Roots of the Capone Mob a.k.a. the Chicago Outfit
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Re: Roots of the Capone Mob a.k.a. the Chicago Outfit
Awesome post Vil
I get it....first rule of fight club.
Re: Roots of the Capone Mob a.k.a. the Chicago Outfit
Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God - Corinthians 6:9-10
Re: Roots of the Capone Mob a.k.a. the Chicago Outfit
What's up guys?! I'm back with another time line regarding the Outfit's historical crews but this time, it's about the 1940's and 50's. So after you read it, I'm waiting for your questions, comments and critics. Thank you
1940’s
Now, for me personally this is one of the most interesting and quite confusing decades regarding the Outfit’s history and above all its hierarchy. By the beginning of the 1940’s, I’m not quite sure if the Outfit completely stabilized from within, but I’m certain for one thing and that is, during this decade the whole top administration was changed for few main reasons. One was when in 1940, one key document, compiled by Italian Treasury Police, was forwarded to a U.S. Customs supervisor in New York, who sent it on to the supervising customs agent in Chicago and from there made its way to Federal Bureau of Narcotics. The document showed that there was a presence of a “Grand Council of the Sicilian Mafia” in the U.S. and nine men were in charge, including New York bosses Vincent and Philip Mangano, Joe Bonanno, Joe Profaci and Joe Traina, also Stefano Magaddino from Buffalo, from Cleveland Al Polizzi and Frank Milano, and in the end Paul Ricca from Chicago. I’m not quite sure regarding the positions of some of the listed alleged bosses but I’m quite positive that this shows by now Ricca was still the overall boss of the Chicago crime family of America’s Cosa Nostra, thus making him and the rest of his cohorts the prime targets of the federal government. Automatically, the second main reason became the government’s attack and the imprisonment of the so-called “first layer” of the Chicago Outfit. And the third main reason for the so-called confusing hierarchy was the “second layer” which in fact was American-born and during this period took over almost the whole organization, meaning the West Side faction began mixing in different territories thus making the whole situation even harder to understand. In addition, I personally believe that during this period there were allegedly 9 crews which formed the so-called Chicago Outfit. Here is my theory regarding the next decade…
NEAR NORTH SIDE
As I previously stated that during the previous decade this was one of the leading groups for the Chicago Mob and they entered in the same fashion into the upcoming decade. But little they knew that this was going to be their end, meaning Mike Carrozzo died of natural causes in 1940, and on December 30, 1942 Nitto was indicted together with one west coast mobster John Roselli for attempting to extort over a million dollars from several Hollywood studios, and after that Nitto, the alleged crew leader, decided to take his own life on March 19, 1943. On top of that their main guy who allegedly succeeded Carrozzo in the labor rackets, Louis Romano by the mid 1940’s was nearly ousted from the business. As for Anthony D’Andrea, well I believe that he was the only guy from the crew who carried on but under different administration, which I think was the West Side faction. In addition, D’Andrea was the brother of Phil D’Andrea. So I believe that by the late 1940’s, part from the Near North Side came under the umbrella of the Rogers Park group, which in turn already had their own operations in that same territory, and also one half went to the so-called “territory-occupating” West Side group.
CICERO
The next faction which almost got extinct was the old Capone stronghold which was the Cicero area. According to the previous decade, many members from the old Capone Mob managed to keep their operations in that area, which in fact it’s quite huge and there’s plenty for everyone. So if we consider Ralph Capone as the leading member from that area than by the early 1940’s, some records show that he began very often travelling to Mercer, Wisconsin, which allegedly was his favourite territory, maybe because he was forced, or maybe because he liked it that way. In other words, he was still considered the alleged boss of Cicero but he rarely was around mainly because of his second name. Whatever was the real reason for Capone’s relocation, the Cicero area became sort of “headless” territory mostly because the rest of the old members were allegedly long gone from the game and only kept their semi-legit business in that same area, mainly because of their close connections to Ralph Capone. Now don’t get me wrong there were obviously other remaining members such as the Aiuppa brothers and Robert Ansani, with the full back up from their cohorts in the non-Italian faction, including Maddox, Heeney and Corngold, but story goes that the Italian faction of the Cicero crew wasn’t that much powerful during this period or after Capone’s departure to Wisconsin, and so according to some reports they weren’t able to control or maybe even defend the whole area.
Story goes that by the late 1930’s and early 40’s some old time members from the West Side area such as Tony Volpe and Sylvester Agoglia transferred to the Cicero area allegedly as semi-retired members. Obviously they knew Ralph Capone for a very long time and he possibly welcomed them with open arms. By 1942, some reports state that many West Side members began investing in the northern part of the Cicero area, and so story goes that the Taylor St boys slowly became the main partners in almost every illegal or legal operation in that area. For example, anyone who wished to open his own joint, he or she had the responsibility to include the Cicero crew and also the alleged boss of the Taylor St group Louis Campagna into the game. In other words, the Cicero area was allegedly divided between the two groups, but still not territorial but instead in profitable meaning. I’m talking about Ralph Capone on one side and Campagna’s underling Sam Giancana on the other, who in turn are the only guys for whom I do have some info regarding the situation. So let’s say that when Campagna went to jail in 1943, the next year, after his release from prison, Giancana was elevated to a higher position and was placed as overseer of Campagna’s shares of the Cicero area, which in fact might explain his complete relocation close to that same territory in 1945. Also don’t get confused regarding Giancana’s stature during this period mainly because I personally believe that he still wasn’t considered a captain but became some sort of an overseer of a certain part or shares from one whole territory, which in fact belonged to a different group. In future we will see many members of this kind who were something between captain and a soldier. I believe proof for that is Giancana’s importation of former Taylor St members into Cicero and other areas, which occurred during the end of the decade.
I have to be honest that I truly do not have any info regarding the dividing of the territorial areas around Cicero, mainly because I believe that the boys had their headquarters and invested all around the area, and there was still no northern part or southern part. For example, in 1945, jailed boss Campagna (through Giancana), Heeney, Corngold, Volpe and Rocco Fischetti all were secret owners of the infamous El Patio Tavern at 5914 Cermak Road, Cicero. So I think that in 1947, when the top bosses got paroled, the Cicero area became officially a half-open territory rather than a closed one. Proof for that is when 1948 one non-Italian Outfit member Gus Alex from the Near South Side became partner and also general manager at the Turf Lounge at 4833 Cermak rd., which was secretly owned by Campagna, Maddox and Joseph Aiuppa. Story goes that Alex even brought a whole gang with him, including Tony Harris, a known Outfit enforcer and also Nick Kokenes and John Varlas, two quite lucrative handbook operators. One of my theories regarding the alleged “dividing” of the Cicero area was the so-called “raise-fund” for the jailed top bosses, which in fact really helped for an early release. This might also explain the deep involvement of the old Cicero crew in collecting and also spreading out the cash for the early release. Speaking about Aiuppa, some reports say that by the late 1940’s, he possibly became the unofficial boss of the basic Cicero crew, which at the time was in close alliance with the so-called “former” Taylor St group such as Campagna and Giancana.
TAYLOR ST
One of the most clever and interesting moves which the Taylor St group ever made during this period, was the relocation of their most powerful members as acting captains or overseers in few of the territories which were “headless” mainly because of the Hollywood convictions of the heads of the organization. During this decade, the group allegedly managed to “infiltrate” their own candidates for future captains in the Lawndale area, Melrose Park and above all, the Cicero territory. So after the many investments, which were made by numerous top mobsters from all ethnicities from the Taylor St crew, their top members such as Campagna, Mangano and Giancana allegedly slowly began to transfer into the Cicero area, thus slowly forming their huge influence around the city of Chicago but at the same time forming separate factions within the crew. For example we cannot say the same thing for the North Side or Chinatown areas, since those two territories were controlled by specific crews. I mean yeah, obviously few of the most powerful members also had their interests in almost every territory but the basic territorial crews were the ones who gave the last “ok”. Who knows, maybe the alleged current captain Mangano, under Campagna’s instructions, gave his “ok” for the Cicero area quite often, thus forming it into an “open territory”. I mean why not, because it was a quite lucrative scheme. First of all they already had the Taylor St area and second, if any of the top guys wanted to go into Cicero, they would’ve done it without any problems, as long as they included the previous two guys or at least one of them, and also the old Cicero crew. With that, I also believe that they avoided any dissatisfaction from the rest of the top members and questions such as “why didn’t we get that territory?” or “why are they giving away our territory?” In fact I also believe that this was the only solution for the bosses to get more but at the same time, to avoid any possible conflicts within the group.
During the early 1940’s the Taylor St group, which was the leading faction at the time, received almost the same faith as Nitto’s group but the thing was, as I stated in the previous decade, that this faction had many big time faces involved and they also had many soldiers under their rule. In 1943, the top leaders Paul Ricca and Louis Campagna were jailed in the same case as the late Nitto, including their cohort from the nearby area Frank Maritote. Other members just vanished from the scene or began to lay low such as Rocco Fanelli and to tell you the truth, I can’t find anything incriminating during this decade regarding this guy, except for the fact that he owned some building and that is that. Some old timers from the West Side such as Anthony Volpe and Sylvester Agoglia allegedly transferred and held some interests around the Cicero area and became semi-retired, although Volpe’s name repeatedly showed up in the papers, mainly because of his constant deportation problems. As for James Adduci, he continued to provide his services whenever they were needed.
So as you can see, by the early 1940’s almost the whole top administration of the West Side faction was jailed and now, according to my research, the only remaining leading member, particularly from the Taylor St. crew, was Lawrence Mangano, and also the young turks such as Sam Giancana, Sam Battaglia, and possibly Louis Fratto, who in turn took for Des Moines, Iowa to replace Charles Gioe, another imprisoned mobster in the Hollywood case. Also there’s another possibility that by the mid 1940’s Battaglia and one Marshal Caifano took over Maritote’s territory which in fact was the northern part of Lawndale. Proof for that is their newly opened gambling joint at the time which was located at 4500 West Filmore and they both reported to Mangano. There’s a possibility that Anthony D’Andrea from the old Near North Side crew was also absorbed by the Mangano group together with one West Side mobster known as Ignatius Spachese a.k.a. Ned Bakes. Both of them worked together with another associate of the Taylor St. group and close friend of the jailed top boss Paul Ricca, known as Pete Fosco. So after the dismantling of the Near North Side group, some of the most profitable members went under the Near West Side administration which shows us that even though the Taylor St. crew had seen better days, still they never lost control. And by “they” I mean Ricca and Campagna, the top guys who managed to prove many times that no one is above the administration. Good example for that was Mangano who in turn the newspapers at the time called him the “King of the West Side” which he really was. I mean he was allegedly the boss of the Taylor St area, the Lower West Side, and also the whole Lawndale area, including the northern part and also the southern part which by now was controlled by one of Mangano’s associates from Jewish criminal element Ben Zuckerman.
Who knows, maybe that was the main reason for his alleged dream to become the boss but the problem was that another individual was destined for the spot. The murder of Lawrence Mangano, together with Mike Pontillo, occurred on August 3, 1944, and was allegedly ordered by the jailed top administration. Also from 1945 until 1947, a dozen of non-Italian gangsters were killed around that territory, especially the Lawndale area, which is one of the signs that the West Side faction was quickly spreading its influence. By the late 1940’s, the Lawndale area was allegedly controlled by different Jewish faction which included Lenny Patrick and three of his main lieutenants Dave Yaras, William Block and Jack Patrick, who in turn all worked under Battaglia. In fact, this might’ve been the first sign of a non-Italian member being, still not a captain, but some sort of a territorial overseer of a specific area.
Now the hard question is, on who took over for the Taylor St crew, after or before the murder of Mangano? Obviously Ricca, Campagna and Maritote were in jail, and for most Mob researchers the only name out there is Sam Giancana. Even some of his moves were perfect for that theory since he relocated his family close to Cicero in 1945 and bought a lavish home, which might indicate that he went up within the organization. But other sources say that Giancana’s relocation was in fact for another and quite different purpose, which had nothing to do with the leading position of the Taylor St group, but instead he went there to replace or take over some of Ralph Capone’s operations in Campagna’s name, since Capone used to be the main guy in that area before he went to Wisconsin. So if we take this theory quite seriously, then the question still remains on who was the new captain of the crew? Now I know that this might sound crazy and I beg you do not laugh at me, but my choice goes to James Belcastro.
As I explained in the previous decade that there is a strong possibility of Belcastro’s involvement in the Taylor St area and the Lower West Side rackets, especially handbooks, with the help of his brother-in-law Rocco Fanelli, who was a huge player at the time. In one of my conversation with Antiliar I made a mistake by saying that Belcastro inherited few operations on the West Side after his cousin’s death. Well the two mistakes which I made were, first it wasn’t his cousin but instead it was his brother-in-law Fanelli, and second he did not die in 1940 but instead he allegedly kept living. The problem is that I really can’t find any info on Fanelli’s actions during the late 1930’s or early 1940’s, except for this one newspaper article from 1947, which blames Fanelli and one Joe Amabile for not taking care of their building which allegedly caused the death of a baby. Most of us heard the name Amabile, who during this period was considered a small time hoodlum or maybe even young enforcer. So maybe during this period Fanelli was shelved or semi-retired and kept his association with younger hoodlums, same as most of the semi-retired criminals who sort of kept grooming future mobsters. So my point is that obviously we cannot judge only because we cannot find any info in an FBI file or a newspaper article but the hard truth is that I really can’t find any solid evidence that Fanelli kept his status within the Outfit during the late 1930’s and early 40’s. On top of that, later on Amabile came under a different crew so the building situation might’ve been only a mere collaboration.
So again, if we take this theory seriously, according to their previous business relationship and because of his seniority, Belcastro might’ve really inherited Fanelli’s operations and territory and after the death of Mangano, he might’ve become the official leader of the Taylor St crew, for a very short time. Some sources say that the bosses allegedly shelved Mangano few months before his demise, and so there’s another strong possibility that Belcastro took over the crew 5 or 6 months earlier. The late Mangano was no easy target and proof for that is the number of hit men, which I believe was three, who were used during the hit while being in a speeding car, which made two turns just so they can finish their target. Another interesting thing is according to Mob author John W. Tuohy, one quite famous Outfit member Dominic Blasi was brought into the organization personally by Belcastro himself, allegedly in a “ceremony” of few simple words. Now, according to Blasi’s records during the 1940’s he lived around Taylor St and if Tuohy’s claims are true, than my theory might be also true. Also, if Blasi was allegedly made in 1945, then the next year he was sent to Dallas, which indicates that the story might be again legit. By the late 1940’s Blasi was back in Chicago and Taylor St. and worked closely together with one Mike Sperna and his nephew Tony Sperna, who decade later will became one of Chicago’s dope dealers. On top of that Blasi also had many South Side connections such as the Manno brothers, which again gives me the similar picture of the business relations style of his alleged captain and former South Side member Belcastro.
Ok, even if Belcastro was the Taylor St boss for some time, the bigger problem is that he suddenly died on August 23, 1945, out of natural causes, while being at his father-in-law’s house on Taylor St. So what happens now? Well, again to tell you the truth I have no idea but I have another possible and so-called crazy theory. Some reports say that Belcastro’s sudden death was indeed unexpected since he was in his early 40’s and was allegedly more powerful than ever. So my personal belief is that Belcastro’s death managed to “create” another so-called position which was similar to that in the Cicero area, in which one captain has his own territory but he also has jurisdiction of another part from a different territory. For example my personal choice is “former” Taylor St member Sam Giancana who might’ve become an official captain for the first time in his life and this time, of the Taylor St crew. And on the other hand, he still had his operations in Cicero, mainly for Campagna, who by 1947 was present on the streets, which possibly meant that Giancana had more time to get involved with the Taylor St boys. But the important thing to remember for the easier understanding in further explanations is that the so-called “bridge” between the Taylor St group and Cicero was created and was about to last during the next two decade. Also proof for Giancana’s alleged position as boss of the Taylor St group can be the presence of many new members within the group such as Leonard Caifano, older brother of Marshal Caifano and close friend of Giancana, and also Fiore Buccieri, a known enforcer for many West Side politicians and also an alleged killer of the Outfit and Joey Glimco, union enforcer who previously worked for the late Frank Nitto from the Near North Side. These fellas were allegedly followed by an army of young criminals who constantly transferred themselves between Taylor St and other areas, for which I’ll talk about later. This was possibly another strong proof at the time, that the Taylor St group was the most powerful faction within the organization. And since their old boss Campagna was released from prison, besides being the alleged or former underboss, since he was fresh out of jail after four years, he and Ricca took a low profile until 1950. So my point is that by the late 1940’s or at least early 1950’s, Sam Giancana possibly led the infamous Taylor St group.
On top of that, with the early release of the bosses and their need to stay away from the government’s radar, the Outfit again created another position which can be quite confusing. I mean both Ricca and Campagna were still powerful but obviously the problem was the government which in turn was constantly following them. The feds were possibly angry for the early release and so from that point on, the bosses constantly had troubles with the law. So I really don’t want to imagine the confusion which possibly went on within the organization but in the end everyone understood that the two bosses were still at the top but this time they had one so-called chief executive under their rule and obviously under him were the underboss and the captains. In other words, the bosses acted as semi-retired criminals but at the same time having the last word within the organization, mostly on important issues.
GRAND AVENUE (Elmwood Park)
To tell you the truth, during this period, this might’ve been one of the most complicated crews within the Chicago Outfit. First of all, as I stated in the previous decade that by the late 1930’s and early 40’s Tony Accardo might’ve been the possible crew boss for the Grand Avenue group. Also, there are two other possible choices besides Accardo, such as Tony Capezio and Vincent Benevento, mostly because of their seniority within the group. So my personal belief and choice is that Accardo’s rising stature can be simply explained at the same time when the bosses were in jail for the Hollywood scheme, mainly because he and Murray Humphreys were the only members who both used the same alias of one of Ricca’s lawyers and spoke directly to their boss. Now I know that both of them looked like simple messengers at the time but many reports say otherwise, meaning neither Accardo nor Humphreys were considered messengers within the group, especially during that period when the bosses were in a strong need of trustful members and the organization was allegedly “headless”. In other words, the bosses, knowingly or not, slowly began to groom Accardo for the top position. I mean the guy was going back and forth while at the same time was also being implicated in bringing final decisions together with the bosses on the streets. I can only imagine that by the end of the day Accardo’s job was to sit on the same table with all of the top Outfit members and give them the instructions and also collect all envelopes.
So it is quite possible that some of the elderly members, such as Benevento from Grand Avenue, Mangano from the Taylor St group and James DeGeorge from the Rogers Park area, felt envious at the younger member which was Accardo and also felt disappointed from their bosses, who on top of that were placed in jail and obviously were not present during the everyday affairs. In fact, I see at the situation as one administration against the other. So according to their mentality at the time, I believe that the possibility of Mangano, Benevento and possibly DeGeorge, being rebellious against their bosses because of the Accardo situation during that time, might’ve been quite real. On September 20, 1946 Benevento was killed by seven shotgun blasts and few .45 caliber pistol bullets and so I’m almost positive that his replacement was Capezio who in turn was a long time member of this faction. So when all of the problems got solved, it is quite possible that the next year in 1947, after the release of the Outfit’s top administration from prison, Accardo was allegedly and officially elevated to the “chief executive” or boss position, which in fact was a position right under Ricca and Campagna, who after their release, they mainly acted as semi-retired bosses. Under Capezio’s rule as captain of the Grand Avenue group, by the late 1940’s the crew included many new members such as John DeBiase, James Cerone, Willie Messino and Joe Gagliano.
