General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

[Ivan]

Paulie is still around a lot of these guys. He’s at Capri all the time in the company of Rudy Fratto, Chrissy Spina and obviously Gigi. He also hangs with Louie Rainone who he grew up with.

This is just what I've been told, so take it with a grain of salt, but a fairly knowledgeable source tells me that Rainone, Paulie, and Gigi (those three specifically) are going to be taken down soon in a big cocaine conspiracy bust, because they are moving a huge amount of blow with Capri as the base of operations and getting a lot of attention from the feds. Dunno about this. I can see them selling lots of drugs (Antiliar's source alleged the same thing about the Cicero crew under Rainone) but I'm skeptical about the part where they are using Capri for that purpose.

[Patrickgold]

Paulie is still around a lot of these guys. He’s at Capri all the time in the company of Rudy Fratto, Chrissy Spina and obviously Gigi. He also hangs with Louie Rainone who he grew up with.

This is just what I've been told, so take it with a grain of salt, but a fairly knowledgeable source tells me that Rainone, Paulie, and Gigi (those three specifically) are going to be taken down soon in a big cocaine conspiracy bust, because they are moving a huge amount of blow with Capri as the base of operations and getting a lot of attention from the feds. Dunno about this. I can see them selling lots of drugs (Antiliar's source alleged the same thing about the Cicero crew under Rainone) but I'm skeptical about the part where they are using Capri for that purpose.

I have heard that rumor before about drugs being traffic through there which to me makes no sense. The restaurant grosses 5 or 6 million a year and is hugely successful. Gigi also got a nice PP loan during Covid. I have been to Capri many times including the club next door. Nobody from what I see is peddling shit there. Gigi would have to be stupid to mess up a good thing like Capri. That being said, these guys are criminals so it’s possible. Maybe there using it has a distribution center or something who knows. Usually you don’t hang out at the place you traffic out of but again who knows.

[NorthBuffalo]

Great background as always PolackTony on Carparelli's in-laws. I'm told she's a cousin of Nick and Solly Cataudella as well - the Wasz family are also cousins as is Vito Scavo, Joe Fosco's old nemesis. There was a group of Cataudella cousins who pulled a similar eBay scam and were indicted.

You would think Paulie is not the most popular guy around right now. He's quite well-known, got a lot of these guys indicted by being sloppy - brought in the main informant himself (George Brown) and he seems to have clearly been on the outs with his wife's family, who include some notable people. I wonder if he's still around these guys or just a crash dummy.

Paulie is still around a lot of these guys. He’s at Capri all the time in the company of Rudy Fratto, Chrissy Spina and obviously Gigi. He also hangs with Louie Rainone who he grew up with. I would say he is back in good graces. He definitely likes being a gangster and is willing to get his hands dirty so he’s not going anywhere unless he gets pinched.

Spina and Fratto would be two key guys today and from different crews. I'm surprised they would meet in public like that - always assumed these Chicago guys are quite low-key and cautious. They seem to only meet in Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks parking lots.

[Patrickgold]

Great background as always PolackTony on Carparelli's in-laws. I'm told she's a cousin of Nick and Solly Cataudella as well - the Wasz family are also cousins as is Vito Scavo, Joe Fosco's old nemesis. There was a group of Cataudella cousins who pulled a similar eBay scam and were indicted.

You would think Paulie is not the most popular guy around right now. He's quite well-known, got a lot of these guys indicted by being sloppy - brought in the main informant himself (George Brown) and he seems to have clearly been on the outs with his wife's family, who include some notable people. I wonder if he's still around these guys or just a crash dummy.

Paulie is still around a lot of these guys. He’s at Capri all the time in the company of Rudy Fratto, Chrissy Spina and obviously Gigi. He also hangs with Louie Rainone who he grew up with. I would say he is back in good graces. He definitely likes being a gangster and is willing to get his hands dirty so he’s not going anywhere unless he gets pinched.

Spina and Fratto would be two key guys today and from different crews. I'm surprised they would meet in public like that - always assumed these Chicago guys are quite low-key and cautious. They seem to only meet in Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks parking lots.

You got members of three crews meeting there at one time, Cicero, EP and Grand. I found that interesting too. It actually is a good place to meet bc it is loud. A mic would have a hard time picking up what people say bc of the noise.

[Ivan]

I have heard that rumor before about drugs being traffic through there which to me makes no sense. The restaurant grosses 5 or 6 million a year and is hugely successful. Gigi also got a nice PP loan during Covid. I have been to Capri many times including the club next door. Nobody from what I see is peddling shit there. Gigi would have to be stupid to mess up a good thing like Capri. That being said, these guys are criminals so it’s possible. Maybe there using it has a distribution center or something who knows. Usually you don’t hang out at the place you traffic out of but again who knows.

