Again as I promised in my previous conversation with our board member @I_Sell_Dem_Tomatoes, here's the Alex/Genovese article. Enjoy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As I already mentioned in one of my previous articles regarding Fred Bruno Barbara, his grandfather Bruno Roti Sr. controlled his own crew which was allegedly formed by his two brothers, followed by Frank Ferraro, Gus and Sam Alex, Frank and Morris Caruso, Pat Marcy, John D'Arco, Fred Roti, Louis Tornabene, Louis Briatta, Louis Arger, Charlie Bertucci, Nick Kokenes and others. During the internal conflict between the Outfit's top leader Paul Ricca and boss Tony Accardo, story goes that Roti Sr. was on the losing side under Accardo and so it is quite possible that by 1956 he relinquished his position or maybe was even demoted as boss of the South Side, mainly because we have one of his underlings Frank Ferraro being present on a meeting that same year regarding the election of the new boss Sam Giancana which means that Ferraro might've taken Roti Sr.'s position as leader of the South Side faction for a short time period.

According to sources, in 1957 Giancana was allegedly recognized as Chicago's new representative by the national American Mafia commission with Ferraro as his number two guy or underboss. That same year Roti Sr. died of natural causes or a heart attack, possibly caused by the previous problems and pressure, and so reports say that his son-in-law Frank Caruso inherited Roti Sr.'s position as capo of the Chinatown area. But according to some informants Caruso allegedly didnt have the brains for business and control like his predecessor and so he and his crew were overseen by the new underboss Ferraro and his close associate and fellow leader Gus Alex. It was reported that the members who worked under Ferraro, also worked for Alex in the same manner.

According to all of the previous info, there was the Caruso Chinatown crew and also another "sub-crew" which had nothing to do with the Caruso groups but was again overseen by Ferraro and Alex. In fact when Ferraro became the number two guy for the whole organization, he was responsible for all the crews including his own. That's why Ferraro placed Alex as his "voice" and overseer of the Loop area, First Ward and whole Near South Side, including Caruso's crew.

This is a story regarding Alex and one of his underlings who almost started a conflict between the Chicago syndicate and their "cousins" the Genovese family from New York.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Luigi "Louis" Roland Tornabene was born in 1913 in Chicago to Giulio Tornabene and Rosalia Badalamenti, who in turn both arrived from Italy. At first they lived in an apartment on Chicago's North Side but later transferred on the South Side. By the 1950's Louis Tornabene was a made member of the South Side group and gambling operator who controlled a large bookie operation on Polk and State Street, and also controlled a huge prostitution ring at the Santa Fe Hotel at 732 South State Street. Tornabene also had his fingers in another huge handbook operation on the first floor of a hotel known as The Continental at 525 East 67th Street and in the late hours they were operating crap games. In fact Tornabene operated in all of the districts in which Alex had principal interest and so Tornabene kicked up to his district boss.

One of Tornabene’s main operators for floating crap games was a guy known as Edward Joyce who in turn also worked for another South Side member or Chinatown capo Frank Caruso. Tornabene also operated the Brass Rail Tavern at 52 West Randolph Street which was a front for gambling and prostitution, together with his front man George Ossey and his younger son. Tornabene also owned the Dauphin Hotel in Glenview, Cook County, Illinois, which was fronted by his old pal Ben Newman and the rest of Tornabene's joints were overseen by his two brothers, Tony and Frank, with Tony working as a frontman for some of Louis’ joints while Frank oversaw the prostitution business for his brother.

Tornabene even received racing information from the Racing Form Telegraph Room. He received calls regarding the races and usually had the results before he accepted the bets from the “sucker bettors.” Tornabene had a cousin who was allegedly a "big shot" in the New Orleans crime family and had something to do with the “New Orleans wire” in connection with the horse betting. So occasionally his cousin would’ve called from New Orleans in connection with large bets that have been placed over there and then Tornabene shared the cash with his cousin and the Outfit. Even though I don't have the name of Tornabene's cousin, still this was obviously a Chicago/New Orleans mob connection. Another of Tornabene's cousins was North Side member and Outfit big shot Joey "Caesar" DiVarco and in fact they were first cousins since their mothers were sisters.

As you can see, Tornabene was one of the most lucrative members of the Chicago Outfit at the time but even that, by the end of the day he still had to kick up money and answer to Ferraro and Alex. Reports say that Tornabene was forbidden to mention Alex’s name in any conversation and was also warned that if he continued to blow his mouth off on the telephones, he was going to be severely punished. In fact, Alex was so into all "Mafia" rules if anyone of his guys broke them, it was the end of him or them.





















--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In 1959 rumors started to spread around that Tornabene was allegedly holding cash from Alex and the Outfit and in fact, the main guy who spread the information was another member of the Ferraro-Alex crew Louis Briatta. According to one conversation, Briatta was complaining to Ferraro that Tornabene was keeping the "cream" for him and that he and Pat Marcy, another made member, received an order from Alex to visit Tornabene at the Santa Fe Hotel to determine whether the rumors were true. So they allegedly uncovered the scheme and received information that Tornabene withheld approximately $75,000 from Alex and Ferraro by not posting all of the bets on his book.






To make things worst, back in 1958 Tornabene was already involved in a gambling dispute in which he refused to give percentage of gambling profits to one individual who was very well connected to the Genovese crime family in New York, but by now he operated in Chicago. The whole situation occurred in September 1958, when a conflict occurred between Tornabene and the alleged New York operator (in fact an informant) who was partner with Tornabene in several gambling operations around the Loop area. Besides not giving the informant's share of the illegal proceedings, Tornabene also had some personal debt towards the guy because Tornabne allegedly had gambling problems. So the informant threatened Tornabene that if he doesn't pay his debts, the informant will travel back to New York and will call his contacts in Newark, New Jersey. Tornabene thought that with his status as made member, the informant will be scared and might keep his mouth shut but Tornabene was obviously wrong.






So before he contacted his New York people, the informant first decided to contact Chicago Outfit capo and boss of the West Side Sam Battaglia through an intermediary only known as "Pope" (described as Italian white male with age around 55) who in turn allegedly belonged to the Battaglia crew. In fact, Battaglia was known for having close Cosa Nostra contacts all around the Midwest and East Coast and so a meeting was arranged between "Pope" and the informant, in which Battaglia's guy stated that he has to receive information from both sides before making any conclusions.