MELROSE PARK
The beginning of the 1940’s was devastating for some of the gangsters around this area especially the old Montana clan. In 1941, Mauro John Montana Jr was sentenced to 14 years in prison, and that same year his two cohorts Joe Severino and Anthony Palma also received heavy sentences. The next year, the oldest one in the group James Montana was also sentenced to prison, which in fact was the end of the old Monatana clan. I believe that the Hollywood case also had its own impact over the Melrose Park crew, maybe not directly but in a different way. During the mid 1940’s the alleged boss of that area was Rocco DeGrazia whose prime rackets used to be extortion, vending machines and handbook operations but since during this period the organization was in total chaos, DeGrazia added another racket to his collection and that was narcotics.
The fact is that by now the Melrose Park crew did not change much in organizational meaning, mainly because the DeGrazia brothers kept their old Capone links such as the Taglia family and members from the non-Italian faction such as Mike Stacey. Story goes that the brothers were quite known in that area and some reports show that sometimes even Rocco DeGrazia himself collected the street tax from their victims. In March, 1946, the narcotics bureau in Chicago arrested Rocco and Andrew DeGrazia and also Mike Stacey, thus charging them with extortion, illegal transportation and concealing of narcotics. The next year, in 1947, Rocco DeGrazia again managed to get himself in trouble by getting caught with few ounces of opium and smoking paraphernalia and so he was quickly convicted and sentenced to one year and one day in prison. So I believe that the remaining members such as Albert Pranno, Fred Mazzone, and Carl Torraco began to take things in their own hands. My theory is that during this period while the whole top leadership of the Melrose Park crew was in jail, the main member who “took care” of crew was Albert Pranno. I’m not going to state that he was a captain but there are some reports that by 1948, the group was associated with many new individuals such as Albert’s brother Rocco Pranno, Joe Leopoldo, Mike Derrico, Tony Lullo, Neal Rizzo and one young relative from the DeGrazia clan known as James DeGrazia. These guys were imported from nearby territories such as Stone Park, Franklin Park and Northlake, which by now were still under the jurisdiction of the Melrose Park group.
When Rocco DeGrazia got out of jail that same year, story goes that he had no kind of finances and slowly began to loose his grip over the group. So my belief is that this might explain the importation of high level Taylor St members in the Melrose Park area and the alleged takeover of the crew. I also believe that it was a similar tactic as the situation in Cicero, meaning at first they possibly included DeGrazia in every scheme but later, they began to push him out of the scene. My personal opinion is that the so-called new members within the Melrose Park group were in fact Taylor St members who previously operated in the northern part of Lawndale as replacement for the imprisoned Frank Maritote, such as Sam Battaglia, including several possible associates of his such as Marshall Caifano, Charles Nicoletti and Phil Alderisio, while the third being related to the Fratto clan. And as I previously stated that his replacement in the whole Lawndale area became two non-Italian members such as Lenny Patrick and Dave Yaras but story goes that by the end of the day, they still answered to Battaglia. In fact, from this point on, Battaglia’s career went straight up, mainly because he began operating in two different territories, similar position to the one of his close cohort Sam Giancana. Some reports say that Battaglia grew even more powerful by making close connections with the Pranno group. In fact the Melrose Park area was again ruled by one group, still being the DeGrazia clan and with the help of Sam Battaglia. In reality, this was another powerful move by the Taylor St group within the organization.
ROGERS PARK, EVANSTON, NEAR NORTH SIDE
Since the West Side faction was slowly growing bigger and bigger, other factions began to follow, and the ones who refused, were obviously killed. During 1940’s this group was also one of the most complicated and at the same time, most powerful group within the Outfit and that is why, I believe they suffered more than few changes. As you can see, in most of the text I usually mention James DeGeorge of this so-called North Side faction but after having one conversation with Antiliar, there’s huge possibility that Thomas Oneglia might’ve been in charge of the group but to tell you the truth I’m unable to find any solid proof for that statement. If you look at the reports of mainly who owned what or who had interests in what from that group, you’ll find mostly the names of Oneglia, Prio, James DeAngelo and even Benevento who supposedly has been a high profile member of the Grand Avenue crew. Whatever was his position, on December 7, 1943 Oneglia was riddled with bullets while being on a barber’s chair, allegedly by three hitmen. The interesting thing at the time was that these boys allegedly had one of the most murderous hit teams within the Outfit, including the Dom Nuccio, Dom DiBella and Dom Brancato, all close associates to Ross Prio, who in turn allegedly began having close relations to the West Side faction.
On February 25, 1944, two crew members DeAngelo and Onofrio Vitale went missing and later on March 11, DeAngelo’s battered and bound corpse was found in the trunk of his wife’s car on the North Side of Chicago. He was tortured for several days, four of his ribs were broken and there were also several holes on his skull made by a small sharp instrument. Also a year later Vitale’s corpse was found stuffed in a sewer. Ross Prio was questioned by the cops regarding the murders and he said that he knew nothing of Vitale except that he was a good cheese curer and an excellent salesman. On DeAngelo, Prio said that he knew him casually, which was obviously a lie. Also on March 2, 1944, another crew member Sam Gervase was shot to death in his refrigerator repair shop. Few months later, alleged Taylor St captain Lawrence Mangano was also killed so there’s a huge possibility of a connection between the killings, mostly because most of them were high profile members of the Chicago Mob and the real top administration was jailed. In 1945, the alleged Grand Avenue crew big shot Vincent Benevento escaped an alleged murder attempt but as we previously saw, they got to him the next year. On May 9, 1947, his nephew Nick DeJohn was also killed, thus putting the end of the whole alleged rebellious faction, including the late Oneglia, Mangano and Benevento, and slowly opening the way for Ross Prio, the alleged conspirator behind some of the murders.
So as I previously stated that the ones who were in alliance with the West Side faction, remained alive and went up within the organization. One proof for that James DeGeorge’s alleged demotion as captain of the crew and later transferred to Wisconsin. In 1948, the coast was clear for Ross Prio to become the crew boss, possibly a year later after Accardo became the boss. The second proof for Prio’s close West Side connections was his rulership over a new territory which was the Near North Side, the old territory of the late Frank Nitto. In fact, later this territory was divided in the same fashion as Cicero and other areas, by being controlled by two crews, one being Prio and the other, the West Side faction.
NEAR SOUTH SIDE AND LOOP, CHINATOWN AND SOUTH SIDE, CALUMET CITY
At the beginning of the 1940’s this might’ve been the most politically powerful group within the Outfit, obviously by controlling the whole First Ward. As I previously stated that besides having strong Italian membership, this group was also heavily “infested” with quite powerful non-Italians. So when Phi D’Andrea was sent to prison with the rest of the top bosses, the non-Italians such as Jake Guzk, Murray Humphreys and Sam Hunt carried on the heavy work around the whole territory. So since I already placed James Belcastro during this period on the West Side, I personally believe that D’Andrea’s “eyes and ears” around the whole territory was Bruno Roti. Other possible high level members at the time were John Sortino aka Ferraro and Tony Bagnola who in turn brought many younger members within the crew, under Roti’s rule, such as Ferraro’s brother Frank, also Frank Caruso and Gus Alex. When D’Andrea was released in 1947, the hierarchy of the crew hasn’t changed much mainly because story goes that the old boss suffered the most from the rest of his imprisoned cohorts during their stay in jail and so when he became a free man, his health was allegedly on the down low and on top of that, he also had to take a low profile. My point is that Roti possibly kept his position as the unofficial or acting captain for the group until the late 1940’s when that same group slowly began dividing in two separate factions, one being under Roti with the Chinatown and South Side areas, and the other under the rising younger faction such as Frank Ferraro and Gus Alex, close associates of the non-Italian bosses such as Guzik mainly located around the Near South Side and Loop. At the same time, the Calumet City area was allegedly no longer under their rule but instead it became more of an area under the rule of the Chicago Heights faction.
LAKE VIEW
During this decade, the infamous Fischetti brothers slowly began to transform from territorial bosses to emissaries for the top administration, regarding the relations with crime families mainly from Louisiana and Florida. The brothers were also still in charge of the Outfit’s interests in Cuban casinos and allegedly Charles Fischetti was still considered the leader of the group. By the mid 1940’s Joe Fischetti became more and more involved in the Outfit’s interests outside of Chicago and more often spent his time in Miami. Proof for that and at the same time the most interesting thing regarding this group was that the Fischettis allegedly accompanied Tony Accardo as the Outfit’s representative during the infamous Havana conference. Story goes that because of their high stature, both brothers received separate territories, including their old one Lake View which remained under Charles, and as for Rocco, he received the Lake County area, right above Ross Prio’s territory. During the end of the decade, one of Rocco’s main “lieutenants” in that area became one non-Italian member known as Les Kruse.
According to some reports, during this period only one of the brothers was acquired to be present more often out of the Chicago area, as for the rest such as Charles and Rocco Fischetti, they were more often needed in their own territory. But according to the reports, during this period both Charles and Rocco more often followed their younger brother Joe into the “out of state” ventures and were rarely present around their own territory which was located back home. My personal belief for that kind of action was the Hollywood case and the many killings which occurred in Chicago during that time. So by the late 1940’s their absence caused some problems around their own territory, at the same time when the West Side faction was spreading its own influence around the city of Chicago. Story goes that Lawndale overseer Lenny Patrick saw their territory as being untouched, meaning without their presence, the Outfit lost money. So Patrick allegedly tried to muscle into the Belmont and Diversey areas and created a conflict with the Fischettis. The reports says that the conflict was between Patrick and Rocco Fischetti himself, which gives me doubts on who was the real leader of the Fischetti’s, meaning was it Charles or Rocco?! According to the story, Patrick’s so-called “scheme” was robbing the main handbook operators who in turn worked for the Fischettis. You see, the main racket for the Fischettis during this period was illegal handbook operations mainly because it’s an open business, meaning everything goes around public sport activities and so their presence wasn’t acquired so often. So allegedly the conflict ended up with two of Patrick’s members dead and also it ended up in Rocco Fischetti’s favour with Accardo being the arbitrator regarding the conflict.
CHICAGO HEIGHTS
I believe that during this decade the Chicago Heights group was the safest crew of them all, meaning they operated safely under the government’s radar and their top administration remained untouched by the law for quite a long time. It’s like they almost resembled as a separate “crime family” with boss and underboss. I mean Jim Emery was still the official captain but he had so many high profile members under his rule, who in turn gave the image of a whole separate organization, including Frank LaPorte, Roberto’s brother John, Joe Guzzino and George Tuffanelli. For example, Tuffanelli was mainly in charge of the Blue Island area and LaPorte at the time was placed in Calumet City where he supervised all illegal activities in Calumet City and during that period, the town allegedly received a bad name. As for John Roberto, allegedly he was the main overseer of the Chicago Heights area. So because of their own elusiveness and the clumsiness of the rest of the Outfit groups, the Chicago Heights faction managed to spread their influence and take over some other territories, including Calumet City, Joliet and by this time they also began to infiltrate into the northern Indiana area.
1940’s
Now, for me personally this is one of the most interesting and quite confusing decades regarding the Outfit’s history and above all its hierarchy. By the beginning of the 1940’s, I’m not quite sure if the Outfit completely stabilized from within, but I’m certain for one thing and that is, during this decade the whole top administration was changed for few main reasons. One was when in 1940, one key document, compiled by Italian Treasury Police, was forwarded to a U.S. Customs supervisor in New York, who sent it on to the supervising customs agent in Chicago and from there made its way to Federal Bureau of Narcotics. The document showed that there was a presence of a “Grand Council of the Sicilian Mafia” in the U.S. and nine men were in charge, including New York bosses Vincent and Philip Mangano, Joe Bonanno, Joe Profaci and Joe Traina, also Stefano Magaddino from Buffalo, from Cleveland Al Polizzi and Frank Milano, and in the end Paul Ricca from Chicago. I’m not quite sure regarding the positions of some of the listed alleged bosses but I’m quite positive that this shows by now Ricca was still the overall boss of the Chicago crime family of America’s Cosa Nostra, thus making him and the rest of his cohorts the prime targets of the federal government. Automatically, the second main reason became the government’s attack and the imprisonment of the so-called “first layer” of the Chicago Outfit. And the third main reason for the so-called confusing hierarchy was the “second layer” which in fact was American-born and during this period took over almost the whole organization, meaning the West Side faction began mixing in different territories thus making the whole situation even harder to understand. In addition, I personally believe that during this period there were allegedly 9 crews which formed the so-called Chicago Outfit. Here is my theory regarding the next decade…
NEAR NORTH SIDE
As I previously stated that during the previous decade this was one of the leading groups for the Chicago Mob and they entered in the same fashion into the upcoming decade. But little they knew that this was going to be their end, meaning Mike Carrozzo died of natural causes in 1940, and on December 30, 1942 Nitto was indicted together with one west coast mobster John Roselli for attempting to extort over a million dollars from several Hollywood studios, and after that Nitto, the alleged crew leader, decided to take his own life on March 19, 1943. On top of that their main guy who allegedly succeeded Carrozzo in the labor rackets, Louis Romano by the mid 1940’s was nearly ousted from the business. As for Anthony D’Andrea, well I believe that he was the only guy from the crew who carried on but under different administration, which I think was the West Side faction. In addition, D’Andrea was the brother of Phil D’Andrea. So I believe that by the late 1940’s, part from the Near North Side came under the umbrella of the Rogers Park group, which in turn already had their own operations in that same territory, and also one half went to the so-called “territory-occupating” West Side group.
CICERO
The next faction which almost got extinct was the old Capone stronghold which was the Cicero area. According to the previous decade, many members from the old Capone Mob managed to keep their operations in that area, which in fact it’s quite huge and there’s plenty for everyone. So if we consider Ralph Capone as the leading member from that area than by the early 1940’s, some records show that he began very often travelling to Mercer, Wisconsin, which allegedly was his favourite territory, maybe because he was forced, or maybe because he liked it that way. In other words, he was still considered the alleged boss of Cicero but he rarely was around mainly because of his second name. Whatever was the real reason for Capone’s relocation, the Cicero area became sort of “headless” territory mostly because the rest of the old members were allegedly long gone from the game and only kept their semi-legit business in that same area, mainly because of their close connections to Ralph Capone. Now don’t get me wrong there were obviously other remaining members such as the Aiuppa brothers and Robert Ansani, with the full back up from their cohorts in the non-Italian faction, including Maddox, Heeney and Corngold, but story goes that the Italian faction of the Cicero crew wasn’t that much powerful during this period or after Capone’s departure to Wisconsin, and so according to some reports they weren’t able to control or maybe even defend the whole area.
Story goes that by the late 1930’s and early 40’s some old time members from the West Side area such as Tony Volpe and Sylvester Agoglia transferred to the Cicero area allegedly as semi-retired members. Obviously they knew Ralph Capone for a very long time and he possibly welcomed them with open arms. By 1942, some reports state that many West Side members began investing in the northern part of the Cicero area, and so story goes that the Taylor St boys slowly became the main partners in almost every illegal or legal operation in that area. For example, anyone who wished to open his own joint, he or she had the responsibility to include the Cicero crew and also the alleged boss of the Taylor St group Louis Campagna into the game. In other words, the Cicero area was allegedly divided between the two groups, but still not territorial but instead in profitable meaning. I’m talking about Ralph Capone on one side and Campagna’s underling Sam Giancana on the other, who in turn are the only guys for whom I do have some info regarding the situation. So let’s say that when Campagna went to jail in 1943, the next year, after his release from prison, Giancana was elevated to a higher position and was placed as overseer of Campagna’s shares of the Cicero area, which in fact might explain his complete relocation close to that same territory in 1945. Also don’t get confused regarding Giancana’s stature during this period mainly because I personally believe that he still wasn’t considered a captain but became some sort of an overseer of a certain part or shares from one whole territory, which in fact belonged to a different group. In future we will see many members of this kind who were something between captain and a soldier. I believe proof for that is Giancana’s importation of former Taylor St members into Cicero and other areas, which occurred during the end of the decade.
I have to be honest that I truly do not have any info regarding the dividing of the territorial areas around Cicero, mainly because I believe that the boys had their headquarters and invested all around the area, and there was still no northern part or southern part. For example, in 1945, jailed boss Campagna (through Giancana), Heeney, Corngold, Volpe and Rocco Fischetti all were secret owners of the infamous El Patio Tavern at 5914 Cermak Road, Cicero. So I think that in 1947, when the top bosses got paroled, the Cicero area became officially a half-open territory rather than a closed one. Proof for that is when 1948 one non-Italian Outfit member Gus Alex from the Near South Side became partner and also general manager at the Turf Lounge at 4833 Cermak rd., which was secretly owned by Campagna, Maddox and Joseph Aiuppa. Story goes that Alex even brought a whole gang with him, including Tony Harris, a known Outfit enforcer and also Nick Kokenes and John Varlas, two quite lucrative handbook operators. One of my theories regarding the alleged “dividing” of the Cicero area was the so-called “raise-fund” for the jailed top bosses, which in fact really helped for an early release. This might also explain the deep involvement of the old Cicero crew in collecting and also spreading out the cash for the early release. Speaking about Aiuppa, some reports say that by the late 1940’s, he possibly became the unofficial boss of the basic Cicero crew, which at the time was in close alliance with the so-called “former” Taylor St group such as Campagna and Giancana.
TAYLOR ST
One of the most clever and interesting moves which the Taylor St group ever made during this period, was the relocation of their most powerful members as acting captains or overseers in few of the territories which were “headless” mainly because of the Hollywood convictions of the heads of the organization. During this decade, the group allegedly managed to “infiltrate” their own candidates for future captains in the Lawndale area, Melrose Park and above all, the Cicero territory. So after the many investments, which were made by numerous top mobsters from all ethnicities from the Taylor St crew, their top members such as Campagna, Mangano and Giancana allegedly slowly began to transfer into the Cicero area, thus slowly forming their huge influence around the city of Chicago but at the same time forming separate factions within the crew. For example we cannot say the same thing for the North Side or Chinatown areas, since those two territories were controlled by specific crews. I mean yeah, obviously few of the most powerful members also had their interests in almost every territory but the basic territorial crews were the ones who gave the last “ok”. Who knows, maybe the alleged current captain Mangano, under Campagna’s instructions, gave his “ok” for the Cicero area quite often, thus forming it into an “open territory”. I mean why not, because it was a quite lucrative scheme. First of all they already had the Taylor St area and second, if any of the top guys wanted to go into Cicero, they would’ve done it without any problems, as long as they included the previous two guys or at least one of them, and also the old Cicero crew. With that, I also believe that they avoided any dissatisfaction from the rest of the top members and questions such as “why didn’t we get that territory?” or “why are they giving away our territory?” In fact I also believe that this was the only solution for the bosses to get more but at the same time, to avoid any possible conflicts within the group.
During the early 1940’s the Taylor St group, which was the leading faction at the time, received almost the same faith as Nitto’s group but the thing was, as I stated in the previous decade, that this faction had many big time faces involved and they also had many soldiers under their rule. In 1943, the top leaders Paul Ricca and Louis Campagna were jailed in the same case as the late Nitto, including their cohort from the nearby area Frank Maritote. Other members just vanished from the scene or began to lay low such as Rocco Fanelli and to tell you the truth, I can’t find anything incriminating during this decade regarding this guy, except for the fact that he owned some building and that is that. Some old timers from the West Side such as Anthony Volpe and Sylvester Agoglia allegedly transferred and held some interests around the Cicero area and became semi-retired, although Volpe’s name repeatedly showed up in the papers, mainly because of his constant deportation problems. As for James Adduci, he continued to provide his services whenever they were needed.
