Chicago Outfit Places of Origin

[PolackTony]

Thanks for the kind words, guys. Glad to hear that you all enjoyed reading.

As we have seen over and over, there is, more often than not, more than meets the eye with Chicago guys. In many of my writeups, I have to wind up deciding to cut off my analysis of some guy's familial and social networks so as to not get too far into the weeds and make the summary more manageable. In many cases, there are even more of these types of interconnections. Practically each guy is basically his own rabbit hole once you really get into it.

I suspect that apart from probably having sided with the Aiello faction, Arnone may have committed some more serious offense as well. Other guys who seem to have sided with the Aiello group don't generally seem to have been hunted down in the way that Arnone seems to have been, though it's also possible that some of these other guys wound up turning on Aiello as the conflict dragged on. We also don't know if the men who tried to kill Arnone in PA were Chicago guys (or allies from, say, Pittsburgh or Cleveland) or if there may have been a local faction in Eastern PA that sided with the Masseria group, despite the Family there seeming to have been with the Maranzano group. Obviously, this was a national conflict and not just confined to NYC and Chicago, so there may be local political dynamics in some of these other Families around the broader conflict that we have yet to learn of.

Concerning the Domingos, note also that the Arnone/Genova family was closely connected to the Mamminas of Monreale, who, like the Domingos, moved between Chicago and Benton Harbor. Now, that may or may not be significant in light of both the Domingos and Arnone perhaps having been on the same side of the 1903-31 conflict, as there were a bunch of Sicilian families that connected to Chicago and Berrien County, MI. Worth noting, at least.

Regarding Livorsi, as B found, he was himself born in Chicago before his family moved to NYC, which is unsurprising given that the Armour Square/Bridgeport area had the principal colony of Nicosiani in the US and there were other Livorsis (Livolsi) in Chicago. The Ormento guys specifically had narcotics ties to Southside guys in Chicago, which I have suspected was not incidental. Recall that Graziano "Jimmy" Cordovano was one of the main Southside dope guys in the early 1950s and he was Nicosiano, while the FBI had identified a Mariano Cordovano in East Harlem, who was very likely related to the Cordovanos in Chicago, as one of the close personal friends of Lucchese capo Joe Rosato. The Di Caro brothers were also heavily involved in narcotics in that period and their father seems to have been Caltanissettese, though he lived in Termini before immigration to Chicago.

[PolackTony]

As yet another example of how these ties between mafia-connected families in Chicago unfolded over time.

I couple of years back, I had a thread on Giuseppe "Peppino" Gambino, a Taylor St grocer and likely mafioso from Mazara del Vallo who was murdered in 1910.

Here was what I wrote at the time about his family:

Peppino Gambino was born ~1862 in Mazara del Vallo, Trapani province. His wife was Giuseppina "Josephine" Gagliano, born ~1872 in Partanna, Trapani. I'm not sure exactly when they arrived in Chicago, but based on the birthplaces of their children, it was between 1900 and 1905. Son Ascenzio Gambino was born ~1892 in Mazara del Vallo (he later married Mary Raimondi, born in Baltimore to Louis Raimondi and Rose Silvestri, both of Palermo province). Antonino Gambino, born ~1893 in Mazara (married Amy Wakefield, born in Canada; more about her later). Sebastiana, born ~1895 in Mazara (more about her later), Giovannina, born ~1897 in Mazara (i.e., the "Jennie" mentioned above; married Luigi Antonucci of Altomonte, Cosenza, Calabria). Nicola "Cola/James", born 1900 in Mazara. Then Michael, Rose (married Pietro Canzoneri, of Palazzo Adriano), and William Vito all born between 1905 and 1908 in Chicago. Giuseppina Gagliano died in 1946 in Chicago, by which time she had been living on Monticello and Chicago Ave in the Italian part of Humboldt Park (Joe Gagliano's turf, though apparently no relation).

As noted above, Ascenzio Gambino was born around 1892 in Mazara del Vallo to Giuseppe "Peppino" Gambino and Giuseppina Gagliano, a native of Partanna, and immigrated to Chicago with his parents. Ascenzio Gambino married Mary Raimondi, born in Baltimore to parents from Termini Imerese. By the 1910s, Ascenzio Gambino had opened a barber shop at Taylor and Ashland, adjacent to Chicago boss Tony D'Andrea's home. The Gambinos lived on Garibaldi Ct in the Taylor St Patch, and in the 1920s moved out to Berwyn, where Ascenzio died in 1943. As I noted in the older thread, Ascenzio's younger sister, Sebastiana "Emma" Gambino, married a Taylor St guy from Sambiase, Catanzaro, named Franceso "Frank LaPorte" Liparota, who was almost certainly a relative of the LaPortes of Chicago Heights. Many of the Gambino relatives eventually moved out to Downers Grove in suburban DuPage County.

The eldest child of Ascenzio Gambino and Mary Raimondi Gambino was Joseph Phillip Gambino, who was born in 1917 in Chicago and named after his slain grandfather. In 1952, Joseph Gambino married fellow Taylor St native Mary Victoria Senese, born in 1918 in Chicago to Giuseppe Senesi of Binetto, Bari, and Maria Rosalia Spica of Pomarico, Potenza. She was a younger sister of Chicago LCN member Dominic Senese, who was born in 1916.

Sister Vivian Senese, born in 1922, married Joseph Phillip Gambino's younger brother Lucien Anthony Gambino in 1953. Lucien Gambino was the namesake of Dominic Senese's youngest kid, Lucien Senese, born in 1956. Lucien Senese, of course, survived a Taylor St car bombing in 1990 a week after succeeding his father Dominic as the Secretary-Treasurer of Teamsters Local 703.

