For centuries the garbage problem around planet Earth has not been solved. There are many reasons for this problem such as the huge number of residents around the world and the constant waste produced in our homes, businesses and industrial sources. Yeah there’s probably always a simple solution for everything but that is not the main problem. The main problem is that the garbage, which poisons our world on daily basis, is very expensive and highly lucrative. More garbage means more money or “one man's garbage is another man's treasure”, at least that’s how the saying goes. From the beginning of the 20th century, we started producing too much waste and we are still doing it today. For example, during the mid 2000’s, the American population threw out about 570 billion pounds of municipal solid waste and so that’s a lot of garbage for someone to pick it up. And so where’s the smell of money, that’s where the Mob usually hangs out.





Now we all know that through the decades, or should I say after Prohibition, many American mobsters got into plenty of different moneymaking schemes, such as gambling, prostitution, union racketeering and above all, legitimate enterprises. The gangsters learned early in the years of prohibition, on how to create and bring to a peak of financial power and illicit industry. When prohibition was repealed and the sources of incomes of this industry were stopped, the gangsters, wise in the ways of muscling in, attempted with an amazing degree of success to force men engaged in legitimate business and the worker members of trade unions to pay them tribute. So since the formation of the new Mafia commission, every crime family around the country was involved in certain legitimate business. They were doing it previously and they continued doing it. The legit enterprises were very easy to exploit, and were highly profitable but the main role was for usage to launder dirty money from their other illegal enterprises. Also with the help of the control over the unions, many doors into the legitimate world became open for the racketeers.


Many businessmen complained but only to certain and close individuals that the racketeers were ruining their business and they were afraid to tell their stories out loud because of fear of retaliation from the hoodlums. But the biggest problem was the few business men, mostly greedy for excessive profits, who opened the doors for the racketeers, but those same business men soon found out that this was a dangerous bargain, made worse by the fact that it was almost impossible to break. It was difficult for them to break free from all that the underworld has to offer because they enjoyed being romanced by the gangsters and they thought that this was the good life, but in reality their view of the good life was obviously distorted. So the crime syndicates were exacting tribute and made huge progress toward getting complete control of many labor unions and a dozen major industries. All of the people employed in the industries, such as workers engaged as janitors and in garbage removal service, were one per cent of Chicago's population, and under hoodlum domination, they held the power to paralyze the city. Major industries that suffered in greater or lesser degree from the racketeer "plague" included the milk industry, the coal industry, the laundry industry, the gasoline industry and above all, the garbage industry.


There was always something between the garbage business and the Mob, and that is why I believe by now we’ve seen a lot of examples where gangsters and garbage often go together. Looks like the business of garbage collection always satisfied the gangster’s need mostly because it’s legal and highly lucrative. The crime syndicates in America recognized the garbage business somewhere around the beginning of the 20th century, when many of the cities decided to stop collecting commercial waste and placed the private haulers in a very dangerous situation. That’s because from this point on the private hauling firms had the chance to make a lot of money, thus making them easy targets for extortion. Garbage removal is always used by gangsters as a vehicle of extortion and when there is a monopoly control, the refusal to remove garbage or waste can put a company out of business. Because it is comparatively easy to gain and maintain control, gangsters and racketeers have been attracted to the multimillion-dollar industry and important in their organization is a friendly labor union which can act as an enforcing arm. As expected, a huge number of mobsters from the East Coast and Midwest, with the help of corruption, intimidation and murder, declared war to all of the hauling firms around the country. The mobsters quickly divided up routes, rigged contract bids, and extorted non-mob haulers and customers in order to quash competition and keep their prices high. Many gangsters or front men often got no-show jobs at the firms, which gave them a legit job to put on their tax return and explain their income.


But during my career of researching the Chicago Mob, I’ve noticed that many people don’t know or confused the fact that the Outfit was also involved in the garbage business. During the 1940’s, three of the most powerful East Coast crime families, the Genovese, Bonanno and Lucchese, controlled the garbage hauling industry on national level and with the help of their cooperation and the creation of various garbage hauling firms, they commanded absolute power. The Chicago faction of America’s La Cosa Nostra also had more than few colourful controversies over the hauling business for many decades but some sources say that the Outfit was never involved in the business like their partners in New York for example. I personally agree on one thing and that was the time and difference in entering the business between the two factions. The East Coast families directly entered the garbage business through extortion and intimidation, thus grabbing the hauling firms by their necks. I really don’t know if the East Coast crime families were previously involved but all I know is that the Chicago boys didn’t directly enter the business but instead they used already formed unions from which they controlled the hauling firms around their city and they did it since the 1920’s. At the beginning they didn’t fight for pickup spots or dumping grounds, but instead they extorted the people and firms who competed between themselves.


For example, the first faction of the Chicago Mob which got involved in the garbage business was obviously the infamous Capone organization. After the planned hit on union racketeer Maurice Enright, two of the clan’s most ambitious labor racketeers Frank Nitti and his close associate Mike Carrozzo took over his garbage union. During the mid 1920’s Carrozzo, a known gun totting individual, became president for the Street Sweepers and Garbage Collection union and from that point on, every time when the city of Chicago decided not to deal with the Capone mob, he was the main guy who would pull his men out on strike and left the stinking garbage all around the streets. At any given time Carrozzo controlled over 3,000 members, including street sweepers, garbage wagon drivers and dump foremen who had to pay $50 a head for entering the union and on top of that to pay $5 a week. But these men also had the power to completely paralyze the city’s street cleaning and garbage collection services, but only on Carrozzo’s demand who usually threatened the city’s administration with “You'll pay or there’ll be no street work next year."



Mike Carrozzo


Usually, on most of these strikes which were always arranged by Carrozzo and Sam Kart, attorney for the union, the workers always demanded higher wages, an action which usually cost the city of Chicago $500,000 a year and through kickbacks in their own union, the Mob took a big part from the large amount of money. For example, if 600 garbage wagon drivers asked for an increase from $10 to $12 a month, the city was in no shape to negotiate and in the end the workers usually got what they wanted. This was a “practice” which with the help of huge political influence, was performed by Carrozzo and his organization on a time interval from 4 to 5 years. For example, the first four days of rotting garbage on the streets of Chicago occurred in February, 1925, later the second occurred in October, 1929, the third strike occurred in 1933, in which 15 Wards had no kind of collection of ashes, rubbish or garbage for several days because of the usual walkout, and the fourth occurred in 1939. Each time Carrozzo and Kart would march before the committee and demanded their raises, they would threaten with strikes, there would be closed conferences with aldermen and in the end usually there was very little struggle against Carrozzo's demands. Carrozzo appeared before the finance committee usually wearing a Florida tan, flashing diamonds, and puffing clouds of smoke from expensive Havana cigars.


But for the first time in 1940, the city’s council finance threw down, without a comment, the demand for pay raises for Carrozzo’s street workers, which would’ve cost the city amazing $883,000 a year. This became a huge disappointment for the union leader and racketeer because he just wasn’t used to such rejections and the bad luck continued when that same year Mike Carrozzo unexpectedly died of kidney failure at the age of 45 and three years later Frank Nitti also decided to join his old associate to the other side by taking his own life rather than going of to jail. During his life time Carrozzo was the ruler of 25 unions, including the International Union of Pavers and Road Builders, the International Hod Carriers', Building, and Common Laborers' district council. Thru them he ruled with an iron hand and 23 unions, including the street sweepers' and garbage collection, which was the only union that started him on the road to wealth and political power. After his death, the government did not reveal the secret of Carrozzo’s stashed cash but some say that it went over 5 million dollars.


But the Italian faction of the Chicago mob wasn’t the only group involved in the garbage operations, because the Jewish West Side group was also knee-deep in it. Many “famous” criminal faces came from this area such as Ben Zuckerman and Ben Glazer, Ben and Joe Epstein, or Lenny Patrick and Dave Yaras. One of their first associate or friend from the neighbourhood who was involved in the garbage business was Jack Rubenstein a.k.a. Jack Ruby. I believe that you already know who Ruby was so I don’t think that we need further introduction. So, according to some records, Ruby grew up on Chicago’s West Side, the Lawndale area, and by 1937, he was involved in Local 20467 of the Scrap Iron and Junk Handlers Union, in which the crime syndicate showed an interest and some say that Ruby was the connection. The union was formed that same year by attorney Leon Cooke, who worked as financial secretary and was also a personal friend of Ruby. Records provided by the Social Security Administration indicate that Ruby was employed by the union from late 1937 until early 1940, and worked as a union organizer and negotiated with employers on its behalf. But regarding the ownership of the union, Cooke had another partner known as Harry Winnick, who in turn was the main guy, who with the help of the American Federation of Labor or AFL, helped in forming the union. But after a short time, according to Winnick himself, Cooke used strong-arm tactics in chasing away his partner and union president.


