Crime was always a part of our civilization and history and it’s too hard to get rid of it. Some people say that the ones who think that crime pays are really wrong… well that’s the case with most examples but not all. In history and even today, many criminals own mansions, planes, yachts, jewels, furs, cars, designer clothes, designer drugs, endless supply of entertainment and even islands. Unfortunately every criminal has to be very careful in keeping their place on top of the game which is a very hard thing to do. So only a hand full of criminals managed to stay on the top and make a lot of money. Every famous city, such as Chicago, had its own crime heroes like Al Capone or Frank Nitti. Yes these guys made a lot of cash but didn’t last long and in the end they lost everything. Criminals are in fact business men on the wrong side of the tracks. So if many of these hoods ended up as heads of legitimate businesses they could’ve make a big success. But even on the wrong side, some hoodlums remained as top businessmen in the underworld and also stayed in the shadows and never prevailed over their superiors, which was a very smart tactic because they never took the fall. Such is the example of Chicago Outfit big shot Ross Prio.

Rosario Priolo was born on May 10, 1900 (some reports say its 1901) in Ciminna, Sicily. Ciminna is a small town located approximately 30 miles southeast of its capital, Palermo. It is not known when and why but during his early age Rosario was left by his mother in a foster home. Few years later he was adopted by another family which bear the name Priolo. During the 1900’s Sicily was a very poor place and during that period over one million and a half of Sicilians were forced to migrate around the world. It was the first exodus of biblical proportions, but not the last. On June 21, 1909 the Priolos together with 9 year old Rosario sailed off to the new land of opportunities the United States of America. They settled on Chicago’s North Side which was an area where the Sicilian population was the most prominent one. As the Sicilian population grew, the vicinity of Oak and Townsend was the center and became known as “Little Sicily”. The “dark people”, as they were called, pushed slowly into the district where the industry demanded cheap labor. So the former more prosperous European community such as the Germans and Irish began moving further north and west of the city center. With their arrival, the Sicilians also brought their traditions and secret societies such as the Black Hand gangs and the Mafia. Some of the Sicilians that previously arrived in the United States already established their criminal operations and managed to absorb their newly arrived cousins and friends into their organizations.


Rush Street Bridge 1900’s

At the time one of the most prominent Sicilian gangsters in that area was Rosario Dispenza. Dispenza was a big time Mafioso who owned a saloon in Little Sicily and it was believed that it was a school for future Mafiosi. Same as the Priolos, he also came from the town of Ciminna, Sicily which was the answer for all of their prayers. The Priolos understood the value of knowing or coming from the same place as the big time Mafioso who controlled the area where they lived. But this was the new land and Dispenza was mostly involved in extorting his own people. In 1914 Dizpenza together with one of his close associates Tony Puccio were killed by rival gangs. Now the new “Don” was a former priest from Sicily who went by the name of Anthony D’Andrea. D’Andrea was also an extortionist and was involved in politics, so by 1920 he became the head of the Unione Siciliana, a fraternal organization in Chicago, and became one of the leading criminal figures on the city’s North Side. But besides these big faces, there were numerous smaller criminal gangs that operated in the same area. For example, another smaller Italian gang that operated in the North Side was as the infamous Gloriana gang. This crew was led by Salvatore “Charles” Gloriana that represented a small group of organized thieves and killers, primarily Italian and few Irish. It is not known ( or at least I cant find any info) whether 20 year old Rosario Priolo rose in one of these gangster groups but I presume that it was the Gloriana gang since many of the members were almost his age and in future together they continued their criminal activities. So I again presume that Priolo started his criminal career with one ruthless Gloriana gang member known as Dominick Nuccio. Nuccio was 5 years older than Priolo and was known as burglar and also as assassin. Back in 1919 Charles Gloriana, Nuccio, and seven other gang members were convicted for a violent burglary and were sentenced to 20 years in Joliet State Prison. On April 28, 1920, the Supreme Court reversed the convictions and remanded the defendants for a new trial, which was later dismissed.

During the early 1920’s Little Sicily was considered as the most colorful Italian neighborhood, and was home to more than 20,000 Italians. It was also the time for prohibition of alcohol. By now many Sicilian gangs began to flourish in the area such as the Aiello brothers and were mostly involved in extortions and bootlegging booze. But at this time the North Side wasn’t ruled by the Italians but it was under the auspices of an Irish mob boss known as Dean O’Banion. His gang wasn’t completely Irish but it was also mixed with Jewish and Italian gangsters. Also another prominent force was rising in Chicago and that was the Torrio mob which was led by Italian boss Johnny Torrio. At first Torrio and O’Banion had a deal not to interfere in their territories, but soon the Torrio mob took control of Chicago’s downtown area known as the Loop, as well as much of the South Side. However, it was also intent on seizing the profitable Gold Coast territory, which drew the ire of O'Banion. So on November 10, 1924, O'Banion was murdered in his North Side flower shop by Torrio allies and in 1925 Torrio himself survived an assassination attempt. With O’Banion dead and Torrio out of the game, the city’s underworld was split into two warring factions, one led by O’Banion’s protégé Bugs Moran and the other one by Torrio’s protégé Al Capone. So now many of the smaller gangs had to choose their side. Previously O’Banion made a lot of problems for his remaining “officers” because he quarrelled with many North Side gangs such as the Gloriana Gang, the Circus gang and the Genna crime family from the West Side. So by now many Gloriana gang members such as Priolo and Nuccio joined the Capone mob.

By 1927, 27 year old Rosario Priolo Americanized his name and changed it into Ross Prio. At the time he became heavily involved in bootlegging and extortion operations on the North Side for the Capone mob and started making the big buck. He also became an associate of Tony Capezio, a ruthless member of the infamous Circus gang, also from the North Side. In 1929 on St. Valentines Day the Bugs Moran gang was exterminated in an infamous massacre that occurred that same faithful day. Because of his close associations with Capezio and also because his illegal operations in that area, Prio was questioned by the cops regarding the killings but nothing came out of it. The same year, on June 19, Prio was again arrested in the company of Henry Finkelstein and Dominick Nuccio. They were arrested by Sergt. John Martin's squad in a raid on a still at 2014 West Kinzie St. It was said that the still was one of the largest ever found by that time in the Chicago territory. At the police station the three men were questioned in numerous killings, including a murder of a detective and also in numerous kidnappings. Later the charges were dropped and the three gangsters walked free. During prohibition Prio amassed a big fortune and began expanding his illegal operations. With the help of his fortune and newly formed connections, on September 24, 1929 Prio also received a U.S. citizenship. In 1930 he married to a beautiful young Italian girl named Marie Teramani and later they brought a son and a daughter to this world, known as Ross Jr. and Joanne. Together they lived in a house on 6139 North Campbell Avenue.

With the imprisonment of his boss Al Capone in 1932 and the end of prohibition in 1933, Prio considered finding and infiltrating other sources for his income. So like any other smart gangster, by the mid 1930’s Prio was investing his dirty cash from bootlegging and gambling into legitimate enterprises. Together with another old Capone associate Marcus Lipsky, Prio opened a milk producing company known as L&P Milk Company. L&P stood for Lipsky and Prio and Marcus was the forntman. Another of Prio’s legitimate businesses was the Uptown-Chicago Diary Company at 3639 Harrison Street. Prio was the company’s president, John Ingraffia was the company’s treasurer and Sol Miller was a salesman for the Diary. But even in the legitimate world, Prio used his dirty tactics. In 1937 his company’s rival was another newly formed milk company known as the Belmont Farm Products plant at 2714 Belmont Avenue. The problem was that some of the retailers that bought their milk from Prio’s company didn’t care about going far south to buy their supplies so they transferred to the Belmont Farm, which was closer to them. So Ingraffia and Miller visited the Belmont Company president Gustaf Palmer and told him to stop selling his products to these men because they were alleged communists. Palmer told them that he didn’t care who they were as long they paid for his products. Than Miller threatened Palmer by saying “You’ll see pretty soon you can’t get away with that.” Than Prio visited one of the independent retailers, Joseph Bart who shifted his allegiance from Prio's firm to Palmer's. Prio warned him that if he doesn’t return as a customer he would find an axe in his head. Bart was also followed one day by Miller and another man on his route to home and he called on the police for protection. On January 13, 1938 unknown men entered the Belmont plant through a skylight and by using axes and hammers they smashed three pasteurizing machines and set to fire the plant with naphtha and gasoline. So after all of these harassments from the Prio group, the victims decided to report these men to the Albany Park police. On January 15 Prio, Miller and Ingraffia were arrested and charged with malicious mischief and intimidation. The three men were released on $2,000 bonds and as usual the case was later dropped.


Rosario Priolo aka Ross Prio

Another of Prio’s legitimate business at the time was the Willow Laundry Company which was located at 758 Willow Street. His partner in this company was former Capone member from the North Side Gaetano “Black Tom” Oneglia (some sources say that it’s Thomas Neglia). Together they also operated a gas station and purchased a parking lot. At the same time Sam Herdan who was the owner of the Ace Loan Company in Chicago, contacted Prio to invest $8,000 in the same company and later to take it over, which he did. According to some reports with all of his new legitimate investments, by now Prio was making one million dollars a year.

