Ah, the old Black Hand gangs of the city of Chicago, one of the most unorganized, bloodthirsty and ruthless criminal groups that the world has ever witnessed. It has long been the cheerful assumption of the old generations that the Black Hand society was the invention of some joker with a defective sense of humour. But in time it has been proved that in fact the so-called Black Hand society really existed and that it was as bad as it has been reported to be. This wasn’t some big organized group but instead it was the opposite because most of these guys worked for themselves and cooperated with dozen of guys at most. But all of these small Italian criminal groups had only two things in common and was the extortion racket and above all murder. They didn’t care about children or women getting killed, because they only cared about their money. They didn’t have hierarchy or discipline or any kind of rules. There was just one ruthless leader with few followers, same as a pack of wolves. They usually fed on their own people and treated every honest businessman as potential target. In fact, the Black Hand was a method of extortion which was practiced mainly by the Italian population. Obviously the purpose of the existence of these so-called independent groups was to gain money unlawfully and offered more serious difficulties such as bombing whole houses or killing whole families.


Now in the old days the Italian population of Chicago was settled in four well defined regions, and the Black Hand extortion method was present in each of these. Most of the old Italian immigrants were hard working people and saved their money for their future generations which was the main cause that attracted an unduly large proportion of the criminal classes of their compatriots. One especially difficult feature of the campaign against the Black Hand was that the recipients of the threatening letters who were so terrified that they were unwilling to tell the police. In consequence, the authorities usually knew nothing about the threats until the damage was done. So through the years, the Black Hand extortionists killed a lot of innocent, wealthy and poor people and by the beginning of the 20th century they were responsible for large numbers of murders in the Chicago area. They even fought between themselves for territories and “false honour”. In Chicago, Black Hand operations were mostly seen in Italian neighbourhoods along Taylor Street and Grand Avenue on the West Side, Wentworth Avenue on the South Side and Chicago’s Little Italy on the North Side.


One of the most infamous, deadly and at the same time darkly mysterious Black Hand group was the Cardinella gang which was headed by Salvatore “Sam” Cardinella. This guy’s nickname was II Diavolo, or "the Devil", probably because of his un-human viciousness and animalistic behaviour. Born in Italy in 1868, Cardinella came to Chicago somewhere around the late 1900’s and in those days this swarthy, thick-chested Italian with such a satanic nickname quickly became one of the toughest street criminals. He was known for organizing bands of mislead and youthful individuals thus showing them the way of crime and so they started targeting mostly the wealthy and powerful people within the Italian community, with brutal violence and no remorse. Cardinella was a spinner of death, with a huge collection of assassinations, who lurked in the shadows while younger men, some of them hardly more than boys, carried out his fatal instructions. And very soon everybody realized that there were only two choices if one crossed paths with the Cardinella gang, and those were “pay or die”. It was that simple.



Salvatore “The Devil” Cardinella


Cardinella was a very greedy and illiterate individual and so he always asked for more and more money and placed a lot of pressure over his underlings. He usually took the loot from the young criminals and got most of the money for himself, if not all. The youngsters would be smacked around and in the end they would come back and do other jobs for him because they obviously feared him. Some times they got rewarded and even then Cardinella would try to steal their money by defrauding them with dice games. The “profitable” lesson that they had learned from him was that he taught them on how to do stick ups and steal and so according to some accounts, in a 6 month period, they have done over 400 holdups.


The main “desperadoes” who were involved in Cardinella’s web of crime were Frank Campione, Thomas Errico, Leonard Crapo, Sam Ferrara, Tony Sansone, Antonio Lopez, Frank Gibbia, Joe Costanza and Nicholas Viana. The crew mostly hung around a poolroom which was located at 22d and Clark streets, and from there the gang whispered softly to other young Italians who came from homes in "The Valley," a slum area west of the river, or from the Oak street district on the North Side, where the Italian secret criminal society ruled supreme. They came as if the college of crime, and Cardinella taught them well. Under his instructions the gang ravaged the dark streets of the west and north sides, and each of their crimes was as baffling in itself as a single piece of a jig-saw puzzle. One of the youngest triggermen was Nick Viana, nicknamed "the Choir Boy," because of his alleged participation in a West Side church choir. This was not the typical Mafia organization, but instead it was more like a group of secret cult killers who slew anyone who did not lift his hands quickly enough at their bidding. By using the Black Hand methods of extortion, and with the help of these young, brainless and psychotic killers, “The Devil” became a real enemy of society with at least 20 murders, 1000 holdups, and over 150 burglaries on his “wall of proudness”.


