General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

[funkster]

Dunno, Tony had a theory can't remember what. But some of them definitely seemed to be from people that know these outfit guys. One of his major theories that he heard from someone was that Nick Ferriola was running a few serious rackets for the chinatown crew out a non public bar in ricobenes. Also claimed that one of his major sources for his cicero crew stories was a suburban cop related somehow to Blackie Pesoli. I dont remember the details though, it was quite some times ago.

[NorthBuffalo]

https://casetext.com/case/people-v-bravieri

Great read of an indictment (may have been posted before but I didn't see it) - a lot of familiar names. Joseph Bravieri passed away in prison recently and this mention of Albert Vena tackling a cop is wild.

[PolackTony]

https://casetext.com/case/people-v-bravieri

Great read of an indictment (may have been posted before but I didn't see it) - a lot of familiar names. Joseph Bravieri passed away in prison recently and this mention of Albert Vena tackling a cop is wild.

Posted before but a long time back. Vena’s attorney, Jimmy Cutrone, was a longtime friend of my family.

[Ivan]

this mention of Albert Vena tackling a cop is wild

Vena looks like a tough little bastard in his young gangbanger pics I've seen.

So I've been reading up on this incident, in newspapers and in search here, about how Chuckie Russell apparently whacked a black guy, took pictures of the crime scene (for posterity, I guess) and kept the victim's driver's license too (as a souvenir, I suppose), and then showed all this shit to some dude who became a rat. Then the feds confirmed all this but never released the victim's name, and that this is believed/speculated to be an Outfit hit that was staged to look like a street gang thing. Something like that. Seems to have been in 2016 when they guy got killed. Has any more info about this come out? You guys know any more about this?

[NorthBuffalo]

this mention of Albert Vena tackling a cop is wild

Vena looks like a tough little bastard in his young gangbanger pics I've seen.

So I've been reading up on this incident, in newspapers and in search here, about how Chuckie Russell apparently whacked a black guy, took pictures of the crime scene (for posterity, I guess) and kept the victim's driver's license too (as a souvenir, I suppose), and then showed all this shit to some dude who became a rat. Then the feds confirmed all this but never released the victim's name, and that this is believed/speculated to be an Outfit hit that was staged to look like a street gang thing. Something like that. Seems to have been in 2016 when they guy got killed. Has any more info about this come out? You guys know any more about this?

I believe Russell was a brother in law of Vena or a relation - then I also read he was dating a Spilotro relative. He seemed like a rough guy like most of the guys from Grand Avenue.

[Ivan]

I believe Russell was a brother in law of Vena or a relation - then I also read he was dating a Spilotro relative. He seemed like a rough guy like most of the guys from Grand Avenue.

Yeah he's married to Vena's sister. That "mystery black guy getting whacked by the Outift possibly" thing is spooky as hell, was wondering if anything new had come along, even if just rumors.

"Rough" is an understatement lol. His line about (paraphrasing here) how his favorite thing in the world is putting a gun to someone's head and making what's theirs his is an all-time favorite of mine, right up there with "You are trunk music, my friend" and "My problem is I hate everybody".

[PolackTony]

I believe Russell was a brother in law of Vena or a relation - then I also read he was dating a Spilotro relative. He seemed like a rough guy like most of the guys from Grand Avenue.

Yeah he's married to Vena's sister. That "mystery black guy getting whacked by the Outift possibly" thing is spooky as hell, was wondering if anything new had come along, even if just rumors.

"Rough" is an understatement lol. His line about (paraphrasing here) how his favorite thing in the world is putting a gun to someone's head and making what's theirs his is an all-time favorite of mine, right up there with "You are trunk music, my friend" and "My problem is I hate everybody".

Ivan, you leave me little choice but to bust your balls here, as we discussed (meaning you were part of this discussion) Chuckie Russell less than a year ago lol.

We don’t know what Chuckie Russell was doing exactly, and as I noted, we don’t know if this or other murders that he may have committed were sanctioned by the organization.

Speaking of whom, what's the story on this guy? I know nothing about him other than he may have killed a guy for the Outfit and disguised it as a street gang killing. Can't find much on his background in search.

Alleged to have been an associate of the Grand Ave crew under Albie Vena. I believe that he had been a C-Note, like Vena. He did a lot of time in the joint. He was convicted of murder in 73, when he was in his early 20s. After being released he was convicted on rape charges in 1992 and sentenced to 35 years (he was also charged with attempted murder in that case but acquitted on that charge). He was released on parole in 2011 and after seems to have led a “crew” of armed robbers and burglars. Home invasions, allegedly torturing guys. Typical Grand Ave fun and games.

