General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

[Ivan]

Since you guys mentioned the Chiavolas here are a couple nice graphics featuring them alongside the rest of the Argent/Strawman cases fellas.

[NorthBuffalo]

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:

Tony I gotta say - all your knowledge is quite impressive. I enjoy it when I introduce something that you expand on and introduce things well beyond anything I would ever learn myself from the people I talk to who are largely old men sharing rumors from decades ago - I mean that - your a top notch poster in my view always. Chiavola Jr. is still alive.

Any idea on the KC guys or what poster on this forum would know them?

[Snakes]

Bobbybats is a KC guy, but he doesn't post much anymore.

[NorthBuffalo]

Another old one of Alphonse 'Pizzman / Fa Fa' Tornabene.

[NorthBuffalo]

Since you guys mentioned the Chiavolas here are a couple nice graphics featuring them alongside the rest of the Argent/Strawman cases fellas.

George Chiavola was on tape with his brother chopping up the cash - if you read that article. I have no idea how he didn't get indicted, let alone retired on a union pension his entire family stole from.

[PolackTony]

Thanks for the kind words. I’m always just happy to know that anyone finds any info that I’m able to provide here to be useful or interesting.

Snakes already mentioned bobbybatts. Not sure if he has been on here of late, but you could try PMing him about the photo.

I also don’t understand how George Chiavola was not only never indicted for any of the skim-related stuff, but somehow managed to hold on to his position and pension, as you note, despite it being widely known since the 70s that he got to where he was because of his uncles’s control over Roy Williams. As you note, George was caught on tape discussing the portion of the skim money to be distributed to Chicago with Anthony Sr (who in turn was also caught discussing the portion going to Cleveland with Maishe Rockman):



Anyone know what Anthony Chiavola Jr has been up to since Strawman and his robbery conviction? I believe he’s still living in Palatine. It’s pretty clear that him and his dad were Chicago associates, so I wonder who exactly they were “with”. Given that the Civellas were paesani of Accardo and that the Passafume-Chiavola family lived in the Cerone/Gagliano stomping grounds in Humboldt Park, I’d suspect that they were with the Cerone crew, maybe direct with Cerone when he was UB.

[PolackTony]

Since you guys mentioned the Chiavolas here are a couple nice graphics featuring them alongside the rest of the Argent/Strawman cases fellas.

This little quadrant is great because Aiuppa, Cerone, Lombardo, and LaPietra all look like straight up Batman villains here.

[Ivan]

This little quadrant is great because Aiuppa, Cerone, Lombardo, and LaPietra all look like straight up Batman villains here.

My most far-out rightwing view is that criminality is like 50%+ genetic and innate, that this genotypic criminality also subtly manifests in facial features, and that we have evolved to register such features as sinister or "off" somehow.

And man you ain't kidding with that "Batman villains" thing -- LaPietra looks like the new Penguin on HBO here!

[NorthBuffalo]

Two additional mystery Chicago guys. The first guy is a Melrose Park guy who is a well-known burglar. The older man was affiliated with the Cicero crew and source is not sure he's still alive. The names aren't shared with me - one guy said one goes by 'Frankie' but that doesn't narrow it down obviously.

Let me know if anyone can identify either photo.

[Patrickgold]

Since you guys mentioned the Chiavolas here are a couple nice graphics featuring them alongside the rest of the Argent/Strawman cases fellas.

George Chiavola was on tape with his brother chopping up the cash - if you read that article. I have no idea how he didn't get indicted, let alone retired on a union pension his entire family stole from.

The only explanation for not be indicted is that he was cooperating somehow. Considering his position in the union, he could have provided valuable information to the Feds.

[NorthBuffalo]

Since you guys mentioned the Chiavolas here are a couple nice graphics featuring them alongside the rest of the Argent/Strawman cases fellas.

George Chiavola was on tape with his brother chopping up the cash - if you read that article. I have no idea how he didn't get indicted, let alone retired on a union pension his entire family stole from.

The only explanation for not be indicted is that he was cooperating somehow. Considering his position in the union, he could have provided valuable information to the Feds.

I doubt that - his uncles were the Civella brothers and their sons were George's pallbearers - I think its more likely that his role was somewhat on the fringe - and they just didn't have enough evidence to get him. The mob owned the unions in those days - he stepped down from his leadership role (he was Health Inspector) but retired with pension.

[B.]

Tony, so the Civellas did live in Castelvetrano for a time? I remember finding a Castelvetrano connection though I believe they were originally from Poggioreale so that would confirm for me that I wasn't mistaken about Castelvetrano being in there as well.

As you know, but others might not, the Alabama connection makes sense as Castelvetrano and neighboring Trapani villages produced a number of immigrants to Birmingham, some of them with mafia ties. The Crapisis of the Kansas City Family were from Castelvetrano and once lived in Russellville, Alabama, the same small farming community headed by suspected Birmingham boss Giuseppe Caterinicchia from Ribera whose family intermarried with another Castelvetranese family, the Mangiaracinas, who in turn may have been related on some level to the Mangiaracinas from Castelvetrano in Kansas City and perhaps even Castelvetranesi in Chicago (early mafioso Montalbano's mother was a Mangiaracina, for example).