So sometimes personal contacts can do so much but sometimes they can really screw things up. Like for example, two other of Ruby’s contacts were John Martin, the new union president and Paul Dorfman. These two guys knew people on both sides of the line and in reality they were gangsters. Born in 1902, Dorfman was one tough red-haired, bull-necked ex-prize fighter, with God knows how many skeletons in his closet, who knew every criminal or racketeer on the West Side. He earned the nickname “Red” as a featherweight fighter. In fact, Dorfman was a close associate, almost like a member, of the Chicago mob and plus he knew Ruby since childhood. Back in the old days of Prohibition, Dorfman worked as an enforcer for Ralph Pierce and the Capone gang. At the time Pierce led the main enforcement squad for the gang during the 1928 elections in the 20th Ward. That same year Dorfman was arrested for using strong-arm tactics against those who opposed Capone’s candidates. Now I don’t have any real evidence on whether Ruby or Cooke intentionally or unintentionally brought these guys into the union, but by 1940, they managed to hit the newspapers.


The first couple of years the union worked perfectly with more than 500 members and that is why there is not even one small piece of information of any criminal activities during that time period. There are reports that Ruby brought many members to the union, signed some decent contracts and in a record time won respect among his colleagues and employees. Ruby had quite good reputation and there’s no real indication that it had criminal connections. So the problem was that honest respect wasn’t something on which his new colleagues from the Chicago mob relayed on and so by 1939, rumours surfaced that Cooke wanted to control the union all by himself in order to get rid of the criminal element such as Martin and Dorfman. As for the two criminals, they used Cooke’s “soft spots” because the union did not pay any sick or death benefits and so they managed to gather more than few “rebels” and go against Cooke.


On December 8, 1939, Cooke entered Martin’s office and quarrelled over Martin’s failure to get more money for union employees in certain junkyards. In reality, Martin stole money from the union and Cooke wanted it back and so during the confrontation, the two men started a fight. Suddenly Martin grabbed a gun from under his table and pointed it towards Cooke, who in turn began to run and received one bullet in the back. Later he went to the hospital alone and after several days, for unknown complication on the wound, Leon Cooke died at the age of 28. So immediately the wheels of Mob justice began to turn and on January 5, 1940, Martin was subsequently acquitted on the ground of self-defence. Now again according to some accounts, the ownership of the union should’ve been given to Ruby, but that didn’t happen because shortly after Cooke’s death, he was allegedly unable to devote himself further to union activities and left its employ and devoted himself to bookmaking.


Now the next in line for leadership of the new union stood Paul Dorfman who in turn fully brought the organization under the rule of the Outfit. Now I personally believe that this was the first contact of the Chicago wiseguys with the garbage business. According to some accounts, Dorfman was a close friend with Tony Accardo and Lawrence Mangano, two known Chicago Outfit “illuminati” also from the West Side. Dorfman took Cooke’s former job as secretary treasurer of now known as the Waste Handlers Material Union local 20467 of the American Federation of Labor and immediately placed his associates William Green as president of the union and Joseph Briegel as union organizer. In other words, the Waste Handlers Union was just an outgrowth of the old Scrap Iron and Junk Handlers Union with membership of over 7000 members.



Paul Dorfman


The infamous racketeer had a quite violent career like for example on March 18, 1942, had a violent quarrel over the telephone with one Morton Lynn, an executive director of the Chicago Waste Products Merchants’ association, over the wages which were paid to employees over a South Side junkyard. Few hours later, Dorfman showed up at the association’s offices at the Hotel Sherman and slugged Lynn with brass knuckles, while constantly cursing at him. As usual, the cops had to show that they “really cared” about the law and order and so they arrested Dorfman and took him for questioning. As any other fraudulent criminal, Dorfman defended himself with the same old “self-defense” and that Lynn was the one who allegedly took the first swing. The investigators knew that Dorfman wasn’t telling the truth because first of all he wasn’t some long time member of the union or in fact he wasn’t a member at all and he never worked on the streets. But those same investigators also had “the power to see the future” or in other words, they knew that by the end of the day he was going to walk out of the police station like nothing ever happened. And so the poor victim probably knew the real identity of his assailant and so out of fear he didn’t want to prosecute and so the charges against Dorfman were dropped.


The Jewish racketeer caught quite a break when his “friend” in the organization Tony Accardo became the acting boss of the Outfit. According to some investigator reports, Dorfman was seen quite often at the boss’ home and in some locals around the West Side area. But the strangest thing occurred when Dorfman’s older brother Joseph was found shot in the left side of his head and .45 caliber revolver lay down beside his body. According to the neighbours, few minutes before the shot they allegedly heard “muffled noises” coming our of Dorfman’s apartment. The funny thing was that the coroners’ jury could decide whether it was a suicide or murder and in the end they ruled out that it was an accident. Since there’s no evidence about any wrongdoing, there’s also no room for any speculations but you can never tell with these people.


By the late 1940’s some of Dorfman’s old pals became quite known criminals and started forming their own crew or faction within the organization. Previously, most of these men were under the direct rule of few Italian crime bosses but generally they answered to Jack Guzik. Even though Guzik ruled the Loop and Near South Side, he was born and grew up in the Lawndale territory and so he also knew most of these guys and with his reputation he had no problem in controlling these individuals. The main individual I believe was Joe Epstein who oversaw a large bookmaking operation in that area for Guzik and Accardo. Also this was the main crew which was involved in the slaying of James Ragen, the owner of the largest wire service on the Midwest and so my point is that this crew was huge in the eyes of Accardo and the rest of the Outfit bosses.


Now Dorfman was known as a quite nervous, trigger happy, sometimes psychotic type of individual and so his name became known on international level. For example, he had contacts in the Cleveland and Detroit crime syndicates and was also a close friend with legendary gangster Abner Zwillman from New Jersey but above all, he was closely connected to the Lucchese crowd in New York through one Johnny Dioguardi. He even had close relations to many legitimate leaders of the Chicago federation of labor and its political allies and because of these contacts Dorfman would make one of the biggest steps for the Outfit’s top administration and that was his close relationship with the infamous union leader and racketeer James Hoffa. In fact, Dorfman was the first Chicago mob connection to the union leader, but that’s another story, as for now, let’s get back to the garbage business.


Dorfman ran the waste union “perfectly” until the first “bump” which occurred in 1948. It was the time period when Accardo decided to grab the union business by its throat and forced his organization to heavily invest in legitimate enterprises. On his orders the organization invaded the restaurant and bartender union, the meat workers union and the waste industry thus leaving a pile of dead bodies down the road. One of the murders which connected Dorfman’s waste union to the situation was the slaying of Nathan Gumbin, a wealthy businessman and director of the Waste Trade Industry. On July 27, 1948, Gumbin was on his way home when two assassins drew alongside his expensive sedan and suddenly one of the assassins shouted at Gumbin, poked his shotgun through the window and shot Gumbin in the head. Gumbin’s 19 year old son was also in the car, seated beside him. According to the young boy, the hit was so fast that he didn’t even notice the assailants.


According to some sources, Gumbin dealt with Dorfman and his Waste Handlers’ Union and according to government records, Gumbin’s murder was linked to a previous killing of Charles Crane, another industrialist who also dealt with the Waste Handlers’ Union. The Intelligence Unit of the Chicago Police Department also reported that Gumbin, Crane, and hundreds more waste and rag dealers, were allegedly paying monthly instalments to a person named "Dorfman" to guarantee no labor troubles. In fact, Gumbin was forced by Dorfman himself, to make monthly payments to his organization, with a guarantee of no labor problems if the payments were made on time.


Now Dorfman’s name was linked to not just one, but two killings at the same time. On July 29, 1948, Dorfman returned from his vacation in Eagle River, Wisconsin, and immediately communicated with the police after hearing that the government was looking for him. As usual, Dorfman said that he knew nothing about the killings and that he and Gumbin were very close friends. In the end he also added that he would donate $1,000 for the one who will solve Gumbin’s murder and that was that. Again, he walked out of the station like nothing ever happened. Years later, few of the top Outfit members had a meeting in Miami and one of the attendees mentioned the execution of Gumbin as an example, and the fact that he refused to take part in a deal. By the end of the day, Gumbin’s murder remained unsolved. But the problem was that the damage has already been done, meaning the crime investigators had their eyes focused on Dorfman and his waste union.


