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During the 1930’s and 1940’s, especially during World War II, many of Chicago’s younger criminals and members of the local Mafia were presented with many new opportunities such as gambling and union racketeering but above all, the so-called burglary business was always on their menu. For example, during those days stealing ration stamps a big thing in the world of crime, especially upon the American entry into the conflict, when the government released coupons for sugar, gas, and many other items which were in a short supply at the time and so, many Americans were forced to conserve on everything which meant sacrifices for all. Since the federal government needed to control the supply and demand, in the spring of 1942, the Food Rationing Program was set into motion and later coupons for coffee were introduced in November, and by March of 1943, meat, cheese, fats, canned fish, canned milk and other processed foods were added to the list of rationed provisions. In no time, this deeply affected the American way of life of the ordinary citizen, including the gangsters but in a different way. Many of the mobsters devised highly lucrative schemes by stealing the stamps and later re-selling them on the black market and with the help of this so-called stealing scheme, many of the most infamous mobsters jumpstarted their criminal careers and made a fortune, from Carlo Gambino in New York to Sam Giancana in Chicago.


Ration stamps from the 1940’s


Giancana’s guys in the ration stamp stealing business were usually his associates from the younger days, such as Sam DeStefano, the Inglesia brothers and William Daddano (real name Daddono) and sources say that this criminal activity was mostly practiced by the West Side group of the Chicago syndicate, particularly by the younger generation. At the beginning of the 1940’s, large areas from both the Near West and Near North sides were controlled by Capone caporegime Lawrence Mangano who in turn was also known as “King of the West Side”. Giancana’s old associates, including himself, were infiltrated in at least three different crews from that same area, such as the Louis Campagna crew from around the Taylor Street and Cicero areas, followed by the Charlie Gioe and the Rocco DeGrazia crews mainly from around the Near West Side and Melrose Park areas.

Willie Daddano was a young criminal who managed to introduce himself to the Chicago Outfit by burglarizing federal safes and stealing millions of stamps during the process. My personal belief is that Daddano probably started under the Mangano crew and so when Mangano himself was killed during the mid 1940’s, later Daddano either inherited one part of Mangano’s crew, or inherited Gioe’s crew since Gioe himself was in jail regarding the infamous Hollywood extortion case. At the time, many young hoodlums from that area, names such as Giancana, Battaglia or Fratto were already brought into the criminal brotherhood of the Outfit, and I also believe that Daddano was one of them. In those days if you stole a huge amount of sugar ration stamps, for example, and somehow you managed to get four or five tons of sugar, the price of that amount on the black market was approximately $500,000 or almost 7 million dollars in today’s money. According to some reports, Daddano stole 4 million ration stamps which worth over $100,000 on the black market but too bad for him since shortly afterwards he was caught and was sent to jail.




Pictures taken from a police raid during the early 1940’s which includes Mangano’s lieutenant Frank Laino, young Willie Daddano and also young Charlie English

Even though he went to prison for only a year, Daddano stood proud in his jail cell because he never said a word to the investigators and took his punishment like a real gangster. Because of that, Daddano quickly became recognized as a stand-up guy among some of the top level guys of the Outfit. It was because of guys like Daddano, the government was forced to double its security and control over the ration stamps and so many of Daddano’s associates such DeStefano changed their tactic by making fake ration stamps. By the end of the war, restrictions on processed foods and other goods like gasoline and fuel oil were lifted, but the rationing of sugar remained in effect until 1947 and so that same year, DeStefano also joined his buddy in prison after the cops caught him for creating and trying to pass off fake sugar ration coupons.

By the mid 1950’s, Willie Daddano became one of the Outfit’s capos with his own made guys and associates under his rule. Besides being from the Taylor Street and Melrose Park areas, Daddano allegedly was given control over parts from the Northwest Side, such as DuPage, McHenry and Kane counties, and his crew was formed by Louis, Frank and Rudy Fratto, Patsy Clementi, Joe Amato, Anthony Perotti, Anthony DeRosa, Anthony and Frank Eldorado etc. Daddano also controlled various rackets, from gambling to loan sharking but still he answered to his area boss known as Sam Battaglia who in turn was the capo of the Grand Avenue crew and also the main representative for all West Side crews, and Daddano also had direct contact with the Outfit’s underboss and future leader Giancana. Because of his past activities, Daddano also became the main Outfit guy who had connections to almost every burglar or thief from around the Chicago area and because of that, his main job was to collect street tax. You see, almost every criminal who operated on some of Daddano’s territories had to pay street tax to their so-called area boss or else. In fact, Daddano possessed one “still unconfirmed” reputation as a very serious individual and also as an alleged killer for the Outfit with many skeletons in his closet.


Outfit capo Willie “Potatoes” Daddano

Daddano’s street tax “victims” were mainly bank robbers and jewel thieves and that is why Daddano spent the last years of his criminal career, which was the mid 1960’s, searching for the adrenaline that was caused by burglary activities. Many other high level Outfit guys from the old days received their satisfaction mainly from blue collar crime, guys like Tony Capezio from the Elmwood Park crew who in turn also loved the adrenaline by being directly involved in many burglaries and so, Daddano was no different. I believe that Daddano wanted to bring back the old days of entering a bank or a jewelry store in a quite violent style with people jumping down on the floor and woman screams filling the air. Even though Daddano became one of the main players in the rising West Side faction of the Outfit, and with all of the dirty cash, for some reason, he still loved orchestrating a good old bank robbery.

Daddano ran his thieves out of a suburban bowling alley in Melrose Park which he allegedly owned. It was named the Riviera Bowling Lanes and served as his headquarters and it was there where most of Chicago’s thieves dropped by to pay their “debts” to Daddano and the Outfit and everyone who was anyone knew that Daddano was extracting street tax from professional burglars throughout the Chicago area for many years and story goes that the street tax was non-negotiable and those who failed to pay, usually ended up six feet under the ground. Daddano didn’t only extort the burglars, but he also recruited promising guys for other dirty operations because some of these guys were daring men with pure criminal minds, which made them perfect Outfit guys. In time they became the Outfit’s “property” and even carried out enforcement work, for example accomplishing syndicate-sanctioned killings. But Dadddano had a way of “buying” his associates by being very loyal to them and story goes that once he reportedly bought a new Corvette for a burglar and mob associate who did time in prison, as a reward for not ratting on his boss.

