The Assassination
So on February 15, 1933, everyone gathered at the Bayfront Park area of Miami, Florida; including Zangara and they all waited for Roosevelt’s speech. You see, Zangara was one quite short individual with only five feet and one-inch tallness, which means that it was quite tough for him to rise above all of the cheering spectators in front of him and to hit his target. And the answer for that was that he fought his way to the second row and got up on empty chair and that’s how he got his clear aim.
First of all, Zangara didn’t take the shot while the President was standing on the back seat of his limousine, meaning Roosevelt made his speech while standing above everyone else which made him an easy target, obviously if the story is true that the President was allegedly Zangara’s main goal. So nothing happened during the President’s speech and after the ending, the motor engines of the President’s limo started running, and so Mayor Cermak got up and went to the President-elect, and both had their short conversation, shook hands and began moving away from each other and that’s when Zangara started shooting. Zangara began yelling and fired his gun more than few times. As I already said, President Roosevelt remained unharmed, while Mayor Cermak received one lethal shot in his stomach which was the main cause for his death, days later. Besides mortally wounding Mayor Cermak, the assassin also wounded several other people, including Mrs. Gill the wife of the president of Florida’s Power and Light Company at the time, one chauffer, one club owner and one retired New York policeman who also guarded the President that same day, and in the end one secret service agent known as Robert Clark. In no time, Zangara was arrested and was taken to custody for questioning.
The main thing that I want to explain in this whole Roosevelt/Cermak/Zangara saga is that the general story is made out of more than few conflicting reports. Many newspapers at the time provided false information that the shooting occurred while Roosevelt and Cermak shook hands, and that wasn’t true at all because the Mayor was standing with his face towards the assassin while slowly backing off from the President, and that’s when the shooting began and the Mayor received one bullet under his last rib on the right side of his stomach, which is a proof that he was already more than few feet away from the President. Also another conflicting report was that after the first shot, Zangara allegedly began shooting in the crowd around him and again, that’s not true because according to many credible eye witnesses, when Zangara took aim at his target, his hand was “jogged” or in other words, steady and “frozen” as he took the first shot.
I’m saying “credible” because this next witness was far from being truthful. So according to another eye witness, Mrs. Cross, who said that she stood near Zangara and was quite offended by his rudeness, obviously when he popped up on the chair and when she heard the first shot, she “bravely” grabbed his arm, an action which allegedly was the reason for his four missed shots. But later it turned out that Mrs. Cross was lying about grabbing the assassin’s arm, but instead after hearing the first shot, she began panicking and allegedly bumped the chair on which Zangara was standing and allegedly made him miss his main target four times. It’s hard to make a conclusion with the help of that same type of eye witnesses, mainly because most of them lied and invented their own stories, just for publicity and fame.
So with all of the alleged difficulties, Zangara somehow managed to empty his pistol by hitting the Mayor and also managed to hit five more people. According to his own words, Zangara said that after missing his target with the first shot, he emptied his gun hopefully so he would get killed by the cops and security. This is a proof that Zangara was ready to sacrifice his own life for some mentally ill purpose. Some investigators wondered on why the rest of the four bullets ended up in people who were near Cermak, and none ended up in people around the President or in his limousine. Obviously we’ll never know that but I know one thing for sure, meaning if all of the bullets ended up in Cermak’s body, that would’ve been additional “fuel to the fire” regarding the conspiracy theory about the whole thing being a Mob “hit”.
Zangara took his first steady shot almost 9 meters away from the President’s car and Mayor Cermak, and anyone who ever held a gun and took a shot from that kind of distance, knows that he or she doesn’t need any kind of special skills for hitting the prime target. Some of today’s researchers stated that we might assume that Zangara was allegedly taught on how to shoot a rifle in the army, but nothing suggests that he had any special ability or training. His job assignments in the army reflect that his superiors considered him better suited for basic labor than a highly skilled “marksman” or “sharpshooter”. I completely agree regarding Zangara being better suited for the basic stuff, mainly because of his mental and physical condition.
I mean no kind of military captain or lieutenant, who was right in his mind, would’ve let a guy such as Zangara to constantly hold a rifle 24/7, even if he was the best shooter out there, which would’ve made him even more dangerous for everyone around him. The main problem is that this information regarding Zangara’s alleged passive military activity mainly comes from Zangara’s own words, since his military record was allegedly destroyed after World War I, for unknown reasons, something which makes Zangara’s personal history even more murkier.
This means that Zangara’s could’ve said anything, since he obviously was an individual who needed a psychiatric and medical help, but still there is some evidence that he was really in the army and served during WWI. So my point is that I can only speculate regarding Zangara’s military skills but if he was in the military, then he obviously went through a shooting training more than a couple of times. You see, the basic shooting training with a rifle at the time included everyone, even the medical personnel, and the shooting usually started from 15 meters range distance the least, meaning Zangara possibly did go through that same basic training and obviously felt the power of a rifle and a pistol.
