45 Year Anniversary- Joe Maggio Rockford LCN Murder

[cavita]

Just after noon on Wednesday April 9, 1980, two sheriff’s deputies found an abandoned gray 1973 Chevrolet automobile with black vinyl roof off the side of Safford Road just east of Meridian Road in northwest Rockford. In the backseat the deputies found the car’s owner, 43-year-old Joe Maggio, slumped over with a single bullet wound to his head. Detectives stated that Maggio was last seen alive at 11 a.m. on April 7th and the initial report from the pathologist stated at the earliest Maggio died was that Monday evening. Witnesses said they had reported seeing Maggio’s car parked on Safford Road as early as 5:15 a.m. on April 8.

Who was Joe Maggio and what brought him to be found like this? Joe Maggio was born August 30, 1936 to Salvatore and Maria Maggio. Joe’s first brush with the law came on May 30, 1953 when he was arrested with two other individuals for minor drinking, but what marked his younger years as interesting is what his FBI file noted years later. When the FBI interviewed a detective from the Rockford Police Department, the detective, “advised that he has known JOE MAGGIO since [REDACTED]. Detective [REDACTED] said that MAGGIO was not well-liked by the other young men of the neighborhood because he was considered a “stoolie” for the “outfit.” He said that this was because MAGGIO had a reputation for running to NICK VINCE with stories about the “young punks” in South Rockford and kept VINCE posted on their activities.”

Now, Nick Vince was a trusted associate of the Rockford LCN and was also the brother to Charles Vince, a made member and later capo of the Rockford outfit. It seems by the time Maggio was in his teens he was already within the sphere of the Rockford LCN. On May 2, 1959 the bodies of two gamblers, Joe Greco and Donald Burton were found beaten and strangled in the trunk of Greco’s car. A full Grand Jury inquiry on July 6, 1959 called many people to testify and Joe Maggio was one of them as he knew both men. At first the 22-year-old Maggio refused to testify but when threatened with contempt he finally relented but didn’t give much information and the double murder was never solved. A couple weeks after the Grand Jury inquiry Maggio was charged with assault and battery against Max Schatzer and he was fined $25 for this incident but Maggio’s reputation as a young tough was already growing at this point.

On September 23, 1960 Maggio, along with two other associates were arrested in DeKalb, Illinois on charges of attempting to start up a gambling game but when all was said and done, the only charge that stuck was trespassing and the men paid modest fines. However, by April 21, 1964 Maggio caught his first official arrest for gambling along with Sebastian “Knobby” Gulotta, 33, and Donald Blades, 26. The men were arrested at the West End Smoke Shop, 608 West State Street. Officers found 20 pairs of dice, two dice shakers, racing forms, racing magazines, four decks of cards, scratch sheets and other gambling paraphernalia. Maggio was noted as having $130 on him and Gulotta had $800. At this time, Gulotta was reported as being groomed for the Rockford outfit and was expected to be made a member soon should any big job come up that he was chosen for.

That big job came in January 1965 with the murder of former Rockford resident Charles LaFranka. LaFranka was visiting Rockford from Chicago and was last seen around January 10th stepping from the St. Mary’s Society on South Main Street. On January 16th his badly beaten and strangled body was found in the trunk of his car parked on a street in Elgin, Illinois. Milwaukee LCN member and FBI informant Augie Maniaci stated that soon after the murder of LaFranka, the Rockford LCN made three new members- Sebastian “Knobby” Gulotta, Frank Correnti and Joe Maggio.

In December 1968 after a few years of compiling information, the FBI tried their hand at prosecuting the Rockford LCN. Using gambling and liquor violations, the FBI paraded almost the entire membership of the Rockford LCN as well as many associates before the federal Grand Jury. Joe Maggio was included in the dozens of witnesses and although only modest fines were handed down to three men, this caused the Rockford outfit to go more underground and be more cautious at boss Joe Zammuto’s request.

In May 1971 Maggio traveled to Denver, Colorado with an unnamed individual to obtain further credit from an executive for a store that Maggio had opened in Rockford. When the executive refused to discuss an increased credit line, Maggio apparently threatened him and Maggio’s associate told him, “Don’t you know who we are, we’re the outfit, we’ll break both of your legs.”