During the early 1950’s, the government declared war against organized crime by organizing senate hearings and brought the Mob in front of the eyes of the public. During these so-called congressional investigations, Dorfman consistently refused to talk about his organized connections and activities on the ground that a truthful answer might land him in jail. He told the senate that “I know bankers, management officials and civic leaders, too. No one gives me credit for that thou.” But even though he was never sent to jail for his crimes, few years later his position at the Waste Handlers’ Union started to shake down. Obviously the government placed some pressure over the AFL-CIO regarding Dorfman’ shady business through insurance agencies which were mostly conducted by his wife and stepson Allen. So in December, 1956, Dorfman was suspended from his job on charges of maladministration of the union’s health and welfare fund. According to one consultant for the waste union, the expenses in operating the welfare fund, during the last 10 years were ridiculously high. So by 1957, mostly because of his background and current underworld connections, Dorfman was kicked out of the union and was also banished from the waste industry. Later the AFL-CIO executive council unanimously rejected Dorfman’s appeal to be reinstated as secretary treasurer in the Waste Handlers’ Union, in fact this was the end for Dorfman’s career in the waste union but a small “bump” in his union racketeering career. Because of his constant relations to union chief Hoffa, this wasn’t quite the end of Dorfman’s connections in the waste business mainly because some of his close associates in the underworld had another quite lucrative idea.

By the late 1950’s, 90% of the hauling firms in the Windy City were controlled by the Dutch population which became know as the “Dutch Mafia”. They were not some bloodthirsty criminal organization but the thing was that they kept the business among their own people. Some sources say that back in the old days the Dutchmen had the garbage business in their blood and they controlled it since the late 1920’s. During that period, the Dutch scavengers formed an association to regulate the whole business and also eliminate any possible competition, which was known as the West Side Garbage Association. The members decided not to compete with each other and traded accounts to concentrate their routes for greater efficiency and by the 1959, the association changed its name to Chicago and Suburban Refuse Disposal Association. Known Dutch families such as the Huizengas or the Van Tholens controlled 90% of the garbage business in Chicago and profited with over 20 million dollars a year. I believe that the Dutch control over the waste business was one of the reasons on which the Outfit never had the same satisfaction. But that didn’t last long because the lucrative idea lured the Outfit like a shark following the smell of blood, but in this case it was the smell of cash.


So it wasn’t all “milk and honey” for the Hollanders because they already had previous experience with some of the ancestors of the Outfit. Back in the late 1920’s when the Dutch formed their association, one the first gangs which tried to invade their business was the Capone gang. They faced many difficulties with union goons, mobsters, police harassment, and in later years, environmental regulations. The Dutch scavengers had problems with one corrupt teamster local known as the Excavators’ Union, which was headed by Daniel Tognotti, a member of the Capone gang. By defying Tognotti’s union, the Dutch took it rough. One day, one Dutchman saw his barn burning down to ashes, along with his horse and wagon. The “Caponites” also pulled many people out of their cars and kicked them right there on the street, on broad day light. But one night, reports of a shooting at Union hall, 220 South Ashland Avenue, brought five detective bureau squads to the meeting of business agents of various unions. The entrance was first denied to the two motorcycle policemen from the Warren avenue station with the threat "break down the door and we’ll shoot your heads off." When the cops managed to enter the hall, they found no evidence| of any shooting and explanation was made that an alleged fist fight had occurred between two members. But the police later learned, through an anonymous telephone call, that Tognotti had been shot in the fight, and was taken away immediately afterward.


So now more than 20 years later, Sam Giancana’s administration wasn’t much respectful one either, and that is why they furiously took the first step in taking over the garbage disposal business in their city. By this period few of the Outfit’s “best guys” in the garbage business were Willie Daddano, Rudy Fratto, John Roselli, Albert Pranno and Frank LaPorte and the main contact between them and the boss regarding the business, was Gus Alex. For example in 1958, since Roselli was one of the main guys for the Outfit in Las Vegas, Nevada, he became Assistant City Manager for the city and according to some FBI reports, he took over, or according to other sources he tried to take over the garbage business by buying off the top administration. With the help of Paul Dorfman, Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamster Union and with the financial backing of Bendal Kettleman, part owner of the El Rancho Casino, Roselli attacked the already established hauling firms through a firm which was on the downfall. In fact, Roselli got the idea when a guy named Max Choson, owner of a hauling firm, asked for help to return his hauling licence from political people back in Chicago who had close contacts to the Outfit and that is when Roselli came to the scene. Everything went smooth until two years later in 1961, the scandal was revealed by the media and the federal government and that’s when Roselli cut all of his connections to the operation and after that Choson lost all of his rights to ever haul garbage in the city of Las Vegas ever again.


Back in Chicago, things started to boil up in the waste industry. The Outfit’s big shots such as Daddano, Fratto, Pranno and LaPorte formed a waste hauling company which was known as the West Suburban Scavenger Service at 2945 5th Avenue. In reality the company was formed with a very small investment but largely started to steal scavenger stops from other scavenger firms which belonged to the Scavenger Association which in turn was controlled by the Dutch “Mafia”. All of these so-called territorial bosses, except for Rudy Fratto and Albert Pranno who were just members, very easily took over all of the stops in their areas by being one single step ahead of the Dutch organization. That one and also very important step was the Outfit’s control of the bars, stores and restaurants all around the city and so all of the owners, since most of them were Mob front men, agreed to make deals with the West Suburban Scavenger Service. The same deal was also for the owners who paid street tax to the Mob because if some of them refused, automatically they went out of business.


For example, on the North Side of the city, the Outfit owned a huge number of legal establishments and so the scavenger business became very lucrative in that area and their guy over there was Rudy Fratto. In a record time Fratto cornered the garbage removal service of more than 250 taverns and clip joints thus receiving the nickname “The Garbage King of Rush Street”. He worked as a salesman for the West Suburban Scavenger Service and quickly received glory for his lucrative scheme. Even though he did very little work on behalf of his company, Fratto took a month salary of $1,000 and by the end of the day everybody was afraid from his because of his background and connections and so business was always good. Many co-workers described him as “good guy to have around for collections.” Always dressed like a businessman with dark shades, which was his trademark who he often wore even in the night. Fratto often shunned notoriety and embarrassing public contacts with public or law officials and lived quietly.


Now the Outfit’s General Foreman at the company was Isadore Scramuzzo and Fratto’s connection to Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters was a 300 pound union strong-arm known as Robert Baker. Usually when Hoffa was in town, Fratto and Baker acted as his bodyguards. But besides being the brother of two very powerful racketeers, Fratto was also related by marriage to Willie Daddano. In fact, Fratto’s daughter was wife of the son of Daddano, William Jr. which became the main reason for bringing Daddano into the scheme and also turning over the accounts and ownership of the firm tohim. Also on the company’s records, Daddano Jr.’s name always came up but on his business card he had the “Jr.” deleted from his name because the name “William Daddano” meant a “great deal” at the time. Another Italian crime boss who joined in the venture was Frank LaPorte. The old man took care of the many scavenger stops all around the Chicago Heights area and south suburbs with the help of his cousin Joe LaPorte. Albert Pranno was another partner in the company and he controlled all the stops around the Melrose Park, Stone Park and Northlake areas. Albert was the brother of Rocco Pranno, the boss of those same areas. In fact if it wasn’t for LaPorte and Pranno, the West Suburban company would’ve been a family enterprise for the Fratto-Daddano clans.


Aside from the West Suburban Scavenger Service, the Outfit controlled another hauling company known as the Standard Disposal and Metal Company at 1216 South Sangamon Street which was mainly dominated by the boss himself Sam Giancana, future boss Gus Alex and his partner Lenny Patrick. The fearsome Patrick was deep in the garbage collection business and once he reportedly stated “This wrap smells to me.” Same as Rudy Fratto, Patrick was also employed as a salesman but this time for the Standard Disposal Company and his executive sales director was another ex-convict, bomber, gambler and suspected murderer David Kaminski. Story goes that what Fratto’s, or should I say, Daddano’s company didn’t grab it was quickly picked up by the Standard Disposal team. Patrick’s job was to call of his “friends” at the markets and offered his scavenger services for a lesser price and they all took the offer because everybody knew about Patrick’s dark reputation. Because of the lesser prices, a price war among garbage hauling firms in the Chicago area has created a windfall for many restaurant, cafe, hotel, real estate, and other operators.


For the first time in years, many clients of private scavengers have been receiving unprecedented rate reductions. According to some investigative reports, many restaurant owners said that their scavenger volunteered to cut his price by 20 per cent and offered a three year contract. The restaurant owners said this was the first time they have been able to get a contract from the mob-controlled scavenger. One cafe owner added "Everybody wants to haul my garbage and they say they’ll do it for cost and not make a cent of profit." And so this became quite relieving situation for the owners who were charged for more than $1,000 a month to have their garbage removed and a price cut can mean a substantial saving for a big client. Some of the members of the Dutch Association were forced haul for less than cost in order to compete with the Outfit backed firms and on the other hand the crime syndicate was throwing a fortune into the attempt to price legitimate scavengers out of business.


