Chicago Outfit-Related Murders 1970's

[Villain]

Interesting convo between Jack Cerone, Dave Yaras and one "Pete" (99% Pete Gushi) and also one "unknown" individual who in turn it came out to be Turk Torello. They talk about the planning of the murder of an individual only known as "Frank" and they also talk about some past hits and tortures: (there are at least 9 or 10 pages of conversation) https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... 5&tab=page

Frank Esposito is the name of the guy they were planning to murder.

Thanks man, i totally forgot about him

[Niagarafalls]

It’s crazy how many Chicago murders involved torture. Even the splitting of throats or strangulation. Most mob hits in other cities were just gunshots to the head or torso. Chicago mob guys were ruthless.

[Frank]

Interesting convo between Jack Cerone, Dave Yaras and one "Pete" (99% Pete Gushi) and also one "unknown" individual who in turn it came out to be Turk Torello. They talk about the planning of the murder of an individual only known as "Frank" and they also talk about some past hits and tortures: (there are at least 9 or 10 pages of conversation) https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... 5&tab=page

Frank Esposito is the name of the guy they were planning to murder.

Thanks man, i totally forgot about him

I believe the Esposito hit was called off by Paul Ricca. I believe there was also a wire we're Giancana said don't let Ross Prio see you, he is down in Florida right now.

[Villain]

Interesting convo between Jack Cerone, Dave Yaras and one "Pete" (99% Pete Gushi) and also one "unknown" individual who in turn it came out to be Turk Torello. They talk about the planning of the murder of an individual only known as "Frank" and they also talk about some past hits and tortures: (there are at least 9 or 10 pages of conversation) https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... 5&tab=page

Frank Esposito is the name of the guy they were planning to murder.

Thanks man, i totally forgot about him

I believe the Esposito hit was called off by Paul Ricca. I believe there was also a wire we're Giancana said don't let Ross Prio see you, he is down in Florida right now.

Yeah I remember that since I wrote about it in my Prio article. There are many Mob histories who portrait Prio as some ruthless and bloodthirsty Mob boss which obviously was not the case but it seems that he was very careful in doing his job and had a lot of consciousness, meaning he didnt always rush to kill everyone or quickly eliminate his problems. For example, in 1964 there was a meeting between the First Ward Alderman Don Parrillo, Ross Prio and Kenneth Leonard. According to Parrillo, the purpose of the meeting was for Prio and Leonard to apologize to Parrillo for being unable to give him their account. So Prio asked Parrillo if there’s anything that they can do for him and the Alderman answered that they could give him their change from the vending operations. Prio agreed and so Parrillo received $5,000 a week in change from the Zenith Company. Parrillo was receiving the money dollar per dollar because some banks at the time were paying a premium to receive change. Now, if it was for Giancana, he would've probably told Parillo that he was going to get hit in the head, according to numerous wiretapped convos of the former boss. Also the same year, an African-American criminal burglarized many houses and establishments along Rush Street. Later the burglar was caught by the police and was thrown in jail, but the problem was that his bond was arranged by a bondsman who was in fact a close friend of Phil Alderisio’s associates Leo Rugendorf. So Prio arranged a meeting with Alderisio and told him that one of the burglarized victims was Prio’s close friend and also told him that he wants to be insured that Rugendorf’s bondsman does nothing favourable for the burglar. Prio wanted the burglar to be convicted and sentenced to jail and also told Alderisio that he wants the furs that were stolen from his friend to be returned. So the burglar was convicted and the furs were also restored. Again if it was for Giancana or anyone else from the syndicate, the burglar would've been killed.

[Frank]

Interesting convo between Jack Cerone, Dave Yaras and one "Pete" (99% Pete Gushi) and also one "unknown" individual who in turn it came out to be Turk Torello. They talk about the planning of the murder of an individual only known as "Frank" and they also talk about some past hits and tortures: (there are at least 9 or 10 pages of conversation) https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... 5&tab=page

Frank Esposito is the name of the guy they were planning to murder.

Thanks man, i totally forgot about him

I believe the Esposito hit was called off by Paul Ricca. I believe there was also a wire we're Giancana said don't let Ross Prio see you, he is down in Florida right now.