What I was told was that it's like the hub for the operation, the stuff is actually dealt in Chicago mostly.

I don't believe it either. Capri is too famous and high-profile with all the social media and Gigi being a minor celebrity of sorts.

I asked the guy who told me this if he was OK with me mentioning it on forums etc. and he said "go ahead, it's not exactly a secret".

But I think it's bullshit, to be clear. Does not pass the sniff test.

[PolackTony]

Someone has posted this claim before here, I don’t recall who or when exactly. It makes no sense of course. Also unclear to me what it even *means*: i.e., what is a hub of operations or whatever this person actually said? They are storing product there? They are using it as a transshipment or repacking node? They are sitting around with little excel worksheets of transactions and plotting together? They are meeting suppliers or clientele there? Unclear to me what the substance of the claim would even be, though any of these scenarios I would find ludicrous (with the exception of the latter, somewhat, in that anybody can go to a popular restaurant and sit at a table). Guys in their network have connections to all sorts of other businesses — trucking companies, warehouses, etc. — that would make much more sense for whatever a base of operations or whatever people are saying it is.

My general assumption is that the extent of core LCN affiliate “involvement” with drugs today is going to most likely consist of some guys financing it and/or taxing some operations (e.g., using whatever remaining connections persist with local LE in the burbs for example as leverage for “protection”, as in “if you’re with us we can tell you if we get tipped off about any investigations going down”).

These guys are going to have ties to gangbangers, bikers, and likely to cartel affiliates. I would strongly presume that any direct involvement in narcotics is going to be largely delegated to and handled by more peripheral affiliates who are with these groups. This is the picture painted by the FBI for the 80s/90s, with affiliates of Sicilian CN and the mainland Italian groups operating narcotics rings “on behalf” of Chicago LCN. I doubt that whatever involvement today is going to be much different, though the people from Sicily/Italy are presumably not a big factor (my belief is that what’s left of those older Italian OC operations in Chicagoland has since been largely absorbed into local LCN).

These claims that have been floating around could well have been propagated by someone with a beef or grudge against some of these guys, to make them look bad and bring further heat and public attention on them (a scenario that I would find a lot more plausible than any tangible/substantive narcotics business operations going on at Capri). Anyone can get the rumor game running and before you know it, everyone “knows it” and it’s “no secret”.

[Patrickgold]

Someone has posted this claim before here, I don’t recall who or when exactly. It makes no sense of course. Also unclear to me what it even *means*: i.e., what is a hub of operations or whatever this person actually said? They are storing product there? They are using it as a transshipment or repacking node? They are sitting around with little excel worksheets of transactions and plotting together? They are meeting suppliers or clientele there? Unclear to me what the substance of the claim would even be, though any of these scenarios I would find ludicrous (with the exception of the latter, somewhat, in that anybody can go to a popular restaurant and sit at a table). Guys in their network have connections to all sorts of other businesses — trucking companies, warehouses, etc. — that would make much more sense for whatever a base of operations or whatever people are saying it is.

My general assumption is that the extent of core LCN affiliate “involvement” with drugs today is going to most likely consist of some guys financing it and/or taxing some operations (e.g., using whatever remaining connections persist with local LE in the burbs for example as leverage for “protection”, as in “if you’re with us we can tell you if we get tipped off about any investigations going down”).

These guys are going to have ties to gangbangers, bikers, and likely to cartel affiliates. I would strongly presume that any direct involvement in narcotics is going to be largely delegated to and handled by more peripheral affiliates who are with these groups. This is the picture painted by the FBI for the 80s/90s, with affiliates of Sicilian CN and the mainland Italian groups operating narcotics rings “on behalf” of Chicago LCN. I doubt that whatever involvement today is going to be much different, though the people from Sicily/Italy are presumably not a big factor (my belief is that what’s left of those older Italian OC operations in Chicagoland has since been largely absorbed into local LCN).

These claims that have been floating around could well have been propagated by someone with a beef or grudge against some of these guys, to make them look bad and bring further heat and public attention on them (a scenario that I would find a lot more plausible than any tangible/substantive narcotics business operations going on at Capri). Anyone can get the rumor game running and before you know it, everyone “knows it” and it’s “no secret”.

Very valid points Tony. Another valid point would be would the possible alleged heads of the Grand Ave and EP crew (Fratto and Spina) appreciate being associated with narcotics scheme (bc they hang out at Capri) that would bring a lot of unnecessary heat to them?

