The ReinforcementDuring the mid 60’s business was booming and rumours spread among investigators and federal agents that a rivalry among mobsters was on the rise in Arizona. Most prominent Arizona-based members were the groups loyal to the Bonanno crime family and the Chicago Outfit. During this period, these two groups were involved in various illegal activities, from loan sharking and bookmaking to smuggling narcotics and gambling devices. But they also ran a lot of legitimate businesses like real estate and also managed a lot of locals, firms or small factories.
Sam “Teets” Battaglia, the boss of Melrose Park, a very violent person and one of the prime money makers in the Chicago Outfit with a very ruthless crew under his rule. Some of his best men were Albert "Obbie" Frabotta, Felix "Milwaukee Phil" Aldersio, Marshal Caifano, Joe Shine Amabile and Joe Rocco. The crew pooled 25% of their funds and started investing heavily in commercial real estate in Arizona, where they owned a massive industrial office complex. They also owned a car leasing companies, laundries, hotels, motels, resorts trucking, building supplies wholesale companies, clothing factories, food processors, dairy products and theatres.
Sam "Teets" Battaglia
The Chicago Heights mob was one of the most ruthless crime groups in the Windy City with very violent past and presence during this period.This crime family had a very tuff ruthless money making Sicilian group, formed by guys like Joe “Buddy” Tocco, Albert Tocco, Chinky Guzzino, Snooky Morgano, Louis Rosanova and Dominic Palermo. Louis "Lou the Tailor" Rosanova, enjoyed golfing at the Arizona Biltmore with Dean Martin and other entertainment stars.
In the mid 1960’s, Frank LaPorte the boss of the Chicago Heights and also one of the most shadowy figures in the Outfit sent Joe ”Buddy” Tocco as a reinforcement in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. Joe was the older brother of Albert Tocco, a rising star in the Outfit. Tocco opened a pizzeria called "Pappa Joes" and was visited by many underworld figures and investigators said that it became a meeting place for the mob. Tocco was known for always having an arsenal of untraceable weapons which often passed them out when a guy needed killing. Tocco’s favourite “tool” was the baseball bat and was known for "whacking" people in their heads. Once there was this manager of a striptease bar who refused to give Tocco a portion of his business. So Tocco sent for one of his best enforcers Roy Romano to find this guy and to straighten him out. The guy was pistol-whipped and his nose was ripped off from his face. Besides being a ruthless guy, Tocco was also a very greedy individual. Sometimes he gave none or little of the take from the illegal operations to his underlings. Once he was picked up on a listening device planted in a Phoenix warehouse. Tocco talked about that he managed to outline a $12,000,000 bootleg-tape scam which would pirate the music recordings of major label artists. Rumours were that Tocco made over $3,000,000 per year for himself only. Tocco was known for talking to reporters from time to time but never said anything incriminating. One day when he was visited by investigative reporters in his restaurant, Tocco turned to the reporters and said “If you guys are reporters you better get the fuck out before I get mad”. Tocco also took a screwdriver and waved it into the reporter’s faces.
Tocco had many associates with Outfit connections who often hang out at his joint. Some of his most prominent “guests” were William Kaiser, a vending machine operator associated with the English bros and also a big time robber. He was also arrested ones for his involvement in the bootleg music and was known for stealing boats, trailers, campers and other such items in Arizona, California and Nevada, moving them from state to state and selling them with altered registration numbers. One of Kaiser’s associates was Jerry Mandia. Mandia operated a prostitution ring that was fronted as an escort service in Phoenix. The operation went smoothly, but after a while they got noticed by the feds. As the feds were getting close the prostitute operation mysteriously stopped. The feds realized that Kaiser and Mandia were tipped by someone. There was also a rumour that later Kaiser became an informer.
