What’s up ladies and gents?! I’m back with another of my stories regarding the Outfit’s schemes and this time I strongly advise you all to prepare yourself at least some sandwich or any kind of meal, since this one might give you the munchies…and please save your prayers for after reading this piece…enjoy



The main thing which gave me the inspiration for writing this article was the scene of the famous Godfather movie, where one of the film characters known as Pete Clemenza teaches Michael Corleone on how to make one mouth-watering spaghetti sauce and cook a simple meal for dozens of people. He says “Heh, come over here, kid, learn something. You never know, you might have to cook for 20 guys someday. You see, you start out with a little bit of oil. Then you fry some garlic. Then you throw in some tomatoes, tomato paste, you fry it, ya make sure it doesn’t stick. You get it to a boil, you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs, heh…? And a little bit o’wine. An’ a little bit o’sugar, and that’s my trick…” Another interesting example is when one day I was sitting with my year old son and together we watched the “Mr. Bean” cartoon series, and in one episode you can find Bean having problems with one famous Italian pizza chef who turns out to be a Mafia boss. Because of numerous film scenarios like these, at the beginning of the 21st century, again mostly because of the movies, music and pop culture, in the eyes of some of the everyday citizens, the two different “things”, meaning the Mob and particularly Italian food, slowly became one “thing”.


The definition for “food” is practically any nutritious substance that people eat or drink on daily basis, in order to maintain life and growth. We absorb it in all kinds of forms and we can’t survive without it. On top of that, the everyday food we eat can be either the most powerful form of cure or the lowest form of intoxication. Most of the world’s medical scientists say that a single human can go for more than three weeks without food, but without water is a different story. But that’s not the point of this particular story, since some of the people who can easily buy their daily food supplies, love to prepare their meal in their own kind of style and they like to do it every day. To tell you the truth, I personally love to take a cooking pan and satisfy my dearest ones with my “magical” recipes. I also love to make new experiments with my food and taste different styles of cooking, or in plane words, I’m addicted to good and different tastes of home-made meals. So because of the huge number of people like me, who throw their money on food supplies on daily basis, in time some more thoughtful individuals began to see that the food business can be quite lucrative. In the old days, people used to go directly to the local farmer and buy whatever the individual needed, first hand. But today, we have whole industries which in fact represent complex and global collective of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the world population. The only things that are the closer to the so-called old days are the subsistence farmers and hunter-gatherers, which in fact are the only ones in the food industry these days who survive on what they grow or catch, and we can still buy their products first hand. In other words, they can be easily considered outside of the scope of the modern food industry.


Since the beginning of the 20th century these food industries made trillions of dollars from the people around the world, and the “funny” thing is that there are still many hungry individuals in every country. So if there’s the smell of huge amounts of cash, usually there’s also organized crime. Most organized crime groups from around the world have their claws in the food business and they enjoyed this satisfaction since day one. Some of these crime syndicates are even emotionally tied to their food businesses, since many of these individuals love producing and preparing nice meals on their own and they’ve done it during their whole lives and on top of that, most of their families started it that way. Back in the centuries, most of our predecessors were involved in the everyday agriculture, including the criminals. The main thing is that not every crime syndicate is equally successful in this venture, mostly because of their territorial locations, meaning if one group is located in a territory with warm climate and near a sea or an ocean, they usually have a larger “menu” on the sale. As for the ones in the much colder areas, well they obviously have less to show. But the problem is that no matter which crime syndicate is involved in the selling of our daily food products, sooner or later those same groups will make something to take more of your money so you can get less from them. This so-called “practice” can be seen mostly by the crime groups which are located across the Mediterranean coastline, obviously such as the infamous Italian crime syndicates.



Mediterranean type of food


The Italian cuisine is one of the oldest in the world, with roots which are stretching to antiquity, and through those many centuries of social and political changes, it has developed into something so simple, but yet quite so magnificent. According to some history books, the Italian food of which we know of today, allegedly started to form after the fall of the Roman Empire, when different cities began to separate and form their own traditional meals, which in fact were quite similar. Quite different types of styles and variations in cooking techniques and preparations were used like for example, the north of Italy is known for its “risottos”, or the central part of the country is known for its “tortellini” and the southern part is famous for its “pizzas” and “spaghettis”, but generally all over the territory you can find good sea food. The whole thing even became more popular when many Italians began migrating to the so-called “New World” during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s and managed to heavily influence many of the local cuisines. For example, in Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Mexico we can easily spot the Italian influence in their traditional meals and according to many historical reports, these were the main places where this cuisine was and still is most appreciated. But the interesting thing is that in the U.S.A., much of the Italian cuisine is based on that found around the southern part of the country, especially Sicily. Obviously by now the original Italian cuisine is heavily Americanized, mainly because of the local ingredients and different styles of preparing the meals.


So coincidentally, since many of the traditions came mainly from the southern region of Italy, the secret criminal “tradition” also arrived in the states. This wasn’t something planned but instead it was a natural situation, meaning among every 10 honest immigrants, there was probably one criminal. In fact, during that period the U.S. became sort of a “dumping ground” for the many dangerous criminals, mainly from the Campania region and Sicily. As some of you know, the main difference between the Italian and the rest of the local crime syndicates is that the Italians have their own secret criminal organizations with roots all the way to the 18th century, which slowly became one of the main problems for the American government. In those days they had all kinds of Italian criminal groups, such as the “Black Hand” which in fact represented a disorganized method of extortion and very brutal one, and also many other independent gangs which also terrorized the honest citizens. But the biggest problem for the U.S. government, as I previously mentioned, were the secret and highly organized criminal groups such as the “Mafia” and “Camorra”, which still held their connections back home and brought many of their criminal cohorts and began infiltrating every possible illegal or legal business, including the food industry, thus slowly forming their own criminal empire. So as I previously stated that some of the organized crime groups had long ties to the food business and they looked at it as their own tradition.


Many historians say that the trend toward Italian food actually started at the beginning of the 20th century as the Italian immigrants settled themselves and began offering their main specialities. For example, one of the earliest Italian dishes, allegedly created in the U.S., is Chicken Tetrazzini, which in fact was made in honour of Luisa Tetrazzini, the operatic soprano known as The Florentine Nightingale. Or the famous Muffuletta Sandwich, named after the Sicilian muffuliette baked rolls, and Chicago’s Italian Beef Sandwich which was invented by Italian immigrants who worked at Chicago's old Union Stock Yards during the early 1900’s. The legend goes that the workers would often bring home some of the tougher, less desirable cuts of beef sold by the company. To make the meat more palatable, it was slow-roasted to make it more tender, and then slow-simmered in a spicy broth for flavour. The meat was then thinly sliced across the grain and stuffed into fresh Italian bread and there it was. The thing is that most of these were cheap meals made for the everyday people, who did not have the money to sit in a restaurant on daily basis. But for the people with deep pockets, there were the finest Italian cooks, in the finest Italian restaurants, which at the time some of them were ran by gangsters and racketeers.



Chicago’s Beef Sandwich


Like any other old time criminal saga, this one also starts with the so-called “importation” of criminals which went in the same parallel with the importation of everything else, including clothing materials, medical substances and above all, food supplies. Also, the main illegal activities at the time were extortion, prostitution, corruption and murder, which were their basic money “machines” for the local criminals, meaning alcohol and drugs were still legally imported and used by the everyday citizen. So in those days, the other option was for the gangsters to represent themselves as legitimate businessmen, which in fact was their real purpose so they can hide their real parasitic nature. And obviously, one of those main legit operations, which they chose, was the food business since every one of them was a full-blooded Italian. Many of the more successful Italian criminals began opening their own grocery shops, bars and restaurants around their territories, with food, ingredients and products imported straight from back home, which were able to endure the long transportation. You see, some of the more thoughtful Italian criminals also quickly realized or they already knew that with the help of their tasty cuisine, they can easily attract individuals from the highest levels of America’s society and make their dreams come true.


One of those so-called more thoughtful individuals and also big time racketeer was James Coloismo, the guy who I believe there’s not even one Chicago Mob chronology which doesn’t start with his name. Colosimo had Calabrian roots and was an individual, or as I want to call him, a “one man army”, meaning he had the prostitution, gambling and extortion rackets locked down around Chicago’s lucrative Near South Side and Loop, and he also had the most influential political and police protection, but the main thing was that he had his own Italian restaurant, which in fact was his real life passion. “Big Jim”, as he was known, opened his first saloon in 1910 somewhere around that territory and at first it was more like a gambling joint and a whorehouse rather than a saloon, but later by the early 1910’s, he already moved to 2126 South Wabash St. From that point on, his saloon transformed more into an establishment which looked like a high class restaurant, which obviously began attracting high class people and became known as Colosimo’s Café. Story goes that it was the most elegant place, with a huge mahogany and glass bar, and 100 tables all around the dining room, which in turn had red velvet wallpaper on the side walls and the ceiling was painted in sky blue, decorated with huge solid gold chandeliers which hung over the stage. The most interesting thing at the time was the so-called dance hall floor, which was made automatically for it to raise and lower itself with the help of a hidden hydraulic lift.


