The so-called top administration of the Chicago Outfit also oversaw another quite lucrative dope peddling ring from the Near North Side, which was formed by two crews, one being Italian and the other was one huge non-Italian group with dope runners all around the Midwest. The leaders of the Italian faction were two known Outfit associates and prominent dope peddlers known as John Dispensa and Sam Seritella. The whole story begins with Seritella who became involved in the dope business way back in the early 1940’s, when he used buy ounces of heroin from one notorious criminal in those days, known as Benny Morreale, who in turn controlled a huge crew of young robbers, killers and dope peddlers, who robbed or killed pharmacy owners for their stashes of opium. According to some reports, at the time Serritella also worked as a runner for one old time Outfit member and killer for the organization, known as Leonard Calamia. So by the late 1940’s, Serritella managed to form his own dope peddling ring and also directed his own crew of dope peddlers such as Dispensa, James Russo, Nathan Chiarelli, Salvatore Nugara, Phil Vittoria and Victor Zingarelli. With the help of Calamia, the crew made connections with Mafia members from the Brooklyn area in New York, including Nicholas Esposito, Sam Schifano and Dominick Gentile. But back in 1951, Serritella got pinched for selling narcotics and was sentenced to prison to four years. Story goes, when Serritella went to jail, he left his “empire” to Dispensa, who in turn became one of the biggest narcotics traffickers in Chicago’s underworld history. In 1956, Serritella was released from prison and continued his “ventures” with Dispensa.



Leonard Calamia (thanks to Stroccos for the photo)


His headquarters was a pizzeria in Evergreen Park, known as "Connie's Pizza Pie", from where he dictated his narcotics network. Dispenza’s main courier was James Chiaro, who in turn made numerous trips to New York, during which he always carried a brief case filled with cash, and then he would hand the brief case to Schifano, Gentile or Esposito, sometimes individually, sometimes together, and then on return, Chiaro’s briefcase would contain kilos of heroin. On return from New York, on Dispensa's instructions, or with Dispensa, the crew would measure out the shipment, and then they would mix the pure heroin with milk or sugar powder, or even with Quinine which was a medication used to treat malaria. After that, they would pack the stash into small, tinfoil wrapped packages, which would be distributed to the runners. According to some reports, Dispensa placed his old man at his pizzeria, so he can receive orders from runners such as Lawrence Lemons and Morris Rosenguard. In fact, Rosenguard was the main distributor because his real profession was being a pharmacist, who operated a drug store at 3037 Wentworth av. on Chicago’s South Side, which was the gang’s main outlet for selling narcotics.


Now this huge drug peddling network around Chicago’s territory, needed a good protection, right?! And from where did the guys receive that kind of protection? The answer is simple, and that is from the police bureau for narcotics. The three corrupt officers and Outfit associates were Miles Cooperman, Richard Austin and the so-called “leader of the pack” detective Sheldon Teller, and these fellas protected a narcotics ring which stretched from coast to coast and top of that, sometimes they were the ones who were also involved in selling dope. The main connection between the corrupt detectives and the drug peddling crew was Edward Gayles, a former narcotics agent and later a defence attorney who mostly specialized in narcotics cases. On the Outfit’s behalf, Gayles “fixed” narcotics cases with the help of one of his lawyers known as Joe Clayton, who in turn through a planned payoff system to Chicago judges and narcotics officers, made the operation look very easy and smooth. This is the situation where we can see that the African-American criminal element of Chicago’s underworld almost without their political and police connections, mostly because of the Outfit’s influence and almost became dependable from the Italian syndicate.


