Chicago Heights / Gary Crew

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NorthBuffalo
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Chicago Heights / Gary Crew

Post by NorthBuffalo »

Since I don't have access to the photo sections, I'll start dropping a few one-off threads as I've accumulated quite a bit of old photos from various sources over the last year so as not to clog the Chicago threads. Below are some rare photos of Chicago Heights and Gary crew members.

Dominick 'Tootsie' Palermo (Chicago Heights)
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Bernard 'Snooky' Morgano (Gary)
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Sam 'Dads' Nuzzo Sr.
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Arthur 'Artie' Nuzzo (right - Gary)
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Peter 'Cadillac Pete' Petros (Gary)
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Anthony 'Tony' Leone, nephew of Morgano who would testify against the crew in court. He entered witness protection, then left and returned to his hometown in Northwest Indiana in the late 1990s. For whatever reason, he was let alone, which could have been a sign of the Outfit's crew completely broken in that region following the Morgano/Palermo indictments.
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NorthBuffalo
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Re: Chicago Heights / Gary Crew

Post by NorthBuffalo »

Giuseppe 'Nino' Cisternino (Chicago Heights)
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Anthony 'Nags' Panzica as a young man (Center looking at camera - Chicago Heights, eventually became Phil Alderisio's main enforcer alongside Frank Schweis)
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Patrickgold
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Re: Chicago Heights / Gary Crew

Post by Patrickgold »

Nice photos. Panzica was eventually sent down to Florida where he represented the Outfit down there. He was actually caught up a little bit in the Donnie Brasco investigation in that he met with the undercover agents. He was representing Chicago and was assisting in ironing out an issue with NYC guys.
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PolackTony
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Re: Chicago Heights / Gary Crew

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Patrickgold wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2025 10:27 am Nice photos. Panzica was eventually sent down to Florida where he represented the Outfit down there. He was actually caught up a little bit in the Donnie Brasco investigation in that he met with the undercover agents. He was representing Chicago and was assisting in ironing out an issue with NYC guys.
Yup and we had a pretty detailed discussion of Anthony “Nags” Panzica a couple years back here:

viewtopic.php?p=230238#p230238
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NorthBuffalo
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Re: Chicago Heights / Gary Crew

Post by NorthBuffalo »

PolackTony wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2025 11:00 am
Patrickgold wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2025 10:27 am Nice photos. Panzica was eventually sent down to Florida where he represented the Outfit down there. He was actually caught up a little bit in the Donnie Brasco investigation in that he met with the undercover agents. He was representing Chicago and was assisting in ironing out an issue with NYC guys.
Yup and we had a pretty detailed discussion of Anthony “Nags” Panzica a couple years back here:

viewtopic.php?p=230238#p230238
Should have done my homework :lol: I also have a photo of Nick Petrizzo an affiliate of Panzica who you mentioned. The source who shared the photo is a relation of Petrizzo - I placed him in Chicago Heights due to the newspaper reports, but maybe Grand Avenue is more realistic.

Definitely one of the top 3 Outfit guys on my radar personally is Nags Panzica - quite a long history as you note and wonder whether he died with any money to his name or not.
NorthBuffalo
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Re: Chicago Heights / Gary Crew

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Sam Guzzino (Organized hit on Al Pilotto and wound up dead in a ditch with a slit throat weeks later). Brother of Richard 'Jumbo' Guzzino.


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Recent photo of Nicholas 'Nicky' Guzzino



A good source who grew up around a lot of the Chicago Heights/Gary Crew members said that Sam Guzzino was cousins with Nick Guzzino and that there was a rumor Nick was the one who got Sam. Any credence to that and are they really cousins? I expect some of you may know more.
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Re: Chicago Heights / Gary Crew

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Yes, brothers Samuel and Richard Guzzino were the first cousins of Nicholas “Jumbo/Nicky” Guzzino Jr, who was born in 1941 in the Heights.

Sam and Richard’s dad was Phillip Guzzino (d.1956), while Phillip’s brother Nicholas Guzzino Sr (d. 1979) — operator of Oliver’s restaurant in Calumet City — was the father of Nick Jr. Nick Sr and Phillip were also brothers of Joe Guzzino, a *possible* LCN member who died in 1966. With longstanding relationships to the LaPortes and Rubertos, Joe Guzzino was a major gambling power in Cal City who was also named as the suspect in the 1926 murder of Girolamo “Jim” Lamberta, a presumed leader in the old Chicago Heights Family prior to its absorption into the Chicago Family. Worth noting also that the Guzzino name has long been prominent in the mafia back in their hometown of Caccamo.

