also thrown from their beds (the blast was reported to have woken the whole neighborhood up) were the LoVerdes' next door neighbors, the Sciortinos. Father Tommaso "Thomas" Sciortino, who was born in 1886 in Bagheria, owned a grocery store on the same block.

The Sciortino brothers from Bagheria were San Jose leaders circa 1940s. Onofrio Sciortino was boss. The Aiellos/Ajellos are hard to untangle -- I tried in Utica/Frankfort and there are a ton of the same names and everyone ran in the same circles. They used both the Aiello/Ajello spellings so if you don't find something for one check the other.

Tommaso above may have been a cousin of Domenico Sciortino, born in 1878 in Bagheria to Agostino Sciortino and Maria Provenzano. On May 9th of 1930, police discovered Domenico Sciortino shot to death in the living room of his home on the 1200 block of W Carmen in the Uptown neighborhood on the Northside. In his hand, Domenico (said to have been working as a real estate dealer) clutched a contract for the sale of a property to his cousin, Antonino Sciortino, and another man named Antonino Mineo. Antonino Sciortino was born in 1887 in Bagheria to Gaetano Sciortino (whose mother was a Morici) and Giuseppa Tripoli. Antonino's wife was Maria Mineo, so the Antonino Mineo on the property contract was probably his brother-in-law (unclear if they were directly related to Michele Mineo). Domenico's wife was Anna Restivo, and they had previously made the papers in 1922 when she shot and killed Domenico's brother Michele Sciortino after the latter reportedly showed up at her home looking for some money and threatening to kill her. About a week before his murder in 1930, Domenico had apparently sensed that he was in danger, as it was reported that he had sent Anna and their children to stay with their married daughter, Marie. Her husband, Francesco DiSalvo (aka "Frank Reedy"), was born in 1903 in Bagheria and was working at the time as a produce peddler. By 1940, Frank operated a trucking contracting company (his occupational history and alias would lead me to suspect that he may have been connected).

Clearly, the Sciortinos were intertwined with some highly mafia-connected surnames from Bagheria (Morici, Mineo, Tripoli, DiSalvo). Restivo is also noteworthy, as the mother of Pietro Lima of Bagheria/Utica was also a Restivo (Lima was reportedly close to the Falcones and was murdered in Utica in 1934). Given that Domenico was killed in May of 1930, I think it's a good bet that he was a mafiosi in the Aiello camp. It's my belief that the Capone group launched an offensive against Aiello in the spring of 1930 (May 1930, for example, was also when reputed Aiello supporters like Girolamo Intravaia and Filippo Gnolfo were killed), which presumably led to Aiello being driven from Chicago and having to seek Magaddino's protection in Buffalo.

Aside from the Chicago and SJ Sciortinos, there was also Bonanno member Peter Sciortino (who, as thekiduknow has posted, was Bagherese). In his file, the FBI reported that Peter Sciortino was a cousin of the Peter Sciortino in Milwaukee, who ran a bakery with his father Giuseppe Sciortino that was located next to John Alioto's tavern (the Bonanno Peter Sciortino was also a baker); the Milwaukee Sciortinos were additionally reported to have been relatives of jack Enea. Also worth noting here is that after arriving in Chicago, Antonino Sciortino's brother Mariano Sciortino married a woman from Campofelice di Roccella in Racine and they subsequently settled in Milwaukee.

[B.]

It's an endless well. Trying to untangle these Bagheria guys opens ten new loose ends.

All of these murders circa 1930-1931, especially when they connected to Joe Aiello's paesans, make me think about the Castellammarese War. I understand why some researchers have been extremely conservative about which hits actually involved the war but you can also understand why people had the perception that countless bodies were dropping all around the US -- they were. It's also hard with some of these to know the true reason for certain murders.

Same thing with the 1980s Sicilian mafia war. The narrative is it was all Toto Riina ordering murders all day every day just to be a dick but when you look into what was going on around the island you had a lot of individual reasons for murder/local wars. It's still fair to look at it in the broader context of Riina and his allies taking full control it's just not black and white.

