Chicago Outfit Places of Origin

[PolackTony]

Pasquale Spilotro, father of the Spilotro brothers and restauranteur from Triggiano, Bari, has been discussed previously. In 1931, Pasquale married Antoinette Clesceri in Chicago, mother of the Spilotro brothers. Antoinette was born in 1906 in Jeanerette, Iberia Parish, LA, to Vito Clesceri and Giovanna Carnesi of Piana dei Greci. Vito had initially arrived in NOLA in 1892, then subsequently returned to Sicily, married Giovanna, and returned to NOLA bound for Jeanerette with family and paesani in 1903. Antoinette's older sister Domenica Clesceri, born 1901 in PDG, wound up marrying Nicola Lo Nigro of PDG; the couple moved to Natchez, MS. Sometime in the 1920s, the other Clesceris, including son James Clesceri, born in 1910 in Jeanerette, moved to Chicago, settling in the Grand Ave Patch.

In 1930, the Clesceris lived on the 1300 block of W Ohio (near Ada). One of their neighbors on the block was Paolo Spilotro, a construction worker from Triggiano and brother of Pasquale Spilotro. Paolo's wife was Margherita Matesi of PDG. One of their daughters, Filomena "Flemmie" Spilotro, married Matt Raimondi, born in Chicago in 1924 to parents from Valenzano, Bari. Matt Raimondi was busted several times in the '60s for operating wirerooms, and in 1995 pled guilty to his role in a large slip-and-fall insurance scam ring, the ring leader of which, David Ballog, flipped and testified that he was forced into filing fraudulent claims due to being in debt to outfit-connected juice loan sharks. Matt Raimondi, described by the Feds at this time as a longtime "bookmaker and violent mob juice loan collector", was a former administrator on the Chicago City Council Traffic Committee and close personal friend of 39th Ward Alderman Anthony Laurino, who was forced to resign as Dean of the Chicago City Council in 1994 for an emerging ghost payrolling scandal at the Traffic Committee for which he was subsequently indicted. It didn't help Laurino's image when he was caught in 1995 hanging out with Raimondi, then on house arrest after his fraud conviction, in Raimondi's home by a probation officer. Laurino's son-in-law, implicated in the ghost payrolling charges, was John D'Amico, a former official in the Streets and Sanitation Department; Matt Raimondi's son Vito had a Streets and San job, naturally (also convicted in this case was Vito Cirignani, who also took a pinch in the '90s for a Mt Prospect gambling operation and was likely a nephew of Northside crew member Tony "Juliano" Cirignani). Charged along with Matt Raimondi in the fraud case was corrupt CPD officer and outfit associate Freddie Pascente, who was alleged to have filed a number of fraudulent slip-and-fall claims. During this period, both Matt Raimondi and Pascente were identified as frequenting Joseph's Tailor shop, an outfit-connected hangout on Central Ave near Milwaukee in the Northwest Side Jefferson Park neighborhood. LE claimed from surveillance that Joseph's was a place where mobsters, such as Raimondi and Chicago member Don Angelini, rubbed shoulders with corrupt CPD cops, including ranking officers.

Antoinette Clesceri's brother, Tony Spilotro's uncle, James Clesceri married Lucille De Lorenzo, born in CO to parents from Potenza province and Colosimi, Cosenza, the hometown of Jim Colosimo (in fact, her grandmother was a Colosimo, though I was not able to identify a direct relation). In a touch of irony common to these mobbed-up families, James and Lucille's son Vito Clesceri, Tony Spilotro's first cousin, became a CPD cop assigned to the vice squad in the East Chicago Ave District, covering the outfit-controlled Rush St nightlife district.

Also interesting to note that both Tony Spilotro and his associate Paulie Schiro had heritage from PDG, Clesceri and Schirò being typical Arbereshe surnames.

[PolackTony]

Eligio "Lee" Magnafichi was born in suburban Cook County to Eligio Angelo Magnafichi from Amaseno, Frosinone, Lazio and Josephine D'Agostino who was born in Chicago (parents from Sulmona, L', Vincenzo TrankiaAquila, Abruzzo).

Lee Mags was born in 1927; per his birth certificate born in Chicago, and he was baptized in 1929 at St Callistus Parish at Taylor and Ogden.

By 1930, the Magnafichis had relocated from Taylor St to a bungalow at 1803 N Newcastle in the Galewood neighborhood on the NW Side; Eligio Angelo worked as a finisher in a radio factory and later for a furniture company.

In 1962, Lee married Geraldine Tomaselli, mother of Mike Mags, at the Church of the Holy Ghost in Wood Dale. At the time, the couple lived at 306 Poplar Ave in Bensenville (recall that it was later alleged by Joe Fosco that the home in Bensenville where the Spilotro brothers were killed in 1986 belonged to Jimmy Tomaselli, Lee's BIL). Geraldine Tomaselli was born in 1936 in Chicago to Frank Alaimo Tomaselli and Elizabeth Trankina. Frank Tomaselli was born in 1909 in Chicago to produce merchant Giuseppe Alaimo Tomaselli, of Termini Imerese, and Maria Moscato, born in Chicago to parents from Oliveto Citra, Salerno. Both families lived near Taylor St, and Giuseppe's father, Francesco Alaimo Tomaselli, was a longtime produce commission merchant at the South Water St Market. Elizabeth Trankina was born in 1912 in Chicago to Vincenzo "Vincent James" Tranchina (the spelling of the surname was later changed in Chicago), of Termini Imerese, and Anna Cristofani, born to Toscano parents in Chicago. Vincenzo Trankina was also a commission merchant on South Water St, who founded the J. Trankina & Co. produce wholesaling house. The Trankinas moved from Taylor St to Grand Ave, and from there to Oak Park. In 1920, Vincenzo Trankina and Giuseppe Tomaselli were among the influential Italians who organized an "Italian Club" advocating for the campaign for IL States Attorney of Robert Crowe, a notoriously scandal-plagued and mafia-connected judge. Among the other men in this group were Unione Siciliana leader, and possible mafioso, Constantino Vitello, Arturo Ansani, father of Chicago member Bobby Ansani, and Chicago Heights Family leaders Antonio San Filippo and Filippo Piazza (more info here in the Totò Loverde thread: viewtopic.php?p=239875#p239875).

