Some questions on Chicago

[Frank]

If you think about it, that's probably why Marcello is in Supermax.

I never thought of this angle, but yeah you're probably right.

I never thought of it that way till now, just speculating. There must have been some kind of fallout and tension after that. With Marcello going off to prison and all the other players still on the streets, you have Sarno and his underboss who is almost wacked, and then the guys who were doing the hit.

Who were some of the soldiers in Marcello’s camp?

Zizzo, chiaramonti, his brother Mickey. sarno and Cataudella were also under him. On wiretaps he asks his brother what Mutt and Jeff were doing. What they were turning in every month

Wasn't Marcello from the Melrose Park crew and Sarno from the Cicero crew??

Yes. So you can look at this as either those crews were consolidated as today there doesn’t seem to be two separate crews or it could be sarno was turning into him because he was the boss. One way or the other it was clear on the tapes sarno was kicking up

Yes I agree the tapes show that Marcello held a position of authority over Sarno at that time. It's possible that Sarno held some kind of position of authority, with the crews being separate, and Marcello being in higher tier of bosses that oversee multiple crews.

[Pete]

If you think about it, that's probably why Marcello is in Supermax.

I never thought of this angle, but yeah you're probably right.

I never thought of it that way till now, just speculating. There must have been some kind of fallout and tension after that. With Marcello going off to prison and all the other players still on the streets, you have Sarno and his underboss who is almost wacked, and then the guys who were doing the hit.

Who were some of the soldiers in Marcello’s camp?

Zizzo, chiaramonti, his brother Mickey. sarno and Cataudella were also under him. On wiretaps he asks his brother what Mutt and Jeff were doing. What they were turning in every month

Wasn't Marcello from the Melrose Park crew and Sarno from the Cicero crew??

Yes. So you can look at this as either those crews were consolidated as today there doesn’t seem to be two separate crews or it could be sarno was turning into him because he was the boss. One way or the other it was clear on the tapes sarno was kicking up

Yes I agree the tapes show that Marcello held a position of authority over Sarno at that time. It's possible that Sarno held some kind of position of authority, with the crews being separate, and Marcello being in higher tier of bosses that oversee multiple crews.

Correct either one of those scenarios for that time period. Obviously the old melrose park crew is dead or in jail so they have been defunct for some time now just like the old rush street crew. I wouldn’t be surprised if the outfit is just Cicero, grand ave, and the Chinatown crew. elmwood park seems either defunct or on its last legs. I mean you got fratto, then damico, Pete difronzo, andriacchi who are all in their 80’s. Tony dote seems pretty active but there’s not much else besides that.

[Villain]

Tony dote seems pretty active but there’s not much else besides that.

Something a lil bit off topic, do you know if one Joseph Dote and also William Dote were possibly related to Tony? Joe and William operated during the 40s and 50s. Joe owned a club on the North Side for exailed boss at the time Tony Pinelli, while Willie was arrested in 55 or 56 for operating a large handbook operation

[Hellboy]

What's a handbook operation?

[Villain]

What's a handbook operation?

Bookmaking

[Villain]

Maybe somebody can correct me on this but this is what I think regarding the whole situation with Cicero and Melrose Park, which is more complicated than the usual but Ill try to explain it the best way I can by going back in time…

At the beginning of the 1920’s the Sicilian Mafia was in charge of the old 19th Ward which stretched from the Northwest Side all the way down to Cicero and possibly further. They also had their representatives around Melrose Park which means that both areas were under the rule of one group.

Everything changed when in 1925 and the second half of the decade, the Capone Mob also entered in both areas, including Cicero and MP. By 1931 both areas were officially under the rule of the Capone Mob, with Ralph Capone in Cicero and Rocco DeGrazia in MP. And if you want to understand things better, the Cicero area went to the South Side Mob, while MP was under the West Side faction, but from now on both groups were under one top administration.

Things began changing for the Cicero area when Frank Maritote’s brother married Capone’s sister and so Maritote was invited to operate in Cicero. Keep in mind that Maritote belonged to the West Side faction and by now they still didn’t divide the area but instead he was only allowed to operate or have few interests by Capone and the South Side mob.