In reality this was his way of portraying himself in front of the world as legitimate businessman, meaning Colosimo’s joint became the center of social life in Chicago and one of the hottest night spots which the city ever had. Since he was one of the main and feared racketeers at the time, Colosimo brought in various types of people such as one young and talented actor during those days known as John Drew Barrymore or the famous singer Al Jolson, but the thing was that they mixed with “suspicious” faces such as Mike Heitler, Colosimo’s partner in the prostitution business or Dennis Cooney, another partner in that same racket and maybe even two of the most “respectable racketeers” in Chicago’s underworld at the time like Mont Tennes and James O’Leary. Story goes that Colosimo’s so-called “secrets” were the very beautiful showgirls, the crazy talented orchestras, high class clientele but above all, the finest Calabrian dishes and wines. According to few of the remaining menus from the restaurant, Colosimo’s so-called signature dish was the famous “Spaghetti a la Colosimo”, which in fact was ordinary Spaghetti a la Carbonara, as most of us know it today. While the guests enjoyed their meals, it was a nightly occurrence to hear members of the Chicago Civic Opera, such as Mary Garden, Titta Ruffo, John McCormick, and the conductor Maestro Cleofonte Campanini.


During the mid 1910’s, when Chicago’s red-light district which was known as the Levee and was also Colosimo’s personal “playground”, came under constant attacks from the government, the Neapolitan crime boss decided to close down his restaurant for a while and transfer his operations in Burnham. Over there he opened another Colosimo's but this time, he owned only half of the restaurant, and the other half went to one of his closest associates Mike "The Greek" Potson and later to one political fixer known as James Adduci. The problem was that the new so-called saloon was more like gambling joint and a whorehouse rather than a restaurant. This might’ve been the first sign on how Colosimo began to lose his traditional sense, and proof for that was when few years later when he divorced from his wife and took a different path with a younger woman. Who knows, maybe he even lost his sense for business since in 1920 he was found shot to death with a cryptic message next to his lifeless body, in the lobby of his old restaurant, where in fact his old passion started, and that’s where it ended. After the murder of Colosimo, during Prohibition his business partners Potson and Adduci bought Colosimo’s interests in the famous restaurant from his family heirs. Story goes a decade later, Jake Guzik became the so-called silent partner in the same restaurant with the help of one Steve DeKosta, who became the manager and also worked as a bartender at the place.


As you can see, during the 1910’s in Chicago, many criminals from different ethnicities managed to disguise themselves same as the ordinary and harmless individuals, by operating their own legitimate businesses such as restaurants and grocery stores, and obviously served their own traditional drinks and meals. But when many Neapolitan and Sicilian immigrants began opening their joints and operations around the North, West and South sides of the city, the whole situation literally changed. By that time, almost three million Italians left Italy for the United States, and four-fifths of them were from the southern regions such as Abruzzo, Campania, Molise, Calabria and Sicily. Many Italian ships began carrying mainly wheat flour and olive oil, but later they also transported cheese, wine and all kinds of fruit, particularly oranges, lemons, and figs. The thing was that some of those smarter Italian criminals, who managed to smuggle themselves among the rest of their fellow immigrants, also quickly presented themselves as legitimate farmers or businessmen. Now don’t get me wrong, many of them came with no kind of knowledge or skills for anything but some arrived already prepared. For example the city’s North Side at the time, was filled with Italian immigrants, mainly Sicilians, who deeply rooted themselves around the territory and acted as if they were brought back home.


By the end of the decade, few of the most prominent Italian extortionists and Mob leaders around the North Side were Rosario Dispenza and one Pete Catalanetto. Most of these guys circled the area known as “Little Sicily” and while constantly extorting innocent victims and killing each other, somewhere in the middle they successfully managed to operate their legitimate enterprises. For example one of the most prominent and “shady” individuals was Victor Barone, who in turn was a close associate of Dispenza. Now, this guy was a Sicilian and had criminal connections all the way to New York and with the help of his criminal gang, Dispenza managed to prey on its own people by extorting them on daily basis, or in other words, he took the last piece of food right out of the poor man’s mouth. Another of Barone’s close associates was Pietro “Pete” Catalanetto, who in turn also looked upon himself as one of the most powerful crime bosses in that area mainly because of his underworld connections around the country. That is why Barone frequently has been arrested and questioned by the Chicago police in connection with many murders which occurred in the Italian quarter, and each time he has been able to doge the evidences against him, but the police always believed that Barone probably knew a great deal about the workings of the Dispenza and Catalanetto gangs.


So with a reputation like that, Victor Barone easily opened up shop and quite successfully managed to hide his true nature by operating his legitimate business. Barone portrayed himself as a wine merchant and his shop was located at 1024 Cambridge Avenue, and from there he sold imported Italian wine and sold it around the local saloons, restaurants and other liquor shops. Obviously the ones which refused to accept his product or in some cases if there was a strong competition, many Italian owners were terrorized and some were instantly killed by a hale of bullets or a blast from a bomb. In those days, like many other wine merchants from that area, Barone also imported Sicilian type of red wine with fruity smell and strong scent of blackberries and usually with dry and slightly sour taste. This type of wine is still mainly produced in southern part of Sicily, mostly because the wine likes hot and relatively dry climates. But even though he imported already made product which was placed in a bottle and sent on a ship, still the interesting thing was that most of the time Barone imported only the special type of grape and produced his wine in the basement of his shop. The Sicilian type of grape which I’m talking about is used for making wine, according to the newest research, since 6000 years ago and during the beginning of the 20th century they still held by the ancient traditions of winemaking back on the island. For example one of the most popular types of grapes which were and are still used today, is known as Grillo, which is a traditional Sicilian grape and besides making wine, it also can be used for making aperitifs and also for refreshing the plate with variety of Italian cuisines. Story goes that when the Grillo grapes are gently pressed then the juice, which later ferment at cold temperatures, provides a wonderful smell like fresh-cut grass mixed with grapefruit. The next type of grapes which are also used during those days are known as Nero d’Avola which in fact is used for the making of the Mediterranean’s most regal red wines, and also Catarratto, which same as Grillo, is a grape often used for making white wines with a delicate bouquet of white flowers, aromas of ripe citrus, melon and other herbal flavours. In addition, these types of grapes or wine were also not widely known outside of Italy for a very long time until it reached the U.S. In this business Victor Barone had two types of competition, one was the quite expensive French wine which was already placed on the market but had a tough time in getting sold around the Italian parts of the city, and the second competition was more serious which was wine also produced in the southern part of Italy such as the Campania area and same as the Sicilian type, this one was also easily reachable for the local Italian population.



Grillo grapes


Nero d’Avola grapes


Catarratto grapes


So allegedly because of the huge competition, during this period many Sicilian wine makers relocated all the way to California mostly because of the moderately hot days and clear nights, which is a similar climate to southern Italy, which is perfect for growing the needed type of grapes and for producing their wine. One of Barone’s associates in the grape growing business was Tommy Petrotta, who in turn also represented himself as a wealthy wine broker by owning or had connections to thousand hectares of wine grape on the west coast. In no time, besides the local owners on Chicago’s North Side, Barone’s organization began transporting their product even around the Midwest, thus providing huge amounts of legitimate cash for the organization. In addition, from this point on many Chicago businessmen also began investing in the importation of California products in their own city and even on the east coast. But even though his business ventures were going pretty steady, soon Barone’s dreams were about to be shattered since two of his main associates in the underworld were killed by their rivals. On January 23, 1914, Rosario Dispenza and one close associate were ambushed allegedly by one assassin, who in turn killed his victims one by one. Ten days later, Barone was also shot by a shotgun blast at Cambridge Avenue and Hobble Street, only a block away from where his crime boss Dispenza was also killed. After that, Barone was quickly carried to the Columbus Memorial hospital, seriously hurt, but because some of the slugs from the shotgun had deeply penetrated into his skull, he died shortly after the arrival.


The investigators believed at the time that the series of shootings have been part of a “campaign” managed by so-called “Black Hand" extortionists in order to get rid of the local gang leaders such as Dispenza, who in turn belonged to a different and more organized secret society known as the Mafia. On the other hand, I personally believe that this may have also been part of a power struggle within the local Chicago Mafia, since most of the newspaper reporters at the time were not aware of the secret organization. After the murder of Barone, his business partner Tommy Petrotta completely dedicated himself to the wine selling business and one year later, he relocated to Sacramento, California, from where he continued to grow grapes and transport Italian wine all around the Midwest and became one of the wealthiest wine dealers in the country. You see, Petrotta wasn’t the only Chicago mobster who relocated far west and began growing grapes, but since the many shootings, by 1917 he was followed by others such as Tony D’Acunto and one Vincenzo Roselli, who in turn relocated few years later, and they operated around the West Market St. in Los Angeles, California; where many Italian fruit importers and exporters mingled and sold their products. In addition, during the fatal shootings, Pete Catalanetto also received a bullet right into his face from a very close range and died on the spot. Even though he portrayed himself as a prominent olive oil importer, the reality was that it was all a front for his illegal activities. According to some reports, Catalanetto in fact never did any legitimate work, but the cops had tough time in catching the criminal mostly because he always kept dozens of olive oil cans at his house.