Yeah I remember that since I wrote about it in my Prio article. There are many Mob histories who portrait Prio as some ruthless and bloodthirsty Mob boss which obviously was not the case but it seems that he was very careful in doing his job and had a lot of consciousness, meaning he didnt always rush to kill everyone or quickly eliminate his problems. For example, in 1964 there was a meeting between the First Ward Alderman Don Parrillo, Ross Prio and Kenneth Leonard. According to Parrillo, the purpose of the meeting was for Prio and Leonard to apologize to Parrillo for being unable to give him their account. So Prio asked Parrillo if there’s anything that they can do for him and the Alderman answered that they could give him their change from the vending operations. Prio agreed and so Parrillo received $5,000 a week in change from the Zenith Company. Parrillo was receiving the money dollar per dollar because some banks at the time were paying a premium to receive change. Now, if it was for Giancana, he would've probably told Parillo that he was going to get hit in the head, according to numerous wiretapped convos of the former boss. Also the same year, an African-American criminal burglarized many houses and establishments along Rush Street. Later the burglar was caught by the police and was thrown in jail, but the problem was that his bond was arranged by a bondsman who was in fact a close friend of Phil Alderisio’s associates Leo Rugendorf. So Prio arranged a meeting with Alderisio and told him that one of the burglarized victims was Prio’s close friend and also told him that he wants to be insured that Rugendorf’s bondsman does nothing favourable for the burglar. Prio wanted the burglar to be convicted and sentenced to jail and also told Alderisio that he wants the furs that were stolen from his friend to be returned. So the burglar was convicted and the furs were also restored. Again if it was for Giancana or anyone else from the syndicate, the burglar would've been killed.

Very interesting information. Also it appears Prio had more power than the other Capos. I've seen an old chart that, besides Capo he was on a board of directors that also included Humphreys and others.

[Frank]

Interesting convo between Jack Cerone, Dave Yaras and one "Pete" (99% Pete Gushi) and also one "unknown" individual who in turn it came out to be Turk Torello. They talk about the planning of the murder of an individual only known as "Frank" and they also talk about some past hits and tortures: (there are at least 9 or 10 pages of conversation) https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.htm ... 5&tab=page

Frank Esposito is the name of the guy they were planning to murder.

Thanks man, i totally forgot about him

I believe the Esposito hit was called off by Paul Ricca. I believe there was also a wire we're Giancana said don't let Ross Prio see you, he is down in Florida right now.

Yeah I remember that since I wrote about it in my Prio article. There are many Mob histories who portrait Prio as some ruthless and bloodthirsty Mob boss which obviously was not the case but it seems that he was very careful in doing his job and had a lot of consciousness, meaning he didnt always rush to kill everyone or quickly eliminate his problems. For example, in 1964 there was a meeting between the First Ward Alderman Don Parrillo, Ross Prio and Kenneth Leonard. According to Parrillo, the purpose of the meeting was for Prio and Leonard to apologize to Parrillo for being unable to give him their account. So Prio asked Parrillo if there’s anything that they can do for him and the Alderman answered that they could give him their change from the vending operations. Prio agreed and so Parrillo received $5,000 a week in change from the Zenith Company. Parrillo was receiving the money dollar per dollar because some banks at the time were paying a premium to receive change. Now, if it was for Giancana, he would've probably told Parillo that he was going to get hit in the head, according to numerous wiretapped convos of the former boss. Also the same year, an African-American criminal burglarized many houses and establishments along Rush Street. Later the burglar was caught by the police and was thrown in jail, but the problem was that his bond was arranged by a bondsman who was in fact a close friend of Phil Alderisio’s associates Leo Rugendorf. So Prio arranged a meeting with Alderisio and told him that one of the burglarized victims was Prio’s close friend and also told him that he wants to be insured that Rugendorf’s bondsman does nothing favourable for the burglar. Prio wanted the burglar to be convicted and sentenced to jail and also told Alderisio that he wants the furs that were stolen from his friend to be returned. So the burglar was convicted and the furs were also restored. Again if it was for Giancana or anyone else from the syndicate, the burglar would've been killed.

Very interesting information. Also it appears Prio had more power than the other Capos. I've seen an old chart that, besides Capo he was on a board of directors that also included Humphreys and others.

