Special thanks to our board member ChiTown for providing me with the informations about this artice.

Mafia Takes Over

Arizona aka “Baby State” (because Arizona is the newest continental state in the Union) and also the land of sunshine is in the southwestern region of the United States. It is the sixth largest and the 15th most populous of the 50 states. Arizona had been a state for less than two decades when the mob arrived. In the past many infamous mob figures came to Arizona allegedly to retire from their every day mob businesses or for the state of their health and they favoured Arizona as a recreation spot. But in reality, Arizona also has a strategic position for mob business. You see, Arizona is one of the Four Corners states meaning it has borders with New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, California, and Mexico, and one point in common with the South Western corner of Colorado.

There’s a great dilemma on which was the first crime family that took over in Arizona. Some say it was the Detroit or the Cleveland mob and others say it was the New York mob. I say that no crime family did because Arizona was like Vegas, an "open territory" for the national mob, meaning anyone can do their own legal or illegal operations with out any problems. One of the first criminal “dons” that operated in Arizona was Pete Licavoli from the Detroit mob. Licavoli was big time in Tucson since the early1930’s.He operated an illegal gambling wire service and also liquor distribution. In the late 1930’s the Cleveland mob also owned their own ranch in Arizona near the Mexican border. The same period Cleveland big shot Moe Dalitz came to Arizona and added the Tucson Steam Laundry to his chain of washhouses and was involved in the numbers racket. Also other visitors were New York’s mobsters Louis Buchalter and Mike Coppola. Lepke’s Arizona trips were occasioned by charges arising from mob infiltration in the fur-dressing industry. Coppola had a residence at Tucson’s East 5th Street and was constantly observed by government officials because he was always in the company of other national mobsters. In the late 30’s Al Polizzi, Lepke Buchalter and Pete Licavoli met at Mike Coppola’s house in Tucson to discuss the Nazi government, which disrupted their traditional drug trafficking routes out of Europe and tried to sort out alternate routes for their raw materials source. They decided that Mexico would be the best location and they were probably dealing with Enrique Diarte, a Tijuana based Mexican narcotics trafficker, who in the late 1930s and early 1940s was probably the biggest drug dealer in Mexico.

The Chicago Boys

The Chicago Outfit, Al Capone’s legacy, at one point controlled the Windy city and later became national criminal organization. It was a separate and different criminal organization, or in other words it was not like the traditional mafia groups, for example the New York crime families. During the 1950’s and 60’s the Outfit spread like a cancer through out the United States and also the whole world. I know that this sounds like script for a fictional movie but it’s true. The former Capone gang had interests in the Middle East, Europe, South Africa, Central and South America and even Japan. Yes, the boys were ridin’ high. Chicago Outfit “gods” like Sam Giancana were considered like international mobsters and besides their business adventures on all of these different continents, their prime dirty cash came from home, or to be exact, the Western part of the U.S.

The first big scheme was during the mid 1930’s when the Chicago mob took over the movie unions and the unions that ran the entertainment business in Los Angeles, including Hollywood. All went smooth until in 1943 when the top echelon of the Chicago Outfit was indicted for attempting to extort over a million dollars from several Hollywood studios, including Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures, RKO Pictures, and 20th Century Fox. The Hollywood extortion case spread a lot of waves through out the underworld which resulted with reinforcing their operations east of Los Angeles and that is Las Vegas and a little bit more eastern to Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. When it comes to organized crime, Arizona has had quite an interesting history dealing with this subject. The national mob considered Arizona as a "haven" and virtually untapped territory.


As additonal info, the top guys on this picture by order are Charlie Gioe(hand on mouth), Louis Campagna(hand on mouth) and Phil D'Andrea(with glasses).The second guy(with bald head) from the right is Paul Ricca

During the 1940’s Pete Licavoli owned the Grace Ranch which became meeting place for the national crime syndicate. With the “emigration” of the Chicago mob in Arizona after the big extortion case, Licavoli often had mob meetings with the Outfit’s boss Tony Accardo. Later other big shots who often visited Licavoli’s ranch were Sam Giancana, Paul Ricca and also Presidential Candidate and Senator Barry Goldwater. So during the late 40’s Arizona became the headquarters for the Midwest mob which spread its rackets in the areas of New Mexico, Nevada, South Western Texas, Southern California and Mexico.

Never break the “Omerta”

In the late 40’s organized crime retiree "William ”Bob” Nelson" moved to Tucson,AZ and lived rather quietly in his then-rural East Bethany Home Road neighborhood for six years. "Nelson" in fact was a former Outfit associate and extortionist named Willie Bioff who changed his surname into Nelson, which was his wife's maiden name..Back in 1943, Bioff testified against the top leadership of the Chicago mob about their role in the infamous Hollywood extortion scandal which resulted in convictions for mob boss Paul Ricca, Johnny Roselli and others. In exchange for selling out his partners, Bioff walked away from prosecution a free man and got to keep the millions he had stolen as well.The thing is that Bioff wasn't really hiding out in Arizona, in fact he became a rich and very likable person among high society. Bioff was a natural fixer and understood politics and soon he became popular within the golden elite of Arizona politics and met Senator Barry Goldwater, in November of 1952. So again Bioff had the power to make cash and started many legal and illegal enterprises. Eventually the mob heard about Bioff’s whereabouts and payed him a visit. The mob knew he had the power and connections in Arizona and they also knew that he had stashed millions of dollars from the Hollywood extortion case so in 1955, Peter Licavoli and Paul Ricca started to shake Bioff down for cash. Willie paid off for a while, but then he started making noise about going to the feds through his new pal, Barry Goldwater. But Bioff didn’t know that Goldwater already knew Licavoli and Ricca.So one day, on November 4, 1955 many people were shocked when Bioff got blown to pieces in his automobile. The score was settled. Bioff’s death sent shock waves through the high society in Phoenix.


Willie Bioff mugshot


Bioff's murder scene

The First Golden Jew

By the late 1950’s, many of the crime families owned businesses in Arizona with the help of their underlings. Arizona had a lot of action going on during that period and there was plenty of cash to be made for everyone. Crime bosses ran the gambling, prostitution, and liquor industries but freely interacted with more reputable merchants.

So on thanksgiving day in 1958, Licavoli chaired a national mafia meeting at his ranch in Phoenix. Some of the attendees were Joe Profaci, Joe Bonanno, Joe Magliocco and Tony ”Joe B” Accardo. Federal agents dubbed the meeting the “Four Joes”.The mob bosses had several agendas on that meeting, which one of them was Gus Greenbaum.