Now during the 1910’s a lot of Black Hand extortionists were killed mostly by other rival extortionists of same kind, or some were killed by the rising and more sophisticated organized crime gangs. From this point the first on the top of food chain stood the gangsters who were politically connected, controlled gambling and prostitution and killed mainly because of business differences. As for the second place, it was reserved for the more primitive gangs such as the Cardinella mob. I really can’t figure it out on why nobody took on the Cardinella gang but I presume that the main reason was their huge “membership” and of course their ruthlessness, which caused many of the racketeers to be afraid and story goes that some of them even paid “street tax” to the gang.


Now you ask yourself on why these powerful racketeers with strong political connection couldn’t handle a street gang such as the Cardinellas. I mean the politicians controlled the police right? Well the answer is simple because the gang was so ruthless that even some of the cops were shaking in their boots usually when they heard the name of the gang. Like this one time, four gang members, including young Nick Viana, were accosted by two police officers at 21st and Indiana Avenue. While the cops searched some of the young criminals’ pockets, Viana pulled out a pistol and shot one of the cops in the groin and the other in the leg. While the cops bled on the street, the young devils quickly ran off with devilish smiles on their faces.


On another occasion or incident, Thomas Errico allegedly planned the robbery of a poolroom which was located on Chicago’s South Side. During the late 1910’s the South Side was filled with brothels, gambling dens and saloons so Errico knew that during the weekends, this particular saloon was filled with gamblers who played the cards and made high bets. For the job he recruited Frank Campione, Tony Sansone and Nick Viana, gave them guns and told them about the plan. Now the plan was for Errico to get in the saloon as a regular guest and follow the amount of money on the tables. When the place was packed, Errico gave a signal to his friends outside to get in the joint and start robbing. So Campione, Sansone and Viana entered the joint, while waving with their pistols, and robbed 15 people out of their cash and jewelry but something which was known as a “clean robbery” wasn’t in the gang’s book. One of the hostages foolishly reached for his pocket, and Frank Campione pumped one bullet straight into the guy’s heart, thus killing him instantly. After that the murderous trio had fled the scene but Errico remained long enough just to avert any suspicion.



Frank Campione


If there wasn’t anything out there to rob, the gang usually turned to extortion. Like on June 24, 1919, saloon owners Andrew Bowman and Ben Wendell were shot and killed because they didn’t want to pay up. And that was that. Even though many people lost their lives during these so-called criminal actions made by the Cardinellas, by the end of the day most of the cases the individual shares from the loot were ridiculously small considering the chances taken. In fact, the Cardinella gang was no different than some of today’s bloodthirsty and drug fuelled street gangs.


The gang became so ruthless that they even started killing their own. For example, on October 14, 1919, several months previously the “police accident”, five gang members of the gang, again including Viana, entered a saloon at 4420 West 63rd Street and in the course of a holdup, killed the owner Martin (or Albert) Kublanza and one costumer. When they asked the victims for their wallets, Frank Campione shot both men. Then the gang quickly got out of the joint and hopped into a car and sped off down the road. Later the cops found that same car and also found out that it was registered on one of the members of the gang known as Santo Orlando, who in fact drove the getaway car.


