General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

[PolackTony]

Speaking of Cooley I just impulse-bought his book on the cheap at a used book store. Is it actually worth reading?

Yes, for sure IMO. I have my issues with Cooley but you just can’t take him seriously when it comes organizational stuff; he was in the position to see how a lot of operational stuff worked but had very little insight into the actual mafia organization. Keep in mind that he was a coke head dirtbag former cop turned outfit lackey/degenerate gambler. He likes to make a big deal out of his noble motivations for flipping. While one has to recognize that wearing a wire on guys like Marcy took tremendous fuckin coglioni (seriously), he most likely did it because he knew that he knew too much and once he outlived his usefulness the outfit would drop him like a hot potato (ie, the trunk symphony).

[Ivan]

Speaking of Cooley I just impulse-bought his book on the cheap at a used book store. Is it actually worth reading?

Keep in mind that he was a coke head dirtbag former cop turned outfit lackey/degenerate gambler. He likes to make a big deal out of his noble motivations for flipping.

This is why I asked lol; flipping through the pages and reading here and there he just seemed like a classic self-aggrandizing addict. You're definitely right that wearing a wire on those people was just an insane thing to do (given his history I wouldn't be shocked if some of his courage in that respect was chemically-induced; I too can do some astonishingly ballsy things if I pop some etizolam 30 minutes beforehand).

[NorthBuffalo]

I was looking into Robert Cooley's LIUNA testimony and he mentions this Michael Collela who sounds like a serious scumbag and beat a female police officer nearly to death but got off with a crooked judge. He also beat up some young kids from Italy. He was of course in a local too but sounds like he was eventually sentenced to prison. Anyone know if he's around today? I would expect his career choices are limited.

Also wonder why he would go after some young italian kids and why the kid took off to italy without staying to testify.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/11/ ... p-beating/

[cavita]

I was looking into Robert Cooley's LIUNA testimony and he mentions this Michael Collela who sounds like a serious scumbag and beat a female police officer nearly to death but got off with a crooked judge. He also beat up some young kids from Italy. He was of course in a local too but sounds like he was eventually sentenced to prison. Anyone know if he's around today? I would expect his career choices are limited.

Also wonder why he would go after some young italian kids and why the kid took off to italy without staying to testify.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/11/ ... p-beating/

If I'm correct, his brother is Santino Colella, who was big into narcotics with the Outfit and worked under Pete "Moustache Pete" Labelestra.

[PolackTony]

I was looking into Robert Cooley's LIUNA testimony and he mentions this Michael Collela who sounds like a serious scumbag and beat a female police officer nearly to death but got off with a crooked judge. He also beat up some young kids from Italy. He was of course in a local too but sounds like he was eventually sentenced to prison. Anyone know if he's around today? I would expect his career choices are limited.

Also wonder why he would go after some young italian kids and why the kid took off to italy without staying to testify.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/11/ ... p-beating/

He has been discussed before in this thread.

viewtopic.php?p=259148#p259148

From what was reported, he beat up an Italian college student studying in Chicago after the kid bumped into him at a nightclub in Schaumburg. Didn’t seem like there was any deeper story to it then Colella being an asshole. The kid returned to Italy a couple of days after the beating, so I would presume that he received some threats. That Colella was connected in some way is demonstrated by the fact that Marcy had ordered Cooley to “represent” Colella for the cop beating case, which was tossed by the judge in a bench trial after Cooley bribed him. The judge, Lawrence Passarella, was forced off the bench due to public outcry after the Colella case.

[PolackTony]

I was looking into Robert Cooley's LIUNA testimony and he mentions this Michael Collela who sounds like a serious scumbag and beat a female police officer nearly to death but got off with a crooked judge. He also beat up some young kids from Italy. He was of course in a local too but sounds like he was eventually sentenced to prison. Anyone know if he's around today? I would expect his career choices are limited.

Also wonder why he would go after some young italian kids and why the kid took off to italy without staying to testify.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/11/ ... p-beating/

If I'm correct, his brother is Santino Colella, who was big into narcotics with the Outfit and worked under Pete "Moustache Pete" Labelestra.

I don’t believe that Mike and Santino Colella are closely related. At least I didn’t see anything to support that when I looked into it and my guess was if there was any relation it was back in Bari. Did someone tell you that they are brothers?