So as you can see, by the early 1940’s almost the whole top administration of the West Side faction was jailed and now, according to my research, the only remaining leading member, particularly from the Taylor St. crew, was Lawrence Mangano, and also the young turks such as Sam Giancana, Sam Battaglia, and possibly Louis Fratto, who in turn took for Des Moines, Iowa to replace Charles Gioe, another imprisoned mobster in the Hollywood case. Also there’s another possibility that by the mid 1940’s Battaglia and one Marshal Caifano took over Maritote’s territory which in fact was the northern part of Lawndale. Proof for that is their newly opened gambling joint at the time which was located at 4500 West Filmore and they both reported to Mangano. There’s a possibility that Anthony D’Andrea from the old Near North Side crew was also absorbed by the Mangano group together with one West Side mobster known as Ignatius Spachese a.k.a. Ned Bakes. Both of them worked together with another associate of the Taylor St. group and close friend of the jailed top boss Paul Ricca, known as Pete Fosco. So after the dismantling of the Near North Side group, some of the most profitable members went under the Near West Side administration which shows us that even though the Taylor St. crew had seen better days, still they never lost control. And by “they” I mean Ricca and Campagna, the top guys who managed to prove many times that no one is above the administration. Good example for that was Mangano who in turn the newspapers at the time called him the “King of the West Side” which he really was. I mean he was allegedly the boss of the Taylor St area, the Lower West Side, and also the whole Lawndale area, including the northern part and also the southern part which by now was controlled by one of Mangano’s associates from Jewish criminal element Ben Zuckerman.
Who knows, maybe that was the main reason for his alleged dream to become the boss but the problem was that another individual was destined for the spot. The murder of Lawrence Mangano, together with Mike Pontillo, occurred on August 3, 1944, and was allegedly ordered by the jailed top administration. Also from 1945 until 1947, a dozen of non-Italian gangsters were killed around that territory, especially the Lawndale area, which is one of the signs that the West Side faction was quickly spreading its influence. By the late 1940’s, the Lawndale area was allegedly controlled by different Jewish faction which included Lenny Patrick and three of his main lieutenants Dave Yaras, William Block and Jack Patrick, who in turn all worked under Battaglia. In fact, this might’ve been the first sign of a non-Italian member being, still not a captain, but some sort of a territorial overseer of a specific area.
Now the hard question is, on who took over for the Taylor St crew, after or before the murder of Mangano? Obviously Ricca, Campagna and Maritote were in jail, and for most Mob researchers the only name out there is Sam Giancana. Even some of his moves were perfect for that theory since he relocated his family close to Cicero in 1945 and bought a lavish home, which might indicate that he went up within the organization. But other sources say that Giancana’s relocation was in fact for another and quite different purpose, which had nothing to do with the leading position of the Taylor St group, but instead he went there to replace or take over some of Ralph Capone’s operations in Campagna’s name, since Capone used to be the main guy in that area before he went to Wisconsin. So if we take this theory quite seriously, then the question still remains on who was the new captain of the crew? Now I know that this might sound crazy and I beg you do not laugh at me, but my choice goes to James Belcastro.
As I explained in the previous decade that there is a strong possibility of Belcastro’s involvement in the Taylor St area and the Lower West Side rackets, especially handbooks, with the help of his brother-in-law Rocco Fanelli, who was a huge player at the time. In one of my conversation with Antiliar I made a mistake by saying that Belcastro inherited few operations on the West Side after his cousin’s death. Well the two mistakes which I made were, first it wasn’t his cousin but instead it was his brother-in-law Fanelli, and second he did not die in 1940 but instead he allegedly kept living. The problem is that I really can’t find any info on Fanelli’s actions during the late 1930’s or early 1940’s, except for this one newspaper article from 1947, which blames Fanelli and one Joe Amabile for not taking care of their building which allegedly caused the death of a baby. Most of us heard the name Amabile, who during this period was considered a small time hoodlum or maybe even young enforcer. So maybe during this period Fanelli was shelved or semi-retired and kept his association with younger hoodlums, same as most of the semi-retired criminals who sort of kept grooming future mobsters. So my point is that obviously we cannot judge only because we cannot find any info in an FBI file or a newspaper article but the hard truth is that I really can’t find any solid evidence that Fanelli kept his status within the Outfit during the late 1930’s and early 40’s. On top of that, later on Amabile came under a different crew so the building situation might’ve been only a mere collaboration.
So again, if we take this theory seriously, according to their previous business relationship and because of his seniority, Belcastro might’ve really inherited Fanelli’s operations and territory and after the death of Mangano, he might’ve become the official leader of the Taylor St crew, for a very short time. Some sources say that the bosses allegedly shelved Mangano few months before his demise, and so there’s another strong possibility that Belcastro took over the crew 5 or 6 months earlier. The late Mangano was no easy target and proof for that is the number of hit men, which I believe was three, who were used during the hit while being in a speeding car, which made two turns just so they can finish their target. Another interesting thing is according to Mob author John W. Tuohy, one quite famous Outfit member Dominic Blasi was brought into the organization personally by Belcastro himself, allegedly in a “ceremony” of few simple words. Now, according to Blasi’s records during the 1940’s he lived around Taylor St and if Tuohy’s claims are true, than my theory might be also true. Also, if Blasi was allegedly made in 1945, then the next year he was sent to Dallas, which indicates that the story might be again legit. By the late 1940’s Blasi was back in Chicago and Taylor St. and worked closely together with one Mike Sperna and his nephew Tony Sperna, who decade later will became one of Chicago’s dope dealers. On top of that Blasi also had many South Side connections such as the Manno brothers, which again gives me the similar picture of the business relations style of his alleged captain and former South Side member Belcastro.
Ok, even if Belcastro was the Taylor St boss for some time, the bigger problem is that he suddenly died on August 23, 1945, out of natural causes, while being at his father-in-law’s house on Taylor St. So what happens now? Well, again to tell you the truth I have no idea but I have another possible and so-called crazy theory. Some reports say that Belcastro’s sudden death was indeed unexpected since he was in his early 40’s and was allegedly more powerful than ever. So my personal belief is that Belcastro’s death managed to “create” another so-called position which was similar to that in the Cicero area, in which one captain has his own territory but he also has jurisdiction of another part from a different territory. For example my personal choice is “former” Taylor St member Sam Giancana who might’ve become an official captain for the first time in his life and this time, of the Taylor St crew. And on the other hand, he still had his operations in Cicero, mainly for Campagna, who by 1947 was present on the streets, which possibly meant that Giancana had more time to get involved with the Taylor St boys. But the important thing to remember for the easier understanding in further explanations is that the so-called “bridge” between the Taylor St group and Cicero was created and was about to last during the next two decade. Also proof for Giancana’s alleged position as boss of the Taylor St group can be the presence of many new members within the group such as Leonard Caifano, older brother of Marshal Caifano and close friend of Giancana, and also Fiore Buccieri, a known enforcer for many West Side politicians and also an alleged killer of the Outfit and Joey Glimco, union enforcer who previously worked for the late Frank Nitto from the Near North Side. These fellas were allegedly followed by an army of young criminals who constantly transferred themselves between Taylor St and other areas, for which I’ll talk about later. This was possibly another strong proof at the time, that the Taylor St group was the most powerful faction within the organization. And since their old boss Campagna was released from prison, besides being the alleged or former underboss, since he was fresh out of jail after four years, he and Ricca took a low profile until 1950. So my point is that by the late 1940’s or at least early 1950’s, Sam Giancana possibly led the infamous Taylor St group.
On top of that, with the early release of the bosses and their need to stay away from the government’s radar, the Outfit again created another position which can be quite confusing. I mean both Ricca and Campagna were still powerful but obviously the problem was the government which in turn was constantly following them. The feds were possibly angry for the early release and so from that point on, the bosses constantly had troubles with the law. So I really don’t want to imagine the confusion which possibly went on within the organization but in the end everyone understood that the two bosses were still at the top but this time they had one so-called chief executive under their rule and obviously under him were the underboss and the captains. In other words, the bosses acted as semi-retired criminals but at the same time having the last word within the organization, mostly on important issues.
GRAND AVENUE (Elmwood Park)
To tell you the truth, during this period, this might’ve been one of the most complicated crews within the Chicago Outfit. First of all, as I stated in the previous decade that by the late 1930’s and early 40’s Tony Accardo might’ve been the possible crew boss for the Grand Avenue group. Also, there are two other possible choices besides Accardo, such as Tony Capezio and Vincent Benevento, mostly because of their seniority within the group. So my personal belief and choice is that Accardo’s rising stature can be simply explained at the same time when the bosses were in jail for the Hollywood scheme, mainly because he and Murray Humphreys were the only members who both used the same alias of one of Ricca’s lawyers and spoke directly to their boss. Now I know that both of them looked like simple messengers at the time but many reports say otherwise, meaning neither Accardo nor Humphreys were considered messengers within the group, especially during that period when the bosses were in a strong need of trustful members and the organization was allegedly “headless”. In other words, the bosses, knowingly or not, slowly began to groom Accardo for the top position. I mean the guy was going back and forth while at the same time was also being implicated in bringing final decisions together with the bosses on the streets. I can only imagine that by the end of the day Accardo’s job was to sit on the same table with all of the top Outfit members and give them the instructions and also collect all envelopes.
So it is quite possible that some of the elderly members, such as Benevento from Grand Avenue, Mangano from the Taylor St group and James DeGeorge from the Rogers Park area, felt envious at the younger member which was Accardo and also felt disappointed from their bosses, who on top of that were placed in jail and obviously were not present during the everyday affairs. In fact, I see at the situation as one administration against the other. So according to their mentality at the time, I believe that the possibility of Mangano, Benevento and possibly DeGeorge, being rebellious against their bosses because of the Accardo situation during that time, might’ve been quite real. On September 20, 1946 Benevento was killed by seven shotgun blasts and few .45 caliber pistol bullets and so I’m almost positive that his replacement was Capezio who in turn was a long time member of this faction. So when all of the problems got solved, it is quite possible that the next year in 1947, after the release of the Outfit’s top administration from prison, Accardo was allegedly and officially elevated to the “chief executive” or boss position, which in fact was a position right under Ricca and Campagna, who after their release, they mainly acted as semi-retired bosses. Under Capezio’s rule as captain of the Grand Avenue group, by the late 1940’s the crew included many new members such as John DeBiase, James Cerone, Willie Messino and Joe Gagliano.
MELROSE PARK
The beginning of the 1940’s was devastating for some of the gangsters around this area especially the old Montana clan. In 1941, Mauro John Montana Jr was sentenced to 14 years in prison, and that same year his two cohorts Joe Severino and Anthony Palma also received heavy sentences. The next year, the oldest one in the group James Montana was also sentenced to prison, which in fact was the end of the old Monatana clan. I believe that the Hollywood case also had its own impact over the Melrose Park crew, maybe not directly but in a different way. During the mid 1940’s the alleged boss of that area was Rocco DeGrazia whose prime rackets used to be extortion, vending machines and handbook operations but since during this period the organization was in total chaos, DeGrazia added another racket to his collection and that was narcotics.
The fact is that by now the Melrose Park crew did not change much in organizational meaning, mainly because the DeGrazia brothers kept their old Capone links such as the Taglia family and members from the non-Italian faction such as Mike Stacey. Story goes that the brothers were quite known in that area and some reports show that sometimes even Rocco DeGrazia himself collected the street tax from their victims. In March, 1946, the narcotics bureau in Chicago arrested Rocco and Andrew DeGrazia and also Mike Stacey, thus charging them with extortion, illegal transportation and concealing of narcotics. The next year, in 1947, Rocco DeGrazia again managed to get himself in trouble by getting caught with few ounces of opium and smoking paraphernalia and so he was quickly convicted and sentenced to one year and one day in prison. So I believe that the remaining members such as Albert Pranno, Fred Mazzone, and Carl Torraco began to take things in their own hands. My theory is that during this period while the whole top leadership of the Melrose Park crew was in jail, the main member who “took care” of crew was Albert Pranno. I’m not going to state that he was a captain but there are some reports that by 1948, the group was associated with many new individuals such as Albert’s brother Rocco Pranno, Joe Leopoldo, Mike Derrico, Tony Lullo, Neal Rizzo and one young relative from the DeGrazia clan known as James DeGrazia. These guys were imported from nearby territories such as Stone Park, Franklin Park and Northlake, which by now were still under the jurisdiction of the Melrose Park group.
When Rocco DeGrazia got out of jail that same year, story goes that he had no kind of finances and slowly began to loose his grip over the group. So my belief is that this might explain the importation of high level Taylor St members in the Melrose Park area and the alleged takeover of the crew. I also believe that it was a similar tactic as the situation in Cicero, meaning at first they possibly included DeGrazia in every scheme but later, they began to push him out of the scene. My personal opinion is that the so-called new members within the Melrose Park group were in fact Taylor St members who previously operated in the northern part of Lawndale as replacement for the imprisoned Frank Maritote, such as Sam Battaglia, including several possible associates of his such as Marshall Caifano, Charles Nicoletti and Phil Alderisio, while the third being related to the Fratto clan. And as I previously stated that his replacement in the whole Lawndale area became two non-Italian members such as Lenny Patrick and Dave Yaras but story goes that by the end of the day, they still answered to Battaglia. In fact, from this point on, Battaglia’s career went straight up, mainly because he began operating in two different territories, similar position to the one of his close cohort Sam Giancana. Some reports say that Battaglia grew even more powerful by making close connections with the Pranno group. In fact the Melrose Park area was again ruled by one group, still being the DeGrazia clan and with the help of Sam Battaglia. In reality, this was another powerful move by the Taylor St group within the organization.
ROGERS PARK, EVANSTON, NEAR NORTH SIDE
Since the West Side faction was slowly growing bigger and bigger, other factions began to follow, and the ones who refused, were obviously killed. During 1940’s this group was also one of the most complicated and at the same time, most powerful group within the Outfit and that is why, I believe they suffered more than few changes. As you can see, in most of the text I usually mention James DeGeorge of this so-called North Side faction but after having one conversation with Antiliar, there’s huge possibility that Thomas Oneglia might’ve been in charge of the group but to tell you the truth I’m unable to find any solid proof for that statement. If you look at the reports of mainly who owned what or who had interests in what from that group, you’ll find mostly the names of Oneglia, Prio, James DeAngelo and even Benevento who supposedly has been a high profile member of the Grand Avenue crew. Whatever was his position, on December 7, 1943 Oneglia was riddled with bullets while being on a barber’s chair, allegedly by three hitmen. The interesting thing at the time was that these boys allegedly had one of the most murderous hit teams within the Outfit, including the Dom Nuccio, Dom DiBella and Dom Brancato, all close associates to Ross Prio, who in turn allegedly began having close relations to the West Side faction.
On February 25, 1944, two crew members DeAngelo and Onofrio Vitale went missing and later on March 11, DeAngelo’s battered and bound corpse was found in the trunk of his wife’s car on the North Side of Chicago. He was tortured for several days, four of his ribs were broken and there were also several holes on his skull made by a small sharp instrument. Also a year later Vitale’s corpse was found stuffed in a sewer. Ross Prio was questioned by the cops regarding the murders and he said that he knew nothing of Vitale except that he was a good cheese curer and an excellent salesman. On DeAngelo, Prio said that he knew him casually, which was obviously a lie. Also on March 2, 1944, another crew member Sam Gervase was shot to death in his refrigerator repair shop. Few months later, alleged Taylor St captain Lawrence Mangano was also killed so there’s a huge possibility of a connection between the killings, mostly because most of them were high profile members of the Chicago Mob and the real top administration was jailed. In 1945, the alleged Grand Avenue crew big shot Vincent Benevento escaped an alleged murder attempt but as we previously saw, they got to him the next year. On May 9, 1947, his nephew Nick DeJohn was also killed, thus putting the end of the whole alleged rebellious faction, including the late Oneglia, Mangano and Benevento, and slowly opening the way for Ross Prio, the alleged conspirator behind some of the murders.
So as I previously stated that the ones who were in alliance with the West Side faction, remained alive and went up within the organization. One proof for that James DeGeorge’s alleged demotion as captain of the crew and later transferred to Wisconsin. In 1948, the coast was clear for Ross Prio to become the crew boss, possibly a year later after Accardo became the boss. The second proof for Prio’s close West Side connections was his rulership over a new territory which was the Near North Side, the old territory of the late Frank Nitto. In fact, later this territory was divided in the same fashion as Cicero and other areas, by being controlled by two crews, one being Prio and the other, the West Side faction.
NEAR SOUTH SIDE AND LOOP, CHINATOWN AND SOUTH SIDE, CALUMET CITY
At the beginning of the 1940’s this might’ve been the most politically powerful group within the Outfit, obviously by controlling the whole First Ward. As I previously stated that besides having strong Italian membership, this group was also heavily “infested” with quite powerful non-Italians. So when Phi D’Andrea was sent to prison with the rest of the top bosses, the non-Italians such as Jake Guzk, Murray Humphreys and Sam Hunt carried on the heavy work around the whole territory. So since I already placed James Belcastro during this period on the West Side, I personally believe that D’Andrea’s “eyes and ears” around the whole territory was Bruno Roti. Other possible high level members at the time were John Sortino aka Ferraro and Tony Bagnola who in turn brought many younger members within the crew, under Roti’s rule, such as Ferraro’s brother Frank, also Frank Caruso and Gus Alex. When D’Andrea was released in 1947, the hierarchy of the crew hasn’t changed much mainly because story goes that the old boss suffered the most from the rest of his imprisoned cohorts during their stay in jail and so when he became a free man, his health was allegedly on the down low and on top of that, he also had to take a low profile. My point is that Roti possibly kept his position as the unofficial or acting captain for the group until the late 1940’s when that same group slowly began dividing in two separate factions, one being under Roti with the Chinatown and South Side areas, and the other under the rising younger faction such as Frank Ferraro and Gus Alex, close associates of the non-Italian bosses such as Guzik mainly located around the Near South Side and Loop. At the same time, the Calumet City area was allegedly no longer under their rule but instead it became more of an area under the rule of the Chicago Heights faction.
LAKE VIEW
During this decade, the infamous Fischetti brothers slowly began to transform from territorial bosses to emissaries for the top administration, regarding the relations with crime families mainly from Louisiana and Florida. The brothers were also still in charge of the Outfit’s interests in Cuban casinos and allegedly Charles Fischetti was still considered the leader of the group. By the mid 1940’s Joe Fischetti became more and more involved in the Outfit’s interests outside of Chicago and more often spent his time in Miami. Proof for that and at the same time the most interesting thing regarding this group was that the Fischettis allegedly accompanied Tony Accardo as the Outfit’s representative during the infamous Havana conference. Story goes that because of their high stature, both brothers received separate territories, including their old one Lake View which remained under Charles, and as for Rocco, he received the Lake County area, right above Ross Prio’s territory. During the end of the decade, one of Rocco’s main “lieutenants” in that area became one non-Italian member known as Les Kruse.