Born in 1894, Greenbaum in the first few decades of his life worked as an associate of New York gangster Meyer Lansky and than moved to Al Capone’s Chicago during prohibition, and just before World War II was given control of Chicago crime syndicate’s gambling operations in Las Vegas. Greenbaum knew Bugsy Siegel and had ties to Chicago. He also owned a bookie wire service in Phoenix, which was originally established in 1941 for the Outfit. Greenbaum was a Phoenix socialite seen at all the society balls, usually in the company of the Barry Goldwaters, Harry Rosenzweigs and Kemper Marley, Phoenix millionaire rancher and wholesale liquor dealer. In 1946, according to police sources, Marley took up still another line of business, one that brought him into contact with organized crime.


Gus Greenbaum

Greenbaum was a wild man who was addicted to heroin, always drunk and when he wasn't high he was running around with women half his age who stole from him, and was deeply in debt from gambling at the tables, losing up to $20,000 a week. And on top of that, he was skimming from the mobs joints and casinos.In fact Gus was skimming from the split between the New York crime families and Chicago. Ricca and Giancana got wind of the situation but they considered it as a reasonable thing. So they decided that Greenbaum is going to give them a cut from his steal and also to sell his share from the profits.At first Gus played along but after a while he stopped sending money, obviously because he spent his money on drugs and gambling. Kemper Marley and his associates were previosly instructed by the Chicago mob to move Greenbaum out of the Phoenix wire service, and they did so.So now Gus had nowhere to go and blinded from his addictions he stubbornly refused to step down.

After the meeting of the “Four Joes” in Phoenix on December 2, mob boss Sam Giancana on the orders of his mentor Paul Ricca, sent for Marshal Caifano, a bloodthirsty and ruthless Chicago's enforcer. On December 3, 1958, the police found Greenbaum dead in bed, his throat was cut so completely, that his head was almost falling off. Down the hall, in a different bedroom, they found Greenbaum's wife's throat cut as well. She had been knocked out with a heavy bottle which caved in the right side of her eye. Local lore has it, the hitmen then ate the steaks the Greenbaums had just cooked. This inaugurated a series of grisly gangland-style slayings.


The body of Bess Greenbaum

The Bonanno’s Arrived

New York’s big shot Joe Bonanno had a seniority as a La Cosa Nostra boss and was considered a legend. He was a very ambitious man who had many operations in and out of the country, for example in Montreal and Quebec, Canada. He had extensive business enterprises, including large holdings in cheese companies and other legitimate businesses in Wisconsin, California and Arizona. Joe Bonnano had the first taste of Arizona in 1941.He settled in Tucson, left his family there and traveled back and forth to New York. When he needed to keep a low profile, Arizona was his place. In 1953, when the U.S. Government brought deportation proceedings against him, Bonanno was able to get personal testimony or affidavits on his behalf from many prominent persons in Arizona, including a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church Francis J. Green, a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives Harold Patten, and Evo DeConcini a member of the State Supreme Court. Many of Bonanno’s associates arrived in Arizona in the mid 1950’s and they expanded their legitimate business all over the state. Joe was parlaying some of his illegal profits from New York into a large land holding and legitimate businesses in Arizona. One of the biggest projects was the building of a giant cotton farm midway between Phoenix and Tucson. Bonanno kept a low profile but he also attended a lot of “high profile” parties. Tom Renner, an experienced reporter assigned full-time to organized crime obtained a guest list of one of those parties held in 1959, which included the Arizona governor, the states attorney general, the Pima County sheriff, two state congressmen, the heads of Arizona’s major regulatory agencies and Joe Bonanno. While forming new alliances and developing new businesses in Arizona, during this period Joe was very much still active and very powerful figure back in New York.

The Treachery

Joe Bonanno was aware of the tremendous wealth emerging on the west side of the country and wanted to make close connections with the Los Angeles crime family which had an alliance with the Chicago mob. Rumours are that Bonanno had plans to depose Frank DeSimone, the southern California leader, and replace him with his son Bill Bonanno. As a member of the commission, Bonanno already had oversight jurisdiction over the two northern California families--in San Francisco and San Jose. Also back in New York, commission boss Joe Profaci died in 1962 and was succeeded by another good friend of Bonanno's, Joe Magliocco. Story goes that Bonanno and Magliocco plotted to kill some of the members of the commission. Some say that it wasn’t Bonanno who made the plan but it was Magliocco himself and others say that it was some members from the other crime families and his partners in crime, who were planning behind his back. I belive that the biggest problem was the conflict and distrust between Bonanno and his cousin Stefano Magaddino. Whatever’s the truth, by 1963 Bonanno was in serious trouble. He was called before the commission to explain himself but Bonanno refused and rumours were that he was hiding in Tucson, Arizona. Then in 1964 he came back to New York and mysteriously disappeared and was not heard from again for almost two years. It was claimed that Joe was kidnapped in front of his lawyer's apartment in New York City by rival factions. It still remains a mistery whether this is true or not, during this period there were many tapped conversations between mobsters from around the country, badmouthing Joe Bonanno. The same year his crime family split into two factions and that was the start of the infamous “Banana Wars”.


The English Bros

So the Chicago Outfit got wind of the Bonanno situation and Sam Giancana decided to make some swift inroads by sending the English brothers out to Arizona to enforce their real estate deals, jukeboxes and vending machine operations. Story goes that by this time Joe Bonanno refused to cut in the English bros in some of his operations and usually ignored them and Sam Giancana saw this as a disrespect.

Chuck English and his brother Sam arrived in Phoenix in 1962 and were greeted at the airport by their other brother Joseph English and Leonard Russo. First they stayed at the Safari hotel near Phoenix and later bought their own ranches near Tucson and Flagstaff, Arizona. The English brothers were very enthusiastic over their property holdings and business enterprises in Arizona. They mostly bought and than re-sold many properties. Each of the brothers usually received 15 times the amount of their previous investment. They were also involved in bootlegging music records which became big business at the time. The English brothers monopolized the distribution of records to juke box operators in the state of Arizona. Rather than selling original recordings, the English bros had original records cheaply duplicated by the thousands and then put counterfeit manufacturers’ labels on them. And of course, they didn’t bother making royalty payments to anyone. Sam and Chuck travelled very often back and forth to Arizona but Joseph was their guy over there, overseeing their operations. Joseph had his own place, the Guiseppe's Italian Restaurant, at 7018 E. Main St., Scottsdale. Sam and Charles English together often visited Joe at Giuseppe's which became a place for many Outfit meetings.