Many Outfit members, such as Daddano, also worked as fences by having associates who specialized in the field. For example, Jewish gangster Maurice Friedman was a known Outfit associate and close partner with Daddano in several Chicago liquor stores but the most important thing was that Friedman was the main guy for Daddano’s burglary operations, meaning he ran the biggest fence-handling stolen merchandise operation for the whole Chicago Outfit. Once, Friedman was charged with possession of more than $1,000,000 worth of stolen drugs, and was described as the city’s biggest fencer and after that he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. So, with the help of individuals such as Daddano and Friedman, fencing has become a huge problem around the country because during those days it was one of those crimes which received smaller attention and the public was only too willing to tolerate.

Daddano’s contacts with robbing banks were obviously renewed by the people who paid him street tax. So Daddano and his crew of burglars operated mostly “old school” style, meaning they were robbing banks and hijacked trucks like John Dillinger’s gang back in the old days, but with ski masks. This crew of robbers included guys like Johnny “The Bug” Varelli, Guy “Lover Boy” Mendola, John ”Joey” D’Argento, Frank Sr. and Frank Jr. DeLegge, Mike LaJoy, James “Legs” D’Antonio, Jim Martin, Angelo Boscarino, Steve Tomaris aka Tomaras, Larry Fletcher, Mike Swiatek, Donny O'Brien, Jimmy Caporusso, Eugene Cacciatore, Tony Legato, Garry Tomaszek and Patrick Schang. The thing was that these guys were not just your ordinary burglars but instead some of them worked as enforcers or loan sharking collectors with long arrest records.

For example, James D’Antonio was a criminal with a record of almost 70 arrests or John Varelli, true name Schiverelli, who previously worked under the auspices of Elmwood Park Outfit member William Messino, as loan sharking or “juice” collector and jewel thief. Varelli had a quite dark history which fitted his nickname “The Bug” since he was born in an insane asylum where his mother was patient and that is why, through the years Varelli spent lots of time in foster homes and showed signs of schizophrenia all of his life. Story goes that Varelli once had a guy on “juice” but the problem was that the so-called “victim” couldn’t pay his debt and fled to California. In less than six months, Varelli found the guy, brought him back to Chicago and slashed him with a knife quite badly but didn’t kill him. Instead, Varelli told the guy that he, the victim, was going to take care of the payments for Varelli’s new car and the individual had no choice but to agree. In 1961, Varelli was caught in the act of stealing 24 barrels of scrap metal which was valued over $5,000 but instead of going to jail, he received five year probation.


Johnny Varelli

Mike LaJoy was also one cruel individual and was known for setting up his own family members just to save his own skin. Once, LaJoy forced his father to take the blame and get pinched for stolen goods which were found in his store and were obviously placed there by his son. LaJoy was also related to the DeLegges who were also individuals with long arrest records. Together with D’Argento and Fletcher, they operated a very lucrative car theft ring which many of the cars ended up in the Detroit and other Midwest cities. These guys’ connection to the syndicate was also Outfit lawyer Mike Brodkin but there was also another connection and that was Richard Cain, real name Scalzetti, corrupt chief investigator for the Cook County sheriff's office and member of the Chicago Outfit. One day, D’Argento and one Paul Panczko were arrested by the police regarding the ownership of burglary tools which they planned to use for stealing a car which in turn was planned to be used in a robbery. So, the boys decided to call for Cain who in turn gave the case to one of his corrupt colleagues James Donnelly and eventually they were released.


Mike Brodkin

James Donnelly

Frank DeLegge Sr. had a quite rough start in his criminal career since he was imprisoned for a long time period but later his son DeLegge Jr. introduced his old man to many Outfit-connected people. DeLegge Sr. started working together with one other prominent burglar known as Jerry Scalise, and they managed to pull few jobs here and there but the problem was that DeLegge Sr. was a degenerate gambler and always was in debt to someone. That’s why, in some way he was forced to do all kinds of robberies so he can payback his debts. Also, the older DeLegge wasn’t some guy who would go on robberies with a gun but instead he always took the role as a lookout or a driver.

The crew also had connections to Chicago’ infamous Panczko gang from the Elmwood Park area, which was a huge group of professional burglars who operated independently but sometimes they did jobs for the Outfit. The Panczko gang was headed by three brothers, Joseph a.k.a. “Pops”, Edward a.k.a. “Butch” and Paul a.k.a. “Peanuts” and they all grew up on the city’s West Side and they knew all of the Italian or non-Italian criminals from that particular area, such as LaJoy, the DeLegges, D’Argento, Richard Kay, Edward Cook and Chester Zochowski. These guys did not operate only in the Chicago area, but they also operated around the country. For example, Richard Kay was a guy who very often operated on the east coast, usually robbing jewelry stores.


Paul, Joseph and Edward Panczko

Guy Mendola was allegedly was the toughest one in the group with an arrest record since 1943, and that is why his father very often visited Outfit lawyer Mike Brodkin, and begged him to help his son to force him take a different path in his life, but instead the Mob lawyer did quite the opposite by introducing the young criminal to other criminals or in other words, he showed him the lucrative way of the streets. Mendola started his criminal career with his close friend Paul Panczko and together they served a 7-year prison term in a Tennessee jail for $100,000 jewel robbery. After that, he ended up working for Outfit crew boss from around the Stone Park and Franklyn Park areas, Rocco Pranno, and during his career Mendola was arrested more than 40 times and served two jail terms in Birdwell and even though he was considered a low level criminal, Mendola still managed to mingle with many actual members of the Outfit and also knew a lot about their inner workings. According to one story, Mendola once told a friend of his that the Outfit managed to corrupt a high-level FBI agent and that he knew the names of two Outfit informants. In 1962, Mendola had an argument with the Grand Avenue member Rocco Pranno and the duo allegedly had a violent argument at one of Pranno’s clubs, and that’s when Pranno gave more than few cracks to Mendola’s mouth and after that Pranno administered a heavy beating over Mendola in the basement of the joint, while in the presence of a police officer. In the end, Mendola got out with a warning never to come back to Pranno’s place ever again.


Guy Mendola

At the time, the crew’s main connections to the Chicago crime syndicate were Rocco Pranno and Mike Brodkin, and their headquarters was a club known as the Twist which was located in Elmwood Park and was owned by one of their “dearest friends” John DiFronzo who worked under the auspices of the capo of that area Jack Cerone. In fact, DiFronzo acted as the group’s fencer, meaning he resold the stolen property and also collected street tax for his superiors.

In 1962, or the time before Paul Panczko went to jail, there was some misunderstanding between him and some of the crew members such as Mendola, LaJoy, Schang and DeLegge Sr. The reason for that was Panczko’s alleged big mouth, meaning whenever he staged some big job, after that he usually bragged about his work so everybody can know that it was his “masterpiece” and took the credit for it. Obviously, Panczko’s actions attracted unwanted attention and that’s why the crew’s “sponsorship” has changed and went from the Elmwood Park group, to the Daddano – Battaglia faction.