So now the two firms declared war to the Dutch Scavenger Association, which in the media became known as the “Garbage War”. In just three months, the Outfit managed to grab more than 500 stops out of the hands of the Scavenger Association. The Outfit sent their goons to customers of the Association, who simply informed them that the new company would take over their garbage pickups. According to some sources, they usually dropped the name of some Outfit member and they got the stops which the Association had for years. Obviously the people feared the Mob because they had problem with guys like Daddano who possessed a very violent nature and were known for killing people with the blink of an eye. Story goes that few bodies pilled up, usually victims who refused to change sides, but strangely none of the murders were connected with the garbage business but besides that the conflict resulted with an investigation by special police intelligence units.



Willie Daddano


So this shows that the Association proved to be quite incapable in defending its customers when the Outfit decided to muscle in on the multi-million dollar garbage business but the Dutch organization had another ace up its sleeve, and that was their control over the dumping grounds. And on top of that, both of the Outfit’s garbage companies were non-Association members which meant that they were restricted from dumping their garbage on dumps which were controlled by that same Association and that is why, many drivers who worked for the Outfit were forced to dump the garbage illegally. Many drivers or helpers for the West Suburban and Standard Disposal were fired or they personally quit their jobs because they objected to dumping waste in illegal zones because they had been jailed for it before. So the Outfit-owned companies threatened to sue the dump operators for the obvious refusal to accept business from anyone who was not an association member and after that the Standard Disposal and Metal Company made a temporary injunction against the Association, eight dump yards, and other defendants in a $1,500,000 anti-trust suit. Standard claimed that there has been a conspiracy to suppress competition and so the dump operators were forced to allow Standard to dump only 10 loads a day of "backed up" garbage. But after four years they withdrew their lawsuit.


But the problem escalated in 1962, when the two Outfit-owned hauling firms stepped on each other’s toes. You see, in those days the Outfit was like an organized and blood thirsty pack of wolves, which in times when there was no “food” on the streets of the “Windy City” they started to prey on each other. Story goes that the West Suburban started to muscle in on some of the scavenger stops which were already under the control of the Standard Disposal. Now I don’t feel surprised because the early 1960’s was a quite tough period for the Outfit and its boss Sam Giancana, and on top of that some of his violent cronies such as Daddano didn’t care about the rules because they felt disappointed of Giancana’s actions. I believe that if one start researching the Chicago Outfit, he or she might came upon a “myth” in which Daddano and Giancana were in a conflict allegedly over the boss position. Well I personally believe that the conflict was quite real but it occurred under different circumstances and that is why there were no dead bodies left on the streets. Plus, the top elder statesman for the Outfit at the time was Paul Ricca who strongly advised that the murders should be taken to quite lower scale.


The main reason for that was the constant heat by the FBI over the whole gambling network which was the main cash resource for the organization. Giancana himself was under tremendous pressure and so I personally believe that he did not have the pleasure, time and space to go into a conflict and to show his unchallenged leadership once more. Plus if the conflict was taken on the streets I also believe that this would’ve been the end of the organization for few simple reasons. First of all Lenny Patrick and Rudy Fratto’s brothers Louis and Frank were together in the window cleaning business which was also a very lucrative operation. On the other hand, Daddano and Gus Alex were also very close associates and that is why I hardly believe that there was never space for further problems because if all of these so-called business friendships went down the toilet, it was going to be the end. So instead, Gancana decided to make a smart move and sent his best negotiator Gus Alex, who in turn gave irrevocable and threatening instruction, not to Daddano, but instead to Rudy Fratto. Alex allegedly told Fratto to inform Daddano that the top administration has decided to close down all of their garbage hauling operations for at least some time, until the heat went down.


Because all of these so-called government and internal problems, the Outfit started doing a lousy job of actually running their garbage businesses. For example their trucks were junks, their drivers careless and untrustworthy, and the routes were not run efficiently and so in 1963, under the orders of his boss, William Daddano sold his company, for much higher price, to Dick Evenhouse who was a member of the Scavenger Association. The most powerful crime family in the U.S. was on the downfall at the time and so few years later Giancana was jailed for one year and later fled the country, while his “dear” friend Daddano was jailed for 15 years. In fact, the Outfit failed because the government, in an indirect way, helped the Dutch “Mafia” in removing every obstacle, such as the Mob, from their further achievements in the garbage industry.


In my country we have a saying “when two individuals are fighting over something, usually the third individual gets it all”, meaning while Daddano and Giancana were “fighting” over the garbage disposal business, another Outfit member successfully flew under the government’s radar, at least for awhile, and controlled his own hauling business. That guy was known as Charles Inglesia a.k.a. English, gambling and coin machine racketeer from the West Side. In 1966, English was involved in the garbage business together with another Outfit member known as Rocco DeStefano, through a firm which they controlled and was known as the Calumet Land Reclamation Company at 9558 Colfax Avenue. Back in the old days, Rocco DeStefano was the king in the cigarette wholesale empire. Now, three of their “inside guys” at the firm were Frank and Vito DeStefano, brothers of Rocco, and William McGuire, known associate of English. There was no record of McGuire being employed at the firm, as for Frank DeStefano he worked as company’s general superintendent and also as secretary treasurer and his brother Vito was a salesman. All of the stock in the firm, the gangsters owned through the firm’s president Richard Byrnes.


Now the scheme which involved the company was quite catastrophic because it involved ripping huge additional profits by directing all of their scavenger trucks to dump the garbage illegally and so tons of all kinds of waste has been buried on district property, usually under a layer of dirt and clay. The main problem was that the 85 acre garbage dump, which was Outfit-controlled, was illegally expanded and included property owned by the metropolitan sanitary district and so the 10th Ward Democratic Committeeman Edward Vrdolyak started raising hell because of the illegal operation. So in their own style, Frank DeStefano and William McGuire visited Vrdolyak at his office and threw a $5,000 stack in $100 bills, on his table. But the two gangsters witnessed something rare in their lives, and that was the refusal from Vrdolyak. He chased the gangsters out of his office and immediately called Chicago’s Mayor Richard J. Daley and informed him about the bribe situation. Vrdolyak allegedly said “The people in this ward have had this dump crammed down their throats, that’s why I promised before my election last year that I would fight this thing and I will continue to fight it. They burn garbage at night and violate every city ordinance in the book.” In 1969, the Mayor ordered a hearing regarding the garbage dumping operation which could result in revocation of the company’s permit. The Calumet firm was charged with eight violations, including excess elevation of fill, insufficient cover, improper drainage, improper placement of trash, and the use of subterfuge in regard to the ownership of the permit. Year later, the firm’s permit was banned and so was the hoodlum’s influence.


Even though the organizational structure has quite changed, the Outfit’s garbage disposal “saga” continued during the 1970’s with the help of another quite different made member of the crime organization known as Fred Roti. This shrewd and intelligent little criminal came from a long line of Mafia blood, meaning his father was an Outfit leader from the Chinatown area named Bruno Roti Sr. The main thing which made Fred Roti different than the rest of the made members of the organization, was the job that he occupied and that was the 1st Aldermanic position. Back in 1968, Roti was backed by the Mob and the Democrats to replace 1st Ward Alderman Donald Parillo, who had previously resigned. Roti won the special election and held the position for more than two decades. Like his father, Roti also decided to expand his Mafia “privileges” to one of his blood relatives, who by coincidence was involved in the garbage business, known as Fred Barbara.



Fred Roti and Edward Vrdolyak


Fred Bruno Barbara was in fact Roti Sr.’s grandson and was also a long time resident in Chinatown who in 1975 started working as a simple garbage truck driver. Also he was a relative to the crime boss of the Chinatown area known as Frank Caruso who was the son-in-law of the late Bruno Roti Sr. So in other words Barbara was surrounded by family members who were high profile gangsters of the Chicago Outfit and so his future in the garbage business was “crystal clear”. In two years, Barbara bought two more garbage trucks and formed his first company known as A. Barbara Trucking Co. which was the main reason for attracting the Outfit’s attention. His grandfather and 1st Alderman Fred Roti decided to help his nephew by pulling few strings here and there, thus giving him few city deals just to get him started. From this point on Barbara had no problems in getting city deals for garbage hauling and the reality was that some of those deals may have been highly lucrative, meaning millions of dollars. Proof for that is when only a year later Barbara opened up another hauling firm known as the F. Barbara Trucking Co. at 3260 South Damien Avenue.