[NorthBuffalo]

Great background as always PolackTony on Carparelli's in-laws. I'm told she's a cousin of Nick and Solly Cataudella as well - the Wasz family are also cousins as is Vito Scavo, Joe Fosco's old nemesis. There was a group of Cataudella cousins who pulled a similar eBay scam and were indicted.

You would think Paulie is not the most popular guy around right now. He's quite well-known, got a lot of these guys indicted by being sloppy - brought in the main informant himself (George Brown) and he seems to have clearly been on the outs with his wife's family, who include some notable people. I wonder if he's still around these guys or just a crash dummy.

Paulie is still around a lot of these guys. He’s at Capri all the time in the company of Rudy Fratto, Chrissy Spina and obviously Gigi. He also hangs with Louie Rainone who he grew up with. I would say he is back in good graces. He definitely likes being a gangster and is willing to get his hands dirty so he’s not going anywhere unless he gets pinched.

Spina and Fratto would be two key guys today and from different crews. I'm surprised they would meet in public like that - always assumed these Chicago guys are quite low-key and cautious. They seem to only meet in Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks parking lots.

You got members of three crews meeting there at one time, Cicero, EP and Grand. I found that interesting too. It actually is a good place to meet bc it is loud. A mic would have a hard time picking up what people say bc of the noise.

I'm not sure its the mic they need to be weary of its the surveillance of them meeting - that's conspiracy and shows an organized enterprise. Even in the labor unions guys like Joe Belli would literally meet on the street with DiFronzo to make it always appear they bumped into each other, which is how they explained things during that investigation in the 1990s or meet at houses DiFronzo owned that were being rented in Elmwood Park. In this day and age, I would think guys are exceptionally cautious. That said, maybe the FBI isn't tailing these guys like they used to during the DiFronzo days.

[PolackTony]

Great background as always PolackTony on Carparelli's in-laws. I'm told she's a cousin of Nick and Solly Cataudella as well - the Wasz family are also cousins as is Vito Scavo, Joe Fosco's old nemesis. There was a group of Cataudella cousins who pulled a similar eBay scam and were indicted.

You would think Paulie is not the most popular guy around right now. He's quite well-known, got a lot of these guys indicted by being sloppy - brought in the main informant himself (George Brown) and he seems to have clearly been on the outs with his wife's family, who include some notable people. I wonder if he's still around these guys or just a crash dummy.

Paulie is still around a lot of these guys. He’s at Capri all the time in the company of Rudy Fratto, Chrissy Spina and obviously Gigi. He also hangs with Louie Rainone who he grew up with. I would say he is back in good graces. He definitely likes being a gangster and is willing to get his hands dirty so he’s not going anywhere unless he gets pinched.

Spina and Fratto would be two key guys today and from different crews. I'm surprised they would meet in public like that - always assumed these Chicago guys are quite low-key and cautious. They seem to only meet in Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks parking lots.

You got members of three crews meeting there at one time, Cicero, EP and Grand. I found that interesting too. It actually is a good place to meet bc it is loud. A mic would have a hard time picking up what people say bc of the noise.

I'm not sure its the mic they need to be weary of its the surveillance of them meeting - that's conspiracy and shows an organized enterprise. Even in the labor unions guys like Joe Belli would literally meet on the street with DiFronzo to make it always appear they bumped into each other, which is how they explained things during that investigation in the 1990s or meet at houses DiFronzo owned that were being rented in Elmwood Park. In this day and age, I would think guys are exceptionally cautious. That said, maybe the FBI isn't tailing these guys like they used to during the DiFronzo days.

My take is that meeting in a busy restaurant is similar in terms of cover.

Some guy from one table passes by another table, stops and chats for a couple of minutes, moves on. Two guys sit down together at the bar, watch the Bears lose again.

“You were surveilled meeting with Joe Blow on such and such date…


What meeting? What Joe Blow? That guy in the restaurant, you say? I don’t even know who he is. I can’t stop someone from striking up a conversation with me in public.”

[PolackTony]

Someone has posted this claim before here, I don’t recall who or when exactly. It makes no sense of course. Also unclear to me what it even *means*: i.e., what is a hub of operations or whatever this person actually said? They are storing product there? They are using it as a transshipment or repacking node? They are sitting around with little excel worksheets of transactions and plotting together? They are meeting suppliers or clientele there? Unclear to me what the substance of the claim would even be, though any of these scenarios I would find ludicrous (with the exception of the latter, somewhat, in that anybody can go to a popular restaurant and sit at a table). Guys in their network have connections to all sorts of other businesses — trucking companies, warehouses, etc. — that would make much more sense for whatever a base of operations or whatever people are saying it is.