[PolackTony]

In the months after Rosario Dispenza and Antonio Puccio/Pucci were murdered in January 1914, at least 8 other men were murdered in what the papers referred to as a "war" in Little Sicily. One victim was Santo LaBruzzo, who was shot and fatally wounded in the doorway of his apartment on the 100 block of N Cambridge by two men who opened fire on him with revolvers; the unknown assailants were pursued by a patrolman at the scene who opened fire on them, but they escaped and no suspects were named in LaBruzzo's murder. Investigators discovered that LaBruzzo's wife and kids had remained back in Italy, but little other info about him or his murder was published. Per his 1907 arrival in NYC bound for Chicago, Santo LaBruzzo was born about 1865 in Palermo City, also his last residence before emigrating. Apart from Toto LoVerde (from Brancaccio), we know that there was a cluster of Palermitano mafiosi in WI/MN early on. While I don't know where he was from in Palermo, if LaBruzza had been a mafioso (given his age, he presumably would've been a member of a Palermo Family before arriving in Chicago) this could be a potential part of the context for LoVerde's later rise to power.

On the subject of Dispenza, it has been noted here on the forum previously that he was partnered with Puccio in the Banca Siciliana of Chicago (which the two supposedly used as a vehicle to identify targets for extortion among their own ostensible clientele) until the bank was bombed in 1913; at the time of their shootings, Dispenza and Puccio were alleged to have been visiting a saloon that they had recently purchased in Little Sicily. It was also reported that both men were "leaders" in the "Mano Nera" as well as the Mano Bianca (the White Hand Society). As I've posted before, the Mano Bianca was founded in the 1900s with the ostensible mission to combat "Black Hand" depredations in the Italian community by influential "prominenti" connected closely to the Unione Sicilian and the Trinacria Fratellanza (such as likely mobbed-up Termitano alderman/states attorney Stefano Malato). If Dispenza was indeed a leading figure in the Mano Bianca this strengthens my guess that the organization was infiltrated by the mafia and probably served as a means for the upper strata of the mafia (along with their client-partners in the Sicilian/Italian business and political class) to manage crime and reign in lower-level criminals (similar, perhaps, to how rival mafiosi weaponized the local police in their conflict in 19th century Monreale).

On the subject of Puccio, I have not been able to confirm his ancestry. His 1914 death record (depending on whether one looks at the Cook County or the IL state version) gives his name as either Anthony Puccio or Antonio Pucci. No birthplace is given beyond Italy and no parents. Several newspaper articles also give his surname as Pucci, and Pucci was also the version that wound up on his tombstone (see below). This matters; if he was Puccio, he was probably Sicilian, but if he was Pucci it's a good chance that he was a mainlander. I also note that a number of Toscani Puccis lived in Little Sicily (members of the small but influential Central/Northern Italian minority on the Near Northside). If Dispenza's partner was Toscano, this would obviously be a big deal; there were Sicilian Puccios from Sambuca, Marineo, and Caccamo in Chicago, though.

Another thing to note is that when Dispenza and Puccio were killed, it was reported that a third man was wounded in the shotgun attacks but fled the scene. Initially, police believed this man was Joe Portuese (who Antiliar confirmed was Giuseppe Portoghese from Ventimiglia, which is practically the same comune as Dispenza's hometown of Ciminna), as Puccio had a letter from Portuese's lawyers in downstate Champaign, IL, addressed to Tony D'Andrea; Portuese was alleged to have killed a man named Charles Catalino in Urbana, IL, the prior week and investigators stated that Portuese worked for Dispenza and Puccio and they believed that the two leaders had sent Portuese to Urbana for the hit. Soon, however, it became clear that Portuese wasn't the third man wounded, as a wounded man Samuel Flossi turned up in the hospital and was identified by CPD as being a possible suspect who may have set up Dispenza and Puccio. There doesn't seem to be a match for this guy; could be an alias, but there were also Flosis (with one "s") in Little Sicily who were from Lucca province, Tuscana; a couple were involved in the 1910s and 20s in crimes such as a burglary ring and selling alcohol during Prohibition. Later Chicago member Bobby Ansani's mother was also a Flosi from Lucca province. Further, Ansani's Toscano father Arturo Ansani was also a leader in the Italian Club founded in 1920 to support mobbed-up Cook County States Attorney Robert Crowe, along with Malato, Constantino Vitello, and Heights Family leaders SanFilippo and Piazza. It's clear that a small number of Toscani were already closely linked to the mafia by that time, also including later "Unione" President Bernie Barasa. If either "Flossi" or "Puccio" turn out to have been Toscano, then, it wouldn't actually be a huge shock to me.