Laura Senese, the youngest sibling of Dominic Senese, born in 1933, married Angelo Coduto in 1958, born in Chicago in 1934. His father was Michele "Mike" Coduto, whose father, in turn, was Biagio Coduto, born in Montelfalcone di Val Fortore, also the hometown of the Dotes (D'oto) and next to Pontelandolfo, hometown of the Daddonos. In 1912, Biagio Coduto, a foreman for the City of Chicago's Department of Streets, was killed in a Taylor St shooting that police attributed to a "Black Hand plot". Mike Coduto may have been the same Michel Coduto who was President of the Montefalcone Society in Chicago in the 1930s. These Codutos were paesani and very likely relatives of Alfred "Fred", Joe, and Frank "Shorty" Coduto, notorious Taylor St hoodlums involved in narcotics distribution in the 1950s - 1970s (naturally, these Codutos also all had City jobs).

As I mentioned in a recent post, the papers often called Dom Senese a relative of Tony Accardo, variously denoting Senese as Accardo's "nephew", "uncle", or "brother-in-law". While I've assumed that the latter designation stemmed from confusion with the (probably) unrelated Anthony Senese, another labor union guy who married Accardo's sister Marie Accardo. We see here, however, that Dom Senese was, in fact, an in-law of a different Trapanese family with long-term mafia connections.

[PolackTony]

From the Toto LoVerde thread:

His 1931 Cook County death record stated that Salvatore LoVerde was born in 1894 in Palermo to Joseph LoVerde and Mary Sacconi. This matches a Salvatore Lo Verde born in 1894/03/12 in the Brancaccio neighborhood of Palermo Città to Giuseppe Lo Verde of Brancaccio and Maria Saccone of the nearby Falsomiele district of Palermo. Brancaccio, a traditionally working-class district, has long been known as an important stronghold of the mafia in Palermo. In 1911, a 17-year-old Salvatore Lo Verde, born in Palermo, arrived in NYC bound for Chicago. He have his relative in Italy as his brother Antonino, residing on "Via Comeli"[sic] in Palermo (possible Via Corso dei Mille, a main thoroughfare in Brancaccio) and stated that he was headed for his brother Lorenzo, living at 804 W Ohio St in Chicago. Located at Halsted Ave in a bourgeoning enclave of Sicilians and Southern mainland Italians that was rapidly expanding west along Grand Ave, this address was near the tavern and headquarters of Giuseppe Morici, a mafioso from Tèrmini Imerese, Palermo province, who may have been a Chicago mafia leader around 1900. In 1910, a child named Lorenzo LoVerde lived at this address with his parents, Giuseppe Lo Verde and Rosalia Lo Iacono, both of Brancaccio, and several siblings. This Giuseppe was not, however, Salvatore's father; rather, Salvatore and Giuseppe were first cousins, as Salvatore's father Giuseppe was the brother of Chicago-Giuseppe's father Michelangelo Lo Verde. Another Lorenzo LoVerde, born about 1885 in Brancaccio, was living in a different building on the same block of Ohio, so it is likely that this man was Salvatore's brother. Both Giuseppe and 1885-Lorenzo worked in a box factory at this time, so it's possible that Salvatore was initially employed in the same concern after arriving in Chicago. Salvatore seems to have first appeared in the papers in 1923, when a taxi driver was killed in a shootout between police and Loverde and two associates. That the other LoVerdes were likely "connected“ is suggested by the fact that later in the 1920s, three of Salvatore's cousins (sons of his cousin Giuseppe) were alleged to have killed a CPD officer on the Northwest Side. Initially thought to have been a robbery that resulted in a shootout, investigators later stated that they believed the officer was assassinated, as he was found shot 11 times and had been allegedly cracking down on "syndicate" activities in his district. After moving from their old address on Ohio St, these LoVerdes lived at the corner of Grand and May, immediately across the street from where a young Tony Accardo lived with his family.

Toto Lo Verde's cousin Giuseppe Lo Verde (d. 1917 in Chicago) and his wife Rosalia Lo Iacono had a total of 11 children (several of which died young). The sixth of their children was Giuseppina "Josie" Loverde, born in Chicago in 1905 following the family's immigration from Palermo in 1904. In 1924, she married Eugenio "Eugene" Carpino. He was born in 1897 in Kingston, Ulster County, NY, to Giovanni and Rosina Carpino of Belsito, Cosenza, Calabria. The family later relocated to Chicago's Grand Ave Italian community. Eugene's younger sister, Theresa Carpino, born two years after married later Chicago LCN member Salvatore "Jelly" Cozzo and was the mother of suspected Chicago member James "Jimmy Boy" Cozzo. Thus, Jimmy Cozzo's aunt was the first cousin once removed of Toto LoVerde.





Rosalia Lo Iacono died in Chicago in 1951. Her brother Camillo "Louis" Lo Iacono died in Chicago in 1948; both had relocated in the prior decades from the Grand Ave neighborhood to the Italian section of Humboldt Park, just to the west. Camillo immigrated to Chicago in 1904, like his sister and in-laws. In 1907, he married Giuseppa Cicero of Cefalù. One daughter, Josephine Loiacono, married tailor Benedetto "Benny" Badalamenti, who was born in 1903 in Cinisi to Pietro Badalamenti and Anna Palazzolo (they were also related to some Vitales) and immigrated to Chicago in 1920 with his family. Another daughter, Jean Rose Loiacono, was born in Chicago in 1915. In 1943, she married Joseph Terzo. He was born in 1913 in Chicago to Vincenzo Terzo of Vallelunga and Cira Ficarotta of Marineo. Vincenzo Terzo was an older brother of the Giuseppe Terzo who was Chuck Nicoletti's stepfather (see here for prior Terzo discussion: viewtopic.php?p=262019&hilit=terzo#p262019).