So many criminals created images of legitimate individuals, who in turn never did any work but not all of them were like that since many gangsters enjoyed in their legitimate enterprises, such as the infamous Aiello brothers. These guys represented a huge immigrant family, meaning they were 9 Sicilian brothers followed by an army of cousins and relatives and the so-called leader was Joe Aiello, who in turn was a Mafia member with underworld connections all around the country. The interesting thing was that by the late 1910’s, the brothers’ or the prime family business was food and at the same time, many Italian immigrants already opened up their own bakeshops or bakeries and sold all kinds of Italian products such as breads, pastries, cannoli, wedding cakes, cuccidati, etc. and so the Aiello’s quickly joined in. Since Joe Aiello was the man in front, he began operating as a cheese-maker and grocer by opening his own company which was known as Grocery Importing Co. and imported all kinds of cheese and also olive oil. So obviously business was going quite good for the Aiellos, since they allegedly extorted many innocent citizens around the city’s North Side and on top of that, many merchants were forced to buy their products from the Sicilian brothers.


When Prohibition became the law of the state, the money hungry Joe Aiello quickly ventured in another operation by selling pure sugar which was meant for the making of any kind of alcoholic beverage. In fact, at the time there were two main crime bosses who controlled the sugar market in the city of Chicago, including Aiello on the North Side and Joe Esposito from the West Side. It is quite possible that Aiello imported his sugar from the east coast, obviously with the help of his Mafia connections, and as for Esposito, he allegedly imported his product all the way from Cuba. In fact, Esposito was quite the competition for the brothers in the booze making business, who after the death of Colosimo, became the next in line, big time Neapolitan crime boss, and also quite flashy one, in the “Windy City”. The reality was that the Sicilian Mafia at the time was trying to maintain an illegal network on national level but the problem was that some of the Neapolitan factions began ruining their plans in some territories, like for example by the mid 1920’s, the Neapolitan factions controlled much larger territory around Chicago, including the Near South Side and Loop and also the southern and western suburbs, and as for the Sicilian clans, they mainly operated around the North Side but they also had a large operation on the Near West Side with the help of another clan, known as the Genna crime family, who by that time switched sides to the Neapolitans. So my personal belief is that both ethnic criminal groups made huge money from bootlegging at the same time, which in fact wasn’t much of a huge problem, but things began complicating when the Neapolitan faction began gaining influence within the Unione Siciliani, which in fact was a quite influential organization during that period, and was reserved only for the Sicilians. The scheme was simple, and that was extorting the huge membership within the organization. So this obviously began creating a conflict between the two groups and greatly affected their food businesses.


To be honest, even in the world of food, the Sicilians are a little bit different rather than the Neapolitans. For example, since the liquor business was going pretty good, Aiello opened up another food establishment and this time it was a bakery called Pasticceria Bella Palermo (some sources say it was named Aiello & Co.), which was located at 473 West Division St. on the city’s Near North Side. He produced all kinds of Italian food products such as Sicilian foccacia, pastries, cookies, arancini, breads, cannoli, Sicilian style pan pizza, cuccidati and wedding cakes. Since he was also involved in transporting sugar, near the bakery, Aiello opened up another legal business, which in fact was a candy store called Aiello and Aliotto, located at 516 Oak Street, and from there he sold all kinds of sweets to the neighbourhood children. Now, just to compare the two groups, Joe Esposito also had his own and quite famous joint which was known as the Bella Napoli Café, located at 850 Halsted and his place looked more like social club for hoodlums and politicians, rather than a restaurant. Since his roots were from the Calabrian region, Esposito served one quite famous and tasty type of red wine known as Ciro, named after the same region in southern Italy, and on the side, there was usually one slice of Neapolitan pasteria or Pitta, which is a traditional flatbread with a crunchy crust and a soft inside, usually stuffed with peppers, tomatoes and herbs, or maybe with sausage and cheese. Story goes that during the holydays, no one felt hungry, for in Esposito's famous Bella Napoli Café there were mountains of spaghetti and tons of hot Pitta, which was all given for free mainly to the needy and even to the greedy.


The legend goes that Joe Aiello deeply resented the opposite side and began mingling mostly with Sicilians and also non-Italians. In 1925, he allegedly eliminated his own “blood”, meaning the Genna clan, as punishment for their alleged betrayal by stepping in with the Neapolitans, such as Esposito and one John Torrio, who was “imported” during the previous decade from Brooklyn, New York and obviously, the elimination of the Gennas was a first sign for Aiello’s downfall. So one day Aiello joined forces with another Sicilian grocer known as Tony Lombardo and together they opened up another importing company which was known as Lombardo & Co., located on Randolph St. Their friendship was quite “lethal” for several reasons, including Lombardo being the president of the Unione Siciliani with huge political influence and also, both of them were grocers. Now I know that sounds quite funny but the truth is, during Prohibition, the so-called grocers played a vital role in the production of bootleg booze, since they were the ones who could’ve easily and legally purchase large quantities of distilling ingredients, such as grapes and sugar, and both Aiello and Lombardo imported those same ingredients and constantly provided the bootleg gangs with it. In addition, by 1927, the Italian population in Chicago owned no fewer than 500 grocery stores and over 200 pastry shops, with generations of families which continued to play substantial roles in the city’s food scene.



Old grocery store from the 1930’s


The thing is, after a while the Neapolitans saw the bigger picture, meaning grapes, sugar and beer was for the middle and lower class of citizens and bootleggers, and so they began smuggling more expensive alcoholic beverages such as European whiskey, rum and champagne, which was obviously meant for the higher class of individuals. So story goes that this was all like one huge race in Aiello’s mind which made him quite envious, thus creating problems even with his new partner, which was Lombardo. In no time, their business friendship went down the toilet and the food importing company was no more. To make things even worse, Lombardo decided to join in with the non-Sicilian faction, which by now was still led by Esposito and one Al Capone, another Neapolitan who succeeded Torrio. In fact, Lombardo became quite close with Capone and together they allegedly ordered the machinegun destruction of Aiello’s bakery on West Division St. which occurred on the evening of May 28, 1927. The hit squad managed to produce over 200 bullets, thus transforming the joint into something completely unrecognizable. During the process, Aiello together with his two brothers Tony and Dominic were present in the bakery, and luckily only one of them, meaning Tony, received a bullet in the neck but survived. The next year, the Capones again destroyed Aiello’s bakery by shooting it up from the inside, thus placing an end of Aiello’s main legit income.



Interior of the Aiello bakery after the shootout there and two of arrows point to bullet holes in the walls and ceiling (thanks to Chicago Crime Scenes Project)


Facing the mirrored back wall which was shattered by bullets (thanks to Chicago Crime Scenes Project)


By 1930, all of the “old” problems such as Aiello, Esposito and Lombardo were buried six feet under the ground, and as for the Capone Mob, slowly it became a national criminal force. They became so powerful, it was like they even controlled the weather and gave the “ok” for it to rain or not, in figurative speech. Since they were deeply rooted within the political and judicial system, the Mob at the time was also aware for the huge problem which was coming their way, and that was the repeal of Prohibition. Even though it occurred two years later, still the boys already began investing their bootlegging cash and also began creating new sources for illegal income such as gambling and loan sharking. These younger gangsters, who now worked for Al Capone, did not posses any kind of tradition within them but instead they were all about loyalty and cash and they did not care with whom and how they made it. Meaning most of them did not care about operating their own restaurants in their own traditional ways, but instead they saw a bigger picture. It was very hard for anyone to see Capone or Paul Ricca sitting all day long in some of their joints, while waiting for guests or tasting cooked meals in the kitchen, mostly because these fellas were constantly hiding from their enemies and the government. That is why former bosses such as Colosimo and Esposito were easy targets. Now don’t get me wrong, Capone loved to eat and story goes that his favourite dish was spaghetti with olive oil and walnut sauce which in fact is a quite tasty vegetarian dish or Ricca who allegedly loved all kinds of fruit together with few glasses of red wine, same as the ancient Roman emperors. My point is that the new generation also controlled their own bars, restaurants or bakeries but they began using these places mostly as fronts for their illegal schemes such as bookmaking, card and dice games, prostitution or narcotics but the thing is, these weren’t the criminals with the bigger picture in their minds, but instead it was one new and specific criminal breed which turned its sight at the big industries, or in this example, the ones which produced or transported food around the whole state.


As I already stated at the beginning of this story, that during this period, most of industries, which represent a national collective of diverse businesses, began supplying on a general level most of the food consumed by the national population. Various chains of food or grocery stores began opening around town which in fact represented a huge problem for the Italian gangsters and their own independent food companies or restaurants. But the so-called problem was easily solved mainly because all of these industries were controlled by some unions. In plane words, when a legit guy began investing his savings in a small retail store or became a president of some union, it was quite likely to be visited by some Mob enforcer with some unpleasant "or else" predictions. For example, you’re walking down the street and minding your own business, but suddenly a car pulls along- side, two hoodlums step out and press you against the wall and say "We want into the bakery drivers' union." Obviously not all of the victims were the same but 9 out of 10 businessmen at the time, got scared and were forced to buy an expensive sign of a certain make for his establishment, and on top of that, he had to join a certain "trade association" which collected dues and gave him nothing in return, or maybe even his employees joined some union, whose funds were again controlled by mobsters. Thru those same labor unions, in which the mobsters already have installed their own front men as officers, they successfully muscled into legitimate businesses on daily basis. If one honest businessman or chain-store owner decided not to pay tribute, he was likely to find his workers, who in turn most of them were members of the Mob-controlled unions, refused to make deliveries or denied him services which were necessary for him to stay in business. In the end, the added costs of doing semi-legit business, plus the fat payments to the racketeers were all of course passed on to the consumer. So the mobsters usually tried to avoid any actual physical violence only if the victim was easily scared, but in some situations they were forced to act violently so they can achieve their main goal.


