General Chicago Outfit Info Dumping Ground

[7digits]

Here Feds mention active grand ave crew and current leader Albert Vena

At first, up there on the federal witness stand Thursday, testifying in his own defense, Steve Mandell didn’t come off as some deadly former Chicago cop with Outfit ties and a torture chamber equipped with meat cleavers and good drainage.

In a dark suit and white shirt, no tie, Mandell kept his voice up high in the back of his throat, reedy and nonthreatening, a bald guy who looked about as scary as an accountant.

Almost like a slightly larger and younger Alan Arkin, albeit an Arkin who would never joke about using a paring knife to turn a man’s private parts into some kind of banana split.

But Mandell is facing natural life in prison, accused of a grisly torture murder plot, of planning to kill businessman Anthony Quaranta and Quaranta’s wife in order to seize control of the Outfit-connected Polekatz strip club in Bridgeview.

And he’s accused of masterminding a plot to kidnap a Riverside businessman, Steve Campbell, and squeeze him of cash and real estate assets before killing him and chopping his body to bits in a torture chamber he established on Devon Avenue.

There are hours of extensive government recordings already seen by the jury, showing Mandell in the infamous “Club Med” joking about gutting his victims, and making them disappear, and the banana split knife work.

“And who put the saws there?”

“I did,” said Mandell, adding, “they were all props for a supposed killing that never would have taken place.”

Asked if he would have carried out the plan, Mandell said, “Never in a gazillion years!”

Gazillion years?

That’s something a nerd would say, not a guy like Mandell who’d could have lunch at La Scarola on Grand Avenue with tough guys like Albert Vena, reputed by the feds of being a leader of the Grand Avenue crew now that Joey “The Clown” Lombardo is dying in prison.

Vena stands just over 5 feet tall and is one of the most feared men in Chicago. No one in the Outfit calls him Albert. It’s Albie, or behind his back, “the little guy,” and guys who know, know. As in “the little guy is active,” a phrase that might mean nothing to you, but it’s the kind of thing that prompts nightmares from Oak Brook to Rush Street for some.

Vena was acquitted in Cook County Circuit Court of the 1992 murder of Sam Taglia of River Forest. Vena was alleged to have shot Taglia in the head, slit his throat, then stuffed him in the trunk of his own car in Melrose Park.

Taglia stood over 6 feet tall. He was last seen leaving his girlfriend’s home with Vena. The next time he was seen was in the trunk. But when the car was found, the front seat had been moved up to accommodate a killer with very short legs.

Vena was represented by the magical Eddie Genson, and Cook County Judge James Flannery Jr. acquitted Vena, saying there were “too many other explanations.”

Vena also allegedly tried to run down a Chicago cop with his own car when about to be arrested for Taglia’s murder, but that case, like all others against Vena, faded away.

Yet Assistant U.S. Attorney Amar Bhachu made repeated references to Vena, and other Outfit types, and just the mentioning of the little guy is a declaration, like shining a light in dark hole to see what moves around down there.

In U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve’s courtroom on Thursday, I had a good view of Mandell and the jury. When the words “never in a gazillion years” came out of Mandell’s mouth I looked at the jury. I could swear some almost snickered.

Mandell insisted all he was doing was trying to keep shady businessman George Michael paying him $4,000 a month cash to follow Michael’s enemies as Michael lusted after control of Polekatz.

It wasn’t a murder plot, said Mandell.

“I was just feeding that man’s (Michael’s) obsession, and getting paid for it at the same time,” he said. The knives, the cleaver, the torture chamber were all mere “props.”

“It was a hoax,” Mandell said.

Mandell’s jury still hasn’t been told what happened to his alleged accomplice, Gary Engel, a former Willow Springs cop who just happened to hang himself in jail. Or that people have a habit of dying around Mandell, or that he sat on death row for a while.

But they were treated to a brilliant cross-examination by Bhachu, who mocked Mandell’s claim that he had no Outfit ties.

“Bhachu did a great job,” said a veteran criminal defense attorney who watched. “He got Mandell to come after him, so the jury could see.”

At the outset of the cross, Bhachu ridiculed Mandell’s contention that he did not know whom to appeal to in the Outfit to get permission to move on the Polekatz strip club.