So, when Zangara pointed his .32 caliber pistol and took one clear and steady shot from only 9 meters away, Zangara somehow “missed” his alleged “prime” target and managed hit Cermak who was more than few feet distance from the same “prime” target a.k.a. the President. My point is that for a guy who possibly went through some kind of military shooting course, missing his alleged target from only 9 meters with a clear shot, sounds a little bit strange.
On top of that, the Chicago Outfit at the time was known for previously training its future assassins regarding their shooting skills so they can perfectly complete their job. For example, it was reported that after the 1932 spectacular assassination of Chicago racketeer George “Red” Barker, the cops found a makeshift target range and according to many witnesses, a couple of men were seen there shooting a Thompson at a 12 inch post the very same day before Barker was killed. So my final point is that Zangara was either a terrible shooter or a perfect one. According to some reports, Zangara claimed that every time he took a weapon in his hand, he would’ve felt his intense stomach pain, which is a strong proof that Zangara had serious mental problems, but he never mentioned the feeling of that same kind of strong pain during the assassination, meaning it is possible that his alleged urge to shoot to death any famous capitalist was quite huge for someone who allegedly had serious health issues while holding a weapon.
As a conclusion on this part of the story, I would like to confirm that Zangara’s military record was destroyed, and the investigation mainly relays on his own word and also from few small reports, and it is quite possible that Zangara’s psychiatric problem was possibly the main reason for his unknown military activities and the destruction of his file. Again, I think that I can make another conclusion regarding Zangara being 9 meters away from his target, with at less than a dozens of cheering fans in front of him, and he used .32 caliber five-shot revolver, which he emptied at Cermak’s direction and managed to wound five more people who stood behind or next to the Mayor. Again, this means that none of the bullets entered or even grazed the President’s body or car or anyone who stood nearby or behind him, even though the distance between him and Cermak was only few feet away. So my point is that Zangara was either a terrible shooter, or he really managed to hit his real target.
The cops managed to trace Zangara’s revolver to Davis’ pawn shop and later Zangara himself admitted buying the gun from that same individual. When some of the investigators questioned Davis regarding the situation, he allegedly told them that he had known Zangara for “quite some time” and also admitted that he was the one who sold him the revolver. Davis simply said that Zangara visited him at his pawnshop and purchased the weapon.
The thing was that Zangara’s weapon wasn’t a problem at all, since they found it right there on the scene and later compared the bullets which were taken out from the surviving victims and it was confirmed that all of the bullets allegedly came out from Zangara’s gun. The problem was that Davis allegedly admitted having a criminal record back in Chicago, but denied any connections to the Chicago Outfit. Even in this particular story there’s some conflicting information, like for example Davis stated that he knew Zangara for quite some time and he said this in February, 1933, while Zangara arrived previously in Miami sometime around August 1932, and story goes that he did get out much, hence his mental and physical disabilities.
This means that Zangara was in Miami for only five months, which maybe for Davis himself represented “quite some time”. My point is that Davis probably lied since he was possibly pressed by the investigators regarding Zangara’s obvious symptoms of suspicious behavior and so he had to tell them that he allegedly knew him for a long time period and that Zangara was allegedly “sane” individual. So I personally wonder if Davis also lied regarding his non-existing syndicate connections? Obviously there’s no proof of Davis having or not having syndicate connections, but still there was another quite confusing report which again brings up the “syndicate” question.
The Alleged Sixth Bullet
If you start researching the whole story from different perspectives, you might find many myths such as the bullet in Cermak’s stomach being .45 caliber instead of .32 caliber, which came from Zangara’s gun, and so this quickly brings the conspiracy theory that there was more than one shooter or second assassin in the crowd, other than Zangara. This is obviously false since the autopsy records showed that all of the bullets, including the one in the late Mayor Cermak, were .32 caliber. Some researchers stated that the science of ballistics was still in infancy in 1933, and that the science of ballistics was in its early stage of development.
Again that’s not true and the main proof for that were the ballistics investigations in a scientific crime detection laboratory which occurred four years earlier or in 1929. The investigators were already able to investigate bullets from the so-called St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, like acquiring guns and bullets from the police stations to determine whether the actual shooters were in fact real police officers. Or in 1931, when the cops raided the house of Capone hitman Fred Burke, where they found two Tommy guns and again with the help of ballistics tests, they proved that both of the guns had been used in the St. Valentine's Day massacre and those same tests also showed that one of the guns had been also used in the murder of New York gangster Frankie Yale back in 1928.