The interesting thing was that even though the corrupted detectives mostly acted as protectors of the huge dope peddling ring, they also acted as “go-betweens” or middlemen for the Mob but sometimes they even acted as runners in distributing the product. For example detective Teller’s “greatness” was not because of his corruptness, but instead it was because of his connection to one quite lucrative group, which distributed a large portion of the massive dope shipment in no time. The leader of the dope ring was one prominent black gangster and long time Outfit associate of the South Side faction, known as Jeremiah Pullings who was mainly involved in all kinds of gambling operations and also in the sale of illicit alcohol. In fact, Pullings was the main guy who provided all of the Outfit-owned clubs in that territory with cheap booze and that is why he was considered an important associate, and because of that, he demanded huge respect among his African-American or non-Italian cohorts in Chicago’s underworld. One of Pullings’ most prominent co-operators was Nathaniel Spurlark, the guy with the national connections, and also the main contact to the drug peddling Italian gangs, since he mostly lurked around the West Side and Chinatown. The truth was that Spurlark was not a “runner” for Pullings but instead he operated on the same level, under the “umbrella” of detective Teller. For example, Nathaniel Spurlak was connected to dozen “junk crews” from different cities such as St. Louis, Huston, Los Angeles, Iowa, Indianapolis, and even Cleveland and Detroit. Even though the Detroit Mafia faction already had its own drug peddling sources, still some crews of the African-American criminal element of that city received their shipments straight from Chicago or in other words, the Pullings crew. Some of the most prominent members from the Detroit crew were William Rouzer, Gladys Davis, Woodrow Wilson and Elaine Wilson. There was another dope peddling crew, but this time from the St. Louis area, which was also supplied by Pullings or Spurlak, and few of the most prominent members were Earl Williams, Sam Mays, Waddell Buchanan, Willie Foster and Ollie Jackson. These two so-called “out of town” crews largely contributed to Pullings’ national drug peddling network and even though he was mostly supplied by the Outfit’s dope connections such as Armando Piemonte and Joe Bruno, by now Pullings also managed to form his own connection in the New York area. The new contact and supplier for this particular dope ring was one prominent Genovese member and close associate of the Lucchese crime family from the New York area, known as Harry Tantillo.


So even though the Outfit’s “narcotics empire” looked quite organized and even untouchable, the government still somehow managed at least to keep some of these top Outfit guys under hard pressure, of course again with the help of informants, undercover agents and above all, hard work. For example, in 1957, Raymond Velasquez, a deputy sheriff of Los Angeles County, was brought to Chicago and posed as a narcotics peddler, and managed to obtain heroin from Joe Bruno’s crew. By now Bruno, the guy who inherited Iacullo’s crew, was heavily involved in the dope business especially around the Southwest Side and he managed to gather a large crew of African-American criminals or “runners” who sold large quantities of heroin per day. Bruno was connected to the crew through one of his own “middle men” known as Frank Cellino, who in turn was connected to the leader of the “runners”, a known non-Italian gangster Jessie Alexander. The so called South Side crew included Archie Robinson, Marvin Moses, Charles Venton, Thomas Matas, Pete Gushi and Melvin Harris and they all “reported” to Alexander. And on the other hand, Bruno also controlled his own and quite large crew of West Side Italian criminals, including Cellino, Fred Coduto, Arthur Gasparro, Charlie LaPaglia, Anthony Maenza, Armando Piemonte, Carlo Urbinati, who by now joined forces with Bruno, and also Tony Dichiarinte, who also had his own group of drug peddlers.



Joseph Bruno (thanks to Stroccos for the photo)