“And you knew Albert Vena but didn’t know Albert Vena as the boss of the Grand Avenue crew?”

Mandell lost the nebbishy Arkin persona. His hand came up, a big paw waving. He snarled.

“That’s ridiculous!” Mandell shot back.

Just then, he looked like the Steve Mandell I’d heard about. The voice dropped. In a flash, the alleged ice man wasn’t cool.

And just like that, the jury saw the other side of his face.

jskass@tribune.com

Twitter @John_Kass

Originally Published: February 21, 2014 at 1:00 a.m.

[NorthBuffalo]

Great story - Mandell could likely flip on Vena and the Outfit and help himself - interesting he doesn't given he's clearly a demented individual. There is something about Chicago - this Mad Sam DeStefano level stuff in this day and age is really something else.

[Ivan]

Great story - Mandell could likely flip on Vena and the Outfit and help himself - interesting he doesn't given he's clearly a demented individual. There is something about Chicago - this Mad Sam DeStefano level stuff in this day and age is really something else.

Yeah there's something ghoulish and serial killer-esque about Chicago that you don't really get with other families, except maybe the occasional Roy DeMeo and Tommy Karate.

Vena sounds like a pretty nasty dude from his various descriptions I've heard/read. Is there a list somewhere of all the hits he's alleged to be involved with?

Just now occurred to me that if an American Mafia guy has "Little" in his nickname he's invariably going to turn out to be the baddest motherfucker you've ever heard of in your life.

[PolackTony]

Great story - Mandell could likely flip on Vena and the Outfit and help himself - interesting he doesn't given he's clearly a demented individual. There is something about Chicago - this Mad Sam DeStefano level stuff in this day and age is really something else.

We can presume that the Feds have had a hard-on for Vena for some time. I can’t imagine that they didn’t try to lean on guys like Panozzo, Mandell, and Chuckie Russell to roll something up against Vena. To me, that these guys didn’t flip is telling, not just in that it further demonstrates these are guys who as individuals were/are as serious as it comes (and Russell of course died of cancer before he could be convicted, though one has to imagine that they could have made the last months of his life a lot more comfortable if he had cooperated), but in that it points to there being something to protect. Something that still evokes loyalty from guys who are as violent and dangerous of career criminals as you can think of, basically. “Southside” guys, it’s the same thing. Tony Calabrese died in the can, Sarno is wasting away and literally on his last leg, Marcello didn’t fold and got slammed with the living hell of Florence ADMAX. All of these guys could easily have made things much easier for themselves by cooperating, but they did not.

And let’s not forget also that they threw Mandell in Florence as well. I don’t doubt for a second he is exactly the kind of individual who belongs in a place like that, but it demonstrates just how dangerous the government thought he is.

[Ivan]

Here's an odd find. Some "alternative news" Facebook page for Burr Ridge specifically. Writer seems to have it in for local hero and pillar of the community Fillipo Rovito.

https://www.facebook.com/RealBurrRidge/

[Tonyd621]

Here's an odd find. Some "alternative news" Facebook page for Burr Ridge specifically. Writer seems to have it in for local hero and pillar of the community Fillipo Rovito.

https://www.facebook.com/RealBurrRidge/

The guy Gigis voice is so annoying. I can't stand it. It almost doesn't sound real. Like it's part of his shtick or something. I need captions because the first couple words out of his mouth I never understand.

[Ivan]

I need captions because the first couple words out of his mouth I never understand.

It's usually "Eyyyy" > playful insult for the audience ("you baccalas" or "you bunch of chooches" or whatever) > "it's the Kid".

[PolackTony]

A couple of interesting notes from the file of Milwaukee member Louie Fazio, who was found shot to death at close range by a .38 in the alley behind his home in 1972.

A report from 1972, following Fazio’s murder, noted that MPD had received a report from CPD claiming that William “Action” Jackson had been set to meet with two Federal agents at Fazio’s restaurant in Milwaukee prior to Jackson’s brutal abdication and torture murder in 1961. CPD had been planning to contact Fazio in relation to this matter when he was himself killed:




The FBI strongly believed that Chicago was behind Fazio’s murder, with a number of redacted Chicago names cited as having participated in a “meeting” that the Feds suspected was related to Fazio’s death. Frank Schweihs was specifically named as a suspect, with Chicago investigators relating to Milwaukee that they had received intel from a source just prior to the Fazio murder that Chicago had issued a “contract” on an unnamed individual and that this “contract” had been assigned to Schweihs to carry out.

