I don't remember saying that about Carapelli.

I may have, just don't remember it.

I do remember saying that about Mandell.

I think capizzi may be related to the Lamantias. http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/chicagotribune/obituary.aspx?pid=162090066

Actually you're all wrong lol...it was Chicago/The Don. I posted a link to the article before it was known that it was Outfit related. I asked if anyone thought the Outfit was involved and his response was, "these guys have nothing to do with the Outfit". Wrong.

Figures.

Ohhhhhh, right. That screwjob lunatic.

This thread is long and not trying to troll are there 28 made guys in Chicago? In Boston there like 15+ but its a small city and like 15 spread out down to Rhode island. How old is john no nose today? Baby shacks was active getting his strip club payments rite till the feds took himaway in 2011 at like 84 think he's 87 and gets out in like 1yr. Probaly be boss again. That guy Sarno took that 30yrs like a boss. He's coming out in a casket.

I'd say anywhere from 25-35 on the street would be an accurate number. DiFronzo is 85 and a millionaire and may or may not be done with the life, although even if he still gets a few envelopes a month he's so insulated that I doubt he'd ever get charged with anything.

Sarno actually teared up when his sentence was handed down but he's doing his time and yes, he'll probably leaving in a casket. The guy is overweight and unhealthy enough as it is and only in his fifties - I doubt he makes it out alive but who knows?

And in case any of you are interested, I wrote another piece on Family Secrets:

http://culturecrossfire.com/etc/marks-mob-corner-operation-family-secrets-part-3/#.U7C1QrGmU1I

I count 24 total members in Boston. 13 total members in Providence. And another 3 in Connecticut. That's 40 total known members - active, inactive, or in prison. There may be some others but, even then, I expect the total would be no more than 50 or so.

Another good article. Nice pictures of Torello and LaPietra. I believe LaPietra had the second "meanest looking" eyes I've ever seen. Neil Delacroce is no. 1.

Thanks

I believe that Chicago mentioned that Caparelli was a made guy out of Cicero with some collectors working under him, but don't quote me on that. In Chicago's defense, the current Outfit really isn't his area of expertise, anyway.

Which is fine, but then you shouldn't be giving definitive answers as if it is. But whatever, it really doesn't matter at this point.

Anybody know of any current or former associate by the name of Sterchele?

Sports gambling is bigger now than what it once was and isn't a white trash or immigrants dominated operation, in fact I would say it's the exact opposite, middle to high class today ( likely a result of the web model). I'm sorry but what was stated was just entirely inaccurate. The web has greatly expanded the size of books and the geographic reach , big books can have customers several and in some cases many states away from where they typically operate.

Gambling and the loan business will likely always be the mafias bread and butter whether that be NY , NJ , Detroit or Chicago . It's this steady cash flow that funds their other activities whether that is legal or illegal.

There is no such thing as a bookie in a bar anymore writing betting slips , or at least I hope not as that would be one dumb gangster needlessly exposing himself to getting pinched easily .

LCN sports business has gone on line thru wire rooms in Costa Rica banked by made guys and usually with associates ( agents ) doing a lot of the collections , pay outs and even marketing ( basically the face to face exchanges ) and receiving a % of their entire customer packages losses as their compensation, made guys may also just choose to manage their own packages and not bank or run the betting site. If a site is busted , then a new site is up and running within 24 hours ( unless it's bet eagle lol) and the new log in # and passwords immediately sent to their clients. The off shore wire rooms charging roughly $20 + per gambler for maintenance .

LCN will always have a leg up over legalized sports gambling as it's on credit and your winnings are not subjected to taxes, which are huge advantages . The credit part drives a good portion of LCN shy loan volume .

The sports gambling business is booming and without it many wise guys across the country would be starving .

Does anyone know more about the Pettit brothers? Larry and Joseph? Are they Italian (maybe a name change)? I know they operated out of the North Side and Joseph took over Lenny Yaras's bookmaking territory when he got killed. Larry is still alive, not sure about Joseph.