Now Orlando didn’t fully belonged to the Cardinella mob but instead he was a member of another North Side Italian faction who was sent to help Cardinella in the job. You see previously Cardinella received word that Kublanza kept a lot of money at his joint and so he needed a plan for the operation but the problem was that every plan always ended up with somebody getting killed. Back at their headquarters, the head of the gang Sam Cardinella heard about the bad news on Orlando and so ten days later, Orlando’s body was found in a drainage canal with more than several bullets in his head and body. Cardinella was obviously afraid from the expected arrest of Orlando and the high chances for his confession and so he gave the murder contract to Frank Gibbia. Now Gibbia was the one in big trouble because Orlando’s associates, who I believe were the Gloriana gang, were looking to kill him in revenge. Cardinelli warned Gibbia about the “price on his head” and advised him to abandon the city. In no time Gibbia fled Chicago and went to New Orleans but after a while, he returned to Chicago to see his sister. That same day his sister received a phone call saying in Italian “You will find your brother dead at Chicago Heights. Gibbia has been shot. Orlando is avenged.” Sadly the information was accurate because Gibbia’s body, bearing the cruel marks of a “ride” slaying, was picked up on a lonely stretch of the Ridge Line Road, four miles south of Chicago Heights.



Frank Gibbia


In just one year the Cardinella gang was responsible for at least five or six murders, but as always, every story of that kind has its own gruesome end. By the end of 1919, the government prosecutors wanted justice regarding the murders of Andrew Bowman, Ben Wendell and Martin (or Albert) Kublanza and so warrants for the arrest of Sam Cardinella, Tom Errico, Nick Viana, Frank Campione and the rest of the gang members, were issued. When the cops arrested Cardinella in November, 1919, “someone” immediately posted his bond and he was released until trial. There’s not much info out there on whether Cardinelli had any political connections but for a criminal “caveman” such as himself, he certainly knew his ways around the law.


Now the first trio that went on trial were Errico, Campione and Viana for the Kublanza murder. It became a very long trial because Campione decided to fake insanity by constantly interrupting the proceedings like screaming in the courtroom while holding the pillow from his jail cell. A special commission of three medical physicians was brought in and they declared Campione quite sane but even with that he still continued with the alleged sham. For example, when his attorney was fighting for the case, Campione was singing songs for more than 30 minutes. Both Viana and Errico sat calmly beside him and without a flinch they looked at their allegedly crazy partner. Also there were detectives all over the courtroom because there was a rumour for possible outbreak by other members from the Cardinella gang.


After three months, when the trial ended, the jury was out for nearly four hours and when they returned, on May 9, 1920, the verdict was death by hanging. When Campione heard the bad news about his faith, he collapsed on the bailiff’s arm right there in the courtroom. Also Viana and Errico started crying like little boys when they heard the terrible news and after all Viana was only 18 and Errico 19 years old. So one of the young boys, Tom Errico decided to “sing” in an obvious attempt to save his skin and told the prosecutors that all of these murders and robberies were in fact masterminded by Sam Cardinella himself and that they were forced by his hand to commit the evil deeds and so in no time Cardinella was arrested by the authorities and was immediately placed on trial.


Now Cardinella, together with, Antonio Lopez, Sam Ferrara and Joe Costanzo, was accused for the murders of Andrew Bowman and Ben Wendell and another killing which was committed by his partners on the trial. The first witness who took the stand was the late Bowman’s wife Nettie. She testified that her deceased husband knew Nick Viana and she also said that she saw Cardinelli coming around more than couple of times, few days before the shooting. She added that she recognized him by his unusually large neck. On cross-examination, she testified that she recognized Errico and Crapo as the shooters. I believe that by now Cardinella started sweating because the air in the room became hotter since Tom Errico took the stand as a witness. Errico confessed the Bowman and Wendell murders and again, gave the same information that Cardinella was behind the operation. Now all of the “Devil’s minions” turned against their dark master. At first Leonard Crapo insisted that Cardinella had nothing to do with the gang but later he changed his mind into testifying about the same accounts which Errico already gave the prosecutors. But later Errico and Capo were given life sentences because of their cooperation in helping with the case. You see in the old days the laws were more decent rather than today. I mean in the old days when a killer started talking about his terrible actions, he wasn’t given a new identity, or new home location or even money to be supported. No sir, that individual was given a life sentence, such a “grateful gift” since his life was spared.



