General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

[chicagodog]

Is there a key to requesting FBI files and getting it approved? I never done it. How much do they typically cost?

Do we have confirmation that Leo Rugendorf and his brother Sam were both CIs? Hard to believe such a ruthless person like Leo Rugendorf was a CI.

This thread has a lot of info on requesting files. Goes without saying, but both Snakes and Antiliar have a ton of experience there:
https://theblackhand.club/forum/viewtop ... =44&t=1242

Just given all of the guys that we know informed in various capacities over the years, I have no problem believing that any guy could be a CI, no matter how vicious or apparently loyal (look at guys like Scarpa and Bompensiero, for example). Former Chicago SAC Vincent Inserra stated in his book “C-1 and the Chicago Mob” that Leo Rugendorf approached the FBI and gave them intel on a number of mob-connected murders. Not shocking, given that Rugendorf was the one who fingered Hohimer to LE for the Valerie Percy murder (which, as you know, Hohimer was never charged with as he in turn told investigators that she was killed by two other burglars that he had worked with, who were convicted on it). I don’t know if he talked to the FBI apart from the specific murders he apparently informed about l, but for all we know he could’ve been any one of the number of non-member CIs that the FBI had in Chicago in the 1960s. Offhand, I don’t know if Sam Rugendorf was actually informing.

Apart from being an apparently nasty individual himself, some really vicious guys seem to have gotten their start working as burglars under Rugendorf, such as Schweihs and Tony Panzica.

Tony, you’re from West Town or the Patch. Can you give me a quick rundown of the Cozzo family? Phil was Jimmy Boy’s son and Sam is also Jimmy’s boy son and for some reason he’s still on the CPD payroll in his 70’s. Did Jimmy Boy have another son named Jimmy Jr? I know one Jimmy Boy’s daughters married a Nitti. I think Phil’s son is involved in the family business as well, at least he acts like he is.

[B.]

In 1973, the Chicago FO noted that the NYC FO had issued a report citing two of its sources as designating Charles "Specs" DiCaro as a member of the Chicago Family, though his surname was misspelled in the report. The Chicago FO had been carrying DiCaro as a non-member dating back to a 1966 report from their office. After the NYC report, the FBI carried DiCaro as an LCN member, though they had stopped collecting intel on him in 1973 after receiving information from Chicago CIs that DiCaro was no longer criminally active on the streets but instead working full-time at McCormick Place with the Teamsters (DiCaro was fired in '73 after the Tribune published a story detailing the mob-connected guys employed by the Teamsters at McCormick Place, including DePietto and Rocky Infelise, who, like DiCaro, had a history of narcotics dealing). We know that the DiCaro brothers had narcotics links to NYC going back to the 1950s and '60s (most likely with the Lucchese Family, as Frank Borelli was closely connected to Chicago in the 1950s), so it isn't shocking that the NYC FO had sources that could have been in the position to identify Specs DiCaro as a member. Worth noting also that DiCaro attended Ricca's funeral in 1972.

From the Chicago FO, 1973:


From the summation of FBI intel on DiCaro in 1980, at the end of his file:

What is his background? There was an early Lucchese member named "John DiCaro" mentioned in Joe Bonanno's book who may have actually been a DiCarlo from the Corleone mafia's DiCarlo clan. John DiCarlo had a brother Calogero who is in the FBN book.

[PolackTony]

In 1973, the Chicago FO noted that the NYC FO had issued a report citing two of its sources as designating Charles "Specs" DiCaro as a member of the Chicago Family, though his surname was misspelled in the report. The Chicago FO had been carrying DiCaro as a non-member dating back to a 1966 report from their office. After the NYC report, the FBI carried DiCaro as an LCN member, though they had stopped collecting intel on him in 1973 after receiving information from Chicago CIs that DiCaro was no longer criminally active on the streets but instead working full-time at McCormick Place with the Teamsters (DiCaro was fired in '73 after the Tribune published a story detailing the mob-connected guys employed by the Teamsters at McCormick Place, including DePietto and Rocky Infelise, who, like DiCaro, had a history of narcotics dealing). We know that the DiCaro brothers had narcotics links to NYC going back to the 1950s and '60s (most likely with the Lucchese Family, as Frank Borelli was closely connected to Chicago in the 1950s), so it isn't shocking that the NYC FO had sources that could have been in the position to identify Specs DiCaro as a member. Worth noting also that DiCaro attended Ricca's funeral in 1972.