One of the witnesses to Lee Magnafichi and Geraldine Tomaselli's 1962 marriage was Bernard Trankina, an uncle of Geraldine and half-brother of Elizabeth Trankina. Bernard Trankina was born in 1929 to Vincenzo Trankina and Angelina DeBiase, who Vincenzo married after Anna Cristofani died in 1918. Angelina DeBiase was born in 1895 in Chicago to Antonio DeBiase and Raffaela Mazzone, of Oliveto Citra. She was the older sister of Chicago member Giovanni "Johnny Bananas" DeBiase, born in Chicago in 1901 (at the beginning of this thread, I stated that Johnny DeBiase's parents were from Napoli, as many of their documents just say "Naples", which was often the case for immigrants from Campania). The DeBiases settled initially by Taylor St, before relocating to Artesian Ave in the Smith Park section of the Grand Ave Patch. In the early 1960s, when Johnny DeBiase was pinched on gambling charges (and was also named as the "bankroll" for a crew of hijackers and burglars), he was living in Oak Park, near his in-laws, the Trankinas, and claimed to police that he was legally employed as a produce merchant. In the 1970s, after the FBI had identified Johnny DeBiase as a Chicago LCN member, it was reported in a file that he was believed to secretly be the owner of Menotti Plumbing and Heating, at 2350 W Grand Ave; an apartment in this building above the plumbing store was previously used as a wireroom raided in 1964. Menotti Plumbing was next door to Armanetti Liquors, owned by Accardo associate and major wine importer Antonino Paternò, who was being investigated by Italian LE in the 70s for connections to the mafia in Sicily, as well as the grocery store of Rosario Marino of Cefalù, another Accardo associate who accompanied Accardo, Nick Nitti, and Al Meo on their trip to Italy in 1973 (viewtopic.php?p=232539#p232539). Johnny DeBiase, who was said by Freddie Pascente to have been the early mentor of Joey Lombardo, died in Oak Park in 1983.

In December of 1946, Rudolph Magnafichi, co-owner of the Panoram Club, located at Broadway and Foster in the Northside Uptown neighborhood, reported that the club was shot up by unknown assailants firing a machine gun. Three hours later, a cabaret on nearby Argyle St was also shot up, wounding one patron. Investigators believed that the shootings were linked to hoodlums Martin "Marty the Ox" Ochs and Paul Labriola, and charged Ochs with the wounding of the patron on Argyle. As a reminder, Labriola was the stepson of Lorenzo "Dago" Mangano and son of Paolo Labriola Sr, murdered in 1921 in a wave of political and mafia violence in the Taylor St Patch, allegedly by Angelo Genna and Samuzz' Amatuna. Labriola Jr and his associates were suspects in multiple slayings in the 1940s, some of which may have been related to the war in Chicago between Accardo and Benevento (Labriola was himself killed with his associate Jimmy Weinberg in 1954, in the fallout from the horsemeat scandal). Rudolph Magnafichi was a first cousin of Lee, a son of Lee's uncle Antonio Magnafichi. In later decades, Rudolph Magnafichi was a member of the village board of Round Lake, in Northern Suburban Lake County, IL, and was involved in large development projects in that area.

In 1948, Lee Magnafichi, then still living in Galewood, was pinched for a series of taxi robberies with his partner, John McCandless. At the time, Lee was also facing Federal counterfeiting charges, of which he was subsequently convicted. In May of 1953, Lee Magnafichi was alleged to have pulled off hijackings of slot machines from a VFW Hall and a Moose Lodge in McHenry County with Eco Coli. Later that same year, Lee was apprehended after a shootout with police when they encountered him and his crew stealing slot machines from an Aurora American Legion Hall. After these early incidents, Lee was basically a "sleeper" for the next 30 years, until a 1987 Tribune article identified him as a "close confidant" of Accardo and Cerone. From what we know, by this time Lee was captain of the Elmwood Park crew, having succeeded John DiFronzo when the latter ascended to underboss in 1986-87. In the interim, Magnafichi seems to have attracted little to no attention from the Feds, who did not list him as a member on their 1985 chart, even though he was presumably next in line to be captain of his crew (possibly the crew "underboss" for DiFronzo). Lee's tenure as capodecina was short-lived, as he died in Wood Dale in December of 1989.

[PolackTony]

Speaking of sleepers, prominent attorney and former Melrose Park mayor and head of the IANU (the "Unione Siciliana") Joseph Imburgio Bulger, first cousin of Charles Imburgia of the Pittsburgh outfit, was only ID'd as a Chicago member following his death in 1966.

One of the sources for Bulger's membership was an apparent member CI developed by Chicago FBI SA Merle Hamre in 1967, given the code CG 6968-CTE. While the identity of CG 6968 is still unknown, he continued informing into the 1970s and was a source for a number of Chicago member IDs in the FBI's 1968 and 1973 lists.

In 1966, Lucchese CI Florio Isabella (identified by Ed as "NY 1839-CTE"), who was close to Johnny Roselli and reported intel about Roselli to the FBI, reported that Roselli had told him that Joe Bulger was an LCN "soldier". Isabella mistakenly reported that Bulger was from KC, though he was correct that Bulger was not originally from Chicago, as he was born in NOLA and moved with his family to Melrose park as a youth.

[PolackTony]

The same unknown Chicago member CI who identified Bulger and Sam Farina as members in 1967 also may have been the FBI's source for the membership of Joseph "Joe Marks" Marcangelo, who the Feds subsequently identified on a list of deceased Chicago members.