In 1963 Sam English incorporated the Rim Rock Ranch, 265-acres high in the mountains near Phoenix, Arizona. He purchased it for about $330,000 and also had a million dollar business formed of real estate, construction, loans, and expansion of jukebox operations. He also made some extra money on the side working as a bookie, gambler, and loan shark. Sam even had his own corporation named The Rim Rock Inc. Frontman for his corporation was Marvin Browning, a business associate who came from Cicero. Thru his brothers film capital connection, Sam managed to transform his mountain ranch into a place for staging cowboy and Indian movies. He also made his ranch available for Hollywood stars and also for mob meetings. He also developed a part of his big ranch for filled with deers, antelopes, wild pigs and mountain lions for the purpose of hunting trips. When the reporters visited his ranch, Sam appeared in cowboy outfit.


Sam English

One of his most often visitors at the ranch was Berwyn alderman George Vydra. Vydra had a personal and business relations with Sam.They were both involved in the pornography business in Arizona thru a movie firm and also in the music business. On Christmas day 1965, the lifeless body of George Vydra was found in his car.He allegedly died from carbon monoxide poisoning, but the evidences showed otherwise. The cops found a four page suicide note in Vydra’s pocket. Authorities had problems in finding out whether the hand writing was his. Vydra’s father said that when he found the body in the car,the ignition key was turned off, the gasoline tank was almost full and the truck motor was cold. Also his father said that when he entered the garage, he didn’t smell any exhaust fumes. People that knew him also said that he never showed any signs of depression and never had any suicidal thoughts. So some government officials like Charles Siragusa suspected that Vydra’s death might have been a murder. Vydra was also a business manager of female singer Jane Darwyn. After Vydra’s death, the singer said that she, Vydra and Sam English were splitting profits from a corporation formed to sell her records. Sam English was also questioned by the feds but they got nothing.

Sam’s ranch business was shortly lived because of the massive heat from the government that the place recived and so the ranch fell into desuse. So in 1966 Sam decided to go back to Chicago and lay low for a while because he also started having heart problems. He gave the leftovers from his empire to his brother Joseph.

Rivalry

Now this is the time when a lot of rumours surfaced in Arizona that there was a rivalry between the Bonnano group and the Chicago guys.

Bonanno's hold on his crime family slowly faded away, however many of his crime family members and associates that were out of New York were still loyal to him, like in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona. Now the Chicago guys again saw this as a threat for their business on the west and they also saw it as a chance to dominate over Bonanno’s national rackets and rumours spread around that the Outfit disliked him a lot. Don’t forget that Bonanno was a very wealthy and powerful figure at the time. He had connection everywhere and was considered as international mobster. He dominated over many illegal or legal operations on many different territories so greed prevailed over his fellow mobsters and other organized groups like the Chicago Outfit. There were numerous wiretapped conversations between Tony Accardo and Sam Giancana discussing Joe Bonnano's presence in Arizona. Giancana was also caught talking to other national bosses around the country that they should kill Bonanno. Also Milwaukee mob boss Frank Balistrieri once did a favour for Joe Bonanno and this angered Sam Giancana when he learns of it, understandably because of Joe’s current situation with the commission. Giancana and Accardo were too very greedy persons and were not interested in the truth of Bonanno’s situation at all. They just wanted whats his or as they considered what belonged to them. Also story goes that Chicago even supported Gaspar DiGregorio against Bonanno in the infamous “Banana wars”.


Outfit boss Sam Giancana

When the problem occurred, Joe’s son Bill Bonanno had a meeting with some of New York’s top mafia guys about the missunderstanding of Joe´s involvement in the plot and sorted it out. Also in 1965 Bil Bonanno came to Chicago to attend a meeting with the Outfit’s top echelon at a restaurant located in Melrose Park.The agendas of the meeting were the New York plot, Bonanno’s huge presence in Arizona and dividing territories. Also story goes that Bil asked for help from the Outfit to operate freely in Arizona and that Outfit top boss Paul Ricca agreed, after all Arizona was an open territory. Later Bill said that he was very impressed by Ricca and that he was a true mafia “Don”. By this time Ginacana was running around the continent hiding from the FBI’s radar so he wasn’t in position to attend the meeting. His brother Chuck Giancana wrote in his book that Sam once told him that a lot of Outfit guys would loved to see Bonanno taken out but “He’s not worth the bullet”.


Mafia boss Joe Bonanno

Finally in 1968 Joe Bonanno suffered a major heart attack and that was the last straw. He informed the National Mafia Commission that he was retiring in Arizona, this time for good. The Commission was naturally wary of anything Bonanno did or said, but as time passed, the shootings diminished. Bonnano, one of the bosses who sat on the Mafia commission became the most mysterious figure when he decided to allegedly retire from his mob business in Arizona. It was claimed that he became legit but the thing was that no one really believed him, not even his fellow mobsters, who already had their stakes in Arizona. Rumours started to spread that Joe Bonnano was still a big fish and with the help of his Machiavellian skills, he still commanded respect and at the same time did business. By this time many investigators and reporters thought that some of these mobsters were still loyal to Joe Bonanno. But the truth is that there was no Bonanno crews operating in Arizona after the infamous wars. Many of the members ended up in different crime families, went legit or did business independently or retired. I believe the truth was that Joe really buried the hatchet during this period and all of these rumours started from the fact of a massive hysteria that he was once one of the devils that walked this earth.

The Reinforcement

During 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 Gang

During 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” #2

Back 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 Crime

Stories 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.

Once a Criminal, Always a Criminal

Guys like Joe Bonanno and Pete Licavoli had to be very careful not to be seen together or in the company of other mobsters. Because of their criminal past, now they carefully nurtured their images as retired businessmen.

Maybe theres no real hard evidence (except for the book called “The Arizona Project” which was written by a team of investigators) for Bonanno being involved in crime during this period but that’s not the case with Licavoli. Back in 1973 Licavoli was caught on a wiretap by a ATF informant, talking about counterfeit bills and 200 Uzi machine guns from Israel. However in the fall of 1976 Licavoli was not arrested for the wiretap conversations but for receiving a stolen painting and offering to sell it to an undercover FBI agent from the art gallery that he owned. Licavoli was convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison.


