One of Chicagos unsolved murders was the contract on jewish gangster "Little Lenny"Yaras.

Leonard Yaras was a member of an Outfit crew based in the Rogers Park neighbourhood on Chicagos far Noth Side.The crew was led by notorious jewish gangster Leonard"Lenny"Patrick.The close association led other mobsters to refer to Yaras as "Little Lenny".Patrick had known Yaras since he was a little kid and was a close friend with his dad,David Yaras,a big time mobster,a hitman for Sam Giancana and close friend to Jimmy Hoffa.
When he died in 1974,his son inherited his business,uncluding the A1 Industrial Uniforms,in wich Lenny became a president in the mid 60's.

Early 80's,Lenny Yaras had risen up the ranks,he functioned as Patricks number two man.He ran a big bookmaking network out of Rogers Park and than the people around started to recognize him as an Outfit player.He was also in charge of collecting street taxes of jewish gangsters on the North Side.

On February 10 1985 Lenny Yaras left his office at A1 Industrial Uniforms and entered his car.Another car stoped right next to him and two men(others say four men) with skimasks shot him 11 times.He died at the age of 44.After that the "Killer" car was found torched,two miles from the murder scene.

Lenny Yaras was closely allined with Jospeh DiVarco,the boss of the Rush Street Crew.However the previous day DiVarco was charged in a gambling case.Law enforcement belived that Yaras has taken over some of the DiVarco operations and the Outfit blamed Yaras for DiVarcos conviction and that this was a revenge.

Other rumours were that Yaras was giving info on DiVarco leading to his downfall.Despite the rumours,the feds denied that Yaras was giving information on DiVarco.They belived that it was just a coincidence that he was hit the day after DiVarcos conviction.

Other rumours are that Grand Avenue crew boss Joey "The Clown" Lombardo sent his two hitmen to take over Yaras bookmaking operations.By that time The Clown was serving jail time and its a little bit hard to give orders for taking over bookmaking biz while sitting in a cell and waitting for new legal troubles.Some people also belived that theres no way the Otfit bosses would give the green light to Lombardo to whack a member of the Vince Solanos crew and take over his biz on his territory.

Another rumour was that Outfit boss Joe Ferriola from Cicero ordered Yaras to be whacked.The reason was that Yaras was allegedly skimming from gambling operations.After Yaras'death the Pettit brother that worked for Ferriola took over some Yaras operations.

Later after Yaras death David"Red"O'Malley an ex cop turned mobster was charged with the murder of Yaras but was acquitted and the verdict was issued on November 25,1985.Red O'Malley was connected with the Cicero crew.

Who really whacked Yaras is still uknown.Any thoughts on this from the Chicago guys?


Other unsolved murders from the 80's are:

Nick Valentzas November 28 1980-34 years old was shot several times with a shotgun and a pistol while entering his car on a parkinglot in Elmwood Park.The victim was to testify in a extortion case.

Samuel Guzzino October 3 1981-51 years old was found in a ditch,shot several times and his throat cut.He worked for Albert Tocco.

Chuckie English February 9 1985-70 years old was shot down several times,including once between the eyes,on a parking lot near a restaurant in Elmwood Park.

Patsy Ricciardi July 26 1985-59 years old was found in the trunk of a stolen car shot in the head.He was a cousin of mob boss "Milwaukee Phil"Aldersio.

Michael Lentini January 13 1986-44 years old was shot three times in his car while leaving for work.

Richard Deprizio January 27 1986-36 years old was shot in the head,twice,on a parking lot.He was about to be indicted by the federal government for fraud by his construction company.

Thomas McKillip November 13 1986-49 years old was found shot and stabbed in the back of a car.He was shot two times in the head and many times stabbed in the chest.

John Castaldo September 23 1987-28 years old owner of two beauty saloons was bullet riddled,after he was seen entering a car with three men.

John Pronger August 14 1988-64 years old was shot two times infront of his home.

Philip Goodman November 22 1988-He was a 73 year old Las Vegas man for the Chicago outfit.He was found dead in his hotel room with massive injuries on his head.

If i forgot some other cases(or some of them are solved)please add yout thoughts.

Lenny Yaras was a real shock at the time.He was well respected.He was very close with Sam Alex as well.It might have been his involvement with Ray Spencer in the Dorfman killing.

Phil Goodman I believe pissed Lenny Patrick off by withholding money due.