By the 1940’s the crime boss of Chicago’s North Side was Vincenzo DiGiorgio, also known as James DeGeorge who originally came from the Chicago Heights area. The Chicago Heights mob was closely connected with the Outfit since the Capone era. He became boss when his predecessor Tony Pinelli left to Calumet City and later to California. DeGeorge was a mobster and also a shrewd businessman who looked like Winston Churchill with the big cigar and all. He controlled many illegal rackets but was mostly involved in legitimate businesses.


Vincenzo DiGiorgio aka James DeGeorge

His organization was formed by Vincent “Don Vincenzo” Benevento and his nephew Nick DeJohn, Gaetano “Black Tom” Oneglia, James DeAngelo, Sam “Snakes” Gervase and Onofrio Vitale, Ross Prio, Jimmy “The Monk” Allegretti and the so-called “Three Doms” Dominick Nuccio, Dominick Brancato and Dominick DiBella. Most of the guys like Benevento, DeJohn or Oneglia were killers in their own right but they were mostly involved in legitimate businesses and eliminated their competition “Mafia Style”. By now the Chicago Outfit had two most lucrative areas, one was the Cicero area and the other one was the North Side. The North Side crew was a big money making machine that was infiltrated in every possible legitimate and illegitimate enterprises. For example, after his milk operations, Prio and his associates ventured in another lucrative legitimate business such as the distribution of a milk product known as cheese. Prio became partner in the famous Grande Cheese Company together with the company’s manager who was another Sicilian immigrant known as Giovanni Vincenzo DiBella (no relations to Dominick DiBella). Few other partners of Prio in the company were Vincent Benevento, Gaetano Oneglia and James DeAngelo. Benevento was also known as the “Cheese King” because of his enormous operations in the cheese business. All of these guys were stockholders in the company. The company was located at 134 North La Salle St. and its president was one of Prio’s associates Fred Romano. Prio acted as a general manager for the company. The Outfit’s influence and control over the industry started from the cheese production, through a distribution system, to the corner pizza shops. The control over the industry has reaped enormous amounts of unreported cash for organized crime in Chicago and the continuation of that illegal cash flow was guaranteed through roughshod and illegal tactics in the marketplace. It has brought death, arson, insurance fraud, economic loss to legitimate business, and higher taxes for everyone. But this very profitable operation also resulted with an internal war within the Chicago mob and also with the end of many high profile crime figures.

In 1943 West Side boss and head of the Outfit Paul “The Waiter” Ricca and few other big shots were scheduled for a trial for extortion. Ricca ruled the Outfit with an iron fist and also had a seat on the National Mafia Commission. So since he and the boss of the Cicero area Louis Campagna were “busy” fighting the government, the natural order of things was to place someone from the North Side as front boss of the Outfit for day-to-day operations. But Ricca didn’t do that. He placed one of his close associates Tony “Joe Batters” Accardo from the Grand Avenue crew as his replacement. This move brought a lot of envy among some members in the Outfit such as Vincent Benevento and another hoodlum known as Lawrence “Dago” Mangano from the West Side. During this period these mobsters tried to use the situation while Ricca was fighting for his freedom. The situation became simple, one side tried to dominate the rackets and the other side kept it from being dominated or in general they fought for the top spot. There were also rumours that other mobsters from Kansas City and St. Louis were involved in the conspiracy. Now Ross Prio was in a very tough situation. His associates from the North Side wanted to take over the Outfit’s operation but he knew that Ricca and Accardo were very shrewd guys and things could get much worse for him. He also knew that Ricca had his own spies in every possible Outfit crew who provided informations for any possible rebellion against the boss. So now Prio was again in a situation to choose whether he’s going to join the king or go against him. Prio chose to join the king which was a very smart move. Accardo ordered that Prio should take care of the problem by himself so he can prove his loyalty towards the organization and Ricca. So Prio gave the order to his main murder logisticians known as the “Three Doms” to eliminate the “bad blood”.


The Three Doms: Dominick Brancato, DiBella and Nuccio

The “clean up” began with one of Prio’s closest associates 48 year old “Black Tom” Oneglia. On December 7, 1943 Oneglia went to the barber shop at 1608 Sedgwick Street for a shave and a hair cut. While being shaved in the barber’s chair, suddenly three hitmen burst in and shot to death Oneglia while his face was still covered in lather. Than the killers drove off in a black automobile and were never seen again.


Oneglia murdered

On February 25, 1944, 42 year old James DeAngelo and 50 year old Onofrio Vitale were called for a meeting. At the same day both went missing. Later on March 11 DeAngelo’s battered and bound corpse was found in the trunk of his wife’s car on the North Side of Chicago. He was tortured for several days, four of his ribs were broken and there were also several holes on his skull made by a small sharp instrument. Also year later Vitale’s corpse was found stuffed in a sewer. Ross Prio was questioned by the cops regarding the murders and he said that he knew nothing of Vitale except that he was a good cheese curer and an excellent salesman. On DeAngelo, Prio said that he knew him casually. On March 2, 1944, 39 year old Sam Gervase was shot to death in his refrigerator repair shop at 609 Division St. Gervase's body was found crumpled in the rear of the store, riddled by five bullets mostly in the head and chest. Clenched in his right hand was his own .38 caliber revolver from which all six shells had been fired. On August 3, 1944, “the West Side King” Lawrence Mangano was shot by the “Three Doms” while driving along Blue Island Avenue on the West Side. Later he died in a hospital.

Next on the hit list was “Don Vincenzo”. On December 28, 1945 Benevento was working in one of his cheese stores at 1057 Grand Avenue. Three gunmen entered the store and ordered Benevento to raise his hands. So he didn’t raise his hands and one of the gunmen fired four times from an automatic pistol at Benevento. He was hit twice in the stomach, once in the neck, in the right arm and left armpit. But miraculously Benevento managed to survive the attack. While in the hospital, the cops questioned Benevento but true to the gangster code of “omerta”, he refused to identify to attackers and said that it was a simple robbery. When the cops searched his apartment they found a huge arsenal of weapons, including a Thompson submachine gun, eight shotguns, six rifles, eight revolvers, two pistols and a basket full of ammunition. All of the weapons were loaded and well oiled. Benevento said that he owned the weapons because he loved to hunt. It was clearly that he was prepared to defend himself from the wrath of the Outfit. On March 1, 1946 Benevento told his wife that he’s heading south and fled Chicago and traveled around the country constantly. On September 20, 1946 Benevento called his wife Jane and told her to meet him at the Johnson Cabins, about three miles south of Lake Zurich. In the early hours of September 21, Benevento and his wife were sleeping in their cabin when suddenly two cars came near the place. Three hitmen burst the cabin door and fired seven shotgun blasts and few .45 caliber pistol bullets at Benevento. His wife was lying next to him but remained untouched by any of the bullets. Benevento’s body was riddles by the blasts and so were the mattress and the wall behind the bed. This time he was dead for sure.


Vincent Benevento

After the murder of “Don Vincenzo” his nephew Nick DeJohn also fled Chicago and went to San Francisco, were he lived under the alias Vincent Rossi. On May 9th 1947, DeJohn was seen that afternoon with another Outfit member known as Leonard Calamia driving around San Francisco and shopping. Later he was told by Calamia that they should have a meeting in a bar known as LaRocca's Tavern on Columbus Avenue, wich was a mafia hangout.They met with Sebastian Nani,a gangster out of Brooklyn, San Francisco Crime Family members Tony Lima and Michael Abati,Frank Scappatura and Outfit member Frank Tornabene. At the end of the meeting, DeJohn had been garroted or strangled with heavy braided fishing line, allegedly by Calamia. In the eyes of the police the only thing that connected some of these victims together was that they were stockholders in the Grande Cheese Co. DeJohn’s death signalled the end of the old time North Side crew and coming of the “new blood” headed by Ross Prio himself. After the murders one of the owners of the Grande Cheese Company John DiBella, contacted Ross Prio and asked him for help to move the company elsewhere. So in 1949 the company was moved to 1 S. Main St. in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Ross Prio was responsible for the Wisconsin state law concerning the pasteurising of milk for the making of cheese. Years later, one of the main shareholders in the company was New York mafia boss Joe Bonanno.

James DeGeorge, who was still the main guy on the North Side, was punished by the Outfit for the failure to fulfil his obligations towards the organization. He was demoted as boss of the North Side and was transferred to Wisconsin. After that the coast was clear. Now, guess who became the new boss of the most lucrative area at that time in Chicago?! That’s right ladies and gentlemen, it was Ross Prio. Prio took over the vast network of bookmaking parlors and brothels along Rush Street and the Near North Side, which at the time was an area that enjoyed a post war economic renaissance. And The Devil said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendour, it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.” (Luke 4:6-7) That “anyone” was Ross Prio.