The file also noted that Fazio had longstanding ties to a number of redacted names in Chicago and was a close personal friend of Sam DeStefano, who himself also had other close ties to redacted names in Milwaukee. DeStefano, it should be recalled, did time in WI for a robbery bid when he was younger (and even led a prison revolt there which forced the warden to accept prisoner demands).

In this light, it would make sense that Sam DeStefano was identified as a Chicago LCN member by KC/Milwaukee member Joe Gurera. See below from the 1968 Chicago list, where “CG T-11” denotes Joe Gurera’s code KC 586 (which we know refers to Gurera thanks to Ed Valin):






I am one of the people who has long had serious doubts about Sam DeStefano’s membership status, given his highly unusual/aberrant behavior and personality. Chuckie Crimaldi, who was an associate of DeStefano who flipped, even claimed that DeStefano was “not a member of the syndicate” due to his mental instability and dislike of following orders. Or, to be more precise, this was what John Kidner — author of the 1976 book “Crimaldi: Contract Killer — wrote, whether or not it was a verbatim claim from Crimaldi, who was not himself an LCN member. But given that Gurera ID’d him (and did not ID his brother Mario DeStefano, who so far as I know was only ID’d by Lou Fratto), I feel much more confident in his membership, pazzo though he was. Given DeStefano’s close ties to Milwaukee, it would make sense that he would have been one of the Chicago members that Gurera was in the position to identify.

[chicagodog]

Mart Anthony's is, of course, on Racine and Hubbard, two blocks west of The Aberdeen Tap. I see no reason to doubt that Spina is a sociable guy who could frequent a number of different restaurants.

Given that I recently posted about Bennie Filicchio, worth noting that Mart Anthony's was founded in 1981 (originally on Randolph before moving to Hubbard in the 2000s) by Martin Anthony Campo. The Campos are an old-school Sicilian Taylor St family from Sciacca. Martin's father was Giacomo "Jack" Campo, born in 1913 in Chicago to Mario Campo of Sciacca and Concetta Viverito of Termini Imerese. Mario Campos's brother, Michaelangelo Campo, was married to Maria Filicicchia of Termini Imerese, paternal aunt of Bennie Filicchio:

viewtopic.php?p=280507&hilit=filicchio#p280507

Also worth noting that the Aberdeen Tap's address, 440 N Aberdeen (btwn Hubbard and Grand) seems to have a long history of being connected to the mob. The same block was one of the most notorious in the history of the Chicago mafia, having been the home base of Vincenzo Benevento and the scene of some important murders, including those of mafiosi Tony Genna, Giuseppe Saitta, and Domenico Scaduto. In 1958, Jimmy Cozzo was using it as his address. Prior to that, I believe that it was owned by Maria Demma, widow of produce merchant Gioacchino "Jack" Corrao, both of Termini Imerese. They were the parents of the notorious Carrao [sic] brothers, vicious hoodlums in the 1910s and 1920s. Saverio "Charles" Carrao made the papers several times for armed robberies and a "reign of terror" where he allegedly led a series of bombings and attacks on local businesses being extorted. Saverio Carrao was shot to death in 1926 on Grand Ave, around the corner from Aberdeen, almost exactly a year after his cousin Otto Carrao was killed on Grand and Carpenter (around the corner the other way). Saverio's brother Giuseppe "Joseph" Carrao was arrested several months after Saverio's murder on armed robbery and weapons charges, while another brother Gioacchino "Jack" Jr was arrested around the same time for extorting a local businessman. I *believe* that Jack and Joseph Carrao may have also been murdered, as they both died young in the 1930s. Gioacchino Corrao Sr's sister was Vincenza Corrao, who married Michele Gentile, also of Termini. They lived on the same block of Aberdeen and were the parents of Michael "Mickey Gentile", the grandfather of brothers Jeff and Michael Gentile. These two penned the 2020 book "Mob Adjacent: A Family Memoir" about their family's history of personal connections to mobsters, including Grand Ave locals like Benevento and the Cerones.