During this period, Bruno, mostly with the help of Dichiarinte, had several New York contacts for heroin shipments, such as Ettore “Eddie” Coco, Frank Carbo and John Ormento, all members of the Lucchese crime family, which indicates that the former Iacullo group continued to cooperate with the Luccheses. Even though they mostly distributed their product around the Chicago area, Bruno together with Dichiarinte and one of their associates Arthur Gasparro, also had their own contacts in other cities, like for example Kansas City. Over there, they had a whole crew of drug peddlers which was led by one narcotics trafficker known as Samuel Carrolla. In fact, the main link between Dichiarinte and Carrolla, was Art Gasparro. The interesting thing about Carrolla was that he had an associate known as Jack Clayton, who in turn owned a private airplane to transport narcotics from Chicago to Kansas City. By using this means of transportation, the crew transported somewhere between 5 or 7 kilograms of heroin per trip, which were somewhere around a dozen trips per year. Other prominent heroin peddlers from the KC area with Outfit connections were Patsy Ventola, Ralph Goldstein, Robert Cox and Tony Marcella, the guy who later transferred to the Chicago drug peddling faction. In plane words, Bruno was quite a “catch” for undercover agent Velasquez because if we look at all of the numerous names, this crew might’ve been one of the largest and most lucrative of all drug peddling crews around the Chicago area, during that particular time period. In fact, this was the main drug peddling crew which the help of Clayton’s fast transportation, they managed to supply heroin to crime groups in California, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Arkansas, Tennessee and Wisconsin.


Just to look even more convincing, agent Velasquez took one of his parole violators known as Bob Urley who in turn also posed as his partner and in time, both became close to Bruno. From that point on, Bruno unknowingly made several mistakes by selling heroin to the agents, like for example during October and November of that same year, the undercover agent managed to buy heroin on at least four occasions. On one occasion, Velasquez came to Bruno and asked for some heroin, and Bruno asked "How much do you want to pick up?" and the agent replied that he needed an ounce and then Bruno replied "Well, I could probably get you an ounce but it would take some time. I have some grams that I can sell you for $20 apiece." These were bought by Velasquez and the same purchase was repeated in three other meetings. And so on June 28, 1957, Bruno managed to sell 12 ounces of pure heroin for the last time in his criminal career because that’s when he got arrested by federal agents and was placed in custody. To go in further details, that same day the feds planned to arrest both Bruno and Cellino but it was not easy. Bruno was arrested at his home at 4530 N. Newcastle av., but several hours later, the agents placed a “trap” at 103d St. and Dauphin av. for Cellino from which he managed to shoot his way out but was later arrested. In 1958, Bruno was sentenced to 8 years and Cellano received 5 years prison term, but according to some sources, while in prison, Bruno allegedly decided to “spill the beans” and from that point on, many high level dope peddlers continued falling into the government’s hands.


The first group which received the government’s “treatment” was Dispensa’s crew, which according to Bruno’s testimony, they were the most lucrative ones. So in the “old fashioned way”, in June, 1958, narcotics agents managed to arrest one of Dispenza’s runners, while selling narcotics to an undercover agent. The unlucky soul was James Chiaro, who in turn was “forced” by the feds to wear a microphone wire so he can record all of the narcotics transactions with his buddies. On more than few occasions, Chiaro engaged in conversations with various members, including Dispensa, Serritella, Vittoria and Rosenguard, while carrying electronic equipment to increase the audibility of those conversations and to record them on tape. In November, every member of the dope peddling ring which crossed paths with Chiaro, got arrested by the feds, including the New York contacts, and were placed in custody. During the trial, besides the electronic evidences, the perfect details of Chiaro's testimony were in large part corroborated by such evidence as aeroplane tickets, hotel and motel registration records, and the record of his arrest and fine while travelling in Dispensa's automobile on one of the trips. There was substantial evidence to support the finding that a conspiracy existed to buy heroin in New York City and package and distribute it in Chicago and later, with the help of another crew, around the Midwest. In February, 1960, all three “contacts” from the New York area, including Schifano, Esposito and Gentile received prison sentences to 10, 20, and 7 years, respectively. In March, the Chicago faction also received their sentences, including Dispensa and Vittoria both sentenced to 12 years, and Rosenguard was sentenced to 5 years in jail. One quite interesting thing occurred during the investigations on the Dispensa crew, and that was, during the house searches of all convicts, they all had the name “Jacob Klein” written in their notebooks. When the feds saw the name, they became quite angered and they had a good reason for being like that. Since their bond was denied, suddenly Klein showed up and allegedly tried to bribe the police guards with $500 who guarded Serritella and Dispensa while they were in custody. Klein was arrested but the next day he was released.