During the late 1940’s the Outfit’s coin machine king Edward Vogel started spreading his operations in Dallas. His representative there was Sam Yaras, the brother of a Jewish big time hoodlum Dave Yaras. Ross Prio also played a major role by sending one of his associates from the milk business, Marcus Lipsky. According to federal and Texas authorities Lipsky masterminded the Outfit’s takeover of the Dallas rackets, after planning the murders of four established Dallas gambling operators as a Machiavellian show of strength. Prio also became something of a “peacemaker” among Chicago politicians. During the same period, there was rivalry for the position of Alderman between Fred Gable and Mathias “Paddy” Bauler. Bauler was backed by Ross Prio and the Outfit so during the campaign the headquarters of Bauler were bombed. It was a trick made by the Prio group so they can blame Fred Gable for the act and to get him out of the way. And they succeeded because Gable and another individual were arrested so Bauler became the Alderman of the 43rd Ward. Adverse publicity followed and Gable was eventually released from jail and immediately filed a million dollar damage suit against Bauler and his organization. After that Prio himself visited Gable and told him to drop the suit against Bauler or else. Gable reportedly dropped the suit against Bauler and Prio allegedly rewarded Gable with $30,000 cash. After the settlement, Bauer allowed Prio and his associates to operate freely in his ward.

Ross Prio was 5’ 3” tall, weighted 180 pounds, heavy build, with dark complexion and wore glasses. His appearance was like out of the movies, with bodyguards, black Cadillacs and $500 suits. The early 1950s were the heyday of the North Side mob which by now became known as the Rush Street Crew. Prio controlled the whole North Side including the Near North Side and North into Niles, Illinois. He lived in a big house at 6116 Forest Glen, Sauganash Illiniois.


Home of Mob Boss Ross Prio at 6116 Forest Glen as it looked March 31, 1953

Prio’s right hand man was Jimmy Allegretti. Allegretti was a Neapolitan and was also a mean money making machine. He took profits from gambling operations, extortion and mostly prostitution. He owned and extorted hundreds of clubs, restaurants, taverns and also held an army of bookies and prostitutes under his rule. Allegretti made over $20.000 a month only from extortion. He ran prostitution and gambling rackets mostly at 35 and 36 districts of Chicago to the whole North Avenue. Almost every hotel, tavern, bar or club on North Side paid protection money or held at least 20 of Allegretti's prostitutes night and day. Mostly the price for his hookers went from 20$ to 500$. He was also involved in fur burglaries. This business generated from 500 to 700.000 dollars a year and they sold from 200$ to 1000$ dollars for one fur coat. He even was involved in horse betting and wire services which generated almost half a mil per year. He also had shares in several casinos in Hot Springs, Arkansas and was involved in the bartenders and waitress unions. Allegretti also was connected to a car theft ring and shipped cars to Guatemala, which generated 10.000$ a week and also held a lot of meat markets and stores.


James Allegretti

Other two most prominent members of Prio’s crew were Joseph “Caesar” DiVarco and Anthony "Tony Mack" DeMonte. DiVarco was a psychopath who rose in the organization through murder. Previously he worked under the auspices of the “Three Doms” and also became a professional extortionist and juice lender. DiVarco grew so big that theres rumours on who was second in command after Prio. Was it Allegretti or DiVarco? The two teamed up to operate so-called legitimate companies which provided foodstuffs and supplies to the area's nightspots. For example, the restaurants and meat shops bought their meat from C & B Meat Provision Company, which was owned by Allegretti and DiVarco. Also many of the taverns and hotels purchased automatic glassware washers from the Sterile Glass Company which was also owned by the duo. Tony DeMonte controlled all card and dice operations for the crew. Although these guys were Prio's prime money makers, Prio also had some assistance from William Goldstein aka Bill Gold, who was the prime bookmaker. Gold obtained the line and race results from the Ernest Sansone organization. Also Frank Tornabene, was one of Prio’s main players in the prostitution racket. Tornabene’s associates in his prostitution ring were Sam Elia, Thomas Rizzo, Robert Smith and Eileen “Bunny” Curry, a well known Chicago madam. Joseph "Big Joe" Arnold and Mike Glitta were two ruthless guys that were mostly involved in the juice loan and prostitution rackets. Arnold also worked as extortionist and Glitta some times was used as a frontman in some of Allegretti’s strip joints. Other members of Arnold’s juice crew were Lawrence “Hornsby” Moretti, Lawrence “Larry the Hood” Buonaguidi, Joseph “Red” Amari, August Giovenco, Victor Musso, Michael "Bones" Albergo, Libero “Tony” Ingignoli and Thomas Immerso. These guys handled a $500,000 a year juice loan racket. Dominick DiBella, Nuccio and Brancato became Prio’s overseers of many illegal activities and also liaisons between Prio and other bosses of the organization. The Three Doms were supervising more than 40 gambling joints which poured millions of dollars annually into the pockets of crime syndicate gangsters and their crooked cohorts among police and politicians. This was one of the best money making crews in the Outfit’s history and Prio’s word was their law.

Ross Prio ensured his protection and also expanded his connections with the government through his attorney and associate Fred Romano. One of Prio’s connections was a police Captain Redmond P. Gibbons, who was a chief of the uniformed police and commander of the Hudson Av. police district. Gibbons had a good reputation as a policeman but his colleagues knew about his shady connections with the underworld. In 1953 Police Commissioner Timothy O'Connor started an investigation and pressed charges against Gibbons that were under the direction of Philip Breitzke, the deputy commissioner. The investigators found a little red memo book, which Gibbons admitted may be his, which contained addresses and telephone numbers of gambling places, clubs, and business enterprises in the Hudson Av. police district. The book also contained mysterious numerical entries, ranging from 10 to 100, after some of the names. The numbers raised speculation about being "payoffs." Gibbons defended himself by saying that he didn’t fully acknowledged that the red book was his, but he said he had kept such a book while he was in command at Hudson av. back in 1949 and 1950. He said he kept data on his automobile and camera in the book. Gibbons also said that he listed in it the names and addresses of friends and as well as information needed for police investigations. Gibbons also added that the addresses and telephone numbers which were traced to gambling establishments were in fact collected in the investigation of the murder of Marvin Bas, an attorney, who was shot and killed on September 25, 1950. The murder was not solved. It was reported that Bas was about to give information to the United States senate crime investigating committee about his underworld connections. The biggest problem was that the book contained the phone number of Fred Romano who by that time was a known associate of Ross Prio and they shared an office at 134 N. La Salle St. The State's Attorney John Gutknecht also took the heat because his name was also been drawn from the entries in the book. When asked about this, he said that he had no intention of firing Romano, who by now he was one of his assistants. But the reality was that Gutknecht hired Romano with the full knowledge that he was a very close friend of Ross Prio. Attorney William Mannion, who had screen Romano as a candidate, said that as far he was concerned, Prio was a “respectable businessman” with no prior criminal record. But the truth was that Prio’s criminal record dated from 1929, but because of this case, a court order was issued for the record to be destroyed. The records of hundreds of Chicago's big time hoodlums have been removed from the police bureau of identification over the years. Such removals were granted in cases where there was no evidence in the records that the hoodlums had ever been convicted. The removals all took place prior to 1951 before police commissioner O'Connor ruled against such action.

One undercover detective raised his voice by saying that Prio, Aldermen Bauer and William Goldstein were the boys that should be seen about vice and gambling. Each of their names was listed in the notebook. On July 8, 1953, 53 year old Ross Prio was questioned by the “investigation elite” in the Central Police building including the deputy commissioner Philip Breitzke, the head of the Sotland Yard secret investigation unit Captain William Balswick, Chief of detectives John O’Malley, and John Golden, the head of the homicide section. Prio was joined by one of his attorneys Bernard McDonnell. During the questioning Prio only gave his name, age and the address of his home at 6116 Forest Glen Avenue. He also described himself as an oil dealer, who had been recently drilling some wells in southern Illinois. Than Breitzke asked Prio about his involvement in vice and gambling operations in the Hudson Avenue police district, about the kidnapping of Republican legislator Clem Graver, the murder of former police lieutenant William Drury, the killing of the attorney Marvin Bas and in the end he was asked how it happened that he’s telephone number was found in the notebook kept by Captain Gibbons. Prio calmly replied to each question with a single sentence “I refuse to answer”. Breitzke wanted to hold Prio for further questioning but his attorney McDonnell warned the investigators that Prio would sue them for damages if arrested without justification. Prio’s lawyer also produced a doctors certificate that Prio had been ill and that any emotional upset might be serious. Again, Prio walked free. So the notebook case became a big national scandal but everybody walked free when Mayor Kennelly decided to dismiss the significance of the same notebook. In other words Prio became untouchable. It was considered by law enforcement that during this period the two main players just below Paul Ricca and Tony Accardo were Sam Giancana and Ross Prio.

So by now everything for Prio was business as usual. The same year in 1953 he used two different investors as fronts for constructing a development of homes in Lincolnwood, Illinois. He invested through William Enke of the Stratton Grain Co. and Julius Frankel and William Kelly who were associated with the Village of Lincolnwood. Later Chicago architect William Cohan confirmed that Ross Prio was the advisor of the investors and that all of the financial transactions involving the investors were handled by Fred Romano, Prio’s attorney. Also for number of years Prio made investments in the grain industry and he transacted some of his main businesses through Enke’s Stratton Grain and Trading Company.