I think their name was actually "Petite" but was changed and yes they were Italian. I believe Joe was made but is either dead or no longer active. Larry probably is/was too.

They were loansharks working for Vince Solano's crew on the North Side alongside the Grecco brothers. They were also the main guys behind the 1980s murder of Joe Caccoza.

Always thought it was interesting how the outfit guys often changed/change their Italian names while you don't really see that in NYC. Can you think of any current guys that have done so?

The reason why they changed their last names is because having a big mobster in the family is like a stain on the whole family. It makes the other family members seem untrustworthy, violent criminals. There's actually a book called " Uncle Al", written by his niece. After he died, she and her other family members couldn't get jobs because of Al Capone's legacy. Some were hunted by the media and a few Capone's actually committed suicide, so the rest changed their names.

Al's brother Umberto changed his name to Albert Rayola and his brother Ermino changed his name to John Martin.

And thanks, ChiTown. I had thought that was the case as I had heard that one or both were/are made.

Does anyone know if these guys are outfit guys. http://www.justice.gov/usao/iln/pr/chicago/2012/pr0907_01.pdf

The Butittas certainly hang with Outfit types in Elmwood Park like Rudy Fratto. I would assume this club was paying some type of Outfit crew.

Again, if McScott has beef I will gladly stop posting. Good stuff though.


Chicago’s Grand Avenue Crew has ‘juice’ again under Vena’s leadership

Some people call Chicago mafia capo Albert (Albie the Falcon) Vena the most-feared man in the Windy City, a new-and-improved version of Anthony (Tony the Ant) Spilotro, if you will. His emergence the past few years as a major player in the upper-echelon of the city’s mob landscape has reinvigorated his Grand Avenue-based crew, reinstalling a large chunk of the power and prestige it lost in the late 2000s courtesy of the epic Operation Family Secrets bust.

Like Spilotro, Albie Vena is tiny (just a smidge over five feet), but incredibly fearless and extremely deadly. However, unlike Spilotro, the Chicago crime family’s crew-leader in Las Vegas, killed alongside his brother in a grisly 1986 Outfit double-slaying depicted in the Martin Scorsese gangster film classic “Casino,” Vena, 66, knows how to make nice with his superiors in the mob and doesn’t let his ego get the best of him.

Vena’s name recently surfaced in the Chicago press due to him being mentioned at the trial of cop-turned-gangster Steve Mandell, convicted in February of attempting to kidnap, torture and murder an enemy and his wife in order to assume control of a Bridgeview strip club and another associate to seize his real estate assets.

Testimony at the trial revealed that FBI agents watched as Mandell lunched with Vena at La Scrola, the one-time favorite haunt of notorious Chicago mob capo and consigliere Joseph (Joey the Clown) Lombardo, Vena’s former boss and mentor, who ruled the city’s Westside and was in charge of the notoriously-rugged Grand Avenue crew for over 30 years. Mandell was caught telling a wired-up associate that he’d gone to Vena for permission to kill an adversary and Vena, someone linked by the government to several underworld slayings, had failed to give him the go-ahead.

Lombardo was nailed in the Feds’ landmark Family Secrets case, convicted at the 2007 trial in the brutal 1974 murder of mafia associate Danny Siefert, a soon-to-be witness for the government against him and several mob cronies, and Vena was selected to replace Joey the Clown as the new “Godfather of Grand Avenue.”

Spilotro, another Lombardo protégé, is alleged to have been part of Lombardo’s hit squad that snuffed out Siefert in broad daylight and in front of his wife and son outside a suburban plastics factory days before a federal trial was set to begin in a Teamsters Union pension-fund fraud case he was slated to be the star witness in.