Murray Humphreys, corner stone for the Chicago Mob and at the same time, one of the most important individuals within the organization. He wasn’t Italian but instead he was a Welshman who operated same as any other Mafia boss from around the country. It seems like he was in charge of the union rackets since day one, by belonging to a special crew which was mainly involved in the same illegal activities. But do not forget that this was Cosa Nostra, meaning only Italians were in charge or at least oversaw the operations, including Capone members Charles Fischetti and Frank Maritote. According to the testimony of one Mob informer which occurred two decades later, under Capone, this particular group of Italian and non-Italian gangsters began forming a criminal network for dominating all teamster union locals in Chicago but their reputed aim was to gain control of the delivery of all common stuff which the city depended on, particularly food. So one of the most important food products in those days was milk and yes, for those who did not know, milk is considered food instead of beverage mainly because when consumed by individuals with normal health, it provides the necessary nutrients for growth and maintenance of the human body in all ages. In those days, milk was placed on every doorstep, every morning by the milk drivers, who in turn worked for some legit company, which in fact belonged to some union. And in reality, even though they are not considered the same thing, the milk business was way better than bootlegging booze, mainly because it was legal and in those days it represented a product which everybody wanted it on daily basis. Now I know that most of us would say that booze is more expensive and was being drunk in those days in quite huge amounts, thus also creating huge amounts of cash but the truth was different. I mean, for example just think about the thousands of huge Italian families at the time who numbered more than a dozen family members and were forced to buy a couple of gallons of fresh milk every day for their children and everyone else in the family. So my personal belief is that at the time the number of milk consumers was much higher rather than the people who enjoyed alcohol.



Milk bottles


At the beginning of 1931, rumours began floating that the first union which was believed to have been selected by the gangsters as the first point of penetration in their racketeering program was the Milk Wagon Drivers’ Union Local 753, with headquarters at 220 South Ashland Avenue. The union was officially organized back in 1903 and by this time it counted more than 7,000 members, a treasury of $1,000,000 and an annual income of $935,000, which obviously were the prefect reasons for the racketeers’ taste. Since then, the delivery of milk in Chicago was completely unionized and out of their funds the union paid benefits for sickness, unemployment, and other troubles that came to working people. However, this particular union also proved to be quite a “tough nut” for the crime syndicate and their violent tactics. At the beginning, some of the top union officials began noticing sudden “outsiders” who were mixing among their men at union’s headquarters and in no time, a delegation of top Chicago hoodlums descended at the location, which in fact represented a solid old brick mansion. They threw open the door and confronted Ray Bryant, the union cashier, who in turn had to face Humphreys, Jack White, Klondike O'Donnell, James Summons, Marcus Looney and Frank Maritote. “You tell that old son of a bitch," announced Humphreys, "that next time we come loaded for bear, we're taking over this joint." The gangsters’ demand for extortion of the union for hundreds of thousands of dollars was followed by a constant refusal, and so the first move was the murder of William Rooney, who in turn was one of the main architects of the union and was shot to death on the streets in March, 1931. As I previously stated, that the Mob at first rarely used such violence, but obviously they were in fear because their main financial income was about to be finished forever and milk was the new future for them. Next on the list was Patrick Burrell, the vice-president of the Teamsters Union, who in turn was taken for a ride and also shot to death.


Obviously the kidnapping of the union’s president Robert Fitchie, which occurred in December that same year, was again orchestrated by Humphreys and his gang and this was in fact something different than a murder, meaning this time they wanted for their demands to be taken quite seriously and sent a final warning for the rest of the union’s administration which now was led by one Steve Sumner, a business agent and also secretary for the milk drivers. You see, Sumner was in his mid 70’s and was an old man, but still the guy was very tough and wasn’t afraid from the Mob. So the gangsters contacted him and demanded a $50,000 ransom for the release of Fitchie, or else. The next day, Sumner was told to wait on such location which in fact was a public school on the city’s South Side and according to him, an automobile slowly approached behind him which was allegedly driven by Humphreys, George Barker and also Jack White, a known union racketeer and murderer from the West Side. The kidnappers planned the transfer at the exact same time when it was closing hour for the school and hundreds of children were pouring out through the doors, across the street and along the sidewalk. Obviously this was only a tactic of the kidnappers so no one would even think of making a move, meaning a shot could not have been fired because of the many nearby children. The first two who got out were Barker and White who in turn were carrying sub-machine guns and waited while Humphreys went to Sumner's car, opened the rear door, took the ransom money and they went back into their car and hurried away. That same night, the union president was returned to his home unharmed, but a shaken man. During that period, no Chicago prosecutor ever bothered Humphreys about the alleged snatching, which shows the Mob’s power at the time and infiltration within the city’s system. In addition, few weeks after the money transfer, George Barker was shot to death by Jack White and one Johnny Moore a.k.a. Claude Maddox. Story goes that he wanted a bigger share of the ransom money and after he was killed, his share which now was covered in blood, went straight into Maritote’s pockets.


In June 1932, the Mob decided to pay a personal visit to Sumner, in which he witnessed from a close range one shotgun, one sub-machinegun and three pistols, all pointed into his face. According to the report, Sumner identified the racketeers as Murray Humphreys, George Barker, Marcus Looney, Robert O’Malley and Klondike O’Donnell, all belonging or being in alliance with the Capone syndicate at the time. According to Sumner’s testimony, the guy who did the talking was Humphreys and he sounded like a well educated fellow, but his language was tough and he allegedly started the conversation by saying "Steve, in your time it was brass knuckles, now it is machine guns and bombs.” After that Humphreys told Sumner that his days were long gone and did not know anymore on how to make some real money out of the union. But when Humphreys found out that there was no reasoning with the old man, he got mad and offered him a $100,000 “buyout” cash and on top of that he even told the truth in which he was planning to get involved in the milk business and demanded an approval from Sumner to operate for six weeks with non-union drivers until he, meaning Humphreys, could get organized. "Tribute?" Humphreys asked, "If you want it from the milk companies a few sticks of dynamite will do the trick. If you want it from the mugs out driving the wagons, a pair of brass knuckles and a blackjack will get it. We'll get the tribute all right and if you don't want to split with us, we’ll give you a hundred grand to get out." Later Humphreys added that Prohibition was soon going to end and he had to find some business to take care of his beer runners and that is why, he intended to force the larger companies to buy milk from his future company. Sumner told him that he wasn't interested and that he wouldn't supply union drivers for hoodlums and he, meaning Humphreys, was wasting his breath for the talking. Then Humphreys said that he would cut in Sumner for a share of all the profits and that he would run the drivers' union along with the Mob. In the end, Sumner again showed his fearless tactics by saying to Humphreys that beer and milk don’t mix together and again refused the proposal. When the gangsters began leaving his office, while standing at the door, Humphreys strongly reminded Sumner to think over his decision.


As I previously stated that Sumner was a real tough guy and Humphreys might’ve been wrong because during Sumner’s days, there wasn’t only brass knuckles but instead, there were also many bombings, which was sort of a signature of the old guard. Proof for that is during that same year, or during the opening of Humphreys’ company which occurred on May 19 and became known as the Meadowmoor Dairies Inc., located at 1334 South Peoria St. on the city’s Lower West Side, suddenly a bomb exploded in its premises but luckily no one was hurt. Obviously this was Sumner’s way of saying “no” and the Mob got the message and in a short time period, they responded with the bombing of the Dairy Association plants, thus creating a literal “Milk War”, which lasted until the end of the year. For example, in August that same year, the old brownstone union headquarters has been transformed into a fortress in expectation of an attack by the Mob. From an attic room across the street a police squad covered the head- quarters throughout the daylight hours with a machine gun, ready to open fire at a prearranged signal from the fortified house. The front doors stood ajar, but the offices within were covered with armour plates, the windows were shaded with steel mesh screens and as for the union officials they received their guests only after inspecting them through peepholes set with bullet-proof glass. Also in the back yard there was a remodelled taxicab, painted black, armour plated with bulletproof glass, while Sumner rambling all day long that he was in a fight against the Mob to the finish. From that point on, war was declared and all of the city’s attention was turned on the situation, which quickly filled the newspapers. In more than a dozen of these occurrences, involving window-smashing, bombings, burnings, the wrecking of trucks, shootings, and beatings, there were many testimonies regarding the identification of the wrongdoers as union men and hoodlums.