The main reason for the non-existing .45 caliber bullet was that everything ended with a total of 8 “hits” on 6 victims, with only five bullets. The main suspicious situation for me personally is that there was allegedly no kind of ballistics report from the scene where the shooting occurred, which obviously would have been quite important for the investigation. The investigators even stated that “Considering that there were thousands of witnesses to the shooting and immediate apprehension, and a complete confession, it doesn’t seem like a ballistics report would have been deemed necessary.” So that same statement is quite suspicious because one thorough ballistics test and report obviously would’ve been great, instead of receiving only doctors’ report. Some of today’s researchers say that it was allegedly “impossible” to track the trajectory of the bullets or bullet fragments, which again I personally disagree since that’s one of the main points of a ballistics report.
Also, in some of the diagrams from that period you’ll notice in one picture that when the shooting occurred, one bullet went into Cermak’s direction and the second bullet ended in one person from the Mayor’s left side, far behind him, which again means that the first two bullets went into Cermak’s direction, not the President’s direction who in turn was on his right side, several feet away. In another diagram, which is a little bit conflicting, but still it shows that Cermak was on the President’s right side and again most of the bullets are in his direction.
So investigators stated that there were six victims hit by five bullets, and there was also another similar statement in the 1958 Florida Historical Quarterly Report, which was written by Nathan D. Shapee, Professor of History at the University of Miami, who delivered his report regarding the Zangara case at the annual meeting in Tampa, Florida. The so-called conflicting information is on page 101, where Professor Shapee talks about all of the main people who were involved in the tragedy, but he also talks about whom else received a bullet besides Cermak and in the end he finished his sentence with a “sixth bullet” ending up on the ground. Then on page 104, the Professor stated that “Zangara shot through a crowd of people around him, shot through a group of people around Roosevelt’s car and wounded “six people with five shots”. I know that you can already see the conflicting information, meaning at first he stated that 5 people were wounded, including Cermak, with 5 shots and a 6th one ending up on the ground, and later he states that 6 people were wounded with 5 shots.
If anything of this is true, then I can somehow explain the six people being wounded with five bullets, but what about the alleged sixth bullet in the ground, which again brings the question on why there was no kind of ballistics tests? Because if there was really a sixth bullet, while Zangara’s used a five-bullet pistol, then this obviously can raise the question in the minds of many conspiracy theorists, if there really was another shooter with the same caliber, which sounds more realistic rather than the one regarding the .45 caliber. Maybe the Professor made a mistake but for me personally this is the most confusing moment since nobody heard or reported a sixth shot, except for the previous five which allegedly all came from Zangara’s .32 caliber pistol. Maybe it was only a bullet fragment in the ground? Or maybe fragments from that same bullet went into some of the victims? Maybe the second “imaginary” shooter used the same moment when Zangara was empting his pistol and took a shot at the same time when one of Zangara’s bullets blasted out, which is something almost impossible but you can never really tell with the old timers.
The main conclusions this time would be that Zangara managed to hurt six people with five shots and the most important thing to remember is that no kind of ballistics investigations or reports were ever made by the authorities, except for the reports which were sent by the doctors who pulled out the bullets and fragments from the victims. So because of that there’s no evidence or additional info regarding any sixth bullet, since the assassin used a five-bullet pistol. If there really was a sixth bullet, then that’s the kind of information which could change the whole investigation.
Case Closed
Now, this is the chapter which throws a lot of suspicion over the whole story, especially regarding the question on whether there was a massive corruption present during the closure of the assassination case. As I already explained multiple times that Zangara had both physical and mental issues, and one of the main evidences were some of his answers during the trial. Answers which were directed to the investigators and judges such as “All the time my mind is in my stomach” or “When I get in trouble in the stomach, when it come, my head look like I am gone. You see I suffer all the time and I suffer because my father send me to work when I was a little boy…spoil my life. If I no suffer, I no have trouble. I no kill the President. If I nice, well, I no bother the President. It get in my mind…capitalists make trouble to the poor people…I am sorry I shot someone else. . . I am ready for die, no use living. . . . I am no good, stomach like a drunk man, can’t walk on street, people think I am drunk.”
According to some researchers who read the court transcripts, when the investigators returned to interrogation of the motives for the attack on the President-elect, Zangara again returned to the pains in his stomach as being the main reason for the atrocity. He even allegedly stated that he was sorry for shooting Cermak and the rest of the people, but it was allegedly their fault for being in his way. Obviously no one from the victims was in his way, nor stood in front of the President, which means that Zangara was rumbling.
But after all of the so-called “crazy talk”, still at the end Zangara was officially declared as “sane individual”, meaning according to the investigators and the judge at the time, Zangara didn’t have any mental issues and that he was able to realize right from wrong. So the “smell” of corruption was obviously present but still the question remains, on who could’ve pushed for Zangara’s fast conviction and made false reports regarding his “stable” mental state?