[B.]

So extended LoVerde relatives continued on in Chicago just as immediate relatives continued on in Brancaccio.

[PolackTony]

From an old post from several years back:

Big John Cimitile seems to have been a pretty under the radar Taylor St made guy in the Buccieri crew. [A] 1966 gambling raid that nabbed [Phillip] Guzaldo and [Stanely] Jasinski was at Cimitile’s N Parkside home near Augusta and Central.

The Tribune described Cimitile at the time as the “Maxwell St gambling boss” under Buccieri and a 1st ward “gambling and loan shark boss”. There was an earlier 1965 bust of a wire room that John Lardino and Cimitile were apparently overseeing from an Austin apartment on N Long. CPD intel observed guys like Rocky Infelise and Mugsy Tortoriello also visiting this apartment.

In the Ricca files, the Feds noted that three individuals were observed visiting Ricca’s home immediately after he died in ‘72 — Les Kruse, Moving Pictures Operators Union boss Clarence Jalas, and Big John Cimitile, the latter described as a “Prominent LCN member and associate of Ricca for decades”. I suspect that Ricca and Cimitile went back to the old days on Taylor, of course. In his WW2 draft registration, Cimitile (then resident at Polk and Halsted, which makes sense given his later-noted role as overseer of the Maxwell St area) stated that he was born 1906 in Naples, so I wonder also if his connection to Ricca went back to the Old Country. The only other info I have for Cimitile is that he married a Clara Di Giovanni in 1930. There was a kid named Giovanni Cimitile, son of Raffaele Cimitile and Giuseppa Sepe, who arrived in NYC from Brusciano, Napoli in 1911. I suspect this was him.

Big John Cimitile seems to have died 1986 in Las Vegas.

I've previously referenced a 1950 FBN list of IL "mafia suspects". One of the individuals on this list was named as "James DeTiodani [sic]", with an address at 816 N Lockwood in the West Humboldt Park neighborhood. We can presume that FBN intel was the basis for Bill Feather listing "James DeTiodani" on his chart of "Chicago outfit members" in the 1940s, published in the April 2009 issue of the Informer Journal. Feather designated "DeTiodani's" rank as "soldier" (based on what, I have no idea), but had no other info for him.

This is because there was nobody named Frank DeTeodani; "DeTeodani" is, of course, not even an Italian surname. I had suspected that this FBN entry was a mistranscription of "James DiGiovanni", and I was right.

In a 1948 issue of the Chicago Tribune, an article on local high school students mentioned a Felicia Cimitile, then living at 816 N Lockwood. This was the daughter, born in Chicago in 1931, of Giovanni "Big John" Cimitile and his wife Clara DiGiovanni. Clara DiGiovanni was a Taylor St girl born in 1907 in Chicago to fruit peddler Vincenzo "James" Di Giovanni and wife Carolina Capparelli, natives of Cosenza province, Calabria. Clear that Big John Cimitile was using the name of his father-in-law, who had died in 1944, as an alias. While the Cimitiles had lived with Clara's family at Polk and Halsted, sometime in the 1940s they had moved out to West Humboldt Park. As of 1950, they were living in a two-flat building at Parkside and Augusta, near the 1948 address at Chicago Ave and Lockwood, where they were still residing at the time of the 1966 gambling raid referenced in the above post.

To confirm, Giovanni Cimitile was indeed born in 1906 in Brusciano (a comune neighboring influential Taylor St comuni such as Acerra, Marigliano, and Scisciano in the Nola district of the old province of Terra di Lavoro/Caserta, Campania) to Raffaele Cimitile and Felicia Sepe. He immigrated to the US with his mother and siblings in 1911, arriving to NYC and bound for father Raffaele who was living in Queens, at 396 1/2 Freeman Ave in LIC (hence, Big John lying in some of his later Chicago documents and claiming that he was born in Long Island City). Giovanni was not listed as living with his family in 1920; unclear if he was already living in Chicago, presumably with relatives or paesani by Taylor St, by this time. The rest of Cimitiles remained in Queens, where father Raffaele, and later older brother Giuseppe "Joseph Frank" Cimitile, owned a grocery store. The earliest that I can definitively place John Cimitile in Chicago was when he married Clara DiGiovanni in 1930.

John Cimitile seems to have done a good job of staying off of LE radar for years. The first mention of him that I am aware of in the papers was a 1961 Tribune article reporting on investigations of mob-controlled juice operations, which named Cimitile as a "Maxwell district" (i.e., Taylor St) "gang figure" who operated a major juice loan business out of a legitimate auto loan financing business, the Taylor Acceptance Corp. In 1965, Anthony Tarantino was busted for operating a Buccieri crew-controlled wire room at 124 N Long in the Austin neighborhood on the Far Westside. Investigators stated that they understood Tarantino's wireroom to have been servicing clients of John Cimitile, described as a "gambling and loan shark boss" answering to Fiore Buccieri. Cimitile's building on N Parkside, raided by CPD in 1966, seems to have been the nerve center for Far Westside Buccieri crew gambling and juice operations, allegedly under the jurisdiction of Cimitile and his partner, former Restaurant Workers Union racketeer Johnny Lardino. Investigators stated that the building hosted meetings of outfit figures including Cimitile, Lardino, Tony "Poolio" DeRosa, James "Mugsy" Tortoriello, Rocky Infelise, Phil Guzaldo, and Stan Jasinski. Documents stored in the building's basement, including those from Cimitile's former auto loan business, were reported to have contained significant intel regarding "the financial machinations of the mob" on the Westside. A 1967 Tribune article claimed that following intense LE pressure on Cimitile's operations, he had been reduced to an "errand" boy, pinched at this time by CPD while transporting football parlay cards, a task typically delegated to low-level gambling workers. The Trib quoted an embarrassed Cimitile as having told the cops "With all the heat that's on, I can't find anybody to deliver these things some days".