Ernest Saviano Jr. was another regular at Papa Joe's and a long time friend of Tocco. Saviano also knew and was closely associated with Kaiser and his cousin Armand D’Andrea in many Phoenix business deals. Saviano was also a former Chicago Heights policeman who have been associated with Albert Tocco, Guido Fidanzi and boss Frank LaPorte. His cousin D’Andrea was a top Outfit guy in Joilet, Illinois. Frank Mancini, also cousin of Armand D'Andrea was a another resident at Papa Joe's. He was an auditor for the State Highway Department and he incorporated an entertainers' guild in Arizona with Joe Tocco and another regular visitor at his joint Joseph "Spider" DiCaro. DiCaro was the brother of Charles "Specs" DiCaro, one of the top guys for boss Sam Battaglia. Franks son, Dominic Mancini, was another regular customer of Papa Joe's and also a former Phoenix policeman. He was the vice president of the entertainers' guild. Philip "Beep" Frustino used to cook at Papa Joe's and was one of the best Italian chefs in the the area. Frustino was associated with Joseph DiCaro's Golden West Meat Co., There were few incidents with the company and one day Frustino was arrested by the police. He was accused of giving false information to police.
The FBI Bomber Than the strangest thing happened when on July 3,1968 shots were fired into the house of the daughter of Sam Giancana in Tucson. On July 22, 1968 two bombs exploded around Joe Bonannos home including one in Pete Licavolis ranch. Peter Notaro’s home on North Rosemont Boulevard was also damaged in an Aug. 16, 1968, bombing. His wife and daughter, Wanda, were home, but were uninjured. Notaro was a close associate of Bonanno. Few months after the bombings,15 more bombs exploded around Tucson. Rumours were that it was a mafia feud…but was that the real truth?!
The 1960’s was the decade when the FBI started many awkward and “Gestapo” operations like the “Lock Step Program” and the “Hood Winked” operations. "Hood Winked" was an operation to provoke clash between the Mafia and the U.S. communists party. The operation was launched in October 1966 and ended July 1968.For two years the agents tried to provoke both sides by sending anonymous letters with death threats to many Mafia and Communist leaders. In the end, after two years none of the letters reached its purpose. Both of the organizations, the Mafia and Communists, ignored the letters, proving that they were not stupid.
After the bombings in Arizona, two men were arrested in 1969, William Dunbar and Paul Stevens, and they gave an information that they worked for this FBI agent named David Hale. Hale was a crooked cop, connected to the mob and wanted his share of the profits in Tuscon and also had a plan to ignite a mob war. Agent Hale was taken for questioning and in defence he said that he was framed by the mob for putting too much heat on them. During court testimony in 1969, William J. Dunbar Jr. and Paul M. Stevens said Hale led them to believe he had the backing of the FBI when they helped him set off the bombs. A police officer testified Hale was also implicated by Jerry Max Pasley, a Tucson bartender and hoodlum. During the investigation on Hale, J Edgar Hoover had ordered him fired if he wouldn't resign. After that the allegations against Hale exploded in the press, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joana Diamos had lunch with two FBI agents. She told them the county attorney had met with her boss, Richard Burke, trying to get him to prosecute Hale in federal court. Diamos "feels that the county attorney has a bad case and is trying to push it off on the federal government if possible," an agent wrote. Burke wanted to call on Joe Bonanno to testify against Hale but later was told that Joe would probably refuse.
In August 1970, Paul Dean, a columnist with The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, openly criticized the FBI in a letter to Hoover for cloaking the Hale affair. Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon and Vice President Spiro Agnew sent letters to Hoover saying that "A bombing by an individual is a terrible thing and should be punished severely, but a series of bombings by the FBI is one hundred times worse." By the end of September 1970, Hoover learned that Richard Burke, the U.S. attorney for Arizona, was planning to call a federal grand jury on the Tucson bombings. At the FBI headquarters, Hoover expressed contempt that Burke was knuckling under a media pressure. In April 1971, the chief assistant U.S. attorney for Arizona explained the investigation of Hale was going slower because he was doing it without the assistance of the FBI. If prosecutors ever presented evidence to a secret grand jury, no charges were returned. No one can be charged today because the statute of limitations expired in 1973.
Maybe Hale suspected a rivalry between the mobsters from wiretaps and informers and wanted to make a war…but why?Maybe he wanted to take over their rackets or maybe he wanted to make a name for himself and clean the city? Acting Police Chief William Gilkinson revealed that Hale was also supported by other very well known people that you would never suspect to be in a situation such as this. It was said that at the top of this vigilante group were community leaders and the second element were the mobsters and other local hoodlums who were employed to plan and carry out the bombings. In the interview, Hale said his confidential informants told him the late Tucson hoodlum Charles J. "Batts" Battaglia ordered some of the bombings on his own. Battaglia was a LA crime family member, who was a close associate of the Bonanno’s and was also linked to the sporadic violence of the "Banana Wars" in New York. Maybe Battaglia really did ordered some of the bombings since his wife’s beauty saloon was also bombed? But I really doubt that. Either way, the case about the infamous Arizona bombings remains a “mystery” even today.