Leonard Crapo


As for the “Devil” himself, Cardinella denied that he ever set foot in Bowman’s joint, and claimed that his business was mainly conducted with Italians or Sicilians because he didn’t understood English so well. He even denied that he conducted a place for highwaymen and he also denied that Errico, Crapo and Viana requented his place but instead they were there only few times but he told them to stay out because of their bad reputation. Normally no one ever believed on what Cardinelli told the prosecutors but by the end of the trail, his youngest former companion Nick Viana decided to close the trial with his own statement. This is what Viana allegedly told the Judge and the jury:

“I was 14 when I first entered his poolroom. Returning from choir practice, I saw many boys my age in his place and finally entered. I entered Cardinella’s poolroom in short trousers, and in a week I was a criminal. I met Tom Errico and Leonard Crapo there. They inducted me to help rob a drug store. Then they reported to Cardinella that I was “game”. After that I was a regular. Then we were arrested. A policeman at the Deering station caught us after we had held up a woman at 22nd and Archer Avenue. He took us to the station, took $400 from us, and told us to forget all about it and let us out the back way. If he had only had me sent to prison or reform school then I’d have learned my lesson. If I had only taken my mother’s advice, but Cardinella warned us never to trust a woman, even our own mothers and sisters. Cardinella always warned us about talking. ”The first one who squawks will be bumped off” he told us after every job. Cardinella will get out of it. He has money. He’ll beat the case yet. If he gets a new trial, there’ll be none left to testify against him. Campione and I will be dead and the rest won’t dare talk. Cardinella was the leader and instigator of everything we did. I’d die willingly if he would only hang with me. He led me astray.”



Nick Viana (mysteriouschicago.com)

Even though Cardinella didn’t directly participate in the murders, On May 31, 1920, he was still found guilty for arranging the operation. Actually his case was unusual in criminal jurisprudence in the state of Illinois but under the English common law, which holds that the instigator of a murder is equally guilty with the slayer, he was given the extreme penalty, and no sentimentality was expressed for his fate even by the most persistent opponents of capital punishment. When the trial ended, Cardinella, Ferrara, Costanzo, Lopez and Viana again, were sentenced to death by hanging. Ferrara, Costanzo and Lopez were sentenced for the murder of Antonio Vurchetto, a simple baker.



Sam Cardinella


Sam Ferrara


Joe Costanzo


Antonio Lopez


Nick Viana


Now if anyone thought that Cardinella would easily “swallow” his sentence, well they obviously thought wrong. Cardinella had two plans for getting out of jail, plan A, which was more realistic and plan B, which was highly unrealistic. During his stay in prison, the remaining “Devil’s minions” plotted a plan for his escape out of jail but somebody tipped of the cops. So during a quick search of Cardinella’s cell, the guards disclosed a bottle containing one ounce of pure nitroglycerin which was placed on the ledge outside his cell window, within easy reach. With that kind of amount of high explosive, if correctly used, Cardinella had the chance to wreck not just his prison cell but a whole part of the building and because of that reason special guards were mobilized at the county jail, minutes following the bomb plot. But even with the extra vigilance, a few days later another bottle of nitroglycerin was found in a package which had been left by some unknown person for delivery to Cardinella.


Since plan A didn’t work out, Cardinella switched to plan B, which I believe is the start for the most mysterious and unreal part of this devilish story. Now the first strange thing that occurred was Cardinella’s denial to eat. He refused every plate of food which was served in his prison cell and went on a hunger strike thus loosing more than 30 pounds in a record time. He refused food so frequently that he became restless, feverish and highly hostile. He acted as if his tricky brain was haunted with some uncanny scheme, a statement which became true very soon.


The first proof for that was when on December 19, 1920, while in his jail cell, Cardinella was seen acting quite strangely happy like he was waiting for something to happened, but everyone thought that he was just happy because this was the day when his former underlings Nick Viana and Frank Campione were being executed. The first one to go was Viana. Previously many people begged for Viana’s life because of his young age but the crime commission considered the young criminal as the most ruthless of them all and someone needed to be made an example. At the jail, his mother was permitted to sit by her own son and since Viana was a former choir boy, he sang a song for his mom known as “Heart O’Mine” while a massive silence settled over the jail. He even received the nickname “the songbird of the county jail”. But earlier in that faithful day, when the guards led Viana to his demise, the young crook had sung the “Miserere” as his last farewell to this world. That same day, Vianna and Campione were hanged in the old Cook County jailhouse on Illinois Street. As additional info, Viana’s hanging was in fact a morbid present for his 19th birthday.