One of the main reasons for the so-called transfer was “family connections”, meaning DeLegge Sr. became brother-in-law to Daddano, and DeLegge Jr became the son-in-law of another Outfit member from the Melrose Park area known as Nick Palermo, and also DeLegge Sr. was employed at Palermo’s Melrose Park Plumbing Company. Also, DeLegge Sr.’s daughter was the wife of William Fiorito, son of the so-called “King of thieves” Carl Fiorito. Even Outfit enforcer John Varelli transferred his loyalty to Nick Palermo. On the other hand, LaJoy was Daddano’s nephew and Donny O'Brien was very closely connected to Phil Alderisio, another high level member from Battaglia’s Grand Avenue crew. And so, with the help of those connections the West Side crews had easy access to some of the most professional burglars at the time. This was one of the deadliest mixes of burglars, which became a band of "good fellas" who terrorized the entire metropolitan area during the early 1960’s. By this time there was no other and more lucrative burglary crew than this one in the city of Chicago but the problem was that some of these guys weren’t too smart and too honest between each other, which became the main reason for the destruction of the group during the next few years.

At beginning of September, 1963 the crew decided to go on a stealing rampage all over the country. On September 13, 1963 Pat Schang, Garry Tomaszek and John Cook went to Fort Lauderdale, Florida; where they executed a robbery at the Leonard Taylor Jewelry Store and managed to get away approximately with $100,000. That’s same month, or one week later, four members of the crew including LaJoy, DeLegge Sr, D’Argento and Fletcher were in Michigan to commit a bank robbery and the target was located in the Livonia area and this bank was in fact one at which checks were cashed by winners from the trotting race track in that same area. They went to motel and made a plan which was to hit the guard and then jump the counter and obtain the money, simple as that. They drove to the airport near the area and managed to steal an Oldsmobile to be used as a getaway car and another 1963 Ford to be used as a second getaway car. The trick was to leave the first getaway car, and use the second one for their travel to Chicago. But they also had another plan which was for DeLegge Sr. to be placed on a bus to Chicago together with the loot, in case the boys get caught by the cops. However, none of the plans did not go through, because the moment the group stepped foot on the parking lot, a security truck came on the scene and took all the cash away from the bank.

After that the group returned to Chicago, and while driving through the Franklyn Park area, DeLegge Sr. spotted the Franklyn Park Bank and developed an idea to simply rob the establishment. Some of these guys were quite desperate, meaning they were in debts up to their necks and so they badly needed cash. So, the other day, the boys met at Sansonetti’s Restaurant which was located at Grand Avenue and Mannheim Road, but this time they also included Varelli on the meeting. One week prior to September 23, 1963, DeLegge Sr, D’Argento, Varelli and Fletcher were waiting in a car right across the Franklyn Park Bank and prepared for the job. While getting ready, two police cars stopped by their car and questioned the boys on what was the reason for being on this location and their answer was the obvious “waiting for a friend”. But during the questioning, the boys noticed Mendola passing by with his car and according to their criminal mentality, they immediately concluded that he might be the one who informed the cops to arrive at the exact location.

Later, the boys called on Mendola to question him regarding his unusual appearance during the police questioning and in his defense, he said that he was taking his daughter to the doctor and that he had no knowledge regarding the cops. The boys believed him but since he was still a suspect, they forced him to come with them on their next job, which was again the Franklyn Park Bank, now planned for September 23. The boys also decided that few more people should join the heist, including DeLegge Jr., Tomaszek and Patrick Schang. From this point on, the only guy who decided to back off was John Varelli because he connected to Outfit member Nick Palermo, who in turn has forbidden for his son-in-law DeLegge Jr. to be involved in any criminal activity and Varelli thought that he might end up responsible if anything happened to Jr. Palermo was quite closely connected to legendary Outfit boss Tony Accardo and had the power to order a “hit”.


Nick Palermo


First, Mendola and D’Argento stole a car, a Chevy Impala SS, and also they have stolen different license plates. Later, the boys went to DeLegge Sr.’s garage and there they removed the back seat from the stolen car, so three guys can crouch down and be out of sight while two are driving in front. Next, DeLegge Jr.’s job was to make a prank call to the police station before the robbery and to tell them that there’s a bomb in some school, away from the bank. His father’s job was to the drive the so-called crash car, meaning he was to follow the getaway car and if a chase with cops occurred, he was to try and crash with the police patrol and later claim that he was in panic and was confused because of all the noise and excitement. Plans previously made also included the determination of a train which passed through Franklyn Park on daily basis at regularly scheduled time. So the plan was for the train to cross the main street and to assist the boys in keeping the police in one place, at least for some time.

On the exact planned date, the stage was set for the Franklyn Park Bank job and so on that same day, D’Argento, Tomaszek and Mendola met at Daddano’s bowling alley and informed the boss about their plan, besides in the end they still had to give him his share from the stolen loot, or in other words, they had to pay the Outfit’s so-called street tax. They received Daddano’s “blessing” and later were picked up by Pat Schang with the stolen getaway car. D’Argento, LaJoy and Tomaszek lied down in the back, while Schang remained on the wheel and Mendola sat right next to him. Most of the robbers were armed, like for example Tomaszek had a .38, Medola had a .25 automatic, D’Argento had a carbine and LaJoy also had a .38. When the group arrived at the bank, first they circled with their car at least twice and Schang drove into the parking lot and pulled by the front entrance of the bank and in a matter of seconds, D’Argento, Mendola, LaJoy and Tomaszek jumped out of the car with ski masks over their heads and raincoats and headed into the bank. Mendola also carried small buckets of lead weights and used them to prop open the doors. When they entered inside, Tomaszek and D’Argento started shouting at the people and workers in the bank to hit the floor and then the two of them, together with Mendola went for the loot. LaJoy took a position near the entrance of the bank and at the same time kept order among the hostages while waving his .38. He also kept count of the time during the robbery, and after two minutes, he announced that time was up and it was time for them to go and so the four burglars rushed out of the bank and went straight to the getaway car and got off.


Joe D’Argento


As expected, a Franklin Park police patrol car saw them and quickly headed directly towards them. DeLegge Jr. made the prank call to the police station and claimed that there was a bomb placed in the local high school but the good, and at the same time, rare thing was that the patrol men ignored the call because they suspected it might be a hoax and so they continued with the high-speed chase. Now it was the old man’s turn, meaning DeLegge Sr. went for the police car and tried to crash into it but there was one “small” and maybe at the same time, funny problem. The problem was that DeLegge’s so-called crash car was too slow for the police patrol car and obviously was unable to crash into it. But the good thing was that Schang was one helluva driver and so he made few quick turns and tried to lose his tail but the patrol car was still on to them. Then D’Argento got out from the rear window of the car and fired few rounds at the cops, thus forcing them to hit the breaks and lost control of their vehicle. In a state of panic, D’Argento fell against the seat, while discharging the carbine he was carrying, almost hitting one of his cohorts. Glass from the rear window flew all over the car.