In 2016, at age 67, he was recorded by an undercover ATF agent who posed as an arms dealer, during a straw purchase of a number of guns including an Uzi and an AK-47. He was recorded bragging about his outfit affiliation, his experience in pulling “thousands” of heists, and the murder of the black dude noted above. He told the agent that he was plotting to rob a wealthy lawyer that he was staking out for $750k in a home invasion and that he would force victims to comply by putting a blowtorch to their feet:

“The fun for me is the score[.] That's how I get my adrenaline."

“If he doesn't open it, we're gonna make him open it. They always open for me, believe me. I bring my butane torch, put it on the bottom of their feet, they open it."

It will be a great Christmas, I'm telling you. You're going to love this[.] Nothing gets my juices flowing like putting a gun to someone's head, taking their stuff and making it mine."

He was of course arrested after this, at which point he was found with an illegal weapon in his home. In 2018, he wound up pleading guilty for the latter charge, but was found to have Stage 4 prostate cancer. Because of his poor health he couldn’t be sentenced and was released to live with his girlfriend, Patricia Spilotro, a niece of Tony and Mike Spilotro. Chuckie Russell died in 2019.

Now, Chuckie Russell was *not* married to Albie Vena's sister. When he was busted on weapons charges in 2016, Russell was living in the Grand Ave Patch condo of his "longtime girlfriend", Patricia "Penny" English Spilotro. She was a relative of Vena's wife and the widow of Phillip Vito Spilotro, a construction contractor found murdered, shot twice in the back of his head, in their apartment, back in 1984. The murder was, of course, never solved and I am not aware of any suspect having been named.

While a number of news outlets referred to Patricia Spilotro as a "niece" of Tony Spilotro, she was not a blood relative and is not Italian. Her slain husband, Phillip Vito Spilotro, was not himself a nephew of the Spilotro brothers, either. His paternal grandfather was Michele Spilotro, a native of Triggiano, Bari, and thus they were presumably cousins of some class of the other Spilotros, but I was not able to find any recent relation between them.

[Ivan]

Ivan, you leave me little choice but to bust your balls here, as we discussed (meaning you were part of this discussion) Chuckie Russell less than a year ago lol.

I was asking if anyone had heard anything new about this case and I mentioned in my own post that I had read through the old posts on him. As in, I was wondering if anyone had heard anything interesting that hadn't been covered before about this murder. Sorry if that was unclear.

[NorthBuffalo]

Speaking of Grand Avenue

[funkster]

Fosco just posted, they look thin

[PolackTony]

Ivan, you leave me little choice but to bust your balls here, as we discussed (meaning you were part of this discussion) Chuckie Russell less than a year ago lol.

I was asking if anyone had heard anything new about this case and I mentioned in my own post that I had read through the old posts on him. As in, I was wondering if anyone had heard anything interesting that hadn't been covered before about this murder. Sorry if that was unclear.

Nothing new on that front so far as I’m aware. As I’m sure you know, there are hundreds of such murders in Chicago every year, and nothing that I have seen gives any info that would allow one to identify which drop in Chicago’s overflowing bucket of blood Russell was bragging about. It should also be noted that while Russell was clearly an extremely dangerous individual, who I would not be surprised to learn had several bodies to his name, we don’t have any evidence that this apparent incident was either ordered or sanctioned by the outfit (just saying for anyone reading this who might think this was like a verified mob hit or something).

In so far as I know, however, the fact that Russell’s chick was an in-law of Vena and the widow of a likely Spilotro relative who was murdered in the 80s has not been previously discussed.

[PolackTony]

Fosco just posted, they look thin

It’s my understanding that Fosco underwent some serious health issues in the last several years and is now doing much better, as this pic would suggest.

[Patrickgold]

Speaking of Grand Avenue

Chrissy Spina. Looks young in this photo. He was recently at a big Super Bowl party at an OTB with Rudy Fratto and a bunch of Cicero guys.

[NorthBuffalo]

These poor guys Mags and Fosco are all on Ozempic. I posted some more recent photos of Spina where he's gained weight. His brother Johnny looks much older and worse than Chrissy does.

[PolackTony]

Speaking of Grand Avenue

Chrissy Spina. Looks young in this photo. He was recently at a big Super Bowl party at an OTB with Rudy Fratto and a bunch of Cicero guys.

Sounds like a classy evening lol.