Pete Licavoli

The Big Businesses

The corrupt government officials during the 70’s made Arizona a gold mine and an irresistible mecca for ambitious gangsters seeking opportunities outside the established crime hierarchies of Chicago and the Eastern seaboard.

Ned Warren was a "debonair, smooth as silk, handsome, devil may care, con artist who found great fun in selling undeveloped land in Yavapai County to unsuspecting buyers." Born as Nathan Jacques Waxman in Boston, came to Arizona in 1961, one year after his parole from Danbury federal prison. Warren had two prior convictions on conspiracy and confidence game charges. He served a year in New York State on the latter charge after investors forked over $39,000 for a musical, "The Happiest Day" that was never produced. His primary racket was selling lots in substandard or effectively nonexistent subdivisions in the Arizona desert to people who regarded such purchases as investments. Warren also bundled the loans his investors took out on the plots and resold them as securities. In the West and Midwest, Warren’s crew used slide shows to depict subdivisions that in no way resembled the actual property. He divided his earnings and funnelled it to a real estate commissioner and the mob. Warren also had his fingers in countless pies, from vending machine distribution to nightclubs. Warren had his own loyalties for the mob, especially for the Chicago Outfit. Robert Goldwater, the brother of Senator Barry Goldwater and Harry Rozenzweig, the former GOP boss in the state, were the secret power brokers behind the land fraud operations.


Ned Warren

The land fraud scheme was one thing and the gold thing was another. The mob stole systematic diversion of gold and other precious metals from Motorola plants in the metropolitan Phoenix area. At the time many millions of dollars in gold per year were being used as plating on circuit boards and in other electronic components. The operation was supervised in Phoenix by Chicago mobster Paul Schiro who made sales of reprocessed gold bars on the international billion dollar market. Schiro’s worked (or posed) as a cook at the Cappy’s Sandwiches bar at 51st Street. The place was located directly across the street from the Phoenix Motorola plant where most of the gold was being stolen.

For some reason Motorola executives never called the cops on the sizable organized crime diversion of gold that went out the back. The mob must have had remarkable leverage on important people at Motorola to gain that degree of silence. Everything started in the late 1960’s when the Motorola company needed a place to build a new plant in Tucson. They turned to Sam Nanini for the land purchase. Before becoming a prominent Tucson fixture, former Chicagoan Nanini had a history of mob ties to such notorious gangsters as Mike Carrozzo, Joey Glimco, and Louis Campagna. They made over $500,000 a year from the skim and by the mid 70’s the Treasury Department had become aware of a bad situation with Motorola in Arizona. The scam lasted until 1982 when the government got interested in the case.

Cleaning The Closet

Leonard Hoffman of Prescott Valley, Inc. another Great Southwest holding was a close associate of Ned Warren and rumours were that he wanted to testify against Warren if he didn’t get the proper amount of cash for his actions. Hoffman died in a mysterious crash with his private plane in January 1973.

In 1975, Ed Lazar was one of Ned Warren’s closest associates and also president of Warren’s Consolidated Mortgage Corp. One day he decided to testify before a grand jury about the sale of virtually worthless land for as much as $400 million and also his past business dealings with Warren, a defunct partnership he had long since had cause to regret. Warren knew a lot of people so the information got to him. Now he wanted Lazar, the crooked real estate commissioner and every one else who was considered a threat, eliminated. He turned to his other partners in the Chicago mob, looking to advance his own stature in his own way. The Chicago mob sent for Nick D’Andrea and Robert Hardin. In February 1975, Jack West, a retired lumberman disappeared and was never found. Three days later after the disappearance of West, Ed Lazar was slain in a Phoenix parking garage stairwell by two men hitman. The other day Lazar was shedled to testify about Warren’s shady dealings.


Ed Lazar

Don Bolles was a Phoenix reporter who loved to write about the mob and to expose them. Bolles made an investigation about possible dog track skim money going to the mob which led to a spin-off as the “big story”. Bolles had a good sense of where the serious risks lay among the topics on which he was working. Bolles as a reporter for the Arizona Republic had been hunting for proof of a Mafia silent partnership in the state’s greyhound racing industry. So on June 2, 1976, a dynamite bomb was detonated by remote control beneath the car seat of Don Bolles’s Datsun sedan in a Phoenix hotel parking lot. He had gone there to meet a source named John Adamson, a local hoodlum who was suspected in setting him up. Bolles, in his last statement before lapsing into unconsciousness, he mentioned the words Mafia…Adamson and Emprise. Emprise Corp. was a Buffalo, N.Y. company. Bolles lived 11 more days, finally dying on June 13, 1976, following amputation of both legs and one arm.


Don Bolles

Bolles had the power to uncover much of Arizona's underworld figures, or big businessmen involved with people in organized crime. The Bolles murder virtually halted some of the organized crime activities in the Valley for two or three years.

Theres a story that Bolles had a growing awareness of the land fraud skim, which was operated by Ned Warren. John Harvey Adamson, who was one of the hitman in the Bolles murder, said that he was hired by Phoenix contractor Max Dunlap and that James Robison, a Chandler plumber, detonated the bomb. They acted on the orders of Kemper Marley, a Phoenix rancher and liquor magnate. Bolles had written stories about Marley said to have forced Marley to resign from the state Racing Commission.

There’s also another side of this story.

Years later after Roy Romano became an informant, he said that the guys who carried out the hit were people that worked for Joe”Buddy” Tocco. John Harvey Adamson, William Rocco D'Ambrosio and Frank Mossuto were the guys who planted the bomb and by that time they worked for Romano who served Tocco. He also said that the killing was a mistake. The dynamite bomb was planned to explode before Bolles got into his car and telephone him later with a message to stop writing about mob activities in Phoenix.

The real truth is that the investigation into Bolles' death was horribly botched and police records were destroyed or permanently misplaced.

In 1976, Tony Serra, a close associate of Warren was staying in prison for land fraud. One day he decided to give clues to investigators and claimed that he knew the whereabouts of other incriminating evidences against Warren. So in January 1977 Serra was found dead in his jail cell.