Joe Bonanno Retired?Back in the late 60’s Joe Bonanno had promised his mafia partners in New York that he’ll stay away in Arizona, a promise I believe he had pretty much kept.
But strange thing occurred after the infamous bombings. Batts Battaglia was imprisoned back in 1967 in Leavenworth for extortion. During his stay in prison authorities reportedly intercepted messages from Battaglia to Bonanno suggesting they should take Arizona away from the Chicago mob and divide it, with Battaglia taking Phoenix and the north and Bonanno taking Tucson and the southern area of Arizona. They also had an alleged plan to provide false testimony to free Battaglia from prison. Both mobsters were charged with conspiracy based on these messages but were acquitted in March 1970 after one witness disappeared and the other was discredited. Now the big question rises…wasn’t Joe Bonanno retired or this is just another “Gestapo” tactic and false accusations by the feds?! Who knows?!
Charles “Batts” Battglia on his way to court in 1970
Maybe it was a different matter now for Joe because by the mid 70’s some of the biggest faces in the national mob like Tommy Lucchese, Stefano Magaddino and Carlo Gambino were gone. Also there was a new wave of up and coming mobsters that arrived in Arizona. There are reports that some of these “new” guys asked for an advice from Joe Bonanno. So maybe Joe saw another opportunity in renewing his influence and relationships?!
Joe Bonanno Sr.
During the 1970’s the Chicago mob also lost a lot of its great leaders and prime members. Both Outfit bosses Paul Ricca and Frank LaPorte died of natural causes in 1972. Sam English died on May 22, 1973 in his home in Cicero at the age of 61.By this time Giancana’s crew was dismantled and the English brothers lost most of their business operations. Giancana was living in Mexico, while Sam Battaglia died the same year on September 7. Then in 1975 Sam Giancana was executed “Chicago Outfit style” in his own house. So now the Accardo faction took over the Outfit operations in Arizona. Accardo was a very ruthless guy, much opposite of his long time friend and partner in crime, Paul Ricca who was a classy, soft spoken killer with a total criminal mind. Accardo used to say “Fuck you” to reporters, something which Ricca would never say to anyone in public. Theres a sample of an alleged conversation that occurred in 1978 between Tony Accardo and Tony Spilotro which shows Accardo’s real nature and hatred for mobsters which he considered as a threat… Accardo: Watch that fuckin’ Bonanno…he wants whats ours…whats always been ours, California…he cant have Arizona and he sure as hell cant have California.
So now the big provocative question rises again…why would Accardo talk against Bonanno if Joe was totally retired from the mob? Maybe he speaks about Joe’s son, Bill? Maybe Accardo knew something that the federal officals didn’t know? By this time Joe was giving many interviews to reporters and was like a public person. If he was still in the dirty business wouldn’t be dangerous for Joe to expose himself like that? I also find it hard to believe in Joe’s involvement in crime during that period but there’s also truthfulness in the saying “once a criminal, always a criminal”.
The New Chicago GangDuring the mid 1970’s the Chicago mob also infested the state of Arizona. “Beneath the surface, what they would find is a rat's nest of hoodlums.” Phoenix had about three-fourths of underworld figures with strong Chicago connections. One group of the Chicago faction was still under the control of Joseph Tocco and the other one, which by this time it was considered as the best organized mob group in Phoenix, were Tony Spilotro, a Las Vegas enforcer and Paul Schiro, a Chicago hoodlum with connections to the New York mob. Schiro arrived in Phoenix in the early 60’s in company with Spilotro and was considered as one of the most dominant mob figures.