According to some reports, during this period only one of the brothers was acquired to be present more often out of the Chicago area, as for the rest such as Charles and Rocco Fischetti, they were more often needed in their own territory. But according to the reports, during this period both Charles and Rocco more often followed their younger brother Joe into the “out of state” ventures and were rarely present around their own territory which was located back home. My personal belief for that kind of action was the Hollywood case and the many killings which occurred in Chicago during that time. So by the late 1940’s their absence caused some problems around their own territory, at the same time when the West Side faction was spreading its own influence around the city of Chicago. Story goes that Lawndale overseer Lenny Patrick saw their territory as being untouched, meaning without their presence, the Outfit lost money. So Patrick allegedly tried to muscle into the Belmont and Diversey areas and created a conflict with the Fischettis. The reports says that the conflict was between Patrick and Rocco Fischetti himself, which gives me doubts on who was the real leader of the Fischetti’s, meaning was it Charles or Rocco?! According to the story, Patrick’s so-called “scheme” was robbing the main handbook operators who in turn worked for the Fischettis. You see, the main racket for the Fischettis during this period was illegal handbook operations mainly because it’s an open business, meaning everything goes around public sport activities and so their presence wasn’t acquired so often. So allegedly the conflict ended up with two of Patrick’s members dead and also it ended up in Rocco Fischetti’s favour with Accardo being the arbitrator regarding the conflict.
CHICAGO HEIGHTS
I believe that during this decade the Chicago Heights group was the safest crew of them all, meaning they operated safely under the government’s radar and their top administration remained untouched by the law for quite a long time. It’s like they almost resembled as a separate “crime family” with boss and underboss. I mean Jim Emery was still the official captain but he had so many high profile members under his rule, who in turn gave the image of a whole separate organization, including Frank LaPorte, Roberto’s brother John, Joe Guzzino and George Tuffanelli. For example, Tuffanelli was mainly in charge of the Blue Island area and LaPorte at the time was placed in Calumet City where he supervised all illegal activities in Calumet City and during that period, the town allegedly received a bad name. As for John Roberto, allegedly he was the main overseer of the Chicago Heights area. So because of their own elusiveness and the clumsiness of the rest of the Outfit groups, the Chicago Heights faction managed to spread their influence and take over some other territories, including Calumet City, Joliet and by this time they also began to infiltrate into the northern Indiana area.
Last edited by Villain on Sun Jul 02, 2017 4:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God - Corinthians 6:9-10
Re: Roots of the Capone Mob a.k.a. the Chicago Outfit
...CONTINUED
1950’s
I personally believe that this was the most stable and at the same time, golden period for the Chicago Outfit, especially for the newly formed administration under Tony Accardo. This was also the decade which marked the end of the old guard, meaning members from the old Capone Mob who in turn died out of various reasons, natural or unnatural, or maybe even relocated to other states or cities. And since both Ricca and Campagna were the last of the Mohicans at the top of the organization, I believe that they felt quite comfortable in their so-called “semi-retired” positions. During the first half of the 1950’s, Accardo managed to bring the Outfit on a much higher scale which in fact made the organization one of the most dangerous and powerful syndicates in the country. With the help of the Grand Avenue, Taylor St and North Side crews, he managed to take over the quite lucrative policy and bolita rackets, also he even formed their own stronghold in Las Vegas, Nevada, and even in Arizona. He still kept his interests in Cuba and also kept forming his own crews in different territories around the country. Another important thing is that during the early 1950’s, allegedly with the complete takeover of the policy racket, Sam Giancana became Accardo’s number two guy or the Outfit’s underboss. In addition, I also believe that during this period the Outfit allegedly formed two more crews thus reaching the number 12…here’s my next theory regarding the next decade…
TAYLOR ST
Even though Accardo was the boss and was considered closely connected to the Grand Avenue crew, still into the 1950’s the Taylor St group was the most powerful faction. So if Giancana became the underboss during the first half of the decade, then my personal pick for captain of the Taylor St would be Fiore Buccieri, simply because he was the most powerful member at the time within the group. I also believe that there would’ve been another individual as possible captain of the crew such as Leonard Caifano but the problem was that he was killed on June 19, 1951, thus forming a free pass for Buccieri, who in turn inherited everything from Giancana including the group’s share in the Cicero area. Story goes that Buccieri was no less powerful than Giancana and led the crew like a true Mob boss by continuing the same “operation”, meaning in spreading the group’s illegal activities around the whole city. On top of that, according to one informer, Buccieri also became the guy who often received the so-called murder contracts from the number two guy and his real boss Giancana.
During this decade, Buccieri managed to form an army of criminals under his rule, made or not, and controlled various rackets, ranging from loan sharking, extortion and gambling, to burglary, auto-theft and narcotics. Some of the most prominent members were still the old timers such as Ignatius Spacchese, Joey Glimco, Tony D’Andrea, Sam Marcelli and Guido DeChiaro, but when Buccieri took over, some new members began taking over the crew, mostly born during the early 1910’s, such as William Daddono, Sam and Mario DeStefano, Buccieri’s brother Frank, Leonard Gianola, Frank Eulo, and possibly one Frank Fratto, brother of Des Moines boss and former Taylor St member Louis Fratto.
On August 21, 1954, former Lawndale boss and Taylor St associate Frank Maritote was killed and on top of that, on May 30, 1955, the group lost its first boss Louis Campagna who died of a heart attack on his yacht off the coast of Florida. In fact, I believe that Campagna’s sudden death was a huge loss for the Taylor St group mainly because the guy was a real powerhouse and was also considered the top boss, next to Ricca. But even with the death of their “sponsor”, still the Taylor St crew grew even more powerful mainly because two years later, Giancana was declared the official chief executive or boss of the Chicago Mob. So since Campagna was gone, his place was taken over by Accardo who in turn took a step back to make space for Giancana. In other words, from this point on Ricca and Accardo were the top guys with Giancana right beneath them, but by the late 50’s I also believe that only Ricca and Giancana were considered commission representatives, not Accardo. The next few years, Buccieri almost completely began transferring most of his members in different territories, possibly under Giancana’s orders, thus again proving the group’s predatory nature. It was all politics and proof for that is, other Taylor St members who crossed to different territories such as the DeStefano brothers who possibly began working under the Melrose Park faction but they also had their own illegal operations on the South Side. Giancana’s and Buccieri’s long time friend Frank Eulo was sent to Cicero and controlled few gambling and loan sharking operations from the area of 49th Avenue and Roosevelt Road, to South Cicero Avenue, located at his alleged headquarters which was the Dixie Lounge.
DU PAGE, MCHENRY, KANE COUNTIES
By the end of the decade William Daddono probably became one of the most powerful Taylor St members with operations all around the city of Chicago. My personal belief is that Daddono might’ve become the official captain or at least, overseer of the Du Page County area and later also received operations in Cicero and Melrose Park, for reasons which I’ll explain later. I mean he also controlled a large crew formed mostly of West Side mobsters who were under his rule including Patsy Clementi or Clemente, James Tortoriello, Tony DeRose, Joe Amato, Alex Ross and also the Fratto brothers, Frank and Rudolph, who in turn were about to become his representatives in the Cicero area or Daddono’s relative Tony Cardamone who in turn was about to be transferred in Melrose Park to control various joints. Because of his connections in various areas, Daddono also controlled many different burglary or robbery crews, which operated around the country. In fact, story goes that those two rackets were his favourite passion.
MELROSE PARK
During the first half of this decade, things did not changed much within the so-called Melrose Park group, meaning Rocco DeGrazia was going down the ladder, and Sam Battaglia was going straight up. Story goes that DeGrazia went broke and proof for that can be his “tasteless” extortion of church funds. As for Battaglia, story goes that on June 19, 1951, he orchestrated the slaying of one “key” individual known as Teddy Roe, which in fact was very important for the Outfit’s prosperity. Also, story goes that he even orchestrated the kidnapping and alleged murder of a state representative known as Clem Graver, on June 11, 1953 and also the murders of two Outfit representatives on March 15, 1954. That same year, Charlie Gioe and Frank Maritote were murdered allegedly by two of Battaglia’s group members Charles Nicoletti and Felix Alderisio. So according to this record, my personal belief is that by 1955, DeGrazia was ousted as captain of the group and his place was obviously taken over by Battaglia. In fact this was just another smart and political move which was made by the old Taylor St group.
Since it was a huge territory, there’s a strong possibility that by the late 1950’s, some members of this group began operating as Battaglia’s overseers in different locations who in turn controlled their own crews. For example, Albert Pranno’s brother Rocco operated in the Stone Park, Franklyn Park and Northlake areas and was known for his involvement in vending machines, extortion and large scale of loan sharking operations. Nicoletti and Alderisio were in charge for the Melrose Park area but later they also controlled few rackets in Gary and Hammond, Indiana and Milwaukee, Wisconsin and as for Marshall Caifano, as I previously stated that he was in charge of the group’s interests on the Near North Side. Other prominent members who mainly worked under the previously mentioned overseers during this decade were Albert Frabotta (possibly during this period with Marshal Caifano on the Near North Side), Rocco Salvatore, Joe Rocco, Angelo Jannotta, Frankie Beto and Joe Amabile. But by the end of the day, Battaglia was considered the “chief of staff” and as for Rocco DeGrazia, some reports say that he became Battaglia’s voice on many mob sit downs and also held his own interests within the group and also in the Cicero area.
GRAND AVENUE (Elmwood Park)
By 1955, this was one of the most stable groups within the Outfit, mostly because their former member Tony Accardo was still the boss of the organization. Another reason was that they rarely imported their own members in different territories and they also rarely had internal conflicts. But that same year, on July 7, 1955, Tony Capezio died from a massive heart attack on the golf course at White Pines country club in Du Page County and he was allegedly succeeded by one of Accardo’s most loyal members Jack Cerone, who in turn has executed more than few hits for the bosses. His headquarters was the Theatre Lounge which was located on 3647 West Chicago Avenue. In 1957, when Accardo stepped down as chief executive, some records show that Cerone often made him company on many travels, which might indicate that Accardo still completely controlled the Grand Avenue group. By the late 1950’s Cerone’s top guy and also territorial overseer was Joe Gagliano with the help of Willie Messino and John DeBiase. Other prominent and also possible new crew members were Gary Gagliano, Frank Cerone, Vito Messino and Martin Accardo and younger associates, mainly burglars, who by the late 1950’s and early 60’s collaborated with the group, including John DiFronzo, Al Sarno and Chris Cardi.
LAWNDALE
During this decade, I find this particular group quite interesting, mainly because I personally believe that this was in fact the first Outfit crew which was formed during this period and was led by a non-Italian member. As I already explained in the previous decade that by now the Lawndale area allegedly went under the auspices of Sam Battaglia, the captain of the Melrose Park faction, and was overseen by Lenny Patrick. So story goes that from 1950 to 1953, Patrick was allegedly involved in the murders of three high profile Jewish gambling operators and my opinion is that, because of the government heat, he and his close associate Dave Yaras went to Cuba the next year. According to some reports, by 1955 Patrick probably returned to Chicago, since he attended the lavish wedding of the daughter of Claude Maddox, which might indicate that he was considered as a top ranking member. Also, after the death of Jake Guzik, which occurred on February 21, 1956; story goes that “the next in line” Jewish crime lord was in fact Lenny Patrick. I mean there were obviously other, older and more powerful Jewish members such as Eddie Vogel, but the reports show that most of those guys rarely were involved in the heavy work, and Patrick was quite often. On top of that, by now there was no other and more powerful Jewish criminal in his territory other than him. The next difference was that during this period the Lawndale area was still filled mainly with Jewish population and so Patrick was often seen among his own people, and Vogel was not. On top of that, I personally believe that the Outfit was unable to place an Italian overseer in that territory mainly because of the previous reason.
As I previously stated that by 1955, Patrick still reported to Sam Battaglia, but when he, meaning Battaglia, became the boss of the huge Melrose Park crew, it is quite possible that he did not have the power to control two groups at the same time. As a matter of fact, later we will see that Battaglia wasn’t able to control even his own crew. My opinion is that Patrick was far more of an overseer, simply because of his huge criminal empire, which was officially established possibly by 1957, or in other words, when Giancana became the boss. So there’s a strong possibility that this was another “political” move made by Giancana by placing his own associate as boss of a certain territory, which in this case was the Lawndale area under Patrick. I mean who could’ve control all of that Jewish population, rather than Patrick and his crew. He wasn’t some ordinary murderous criminal who was considered a Mob associate, but instead Patrick was identified by the feds as the syndicate overlord whose activities included extortion, mayhem, murders, gambling, loan sharking, and narcotics and his legit business interests included hotels, casinos, restaurants, supermarkets, liquor stores, aluminium products, a disposal service, vending machines, insurance and industrial uniforms. His crew even had operations in Texas and Florida and also in Los Angeles. It was also reported that Patrick became one of Giancana’s top lieutenants and few bugs and phone taps between other members, revealed that sometimes he had direct connection with the Outfit’s boss.
The Giancana/Patrick close connection can be easily explained with Patrick’s so-called attacks on different territories which were operated by other captains or overseers. As I already explained in the previous decade regarding Patrick’s conflict with Rocco Fischetti, we can see that Patrick was obviously backed by someone and I personally believe that “someone” was Giancana. A similar situation occurred by the late 1950’s, when the Jewish population from the Lawndale area, slowly began to transfer around the northern suburbs, or to be exact Rogers Park. So as I previously explained that this area was controlled by Ross Prio, who began having huge problems with Patrick’s men, which in turn began invading his territory. But with the alleged backing of Giancana, this time Patrick won the approval of Prio to move to Rogers Park and operate his own bookmaking schemes. Patrick made a deal with Prio and another Outfit member from the Lake View area known as Les Kruse, to share his profits with the two, meaning Prio and Kruse, in exchange for protection. Another interesting situation was when one of Patrick’s mentors and crew member Joe Epstein, according to one FBI memo, won a sit down with the Melrose Park crew overseer Phil Alderisio, which was chaired personally by Giancana himself. So I don’t think that we need any more evidences regarding Giancana’s close connections to this particular group and I also believe that we don’t need any more info regarding Patrick’s boss status of that same group and territory. Besides Patrick, Yaras and Epstein, other prominent members during this decade were Edward Murphy (killed 1950), Dave Zatz (killed 1952), Milton Glickman (killed 1953), Harry Kovin, Ben Epstein (retired by the late 1950's), Sam Yaras (Texas), William Block (fled Chicago in 1959), Paul Dorfman, Jack Patrick and Frank Rosenthal (Miami Beach, Florida).
But the other interesting thing regarding Patrick’s crew was that the group operated as a separate crew within the Outfit, only until 1960. According to one report, that same year Giancana placed Patrick’s crew under the supervision of Gus Alex from the First Ward. So I believe from that point on the group was no longer considered as a separate faction and I personally consider it as one of Giancana’s “failed projects”.
CICERO
Even though their own territory was constantly grabbed by other high profile members mainly from the West Side, still during this period the Cicero group managed to place themselves at the top. With Claude Maddox and Willie Heeney in the shadows, Joey Aiuppa as boss, and Robert Ansani and Joe Corngold as their main operators, this group had its fingers in the Produce Drivers' Union and Local 703, the Picture Frame Workers Union and Local 731, the International Hodcarriers Union, the Movie Operators Projectionists Union, the Hotel, Club, Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union Suburban Local 450. Their main front man and international vice president of Local 450 was James Blakeley,who in turn was also a member of the huge Hotel-Motel Service Workers, Drugstore, Sports Events and Industrial Catering Union, Local 593. Other prominent crew members at the time were John and Dan Lardino, Mike Spranse, John Carr, and also younger members such as Vic Taddeo, Bucky Ortenzi, Larry Rassano and James Torello.
But the group also suffered a great loss when on July 13, 1951; 63 year old Heeney died of tuberculosis in the Mercy Hospital in Cicero and was buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery. The “bad luck” continued few years later when in January, 1956, Maddox, Aiuppa, Ansoni and two other partners R. J. Johnson and Harry Milner were convicted, based on an indictment that the defendants had shipped gambling equipment in interstate commerce from Chicago to Pennsylvania in violation of the Johnson Act and each defendant was sentenced to serve 1 year and 1 day in Federal prison and to pay a fine of $1,000 and costs. Now, if we look at the situation more clearly, we can see that the basic Cicero crew was “headless” for a time period of 1 year, which in fact might be the same time when West Side member Willie Daddono placed his own flag in that same area. On top of that, by the end of the decade, Fiore Buccieri began to spread his operations even further in the territory and also some of the younger Cicero associates, such as James Torello, transferred under his rule. According to one wiretapped conversation between Torello and one other individual, previously he, meaning Torello, worked for Joe Corngold before going to Buccieri. So my theory is that when all of Cicero’s top guys went to jail, there’s high possibility that Corngold took over the group and brought many new talents who in turn were later absorbed by the Buccieri organization and became his own representatives in that same area.
The first one who got out was Maddox after serving only 10 months but on June 21, 1958, the old crime boss died in his sleep, thus making Aiupa the truly official boss of the group. In fact, he was the captain from 22nd Street down to the whole south side of the Cicero area. So now I’m going to show you another example of Mob politics, again demonstrated by the Taylor St group. When Maddox died, he left a huge empire of organized crime schemes all around the territory of Cicero and on top of that, he also left an empty space on the leading position as overseer of all of his union deals, which in fact were the group’s share from the whole scheme. So here’s where I can explain Daddono’s entering in the Cicero area. According to one FBI report, Giancana allegedly ordered Aiuppa to include Daddono and Frank Eulo into his territory. Usually, when a “big shot” dies such as Maddox, his operations are allegedly succeeded by his number one man, but in this case the operations were divided among other members from different territories. According to the informant from the report, this so-called “swindle” was a normal thing, which fits perfectly with the alleged gangster code.
NEAR SOUTH SIDE AND LOOP
Phil D'Andrea was one of the many underworld figures called before the Kefauver Committee in 1950 and story goes that by that time, he retired from the Chicago underworld and moved west to California (In addition, I was wrong in one of my previous convos with Antiliar that D’Andrea was in Michigan). After two years, in November 1952, D'Andrea died out of natural causes and my personal belief is that after his death, the Near South Side and Loop area completely became independent from the Chinatown group under D’Andrea’s successor Frank Ferraro. The group suffered a great loss on February 21, 1956, with the death of Jake Guzik, the real power in the First Ward, who in turn was replaced by Murray Humphreys and his protégé Gus Alex. But the next year when Giancana replaced Accardo as boss of the Outfit, Ferraro allegedly became the number two guy or in other words, the underboss of the organization. The reason was simple and that is, by this time the group was the main overseer of all members within the Outfit. They were some sort of a “police squad” for the members and at the same time, the corrupt squad since they controlled all First Ward politics. In plane words, it was necessary for Giancana to place a member from this kind of crew as his number two guy. On top of that, since they were one of the leading crews, Ferraro also began importing his own members in different territories, mainly in Cicero and the Near North Side and they even had operations in Hot Springs, Arkansas; Las Vegas and Reno Nevada; and also in Florida.
Now, there’s only one possibly confusing situation on the matter on who controlled the group, while Ferraro acted ass the number two guy? So I believe that I can answer the question with the help of many also confusing FBI reports which state that during this period both Ferraro and Gus Alex operated in the same manner and in fact, Alex was the real boss of the area, a statement which makes no kind of sense to me. So my theory is that while Ferraro was considered the underboss, at the same time he was still considered the captain of the First Ward but with Alex being the chief executive. It was the same situation as with the late Louis Campagna who before he went to prison, he was the alleged underboss and at the same time captain of the Taylor St crew with Mangano, Belcastro and later Giancana and Buccieri being his future chief executives for the group.