Suddenly another police car passed them by and while making the turn, Schang hit the gas and headed for Rose Street to Chestnut, then quickly north to Scott Street and then west on Minneapolis to the alley between Sarah and Dora Streets, straight into the garage of DeLegge Sr.’s residence. While entering the garage, in a state of panic, Schang opened his door while the car was still moving thus completely breaking it. D’Argento, LaJoy and Schang remained in the residence but Mendola and Tomaszek fled the area through nearby yards and alleys. While running and jumping over fences, luckily the two robbers ran into Ralph Sansonetti, owner of a restaurant and one of their close friends, as he was driving around the neighborhood. They got into his car and drove off to Mendola’s residence. The robbers who remained in DeLegge Sr.’s house collected all of the coveralls, hoods and other items which were used in the robbery and destroyed them. But as they exited the residence, they were observed by an older woman from a nearby house, which made particularly LaJoy quite nervous. Few hours later, LaJoy called the old woman on the phone and threatened her in some manner, to keep her from identifying them. Sansonetti also received a threat through his daughter, who was friendly with LaJoy, to remain silent regarding the activities of the robbers and his transportation of Mendola and Tomaszek. And so, they managed to escape the law, at least for awhile.


Gerald Tomasczek


That night, all of the participants in the robbery gathered at DeLege Sr.’s new residence with the loot from the robbery but there was a problem. The boys managed to steal only $20,000, which was obviously quite small amount for such a risky operation. They were seven people involved in the robbery and top of that, they have to give Daddano’s share of the loot. The first individual that went crazy over the situation was Mendola. He swore that there was more money obtained during the robbery and that someone wasn’t telling the truth. Suddenly a very violent and noisy quarrel occurred between the boys and in the end, Mendola commented that a lie test should be given to all of them so they can determine on who was lying and stole the cash. The next day, they took the problem to Daddano, who first doubted about the whole situation but when later some of the newspapers declared that $40,000 were missing from the bank, he made up his mind. In fact, the right amount was $43,097 and so more than $20,000 were missing, an amount which would get you easily killed in the Outfit. And so Daddano was crazy enough to consider a lie test to every participant in the robbery and even though he still had doubts about making such a move. In the end, DeLegge Sr. and Jr. took $4,000, D’Argento, Tomaszek and LaJoy took also $2,000 each, as for Mendola and Schang, they didn’t take a penny because they felt disgusted about the whole situation. The rest of the stolen loot went in the hands of Daddano and the Chicago Outfit, who usually took from 30 to 40 percent of the net profits.


Four days later on September 27, out of nowhere, almost all of the participants in the robbery were arrested on bank robbing charges, including D’Argento, Tomaszcek, LaJoy and Schang. I said “almost” all of the participants because the only guy who got spared from the arrest was Mendola. In no time Daddano arranged for Rocco Montagna to bail everyone out of jail. “Schnibble Nose” as he was called, was a known bondsman and very close associate of Daddano and Chicago Outfit boss Sam Giancana. Each got out on a $50,000 bond and the arguments continued right after their release. The first two guys, who asked the questions on whether somebody in the crew was an informer or not, were John Varelli and one of Daddano’s underlings known as Emil Crovedi. The two enforcers went to see Daddano regarding the problem because if the rumor was true, then everyone was in danger. During the conversation, Varelli gave his “bet” on Mendola while Crovedi blamed LaJoy. So now all of the participants on that meeting agreed to call on the boys and investigate them.


Emil Crovedi

When they all gathered, Daddano asked them on how it was possible that the cops found out about the bank job and their whereabouts and in the end, he finished by saying that there was no way the cops could have found them so quickly unless there was an informant in the crew. The last statement has frozen the blood of everybody present in that room and so all of the crew members started blaming each other. For example, D’Argento said that it was LaJoy because he was known for having very heavy gambling debts. Also, Schang said that it was D’Argento, while LaJoy thought it was Schang, which meant that the crew was slowly breaking.


In the end, Daddano had the last word by saying that he would make arrangements for a lie detector test, and even if it was his nephew, he would take care of the problem. In no time, Daddano called his Outfit “colleague” Richard Cain and asked him if he could bring a lie detector and check the boys to see if he can detect on who was lying. Cain, still a Cook County chief investigator at the time, contacted one of his co-workers at the Sheriff office known as William Witsman to bring one lie detector. Witsman and Cain were operating a company knows as Accurate Laboratories, which performed polygraph tests for the Sheriff’s office. So, one day Witsman took one of the polygraph machines and headed for the Leyden Hotel in Melrose Park where he was requested to give lie tests to every crew member who participated in the heist. The boys were located just across the street at the Riviera Bowling Alley, waiting to join Witsman for the test. In a matter of minutes, all of the men were escorted by Rocco Montagna to the hotel room where Witsman was waiting and while walking towards the hotel, LaJoy allegedly told D’Argento that “If I don’t pass this test, Uncle Willie is going to hit me in the head.”

When they finally all gathered, before the interrogation started, Montagna placed a loaded .38 revolver over the top of the machine, just to remind the members on what was going to happen to the ones who would fail the test. It was unnecessary pressure over the crew members, because no matter who was on that chair, with just one look at the pistol and the needle on that polygraph would start jumping for sure. The test itself consisted of the ten questions to determine reaction. For example, the first two questions were something like “What is your first name?” or “What is your second name?” and after that the questions changed to “Have you ever talked to any FBI agent or police officer?”, “Were you an informer on the Franklyn Park bank robbery and did you informed the feds about it?”, or “Where’s the rest of the cash which was missing from the heist loot?”.

The first guy who took the test was LaJoy, then D’Argento and then the rest of the guys. All had past the test except for Mendola because he didn’t show up at the meeting and because of that, Daddano had a visit from LaJoy and D’Argento regarding the problem. They asked their boss to call on Mendola and to make the test, who in return assured them that this would occur. A week later Daddano made an arrangements for Mendola to show up at Montagna’s house. Witsman was again waiting in the house basement with the lie detector and story goes that at first Mendola had few problems on the test but took a second one and it was all clear. Allegedly they even made a third test, and again it was clear. But the cloud of suspicion was already over Mendola because his partner in crime LaJoy couldn’t stop creating problems. Later, LaJoy again went to see his uncle and told him that Mendola and Montagna were allegedly together in the bail bond business and that Mendola allegedly gave $10,000 to Montagna to make sure that he passed the test.

Now, in Daddano’s mind this was a huge problem because first he might’ve been swindled and Mendola got away with it and second, one of his underlings, which was again Mendola, was doing business behind his boss’ back, which was a big “no, no” in the Outfit. But Daddano missed two very important things. At first, Mendola did look guilty but he wasn’t the “rat” in the group, and he did not steal half of the stolen loot. Proof for that was the investigation which developed from the woman witness who saw the robbers at DeLegge Sr’s residence and later received a threatening phone call. Even with that that, she still had the courage and called on the cops and informed them about the situation. That is why I strongly believe that Mendola had nothing to do with the arrests. Second, Mendola did not have a private contact with the stolen loot but somebody else had. When the boys scattered after the robbery, the stolen loot remained in DeLegge Sr’s house for a while and then DeLegge Jr. took it to his girlfriend’s house, which was allegedly a safer location. But my opinion is that the young pair couldn’t resist the big amount of cash which was right before their eyes, could not remain calm, meaning DeLegge Jr. and his girlfriend Jeanette Fitzpatrick probably stole half of the loot.

But the saddest thing was that eventually, guilty or not, Daddano asked for permission from his bosses to take care of the Mendola problem and they gladly approved it. On August 31, 1964, Guy Mendola parked his car alongside his wife’s auto in his home garage behind a three-flat building in which he resided at 1554 N. 43 rd. Stone Park. When he got out of a car, unexpectedly an unknown man with a ski mask blew away Mendola with five shotgun blasts. Since he was the known crime boss of that area, Rocco Pranno became the main suspect in Mendola’s killing. The next day he was arrested at his headquarters which was the Robert’s Lounge at 1800 Manheim Road in Stone Park. The funny thing was that Richard Cain took over the Mendola and the Franklin bank job cases, meaning he was the one to question Pranno. Cain was forced to bring in Pranno because three months before Mendola’s demise, the crime boss again gave a beating to the victim in a dispute over money from pin ball routes in Kane County. When Chief Investigator Cain asked Pranno on why he administered the beating over Mendola, the suspect simply replied “I didn’t want those kind of people hanging around in my joint”, and so Cain gladly accepted the answer. Cain allegedly also did some tests which revealed that Pranno had not fired any guns recently and so he was free to go. Rumors were that Outfit hitman and member of the Grand Avenue crew, Tony “The Ant” Spilotro was allegedly the actual “contractor” on Mendola’s life, but he was never arrested nor questioned regarding the case. Thanks to Cain, both cases were “on hold”, meaning the Franklyn Park job and the Mendola situation.


Rocco Pranno


Cain acted as an honest cop but in reality, he was a devious ruthless criminal. He reported directly to Sam Giancana, and if not available, then he reported to 1st Ward secretary and also member of the Outfit, Pat Marcy. At the time, Cain was quite powerful member of the organization with shady government connections and electronic surveillance skills but he also took a cut from gambling profits and the narcotics trade. One day, Cain became involved in the masterminding of a burglary scheme from the famous Zahn Drug Company which was located in Melrose Park. It was big score because the company received one quite expensive shipment of drugs, or in other words, half a million worth of medical merchandise. Cain’s partners in the scheme were Rocco Pranno and also associates of the Fiore Buccieri crew which also originated from around the West Side. But later or by December, 1964 all of the indicted in the Zahn robbery case were sentenced to jail from 2 to 5 years prison terms. Cain was discharged from the Sheriff’s office and was sentenced to three years in prison, but Cain’s sentence was subsequently overturned by the Illinois Supreme Court and he walked free, but not for long.


Richard Cain

During the mid 1960’s, the so-called West Side burglary crew still ran wild all over Chicago and since most of the members were out on bond and some kept low profile, other prominent Outfit members from the same area decided to enter the robbing venture. One of those members was Grand Avenue big shot Rocco Salvatore who in turn allegedly orchestrated the jobs on the National Tea Store on West Madison Street and also the Armored Express at North Riverside. Salvatore allegedly brought several new guys into the mix, including Joey Lombardo, Mario DeAngelis, Frank DeRosa, Guy Cervone, John DeMaria and Tony Scudiero. This crew was very active during this period and was also loaded with cash which was kicked up straight to the bosses. Story goes that with the help of a police contact, Salvatore frequently checked just to see if any government heat was placed on his burglary crew.


Rocco Salvatore

But Daddano had higher stature then Salvatore within the Outfit’s Italian brotherhood and so his word came first when it came down to the burglary business. Daddano and Varelli and one associate of the Buccieri crew, Rocco Infelise, gathered another crew of hijackers and robbers, including John Borsellino, Albert Cardenas, Max Heckmyer, Angelo Boscarino and Thomas Bambulas. Again, some of these guys worked as enforcers or collectors for the Outfit, such as Cardenas who was a long time collector in the coin machine and loan sharking businesses for Daddano around Kane County. Also, Heckmyer and Varelli together operated a very lucrative semi-legal operation known as the Newport Construction Company. It was the time when the Chicago crime syndicate was on the downfall because of the many government attacks and indictments and so there was no time for fooling around, meaning no more moves such as the Franklyn Park job. That’s why Daddano, Pranno and Infelise picked more lucrative targets such as the Brink's Incorporated U.S. or the Spector Freight System Inc. and Interstate Motor Inc.


Max Heckmyer


One of the crew’s key individuals in the operation was Borsellino who in fact was usually the “inside guy” at the security service companies such as the Spector Freight System Inc. where he spotted the valuable loads for the gang. The rest of the gang such as Cardenas, Boscarino and Bambulas acted as getaway drivers, hijackers and kidnappers. Also, other criminals from nearby territories which included in the operation were Emil Crovedi who headed the old Franklyn Park group which by now was formed by Tony Legato, Frank Gallo, John Ziad and Joe Rossi. Other criminals of higher stature involved in the operation included Morris Saletko aka Maish Baer who was a known loan shark around the First Ward area, or Roy Nielsen from the South Side, who controlled a multi-million dollar counterfeit ring or even Kenneth Bratko, close associate of Outfit member from the Grand Avenue crew, Marshall Caifano, in the insurance fraud business. In just one year the crew managed to rob almost dozen armored trucks and stole almost $3,000,000 worth of merchandise.