Also it proves Ricca was the ultimate boss of the Outfit, overruling Giancana on Esposito hit.

[Villain]

You're absolutely right Frank and to tell you the truth, by the early 1960's Prio was the real boss of the whole North Side, even though previously was divided between him and other members. So from that point on, all of those same members paid percentage to him for operating in his area. For example, many Outfit high profile figures wanted to transfer some of their illegal operations on the North Side and Rocco Potenza was one of them and he had to pay weekly $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. The same thing occurred when the Jewish community in Chicago migrated from the West Side to the North Side of the city and so Lenny Patrick made a deal with Prio and Les Kruse to share his profits with the two bosses in exchange for protection by paying off undisclosed aldermen and three police captains. One interesting example is when Patrick had a quarrel with Louis Ciriona over horse book operations on the North Side. Ciriona worked for Outfit big shots Gus Alex and Frank Ferraro. The argument was due to the fact that Ciriona received the “ok” from Giancana and Prio to operate a handbook without the knowledge of Ferraro and Alex. To calm things down, Ciriona was told to work under the auspices of Lenny Patrick, in other words to give him a percentage of his gambling earnings. Sso this shows that sometimes Prio had more power than the current underboss at the time Frank Ferraro.

Story goes that Prio was also very loyal to Ricca and always had high opinion of him, like many other old time Mafiosi during those days. In fact he was direct to Ricca and Accardo from the beginning to the end, like for example in 1970 Prio attended a meeting with the two old bosses at Meo's Norwood House in Libertyville, Lake County, Illinois. According to some reports, it was a 90 minute heated conversation between the mob chieftains and the biggest problem for Ricca and Accardo at the time was the downfall of Prio’s illegal enterprises. According to FBI surveillance, at the lunch Ricca and Accardo had been visibly upset by the arrests of two top bolita overseers with evidence of their operations in hand. Accardo was also upset about the recent imprisonment of Felix Alderisio and the reduced to skimming of illegal profits from the operations of so-called "gay" bars in Old Town, New Town, the Near North Side and the areas of Rogers Park. The reason for that were the raids which were made by the FBI and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. So after the lunch, 70 year old Prio jumped in his car and drove to the Lake Forest Oasis on the Tri-State Tollway to make a phone call. Then he continued on to Libertyville to kill time in the marketplace before returning to the Oasis for a half-hour meeting with Ken Eto and Dominick DiBella.

Another example interesting to note regarding Prio's seniority and respectability within the Outfit was when one day Giancana was having a meeting at the Fresh Meadows Golf Course with some of his West Side associates like Sam Parde, Nicky Visco and Queenie Simonelli. Suddenly Vince Solano appeared and whispered to Giancana that his boss, meaning Solano’s boss, is waiting for him outside. So Giancana, the Outfit’s boss, immediately departed from his associates to join Ross Prio in the back seat of a car outside the club house. Solano waited outside the car for almost 20 minutes until the meeting was over. After the meeting Giancana got out of the car and went back to his associates. Don’t forget that Giancana was a Sicilian and according to Sicilian mentality and respectability, if you are the boss of the Mafia than you don’t get up for anyone in the organization and on top of that, he was known for being quite disrespectful individual, but obviously not in front of Prio.

[Confederate]

While doing some research on the Outfit chart from the late 20's till now, I also came across this one list from the 70's who me and some of the boys discussed some time ago and so I though about posting it for you guys. Also, big credit goes to Snakes since he was the one who started this list with 72 hits, while I later added 21 additional murders including their alleged executioners. In addition, this a list of all Outfit-related killings (in Chicago and around the country) during that decade which portraits the Chicago crime family as one of the most, if not the top, individually murderous crime family in the country during that period. My point is that this was the result of the previous and numerous FBI operations which occurred during the 1960's and almost destroyed the crime syndicate. Also, if anyone has any additional info, like found some mistake or a conflicting report, or posses some missing info regarding other Outfit-related murders and hit men, please contribute...