From the Chicago FO, 1973:


From the summation of FBI intel on DiCaro in 1980, at the end of his file:

What is his background? There was an early Lucchese member named "John DiCaro" mentioned in Joe Bonanno's book who may have actually been a DiCarlo from the Corleone mafia's DiCarlo clan. John DiCarlo had a brother Calogero who is in the FBN book.

Mother from Tèrmini, father apparently from Caltanissetta.

[PolackTony]

1976 FBI report summarizing intel on Giancana’s murder from their top three sources on him: Dick Cain (CG 7177), Butch Blasi (CG 6481), and Ralph Pierce (CG 7016). If Giancana was indeed whacked for holding out on a lucrative operation that he considered to be his own personal business, I’d think that his connections to the Casino du Liban in Beirut, which Giancana was alleged to have had investments in since the ‘50s (additionally, Giancana was documented as having travelled to and stayed in Beirut during his extended 8-year sojourn outside of the US), and was also connected to Corsican OC big shot and alleged French Connection kingpin Marcel Francisi, would be a prime contender.

[funkster]

Sounds like Butch doing some diversionary ratting lol

[NorthBuffalo]

Here is a clip I came across of Santino Lettiere - brother of Mariano 'Mario' Lattiere who ran Mario's Butcher Shop on Chicago's west side. Two of the brothers were laborers including Santino who was convicted of threatening one of the witnesses against his brother's operations in the 90s - he must have been an old man then but these vets are tough guys:
https://crestwood.on.ca/ohp/lettieri-santino/

Mario Lettiere was connected to Victor Plescia.

[PolackTony]

, the DEA also brought down the narcotics wholesaling operation,

Here is a clip I came across of Santino Lettiere - brother of Mariano 'Mario' Lattiere who ran Mario's Butcher Shop on Chicago's west side. Two of the brothers were laborers including Santino who was convicted of threatening one of the witnesses against his brother's operations in the 90s - he must have been an old man then but these vets are tough guys:
https://crestwood.on.ca/ohp/lettieri-santino/

Mario Lettiere was connected to Victor Plescia.

Nice interviews. Tino Lettieri died in 2017 and was living in Mokena at the time.

Mariano Lettieri has come up before here, but it worth revisiting. As Tino noted above, the Lettieris were from Celico, Cosenza, Calabria (also the hometown of Joseph "Crackers" Mendino's parents), and immigrated to Chicago in the 1950s. Mariano opened Mario's Butcher Shop in 1976, on Madison St near Menard in the West Side Austin neighborhood. This was an interesting move, as by then the Italians had left that neighborhood some years before and the area had declined into a slum. I suspect that Mario's was used from the get-go for criminal activities such as narcotics trafficking and fencing stolen goods.

In 1977, Mariano was convicted on charges of receiving stolen merchandise. According to a Chicago Reader article that I'm linking below, DEA agents Jack Riley (later head of the Chicago DEA office) and William Maloney were assigned to investigate a large open-air drug market operating in the Austin neighborhood at the Washington Pines, a 7-story SRO/Hotel located at 5001 W Washington Blvd, near Mario's Butcher Shop. The Washington Pines was managed by Nedrick Miller, a 33-year CPD veteran in the Austin District who was reputed to have been "the outfit's muscle" in the community. Raids by CPD were unsuccessful, and the DEA suspected that the operation was using outfit ties to tip the dealers off ahead of time (Miller was said to have instituted a "sophisticated countersurveillance operation" at the Pines, which was run like a real-life version of "The Carter" in New Jack City). After developing a local CI and tapping the phones at the Pines, the DEA was able to uncover that Miller was receiving kilogram quantities of cocaine from Mariano Lettieri at the butcher shop. Additionally, Miller's operation included high-ranking members of the Vice Lords, including Unknown Vice Lords boss Willie Lloyd (well-known for surviving multiple hit attempts over the years due to factional infighting in the VLs). After making buys with an undercover agent and surveilling Mario's Butcher Shop for 6 months, the Feds indicted Miller, as well as Mariano Lettieri, designated as Miller's primary supplier of both heroin and cocaine, and a number of associates (among whom was also a deputy in the Cook County Sheriff's Department, and attorney Roscoe Foreman, who was represented by future Joey Lombardo lawyer Rick Halprin). In 1990, Lettieri, described in the papers at the time as a "crime syndicate operative" was convicted and sentenced to 16 years.

