Chicago Outfit Places of Origin

[PolackTony]

Got it - thanks for the background - Cimitile is a name I had not read about but quite interesting how low profile these guys were and assume many retired wealthy. Patronage just seems to be the norm in Chicago -just different than what you see on East Coast.

Chicago was and remains the city where all that *really* matters is who you know. The corollary of that is the old Chicago adage "we don't want nobody who nobody sent", i.e., if you don't have someone with clout backing you, don't bother applying. This was as true in city government as in business or the mob. I've seen accounts of Chicago's business culture, as compared to NYC, as being typified by "closed networks" -- where outsiders have a very difficult time gaining entry -- as opposed to "open networks" (these are originally computer science concepts). Patronage was the lifeblood of institutions that ran via these closed networks. One can see how this sort of thing was very much relevant to the mafia, where the formal organization itself was centered amid intersecting networks formed by Italian hometown/regional origin and Chicago neighborhood dynamics. This was, I believe, a major factor for why the mafia in Chicago, arguably, historically wielded more power over local politics than in any other US city, as the city ran off of patron-client relationships mediated via closed networks in much the same way that local politics operated in Sicily and other parts of Southern Italy.

[PolackTony]

The 1950 FBN list of IL "mafia suspects" named a Nick Raucci, with an address at 157 N Laporte Ave (just north of West End Ave) in the Austin neighborhood on Chicago's Westside.

This was Nicola Raucci, born in 1902 in the comune of San Nicola La Strada, Caserta (then in the Caserta district of the former Terra di Lavoro province), next to the old Camorra stronghold of Maddaloni. He arrived in Chicago in 1920 and settled in the Taylor St Patch. By 1940, Nick Raucci howned and operated his own painting contracting business. His wife was Giuseppa "Josephine Stompanato' born in 1907 in Acerra. After living for a number of years at, first, Polk and Lytle, and then Flournoy and Racine, in the 1940s the Rauccis moved farther west to the Austin address on N Laporte listed by the FBI. Nick Raucci died of natural causes in Chicago in 1970.

While the FBN evidently had reason to believe that Raucci was an affiliate of the Chicago mafia, so far as I'm aware, he never made the papers for any criminal activity. His wife Giuseppa, however, was *probably* a relative of Mickey Cohen's bodyguard Giovanni "Johnny" Stompanato, stabbed to death in LA in 1958 by the daughter of actress Lana Turner, who claimed defense of her mother from the allegedly abusive Stompanato. Johnny Stompanato was born in suburban McHenry County, IL, to parents from Acerra. That his father, Giovanni Stompanato Sr, was at least likely related to Giuseppa's father, Aniello Stompanato, is suggested by both men having named their eldest-born son Carmine, having had daughters named Teresa, and that the Stompanato surname is uncommon.



There was a Michael "Pat Roche" Raucci who made the papers quite a bit in the '40s and '50s. Mike Raucci was a race wire service operator arrested by CPD in 1947, along with Jake Guzik, in connection to the well-publicized murder of race wire service operator James Ragen, who was reportedly killed after resisting attempts by organized crime figures to muscle him out and take over his service. Rauci was also stated at that time to have been a suspect in the 1946 kidnapping of Edward Jones, a black "policy king" who was an independent operator in the numbers racket being muscled by outfit-connected hoodlums. Mike Raucci was also alleged to have been a close associate of Matt Capone, who was arrested at Raucci's Westside home in 1946 and charged with operating a handbook (the charges were subsequently dropped due to CPD not having had a search warrant when they entered Raucci's residence). Police had executed the unauthorized raid on Raucci's home after finding his address in a Westside wireroom operation run by Charles "Chuckie" English.

Mike Raucci lived at West End and Hamlin, in the West Garfield Park neighborhood, in 1946. This was a bit over a mile east of Nick Raucci's home. Despite the surname, the two seem to be totally unrelated. Mike Raucci was born in Chicago to Mauro Michele Raucci and Angelina Ornata of Pomarico, Matera, Basilicata.