Now usually when a person is executed in jail, later his body is taken by a funeral hearse, but in Viana’s case, a “strange” medical ambulance came for his body, filled with medical staff which quickly took him away. None of the policemen noticed anything strange and so everything went normal but in reality everything was quite the opposite. Another strange occasion was the day before Cardinella’s execution, on April 14, 1921, when he was visited in his death cell by his whole family. There was a huge emotional drama that day within the county jail. For example, Sam Ferrara held his baby boy in his arms and suddenly his wife became hysterical as she watched. As for Cardinella, all of the guards couldn’t believe their eyes because of the scene where the “Devil” kisses his wife and children, while giving them the love in the whole wide world. He kissed them all a dozen of times, first his wife, then his oldest kid, and so on down to the baby, whom he also held and watched in his arms for quite a long time. Now the strange thing was when by the end of the farewell visit, Cardinella was overheard by some of the guards while speaking to his wife in whispers and allegedly mentioned Viana’s name more than few times. You see Cardinella's wept continuously as he talked volubly in Italian and so there was no chance that the guards, who stood by, could understand the Sicilian words in which Cardinella spoke, but they were able to understand, because it sounds the same in most European languages, the name "Viana."


Now that was odd because Viana already had met his doom and Cardinella satisfied his revengeful soul. It was strange that during his last moments with his family Cardinella should want to talk about Viana. I mean yeah they all knew that he was one of the traitors but why whispering his name more than few times to his wife? When his family left, during the night Cardinella spoke no word, no card playing, no smoking or coffee drinking, he wanted none of the diversions which ease the last bitter hours of condemned men. At midnight two clergymen came to the cell to give him spiritual consolation. The prayers did not seem to soothe him or to receive his close attention and so his internal hysteria, which he kept it locked down like a time bomb, highly increased. When Cardinella's last day dawned the customary question was asked him: What special bill of fare would please him most for breakfast? A kind - hearted man named Stein had a restaurant around the corner, and it was his habit to make a free offering of breakfast-nothing within reason barred--for prisoners on the verge of their execution. But the “Devil” refused the offer and wanted no breakfast at all. The guards thought of the many other meals which he had declined during his imprisonment and allegedly one of them said: "He has lost forty pounds since he was sentenced."


The day has arrived for Cardinella to meet his maker, obviously not the good one, and so immediately the situation became nerve-racking for the entire security of the county jail. As two priests entered his cell, Cardinella threw himself at their feet, clutching their knees, kissing their shoes, crying out wildly in agony of spirit while the guards outside shuddered at this spectacle of anguish. Suddenly he collapsed and couldn’t get up. Some of the guards lifted him up, tied his arms behind him, placed in a chair, and carried him to the gallows. There, when it was apparent that he could not or would not rise to his feet, he was strapped in the chair. He kept his head lowered as the hangman adjusted the noose. On Apr 15, 1921, the drop was sprung at 10:26 a. m., while Cardinella strapped in the chair fell through the trap. The twelve attending physicians pronounced him dead six minutes later. The body was removed to the mortuary room in the basement of the jail, where it waited for the funeral hearse to come and pick it up. But again, instead of a hearse, an ambulance was already waiting for the pick up.



Hanging noose


Cardinella was stretched out in a mortuary basket in the basement with a scarlet circle around his neck. This basket was brought in from the ambulance which was waiting outside the gate to receive the body, allegedly on the order from Cardinella’s friends and family. One of the guards, while glancing at the ambulance, saw a woman in nurse clothing, sitting inside and was also accompanied by two men, one of, whom looked more like a doctor rather than undertaker’s assistant. Also in the basket in which Cardinella's body was placed, the blanket which was placed over his body was filled with hot water and under the body there were many bottles, also filled with hot water. The guard quickly mentioned these facts to the deputy warden who personally came to the room and felt the bottom of the basket, while running his hand under the blanket, and also found the hot water bottles. He stared at the waiting ambulance, which was filled with such an unusual crew and said quietly to the guard: “Keep 'em waiting.”


