NorthBuffalo wrote: ↑Mon Oct 14, 2024 6:08 pm
Here is a photo of longtime Outfit linked LIUNA official John Serpico. I would love to know the year he passed away if anyone has that information.
I think he is still alive and in his 90s. But I will confirm that this week.
So far as I’m aware, at least, John J Serpico is still alive and recently turned 94. He’s one of these guys that I’ve been meaning to post about in the “Origins” thread. He was born in September 1930 in Chicago to Vincenzo Serpico, a native of Acerra, Napoli, and Michelina Cerino (who I believe was a native of Serino, Avellino, hometown also of Genovese member Anthony “Chicago Fats” Sabio). Vincenzo Serpico worked on a construction crew from the City of Chicago’s Streets Department and I believe was a cousin of Willie Messino’s mother, Brigida Serpico. The Serpico’s lived in the Taylor St Patch, like most of their Acerrese paesani, and John grew up in the same building on W Fillmore as several Seneses from Binetto, Bari, cousins of Chicago member and Teamsters big shot Dom Senese.
John Serpico got his start as a truck driver for Streets and San, eventually working his way up through the LIUNA hierarchy to become International Vice President of LIUnA until he was ousted from that position in 1995 during a purge of LCN connected figures from the union’s directorship. Serpico was also President of the Central States Joint Board, an amalgam of unions representing 10s of thousands of Chicago-area industrial workers (current President, Mark Spano). In 2001, Serpico was convicted on bank fraud and money laundering charges, in a case where he was indicted in 1999 for accepting kickbacks related to using his position at the Central States Board to secure shady loans through a crooked bank. Serpico’s co-conspirators, also convicted, were his longtime “comare” and fellow Central States Board official Maria Busillo and flunkie Gilbert Cataldo, former City of Chicago Housing Commissioner.
In addition to his hugely influential union positions, John Serpico was the longtime Chairman of the IL International Port District, while Gil Cataldo was Director of the Port District. I recall vividly the days when you would drive into Chicago from IN on the Skyway and pass the Port of Chicago on Lake Calumet, where a huge sign on the expressway proclaimed that John Serpico ruled. Due to his role in the Port of Chicago, Serpico was also a close associate of notorious 10th Ward alderman Edward “Fast Eddie” Vrdolyak, of “The Council Wars” fame.
"Hey, hey, hey — this is America, baby! Survival of the fittest.”
NorthBuffalo wrote: ↑Mon Oct 14, 2024 6:08 pm
Here is a photo of longtime Outfit linked LIUNA official John Serpico. I would love to know the year he passed away if anyone has that information.
I think he is still alive and in his 90s. But I will confirm that this week.
Inmate finder says he is 94
My source believes he passed away but not certain. His former partner Gilbert Cataldo did pass away and his mistress/partner in crime Maria Busillo is also still alive. John Serpico was a product of Chicago's Little Italy who was very close to Paul Spano. Both were in the same gang in the Taylor Street neighborhood and remained associated for years. Serpico was later indicted multiple times for various kickback schemes - a few of which involved Spano.
Coloboy wrote: ↑Sun Oct 13, 2024 1:12 pm
I’m a bit behind on catching up on the board. Did anyone happen to screenshot that Reddit story? The poster took it down, which is interesting in and of itself.
The poster didn't take it down. The moderators did.
Coloboy wrote: ↑Sun Oct 13, 2024 1:12 pm
I’m a bit behind on catching up on the board. Did anyone happen to screenshot that Reddit story? The poster took it down, which is interesting in and of itself.
The poster didn't take it down. The moderators did.
I read it and was pretty amazed at the accusations. The original poster certainly seemed like he knew what he was talking about.
Coloboy wrote: ↑Sun Oct 13, 2024 1:12 pm
I’m a bit behind on catching up on the board. Did anyone happen to screenshot that Reddit story? The poster took it down, which is interesting in and of itself.
The poster didn't take it down. The moderators did.
I read it and was pretty amazed at the accusations. The original poster certainly seemed like he knew what he was talking about.