Prio's attorney Fred Romano

During the mid 1950’s one of Prio’s most lucrative business was the selling of horse meat. Back in 1951 the biggest meat packing companies centralized their operations in a few cities and the largest of them all was the meat packing industry in Chicago. At the same time many high ranking mobsters, including Ross Prio, met at a restaurant on the North Side allegedly to discuss business and the illegal horse meat operations. They arranged to start selling horse meat which was labelled as beef with the help of their meat packing companies. They also arranged that the illegal horse meat dealers set very high prices for a pound of meat sold in the Chicago area. So the Rush Street crew through their C & B Meat Co. sold the “beef” to every tavern, restaurant, club or hotel around their area and they had only five employees. The scheme was a cash cow for the gangsters because beef was sold for 62 cents a pound while horse meat cost only 15 cents a pound. According to some reports, Prio and his crew made over $500.000 in few months from this operation alone. The Outfit also started eliminating competition and during this period several bombings on restaurants and butcher shops occurred in the Chicago area over the horsemeat business.


Horsemeat Hamburger Grand Jury 1952. A secret witness who's name and face were concealed, leaves the grand jury testimony on the selling of horsemeat to area butchers and restaurants as ground beef.

So the government started investigating the criminal infiltration in the meat business. The police started arresting owners of meat packing plants and companies that were mob connected and were selling horse meat but the mobsters remained untouched. On July 11 1958, Ross Prio, Caesar DiVarco and Jackie Cerone were questioned by investigative committee during the McClellan hearings. During the hearings, Senator John McClellan and Robert Kennedy questioned Ross Prio:


The Chairman: All right, the one on my right. What is your name?

Prio: Ross Prio, 1721 Sunset Ridge, Glenview, 111.

The Chairman: And what is your business or occupation?

Prio: I decline to answer on the grounds that it may tend to incriminate me.

The Chairman: This last witness on my right, I ask you the question: Do you honestly believe that if you gave a truthful answer to the question, "What is your business or occupation?” that a truthful answer thereto might tend to incriminate you?

Prio: I decline to answer on the grounds that the answer may tend to incriminate me.

The Chairman: The Chair, with the approval of the committee, orders and directs the witness to answer the question: Do you honestly believe that if you gave a truthful answer to the question, "What is your business or occupation?" that a truthful answer there to might tend to incriminate you?

Prio: I decline to answer that on the grounds that my answer may tend to incriminate me.

Kennedy: Mr. Prio, according to the information that we have that was developed under oath before the committee yesterday, you had a very prominent role in the setting up of these syndicate-sponsored trade associations in Chicago in 1952 and 1953. Could you tell us about what you did in connection with that?

Prio: I decline to answer that question, sir.

Kennedy: We understand that you are probably one of the most important figures in Chicago as far as bookmaking is concerned, but that you operate chiefly out of the North Side of Chicago. Is that right, Mr. Prio?

Prio: I decline to answer that question, sir.

Kennedy: And that another man that was going to work with you was Joey Caesar, is that right?

Prio: I decline to answer that question, sir.

Kennedy: Do you know Joey Caesar?

Prio: I decline to answer that question, sir.

Kennedy: Is that Joey Caesar that is sitting on your right there?

Prio: I decline to answer that question, sir.

Kennedy: Would you mind looking and seeing if you can identify him? Not that individual, but the one sitting next to him. Do you recognize him?

Prio: I decline to answer that question, sir.

The Chairman: You are ordered and directed to answer the question.

Prio: I decline to answer that question, sir.


Joseph DiVarco, Jack Cerone and Ross Prio during the McClellan hearings

Later Kennedy also referred to the C & B Meat Co. and said that DiVarco and others took orders from Tony Accardo who had interest in the same meat supply company. But Prio and the boys each took the fifth more than 90 times. In reality the meat scandal already went big that it became national. After this the heat from the government was constant so Prio and the Outfit in general never had the meat business on high level ever again.

During the late 1950’s the Chicago Outfit led the rest of the Mid West crime families in taking over the Las Vegas casinos. Many mob meetings occurred during this period and the Rush Street crew had its own representatives on these gatherings. For example, in the summer of 1957 in small town near Los Angeles, California Ross Prio, Joseph “Ruffy” Lisciandrello, Dominick DiBella and Benny Goldberg met with leaders from the Los Angeles crime family to talk future business in the Vegas casinos. In 1958 at the Indian Creek Hotel in Miami Beach Prio, Lisciandrello, DiVarco and Allegretti met with representative of the Pittsburgh crime family Sam Mannarino about their shares in the Vegas Casinos. Later in 1959 another meeting occurred in Chicago between DiVarco, Allegretti and Nick Danolfo and Wilbur Clark of the Desert Inn casino in Las Vegas. The purpose of this meeting was to gain control of the gambling operations in the State of Nevada by financing acquisition of political control in the state. They also talked about obtaining control of the policy and prostitution rackets in Vegas. It was the period of the golden era of Las Vegas and the Chicago mob was in charge.

Besides the semi-legal businesses such as the former cheese company, the constructions or the horse meat business and the illegal rackets such as gambling, prostitution, protection racket or the Las Vegas schemes, the most profitable racket for the Rush Street crew was the Latin numbers game known as “Bolita”. The game originally came from Puerto Rico and Cuba and at the beginning it was considered to be a relatively harmless amateur sport to raise money for clubs and fraternal groups. But the Chicago mob saw it as a very profitable operation and it became illegal in the U.S. In the old days bolita had 100 numbered balls which were placed in a bag than the bag was tossed from person to person at the throwing. The sack went round in a circle of tossers until the time for drawing. At the time the person that held the bag took a numbered ball out of it and that was the winning number. People made bets at the local grocery store, the butcher, in the street, at work, and in any number of bars, cafés, and restaurants. Millions of people bet their money on what the combination of the balls would be. For the Chicago Outfit it was a $50,000 a day profit game that maintained for almost two decades. Most of the operations were placed on Chicago’s North Side.

The two major bosses that controlled the bolita racket were Ross Prio and Fiore “Fifi” Buccieri from the West Side. Their prime operator and lieutenant for the racket was a Japanese gambling boss known as Ken “Joe the Jap” Eto. Eto was a very shrewd card and dice player that was first noticed and brought to the organization by Prio himself. Under Prio, Eto controlled the game among non-whites in Chicago and Indiana. He also operated two cocktail lounges for Prio on Rush Street, The Den and The Bourbon Street Club. The Bourbon club was owned by Rita Miyoshi, who in fact was Eto’s daughter. Reports say that every morning Eto met with Prio and later went to the clubs or racing tracks to collect his payment. The duo was also known for driving in Eto’s car aimlessly along Morton Grove, Niles and other Illinois areas. If Prio wasn’t available, Eto attended meetings with Dominick DiBella or Nuccio. Eto also had a crew of Orientals under his rule that operated the game such as Raymond Choy, Oda Tsutomu, Kazutoka Moto and Stanley Imoaka. Eto used these guys to carry cash and gambling receipts because they were clean, had guts and kept their mouths shut. Usually the Subway Pool Room, Mike’s Rainbow Restaurant and Merlo’s Real Estate and Insurance Co. were the main places that have been used as money drops. The Subway Pool Room was often used as a meeting place between Prio, Allegretti, DiVarco and Eto. With the bolita racket Eto made millions of dollars a year for Prio and the Outfit in general. By the late 1950’s the Outfit was taking over the bolita racket from the Latin community. Some joined the organization and others refused. Those who refused met their demise.


Ken “Joe the Jap” Eto

Eugene Lopez was a tavern owner and a very close associate of Eto in the bolita business. He also lived under the alias James Crizell. One day Lopez decided not report all of his earned cash from the bolita perations which was a big mistake. Ross Prio didn’t want any shortages from anyone because the idea might spread around to other Puerto Rican bolita operators. So Prio was forced to make an example and told Eto to lure Lopez to an alleged meeting. On November 19, 1957 unaware of the murder plot, 42 year old Lopez walked into a trap. He was beaten and than strangled by Prio’s henchmen. His battered body was found the next day jammed in the back seat of a 1957 convertible near Antioch Lake County. The police theorized that the victim had been killed outside the auto and then dumped onto the back floor. There was a livid strangle mark on the victim’s throat and two deep cuts on the head which represented a typical gangland style murder. The news about the murder quickly spread around the Latin community and they realized that they couldn’t defy the mob and get away with it alive.

Another bolita operator met the most gruesome faith. Santiago Gonzalez was a big man among his peers in the Latin community and was also a big fish in the bolita racket. So blinded by his ego, Gonzalez decided that he will operate independently and didn’t want anything to do with the Chicago mob. Again the mob sent for Eto to go and talk to the guy. But Eto was chased out by Gonzalez and few other Puerto Rican hoodlums with metal pipes and baseball bats. So again the boss of the Near North Side Ross Prio issued a contract on Gonzalez’s life. Eto was ordered to set up Gonzalez, along with another Outfit associate known as John Fecarotta. On January 29, 1958 Gonzales was lured to a meeting in an industrial area. Outfit henchmen grabbed him and tortured him for few days. On February 2, his body was found on a parking lot. He was brutally beaten, slashed, stabbed, and gutted so severely that his intestines spilled out of his body.