Giuseppe "Joe Marks" Marcangelo was born in 1905 in Chicago to Michelangelo Marcangelo and Rosina Scilzo, of Pomarico, Matera, Basilicata (the Carioscias, Dom Senese, and Frank Aurelli had ancestry from Pomarico; Aurelli's mother was also a Scilzo from Pomarico and he was probably a cousin of Marcangelo). In 1909, Michelangelo remarried Caterina Fiore, also of Pomarico. Michelangelo worked as a laborer for the City of Chicago and the family lived on the 900 block of S Loomis, near Taylor. Their neighbors on the block included "connected" surnames like Pacelli, Iacovetti, Iacullo, Eulo, and Senese. In 1926, 8 youths alleged to be members of the "42 Gang" were apprehended by police for suspicion of robbery. One of them was Mike Marcangelo, brother of Joseph. It was reported at this time that Mike had survived a gang shooting a week prior to his arrest.

Joe Marcangelo married Mary Saracco, born in 1906 in Chicago to Cristoforo Saracco and Vitantonia Pacelli, of Ricigliano, Salerno. This may be significant given Marcangelo's connection to mobbed-up IL State Senator Donato "Daniel" Serritella, whose parents were also Riciglianesi and whose mother was a Pacelli. In 1946, Sylvester Farrell, a partner of Daniel Serritella in the publishing of a race track pamphlet, filed suit and alleged that Serrirella had brought gangsters into their company without his permission, naming Jack Guzik, Hymie Levine, and Joe Marcangelo, the latter identified in the suit as a "representative of the 'syndicate'". Shortly after, Joe Marcangelo was named by veteran racing wire company owner James Ragen, former leader with his brother of the old school Irish street gang the Ragen's Colts, as one of the mobsters attempting to muscle him out of his business, along with Accardo, Guzik, Levine, and Humphreys (three weeks later, Ragen was famously hit by shotgun blasts in front of his bodyguards while driving at 39th and State and subsequently died from his wounds). The Ragen hit happened at a time when dozens of bookies and mafiosi were murdered in Chicago, which the press called a "gambling war", but were likely related to the deeper conflict over leadership of the Chicago Family. Marcangelo stayed out of the news until 1959 when his Rush St nightclub, the Front Page Lounge, was identified as one of 13 targeted in an investigation by Cook County Sheriff Richard Ogilvie into organized crime activities in the Near Northside nightlife district. Joe Marcangelo died in Chicago in 1967. As noted above, he was identified by the FBI after his death as a Chicago LCN member, and was carried on the FBI's RIDS "Dead List".

[PolackTony]

and

Great write-up on the Frattos. Maybe I missed it in your post, but Phil Alderisio was said to have been a cousin of the Frattos.

My take is that there’s nothing to that claim. So far as I can tell, both sides of Alderisio’s family seem to trace back to Stigliano, Matera, Basilicata, which is nowhere near where any of the Frattos’ ancestry came from (Catanzaro, Rome, Abruzzo), of course. Unless there’s a connection via marriage that I’m unaware of, it’s probably false, but maybe people thought they were due to close neighborhood ties from Taylor St.

Phil Alderisio was born in 1912 in Yonkers to Domenico Alderisio and Ippolita "Pauline" Materese. Domenico was born in Stigliano, Matera, and lived initially in East Harlem before relocating to Yonkers. Pauline Materese was born in NYC in 1892 to Gennaro "Henry" Matarrese, of Stigliano, and Maria Antonia Fortunato. I have not been able to confirm the ancestry of the Fortunatos, as they arrived in the US in the 1880s and their passenger manifests
do not list any origin more granular than "Italy". My best guesses would be Potenza, Bari, or Caserta, but I'm not at all sure. The Fratto brothers' father was Tomasso Fratto, of Sersale, Catanzaro, while their mother Bianca Faiella was born in Rome to a family from Lazio and L'Aquila province, Abruzzo.

Either way, I haven't been able to find any familial connections between the Frattos and Alderisios, whether via blood or marriage. None of the surnames connected to the Alderisios appear in any record for any Fratto relative that I've seen, so I think we can safely assume that the claims that Phil was a "cousin" of the Frattos were apocryphal unless something new surfaces. The Alderisios moved to Chicago in the 1910s, and in the 1920s/30s were living in the same section of the Taylor St Patch where the Frattos lived, so the families presumably knew each other and later Alderisio and the Frattos may well have called each other "cugini" (the Frattos lived at Leavitt and Polk, and the Alderisios just around the corner at Ogden and Polk). Phil's parents returned to Yonkers by 1940, but then moved back to Chicago and lived in Skokie before they died (Domenico in 1969 and Paline in 1970). Domenico Alderisio's 1969 wake was attended by a number of members of both Chicago and Milwaukee LCN.

Phil Alderisio was indeed a first cousin of porn dealer and Admiral Theater owner Patrick "Patsy" Ricciardi, who was infamously trunk musicked in 1985. Patsy Ricciardi was born in 1926 in Yonkers to Antonio Ricciardi, who used the name "Anthony Rich" and Angelina Matarese, Pauline Materese's younger sister. Antonio "Anthony Rich" Ricciardi was born in Yonkers in 1901, apparently to parents from Acerno, Salerno.

And the Fratto brothers were related to a number of other outfit people; some of those connections have been noted. Doselina "Dottie" DiDomenico, wife of Rudolfo "Guy" Fratto and mother of Rudy Fratto, was very likely related to William "Billy D" DiDomenico (I believe that Dottie's father, Pasquale DiDomenico, was a cousin of Billy's grandfather, Ercole DiDomenico, both from Scontrone, L'Aquila, also the hometown of the Scalzittis). Fratto brother Guglielmo "William" Fratto married Angelina Frabotta, younger sister of Chicago member Albert "Obie" Frabotta. The youngest Fratto sibling, Geraldine "Gerri" Fratto, married Michele "Mike" Valerio; I believe they were the parents of Gill Valerio, busted in the Carlisi crew case. I have seen it claimed before that Gill Valerio is a nephew of Sam Carlisi as well, but I have not been able to verify any connection between their families (Gill's grandfather and namesake was Gildo "Gill" Valerio, of Sannicandro, Bari, father of Michele Valerio).