Either way Ned Warren, commonly called the "Godfather of Arizona Land Fraud," was finally convicted in 1978 of 20 counts of land fraud while managing Western Growth Capital Corp and Consolidated Mortgage, which sold land in Yavapai and Yuma counties. Real Estate Commissioner J. Fred Tally resigned after the allegations that he had received bribes collected by Ned Warren from land developers. Talley died before he could answer the charges. Joseph Patrick, an aide to Congressman Sam Steiger, faced an indictment that he lied to a grand jury about dealings with Warren. Ned Warren died in 1980 in prison.

The Beginning of The End

The 1980’s was a very rough period for the mob because the government started putting a lot of pressure on the mob. The biggest problem for the mob was that a lot of informants were “born” from that pressure. The Outfit’s world in Arizona also started crashing down. Roy Romano had stepped onto the public stage in the fall of 1983, when, in return for immunity from prosecution, he turned state's evidence against Phoenix boss Joseph Tocco and gave detailed testimony about his own criminal activities as a member of the Tocco crew. The 64 year old Tocco started serving a state prison term for racketeering in Arizona. He pleaded guilty to controlling an illegal enterprise and filing false tax returns and to witness tampering, obstruction of a criminal investigation, extortion, prostitution, fraud, robbery and conspiracy to commit burglary and theft. In exchange for reduced sentence for crimes that could have cost him 60 years, Tocco provided the government with some useful information about the Bombacino murder and implicated Tony Amadio who at the time was serving a term for burglary in California.

On Valentines eve February 13, 1985 Chuckie English went up to Horwaths, a Chicago area restaurant, with an old friend and dined on roast pig. After they finished they went into the parking lot and as Chuckie reached his car two men in ski masks walked up and opened fire killing him. Following that they ran off into the alley behind the restaurant and were never caught.

The same year the Mafia Commission Trial began in New York and crippled the Eastern mob forever.

In 1986, the top administration of the Chicago Outfit was also convicted of skimming profits from Las Vegas casinos and was sent to jail. Also the same year in June, Tony "The Ant" Spilotro and his brother Michael were beaten and strangled to death in Bensenville, IL, and buried in a cornfield in Enos, IN, five miles away from the Outfit’s boss Joey Aiuppa’s property near Morocco, Indiana. Story goes that the Outfit leaders ordered the executions because they blamed Spilotro for the skimming conviction because of his misbehaviour in Las Vegas. Theres another story that the real target was Michael and that Tony was killed to prevent any revenge. After Spilotro's murder, Schiro allegedly became the overseer of the Chicago mob's interests in Arizona and was allowed by the Outfit to carry out his own burglary operations.
The underworld in Arizona changed during the 1980s. In some ways, some of the old mobsters went “legit" but that doesn’t mean that the old rackets disappeared, but they gradually were taken over by new owners.

Don’t break the “Omerta” #3

Even though by this period the national mob was on its knees, they still managed to enforce their rule of silence.

Emil “Mal” Vaci was a close associate of Tony Spilotro and Paulie Schiro in Las Vegas and Phoenix. Vaci worked as a maitre d' at Ernesto's Backstreet, 3603 E. Indian School Road. But his real job was to be a hit man and a key operative for Spilotro. In early 1986, Vaci testified twice before a grand jury investigating organized crime in Las Vegas casinos. He also had been granted immunity and was due to testify a third time but something happened that prevented him from doing it. On the night of June 7, 1986 73 year old Vaci was drove around Phoenix in a car by his Outfit associates and they pumped six bullets from a .22-caliber pistol into the back of his head, wrapped him in plastic and dumped him into a canal along 48th Street between Thomas and McDowell roads.

Bye Bye Chicago Mob

On January 24, 1995 Joseph “Buddy” aka "Papa Joe" Tocco died at the age of 72 in a minimum security unit at a state prison in Perryville. Tocco was found collapsed on the floor of his prison cell with a internal bleeding.

Paul Schiro, the last of the Arizona mohicans, was convicted in 2001 for his role in the mob-connected jewelry theft ring headed by William Hanhardt, a former Chicago police chief of detectives, and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison. Also in 2007 a federal judge in Chicago sentenced 71 year old Paul "the Indian" Schiro to 20 years in prison during the so-called Operation Family Secrets trial. The court also concluded that Schiro was responsible for the 1986 murder of his friend Emil Vaci. Schiro did not pull the trigger on his friend but was in a nearby car, acting as a lookout and listening to a police scanner, according to court testimony. Mob killer turned government witness Nick Calabrese testified at trial that Schiro took part in the planning of Vaci's killing. Calabrese said he and an accomplice pulled Vaci into a van, then Calabrese shot Vaci several times in the head.


Paul "The Indian" Schiro

The Family Secrets case may be remembered as the final chapter in the bloody history of the Chicago mob. It was another reminder that Arizona has totally lived out its Chicago Outfit connections.

New Operations

Remember Allen Glick? Well during the 90’s Glick, who was used as a puppet for the Chicago mob at the casinos in Las Vegas, had financial ties with Jerry Simms, the owner of Turf Paradise in Arizona. The controversy over the new owner of Turf Paradise racetrack has erupted into a squabble between state agencies, with a Gaming Department investigator ripping the state Department of Racing for research into the background of Jeremy E. "Jerry" Simms. Simms was bribing a coastal commissioner and lent large sums of money to Alan Glick. In 1995 Simms loaned $2.2 million and received back nearly $2.6 million from Glick. Than Simms made a couple of more loans and failed to report on his 1996-98 tax returns in which Simms wrote off as gambling losses. The tax write-offs were not legitimate. Like Glick, Simms also helped the FBI win numerous convictions while testifying under an immunity agreement. Simms, a bank founder and financier, says he was naive and stupid but never knowingly broke the law. He says he went to the FBI when he realized his associates were corrupt. Records show Simms did not go to federal authorities until nearly two years after the bribes and extortion attempts. In the year of 2001 the governor of Arizona has dismissed Racing Department director Jim Higginbottom over a controversy involving the background check and subsequent licensing of Simms. Simms, who acquired Turf Paradise from Hollywood Park the same year, was issued a three-year permit by the racing commission to operate Turf Paradise and off-track wagering venues statewide.