By the late 1930’s the Capone faction in Cicero began loosing its influence mostly because of trouble with the law, and so according to one document, at the beginning of the 1940’s members from the West Side such as Tony Volpe began entering the Cicero area and started operating. I believe that Volpe was backed by Louis Campagna and as a matter of fact, one of Campagna’s crew bosses Sam Giancana also entered that same area right after his release from prison.

So this the point where the Cicero area gets divided on north and south and as a matter of fact, theres one document which perfectly explains the borders. The southern part was controlled by Ralph Capone, Claude Maddox, Joey Aiuppa, Robert Ansani and Rocco Fischetti, while the northern part was controlled by Campagna, Volpe and Giancana, which also still included Maritote and other newcomers such as Sylvester Agoglia. By now the Melrose Park area was still under the rule of the West Side mob through DeGrazia but the interesting thing is that Agoglia also had some old connections around Melrose Park, which brought back the old or created a new connection between Cicero and MP.

By the late 1940’s and early 50s Ralph Capone was in Wisconsin, and Rocco Fischetti also began loosing his influence, so Claude Maddox took control of the southern Cicero crew until his imprisonment in 1956. Aiuppa also went to jail but was released a year later and so he took Maddox’s spot at the same time when Giancana became the boss of the Outfit. According to sources, from this point on the southern Cicero crew under Aiuppa joined the West Side faction, while in exchange Giancana gave the South Side mob one of his most lucrative crew which was headed by Lenny Patrick and Dave Yaras and from that point on they both answered to Gus Alex and Frank Ferraro. Also don’t get confused by the fact that many other mobsters also had interests in Cicero or MP, but the thing was all of them belonged to those same two factions, like for example Ferraro, Alex, Eddie Vogel, Nick Kokenes and others who were from the South Side faction and operated around their part of Cicero. Also by now Vogel and possibly Aiuppa had some interests around MP, which by now was divided between several different crews from the West Side.

From now on the Cicero area was under the umbrella of the West Side but still it was divided on north and south and this time the north was controlled by Fiore Buccieri, while the southern part remained under Aiuppa.

During the late 60’s Aiuppa and the boss of Melrose Park Charles Nicoletti closely cooperated and during the early 1970’s Aiuppa placed one of his own man as the Mayor of MP, a situation which allegedly created a friction between Aiuppa and Nicoletti. At the same time, during the late 60’s Buccieri also rose to prominence and completely began invading the whole Cicero area, including everything south of it. So by 1973, the Bucceri crew had the whole Cicero area for them with Aiuppa sill having few interests since he was the boss, while the Melrose Park area went completely under Aiuppa, since by 1974 Nicoletti was possibly shelved. Buccieri’s guys in Cicero were James Torello and Joe Ferriola, while Aiuppa’s men in MP were, first Larry Rassano who died in 1974, and was replaced by Tony Ortenzi who in turn had interests in MP and also took care of Aiuppa’s or the boss’ interests in Cicero.

Don’t get confused by Bucceri’s influence in Chinatown since they had their influence since back in the days through James LaPietra and his brother Angelo. Also after 1964 or after Ferraros death, Alex invited Buccieri to the Loop area and Near South Side. So as time passed by or by the 1970s Alex kept his hands off those same areas and only controlled the First Ward and the so-called Lenny Patrick crew. By 1976 or 77 I don’t clearly remember, both of Alex’s prime guys Les Kruse and Ralph Pierce died, same as the boss of the Chinatown area Frank Caruso who also died or maybe retired around the same time period since i dont remember, and so I believe that the South Side was completely absorbed by the Buccieri group including Chinatown which went under Angelo LaPietra. From this point on the old Buccieri group became the new South Side mob but became known as the Cicero group, which included LaPietra and Ferriola under Torello, while the West Side mob was controlled by Joe Lombardo and the Grand Av crew and Aiuppa's MP crew together with the underboss Jack Cerone and the Elmwood Park crew.

Ill stop here since I don’t have much experience regarding the next events and Im still learning it… but I think that years later both the North Side and Chicago Heights crews were also absorbed by the Cicero (South Side) and West Side Mob