[PolackTony]

Good eye -- that murder case was mostly guys from Sambuca from what I found (killers + victim both). Some of the other names in the case were butchered so Amato could easily be "Armato".

Nah, scratch that. From the info I have, not only is Armato definitely a surname in Sambuca, it seems to be much more common there than Amato is.

I have a Michele Armato, born 1883 in Sambuca, who died in Chicago in 1947. In 1910, he lived on Milton in Little Sicily; in 1912, he married an Antonina Lo Cicero in Rockford. Probably the guy from the Raia thing.

As a quick note, in 1935 Carlo Armato was the President of the Società Madonna delle Grazie di Montevago in Chicago (Our Lady of Graces being the patron saint of Montevago).

In 1923, a Domenico Armato, residing at Flournoy and California, was found shot to death and dumped in the South Suburbs. He was born in Montevago, and the police suspected that he had been murdered by his brothers in law, the Gigantis. Worth noting that the mother of Marie LaRocca, wife of Rockford consigliere Charles Vince, was a Giganti from Montevago. Her family was supposedly connected to the Zitos in Springfield, which could be true as the Springfield Campos were Montevaghesi. As a reminder, Sam Giancana’s brother in law Antonino Campo was an immigrant from Montevago, and there was likely a number of mafiosi in the interconnected Montevaghesi communities around IL (a prime example along with the Campos being Giuseppe “Joe the Crow” Corso).

In 1937, Peter Armato was killed and his brother Lawrence Armato wounded, along with a Carlo Campisi, in a double shooting and stabbing on the Near Northside. These Armatos were Sambucesi, and may have been related to the Michele Armato involved in the 1905 murder of Biagio Raia in Little Sicily. Carlo Campisi was born in 1911 in KC to Gaspare Campisi and Vincenza Bella, of Sambuca. Carlo was very likely a first cousin of Chicago member Jasper “Jay” Campisi, also born in KC to parents from Sambuca, as both of their fathers seem to have named their first born sons George.

In 1933, a George Campisi was busted for hijacking a beer truck that had been driven from Milwaukee to Chicago. Given his age, then 23, I believe that this was Jay Campisi’s
older brother. His partner in the hijacking was 18-year-old Tony Priola; both men were from Little Sicily. Tony Priola seems to have been the son of Gaetano Priola of Ficarazzi, who I’m pretty sure was the brother of Chicago member Giuseppe Priola (in both cases their father was Filippo). That would make Tony Priola the first cousin of later Rockford member Phil Priola.

[JoelTurner]

In 1925, a JAMES FRANZONE was arrested on liquor charges in Benton Harbo, MI. I was wondering if this could be the Chicago member. I know he was also in San Francisco and Tampa, however I haven’t seen anything about Michigan.



The age is close enough too.

[PolackTony]

In 1925, a JAMES FRANZONE was arrested on liquor charges in Benton Harbo, MI. I was wondering if this could be the Chicago member. I know he was also in San Francisco and Tampa, however I haven’t seen anything about Michigan.



The age is close enough too.

Nice find. It could be the same Jimmy Franzone; while I wasn't able to find any documents that placed him as ever living in Berrien County, MI, I couldn't find anything for any other James Franzone there either. A first cousin of Jimmy Franzone, Sarah Leonarda Franzone, daughter of Leonardo Franzone and Rosaria Frisina noted in the post quoted below, did die in Berrien County in 1915. She died from tuberculosis, so it's possible that she had been placed in a sanitorium there to get her out of the city, as I have found nothing stating that any of her family lived there. There were lots of close connections between Chicago and Berrien County for decades, as the Benton Harbor/St Joseph area was a resort community for Chicagoans. A lot of mafia ties also, and my belief is that Benton Harbor was a territory of the Chicago Family.

Another interesting figure in the FBN book was Joseph Purpura, stated by the FBN to have been involved in horse racing nationally, residing in Florida but with a home in Revere, MA, and with close ties to Ray Patriarca and other "mafia racketeers", though without any known criminal record.

He was born Giuseppe Purpura in 1897 in Carini, and arrived in NYC in 1921, subsequently moving to Chicago. In 1940, he was naturalized in Chicago, living at 55th and Talman in the Gage Park neighborhood on the SW Side (an area that was a secondary settlement for a number of Italians from Taylor St and which had previously been associated with the Gennas). His WW2 draft registration in 1942 had him at the same address, though he stated that he was employed by the Tropical Race Track in Coral Gables, FL. It would seem that he moved to FL around this time. I was unable to confirm what happened with Purpura, as I never found a death record for him. As the FBN stated that Purpura traveled to Italy and that his mother was living in Palermo, I suspect that he may have returned to Sicily later in life. It's also unclear to me what familial ties, if any, Purpura may have had in Chicago. There were produce-wholesaling Purpuras in Chicago who were accused of "Black Hand" extortion in 1911, but they were from Termini Imerese, not Carini.

Now, Purpura's 1940 naturalization was witnessed by Leonardo Franzone and Leonardo's daughter Katherine Franzone Amari, both living near Hudson and Elm in Little Sicily. Leonardo Franzone was from Borgetto and the brother of Salvatore Franzone, father of Vincenzo "Jimmy" Franzone (who Fratianno identified as a Chicago capodecina). In 1930, Leonardo, a clerk for the Republican Party in the 42 Ward, was one of a dozen men in Little Sicily indicted for election fraud in the state senate race. Also indicted was a Joseph DiBella, who may have been Dom DiBella's father Giuseppe Dibella.

Leonardo Franzone's wife was Rosaria Frisina, also of Borgetto. Daughter Katherine married Joseph "Red" Amari, born in 1915 in Trinidad, CO, to Francesco Amari of Ribera and Angelina Cina, of Calamonaci. Francesco Amari witnessed the naturalization of Francesco DeMonte, father of Anthony "Tony Mack" DeMonte. Joseph Amari was busted with a robbery crew in 1934 for the hold-up of a Northside restaurant, and in 1951 for taking bets at Rush and Walton.