Zangara had the right to an insanity defense trial, since the defendant obviously showed signs of paranoid delusion. For example, during the 19th century in the United States of America, some of the courts often looked to whether the defendant could distinguish between good and evil, while others asked whether the defendant was able to rationally realize on what he has done. So by the end of the century, it was generally accepted that insanity was a question of fact, which was left to the jury to decide. You see, during those days the so-called "McNaughton rule" was a standard, which was obvious for to be applied by the jury, after hearing medical testimony from prosecution and defense experts. The whole thing started in 1800 when the British government voted the Criminal Lunatics Act, but its real significance came in 1843, in the so-called McNaughton case, where one Englishman known as Daniel McNaughton shot and killed the secretary of the British Prime Minister, believing that the Prime Minister was conspiring against him. The court later acquitted McNaughton "by reason of insanity," and he was placed in a mental institution for the rest of his life. However, the case caused a public uproar, and Queen Victoria ordered the court to develop a stricter test for insanity. So after that, the McNaughton rule became the standard for insanity in the United States and the United Kingdom.
By the 1930’s, the Chicago Mafia already manipulated that same "McNaughton rule" in many ways, obviously with the help of massive corruption. They had several ways of doing this, like when they often took on what the suspect said and has done, and later twist it around with the help of corrupt judges and corrupt juries. And as I previously stated that Zangara was the perfect individual for that kind of manipulation and wasn’t afraid to die, because he probably felt respectable and gave his whole loyalty, but I also have to be honest that this will always remain as one simple theory since statements like this can never be really proved, especially in cases such as this one when the main actor is suspiciously declared sane and afterwards quickly executed.
In fact, when Zangara was placed on the electric chair, he allegedly yelled "Viva l'Italia! Goodbye to all poor people everywhere! ... Push the button! Go ahead, push the button!". Now, this might confirm my previous statements regarding the Cammora organization and their beginnings by opposing or acting against state authority, and also acting as protectors for their own people and also keeping their honor, and also the statement regarding the rumor of Cermak’s dislike towards the Italian population.
So the final conclusion in this chapter would be that Joe Zangara was suspiciously declared by the investigators as sane individual, who had Italian-patriotic ideas, and just a couple of weeks after the death of Mayor Anton Cermak, which occurred on March 6, 1933, Zangara was sentenced to the electric chair. The thing was that during his trials, his defense was unable to win any kind of motion regarding his mental state or his alleged real victim instead of the President, but the most important thing to remember was that during the 1933 trial of Zangara regarding the assassination attempt and the murder of Mayor Cermak, no kind of insanity defense was ever offered, even though the convicted felon had the right for it and showed clear signs of mental instability, and also the question regarding Cermak being the real target was quickly overruled and never mentioned again.
But again the question still remains on who could’ve pushed for Zangara’s fast conviction and made false reports regarding his “stable” mental state? If you ask me, the whole thing looked like one lazy investigation in which everyone was happy that the President-elect remained untouched and the “ruthless villain” was caught and quickly executed. Just like during the Dark ages. As for the “poor” Mayor, I believe that everyone in the higher level of political and government circles felt safer to say that there was no kind of syndicate connection in the Zangara and Cermak cases, because if something like that ever came out in public, all hell was going to break loose. For example, right after the death of the Mayor, some of the police detectives in Chicago strongly suspected that the assassination was in fact Mob-related shooting and so they contacted the police department in Miami and gave them a list of Chicago gangsters who resided or were on a trip at the time in that area, which included 18 gangsters, 12 of whom were known Chicago Outfit members and associates. But the arrests were never made because it turned out that the request had been deleted by the State's Attorney Thomas Courtney, who obviously didn’t want any of that type of information to get out in public. This means that the FBI and the Secret Service, or the government in general, did little to uncover anything which would’ve indicate that the Chicago Outfit or the Mob was behind Cermak’s murder or tried to manipulate the assassin in any kind of way.
So now let’s try and make a list of all final conclusions in general:
1. President Roosevelt obviously had Mob connections, not directly, but through his political associates from around the Midwest, such as Chicago and Kansas City. I don’t have any information regarding the Mob having any problems with Roosevelt, and in fact we have some alleged statements that he was backed or respected by the national crime commission. Maybe the Mob’s good relation with the Roosevelt administration somehow helped in the obvious corruption regarding the whole Cermak/Zangara case, meaning with nixing the ballistics report and also declaring Zangara as “sane” individual, followed by his quick execution.
2. By the early 1930’s Mayor Anton Cermak was another public figure who possessed Mob-connections and also had the power of having the last word on who was going to illegally run what in his own city, especially in the sphere of gambling business. Also I can’t confirm the rumor if Cermak really had something against the Italian crime syndicates or the Italians in general, but all I know is that he obviously swindled the Capone Mob and wanted to remain as the top overseer of all gambling vice in Chicago, which was obviously a huge problem in the eyes of the Capone crime syndicate because they were also the ones who wanted to control that same racket, obviously because of the end of their previous and most profitable racket, which was Prohibition.