Few of the most prominent Italian members under Ferraro and Alex were Rocco DeStefano (possibly semi-retired by the mid 1950’s), Pat Manno (possibly semi-retired by the mid 1950’s), Pat Marcy, Louie Briatta (also with operations on the Near North Side), Louis Tornabene, Charles Bertucci (related to Chinatown crew boss Bruno Roti), and Nick Garambone. And as for the prime non-Italian members were Sam Alex (Hot Springs), Louis Arger, Sid Frasin, Nick Kokenes (Cicero), Tony Alfervic (Cicero), Frank Garnett (son-in-law of the late Jake Guzik), Mickey Farr (with connections to the Lucchese crime family in NY) and Sam Shanker (Skokie).
CHINATOWN AND SOUTH SIDE
According to one FBI report, Ferraro wasn’t the real successor to D’Andrea but instead it was Bruno Roti. His two prime overseers were still Frank Caruso and James Catuara, who in turn controlled a large crew of enforcers and bookies from different ethnicities such as Pete Gushi, Abe Glickman, Morris Caruso, Al Carfagno, Dominick Scalfaro, James Cordovano, Charles DiCaro, and James Kapande. On top of that, both Caruso and Catuara were closely connected to Ferraro and Alex, which in fact was a quite lucrative “old” alliance. The problem was that in 1957, Roti died and over 3,000 people attended his wake, including the Alex brothers, Ferraro, Caruso and Catuara. The interesting thing was that after the death of Roti, his son-in-law Frank Caruso inherited his position. Story goes that Caruso wasn’t even a little bit powerful as his late father-in-law Roti Sr. was, but he grew up with Catuara, Ferraro and Alex at the old neighbourhood and so he had the support from their crews and was easily elevated to a higher position. In other words, Caruso was a captain of his own but at the same time he shared some of his operations with the Alex and Ferraro group.
As for the South Side, I personally believe that by the mid 1950’s it was territory under Roti, but after his death and also when Ferraro became the underboss, it is quite possible that the territory was divided between the two crews and was allegedly overseen by Ralph Pierce, who in turn inherited the position from his mentor Sam Hunt who died in 1956. In other words, after the deaths of Roti and Hunt, the replacements were in fact their protégés Caruso and Pierce, who in turn were somehow under the auspices of Ferraro and Alex, possibly because of Ferrao’s high position within the Chicago Outfit.
CHICAGO HEIGHTS, CALUMET CITY, JOLIET
During the early 1950’s, Jim Emery was still the undisputed crime boss in Chicago’s southern suburbs but in 1952 he was indicted on a narcotics charge and by the mid 1950’s, he mostly spent his time in Florida. The year of 1957 marked the rise of Giancana’s administration but also marked the death of Giacomo Ammirato a.k.a. Jim Emery, the long time boss of the so-called Chicago Heights crew. Even though Emery was gone, still the power of the crew never really weakened, mainly because the guy who came next in line was Frank LaPorte. Proof for LaPorte’s power was his jurisdiction over Calumet City and Joliet, Ill., and anyone who wanted in, he was given permission to operate quite easily but obviously had to pay a tribute to LaPorte. During this period, his close non-Italian associate Francis Curry became the top guy in the Joliet area and made the place almost like an open territory for Chicago mobsters. As for the Calumet City area, it was under auspices of two of LaPorte’s oldest associates Joe Guzzino and George Tuffanelli. In fact, both LaPorte and Curry were closely connected to the top bosses including Paul Ricca and Tony Accardo. Other prominent members of this particular group were Ralph Emery (son of the late Jim Emery), Joe Costello, Al Pilotto, Robert Curry (son of Francis Curry), Al Cohn and Joseph Barrett.
As I stated in the previous decade, that this group also began spreading influence around the territory of northern Indiana, especially Gary and Hammond. But the interesting thing was that previously Emery and later LaPorte were only the overseers of that particular area which in turn was controlled by another quite different crew.
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA (NORTHERN INDIANA)
There is a strong possibility that during the previous decade, or should I say, when Tony Accardo was officially declared boss of the Outfit, he possibly began creating his own crews around different territories like in this example northern Indiana. One document says that the alleged North Side member Tony Pinelli was in fact officially made into the Outfit during Accardo’s term as boss and so if this information is true, then I have another theory of mine regarding this group. From the late 1930’s until the beginning of the 1950’s, Pinelli lived with his family in Sierra Madre, a city in Los Angeles County, where he was considered semi-retired from the Mob, a statement which I hardly believe in. But I believe in a strong possibility that Pinelli might’ve been one of the Outfit’s representatives on the west coast, similar to Johnny Roselli’s position. So according to one story, in 1953, one non-Italian Outfit associate who ran everything about gambling in Lake County was indicted because of his testimony during the Kefauver investigations and so Accardo allegedly took a plane to Los Angeles where he met with Pinelli who in turn was told to come back home. So Ill say it again that if the document is true then Pinelli might’ve been officially made that same year and was quickly elevated to captain of the newly formed territory, which in fact was previously eye-balled by the Chicago Heights faction. Many reports say that Accardo was a smart boss and quite easily managed to solve the problem by placing Pinelli as the overseer of the so-called Indiana faction who in turn answered to the original bosses of that territory Jim Emery or Frank LaPorte.
Story goes that other mobsters who followed Pinelli in this venture were two also former members from the Near North Side such as Gaetano Morgano and Angelo Cardinale. All three mobsters came from the same area in Sicily known as Caltanissetta which in fact is a commune in the central interior of the island. I also believe that Pinelli’s group had two main purposes, one being the control of a large handbook operation in that area, and the second one being the importation of large quantities of illegal narcotics, mainly heroin. Other prominent members were Paul Miccolis, Pinelli’s nephew Tony Gruttadauro, Frank Zizzo and John Formosa. Some government reports say that even though Pinelli was considered of higher stature rather than the rest of the members, still Morgano was the one who was looked upon as the main guy of the Chicago faction in Northern Indiana. As for Formosa, he was a pimp and so-called main liaison between the Outfit’s bosses and the Indiana faction. According to few statements which were made by one confidential informant, during this decade the whole Northern Indiana faction operated under the auspices of the Chicago Heights faction.
NEAR NORTH SIDE, ROGERS PARK, EVANSTON A.K.A. NORTH SIDE
The early 1950’s were the heyday for the so-called North Side Mob which by now became known as the Rush Street Crew. Even though that meant they were mainly located on the Near North Side, which was sort of a divided territory between Ross Prio and Marshall Caifano, but still some reports say that Prio was the main guy who controlled almost the whole North Side including the Near North Side and far north into Niles, Illinois, except for the Lake View area which during this period was still under the Fischetti brothers. So there’s a huge possibility that Caifano held interests in a couple of joints and brothels and also controlled few of his own handbook operations, but still Prio was considered the real boss of that territory. It can be quite possible mainly because by the end of the decade Caifano spent more time in Las Vegas rather than home and on top of that, according to many informants and FBI reports, during this decade Prio was much closer to Giancana rather than Caifano.
For example, Prio’s main guys on the Near North Side were Jimmy Allegretti and Joey DiVarco and one interesting thing to say is that by the late 1950’s these guys also acted as liaisons between other crime families and the Chicago Outfit regarding the Las Vegas scheme. But the most interesting fact regarding Prio’s group was that, same as the Giancana administration, they were also known for “selling” or “dividing” territories, mainly because Prio was considered the most powerful captain at the time. I believe that Prio possibly got involved in this venture mainly because of the conflict which I previously explained he had with Lenny Patrick and his group. Since Prio wasn’t the boss of the organization, he had no right to divide anyone’s territory which was not under his jurisdiction, but the thing is that he controlled a huge territory of his own and it was all under his control and so he had the right to do whatever he wanted, as long as it included Giancana also on the deal. So when one West Side member Rocco Potenza decided to sell some of his dice and roulette tables to clubs and other joints, he picked Chicago’s Northwest Side which was in fact Prio’s territory. So Potenza first needed an approval from his boss Sam Giancana, who in turn was to ask Prio if he, meaning Potenza, can operate freely. So Giancana allegedly talked to Prio and a deal was made, thus giving Potenza a “free pass” in return for a weekly pay of $2,000 for Prio’s sanction to operate in the Northwest suburbs and also he had to pay Giancana another $3,000 for the same reason. But sometimes the problem was that both Giancana and Prio made mistakes by giving the same territories on two different members. For example, Lenny Patrick had a quarrel with one Loop member known as Louis Ciriona over horse book operations on the North Side. In fact, Ciriona worked for Outfit big shots Gus Alex and Frank Ferraro and so the argument was due to the fact that Ciriona received the “ok” from Giancana and Prio to operate a handbook without the knowledge of Gus Alex. To calm things down, Ciriona was told to work under the auspices of Patrick, in other words to give him a percentage of his gambling earnings. So I’ll say it again, that these kind of transfers of members from one crew and territory to another, clearly makes much more harder for us to understand the crews and hierarchy of the organization during that time period.
LAKE VIEW
The beginning of the 1950’s was quite tragic for the Fischetti brothers, mainly because their so-called leader and possible captain of this group, Charles Fischetti, died of natural causes in 1951. To tell you the truth, even though he was considered the most powerful of all the brothers, still after Charles Fischetti’s death I personally do not believe that the remaining brothers lost much of their power. Possibly the new captain of the group became the second oldest brother Rocco Fischetti, and as for Joe, he remained as the Outfit’s representative throughout the country and also as public relations contact for his older brother. The Fischettis still controlled more than several gambling houses on the wealthy Chicago north shore and they were also few of the biggest land lords in that same area. They also kept their interests in the Cicero area and according to one government document from this particular decade, Rocco also controlled a huge floating crap game operation on the Southwest Side, which in fact used to be their old territory during the late 1920’s or the Capone era.
Since Joe spent most of his time in Florida during the last decade, Rocco’s main guy became Les Kruse, another smart and quite powerful non-Italian member, who operated in the exact image of the Fischettis by being one of the main individuals who went back and forth to Las Vegas and took the Outfit’s cut from the scheme. Also, Gus Liebe was the crew member who was in charge of all handbook operations in the Lake View area and also held interests in various gambling joints for the brothers and Kruse. Other prominent members were John Drew, another one of Kruse’s underlings who was in charge of casino skimming operations in and out of the country, William McGuire, a possible enforcer for the group, also one Thomas Griffin, who was mainly involved in handbook operations and card games on both sides of the city, Thomas Monaco, who in turn was a brother-in-law of the Fischettis and also their main front man and Ted Traina, a cousin of the Fischettis.
By the late 1950’s, some of the gambling establishments in Cicero which were controlled by the Fischettis, were closed down due to the many raids by the feds, thus slowly destroying their influence in that particular area. On top of that, according to one report, Rocco began selling some of his family’s land parcels in the Lake View area, allegedly for some good deeds. But according to one other informant, Rocco allegedly owed a lot of money to Giancana and the rest of the top administration and so that was the main reason for the selling of some of the family’s land. Another story goes that his lieutenant Les Kruse helped him financially and slowly began to take over the territory. In addition, by the mid 1950's Joe Fischetti permanently resided in Florida, mostly because of his alleged personal problem with one Chicago police captain.
1950’s
I personally believe that this was the most stable and at the same time, golden period for the Chicago Outfit, especially for the newly formed administration under Tony Accardo. This was also the decade which marked the end of the old guard, meaning members from the old Capone Mob who in turn died out of various reasons, natural or unnatural, or maybe even relocated to other states or cities. And since both Ricca and Campagna were the last of the Mohicans at the top of the organization, I believe that they felt quite comfortable in their so-called “semi-retired” positions. During the first half of the 1950’s, Accardo managed to bring the Outfit on a much higher scale which in fact made the organization one of the most dangerous and powerful syndicates in the country. With the help of the Grand Avenue, Taylor St and North Side crews, he managed to take over the quite lucrative policy and bolita rackets, also he even formed their own stronghold in Las Vegas, Nevada, and even in Arizona. He still kept his interests in Cuba and also kept forming his own crews in different territories around the country. Another important thing is that during the early 1950’s, allegedly with the complete takeover of the policy racket, Sam Giancana became Accardo’s number two guy or the Outfit’s underboss. In addition, I also believe that during this period the Outfit allegedly formed two more crews thus reaching the number 12…here’s my next theory regarding the next decade…
TAYLOR ST
Even though Accardo was the boss and was considered closely connected to the Grand Avenue crew, still into the 1950’s the Taylor St group was the most powerful faction. So if Giancana became the underboss during the first half of the decade, then my personal pick for captain of the Taylor St would be Fiore Buccieri, simply because he was the most powerful member at the time within the group. I also believe that there would’ve been another individual as possible captain of the crew such as Leonard Caifano but the problem was that he was killed on June 19, 1951, thus forming a free pass for Buccieri, who in turn inherited everything from Giancana including the group’s share in the Cicero area. Story goes that Buccieri was no less powerful than Giancana and led the crew like a true Mob boss by continuing the same “operation”, meaning in spreading the group’s illegal activities around the whole city. On top of that, according to one informer, Buccieri also became the guy who often received the so-called murder contracts from the number two guy and his real boss Giancana.
During this decade, Buccieri managed to form an army of criminals under his rule, made or not, and controlled various rackets, ranging from loan sharking, extortion and gambling, to burglary, auto-theft and narcotics. Some of the most prominent members were still the old timers such as Ignatius Spacchese, Joey Glimco, Tony D’Andrea, Sam Marcelli and Guido DeChiaro, but when Buccieri took over, some new members began taking over the crew, mostly born during the early 1910’s, such as William Daddono, Sam and Mario DeStefano, Buccieri’s brother Frank, Leonard Gianola, Frank Eulo, and possibly one Frank Fratto, brother of Des Moines boss and former Taylor St member Louis Fratto.
On August 21, 1954, former Lawndale boss and Taylor St associate Frank Maritote was killed and on top of that, on May 30, 1955, the group lost its first boss Louis Campagna who died of a heart attack on his yacht off the coast of Florida. In fact, I believe that Campagna’s sudden death was a huge loss for the Taylor St group mainly because the guy was a real powerhouse and was also considered the top boss, next to Ricca. But even with the death of their “sponsor”, still the Taylor St crew grew even more powerful mainly because two years later, Giancana was declared the official chief executive or boss of the Chicago Mob. So since Campagna was gone, his place was taken over by Accardo who in turn took a step back to make space for Giancana. In other words, from this point on Ricca and Accardo were the top guys with Giancana right beneath them, but by the late 50’s I also believe that only Ricca and Giancana were considered commission representatives, not Accardo. The next few years, Buccieri almost completely began transferring most of his members in different territories, possibly under Giancana’s orders, thus again proving the group’s predatory nature. It was all politics and proof for that is, other Taylor St members who crossed to different territories such as the DeStefano brothers who possibly began working under the Melrose Park faction but they also had their own illegal operations on the South Side. Giancana’s and Buccieri’s long time friend Frank Eulo was sent to Cicero and controlled few gambling and loan sharking operations from the area of 49th Avenue and Roosevelt Road, to South Cicero Avenue, located at his alleged headquarters which was the Dixie Lounge.
DU PAGE, MCHENRY, KANE COUNTIES
By the end of the decade William Daddono probably became one of the most powerful Taylor St members with operations all around the city of Chicago. My personal belief is that Daddono might’ve become the official captain or at least, overseer of the Du Page County area and later also received operations in Cicero and Melrose Park, for reasons which I’ll explain later. I mean he also controlled a large crew formed mostly of West Side mobsters who were under his rule including Patsy Clementi or Clemente, James Tortoriello, Tony DeRose, Joe Amato, Alex Ross and also the Fratto brothers, Frank and Rudolph, who in turn were about to become his representatives in the Cicero area or Daddono’s relative Tony Cardamone who in turn was about to be transferred in Melrose Park to control various joints. Because of his connections in various areas, Daddono also controlled many different burglary or robbery crews, which operated around the country. In fact, story goes that those two rackets were his favourite passion.
MELROSE PARK
During the first half of this decade, things did not changed much within the so-called Melrose Park group, meaning Rocco DeGrazia was going down the ladder, and Sam Battaglia was going straight up. Story goes that DeGrazia went broke and proof for that can be his “tasteless” extortion of church funds. As for Battaglia, story goes that on June 19, 1951, he orchestrated the slaying of one “key” individual known as Teddy Roe, which in fact was very important for the Outfit’s prosperity. Also, story goes that he even orchestrated the kidnapping and alleged murder of a state representative known as Clem Graver, on June 11, 1953 and also the murders of two Outfit representatives on March 15, 1954. That same year, Charlie Gioe and Frank Maritote were murdered allegedly by two of Battaglia’s group members Charles Nicoletti and Felix Alderisio. So according to this record, my personal belief is that by 1955, DeGrazia was ousted as captain of the group and his place was obviously taken over by Battaglia. In fact this was just another smart and political move which was made by the old Taylor St group.
Since it was a huge territory, there’s a strong possibility that by the late 1950’s, some members of this group began operating as Battaglia’s overseers in different locations who in turn controlled their own crews. For example, Albert Pranno’s brother Rocco operated in the Stone Park, Franklyn Park and Northlake areas and was known for his involvement in vending machines, extortion and large scale of loan sharking operations. Nicoletti and Alderisio were in charge for the Melrose Park area but later they also controlled few rackets in Gary and Hammond, Indiana and Milwaukee, Wisconsin and as for Marshall Caifano, as I previously stated that he was in charge of the group’s interests on the Near North Side. Other prominent members who mainly worked under the previously mentioned overseers during this decade were Albert Frabotta (possibly during this period with Marshal Caifano on the Near North Side), Rocco Salvatore, Joe Rocco, Angelo Jannotta, Frankie Beto and Joe Amabile. But by the end of the day, Battaglia was considered the “chief of staff” and as for Rocco DeGrazia, some reports say that he became Battaglia’s voice on many mob sit downs and also held his own interests within the group and also in the Cicero area.
GRAND AVENUE (Elmwood Park)
By 1955, this was one of the most stable groups within the Outfit, mostly because their former member Tony Accardo was still the boss of the organization. Another reason was that they rarely imported their own members in different territories and they also rarely had internal conflicts. But that same year, on July 7, 1955, Tony Capezio died from a massive heart attack on the golf course at White Pines country club in Du Page County and he was allegedly succeeded by one of Accardo’s most loyal members Jack Cerone, who in turn has executed more than few hits for the bosses. His headquarters was the Theatre Lounge which was located on 3647 West Chicago Avenue. In 1957, when Accardo stepped down as chief executive, some records show that Cerone often made him company on many travels, which might indicate that Accardo still completely controlled the Grand Avenue group. By the late 1950’s Cerone’s top guy and also territorial overseer was Joe Gagliano with the help of Willie Messino and John DeBiase. Other prominent and also possible new crew members were Gary Gagliano, Frank Cerone, Vito Messino and Martin Accardo and younger associates, mainly burglars, who by the late 1950’s and early 60’s collaborated with the group, including John DiFronzo, Al Sarno and Chris Cardi.