Ken Eto was also known for handling small time juice loans in the Rush Street area out of the Golden 8 Ball Pool and Billiard Hall. In 1962 Eto and another Rush Street associate and club owner Aaron “Obie” Oberlander travelled to San Juan, Puerto Rico to establish multimillion dollar hotel for gambling operations and to be utilized by Ross Prio and others. Through Prio, Eto began connecting with prominent hoodlums of the Chicago area such as Armando “Mondo” Fosco, a notorious figure who back in the late 1930’s at the age of 14, drew a gun at few police officers. During this period Fosco was often seen having meetings with Prio. Policy number operator and club owner William Belmonte was also involved in the bolita racket with the North Side crew. Belmonte was a long time associate of policy numbers king and infamous hitman Sam “Golf Bag” Hunt. Another prominent associate of the Prio/Eto bolita operations was James “Kid Riviera” Williams, a 300-pound African-American gambling overseer, mob muscleman and big time narcotics peddler from the West Side. According to FBI reports also during this period Williams had several meetings with Eto and Prio.


James “Kid Riviera” Williams

Eto was also involved in another “numbers racket” which was known as the Cadillac numbers. In this operation he was connected with another syndicate hoodlum known as Joseph “Cappy” Capizzi. Capizzi also worked for another big time hoodlum Felix “Milwaukee Phil” Alderisio and was constantly seen in the company of other hoodlums such as Prio, Allegretti and DiVarco. The Cadillac operation was the largest ever to operate on Chicago’s South Side and in general. It employed over 100 runners. The runners distributed the numbers cards to hundreds of persons on the city s North, South and West Side each day. The bettors chose any combination of three numbers on the cards, which were then returned to the collection offices by the runners. Each day the ring obtained "the handle," or total proceeds bet, at a particular race track in the United States on that same day. If the bettor’s choice of the three numbers all appeared in the figures of the track’s proceeds, he won. If you really think about it, during this period Ken Eto was maybe the prime money maker for the Rush Street crew and Ross Prio.

During the late 1950’s and early 60’s many Outfit high profile figures wanted to transfer some of their illegal operations on the North Side. Outfit member from the West Side Rocco Potenza wanted to sell some of his dice and roulette tables to clubs and other joints that were located on Chicago’s Northwest Side which was Prio’s territory. So he had to ask his boss Sam Giancana to ask Prio if he can operate freely. Giancana talked to Prio and a deal was made. Potenza had to pay weekly $2,000 for Prio’s sanction to operate in the Northwest suburbs and also he had to pay Giancana another $3,000 for the same reason. During the same period people from the Jewish community in Chicago migrated from the West Side to the North Side of the city. The most prominent Jewish mobsters at the time were Lenny Patrick and Dave Yaras. So again Patrick had to ask Giancana to win Prio’s approval to move to Rogers Park and operate his own bookmaking schemes. Patrick made a deal with Prio and another old Capone gangster Leslie “Killer Kane” Kruse to share his profits with the two bosses in exchange for protection by paying off undisclosed aldermen and three police captains. So Patrick’s protection was granted. But the problem was that Giancana and Prio, the two top gangsters in the Outfit, sometimes made mistakes by giving the same territories on two different gangsters. For example, Lenny Patrick had a quarrel with Louis Ciriona over horse book operations on the North Side. Ciriona worked for Outfit big shots Gus Alex and Frank Ferraro. The argument was due to the fact that Ciriona received the “ok” from Giancana and Prio to operate a handbook without the knowledge of Gus Alex. To calm things down, Ciriona was told to work under the auspices of Lenny Patrick, in other words to give him a percentage of his gambling earnings.

On February 10, 1961 Ross Prio organized a wedding for his daughter Joanne. The lucky guy was a 30 year old advertising auditor Gerald Avery. Their relationship resulted of their same attendance in a military academy. The couple was married in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in suburban Glenview. The bride wore white silk and some of the guests wore guns at gangland's big social event of the season. Among the 175 invited guests were Felix “Milwaukee Phil” Alderisio, Willie “Smokes” Aloisio, and Marshal Caifano, who wore elevator shoes. Tony Accardo and Sam Giancana couldn't make the wedding but they put in appearances later at a dinner dance and reception in the swank Villa Venice night club. The Outfit’s top boss Paul Ricca sent regrets because he was detained at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. Prio’s son Ross Jr. got previously married to girl named as Frances Maiale. She was the daughter of Frank Maiale, a businessman from Wisconsin who knew Prio for more than 20 years. Ross Jr. worked as independent broker who was doing some speculative buying and selling for himself and also for any brokerage firm that contacted him. Junior also held seat on the Chicago Board of Trade. From his son’s marriage, Prio Sr. received two grandchildren.


Chicago North Side boss Ross Prio

Ross Prio was riding high. He often held court at the Sunshines Restaurant in Niles, Illinois. He was driving in a 1961 tan Pontiac Vista and his personal and family chauffer and bodyguard was Marco Glitta, brother of the infamous Rush Street crew member Mike Glitta. He also occasionally played golf at the Tam- O’Shanter golf course in Niles and was constantly accompanied by his associates such as DiVarco, DeMonte and Vince Solano. Solano acted from time to time as Prio’s substitute driver to discuss business and was also his main guy in the union business. Solano was main official in the International Hod Carriers and Builders Union, Local 1 in Chicago. Solano held this position for more than 20 years.


Vince Solano

Prio and Solano together held interest in The Torch Club at 900 North State Street, which was fronted by Eddie Sturch. Sturch was an ex-convict and also a powerhouse in the 42nd Ward Democratic organization. For the Christmas holidays, Prio usually sent several packages of high quality cheese as gifts to Ricca, Giancana, Accardo, Alex and Ferraro. On April 7, 1963 there was a big North Side mob meeting for breakfast at the Sunshines Restaurant, including Ross Prio as boss of the crew, his lieutenants Joe DiVarco, Dom DiBella, Mike Glitta, Tony DeMonte and Bill Gold, also present was muscleman and strip joint operator Larry Buonaguidi, North Side gambling operators Frank Orlando and Ralph Scaccia, and also North Side gambler and operator of the Waltor Club Pete Speren.

By now Ross Prio made so much money that he stood miles away from most of the top gangsters and their wealth combined together with the wealth of some of the most prominent legitimate businessmen in the country. He held a legitimate no show job as a salesman at the Attendant Service Corporation at 2634 Fullerton av., for a salary of $10,000. He also had another no show job as a salesman at the Zenith Cigarette Vending Corp. again for a salary of $10,000. Prio and his wife lived in a $60,000 residence at 1721 North Sunset Ridge Road in Glenview, Illinois. He also bought a big residence with swimming pool in Miami at 6600 Southwest 116th Street, Florida where he and his wife spent the winter days. So Prio also invested some of his money in real estate in the Miami area. He bought 50% interest in twenty one-half acre lots in South Miami which was known as Miami Ten Acres. The value of the property was approximately $100,000. Prio’s partner in this deal was John McDonald of River Forest, Illinois. One of Prio’s associates in Miami, Pete Arnstein informed Prio that the Kingston Hotel and Yacht Club at 6380 Indian Creek Drive was for sale. Arnstein used control a big prostitution ring from the hotel which was on a very good location. Prio gave the money to Arnstein and also gave him very specific instructions not to contact him directly in any way and also told him that he will hold him responsible for the many that he gave him. Than Prio sent two of his lieutenants Dom DiBella and Dom Nuccio to Miami to watch over the money transactions and the purchase of the hotel. When Prio became a secretive owner of the hotel he also bought a big yacht. He became one of the kings in that area. Two or three years later Prio sold his interests in the hotel.

Back home, Prio got his interest in several companies such as The Rush Currency Exchange, 7710 Sheridan Building Corporation, Clover Town and Country Homes, The Continental Insurance Company, The Hollywood Glass Company, The Homer Gwin Insurance Company, Schur Hauptman Company, Chevrolet-Cadillac Agency and The Engers Buick Company. Prio used to buy Buicks from the Engers Co. on low prices and than re-sold them for higher prices. Also all of the proceeds from the bolita racket were deposited at the Rush Currency Exchange at 941 North Rush Street. Also Kenneth Leonard and Charles Buffano, who allegedly were the “owners” of the Universal Cigarette Service Co., were in fact a frontmen for Prio and DiVarco in the cigarette machine business. Buffano was also an old ex-Capone associate. The Universal Company was in association with the Zenith Corporation in which Prio allegedly worked as salesman. In the early 1960’s a rival company by the name of George Muller and Sons Vending Service was taking over some of the cigarette stops that the Outfit previously controlled so later the rival company was bombed by “unknown” individuals. Prio also had financial interests in the Associated Life Insurance Company of Chicago, through his frontmen Dan Conero and Morris Isaac. Prio’s son Ross Jr. worked as an officer in the Hollywood Glass Company in which Prio had $5,000 equity. There are also rumours that many bombings occurred on other rival glass companies during this period.

