In 1968, a CI told the FBI that Mulea had suffered a heart attack and that he hadn't seen him "on the street" much since. In 1969, the FBI confirmed that Mulea's bills from a stay at the Edgewater Hospital had been sent for payment to Ross Prio's home address in Lincolnwood. For the last several years, Mulea had been unemployed and collecting a check from the VA, which had deemed him "totally disabled" due to heart disease and emphysema. A 1969 CI told the FBI that Mulea was "made" and on the "outfit's payroll", while a 1972 CI stated that although Mulea still frequently associated with men like DiVarco, he was no longer active in racket activities due to his poor health and was thus living on "government and hoodlum pensions". A CI later in 1972 referred to Mulea as a "button" (a term that we've now seen used by Chicago CIs several times). The FBI closed their file on Mulea in 1973 due to a lack of evidence of ongoing involvement in criminal activities.
Interestingly, when the FBI opened their file on Mulea in 1967, they were told by Milwaukee detectives that Mulea had been a close associate of Milwaukee LCN member John DiTrapani, who was murdered in 1954. Mulea had been arrested in 1953 in Milwaukee with DiTrapani for a large whiskey hijacking under the alias "Joseph Nevoso" (clearly taken from Mulea's brother-in-law, Antonio Nevoso of Borgetto, Palermo, who had married older sister Crocifessa "Josephine" Mulea). Former Milwaukee member Frank LoGalbo, who transferred to Chicago during the fallout from DiTrapani's murder, told Milwaukee member CI Augie Maniaci that DiTrapani had been clipped by Chicago after he had ratted out a Chicago-controlled gambling operation to LE (we also know from Maniaci that DiTrapani had allegedly attempted to unseat then-Milwaukee boss John Alioto, who had himself only been recently installed as boss by apparent decree of Chicago's ruling Consiglio). Milwaukee detectives had traveled to Chicago after the DiTrapani murder where they questioned Mulea (to no avail, of course) and also sought Americo DePietto and Ned Bakes for questioning. One wonders if Chicago had used Mulea to set up DiTrapani, possibly inducting Mulea as a reward.
Frank Mulea was born Francesco Mulè in 1910 in Chicago to Giuseppe Mulè, of Villalba, Caltanissetta (the hometown of Philly boss Angelo Bruno as well as Villalba boss Calogero Vizzini), and Caterina Colletti, of Chiusa Sclafani, Palermo. These two had married in 1897 in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. In 1910, when Frank was an infant, the family lived in New Buffalo, Berrien County, MI (an area with numerous connections over the years to the mafia in Chicago), where Giuseppe worked as a farm laborer. They subsequently returned to Chicago and in 1920 were living at Townsend (today Hudson St) near Elm in Little Sicily. On his WW2 draft card, Frank Mulea was recorded as living nearby at 1214 N Frontier (later demolished for the construction of the Cabrini-Green Homes housing projects) and working for the Clark Cigar Store at Division and Clark. In 1950, Frank Mulea was recorded as living in a building at Elm and State and claimed self-employment as the owner of a real estate brokerage; the Milwaukee detectives who interviewed Mulea in 1954 noted that he presumably had a source of income "unbeknownst" to them, as he was well-dressed and sporting a recent manicure. Frank Mulea died in 1978 in Chicago. While he was registered as having been on a honeymoon visit to Niagara Falls with a "Mrs. Frank Mulea" in 1960, his obituary listed no wife or children, and the FBI's background info on him reported none either.
Based on the info from his file, Frank Mulea was likely a Chicago member who largely flew under the public radar, given how little attention that he has received (for example, he has only ever been noted on this forum as an attendee of Ricca's funeral). By the time the FBI got wind of his alleged status as a member, he seems to have been largely hobbled by illness. While reputed to have no longer been active in criminal rackets at the time, the FBI's intel demonstrates that he was still very much socially active with members of the Northside crew and apparently partially supported financially by the "outfit" in his disability (in this, likely by his captain Ross Prio, rather than any sort of central "pension" from the overall Family's coffers). In spite of his apparent status as a mob figure, Frank Mulea's name did not make it into the Chicago papers, that otherwise reported extensively on the local criminal underworld, in relation to LCN or any criminal activities.
Unknown CI, 1967:
Unknown CI, 1969:
Unknown CI, 1972:
