Milton Av, W Fulton St and W Washington Blvd

August Morici (owner of a wholesale bakery and grocery store on Milton Av)

Antonio Morici (owner of a macaroni manufacturing company on Fulton St)

Philip Morici

-Joseph Gagliardo (business agent for Local 233 Hod Carrier’s union)

-John Gagliardo (killed in September 1919)

-Joseph Novello (enforcer)

-Peter Montalbano

-Tony Campagna

-Giovanni Scardini

-Giuseppe Matalone

There were more than few Morici clans located on Chicago’s Northwest Side, including the previous Morici brothers that we already mentioned and we don’t know if they were related to the following Morici bros, mainly because Joe and Frank Morici came from Termini Imerese while the second guys came from Bagheria, Sicily which is only like 25km from Termini. So it could be possible for some connections between these different Moricis from back in Sicily, but there's no evidence one way or the other aside from them all being involved in the Mafia in Chicago, and as well as the fact that both Morici families were big in the grocery/wholesale business, followed by arson and fraud.

Antonio, Agostino and Filippo Morici posed as wealthy businessmen who by 1912 owned the Antonio & Co. wholesale bakery and grocery store at 906 Milton Av, and also sold imported Italian products. The brothers also owned a macaroni manufacturing company on 1622 Fulton St. It was quite possible that the Moricis were sometimes victims of “Black Hand” attacks, same as any other Mafioso and Camorrista, and so they donated money and were probably members of the “White Hand” society. The problem was that the brothers often used these threats to destroy their own establishments and later to collect the insurance.

Their associates the Gagliardo brothers, John and Joseph, followed similar path like for example, Joseph became a business agent for the Hod Carrier’s and Building Laborer’s union while John owned a wholesale grocery store at 921 W Randolph St. John Gagliardo was a friend of state’s attorney Steve Malato and often gave him information regarding reckless Black Hand gangsters who opposed the Mafia and any other organization. Another of Gagliardo’s connection in the state’s attorney’s office was one Charles Furthmann who in turn was an investigator that took bribes from Gagliardo in return for information regarding arson investigations on him and the rest of the Morici clan.

In 1913, both the Morici and Gagliardo brothers were indicted on arson and fraud charges and later they were released on $100,000 bond (or two and a half million dollars in today’s money), amount of money which speaks a lot regarding these fellas. Eventually the case was dropped because it involved members from the state’s attorney office and so the brothers continued to flourish in their rackets. We dont have any direct connections between the Moricis and the Zagone or Dispenza regimes, but we believe that they were connected to the D’Andrea organization through the Spingola and Genna families.

The brothers also controlled their own gang which was led by one of their lieutenants Joseph Novello followed by young criminals such as Tony Campagna, Peter Montalbano and others. In 1915, Novello had a shootout with the cops and was later caught and arrested, and was sentenced from 1 to 14 years in Joliet penitentiary. With the help from the Morici bros and their influence within Chicago judicial system, Novello was paroled to work in the Rock Island arsenal and was later released. Story goes that Novello had a very fearsome reputation and also had connections to various gangs such as the Gloriana crew.

All of the problems for the Morici and Gagliardo bros started in May 1917 when a general strike occurred, which included almost 200 macaroni workers from the Chicago Macaroni union against ten macaroni manufacturers including the Morici bros. Another strike occurred few months later and this time there were around 800 macaroni workers who quit their jobs.

The most serious problem for the brothers began in 1919 when some of their underlings and enforcers such as Novello and Montalbano thought that they didn’t receive enough profits or cash from their “employers” and so they decided to go against them. In fact, at first Novello tried to separate the Gagliardos from the Moricis, by making a visit to John Gagliardo and told him that they were sent by the Morici clan to extort $1000 from them. Montalbano also told Gagliardo that if they don’t pay, the Moricis allegedly ordered for them to be eliminated.

The Gagliardos didn’t believe the story and so they went to the Moricis and reached an understanding. So from that point on, the Novello gang targeted both the Morici and Gagliardo families and during that same year, there were several murder attempts made on their lived and first victim was John Gagliardo who was killed in September 1919.

The Moricis tried to use their contacts in state’s attorney’s office and so Novello and Montalbano were both arrested but during the investigations, the Moricis stuck to code of “omerta”, meaning they didn’t say a thing against their enemies. It seems that the Moricis wanted to settle the problem without their testimony but the problem was that they also gave many conflicting infos and so the case was dropped. Some sources say that after that, the Novello/Montalbano/Campagna alliance took control over the areas that were previously controlled by the Moricis and Gagliardos. Proof for that is that by 1920, the Morici bros began to invest most of their wealth into real estate along W Washington Blvd, like for example that same year, one of Moricis employees was crushed by an elevator in one of the their buildings on 652 W Washington.


W Oak St, Milton Av, North Cambridge Av and N Larrabee St, Near North Side

Charles Gloriana (leader of the gang)

-Carlo Moretti

-Frank Moretti

-Frank Giardinello

-Mike Lisciandrello

-Dominick Nuccio

-Victor Rizzo

-Carlo Patello

-Jack Cali

-Mike O’Malley

-Joseph Green

-George Connell

-Joseph Colo

-Carl Colo

-August Urbanowicz (killed in 1919)

It is possible that the so-called Gloriana gang was a “product” or at least closely associated with the old Morici/Novello clan from the Near North Side, and it is possible they were created sometime during the mid or late 1910’s. The gang was composed mainly out of young criminals from 15 to 25 years old and they represented some type of muscle for hire or farm team for some of Chicago’s most prominent organized crime syndicates such as the Mafia from the 18th and 19th wards, and also some of the Mainlanders from the South Side. Once, deputy police commissioner John Alcock described the Gloriana gang as the most dangerous band of criminals ever to infest Chicago.

The alleged leader of the group was Vincenzo "Charles" Gloriana who was from Palazzo Adriano Sicily, and was born in 1895. Gloriana specialized in various rackets from stealing cars and robberies, to extortion and murder. Gloriana lived at 1101 Townsend St (today North Hudson Av) and story goes that his prime lieutenant was one Carlo Moretti who in turn came from North Sedgwick St and it is possible that they both headed the crew at the same time, mainly because they were almost the same age with Moretti being the older one. Sources say that Gloriana oversaw one part of the group that operated between Oak St and the river, while Moretti oversaw the other half that operated mostly north of Oak St and was also closely associated with other gangs and crime syndicates.

One of their close associates was Dominick Nuccio who came from North Cambridge Av and specialized in robberies and sometimes also acted as driver for the crew, but he was also suspect in several murders. One news reporter at the time also labeled him as leader of the Gloriana gang, which is another proof regarding the confusion on who really controlled the group. Mike Lisciandrello was from Milton Av and was a grocer who in reality was the crew’s fencer of stolen goods with more than few underworld contacts. One of Lisciandrello’s neighbors and also member of the gang was Frank Giardinello who also had quite long arrest record and was suspect in few murders, same as the Colo bros Joseph and Carlo.

Even though the group was mostly made out of Italian members, still they also had few non-Italians in their ranks such as Mike O’Malley, Joseph Green and George Connell. For example, O’Malley was close friend of both Gloriana and Moretti, while Green joined the gang after his return from World War I and possibly had the needed skills and on top of that, one of Green’s childhood friends was another gang leader from the South Side known as Paddy Ryan who in turn was also closely connected to the Valley gang. Other members of the Gloriana group were Victor Rizzo, Carlo Patello and Jack Cali.

During April, May and June 1919, the gang allegedly executed around 30 robberies and holdups and their favorite were the liquor stores. In two months, over 20 liquor stores were robbed with the doors being shattered, safes cracked, and numerous barrels of beer and cases of whiskey and wine being stolen, and in fact the government even organized a special detective squad to go after these guys.

In May 1919, Gloriana, O’Malley and Patello were sent to 60 days in jail on vagrancy charges and story goes that the judge overlooked many evidences that were given by the prosecutors and even showed his sympathy towards Gloriana, which means that the case was obviously fixed and the criminals should’ve received higher penalty. In June, Moretti was also arrested and sent to court no robbery charges but he was also released, followed by O’Malley who was indicted on three burglary charges and managed to furnish $15,000 bond. Another crew member, Victor Rizzo, was also arrested on similar charges and came up with $30,000 bond. This means that the gang had some type of protection and funds to go free every time they did something wrong.

On September 8, 1919, Morici associates John Gagliardo and Charles Ramondo were allegedly killed by members of the Gloriana crew, possibly by Frank Giardinello and Mike Lisciandrello since the murder occurred near Giardinello’s home on Milton Av. The murders were ordered by Joe Novello who turned against the Morici clan. On October 3 that same year, two detectives George Burns and Bernard Lenehan were shot to death in one saloon on the North Side and some detectives suspected that the Gloriana gang was behind it but they had no evidences to prove it. On October 15, the ganged robbed the Downey-Farrell company at 509 N Union St and killed the company’s secretary Merl Bucker during the process. In fact, Bucker was also a payroll guard who protected the firm’s money but obviously failed.

The main problem was that one crew member, Joe Green, was arrested during one robbery and later he began to talk and so the first one who got arrested was Moretti, followed by Gloriana, O’Malley, Connell and Rizzo. Green informed that the gang made around $15,000 (more than $200,000 in today’s money) in six weeks and that he received around $1,500. The gang’s usual lawyer and bondsman was Rocco DeStefano, precinct captain in the 19th Ward for Mafia boss Tony D’Andrea and also close friend and associate of South Side boss Jim Colosimo. So when the leadership of the gang got imprisoned, DeStefano was the first one who rushed to the court and asked for writs of habeas corpus but the proposal was refused.

When the trial came, Green refused to testify and switched his story and so he was beaten and threatened by the detectives and he was even brought in front of Gloriana and Moretti but stated that he didn’t know them. DeStefano also brought in many witnesses regarding the gangsters’ alibis, including missionaries, physicians and businessmen. The prosecutors managed to destroy every possible alibi that was given by the alleged witnesses and in reality they almost won the case but in January 1920, some of the defendants like the Morettis, Rizzo, Patello and Connell were released on bonds when another writ of habeas corpus was posted and this time the judge accepted it, while Gloriana remained in jail.

All of the bonds combined were around $60,000 or more than 700,000 dollars in today's money. Eventually it was declared that all of the evidences were insufficient and that the witnesses were not positive enough for the identifications for the case to stick and in the end, that same case was dismissed and both Gloriana and Moretti walked out free.

In June 1920, Nuccio was questioned regarding the murder of one alleged “Black Hand” leader known as Paul Torina from the Near North Side. The hit was so brutal because the victim was shot three times in the chest, once in the neck, one in the forehead and once in the abdomen. Sources say that the late Torina recently arrived from Pittsburgh to Chicago and quickly became known as extortionist and bootlegger and when he got killed, investigators also found some letters in his pockets and one of them allegedly implicated Torina as being a member of a bootlegging gang back in Pittsburgh.

So we are not sure if the so-called Gloriana gang was killing these suspicious guys on someone’s orders or if they did it on their own, but one thing is for sure that they had skills in thwarting the law and on how to make illegal money. Another interesting thing to note is that the Gloriana gang also placed the foundations for the future North Side crew under the up and coming Chicago Outfit.


Thanks.