For example, one of the thefts occurred on June 17, 1964, when the boys intercepted a quite lucrative intestate shipment from various consignors in the New York area which was filled with very expensive Peruvian art objects. Since many of the objects were very unique, the robbers such as DeLegge Sr. and D’Argento decided to keep them for themselves. But the boys really hit the spot when on August 24, 1964, they managed to intercept a $350,000 shipment of 500 boxes of cameras, photographic material and film, which belonged to the Polaroid corporation. But I want to share some information on another particular heist which occurred on December 28, 1964, when a Brink’s truck was making its last pickup at a Catholic Church rectory in Norridge, Illinois. While the guards from the truck were greeted by two priests, suddenly three masked men with guns tied up everyone, including the guard who was driving the truck after being tricked in opening the door. There was more than $150,000 stolen in this robbery and the main participants were D’Agento, LaJoy, Tomaszek and DeLegge Jr.

From the scene of the crime, the robbers fled straight to the house of one of Spilotro’s associates Frank Cullotta, who in turn helped the boys in counting the money in his basement and later providing them with a getaway car. But like any other “normal” criminals, some of the boys such as Cullotta and DeLegge Jr. started buying new and quite expensive cars obviously with the help of the stolen loot, which brought some attention from the cops. Some members of the local police department decided to play dirty by “inventing” a witness against D’Argento regarding the heist. So D’Argento decided to call one Outfit lawyer and fixer known as George Bieber, who in turn realized that this was pure shakedown made by law enforcement officials. Bieber decided to contact the crooked cops and made a deal in which they had to make the main witness fail to identify D’Argento who in turn had to pay the cops $10,000 for their “favor”. Obviously D’Argento didn’t have the money right away so Bieber helped him out by lending him the whole amount, thus making him a loan shark victim because that’s how things go in the underworld.


Another quite lucrative robbery occurred on April 19, 1965, when a truckload of 23,000 pounds of silver and silver alloy which was valued over $250,000 and belonged to the Handy and Harmon company, was taken from an Interstate Motor Freight depot in Cicero. Also on May 7, 1965, the boys intercepted a Spector Freight truck on Eisenhower expressway in Hillside, and managed to getaway with 646 bars of dore bullion, valued over $350,000. This lucrative shipment belonged to the International Smelting and Refining Company in New Jersey. Also, on October 7, 1965, another truckload of 20,000 pounds of silver bars which was valued almost $400,000; was again taken from the Spector Freight Company when few of the boys, kidnapped the driver of the truck, while he made a stop at a plaza on the Indiana toll road near La Grange. The robbers took the driver along for a ride and released him somewhere around Shabbona in De Kalb County. This also quite lucrative shipment belonged to the Kennecott Copper Corporation from Utah but who also had offices in Newark, New Jersey. Since many of the robberies occurred so often, some of the damaged firms decided to sue the security companies who failed to deliver the goods, who in turn constantly complained to the FBI.


So the gang managed to form a huge so-called “burglary net” around the Chicago area which involved stealing and re-selling valuable merchandise, and again Daddano was on top of it. But the thing was that this so-called “net” didn’t end up in Illinois but it went all the way to the east coast. You see, it was sometimes hard for Daddano and the rest of the gang to get rid of the quite expensive stolen merchandise in no time, so the crime boss asked for some help from one of his cohorts in the New York Mafia from the Staten Island area, known as Michael D'Alessio a.k.a. Mickey Dee, alleged associate of one of New York’s crime families. During this period the Gambinos, Genoveses and the Luccheses were closely allied with the Chicago Outfit and Sam Giancana and so, D'Alessio gladly helped Daddano in disposing most of the stolen merchandise around the east coast with the help of his underworld contacts. Another of Daddano’s Gambino contacts was John “Scootch” Indelicato, a guy who was mostly based in the Florida area and was in constant contact with the Outfit. In other words, none of the stolen loot has ever been recovered.

But usually when most things in life go on the up and up, trouble always lurks from around the corner. On October 25, 1965, out of nowhere, the feds arrested Patrick Schang, who still awaited trial for the Franklyn Park job, Dan Bambulas and one Richard Frederick, for their alleged involvement in the silver hijackings, especially for the one which occurred back on October 7th. From this point on, the situation became quite paranoid and above all, quite deadly. Now the obvious thing was that someone was talking to the feds and was feeding them information regarding the robberies but the main question was on whether that particular informant was outside the group or within the group. Because of questions such as this one, many criminals, innocent or not, lost their lives under the clouds of suspicion.


Dan Bambulas


All of the arrested were placed in custody at the county jail where few quite “interesting” situations occurred. While Schang sat in his prison cell, right across sat the boss himself, meaning Sam Giancana. He was in custody on another charge and his cell companion was none other than Paul Panczko, the gang’s former leader. Panczko fed Giancana’s mind that the informer they are looking for, might be right across them, meaning Schang. So Giancana with the help of his contacts with the prison guards, was able to obtain Schang’s personal letters and was reading them on weekly basis. Schang was very upset for being locked in jail because he was no fool and had the ability to feel the pressure from across his cell. He constantly wrote letters to his wife in which he stated that he was very sorry for being in jail, and that he felt responsible for the whole situation, but he also stated that the guy who ratted on him might’ve been Angelo Boscarino.

When Giancana’s eyes came across the words in the letter, his face went red and immediately called one of the guards and told him to call one of his lackeys known as Dominick Blasi. When Blasi came into the prison cell, Panczko was asked to leave but everybody knew on what was the point behind Blasi’s urgent visit. Giancana had a reason to be mad because he had previous info that Boscarino mingled with some people who knew things about the organization, which presented a danger. And so, on November 24, 1965, Angelo Boscarino was found slain in gutter on the city’s Southwest Side. He was stabbed in the throat multiple times with an icepick and had fractured skull, followed by a quite deep cut on his chin. There were also marks on his wrists and ankles which indicated that he had been trussed with rope before he was killed. In the end the killer carefully took everything from Boscarino’s pockets as he was looking for something, except for the victim’s driver license which he left intentionally.


Angelo Boscarino

Schang overheard something about the bad news over the radio the next day, but the problem was that the radio was in some other prison cell far away and so he wasn’t sure on what he really heard. So instead, he asked Panczko and Giancana if they could throw him the newspaper so he can read it and see if the information was true. But Giancana acted as he never heard anything, and the same act was made by Panczko, too. That’s when Schang realized that Giancana gave the order on Boscarino. Later, the cops received information that another crew member and also Outfit enforcer, John Borsellino was in fact the one who executed Boscarino but one way or another, in the end Borsellino was free to go since the cops acted on an “anonymous” phone call. I personally believe that Borsellino might’ve been the killer since during that period the FBI listed him as one of Giancana’s personal enforcers.