1. March 21, 1970: Carmen Trotta (unknown)
2. August, 1970: Michael Albergo (Frank Calabrese)
3. September 28, 1970: Mario Sprovieri (possibly by Tony Spilotro)
4. January 2, 1971: Rosario Corriero (unknown)
5. June 17, 1971: Robert Pronger (William Dauber and Steve Ostrowsky)
6. October 19, 1971: Sam Cesario (Harry Aleman)
7. December 15, 1971: Henry LaKey (possibly Tony Spilotro)
8. March 10, 1972: Charles Carroll (unknown)
9. August 8, 1972: Guido Fidanzi (William Dauber)
10. September 2, 1972: Roger Croach (William Dauber and Donald Boye)
11. September 3, 1972: Mike Ragan (William Dauber and John Schnadenberg)
12. September 27, 1972: William Logan (Harry Aleman)
13. April 14, 1973: Sam DeStefano (Mario DeStefano and Tony Spilotro)
14. June 23, 1973: William Klim (NV) (Tony Spilotro)
15. November 22, 1973: Samuel Marcello (possibly by Wayne Cascone and James Erwin)
16. November 22, 1973: Joseph Grisafe (possibly by Wayne Cascone and James Erwin)
17. December 20, 1973: Richard Cain (Harry Aleman, Joey Lombardo and Frank Schweihs)
18. January 27, 1974: Wayne Cascone (James Erwin)
19. February 24, 1974: Socrates Rantis (Gerald Scarpelli and James Erwin)
20. April 21, 1974: William Simone (unknown)
21. June 14, 1974: Anthony Dichiarinte (possibly by Joey Lombardo)
22. July 13, 1974: Orion Williams (Harry Aleman)
23. September 27, 1974: Daniel Seifert (Frank Schweihs and Joseph Lombardo)
24. September 28, 1974: Robert Harder (Harry Aleman and possibly James Inendino)
25. December 27, 1974: Richard Mazzone (unknown)
26. January 16, 1975: Carlo DeVivo (Harry Aleman and possibly Frank Schweihs)
27. February 12, 1975: Jack West (AZ) (Nick D’Andrea and Robert Hardin)
28. February 15, 1975: Ed Lazar (AZ) (Nick D’Andrea and Robert Hardin)
29. April 29, 1975: Anthony Battaglia (unknown)
30. May 12, 1975: Ronald Magliano (Harry Aleman)
31. May 12, 1975: Marty Buccieri (NV) (possibly by Tony Spilotro)
32. June 5, 1975: Harry Holzer (MI) (Edward McCabe)
33. June 5, 1975: Linda Holzer (MI) (Edward McCabe)
34. June 19, 1975: Salvatore Giancana (Dominic Blasi and possibly Angelo LaPietra)
35. July 14, 1975: Christopher Cardi (Harry Aleman and William Petrocelli)
36. August 28, 1975: Frank Goulakos (Harry Aleman)
37. August 30, 1975: Nick Galanos (Harry Aleman)
38. September 6, 1975: Walter Wellington (IA) (unknown)
39. October 6, 1975: Louis Bombacino (AZ) (possibly by Paul Schiro and Tony Amadio)
40. October 31, 1975: Anthony Reitinger (Harry Aleman and William Petrocelli)
41. November 10, 1975: Tamara Rand (CA) (Tony Spilotro)
42. December 3, 1975: Ned Bakes (Gerald Scarpelli)
43. January 20, 1976: Frank DeLegge, Jr. (unknown)
44. January 31, 1976: Louis DeBartolo (Harry Aleman)
45. February 6, 1976: Rita Payonk (unknown)
46. June 24, 1976: Paul Haggerty (Nick and Frank Calabrese, Frank Saladino, Ronnie Jarrett)
47. May 1, 1976: James Erwin (Harry Aleman and possibly Jimmy Indendino)
48. June 13, 1976: Don Bolles (AZ) (John Harvey Adamson, William Rocco D'Ambrosio and Frank Mossuto)
49. August 9, 1976: Giovanni Roselli (FL) (unknown)
50. October 5, 1976: Steven Ostrowsky (Edelmiro DeJesus)
51. January 13, 1977: Norman Lang (William Dauber)
52. February 12, 1977: James Villareal (unknown)
53. February 12, 1977: Sam Rivera (unknown)
54. March 2, 1977: Ben Byer (unknown)
55. March 4, 1977: Patrick Marusarz (possibly by Jimmy Cozzo and John DiFronzo)