I've brought this up before about Tony Accardo, who the younger Crapisi knew to visit Kansas City. Accardo had significant paesani in the KC Family and though we know relatively little about the full relationship, it's likely that would have helped facilitate a close relationship between the two Families in addition to older connections between paesani in both cities and their regional proximity in the midwest. It would have meant something to the Kansas City leadership that a Chicago leader was their paesan, that's for sure.

Filardo, who looks to have been the chairman of the KC consiglio, was Castelvetranese while the boss Civella was Poggiorealese (with a Castelvetrano connection of his own, apparently) much as Accardo looks to have been the chairman of the Chicago consiglio with boss Giancana having heritage in Castelvetrano/Partanna himself. Definite parallels going on in the leadership of both Families at the same time. Much as Giancana consulted with Ricca and Accardo about major decisions, the younger Crapisi knew that Civella was the boss yet had to get the approval of Filardo and Cusumano before making major decisions. That, of course, is the function of the consiglio and the traditonal mafia, not exclusive to Chicago or Kansas City, but interesting nonetheless.

[PolackTony]

I was hoping you’d pick up on the Alabama/Castelvetrano connection here.

The Civellas’s father, Antonino Civello, was from Poggioreale. I believe that their mother, Antonina “Jennie” Bove, was from Castelvetrano. I’m not 100% sure, but as you know, there has always been lots of movement and intermarriage between the comuni in the Belice Valley, such that that I think of them as an organic whole. This includes Sambuca and Montevago, of course, and thus we have multiple leaders in Chicago (Merlo, Accardo, Giancana, and Monteleone, along with whatever Benevento — whose apparent uprising was alleged to have been supported by KC also — really was), KC, Dallas, and probably Springfield, either born in or with ancestry from this area. No way were these things lost on men like Accardo and the Civellas, IMO. Following the devastating 1968 earthquake, Chicago was again a prime destination for immigrants from the Belice Valley, and Frank Fiordilino has mentioned that people in NYC from Partanna retained close ties to their numerous paesani in Chicago.

In 1906, Pasqua “Esther” Civello, who was born in 1899 in AL, returned to the US from Sicily with her mother, Antonina Bove. Their most recent residence was Castelvetrano, and they were bound for Russellville, AL, where Antonina’s husband, Antonino Civello, was living. Esther’s first brother, Frankie Civello, was then born in AL in 1908. The Civellos then moved to KC by 1910, at the latest, when Carl (named after Antonina’s father, Calogero Bove) was born there. Giuseppe Nicola “Nick” Civella, the youngest sibling, was then born in KC in 1912. Frankie Civello was a boxer who died from a concussion following a bought in 1929 when he was KO’d.

Those Alabama connections ran deep, obviously. On the one hand, as you note, there were the Crapisis, who also lived in the Russellville colony. Then, decades later in Chicago, Esther remarried Joseph Passafume, who was also born in AL (though to parents from Campofranco, Caltanissetta).

[Coloboy]

Two additional mystery Chicago guys. The first guy is a Melrose Park guy who is a well-known burglar. The older man was affiliated with the Cicero crew and source is not sure he's still alive. The names aren't shared with me - one guy said one goes by 'Frankie' but that doesn't narrow it down obviously.

Let me know if anyone can identify either photo.

I can’t name either guy, but your comment “melrose park guy” got me thinking…

When the whole rift between Zizzo and Sarno was going on, there were multiple references to Zizzo‘s crew, the former crew of Marcello. We have to assume that both Marcello and Zizzo had a decent stable of soldiers underneath them in that crew. Where are those guys? Who are they?

Most info indicates that they were folded into Cicero, but can anybody identify one person that would’ve been affiliated with that crew?

I’m sure some of you are familiar with the fact that a few months after the zizzo hit in 2006, there was speculation that the drive-by murder of a civilian, Gerry Dahmer , was possiblly a case of horrible mistaken identity, with the intended target actually being Sal Cautadella . If that was the case, clearly there were some guys who were loyal to the Marcello/Zizzo faction who carried that out.

[B.]

Campofranco is another town that produced mafia figures in Birmingham.

I wondered what happened to Frank Civella, had no idea he died from a boxing KO. Too bad our intel on KC is so thin as Antonino Civella is an obvious person of interest but the bulk of early KC members will unfortunately never be confirmed. There was an Antonino Civella from Castelvetrano in Chicago for a time who I originally thought might be this one when I looked into it years back but it turned out to be a different one, not the Poggiorealese father of Nick/Carl.

That's right that KC surfaced in the Benevento-Accardo conflict. You have to figure Chicago was consulted about the Binaggio-Gargotta double murder as it appears to have been the sanctioned murder of a boss and no doubt their avugad would have approved it. Gurera was also reportedly made for participating in the hit.