Mike Raucci was found deceased by his wife in their Cicero home in 1956, shot once in the head. The death was ruled a suicide. His obituary in the Tribune claimed that he was a "brother" of suspected Chicago member Joseph "Joe Marks" Marcangelo. Notably, Marcangelo was also reputed to have been involved in the Ragen murder.

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".

[Southshore88]

Tony, these write ups tracing the familial connections are amazing and are truly an asset to the forum. In your last post, you mention Sam Farina as a possible member. Is he related to the actor Dennis Farina?

I know he was from Chicago originally and was a former CPD before becoming an actor so was curious if he had any familial connections to the Chicago LCN/Outfit.

[NorthBuffalo]

Tony, these write ups tracing the familial connections are amazing and are truly an asset to the forum. In your last post, you mention Sam Farina as a possible member. Is he related to the actor Dennis Farina?

I know he was from Chicago originally and was a former CPD before becoming an actor so was curious if he had any familial connections to the Chicago LCN/Outfit.

I thought the same thing. Farina hung around Outfit guys if I am not mistaken - he also performed at LIUNA conventions across the country, so you know he knew some of the boys.

[Antiliar]

I looked into Mike Raucci a while ago after reading A History of Violence and seeing that his entry had him listed as an Outfit underboss, which threw me for a loop. I recalled seeing his photo with Matt Capone, and he clearly didn't have any rank over Capone, who as far as I know was never made. If he was made at all he would have been nothing more than a soldier. "Underboss" was either a mistake or bad intell from the Chicago Crime Commission.

[PolackTony]

Tony, these write ups tracing the familial connections are amazing and are truly an asset to the forum. In your last post, you mention Sam Farina as a possible member. Is he related to the actor Dennis Farina?

I know he was from Chicago originally and was a former CPD before becoming an actor so was curious if he had any familial connections to the Chicago LCN/Outfit.

Thanks for the kind words, I’m glad that people find these investigations interesting and useful.

I thought I had touched on this before, as I meant to, but it looks like I hadn’t. Here is what I wrote about the guy who I *believe* was the Sam Farina who the FBI listed as a deceased Chicago LCN member in the 60s:

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.



Looking over a report in William Aloisio's file that cites CG 6968, I was reminded that he identified a "Sam Farino" as having been a member who died prior to 1967. I've been trying to figure out who this could be, and think that I may have hit on a good bet (unless someone has a better one that I've overlooked). In 1957, Salvatore "Sam" Farina, a longtime prominent resident of Melrose Park, died. In 1946, the Tribune had announced that Salvatore's 50th wedding anniversary with his wife, Rosaria DeMeto Farina, was to be celebrated with a service at Mt Carmel Church in Melrose Park and a party with 400 attendees at a hall in Forest Park. The Farinas were born around 1875 in Villalba, Caltanissetta, the hometown of Philly boss Angelo Bruno and of the famed boss of the Villalba family, Calogero Vizzini. They married in Villalba in 1894 and subsequently immigrated to the US, living first in Philadelphia for a number of years before decamping to Delancey, a coal mining village in Jefferson County, PA, near Punxsutawney, and then Pittsburgh. By around 1913, they were living in the Chicago area; in 1917, they lived at 1019 22nd Ave in Melrose Park.

Salvatore's brother Calogero Farina and his wife Maria Giuseppa Vasta, also from Villalba (the Farina brothers's mother was also a Vasta), settled nearby. Calogero's son Joseph "Joe West" Farina was a notorious stick-up man, who made the papers several times. In 1928, Joseph Farina and an accomplice broke out of jail after being pinched for the robbery of a bank in Villa Park. Joe was wounded in a shootout with police and thought to have been hiding out at the Melrose Park property of Sam Farina, who was being investigated for having assisted in the jailbreak. After doing 8 years in prison for the bank robbery, Joe Farina again made the papers in as the manager of a tavern housing illegal slot machines at 1610 W North Ave in MP. In 1942, Joe Farina was killed in a shootout with the owner of a Forest Park liquor store during an attempted hold-up; the papers noted that local police considered Farina a suspect in numerous robberies of taverns and stores in the area.