3. Cermak’s situation changed after the failed “hit” on Outfit mobster Frank Nitto and also later with the murder of his associate and mobster Ted Newberry, since after that Cermak obviously feared for his own life and also for the lives of his loved ones, since he obviously realized the mistake he did and also the danger in which he implicated himself. I can also make an additional conclusion that Cermak wasn’t involved directly in the assassination attempt of Nitto but instead, he was connected to the main individual, Newberry, who in turn was behind the murder attempt and also behind the attempt to take over the policy racket, and as I already said, during the same time Cermak also tried to overthrow the Outfit from the policy racket on the South Side, something which connects both Newberry and Cermak.
4. After the murder of Newberry, the Chicago police was quite aware of the Mayor’s situation and they constantly followed the most dangerous members from the Capone Mob, before they went down to Miami, and so they arrested them and later transferred them to Chicago’s police station and held them for 24 hours. It was a simple tactic to show the gangsters that they were not allowed in that area until the President’s gathering was over. In fact, the Chicago police was the only department at the time which constantly gave warnings regarding the dangerous situation. I also personally believe that the arrest of nationally known Outfit killers Jack McGurn and William White was a simple decoy made by the Chicago syndicate, so the cops can be deceived in thinking that they arrested the “would-be” assassins.
5. During the investigations, it came out that Zangara was 9 meters away from his target, with at least a dozen of cheering fans in front of him, and he used .32 caliber five-shot revolver, which was emptied at his target, while he stood on a chair. The alleged assassin decided to fire his gun one time and later he emptied all of the remaining bullets from his gun in the same direction or in Cermak’s direction. One proof was that one of the bullets entered his body, and the rest of the four bullets ended up in people who stood behind or besides Mayor Cermak, which means that none of the bullets entered or even grazed the President’s body or car, even though the distance between him and Cermak was only few feet away.
6. The assassin bought his weapon from one former Chicago criminal Gordon Davis who resided in Miami and denied any Mob connections and on top of that, it was never made a thorough research regarding Davis’ criminal history in Chicago. There’s too much coincidences in the story and reports, meaning a Chicago criminal selling a gun to the assassin, while the Mayor or the victim was having problems with the whole Chicago Mob at the time.
7. Also there’s no proof or any conflicting information regarding the existence of a sixth bullet, other than the one from Professor Nathan Shapee. The assassin managed to hurt six people with five shots and the most important thing to remember is that no kind of ballistics investigations or reports were ever made by the authorities, except for the reports which were sent by the doctors who pulled out the bullets and fragments from the victims. So because of that there’s no hard evidence or additional info regarding any sixth bullet. If there really was a sixth bullet, then that’s the kind of information which would change the whole investigation.
8. The assassin’s military record is almost non-existent, except for his own word and few small reports, but I think that we can safely say that he obviously went to some sort of a shooting training, which was probably something inevitable for those days. On top of that Zangara obviously needed some kind of psychiatric or doctor’s help, which possibly was the main reason for his alleged low level military activities during WWI.
9. During the trial, Zangara was declared by the investigators as sane individual with anarchistic ideas, who just a couple of weeks after the death of Mayor Cermak, was sentenced to the electric chair. His defense was unable to win any kind of motion regarding his mental state and no kind of insanity defense was ever offered, even though the convicted felon had the right for it and showed clear signs of mental instability. The defense was also quickly overruled regarding the question on whether Zangara’s alleged real victim was the Mayor instead of the President. During the execution, Zangara again showed his love for his country and all of the poor people in it.
10. The FBI and the Secret Service uncovered nothing, or in other words, haven’t done anything special (ballistics report, insanity tests, not arresting a single Capone member after the killing) to indicate the presence of a massive corruption, or if the Chicago Outfit or the Mob in general was behind Cermak’s murder and if they tried to manipulate the assassin in any kind of way.
11. A lot of important pieces and details are missing from the investigation and I also believe that the killing of Mayor Cermak later brought some kind of stability within Chicago’s organized crime, at least for several years. Three decades later or during the 1960’s, the Untouchables television series aired a two-part episode entitled “The Unhired Assassin” and so the fictional account depicted Nitto and his associates planning to kill Cermak, when suddenly or out of nowhere a demented lone gunman Joe Zangara accidentally beat them to it. This means that the element of suspicion was present since the moment the late Mayor Cermak released his final or last breath.
12. For me personally, the investigators and the judicial workers are the first suspects in the whole case, followed by the Chicago Outfit and their political ties. But for now, the Cermak case remains still closed, because the hit was executed by some strange guy who missed his prime target and acted alone, same as the JFK hit which was again done by some strange guy who was declared as “the lone gunman”, and also the RFK hit was also done by some strange fella who did it for his own country, followed by the hit on Mafia boss Joe Colombo who was also executed by some black street hustler, who in turn suddenly decided to kill a Mob boss and gave his own life during the process, and according to many researchers that was “obviously” some kind of a Mafia conspiracy while in all of the previous situations, all of the assassins acted alone. I personally think that’s not fair at all.