In February 1972 Maggio also gained some notoriety as he claimed to have several oil paintings that were allegedly painted by Colonel Rudolph Ivanovich Abel, the former Soviet spy who the U.S. Government exchanged for U.S. pilot Gary Francis Powers. One of Maggio’s associates was a cellmate with Abel and this is how Maggio allegedly came into possessions of the paintings according to a story in the Chicago Tribune. At this time Maggio was involved in many schemes to make money by defrauding people and companies and he was under investigation for these operations.
Maggio must not have listened to Zammuto’s low-profile suggestion as he became involved in a boat registration scheme to defraud boat owners by claiming to work for the Merchant Marines and mailing out false “boat registrations” for boat owners in Alabama. Along with two other associates, Maggio was arrested on September 20, 1972 and sentenced to three years in prison in January 1973 for mail fraud. Maggio appealed this sentence which was denied and he began his prison time in December 1973. What was very interesting is that the FBI logged many calls in September 1973 from LCN member Frank Bompensiero in San Diego to Maggio in Rockford but they did not know the nature of these calls. Maggio eventually did his time and when he got out of prison, he found he was released into a changing landscape in the Rockford area. Narcotics were already taking over and the nationwide mafia families were jumping on this huge moneymaker.

In early February 1980 Rockford LCN boss Joe Zammuto was having a series of meetings at his winter home in Hollywood, Florida with the members of his crime family. At one of these meetings Zammuto informed the family that they would now be involved in the importation and distribution of narcotics in the Rockford area. Joe Maggio was the only one who stood up and voiced his opposition to Zammuto’s decision. Within a short time after these meetings, Maggio’s daughter Katherine was severely beaten on February 20th and FBI files stated it was by a drug dealer related to Joe Zammuto. Though the Rockford Police arrested 28-year-old Steven Davis for the beating, Katherine Maggio denied Davis was the perpetrator. Attempts to find a familial relation between Davis and Zammuto turned out negative results as well. The FBI did report that in the two weeks after his daughter’s beating, Joe Maggio was seen openly arguing and threatening the drug dealer.

The Rockford LCN may have figured they would have a problem with Maggio so they moved swiftly and the result was his murder less than two months later. Though the FBI named a prime suspect in Maggio’s FBI file that person was never arrested and forty years later his slaying remains an open case.

[PolackTony]

This is a great write-up. Was Maggio the last *known* (presumed) LCN-related murder in Rockford? I’m forgetting at the moment if there were any others in the 80s.

You also noted that the FBI had a suspect in Maggio’s slaying. I’m assuming the name was redacted and otherwise unknown, correct? I’m wondering if they thought this Steven Davis kid was involved. Any idea if Davis was mobbed up, or was he just an independent drug dealer?

[NorthBuffalo]

Fantastic article. Thoroughly enjoy every post Cavita.

[cavita]

This is a great write-up. Was Maggio the last *known* (presumed) LCN-related murder in Rockford? I’m forgetting at the moment if there were any others in the 80s.

You also noted that the FBI had a suspect in Maggio’s slaying. I’m assuming the name was redacted and otherwise unknown, correct? I’m wondering if they thought this Steven Davis kid was involved. Any idea if Davis was mobbed up, or was he just an independent drug dealer?

Polack-

For all practical purposes Maggio was the last acknowledged LCN related murder in Rockford. The family was supposed to have died out in the 1980s but I believe I've pushed their existence (whether under Chicago or autonomous) into the 1990s. Now, organized gambling was being controlled in Rockford, according to a Rockford Police Detective, by Salvatore Galluzzo who was a confirmed made member as late as 2007. Those in Rockford, including a newspaper reporter and some in law enforcement, stated that Galluzzo was "the boss" in Rockford. With that, and around 2007, another in law enforcement said Joe Saladino was their "field lieutenant" or capo in that regard. An alleged boss and capo controlling gambling, narcotics and other things...which brings me to potential murders by them:

April 29,1998 Daniel Myers was murdered in what was said to be over narcotics dealings. Frank "Gumba" Saladino was questioned in this murder
November 21, 2005 Todd Ghinazzi's death was ruled a suicide by hanging. Ghinazzi had big gambling debts and word in Rockford persisted that his death
was a murder made to look like a suicide
December 11, 2011 murder of Michael Scully. Scully was found shot multiple times in the passenger seat of his car on a country road northwest of
Rockford, reminiscent of Joe Maggio's murder. Scully was a big gambler and was said to have huge debts. On November 2nd he was
beaten with a tire iron by two unknown assailants after returning home from work. On November 9th he was shot in the arm
outside his home by an unknown assailant.

I'm not saying the Rockford LCN is alive and thriving in Rockford but gambling, narcotics, etc. is still rampant and there are still connected people
involved in these areas and whether they're still using that long-held fear or not is entirely possible.