LAWNDALE
During this decade, I find this particular group quite interesting, mainly because I personally believe that this was in fact the first Outfit crew which was formed during this period and was led by a non-Italian member. As I already explained in the previous decade that by now the Lawndale area allegedly went under the auspices of Sam Battaglia, the captain of the Melrose Park faction, and was overseen by Lenny Patrick. So story goes that from 1950 to 1953, Patrick was allegedly involved in the murders of three high profile Jewish gambling operators and my opinion is that, because of the government heat, he and his close associate Dave Yaras went to Cuba the next year. According to some reports, by 1955 Patrick probably returned to Chicago, since he attended the lavish wedding of the daughter of Claude Maddox, which might indicate that he was considered as a top ranking member. Also, after the death of Jake Guzik, which occurred on February 21, 1956; story goes that “the next in line” Jewish crime lord was in fact Lenny Patrick. I mean there were obviously other, older and more powerful Jewish members such as Eddie Vogel, but the reports show that most of those guys rarely were involved in the heavy work, and Patrick was quite often. On top of that, by now there was no other and more powerful Jewish criminal in his territory other than him. The next difference was that during this period the Lawndale area was still filled mainly with Jewish population and so Patrick was often seen among his own people, and Vogel was not. On top of that, I personally believe that the Outfit was unable to place an Italian overseer in that territory mainly because of the previous reason.
As I previously stated that by 1955, Patrick still reported to Sam Battaglia, but when he, meaning Battaglia, became the boss of the huge Melrose Park crew, it is quite possible that he did not have the power to control two groups at the same time. As a matter of fact, later we will see that Battaglia wasn’t able to control even his own crew. My opinion is that Patrick was far more of an overseer, simply because of his huge criminal empire, which was officially established possibly by 1957, or in other words, when Giancana became the boss. So there’s a strong possibility that this was another “political” move made by Giancana by placing his own associate as boss of a certain territory, which in this case was the Lawndale area under Patrick. I mean who could’ve control all of that Jewish population, rather than Patrick and his crew. He wasn’t some ordinary murderous criminal who was considered a Mob associate, but instead Patrick was identified by the feds as the syndicate overlord whose activities included extortion, mayhem, murders, gambling, loan sharking, and narcotics and his legit business interests included hotels, casinos, restaurants, supermarkets, liquor stores, aluminium products, a disposal service, vending machines, insurance and industrial uniforms. His crew even had operations in Texas and Florida and also in Los Angeles. It was also reported that Patrick became one of Giancana’s top lieutenants and few bugs and phone taps between other members, revealed that sometimes he had direct connection with the Outfit’s boss.
The Giancana/Patrick close connection can be easily explained with Patrick’s so-called attacks on different territories which were operated by other captains or overseers. As I already explained in the previous decade regarding Patrick’s conflict with Rocco Fischetti, we can see that Patrick was obviously backed by someone and I personally believe that “someone” was Giancana. A similar situation occurred by the late 1950’s, when the Jewish population from the Lawndale area, slowly began to transfer around the northern suburbs, or to be exact Rogers Park. So as I previously explained that this area was controlled by Ross Prio, who began having huge problems with Patrick’s men, which in turn began invading his territory. But with the alleged backing of Giancana, this time Patrick won the approval of Prio to move to Rogers Park and operate his own bookmaking schemes. Patrick made a deal with Prio and another Outfit member from the Lake View area known as Les Kruse, to share his profits with the two, meaning Prio and Kruse, in exchange for protection. Another interesting situation was when one of Patrick’s mentors and crew member Joe Epstein, according to one FBI memo, won a sit down with the Melrose Park crew overseer Phil Alderisio, which was chaired personally by Giancana himself. So I don’t think that we need any more evidences regarding Giancana’s close connections to this particular group and I also believe that we don’t need any more info regarding Patrick’s boss status of that same group and territory. Besides Patrick, Yaras and Epstein, other prominent members during this decade were Edward Murphy (killed 1950), Dave Zatz (killed 1952), Milton Glickman (killed 1953), Harry Kovin, Ben Epstein (retired by the late 1950's), Sam Yaras (Texas), William Block (fled Chicago in 1959), Paul Dorfman, Jack Patrick and Frank Rosenthal (Miami Beach, Florida).
But the other interesting thing regarding Patrick’s crew was that the group operated as a separate crew within the Outfit, only until 1960. According to one report, that same year Giancana placed Patrick’s crew under the supervision of Gus Alex from the First Ward. So I believe from that point on the group was no longer considered as a separate faction and I personally consider it as one of Giancana’s “failed projects”.
CICERO
Even though their own territory was constantly grabbed by other high profile members mainly from the West Side, still during this period the Cicero group managed to place themselves at the top. With Claude Maddox and Willie Heeney in the shadows, Joey Aiuppa as boss, and Robert Ansani and Joe Corngold as their main operators, this group had its fingers in the Produce Drivers' Union and Local 703, the Picture Frame Workers Union and Local 731, the International Hodcarriers Union, the Movie Operators Projectionists Union, the Hotel, Club, Restaurant Employees and Bartenders International Union Suburban Local 450. Their main front man and international vice president of Local 450 was James Blakeley,who in turn was also a member of the huge Hotel-Motel Service Workers, Drugstore, Sports Events and Industrial Catering Union, Local 593. Other prominent crew members at the time were John and Dan Lardino, Mike Spranse, John Carr, and also younger members such as Vic Taddeo, Bucky Ortenzi, Larry Rassano and James Torello.
But the group also suffered a great loss when on July 13, 1951; 63 year old Heeney died of tuberculosis in the Mercy Hospital in Cicero and was buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery. The “bad luck” continued few years later when in January, 1956, Maddox, Aiuppa, Ansoni and two other partners R. J. Johnson and Harry Milner were convicted, based on an indictment that the defendants had shipped gambling equipment in interstate commerce from Chicago to Pennsylvania in violation of the Johnson Act and each defendant was sentenced to serve 1 year and 1 day in Federal prison and to pay a fine of $1,000 and costs. Now, if we look at the situation more clearly, we can see that the basic Cicero crew was “headless” for a time period of 1 year, which in fact might be the same time when West Side member Willie Daddono placed his own flag in that same area. On top of that, by the end of the decade, Fiore Buccieri began to spread his operations even further in the territory and also some of the younger Cicero associates, such as James Torello, transferred under his rule. According to one wiretapped conversation between Torello and one other individual, previously he, meaning Torello, worked for Joe Corngold before going to Buccieri. So my theory is that when all of Cicero’s top guys went to jail, there’s high possibility that Corngold took over the group and brought many new talents who in turn were later absorbed by the Buccieri organization and became his own representatives in that same area.
The first one who got out was Maddox after serving only 10 months but on June 21, 1958, the old crime boss died in his sleep, thus making Aiupa the truly official boss of the group. In fact, he was the captain from 22nd Street down to the whole south side of the Cicero area. So now I’m going to show you another example of Mob politics, again demonstrated by the Taylor St group. When Maddox died, he left a huge empire of organized crime schemes all around the territory of Cicero and on top of that, he also left an empty space on the leading position as overseer of all of his union deals, which in fact were the group’s share from the whole scheme. So here’s where I can explain Daddono’s entering in the Cicero area. According to one FBI report, Giancana allegedly ordered Aiuppa to include Daddono and Frank Eulo into his territory. Usually, when a “big shot” dies such as Maddox, his operations are allegedly succeeded by his number one man, but in this case the operations were divided among other members from different territories. According to the informant from the report, this so-called “swindle” was a normal thing, which fits perfectly with the alleged gangster code.
NEAR SOUTH SIDE AND LOOP
Phil D'Andrea was one of the many underworld figures called before the Kefauver Committee in 1950 and story goes that by that time, he retired from the Chicago underworld and moved west to California (In addition, I was wrong in one of my previous convos with Antiliar that D’Andrea was in Michigan). After two years, in November 1952, D'Andrea died out of natural causes and my personal belief is that after his death, the Near South Side and Loop area completely became independent from the Chinatown group under D’Andrea’s successor Frank Ferraro. The group suffered a great loss on February 21, 1956, with the death of Jake Guzik, the real power in the First Ward, who in turn was replaced by Murray Humphreys and his protégé Gus Alex. But the next year when Giancana replaced Accardo as boss of the Outfit, Ferraro allegedly became the number two guy or in other words, the underboss of the organization. The reason was simple and that is, by this time the group was the main overseer of all members within the Outfit. They were some sort of a “police squad” for the members and at the same time, the corrupt squad since they controlled all First Ward politics. In plane words, it was necessary for Giancana to place a member from this kind of crew as his number two guy. On top of that, since they were one of the leading crews, Ferraro also began importing his own members in different territories, mainly in Cicero and the Near North Side and they even had operations in Hot Springs, Arkansas; Las Vegas and Reno Nevada; and also in Florida.
Now, there’s only one possibly confusing situation on the matter on who controlled the group, while Ferraro acted ass the number two guy? So I believe that I can answer the question with the help of many also confusing FBI reports which state that during this period both Ferraro and Gus Alex operated in the same manner and in fact, Alex was the real boss of the area, a statement which makes no kind of sense to me. So my theory is that while Ferraro was considered the underboss, at the same time he was still considered the captain of the First Ward but with Alex being the chief executive. It was the same situation as with the late Louis Campagna who before he went to prison, he was the alleged underboss and at the same time captain of the Taylor St crew with Mangano, Belcastro and later Giancana and Buccieri being his future chief executives for the group.
Few of the most prominent Italian members under Ferraro and Alex were Rocco DeStefano (possibly semi-retired by the mid 1950’s), Pat Manno (possibly semi-retired by the mid 1950’s), Pat Marcy, Louie Briatta (also with operations on the Near North Side), Louis Tornabene, Charles Bertucci (related to Chinatown crew boss Bruno Roti), and Nick Garambone. And as for the prime non-Italian members were Sam Alex (Hot Springs), Louis Arger, Sid Frasin, Nick Kokenes (Cicero), Tony Alfervic (Cicero), Frank Garnett (son-in-law of the late Jake Guzik), Mickey Farr (with connections to the Lucchese crime family in NY) and Sam Shanker (Skokie).
CHINATOWN AND SOUTH SIDE
According to one FBI report, Ferraro wasn’t the real successor to D’Andrea but instead it was Bruno Roti. His two prime overseers were still Frank Caruso and James Catuara, who in turn controlled a large crew of enforcers and bookies from different ethnicities such as Pete Gushi, Abe Glickman, Morris Caruso, Al Carfagno, Dominick Scalfaro, James Cordovano, Charles DiCaro, and James Kapande. On top of that, both Caruso and Catuara were closely connected to Ferraro and Alex, which in fact was a quite lucrative “old” alliance. The problem was that in 1957, Roti died and over 3,000 people attended his wake, including the Alex brothers, Ferraro, Caruso and Catuara. The interesting thing was that after the death of Roti, his son-in-law Frank Caruso inherited his position. Story goes that Caruso wasn’t even a little bit powerful as his late father-in-law Roti Sr. was, but he grew up with Catuara, Ferraro and Alex at the old neighbourhood and so he had the support from their crews and was easily elevated to a higher position. In other words, Caruso was a captain of his own but at the same time he shared some of his operations with the Alex and Ferraro group.
As for the South Side, I personally believe that by the mid 1950’s it was territory under Roti, but after his death and also when Ferraro became the underboss, it is quite possible that the territory was divided between the two crews and was allegedly overseen by Ralph Pierce, who in turn inherited the position from his mentor Sam Hunt who died in 1956. In other words, after the deaths of Roti and Hunt, the replacements were in fact their protégés Caruso and Pierce, who in turn were somehow under the auspices of Ferraro and Alex, possibly because of Ferrao’s high position within the Chicago Outfit.
CHICAGO HEIGHTS, CALUMET CITY, JOLIET
During the early 1950’s, Jim Emery was still the undisputed crime boss in Chicago’s southern suburbs but in 1952 he was indicted on a narcotics charge and by the mid 1950’s, he mostly spent his time in Florida. The year of 1957 marked the rise of Giancana’s administration but also marked the death of Giacomo Ammirato a.k.a. Jim Emery, the long time boss of the so-called Chicago Heights crew. Even though Emery was gone, still the power of the crew never really weakened, mainly because the guy who came next in line was Frank LaPorte. Proof for LaPorte’s power was his jurisdiction over Calumet City and Joliet, Ill., and anyone who wanted in, he was given permission to operate quite easily but obviously had to pay a tribute to LaPorte. During this period, his close non-Italian associate Francis Curry became the top guy in the Joliet area and made the place almost like an open territory for Chicago mobsters. As for the Calumet City area, it was under auspices of two of LaPorte’s oldest associates Joe Guzzino and George Tuffanelli. In fact, both LaPorte and Curry were closely connected to the top bosses including Paul Ricca and Tony Accardo. Other prominent members of this particular group were Ralph Emery (son of the late Jim Emery), Joe Costello, Al Pilotto, Robert Curry (son of Francis Curry), Al Cohn and Joseph Barrett.
As I stated in the previous decade, that this group also began spreading influence around the territory of northern Indiana, especially Gary and Hammond. But the interesting thing was that previously Emery and later LaPorte were only the overseers of that particular area which in turn was controlled by another quite different crew.
LAKE COUNTY, INDIANA (NORTHERN INDIANA)
There is a strong possibility that during the previous decade, or should I say, when Tony Accardo was officially declared boss of the Outfit, he possibly began creating his own crews around different territories like in this example northern Indiana. One document says that the alleged North Side member Tony Pinelli was in fact officially made into the Outfit during Accardo’s term as boss and so if this information is true, then I have another theory of mine regarding this group. From the late 1930’s until the beginning of the 1950’s, Pinelli lived with his family in Sierra Madre, a city in Los Angeles County, where he was considered semi-retired from the Mob, a statement which I hardly believe in. But I believe in a strong possibility that Pinelli might’ve been one of the Outfit’s representatives on the west coast, similar to Johnny Roselli’s position. So according to one story, in 1953, one non-Italian Outfit associate who ran everything about gambling in Lake County was indicted because of his testimony during the Kefauver investigations and so Accardo allegedly took a plane to Los Angeles where he met with Pinelli who in turn was told to come back home. So Ill say it again that if the document is true then Pinelli might’ve been officially made that same year and was quickly elevated to captain of the newly formed territory, which in fact was previously eye-balled by the Chicago Heights faction. Many reports say that Accardo was a smart boss and quite easily managed to solve the problem by placing Pinelli as the overseer of the so-called Indiana faction who in turn answered to the original bosses of that territory Jim Emery or Frank LaPorte.
Story goes that other mobsters who followed Pinelli in this venture were two also former members from the Near North Side such as Gaetano Morgano and Angelo Cardinale. All three mobsters came from the same area in Sicily known as Caltanissetta which in fact is a commune in the central interior of the island. I also believe that Pinelli’s group had two main purposes, one being the control of a large handbook operation in that area, and the second one being the importation of large quantities of illegal narcotics, mainly heroin. Other prominent members were Paul Miccolis, Pinelli’s nephew Tony Gruttadauro, Frank Zizzo and John Formosa. Some government reports say that even though Pinelli was considered of higher stature rather than the rest of the members, still Morgano was the one who was looked upon as the main guy of the Chicago faction in Northern Indiana. As for Formosa, he was a pimp and so-called main liaison between the Outfit’s bosses and the Indiana faction. According to few statements which were made by one confidential informant, during this decade the whole Northern Indiana faction operated under the auspices of the Chicago Heights faction.
NEAR NORTH SIDE, ROGERS PARK, EVANSTON A.K.A. NORTH SIDE
The early 1950’s were the heyday for the so-called North Side Mob which by now became known as the Rush Street Crew. Even though that meant they were mainly located on the Near North Side, which was sort of a divided territory between Ross Prio and Marshall Caifano, but still some reports say that Prio was the main guy who controlled almost the whole North Side including the Near North Side and far north into Niles, Illinois, except for the Lake View area which during this period was still under the Fischetti brothers. So there’s a huge possibility that Caifano held interests in a couple of joints and brothels and also controlled few of his own handbook operations, but still Prio was considered the real boss of that territory. It can be quite possible mainly because by the end of the decade Caifano spent more time in Las Vegas rather than home and on top of that, according to many informants and FBI reports, during this decade Prio was much closer to Giancana rather than Caifano.
For example, Prio’s main guys on the Near North Side were Jimmy Allegretti and Joey DiVarco and one interesting thing to say is that by the late 1950’s these guys also acted as liaisons between other crime families and the Chicago Outfit regarding the Las Vegas scheme. But the most interesting fact regarding Prio’s group was that, same as the Giancana administration, they were also known for “selling” or “dividing” territories, mainly because Prio was considered the most powerful captain at the time. I believe that Prio possibly got involved in this venture mainly because of the conflict which I previously explained he had with Lenny Patrick and his group. Since Prio wasn’t the boss of the organization, he had no right to divide anyone’s territory which was not under his jurisdiction, but the thing is that he controlled a huge territory of his own and it was all under his control and so he had the right to do whatever he wanted, as long as it included Giancana also on the deal. So when one West Side member Rocco Potenza decided to sell some of his dice and roulette tables to clubs and other joints, he picked Chicago’s Northwest Side which was in fact Prio’s territory. So Potenza first needed an approval from his boss Sam Giancana, who in turn was to ask Prio if he, meaning Potenza, can operate freely. So Giancana allegedly talked to Prio and a deal was made, thus giving Potenza a “free pass” in return for a weekly pay of $2,000 for Prio’s sanction to operate in the Northwest suburbs and also he had to pay Giancana another $3,000 for the same reason. But sometimes the problem was that both Giancana and Prio made mistakes by giving the same territories on two different members. For example, Lenny Patrick had a quarrel with one Loop member known as Louis Ciriona over horse book operations on the North Side. In fact, Ciriona worked for Outfit big shots Gus Alex and Frank Ferraro and so the argument was due to the fact that Ciriona received the “ok” from Giancana and Prio to operate a handbook without the knowledge of Gus Alex. To calm things down, Ciriona was told to work under the auspices of Patrick, in other words to give him a percentage of his gambling earnings. So I’ll say it again, that these kind of transfers of members from one crew and territory to another, clearly makes much more harder for us to understand the crews and hierarchy of the organization during that time period.
LAKE VIEW
The beginning of the 1950’s was quite tragic for the Fischetti brothers, mainly because their so-called leader and possible captain of this group, Charles Fischetti, died of natural causes in 1951. To tell you the truth, even though he was considered the most powerful of all the brothers, still after Charles Fischetti’s death I personally do not believe that the remaining brothers lost much of their power. Possibly the new captain of the group became the second oldest brother Rocco Fischetti, and as for Joe, he remained as the Outfit’s representative throughout the country and also as public relations contact for his older brother. The Fischettis still controlled more than several gambling houses on the wealthy Chicago north shore and they were also few of the biggest land lords in that same area. They also kept their interests in the Cicero area and according to one government document from this particular decade, Rocco also controlled a huge floating crap game operation on the Southwest Side, which in fact used to be their old territory during the late 1920’s or the Capone era.
Since Joe spent most of his time in Florida during the last decade, Rocco’s main guy became Les Kruse, another smart and quite powerful non-Italian member, who operated in the exact image of the Fischettis by being one of the main individuals who went back and forth to Las Vegas and took the Outfit’s cut from the scheme. Also, Gus Liebe was the crew member who was in charge of all handbook operations in the Lake View area and also held interests in various gambling joints for the brothers and Kruse. Other prominent members were John Drew, another one of Kruse’s underlings who was in charge of casino skimming operations in and out of the country, William McGuire, a possible enforcer for the group, also one Thomas Griffin, who was mainly involved in handbook operations and card games on both sides of the city, Thomas Monaco, who in turn was a brother-in-law of the Fischettis and also their main front man and Ted Traina, a cousin of the Fischettis.