Next on the government’s list was Sal Pisano a.k.a. “One-eyed Sally” who by the late 1950’s operated a fruit stand on the northwest corner of Pulaski Road and 47th street, and from there he sold packages of heroin on daily basis. Pisano also had a buddy “runner” known as Wesley Lewis, who in turn was one of Pisano’s best costumers because he always bought large quantities of narcotics. But there was one problem for which Pisano wasn’t aware of and that was Lewis’ role as undercover agent. Yes, Lewis worked for the bureau and acted as Pisano’s costumer for the last couple of months, thanks to Joe Bruno’s “big mouth”. In fact, Pisano trusted Lewis so much that he once told the undercover agent that in the future it would be all right for Lewis to handle the money and the merchandise and that Pisano would make arrangements through a friend for this to be done. In other words, Pisano prepared for Lewis to become his “runner” but for now, Pisano’s boss was Tony Dichiarinte. On August 8, 1959, Lewis contacted Pisano and informed him that he wanted to buy heroin for $15.000, which was a huge deal in those days and was quickly financed by the bureau for narcotics. Since it was no big deal for Pisano, he quickly took the bait and informed Lewis to come by at the fruit stand. Lewis arrived at the store somewhere around 10:30 p.m. and about 10:50 p. m. a black 1957 Oldsmobile, occupied only by Dichiarinte, arrived in front of the fruit stand and almost out of nowhere Mastro showed up, who in turn received the package from Dichiarinte, and after that he gave it to Pisano. While inside the store, Pisano handed the package to Lewis, who in turn handed the money to Pisano. In fact, the package was later found to contain a pound of heroin. Even though Lewis was the so-called “inside man” to witness the whole situation from first hand, another squad of agents from right across the street also observed the “action”.



Salvatore Pisano


Pisano


That same year, one of Dichiarinte’s main guys for the Kansas City dope channel Tony Marcella was arrested in Los Angeles for transportation and selling of narcotics and later was sentenced to imprisonment for 40 years. The next “victim” of the government’s wrath was Jack Clayton, who in turn made a terrible mistake by selling $2,000 worth of heroin to an undercover agent in Gurdon, Arkansas. In other words, too many people fell into the government’s hands and so on March 9, 1960, all of members from the “junk crew”, including Dichiarinte, Mastro and Pisano, were originally indicted by narcotics agents and were charged with the sale and transportation of illicit drugs. Now, their suppliers such as Skally and DeRose probably knew that none of these guys were going to talk, since everyone of them were considered as “stand up” guys. But the pressure was on, meaning some of the guys like Pisano might’ve been more stressed than usual regarding the whole situation and that’s when in 1962, Pisano died of a sudden heart attack, who in turn was followed by the “star witness” and undercover agent Lewis, who also suddenly died in the same style. Even though the whole thing looked quite tragic for the prosecutors, since the Gods were on their side, the two remaining defendants Dichiarinte and Mastro felt relief, mainly because the main witness against them was gone and also the main connection which was Pisano was also gone. So during the trial, the prosecutors tried in every way to ensure a conviction for the remaining two defendants by constantly brining agents who previously made surveillance over the junk crew. But the problem was that the agents were “second-hand” witnesses and during the cross-examination of Dichiarinte and Mastro, the agent’s testimonies were destroyed since both defendants openly claimed that they knew each other for a very long time and they continued to hang around. The court “battle” continued for three years and in 1965 the two defendants were dismissed from all charges.