The guys I talk to say James Yantis is a real person on Facebook - obsessed with the mob and in a bunch of the Chicago groups. He's also in my LIUNA group oddly. Seems like a real odd fanboy type. https://www.facebook.com/groups/5037057 ... 650080529/
Not much more to say about these two, really. They were among a number of tavern and tobacco/corner store owners busted in the '50s under the big LE crackdown on counterfeit cigarette tax stamps during Accardo's tenure as boss. I haven't seen anything that would indicate that these guys were anything more than low-level associates, at most. Garofolo was later busted for selling narcotics out of his tavern in Bridgeport in the '60s, while I'm not aware that Chris Chiaramonte made the papers again (he died in 2003). Just because it came up before, in case anyone is wondering, Christenzio "Chris" Chiaramonte was *not* related to Anthony Chiaramonte. While the latter was Bares' (parents from Sannicandro, Bari), the former was Sicilian (parents from Alia and Lercara Friddi).
"Hey, hey, hey — this is America, baby! Survival of the fittest.”
Curious if Polack, Snakes or others have an idea of who the photo is below. There is debate among the LIUNA guys I talk to on this being either the DeStefano brother who Mario and Sam killed, or an early photo of Legs D'Antonio. Could be someone else entirely - I am certain its a Chicago guy as the source of the photo has quite a few relations in these families but is quite old and unreliable.
Snakes wrote: ↑Tue Oct 15, 2024 7:27 pm
Pretry sure that's not D'Antonio. These guys would have to be in their 90s to know who these guys are by sight
Two of the guys I talk to are sons of the Chiavola brothers who were quite entrenched in Chicago and KC and were essentially being used by their uncles in Chicago and KC to cut up the Vegas skim. They have been sharing a lot of old photos as their fathers are long dead now. I have a wedding photo of George Chiavola - someone I worked with and knew as he was the Teamsters Health Inspector for decades - which apparently shows his uncles, who were major KC mafia guys. I was trying to verify who exactly before I post it.
Another is a relative of Carlisi/DiMaggio brothers - and a relation of Al Tournabene.
This photo was from a relative of Dominic Calarco, who is indeed quite old. They used to run the social club in the Grand Avenue neighborhood - Boomerang - and he's shared a few old photos including this one, which struck me. Definitely an Italian guy dressed as a gangster in the grand avenue neighborhood - that's really all I have to go on.
Has this article been talked about before? A lot of these names are still around.
15 INDICTED IN DU PAGE GAMBLING By Chicago Tribune January 28, 1988 at 8:00 PM EST Fifteen people have been indicted in Du Page County on gambling and related charges stemming from a four-month investigation of bookmaking in the western suburbs, Du Page County State`s Atty. James E. Ryan said Thursday. Investigators seized $225,000 in betting slips from one individual and also seized his 1988 Lincoln Town Car, his portable cellular telephone and $8,700 in cash, Ryan said. Others arrested include a husband and wife team accused of running a ”wire room,” a bet-taking operation, in their Naperville home. Most of the betting involved football games during recent months, Ryan said. The indictments were returned in regular weekly meetings of the Du Page County grand jury on Jan. 13, 20 and 27, but they were kept secret until Thursday. More indictments may be returned, Ryan said. Investigators arrested one man who also was arrested a year ago in a similar series of raids on gambling wire rooms in Cook and Du Page Counties. Sixteen people were arrested in last year`s raids, and 11 of them have been convicted, Ryan said. Charges are still pending in Cook County against the man who was arrested a second time. Ryan said the operation was undertaken by investigators from his office, the Illinois Department of State Police organized-crime unit, the Du Page County sheriff`s office and Police Departments from Chicago, Elmhurst, Bensenville, Lisle, Naperville, Addison and Villa Park. At a Thursday morning news conference in Ryan`s Wheaton office, he and and several police chiefs praised the cooperative nature of the investigation. ”We were able to undertake a coordinated effort involving state, county and local police, and