[PolackTony]

It's been asserted on the internet that apparent Chicago boss Mariano Zagone -- murdered in 1909 -- was from Ciminna. The Zagone surname doesn't seem to be recorded at all in Ciminna and is instead typical of Caccamo, so this didn't sit right with me (for example, Nicasio Zagone, stated to have been the nephew of Philly Boss John Stanfa, whose family in turn retains close links to Chicago today). The assertion that he was Ciminnese seems to derive from some ancestry family trees, which (as usual with these errors) do not offer any sources to support this claim.

Checking the Caccamo birth records, I can confirm that Mariano Zagone was indeed born in 1861 in Caccamo to Nicasio Zagone and Maria Grazia Cecala of Caccamo. Also worth noting that Mariano's sister Domenica Zagone, also born in Caccamo, married a man named Giuseppe Vento from Lercara Friddi, and Mariano Zagone arrived in the US in 1899 bound for Geneseo, NY along with several people from Lercara also bound for Geneseo. Lercara is interior from Caccamo, and we should note that the first Sicilian railway, which started in Palermo and eventually terminated in Girgenti, turned from the Palermo/ Chicago Triangle coast to the interior at Termini Imerese, proceeding through the plain around Caccamo and thence to Lercara, where there was a station. Lercara had been a major sulphur mining town, and one can imagine that from the very beginning of the railway the mafia would've taken advantage of this transformative innovation in transportation given the poor and fragmented nature of Sicilian roads.

Thom Hunt had Zagone taking over as Chicago boss in 1900, but I'm not aware of any documentation to prove that Zagone was actually in Chicago by that year. The earliest that I can place him in Chicago was his marriage to Biagia "Bessie" Spatafora, who was born Biagia Cutrone in Corleone (as a side note, when I was a kid my family had Cutrone friends in Chicago who I believe were Corleonesi); this would've been Zagone's second marriage, as per his 1899 arrival his wife back in Sicily was named Giuseppa Giardano. Biagia was the widow of Gioacchino (given as Giacomo in some documents) Spatafora, also of Corleone. Spatafora died in Chicago in 1901, and Hunt thinks it's likely that Spatafora may have been murdered; per his death certificate, however, he died of tuberculosis. Biagia's daughter Leoluchina "Laura" Spatafora, born in 1883 in Corleone, married her paesan' Giuseppe "Joe" Nicolosi in Chicago in 1902.

After his 1909 murder at the Little Sicily saloon of Jose and brother Carmelo Nicolosi on Gault Ct, investigators reported rumors that Zagone had been pursued by a romantic pretender for Biagia Spatafora's hand from back in Sicily. As Hunt notes, there was probably a lot more going on with Zagone, as he had already survived 3 other attempts on his life over the prior 6 years, including two shotgun attacks two weeks apart. That Zagone's stepson Joe Spatafora and Joe's in-laws the Nicolosi brothers were suspected in Zagone's murder also points to the 1902-1903 saga, as reported in the Tribune, where Zagone was reputed to have been one of the leaders of a Chicago counterfeiting operation along with Tony D'Andrea (and, we can surmise, the Corleonese Leandro Catinella, who was HQ'd in Colosimo's Near Southside territory with which Mike Merlo and Tony D'Andrea would also be closely tied in the coming years); an Italian undercover agent named Bassini infiltrated the Zagone/Nicolosi operation at the Gault Ct tavern, leading to both Joe Nicolosi and D'Andrea getting pinched on counterfeiting charges. Hunt asserts that Zagone was blamed for the infiltration by Bassini (who was kidnapped but managed to escape from the Nicolosis after it was discovered that he was a Federal agent); the intel that Bassini collected may have been instrumental in the 1903 SS takedown of the NYC counterfeiting operation under Morello and Lupo. Hunt further cites letters between leaders of the NYC and Chicago mafia in 1903 seized by the SS, which were interpreted by SS Agent William Flynn to have contained apparent threats to Zagone's life (if so, he managed to live a surprisingly long life before it finally caught up with him). That Zagone was arrested and charged but never convicted on counterfeiting charges in 1903 -- while men like Morello, Lupo, and D'Andrea were sent to the can -- certainly wouldn't have helped his case if he was suspected by his fratelli of cooperating. If this were the case, however, and the repeated attempts on Zagone's life in the years after the counterfeiting busts were related to the fallout from the Bassini issue, it's rather hard for me to swallow that Zagone was then actually the boss of the Chicago Family in the years before his murder.

