General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

[Tonyd621]

https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/40 ... -unsolved/

[NorthBuffalo]

The DeCavalcantes were also involved w/ Buffalo through union business and Riggi met with Buffalo members when he was business agent. We know there were strong historic ties between Chicago and the DeCavs, curious if that ever involved union business.

There was an alleged meeting in Florida in 1989 or so that was supposed to have involved the Gambinos, DeCavs, and Chicago, with Carlisi there for Chicago -- ostensibly to discuss union business. FBI never nailed down where the meeting was to take place so it isn't certain if it did. Still, they had enough evidence to stake the meeting place out.

I think that was the Lucchese not Gambino - it was for the funeral of Joey Narrows Lorato - held in the same area where Todaro and those guys had homes.

[Snakes]

The DeCavalcantes were also involved w/ Buffalo through union business and Riggi met with Buffalo members when he was business agent. We know there were strong historic ties between Chicago and the DeCavs, curious if that ever involved union business.

There was an alleged meeting in Florida in 1989 or so that was supposed to have involved the Gambinos, DeCavs, and Chicago, with Carlisi there for Chicago -- ostensibly to discuss union business. FBI never nailed down where the meeting was to take place so it isn't certain if it did. Still, they had enough evidence to stake the meeting place out.

I think that was the Lucchese not Gambino - it was for the funeral of Joey Narrows Lorato - held in the same area where Todaro and those guys had homes.

No, this specific instance definitely involved the Gambinos because I remember Gotti being mentioned. I'll have to dig the file up and I can post more.

[Coloboy]

Questions for anyone with knowledge about the last year‘s of the northside crew…

Solano died in 92. Is this commonly accepted as the time that whatever was left of the crew was folded under grand Avenue?

Also, I’ve read that Vena at one point might’ve been a northside guy? Anything to back this up? With his background as a C Note, I figured grand Avenue was more likely.

Lastly, what was Joey Andriacchi‘s connection to the northside group? Vena supposedly came up being close to Joey A, but wasn’t Andriacchi always an Elmwood Park guy aligned with Difronzo?

There was a CI who IIRC stated that Matassa was capo of the Northside after Solano’s death, so my guess is that it remained a distinct crew for at least some time after.

I don’t know that it’s known for a fact who Vena reported to when he was an associate in the 80s. He is from the Grand Ave Patch and was a C-Note. It’s been said that he came up under Lombardo (which is fully plausible as the C-Notes saw Joey as their “Godfather”), but after Lombardo got locked up Vena seems to have started running with guys associated with the Northside. Mario Rainone (who is himself from Cicero, not the Northside), Pierre Zonis, Jimmy LaValley. They were doing collections and such and Rainone and Nick Gio, at least, were working for Lenny Patrick, who at that time was an associate of the Northside crew. I don’t know that Vena was actually working for Patrick himself, or if he was just called in to assist on some jobs. LaValley claimed that Vena assisted Rainone in the 1986 murder of Giuseppe Cocozza, which seems to have been related to Zonis and his close ties to a shadowy group of Far Northside business owners from Salerno (Francesco Militello, Vincenzo D’Agostino). I don’t know if these guys were Camorristi, or what their exact relationship was to local LCN, though I suspect that there was some link. They were operating in the same area (Rogers Park) where Patrick was based at that time (on Devon and Bell), so they may have all been working together, but again I don’t really know what the actual connections were there.

Scott I believe has stated before that Andriacchi was affiliated in the past with the Northside crew. I can’t comment on this as I don’t know what his source was and don’t recall ATM if there are other sources for this. Andriacchi is from Grand Ave and is the first cousin of Lombardo’s (recently deceased) wife, Marion Nigro. Andriacchi (his family is from Simbario, Vibo Valentia, the same hometown as the Rotis, Spinas, Bertuccis, Nardis, etc, of Bridgeport). Joey A and Marion grew up in the same building on Ohio St that Lombardo later spent most of his adult life in. This is the same block (Ohio and Leavitt) that is considered the “Motherland” of the C-Notes and thus it can be presumed that Vena and Andriacchi very likely have some ties from the old neighborhood. Now, again, how that translates into formal mafia connections, I’m not sure.

Andriacchi, so far as I know, was always affiliated with Elmwood Park, which is why the Northside thing never made sense to me (though we know that guys can change crew assignments of course over time). Recall that this crew was originally based on Grand Ave (Accardo, Capezio, Cerone) and then later moved its base of operations to Humboldt Park (Chicago and Homan/Pulaski) and thence to Elmwood Park. DiFronzo was also from Grand Ave (where many immigrants from Triggiano, Bari, like DiFronzo, settled); the DiFronzos lived at Erie and Wolcott before later moving to the suburbs. What came to be called the Grand Ave crew was, of course, originally the Battaglia crew, based out of the West burbs (though Battaglia was originally from Taylor St), but shifted its main base of operations to Grand Ave after Lombardo took it over. Prior to that, Grand Ave would’ve been seen as Elmwood Park crew territory (though it’s unclear to me if Johnny DiBiase, the original “Johnny Bananas” and apparently one of the main outfit guys around Grand Ave when Lombardo was coming up, was an EP or Battaglia crew member).

Always helpful to keep in mind that neighborhood networks and crew/mafia structures aren’t always isomorphic. We tend to over emphasize the territorial nature of Chicago. Nick Calabrese made it clear in his testimony that the crew structures are less strictly geographic than I think we tend to assume. The Calabrese bros are a great example themselves. They grew up in Grand Ave (also on Erie, two blocks west of the DiFronzos at Hoyne), moved to Elmwood Park, had some early connection in the North Suburbs, then became formal associates of the Cicero crew and then moved to the Chinatown crew when LaPietra (who had been a soldier in the Buccieri/Torello crew) was appointed capo of that crew. You’d think that they’d be Grand Ave or EP guys (and obviously they had relationships with EP guys), and if we never knew for a fact what crew they belonged to we might be arguing over whether they were with EP or Chinatown.

Thanks, Tony. I knew you would have some insight here.

Interesting about Matassa supposedly taking over northside after Solano, especially considering the speculation that he may be on the sidelines today. But again, who knows....for all we know he might the boss of the outfit in 2023 lol.

I also think it makes sense that Andriacchi may have overseen the northside at some point. I could see a situation where he was a sort of territorial boss over that area and the EP crew as a sort of "Northside Boss".

We've discussed much of this in the past, but the 90's is such an interesting time for the Outfit and the one I have the most curiosity about. It really marks the changing of the old guard to whatever the "new outfit" is. Accardo dies, Cerone and Aiuppa die, Carlisi goes to prison and dies, and most likely guys like Difronzo, Andriacchi, and Lombardo take the reigns. Maybe throw Tornabene's name in there as well. Crews shift, rackets change to more white collar. Interesting stuff. I will be curious till the end of time what the power dynamic particularly between No Nose and Lombardo was when they both got out. My hunch is they shared power in some sense like Ricca/Accardo.

[NorthBuffalo]

Here is a guy I keep seeing in old discussions on Chicago and who I've met personally - Joe Belli - as I haven't seen a photo shared of him yet, there are several in the link below. Belli was running Local 700 in Chicago and had quite a bit of influence nationally. His replacement is Vince Tenuto who is the godson of John Serpico ironically and I expect most of you Chicago guys know that name. Belli's son is also a union official. Chicago seems to really flout these connections - in Buffalo or Syracuse or even NYC you just don't see the sons of serious mob guys holding union positions - you still see it in Chicago.

https://teamsters700.files.wordpress.co ... r-2017.pdf

Separately, does anyone know if some of these older Chicago posters were relatives of Serpico? I would have to assume so.

[Snakes]

Questions for anyone with knowledge about the last year‘s of the northside crew…

Solano died in 92. Is this commonly accepted as the time that whatever was left of the crew was folded under grand Avenue?

Also, I’ve read that Vena at one point might’ve been a northside guy? Anything to back this up? With his background as a C Note, I figured grand Avenue was more likely.

Lastly, what was Joey Andriacchi‘s connection to the northside group? Vena supposedly came up being close to Joey A, but wasn’t Andriacchi always an Elmwood Park guy aligned with Difronzo?

There was a CI who IIRC stated that Matassa was capo of the Northside after Solano’s death, so my guess is that it remained a distinct crew for at least some time after.

I don’t know that it’s known for a fact who Vena reported to when he was an associate in the 80s. He is from the Grand Ave Patch and was a C-Note. It’s been said that he came up under Lombardo (which is fully plausible as the C-Notes saw Joey as their “Godfather”), but after Lombardo got locked up Vena seems to have started running with guys associated with the Northside. Mario Rainone (who is himself from Cicero, not the Northside), Pierre Zonis, Jimmy LaValley. They were doing collections and such and Rainone and Nick Gio, at least, were working for Lenny Patrick, who at that time was an associate of the Northside crew. I don’t know that Vena was actually working for Patrick himself, or if he was just called in to assist on some jobs. LaValley claimed that Vena assisted Rainone in the 1986 murder of Giuseppe Cocozza, which seems to have been related to Zonis and his close ties to a shadowy group of Far Northside business owners from Salerno (Francesco Militello, Vincenzo D’Agostino). I don’t know if these guys were Camorristi, or what their exact relationship was to local LCN, though I suspect that there was some link. They were operating in the same area (Rogers Park) where Patrick was based at that time (on Devon and Bell), so they may have all been working together, but again I don’t really know what the actual connections were there.

Scott I believe has stated before that Andriacchi was affiliated in the past with the Northside crew. I can’t comment on this as I don’t know what his source was and don’t recall ATM if there are other sources for this. Andriacchi is from Grand Ave and is the first cousin of Lombardo’s (recently deceased) wife, Marion Nigro. Andriacchi (his family is from Simbario, Vibo Valentia, the same hometown as the Rotis, Spinas, Bertuccis, Nardis, etc, of Bridgeport). Joey A and Marion grew up in the same building on Ohio St that Lombardo later spent most of his adult life in. This is the same block (Ohio and Leavitt) that is considered the “Motherland” of the C-Notes and thus it can be presumed that Vena and Andriacchi very likely have some ties from the old neighborhood. Now, again, how that translates into formal mafia connections, I’m not sure.

Andriacchi, so far as I know, was always affiliated with Elmwood Park, which is why the Northside thing never made sense to me (though we know that guys can change crew assignments of course over time). Recall that this crew was originally based on Grand Ave (Accardo, Capezio, Cerone) and then later moved its base of operations to Humboldt Park (Chicago and Homan/Pulaski) and thence to Elmwood Park. DiFronzo was also from Grand Ave (where many immigrants from Triggiano, Bari, like DiFronzo, settled); the DiFronzos lived at Erie and Wolcott before later moving to the suburbs. What came to be called the Grand Ave crew was, of course, originally the Battaglia crew, based out of the West burbs (though Battaglia was originally from Taylor St), but shifted its main base of operations to Grand Ave after Lombardo took it over. Prior to that, Grand Ave would’ve been seen as Elmwood Park crew territory (though it’s unclear to me if Johnny DiBiase, the original “Johnny Bananas” and apparently one of the main outfit guys around Grand Ave when Lombardo was coming up, was an EP or Battaglia crew member).

Always helpful to keep in mind that neighborhood networks and crew/mafia structures aren’t always isomorphic. We tend to over emphasize the territorial nature of Chicago. Nick Calabrese made it clear in his testimony that the crew structures are less strictly geographic than I think we tend to assume. The Calabrese bros are a great example themselves. They grew up in Grand Ave (also on Erie, two blocks west of the DiFronzos at Hoyne), moved to Elmwood Park, had some early connection in the North Suburbs, then became formal associates of the Cicero crew and then moved to the Chinatown crew when LaPietra (who had been a soldier in the Buccieri/Torello crew) was appointed capo of that crew. You’d think that they’d be Grand Ave or EP guys (and obviously they had relationships with EP guys), and if we never knew for a fact what crew they belonged to we might be arguing over whether they were with EP or Chinatown.

Thanks, Tony. I knew you would have some insight here.

Interesting about Matassa supposedly taking over northside after Solano, especially considering the speculation that he may be on the sidelines today. But again, who knows....for all we know he might the boss of the outfit in 2023 lol.

I also think it makes sense that Andriacchi may have overseen the northside at some point. I could see a situation where he was a sort of territorial boss over that area and the EP crew as a sort of "Northside Boss".

We've discussed much of this in the past, but the 90's is such an interesting time for the Outfit and the one I have the most curiosity about. It really marks the changing of the old guard to whatever the "new outfit" is. Accardo dies, Cerone and Aiuppa die, Carlisi goes to prison and dies, and most likely guys like Difronzo, Andriacchi, and Lombardo take the reigns. Maybe throw Tornabene's name in there as well. Crews shift, rackets change to more white collar. Interesting stuff. I will be curious till the end of time what the power dynamic particularly between No Nose and Lombardo was when they both got out. My hunch is they shared power in some sense like Ricca/Accardo.

I've been working on a line of succession for the 90s for quite some time. This is what I have:

Boss
Pre-1990 to 1992: Samuel Carlisi (Carlisi moves to Florida ~1989, DiFronzo is street boss)
Street Boss: John DiFronzo, Pre-1990 to 1992
1992 to 1997: John DiFronzo (steps down in 1997)
Acting Boss: Joseph Andriacchi, 1994 to 1995 (DiFronzo imprisoned)
1997 to Post-1999: John Monteleone

Cicero
1990 to 1992: Rocco Infelise (indicted 1990; imprisoned 1992)
1992 to 1997: John Monteleone (acting 1990 to 1992; becomes boss, 1997)
1997 to Post-1999: Michael Spano

Melrose Park
Pre-1990 to 1993: James Marcello (indicted 1992; imprisoned 1993)
1993 to Post-1999: Alfonso Tornabene (acting 1990 to 1992)

Elmwood Park
Pre-1990 to Post-1999: Joseph Andriacchi

Grand Avenue
Pre-1990 to Post-1999: Anthony Centracchio (unconfirmed pending more info; possibly Jimmy Cozzo; Lombardo possibly official head of crew with Centracchio or Cozzo acting)

Chinatown
-Angelo LaPietra possibly official head of crew with names listed as acting until Angelo's death in 1999
Pre-1990 to 1993: James LaPietra (died, 1993)
1993 to 1997: John Monteleone (dually ran Cicero and Chinatown)
1997 to Post-1999: Frank "Toots" Caruso (unknown exactly when Caruso became head of crew)

Chicago Heights
Pre-1990 to 1991: Dominick Palermo (imprisoned 1991)
-Crew is absorbed by Southside/Chinatown

North Side
Pre-1990 to 1992: Vincent Solano (dies, 1992)
1992 to ?: John Matassa (crew later disbanded or absorbed by other crews)

[Snakes]

Sarno had 15 months shaved off his sentence (now July 2031 release date). I'm not an expert, but they probably made an adjustment based on sentencing recommendations or he has had some "good behavior" time applied.

[PolackTony]

The succession chart I think reflects the best info at hand. Good work, I agree with everything. I also think it’s plausible that Lombardo and LaPietra retained the formal capo spots with the other guys acting for them, but then alternatively they didn’t but had some sort of admin role. Possibly an echo of the older Consiglio, which I also think can possibly explain what DiFronzo’s role was post ‘97. My guess is that DiFronzo was akin to the “Chairman”, though I have no idea if that was still a formal thing or not by then. If so, I’d guess that Aiuppa may have at least formally been “Chairman” after Carlisi took over. Aiuppa died in ‘97, of course, so one wonder is that had something to do with DiFronzo apparently stepping back. Just speculation, as we don’t know that the Consiglio persisted into those years (though I’m open to the possibility that even if it didn’t as a formal body, it may have still left an influence on the roles that these senior semi-retired members played).

I spoke with you about it before, but the Lucchese associate that I know told me that he knew the “boss” of the Taylor St/Cicero crew circa 1999-2000 as “Big Mike”, so that is further confirmation that Spano was indeed capo.

[Patrickgold]

Here is a guy I keep seeing in old discussions on Chicago and who I've met personally - Joe Belli - as I haven't seen a photo shared of him yet, there are several in the link below. Belli was running Local 700 in Chicago and had quite a bit of influence nationally. His replacement is Vince Tenuto who is the godson of John Serpico ironically and I expect most of you Chicago guys know that name. Belli's son is also a union official. Chicago seems to really flout these connections - in Buffalo or Syracuse or even NYC you just don't see the sons of serious mob guys holding union positions - you still see it in Chicago.

https://teamsters700.files.wordpress.co ... r-2017.pdf

Separately, does anyone know if some of these older Chicago posters were relatives of Serpico? I would have to assume so.

There was a picture of Belli in the operation red October chart the FBI put together in the mid 1990s. I posted it to this so you can see the picture. Considering he was on this chart, that definitely proves he was the top union guy for the outfit.

[NorthBuffalo]

Was there any indication Belli was a made guy in the Outfit? Thanks for that photo - he looks a lot tougher there, but he was a very unassuming nice guy and was a fixture at conventions.

[PolackTony]

Was just rereading some of the old ANP posts, for info and laughs (I had forgotten little things like Fosco saying that Fratto’s favorite restaurant is the cafeteria in the Federal Building, lol).

Fosco stated clearly that Belli was not “an outfit guy”, but just liked to pal around with them and kissed up to Johnny DiFronzo. Fosco is of course very specific about member status, so the fact that he worded it as “outfit guy” would indicate that not only was Belli not made, but he wasn’t even a formal associate. I have no personal opinion on Joe Belli’s status, but unless Fosco was protecting Belli or just out of the loop, it really doesn’t make him look like more than a union guy with mob connections.

On another note, Fosco believed that LE exaggerated Tony Centracchio’s status at the time that they pinched him. Fosco stated that Centracchio was really only in charge of extorting street tax from Stone Park-area porn shops, etc, and that the G rolled that up into him being boss over the entire area, eg Eboli’s old poker machine territory. Fosco didn’t outright say it, but I think he’d dispute Centracchio having been capo, whether formal or acting.

In one of the many back and forths with our old buddy Black Angelo regarding D’Amico’s membership status, Fosco stated “Marco is truly not a ‘made’ guy, despite his past dealings in Outfit rackets and current dealings with Tony Dote”. At least insinuates that whether or not he was made, Dote was somebody at that time (2010).

[funkster]

Jesus, those endless "Marco" (always cracked me up that they referred to him by his first name) is he made or is he not made gives me PTSD. Reminds me of the every two month "what is the status of the outfit" hijinks in these threads.

[Coloboy]

And then you had “The Don” drooling over Giancana in every other post….HE WAS A MAN’s MAN”

But between all of that bullshit those forums were a treasure trove of outfit information from somebody that was pretty darn close to it. I recall he outed Albie Vena as the boss of grand Avenue around 2010 or 2011 at a time when I had never heard the guys name.

[funkster]

And then you had “The Don” drooling over Giancana in every other post….HE WAS A MAN’s MAN”

But between all of that bullshit those forums were a treasure trove of outfit information from somebody that was pretty darn close to it. I recall he outed Albie Vena as the boss of grand Avenue around 2010 or 2011 at a time when I had never heard the guys name.

The Beatles of the Outfit...

No doubt, absolute treasure trove of info...a shame JF went off the deep end a bit.

[PolackTony]

“Black Angelo. Thank you for your comments. Marco is not ‘made’ and this is the last time that I will address the matter. I am unsure as to why this topic seems to have left you mentally deranged. Please direct all future comments towards a more pertinent topic as I will not respond to any further questions regarding Marco being ‘made’.”

This kind of shit used to crack me up. Those guys on ANP perfected the art of telling each other to GFY while maintaining a veneer of classy politeness lol. You can tell it was a game to break each other’s balls without losing composure.