Steve Sumner behind a steel door while pointing a gun as he looks through the peephole


So all of the attention wasn’t good for the Mob and so they decided to go to battle in a different kind of way. You see, Humphreys had another and quite smarter solution mainly because he was different from the rest of his criminal cohorts by knowing something about economics, politics and the law and he had the whole thing planned since the start of it. When Humphreys requested for the murder of the vice-president of the Teamsters Union one year earlier, after that he quickly installed his own people thus creating the union in something which resembled like branch of the Mob. So with the help of the Teamsters, the Mob managed to create close contacts with Cook County State’s Attorney Investigator Tubbo Gilbert, who in turn, knowingly or unknowingly, helped the Capone Mob through his contacts to infiltrate Chicago’s City Council and lobbied for laws so they can create their own favourable market conditions. The trick was in Humphrey’s secret lobbying for the grading of all dairy products, including milk, which obviously the point was for the Mob-controlled Meadowmoor firm to begin selling Grade “A” milk only in city limits and to destroy all competitors which supplied lesser grade of the same product. On top of that they also used the City Council to fix prices, meaning by that time Chicago paid 12 cents a quart for milk, whether delivered on credit at the doorstep or sold on a cash and carry basis in stores, but later the Mob allegedly managed to fix the price at 8 cents a quarter, thus eliminating the competition and began creating a monopoly. The so-called “scheme” also involved individuals of the Chicago board of health such as Dr. Herman Bundesen, as well as officials of the Milk Drivers Union, who later switched sides or in other words, were possibly paid off.



Grade “A” cap

Sumner continuously tried to warn the government that if the Meadowmoor dairy succeeds in building up a business at 8 or 9 cents a quart, certain well-known gangsters with huge criminal records will be able to take over control of the milk drivers. To these allegations, the Mob’s front man C. C. Davis, who in turn was the president of their company, made emphatic denials by saying "I have nothing to do with gangsters, and I never saw one in my life. All I know about them is what I read in the newspapers. None of those men has anything to do with this concern. We are going to start delivering milk in the morning. We already have contracts that are about to be filled. The milk will be up to the health department standards and we have been issued a permit to distribute by the city health department, and its every bit as good as the 11 cent milk which now is being distributed. It indicates that the monopoly which has been holding up the babies of Chicago for many years has its back to the wall. What is racketeering if it isn't taking 2 cents more a quart for milk than is justified? Our office is going to give this organization, the Meadowmoor Diaries, every legal aid in its fight to reduce the price of an absolute necessity to the children of Chicago. As for attempts to link this concern to racketeers in any way, the charges are false in their entirety. All we ask is that the public to investigate and not have the wool pulled over their eyes." To tell you the truth, I believe that with this statement Davis managed to capture the hearts of the readers and also every other poor citizen, whose additional two cents really meant something for them. Later, the police and federal officials questioned Humphreys about the Meadowmoor firm and also questioned its officials regarding Humphreys. Privately, Humphreys obviously would’ve possibly admitted to his cohorts that he was in the milk business, but according to some reports, he wasn't telling anything about anything to anybody, since he didn't want anyone to know about his own legit or illegal income.


In no time, the Meadowmoor Diary began to drive its competitors in the dairy business one by one out of the market by following the plan of selling Grade A dairy products. So with all the effort, in the end the law was passed which states that high quality milk could not be sold as fresh milk more than 72 hours after it left the cow and it clearly stamped the date on milk bottles where the consumer could read and understand it. When Humphreys and the Mob succeeded in passing the law passed, they did not do this out of care for the everyday citizens, but instead they have obviously done this because of huge profits, I mean, if the Mob took at least a couple of cents from every glass of milk which was poured in the state of Illinois or even the city of Chicago, then it must’ve been one quite lucrative scheme. On top of that, this so-called practice was later used for all meat, fish and dairy distributors across the country, which again opened the doors for many Mob-controlled businesses to enter the market. Even though the Mob succeeded in its goal, still the war with Milk Drivers’ Union was far from over, or in other words, I believe that the main point of the conflict was the personal grudge between Humphreys and Sumner. In 1934, the veteran union leader fearlessly decided to testify under oath in front of a grand jury regarding the $50,000 ransom which he paid to Humphreys regarding the kidnapping of Fitchie, which occurred back in 1931. Sumner’s testimony was given in the United States courthouse before Bolon B. Turner, member of the United States Tax Board of Appeals and Master in Chancery George E. Q. Johnson who in turn, quickly ordered for the federal agents to find Humphreys and arrest him on a charge of evading income tax payments. The funny thing was that Humphreys did not deny getting the money, which the government sought to collect $37,000 tax on the ransom and so that same year, Humphreys was sent to prison for income tax evasion.


After serving 18 months in jail, Humphreys was back on the streets and was quickly labelled by the government as Public Enemy No. 1 and the scandal wasn’t over yet. In November of 1936, Cook County State’s Attorney Investigator Tubbo Gilbert and Dr. Herman Bundesen were indicted for allegedly helping the Teamsters fix milk retail prices in Chicago. Despite the numerous testimonies and hundreds of evidences, still the case quickly went down the toilet and story goes that the States Attorney at the time, refused to bring the case to court and allegedly refused for Tubbo Gilbert to resign from his position. So with nowhere else to go, it was reported the other large dairies and also union members began encouraging Sumner to make peace with the Meadowmoor, but the reality for the union was different. My personal belief is that Sumner could’ve not overlook the fact that the ordinary citizens were “blinded” with the “illusion” of lower prices and high quality product, which was obviously good for them, but it was the opposite for the union drivers. I mean even today there are some articles in which the authors stated that we should be thankful to the Chicago Outfit for helping in passing the law for the grading of all dairy products. But the union’s problem was that the Meadowmoor company sold their product at 8 cents per quart, while the unionized home delivery milk cost 13 cents per quart. So this meant that differential of 4 cents per quart, sent the ordinary citizens to carrying their milk home from the food stores, instead of being carried by the milk drivers straight to their homes. According to some reports, the number of unionized milk delivery routes in the Chicago area dwindled from 7,000 to 4,000 in a very short time period and many wagon drivers lost their jobs, and on top of that, the Meadowmoor employed only non-union drivers, thus forcing the workers to get out of the union. To make things even worst, Sumner again testified against Humphrey’s actions, which quickly formed a rebel faction within his union and that same year he and Fitchie were unseated from their high positions within the organization.


In plane words, it was a win-win situation for Humphreys and the Mob, and as for Sumner and the rest of his administration, they were on the losing side. So the new administration began “cooking” plans for collaboration with the Meadowmoor and its unionization, which occurred during the next decade. It was obviously their only solution since the change was already done. I mean, they were even forced to reduce their drivers and also the cost of home delivery to a minimum since more and more of the business went to the food stores, which a quite large percentage were supplied by the Meadowmoor company. In reality, Humphreys made the unthinkable for one quite ruthless criminal, who grew up on the cold streets of Chicago and opened the doors in the legitimate world for the rest of his criminal cohorts. This particular scheme managed to place him among the top guys of the Mob’s administration, which by now was led only by Chicago’s Italian faction, including Paul Ricca and Louis Campagna.



An old Meadowmoor Diaries milk crate (thanks to Paul Scharff)


During that same decade, the Italian faction quickly used the new law regarding the prices and quality of all milk products and so they quickly joined the legal venture. But the problem was that these guys were quite different in making business, rather than Humphreys. I mean, Humphreys used violent methods to a certain level until somebody really got out of line, and the Italians also used violent tactics but in a way of “shoot first, ask questions later”, meaning they killed a lot of people and the worst thing was that they did the same thing between themselves. During the 1940’s, Chicago’s North Side which was the old territory of the late Joe Aiello, was still controlled by the Sicilian Mafia, but this time they were in a strong alliance or they simply belonged to the so-called Chicago Outfit, which still ruled by bosses from Neapolitan heritage. It was a period when some the “Northsiders” or the so-called best money makers, used the “Milk Business Model” and transferred from the milk business to spreading influence and control over the quite tasty and famous cheese production.


Back in the mid 1930’s, the crime boss of the North Side became Vincenzo DiGiorgio a.k.a. James DeGeorge and besides being a Mafia leader, one of his main passions was the legitimate business. Story goes that he created one quite lucrative and at the same time murderous crew, which he always taught to invest their illegal cash in legitimate enterprises. One of DeGeorge’s main crew members was the infamous Outfit big shot Ross Prio, who in turn was allegedly the mastermind behind the crew’s legit income. You see, Prio was an individual who grew up in a different criminal society, meaning at the beginning he allegedly came up in a criminal gang instead of a Mafia society. Proof for that were his close associations with non-Italian criminals such as one Marcus Lipsky, something which his Sicilian cohorts from the north rarely did. Now this guy is one of the lesser known individuals within Chicago’s criminal history, who in fact was, same as Humphreys, one of the cornerstones for the Chicago Mob. When Prohibition was over, the duo decided to launder their dirty bootlegging cash through a legitimate company which was known as L&P Milk Company., and the initials obviously stood for Lipsky and Prio. Since the reality was that they were both racketeers and cold blooded killers, many of their competitors were frightened, thus creating a quick success for the two mobsters. On top of that, when Humphrey’s organization managed to fix the prices in the milk selling business, it was not a coincidence when the L&P Milk quickly joined the Meadowmoor and Prio managed to gather even bigger fortune. It was also not a coincidence, with DeGeorge’s advices regarding invested money in legit income, when Prio again managed to use the situation and got himself involved in another legitimate venture, which was known as the Uptown-Chicago Diary Company, located at 3639 Harrison Street. This time he brought two of his enforcers such as Sol Miller and Johnny Ingraffia, one being a salesman and the other the company’s treasurer, with Prio as the president. In other words, guys like Prio who followed the old Welshman’s and DeGeorge’s advices, really got rich only from their legitimate incomes but the different thing was that they were quite more violent.