Key for the prosecution was the testimony of Michael "Ice Mike" Gomire, a high-ranking Vice Lord who pled guilty to narcotics distribution charges and testified that he was tasked with making narcotics pick-ups from Lettieri. In 1991, it was revealed that brother Santino Lettieri (from the above interview video) had been threatening Gomire and his family in an attempt to force the witness to recant his testimony. And, indeed, Gomire signed an affidavit to the Feds recanting his claims about Mariano Lettieri. Lettieri's attempt to gain a new trial was rejected, however, by a Federal judge later that year, as Gomire - who had in prior years as a gang member survived numerous attempts on his life, including being hit by two shotgun blasts and shot 6 times by an Uzi -- subsequently stated that he only signed the affidavit after being beaten and forced by gang members in Cook County jail. A Federal judge affirmed Lettieri's conviction upon appeal in 1993. So far as I can tell, Mariano Lettieri is now living in Schaumburg.

The DEA linked Lettieri to Tony Zizzo and claimed that Lettieri's operation was supplied by a CPD officer who transported cocaine from Colombian importers in Florida. Stemming from their investigation of Lettieri, in 1990 the DEA also brought down the large SW Side/West Suburban narcotics wholesaling operation under Victor Plescia. As a reminder, Plescia and co-conspirator Frank Bonavolante were surveilled by agents meeting with Zizzo and Al Tornabene in the Clubhouse Lounge, at 35th and Laramie (Bonavolante was the brother of Carlisi crew associate Joey Bonavolante), while other co-conspirators told an undercover DEA agent that their operation answered to Zizzo and Tornabene. Disgraced CPD officer Nick Rizzato was responsible for ferrying coke from Florida.

Former DEA agent Jack Riley, on working and testifying for the Lettieri/Miller case:

“It just showed you how nasty the underbelly was [...] I think I aged about ten years in that case."

Quote taken from this Chicago Reader article on Jack Riley:
https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics ... g-warrior/

Mariano "Mario" Lettieri at arraignment in 1989:


Nedrick Miller:


Vice Lord Michael "Ice Mike" Gomire:


Unknown Vice Lords boss Willie Lloyd, aka "the King of Kings":


Nedrick Miller HQ and drug market the Washington Pine, today (located at Washington Blvd and Pine Ave in the Austin neighborhood on the far Westside):

[chicagodog]

, the DEA also brought down the narcotics wholesaling operation,

Here is a clip I came across of Santino Lettiere - brother of Mariano 'Mario' Lattiere who ran Mario's Butcher Shop on Chicago's west side. Two of the brothers were laborers including Santino who was convicted of threatening one of the witnesses against his brother's operations in the 90s - he must have been an old man then but these vets are tough guys:
https://crestwood.on.ca/ohp/lettieri-santino/

Mario Lettiere was connected to Victor Plescia.

Nice interviews. Tino Lettieri died in 2017 and was living in Mokena at the time.

Mariano Lettieri has come up before here, but it worth revisiting. As Tino noted above, the Lettieris were from Celico, Cosenza, Calabria (also the hometown of Joseph "Crackers" Mendino's parents), and immigrated to Chicago in the 1950s. Mariano opened Mario's Butcher Shop in 1976, on Madison St near Menard in the West Side Austin neighborhood. This was an interesting move, as by then the Italians had left that neighborhood some years before and the area had declined into a slum. I suspect that Mario's was used from the get-go for criminal activities such as narcotics trafficking and fencing stolen goods.