It’s unclear to me who Nick Guzzino Jr’s mother was and he *may be* only half-Italian. His “mother” was a woman from Kentucky named Lorraine Nesmith, but Nick Sr only married her in 1947, so I don’t know if she was actually Nick Jr’s biological mother. Nick Sr clearly had a thing for “hillbilly” chicks, as he had been married at least twice before. In 1938 he made the papers for shooting and seriously wounding one of his previous wives, who he had only married a few months prior.

Nick Guzzino was an important associate of Dom Palermo, so it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if he had been involved in his cousin’s murder, but unlike the bungled Pilotto assassination attempt (where co-conspirator and Sam Guzzino’s son-in-law Daniel Bounds flipped), we haven’t had any informants discuss the Sam Guzzino murder (I also don’t recall seeing any intel in Sam Guzzino’s FBI file on suspects in his murder).

Nick Guzzino Sr:

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A younger photo of Sam Guzzino:

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A young Richard Guzzino:

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Ivan
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Re: Chicago Heights / Gary Crew

Post by Ivan »

NorthBuffalo wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 10:15 am Image
Sam Guzzino (Organized hit on Al Pilotto and wound up dead in a ditch with a slit throat weeks later). Brother of Richard 'Jumbo' Guzzino.
Imagine slitting that throat, you'd really have your work cut out for you. Probably had to use a chainsaw!
Cuz da bullets don't have names.
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Re: Chicago Heights / Gary Crew

Post by Patrickgold »

NorthBuffalo wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 10:15 am Image

Sam Guzzino (Organized hit on Al Pilotto and wound up dead in a ditch with a slit throat weeks later). Brother of Richard 'Jumbo' Guzzino.


Image
Recent photo of Nicholas 'Nicky' Guzzino



A good source who grew up around a lot of the Chicago Heights/Gary Crew members said that Sam Guzzino was cousins with Nick Guzzino and that there was a rumor Nick was the one who got Sam. Any credence to that and are they really cousins? I expect some of you may know more.
You don’t hear to much about Nicky Guzzino. I do believe he was made but could be wrong. He is one of the last surviving Chicago Heights members
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Re: Chicago Heights / Gary Crew

Post by Snakes »

Patrickgold wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 3:19 pm
NorthBuffalo wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 10:15 am Image

Sam Guzzino (Organized hit on Al Pilotto and wound up dead in a ditch with a slit throat weeks later). Brother of Richard 'Jumbo' Guzzino.


Image
Recent photo of Nicholas 'Nicky' Guzzino



A good source who grew up around a lot of the Chicago Heights/Gary Crew members said that Sam Guzzino was cousins with Nick Guzzino and that there was a rumor Nick was the one who got Sam. Any credence to that and are they really cousins? I expect some of you may know more.
You don’t hear to much about Nicky Guzzino. I do believe he was made but could be wrong. He is one of the last surviving Chicago Heights members
Nick C said he was made with him in 83
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Re: Chicago Heights / Gary Crew

Post by NorthBuffalo »

I believe Guzzino is the literal last of the Chicago Heights Crew. Was he on the list of threats against Nick C? I cannot find that but agree with Snakes that Guzzino was there Tootsie Palermo sponsoring him.
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Re: Chicago Heights / Gary Crew

Post by Patrickgold »

NorthBuffalo wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 4:10 pm I believe Guzzino is the literal last of the Chicago Heights Crew. Was he on the list of threats against Nick C? I cannot find that but agree with Snakes that Guzzino was there Tootsie Palermo sponsoring him.
I do not believe he was on the list but he was also in prison until 2006 I believe. I wonder why he didn’t get back involved after getting out of prison. Being a made guy carries a lot of weight in Chicago and you would have thought he was entitled to some type of position after doing a heavy stretch.
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Re: Chicago Heights / Gary Crew

Post by Snakes »

The FBI said the Heights crew was essentially non-existent by 1993. The last indictment decimated what was left of the crew. Toots, Guzzino, and Snooky Morgano all went down in that case. Al Rossetti and Al Roviaro were in that crew and did not get caught up in that indictment but were fairly old and possibly not even made (I never saw them on any lists).
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Re: Chicago Heights / Gary Crew

Post by Ivan »

FWIW I've seen Nicholas Guzzino listed as dead in some places, no idea how accurate that is though.
Cuz da bullets don't have names.
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Re: Chicago Heights / Gary Crew

Post by Patrickgold »

Ivan wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 5:47 pm FWIW I've seen Nicholas Guzzino listed as dead in some places, no idea how accurate that is though.
He’s still alive unless he died recently and they never published the obituary. Here is his brother’s obit and he is not listed as being “the late” Nicholas Guzzino
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