Another daughter was Sophie Franzone, born in 1915 in Chicago. She married Anthony "Tony" DiJohn, brother of Nick DeJohn. Tony DiJohn, who died in 1975 in Chicago, was busted in 1957 in a Northside gambling raid. We know that Jimmy Franzone was said to have worked for Nick DeJohn, but now we can see the familial links between these men, as DeJohn's brother married Franzone's first cousin.

[PolackTony]

Jimmy Marcello's elder (full) sister Ann Josephine Marcello (born 1936) married Billy Galioto -- corrupt CPD cop, Outfit associate, and bookie -- in 1959. I believe he was the William Thomas Galioto born 1937 in Chicago to John Bernard Galioto and Rose Incavo. John B Galioto was born 1914 in Chicago to Guglielmo Galioto and Ignazia Incandela of Bagheria. Rose Incavo seems to have been born in NYC 1915 to parents from Montemaggiore Belsito.

Despite his obvious ties to the Aiuppa crew, in 1959 Sam Marcello was the only guy busted in a Grand ave gambling operation who wasn't from the Grand Ave patch neighborhood. Other guys from this bust included Jimmy D'Antonio and Angelo Janotta. Perhaps related to Sam's apparent ties to Grand Ave is that as a young kid, Billy Galioto lived on Leavitt and Hubbard in the Grand Ave Patch.

Anyone ever come across any Galiotos with mafia connections? In 1921, the macaroni factory of the Galioto Bros - Sam and Joe - on Division in Littel Sicily was bombed. Decades later, a John Galioto had a pasta factory, first located in the city and then later in Schiller Park. In 1930 Guglielmo Galioto, grandfather of Billy and father of John B Galioto, was listed as the proprietor of a spaghetti factory. Given that they were Bagheresi and that their business was bombed, I'd suspect they may have been connected.

From a post that B did on historic bosses in Sicily:

Found the names of many historic bosses in old Italian reports. Def a margin of error with some of the estimated dates, as unfortunately they don't include that info and it can be hard to know what period they're referring to but it's mostly 1910s-1930s, more commonly 1920s. I wrote (historic) if have no idea.
.

Bagheria
Salvatore Galioto (1910s-1920s) - identified as capoprovincia of Palermo and Bagheria boss

As a follow-up to the above, Billy Galioto's paternal grandfather was the co-owner of Galioto Bros Macaroni Co, originally located on the 400 block of w Division in Little Sicily, across the street from the location of Joe Aiello's bakery, the Aiello Pasticceria Bella Palermo. Galioto Bros subsequently moved to the next block west on Division, and in 1927 when Joe Aiello's brother Antonino "Tony" Aiello was shot during that year's spate of mafia violence, he gave their address as his address and said that he worked as a pasta salesman, so he evidently was employed by the Galiotos (he wasn't alone as a mafioso with this job description, as Giuseppe Lombardo, Tony Lom bardo's brother, was officially employed as a pasta salesman and Pasquale LoLordo, at the time of his murder in 1929, was employed as the general sales manager for the Morici Bros Macaroni Co., founded by the Moricis from Bagheria). In later decades, the Galioto Macaroni Co. moved its base of operations to suburban Schiller Park, as it expanded and modernized under the direction of Giovanni Battista "John" Galioto, son of Salvatore and first cousin of Billy Galioto's father John Bernard Galioto.

As noted previously, Billy Galioto married Jimmy Marcello's sister, Ann Josephine Marcello. Additionally, Billy's sister Jacquelyn "Jackie" Galioto, who died in 2015, married Donald Andriacchi, aka "Don Andrich", nephew of Joey Andriacchi. Donald Andriacchi was born in Chicago in 1942 to Dominic Andriacchi, aka "Dominic Andrich", eldest brother of Joey A, and Roselyn DiSabatino (born in Chicago to parents from Tortoreto, Teramo, Abruzzo, and Palermo Citta). Dominic Andriacchi, along with several other Andriacchi brothers, operated the Andrich Cartage Co. for decades. In the 1950s, Andrich Cartage was investigated for having used the same trucks in multiple duplicate contracts with the City of Chicago, to whom Andrich had a lucrative practice of renting trucks. This practice continued under the ownership of Donald Andriacchi when Andrich was one of the mob-connected trucking companies publicly outed for obtaining contracts under the City's notoriously scandal-plagued Hired Truck Program, which was overhauled and then terminated following the publication of the Sun-Times 2004 expose piece "Clout on Wheels" (other trucking companies given contracts under the Hired Truck Program included Jimmy Inendino's JMS Trucking, and companies owned by members of the Roti, Spina, LoCoco, Barbara, Gurgone, and Galione families). Worth noting also that Dominic Andriacchi's 1988 obituary made a point of stating that he was a longtime member of the San Rocco di Simbario Society (both of the Andriacchi brothers's parents were from Simbario, Vibo Valentia, Calabria), founded by lifelong President Bruno Roti, capodecina of the Chinatown crew until his death in 1957.