In 1963, 27-year-old Salvatore Joseph Farina was facing charges for the 1962 robbery of a bank in Downstate Champaign County when he was hit with Federal charges for allegedly traveling to Bellevue, IA, to extort a man there to raise funds to attempt to get Nick Guido out of prison. Guido, an outfit associate and leader of a notorious "torture robbery" gang who was also involved in narcotics, was incarcerated in Stateville at the time. Salvatore Joseph Farina was the grandson of Salvatore Farina, son of Salvatore's son Cataldo "Caddy" Farina and Antoinette Crisarà (family possibly from Campobello di Mazzara).

Apart from criminal activities in the family, Salvatore Farina caught my eye as a potential ID for "Sam Farino" given his close relationships with the Aiuppa family. Salvatore's 1925 naturalization was witnessed by Antonino Aiuppa, of Làscari, and his wife, Frances Abbate Aiuppa (born in Tunisia to parents from Licata and Villalba). Antonino Aiuppa was the paternal uncle of Joey Aiuppa. Salvatore's brother Calogero Farina's 1922 naturalization, in turn, was witnessed by Antonino Aiuppa and brother Salvatore Aiuppa, another of Joey O's uncles.

Was Salvatore Farina an old-time Chicago member who died in 1957 and ID'd by an FBI member source 10 years later? Or was it another guy?

Now, the sadly late and truly great Dennis Farina was born in 1944 in Chicago to Dr Giuseppe “Joseph” Farina and Iolanda Donati. Dr Farina was a Little Sicily physician and native of Villalba, Caltanissetta, while his wife Iolanda (Yolanda) was a native of Buggiano, in the Pistoia province of the Central Italian region of Tuscany. The Farinas lived on North Ave just east of Cleveland, where Dr Farina also had his medical practice serving the local Near Northside Sicilian/Italian community.

Giuseppe Farina was, IMO, very likely related to the Melrose Park Farinas, though I was not able to establish a direct relation. Villalba is and was a small town and there are not many Farinas there, so they were almost certainly cousins, whether more immediate or distant.

Dr Giuseppe Farina’s 1973 obituary. Dennis Farina was a CPD detective on the Northside at the time:



1971 Tribune photo showing Dennis Farina (seated) following a CPD tactical unit raid on an apartment serving as an armory for a Neo-Nazi group near Lawrence and Sheridan in the Northside Uptown neighborhood:

[Southshore88]

Awesome, thanks for the quick reply and great info.

[NorthBuffalo]

Great info and Great photo PolackTony

[PolackTony]

Again, thanks for the kind words, and as always, I'm glad to hear that this is of interest to people.

[PolackTony]

Following up on an exchange that I had with Snakes yesterday.

As noted above, the father of CPD detective-turned-actor Dennis Farina was Dr Giuseppe Farina of Villalba. Dr Farina was born in 1886 to Giuseppe Farina and Giuseppa Pannetieri, both of Villalba. The couple had a daughter, Giuseppina (b. 1890), and an elder son, Filippo (b. 1883; their first son, also named Giuseppe, had died in infancy in Villalba); the entire family immigrated to Chicago around 1900, where Giuseppe Sr owned a grocery store on Townsend Ave (later renamed Hudson Ave) in Little Sicily before he died in 1928.

Filippo Farina married Francesca Colletti, a native of Vicari, in 1908 at San Filippo Benizi Parish. Filippo started out as a laborer for the City of Chicago’s streets department (the precursor of Streets and Sanitation) and worked his way up to foreman before opening his own paving company, which he operated along with a blueberry farm that he owned in New Buffalo, MI (in Berrien County, just over the IN state line).

The youngest of Filippo and Francesca’s five children was Louis P Farina, born in New Buffalo in 1923. Louie Farina was a mobbed-up politician, working his way up first through the City of Chicago Park District, becoming City Parking Commissioner (I’ve previously covered the outfit interests involved in the Loop parking industry) and Deputy Commissioner of Streets and San before being elected 36th Ward Alderman on the NW Side in 1980. As detailed here, he was the first cousin of Dennis Farina, and both were presumably relatives of some degree to the Salvatore Farina who *may have been* a Chicago member who died in 1957.