Cimitile did not appear on the FBI lists of Chicago LCN members in 1967/68. By 1972, however, FBI files began to refer to Cimitile as a “prominent LCN member" who was an "associate of [Paul] Ricca for decades” (the two were old school Taylor St guys and fellow paesani from the old Nola district), surveilled visiting Ricca's family at his home in the days following Ricca's death in 1972. In the [redacted] 1973 list, a redacted entry appears between a redacted entry that I'm positive was Casper Ciapetta (identified only by Lou Fratto) and the entry for Nicky Circella. I think we can presume that this was Cimitile, given that files in this period began to refer to Cimitile as a member. The code for this source -- "CG T-19" here -- as for all others on the '73 list, is redacted, but the source also identified James Cerone as member. Confusingly, although Cimitile died in Nevada in 1986, he was not subsequently listed on the 1985 FBI list, while Jimmy Cerone was. Maybe another source was later used, following the updated FBI protocols at the time, to identify Jimmy Cerone, while an equivalent quality source was not available for Cimitile. Or, maybe the FBI just neglected to list Cimitile, given that he seems to have largely fallen into obscurity following the deaths of Ricca and Buccieri in the early 1970s. Or, alternatively, he was not actually made but just a significant associate. As is often the case with Chicago guys, it's hard to say with any certainty.

Another guy listed on the 1950 FBN list was Michael DiGiovanni. We can presume that this was John Cimitile's brother-in-law, Michale "Mickey Jones" DiGiovanni, who was born in Chicago in 1909 and died of natural causes in 1968. Mickey DiGiovanni was busted in 1948 for operating a handbook at 827 Cabrini in the Taylor St "Patch". *If* John Cimitile was a made guy, DiGiovanni was probably an associate on record with him. Mickey DiGiovanni's wife was Rose Sorrentino, whose brother was attorney and Cook County Circuit Court judge Pasquale "Buck" Sorrentino (d. 2001). Bucky Sorrentino was a longtime close personal associate of Chicago LCN member and 1st Ward Alderman Fred Roti, while FBI sources in the 1960s claimed that John Cimitile was a longtime associate of LCN member and 1st Ward Alderman John D'Arco Sr, a fellow Taylor St guy.

[PolackTony]

From an older post on Bagheria native Pasquale "Patsy Presto" Prestigiacomo, erstwhile buddy of Joe Aiello and allegedly the man who put the finger on Aiello when the latter was murdered on the Westside of Chicago in gruesome fashion in October of 1930.

Pasquale and brother Rosario Prestigiacomo established and operated the Roma Macaroni Manufacturing Company, located on Grand and Wolcott in the Grand Ave Patch. Roma was sold decades later to major national brand Prince Pasta. Pasquale died in Chicago in 1953, while Rosario had already died in 1943.

As noted above, Rosario's daughter Frances Presto married Phillip Morreale, son of likely mafia member Vincenzo Morreale, great-nephew of Rosario Dispenza, and cousin of KC narcotics trafficker and turncoat Carl Carramusa. Pasquale and Concetta's son Charles P. Presto (b. 1912 in Chicago) married Henrietta/Annette Allegra (b. 1913 in Chicago); indicating the social standing of their families, both spouses had college degrees. Annette's father was Vincenzo Allegra, born in 1882 in Castelvetrano to Francesco Paolo Allegra and Antonina Mule, while her mother was Angelina Genovese, born in Sicily (most likely in Castelvetrano) to Pietro Genovese of Palazzo Adriano and Caterina Pisciotta of Castelvetrano; Vincenzo and Angelina married in Chicago in 1911. The Allegras lived on Van Buren near Halsted just to the north of the Taylor St Patch, and Vincenzo worked as a salesman for the wholesale business of the Morici Bros from Bagheria; his 1917 naturalization was witnessed by Agostino Morici and Giovanni Gagliardo. These names were notorious in Chicago in the 1920s, and the Moricis and Gagliardos were further linked to the infamous Pietro Montalbano of Castelvetrano, as we've discussed previously on this thread. When Vincenzo Allegra arrived in the US in 1907, he stated that his cousin was a Montalbano in Chicago.
http://theblackhand.club/forum/viewtopi ... 45#p223145

The 1950 FBN list I've mentioned previously named Phil Morreale as a Chicago "mafia suspect", giving an address at 3742 W Chicago Ave in Humboldt Park for him. In the 1940s and 1950s, this was the address of Phil Morreale's successful electronic appliances business, P.J. Morreale Co. Morreale's store was located around the corner from where his first cousin Carl Carramusa had been assassinated by shotgun in 1945 in front of his home at 837 N Lawndale.