Justin Cascio has stated that the Nicolosis, in turn, were the nephews of Gioacchino Spatafora -- they thus would've been both the in-laws and cousins of Joe Spatafora. This seems to be correct, as I have Joe and Carmelo Nicolosi's parents as Giovanni Nicolosi and Maria Antonia Spatafora of Corleone (per Corleone baptismal records and Parish records from Blessed Assumption in Chicago).

[Antiliar]

I went back to my article on D'Andrea from 2009 (didn't realize I wrote it such a long time ago!) and I didn't write that Zagone was a boss, I just wrote something like "if he was the previous boss..." Hunt, in his article that came after mine in the same issue, had his name as Zagona and wrote that "he appears to be the leader of the various clans on the Near North Side" and that he was from Cimmina. I have to amend what I said in our discussion because it appears that the "We of Corleone" letter was from 1909, not 1908. In the article I gave several reasons why this letter confirmed that DiSpenza was a boss. Leandro Catinella was old enough to have been an early boss. He was born in Corleone in 1856 and died in Chicago in 1903. He married in Chicago in 1883.

[PolackTony]

I went back to my article on D'Andrea from 2009 (didn't realize I wrote it such a long time ago!) and I didn't write that Zagone was a boss, I just wrote something like "if he was the previous boss..." Hunt, in his article that came after mine in the same issue, had his name as Zagona and wrote that "he appears to be the leader of the various clans on the Near North Side" and that he was from Cimmina. I have to amend what I said in our discussion because it appears that the "We of Corleone" letter was from 1909, not 1908. In the article I gave several reasons why this letter confirmed that DiSpenza was a boss. Leandro Catinella was old enough to have been an early boss. He was born in Corleone in 1856 and died in Chicago in 1903. He married in Chicago in 1883.

Thanks for going back and confirming. I think that Zagone will have to go to an unconfirmed/unknown category myself, as I haven’t seen anything that would lead me to really conclude that he was ever actually boss. That he was identified as a “leader” of the Chicago counterfeiting operations of course doesn’t imply that he was therefore the boss of the Chicago mafia (similar to how people have been led astray in thinking that Morello and Lupo were in the same Family because they were working together in counterfeiting; operational =/= organizational). Unless there’s something that would support it that I haven’t yet seen (always possible, of course).

Catinella I do think is a good bet. We’ve speculated about Joe Morici potentially having been boss ~1900, but Catinella may have been a better candidate in that he reportedly was corresponding with Morello and died in 1903; Morici, while clearly still being involved in mafia activities like bombings years later, doesn’t fit chronologically unless he got demoted or stepped back (as he was still around in 1911 when it seems pretty clear that Dispenza was boss).

Also always worth noting again that one of Catinella’s daughters married one of the infamous Melrose Park Montanas. Neither here nor there in terms of Catinella’s position, but just another example of how mainlander and Sicilian families were connected to each other.

[cavita]

Saw this online and seeing he's from Chicago I'm wondering if he's connected to the infamous DiCaro family there.

[PolackTony]

Saw this online and seeing he's from Chicago I'm wondering if he's connected to the infamous DiCaro family there.

Probably not related. Looks like this guy’s mother was Polish and his dad grew up in Little Sicily with a father from the Baida borgata in Palermo and a mother from Casteldaccia. The Southside DiCaros had ancestry from Caltanissetta and Tèrmini Imerese.

Any reason apart from the name that this guy was on your radar?

[cavita]

Saw this online and seeing he's from Chicago I'm wondering if he's connected to the infamous DiCaro family there.

Probably not related. Looks like this guy’s mother was Polish and his dad grew up in Little Sicily with a father from the Baida borgata in Palermo and a mother from Casteldaccia. The Southside DiCaros had ancestry from Caltanissetta and Tèrmini Imerese.

Any reason apart from the name that this guy was on your radar?

Nah, other than that is not a common name to the Rockford area and he was originally from Chicago.

[PolackTony]

1947 article in the Tribune, noting the important role that Giuseppe Catuara and his wife Filomena Scannali -- both of Sant'Angelo Muxaro, Agrigento -- played in the Societa Sant'Angelo Muxaro, based in the Bridgeport/Armour Square community. Giuseppe Catuara was a brother of Carmelo Catuara, father of Chicago member Vincenzo "Jimmy" Catuara. Leonardo Spoto was likely a relative of theirs, as Giuseppe and Carmelo's mother was Maria Angela Spoto of Sant'Angelo: