Chicago aficionados will know the name of Richard Victor "Popeye" Arrigo (the nickname due to a glass eye that Vic Arrigo would reportedly pop out and tell guys that he was "keeping an eye" on his money; Arrigo had reportedly lost the eye in a shootout with police in Ft Lauderdale), a Chicago affiliate. In 1976, a CI reported to the FBI that Arrigo had claimed that he had been told by Northside crew member Joey "Caesar" DiVarco that he was being sponsored for membership in an upcoming ceremony to be officiated by Tony Accardo. It's not entirely clear whether Arrigo was actually made or not, however (and it's worth noting in this context that from my info, his mother was not Italian, though if he was made the bosses may not have been aware of this). Also worth noting that the CI in question, given the code CG 12076-PC, is unknown to me and doesn't seem to appear in any other report that I've seen; further, the agent handling this CI, Richard Cavanagh, was subsequently convicted of perjury in the early 1980s for lying to a Federal Grand Jury.
It would also seem that in the period in question, Vic Arrigo was living in FL, whether full or part-time I'm not sure. He may have relocated there in the 1960s when the Chicago press reported that Arrigo was wanted by police for his alleged role as the driver in a high-speed chase who had subsequently skipped town and was living out of state. In 1977, Arrigo was pinched for plotting to burn an Ybor City warehouse down in partnership with Tampa real estate broker Benton Chase. Arrigo flipped and agreed to testify, admitting to having participated in a "massive arson and mail fraud conspiracy" in the Tampa area from 1972 to 1976; the case wound up netting 19 defendants in total. Arrigo, who reportedly went by the alias "Vic Rossi", as well as "Victor Rizzo" and other aliases while in FL (he was convicted of possession of stolen paintings in Tampa in 1976, pled guilty to 8 charges and agreed to testify in return for a light prison sentence. The defendants that Arrigo flipped on in 1977 included City of Tampa housing inspector Rosario "Sam" Palermo, John Lazzara (brother of major gambling figure Primo Lazzara), and John "Scarface" Rivera, reputed bodyguard to gambling boss Charlie Wall. Interestingly, the Tampa press also reported that Arrigo had been a personal associate of Frank Diecidue (they reportedly had shared a prison cell in the past) until the two had a falling out and Diecidue had allegedly ordered Arrigo to leave Tampa.
Further articles in the Tampa press reported that Arrigo -- stated to have used at least a dozen aliases in FL -- also testified in a tax evasion case against Tampa lounge owner Rick Pauline in 1988, claiming that he had worked with Pauline in a stolen diamond fencing scheme. At this time it was further reported that Arrigo had begun informing to LE when he was pinched in '76 for the stolen paintings case. In this light, "CG 12076" was quite possibly Arrigo himself, as it is not uncommon for FBI reports to render informant accounts of themselves in the third person.
Clearly, Arrigo's cooperation in these cases paid off, given that at least by 1981 he was back living in Skokie, a northern suburb of Chicago that borders Evanston, where Arrigo was born. In September of that year, Arrigo was busted in his Skokie home by Federal agents for an interstate arson-for-hire conspiracy between Chicago and Atlanta. In 1992, a Tribune article noted Arrigo as having been suspected of being involved in narcotics trafficking via a car wash that he had owned in North Suburban Lake County; it was also noted at this time that Arrigo was said to have "disappeared" in 1991. He may have entered WITSEC around this time, though I'm not sure of the details there or who he might have testified against if true (the guy was basically a one-man crime spree for decades, so who knows). Arrigo was apparently pinched again on gun charges in the 90s and was interviewed by ABC-7's "I Team" mob reporter Chuck Goudie around that time, though I don't know the details. in 2007, Arrigo was pinched for stealing salumi and cheese from a deli in West suburban Berkeley (Arrigo told reporters, that at his age, you "do things to see if you can get away with them"). Vic "Popeye" Arrigo died in 2012 in Merlose Park, at age 74.
Given his many aliases and obviously wide scope of criminal activity, there is much about Arrigo that remains murky. It's hard to believe that the guy testified multiple times against people in FL and then wound up moving back to Chicagoland and not getting clipped. Possible that the Chicago bosses didn't know about what happened in FL (which seems unlikely given that Arrigo was all over the papers in the 70s in Tampa, but news didn't travel then like it does today, of course). Or they did know but gave him a pass for some unknown reason.
Also interesting to note that we now have three Chicago-Tampa connections where all were Sicilians and apparently involved in narcotics -- the Franzone brothers, the DiCaros, and Arrigo. Arrigo's father was Antonino "Anthony" Arrigo of Evanston, whose parents were from Termini Imerese, like the DiCaros. It should also be noted that Vic "Popeye" Arrigo was not the same Victor Arrigo who was a celebrated Chicago alderman and IL State Representative for whom the nostalgic old "Peanut Park" in the Taylor St Italian colony was renamed "Arrigo Park". That Victor Arrigo was born Vito Arrigo in 1908 in Termini Imerese and was actually a distant cousin of Popeye, though one has to go back to the beginning of the 19th century to trace the exact link (both Arrigos were also likely related at some level to the Arrigos of the Termitano-owned LaMantia Bros. & Arrigo produce wholesaling company of South Water St Market fame).
A picture of a young Popeye Arrigo being tried in "Santa Court". In the following years, Arrigo was indeed found to have been a very, very bad boy:
1976 FBI report citing CG 12076-PC as the source for Vic Arrigo having been proposed to be made. As Arrigo was said to have begun cooperating with LE when he was knocked for a stolen paintings case in FL in 1976, I think the CI was actually Arrigo himself (also note that "Vic Rossi", Arrigo's preferred Tampa alias, was added as a note):
