Is there any doubt Mags is a beefer?

[Frank]

What about the Roberto crew, were they originally with this Family before the joined Capone. Also wasn't Paul Ricca from the Genna Family?

[Antiliar]

After Lombardo it was Pasqualino Lolordo, Joe Giunta, Joseph Aiello and Salvatore Agostino LoVerde. Aiello was the exception to the puppet rule and he paid for it with his life. In fact, they all paid for it with their lives.

The Roberto crew became affiliated with Torrio maybe as early as 1923 or 24, but when they were actually made is a different story. Ricca was not from the Genna Family. There was no Genna Family. Angelo Genna was part of the Chicago Mafia, so if anything he led a crew or was part of one.

[Ivan]

Thanks Antiliar, I had forgotten about LoVerde.

Is there a list of known Chicago Mafia made guys anywhere?

[Frank]

Yes I wasn't sure what to call the Genna. They are usually just called the Gennas. Also read that Ricca was with the Esposito guy with the restaurant. That's how he got the Nick name the waiter. How does Esposito fit into the Mafia and the Capone's.

[Antiliar]

Esposito was actually a member of the Chicago Mafia (at least, according to Nick Gentile). He was originally connected to Jim Colosimo, but somewhere along the line he was apparently "made." He brought in a lot of money and was very well politically connected. I believe he was killed by Capone because of political differences.

[Frank]

Wasn't Giancana rumored to have killed him.

[Villain]

Wasn't Giancana rumored to have killed him.

I believe thats a myth...heres what i wrote regarding the Esposito murder:

"But during this period many gangs went to war over bootlegging profits, including Esposito’s gang. For example, one of Esposito’s main booze buyers was the Sheldon gang headed by Ralph Sheldon. On April 15, 1926, Esposito’s men Frank DeLourentis and John Tuccello were picked up and brutally murdered by rivals of the Sheldon gang. Then the killers left the bodies in an automobile which was parked outside the home of Ralph Sheldon as a warning to stay out of the Saltis – McErlane territory, which was operated by those two rival gangs. It was a time when everybody started packing guns and murder became an everyday thing and so Esposito’s illegal operations were slowly sinking down to the bottom. In 1927, De Lucia was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon and he gave a new alias “Paul Viela.” 

The old guys had a sense on when to stop their illegal activities until the moment when the smoke cleared, but the younger generation saw things differently. Esposito already had the cash and political connections but the younger thugs such as Volpe and De Lucia, needed more of Esposito’s connections and business deals. So the old boss started having numerous problems with different groups such as rival bootleggers, political rivals backed by other gangsters, juvenile hoodlums who still needed Esposito’s protection, and even with members from his own organization. De Lucia was a smart fellow, who knew a ripe apple when he saw one and so he got near to Volpe and gave him a proposal and also presented to him a very lucrative plan. Maybe the idea came from Volpe himself, but one thing is for certain that high level members of the Capone mob backed the plan. For example guys such as Capone himself or Francesco Nitto a.k.a. Frank Nitti, Al’s brother Ralph or Charles Fischetti, all high level hoodlums within the Capone organization. 


I believe that Capone knew that De Lucia was his only way to get Esposito and later to rule the West Side Bloc, as it was called. So to make the blood oath between the two gangsters even more meaningful, Capone became De Lucia’s best man at his wedding. De Lucia was a tall handsome guy, with a pale face, firm square jaw and half-closed eyes who had the “swagger” by wearing soft felt fedoras with different elegant grey fannel suits, double breasted pinstripes and foulard silk ties. He also had supple calfskin shoes and two toned black and white oxfords. The young man also knew how to wine and dine and it’s been said that he had much respect for beautiful women and never told an off colour story and that he rarely used any curse words. That’s why most of the ladies loved him because he was a real womanizer. But in January, 1927, De Lucia decided to tie the knot with a beautiful Neapolitan female immigrant named Nancy. They had a lavish party which was mostly occupied by the Capone gang. Instead of using his alias “Paolo Maglio”, this time he signed the marriage papers with his real name as Paul De Lucia, who in time became known as Paul Ricca.