In Giancana’s mind, he thought or in other words, he hoped that he solved the problem because if not, the situation might get even more unstable. And that’s what really happened. To make things worse, the next month Schang, LaJoy, D'Argento, and Tomaszek stood trial for the bank robbery in Franklyn Park which occurred back in 1963, and they all got convicted and each of them was sentenced from 10 to 15 years in jail. After this, Giancana’s paranoia was greater than ever because he did not trust any of the convicted burglars since all of them received long prison terms. And just like that, Giancana gave the “contract” on Schang to the “newcomer” D’Argento who in turn had to prove his loyalty towards the crime syndicate. D’Argento wasn’t a murderer and he wasn’t planning to become one either but the problem was that he started receiving threats from members of the Outfit that they would kill him and his family if he doesn’t take the job. One day during lunch time, D’Argento told Schang that they should meet in the Cook County jail chapel to talk some urgent business. But the thing was that Schang was no fool and after finishing his meal, he went straight to his cell and never got out, which obviously made D’Argento unable to finish his task. Story goes that after the failure, D’Argento’s fellow inmates, acting on Outfit orders, had attempted three times to take his life and so he was quickly whisked from the prison in Kansas under heavy guard and was lodged temporarily in the lockup of the Federal building in Chicago.

This is the point where most of the big time criminals make their fatal mistakes, meaning sometimes they push people to the point where they no longer care about anything. Like for example, with the help of Giancana’s paranoia, the Outfit has created two unnecessary problems, meaning they created two potential informers. Both Schang and D’Argento were forced to make their final decisions by running straight into the arms of the feds. Schang was the first to “sing” and that is why, suddenly in April, 1966, the feds arrested all 18 men who were allegedly involved in the silver burglary ring, including Daddano, Infelise, Varelli, and the rest of the Chicago crew, and also New York mobster Mike D’Alessio who was arrested in a Staten Island restaurant. Most of the men were rounded up in a series of pre-dawn raids by federal agents who acted on warrants who were secretly issued. I say “secretly” because at the time, the Chicago Outfit was still deeply involved in the city’s everyday politics, police force and judicial system.


Rocky Infelise

This attack which was made by the feds was regarded as one of the largest moves against members of the Outfit who masterminded operations of professional bands of hijackers and burglars. Also, in the indictment Daddano was named as the key figure behind the whole operation, who was arrested in front of his home as he returned from an exciting night with his mistress. Daddano was on trial for conspiracy and masterminding the hijackings and burglaries but in the end, all of the defendants were found guilty and got convicted except for the “untouchable” Daddano and his east coast business partner D’Alessio. They were acquitted on all charges by the jury that involved the theft of the silver because the prosecutors couldn’t connect them directly to the crime and so the mobsters walked free.


Willie Daddano

But the battle was far from over since the FBI had one more ace up its sleeve. On October 15, 1967, D’Argento decided to spill the beans also in order to save his family and also his own life. The Outfit continued to send deadly messages to D’Argento’s family but when he decided to cooperate, the feds immediately relocated his wife and kids to a safer place. So now the government had two good reasons to place Daddano in jail but that wasn’t the end. Later that year, with the help of Schang and D’Argento, the feds again indicted Daddano, but this time they charged him for the Franklin Park bank job. Since the trial went under a review, which occurred in September 1968, one other crew member decided to cooperate just to save his own skin. Mike LaJoy also decided to cooperate with the feds against his own uncle, who didn’t give two bits about his own nephew and so in a record time, all of Daddano’s associates including Richard Cain, Rocco Montagna, John Varelli, Frank Sr. and Frank Jr. DeLegge were indicted on the same charges.

By the end of the year, during the preliminary court hearing regarding the bank robbery, word got out that Varelli tried to hang himself in his prison cell but luckily, he failed. When he entered the court room he was all stressed up, with his eyes wide open, while whispering nonsense. Suddenly, Varelli pulled out a razor blade and tried to cut his neck. I’m not sure if Varelli only made an act just to fool everybody in the courtroom, but if he did than his trick really worked because the judge declared him incompetent to stand trial and sent him to medical prison in Springfield. After that, during the trial another quite funny moment occurred and that was Cain’s act as his own lawyer. Story goes that Cain couldn’t afford a good lawyer because one year before the trial, Cain had problems with his stature within the Chicago Outfit and his profits from the illegal schemes became limited. But even with his act as man of the law, Cain still failed to accomplish his plan because he and the rest of the defendants were destroyed by the prosecutors and their star witnesses such as Schang, D’Argento and LaJoy and also Mrs. Dorothy Sampson. She was the last witness during the trail, by being Frank DeLegge’s neighbor, and she said that at the day when the bank job occurred, she heard squealing of auto tires and she went out and saw three men run from DeLegge’s house. When she asked DeLegge Sr. who were those men, he told her that they were real estate agents, an answer she hardly believed in. So, after her testimony and the jury’s decision, the judge asked for the defendants to rise. Daddano on purpose came to court dressed as a bum, which was in his way showing disregard towards the law, and stood proudly in front of the judge with his hands in his pockets, while waiting for his sentencing.


The judge sentenced William Daddano to 15 years in prison and a fine of $13,000. The old mobster took his sentencing like a real man and while leaving the court room, he waved and smiled at the present people. Richard Cain received 4 years and a fine of $15,000, Rocco Montagna received 3 years, DeLegge Sr. also received 15 years and Junior received 7 years in prison and a $5,000 fine. Obviously, the government thought that their participation was equally meaningful and important, thus making the DeLegges punishable same as the rest of defendants. In return for such a flawless victory, the government introduced their witnesses to the witness protection program and on top of that, the government has given money to the families of LaJoy, Schang and D'Argento in return for the information received.

Thanks to their testimonies, the government managed to re-open many old cases and also to deny many appeals. Like for example, in March, 1969, five members of the gang, who had been convicted as being members of the silver hijacking ring and who won new trials from the United States court of appeals, all were re-indicted and convicted. All of the men were top echelon criminals such as John Varelli, John Borsellino, Thomas Bambulas, Max Heckmnyer and Albert Cardenas. The government managed to convict all of the defendants on one conspiracy charge rather than several. Also on July 8, 1969, Richard Cain again returned to court to face perjury charges in the Zahn Drug Company robbery in Melrose Park. Cain has discovered that his former colleague Bill Witsman was talking to the feds and that he testified against his former chief, which was Cain, who had given him a list of the questions, told him to go to a motel, then give the polygraph tests to men who would be produced by another man who he would meet there, not to interpret the charts, but to give them to that same man. Witsman also testified that he telephoned Cain and he told him not to worry about the charts because he had flushed them down the toilet. In the end, with no other choice, Cain decided to plead guilty and was sentenced to additional six months in prison.