One of Prio’s most prominent investments was the Playboy enterprises. One of his close friends was Arnold Morton who was the manager of The Playboy Club at182 East Walton Street in Chicago. In fact Morton was a frontman for the Outfit. Prio was a constant “guest” at the joint both for pleasure and business. I say pleasure because the joint handled a big prostitution ring that was operated by the Outfit. The place also had special Playboy marked cars, Playboy coats and also Playboy towels which were handed out in the restrooms. The place was constantly visited by high profile crime figures such as Gus Alex and Sam Giancana. According to some informants Prio also had close connections with Hugh Hefner, the owner of the world famous Playboy magazine. The club became suspicious in the eyes of the law when the club’s administration discounted the services of the Star Disposal Service, which was a legitimate company, and took the services of the West Town Suburban Scavenger Service, which was an Outfit controlled company. But the government wasn’t able to obtain sufficient evidences of Prio’s involvement in the club because he always used other legitimate people as fronts. Prio owned one-fourth of the shares and 80% of the stock was owned by Hugh Hefner and the Playboy magazine. In February 1961, Prio also had purchased the franchise for the Playboy Club that was located in Miami. But later the franchise was purchased back by Hefner because of a racial incident that occurred in the club. Prio and the Outfit wanted the club to operate as a segregated joint but Hefner opposed any segregation and that’s why he purchased it back from Prio for $697,000 which was much higher than the price that was previously bought. In 1963 Outfit associate Augie Circella, owner of the Follies Burlesque Theater, wanted to join the Playboy association and to invest in a new club on Chicago’s North Side that would be called the Playgirl Club. But he needed permission from the boss of that area which was Ross Prio. So Circella contacted his friend Gus Alex, who contacted Pat Marcy, the Outfit’s force in the First Ward, who in turn contacted Prio and asked him to do Circella a favour. So Circella won the approval of Prio but the deal was to take Prio as one of his partners in the club. Circella invested $40,000 in the joint and placed a former policeman who acted as front in the operation. Few years later Prio also considerably invested in another multi-million dollar Playboy Club which was located at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Don’t get confused by the chain of people involved in making of the contacts. The reason for that was Gus Alex evading any close associations with prominent hoodlums during the periods when the government placed enormous pressure over the organization. Alex was a very paranoid gangster with suicidal tendencies. There is a story when Prio wanted to rent an apartment in the same building where Alex resided at 1150 North Lake Shore Drive. Alex advised Prio about his moving in the same building, which can bring a very bad publicity. Alex has always been very sensitive to any bad publicity regarding him and his residence which might alienate his neighbors. Prio was a very reasonable guy and so he agreed.

During this period Prio also held a lot of judges under his rule such as Judge Daniel Covelli of the Superior Court in Cook County, Illinois. Back in the late 1950’s Prio’s associate Bill Gold was arrested on gambling charges and was scheduled for a long sentence. Gold’s brother went to ask Ross Prio and asked him to intercede with Judge Covelli. So because of Prio’s close relationship with the judge, Gold’s sentence was reduced to only six months. This period was the prime time for Prio and according to some resources he was the chairman of a certain Outfit group, including Gus Alex, Frank Ferraro and another old timer Murray “Curley” Humphreys. Prio almost received an equal stature of Sam Giancana but he played it smart by evading the top spot because of all of the media and police attention that occurred during that period. According to mob lore, Prio became so powerful that once he managed to dismiss a mob hit that was sanctioned by Sam Giancana himself. The story goes when the feds bugged an Outfit controlled joint in Miami and overheard a conversation between mob big shot Jackie Cerone and few other individuals. Cerone advised the hitters in on a projected killing and that they shouldn’t be seen by Prio, who at the same time and in the same area enjoyed the sunshine. The plan was to lure the victim in a car and later to cut him up and to throw the remaining pieces in the sea. But suddenly the hit was cancelled on Prio’s orders. Probably because he didn’t want any undesirable errors that might occur during the hit while he was in the same area. So thanks to Prio, the guy continued to live. There’s also another example of respectability from Giancana towards Prio. One day Giancana was having a meeting at the Fresh Meadows Golf Course with some of his West Side associates like Sam Parde, Nicky Visco and Queenie Simonelli. Suddenly Vince Solano appeared and whispered to Giancana that his boss, meaning Solano’s boss, is waiting for him outside. So Giancana, the Outfit’s boss, immediately departed from his associates to join Ross Prio in the back seat of a car outside the club house. Solano waited outside the car for almost 20 minutes until the meeting was over. After the meeting Giancana got out of the car and went back to his associates. Don’t forget that Giancana was a Sicilian and according to Sicilian mentality and respectability if you are the boss of the Mafia than you don’t get up for anyone in the organization. Also during Giancana’s rise in the organization he didn’t show much respect towards the elder mobsters except for Ricca, Humphreys and Accardo.

Prio was also known to have been a man of honour. He wasn’t an egoistic maniac like most of his associates in the mob, but he knew when to apologize when needed. For example, in 1964 there was a meeting between the First Ward Alderman Don Parrillo, Ross Prio and Kenneth Leonard. According to Parrillo, the purpose of the meeting was for Prio and Leonard to apologize to Parrillo for being unable to give him their account. So Prio asked Parrillo if there’s anything that they can do for him. Parrillo answered that they could give him their change from the vending operations. Prio agreed and so Parrillo received $5,000 a week in change from the Zenith Company. Parrillo was receiving the money dollar per dollar because some banks at the time were paying a premium to receive change. Also the same year, an African-American criminal burglarized many houses and establishments along Rush Street. Later the burglar was caught by the police and was thrown in jail. But the problem was that his bond was arranged by a bondsman who was in fact a close friend of one of Felix Alderisio’s associates Leo Rugendorf. So Prio arranged a meeting with Alderisio and told him that one of the burglarized victims was Prio’s close friend and also told him that he wants to be insured that Rugendorf’s bondsman does nothing favourable for the burglar. Prio wanted the burglar to be convicted and sentenced to jail and also told Alderisio that he wants the furs that were stolen from his friend to be returned. So the burglar was convicted and the furs were also restored. So the ones that “deserved”, were rewarded by Prio himself, but ones that tried to go against his will, were severely punished. For example, Mandel “Manny” Skar was an ex-convict, hotel and club owner and was also close associate of many top Chicago hoodlums. The loud talking Skar, who often bragged that his friends were top mobsters, owned the $10 million dollar Sahara Inn hotel at 3939 North Mannheim Road in Schiller Park. Later the 300 room hotel was taken over by Marshall Saving and Loan Association which had loaned Skar the money. Later Skar ventured in opening his own two clubs on Rush Street which was Prio’s territory. Now everybody knew that if you want to operate freely on Rush Street, you had to pay a small amount of cash to the boss, which was Prio. So Skar tried to stretch his luck by refusing to pay any street tax to Prio’s collectors, which was imposed to every tavern owner in that area. According to some reports, Skar owed the Rush Street crew $2,000 in street tax and wasn’t going to pay the debt. Prio advised Skar that if he’s not going to pay the debt h’es going to take some of his gambling operations. Skar again refused. So Skar was begging to be made an example. On September 11, 1965 Skar working in his garage behind the 17-story apartment building in which he lived at 3800 North Lake Shore Drive. As he stepped out from the garage, a volley of gunshots rang out. Skar was hit once in the right eye, left cheek, chest and right knee. Skar was dead.


Manny Skar(middle)

Back in the early 60’s, the government declared war against the mob in Chicago by raiding some of their most prominent gambling operations. The government was led by Attorney General Robert Kennedy against the current boss of the Outfit Sam Giancana. The feeling of personal hate was felt on both sides. The Kennedy administration was attacking with raids and deportations and the Outfit’s defence was the corruption within the judicial system and the media. One day Giancana met with Ross Prio to discuss the Kennedy problem and to construct a defence tactic. During the meeting Prio told Giancana that he was very concerned about Kennedy’s appearance in front of the Italian American Civil Rights group on Columbus Day in Chicago. He felt that Frank Annunzio, who was the leader of the group, should be told to tone down Kennedy because this was an obvious attempt of Kennedy to convince the Italian population that he is very friendly with this ethnic group. Prio advised Giancana that he is connected with an official of a new magazine in Chicago which was known as Show Business Illustrated. Prio said that this official was ready to editorialize the magazine against all law enforcement officials that created the investigations against the Outfit. One suggestion was that this official should comment on the fact that Kennedy was spending all of his efforts on bookmakers and not paying attention on the real threat of the country which was the communists lobby. But even with the help of their dirty tactics, the raids continued which weakened the gambling empire of Giancana, Prio and the Outfit in general. Giancana and Prio couldn’t understand why their bookmaking operations were constantly raided by the cops. Later they realized that there was a high profile informant within their organization but they didn’t know who it was. Later Giancana received false information that one of his juice collectors William “Action” Jackson was an informant for the FBI. The innocent victim Jackson was kidnapped and tortured for several days until his heart stopped. According to mob lore, after the murder, photos of Jackson’s gruesome death were handed down among Outfit members as a message to those who might think to rat on the organization.