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THE OUTFIT’S CATERING BUSINESS
Chicago’s Italian underworld or the Outfit entered the 1970’s with a lot of trouble but by the end of the day, they still represented one quite stable and strong organization with a strong hierarchy, and also with many new ventures. By now, one of the most powerful crew was the so-called Elmwood Park group which was led by the Outfit’s top boss Tony Accardo and his personal capo Joe “Gags” Gagliano who in turn was a known as the top guy in the loan sharking business and also inherited one quite murderous group which was formed by up and coming killers and extortionists, who in fact were no different than the rest of the Outfit’s crews from that same era. So one of the most lucrative and legit operations at the time was the catering business, which became the new style of business in providing food service for the citizens of the second largest city at the time.
Now, the most interesting thing regarding the catering business is the mobile caterers, which serve food directly from a vehicle, cart or truck which is designed for the purpose at outdoor events. All kinds of food products are provided at remote sites such as weddings, funerals, working places, ships, planes, concerts or at sites such as hotels, public houses and other locations. Every owner offers different catering food options for the costumers including Italian, Chinese or Mexican cuisine or maybe even Kosher, Balkan or vegetarian styles, mostly depending on the costumer’s taste.
For example, the Italian catering is usually completed from savory dishes perfect for any occasion, such as mouth-watering combination of contemporary Italian appetizers, Italian entrées, pasta dishes and Italian desserts’ artfully prepared with superior quality and also flavorful dishes like Chicken Marsala, Eggplant Parmesan, Fettucine Alfredo, Lasagna, Italian meatballs or a gourmet pasta station, where chefs often create pasta dishes made to order for each guest. But for some other reasons, the mobile catering service in the Chicago area never really reached its peak.
I believe that organized crime did not have any problems in infiltrating the business, since they already owned many restaurants, working sites or hotels in which weddings often occurred, or cruise ships which travelled around the world, including air-catering. So in 1970, Outfit capo Joe Gagliano was already into the food catering business with the help of one of his associates known as John Schaffer a.k.a. Juan Atilano, the owner of the restaurant La Hacienda Del Sol, located at 1945 N. Sedgwick St. on the city’s North Side and also the part owner of the Thunderbird Catering Co. at 4242 S. Racine Av. on the South Side. It was a beautiful scheme since, besides his alleged Mob connections, Schaffer had no criminal record and was clean, and on top of that he had a professional “team” under his rule which carried out the operation. For example, besides Schaffer, another individual with hidden interests in both establishments, and was also employed as manager, was Jack Clarke, one quite controversial consultant for the Chicago Police Department, undercover agent for the FBI and private investigator, who in turn also had many connections on Chicago’s docks which made him the Mob’s perfect puppet. In fact, Clarke was one of the worst kinds of criminals since he worked for three different “agencies”, including the police, the feds and the Outfit, and paid, with tons of cash, many high profile informants from within the crime syndicate regarding underworld activities, but above all he worked for himself.
The other half of the “team” was completed by one quiet, unassuming, hardworking and intelligent lady who went by the name of Rita Payonk and she was the group’s main bookkeeper for both establishments and knew all the secrets and schemes, which in fact were tax evasion and forcing other establishments to buy their catering products or trucks. By now the Thunderbird Catering Co. had almost 100 mobile catering trucks, which in fact became one of the leading companies who were on the rise in making a monopoly around Chicago. In addition, Miss Payonk was in fact Clarke’s friend who in fact brought her into the firm and there’s also one possibility that Schaffer’s Outfit “friendship” really came from Clarke’s personal connections.
But things became complicated for the Chicago Outfit since in 1971, Gagliano died of natural causes and also two years later, Jack Clarke was indicted for tax evasion in a different case and was sentenced to three years in jail, and on top of that, after a while it was disclosed that he also worked for the feds, which made the situation quite dangerous. Instead of serving three years, Clarke served only 11 months in prison and in 1975 he was called before a grand jury regarding his shady activities, who in turn took the 5th a lot more than few times. After Gagliano’s death, the late big shot who allegedly resented psychopathic violence, as expected the crew completely changed its way of operating in becoming quite the opposite or in other words, more violent. Some say that the new capo for the Elmwood Park crew or Gagliano’s successor was John “No Nose” DiFronzo, obviously because most of the previous Elmwood Park leaders like former boss Jack Cerone and Willie Messino were in jail, except for their top boss Tony Accardo.