Louie Farina's political career was cut short in 1983, when he was indicted by the Feds, along with Cook County Commissioner and 48th Ward Democratic Committeeman Marty Tuchow, for extorting a construction contractor for bribes in exchange for permits related to the redevelopment of a Northside apartment building. Unfortunately for Farina and Turchow, the contractor, Jack Walsh, was a cooperating witness for the Feds and wore a wire on Farina as part of an FBI probe into outfit influence in City government. In addition to the exchange of permits for bribes, Farina was recorded discussing bribes in exchange for securing Walsh's nephew a patronage job with the City (i.e., The Chicago Way). Farina was convicted in early 1984 and sentenced to four years in Federal prison, of which he wound up serving 13 months. As summarized by the Chicago Sun-times in 2023, reports in the FBI file of US Congressman Frank Annunzio documented that the FBI had been targeting Farina in an attempt to get him to flip on Annunzio (and, presumably, enabling them higher up the mafia-political apparatus food chain to the 1st Ward Democratic Organization, helmed by LCN members Pat Marcy and Freddie Roti), while Farina refused to cooperate and would not name anyone else as implicated in the bribery scheme. Annunzio served 13 consecutive terms in the US House, from 1965 to 1992, and was suspected by the FBI of having been a Chicago LCN member (he died in 2001). Louie Farina died in 2010.

Father Filippo Farina spent the later years of his life in Homestead, FL, where -- ironically -- his 1976 obit claimed he had attempted to "clean up" politics in Miami-Dade County.

Louie Farina's wife was Rose Torina, born in Chicago in 1931 to Girolamo "James" Torina and Francesca Graziano, both of Ciminna. Girolamo Torina worked as a bricklayer and the family lived at Cleveland and Clybourn, just north of Little Sicily proper. Girolamo Torina arrived initially in Chicago in 1909, bound for an "uncle", Vito Tantillo of Ciminna, then living on Gault Ct. Note that the maternal relatives of Ciminna-born Ross Prio's adopted mother, Caterina Priolo, were also Tantillos.

Recall a prior discussion that I had with B on this thread a while back regarding Paolo Torina, a native of Cimmina shot to death in Chicago in 1920 after spending several years in Pittsburgh. As discussed, Paolo Torina was clearly the "Paolinello" recounted by Nicola Gentile in his later memoirs, a young hoodlum in Chicago who was put under a death sentence by Chicago boss Tony D'Andrea in the 1910s for unauthorized robberies. While Gentile sponsored Paolinello for induction into the Pittsburgh Family and successfully argued in front of D'Andrea to spare his life, we discovered that Paolinello still met his fate after returning to Chicago afterward. Paolinello's father was also named Girolamo Torina. Given that Torina is not a common surname in the small comune of Ciminna, it is *very likely* that Paolinello was a cousin of Louie Farina's in-laws. Paolinello arrived in Chicago in 1912, bound for his uncle, Gaspare Torina, who lived on the same block of Townsend/Hudson as Filippo Farina and his family. Paolinello was accompanied by a number of paesani from Ciminna who were bound for Chicago and NYC, the two primary centers of settlement for immigrants from Ciminna in the US. Among these was Calogero DiSpenza, bound for his brother Rosario DiSpenza, living at Milton and Oak in Little Sicily. This was the same Rosario DiSpenza who was boss of the Chicago Family at this time (B had posted about Paolinello's arrival manifest previously, but I can confirm that Calogero DiSpenza, son of Nicola DiSpenza of Ciminna, was indeed the brother of the boss Rosario DiSpenza).



Paolinello's paternal uncle, Gaspare, again, lived on Townsend next to the Farinas. He married Angelina Oliva, a native of Campofelice di Fitalia. Her first husband, who died of an illness, had been Rosario Pannettieri, a native of Villalba and presumably a relative of Filippo and Dr Giuseppe Farina's mother, Giuseppa Pannetieri. This would further suggest that Paolinello's family was closely connected to Louie Farina's in-laws, given that both had marriage ties that, seemingly, encompassed the same extended family from Villalba. As I also noted previously, Gaspare Torina's brother, Nicola, was shot to death in Chicago in 1921, a year after their nephew Paolinello was killed.