On November 25, 1997 members of New York’s Genovese and Bonanno crime families were indicted in a massive stock fraud and manipulation indictment. The mobsters acquired a large position in the stock of HealthTech International Inc., a Mesa, Arizona, health and fitness firm that was traded on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. Tens of thousands of shares were given to the mobsters by top HealthTech officials Gordon Hall and Joe Kirkham. In a 12 month period, $3 million scam, the mobsters bought securities at rock bottom prices and sold them at huge profits after brokers helped raise the price of the stock artificially high by over pitching it to unsuspecting investors. The gangsters used their usual hardball hoodlum methods to intimidate co-opted brokers and HealthTech executives and make sure they played ball with the mob. By 1999 many of the mobsters were sent to prison.

In 2002, the Arizona Attorney General, together with the U.S. Customs Service and the Arizona Department of Public Safety in Scottsdale, seized over $30 million in luxury homes, cars, cash, jewelry, and bank accounts throughout Arizona from individuals operating a company that primarily sold "penis enlargement" pills over the Internet. The individuals named in the civil forfeiture action were Michael A. Consoli and Vincent J. Passafiume allegedly connected with one of the New York crime families.

Death of a Legend

Joe Bonanno was the man who survived Italian fascism, Mustache Petes, and his own bloody war, died on May 11, 2002 of heart failure at the age of 97. He was buried at Holy Hope Cemetery & Mausoleum in Tucson, Arizona.

Arizona Today

Today narcotics and prostitution are everyday operations of the hundreds of multinational gangs that operate throughout Arizona. Gambling has largely become legit. Phoenix became the nation's capital for the human smuggling trade and the consequences of all these activities are magnified because of the limited local economy, segregation, lack of community and weak institutions. Another thing is that the local police force isn’t as corrupted as it was in the past. But I can also say that in the past Arizona was a much safer territory than it is today. In the old days the mob guys used to have control over crime, today it’s a dog eat dog world. Blood thirsty drug cartels formed by meth dealers and human smugglers rule the streets of Phoenix with no code of honour between them. In the old days many businessmen and top government officials socialized with the underworld and lived side by side but today the people with the most power and means to make a difference live behind walls in Paradise Valley and north Scottsdale far away from the crime lords.

Right now Phoenix, Arizona is one of the most extensive drug centers of America, and now it's under jurisdiction of one of Mexico's most dominant and brutal crime syndicates, the Sinaloa Cartel. With a formidable authority south of the border, the cartel uses Phoenix as a starting point for their North American activities. The Cartel’s real money is made by selling large amounts of the product to the rest of the U.S. In 2013 the government identified 8 Sinaloa cartel leaders along the Arizona-Mexico border. This drug cartel distributed their products in several location's including San Diego, New York and Texas, among other places.



This article is completed from various infos that can be found on the internet.

Good stuff pal thanks again.

Nice info like Always Toodoped

Thank you guys and also thanks for your support

Great stuff my friend!

Thanks...Good job fellas.

side note,, frank valenti went out there also ,he was put with pete milano..

“I think they're nothing but rejects from the Chicago mob. We're gonna eat up the Chicago boys."

Can't believe a wiseguy said this to a press guy!

PizzaBoy - See why us Chicago boys are so quick to fight with you east coasters? Constantly gunnin for us

Duci was a too much of a talkative guy and he also had a crew of NY loudmouths. Duci was known for carrying old newspaper clips about this ties with the New York mafia in his wallet so he can show to reporters. He and another of his mob companions Fat Louie Amuso gave an interview to the media.

Duci said something like "Now Louie will give you some great quotes about being in the mafia"
Duci:Louie tell them about thouse tapes that you were selling with no music on them
Amuso:Yeah,but theres nothing bootleg in a tape with no music on it

Than the reporter asked them about the shake down of many massage parlors..
Duci: One time my partner(Amuso) went to this massage parlor and says he wants his payoff.And just to demostarte that he means business, he pulls out an automatic and starts pointing it into the madames face.Suddenly the magazine drops out on the floor. All of the poeple in there started laughting and yelling and so they kicked his ass out of there"

I cant belive what were this guys saying to the reporters and this was during the 70's. Both Amuso and Duci claimed that they were out of the dirty business but their police records said otherwise.They were still involved in shakedowns, bootlegging music and prostitution. THis guys acted like clowns, as for the Chicago boys took their business quite serious

This would make a great movie trilogy(I'm sick and tired of series..)

But Mobsters golfing with Dean Martin, the four Joe's, It is true stories but yet it's like a fantasy. I love to read about the connections between Sinatra, Giancana, Monroe, Kennedy and all the other guys. It's a dark history but also a romantacized fairytale.

There are also reports in the Sinatra FBI files that in 1969 the FBI squad in Los Angeles received an anonymous letter which stated that Sinatra and Dean Martin were smuggling narcotics from Mexico to the U.S.(probably Arizona) and were never searched

Sinatra wanted to be a tough guy, only he wasn't too tough. I can't picture Dean risking his shine in order to play roughkid along with Frankie. I don't think Dean Martin was in bed with the Mob the way Frank Sinatra was, altough he had contact with many of them, especially Momo Giancana. I repeat, a movie about these guy would be so fantastic, but no, they've gots to go do another boring chickflick about John Gotti, what's this the fifth one?

Yeah you are right about that. In 1967 he got knocked the fuck out by Carl Cohen, the vice president of the Sands casino in Las Vegas.Sinatra was drunk as hell and was torturing the hotel managment, guests and security. Cohen came and punched Sinatra in the face and knocked him down.Cohen knocked out two of Sinatra's front teeth

Great stuff. Don Bolles did a terrific job of linking Emprise, the greyhound race tracks and LCN. I have read some of his stuff, particularly with respect to Detroit, Cleveland and St Louis. CD Stelzer wrote a great article about Bolles called "Arrizon Rising":

Emprise was, indeed, a big fish, with 162 subsidiaries in the United States and abroad, employing more than 70,000 people. Formed in 1915 by the Jacobs brothers of Buffalo, the concessions firm had expanded from selling peanuts at baseball games to an ownership role in professional sports. Some of Emprise's partners in these far-flung ventures had long criminal records. In Detroit, for example, Emprise held a stake in the Hazel Park race track with known Mafia figures.

Bolles' first brush with the Buffalo-based corporation came in 1969, after a group of independent Arizona race-dog breeders filed suit against Funk's Greyhound Racing Circuit, alleging that the track operators were trying to put them out of business. The Funk family shared ownership in Arizona's six dog tracks with Emprise and were indebted to their out-of-town partner.