But there was another problem and that was during the research of Dichiarinte’s house for narcotics, the agents managed to find a number of receipts and documents bearing aliases and variations of the defendant's name which had come to the agents' attention in the course of the conspiracy investigation culminating in the defendant's indictment. According to the report, when Dichiarinte saw the agent seize the currency exchange receipts, he said, "Does that look like narcotics if that is what you want to search for?" and the agent replied, "Sorry, Pal, we are here now and this is what we are going to do." Shortly thereafter, Dichiarinte announced, "The search is over. I am calling off the search." However, the agents continued their search for about ten more minutes. After that, Dichiarinte was convicted on tax evasion charges and was sentenced to 6 years in jail. And so again, “middle men” such as Skally and high level associates of the Outfit such as Fiorito managed to getaway clean by not having any trouble with informants. The agents did not stand a chance in connecting Fiorito and Skally to the defendants but still, at the beginning of the trial the prosecutors mentioned that the two defendants in fact worked for the previous two, who in turn worked for Sam Giancana. And of course, from that point on many government officials and newspaper reporters became interested in the connection, thus forcing some of the main “middle men” to make mistakes which in the end, proved to be quite fatal for their health.


Since his main crew was behind bars, Skally needed a quick solution so he could continue selling heroin and that’s when he made one of the dumbest and unprofessional moves in his whole lucrative criminal career, by getting himself involved directly with the product and customers. The thing with most street runners is that they already known most of the dealers and addicts and they also know their families, so my point is that, since he did not have the “street knowledge” regarding the dope peddling activity, Skally made the “usual” mistake by unknowingly bringing an undercover agent on few sales. As usual the agent waited for the “big hit” and after few sales, he requested for $15,000 worth of pure heroin from Skally, who in turn quickly provided it but got himself arrested along the way. Now, he was in a very tough situation, meaning he had to choose between his pals in the Outfit or the government. I believe that Skally was quite aware that he made one fatal mistake which bought him one-way ticket to the graveyard, and on the other hand, he was looking at 5 to 6 years in prison with no guarantee that he was going to remain safe in his jail cell. He also knew that Giancana wasn’t going to risk his future plans and he considered everybody expendable and since he, meaning Skally, vouched for an undercover agent, the consequences were already known. So in his own mind, Skally did not saw any other way out of the problem but to start informing for the government and when he talked, he talked a lot. He gave up everybody, including members from Mastro’s crew, which by now were fighting another narcotics case, also Fiorito and he even talked about the Outfit, but the sweetest information for the feds was about Giancana and also Jacob Klein. In fact, Klein represented a huge target for the feds, who in turn probably had a “hard-on” for catching the gangster but the problem was that he wasn’t an easy prey. The first time when he managed to swindle the feds, was back in 1954, when one undercover informant managed to get close to Klein and bought few kilos of heroin in a period of two months. The thing was that the feds were too greedy and pushed their informant to get even closer to Klein and to try and arrange a meeting with his New York contacts. That’s when Klein got suspicious and arranged a meeting but the thing was he never showed up. From that point on, Klein somehow managed to constantly sell heroin under the government’s radar, like for example supplying Fiorito, Skally and DeRose.



William Skally


The problem was that by now the Outfit managed to corrupt many of Chicago’s politicians and government officials, to the highest level, meaning sometimes they received “top secret” information regarding possible informants. And it didn’t matter if the info was true or false in the end the bosses always gave away the murder “contracts” since they very rarely took a risk such as this one. So the information regarding Skally’s decision to “rat” was placed on the table by one of the Outfit’s most infamous Mob lawyers known as Mike Brodkin, who in turn was a very close with the syndicate’s top hierarchy and was also considered one of the best political corruptors for the organization. In other words, Brodkin knew that Skally and Giancana knew each other and so he sent word directly to Giancana, who in turn sent for Carl Fiorito. Since Skally worked under Fiorito, in Giancana’s eyes it was Fiorito’s problem. So according to a wiretapped conversation between Brodkin and the so-called “King of Fixers” Murray Humphreys, the Mob lawyer told the “Hump” that one day he took Fiorito to see “Moon”, which was a reference for Giancana, and during the meeting the boss personally authorized Fiorito to take care of the Skally problem, or in other words, Fiorito received the “murder contract”. In the world of the Mafia the one who is sent to kill you, is usually someone close to you or someone you trust, and the point is that Skally very much trusted Fiorito, or maybe too much.