Earlier Paolo Torina discussion: viewtopic.php?p=265256#p265256

[NorthBuffalo]

Alfonso Tornabene was born 1923 in Chicago to Carmelo Tornabene and Maria Carlisi, of Canicattì, Agrigento. Carmelo and Maria married in Orange, NJ in 1908 and later moved to Chicago. For years, the family lived on Townsend near Hobbie in Little Sicily. Later, the family moved down to 14th near Wood, south of the Taylor St Patch (across the L tracks from where the Costco is today).

Maria Carlisi arrived in NYC in 1906 with her father Alfonso and younger sister Rosa Carlisi, all from Canicattì. Their contact was her older brother Giuseppe Carlisi, residing on Elizabeth St in Lower Manhattan's Little Italy. Giuseppe Carlisi arrived in NYC from Canicattì in 1904, bound for his cousin Francesco Ferrugia, who resided on Elizabeth St. In 1908, Giuseppe married Calogera Cassano, born in Canicattì and having arrived in NYC in 1907. Subsequently, they moved to Chicago where their first child Rosario "Roy" Carlisi was born in 1909. Then the Carlisis moved to Upstate NY, where in 1921 Salvatore/Samuel Anthony Carlisi was born in Gloversville, halfway between Albany and Utica. Later, the Carlisis moved to Western NY, where Roy Carlisi stayed and became a member of the Buffalo family. In the 1930s, Sam moved to Chicago Chicago with his parents, where they lived on Polk near Cicero in West Garfield Park in 1940. Prior to his return to Chicago, Giuseppe Carlisi was apparently questioned along with his son Roy about a murder in Buffalo. in 1937, Giuseppe Carlisi was arrested along with sons Roy and Alfonso for operating a still in Cicero (Alfonso Carlisi was born 1913 in Chicago and in 1940 was residing in Cicero). Seems like a good bet that Giuseppe Carlisi may have also been a mafia member.

When Giuseppe Carlisi died in Chicago in 1953, his parents were listed as Alfonso Tornabene and Josephine Drago; these were, of course, the parents of Al Tornbene's mother Maria Carlisi, who died 1967 in McHenry County, as well.

EDIT: Worth noting that there was a Salvatore Tornabene, a tavern keeper in south suburban Harvey, who was murdered in 1935. Almost certainly not related to Al Tornabene, as Salvatore Tornabene was born about 1904 in Lascari, Palermo province.

For the record, Al Tornabene was indeed related to Gambino member Salvatore Tornabe, who was born in Canicattì (Tornabe was mislabelled in some sources as a Profaci captain, but as B and HK have posted in another thread, he was pretty clearly a Gambino member).

I have Al Tornabene's father, Carmelo Tornabene, as the brother of Salvatore Tornabe's father, Mariano Tornabene. Their parents were Salvatore Tornabene and Concetta Cassaro, both of Ravanusa (where the Tornabene surname is much more common than in Canicattì); hence, both Carmelo and Mariano named their firstborn sons Salvatore (e.g., Al's eldest brother, Salvatore "Sam" Tornabene).

Also, the Sam Tornabene who was the "lieutenant" of Salvatore LoVerde and Cipriano Argento in the 1930 bootlegging case seems to have been the Salvatore Tornabene from Lascari who was killed in Harvey in 1935.

I believe this photo shows Sal Tornabene (far left), Al Tornabene (brown suit) and Cologero Tornabene (Al's father) as the old man. This was shared by a member of the Tornabene family who said all were bootleggers.

[Snakes]

That's definitely Al in the brown suit

[PolackTony]

As Snakes said, 100% Pizza Al in the brown suit and I don't doubt that the old man was Calogero Tornabene also. Great photo.

[NorthBuffalo]

This guy sent me a few old photos. I am having someone in my circle confirm if one shows Roy Carlisi of Buffalo with the Tornabenes before I post it.

[NorthBuffalo]

Domenico Caifano, father of Marshall and Leonard Caifano and well-known figure in the Taylor Street neighborhood.


Former CPD turned juice loan enforcer Albert Sarno (far left) and James Sarno (far right).