Theres also a story about Goodman been Spilotro's associate and a front man for some of Tonys legitimate businesses.So after Tony's death,Goodman's protection was gone

Nick Gio was convicted in the Castaldo murder and is doing life.

Chuckie English was killed on February 13, 1985. It was the day before Valentine's Day.

The Restaurant was Horwath's.

He was the last Taylor St. man to go. He was no threat to that stupid Auippa and Cerone. They killed him for revenge right before they began rotting in jail in 1986.

In the old days, Mooney would hold court at the Armory Lounge.
Sometimes Cerone would be whistled in by Mooney and be a little berated in front of Mooney's Taylor St. men who would usually be there with him at some point.

They would sit next to Mooney and stare at Cerone while he was being berated for something. The men usually there were hard core Taylor St. made guys. Sammy DeStefano, Willie Daddano, Chuckie English, Rocky Potenza, Chuckie Nicoletti etc.

Cerone would then go complain about it to Accardo. Accardo would then bring it up to Ricca. This is some of the things that went on that you will never read in a book.

I guess the big baby Cerone had to get his revenge before he went to rot in jail.

Yes its a mistake,is on February 13th.Three years after Giancana's death, English was reported to be semi-retired,but some say he was trying to expand his gambling rackets, which is doubtful.I think that Ferriola himself ordered the murder,cuz Ferriola’s dislike of English was very well known.English had fallen out with the acting boss.He got shot with a revolver cuz no shell casings were found on the scene.

Heres a pic of the sign of the restaurant...

Chicago do you also basically accept the theory that the Spilotros were essentially killed out of rage as well--that Aiuppa and Cerone were effectively going away on life sentences and in a roundabout way they kinda blamed Tony for drawing so much heat in Vegas? (Even though he himself didn't ultimately get busted.)

Funny I just saw this on Wiki: "However, in a 2010 interview with Maxim Magazine, while promoting the opening of the Las Vegas Mob Experience at the Tropicana Hotel, Tony Spilotro's son Vincent claimed that the real target was his uncle Michael, and Tony was killed to prevent any revenge."

Sounds like hogwash, why would they really want to kill Michael?

Michael was under indictment in Chicago for federal extortion charges at the time,maybe that was one of the reasons....

In the interview (pretty interesting) Vincent says Michael was basically just an out of control egomaniac who did a lot of stupid stuff and started acting like a big shot, and that he spit in a capo's face.

Who knows. Pretty interesting read, tho.

Jonnynonos, You are correct. Auippa/Cerone were very vindictive people. Accardo actually had more of a heart than those two guys.
You're damn right they killed Tony out of rage. They blamed him for having to rot in jail the rest of their lives.
Micheal was part of a ruse to have Tony come back to Chicago with his guard down. Spilotro was a dangerous man.

They pretended that Micheal was going to get MADE into the Grand Ave Crew and be allowed to put his own crew together and run a franchise that he was saying he wanted to do.
Tony was going to be his sponsor because Lombardo was in jail.

Tony was going to be made an 'ACTING' Boss for Lombardo of Grand Ave which meant a lot more money for him and he would have to come back to Chicago and avoid all the heat in Las Vegas. Another man,(I don't know who) was going to replace Spilotro in Las Vegas.
IT WAS ALL A RUSE in order to kill Tony Spilotro.

My understanding is that Tony Spilotro had a good idea that he wouldn't be coming back. If something sounds too good to be true it usually is. He chose to go pretty much knowing what was going to happen to him and his brother. Similar to what happened to Sonny Black Napolitano in New York.

On Aiuppa, Giancana moved him around and he wasn't too happy about it. Both he and Cerone had long-standing grudges.

Faithful1, Sure Tony had his suspicions because of all the trouble in Las Vegas. However, they relaxed him and his brother just enough to come back to Chicago. Tony and Micheal went to the meeting with some suspicions but obviously were hoping for the best.
in the past, Lombardo always came through for Tony. However, this time, Lombardo could do nothing about it.
Pat Spilotro, the Dentist in Chicago, is Tony's brother. He hates Lombardo but Lombardo couldn't save Tony that time.

Michael had a feeling something would happen, he said something to his wife like, "If I don't come back tonight something bad happened." Don't remember the exact quote. I also heard all of them stopped going to Pat as a dentist after the murder out of fear that he'd do something.