In 1928, the government started using deportation as the main weapon against the Capone organization. One of the first gangsters that were struck with the law was Ricca’s pal, 38 years old Tony Volpe. When he was 15, Volpe entered the country and was naturalized in Chicago but later the government realized that he had made false statements in his application for citizenship and so his papers were revoked. Because of the problem, Ricca decided to retain American citizenship under the name of Paul DeLucia, because he probably assumed that the Italian government had notified the U.S. government, that he was living under the name Paul Maglio. This was a huge mistake that would come back to haunt Ricca decades later but for now, he swore that he was an American citizen and that Maglio was his actual name.


So now Capone and Ricca had to just wait for the right moment to get the old man and after a year of waiting, the real opportunity came along. Now you ask yourself on why killers such as Capone and Ricca waited for a real opportunity and not just walk to his door and shoot Esposito right in the head?! That’s because highly connected political mobsters such as Esposito had many allies or business partners who after the assassination, were going to acquire a good explanation and reason for the action, or the members of the plot were going to be next. So I believe that the plot for elimination of Esposito was sanctioned by mobsters not just from the Chicago area, but also from other cities as well. 


The opportunity was that Esposito, who was already a Republican 25th ward committeeman, again was the primary candidate for re-election but this time against Joseph P. Savage, former assistant states attorney and by this time a member of Mayor William Thompson's staff of legal experts. Thompson was under a huge influence of the Capone organization and they guarded each others backs. Al Capone respected Esposito for a very long time until he became a problem. Some sources say that Esposito was even one of Al’s mentors. Capone allegedly went to see the old man himself and told him to back off. Esposito even received threatening phone calls at his home but still the old man refused to give up his candidature and with that he signed his own death warrant. Ricca was approached by Capone’s men, who in turn plotted the “hit.” First they had to remove Esposito’s right hand man and also a brother-in-law Phil Leonatti, who in February, 1928, was shot to death in his cigar store on West Taylor St. It was just like in the movies, the boss called upon his underlings for help but in reality they were the ones plotting against him and now, it was his turn. 


Ricca and Volpe didn’t know Esposito’s daily routines because the boss kept everything in secret regarding the current situation but realised that they can use the dissatisfaction of Esposito’s constant companions and bodyguards the Varchetti brothers. The two brothers knew that Esposito was going to leave them high and dry after the elections and so Ricca and Volpe approached the brothers and asked them about Esposito’s plans in the next few days and also advised them about the plot. On March 21, 1928, Esposito was escorted out of his house at 800 South Oakley Boulevard by the Varchetti bros. While walking down the street Esposito and his bodyguards met an old lady from the neighbourhood and told her “I guess I haven’t much chance of winning, it won’t make much difference even if I had. If I loose I’ll move out of the ward, and then, perhaps, ill be missed.” After that, the trio continued to walk down the street in formation of left and right bodyguard with Esposito in the middle. Later according to the bodyguards and their wives who lived right across the street, suddenly a car with three armed guys showed up and was slowly approaching behind them. The two bodyguards probably noticed the car because with out any warning, both of them dropped on the ground while leaving old man Esposito alone in front of the killers. The poor guy was riddled with bullets while hopelessly screaming in despair. His screams and the shootings were heard all around the neighbourhood. His bodyguards didn’t receive a scratch which became very suspicious to some of the Chicago detectives. Plus on that same day, both of them forgot their guns. Later the coroner said that Esposito had 58 pellets of shotgun shells and numerous pistol bullets, and something which made things even more suspicious and that was a bullet in his arm but from the right side, and Esposito was riddled on his left side as he was in position of walking down the street. Plus he also had powder burns on his body which indicates that he was shot from close range, which for me personally raises the question on whether the Varchetti brothers were two of the shooters in the Esposito killing. 

It will never be clear on who executed the shooting, but my opinion is that Ricca was deeply involved in the murder of his boss and mentor."