While being free on bond, on January 5, 1960, 50-year old Skally returned from one of his business trips in Las Vegas, Nevada, and immediately received a phone call from Fiorito, who in turn assured him that he, meaning Fiorito, already talked to the “boys” and allegedly had the case “fixed” and so they decided to have a chat regarding the situation. Even though Fiorito thought that Skally had no idea on what was going on, still “The Saint” came a long way and was quite experienced criminal, meaning by now he even had eyes at the back of his head. So Skally came to Fiorito’s house, picked him up and drove off to River Forest, where they parked their car at some parking lot to have the alleged chat. As he sat on the passenger seat, Fiorito started acting a little bit nervous obviously because he had to kill his old friend and got noticed by Skally, who in turn immediately felt suspicious since he also was in a constant alert. In other words, both men began panicking and suddenly, Fiorito pulled out a revolver and they started struggling in the car, but somehow Fiorito managed to grab Skally with his one hand and with the other he placed the gun over the top of Skally’s skull and pulled the trigger, thus instantly blowing the victim’s brain.


Again, the Outfit managed to disconnect itself from the “dangerous” situation by emotionlessly killing its associates, but not for long. The problem was that right after the cops discovered Skally’s body, they went straight to his house where they were greeted by his wife. The agents started asking questions and poor woman gave answers while being in tears regarding her late husband. When they asked her about Skally’s latest criminal activities, his wife “suddenly remembered” that the night before her late husband disappeared, he allegedly told her that he was going to meet his buddy Carl Fiorito. With this, the investigators were 100% positive that Skally’s stories regarding the drug peddling crew were true and they also realized that Fiorito was behind Skally’s murder and was also the “main guy” between the product and Giancana, the boss of the Outfit. So now the agents played the same “trick” because they knew that all of Fiorito’s “runners” were arrested or killed, and so he was forced to be in direct contact with the product, same as his late buddy Skally.


In fact, Fiorito had another problem and that was the indictment regarding a burglary charge and he was facing from five to ten years in jail. But the thing was that Fiorito was one of Giancana’s boys and so somebody had to “take care of him”, in a good way. As usual, Giancana gave the job to Murray Humphreys who in turn hated burglars and hated Fiorito but still he had to obey his boss. In a record time, Humphreys assured Giancana, through Brodkin, that they can consider the case already “fixed”. So Fiorito was out on bond and was contacted by Brodkin who in turn informed him to “cool off”, meaning not to get involved in anything illegal until the “heat” goes away. But like any other real criminal, Fiorito hardly obeyed orders and continued selling “junk”. When the feds saw this, they played it really smart by not playing ball on the burglary or the murder case, but instead they waited for him to “slip”, meaning to arrest him while dealing heroin. So as expected, in a matter of few days, Fiorito managed to sell $6,000 worth of heroin to an undercover agent and quickly found himself in custody. So now many of the Outfit’s higher ups, such as Humphreys and Giancana, were quite mad at Fiorito for doing the wrong move at the wrong time. As I previously stated that some of the First Ward crime bosses, such as Humphreys, stayed far away from the narcotics business, especially from the people who were directly involved in. So the point is that nobody from the main “fixers” wanted to help regarding Fiorito’s narcotics case.


In the end, Carl Fiorito received 10 years on the burglary charge and additional 10 years for the narcotics charge, which became a 20 years prison term. Suddenly, stories started spreading that Fiorito was “singing” in jail but Brodkin always stood in his defence and denied the rumours by stating that he knew the “kid” from way back and vouched for him. And to tell you the truth he was right, because Fiorito was really a stand up guy who served time and kept his mouth shut and when he got out he wasn’t changed a bit but we’ll come to that later. As for Jake Klein, one of the master minds behind the whole operation, from that point on, I can’t find any other info regarding his dope peddling activities but all I know is that he got away “clean” and like any other Jewish criminal from that era he started investing his “hard earned” cash in legitimate enterprises such as the Flamingo Hotel in Wheeling, Illinois.