His kid says in the interview he took all his jewelry off and gave it to his wife before going, and I remember in Family Secrets Michael's daughter testifying that Michael did the same thing. They knew they might not be coming back.

I also remember reading where Joe Lombardo had told Michael's or Tony's widow, I forget which one, that it never would have happened if he hadn't been in prison.

However, who knows. I guess if the bosses are going away for the rest of their lives (effectively) and it's even a little your fault, you are pretty much f**ked.

Would've been interesting if the Splitros were still alive and their role on the street if they somehow didn't get life.

Lombardo didn't. He was still going to Pat Spilotro up until the time he got nicked.

^^when they finally arrested him when he went on the lam for family secrets, they cornered him in an alley as he was sneaking out of Dr. Pats to apprehend him

Dr. Pat ratted him out because he blamed Lombardo for the death of his two brothers. I'm telling you, Lombardo couldn't save them. Auippa/Cerone/Accardo made the final call. There was nothing Lombardo could do about it.

Another example of the weakness of the modern Outfit. Dr. Pat would have disappeared years ago. He ratted out Lombardo based upon his false belief, and nobody fucking cares. Dr. Pat goes to work every day untouched.

That's right. You know what was funny before he got arrested and was on the lam Chicago Magazine did a big piece on him and at the end had everyone's predictions of where he was, from law enforcement to reporters.

The only guy who got it right was a professor named Howard Abdinsky (sp.) who is kind of a local Chicago mob expert; he said "I don't think he functions outside Grand Avenue." Everyone else was predicting he was in Florida etc.

That guy sure nailed it.

There's an article written by Joe Fosco and he says that the hit was ordered by Cerone and Auippa but it was organized by DiFronzo.

"As we have learned, most Outfit hits are carried out with the help of several conspirators.When planning any illegal action, the Outfit always uses a “work car”. A work car is an automobile that is specifically used for illicit activities only. Sometimes they are stolen cars, other times they are cars registered to bogus identities or deceased people. In this case the work car was provided by Outfit heavy Lee Magnafichi. However, Lee was not immediately involved in the execution of the hit that took the life of English. Lee’s ankle was fractured at the time due to a slip and fall injury that occurred on some ice earlier that winter and this injury kept him on the sidelines. Because of this, DiFronzo used Rudy Fratto as a primary conspirator in the hit."

Here are a couple more unsolved murders.


http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/07/12/30-years-later-mob-hitmen-murders-remain-unsolved/

That scenario described by Fosco SOUNDS POSSIBLE. However, I don't believe Fosco on anything concering heavy work done in Chicago for two big reasons:

1) He lied about Fratto and Cerone Jr. (Jack's son who is an attorney) extorting money from him. First he said his family paid them $500,000 Dollars. Then he said his friend Vasselli paid $400,000 Dollars of it and his family only paid $100,000 Dollars. He said his wealthy friend, Joe Vasselli paid them the money so Fratto wouldn't spread terrible lies about him all over Chicago.
That is the most stupid, illogical ridiculous story I ever heard from anyone concerning the Outfit.
What really happened was that Fosco conned his friend Vasselli to INVEST the money in a SCHEME THAT DIDN'T WORK OUT. FOSCO THEN NEVER GOT ANY OF THE MONEY FROM FRATTO. Fosco then harassed Cerone Jr. and was charged with some crimes. Fosco is a con man who got conned by a couple of those guys.

2). Fosco's source was Willie Messino. Willie was a long time made guy in the Elmwood Park Crew. Willie may have told Fosco a couple of harmless stories here and there, but Willie would have NEVER discussed murder details with a goof like Fosco.

Your right,Messino would never tell the whole thing to Fosco.Plus i sence some sort of personal hatred in his articles,aimed for example at DiFronzo.

Fosco hates DiFronzo because he thinks DiFronzo knew or sanctioned the Con that went down. DiFronzo probably didn't know anything about it, nor would he care about it.

+1

Most amusing is the story Fosco used to get the 400k or 500k from Vaselli in the first place lol...

IMO the Cicero crew probably clipped yaras

And that the Outfit had a contract on his life...lol

allegedly there were a lot of mafia related murders on the southside during the 70s & 80s

Yeah Cook County...that Heights Crew led by Caesar Tocco was ROUGH and cornered the chop shop market on the South Side and southern suburbs in the late 70's early 80's...Fire bombings, brutal killings, etc