Suddenly all of Cardinella’s friends and family members started a chaotic protest followed by threats and screams but the sham didn’t work because the warden made a delay of nearly an hour and only after that, he gave permission for Cardinella's body removal. As the body was taken into the funeral car the guards saw the woman in nurse costume begin to rub Cardinella's cheeks and wrists, and the man who looked like a doctor prepared to inject some kind of a stimulant. Now the guards wanted to do an inspection of the ambulance. Inside they found complete reviving equipment, including a heated rubber mattress, an oxygen tank, an electric battery with heating pads, various kinds of hypodermic syringes and stimulants and more bottles filled with hot water. No arrests were made since it was a matter outside the law but a police car was promptly ordered to follow the ambulance and to “safely” deliver Cardinella's body at the morgue.


Now what the hell happened? This should be the end of our story right? Maybe, but first I personally have few questions and answers to present you. Now the first question would be on what happened with the first ambulance which occurred after the Viana hanging? It was the same medical crew, with the same medical equipment who took Viana’s body with the sole purpose of bringing him back to life or reviving him. I know that this sounds crazy but this is the real truth on what really happened. In fact Cardinella’s plan B was one of the most devilish, unnatural and cunning plans that the world of breaking out of prisons has ever witnessed before. The plan was that if the bomb plots didn’t work, which they didn’t, Cardinella arranged a medical team with the right equipment to “take care” of them after the hanging. Yes sir, after the hanging, meaning to bring them back from the dead with the help of certain “Dr. Frankenstein” methods. Now the “street legend” goes that the medical team succeeded in bringing Viana back in the world of the living but since he opened his mouth against his peers, his story became the key to Cardinella's bizarre post - mortem history. So Cardinella’s loyalists blew half of Viana’s head with a gun, thus bringing him back in the world of the dead. If there’s a heaven or hell, than I believe that this was quite a terrible experience for Viana’s poor soul because he might’ve tasted death twice in one day. As additional info, Viana’s body was never found.


I believe that this also explains the question on what was Cardinella whispering to his wife, while mentioning Viana’s name? Now the answer is simple because he was obviously telling his wife that his gang succeeded in reviving Viana, and so she didn’t have to worry about her husband because he assured her that the same thing was going to happen to him. He also advised her that if someone tried to delay the body transfer, she should convince the family and friends into making a panic situation.


The third question is on why were all of those “extreme diet programs” made by Cardinelli and also why did he fake his alleged unconscious falls so he can be strapped to a wheel chair during the hanging? Well the “Devil’s” trick was in the weight loss and the chair on which he was strapped on because when the doctors examined Cardinella’s corpse they found out that because of his weight loss and his position in the chair, his neck wasn’t broken at all. The weight thing was plainly intended to lessen the shock of the drop and thus prevent fracture of the cervical vertebra. That’s why he was only strangled but their final point was that they could revive him by quickly warming the body with small electricity, hot water and certain narcotics. Thanks to the prison guard and warden, the well planned attempt to bring Cardinella back from the valley of the shadow of death, never materialized, thus an ingenious and macabre scheme, typical of the crafty Devil and his allies, came to naught.


Now the last and I believe also main question is whether the reviving stunt really works or is it quite the opposite? Although many doctors and professors at the time examined Cardinella’s idea and most of them agreed that it was worth trying because not all those methods were totally without scientific grounding. For example, in the old centuries some of the techniques they tried back then were bizarre, but some of them actually turned out to be direct ancestors of things we use today, like the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. At first many people didn’t believe it but later, somewhere around the late 18th century, the method was pioneered in Europe and it’s still a mainstay of resuscitation even today. But the main problem is not the restoring of life, but the quality of that life which can be quite questionable, especially when a revived patient who never regains consciousness. Even today’s new technologies can be quite questionable on what kind of life and death they’ll provide. But after a while many of these so-called reviving methods became even more questionable when many furtive, sinister and superstitious individuals, while invoking omens that avert the evil eye, told one another invented stories on how magic had been used which after an hour caused the eyelids of the dead Viana to open and a faint moan to come from his gaping jaws. This was just another proof on how many myths, legends or lies started spreading all around Chicago after the incident.