As we can see, the milk business was going pretty well for Prio and the Mob but by the late 1930’s, when one Sicilian businessman arrived in Chicago, the whole situation literally changed for the better and also for the worst. That individual went by the name of Giovanni Vincenzo DiBella, who in turn was just another Sicilian immigrant and cheese maker with many Mafia connections. My personal belief is that DiBella might’ve been brought be two of Prio’s Sicilian cohorts and Mafia members known as Thomas Oneglia and Vincent Benevento, who in turn was also traditionally involved in the cheese making business around the Grand Avenue area. And since both Prio and Benevento were heavily involved in the diary business, DiBella came as a perfect combination, regarding him being a professional cheese maker. Back home, or should I say in Sicily, the milk production mainly consists of sheep, goats and cows, but in reality more Sicilian cheese is produced from cow's milk rather than from goat's milk, even though there are more goats than cows in the country. Certain Sicilian cheese products which were made in ancient times were still made during the 20th century and even today. The “legend” goes that some of the better-known ones are made from cow's milk, including Ragusano, which is a product with mild flavour and the recipe comes from the province of Ragusa located in southeastern Sicily, or Provola, which comes from various Sicilian regions such as Nebrodi or Madonie, and is usually served in tasty smoked form, or even Caciocavallo which is also made from cow's milk but it has quite funny, confusing and at the same time cryptic name that literally means "horse cheese".



Ragusano cheese


Provola cheese


Caciocavallo


So with the help of the individual who had the skills of producing all of these tasty and traditional Sicilian cheeses, the group decided to invest in the infamous Grande Cheese Company, located 134 North La Salle St. and this time Prio wasn’t the company’s president, but instead it was one of Prio’s close associates known as Fred Romano, who in turn together with two other front men Tony Paterno and Gabriel Spataro, founded the Grande Cheese Company for the purpose of owning, leasing and managing dairies around the city of Chicago. In reality, DiBella was the real owner and as for Prio and the rest of the North Side faction, they all had personal interests in the company by being the main stockholders. Even though Romano was the company’s president with Spataro as the managing director, according to some reports, Prio visited the company on daily basis and acted as the real general manager. In fact the company had a quite lucrative start by having huge cheese production, and with the help of their distribution system, meaning truck drivers, they delivered their products to all food stores and restaurants around the city. Just imagine on how many grocery stores, hotels and restaurants did the Italian Mob owned at the time in Chicago, all supplied by the Grande Cheese, which obviously reaped enormous amounts of cash, and in fact was the perfect money laundering operation for the Outfit.


The funny thing was that when all that cash began arriving, the whole situation became quite bloody, or in other words, lots of greed from the mobsters has only brought violence, arson, insurance fraud, economic loss to legitimate business, and higher taxes for everyone but also, a lot of dead bodies on the streets. From 1943 until 1947, six North Side area mobsters or should I say, the company’s main stockholders were killed on the orders of the Outfit’s top administration, and even DeGeorge received a “contract” on his head, but somehow got a “pass” and was transferred to Wisconsin. During that period, the Outfit was led by one Tony Accardo, who in turn quickly placed Prio as the new leader of that same faction. On top of that, the so-called management of Grande Cheese changed several times, including once in 1946, when one Giuseppe Uddo of New Orleans became the front man, and later was succeeded by another front man known as Eugene Taormina. But the problem was that the owner of the Grande Cheese, John DiBella, was shaking in his boots, understandably because of the dangerous situation and so according to some reports, DiBella begged Prio to help him and relocate the whole cheese making factory to a different city or state. To tell you the truth, I completely understand DiBella since all of the murders which occurred were later connected to his company out of obvious reasons and so relocation was the best solution for the problem. According to one story, since he became a territorial boss, Prio used his contacts in Wisconsin, such as Al Capone’s brother Ralph, who in turn completely relocated to that area during the recent period and took care of the Outfit’s lucrative vending machine business in that same territory. There’s even another possibility for DeGeorge’s involvement, since he was also transferred in that same area and created many lucrative connections.


So according to another report, these guys were somehow responsible for the company’s licence concerning the pasteurising of milk for the making of cheese in that particular state, and the next year, the company was successfully moved to 1 S. Main St. in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, which in fact was an area known as the bootlegger's paradise during the 1920’s and early 30’s. It was the perfect location for the company not because of the many semi-retired bootleggers, but instead of the fact that the state of Wisconsin has been making cheese since the 1800’s in order to not waste excess milk. One hundred years passed and the state became home to over 1,500 cheese factories, producing over 500 million pounds of cheese per year and making the state the largest American cheese producer, a title that no other state managed to beat even to this day. According to some reports, by the mid 1950’s, since he was considered the biggest stockholder, Prio allegedly passed some of his shares to DiBella but also brought some new partners into the cheese venture, such as the Milwaukee crime family and DiBella’s personal friends from the Bonanno clan in New York. It was obvious that DiBella had a long time friendship with Joe Bonannao, but it is possible that the Milwaukee group was brought in by Prio and the Outfit. My personal belief is that Prio never lost his interest in the company since during the holidays, he was known for constantly sending huge packages of high quality cheese as gifts to the Outfit’s top administration, until his death.


Many other Chicago mobsters followed Prio’s way of making legit income, including Gus Alex the so-called “King of Greeks” and also one of Humphrey’s protégés. During the same time, Alex also began investing in the cheese business and laundered his illegitimate income through a firm which was known as the Ward Cheese Co. located at 1026 W. Polk St. and was ran by one John Fontana Sr., who in turn was a long time grocer. The thing is that this was a different operation, meaning the company was placed in a building on that same location, which in fact was a front for a huge bookmaking operation which was ran by the West Side faction, under one Fiore Buccieri and also Sam Battaglia and Lenny Patrick. In other words, it was just another example of how the new generation transformed their legit enterprises into something which was again quite illegal. In addition, Alex also invested in another cheese operation, at the same time when Prio relocated the Grand Cheese in Wisconsin, and was known as the Berst Corporation Wholesalers of Cheese, located in Portage, Wisconsin, and was fronted by one Carl Berst.


So by now we can come to a conclusion that both Humphreys and Prio were somehow of a revolutionary gangsters, who brought new ways of hiding their real nature and to “wash off” their sins through the selling of cheaper and better milk, and later with the producing of high quality cheese. You see, the old guys played fair, meaning they laundered their money through legitimate business, which in turn helped the everyday citizen or buyer. But by the late 1940’s, the old Capone administration slowly began losing its grip over the organization, when the younger up and coming criminals somehow began to “pollute” the Outfit’s legitimate world, which was previously created by the old timers. Right after the diary businesses, the second most lucrative and legal income for the Mob was the selling of meat. In fact, the meat industry always represented the cornerstone of Chicago’s history, like for example from the Civil War until the 1920’s, the city was the country's largest meatpacking center and also became the official headquarters of that same industry. The preparation of beef, lamb, pork, chicken and other conventional meat for human consumption has always been closely tied to livestock raising or technological change, government regulation and urban market demand, thus creating a huge lucrative industry. To tell you the truth, meat always has a huge impact on the environment rather than any other food we eat and that's because livestock require so much more food, water, land, and energy, than plants, to raise and transport. And in those days, the American population used to eat more meat per person, rather than any other country around the planet. So in such a lucrative environment, many criminals found their own way of making the situation even more lucrative.



Original Armour meat packing plant in Chicago at the beginning of the 20th century


The whole thing started at the beginning of the 20th century when the owners of the meat packing companies had developed the first industrial assembly line, which it required more than dozens of separate jobs, including from the killing of an animal to the processing of the meat. Until the factory killing machines were invented, some of the workers did the killings with their own hands. You see, not everybody have the guts to do such a thing all day long, but instead the job required stronger people, in their mind and body so they can be able to do all of that knocking, ripping, and gutting. So in time some of the more criminal minded fellas, or maybe their children or even their relatives, began chopping up almost every living animal around the state and labelled it as the generally known and eatable types of meat and during the 1910’s that was one of the many meat scandals which had shaken the meat processing industry and the city of Chicago. Younger criminals from all ethnicities began stealing horses from the stables of local fruit peddlers or any other source, and those same animals were later chopped by those same criminal gangs and in the end, the meat was sold wherever it was needed. For example, the lower class of people at the time was known for often buying horse meat, which was obviously cheaper and it was quite easy to find. Even though there’s literally nothing wrong with horse meat, which is still quite common and it’s served as a special meal in some countries, at the time in the U.S. it was considered that the meat from that particular animal may not be properly checked by food inspectors and not to be fit for human consumption and instead it was meant for the animals such as dogs and cats. Even some of the politicians began throwing statements that the horse is a noble animal and should not be brought on the kitchen table and some even went too far, by comparing the practice with cannibalism. So the government decided that it was better for all meat packers or restaurant owners to put signs on their joints, if they already decided to sell horse meat. So usually when a new law comes out, such as the Meat Inspection Act., which in fact regulated the food additives, the more thoughtful criminals try to find a lucrative way out of the situation. Some reports show that during those days many workers at Drainage Canal ate horse meat on daily basis, and they bought it from a nearby meat packing house, which in fact bought worn-out horses from those same workers, who in turn used them at the working site. And in no time, many greedy meat packers and restaurant owners began buying horse meat, which was later labelled it as beef or any other similar meat and obviously made more money. So naturally this kind of practice slowly created a huge “welcome” for the criminal underworld, which in turn quickly began penetrating the so-called business by supplying the needed “product”.