Tony, I know you grew up in the neighborhood. You live
In NY now, correct? You wouldn’t believe the changes that’s happening in West Town. The area on grand east of the 6 corners (grand, Halsted and Milwaukee) is going to blow up with high rises. That private school is going to buy all those boarded up buildings on Grand. I believe Spina owns the lot next to his place and that’s on the market currently. The development is going to continue Westward on Grand and a lot of the old neighborhood guys are going to get extremely wealthy. Darlene at Vinnie’s said they may eventually sell and go to Florida or someplace warmer.

[outfit guy]

Here Feds mention active grand ave crew and current leader Albert Vena

At first, up there on the federal witness stand Thursday, testifying in his own defense, Steve Mandell didn’t come off as some deadly former Chicago cop with Outfit ties and a torture chamber equipped with meat cleavers and good drainage.

In a dark suit and white shirt, no tie, Mandell kept his voice up high in the back of his throat, reedy and nonthreatening, a bald guy who looked about as scary as an accountant.

Almost like a slightly larger and younger Alan Arkin, albeit an Arkin who would never joke about using a paring knife to turn a man’s private parts into some kind of banana split.

But Mandell is facing natural life in prison, accused of a grisly torture murder plot, of planning to kill businessman Anthony Quaranta and Quaranta’s wife in order to seize control of the Outfit-connected Polekatz strip club in Bridgeview.

And he’s accused of masterminding a plot to kidnap a Riverside businessman, Steve Campbell, and squeeze him of cash and real estate assets before killing him and chopping his body to bits in a torture chamber he established on Devon Avenue.

There are hours of extensive government recordings already seen by the jury, showing Mandell in the infamous “Club Med” joking about gutting his victims, and making them disappear, and the banana split knife work.

“And who put the saws there?”

“I did,” said Mandell, adding, “they were all props for a supposed killing that never would have taken place.”

Asked if he would have carried out the plan, Mandell said, “Never in a gazillion years!”

Gazillion years?

That’s something a nerd would say, not a guy like Mandell who’d could have lunch at La Scarola on Grand Avenue with tough guys like Albert Vena, reputed by the feds of being a leader of the Grand Avenue crew now that Joey “The Clown” Lombardo is dying in prison.

Vena stands just over 5 feet tall and is one of the most feared men in Chicago. No one in the Outfit calls him Albert. It’s Albie, or behind his back, “the little guy,” and guys who know, know. As in “the little guy is active,” a phrase that might mean nothing to you, but it’s the kind of thing that prompts nightmares from Oak Brook to Rush Street for some.

Vena was acquitted in Cook County Circuit Court of the 1992 murder of Sam Taglia of River Forest. Vena was alleged to have shot Taglia in the head, slit his throat, then stuffed him in the trunk of his own car in Melrose Park.

Taglia stood over 6 feet tall. He was last seen leaving his girlfriend’s home with Vena. The next time he was seen was in the trunk. But when the car was found, the front seat had been moved up to accommodate a killer with very short legs.

Vena was represented by the magical Eddie Genson, and Cook County Judge James Flannery Jr. acquitted Vena, saying there were “too many other explanations.”

Vena also allegedly tried to run down a Chicago cop with his own car when about to be arrested for Taglia’s murder, but that case, like all others against Vena, faded away.

Yet Assistant U.S. Attorney Amar Bhachu made repeated references to Vena, and other Outfit types, and just the mentioning of the little guy is a declaration, like shining a light in dark hole to see what moves around down there.

In U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve’s courtroom on Thursday, I had a good view of Mandell and the jury. When the words “never in a gazillion years” came out of Mandell’s mouth I looked at the jury. I could swear some almost snickered.

Mandell insisted all he was doing was trying to keep shady businessman George Michael paying him $4,000 a month cash to follow Michael’s enemies as Michael lusted after control of Polekatz.

It wasn’t a murder plot, said Mandell.

“I was just feeding that man’s (Michael’s) obsession, and getting paid for it at the same time,” he said. The knives, the cleaver, the torture chamber were all mere “props.”

“It was a hoax,” Mandell said.

Mandell’s jury still hasn’t been told what happened to his alleged accomplice, Gary Engel, a former Willow Springs cop who just happened to hang himself in jail. Or that people have a habit of dying around Mandell, or that he sat on death row for a while.