After the death of Cardinella, most of the gang members ended up in jail or six feet under the ground and some even “dissolved” in other North Side crime factions. For example some of the young fellas were used as enforcers in the union battles between Louis Alterie and officials of the Associated Ash Haulers union. One of the “last Mohicans” of the Cardinella gang who still remained alive for quite a long time was Leonard Crapo. He died of a heart attack at the age of 48 on May 30, 1948, while working in the garden farm near Stateville penitentiary. Warden Joseph Ragen said Crapo had been quite a good prisoner, and that he had been on the honour farm for the last five years. But story goes that everybody in the prison had respect of the crime veteran because they all remembered the gruesome stories about his former gang.


Talking about dark powers, believe it or not, Cardinella’s name ended up even in our literature. In 1925, famous writer Ernest Hemingway published his first collection of short stories named “In Our Time”. In his book, or to be precise in chapter XV, Hemingway with the help of the whole Cardinella situation, tells the reader on how scary can walking into one's own death can be by explaning the emotion and fear which Cardinella allegedly had before the execution. Hemingway says that even the priest, who was supposed to be understanding, told Cardinella to start acting like a man. According to some sources, the problem in Hemingway’s book was that he allegedly wrote Cardinella’s story by just reading the papers and mixing it with his own imagination. Now I personally believe that Hemingway’s imganiation was the main factor for which many people ended up being fooled by the Italian criminal. Now you would ask your self on why’s that? Well that’s because the “smart heads” in our society “figured it out” that Cardinella was in fact a scared character, who displayed physical representations of a degenerated society. Meaning, when a criminal such as Cardinella is stripped out of the ability to deceive through religion, sexual interaction or violent acts, than he is allegedly unable to maintain even his own physical integrity.



Ernest Hemingway


Now if you ask me, all of that would be a very good idea but I strongly believe that this wasn’t case with Cardinella. You see, one cannot deceive the devil, because he is the one who invented the method of that kind of negative action. My explanation for Cardinella’s alleged panic attacks is simple. He faked everything. As I said before, his plan was to be tied to a chair so the fall can be quite different rather than the one with the standing. His plan was to fool the people around him so everybody can see that he didn’t want to die, because he was 100% sure that he was going to make it back. But he made a huge bet, and in the end he lost.


Five or six years after Hemingway’s publishing of his short stories and the mentioning of Cardinella, movie actor Edward G. Robinson played “Rico Bandello” in the famous 1931 gangster movie, “Little Caesar”. According to some sources, Bandello was based on Sam Cardinella.



Edward G. Robinson as Rico Bandello


If a picture of Sam Cardinella’s past was flashed through our minds, I believe that it would have been a panorama of very mean crimes, furtive holdups, callous shootings, with himself as the organizer, the recruiter, the handler of loot, the negotiator with lawyers and politicians for the protection of his band of thugs. Also if you really think about it, Cardinella really tried to make the unthinkable. It was a tangled story of sordid outlawry, not spectacular in single details but amazing in the ensemble. He hoped that he could pass through the hangman’s noose and find resurrection in the flesh. That’s like cheating death, right? I mean he tried to arise from his legal death, while mocking the executioner, and regain his freedom. I believe that Cardinella’s story is the strangest of may other thriller fiction stories. His story is filled with romances of criminal ingenuity and schemes with the sinister cunning of a criminal chieftain to arise from the dead. But like any other soulless criminal, he destroyed the lives of many young boys who he personally recruited on the streets of Chicago and because of that he forgot about one very important thing and that is that nobody can cheat or escape the real Devil, because he always comes back for his own.



Bad actions always drag you into Hell

This was excellent! Some great research here.

OH MAN SOME ONE HAS ALOT TIME IN THEIR HANDS THAS ALL IM GONAA WRITE

Thanks a lot Jimmy