56. March 15, 1977: Henry Cosentino (Frank Calabrese and Ronnie Jarrett)
57. March 29, 1977: Charles Nicoletti (possibly by Harry Aleman and Frank Schweihs)
58. April 4, 1977: John Lourgos (unknown)
59. June 13, 1977: Richard Ferraro (Gerald Scarpelli)
60. June 14, 1977: Thomas McCarthy (William Petrocelli)
61. June 15, 1977: Joseph Theo (Gerald Scarpelli)
62. July 3, 1977: John Schneider (unknown)
63. July 12, 1977: Earl Abercrombie, Jr. (unknown)
64. July 13, 1977: Morris Saletko (unknown)
65. July 22, 1977: Mark Thanasouras (possibly by Jimmy Cozzo and John DiFronzo)
66. July 22, 1977: Joseph LaRose (possibly by Paul Schiro and Joey Hansen)
67. July 22, 1977: John Vische (possibly by Paul Schiro and Joey Hansen)
68. July 22, 1977: Donald Marchbanks (possibly by Paul Schiro and Joey Hansen)
69. July 22, 1977: Malcolm Russell (possibly by Paul Schiro and Joey Hansen)
70. July 25, 1977: Samuel Annerino (Joseph Scalise, William Petrocelli and Anthony Borsellino)
71. August 25, 1977: James Palaggi (unknown)
72. October 18, 1977: Ray Ryan (IN) (possibly by Marshall Caifano)
73. December 13, 1977: Leo Filippi (unknown)
74. December 22, 1977: Richard Crofton (unknown)
75. January 20, 1978: Bernard Ryan (John DiFronzo and possibly Jimmy Cozzo)
76. February 2, 1978: Steven Garcia (Nick and Frank Calabrese)
77. February 4, 1978: Vincent Moretti (Nick and Frank Calabrese, Ronnie Jarrett, Frank Sladino, John Fecarotta)
78. February 4, 1978: Donald Renno (Nick and Frank Calabrese, Ronnie Jarrett, Frank Sladino, John Fecarotta)
79. February 20, 1978: John Mendell (Nick and Frank Calabrese, Ronnie Jarrett, Frank Sladino)
80. March 17, 1978: Dino Valente (Nick D’Andrea)
81. April 3, 1978: Frank Smith, Jr. (unknown)
82. April 6, 1978: Robert Hertogs (Jack Farmer)
83. April 14, 1978: John McDonald (possibly by Anthony Borsellino and Gerald Carusiello)
84. July 28, 1978: James Catuara (possibly by Frank Schweihs)
85. September 8, 1978: Melvin Young (Robert Siegel)
86. September 27, 1978: Robert Vaca (possibly by Jimmy Inendino)
87. March 11, 1979: George Christofalos (Anthony Borsellino, Gerald Scarpelli and Jerry Scalise)
88. April, 1979: Robert Hatridge (OH) (possibly by Jerry Scalise)
89. May 22, 1979: Anthony Borsellino (Gerald Scarpelli)
90. June 1, 1979: Timothy O'Brien (Gerald Scarpelli)
91. September 28, 1979: Gerald Carusiello (Gerald Scarpelli)
92. October 10, 1979: Sherwin Lisner (NV) (Frank Cullotta)
93. November 14, 1979: Michael Oliver (William Petrocelli, Robert Salerno, Gerry Scarpelli, Joseph Scalise, Michael Sarno and Salvatore Cataudella)
94. December, 12, 1979: Henry Lopez (IN) (Edelmiro DeJesus)

Also what do you guys think about the Jay Vandermark alleged murder and the Marty Buccieri one, meaning were they positively Outfit-related? Because if they were, then the list might rise to almost 100 hits...

add: 1970 Richard Penachio (Elmwood Park)

[Snakes]

That was an accident, I believe. I think it was rumored otherwise, but never proven.

[Villain]

Thanks guys. I never heard of that case, although i previously included one similar case in the list about a guy who allegedly was blown up by a bomb while planting it, and i think the investigation went nowhere since there were many details which showed that it wasnt a mistake. I think it was Walter Wellington or something like that