Phillip Joseph Morreale was born Filippo Morreale in 1912 in Chicago to Vincenzo Morreale of Bagheria and Rosina Carramusa. He was baptized that year at San Fillipo Benizi parish in Little Sicily by godparents Giuseppe Natale, a Grand Ave baker from Palermo, and wife Accursia Di Matteo of Sciacca.

Mother Rosina Carramusa was born about 1888 in the Brancaccio district of Palermo City to Carlo Carramusa and Angelina Spano. She immigrated to the US in 1904, joining her brother Francesco Paolo "Frank", Antonino "Tony", and Nicola "Nick" Carramusa, who were living on Mott St in Manhattan's Little Italy at the time. The Carramusas soon decamped to Milton Ave in Chicago's Little Sicily, where Rosina married Vincenzo Morreale in 1909 at San Filippo Benizi church. Eldest brother Frank Carramusa owned a grocery store in Little Sicily and married Vincenza San Filippo, a native of the Porticello frazione of Bagheria, in 1906. In the 1910s, Frank and Vincenza moved to Kansas City, where they remained for some years before returning to Chicago in the 1940s, where Frank died in 1945 of natural causes following the brutal murder of his eldest son, KC outfit-affiliate-turned-cooperating-witness Carl, born Carlo Carramusa in Chicago in 1908. KC papers in the 1920s described Frank Carramusa as a "millionaire" operator of a lucrative Italian food import business. Frank Carramusa may have been a Chicago member who transferred to KC. His siblings remained in Chicago, living in Little Sicily and Grand Ave before moving further out in the city and suburbs later in life (brother Nick Carramusa operated a produce business and lived for years at Ohio and May in the Grand Ave Patch).

As discussed previously, Vincenzo Morreale was likely a Chicago member. Born in 1881 in Bagheria to Filippo Morreale and Anna Casa, he operated a butcher shop in Little Sicily, as did his brothers Bartolo and Angelo Morreale. Angelo Morreale survived two serious shootings at his butcher shop on Little Sicily's "Death Corner" at Oak and Milton in 1927-28; LE told the papers that the shootings were suspected to have been due to Angelo Morreale having been a close ally of Joe Aiello. Also in 1927, mafiosi Giovanni Oliveri and Giuseppe Salamone -- said to have been in the anti-Aiello faction -- were killed at the fish store of Salvatore Morreale, very likely a cousin of the other Morreales, also located at "Death Corner" next to Angelo Morreale's shop. A Tribune piece covering the violence and fear gripping Little Sicily in 1928 quoted an unnamed prominent resident as stating that meat was hard to come by in the neighborhood, as most of the butchers were Aiello's paesani from Bagheria and had fled the neighborhood due to danger of reprisals from Aiello's enemies. Interestingly, in 1928, Vincenzo Morreale left Chicago for a trip to Sicily (a good time to get out of town). Later press coverage named Vincenzo Morreale as being a power in the community who had broken with his former partner Aiello and turned on him. As covered previously, brother Bartolo Morreale married Vita DiSpenza, daughter of slain Chicago boss Rosario DiSpenza Sister Loreta Morreale married Bagherese grocery owner Calcedonio Galioto, who may have been a distant cousin of pasta manufacturer Guglielmo Galioto, grandfather of the Galiotos who were later Marcello and Andriacchi in-laws. Vincenzo Morreale died of natural causes in Chicago in 1951.



Phillip J Morreale married Frances Prestigiacomo in 1939. As noted above, she was born in Chicago to Rosario Prestigiacomo and Rosaria LoGalbo of Bagheria and grew up on thew Westside of Chicago near the Taylor St community. In 1930, the Prestigiacomos lived near Congress and California, where Frances would live with Phil Morreale after marriage before they decamped to Oak Park after her father Rosario died in 1943. Rosario Prestigiacomo owned and operated the pasta manufacturing company Roma Macaroni Co. with his brother Patsy and was a successful and prominent member of the Westside Italian community. Interesting to note as well that when Rosario was naturalized in 1941, his naturalization was witnessed by a Giovanni "John" De Frenza, a native of Triggiano, Bari, and a resident of the Grand Ave Patch who seems to have been employed as a salesman for Roma. Triggiano was of course also the hometown of Grand Ave notables such as the De Fronzos, Nittis, and Spilotros (with members of the later two families intermarrying with Palermitani on Grand Ave). I'm not 100% positive but I believe that "De Frenza" and "De Fronzo" are variants of the same surname in Triggiano, though I was not able to find any direct familial link to Michele De Fronzo, father of the DeFronzo brothers. Roma was itself located at Grand and Damen.



Another notable salesman for the Roma Macaroni Co. was Toto LoVerde, who had been officially employed as a sales rep for Roma prior to his 1931 murder. LoVerde, as we know now, was also a paesano of the Carramusas. Likely Chicago member Mariano Inserra, older brother of confirmed Chicago LCN member Vincent Inserra, was also an employee of Roma in 1930. Like the Carramusas, the Inserras were also a family with close ties to KC.

While Phil Morreale was listed by the FBN as a "mafia suspect", he was never listed as a member by the FBI. Given that the FBN was closely involved with Morreale's cousin Carl Carramusa (who had testified against KC and Tampa codefendants in their trial for heroin trafficking three years before his murder and who reportedly contacted FBN agents shortly before his murder as he was aware that someone had "put the finger" on him), that they evidently believed that Morreale was someone in the Chicago network suggest that he was at least an associate. Without a doubt, he had a web of mafia connections surrounding him, given his father and paternal relatives, his maternal relatives, and his father-in-law. Further, Phil's sister Ann Marie Morreale married Anthony Priola, son of longtime Chicago member Giuseppe "Joe" Priola of Ficarazzi and brother of Rockford member Phil Priola.