My general assumption is that the extent of core LCN affiliate “involvement” with drugs today is going to most likely consist of some guys financing it and/or taxing some operations (e.g., using whatever remaining connections persist with local LE in the burbs for example as leverage for “protection”, as in “if you’re with us we can tell you if we get tipped off about any investigations going down”).

These guys are going to have ties to gangbangers, bikers, and likely to cartel affiliates. I would strongly presume that any direct involvement in narcotics is going to be largely delegated to and handled by more peripheral affiliates who are with these groups. This is the picture painted by the FBI for the 80s/90s, with affiliates of Sicilian CN and the mainland Italian groups operating narcotics rings “on behalf” of Chicago LCN. I doubt that whatever involvement today is going to be much different, though the people from Sicily/Italy are presumably not a big factor (my belief is that what’s left of those older Italian OC operations in Chicagoland has since been largely absorbed into local LCN).

These claims that have been floating around could well have been propagated by someone with a beef or grudge against some of these guys, to make them look bad and bring further heat and public attention on them (a scenario that I would find a lot more plausible than any tangible/substantive narcotics business operations going on at Capri). Anyone can get the rumor game running and before you know it, everyone “knows it” and it’s “no secret”.

Very valid points Tony. Another valid point would be would the possible alleged heads of the Grand Ave and EP crew (Fratto and Spina) appreciate being associated with narcotics scheme (bc they hang out at Capri) that would bring a lot of unnecessary heat to them?

+1. It just makes no sense. I really suspect someone with a beef started spreading this, though it could also just be someone wanting to make himself seem like he’s “in the know” to other people on the internet.

[Ivan]

I've worked in the backs of restaurants quite a bit and they aren't an ideal environment for running anything other than the restaurant itself. Very cramped, messy, etc.

That arrests.org website I got Carparelli Jr.'s pic from can be fun to search for familiar names from charts etc. This guy seems to be a real overachiever in getting featured on it: https://illinois.arrests.org/search.php ... ame=Rovito

[PolackTony]

Anyone know if this guy 'Mario Agate' is legitimate? My friends in Chicago say he used to be a collector for John Monteleone's juice operation. He is a former 12th street player along with his brother 'Renzo' per this guy but older than the Carparelli generation. I found one indictment online for cocaine where he is fighting deportation back to Italy but not much else - he seems completely fried from drugs and somewhat high during this episode. No idea if he's real or full of shit - the Tony Accardo bodyguard story (Abe?) leads me to believe the latter, but these guys also exaggerate other stories all the time to make themselves more relevant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdPkFJQu0C8

Mariano “Mario” Agate Jr. I believe that him and his older brother Lorenzo were Players but I’m not sure about anything more. Sicilian immigrant family that settled in Cicero.

What’s really interesting is that I believe these Agates are from Mazara del Vallo. Another Mariano Agate, who *could* well have been a cousin of Mario’s father, was the notorious boss of Mazara del Vallo and capomandamento of the Mazara district.

To follow-up. While there were other Agates in Chicago from Mazara and Campobello (including *another* Mariano Agate), I can confirm that these Agates were in fact from Marsala. Mario Agate was born there in 1963 and came to Chicago as a kid with his parents and brother Lorenzo. Several of father Mariano's siblings also immigrated to Chicago in the '60s, including brother Stefano Agate, who, like Mariano, operated a restaurant in Chicago for many years before retiring to CA. Interesting to note that Stefano Agate and their sister Antonina both married siblings, Maria Marino and her brother Vincenzo Marino. The Marinos immigrated to Chicago in the 1960s along with several of their relatives from Marsala. Worth noting here that the mother of Mario and Maria Marino was named Caterina Genna. The surname is not uncommon in Marsala, so I can't say if they were related to the Taylor St Gennas, but all of these Marsalesi in Chicago were plugged in with their paesani from Taylor St who had settled in Chicago during the "first wave" of Italian immigration to the US. Also brings to mind that when Mike Genna was killed in a shootout with CPD in 1925, the car he was riding in at the time was registered under the name "Frank Marino".