Jackie Galioto was Don Andriacchi's first wife. His second wife was Laura Nicolosi, born in Chicago to Jack Nicolosi and Domenica "Minnie" Morreale. Jack Nicolosi was born in 1919 in Chicago to Giuseppe Nicolosi and Leoluchina "Laura" Spatafora of Corleone. Leoluchina was the stepdaughter of possible Chicago boss Domenico Zagone of Ciminna, murdered in 1915 in Little Sicily a year following the murder of his paesan', boss Rosario Dispenza. Giuseppe Nicolosi and his brother Carmelo were notorious Little Sicily mafiosi and founding members of the San Leoluca di Corleone Society in Chicago, previously discussed several times here on the board:
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=8376&p=245575&hili ... si#p245575
viewtopic.php?f=29&t=8376&p=241488&hili ... si#p241488

Minnie Morreale, who died in 2020, was born in 1924 in Chicago to Salvatore Morreale and Stefana D'Alessandro of Bagheria. Salvatore was a longtime fishmonger and grocer in Little Sicily who died in Palermo in 1955; I strongly suspect that he was a brother of likely Little Sicily Bagherese mafiosi Bartolo (son-in-law of Rosario Dispenza), Vincenzo, and Angelo Morreale (said by the Chicago press to have been Aiello allies who turned against Joe Aiello and became enemies during Aiello's long war against Lombardo and Capone); the Morreale brothers' father was Salvatore, same as the Salvatore Morreale here. Interestingly, when Salvatore and Stefana Morreale baptized their daughter Rosa (older sister of Minnie Morreale Nicolosi) at San Filippo Benizi Parish in Little Sicily in 1915, her godparents were Leonardo Franzone and Rosaria Frisina of Borgetto, uncle and aunt of later Chicago member and likely capodecina Jimmy Franzone (who I just mentioned in the post prior to this one, by happenstance). In July of 1928, Little Sicily mafioso Giovanni Oliveri of Corleone and his partner Antonino Salamone of Alcamo were shot to death at Salvatore Morreale's fish market at Oak and Milton, Little Sicily's infamous "Death Corner", named for the numerous murders that occurred there. Salvatore Morreale was a suspect in the murder but was never charged. Oliveri and Salamone were named by the Chicago papers as erstwhile Aiello allies who had shifted allegiances and went over to the Capone faction, as the Morreales were later said to have done themselves. The Oliveris were close to their paesani the Nicolosis, of course, and the deep interconnection of all of these families is again underscored by the marriage of Minnie Morreale to Jack Nicolosi in later years.

Some more info on the Morreales for anyone interested:
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[PolackTony]

Leoluchina was the stepdaughter of possible Chicago boss Domenico Zagone of Ciminna, murdered in 1915 in Little Sicily a year following the murder of his paesan', boss Rosario Dispenza.

I caught this error after the window to edit the above post closed.

Mariano Zagone was the suspected Chicago boss before Dispenza, murdered in 1909. Pietro “The Silver King” Catalanotto, of Villafranca Sicula, was the Little Sicily mafia leader murdered in 1915, though we don’t know what rank he held.

[PolackTony]

On November 24, 1920, Vincenzo Solano of Ribera and Alfonso Taglialavore of Calamonaci were standing on the corner of Cambridge and Hobbie in Little Sicily when two men opened fire on them with sawed-off shotguns. Solano died from his wounds, while Taglialavore was shot in the head but survived (Alfonso Taglialavore was later convicted on fraud charges in Chicago in 1938 for bilking the Home Relief agency by collecting welfare while employed under an alias). The two men were brothers-in-law, as Taglialavore was the brother of Solano's wife, Rosalia Taglialavore, also of Calamonaci. Vincenzo Solano and Rosalia Taglialavore were the parents of future Chicago capodecina Vincent innocence Solano, born in 1919 (named after Rosaria's father, Vincenzo Innocenzo Taglialavore). That Vincenzo Solano and Alfonso Taglialavore were part of the network of the mafia in Little Sicily is indicated by the fact that Alfonso married the widow of Chicago gunman Domenico Ingo of Lucca Sicula, murdered in the Pubelo war in 1923. Alfonso's stepson Frank Ingo later married the sister of Mike Glitta, making Glitta and Vince Solano relatives by marriage.

In 1923, Charles Carlino, younger brother of the infamous Pete and Sam Carlino who were engaged in a war for control of the Pueblo mafia with the Danna brothers, was murdered in Colorado. Killed alongside him was Domenico Ingo, stated in the CO papers to have been a Chicagoan. Domenico Ingo was indeed a younger brother of the Giuseppe Ingo killed in Chicago in 1914 (in relation to Pueblo, worth noting here also that their mother was a Colletti). Domenico’s wife was Vincenza “Jennie” Tortorici, also of Lucca Sicula (after Domenico’s murder, she remarried an Alfonso Tagliavore of Calamonaci in Chicago).

Their firstborn son was Frank Dominic Ingo, born around 1918 in Iowa (they apparently moved to Iowa after Giuseppe Ingo was murdered, and returned to Little Sicily by 1920). In 1939, Frank Ingo married Rose Glitta, born in 1917 in Chicago to Domenico Pasquale “Sharkey” Gliatto and Serafina Gliatto of Greci, Avellino; Rose was the elder sister of later Chicago member Mike Glitta. This marriage could well be part of the context behind how Mike Glitta, a mainlander from Taylor St, wound up affiliated with the Northside crew (though this is only part of the story, presumably, as Mike Glitta was said to have been the driver from Jimmy Allegretti, who was also from Taylor St).

Vincenzo Solano was born in 1890 in Ribera to Accurso Solano (for whom Vince Solano's older brother, Alfred Accurso Solano, born in 1918 in Chicago, was named) and Giuseppa Tramunta (Vincenzo paternal grandfather was from Sciacca while his maternal grandmother was from Siculiana). He arrived in NYC from Sicily in 1909, listing a "cousin" (name illegible) in St Louis as his contact (there were hardly people from Ribera in STL, apparently, so I ould suspect that this "cousin"may have been from Siculiana, Burgio, or Villafranca Sicula, towns which had paesani in STL). By 1916 at the latest, Vincenzo was in Chicago, where he married Rosaria. The Solanos lived on the 1100 block of N Larrabee, around the corner from where Vincenzo was killed; Vincenzo worked as a laborer for a magazine publishing company. After his murder, Vincenzo's widow Rosaria remarried Antonio Colletti, who was born in 1887 in Calamonaci. For this reason, Vince Solano appeared in the 1930 census as Innocence Colletti (the family was living at Vine and Division, and later moved west to Humboldt Park). Antonio Colletti, who died in 1965 in Chicago, arrived in NYC in 1905, bound for his "uncle" Vincenzo LoCicero, living in Manhattan. This was very likely to have been powerful Gambino Family Agrigento faction leader Vincenzo LoCicero of Calamonaci, as he is the only Vincenzo LoCicero of Calamonaci that I was able to confirm in NYC. Worth noting that the mother of the Chicago Ingos of Lucca Sicula was a Colletti from Ribera, while the Colorado Collettis were from Lucca Sicula (Ribera, Calamonaci, and Lucca Sicula forming a cluster of comuni hardly more than a stone's throw from each other).