In 1977, Mariano was convicted on charges of receiving stolen merchandise. According to a Chicago Reader article that I'm linking below, DEA agents Jack Riley (later head of the Chicago DEA office) and William Maloney were assigned to investigate a large open-air drug market operating in the Austin neighborhood at the Washington Pines, a 7-story SRO/Hotel located at 5001 W Washington Blvd, near Mario's Butcher Shop. The Washington Pines was managed by Nedrick Miller, a 33-year CPD veteran in the Austin District who was reputed to have been "the outfit's muscle" in the community. Raids by CPD were unsuccessful, and the DEA suspected that the operation was using outfit ties to tip the dealers off ahead of time (Miller was said to have instituted a "sophisticated countersurveillance operation" at the Pines, which was run like a real-life version of "The Carter" in New Jack City). After developing a local CI and tapping the phones at the Pines, the DEA was able to uncover that Miller was receiving kilogram quantities of cocaine from Mariano Lettieri at the butcher shop. Additionally, Miller's operation included high-ranking members of the Vice Lords, including Unknown Vice Lords boss Willie Lloyd (well-known for surviving multiple hit attempts over the years due to factional infighting in the VLs). After making buys with an undercover agent and surveilling Mario's Butcher Shop for 6 months, the Feds indicted Miller, as well as Mariano Lettieri, designated as Miller's primary supplier of both heroin and cocaine, and a number of associates (among whom was also a deputy in the Cook County Sheriff's Department, and attorney Roscoe Foreman, who was represented by future Joey Lombardo lawyer Rick Halprin). In 1990, Lettieri, described in the papers at the time as a "crime syndicate operative" was convicted and sentenced to 16 years.

Key for the prosecution was the testimony of Michael "Ice Mike" Gomire, a high-ranking Vice Lord who pled guilty to narcotics distribution charges and testified that he was tasked with making narcotics pick-ups from Lettieri. In 1991, it was revealed that brother Santino Lettieri (from the above interview video) had been threatening Gomire and his family in an attempt to force the witness to recant his testimony. And, indeed, Gomire signed an affidavit to the Feds recanting his claims about Mariano Lettieri. Lettieri's attempt to gain a new trial was rejected, however, by a Federal judge later that year, as Gomire - who had in prior years as a gang member survived numerous attempts on his life, including being hit by two shotgun blasts and shot 6 times by an Uzi -- subsequently stated that he only signed the affidavit after being beaten and forced by gang members in Cook County jail. A Federal judge affirmed Lettieri's conviction upon appeal in 1993. So far as I can tell, Mariano Lettieri is now living in Schaumburg.

The DEA linked Lettieri to Tony Zizzo and claimed that Lettieri's operation was supplied by a CPD officer who transported cocaine from Colombian importers in Florida. Stemming from their investigation of Lettieri, in 1990 the DEA also brought down the large SW Side/West Suburban narcotics wholesaling operation under Victor Plescia. As a reminder, Plescia and co-conspirator Frank Bonavolante were surveilled by agents meeting with Zizzo and Al Tornabene in the Clubhouse Lounge, at 35th and Laramie (Bonavolante was the brother of Carlisi crew associate Joey Bonavolante), while other co-conspirators told an undercover DEA agent that their operation answered to Zizzo and Tornabene. Disgraced CPD officer Nick Rizzato was responsible for ferrying coke from Florida.

Former DEA agent Jack Riley, on working and testifying for the Lettieri/Miller case:

“It just showed you how nasty the underbelly was [...] I think I aged about ten years in that case."

Quote taken from this Chicago Reader article on Jack Riley:
https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics ... g-warrior/

Mariano "Mario" Lettieri at arraignment in 1989:


Nedrick Miller:


Vice Lord Michael "Ice Mike" Gomire:


Unknown Vice Lords boss Willie Lloyd, aka "the King of Kings":


Nedrick Miller HQ and drug market the Washington Pine, today (located at Washington Blvd and Pine Ave in the Austin neighborhood on the far Westside):

Excellent write up, as always Tony. As a 1st generation Calabrian whose family came over later in the century (early 60’s) I had always heard of the 'Ndrangheta operating in Chicago as an offshoot of the a ’ndrina from Cosenza, but could never verify. I know a lot of Calabrian’s that moved to Chicago and Wisconsin (for some reason).

[Tonyd621]

1976 FBI report summarizing intel on Giancana’s murder from their top three sources on him: Dick Cain (CG 7177), Butch Blasi (CG 6481), and Ralph Pierce (CG 7016). If Giancana was indeed whacked for holding out on a lucrative operation that he considered to be his own personal business, I’d think that his connections to the Casino du Liban in Beirut, which Giancana was alleged to have had investments in since the ‘50s (additionally, Giancana was documented as having travelled to and stayed in Beirut during his extended 8-year sojourn outside of the US), and was also connected to Corsican OC big shot and alleged French Connection kingpin Marcel Francisi, would be a prime contender.