I did listen to the podcast interview with Mario Agate. I will say that to his credit, he didn't seem to overhype his own role at all. Said that he was a HS football player (true, at Morton East HS) and tough guy as a kid who got recruited to do collections for his dad and some of his dad's buddies (unnamed) in the early 1980s. He did not say that he was a Player, though I'm pretty certain that he and his brother in fact were. Still, he did at one point note that he used to wear an earring in his left ear only, which if you know what's up you will catch what that means (a signifier for members of the People alliance). I have no idea who the hosts are, but they kept trying to steer him to talk about mob stuff while Agate was mainly interested in telling kids to stay away from gangs, drugs, and prison. The interviewers were bringing up stuff to him from Gravano and at one point even asked him "So are you getting involved in this beef between New York and Philly guys?". I have no idea what universe someone would have to inhabit to even consider asking a guy like this something like that (or, anyone, really). The hosts were calling him an "associate" of the Chicago outfit, but Agate himself was like "I was never *really* one of the guys in that, I just grew up around them" (something to that effect), as his descent into drug addiction caused guys in that world to stay away from him.

Unlike a grifter like Chuckie Miceli, (where every other word out of the guy's mouth is Giancana, Trafficante, or Gotti), Agate didn't really name-drop or try to fake flex IMO. He did say that he met Accardo when he was a kid and that Accardo was a friend of his father who used to come and eat at their restaurant and hang out with his dad (he also said something about Accardo's "bodyguard" being some guy named "Abe"; not sure what to make of that. Could be making that part up, or mixing someone's name up, or using some guy's nickname). This is totally plausible to me. Mariano Agate Sr was exactly the kind of guy who I would expect to have been friendly with Accardo. Accardo's inner circle of personal friends/associates included a number of successful Sicilian-born businessmen. The Agates were fellow paesani from Trapani who were restauranteurs, in an era when we know that Chicago LCN members had close relationships with a number of other Sicilian restaurant owners, to the extent that their businesses were used for formal mafia affairs (e.g., the 1976 "Last Supper" meeting, the 1983 ceremony; likely there are many other relationships that we don't know about). It wouldn't at all surprise me either if Mariano Agate was himself involved, as the son insinuates; e.g., as an associate with money on street or something. NB says that Mario was allegedly collecting for Johny Apes and his guys at one point. Monteleone was himself born in Sicily, so I don't have a hard time seeing him as having potentially been a guy with ties to the Agates (maybe one of Mariano's "friends" that Mario did not name). Monteleone's hometown of Sambuca, of course, also has strong and longstanding connections to nearby Trapani province (as witnessed in a recent iteration with Messina DeNaro's ties to Sambuca).

Yeah, Agate is obviously a fucked up drug addict, which he does not attempt to downplay. A lot of street guys end up this way though. He's just like a lot of older gangbangers I knew in Chicago, many of whom also fell hard into drugs after being around it so much for so much of their lives. Even if Agate wasn't 100% honest here, there are plenty of guys just like him (or, the fictive him that he paints) on the periphery of LCN. Washed-up gangbangers, multiple felony ex-cons scrounging for scratch, aging tough guys from connected families long past their glory years, dope fiends and busted-down drunks. The names that we all know are the guys who *succeeded* in that world, the ones who wound up becoming a "somebody", who made a name for themselves in that life. For every one of them, there is a whole circle of failures, wannabees, has-beens, and nobodies.

[Ivan]

when Mike Genna was killed in a shootout with CPD in 1925

The source of one of my all-time favorite mobster quotes: "Take that, you son of a bitch!"

Tony I think I speak for all of us when I say that I really appreciate these detailed servings of background info you provide on these guys and I'm kind of in awe of it, lol. The Carparelli relatives/in-laws one was especially impressive. Not something I could ever do myself, but I'm glad you're capable.

WRT a lot of these guys ending up like Agate, people on the street gang message boards often claim that the kids in the 12th Street Players today are pretty much all drug addicts these days. Dunno if that's true, but that's what they claim.

[Patrickgold]

Curious if anyone has heard anything recent about Anthony Giannone? I have not heard anything about him since he got busted for a theft ring with Vincent Forliano in 2014. This could be because he possibly cooperated with Law Enforcement at some point in his career. If you don’t remember him, he was once famously caught on tape in the early 2000s telling a debtor that he would bring pain to him every time in rains if he didn’t pay.

[Ivan]

Curious if anyone has heard anything recent about Anthony Giannone? I have not heard anything about him since he got busted for a theft ring with Vincent Forliano in 2014. This could be because he possibly cooperated with Law Enforcement at some point in his career. If you don’t remember him, he was once famously caught on tape in the early 2000s telling a debtor that he would bring pain to him every time in rains if he didn’t pay.

Nice mugshot of him on that site I've been playing around on from I'm assuming the bust you mentioned (same year), but nothing after. https://illinois.arrests.org/search.php ... e=Giannone

Also that's a great quote, I remember the line but didn't know who said it. I love the really creative shit these guys come up with sometimes in their threats etc.