Bolles found the Funks were influencing the Arizona Racing Commission. After exposing this in a series of stories, three racing commissioners were forced to resign. The Funks hired a private investigator to tap Bolles' telephone, and obtain other confidential information. Both sides filed law suits: the Funks suing the Arizona Republic and Bolles for libel, and Bolles suing them for invasion of privacy. Despite the litigation, Bolles continued to speak out.

By the time he testified before the House Select Committee on Crime on May 16,1972, Bolles had been researching Emprise for three years. Asked by a congressman what he had discovered, Bolles answered: "We found there was a continual association with organized crime figures over a 35 year period."
In late April 1972. only a few weeks before Bolles' congressional appearance, a federal jury in Los Angeles had convicted Emprise and fined it $10,000 for concealing the Mafia's ownership of the Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Mafia figures convicted along with the concessions firm included the late Anthony Giordano of St. Louis, and Anthony J. Zerilli of Detroit.

Although the case dates back a quarter of a century, the U.S. Attorney's office in Detroit last year charged Zerilli and other surviving Detroit mobsters with a multi-count racketeering indictment that includes their illegal ownership of the Frontier and other casinos in Las Vegas.

The 1972 Emprise conviction led several states to initiate their own inquiries. In Illinois, the racing board subpoenaed financial records of Sportservice Inc., an Emprise subsidiary that operated concessions at Cahokia Downs race track. In Missouri, the state liquor-control supervisor examined Sportservice's operations in St. Louis and Kansas City. But Emprise attorneys successfully defended the company against these charges except in Oregon, where the firm lost its liquor license.

Following its federal conviction, Emprise Corp. dissolved, and its many subsidiaries were placed under Delaware North Cos. Inc. The paper transfer, however, kept the assets of the privately-held corporation in the hands of Jeremy Jacobs, a son of one of the founders. During his reign, Jacobs has guarded the company's reputation by suing detractors and hiring a former FBI agent as security director. The unrelenting litigious assault against former Rep. Sam Steiger of Arizona, the most outspoken of Emprise's critics, eventually resulted in the congressman publicly expressing confidence in the concessions firm.

Delaware North continues to dominate sports concessions in several major league cities and owns numerous parimutuel horse and dog racing tracks. In Bolles' home state, the company currently operates dog racing tracks under the name of Arizona Greyhound Racing Inc. It also holds the concession rights for the Phoenix Suns basketball team through Arizona Sportservice Inc. The corporation's other interests range from ownership of the Boston Bruins hockey team to a lucrative concessions contract with the National Parks Service.

In St. Louis, Sportservice still holds the concessions contract at Busch Memorial Stadium, home of the baseball Cardinals. During this year's Missouri legislative session, the Cardinals owners lobbied successfully for the creation of a sports authority that will examine the possibility of allowing the baseball club and Sportservice to divert millions of dollars in taxes into a special fund to pay for stadium upkeep. The sports authority is also expected to look into the potential for using the same tax abatement method as a financing mechanism for building a new ballpark sometime in the future ("Pay Ball," RFT, April 9).

This is not the first time Sportservice's name has been mentioned in regard to the stadium or other professional sports facilities in St. Louis. The week before the Crime Committee heard Bolles' testimony in 1972, it listened to Capt. Earl T. Halveland, then the commander of the intelligence unit of the St. Louis Police Department. Halveland told how the Emprise subsidiary originally helped finance Busch Memorial Stadium.

"Sportservice Inc. purchased the concession equipment that was installed in the stadium. This was reported to be a million dollars worth of equipment for the concession stands," said Halveland. " (In return,) they (Sportservice) received a 30-year contract for the concessions and guaranteed ... Civic Center Redevelopment Corp. -- which developed the stadium project -- $400,000 (per year)." It doesn't take a fiduciary to ascertain that the 30-year, $12 million guarantee provided a footing for the stadium's financial structure.

One beneficiary of the Sportservice contract with Civic Center was Giordano, the St. Louis Mafia boss, who owned Automatic Cigarette Sales Co. Sportservice and its sister company, Missouri Sportservice, granted Automatic Cigarette Sales the rights to place cigarette vending machines not only at the stadium but at the municipally-owned Kiel Auditorium and the Arena, then home of the St. Louis Blues hockey team.

In 1967, Emprise lent Sid Salomon Jr., then the owner of the Arena and the Blues, $1.5 million, after Sportservice landed a 10-year concessions contract at the facility. When that contract expired, Sportservice played a hand in the complicated 1977 sale of the Arena to Ralston Purina Co., which had bought the Blues earlier that year. As a part of the $8.8 million Arena deal, Ralston paid off the mortgage holder and a partnership that included Sportservice. After Ralston acquired the Arena, it leased the building back to Dome Associates Inc., another company linked to the Buffalo-based sports concessions firm.

By 1977, Bolles was dead, but Sportservice's liaisons in St. Louis and elsewhere still seemed to mimic the patterns he explained to the Crime Committee five years earlier. Bolles then recounted how he had traveled around the country rummaging through newspaper morgues in an effort to understand the scope of the Emprise empire. He described how Emprise loans locked professional sports franchises into unbreakable long-term contracts. He outlined how the Cleveland mob borrowed money from Sportservice dating back to 1937. He explained how Moe Dalitz, a leader of the Cleveland crime organization, reciprocated, lending Emprise $250,000 in 1958.

Bolles cautioned "that Emprise has ... had a gradual shift from a concession to an ownership position in the tracks and elsewhere through the use of high-interest loans. ... If they are in ownership positions, they ... are in a position to effect the outcome of the contests. I just feel that it is absolutely essential, with millions of dollars changing hands on private bets and otherwise on every major sports contest in this nation, that we be absolutely assured of the fact that we have clean, honest sports."

The reporter's caveat dovetailed with Halveland's testimony. The intelligence unit commander told the panel that St. Louis bookmakers -- who were close associates of Giordano -- received their daily sports betting line from Las Vegas "at one location formerly owned by Missouri Sportservice Inc."

More important perhaps is Halveland's theory on how Giordano bankrolled his own move into the Las Vegas gambling scene: "A substantial sum of money was received by Giordano ... in 1965 through the sale of property at 508 Market St., St. Louis, Mo.," said Halveland. "This building formerly housed a B-girl-type juice joint tavern. This property was sold to the Civic Center Redevelopment Corp., which subsequently constructed the St. Louis baseball stadium in this area. ... He (Giordano) is then known to have made visits to Las Vegas, Nev., and the Frontier Hotel incident began developing just after this time."