In December, 1969, Varelli was declared incompetent to stand trail and was placed in a medical prison. I don’t know if the government had anything to do with it, but later Varelli’s psychiatrist Dr. Glotfelty suddenly changed his story and reported that his patient was quite competent to stand trial and was capable of understanding the charges against him. During the hearing on January 2, 1970, Varelli again made an appearance by showing up with a long beard, while continuously shaking. And he again pulled out a razor blade but this time he managed to slice his wrists and spray blood all over the courtroom. He decided to pull the stunt when the chief psychiatrist testified that the defendant was capable of understand everything. Two deputy marshals leaped up and wrestled the blade from Varelli and after that they took him to the marshal’s lockup where his wrists were treated and bandaged. Later, Varelli was sentenced to serve his 15 years in prison.

While in jail, most of the Outfit members easily adjusted in that kind of ambient because most of them already spent some time during their criminal careers. But the situation was different for Cain since he previously worked for Sheriff’s office and to keep his job or his image as an honest cop, he had to place more than few guys, guilty or not, in jail. So now Cain also had more than few enemies at the Cook County prison but the good thing was that some of his Outfit peers were also imprisoned and so he had the backup. Story goes that Cain had a problem with one African-American inmate, and while in the prison yard, the inmate approached Cain and tried to provoke him but suddenly Daddano showed up and the inmate backed off and never tried to bother Cain ever again.


Old man Daddano

Following the imprisonments of Daddano, Cain and the rest of the crew members, the so-called burglary group was completely destroyed. By “destroyed” I don’t mean disbanded, but instead some of them died in jail and the others were killed. For example, Cain was released from prison on October 20, 1971, but two years later he was shot in the head with two shotgun blasts. Also, while serving his prison term at the Marion, Illinois, federal penitentiary, on September 9, 1975, Willie Daddano died of heart failure in his prison cell. Story goes that he couldn’t take the killing of his boss Sam Giancana which occurred 3 months before his death. On January 20, 1976, only a year as he was paroled from prison, Frank DeLegge Jr. vanished from the face of the earth and two days later, his frozen throat-slashed body was found in a ditch in Elmhurst. Story goes that he was killed because of the money that he allegedly stole from the Franklyn Park job because the Outfit never forgets. There’s also another version of the story and that is DeLegge Sr.’s huge gambling debts. Story goes that Junior vouched for his father but the problem was that Sr. never managed to payback and so in the world of the Mafia, the one who vouch for another individual is responsible for the actions of that same individual. There’s even a third version regarding the reason for DeLegge Jr.’s slaying, and that was his violent style towards his wife who, as I previously stated, was in fact Nick Palermo’s daughter. After the murder of DeLegge Jr., Palermo immediately sold the DeLegge house and bought his daughter a new apartment.

As time passed by, many stories and legends started spreading all around the “Windy City” about the group’s alleged hidden treasures. For example, one legend goes that the late Daddano liked to keep several locations in Cook County as hiding spots for the stolen merchandise that he collected during his criminal career, and he was also known to rent barns from farmers where he allegedly kept some of his stolen goods. Since Daddano also worked as a “fence” for the burglary crews, he always had to keep large empty spaces to stash the stolen merchandise.

During the following decades, the Mafia’s involvement in the burglary business has become a huge problem not just in Chicago, but instead all around the country. The thing is that there was some type of “evolution” of the professional burglars at the time, by being more sophisticated and began stealing only cash, such as in Chicago’s infamous Purolator Heist or New York’s so-called Lufthansa heist. Also, by stealing cash only, the burglars didn’t need to get involved with the so-called fences, who were mostly associated with organized crime figures but by the end of the day, many of them still weren’t able to escape the Outfit’s “clutches” and continued to pay tribute to Chicago’s number one crime syndicate.

Cheers

Also, theres this pic from 1967 that is floating around the internet for years labelled as "Daddano Sr", but the reality is that its obviously not him but instead it might be his son Daddano Jr since he was arrested that same year...

Something about Junior from 1967....

Willie's daughter Mary was also arrested years ago for being a bookie. The Daddono family has a lot of money through Century Trade Show Services, which has been in their family since the Willie Potatoes muscled the previous owner out of the business in the 1950s.

Your info regarding the "new" era is always priceless @Chi, but Im not sure if we are confusing some details, meaning I have information from one 2014 investigative report that Daddano Jr. through his SISTER'S name Mary, acquired all kinds of contracts in different places around the Melrose Park area. Maybe we are talking about two different Mary, one being sister and other as daughter...just my two cents

...btw heres one article from May 1967, regarding Daddano's case but also has one of my favorite pics of Paul Ricca....

TD you would know better than me you are the expert pal and all these old article and insights you post always make my day.

I know Bill Jr and his son (Bill III) are definitely not 'made guys' but they are actively kicking in today and their contracts are likely benefitting other Outfit businesses and making money for people. A lot of the Potatoes Daddono-era gangsters left million dollar businesses to their kids - I've learned through personal connections many of the kids are still paying someone today. The Outfit won't hesitate to go after kids and its happened to the kids of Ricca, Prio, Amato, Torello and others. Ironically, it was Nick Boscarino (son of Angelo mentioned above) who extorted the kids of Tony Borsellino and that case is still active today: https://casetext.com/case/boscarino-v-borsellino-in-re-borsellino

Thanks for the compliment buddy, and same respect goes to you, too. In fact, you helped me many times in the past regarding specific info and I also think that you once gave me the idea and general info on the Outfits AZ crews, and Ill never forget that bud.

Regarding Wllie Jr, I always wondered if he was ever made since he brought a lot if money for the organization, but same as you, my senses are telling that he probably wasnt. Who knows, maybe the EP and Grand crews liked to keep him that way, so Jr can stay clean in the eyes of the public and his business partners and possibly his political connections?!

Also thanks for the additional info on the Daddanos probably still kicking up percentege, and also for the Boscarino case. Yes, since the old days some of these guys were known for extorting families of deceased members. Even non-Italian leaders like Gus Alex and even Lenny Patrick did the same stuff, like Alex allegedly extorting Guzik's kids after the death of the old man. Although, on the other hand, they also helped many families.

....btw heres what the government thought about Daddano Jr's statutus within the Outfit in 2001...

From 1975....

I previously tried to edit my first post so I can place a photo of one half of the Brodkin/Bieber duo, but Im not able to do it and I dont know why, so here's a pic of one of the Outfit's most important "connection guys" and lawyers known as George Bieber...

.

One interesting article regarding Daddano from 1950....

Here's one even older article regarding Daddano from 1944, and also regarding John "Donkey Ears" Wolek. Besides Daddano, Wolek was also very close associate and close friend of "Teets" Battaglia.

Daddano being arrested by the cops back in 1944...

Daddano sponsoring Eldorado in 1956....