By the late 1950’s, some of the gambling establishments in Cicero which were controlled by the Fischettis, were closed down due to the many raids by the feds, thus slowly destroying their influence in that particular area. On top of that, according to one report, Rocco began selling some of his family’s land parcels in the Lake View area, allegedly for some good deeds. But according to one other informant, Rocco allegedly owed a lot of money to Giancana and the rest of the top administration and so that was the main reason for the selling of some of the family’s land. Another story goes that his lieutenant Les Kruse helped him financially and slowly began to take over the territory. In addition, by the mid 1950's Joe Fischetti permanently resided in Florida, mostly because of his alleged personal problem with one Chicago police captain.
Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God - Corinthians 6:9-10
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Dwalin2014
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Re: Roots of the Capone Mob a.k.a. the Chicago Outfit
Villain, thanks again for the detailed information!
One question about this:
Could you please tell more details about the James Montana case, what was he convicted for, how many years etc? I can't find anything about him, tried to search on Google, typing "James Montana 1942 Chicago" etc, but no useful results.
One question about this:
About the Mauro Montana case I have found some articles online, it seems they later reduced his sentence to 1 to 14 years, don't know how much he served though (it's a little confusing while searching, because they call him different names, sometimes "Mauro Montana", others "Mauro John Montana", sometimes just "John", other times "Joe" etc).The beginning of the 1940’s was devastating for some of the gangsters around this area especially the old Montana clan. In 1941, Mauro John Montana Jr was sentenced to 14 years in prison, and that same year his two cohorts Joe Severino and Anthony Palma also received heavy sentences. The next year, the oldest one in the group James Montana was also sentenced to prison, which in fact was the end of the old Monatana clan.
Could you please tell more details about the James Montana case, what was he convicted for, how many years etc? I can't find anything about him, tried to search on Google, typing "James Montana 1942 Chicago" etc, but no useful results.
Re: Roots of the Capone Mob a.k.a. the Chicago Outfit
No problem Dwalin2014 and you're welcome.Dwalin2014 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 02, 2017 7:47 pm Villain, thanks again for the detailed information!
One question about this:
About the Mauro Montana case I have found some articles online, it seems they later reduced his sentence to 1 to 14 years, don't know how much he served though (it's a little confusing while searching, because they call him different names, sometimes "Mauro Montana", others "Mauro John Montana", sometimes just "John", other times "Joe" etc).The beginning of the 1940’s was devastating for some of the gangsters around this area especially the old Montana clan. In 1941, Mauro John Montana Jr was sentenced to 14 years in prison, and that same year his two cohorts Joe Severino and Anthony Palma also received heavy sentences. The next year, the oldest one in the group James Montana was also sentenced to prison, which in fact was the end of the old Monatana clan.
Could you please tell more details about the James Montana case, what was he convicted for, how many years etc? I can't find anything about him, tried to search on Google, typing "James Montana 1942 Chicago" etc, but no useful results.
Regarding the case with J Montana, I believe that he was somehow involved in the murder attempt of which Mauro and his crew were sentenced. In fact, James was a lawyer and allegedly wrote the letter which was sent to the victim regarding his previous problems with the law but in reality it was all just a set up. I dont believe that I read the story in some newspaper article but instead i believe that the info came from someones files. The story went that the next year, or aftet the sentencing of Mauro, the government went after the lawyer but it is possible that i might've jumped to a conclusion regarding he being sentenced. To tell you the truth I also dont have the whole story.
Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God - Corinthians 6:9-10
Re: Roots of the Capone Mob a.k.a. the Chicago Outfit
So here’s my final timeline regarding the Outfit’s crews and their captains between the 1910’s and the 1970’s. I’ve chosen the 70’s as the last decade mainly because Snakes already has his own timeline for the 1980’s…so here it is…
*Top Boss- the overlord of the whole organization and the guy with the last word, who also acted as semi-retired boss
*Chief Executive- the day-to-day boss who usually advised with the top boss before bringing a serious decision regarding any serious subject
*Captain- territorial boss with his own crew
*Overseer- A made member for the Outfit, who controlled a certain part from one territory, which in fact belonged to a different crew. Even though they were not captains, still some of these individuals were direct with the chief executive or top boss.
NEAR SOUTH SIDE AND LOOP
1910's
Near South Side and Loop
Jim Colosimo
1920's
Near South Side and Loop, Cicero and parts from the South Side (during this period there were still some various non-Italian groups which operated around the South Side)
Jim Colosimo (killed 1920)
John Torrio (succeeded Colosimo but fled Chicago in 1926)
Al Capone (officially succeeded Torrio by 1927)
1930's (during this period the Chicago Outfit was officially established as part of Cosa Nostra and had its own crews and captains with their own territories)
Near South Side and Loop, Chinatown and South Side, Calumet City
Phil D'Andrea (by the mid 1930’s also became the president of the infamous Unione Siciliani organization)
John Genaro (boss of Calumet City in alliance with D’Andrea but killed in 1935 and later his territory was absorbed by the D'Andrea group)
1940's
Near South Side and Loop, Chinatown and South Side, Calumet City
Phil D'Andrea (imprisoned in 1943 and released in 1947 and later semi-retired)
Bruno Roti (acting captain for D'Andrea from the mid 1940’s until the end of the decade)
1950's (after the death of Phil D’Andrea in 1952, the group has split in two different crews but still both were very closely connected)
Near South Side and Loop
Frank Ferraro (until 1957/58 when he was elevated to underboss)
Gus Alex/Pat Marcy (succeeded Ferraro)
Chinatown and South Side
Bruno Roti (succeeded D’Andrea in 1952 but later he also died in 1957)
Frank Caruso (succeeded Roti as captain of the group)
1960's (by the mid 1960’s many crew members from the Near South Side and Loop were ousted from the business and the crew bosses closed most of their operations in that area, thus getting more involved in First Ward politics and corruption. In other words, by this time the Near South Side and Loop group did not exist any more as a specific crew)
First Ward
Pat Marcy/Gus Alex
Chinatown and South Side (on the other hand, during this period the Chinatown group continued to exist as one basic crew in their own territory)
Frank Caruso (there’s a great possibility that by the end of the decade Caruso shared some of his operations with Fiore Buccieri)
1970's - 1980's
First Ward
Pat Marcy/Gus Alex/Fred Roti (son of the late Bruno Roti who was brought into the First Ward group back in the late 1960’s)
Chinatown and South Side
Frank Carsuo (retired in 1979 and later died in 1983)
Angelo LaPietra (former member of the Fiore Buccieri group who succeeded Caruso as captain in 1979/80)
CICERO
1920’s
Cicero
Al Capone (even though he was the boss of the organization, still he was considered the top guy in this territory since it was looked upon as the syndicate’s stronghold during the second half of the decade)
Ralph Capone/John Capone/ James Mondi/Claude Maddox (by the end of the decade these were the main overseers who took control of that area)
1930’s
Cicero
Al Capone (jailed in 1932)
Ralph Capone (became the captain of the Cicero area until the end of the decade when he began spending more time outside of Chicago)
1940’s (at the beginning of the decade, the territory was possibly divided between the basic Cicero crew, which in turn controlled the southern part, and the Taylor St group with the rest of the Outfit on the northern side)
Southern Cicero
Ralph Capone (semi-retired by the early 1940’s)
Claude Maddox/Willie Heeney/Aiuppa brothers (overseers of the southern part of Cicero during the mid 1940’s)
Joey Aiuppa (unofficial captain of the basic Cicero group by the end of the decade)
1950’s
Southern Cicero
Willie Heeney (died in 1951)
Claude Maddox (died in 1958)
Joey Aiuppa (by the late 1950’s he was considered the official captain of the basic Cicero group)
1960’s
Southern Cicero
Joey Aiuppa
1970’s
Cicero
Joey Aiuppa (during the early 1970’s he was considered a member of the top ruling panel and during the second half of the decade, he became the chief executive)
James Torello (when Aiuppa became a member of the ruling panel or maybe when he became the chief executive, it is quite possible that during that period the Cicero area became whole again in the eyes of the Outfit, with one basic crew under the auspices of Torello until his death in 1979)
WEST SIDE
1910's
West Side
James Marzano/Joe Esposito
Genna Crime Family
Mike Heitler
1920's
West Side (possibly during the 1920’s, this area was divided on several crews mainly because of Prohibition)
Taylor St – Genna crime family (eliminated by 1925 their territory was allegedly divided between Joe Esposito and one Sicilian clan from the North Side)
Near West Side and Melrose Park- Joe Esposito killed in 1928 and possibly succeeded Tony Volpe/Paul Ricca
Grand Avenue-Mike Heitler/Frank Maritote
Stone Park-Frank Rio (also operated in nearby territories such as Franklyn Park and Northlake)
Melrose Park-John Montana Sr. (in alliance with Esposito) /Rocco DeGrazia (in alliance with Capone) (there’s great possibility that by the late 1920’s, the DeGrazia group was in close association with the Stone Park group)
TAYLOR ST
1930's (during this period the Chicago Outfit was officially established as part of Cosa Nostra and had its own crews and captains)
Taylor St
Louis Campagna (even though he was the possible captain of this group, there’s also a great possibility of he being the underboss. The “captain” thing comes from an info which states that he sponsored soldiers into the organization which means that he controlled his own crew)
1940's
Taylor St (also with operations in northern part of Cicero and northern part of Lawndale)
Louis Campagna (also became an overseer in northern Cicero but got imprisoned in 1943 and released in 1947)
Lawrence Mangano (acting for Campagna but killed in 1944)
James Belcastro (acting for Campagna but died in 1945)
Sam Giancana (acting for Campagna from 1947 until the end of the decade. Before becoming a captain, Giancana previously and continued to act also as Campagna's overseer in northern Cicero from 1945 until the end of the decade)
1950's
Taylor St (northern Cicero and during the first half of the decade northern Lawndale)
Fiore Buccieri (succeeded Giancana at the same time when he became the underboss, possibly during the early or mid 1950’s)
1960's
Taylor St (northern Cicero and numerous “take-over” attempts in Chinatown and Chicago heights)
Fiore Buccieri
1970’s
Taylor St (northern Cicero)
Fiore Buccieri (fell gravely ill in 1971 and died in 1973 and after that the Taylor St group did not exist anymore mostly because by the mid 1970’s Buccieri’s crew completely took over the Cicero area and Chinatown)
MELROSE PARK
1930's
Melrose Park (by the mid 1930's the group also controlled Stone Park, Franklyn Park, Northlake)
Rocco DeGrazia (possibly placed by Al Capone as captain of this territory)
Frank Rio (possible captain or overseer of Stone Park who died in 1935 and DeGrazia absorbed his territory)
1940's
Melrose Park
Rocco DeGrazia
Albert Pranno (possible overseer in Stone Park now under DeGrazia)
1950's
Melrose Park
Rocco DeGrazia (demoted by 1955)
Sam Battaglia (former Taylor St member who was previously an overseer in the northern part of Lawndale but later got transferred in the Melrose Park crew and succeeded DeGrazia as captain)
Rocco Pranno (succeeded his older brother Albert Pranno and became overseer of Stone Park now under Battaglia)
Marshal Caifano (overseer who previously began operating in the northern part of Lawndale but later got transferred on one part of the Near North Side in Battaglia’s name)
1960's
Melrose Park
Sam Battaglia (became underboss in 1964)
Phil Alderisio (succeeded Battaglia as captain and in 1966 as possible underboss)
Charles Nicoletti (succeeded Alderisio as captain until 1969 when Joey Aiuppa also entered the territory and became almost divided)
1970's
Melrose Park (with operations in southern Cicero and many members were transferred in the so-called newly formed Grand Avenue crew)
Joey Auippa (in fact, Aiuppa did the same thing what everyone else has done to his territory, by operating in two different areas, thus proving his rise up. During the early 1970's he was a part of a ruling panel but by the mid 1970's became the boss)
Sam Carlisi (allegedly by the late 1970's succeeded Aiuppa as captain of the Melrose Park crew)
*Top Boss- the overlord of the whole organization and the guy with the last word, who also acted as semi-retired boss
*Chief Executive- the day-to-day boss who usually advised with the top boss before bringing a serious decision regarding any serious subject
*Captain- territorial boss with his own crew
*Overseer- A made member for the Outfit, who controlled a certain part from one territory, which in fact belonged to a different crew. Even though they were not captains, still some of these individuals were direct with the chief executive or top boss.
NEAR SOUTH SIDE AND LOOP
1910's
Near South Side and Loop
Jim Colosimo
1920's
Near South Side and Loop, Cicero and parts from the South Side (during this period there were still some various non-Italian groups which operated around the South Side)
Jim Colosimo (killed 1920)
John Torrio (succeeded Colosimo but fled Chicago in 1926)
Al Capone (officially succeeded Torrio by 1927)
1930's (during this period the Chicago Outfit was officially established as part of Cosa Nostra and had its own crews and captains with their own territories)
Near South Side and Loop, Chinatown and South Side, Calumet City
Phil D'Andrea (by the mid 1930’s also became the president of the infamous Unione Siciliani organization)
John Genaro (boss of Calumet City in alliance with D’Andrea but killed in 1935 and later his territory was absorbed by the D'Andrea group)
1940's
Near South Side and Loop, Chinatown and South Side, Calumet City
Phil D'Andrea (imprisoned in 1943 and released in 1947 and later semi-retired)
Bruno Roti (acting captain for D'Andrea from the mid 1940’s until the end of the decade)
1950's (after the death of Phil D’Andrea in 1952, the group has split in two different crews but still both were very closely connected)
Near South Side and Loop
Frank Ferraro (until 1957/58 when he was elevated to underboss)
Gus Alex/Pat Marcy (succeeded Ferraro)
Chinatown and South Side
Bruno Roti (succeeded D’Andrea in 1952 but later he also died in 1957)
Frank Caruso (succeeded Roti as captain of the group)
1960's (by the mid 1960’s many crew members from the Near South Side and Loop were ousted from the business and the crew bosses closed most of their operations in that area, thus getting more involved in First Ward politics and corruption. In other words, by this time the Near South Side and Loop group did not exist any more as a specific crew)
First Ward
Pat Marcy/Gus Alex
Chinatown and South Side (on the other hand, during this period the Chinatown group continued to exist as one basic crew in their own territory)
Frank Caruso (there’s a great possibility that by the end of the decade Caruso shared some of his operations with Fiore Buccieri)
1970's - 1980's
First Ward
Pat Marcy/Gus Alex/Fred Roti (son of the late Bruno Roti who was brought into the First Ward group back in the late 1960’s)
Chinatown and South Side
Frank Carsuo (retired in 1979 and later died in 1983)
Angelo LaPietra (former member of the Fiore Buccieri group who succeeded Caruso as captain in 1979/80)
CICERO
1920’s
Cicero
Al Capone (even though he was the boss of the organization, still he was considered the top guy in this territory since it was looked upon as the syndicate’s stronghold during the second half of the decade)
Ralph Capone/John Capone/ James Mondi/Claude Maddox (by the end of the decade these were the main overseers who took control of that area)
1930’s
Cicero
Al Capone (jailed in 1932)
Ralph Capone (became the captain of the Cicero area until the end of the decade when he began spending more time outside of Chicago)
1940’s (at the beginning of the decade, the territory was possibly divided between the basic Cicero crew, which in turn controlled the southern part, and the Taylor St group with the rest of the Outfit on the northern side)
Southern Cicero
Ralph Capone (semi-retired by the early 1940’s)
Claude Maddox/Willie Heeney/Aiuppa brothers (overseers of the southern part of Cicero during the mid 1940’s)
Joey Aiuppa (unofficial captain of the basic Cicero group by the end of the decade)
1950’s
Southern Cicero
Willie Heeney (died in 1951)
Claude Maddox (died in 1958)
Joey Aiuppa (by the late 1950’s he was considered the official captain of the basic Cicero group)
1960’s
Southern Cicero
Joey Aiuppa
1970’s
Cicero
Joey Aiuppa (during the early 1970’s he was considered a member of the top ruling panel and during the second half of the decade, he became the chief executive)
James Torello (when Aiuppa became a member of the ruling panel or maybe when he became the chief executive, it is quite possible that during that period the Cicero area became whole again in the eyes of the Outfit, with one basic crew under the auspices of Torello until his death in 1979)
WEST SIDE
1910's
West Side
James Marzano/Joe Esposito
Genna Crime Family
Mike Heitler
1920's
West Side (possibly during the 1920’s, this area was divided on several crews mainly because of Prohibition)
Taylor St – Genna crime family (eliminated by 1925 their territory was allegedly divided between Joe Esposito and one Sicilian clan from the North Side)
Near West Side and Melrose Park- Joe Esposito killed in 1928 and possibly succeeded Tony Volpe/Paul Ricca
Grand Avenue-Mike Heitler/Frank Maritote
Stone Park-Frank Rio (also operated in nearby territories such as Franklyn Park and Northlake)
Melrose Park-John Montana Sr. (in alliance with Esposito) /Rocco DeGrazia (in alliance with Capone) (there’s great possibility that by the late 1920’s, the DeGrazia group was in close association with the Stone Park group)
TAYLOR ST
1930's (during this period the Chicago Outfit was officially established as part of Cosa Nostra and had its own crews and captains)
Taylor St
Louis Campagna (even though he was the possible captain of this group, there’s also a great possibility of he being the underboss. The “captain” thing comes from an info which states that he sponsored soldiers into the organization which means that he controlled his own crew)
1940's
Taylor St (also with operations in northern part of Cicero and northern part of Lawndale)
Louis Campagna (also became an overseer in northern Cicero but got imprisoned in 1943 and released in 1947)
Lawrence Mangano (acting for Campagna but killed in 1944)
James Belcastro (acting for Campagna but died in 1945)
Sam Giancana (acting for Campagna from 1947 until the end of the decade. Before becoming a captain, Giancana previously and continued to act also as Campagna's overseer in northern Cicero from 1945 until the end of the decade)
1950's
Taylor St (northern Cicero and during the first half of the decade northern Lawndale)
Fiore Buccieri (succeeded Giancana at the same time when he became the underboss, possibly during the early or mid 1950’s)
1960's
Taylor St (northern Cicero and numerous “take-over” attempts in Chinatown and Chicago heights)
Fiore Buccieri
1970’s
Taylor St (northern Cicero)
Fiore Buccieri (fell gravely ill in 1971 and died in 1973 and after that the Taylor St group did not exist anymore mostly because by the mid 1970’s Buccieri’s crew completely took over the Cicero area and Chinatown)
MELROSE PARK
1930's
Melrose Park (by the mid 1930's the group also controlled Stone Park, Franklyn Park, Northlake)
Rocco DeGrazia (possibly placed by Al Capone as captain of this territory)
Frank Rio (possible captain or overseer of Stone Park who died in 1935 and DeGrazia absorbed his territory)
1940's
Melrose Park
Rocco DeGrazia
Albert Pranno (possible overseer in Stone Park now under DeGrazia)
1950's
Melrose Park
Rocco DeGrazia (demoted by 1955)
Sam Battaglia (former Taylor St member who was previously an overseer in the northern part of Lawndale but later got transferred in the Melrose Park crew and succeeded DeGrazia as captain)
Rocco Pranno (succeeded his older brother Albert Pranno and became overseer of Stone Park now under Battaglia)
Marshal Caifano (overseer who previously began operating in the northern part of Lawndale but later got transferred on one part of the Near North Side in Battaglia’s name)
1960's
Melrose Park
Sam Battaglia (became underboss in 1964)
Phil Alderisio (succeeded Battaglia as captain and in 1966 as possible underboss)
Charles Nicoletti (succeeded Alderisio as captain until 1969 when Joey Aiuppa also entered the territory and became almost divided)
1970's
Melrose Park (with operations in southern Cicero and many members were transferred in the so-called newly formed Grand Avenue crew)
Joey Auippa (in fact, Aiuppa did the same thing what everyone else has done to his territory, by operating in two different areas, thus proving his rise up. During the early 1970's he was a part of a ruling panel but by the mid 1970's became the boss)
Sam Carlisi (allegedly by the late 1970's succeeded Aiuppa as captain of the Melrose Park crew)
Last edited by Villain on Mon Jul 10, 2017 6:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God - Corinthians 6:9-10
Re: Roots of the Capone Mob a.k.a. the Chicago Outfit
...continued...