But they were treated to a brilliant cross-examination by Bhachu, who mocked Mandell’s claim that he had no Outfit ties.

“Bhachu did a great job,” said a veteran criminal defense attorney who watched. “He got Mandell to come after him, so the jury could see.”

At the outset of the cross, Bhachu ridiculed Mandell’s contention that he did not know whom to appeal to in the Outfit to get permission to move on the Polekatz strip club.

“And you knew Albert Vena but didn’t know Albert Vena as the boss of the Grand Avenue crew?”

Mandell lost the nebbishy Arkin persona. His hand came up, a big paw waving. He snarled.

“That’s ridiculous!” Mandell shot back.

Just then, he looked like the Steve Mandell I’d heard about. The voice dropped. In a flash, the alleged ice man wasn’t cool.

And just like that, the jury saw the other side of his face.

jskass@tribune.com

Twitter @John_Kass

Originally Published: February 21, 2014 at 1:00 a.m.

This is very old. According to JCosenza podcasts on the Chicago Outfit, Vena is nearly blind and being cared for relatives in Florida. He also slams Burnstein's "reporting" and claims Sarno is dying in a prison hospital.

[Patrickgold]

Here Feds mention active grand ave crew and current leader Albert Vena

At first, up there on the federal witness stand Thursday, testifying in his own defense, Steve Mandell didn’t come off as some deadly former Chicago cop with Outfit ties and a torture chamber equipped with meat cleavers and good drainage.

In a dark suit and white shirt, no tie, Mandell kept his voice up high in the back of his throat, reedy and nonthreatening, a bald guy who looked about as scary as an accountant.

Almost like a slightly larger and younger Alan Arkin, albeit an Arkin who would never joke about using a paring knife to turn a man’s private parts into some kind of banana split.

But Mandell is facing natural life in prison, accused of a grisly torture murder plot, of planning to kill businessman Anthony Quaranta and Quaranta’s wife in order to seize control of the Outfit-connected Polekatz strip club in Bridgeview.

And he’s accused of masterminding a plot to kidnap a Riverside businessman, Steve Campbell, and squeeze him of cash and real estate assets before killing him and chopping his body to bits in a torture chamber he established on Devon Avenue.

There are hours of extensive government recordings already seen by the jury, showing Mandell in the infamous “Club Med” joking about gutting his victims, and making them disappear, and the banana split knife work.

“And who put the saws there?”

“I did,” said Mandell, adding, “they were all props for a supposed killing that never would have taken place.”

Asked if he would have carried out the plan, Mandell said, “Never in a gazillion years!”

Gazillion years?

That’s something a nerd would say, not a guy like Mandell who’d could have lunch at La Scarola on Grand Avenue with tough guys like Albert Vena, reputed by the feds of being a leader of the Grand Avenue crew now that Joey “The Clown” Lombardo is dying in prison.

Vena stands just over 5 feet tall and is one of the most feared men in Chicago. No one in the Outfit calls him Albert. It’s Albie, or behind his back, “the little guy,” and guys who know, know. As in “the little guy is active,” a phrase that might mean nothing to you, but it’s the kind of thing that prompts nightmares from Oak Brook to Rush Street for some.

Vena was acquitted in Cook County Circuit Court of the 1992 murder of Sam Taglia of River Forest. Vena was alleged to have shot Taglia in the head, slit his throat, then stuffed him in the trunk of his own car in Melrose Park.

Taglia stood over 6 feet tall. He was last seen leaving his girlfriend’s home with Vena. The next time he was seen was in the trunk. But when the car was found, the front seat had been moved up to accommodate a killer with very short legs.

Vena was represented by the magical Eddie Genson, and Cook County Judge James Flannery Jr. acquitted Vena, saying there were “too many other explanations.”

Vena also allegedly tried to run down a Chicago cop with his own car when about to be arrested for Taglia’s murder, but that case, like all others against Vena, faded away.

Yet Assistant U.S. Attorney Amar Bhachu made repeated references to Vena, and other Outfit types, and just the mentioning of the little guy is a declaration, like shining a light in dark hole to see what moves around down there.

In U.S. District Judge Amy St. Eve’s courtroom on Thursday, I had a good view of Mandell and the jury. When the words “never in a gazillion years” came out of Mandell’s mouth I looked at the jury. I could swear some almost snickered.