Until World War II, the very own suggestion of using horses for food was still quite obnoxious to many, but the conflict forced the ordinary citizen to overcome the prejudice. So during the war, many European ships still carried wheat flour, olive oil and also so-called cured meat which is preserved by various methods such as salting, drying or smoking, for example salami, bacon or sausages. It became sort of a tough period when the U.S. government informed everyone around the country that each family would be limited to only 2.5 pounds of beef per week, or 130 pounds of beef a year. But the most interesting thing was when some high level government associates and politicians suddenly “changed” their minds and began preaching that the horse meat was way more clean and healthier than most types of meat, which in fact was a way of saying “buy it because it’s cheaper”. In no time, the whole situation forced many restaurant owners and meat market salesmen to put more horse meat instead of beef on their menus. Another interesting situation occurred when many butcher shops suddenly popped up around the country and began selling minced or in other words, ground meat, which is still used for the preparation of all kinds of carnivore meals. It was a time when the so-called hamburger began rising at the top of the menu for all Americans around the country, which in fact it’s quite easy recipe, with minced beef shaped in a circle, slightly burned on both sides and placed between two buns. Even though it was not quite official, but after the war, Chicago has become the hamburger capital of the world. So when many of the restaurant owners and butcher shops began mixing the beef with horse meat, that’s when the Mob got deeply involved. In addition, during this period thousands of pounds of ground meat mainly came from Huston, Texas, which was sent by independent organized crime groups with connections to Chicago’s crime syndicate. For example, in 1948 the Huston police swooped down every school cafeteria and seized samples of ground hamburger meat for analysis. Later the state laboratory reported that every sample was “horse meat-positive" and later the investigators found more than 50,000 pounds of horse meat in one ware- house which was labeled "boned meat," and 20,000 pounds, unlabeled, in another warehouse.



Horse meat


Beef


Ground meat with 80 percent horse

If we look at Chicago’s crime syndicate at the time, or should I say after the war, we might notice that the top administration was slowly been overtaken by mobsters from Sicilian heritage, but still they were groomed by the ones from Neapolitan heritage. So the point is that the Sicilian population was mostly known for not having any kind of problem with the horse meat, since back home they ate it like any other regular meal. The mobsters quickly learned regarding the mix of 40 percent horse and 60 percent cow and during the process, they bribed many food inspectors, obviously from the millions of dollars which were created from the racket. According to some reports, the Outfit’s scheme even went national by creating wholesale meat companies, which dealt with hotels and restaurants around the country, especially in “open” cities such as Las Vegas or Miami. And in the end, the only person who wasn’t aware of the scheme was the foolish citizen. The main Outfit crews which oversaw this particular racket were Prio’s group with one Paul Labriola and also Jimmy Allegretti and also the chief executive of the organization Tony Accardo together with one Jack Cerone from the West Side administration. In fact, Accardo began infiltrating the industry right after his takeover of the wire service, or to be exact during the late 1940’s, and sent two of his henchmen Leo Rugendorf and one Ralph Rizza, both former meat cutters who managed to place in line every restaurant, butcher shop or meat packing plant owner. During that period, Rugendorf was once arrested regarding the murder of one meat cutter but the case was later dismissed. Usually when they started killing ordinary workers such as this one, as examples for the rest of the working class that meant they were getting involved in the same business or industry.


At the beginning of 1950, Accardo met with Prio and together they made the final plan for infiltrating the industry with the help of one of Prio’s front men known as Joe Siciliano. In fact, Siciliano was a former butcher who came from the Niles area which in turn was Prio’s territory, who in turn “sponsored” Sicliano for the job and Accardo gladly approved it. Sicilano fronted the Lake County packing Co. located in Waukegan, with the help of his own crew, including Meyer Ditlove, Russell Minnea, Anthony Rossi, Rudy Angelicchio, Robert Klotz and Joel Miller. On top of that, Siciliano also had two other associates known as Frank Meara, a bookkeeper for the gang, and also Virgil McGanty former sausage maker who took care for the making of the product. All of these fellas were employed at Siciliano’s company but by the end of the day, they were the ones who paid off anyone who needed to be taken care of, or even forced or beaten anyone who rejected their terms. Sometimes when Siciliano’s “enforcers” failed in convincing someone to take their horse-meat products, he quickly turned to his Mob “friends”, who in turn easily solved the problem. For example, the first guy which Siciliano contacted regarding the situation was Paul Labriola, who in turn took the problem to Prio, who later took it to Accardo. Now, the first move was the intimidation of a certain victim by constantly sending corrupt food inspectors, just to place pressure over that same individual, who usually was the owner of some huge meat packing plant or some famous restaurant or food chain stores. If Siciliano’s men did not succeed in the first intimidating move, the second option or so-called ace of spades card was for Prio or Accardo to contact Irving Meites, a Democratic leader in the 44th ward, who was a close friend of Bill Stratton, who in turn was the current state’s treasurer and was about to become the governor of Illinois, and according to the testimony of one food inspection chief, future governor Stratton clearly enforced the Mob’s demands regarding the meat business. And if even that did not help, the last solution was Labriola, who in turn would’ve made an example of the victim.


During the first year, or should I say 1951, hundreds of thousands of dollars began pouring into the Outfit’s pockets, a situation which made Ricca and the rest of the bosses quite happy, while the ordinary citizen enjoyed his or hers ground meat. For example, one legit firm which was known as the Balkan Packing Company, located in East Moline, purchased half a million pounds of horse meat from another Outfit-connected firm known as the Johnsburg Packing Company, located in McHenry County. According to one report, that same year, the so-called state meat contracts with the Balkan firm totaled $352,000, and so imagine just how many other companies made similar deals. One of Siciliano’s associates Meyer Ditlove together with James Pilas, who in turn was a Democratic precinct captain in the 26th ward, managed to set up another horse slaughtering plant, but this time in Danville, Vermillion County, and the meat was again shipped to the Lake County packing Co. or the Johnsburg Company, which in turn sold their products mainly to one Carl Olson, a chain restaurant operator in Skokie and in Lake County. This meant that Accardo and his gang were pretty much at the top, but the thing is that the more you get bigger, the harder you will fall.


The whole thing began to boil when many owners started to blame the current political administration regarding the meat problem, and so the opposition gladly decided to take an advantage of the whole situation. By the end of that year, the horse meat scandal completely moved into the political arena when State's Attorney John Boyle blamed the current Governor Stevenson, who was about to take a step back for his close associate Stratton, regarding the problem with the widespread racket. Boyle publicly said “You [the public] have been buying horse meat labeled as prime beef due to the courtesy of the governor of Illinois and his chief of foods and dairies, Mr. Wray, who was charged as head of the state food inspection service, and has admitted taking bribes to ignore horse meat violations.” Boyle’s administration later furnished a new figure on the scope of the racket when they asserted that in Lake County at the time, 1,800,000 pounds of horse flesh was used in less than six months to produce 4,500,000 pounds of adulterated hamburger. They also charged that horse meat has been used in some private hospitals, but they refused to disclose their names or where they were, except that they were located in northern Illinois, which were probably the Waukegan and Niles areas. So when the curtains began to rise and slowly the whole situation went out in the open, many individuals began to fear for their lives and also their freedom.


In May, that same year, one of Siciliano’s main enforcers in the meat business, Joel Miller, went missing and was presumed dead. Story goes that 20 year old Miller was blamed because he allegedly pushed the wrong people or maybe went too far with his intimidating methods, and so the Outfit had to make an example out of him but the problem was that it was too late. Just to make things even worse, later Miller’s body was taken out from the Illinois River, possible courtesy of Labriola, and investigators at the time said that the situation had clear connection with the horse meat scandal and that the murder was ordered by the Chicago syndicate. Right after that, Siciliano was quickly arrested in connection with the murder and later also questioned. On top of that, at the same time many Lake County officials donated over $50,000 into the fight of the new State's Attorney Robert Nelson to bring to justice the horse meat racketeers, mainly the ones who operated their largest plants in that county, which in reality was a direct order for the closure of Siciliano’s meat packing plant in Lake County. I believe that the whole situation made him quite angry, and so according to one report, Siciliano violently has refused to submit to a lie detector about Miller's disappearance and because of that, he was quickly placed under indictment on charges of bribery and conspiracy. During the investigations, the state’s attorney office realized that Siciliano was in fact a mere tool for somebody else, and that “somebody else” was Tony Accardo. The investigators came to the conclusion when they connected Siciliano to Labriola, who in turn was a known syndicate enforcer and everybody in the world suspected for Accardo being the top guy of organization. Arrest warrant was previously issued for Labriola, who in his own style tried to avoid it by constantly hiding from the police, which in turn, later succeeded in finding the enforcer and questioned him regarding numerous beatings in the meat industry but it was all for nothing since he kept his mouth shut regarding the situation. That same month, in March, 1952, Accardo was also wanted for questioning by the special Cook County grand jury regarding the several beatings of a “mystery witness” whose identity has been kept secret by the state's attorney and also regarding the disappearance of Joel Miller. The “stone faced” killer, which was Accardo, refused to answer many of the questions and also denied every allegation, and was later released.