Being a lieutenant for the late Joe Gagliano who in turn was probably one of the first more sophisticated Outfit capos in doing business, John DiFronzo became one of the first Elmwood Park capos who mostly set his sight on corruption and legitimate enterprises, including gambling, with loan sharking and extortion being on second place. Sources say that DiFronzo was in partnership with another Outfit capo Joey “The Clown” Lombardo who in turn was the boss of the so-called Grand Avenue crew. Lombardo became a partner mainly because large portion of the catering trucks were moving around the areas which were under his control. In fact, the Elmwood Park and Grand Avenue crews were in close association since the old days and it is quite possible that the connection remains even today. So by the late 1970’s few people in the catering business died from “unnatural causes” and the case which I’m about to show you has no conclusion but instead it remains unsolved until this day.
If you look at the situation more clearly, one might just find two possible solutions, including the possibility of Clarke’s various government associations or maybe even the main problem was that the front guys such as Schaffer who began noticing that they were losing more money instead of the gaining, because most of them were not aware of their own situation since they obviously did not understand the meaning of “front man”. So for some reasons, or right after Clarke’s testimony, on May 6, 1975, somebody planted a pipe bomb under the hood of John Schaffer’s automobile, which after the explosion, luckily for him, he was quite away from the car and left unharmed. Some of the investigators said that it was a possible murder attempt and some said that it might’ve been only a warning since the bomb was professionally planted, but what were the reasons? When the investigators questioned Schaffer, he answered that he allegedly had no clue on who would’ve tried such a thing and he never had a quarrel with anyone.
If Schaffer was telling the whole truth, then the life-threatening situation of his bookkeeper Rita Payonk would’ve never occurred. On January 18, 1976, two masked men armed with high powered rifles, while riding a car, fired more than a dozens of shots as the poor woman drove home but she ended up wounded slightly in the incident. Now, according to the previous information, Schaffer was in a position to help his female co-worker but instead, he and Clarke told her that it was a possible mistaken identity and that all of those bullets were meant for someone else. From that point on the poor woman was forced to ask her colleagues on daily basis to escort her to her car after work. But according to some reports, during this period Miss Payonk was again visited more than a couple of times by Clarke, who in turn allegedly advised her that the coast was completely clear and there was no reason for her to be further afraid. So according to her colleagues, on February 6, 1976, she allegedly told them that she wasn’t scared anymore and that all things were good. That same day, 31-year old Rita Payonk was found shot two times at the back of her head and four times in the chest, while being seated and slumped over the wheel of her car in the 1800 block of North Lincoln Avenue.
The investigators reported that it was a professional assassination since they found six 38.caliber shell casings on the floor of the victim’s auto but they were not able to determinate if the killer or killers lay and waited inside the car or forced his or their way in. In the end, the investigators connected Payonk’s murder to the narcotics business, since some of the truck drivers were involved in the scheme, which for me personally doesn’t make any sense. After the slaying of Miss Payonk, the government turned its view over the mobile catering business which in fact was one of the first reasons for its huge failure at the time.
My personal opinion is that this was possibly the type of crime in which you might find many corrupt government officials and mobsters involved in one conspiracy, which usually ends up unsolved forever, and I also believe that the individual in the middle was in fact Jack Clarke. Proof for that were the high profile slayings of two of Clarke’s former colleagues such as police officer John Lourgos in April, 1977, and also police commander Mark Thanasouras in July that same year. Story goes that both victims were seen on daily basis at the La Hacienda Del Sol and they also associated with owners, truck drivers and employees of the Thunderbird Catering Co. My other belief is that these guys were possible associates with Clarke or whoever was behind him, like DiFronzo and the Outfit, that ordered the murder of those two individuals. The next proof for that was the murder of the manager of the Thunderbird Co. and long-time employee, who went by the name of Richard Crofton, which occurred in December that same year. He was shot to death “gangland style” by two assassins with ski masks outside his garage, or in other words, six times in the head, chest and back.
On top of that, during this period the whole pressure probably caught up with Schaffer and he died of natural causes and his ownership was inherited by his wife. So before the Crofton murder, Miss Theresa Schaffer told the police that she allegedly received a death threat over the phone. So from this point on, some of the corrupt investigators were no longer in a position to cover up the whole scandal, since it became obvious that something dangerous was happening particularly in the food catering business. Many of the newspapers began posting statements regarding the mobile catering alleged war or conflict and so in no time, the whole violent and murderous situation suddenly went quiet. Again, my personal belief is that these slayings were obviously orchestrated by the Chicago Outfit and the Elmwood Park crew under John DiFronzo, mainly because of the modus operandi in the slayings, which were exactly the same as the ones which were executed by hit teams from different Outfit crews.