[cavita]

I was looking into Robert Cooley's LIUNA testimony and he mentions this Michael Collela who sounds like a serious scumbag and beat a female police officer nearly to death but got off with a crooked judge. He also beat up some young kids from Italy. He was of course in a local too but sounds like he was eventually sentenced to prison. Anyone know if he's around today? I would expect his career choices are limited.

Also wonder why he would go after some young italian kids and why the kid took off to italy without staying to testify.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/11/ ... p-beating/

If I'm correct, his brother is Santino Colella, who was big into narcotics with the Outfit and worked under Pete "Moustache Pete" Labelestra.

I don’t believe that Mike and Santino Colella are closely related. At least I didn’t see anything to support that when I looked into it and my guess was if there was any relation it was back in Bari. Did someone tell you that they are brothers?

No, no. That's just off the top of my head what I had thought I heard or read. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong.

[PolackTony]

I was looking into Robert Cooley's LIUNA testimony and he mentions this Michael Collela who sounds like a serious scumbag and beat a female police officer nearly to death but got off with a crooked judge. He also beat up some young kids from Italy. He was of course in a local too but sounds like he was eventually sentenced to prison. Anyone know if he's around today? I would expect his career choices are limited.

Also wonder why he would go after some young italian kids and why the kid took off to italy without staying to testify.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/11/ ... p-beating/

If I'm correct, his brother is Santino Colella, who was big into narcotics with the Outfit and worked under Pete "Moustache Pete" Labelestra.

I don’t believe that Mike and Santino Colella are closely related. At least I didn’t see anything to support that when I looked into it and my guess was if there was any relation it was back in Bari. Did someone tell you that they are brothers?

No, no. That's just off the top of my head what I had thought I heard or read. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong.

Mike Colella was related by marriage to some other interesting people, though, which explains his clout.

I have Mike Colella’s parents as Leonard Colella (d. 2006) and Connie LaBarbera. Now, Connie’s sister Marie was married to Nunzio Tisci (d. 2004), a very well-known Chicago attorney who was a supervisor in the Cook County Public Defender’s Office. According to Cooley, he understood Tisci to have been Mike Colella’s “uncle” and Tisci met with Pat Marcy at Councillor’s Row prior to Cooley being ordered to represent Colella.

Now, Nunzio’s older brother was Anthony “Tony” Tisci, also an attorney (d. 2002 in AZ). Tony Tisci, who came up as a clerk and secretary for mobbed-up politicians Rollie Libonati and Frank Annunzio (the later of whom could have himself been an LCN member, or at least there were indications that the FBI believed that he was made). Tony Tisci was also the son-in-law of Sam Giancana, of course, marrying Bonnie Giancana in 1959 in Miami (the reception was held at the Fontainebleau, of course).

I’ve stated before that I suspect that Santino Colella may have been born in Bari, as I was never able to verify any parents for him in the US. He is definitely not Mike Colella’s brother. Mike Colella’s paternal grandfather Michele Colella was from Bari (while the Tiscis’ father Michele Tisci was from Acquaviva delle Fonti, Bari), but Colella is a common surname in Bari. No evidence that I saw that there is any relation between these two Colellas.

[Snakes]

I was looking into Robert Cooley's LIUNA testimony and he mentions this Michael Collela who sounds like a serious scumbag and beat a female police officer nearly to death but got off with a crooked judge. He also beat up some young kids from Italy. He was of course in a local too but sounds like he was eventually sentenced to prison. Anyone know if he's around today? I would expect his career choices are limited.

Also wonder why he would go after some young italian kids and why the kid took off to italy without staying to testify.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/11/ ... p-beating/

He has been discussed before in this thread.

viewtopic.php?p=259148#p259148

From what was reported, he beat up an Italian college student studying in Chicago after the kid bumped into him at a nightclub in Schaumburg. Didn’t seem like there was any deeper story to it then Colella being an asshole. The kid returned to Italy a couple of days after the beating, so I would presume that he received some threats. That Colella was connected in some way is demonstrated by the fact that Marcy had ordered Cooley to “represent” Colella for the cop beating case, which was tossed by the judge in a bench trial after Cooley bribed him. The judge, Lawrence Passarella, was forced off the bench due to public outcry after the Colella case.