Francisi was in world War II and he did alot of ballsy stuff. His records I think got destroyed in a fire. But me being in the military I'm a bit of a military history buff. Sorry to go off track. I wonder what Beruit was like back then in the 50s.

[Tonyd621]

Was in the military*

[PolackTony]

, the DEA also brought down the narcotics wholesaling operation,

Here is a clip I came across of Santino Lettiere - brother of Mariano 'Mario' Lattiere who ran Mario's Butcher Shop on Chicago's west side. Two of the brothers were laborers including Santino who was convicted of threatening one of the witnesses against his brother's operations in the 90s - he must have been an old man then but these vets are tough guys:
https://crestwood.on.ca/ohp/lettieri-santino/

Mario Lettiere was connected to Victor Plescia.

Nice interviews. Tino Lettieri died in 2017 and was living in Mokena at the time.

Mariano Lettieri has come up before here, but it worth revisiting. As Tino noted above, the Lettieris were from Celico, Cosenza, Calabria (also the hometown of Joseph "Crackers" Mendino's parents), and immigrated to Chicago in the 1950s. Mariano opened Mario's Butcher Shop in 1976, on Madison St near Menard in the West Side Austin neighborhood. This was an interesting move, as by then the Italians had left that neighborhood some years before and the area had declined into a slum. I suspect that Mario's was used from the get-go for criminal activities such as narcotics trafficking and fencing stolen goods.

In 1977, Mariano was convicted on charges of receiving stolen merchandise. According to a Chicago Reader article that I'm linking below, DEA agents Jack Riley (later head of the Chicago DEA office) and William Maloney were assigned to investigate a large open-air drug market operating in the Austin neighborhood at the Washington Pines, a 7-story SRO/Hotel located at 5001 W Washington Blvd, near Mario's Butcher Shop. The Washington Pines was managed by Nedrick Miller, a 33-year CPD veteran in the Austin District who was reputed to have been "the outfit's muscle" in the community. Raids by CPD were unsuccessful, and the DEA suspected that the operation was using outfit ties to tip the dealers off ahead of time (Miller was said to have instituted a "sophisticated countersurveillance operation" at the Pines, which was run like a real-life version of "The Carter" in New Jack City). After developing a local CI and tapping the phones at the Pines, the DEA was able to uncover that Miller was receiving kilogram quantities of cocaine from Mariano Lettieri at the butcher shop. Additionally, Miller's operation included high-ranking members of the Vice Lords, including Unknown Vice Lords boss Willie Lloyd (well-known for surviving multiple hit attempts over the years due to factional infighting in the VLs). After making buys with an undercover agent and surveilling Mario's Butcher Shop for 6 months, the Feds indicted Miller, as well as Mariano Lettieri, designated as Miller's primary supplier of both heroin and cocaine, and a number of associates (among whom was also a deputy in the Cook County Sheriff's Department, and attorney Roscoe Foreman, who was represented by future Joey Lombardo lawyer Rick Halprin). In 1990, Lettieri, described in the papers at the time as a "crime syndicate operative" was convicted and sentenced to 16 years.

Key for the prosecution was the testimony of Michael "Ice Mike" Gomire, a high-ranking Vice Lord who pled guilty to narcotics distribution charges and testified that he was tasked with making narcotics pick-ups from Lettieri. In 1991, it was revealed that brother Santino Lettieri (from the above interview video) had been threatening Gomire and his family in an attempt to force the witness to recant his testimony. And, indeed, Gomire signed an affidavit to the Feds recanting his claims about Mariano Lettieri. Lettieri's attempt to gain a new trial was rejected, however, by a Federal judge later that year, as Gomire - who had in prior years as a gang member survived numerous attempts on his life, including being hit by two shotgun blasts and shot 6 times by an Uzi -- subsequently stated that he only signed the affidavit after being beaten and forced by gang members in Cook County jail. A Federal judge affirmed Lettieri's conviction upon appeal in 1993. So far as I can tell, Mariano Lettieri is now living in Schaumburg.