It was a time when many Democratic leaders and friends or associates of the Roti crime family became owners of hauling firms and divided the contracts between themselves. When Chicago’s Democratic Machine was at its highest level, politicians and other corrupted government people gave the ward controlled distribution of city services to give priority to those loyal to the party. For example, John P. Touhy was the chairman of the State Central Democratic Committee and at the same time was owner of the McKay Contractors hauling firm. During the winter of 1979, the city of Chicago was struck by a huge snowy blizzard and all of the streets were blocked because of the huge amounts of snow. Now the city’s Acting Comptroller was Anthony Fratto, also long time associate and protégé of the Roti crime family, who ordered payments totalling $200,000 to 10 firms that allegedly did snow-removal work after the paralyzing blizzard.


But someone informed the Justice Department that the city deals were in fact fraudulent and so all of the payments had been held up. The investigators also learned that larger part of the payments were planned for four firms including Fred Barbara’s two hauling companies, John Touhy’s company and D & B Trucking, whose owner Edward Norton, was fired for refusing to cooperate with a police investigation of the frauds. According to government reports, all of these firms were under federal investigation but the thing was that if a person was cynical about politics, such as the average Chicagoan, than he or she would assume that the government reports were based more on clout than on performance. The main difficulty or problem for the government was that not all of hauling firms were under federal investigation and with that, it was hardly fair to withhold payment from all 10 firms on the chance that the Justice Department might get around to charging some of them with fraud. So two years later, in 1981, Fratto made a classic Chicago-style scandal and ordered all of the payments to be paid to the hauling firms. As for the snow, it mostly melted by itself.


Back in 1979, the Capo of Chinatown Frank Caruso has died from natural causes and was replaced by one bloodthirsty mobster known as Angelo LaPietra. Now Barbara and LaPietra also knew each other since the old days, and my personal belief is that during next few years Barbara has tightened his Outfit connections in the garbage business more than ever and according to some accounts by 1983 he also might’ve become a close associate of the Outfit. During this period, together with his cousin Frank “Toots” Caruso, the son of the late Frank Caruso who bore the nickname “Skids”, Barbara also got involved in the loan sharking business or as the Chicago slang goes, the juice racket. Since he had a lot of cash, he only gave large loans with high interest mostly to truck companies that needed large amounts of fast cash and politicians with bad habits such as gambling. After awhile Barbara was arrested together with Caruso on charges for trying to collect an illegal high-interest loan from an undercover FBI agent. They were arrested at the bar in Lake Point Tower on December 6, 1982, together with another Outfit big league such as Joseph LaMantia, “servant” to Outfit boss Angelo LaPietra, and LaMantia's son, Aldo Piscitelli Jr. The plan was for them to meet the undercover agent at the bar, who was posing as someone refusing to repay an illegal, high-interest $20,000 juice loan. Allegedly LaMantia had threatened the agent to "cut his heart out'' and to "stick his head with an icepick'' if the loan wasn't repaid.



Angelo LaPietra


When the cops questioned Barbara, he had no identification and told the feds that his name was "Frank Bruno Russo,'' but later one of the officers found a gun in Barbara’s vehicle and took him to the station. During the trial, Barbara's lawyer argued that his client never made a threat' to the agent and that he was just enjoying a video game at that bar'. Prosecutors later added that Barbara’s firm was deeply involved in illegal gambling with the Outfit's Chinatown or 26th Street Crew. Barbara told the prosecutors "Show me my connection to organized crime. Did I turn the corner? You show me anything in the last 24 years that reflects to that nature." I believe that this time Barbara was in a tough spot because he was probably the prime money maker for the organization through the garbage business but he got lucky when some of his friends in the political world such as the Mayor of Chicago reacted and Barbara together with his cousin and the Outfit friend were found not guilty. According to this, Barbara had gangster qualities and also sense for violence. In one accident, one of Barbara's truck drivers accused his boss of hitting him with a big piece of wood while they were at Barbara's trucking offices in July 1988. Another proof for Barbara’s deep involvement with the Outfit was his presence together with LaPietra, James DiForti and other Outfit hoodlums in a car while watching the bombing of a certain restaurant in the Elmwood Park area. According to some reports, Barbara was in fact a “self-made man”, and that he might've been through a Mafia ceremony.


During the mid 1980’s, while the Outfit’s top administration suffered terrible losses, Barbara’s lucky star in the garbage business shined like never before. In 1988, the city of Chicago has decided to award Barbara with a multimillion-dollar ash hauling contract, or in other words, 10 million dollars depending on the amount of waste which was planned to be hauled. With this Barbara became the number one garbage hauler in the “Windy city” but with the glory came huge enviousness from the low bidder minority company was obviously and unfairly overlooked because of Barbara’s connections to Outfit member Fred Roti. The first question which was asked was on why the contract was awarded to the highest bidder when there was a legitimate minority owned firm? The opposition also added that the Barbara Trucking had controversial history involving its hauling contracts with the city because of Barbra’s close association with Alderman Roti. Suddenly Barbara’s close associates came on the scene such as Streets and Sanitation Commissioner John Halpin, who defended the awarding of the contract to Barbara by saying that even though the bid was higher, Barbara was the person who more closely fulfilled the requirements of the contract and when it came to garbage, he was the man to find the dumps.


Even Fred Barbara himself defended the awarding of the contract to his company by saying that he had nothing against the Big '0' Movers firm but the problem was that they were trying to perform job where they had no experience or capability. But one little “dirt” that came out of the problem was his already known associations to Roti and also some records showed that Barbara was one of Washington's highest political contributors. So this makes me ask the question on whether Barbara was a “made member” of the Outfit because if he was, than the Mob succeeded in its highest achievement. Many people at the time weren’t aware of the fact that Roti, and possibly Barbara, were members of the Mob but they all knew that at least they were acquainted with the underworld. This became a huge scandal when some West Side activists declared open war on City Hall following the decision by Mayor Eugene Sawyer's administration to award the multi-million ash hauling contract to Barbara. "We are not stupid," said Nancy Jefferson, chairman of the Midwest Community Council. "We are not asleep, and we’re able to go to open war if that’s what City Hall wants and if that’s what it takes to get what’s rightfully ours. Big '0' Movers is by people from this community, Big '0' Movers was legally, openly and fairly the low bidder for this contract, and Big '0' movers is going to get this contract" Jefferson said at a press conference attended by about 50 West Side activists and businessmen. Joseph Banks, executive director of the Midwest Community Council, said "This is a time when we want to see contractors from our community get contracts." But in the end nothing ever changed and the money stayed with Barbara, while the Outfit was laughing far from the shadows.


While everyone in Chicago’s underworld was enjoying the taste of Barbara’s sweet cash from the garbage business, the FBI was preparing for a plan to strike the Chicago Outfit straight in the “heart of corruption” which was Fred Roti himself. In 1990, Barbara’s main connection to his multi-million dollar business 1st Ward Alderman and Chicago Outfit member Fred Roti and four other Chicago Democrats were indicted for numerous acts of corruption, including racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, bribery, and extortion. On January 15, 1993, Roti was found guilty and was sentenced to four years incarceration and served three years in a minimum-security prison in Oxford, Wisconsin followed by six months in a work-release program with the Salvation Army.


From this point on, Barbara “unexpectedly” slowly started seeing the bottom of his garbage firm which seemed to drop out in 1996. Barbara allegedly lost 30 percent of his city business that year, which was about 14 million dollars. This happened when City Hall gave a competitor, Waste Management Inc., a contract to run a recycling program in which Chicago homeowners put glass, bottles and paper into blue plastic bags. A year later, Barbara sold his garbage hauling companies, the Fred Barbara Trucking, Shred-All Recycling garbage transfer station, Envirotech landfill in Downstate Morris and American Disposal Services, Inc. According to some reports, the sale was widely reported to be $58.5 million but the deal may have been far richer because some government reports say that in reality it was over 100 million dollars. Today the Barbara family is still in the garbage business with the help of Barbara's son, Anthony, who runs City Wide Disposal Inc., a private garbage collector. These days, the older Barbara runs a company called Fred Barbara Investments, has an industrial park in Kankakee and other real estate investments in Florida and Texas. Now if you compare Barbara in the garbage business with Dorfman, Daddano, Fratto, English, and maybe even Giancana, these mobsters looked like flies. He achieved something that was never before achieved by any other member of Chicago’s underworld with the right backing, which was the Roti crime family of Chinatown.

Now what are we going to do right here is go back again to the 1980’s, when different factions of the Chicago Outfit extorted the garbage disposal business in a very different way. During the early 1980’s, Outfit member and union leader Angelo Fosco was the president of the Laborers’ International Union of North America and became the fifth highest paid union president in the nation. He was the son of legendary union boss and Outfit associate Peter Fosco, who died back in 1975 and was immediately succeeded by his blood protégé. The younger Fosco continued his father’s work by providing jobs to Outfit members and associates and generally followed directions straight from the Outfit’s top administration. Even though this case wasn’t directly connected with the garbage business, it is worth mentioning because the garbage workers and street sweepers, which were over 50,000 members, were also affected by this next scheme.