The double homicide of Spilotro and his brother was also included in the Family Secrets indictment, with Outfit street boss James (Jimmy the Man) Marcello convicted of delivering the siblings to their slaughter at the house of capo Louis (Louie the Mooch) Eboli in June 1986, where they were beaten and strangled to death by a cadre of hit men as revenge for Tony the Ant running amok in Las Vegas and bringing too much heat on the syndicate's West Coast affairs.

The diminutive, yet dynamic Vena was groomed by a slew of Outfit big shots and reputedly taught to kill by one of the Chicago mafia’s most revered enforcers. Besides Lombardo, Albie the Falcon came up under Northside capos and lieutenants like Vincent (Innocent Vince) Solano, Joseph (Joe the Builder) Andriacchi, Gus Alex and Lenny Patrick. Early on in his underworld career, Vena was placed in Joey the Clown Lombardo’s enforcement wing and schooled by the Clown’s No. 1 strong arm and hit man, Frank (Frankie the German) Schweis, a renowned assassin.

Vena and Schweis are both considered suspects in the 1983 gangland murder of Teamsters official and high-level mob associate Allen Dorfman, a killing also depicted in the movie Casino.

Schweis was brought down with Lombardo in the Family Secrets case (dying before making it to trial though) and was fiery until his last breath – the German, while frail in appearance, still managed to repeatedly bark at reporters and prosecutors alike in court proceedings that directly preceded his passing.

In the fall of 1992, Vena was indicted on a state murder beef for the gruesome slaying of low-tier Windy City hoodlum, Sam Taglia, charges he was acquitted on at a 1993 trial. Taglia, on the outs with mob leaders over stolen money and scam drug deals, was found stuffed in the trunk of his car in Melrose Park, shot in the head, his throat slit ear-to-ear. He and Vena were seen together in the hours before his unsightly demise.

Showing his feistiness, Vena tried to run over the cops that came to arrest him for Taglia’s murder with his car. Cautious of recording devices, he’s rarely appeared on police wiretaps and is known to keep a relatively low profile around town, especially compared to his predecessor, Joey the Clown, notorious for his witty demeanor and flash-bulb friendly personality.

When Lombardo and Schweis got popped in 2005 in the Family Secrets bust – both going on the lam for almost a year trying to dodge arrest before finally being apprehended – Vena and Vincent (Jimmy Boy) Cozzo, Lombardo’s right-hand man, were running the Grand Avenue crew together, using Lombardo’s longtime driver Christopher (Christy the Nose) Spina as their messenger. After Cozzo died of natural causes in July 2007 and Joey the Clown was convicted three months later, Vena was officially upped to full-fledged capo by semi-retired Chicago Outfit boss John (Johnny No Nose) Di Fronzo.

“Albie Vena is a very serious individual,” retired FBI agent Jack O’Rourke said. “He has the reputation of being both treacherous and reliable. All the heavyweights in the Family trust him very much. In a lot of ways, he’s a throwback. He lives by the code of the old Outfit bosses. Most people see him being a big part of the future administration. The pedigree is there, he’s been around a long time.”

I have been meaning to post this from the Mary Ferrell site:

FBI list of "Made Members" of the Chicago Outfit, c. 1968

Anthony Joseph Accardo
Joseph "Little Joe" Aiello
Joseph Aiuppa
Felix "Milwaukee Phil" Alderisio
James "Monk" Allegretti
William "Smokes" Aloisio
Joseph "Joe Shine" Amabile
Joseph "ni**er Joe/Black Joe" Amato
Tony Amatore
Donald Angelini
Steve Annoreno
Robert Ansani (deceased)
Sam Ariola
Frank Aurelli
Phil Bacino
Joseph Battaglia
Tony Battaglia
Sam "Teets" Battaglia
Frank Beto; Frank Parker
Dominic "Butch" Blasi
Louis Bombacino
Dominick "Nags" Brancato
Louis Briatta
Fiore "Fifi" Buccieri
Frank Buccieri
Lawrence Buonaguidi
Marshall Caifano
John "Haircuts" Campanali
Jasper "Jay" Campise
James Capezio
John Ermino Capone
Ralph "Bottles" Capone
Frank "Skid" Caruso
Joseph "Shoes" Caruso
James "Jimmy the Bomber" Catuara
John Phillip "Jack" Cerone
Frank John "Skippy" Cerone
Casper "Johnny Carr" Ciapetta
Nick "Nicky Dean" Circella
Anthony "Julian" Cirignani
Pasquale "Buck" Clementi
Eco Coli
Carlo Colianni
George Colucci
Joseph Colucci
Dominic Cortina
John D'Arco
Sam D'Giovanni
William "Willie Potatoes" Daddano
Ronald De Angeles
James De George
Rocco De Grazio
Joseph Delmonico
Paul "The Waiter Ricca" De Lucia
Anthony "Tony Mack" De Monte
Louis De Riggi
Salvatore "Salaam" De Rosa
Anthony "Puleo" De Rose
Mario De Stefano
Sam De Stefano
Dominick Di Bella
John "Johnny Bananas" Di Biase
Charles "Specs" Di Caro
George Dicks
Americo "Pete" Di Pieto
Joseph "Caesar" Di Varco
Vito Dizonno
Louis Eboli
Anthony "Tony Pine" Eldorado
Ralph Emery
Charles "Chuckie" English
Sam "Butch" English
Frank "X" Esposito
Frank Eulo
Lew Farrell (deceased - 1967)
Joseph Ferriola
"Foggie" Fillichio (deceased)
Albert "Obbie" Frabotta
Frank "One Ear" Fratto
Joseph Fusco
Joseph "Joe Gags" Gagliano
Nicholas "Mousey" Garambone
Charles "Chuck Kane" Giancana
Joseph "Pepe" Giancana
Sam "Mooney" Giancana
Leonard "Needles" Gianola
August "Gus" Giovenco
Joseph Glimco
Joseph Grieco
Hank Guardino
Ernest "Rocky" Infelice
Vincent "Little St. Louis" Inserro
Albert Janotta
John Lardino
Joseph "Joe New York" La Barbara
Frank La Galbo
Angelo La Pietra
Frank La Porte
Frank "Hot Dogs" Lisciandrella
Sam "Spiri" Lisciandrella
Frank "Butch" Loverde
Salvatore "Sam Lewis" Luzi
Anthony Maenza
Sam Maccaluso
Leo "Leo the Lion" Manfredi
Michael "Ginko" Marchese (deceased)
Pat Marcy
Vito Marzullo
John Matassa
William "Willie" Messino
James "Cowboy" Mirro
Romeo Jack Nappi
Charles "Chuckie" Nicoletti
Dominick "Libby" Nuccio
Anthony M. Orlando
Nick "Nicky" Palermo
Sam Parde
Alfred "Al" Pilotto
Anthony "Long Tom" Pinelli
Ben Policheri
Rocco "Rocky" Potenzo
Rocco "Rocky" Pranno
Ross Prio
Lawrence Rassano
Albert Rayola (Capone)
Joseph B. Rocco
Sam "Slicker Sam" Rosa
Louis Rosanova
John Roselli
Willie Russo (Bookmaker for Chas. English)
Rocco "Bobby Dore" Salvatore
Ernest Sansone
Dominic Senese
Chris Seritella
Angelo "Mustache Angie" Severino
Tarquin "Queenie" Simonelli
Joseph Spadavecchio
Joseph Testa
Frank "Calico Kid" Teutonica
James "Turk" Torello
Louis Tornabene
James "Muggsy" Tortoriello
George "Babe" Tuffanelli
John "Johnny the Bug" Varelli
Nick "Nicky" Visco
Santo Virruso
Sam Virrusso
Frank Nick "Frank Cease" Zizzo

Anybody make it out to the Feast of our lady Mt Carmel in Melrose this last weekend?

Good list thanks Snakes. Again thanks to McScott more god stuff.