we did it without turf battles,” said Du Page County Sheriff Richard P. Doria. ”People worked together on this. That`s a concept that gets mostly lip service.” Doria, Ryan and Robert Johnson, director of the state police intelligence division, said organized crime probably is involved in Du Page County gambling, though they declined to say whether any of the defendants arrested in the latest set of raids are linked to Chicago-area mobsters. ”Gambling is a major source of income to persons in organized crime,” said Assistant State`s Atty. John Kinsella, who coordinated the investigation. ”Organized crime oversees the operation, allows persons to engage in bookmaking, enforces collections and takes a portion of the proceeds.” ”If the population and the money is there, then organized crime will step in to provide services that people want,” Doria said. One defendant, Dominic J. Basso, 49, of 8234 N. Oleander Ave., Niles, was stopped by police in Wood Dale and arrested while driving away from a meeting with two other alleged gamblers on Jan. 7. Ryan said Basso oversees several wire room operations where bets are taken by telephone, but he declined to specify their locations. Police with a search warrant confiscated Basso`s 1988 Lincoln, $225,000 in alleged betting slips, a portable cellular telephone, a quantity of water- soluable paper and $8,700 in cash. Basso is charged with syndicated gambling and conspiracy. Also charged are the two men who met with Basso on Jan. 7: James F. Digiulio, 36, of 4N210 5th Ave., Addison, who has not been arrested, and Nick Nitti, 43, of 901 Beau Dr., Des Plaines, arrested in his car in Bensenville after the meeting. The others charged are: – Michael Raguso, 30, of 1800 Huntington Blvd., Hoffman Estates, arrested on Dec. 15 at 28 Park Ave., Addison, where wire room and parlay card operations were allegedly underway. He is charged with syndicated gambling and conspiracy. Raguso was arrested in last year`s raids and was charged in Cook County with syndicated gambling. That charge is still pending, Ryan said. – Robert M. Kennedy, 31, of 2N168 Michigan Ave., Villa Park, and Thomas Pickert, of 402 S. Michigan Ave., Villa Park, charged with syndicated gambling. They allegedly conspired with Raguso to take parlay card bets. – Gary Lofgren, 36, of 1110 Hampton Harbor, Schaumburg, and Alan Dutton, 37, of 7134 W. North Ave., Elmwood Park, both charged with conspiracy to commit gambling, conspiracy to keep a gambling place and obstructing justice. They were arrested at an alleged wire room at 420 Walnut Ave., Itasca, and allegedly destroyed evidence by dumping betting slips on water-soluable paper into containers of water when police entered the house. – Keith Kinnaman, 60, of 21W609 Thorndale Ave., Medinah, charged with conspiracy to commit gambling and conspiracy to keep a gambling place. He allegedly rented the 420 Walnut St. house where the alleged wire room was operated. – Anthony Levato, 35, of 417 Delles Rd., Wheaton, charged with syndicated gambling and keeping of a gambling place. He was arrested at home where he was allegedly running a wire room. – Kenneth Brissa, 47, and Catherine Brissa, 46, of 314 Eastland Ct., Naperville, charged with syndicated gambling and keeping a gambling place. They were arrested in their home, where they allegedly were running a wire room. – Gregory Zieche, 102 E. Briar Lane, Geneva, charged with conspiracy to commit gambling and keeping a gambling place. He allegedly was taking parlay card bets in the Lombard Lanes bowling alley, 19W445 Roosevelt Rd., Lombard. – Lawrence Van Meter, 30, of 147 D. Brewster Ct., Bloomingdale, and Homer D. Atkinson, 323 E. Wilson Ave., Lombard, charged with gambling. They allegedly sold bets on parlay cards. Suspects not yet arrested are Digiulio, Kinnaman, Van Meter and Atkinson, Ryan said. The others have been released on bonds ranging from $3,000 to $50,000
Old photo relevant to Chicago and KC. Shows George Chiavola (far left standing in back with brother Anthony). There were originally from Chicago but nephews of the KC Civella brothers. BC of that they had high jobs on the Teamsters and Chicago Police Department respectively, until the skim fell apart with the large indictments. George retained his position in the Teamsters, while his uncles, brother and nephew all went to prison along with Lombardo, Aiuppa, LaPietra, Cerone and others.