Phillip J Morreale died in 1997 in North suburban Morton Grove.

[NorthBuffalo]

Re: Cimitile - I've been reading about Guido DeChiaro and wonder if Ricca kind of had a small crew around himself like these guys who really did stay in the shadows and under the radar. Very old school and seems like a lot of these guys were pushed out after Ricca's passing.

Re: Prestigiacomo I see a few indictments in the 1990s on gambling charges for a 'Bernard Prestigiacomo' listed as 'Bernie Press' - I assume those are third or fourth generation relatives and interesting how they still involve themselves in the rackets.

[PolackTony]

Re: Cimitile - I've been reading about Guido DeChiaro and wonder if Ricca kind of had a small crew around himself like these guys who really did stay in the shadows and under the radar. Very old school and seems like a lot of these guys were pushed out after Ricca's passing.

Re: Prestigiacomo I see a few indictments in the 1990s on gambling charges for a 'Bernard Prestigiacomo' listed as 'Bernie Press' - I assume those are third or fourth generation relatives and interesting how they still involve themselves in the rackets.

Thanks for the reminder on Bernie Prestigiacomo (d. 2011), who was pinched twice in the 90s on gambling charges for his part in what were described by LE as “syndicate operations”. He was also listed as a Chicago affiliate on the LIUNA website’s Chicago chart. He was actually 1st gen in the US, born in Chicago in 1933 to Carmelo Prestigiacomo and Maria Russo, both of Bagheria. Carmelo was a brother of Rosario and Pasquale, so Bernie Prestigiacomo was a first cousin of Phil Morreale’s wife. Also interesting to note that Bernie’s son Mike Prestigiacomo married Roseann Bambulas, daughter of outfit associate Thomas “Danny” Bambulas.

DeChiaro is another guy who, like Cimitile, raises question marks. Like Cimitile, DeChiaro was not listed as a Chicago member in the 1967/68 charts. By 1970, the FBI had two claimed “member sources” who identified DeChiaro as an LCN member. On the ‘73 list, he was ID’d by four CIs. But then, despite the fact that he didn’t died until 1989, he was not listed by the FBI on their 1985 chart. If he had in fact been identified by two member sources, that would have been enough to list him in ‘85 under the FBI’s updated protocols, so these discrepancies make me wonder if the validity of the status of some of Chicago’s earlier “member sources” was recognized as problematic by the Chicago FO in the 1980s. This is a problem that I have long suspected was a real issue with Chicago intel, as they had guys like Tony Amatore and Louie Bombacino serving as “member sources”, and I strongly doubt that these guys were made. I also have serious reservations as to whether Lou Fratto was actually made, and the Chicago FO attributed like 100 member IDs to him (with him conveniently having died of cancer also and unavailable for any follow-up interviews). Not sure who the sources were for DeChiaro on the 1973 list, as the codes are redacted there, but recall that guys like Frankie Calabrese and Rocky Infelise were listed in ‘73, on the basis of multiple CI attestations, when they were not actually made until 10 years later. The FBI’s intel on the formal mafia organization in Chicago was always limited at best, and, as the computer science adage goes, “garbage in, garbage out”.

Given these issues, it’s hard to speculate much on how guys like DeChiaro and Cimitile fit in formally IMO. If they were in fact just respected associates, they may have been with Ricca and then lost clout after he died (always a problem for even important associates, as they are in essence working under another guy’s “license”). Though at least with DeChiaro, his nephew Louie Eboli was made so maybe he was with him later. This is *if* he wasn’t made. *If* DeChiaro and Cimitile were in fact made guys, then they’d have to be assigned to somebody. I don’t believe that they would have been assigned to Ricca at the time of his death as I don’t believe that Ricca held a formal position such that soldiers would have been reporting to him at this time. My guess, based on what little we know, is that Cimitile was with the Buccieri crew while DeChiaro was with the Battaglia crew. How their assignments would have shaken out in the 1970s, with some of these crew affiliations possibly being shaken up a bit as a new boss was appointed and new captains put in, I don’t know.





That DeChiaro, a native of Acerra, and Cimitile, a native of neighboring Brusciano, were personally close to Ricca is not in doubt. All three men were paesani from the old Nola district of the former Terra di Lavoro/Caserta province (the prime stronghold of the provincial Campanian Camorra in that period). Personal friendship does not always equate to formal LCN structure, however.

[NorthBuffalo]

I think De Chiaro episode kind of cements my view of Chicago and being made - they are just not the same as East Coast families and I think there was a lot more 'cowboy about the money' attitude that started with Capone and carried through Ricca and Accardo. It was interesting that De Chiaro was assaulted, had his son in law killed defending him - and then lost his business to the Eboli/Ariola faction. It shows me that Accardo likely could not control these guys as you would think and that Guido being around the boss for decades (one can suspect he was made) means nothing in the end. I've heard from Joe Fosco how Paul Ricca's kids were also extorted in the 1980s while Accardo was alive. Again, did nothing - you would think he would worry about his own family and seemingly, did not. I really think Chicago is unique in that its far more treacherous and 'dog eat dog.'