Halveland's testimony -- which went virtually unreported at the time -- indicates that an illegal St. Louis gambling wire service operated at a site previously owned by an Emprise subsidiary. In addition, the St. Louis police officer testified that Giordano may have received some of the money he secretly invested in the Frontier by selling property to Civic Center, the stadium developer. Emprise, who held the concessions contract with the stadium, was convicted of shielding Giordano's and the Detroit Mafia's joint ownership of the casino.
The St. Louis Mafia leader and heroin trafficker known used legitimate businessmen to further his casino interests.

Halveland told the Crime Committee that "Giordano secured a loan from a St. Louis area restaurant operator." Actually, Frank Cusumano, the St. Louis restauranteur, made three unsecured loans to Giordano totaling $50,000 between 1964 and 1968, according to Cusumano's testimony at the 1972 federal trial in Los Angeles. He wasn't the only St. Louisan that provided backing for Giordano, however.

Real estate tycoon Anthony Sansone Jr. testified he had withdrawn a $150,000 investment in the Frontier, after being notified he would be required to apply for a Nevada gaming license. Federal prosecutors alleged Sansone, a business partner of former St. Louis Mayor Alfonso J. Cervantes, traveled to Las Vegas with Giordano to make the investment. Sansone is the son-in-law of the late James Michaels Sr., then the Syrian crime boss of St. Louis' and a close ally of Giordano.

That Emprise was convicted with Mafiosa from both St. Louis and Detroit is probably not a coincidence. Three of Giordano's sisters married Detroit Mafia members, according to Halveland's testimony. But organized crime ties linking the two cities with Arizona date back even further.

During Prohibition, Peter and Thomas (Yonnie) Licavoli, Joseph Bommarito and other St. Louis gangsters migrated to Detroit to act as gunmen for the Purple Gang, a group of notorious Jewish bootleggers. Later, Peter Licavoli moved to Tucson in 1944 at the request of mobsters Bugsy Siegel and Moe Dalitz. At the time of Bolles' death, Peter Licavoli Sr. shared power in Arizona with Joe Bonanno, the exiled boss of one of New York's ruling Mafia families.

This is the milieu Bolles inhabited by the mid-1970s. Profits from illicit alcohol sales during Prohibition helped establish a new multi-ethnic criminal cartel in the U.S. After repeal in 1933, the same crime groups began financing the nascent casino industry in Las Vegas, and dominating other rackets throughout the Southwest, often with the paid cooperation of local politicians and law enforcement authorities.

Beginning in 1946, Licavoli, the Arizona mob boss, operated an illegal gambling wire service with Kemper Marley Sr., the wealthiest liquor distributor in the state. Later, Marley's United Liquor Co. supplied Emprise dog tracks with 10 percent of their alcoholic beverages. During the 1974 Arizona gubernatorial race, Marley was the biggest contributor to Gov. Raul Castro's campaign. After the election, the Castro administration appointed Marley to the state racing commission, but he was forced to resign because of adverse publicity from stories written by Bolles.

The Phoenix police theorized that Marley wanting revenge enlisted the help of local contractor Max Dunlap. Dunlap then allegedly hired Adamson to carry out the bombing. Adamson claimed that plumber James Robison assisted him.
Over the years, Dunlap and Robison have maintained their innocence. Dunlap remains incarcerated. Although, Robison gained acquittal in a retrial, he is still awaiting release from prison on a related charge. Meanwhile, the state paroled Adamson last year, and he disappeared into the federal witness protection program.

The Phoenix police never even arrested Marley, who died in 1990.
Devereux, the Scottsdale Progress reporter who covered the case, believes Adamson falsely implicated Dunlap and Robison as a part of a plea bargain to lessen his own sentence. The police hastily granted Adamson associate Neal Roberts, an attorney, immunity in the case for his cooperation. Roberts promulgated the theory that Marley, a friend of Dunlap's, was behind the murder. During the trial, Dunlap testified that he had unwittingly delivered $5,800 to Adamson at the request of Roberts. The Arizona Supreme Court overturned the original trial court's convictions because defense attorneys weren't allowed to cross-exam Adamson, denying the defendants their constitutional right to confront their accuser.

In short, the police investigation and the state's prosecution both missed the mark. "I don't think it was incompetence," says Devereux. "I think this was a deliberately misdirected investigation and prosecution. And I think the press ... bought into it. Not out of any corruption on their part, just out of naivete." The state's case was handled by the office of then Arizona Attorney General Bruce Babbitt, who would later ascend to the governorship and is now the Secretary of the Interior in the Clinton administration.

"We made assumptions that Bruce Babbitt and the leadership of the Phoenix police department were in fact honest people," says Devereux. "I think we were mistaken."

Devereux places the blame for the murder on the late Bradley Funk, a close friend of Roberts, the immunized attorney. Funk was one of the local partners in Emprise's Arizona dog track operations. "Bolles was using Bradley Funk's ex-wife as one of his key information sources on the dog tracks," says Devereux. "As a consequence of the divorce from Bradley, she was going to court every two years to adjust child support payments. ... Bolles would give her lists of things that he wanted to get in the ways of documents, and she would add them to her (legal) motions. ... I think Bradley got tired of his ex-wife and Bolles playing this game with him."

No one really knows for sure what transpired except perhaps Adamson, the only person who ever admitted having anything to do with Bolles' murder. The reporter's confessed killer lives somewhere now under a new identity with federal protection. More than likely he is far from dry winds that descend from the Superstition Mountains across the parking lots of Phoenix and all those glinting windshields and scorching vinyl seats.

Thanks TonyG and thank you for the additional info.

During the 50's the Detroit mob was big time in Arizona. Joe Zerilli was involved in apartment rentals, land development and his biggest business was the fruit orchard at his huge Arrowhead Ranch near Phoenix. He invested nearly half a mil in his ranch and later sold it for 4 million dollars

Wonder why they haven't made a decent documentary 'bout the Partnership / Detroit Mob? That one that already excist was as shitty as it gets, that guy who narrated that shit looked like his face was gonna fall off.

To tell you the truth, thats the most decent documentary on the Detriot mob so far

Yeah none of the national families controlled Arizona.It was an open territory

But Chicago had most influence?

Im more interested in the Chicago mob and thats why i mostly worte about their actions during that era.Many crime families had their own saga in Arizona.But i can say that from 1950's untill the 1980's the Outfit was one of the main players over there