Angelo Fosco directly operated under the auspices of Outfit boss Tony Accardo and together they extorted millions of dollars from the unions. In 1981, through manipulation of a union insurance fund, the two bosses managed to scheme more than two million dollars, a kind of theft which was easily compared by the investigators to "purse snatching". Accardo and Fosco conspired through the use of kickbacks and phoney commissions to steal millions from insurance and welfare funds of the union. Two other Outfit members involved in scheme were James Caporale, who acted as official for the union’s Chicago District Council, and Alfred Pilotto, a local union president in Chicago Heights and high profile member of the Mob. The crew has set up an insurance company to obtain the business of the laborers union but all of the major decisions were cleared through Accardo, whom everybody referred to by the alias “Joe Batters”. In reality, this was another cruel “joke” which was made by the Outfit towards the thousands of honest workers. As additional info, Tampa crime boss Santo Trafficante was also involved in the scheme.


Sooner or later the government realized about the scheme and charged the racketeers for stealing 2 million dollars through the use of kickbacks and fake commissions. Outfit boss Tony Accardo and 10 other men, including Fosco, Caporale and Pilotto, have been on trial for seven weeks in the U.S. District Court in Chicago. The prosecutors started using names such as “purse snatcher” in reference of the old man Accardo. But the name-calling was not new to Accardo because the long time reputed-boss of the Chicago crime syndicate has been accused of a lot of things in the many years since he landed a job as bodyguard for Al Capone in the late 1920s. So instead, seemingly amused by the purse snatcher reference, Accardo slapped the back of his attorney, Carl Walsh, and smiled.



Tony Accardo


Accardo's involvement in the money management of the unions was regarded by the prosecutors as a natural extension in view of the large sums of money in various funds of the Mob’s traditional grip on corrupt unions and their bosses. Key prosecution witness Joseph Hauser, a convicted insurance swindler, has testified that he set up an insurance company to obtain the business of the laborers union but that the whole operation was controlled by Accardo. Only two of the defendants testified in their own defence during the trial but old man Accardo was not among them and has kept a low profile and every time he left the courthouse, he was seen walking out with a wide grin because he knew that this was nothing for him but instead it was just a simple bump during his long time criminal career. As expected, in June, 1982, Accardo and Fosco were acquitted of all charges, as for Pilotto and Caporale, they were convicted and sentenced to jail. Accardo was the prime boss and Fosco was too lucrative so somebody had to take the fall. Plus their advancing age did nothing to lessen their interest of being on the top in the world of organized crime. As additional info, in 1986 Fosco received a salary of $146,000.


During the time period between 1980 and 1988, the two most corrupt public officials in the Chicago Heights area were its finance commissioner Nick LoBue and the mayor Donald Prisco. The two men were also business partners who owned currency exchange in Chicago Heights that was allegedly used to funnel payoffs to themselves in the form of checks made out to fictitious people. The alleged bribes involved exotic gold coins, plain cash and checks disguised as commission payments, but the single most important item of value was garbage by the truckload and the more there was to pick up and haul away, the greater the demand for payoffs. LoBue and Prisco received hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to influence the way on how many highly lucrative contracts were awarded for collecting and disposing of garbage in the Chicago Heights area. So when public officials get on that kind of level of corruption, usually the presence of mobsters is inevitable.


Back in 1977, the Fitzpatrick Brothers Disposal Service, Inc. and a landfill operation business called Fitz-mar, Inc. based in Steger, Illinois, which was all a legitimate enterprise, meaning still no mobsters involved, submitted a bid for the 1977 residential trash pickup contract with Chicago Heights. The company was owned by Martin and Harold Wondaal and the everyday proceedings were managed by Charles Fitzpatrick. At the time, Charles Panici was the mayor of Chicago Heights and John Gliottoni, Lou Marshall and Nick LoBue served as commissioners on the city council and so the manager of the disposal company Charles Fitzpatrick was approached by Commissioner Gliottoni with a solution that in order to secure the contract, the company would have to make a nice payoff. Unexpectedly, the owners strongly refused to make the payoff and so the contract was given to another disposal company.


In April, 1980, the Fitzpatrick Brothers, again submitted a bid for the residential trash pickup contract, but this time they were approached by Donald Prisco, another high level member of the city council who in fact told them the same old story which was that the only way they could obtain the city garbage hauling contract was by making cash payments to certain public officials. With no other choice, Martin Wondaal and Charles Fitzpatrick agreed to this arrangement and so on April 22, 1980, the City of Chicago Heights awarded its 3-year garbage hauling contract to Fitzpatrick Brothers. It was agreed that the commissioners would get $20,000 to $30,000 on the residential trash pickup contract and from this point on, Wondaal and Fitzpatrick became “money slaves” to Prisco and LoBue for their work in securing the garbage hauling contract.


But the thing is that sometimes there’s really no big difference between these corrupt public officials and the gangsters. Now, besides taking huge bribes and giving away lucrative city contracts for certain services, the council decided to give other different contracts but for the same service. So, more contracts for the same services meant more bribes or more cash to fill in their pockets. Like for example, on February 12, 1981, the Fitzpatrick Brothers Company again submitted a new bid, but this time it was to obtain the city’s contract for picking up bulk garbage items, a service which was not included in the previous contract. As usual, before the city council could vote on the contract, this time the company had to pay additional bribe money to Prisco and LoBue and on top of that, they also had to take care of Ernest Molyneaux, the superintendent of streets and public improvements for Chicago Heights, who expected to receive at least $1500. In return, LoBue and Molyneaux always inflated their ratings of Fitzpatrick’s bid so that their proposal received the highest average rating. With their support, on April 27, 1981, the Chicago Heights city council voted to accept Fitzpatrick Brothers' bid.


Again, during the spring of 1981, the City of Chicago Heights began seeking bids for the operation of its municipal landfill. It was already expected for Wondaal and Fitzpatrick to obtain the landfill contract with their Fitz-mar Corp., but this time there was new “surprise” which they would have to make higher payments. The deal was that in the next two years Prisco would receive weekly checks for $500 or more from Fitz-mar and additional $20,000 in gold coins, upfront. The scheme went like this, every time when Prisco demanded a large payment from the garbage company, he usually suggested that the funds be generated by disguising the withdrawal as a purchase of equipment. For example, Prisco received the bribe through Lee Wichowsky, a dealer in heavy equipment and close friend. Fitzpatrick wrote the checks on his Fitz-mar account to Wichowsky who in turn cashed the checks and turned over a substantial portion of the proceeds to Prisco. In November, 1981, the City of Chicago Heights had entered into a contract with Fitz-mar to operate the landfill for the next eight years. During 1982, things went really “good” for both sides, meaning the garbage companies worked their asses of, while the corrupt public officials celebrated “New Year” every day because with these simple criminal tactics, the council managed to form an endless flow of dirty cash.


But during that same year the formation of the Chicago Heights criminal faction has changed after a whole decade. After the imprisonment of Al Pilotto, who was the boss of that same area and one of Accardo’s so-called “fall guys” in the previous case, the next in line for the top position was Albert Tocco. This guy was a murderer mainly involved in extortion, auto theft and gambling but he also had few legitimate enterprises under his rule, such as the restaurant business and of course the garbage business. By the end of 1982, Tocco decided to make his garbage operations his largest legit income and so one day, оn recommendation from Nick LoBue, he visited his “old friend” Martin Wondaal and informed him about the Mob’s invasion of the garbage business in the south suburbs. After hearing the “great” news, Wondaal immediately agreed to sell Tocco his garbage company. I believe that even though the garbage business is very lucrative operation, Wondaal was still happy for two reasons, no more pressure and no more dealings with corrupt public officials.


Before Tocco’s purchase of the garbage company, on June 1, 1983, Chicago Heights renewed its contract with Fitzpatrick Brothers to provide garbage disposal service for another three years. Immediately after that, Tocco purchased the company that same day, and renamed it Chicago Heights Disposal. Almost a year later, on April 3, 1984, the city executed a new contract doubling the frequency of garbage collection each week, doubling the amount of compensation to Chicago Heights Disposal, and extending the term of the contract to April, 1990. Obviously all of this happened with the help of the city council in return for large portion of Outfit money. The bribes from Tocco to the council were taken care of by LoBue who owned a private and legit enterprise known as Arken Extermination Services. On the other hand, Tocco owned few legitimate establishments and so he allegedly called the Arken firm but in reality no exterminating services were ever rendered at the locals. Nevertheless, for the next three years Tocco issued monthly checks for $1800 to Arken on the account of his company the Chicago Heights Disposal and LoBue frequently picked up the monthly check in person and the checks were subsequently deposited into Arken's account. After that LoBue received a corresponding check for approximately $1800 drawn on Arken's account and the company recorded these checks as commissions to LoBue. Sometimes Tocco cashed to bribe money to Prisco who also owned a similar legitimate enterprise known as Alpha Pest Control. Also with the council’s help, in 1986, Tocco purchased his own dump site for $25,000, south of the Chicago Heights area, and story goes that he was the only bidder for the land.