Chicago underworld's 'Big Tomato' comes home after over two decades behind bars

Louis (Louie Tomatoes) Marino is back in the Windy City.

Last month, Marino, a grizzled veteran and reputed hit man in the Outfit's Cicero crew, was moved to a halfway house in downtown Chicago, following almost 25 years locked up on a wide-sweeping 1990 racketeering bust that took down a batch of high-ranking Cicero-based mobsters.

Nicknamed Louie Tomatoes because of his ownership of a tomato-canning company, Marino will be released from the halfway house on November 2.

Set to return to his old stomping grounds before Thanksgiving, he carries quite the reputation for instilling fear in the community and within the Chicago mafia itself. He just turned 82 years old and has been implicated in participating in two of the city's most-storied gangland hits of all-time.

Spending the early part of his underworld career acting as a driver and bodyguard for Cicero capo Ernest (Rocky) Infelise, Marino and his goombata running buddy, Salvatore (Solly D) DeLaurentis, were "made" in the 1980s and assigned by Infelise to assume command of the Chicagoland's Northwest suburbs.

"We're taking over Lake County," Marino was recorded telling an associate of his and DeLaurentis' intention of grabbing control of the rackets being given up by the retiring Joseph (Black Joe) Amato.

Marino's ferocity in his collection methods are legendary on the Windy City streets.

In 1981, a knife-wielding Louie Tomatoes was picked up by an FBI wire, delivering this choice nugget of intimidation to a man who owed Marino and DeLaurentis $12,000 on a juice loan.

Sliding into the booth at a local restaurant, next to DeLaurentis and across from his mark, Marino asked Solly D "Does he got the cash?"

"He ain't got a thing," DeLaurentis informed his partner in crime, leading to Louie Tomatoes jumping over the table and jabbing his blade into the debtor's chest.

"You motherfucker, I should give it to you right here you dirty cocksucker," Marino screamed. "Do what you gotta do, sell your jewelry, I want every mother fucking thing you got. I want my money, I don't care where you find it. Rob a bank, knock off a liquor store. I want my money, I want it now, I want it tonight. You hear me? This is serious shit. And if you think I ain't capable think again. I'm gonna to be at your doorstep tonight. I'm gonna to be at your motherfucking bedside every morning you wake up. I'll take the whole place (his house) apart. You got nowhere to fucking hide. Make right on this or you're in big fucking trouble."

The following year in 1982, accompanied by his protégé, Michael (A-1 Mike) Zitello, Louie Tomatoes famously hung a debtor of his over a balcony at the Chicago Board of Trade, threatening to kill him if he didn't ante up what he owed in front of a crowd of horrified onlookers.

Although not charged in the massive 2005 Family Secrets indictment, Marino was named by turncoat and former Outfit hit man Nicholas (Nicky Slim) Calabrese as one of seven assassins that beat and strangled the Chicago mob's Las Vegas crew boss, Anthony (Tony the Ant) Spilotro and his little brother, Michael, to death in June 1986.

The Spilotro brothers' double-murder was reenacted in the 1995 Martin Scorsese movie, Casino, with actor Joe Pesci portraying the character based on the wild card, power-hungry, Tony the Ant.

Marino's involvement in the gory twin slayings was speculated upon immediately by members of law enforcement. Snitches mentioned him as a possible "doer" right off the bat, according to multiple FBI agents that worked the case. Observed by an FBI surveillance team attending a meeting with Chicago don Joe Ferriola the day after the Spilotros hit at the funeral of popular Outfit soldier Anthony (Bucky) Ortenzi, he was quickly tabbed a "person of interest" in the investigation.

That Labor Day weekend Marino returned home early from a trip to Wisconsin with his family to find FBI agents in the process of putting his Cadillac El Dorado back in his garage following an unsuccessful attempt to bug it. Louie Tomatoes went on to successfully sue the federal government for the damage his car endured (a number of holes were drilled in the interior of the vehicle and the radio was dismantled).