Mandell insisted all he was doing was trying to keep shady businessman George Michael paying him $4,000 a month cash to follow Michael’s enemies as Michael lusted after control of Polekatz.

It wasn’t a murder plot, said Mandell.

“I was just feeding that man’s (Michael’s) obsession, and getting paid for it at the same time,” he said. The knives, the cleaver, the torture chamber were all mere “props.”

“It was a hoax,” Mandell said.

Mandell’s jury still hasn’t been told what happened to his alleged accomplice, Gary Engel, a former Willow Springs cop who just happened to hang himself in jail. Or that people have a habit of dying around Mandell, or that he sat on death row for a while.

But they were treated to a brilliant cross-examination by Bhachu, who mocked Mandell’s claim that he had no Outfit ties.

“Bhachu did a great job,” said a veteran criminal defense attorney who watched. “He got Mandell to come after him, so the jury could see.”

At the outset of the cross, Bhachu ridiculed Mandell’s contention that he did not know whom to appeal to in the Outfit to get permission to move on the Polekatz strip club.

“And you knew Albert Vena but didn’t know Albert Vena as the boss of the Grand Avenue crew?”

Mandell lost the nebbishy Arkin persona. His hand came up, a big paw waving. He snarled.

“That’s ridiculous!” Mandell shot back.

Just then, he looked like the Steve Mandell I’d heard about. The voice dropped. In a flash, the alleged ice man wasn’t cool.

And just like that, the jury saw the other side of his face.

jskass@tribune.com

Twitter @John_Kass

Originally Published: February 21, 2014 at 1:00 a.m.

This is very old. According to JCosenza podcasts on the Chicago Outfit, Vena is nearly blind and being cared for relatives in Florida. He also slams Burnstein's "reporting" and claims Sarno is dying in a prison hospital.

JCosenza is not a very reliable source. He claimed the owner of Al’s Beef Chris Pacielli was a made member of the Outfit, an ex Chicago Police Officer and the godfather of Taylor street, all which were false. He got so much blow back from the video he did of which Outfit guys went to the Taylor street festival this year, that he took it down. He was claiming guys were there that weren’t and a bunch of other bullshit.

I never heard that Vena was living in Florida in basically assisted living. I heard he was living out in Elgin.

It’s no secret Sarno is in bad health. There is a hearing coming up soon before the judge to attempt to get him released early. Mike Ciancio, a ex corrupt Chicago Police Officer, who did jail time for giving tips to tow truck drivers about car accidents and then taking a cut, is on social media trying to get letters of support from people of the community. His brother was the Cicero cop that was on wiretap giving advice to Sarno on ways to spot fed surveillance. He was a Cicero police officer.

[NickyEyes1]

Was in Melrose Park yesterday and seen Abruzzos has closed down. Probably hard to compete with Taverna...

[Patrickgold]

Was in Melrose Park yesterday and seen Abruzzos has closed down. Probably hard to compete with Taverna...

Yes, it closed a couple of years ago. New owners bought it and called it Division street lounge. I think that is closed too but something else will be opening soon.

[PolackTony]

I have no idea what Vena’s current health state is. I wouldn’t even know who he would be purported to be living with in FL by anyone claiming that, as, so far as I am aware at least, his kids and other close relatives all live in IL and AZ. Vena has addresses in both Elgin and AZ, so he is presumably at least spending the winters at the latter (I sure would be lol).

As Patrick noted, Sarno’s terrible health is not at all news and was reported on by several Chicagoland media outlets a couple of years ago, which we have of course discussed in this thread since.

[Richards_bar]

I have no idea what Vena’s current health state is. I wouldn’t even know who he would be purported to be living with in FL by anyone claiming that, as, so far as I am aware at least, his kids and other close relatives all live in IL and AZ. Vena has addresses in both Elgin and AZ, so he is presumably at least spending the winters at the latter (I sure would be lol).

As Patrick noted, Sarno’s terrible health is not at all news and was reported on by several Chicagoland media outlets a couple of years ago, which we have of course discussed in this thread since.

Albie does have diabetes, but I haven’t heard about any health problems. Last I heard he was at his farm. I second the opinion on jcosenza podcast. Besides his butchering of fellow Italians names his info is way off and he’s more of a fanboy than anyone to be taken seriously.