[Frank]

Great insight into early years. So Ricca was originally with Esposito then. I wonder if he was made by them or in Italy.

[Villain]

Great insight into early years. So Ricca was originally with Esposito then. I wonder if he was made by them or in Italy.

To tell you the truth it is possible that Antiliar knows more than me regarding this question but my personal pick is that he was possibly already brought into the Camorra back home but he was obviously later made into the US Mafia possibly by Esposito or Capone...but thats just a theory

[Frank]

Does anyone know the was Nitti ever the official boss answer. I came up with another theory. Maybe he was acting boss for Capone, then when it was clear Capone was never going to be boss again, Ricca took over as Official boss around 1938. Just another possibility. Also wasn't Campagnia the underboss for Nitti.

[Pogo The Clown]

Damn 8 out of its 9 Bosses murdered in less than 25 years. That has to be a record for number of Bosses killed in a family. Being Boss of the Chicago family was certainly not an enviable position.


Pogo

[Villain]

Does anyone know the was Nitti ever the official boss answer. I came up with another theory. Maybe he was acting boss for Capone, then when it was clear Capone was never going to be boss again, Ricca took over as Official boss around 1938. Just another possibility. Also wasn't Campagnia the underboss for Nitti.

Even though in some of my old work i usually stated that Nitto wasnt the boss until the mid 1930's with Ricca being before him but as time passed by, I was obviously wrong regarding some cases such as this one and so my newest theory is that after Capone or should i say in 1932, the main guys were Ricca, Campagna and D'Andrea. I really cant tell who was what but obviously one was the boss, the other underboss and the last one an advisor. Nitto was in charge of the Near North Side and also the most powerful and oldest crew during that period and was made the boss by the media and the government, which both did not have any clue on anything regarding the Outfit during that time. I mean they used to say that every mobster from that era was the boss of some syndicate, which is a practice still used even today

[Snakes]

I've learned a lot about the formative years of the Chicago family from Villain and Antilliar. For the longest time, I followed that traditional Colosimo, Torrio, Capone timeline but Capone wasn't even made until 1928 so the actual LCN family is the true line of succession. They are the best of the best when it comes to the earliest years of the family.

[Frank]

I don't believe it was ever a big deal about Capone not being made. Look at the power he had as a non made independent. Was Torrio ever made . It's interesting that he was made by Masseria and great info to know, but the Capone Gang was a powerful entity in itself.

[Dwalin2014]

Does anyone know the was Nitti ever the official boss answer. I came up with another theory. Maybe he was acting boss for Capone, then when it was clear Capone was never going to be boss again, Ricca took over as Official boss around 1938. Just another possibility. Also wasn't Campagnia the underboss for Nitti.

Even though in some of my old work i usually stated that Nitto wasnt the boss until the mid 1930's with Ricca being before him but as time passed by, I was obviously wrong regarding some cases such as this one and so my newest theory is that after Capone or should i say in 1932, the main guys were Ricca, Campagna and D'Andrea. I really cant tell who was what but obviously one was the boss, the other underboss and the last one an advisor. Nitto was in charge of the Near North Side and also the most powerful and oldest crew during that period and was made the boss by the media and the government, which both did not have any clue on anything regarding the Outfit during that time. I mean they used to say that every mobster from that era was the boss of some syndicate, which is a practice still used even today

So there is no possibility that Nitto ever was the official boss, even a "puppet" one? Most people seem to agree that Ricca out-powered him, but I also read that the theories that Ricca was already THAT powerful even in the 1st half of the 30s comes mostly from the fact he was once arrested with Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky in 1932 (April 19), and him being associated with New York top mobsters made him look more important. That is mentioned in Mars Eghigian's book about Frank Nitto, and it seems that the author thinks that while Ricca was important, Nitto wasn't a "puppet front man" with importance exaggerated by the media only, and that he could be in charge for some time for real. So I don't yet get it, whether the theory of Nitto being official boss at least in name and/or for some time, whether the theory is completely proven wrong today or the question is still unanswered?