Brought down in the "Good Ship Lollipop" case of 1990, Marino was convicted of racketeering, specifically looking after gambling and loansharking affairs on behalf of Infelise and the Cicero crew at a 1992 trial.

Within the indictment, he was charged with, but never convicted of the gruesome 1985 murder of independent bookmaker Hal Smith. Police found a pair of glasses belonging to Marino and a cigar with his fingerprints on it in Smith's car, the same vehicle that Smith's strangled, mutilated corpse was discovered in, his throat cut, in the parking lot of an Arlington Heights hotel.

Mob associate and DeLaurentis' former driver, William (B.J.) Jahoda, fingered Marino as directly taking part in Smith's torture and murder. Smith, flamboyant and wealthy, was killed for his indignant behavior, refusal to bow to Outfit demands and the suspicion that he was informing on the Cicero crew (called "The Good Ship Lollipop") trying to shake him down.

Jahoda testified at trial that at Infelise's behest he drove Smith to his own house, where he witnessed Marino, Infelise, Robert (Bobby the Boxer) Salerno and Robert (Bobby the Gabeet) Bellavia, converge on him and begin pummeling him to the ground. Instructed to wait outside as his mob superiors finished the job, Jahoda was greeted by a blood-spattered kitchen floor when he was finally allowed to return to his residence. A week after Smith was found in his trunk, Infelise told him that Ferriola sent his "thanks for help with that whole Smith thing."

The mastermind behind a multi-million dollar a year sports betting and money laundering business in the ritzy Chicago suburbs, Smith feuded with DeLaurentis and Marino, upon the imposing tandem, first, demanding that he pay a street tax and then after he started paying, demanding more.

Jahoda was present at a dinner meeting between Smith and the pair in late 1984 which erupted in a shouting match, having Smith hurl ethnic slurs at Solly D and Louie Tomatoes and DeLaurentis chillingly predict that the high-profile 48-year old Prospect Heights resident was about to become "trunk music." In the days after the encounter, Smith reportedly told people, "Fuck those little guineas," referencing his war or words with the two Mafiosi.

Jurors hung on the murder charges against DeLaurentis and Marino, while Infelise, Salerno and Bellavia were each nailed on the Smith slaying and hit with life prison sentences (with parole). Rocky Infelise died in 2005. Salerno won't be eligible for parole for another decade. Bellavia, on the other hand, will be coming out in 2016.

Delaurentis was released in 2006 and reassumed his post as crew leader of Lake County, a de-facto consigliere of sorts to current Cicero capo James (Jimmy I) Indendino and the Outfit administration in general in this time of syndicate transition at the top.

Most mob watchers in the Windy City predict Marino will probably, in spite of his old age, get back in the rackets at some capacity, taking a seat next to his longtime friend, Solly D, and his son, Dino, a button-man and believed to be one of DeLaurentis' main proxies.

"Louie Marino always meant business, he was a street guy, constantly out and about, throwing his weight around," retired FBI agent Jim Wagner said. "He's got the Outfit in his DNA, a stone-cold gangster."

Does anyone think that the Timmy character in Adam Resnicks' book Bust, is Sean Sontheimer.

Thought this was interesting. I don't know if Tony Tocco is related to the Tocco's from Detroit i'm guessing he is. It's funny they say he started his business out of the trunk of his car. I have heard that Eddie Greco is somewhat of a loan shark and outfit affiliated. http://www.ourstoryof.com/production_date3.html

Fosco says Andriacchi is the boss of the Outfit now.

http://americannewspost.com/joseph-fosco...er-and-respect/

The most interesting thing about his article was his implying that not only is Vena big boss of Grand Avenue, but also possibly the current head honcho of the C-Note$. Fascinating stuff.

Great time to be an Outfit watcher.

He believes that Bananas is not mentally stable anymore and that the Builder is healthy.