At the beginning of 1963 most of the North Side lounges, such as the Liberty Lounge, The Rubi Lounge, The Allegro, The La Femme and the Playhouse, which were owned by Prio, have been knocked off by the police. Prio was very angry about the raids, especially about the raid on the Playhouse joint since it was its first raid in more than 30 years. The same year Sam Giancana offered $50,000 to Police Lieutenant Thomas Mahon of the Sheriff’s Police Department in Chicago, in exchange for information in advance on the police raids. Mahon turned down the offer. Few days later he received a telephone call from an individual who identified himself as Ross Prio. Prio told Mahon that he wished to do business considering the offer for the annual payment and that he should contact him at the Team O’Shanter Golf Course and to talk it over. Mahon again refused and never made any contacts with Prio. This is an example that during this period even some of the cops were scared to take bribe from the mob. The Outfit was under attack and the top administration had to take some precautions. In early November, 1964 Sam Giancana, Tony Accardo, Ross Prio and Joseph DiVarco met at the La Strada Restaurant on Prio’s territory on Chicago’s North Side. Obviously the purpose of this meeting was the constant attacks by the government on the Outfit’s gambling operations. Prio had a plan to use their remaining police contacts and advised that all of the bookmaking establishments should remove all of the records, fortified the entrances and to leave a “fall guy” to take the arrest at each location so that it is not that obvious that the information of the anticipated raids is leaking to the hoodlums. At the same meeting it was discussed the big loss of cash because of the government’s constant attacks. So the boys had to make a sacrifice by making a wide spread arson and bombings on some of their own restaurants and other establishments so they can take the insurance money. All these guys needed money because their businesses were going bad so they set their places on fire. There was also another meeting between Giancana, Solano and Prio. Giancana advised Prio that from now on he should contact him only at the Maggio’s Steak House, which was three blocks west of Giancana’s old headquarters the Armory Lounge. During the meeting Giancana also discussed with Prio the policy drawings which were held on Sundays had cost the organization a considerable amount of cash and told Prio to cease the operation. Prio agreed.

But even with all of the precautions that took place, the loss of cash still continued. On July 23, 1964 the central bookmaking office of the Outfit in an apartment at North Jersey, Chicago was raided by the feds. On August 14, 1966 forty-three men and women were arrested in a raid by federal agents and city police on a West Side crime syndicate crap game. The gambling unit managed to arrest Vernon Bailey as manager of the game, but their main quarry Prio’s close associate James “Kid Riviera” Williams eluded them. The telephone and doorbell to the first-floor apartment at 2118 Warren blvd. were found to be listed in Williams' name. The detectives battered down the apartment doors at sunrise, an hour and a half after the dice game had started. On their way into the flat, the cops seized a look-out equipped with a walkie-talkie radio. The other half of the two-way radio set was found in the apartment, but police moved so quickly a warning was never sounded. They also found a large amount of white powder that appeared to be a narcotic. On October 7, 1967 the cops raided a big clearing hose on Chicago’s North Side. The clearing house, which reportedly serviced more than 30 individual bookmakers for the North Side mob, was controlled by Ross Prio. The clearing house was located half a block from the offices of the Illinois Crime Investigating Commission at 300 W. Washington St. Those arrested identified themselves as Louis Kopple, 57, of 540 Aldine av., and Edward M. Camp, 63, of 5907 N. Bernard av. Both have been arrested for gambling before. Kopple was arrested previously in another North Side clearing house. The “front" that was used to disguise the large scale betting operation was very unusual. A large quantity of picture frames were hung about the walls, although the records that were found in the place indicated little legitimate business was conducted there in the last 10 months.

The same year the Illinois Crime Investigating commission declared public hearings about the penetration of the Chicago Outfit into the vending machine and juke box businesses. Those who were scheduled to make an appearance were Charles “Chuckie” English, Joseph “Gags” Gagliano, Gus Alex, Lenny Patrick and Ross Prio. These so-called public appearances were very bad for Prio’s publicity in the legitimate business world. So although he was subpoenaed to appear before the committee, his lawyer Bernard McDonald advised him to stay away because the creation of the commission was not legal.


Ross Prio taken for questioning

This was a tough period for the Chicago mob and many high profile figures fled town like rats abandoning a sinking ship. For example after his release from prison, Sam Giancana fled the country and went to Mexico to further establish their gambling operations in South America. Also Hyman Larner, who was next to Prio as the richest gangsters in the organization, packed his bags, took his wife and fled to Panama. Back in the mid 1960’s Prio’s right hand man Jimmy Allegretti was imprisoned and was sentenced to 7 years in jail. In prison he suffered from diabetes which caused blindness and other defects. With Allegretti’s absence, DiBella, DiVarco and Solano took care of the Rush Street crew. In 1967, the guy who was responsible for Allegretti’s imprisonment, Gerry Covelli was killed on the orders of Ross Prio.


The wreckage of Covelli’s car after the bomb blast June 18, 1967.

As for Prio, who by now was in his mid 60’s, there wasn’t any serious business problems. He sold some of his shares in the legitimate business world and became richer than ever. His bolita racket, which was also in the downfall, remained as his one and only illegal income. Even if he stopped his involvement in the illegal and legal businesses, he and his family still had the cash to live the rest of their lives like kings without lifting their fingers. He and his wife enjoyed their lives by frequently visiting the Williams Bay area in Wisconsin. Prio also mostly hang around DiVarco’s Shirts Unlimited Shop on North State Street in Chicago. He still lived a very fashionable life style by wearing funky pink hot knickers and driving fancy cars. But rumours spread around the underworld that Prio “went soft”. In fact he really did go “soft” and the reason for that was the fading away of most of the gambling rackets, the constant heat from the FBI and the loss of many former allies in the Outfit. Maybe he didn’t want the top spot in the North Side any more and wanted to retire from the business. But being one of the prime money makers in the organization was like a curse. By now Prio wasn’t anymore the chairman of a certain crime administration but he was still the boss of the North Side. Now Tony Accardo, Joseph Aiuppa and Gus Alex were the main players on the top of the organization. So now Gus Alex handed down his orders to Felix Alderisio or Fifi Buccieri who in turn handed down the order to Prio to spread the information among the rest of the Outfit members.

So by 1969 Prio knew that his good times as boss of the North Side mob were coming to an end. During that period the only Outfit administration that left to lead the organization were the semi-retired guys such as Ricca, Accardo and Frank LaPorte, the boss of the Chicago Heights area. But in reality Ricca and Accardo still had the last word in the Alex-Aiuppa ruling panel. So Prio, as the one who brought the biggest profits in the organization, received a lot of pressure from Ricca and Accardo.

In 1970 Prio attended a meeting with Ricca and Accardo at Meo's Norwood House in Libertyville, Lake County, Illinois. According to some reports, it was a 90 minute heated conversation between the mob chieftains. The biggest problem for Ricca and Accardo was the downfall of Prio’s illegal enterprises. For example, Prio’s top money making lieutenants, DiVarco and Arnold, were loosing the battle with the rising African-American gangsters in the gambling operations. Also the multi-million- dollar-a-year bolita racket was on the downfall because of the constant raids from the FBI. Ricca told Prio to deliver the word down on the streets and to tighten up the operating procedures in the bolita racket. According to FBI surveillance, at the lunch Ricca and Accardo had been visibly upset by the arrests of two top bolita overseers with evidence of their operations in hand. Accardo was also upset about the recent imprisonment of Felix Alderisio and the reduced to skimming of illegal profits from the operations of so-called "gay" bars in Old Town, New Town, the Near North Side and the areas of Rogers Park. The reason for that were the raids which were made by the FBI and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Many of the joints had been raided and copious quantities of booze were confiscated because of the violations of federal and state liquor tax laws. Also the same year Prio’s juice loan and extortion operations were on the downfall because operator his main guy Jimmy Allegretti was out of prison but died from a heart attack while en route to Chicago from the penitentiary.

So after the lunch, 70 year old Prio jumped in his car and drove to the Lake Forest Oasis on the Tri-State Tollway to make a phone call. Then he continued on to Libertyville to kill time in the marketplace before returning to the Oasis for a half-hour meeting with Ken Eto, and Dominick DiBella. Prio pressured Eto and DiBella to make everything in their own power to bring back the bolita operations on higher level. Like all good Outfit soldiers, both Eto and DiBella made the nods and then sped back to the Chicago on a mission to lay down the law to a network of bolita runners on the Near North Side. According to some reports Eto wasn’t able to bring back the bolita racket to its previous level, because the second generation of Latin-Americans got wise to the failings of their elders who were constantly cheated and terrorised for too many years by platoons of their own people who worked for white-skinned Mafia masters. They weren't about to be suckered, too. So Eto had no choice but to start dealing in narcotics just to satisfy the needs of his Outfit bosses.

During the winter of 1972, Prio and his wife Marie, as usual decided to spend their days at their residence in Miami, Florida. But in December 4, 1972 Prio was called to testify before a federal grand jury about crime syndicate gambling operations on Chicago’s North Side. True to the Sicilian Mafia code of “omerta” Prio took the Fifth Amendment. In the end he told the committee “I want to live out my life in peace. I am what I am. I have been this way all my life. I can’t become a fink now.” After the investigations Prio returned to Florida. Almost three weeks later, 72 year old Rosario Priolo a.k.a. Ross Prio died from a heart attack in his Miami residence. The newspapers around the country read “Real life “Godfather” Prio dies at 72”. The newspapers used the term from the famous mafia movie “The Godfather” that was released 9 months prior Prio’s death. And the truth was that Prio was the real “Godfather” because he made a lot of money, remained as one of the top bosses in the Outfit for nearly 30 years, had the power and guts to take a man’s life, never spent a prison term, became sort of a tycoon in the legitimate world and in the end died as an old man. People always say that there is definitely a price to pay for this type of life, but it looks like Ross Prio managed to avoid paying the price during his life time. If there’s life after death, than only God has the pleasure to put the check on Prio’s table.