[PolackTony]

Outfit underboss Frank "Strongy" Ferraro was born Francesco Sartino in Manhattan, New York, on March 30, 1911, and died of cancer on October 24, 1964. Sartino is probably a typo since every other record - including his father's - has Sortino. One passport application has Giuseppe (Joseph) Sortino, as born in Villa Franca Sicula, Agrigento, Sicily, on August 19, 1872. Giuseppe Sortino arrived in the U.S. on the Spartan Prince on or about August 6, 1900 (there is a record of detention on the Spartan Prince on July 22, 1902, which appears to conflict with the record from the S.S. Liguria), and lived in New York and Chicago uninterruptedly from 1900 to 1907, and his occupation was a tailor. His address in 1907 was 67 Milton Street near "Death Corner."

According to her Petition for Naturalization, Angelina Barone, Strongy's mother, was born on July 30, 1880 in Vittoria, Ragusa, Sicily. She married Joseph Sortino, born April 19, 1870, in Vittoria on June 12, 1902. They arrived in the U.S. on July 9, 1902 on the S.S. Liguria (the passenger manifest confirms that their last residence was Vittoria). Frank was the sixth child born to the couple, and every child except for Helen, their last, was born in New York. Helen was born in Chicago.

Their second child, daughter Concetta (Jenny), married Joseph Ferraro and lived with them in Chicago as of the 1930 census. In 1920 they lived in the rear of 282 West 81st Street in what may have been a then-unincorporated part of Cook County, Ill. In 1930 they lived at 250 W 31st Street, Chicago. In Manhattan their addresses were 21 Batavia Street (1905), 33 Monroe Street (1910 and 1915).

Jenny's husband, Joseph Ferraro, was born in Santa Croce Camerina in Ragusa, Sicily in 1898. In 1940 they lived at 1103 Kostner Ave, Chicago, with their two children, Frank and Raymond. He died in August 1962, and had two sisters, Frances Grasso and Jennie Grieco of Los Angeles. It appears that Strongy "borrowed" his surname.

Giuseppe (Joseph) Sortino died on Feb 13, 1953, and his last address was 1840 Oak Park Avenue. According to his death record, he was born April 19, 1876, and his parents were Samuel Sortino and Angelina Barone (evidently confusing his wife for his mother). (A different Giuseppe Sortino, born Mar 19, 1885, in Villafranca Sicula, and died on Mar 4, 1963, is erroneously attached to his record at findagrave.) Angelina Barone Sortino died in November 1963. According to Joseph Sortino's obit. he had a brother named John in New York City.

Both of Frank Ferraro's parents were from Vittoria, Ragusa. A bunch of ancestry family trees do have father Giuseppe Sortino as born in 1872 in Villafranca, based on the 1907 passport application that you noted above, so I had thought myself that this information was correct. For reasons noted below, I started looking into the Sortinos and discovered that this was not the same Giuseppe Sortino. As you note, Frank Ferarro's father was born about 1871 and died in Chicago in 1953, but several family trees conflated him with the Giuseppe Sortino who died in 1963. This other guy was born in 1885 in Vittoria, and was very likely a cousin of Frank Ferraro's father (and, I believe, erroneously identified as from Villafranca by whoever made the findagrave entry for him).

In the 1910 census in NYC, Giuseppe Sortino was working as a mason and he and his wife Angelina Barone stated that they had arrived in the US in 1902. This matches the July 1902 arrival From Napoli on the ship Liguria of Giuseppe Sortino, a bricklayer, and his wife Angelina Barone, both born in Vittoria (Angelina's 1942 naturalization petition also states that both she and Giuseppe were born in Vittoria); they were bound for Charleroi, PA, where Giuseppe listed a relative by the surname of Meli as living. Charleroi, like Chicago, had a colony of migrants from Vittoria, and the other Giuseppe Sortino of Vittoria in Chicago (1885) was married to a Meli woman. Giuseppe and Angelina were in NYC by early 1903, where their first child, Orlando "Roland" Sortino, was born. The Sortinos were in Chicago by January of 1919, when their youngest child, Helen Sortino, was born there. In 1920 the Sortinos lived at 252 W 31st St, near Princeton, in the Armour Square neighborhood of the Southside, just south of Chinatown (the page does look like it could say "81st", but it is 31st, which is confirmed by the fact that the tract was in the 4th Ward). In 1930, the Sortino lived in the building next door, at 250 W 31st St. Presumed cousin Giuseppe Sortino (the one who died in 1963), lived around the corner at 31st and Union.



In February of 1922, notary public and agent for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Giovanni Gurrieri was killed when two gunmen opened fire on him in broad daylight at Princeton and 23rd Pl. Gurrieri, who lived at 26th and Wentworth, was born in 1885 in Vittoria and was married to Jennie Sortino, who was very likely a sister of one of the two Giuseppe Sortinos who lived in the area and thus probably either an aunt or cousin of Frank Ferraro. Of particular note, the informant for Gurrieri's death record was Phillip D'Andrea, presumably Chicago member Phil D'Andrea (worth considering also that Phil's uncle Tony D'Andrea's occupation was given as "insurance broker" when he was killed in 1921, and the Unione Siciliana's primary activity, as a mutual aid society, was providing life insurance to its membership).

One thing that I had not been aware of before, was that apart from apparently using his BIL's surname for an alias, Frank Ferraro was reported by the Tribune in 1963 to have previously used "Anthony Pinelli" as an alias as well. In the same article, the Tribune described Ferraro as a sophisticated and well-dressed man, fond of expensive tailored suits, and had never been convicted of a crime, remarkable given that he was the underboss of the Chicago mafia.