Now Tocco wasn’t some guy with good intentions, nor with good manners, and so he ran the company under the threat of violence with the help of one of his chief musclemen Clarence Crockett, who worked as employee at the garbage firm. These guys were not businessmen and so they turned the company’s offices into a gang hangout. Crockett was the principal collector of protection money for Tocco's $500,000-a-month extortion club whose members included car thieves, gamblers and brothel keepers. According to a secretary who worked for the crime boss, Tocco babbled on the phone all day long with all kinds of individuals, including Mayor Panici, Bloom Township supervisor Robert Grossi, Rick Smith, then-police chief of South Chicago Heights and many different members of the Chicago Mob. Once Mayor Panici called Tocco at his office and disguised his voice in an attempt to conceal his identity.


From this point on, the garbage company wasn’t the same anymore because most of the daily garbage routes resulted with almost no pickups and cost the taxpayers millions of dollars in labor and fuel. Another trick on which the Mob used was reducing the number of garbage trucks and also used less crews and fuel for the job. During this period, Tocco’s men divided up routes, rigged contract bids, and harassed other garbage haulers and also customers in order to quash competition, keep their prices high and maintain the cash-flow and soon the crew had monopolies on trash collection all over the South Side and suburbs. The crew also falsified paperwork and tampered with waste scales, sometimes to skim profits from the business, and sometimes to hide dirty money in it. Many Outfit associates often received no-show jobs at the garbage firm, which gave them a legit job to put on their tax return and explain their income. Sometimes they received $1,000 a week, plus health benefits, without doing any single work.


Business was good until April, 1988, when Tocco received confidential information that the feds prepared for his arrest on extortion and murder charges. In a matter of few days, Tocco needed quick cash and so he raised money by selling his lucrative trash hauling business and immediately fled the country. It was believed that Tocco visited Greece, where in January, 1989 he was arrested by Interpol and was brought back to the U.S. to face trial. During the trial, Tocco faced a great shame when his former model wife Betty Tocco was called to testify. During her testimony, Betty mentioned LoBue's name along with Prisco’s. Her testimony proved that LoBue and Prisco were accepting bribe money from Tocco in exchange for their help in keeping the garbage hauling license. Although suspected in numerous gangland killings he was never convicted for murder but would be convicted on many other charges in 1990 and sentenced to 200 years in prison or in other words, to life. In 1991, Nick LoBue and Donald Prisco pleaded guilty to accepting $50,000 and $250,000 from Tocco's garbage-hauling company and landfill operations during the 1980s. Unlike LoBue, Prisco did not agree to cooperate with the government, and was sentenced to 2 1/2-year prison sentence. Also sixteen other public officials would be charged and convicted with bribery and extortion, including Enrico Doggett, city administrator and Joseph Christofanelli, director of economic development of the industrial community, who both pleaded guilty to federal tax fraud charges and decided to cooperate with the government. Even though Tocco's trial was a hard kick in the face of organized crime, in reality it brought to light just a glimpse of the widespread corruption in Chicago’s city government.


After the death of the Outfit’s union boss Angelo Fosco and the imprisonment of Alderman Fred Roti in 1993, the Outfit started to feel the huge downfall of their operation within the garbage disposal industry because of the many reformers and criminal indictments which have given a big strike to the Outfit’s operations. But the Outfit has never quit and still kept strings attached to their quite lucrative “pot of gold”. Proof for that was the Outfit’s boss John DiFronzo’s involvement in the garbage hauling business. During the mid 1990’s Peter DiFronzo, brother of John, became the owner of D&P Inc., which was a waste hauling firm in the Melrose Park area. Now the DiFronzo’s so-called “scheme” was always the same old scheme by donating huge amounts of cash to various politicians through political fundraising events.


For example, DiFronzo has given unsolicited contributions of unknown amount of cash to the Leyden Township Committee Fund, where he and many top political faces only exchanged pleasantries and nothing else. Because of the brothers’ “alleged love” for parks, they've managed to contribute various donations to the mayors of Elmwood Park, Melrose Park, Schiller Park and Franklin Park. Other beneficiaries and close friends of the DiFronzo crime family included Alderman William Banks from the 36th Ward and State Senator Jimmy DeLeo, a known member of the “bloody” West Side Bloc, State Representative Angelo Saviano of Elmwood Park, Peter Silvestri an Elmwood Park mayor and a Cook County commissioner, Melrose Park Mayor Ronald Serpico, village president of Franklin Park Daniel Pritchett and River Grove Mayor Tom Tarpey. In fact the company was an active political contributor on the Northwest Side, where they were based, and the surrounding suburbs. When some of the public officials were asked about the situation, everyone said, with innocent looking faces, that they had no knowledge of D&P or JKS ever being involved in criminal activity. For example State Rep. Angelo Saviano reportedly said “State casino regulators are making these people out like they're John Dillinger. That's just not the case. Whatever their past is, it's the past. If they want to donate to myself and the Northwest Side mayors, we're confident they're a reputable company. The Italian Mafia is gone, I don't see it happening around here.'' The D&P also has given more than $16,000 to political funds connected to Rosemont Mayor Donald E. Stephens. Later Stephens has maintained that he was unaware of any problems with the company, which in reality was almost true.


Another “scheme” on which the brothers made additional income was with the help of another DiFronzo-owned company, which was known as the JKS Ventures Co. Now this firm also did legitimate snow plowing, waste hauling, materials and construction work but at the lowest possible prices. For example the company took $200,000 from Leyden Township, $130,000 from Melrose Park, $70,000 from Elmwood Park, and $50,000 from River Grove, such a low prices which eliminated every possible rival. Like in Rosemont where the firm was retained to provide some waste hauling services which totalled less than $20,000. According to some public records, the contracts were awarded after determining that D&P had submitted the lowest cost projection for the work. This way his company had contracts to haul garbage from many big stores and government buildings around the Chicago area and by the mid 2000’s, the D&P Inc. was known as a top waste hauler with reports of received city contracts up to $300,000. There were dozens of well-known companies and governments who were clients of the DiFronzo companies, including Allstate Insurance, the Chicago Park District, Cook County's courts, the University of Illinois, Dominick's, Jewel, Sears and Walsh Construction.


On paper the company was ran by Josephine DiFronzo, the wife of Pete. But everybody, including the rats in the sewers, knew that D&P was really under the auspices of her husband and his brother John, the Outfit’s top administration. Back in the old days, the DiFronzo started up on the West Side area and looked upon big time mobsters such as Charles Nicoletti and Sam Battaglia. Later some of the members from that crew were transferred to the newly formed Grand Avenue group which was headed by Joey Lombardo under the auspices of the Outfit’s top elder statesman Tony Accardo and the chief executive Joseph Aiuppa. During their criminal careers, John DiFronzo foe example has more than two dozen arrests, and he was convicted and later released in 1993 in a scheme to infiltrate an Indian casino. Pete DiFronzo did time in Leavenworth in the 1960’s for a warehouse heist and their younger brother Joseph was imprisoned on federal drug charges. And so by the late 1980’s or early 90’s John DiFronzo became the new top guy of the organization, which was formed since the era of Al Capone. As for his brother Pete, he became a liaison between his older brother and other high profile members of the Outfit. And so the old habits never vanished because according to a 2005 report from an Illinois Gaming Board hearing officer where not only alleged that the firm was controlled by high level made members of the Chicago Outfit but it also said that the D&P Inc. was conducted by obtaining contracts through illegal payoffs or intimidation. Today, in 2016, some say that John DiFronzo is retired from the organization because of serious health problem, others say that he took the late Accardo’s role as the Outfit’s elder statesman and few say that he is in fact still the boss of the Outfit.


Now I don’t want my story to sound like just another Quentin Tarantino gangster movie scenario but let’s make another turn but this time again to 1990’s. During the decade, history again repeated itself when in 1998, the son of Willie Daddano, William Jr., opened up a waste hauling firm in DuPage County and same as his late father, he began infiltrating the garbage industry. Daddano Jr. was listed as manager of the National Facilities Maintenance, LLC and had connections to Chicago area Teamsters through Local 714, including chief steward Nick Boscarino. Daddano Jr. and Boscarino were also involved in a company known as "O.G. Services," which did business with Local 714 employers. Story goes that Jr. acquired the hauling company from a partner of deceased Outfit figure Ben Stein who was extorted by his late father Daddano Sr. So the Outfit already worked its way into the Teamsters union, which included garbage truck drivers, thus allowing the organization to dictate which companies the drivers would work for. According to some sources, Daddano Jr. was a quite smart guy, meaning he knew how the scheme and had connections in taking city deals under the government’s radar and did it for quite a long period.