This article is completed from various infos,FBI files,newspaper articles and personal opinions.

One hell of a read Toodoped.

Todoped always delivers the goods

Thanks guys. I really appreciate it

You are the best Toodoped! Love the outfit stuff you provide here.

Thanks a lot man.Cheers

Very good Toodoped as always bro

Great Job as usual

Thanks again guys and thank you for your support

Heres some additional info on the story...

After Prio’s death, the new front boss of the Outfit Joey Aiuppa looked for a successor to Prio. On January 11, 1973 Aiuppa called a meeting at Luxor Baths which was his headquarters. Present at the meeting were Lenny Patrick, Leslie Cruse, Al Pilotto, Dom DiBella and Dom Brancato. Joseph DiVarco and Joe Arnold were the guys who both probably would have received a top consideration, but the roblem was that both were under indictment at the same time for income tax evasion. So now DiBella, Brancato and Solano, who was absent at the meeting, were the last three guys who were nominated for the spot. Considering DiBella’s long time relationship and seniority within the Outfit, Aiuppa decided that he should be the next boss of the North Side crew. So that’s what happened, DiBella was chosen as the new boss under Aiuppa’s commandment. Three years later, in 1976 DiBella died from cancer at the age of 74 and was replaced by Prio’s protege Vince Solano. In 1983, Prio’s right hand man in the bolita racket Ken Eto was convicted on a gambling charge. Solano was afraid that Eto might talk to the feds, so he issued a contract on Eto's life. One day two hitmen,Jasper Campise and John Gattuso, approached Eto in his car on a Chicago street and shot him three times in the head. However, Eto managed to survive. Their failure to kill Eto was blamed on an insufficient amount of powder in the bullet cartridges. So now Eto was forced to become a government witness. Five months after the botched hit, Campise and Gattuso were found strangled, stabbed and beaten to death. In 1985, Joseph DiVarco was convicted of RICO violations for running a sports betting operation. He was sentenced to ten years in prison. The next year in 1986, DiVarco died in federal prison. In 1988 Mike Glitta passed away and in 1992 Vincent Solano also died of natural causes. Ken Eto died in Georgia in 2004 at the age of 84, living under the name Joe Tanaka. Eto was the last member of the old Rush Street crew.

Tycoon is a good word for Prio - really one of the major powerhouses of the Outfit (and LCN in general) that gets so little attention. His crew was a tough bunch of guys too - DeMonte was known as a hitter as was Big Joe Arnold (who was an orphan/juvenile delinquent who Allegretti groomed).

Prio's son is still alive today and resides in Florida.

Interestingly enough, this old Chicago Tribune article says he was identified by the FBI for the first time at the Appalachin meeting in NYC (which I believe was false - it was Giancana and Ferraro there if I have my facts right).

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1972/12/25/page/5/article/real-life-godfather-prio-dies-at-72


Great article as always TooDoped!

Good work Toodoped. Really enjoy these historical articles. Thanks for sharing.

@GaryMartin thanks a lot man i really appreciate your support.

@ChiTown also thank you,your comment means a lot.Most of the juice loan guys and heavy hitters in the Rush Street crew ere brought by Allegretti and the Three Doms. I also saw that newspaper article on Prio about him being spotted at the Apalachin meeting so i searched my ass off to find any shred of info or evidence on that matter and i couldnt find anything.But as you said it must be false information because i dont remember reading anywhere about him being present at the big meeting except for Giancana and Ferraro.There are also some articles saying that Prio loved to torture and murdered a lot of people.I really dont belive in those stories because he was clearly a real businessman and a money making machine.I also never knew that Prio's son is still alive.Thanks for the info

Prio was smart enough to stay away from the Front Boss position, and that indicates he was pretty darn smart. No doubt he could have moved into that position if he had so desired, but he knew the risks involved and stayed away from the top spot.

Good write-up.

Yeah, the North Side was definitely a big crew. DiVarco, the Doms, Allegretti, Joe Arnold, Larry Bradi, Tony Mack DeMonte, Mike Glitta, Vince Solano, etc. Guys like Phil Alderisio and Marshal Caifano also had their hooks into some stuff there and Prio more than likely got a piece of that, too.

As always, a great read! Thanks, TooDoped.

Prio's death.

http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1972/12/25/page/5/article/real-life-godfather-prio-dies-at-72/

@njcapo35 thanks man and you're welcome

@Snakes I forgot to mention Larry Bradi and his brother Dave.Also i never knew that Caifano also had interests on the North Side. Thanks for the info

@GaryMartin Being a front boss for the Outfit wasnt a very good idea. It was a job with a lot of headaches. I think that many of the guys such as Nitti, Accardo,except for Giancana, were not happy with the title. But if you think about it even with the enormous pressure from the government all of these guys had a quite long careers as front bosses.Nitti from 1933 untill 1943, Accardo from 1944 untill 1956, Giancana from 1956 untill 1966.I dont include Aiuppa in the list because after Ricca's death in 1972, Aiuppa and Accardo were the real bosses of the Outfit. My point was that Prio didnt need the everyday headaches because he had a lot to loose.In fact Prio made it. He didnt need anymore the illegal income because he had so many legitimate businesses. You see, most of these old time gangsters forget that their goal was to become legit somewhere down the line and to become respectable in the upper classes.

The Front Boss wasn't all that risky until the FBI came to town.......maybe a little earlier. Ricca and Accardo were very crafty/cunning. They were going to stay in the background to reduce their odds of getting caught up in legal proceedings. All these guys had legal problems, but Ricca & Accardo stayed out of the day-to-day operations and in doing so, we're able to avoid numerous indictments. Just look at what happened to Giancana and subsequent bosses.

Absolutely agree with you about Prio. The guy had money coming from everywhere, and he was in some ways as powerful as the other upper echelon bosses. He just wasn't starved for attention and spent his time making money.
Smart man.

This is a really good bio of Prio. He was a top heavyweight in the Outfit, but did a good job, considering his chosen profession, of staying under the radar.

The first big problem for the Outfit, before the FBI, was the media attention which was brought by none other than Al Capone himself. The newspapers guys wanted another mob leader to target in on once Capone was gone. It was a sensation for the public and a downfall for the mob which i like to call it "The curse of Capone". So naturally Ricca was aware of the problem and placed other hotheads as front bosses. His greatest sucess was obviously Accardo

I'm not sure if front boss is the right term for it. Street boss is probably better. Everyone knew that Ricca was in charge, but Giancana ran things on the street and on a day-to-day basis. Accardo was more or less the go-between from Ricca to Giancana.

You are probably right Snakes. Street boss might be a better term in this case.I remember long time ago there was this thread about the two terms and whether they ment the same thing.Some people said that "front boss" and "street boss" had the same meaning and other thought differently.For me to be honest, the most confusing thing was for example the Detroit family. According to some sources, back in the old days they had boss,underboss,consiglieri,street boss and than the capos

The difference between a "street" boss and a "front" boss, at least in my opinion, is that a "street" boss is heading the organization for a semi-retired boss or authority figure that is known to the general public. The "front" boss is a boss designed to give the public the appearance of running the organization and protecting the real boss from law enforcement scrutiny.

Great distinction.

My point was that there was less "heat" prior to '56, '57, or before the Feds arrived. There's no way to know if Ricca & Accardo conspired to structure things the way they evolved, but the boss' position was under greater scrutiny after the Feds came on the scene, IMO. I was using the terms synonymously, but just trying to make a point. I continue to believe there were Outfit members who did not want the boss' position because it was a high risk job. There was also a very well-documented lack of talent post Giancana; Aiuppa being the exception. Just my opinion. I also believe it was very difficult to determine who was calling the shots for the Outfit.

@Snakes thats a quite good definition. Thanks

@GaryMartin i understood your point and what you stated is quite true.I just added the previous problems or the starting problems for the Outfit which were brought by Al Capone and the tabloids. The glamourising of criminals by the media only added fuel to the fire.In 1933 the Roosevelt administration became infuriated with the glamourous picture of gangsters that was potraid to the public and began a war against certain individual gangsters.Little that they know that in fact it was a national criminal organization, which years later was recognized by the FBI.

Larry Bradi - I think that is actually Lawrence "the hood" Buonaguidi who eventually changed his name to "Bradi."

Entertaining old article on Bradi:http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1974/02/07/page/22/article/perspective

Yeah, same guy. I've read that article before, the author basically says that Larry was just a bum who managed to make his way to the upper ranks of the North Side through attrition. Pretty sure, Larry died not long after that article was released.

Larry was around into the 80s and started selling drugs for Sam Sarcinelli's crew - he was indicted with them.

Never heard of Dave Bradi - TooDoped any background on him? They may be too different guys I'm thinking about...