Yes, the FBI had a suspect in Maggio's slaying but it's redacted. I don't think this Steven Davis was involved at all, rather I think the Maggio murder
was committed by Salvatore Galluzzo in order to gain his membership. On 4/12/1976 the FBI said they did not believe at that time
that Galluzzo was a member, rather just an associate. However, by December 1980 a Detective and Police Chief Delbert Peterson
said they had observed him in a vehicle with underboss Frank Buscemi and it appeared that Galluzzo was "chewing out" Buscemi.
They said from this observation it appeared to them Galluzzo was a council member in the Rockford family, "as no other person
would have the “stroke” to talk in this fashion to BUSCEMI." Additionally by 1984 Galluzzo was definitely a confirmed made
member so I believe he was involved in the Maggio murder due to the timeline. Steven Davis from what I can research appears
to be just an independent drug dealer and it was bad intel that linked him family-wise to Zammuto.

[B.]

Always look forward to your Rockford write-ups. Thanks man.

[cavita]

Always look forward to your Rockford write-ups. Thanks man.

Thanks bud...I was born and raised in Rockford and though I moved away years ago I return and keep in touch with people. You'd be amazed how the Italian community and 'medicani still talk hush-hush or not at all about goings-on there and some of the players. I'm always trying to research and hope for that big breakthrough.

[B.]

I believe it. It's a community that remained in close contact with the Sicilian mafia into relatively modern years and took the organization and subculture very seriously. Even Maniaci seemed more careful when talking about Rockford.

[Honk]

I might have asked someone before but what connection did Rockford or even the Chicago outfit have to all the ‘lingerie and massage shops in Rockford and Belvidere? I used to venture to those in the early 2000’s when I was passing through. Always wondered if they were paying a tax.

[cavita]

I might have asked someone before but what connection did Rockford or even the Chicago outfit have to all the ‘lingerie and massage shops in Rockford and Belvidere? I used to venture to those in the early 2000’s when I was passing through. Always wondered if they were paying a tax.

The Rockford area massage parlors and strip joints paid a street tax into the 1990s and Frank "Gumba" Saladino was responsible for making the pickups on the street tax. On a few occasions I would see Saladino come in and go into the back room with either the owner or manager for a few minutes, come out and leave. The last time I witnessed him doing this was around 1994 in The American Cafe.

[Honk]

I might have asked someone before but what connection did Rockford or even the Chicago outfit have to all the ‘lingerie and massage shops in Rockford and Belvidere? I used to venture to those in the early 2000’s when I was passing through. Always wondered if they were paying a tax.

The Rockford area massage parlors and strip joints paid a street tax into the 1990s and Frank "Gumba" Saladino was responsible for making the pickups on the street tax. On a few occasions I would see Saladino come in and go into the back room with either the owner or manager for a few minutes, come out and leave. The last time I witnessed him doing this was around 1994 in The American Cafe.

Do you think they were paying anyone into the 2000’s?

[cavita]

I might have asked someone before but what connection did Rockford or even the Chicago outfit have to all the ‘lingerie and massage shops in Rockford and Belvidere? I used to venture to those in the early 2000’s when I was passing through. Always wondered if they were paying a tax.

The Rockford area massage parlors and strip joints paid a street tax into the 1990s and Frank "Gumba" Saladino was responsible for making the pickups on the street tax. On a few occasions I would see Saladino come in and go into the back room with either the owner or manager for a few minutes, come out and leave. The last time I witnessed him doing this was around 1994 in The American Cafe.

Do you think they were paying anyone into the 2000’s?

I can't confirm that because I was out of Rockford by then but if Salvatore Galluzzo was indeed "boss" then and keeping up with things, then yes.

[Honk]

I might have asked someone before but what connection did Rockford or even the Chicago outfit have to all the ‘lingerie and massage shops in Rockford and Belvidere? I used to venture to those in the early 2000’s when I was passing through. Always wondered if they were paying a tax.

The Rockford area massage parlors and strip joints paid a street tax into the 1990s and Frank "Gumba" Saladino was responsible for making the pickups on the street tax. On a few occasions I would see Saladino come in and go into the back room with either the owner or manager for a few minutes, come out and leave. The last time I witnessed him doing this was around 1994 in The American Cafe.

Do you think they were paying anyone into the 2000’s?

I can't confirm that because I was out of Rockford by then but if Salvatore Galluzzo was indeed "boss" then and keeping up with things, then yes.

Apppreciate the info!!

[Snakes]

Great post as usual, Cavita!