The DEA linked Lettieri to Tony Zizzo and claimed that Lettieri's operation was supplied by a CPD officer who transported cocaine from Colombian importers in Florida. Stemming from their investigation of Lettieri, in 1990 the DEA also brought down the large SW Side/West Suburban narcotics wholesaling operation under Victor Plescia. As a reminder, Plescia and co-conspirator Frank Bonavolante were surveilled by agents meeting with Zizzo and Al Tornabene in the Clubhouse Lounge, at 35th and Laramie (Bonavolante was the brother of Carlisi crew associate Joey Bonavolante), while other co-conspirators told an undercover DEA agent that their operation answered to Zizzo and Tornabene. Disgraced CPD officer Nick Rizzato was responsible for ferrying coke from Florida.

Former DEA agent Jack Riley, on working and testifying for the Lettieri/Miller case:

“It just showed you how nasty the underbelly was [...] I think I aged about ten years in that case."

Quote taken from this Chicago Reader article on Jack Riley:
https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics ... g-warrior/

Mariano "Mario" Lettieri at arraignment in 1989:


Nedrick Miller:


Vice Lord Michael "Ice Mike" Gomire:


Unknown Vice Lords boss Willie Lloyd, aka "the King of Kings":


Nedrick Miller HQ and drug market the Washington Pine, today (located at Washington Blvd and Pine Ave in the Austin neighborhood on the far Westside):

As a note, the Tribune reported during the Lettieri/Miller trial in 1990 that according to a document presented by the prosecution to the court, Federal agents had also linked Mariano Lettieri to Joe Colucci.

[PolackTony]

Tony, you’re from West Town or the Patch. Can you give me a quick rundown of the Cozzo family? Phil was Jimmy Boy’s son and Sam is also Jimmy’s boy son and for some reason he’s still on the CPD payroll in his 70’s. Did Jimmy Boy have another son named Jimmy Jr? I know one Jimmy Boy’s daughters married a Nitti. I think Phil’s son is involved in the family business as well, at least he acts like he is.

Sammy Cozzo is currently a retired CPD Lieutenant (he was Lieutenant in the 10th district). Cathy is married to John Nitti, son of Nick Nitti from the travel agency. Jimmy Boy did not have a son named Jimmy Jr. Philly Cozzo, who died in 2015, has a son named Jimmy Cozzo, however. If that’s the one who you think is “involved”, I’ve heard the same but am not in the position to verify myself.

BTW, I’m pretty sure that I met Jimmy Boy a number of times, back around 2001, but I was a kid then and didn’t know who he was (apart from being told that he was mobbed up) until later.

[B.]

Interesting reference to a Chicago discussion about Valachi's testimony:



- An unspecified Chicago member(?) commented that Valachi told the truth but the public wouldn't understand what he was saying.
- The same figure discusses the way members from out of town can be introduced to other members.
- He specifically points out that Gus Alex and Leslie Kruse couldn't "run things" or "rise to a position of power" because they weren't Italian, as "only Italians run the 'outfit'."

[PolackTony]

Interesting reference to a Chicago discussion about Valachi's testimony:



- An unspecified Chicago member(?) commented that Valachi told the truth but the public wouldn't understand what he was saying.
- The same figure discusses the way members from out of town can be introduced to other members.
- He specifically points out that Gus Alex and Leslie Kruse couldn't "run things" or "rise to a position of power" because they weren't Italian, as "only Italians run the 'outfit'."

Yes, this is an interesting excerpt. I was never able to confirm the identity of the CI, but I don't think that he was a member. He was "CG 6597" and described by the FBI as "an individual who has some knowledge of and contacts with members of the Chicago underworld". The info here came from an interview with SA William A. Meincke in October of 1963. CG 6597 gave very little and sporadic intel over the next couple of years, so far as I'm aware, including in Davey Yaras's file. In 1972, he was questioned about plate glass window companies in relation again to Yaras. So I'd suspect that he was a Jewish guy that may have been speaking to a member who let some things slip.

[Coloboy]

Really interesting write up on the drug ring Tony. Seems pretty certain it was in some way outfit connected. It's also a good example of how the outfit seemed to handle the drug business.....keep it at arms length and let others do the dirty work.