[PolackTony]

I think De Chiaro episode kind of cements my view of Chicago and being made - they are just not the same as East Coast families and I think there was a lot more 'cowboy about the money' attitude that started with Capone and carried through Ricca and Accardo. It was interesting that De Chiaro was assaulted, had his son in law killed defending him - and then lost his business to the Eboli/Ariola faction. It shows me that Accardo likely could not control these guys as you would think and that Guido being around the boss for decades (one can suspect he was made) means nothing in the end. I've heard from Joe Fosco how Paul Ricca's kids were also extorted in the 1980s while Accardo was alive. Again, did nothing - you would think he would worry about his own family and seemingly, did not. I really think Chicago is unique in that its far more treacherous and 'dog eat dog.'

Or, again, DeChiaro wasn’t actually made and was just an associate whose clout ran out. This can happen to even a once powerful and respected associate, as their clout is only as good as whatever actual member is representing them within the organization. As noted above, the FBI seemingly discarded their previous intel on him being a made guy after updating their protocols on LCN membership identification in the early 1980s. Also, DeChiaro *was* the “Ariola-Eboli faction”. His brother-in-law was Sam Ariola and his nephew was Louie Eboli.

[NorthBuffalo]

I think De Chiaro episode kind of cements my view of Chicago and being made - they are just not the same as East Coast families and I think there was a lot more 'cowboy about the money' attitude that started with Capone and carried through Ricca and Accardo. It was interesting that De Chiaro was assaulted, had his son in law killed defending him - and then lost his business to the Eboli/Ariola faction. It shows me that Accardo likely could not control these guys as you would think and that Guido being around the boss for decades (one can suspect he was made) means nothing in the end. I've heard from Joe Fosco how Paul Ricca's kids were also extorted in the 1980s while Accardo was alive. Again, did nothing - you would think he would worry about his own family and seemingly, did not. I really think Chicago is unique in that its far more treacherous and 'dog eat dog.'

Or, again, DeChiaro wasn’t actually made and was just an associate whose clout ran out. This can happen to even a once powerful and respected associate, as their clout is only as good as whatever actual member is representing them within the organization. As noted above, the FBI seemingly discarded their previous intel on him being a made guy after updating their protocols on LCN membership identification in the early 1980s. Also, DeChiaro *was* the “Ariola-Eboli faction”. His brother-in-law was Sam Ariola and his nephew was Louie Eboli.

You are correct - I confused myself. From reports I've read mostly in older newspapers, his rackets were taken over forcefully by the 'young turks.' I meant to ask why Ariola/Eboli faction would not step in given he was related, this was their territory, etc.? One wonders if they were behind the attempted kidnapping. There appeared to have been no retaliation at least none reported or linked publicly.

[PolackTony]

I think De Chiaro episode kind of cements my view of Chicago and being made - they are just not the same as East Coast families and I think there was a lot more 'cowboy about the money' attitude that started with Capone and carried through Ricca and Accardo. It was interesting that De Chiaro was assaulted, had his son in law killed defending him - and then lost his business to the Eboli/Ariola faction. It shows me that Accardo likely could not control these guys as you would think and that Guido being around the boss for decades (one can suspect he was made) means nothing in the end. I've heard from Joe Fosco how Paul Ricca's kids were also extorted in the 1980s while Accardo was alive. Again, did nothing - you would think he would worry about his own family and seemingly, did not. I really think Chicago is unique in that its far more treacherous and 'dog eat dog.'

Or, again, DeChiaro wasn’t actually made and was just an associate whose clout ran out. This can happen to even a once powerful and respected associate, as their clout is only as good as whatever actual member is representing them within the organization. As noted above, the FBI seemingly discarded their previous intel on him being a made guy after updating their protocols on LCN membership identification in the early 1980s. Also, DeChiaro *was* the “Ariola-Eboli faction”. His brother-in-law was Sam Ariola and his nephew was Louie Eboli.

You are correct - I confused myself. From reports I've read mostly in older newspapers, his rackets were taken over forcefully by the 'young turks.' I meant to ask why Ariola/Eboli faction would not step in given he was related, this was their territory, etc.? One wonders if they were behind the attempted kidnapping. There appeared to have been no retaliation at least none reported or linked publicly.

It's difficult to draw firm conclusions without reliable confirmatory evidence with questions like this. We can make educated guesses, but given that there is much that we don't know, it's hard to select between multiple potential scenarios that would plausibly fit the intel that we have regarding DeChiaro, IMO.

The kidnapping incident that you're referring to happened in 1960, when DeChiaro was reportedly held up in a home invasion by assailants who pistol-whipped him in the head and shot and killed his son-in-law, attorney Mike Urgo, when he attempted to intervene. DeChiaro would, of course, given no account to LE beyond that he believed the attack to have been a "robbery". Given that DeChiaro was living in Elmwood Park at the time, I have a hard time believing that he was the target of unaffiliated thugs. FBI CIs in the following years told the Feds that DeChiaro had been forced out of his lucrative jukebox and pinball machine interests in the western burbs around 1957, on orders of Giancana. One CI told the Feds that he himself had been involved in these operations and had been contacted by a group of men connected to Kane County in 1958 who told him they were "cutting in" on DeChiaro's operations. I suspect that it is not incidental that Rocco Pranno, who was probably made in 1956, was a guy connected to Kane County, as was Sam Battaglia. Giancana took over as boss in '56, of course, and under his tenure, it is accurate to refer to the Chicago outfit as the "Giancana Family", as he had the prerogative (though not absolute) to shape the Family, making new members and appointing new captains or reforming some of the crews, as he saw fit. Given that we don't even know *for sure* whether DeChiaro was a member, it's hard to say exactly how this shook out. Since he was a friend of Ricca, he may have thought that he had more clout than he really did. Could be that DeChiaro had committed some infraction that we don't know about. The FBI sources on the matter in the early '60s do not seem to have been member sources themselves, so who knows how accurate their claims really were. Maybe the entire incident was totally misunderstood by LE and by non-members.