“Somebody” obviously cleared the way for the Thunderbird Co. and also killed anyone who might’ve represented a danger for the whole operation, including their own people. By now the catering company became the main player in the industry with almost 150 trucks which made the money flow quite serious since they held their own monopoly within the city of Chicago. The so-called “peace” lasted for nearly 6 years, until “somebody” went on a killing spree for the second time, but from this point on most of the victims belonged to rival companies. For example, in 1983 one of the leading catering firms was the Best Catering Co. which was owned by Theresa Schaffer, one Louis Papalia and also one shady individual with criminal connections known as Mike Spiotto. Obviously their company was successful because of Schaffer’s interest but that same year, “someone” thought differently, meaning it was time for the Best Catering to go fully with the Thunderbird. So one day, in the same style, Spiotto was gunned down by two assassins as he left his girlfriend’s apartment on the city’s South Side. When some of the authorities questioned Spiotto’s family of any possible enemies of theirs but they said that he had no problems in life and that he belonged to some local motorcycle gang.
During the same time, two other food catering giants such as the E & D Catering and also the M & S Catering companies were suffering for the same problems, meaning some shady individuals were constantly warning them regarding their supply of food catering trucks around the Chicago area and also tried to extort them. At one instance, there was a suspicious fire at one of their plants, and finally, just one day after the Spiotto slaying, the main shareholder in both companies DeMar Thorton was killed together with his wife Norma at the bathroom in their home on the western suburbs.
Now the strange thing was that none of the investigators ever cleared any of the previous murders, but since the Thorton slaying was high profile, they quickly “found” the murderers and so the police chief at the time declared that the double murder was nothing but a simple drug deal which went wrong and also loudly stated that it was unrelated to any “non-existing” war in the catering business. The police also stated that they allegedly managed to find $250,000 worth of cocaine in one of Thorton’s antique automobiles and also photographs of the couple with local gang members and organized crime figures. So in no time they made quite a big deal out of it by also arresting and convicting two alleged suspects. My opinion is that if the couple was really in the dope business than why didn’t somebody from the investigators previously found or arrested at least one suspect dealing drugs for the late Thortons, but instead they found the stash after their murders. If you ask me, somebody could’ve easily placed the drugs there right after the killings and make the take the whole case in a different direction.
If anyone really believed in the police chief’s words, then nobody would’ve left or sold their food catering businesses, but instead that’s what really happened such as the Papalia family who sold and left the business permanently like many others. On top of that, many close friends and associates of the late Thorton couple stated that there was no need for them to sell any kind of drugs since they had all the money in the world from their legit business. For me personally the only investigator who told the truth was one Patrick Healey from the Chicago Crime Commission who in turn never mentioned any personal finding regarding the narcotics racket, but instead he clearly stated only what have the other investigators told him and allegedly discovered. That’s why in the Healy only stated that there wasn’t much space for democracy in the mobile catering business and that everyone was forced to buy their supplies and food from certain individuals and that was it. One mobile caterer also stated that all of the investigations came to nothing in the end and that they were like fishing expeditions which fished for some alleged impropriety but none really came up.
The Chicago Outfit was so deeply involved in both the mobile catering and other types of catering services, that one Outfit member and main representative in Las Vegas, Nevada; known as Tony Spilotro, in 1983 went to a trial in which he planned to contact the owner of the catering service which fed all 17 grand jurors and also the underworld informant known as Sal Romano, and to convince him to poison the food which all of the previously mentioned individuals ate. In plane words, Spilotro planned to kill the entire Nevada grand jury, including their main witness, and story goes that he worked out the plot but later for unknown reasons he cancelled the operation. The other interesting thing was that around 1984 or 85, all of the problems again suddenly stopped but this time it was the same period when many indictments were announced to the public, especially regarding the Outfit’s top leadership.
At the end of this particular story, I want to say that the Mob obviously had their fingers in all of the previous murders by placing out the facts. But this particular “mystery” was one of the reasons for which the government tried to legally ban the mobile food vending units and companies on several occasions, mainly because this kind of food vending was allegedly destroying the business of the local restaurants, bars or hotels and on top of that, some of the investigators tried to prove that most of caterers were not paying their taxes but by the end of the day they couldn’t make one single case. The government tried to ban the food truck business all around Chicago, but according to some reports, “coincidentally” their main target was the Grand Avenue area, obviously for the biggest concentration of food trucks in that same territory. Another problem which allegedly occurred and the government was concerned about was the physical violence among truck drivers, mainly for selling spots. But even with that, by the end of decade most of the top mobsters who were possibly extorting the food catering business were gone and also with most of the competition gone, the Thunderbird firm remained at the top of the industry with Theresa Schaffer as the chief executive. With so many trucks, her company began leasing food truck for a price between $40 and $75 per day, depending on the truck’s condition. Also, during that same time period, over 300 licenses were issued to various food vendors.
Today, there are less than 100 trucks in all territory of Chicago since it’s the only big city in the U.S. where food trucks have hundreds of restrictions such as parking around public places or staying longer in one place for more than one or two hours. But in Los Angeles or New York for instance, the food trucks and firms are well established and on top of that, they began spreading their businesses in nearby smaller cities.
Cheers