Cooley tried to persuade Marcy to let him have Colella plead guilty to a lesser battery charge, but Marcy persisted with the bribe -- presumably so Colella would have nothing at all on his record.

Nunzio Tisci was a "top supervisor" in the Cook County public defender's office and was described as an associate of both Marcy and Michael Colella's uncle. Tisci was involved in the bribery to fix Colella's case.

[Snakes]

Also, the 13k paid to Judge Wilson to fix the Aleman case is 68.5k in 2014 money, which sounds a lot better to me, although still not enough for me to fix a case if I was a judge (how much do judge's make?), but I'm not sure what Wilson's financial situation was like. Even if people make good money, for some it goes out as fast as it comes in.

[PolackTony]

I was looking into Robert Cooley's LIUNA testimony and he mentions this Michael Collela who sounds like a serious scumbag and beat a female police officer nearly to death but got off with a crooked judge. He also beat up some young kids from Italy. He was of course in a local too but sounds like he was eventually sentenced to prison. Anyone know if he's around today? I would expect his career choices are limited.

Also wonder why he would go after some young italian kids and why the kid took off to italy without staying to testify.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/11/ ... p-beating/

He has been discussed before in this thread.

viewtopic.php?p=259148#p259148

From what was reported, he beat up an Italian college student studying in Chicago after the kid bumped into him at a nightclub in Schaumburg. Didn’t seem like there was any deeper story to it then Colella being an asshole. The kid returned to Italy a couple of days after the beating, so I would presume that he received some threats. That Colella was connected in some way is demonstrated by the fact that Marcy had ordered Cooley to “represent” Colella for the cop beating case, which was tossed by the judge in a bench trial after Cooley bribed him. The judge, Lawrence Passarella, was forced off the bench due to public outcry after the Colella case.

Cooley tried to persuade Marcy to let him have Colella plead guilty to a lesser battery charge, but Marcy persisted with the bribe -- presumably so Colella would have nothing at all on his record.

Nunzio Tisci was a "top supervisor" in the Cook County public defender's office and was described as an associate of both Marcy and Michael Colella's uncle. Tisci was involved in the bribery to fix Colella's case.

See what I posted above. The Tiscis were indeed very well-connected people.

[Snakes]

I was looking into Robert Cooley's LIUNA testimony and he mentions this Michael Collela who sounds like a serious scumbag and beat a female police officer nearly to death but got off with a crooked judge. He also beat up some young kids from Italy. He was of course in a local too but sounds like he was eventually sentenced to prison. Anyone know if he's around today? I would expect his career choices are limited.

Also wonder why he would go after some young italian kids and why the kid took off to italy without staying to testify.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/11/ ... p-beating/

He has been discussed before in this thread.

viewtopic.php?p=259148#p259148

From what was reported, he beat up an Italian college student studying in Chicago after the kid bumped into him at a nightclub in Schaumburg. Didn’t seem like there was any deeper story to it then Colella being an asshole. The kid returned to Italy a couple of days after the beating, so I would presume that he received some threats. That Colella was connected in some way is demonstrated by the fact that Marcy had ordered Cooley to “represent” Colella for the cop beating case, which was tossed by the judge in a bench trial after Cooley bribed him. The judge, Lawrence Passarella, was forced off the bench due to public outcry after the Colella case.

Cooley tried to persuade Marcy to let him have Colella plead guilty to a lesser battery charge, but Marcy persisted with the bribe -- presumably so Colella would have nothing at all on his record.

Nunzio Tisci was a "top supervisor" in the Cook County public defender's office and was described as an associate of both Marcy and Michael Colella's uncle. Tisci was involved in the bribery to fix Colella's case.

See what I posted above. The Tiscis were indeed very well-connected people.

Ah, I must have missed that

[Ivan]

DeLaurentis family charity foundation. I'm told this is Solly D's daughter in law.

https://www.sollysway.org/about

[PolackTony]

DeLaurentis family charity foundation. I'm told this is Solly D's daughter in law.

https://www.sollysway.org/about

Correct.

[NorthBuffalo]

Here is a random detail on Salvatore DeLaurentis I dug up - in court transcripts with the Infelise indictment, he's listed as renting a property to Joseph Penze: https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/di ... 2/2596651/

Is this the Joseph Penze who ran the Niles Police Department?
https://m.facebook.com/NilesPDIL/posts/ ... 905952853/

That would be quite incredible if so.