Others identified by a knowledgeable KC native include Nick Civella (drinking wine), "Tony George" an infamous thief on Civella's left, Anthony DeSimone on Civella's right (old man holding up wine), Lou Larocca (Standing). I am not a KC expert so Civella is the only name I'm familiar with and not sure there is a real KC expert here in case any of these are misidentified.
Patrickgold wrote: ↑Sun Oct 13, 2024 12:24 pm
His good friend Louie Rainone is one of the top guys now
Speaking of whom, a source of mine alleges that he's being phased in as street boss and will take over for Vena soon, so that would definitely make him a "top guy".
Just what a knowledgeable source told me, so don't take this as gospel or anything (he's never even been ID'd as a made guy by any official source, let alone a street boss), but it's what I'm told.
NorthBuffalo wrote: ↑Wed Oct 16, 2024 2:03 pm
Old photo relevant to Chicago and KC. Shows George Chiavola (far left standing in back with brother Anthony). There were originally from Chicago but nephews of the KC Civella brothers. BC of that they had high jobs on the Teamsters and Chicago Police Department respectively, until the skim fell apart with the large indictments. George retained his position in the Teamsters, while his uncles, brother and nephew all went to prison along with Lombardo, Aiuppa, LaPietra, Cerone and others.
Nice photo. That is indeed George Angelo Chiavola there in the back (posting a later photo of him below).
The Chiavola brothers were actually born in KC and then moved to Chicago as kids. Eldest brother Louis was born in 1916 (d. 1973 in Chicago), while Anthony was born in 1918 and George in 1928. Their parents were Giuseppe Chiavola, a baker from Ragusa, and Pasqua “Esther” Civello. Born in Birmingham, AL, before living in Castelvetrano for several years and then moving to KC, Esther was the elder sister of Nick and Carl Civella. She married Giuseppe Chiavola in KC in 1915; the family relocated to Chicago’s Little Sicily soon after George was born in 1928. Esther and Giuseppe subsequently divorced and Esther remarried Joseph Passafume, who, like her, was born in Alabama to Sicilian parents. The Passafume-Chiavola family lived near Division and Hudson on the Near Northside, and in the 1950s moved to Harding and Augusta in Humboldt Park.
As NB noted above, George Chiavola (who was also an accomplished, classically-trained musician as a youth), later moved back to KC, where he was close to his uncles and Roy Williams, securing a position with the Teamsters via his connections and going on to become Health and Safety Director for the Teamsters Central Committee. George was accused by Federal LE in the 1970s of acting as a courier for his uncle Nick Civella for skimmed casino monies between the Chicago and KC outfits.
Anthony “Stompy” Chiavola was a longtime veteran of CPD, forced to resign from his position as a chief of traffic control for CPD after a KC grand jury revealed in the late 70s that he was using his Lakeview apartment as a meeting place for Civella and Chicago LCN leaders. Son Anthony Chiavola Jr was also CPD, and demoted from his position as a patrolman on the Northside in 1979 after he was found to have been chauffeuring Nick Civella around Chicago, though he was alllowed to remain at a desk job for CPD for several years after (the same year, Esther Passafume also filed a lawsuit against the Federal government to return money and jewelry she claimed belonged to her after they raided Nick Civella’s home in KC). In 1982, Anthony Jr was pinched for using his badge to rob a jewelry salesman of $20k in diamonds at Carson’s Ribs at Peterson and Ridge (long gone). Anthony Sr’s wife and Anthony Jr’s mother was Rose Alongi, born and raised in Little Sicily to a family from Corleone.
Anthony Chiavola Jr and Sr were subsequently indicted for their roles in the casino skim operation in the Strawman case; both pled out in 1985 to avoid charges. Despite the allegations of acting as a courier for his uncle Nick, George Chiavola was never charged with any crimes related to Strawman. Anthony Chiavola Sr died in 2000 in suburban Palatine, IL. George Chiavola died in KC in 2014; his obituary was published in the Tribune:
Anthony Chiavola Jr, following his 1982 arrest for robbing a jewelry salesman:
"Hey, hey, hey — this is America, baby! Survival of the fittest.”