Back in the old days, Daddano Jr. was arrested on few crimes such as aggravated battery and for possession of gambling equipment and in a “Chicago Outfit Organizational Chart” published in 1997, the Chicago Crime Commission listed Daddano Jr. among the “members and associates” of the Chicago Mob. Also, he served many times as front man for the Outfit and so in 2004, Daddano Jr. has gained a lot of attention from Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan who according to her, Daddano Jr. was described as "reputed member of organized crime." The allegations came from Jr.’s connection to Rosemont Mayor Donald E. Stephens through Mob associates Nick Boscarino and Joseph Salamone and state documents show one local firm, with alleged organized crime connections and with campaign funds linked to Mayor Stephens. Boscarino was a partner with the mayor’s son in different cleaning company, which had contracts for the Rosemont convention center and the Allstate Arena. When Stephens was asked by the newsmen about his alleged organized crime connections, he immediately denied any Mob ties by saying "If Nick (Boscarino) is a hood, I don't know it. Show me something that's really Mob, and I'll resign."



William Daddano Jr.


Even after the “tremendous” allegations, the company’s business remained untouched for the next seven years, until December 17, 2011 when the firm was officially closed down. In 2012, Daddano Jr.’s previous partner and the late Ben Stein’s protégé Richard Simon was the owner of a cleaning company known as the United Maintenance Co. and with the help of Mayor Rahm Emanuel, the company was awarded a $99.4 million O’Hare Airport janitorial contract. The United offices were based in the same South Loop building where the previous garbage hauling firm used to have its location. After that, Daddano Jr.’s name popped up in every news article around the country and so many union airport workers were holding a prayer vigil outside the Mayor’s house, while asking him to reconsider the decision to hand custodial work at O’Hare International Airport to a new company. But nothing ever changed and the decision remained. According to 2014 investigative report, Daddano Jr. through his sister’s name Mary, who spells her last name “Daddono”, still acquired all kinds of contracts in different places around the Melrose Park area, some regularly, and some probably with the help of corruption and under the threat of violence.


I personally believe that the Chicago Outfit or organized crime in general, will never leave the garbage industry for one simple reason and that is the easy creation of a monopoly on garbage collection which always is going to remain attractive because the business itself is legal, and public contracts return big profits. Compared with something like running day-to-day operations in a casino or a brothel, the physics of taking trash from one place to another are no mystery and the most beautiful thing is that there's always a demand for the service. In the old days when the Outfit was considered a large criminal organization, the garbage racket provided relatively little in the way of revenue compared with the more traditional criminal enterprises such as gambling, loan sharking, extortion, prostitution or narcotics. But today, times are different and so in the eyes of the racketeer, the garbage business is one of the rare best things out there.

Nice info bro when is Jackie cerone story coming ?

Great read toodoped. Did you write that? Excellent research.
On a related note. Looks like NYC, learning from the so called criminals they've put behind bars, is trying to turn back the wheels of time, to an era where mobsters dictated who picked up what area in NYC. Only this time around, the city is endorsing it, legalizing it and strictly regulating the shit out of it so only the strongest survive. Sound familiar?
http://resource-recycling.com/node/7834

Thanks a lot @Garbageman, I really appreciate it and yeah I wrote the article by my self. I'm not surprised about the government learning "new" tricks from the old time mob, after all they are doing it not only in the waste business but also in other industries as well.

@ricky soon bro

Another job well done. Thank you for putting in the time to produce your informative pieces of work.

fuckin' gahbage bizaness

Thanks and you're welcome

Nice had no idea Chicago was that big into garbage.

Here in NYC we send our garbage to NJ. They love our garbage.

There is a lot of private garbage pick ups in NJ. They have to be connected their towns are small. In one town they can have four companies picking up the garbage they must have the prices fixed so their are no problems amongst themselves.

Here is all done by the city. When I had big construction work done I just would grease the garbage men.

Now when they take they take my garbage they even put the cans back. I could put a died guy in my garbage they would take him.

Hey what do you tip your garbage guys and mailmen at Christmas time I am just wondering.

Here in Jersey there will ALWAYS be LCN involvement in the garbage business. It's just how it goes and most people seem to accept it.

Awesome job Toodoped.

Thanks Slick. cheers


@F_White also thank you

Dante, that is true. Everyone also suspects you at minimum... Know a guy who knows a guy. I didn't feel comfortable owning a garbage truck before 98/99ish. By that time I'd been in the business already 12 years and knew everybody. What work was I going to get before that? Nothing, that's what! Gabork, as my uncle Frank used to say. Once that buyout/forced-out apocalypse was over, it was open season unless... You happened to step on some guy yiu thought was nobody but turns out has 'somebody' funneling their old work his way. Then you learn a lesson up close and immediately when 'the big man' comes to see you. Ah the days gone by.

Really great read Toodoped. I didn't know the Chicago mob were deep into the garbage business like the NY mob.

Garbage has always been where the Money was. Dig for it.

Thanks MightyDR. Im glad that you liked my story.

how do you know so much about the outfit ??

He a FBI AGENT

That was some cutting and pasting man.

My dear departed best friend Donny had it made for a half a second. I told you about him we both stole together when we were kids.

He gets this girl pregnant. Her father owned a private sanitation company in Harlem. So he has to marry her. The would have been the best thing to ever happen to him. Instead the idiot gets hooked on junk. So he was still stealing then he steals from the wrong guy. That is when I first found out about his habit. He invites me over to his apartment. Gives me a gun and tells me if anyone comes to shoot them. What are friends for so I Point the gun at the door. While I am doing I see him shoot up. What a high he had he threw up all over his coach. That is how I found out he was using.

Then later the guy he robbed had him killed. That was the end of my friend Donny.

Moral of this story get a girl pregnant who's father has money in private sanitation marry her and be happy and don't do junk.

I did not cut and paste that I lived it.

What the hell are you talking about cutting and pasting, boy? You have something to say to me?

Boy hey have you got me wrong.

You mean to tell me you wrote that all from the top of your head?

Wow...impressive Toodoped! If it ain't Dutch, it ain't much.

No, I wrote that by studying countless nespaper articles, books, searching for fbi and other goverment files and talking to people who are related to these individuals. And in the end i gather it all up and form my opinion. Talking about cutting and pasting bullshit... sorry for calling you a boy because i know that you are a grown man but i wanted to show you how disrespectful you sound. Now either say somthing about the outfi, or say thank you...if not, please leave this thread alone and please dont ruin it

thats right. I always feel qutie happy in Amsterdam btw thanks

Haha.. you never hear anything about the dutch in Chicago, but there are living about 300.000 paisans.

Ok I don't know much about the Chicago outfit. But I was friend with a guy who was an historian on Capone and the Chicago outfit.

His name is John Binder had a mustash when I knew him. His nick name is or was Westside Jack.

I had two things in common with him. First he was an adult amature soccer player. Second I knew a guy named Agile a East Harlem guy who was a friend of Al Capone in Brooklyn. The both went to Chicago. He was a lot older then I.

He did not go to Florida with him. He came back to Harlem.

I always said they should write a book about his life.

He was the oldest of 18 children. In those days they would put kids in orphages until they could work and help the family.

When he got home he took his brother and sisters out. He invested in taxi medallions he paid either 5 to ten dollars a piece for them back. He sold then later for something like a hundred thousand a piece. He had at least 150 of them.

Today an individual medallion goes for a million a piece.

When he got back he bought a piece good business and he worked there.

But what he liked to do was gamble you know ziggy the card game.

He also in his 80s still like picking up young women.

In between his gambling he got blow jobs from the girls who worked there.

That all I know about the Chicago. I can tell you Binder got a tommy gun and we fired it with live ammo. In moves they use what ever they use in real live hang on your going for a ride.

Yeah don't disrespect my friend Toodoped he writes just as good as a book well even better then most books out there. he don't cut and paste I think he envy's you Toodoped

I tried to write a soccer book once. I kept writing pages I could not tie them together I did not know how to end it. Then someone told me about scope it cant be never ending.

Then I knew this guy that posted on one of my soccer sites.

This guy wrote a children's book on soccer for parents. The book was total bullshit, but it was packaged well. He got some of his friends to endorce the book they were school teachers with PhDs. School teachers are experts on the game you know.

You can buy it on Amazon today. He tried to get a USSF C license to give himself creditabilty. He could not pass it because he could not drop his stupid ideas.

We had some pretty good managers, coaches and trainers on that site. They all thought the book was nonsense they even reviewed it. You can not find those reviews on Amazon today.