[PolackTony]

To continue with the theme of the tiny handful of Ragusani that we have seen affiliated with the Chicago mafia:

Salvatore John Cataudella was born in 1952 to John Cataudella and Tena Cannati. It's unclear to me whether he was born in Chicago or NYC, however. Tina was born in NYC to parents from Bari. John was born 1933 in NYC to Salvatore Cataudella of Pozzalo, Ragusa province, and Raffaela Masciopinto of Bari. The Cataudellas lived on E 29 St in the Kips Bay neighborhood on the east side of Manhattan, where they lived at least as late as 1942. Prior to being married to Salvatore, Raffaela was married to Giuseppe Albergo of Bari and had several kids with him in Chicago and Indiana. After he died in 1922, she moved to NYC and remarried. I'm not sure exactly when the Cataudellas relocated to Chicago. In 1963, another son, hoodlum Michael Cataudella, was living at Racine and Erie in the Grand Ave Patch. Michael was shot to death in a suspected "syndicate" hit in 1969, at which time he was living near Meade and Dickens in the Galewood area of the NW side. Salvatore (1970) and Raffaela (1971) both died in Chicago. John Cataudella died in 1993, and Tena in 2019.

In March 1928, on the heels of the murder of "Diamond Joe" Esposito in the Taylor St Patch, Giovanni Infantino, was shot to death in his apartment on the 1100 block of S Peoria, in the Taylor St Patch (at Grenshaw; long since demolished for the construction of the UIC Circle Campus). Infantino was born in 1902 in Pozzalo, Ragusa, and was said to have been a "cousin" of Samuzzo Amatuna, slain three years before (I was unable to confirm if they were actually related, but they were at the least paesani). Investigators reported to the papers that Infantino was also a friend of Esposito and had reportedly met with Esposito and others shortly before Esposito's murder. Thus, LE believed that Infantino's murder was tied to that of Esposito, and were seeking Infantino's roommate, Salvatore Cataudella, for questioning, believing that the latter was implicated. This was Sal Cataudella's grandfather noted above, also from Pozzalo. It would seem that following the murder of Infantino in 1928, Cataudella fled Chicago, with his new wife Raffaella Masciopinto, and they settled in Manhattan, where their first child together, Carmello Cataudella, was born in 1929. The Catuadellas returned to Chicago decades later, with Salvatore dying in Chicago in 1970.

As noted above, Sal C's uncle, Michael Cataudella, was a mob-connected burglar who lived in the Grand Ave Patch in the 60s. In 1963, Michael Cataudella was pinched for a Park Ridge home burglary with Phillip Fiore and Thomas Pennavaria. The three were represented by outfit-controlled defense attorneys Mike Brodkin and Charles Porcelli. The trial included the sensational accusation in court by the prosecution that the defense was actively tampering with witnesses, including intimidation; witness Peter Jackstis testified that he had been approached directly by Porcelli, and following this had received threatening phone calls and had his car shot at. The three defendants were convicted and Michael Cataudella was sentenced to 2 to 5 years. Following his release, he was living on the 2100 block of N Meade, at Dickens, in the Galewood neighborhood on the NW side. In late December 1969, Michael Cataudella's corpse was found in his car, shot twice in the head, and frozen solid after sitting for about a week in Chicago's winter weather. As noted above, investigators believed that this was a mob-related hit, with Cataudella's associates Joseph Nardello, Arthur Bravieri, and Frank Lotta named as wanted for questioning by CPD (unsurprisingly, names associated with the Grand Ave crew). Father Salvatore Cataudella died suddenly of natural causes several weeks later, with the shock of his son's murder I'd suspect being a contributing factor.

[PolackTony]

As noted above, in 1922 Giovanni Gurrieri, presumed relative of Frank Ferraro, was shot to death at 23rd Pl and Princeton in Chinatown. In February of 1919, a man was found dead, shot twice in the head, at the entrance to the alley at Princeton and 23rd. In his pocket he had the phone number for Giovanni Salerno, who operated a butcher shop at Taylor and Halsted (Salerno, who later moved to Berwyn, was from Rovito, Cosenza, hometown of the Buccieris). The slain man was Luigi Cascio, born 1884 in Villarosa to Salvatore Cascio of Campofelice di Roccella and Felicia Saia of Cefalù. The Cascios lived in Villarosa before arriving in the US and settled in East Palestine, OH, where they established themselves as produce merchants. On his WW1 draft card, Luigi Cascio was living in Chicagoland, in Geneva, Kane County IL, where he operated a grocery and produce business; he also listed his closest relative as a Rosa Cascio, living at 26th and Wells in Chinatown, a couple of blocks from where Cascio was killed. I’m not sure what their actual relation was, but there were, unsurprisingly, Cascios from CdR in Chicago so they may have been cousins.

Interesting to note the links back in Sicily between Villarosa and CdR/Cefalù, on the periphery of Tèrmini Imerese, given that both areas figure in the mafia in both Chicago and the Pittsburgh region.

[PolackTony]

In March 1927, Melchiorre Licari was shot and killed in front of a saloon that he owned at 37th and LaSalle, in Chicago’s Southside “Black Belt” neighborhood. Licari was born 1884 in Marsala, and had relocated to the black Southside after previously living in the Taylor St Patch. Born in Marsala in 1884, Licari had arrived in the US in 1907 and settled in Chicago, with one of the witnesses to his naturalization being Vincenzo “Jim” Genna. Investigators believed that Licari’s murder was tied to the wave of violence in the 19th Ward surrounding the Aldermanic campaign of boss Tony D’Andrea and his slaying, denoting Licari as a “D’Andrea partisan”. Licari was a member of the Italian-American Education Club, the Gennas’ Marsalese society, and had been arrested at the club in 1920 with D’Andrea and Angelo Genna; in 1917, Licari gave 917 S Miller (between Taylor and Cabrini), the club’s address, as his address.