The only person of interest I am aware of that was named, by the CPD's "Scotland Yard" Intelligence Unit, in relation to the DeChiaro/Urgo incident was Mike Marino, a Melrose Park underworld figure who was the brother-in-law of Melrose Park PD Chief Charles Caliendo. An FBI CI in the early 1960s also named Marino as one of the guys that Giancana had "ordered" to take over DeChiaro's interests. Interesting to note that the Caliendos -- who had been involved in serious criminal activity in MP back in the 1920s, were from Scisciano, the hometown of the Ariolas and Ebolis. *Maybe* this indicated that DeChiaro's in-laws were involved in his attack in some way, but it's also just as possible that the intel about Marino was itself bad (we know that in the early 60s, the Chicago FO had CIs who were not at all even with the organization in many cases giving them unreliable intel).

*If* he were not made, it would make sense that DeChiaro may have had some of his territory taken away from him in favor of a made guy like Pranno (just a guess), and if he had resisted this could have led to him being violently assaulted. *If* he were made, he may have just fallen on the wrong side of some information of the crew territories in the Western burbs under Giancana -- for all we know, he also could have even been shelved for a while. We also don't know whether the incident at his home was intended to have been violent, or if something went awry and it went south. I'm not aware that the crime was ever solved and haven't seen any FBI report where suspects in the attack were named. So, if it wasn't supposed to have gotten that ugly, we don't really know whether someone was punished for it or not. Whatever happened, it may well have involved some set of circumstances that we don't know about and Ricca, who was not the boss, may not have been in any position to save him.

Either way, there are multiple claims and accounts from the late 50s and early 60s that "Young Turks" -- meaning in this context guys promoted or favored by Giancana -- had been permitted or ordered to move in on or take over longstanding racket interests around Chicagoland. Some of this may have been purely "operational", concerning solely the conduct of criminal business activities, though I would assume this was also tied into some formal restructuring/rearrangement of crews and assignments within the organization following Giancana's ascension.

By the late 60s/early 1970s, per several CI accounts, DeChiaro had regained his standing as a major jukebox/pinball operator in the Western burbs, along with his nephew Louie Eboli, via their Franklin Park-based company "All-American Amusement". By this time, of course, Giancana's fortunes had turned for the worse, and Accardo and Ricca had been administering the Family as acting bosses. In the late 60s, also, Battaglia and Pranno were off the scene. Mike Marino also died in '73. Would make sense that DeChiaro may well have regained some of his standing and interests in this period. His nephew, Eboli, was also presumably made sometime in this period. Per several accounts, the Ariola/Eboli/DeChiaro family had good relations to Aiuppa, also, who of course became boss in the 70s. By the same account as above, we can think of the 1970s to 1980s as the period of the "Aiuppa Family", and in a similar fashion, things took a certain form and dynamic due to a new boss being in power (one who, by several accounts, was *not* friendly to Giancana). The aging DeChiaro seems to have faded away from the public spotlight during this period, replaced by his nephew, who we know for a fact was made.

Also worth noting that Michael Urgo was more than just DeChiaro's son-in-law. His mother was Mildred DeGrazia, younger sister of Rocky DeGrazia. The Urgos were paesani of the De Grazias from Trivigno, Potenza, as were the Marinos (Mike Marino was related by marriage also to Mike Urgo's paternal grandmother, Anna Rosa La Raia).

[NorthBuffalo]

I believe DeChiaro is actually a relative of Ricca, no? He also lived next door to Joe Gagliano in Elmwood Park and was partners with Joe Gags in several businesses.

There are reports of DeChiaro at Armory Lounge meeting with Giancana numerous times in 1961. One suspects this was to rectify the death of his son in law. However, I was under the impression that Giancana was very much 'Ricca's man' and its just surprising Mooney would fuck over Ricca's paisan like that. I've also seen Alderiso and Stein transcripts where they refer to Guido as being a power and Paul's man.

I just think its less about who was 'made' and more about who was in power as it relates to Chicago and how they operated.

[PolackTony]

I believe DeChiaro is actually a relative of Ricca, no? He also lived next door to Joe Gagliano in Elmwood Park and was partners with Joe Gags in several businesses.

There are reports of DeChiaro at Armory Lounge meeting with Giancana numerous times in 1961. One suspects this was to rectify the death of his son in law. However, I was under the impression that Giancana was very much 'Ricca's man' and its just surprising Mooney would fuck over Ricca's paisan like that. I've also seen Alderiso and Stein transcripts where they refer to Guido as being a power and Paul's man.

I just think its less about who was 'made' and more about who was in power as it relates to Chicago and how they operated.

I think that there's just way too many unknowns here to make any kind of strong pronouncement about this incident and what, if anything, it could signify.

There were claims that Ricca and DeChiaro were related, but I have seen nothing to substantiate this. They were from different towns, Ottaviano and Acerra, that were in the same district back in the day, but not closely neighboring each other.

The FBI had CIs that denied that DeChiaro and Gagliano were actually partnered in anything, despite what was printed in the papers. Now, whether that was true or not, again, hard to say.

[NorthBuffalo]

Got it - thanks for the background - Cimitile is a name I had not read about but quite interesting how low profile these guys were and assume many retired wealthy. Patronage just seems to be the norm in Chicago -just different than what you see on East Coast.