ELMWOOD PARK (GRAND AVENUE)
1930's (in 1931 the non-Italian boss of that area Mike Heitler was killed, thus officially forming the group)
Elmwood Park (Grand Avenue)
Frank Maritote
Tony Accardo (succeeded or acted for Maritote by the late 1930’s)
1940's
Elmwood Park (Grand Avenue and northern part of Lawndale)
Frank Maritote (jailed in 1943 and released in 1950)
Tony Accardo (during the first half of the decade Accardo acted more as emissary for the jailed bosses and late he became the boss in 1947)
Tony Capezio (by the end of the decade succeeded Maritote or Accardo as captain of the crew)
1950's
Elmwood Park (Grand Avenue and by the late 1950’s the Lawndale area received its own and separate crew from this one)
Tony Capezio (died in 1956)
Jack Cerone (succeeded Capezio)
1960's
Elmwood Park (Grand Avenue)
Jack Cerone (possibly elevated to under boss in 1968 for Phil Alderisio and again, allegedly elevated to acting boss in 1969 but quickly jailed the next year)
Joe Gagliano (possible acting captain for Cerone until the end of the decade)
1970’s
Elmwood Park (Grand Avenue)
Jack Cerone (released from prison by the early 1970’s and managed to absorb many members from the old Melrose Park crew, thus forming two different crews, one being the Elmwood Park group and the other, the Grand Avenue crew. Also by the late 1970’s Cerone was the official underboss)
Joe Gagliano (died in 1971)
John DiFronzo (since by 1974 the alleged real successor Willie Messino was still in jail and so DiFronzo was also one of the oldest associates and later member of the group who possibly took over when Cerone became the underboss)
Joseph Lombardo (possibly took over somewhere around the mid 1970’s as captain of the “newly” formed Grand Avenue group until the end of the decade)
CHICAGO HEIGHTS
1920’s (this crew was officially recognized by the Outfit during the second half of the decade)
Chicago Heights
Dominic Roberto
1930's
Chicago Heights, Joliet, Ill
Dominic Roberto (deported in 1935)
Giacomo Ammirato (succeeded Roberto as captain)
1940's
Chicago Heights, Calumet City, Joliet, Ill
Giacomo Ammirato
1950’s
Chicago Heights, Calumet City, Joliet, Ill; northern Indiana
Giacomo Ammirato (died in 1957)
Frank LaPorte (succeeded Ammirato)
1960’s
Chicago Heights, Calumet City, Joliet, Ill; northern Indiana
Frank LaPorte
1970’s
Chicago Heights, Calumet City, northern Indiana
Frank LaPorte (died in 1972)
Al Pilotto (succeeded LaPorte as captain of the crew)
NEAR NORTH SIDE
1930’s (this crew was possibly created by the mid 1930’s)
Near North Side
Frank Nitto
1940’s (by the late 1940’s and early 50’s the old crew was gone for good and their territory was divided between two crews, including one the Rogers Park group and second the Taylor St crew)
Frank Nitto (dead in 1943)
Louis Romano/Anthony D’Andrea (mere overseers of the territory until the mid 1940’s)
1950’s
Joey DiVarco/Jimmy Allegretti (representatives for the Ross Prio group or Rogers Park crew)
Marshall Caifano (representative for the Battaglia group or Melrose Park faction)
ROGERS PARK
1930’s
Rogers Park, Evanston
Vincenzo DiGiorgio
1940’s
Rogers Park, Evanston, Near North Side
Vincenzo DiGiorgio (shelved by 1948)
Ross Prio (succeeded DiGiorgio as captain of the crew)
1950’s
Rogers Park, Evanston, Near North Side, Niles; Ill
Ross Prio
1960’s
Rogers Park, Evanston, Near North Side, Niles; Ill
Ross Prio
1970’s
Rogers Park, Evanston, Near North Side, Niles; Ill
Ross Prio (died in 1972)
Dominic DiBella (succeeded Prio as captain but died in 1977)
Vincent Solano (succeeded DiBella as captain)
LAKE VIEW
1930’s (this crew was possibly and officially created by the mid 1930’s)
Lake View
Charles Fischetti
1940’s
Lake View, Florida, Havana; Cuba
Charles Fischetti
Joe Fischetti (Florida, Cuba)
1950’s
Lake View, Florida, Havana; Cuba (by the late 1950’s the group lost its influence in Cuba)
Charles Fischetti (died in 1951)
Rocco Fischetti (succeeded Charles Fischetti as captain)
Joe Fischetti (Florida, Cuba)
1960’s
Lake View, Southwest Chicago, Miami; Florida (by the early 1960’s the Fischetti family sold all of their land on the North Side)
Rocco Fischetti (died in 1964)
Les Kruse (succeeded Rocco Fischetti as overseer of the Lake View territory)
Joe Fischetti (Florida and by the end of the decade he was possibly semi-retired)
1970’s
Lake View (by the late 1970’s this territory might’ve been under the jurisdiction of the North Side crew)
Les Kruse (died in 1976)
DU PAGE COUNTY
1950’s
Du Page, McHenry, Kane Counties; part of Cicero (this crew was possibly created during the mid 1950’s, and was under the jurisdiction of the Taylor St group)
William Daddono (former Taylor St and Melrose Park member who became captain of this crew)
Frank Fratto (Cicero overseer)
1960’s
Du Page, McHenry, Kane Counties; parts of Cicero and Melrose Park (by the end of the decade the crew was almost dismantled)
William Daddono (sent to prison in 1968)
Joe Amato (former overseer who succeeded Daddono as captain of the area)
Frank Fratto (Cicero overseer)
Tony Cardamone (possible Melrose Park overseer)
1970’s (it is possible that by the early 1970’s this group lost its interests in the Cicero area)
Joe Amato
LAWNDALE
1950’s (this non-Italian crew was possibly and officially created by the mid 1950’s and lasted until the end of the decade, when it was placed under the jurisdiction of the Near South Side and Loop crew)
Leonard Patrick (closely connected to the chief executive Sam Giancana and Melrose Park captain Sam Battaglia)
LAKE COUNTY, NORTHERN INDIANA
1950’s (this crew was possibly and officially created during the early 1950’s and was placed under the jurisdiction of the Chicago Heights crew)
Anthony Pinelli (became captain of this territory somewhere around the early 1950’s)
Gaetano Morgano (became an overseer by the late 1950’s since Pinelli wasn’t around that much)
1960’s
Anthony Pinelli (semi-retired by the end of the decade)
Gaetano Morgano (deported in 1963)
Frank Zizzo (became captain by 1966)
1970’s
Frank Zizzo
ELMWOOD PARK (GRAND AVENUE)
1930's (in 1931 the non-Italian boss of that area Mike Heitler was killed, thus officially forming the group)
Elmwood Park (Grand Avenue)
Frank Maritote
Tony Accardo (succeeded or acted for Maritote by the late 1930’s)
1940's
Elmwood Park (Grand Avenue and northern part of Lawndale)
Frank Maritote (jailed in 1943 and released in 1950)
Tony Accardo (during the first half of the decade Accardo acted more as emissary for the jailed bosses and late he became the boss in 1947)
Tony Capezio (by the end of the decade succeeded Maritote or Accardo as captain of the crew)
1950's
Elmwood Park (Grand Avenue and by the late 1950’s the Lawndale area received its own and separate crew from this one)
Tony Capezio (died in 1956)
Jack Cerone (succeeded Capezio)
1960's
Elmwood Park (Grand Avenue)
Jack Cerone (possibly elevated to under boss in 1968 for Phil Alderisio and again, allegedly elevated to acting boss in 1969 but quickly jailed the next year)
Joe Gagliano (possible acting captain for Cerone until the end of the decade)
1970’s
Elmwood Park (Grand Avenue)
Jack Cerone (released from prison by the early 1970’s and managed to absorb many members from the old Melrose Park crew, thus forming two different crews, one being the Elmwood Park group and the other, the Grand Avenue crew. Also by the late 1970’s Cerone was the official underboss)
Joe Gagliano (died in 1971)
John DiFronzo (since by 1974 the alleged real successor Willie Messino was still in jail and so DiFronzo was also one of the oldest associates and later member of the group who possibly took over when Cerone became the underboss)
Joseph Lombardo (possibly took over somewhere around the mid 1970’s as captain of the “newly” formed Grand Avenue group until the end of the decade)
CHICAGO HEIGHTS
1920’s (this crew was officially recognized by the Outfit during the second half of the decade)
Chicago Heights
Dominic Roberto
1930's
Chicago Heights, Joliet, Ill
Dominic Roberto (deported in 1935)
Giacomo Ammirato (succeeded Roberto as captain)
1940's
Chicago Heights, Calumet City, Joliet, Ill
Giacomo Ammirato
1950’s
Chicago Heights, Calumet City, Joliet, Ill; northern Indiana
Giacomo Ammirato (died in 1957)
Frank LaPorte (succeeded Ammirato)
1960’s
Chicago Heights, Calumet City, Joliet, Ill; northern Indiana
Frank LaPorte
1970’s
Chicago Heights, Calumet City, northern Indiana
Frank LaPorte (died in 1972)
Al Pilotto (succeeded LaPorte as captain of the crew)
NEAR NORTH SIDE
1930’s (this crew was possibly created by the mid 1930’s)
Near North Side
Frank Nitto
1940’s (by the late 1940’s and early 50’s the old crew was gone for good and their territory was divided between two crews, including one the Rogers Park group and second the Taylor St crew)
Frank Nitto (dead in 1943)
Louis Romano/Anthony D’Andrea (mere overseers of the territory until the mid 1940’s)
1950’s
Joey DiVarco/Jimmy Allegretti (representatives for the Ross Prio group or Rogers Park crew)
Marshall Caifano (representative for the Battaglia group or Melrose Park faction)
ROGERS PARK
1930’s
Rogers Park, Evanston
Vincenzo DiGiorgio
1940’s
Rogers Park, Evanston, Near North Side
Vincenzo DiGiorgio (shelved by 1948)
Ross Prio (succeeded DiGiorgio as captain of the crew)
1950’s
Rogers Park, Evanston, Near North Side, Niles; Ill
Ross Prio
1960’s
Rogers Park, Evanston, Near North Side, Niles; Ill
Ross Prio
1970’s
Rogers Park, Evanston, Near North Side, Niles; Ill
Ross Prio (died in 1972)
Dominic DiBella (succeeded Prio as captain but died in 1977)
Vincent Solano (succeeded DiBella as captain)
LAKE VIEW
1930’s (this crew was possibly and officially created by the mid 1930’s)
Lake View
Charles Fischetti
1940’s
Lake View, Florida, Havana; Cuba
Charles Fischetti
Joe Fischetti (Florida, Cuba)
1950’s
Lake View, Florida, Havana; Cuba (by the late 1950’s the group lost its influence in Cuba)
Charles Fischetti (died in 1951)
Rocco Fischetti (succeeded Charles Fischetti as captain)
Joe Fischetti (Florida, Cuba)
1960’s
Lake View, Southwest Chicago, Miami; Florida (by the early 1960’s the Fischetti family sold all of their land on the North Side)
Rocco Fischetti (died in 1964)
Les Kruse (succeeded Rocco Fischetti as overseer of the Lake View territory)
Joe Fischetti (Florida and by the end of the decade he was possibly semi-retired)
1970’s
Lake View (by the late 1970’s this territory might’ve been under the jurisdiction of the North Side crew)
Les Kruse (died in 1976)
DU PAGE COUNTY
1950’s
Du Page, McHenry, Kane Counties; part of Cicero (this crew was possibly created during the mid 1950’s, and was under the jurisdiction of the Taylor St group)
William Daddono (former Taylor St and Melrose Park member who became captain of this crew)
Frank Fratto (Cicero overseer)
1960’s
Du Page, McHenry, Kane Counties; parts of Cicero and Melrose Park (by the end of the decade the crew was almost dismantled)
William Daddono (sent to prison in 1968)
Joe Amato (former overseer who succeeded Daddono as captain of the area)
Frank Fratto (Cicero overseer)
Tony Cardamone (possible Melrose Park overseer)
1970’s (it is possible that by the early 1970’s this group lost its interests in the Cicero area)
Joe Amato
LAWNDALE
1950’s (this non-Italian crew was possibly and officially created by the mid 1950’s and lasted until the end of the decade, when it was placed under the jurisdiction of the Near South Side and Loop crew)
Leonard Patrick (closely connected to the chief executive Sam Giancana and Melrose Park captain Sam Battaglia)
LAKE COUNTY, NORTHERN INDIANA
1950’s (this crew was possibly and officially created during the early 1950’s and was placed under the jurisdiction of the Chicago Heights crew)
Anthony Pinelli (became captain of this territory somewhere around the early 1950’s)
Gaetano Morgano (became an overseer by the late 1950’s since Pinelli wasn’t around that much)
1960’s
Anthony Pinelli (semi-retired by the end of the decade)
Gaetano Morgano (deported in 1963)
Frank Zizzo (became captain by 1966)
1970’s
Frank Zizzo
Last edited by Villain on Mon Jul 10, 2017 3:49 am, edited 1 time in total.
Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God - Corinthians 6:9-10
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Dwalin2014
- Sergeant Of Arms
- Posts: 614
- Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2014 10:08 am
Re: Roots of the Capone Mob a.k.a. the Chicago Outfit
Villain, I am not sure 100% but I think Frank Maritote wasn't released in 1947 unlike the others from that trial; I read his parole was denied because unlike the other defendants, he didn't go to jail immediately after the sentencing and continued to resist with the appeals, so they "took revenge" for the time they spent on him, by denying the early release. However, he still didn't do the whole 10 years, only 7 more or less.
I don't remember all the sources but here is a quote from the book "Mob boss: Chicago mob bosses Paul Ricca and Tony Accardo" by Tony Dark (I have it right here):
I don't remember all the sources but here is a quote from the book "Mob boss: Chicago mob bosses Paul Ricca and Tony Accardo" by Tony Dark (I have it right here):
An interesting book by the way, detailed biographies of not only Ricca and Accardo, but all those mobsters convicted with Ricca at the Hollywood extortion trial etc. Also, interesting to know that this gangster's real last name was "Maritato". He went by "Diamond" or "Maritote", but this 2nd one doesn't even seem Italian, probably another one of those insane misspellings of Italian immigrants' surnames by the customs agentsOn December 30, 1943 Frank Diamond was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years at Leavenworth Prison.
When he was found guilty he felt as though he had been robbed and wrongly convicted and from that day on he blamed the U.S. government for stealing years of his life. He refused to sign any government forms or do anything for the government from that point on.
He was one of the last Capone mobsters to be paroled on December 20, 1950.
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Pogo The Clown
- Men Of Mayhem
- Posts: 14147
- Joined: Thu Oct 23, 2014 7:02 am
Re: Roots of the Capone Mob a.k.a. the Chicago Outfit
It's a new morning in America... fresh, vital. The old cynicism is gone. We have faith in our leaders. We're optimistic as to what becomes of it all. It really boils down to our ability to accept. We don't need pessimism. There are no limits.
Re: Roots of the Capone Mob a.k.a. the Chicago Outfit
Dwalin2014 You're right regarding Maritote's early release. I went back and checked my Ricca article and this is what I wrote "Second step was to dismiss an indictment for mail fraud. This problem was solved by promising the Attorney General of the United States Tom Clark, the next appointment to the Supreme Court. Clark accepted the deal and Ricca's indictment for mail fraud in New York was vacated. The next step was to influence the parole board and rumours are that the Parole Board members accepted a $500,000 bribe. So on August 13th, 1947 Ricca and the other bosses, except for Frank Maritote, were set free after just 3 years and 4 months of the ten years sentence. This was very strange since they were handed a sentences without the possibility of parole..."Dwalin2014 wrote: ↑Sun Jul 09, 2017 3:22 pm Villain, I am not sure 100% but I think Frank Maritote wasn't released in 1947 unlike the others from that trial; I read his parole was denied because unlike the other defendants, he didn't go to jail immediately after the sentencing and continued to resist with the appeals, so they "took revenge" for the time they spent on him, by denying the early release. However, he still didn't do the whole 10 years, only 7 more or less.
I don't remember all the sources but here is a quote from the book "Mob boss: Chicago mob bosses Paul Ricca and Tony Accardo" by Tony Dark (I have it right here):
An interesting book by the way, detailed biographies of not only Ricca and Accardo, but all those mobsters convicted with Ricca at the Hollywood extortion trial etc. Also, interesting to know that this gangster's real last name was "Maritato". He went by "Diamond" or "Maritote", but this 2nd one doesn't even seem Italian, probably another one of those insane misspellings of Italian immigrants' surnames by the customs agentsOn December 30, 1943 Frank Diamond was found guilty and sentenced to 10 years at Leavenworth Prison.
When he was found guilty he felt as though he had been robbed and wrongly convicted and from that day on he blamed the U.S. government for stealing years of his life. He refused to sign any government forms or do anything for the government from that point on.
He was one of the last Capone mobsters to be paroled on December 20, 1950.
The problem is that sometimes I'm thinking that I know these things for sure but obviously I always have to double-check. Thanks for the correction and also thank you for the info on that book which i never heard of it before. As for Maritote, I believe that he wasn't Sicilian but maybe Antliliar knows about this stuff more than me.
Pogo
btw I believe the guy was a Jewish German...and a pimp and also a dope dealer 
Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God - Corinthians 6:9-10
Re: Roots of the Capone Mob a.k.a. the Chicago Outfit
The Maritotes came from Brusciano, Naples, Italy.
Re: Roots of the Capone Mob a.k.a. the Chicago Outfit
Thanks man. Btw whats your honest opinion on my theory regarding Belcastro's position as one time captain or acting captain for the Taylor St crew for a year or less?
Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God - Corinthians 6:9-10
Re: Roots of the Capone Mob a.k.a. the Chicago Outfit
I lean in the same direction, but we both could be wrong! LOL If the FBI files weren't so redacted we might be able to figure some of this stuff out more accurately, but that's the way it goes.
Re: Roots of the Capone Mob a.k.a. the Chicago Outfit
Nice work, guys. The time period between Capone and Giancana is not one that is easily deciphered but both of you have done yeoman's work in that area.