Tony Spilotro
The Spilotro/Schiro gang was involved in gambling, burglary, fencing of stolen goods, and drug trafficking. The Outfit always had its policy against narcotics, but the truth was they financed the business since the old days. The strangest thing here is that Tony Accardo had no emotions for the people involved in that dirty business.In New York mobsters were killed if the cops caught them with drugs…Accardo would killed you if only a simple rumour surfaced out about you dealing in drugs. So the Spilotro/Schiro gang must’ve done it with out the knowledge of Accardo and the other bosses. Also Spilotro was known for often bad mouthing the bosses back in Chicago in front of his underlings and probably resented sending so much of his own hard-earned money to Outfit administrators who had done little if anything to earn it. The full extent of the ring's narcotics ring in Phoenix wasn’t known, but government investigators had documents that the gang supplied a major portion of hard drugs for the Chicago market. The gang was funneling drugs from Mexico into the Chicago area through the Arizona territory. Hector Mar Wong, a Chinese born narcotics trafficker and Victor Savela, brother of one of Mexico’s top heroin suppliers, were the main guys in Culiacan, Mexico who supplied the Arizona mob with narcotics. Federal agents valued the drug traffic at $8 million per year. The gang was a mixed crew of burglars and dope peddlers, including Phoenix-based Frank Moreno and Fred Pedote, Arden Lee Smith, a heavy narcotics dealer who fled to Mexico to escape a jail term, and Brian “The Mad Pineapple” Ho, a weapons and drug dealer who worked in a Phoenix service station. Spilotro wasn’t much of the time around so Schiro ran day to day operations.
Never Break The “Omerta” #2Back in 1969, the U.S. Attorney’s Office made an indictment against Chicago big shot Jackie Cerone,an Elmwood Park mobster, and four other Taylor Street members Joe Ferriola, Don Angelini, Dom Cortina and Frank Aureli on interstate gambling charges, thanks primarily to Lou Bombacino’s testimony. After that Bombacino went to Tempe, AZ under the name “Joseph Nardi”. During his stay in Tempe, Bombacino was eventually caught peddling stolen irrigation equipment and also profited from a gambling and prostitution rings. So in 1975 the Chicago Outfit again presented its rule in Arizona. Bombacino started his car on the morning of October 6 and suddenly a dynamite explosion ripped through rear axle of his Lincoln Continental, that blew out 75 of his neighbors windows and hurled portions of his car a quarter of a mile away. The hit on Bombacino was carried out by Tony Amadio, old friend of the late Chicago Heights boss Frank LaPorte.
Reunited In CrimeStories were continuously circling around that there was a big rivalry between former New York mobsters and the Chicago guys for control of organized crime in Phoenix, according to published accounts of a series by a team of investigative reporters. The stories said Phoenix "has a flourishing but disjointed network of organized crime operatives." They mostly “fought” over the legitimate businesses that they controlled, such as the entertainment industry, the music tape industry, real estate business, the garbage industry and various food and service- related operations. Also the sport betting business was a very heavy gambling action during this period. Joe Tocco exerts an influence of sorts over street level activity, acting as an ombudsman when the rowdies begin squabbling over turf and action. On the other side of the street is Edward “Acey” Duci, Bonanno crime family associate, was probably the most vocal of the New York group mobsters. He used to talk publicly to reporters about their rivalry with the Chicago guys. He once said “I think they're nothing but rejects from the Chicago mob. We're gonna eat up the Chicago boys."
But thing started to change. For example, Chicago mobster Paul Schiro had no problems with anyone because he was all about business. In a joint operation with other NY mobsters, the “Phoenix mob” moved in to control of an extensive network of massage parlors. They also had a several Phoenix lawyers and judges in their pocket, who were availing themselves with prostitutes and orgies. I think that they kept their hatred for themselves, because if they started war that would’ve been bad for business.
In January 1976, based on mob and law enforcement intelligence information, a mob meeting reportedly was held in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Previously Joe Bonanno moved to 255 Sierra Vista Drive, where he was continuously overseen by federal agents. Representatives at the meeting were from all over the states and it was said to have come from as far away as Denver, Colorado, with Joe “The Ram” Salardino in attendance from that city’s Smaldone Family. During this period federal agents made reports that Bonanno used the alias “Mr. Veccio” and made several trips to Colorado. Also federal officals noted that after each visit, Joe’s sons allegedly would fan out in meetings by passing the informations or messages from their father. Maybe by this time Joe acted as messenger or advisor for the Arizona mob but to tell you the truth theres no real hard evidences for this claim.
After the meeting story goes that the mob had developed a silent partnership by skimming money from Arizona’s greyhound racing industry, land fraud and also in stealing gold. Exactly how the Phoenix mobsters were aligned is hard to determine because loyalties and alliances changed almost every day.