It was a time when the federal government did not own many “weapons” against the Mob, since the syndicate was already infiltrated so deeply into Chicago’s politics and judicial system, which made the idea of placing Accardo in jail almost unreal. This guy was the real definition for “untouchable” and if someone endangered his freedom, meat business or no meat business, Accardo was capable of killing anyone at anytime just to protect his own skin. But there was no need for any bloodshed, since the Outfit’s system for using front men in many lucrative operations worked just perfectly fine, since only Siciliano and his whole “meat gang” were placed on trial regarding the conspiracy. Even though Accardo was protected by his associates, still during Siciliano’s trial, the prosecutors named the Outfit’s top hierarchy as possible conspirators behind the scheme, including Accardo, Ricca and Campagna. The main problem for Accardo was that his mentor and real boss Paul Ricca who at the time was heavily investing his illegal cash from gambling into the food business such as restaurants and food markets, and in this case, especially meat packing plants. You see, Ricca made a lot of illegal cash during the days of Prohibition and later, he took for the race tracks and handbook operations and got even richer. In other words, Ricca had all the money that he needed and so all of that illegal cash had to be laundered mainly through the meat packing plants and the horseflesh, since it was considered the most lucrative legit income during that time period and on top of that, he had to return some of his cash which he lost during his stay in prison, back in the previous decade.


So as I previously stated that only Siciliano and dozens of other individuals, including members from his crew or food inspectors, were taken to trial. To tell you the truth, I believe that Siciliano even almost received a “contract” on his head since according to one wiretapped conversation between a couple of Outfit members, they trash-talked him and did not trusted him a bit. They even criticized their boss, which was Accardo, for not making the right choices and for allowing Siciliano to take control over the operation: "Accardo picked too many lugs, too many palookas, like that Siciliano. We should have put that guy’s legs in cement (referring to Siciliano)". This was possibly Ricca’s influence since his main laundering system was being disrupted and top of that, many of his political connections, who were also involved in the scheme, were being hunted down by the investigators and some of them even resigned from their positions, including his close associate Andrew Flando Sr., 25th ward Republican committeeman who left his $447.50 a month county job, and also appeared before the county grand jury investigating the horse meat racket and refused to sign an immunity waiver. Another of their “key men” who also lost his position and was taken to trial was Charles Wray who held a job as superintendent of the state division of foods and dairies, and even Frank Balkan, the vice president of the Balkan Packing Company, the Outfit’s biggest buyer, was indicted by a Lake county grand jury. In the end, Siciliano and his crew were the only racketeers, who received from 2 to 5 years in prison for conspiracy and also for the bribing of one state food inspector, the same one who testified against them in court. Most of the so-called corrupt gang of food inspectors and government officials were released on bonds, some cases were dropped and some did not even started at all. In addition, Siciliano was later also released on a 54,000 bond.


The biggest problem for the Outfit wasn’t Siciliano’s imprisonment but instead it was the mentioning of the whole top administration, during the trials, including Accardo and Ricca. In fact, the situation was just an additional problem in Ricca’s “sea” of problems during that period. My personal belief is that the so-called horse meat scandal was the beginning of the end for Accardo’s career as boss of the syndicate, obviously because of the previous reasons, but still his administration achieved something which forced the everyday citizen for decades to question the source of beef which was bought in stores, or ordered in restaurants. According to some reports, the whole situation affected the sales of hamburgers in Chicago and allegedly fell for 50% and on top of that, many famous restaurants were closed down because of they were allegedly “horse meat positive”. Even if the meat was legit, still the hamburger never tasted the same in the mouths and minds of the buyers. The meat scandal was a great shame and also great loss for the U.S. government and its economy during that time period, but on the other hand the racketeers also never reached the same level in the meat business ever again.


Now I don’t know if you noticed, but during the whole scandal, nobody ever prosecuted or mentioned even one member from Prio’s group or the North Side faction. The reality was that Siciliano and Labriola or most of the previously mentioned fellas, were in fact Prio’s people, but by the end of the day, Accardo and Ricca got the most of it, indirectly. In other words, Prio got a pass or went under the radar, mostly because during that period the government did not have a clue regarding the Outfit’s hierarchy and who was under what faction. So Prio used the advantage and continued to under the government’s nose, mainly in the meat business. You see, Prio controlled a huge territory and also one of the most lucrative crews at the time, generally known as the Rush Street crew, which oversaw a great deal of bars, restaurants, hotels and food stores. The Rush Street area, which is located on the Near North Side, used to be one of the most lucrative areas for the whole Outfit and was being overseen by two of Prio’s main lieutenants, including Jimmy Allegretti and Joey DiVarco, the first being the “brains” behind the operation and the other one, took the role of the “muscle”. Besides being a racketeer, a pimp and also a pedophile, as I previously stated that Allegretti was the mastermind behind their next legit operation by using the advantage for being the secret owner of many restaurants and bars around the whole North Side, but above all around the city and also the country. So the trick was for Prio, Allegretti and DiVarco to open up their own meat packing company and to load their countless joints with their own product, which was about to be sold to the ordinary citizens.


The name of the operation was C & B Meat Co. which was located at 1136 Randolph St. and the so-called “working” team was formed only by five employees, including the firm’s president or the Mob’s front man Carlo Colianni. I really doubt that they ever sold horse meat, and according to one report the company sold meat cuts mainly in clubs and restaurants around the Gold Coast. On top of that, the company didn’t just sell meat only in Prio’s or Allegretti’s joints, but instead all of the Outfit-connected food joints also bought their products. So in other words, this was one huge legitimate operation which again successfully laundered their illegal cash and made the bosses happy. For example, few of the many famous places at the time such as Agostino’s Restaurant, Ciro’s Restaurant or the Valentino’s which was located at the Berkshire Hotel, all bought their meat products from the C & B. So I’m going to form you a picture of what I’m pointing out here, with the help of one report which says that the Valentino’s Restaurants generated over $120,000 per year only from the selling of food and beverage. Also the owners of Agostino’s, which counted the brothers Andy and Gus Sequia, besides being forced to buy the Outfit’s meat cuts and other products, they were also forced to “rent” their second floor of the joint as a meeting place for the Outfit’s top hierarchy, including Prio, Accardo, Humphreys, Gus Alex and also Accardo’s replacement who went by the name of Sam Giancana. As I previously stated that the new administration was way greedier than the previous one, meaning both Allegretti and DiVarco “polluted” their legit enterprises with illegal activities, thus transforming it into semi-legit businesses. I mean if you look at the situation clearly, at first they brought illegal cash which they obviously laundered it through the meat packing plant and their Mob-connected joints, but at the same time they again generated illegal income from the same locations of those same legit enterprises. In no time, Valentino’s became a front for a huge handbook operation or Ciro’s which became a front for a prostitution ring, with over 20 prostitutes working day and night and allegedly generating over 10,000$ a week. Back in the old days, some of the old timers almost never mixed their legit enterprises with their illegal operations but it looks like that this was possibly Giancana’s influence or way for making a double or maybe even triple income.


In July, 1958, the whole situation began to come out in the open when the McClellan Senate Rackets Committee agents started probing many Chicago racketeers and their alleged attempts to seize control of the tavern and restaurant supply business. Both Prio and DiVarco were questioned by investigative committee at the same time, together with Jack Cerone and during the questionings, Senator Robert Kennedy referred to the C & B Meat Co. as being under the control of DiVarco and others who in turn took orders from Accardo who also had interest in the same meat supply company, but after every question Prio and the boys each took the Fifth Amendment more than 90 times. In September that same year, another individual was the C & B president Carlo Colianni who was asked for an explanation regarding the appearance of the name "Mooney ", which in fact was a nickname used by Giancana, on documents in the company’s offices. Obviously Colianni wasn’t a fool and quickly took the Fifth, same as everybody else who was asked the same question. On top of that, several Rush Street restaurant owners testified that they placed orders with the C and B firm, under pressure from DiVarco and the Mob. Even though the whole situation managed to uncover the scheme, still after the hearings the firm continued to run and also to prey over the honest restaurant businessmen. The only thing which the Outfit managed to change was their old and already “famous” front man with a new one, known as Morris Lasky who, same as Siciliano, was also a former butcher. Things went smooth until six years later, when the company’s licence was revoked after the receiving of a petition which was signed by many restaurant owners, who in turn had enough of the strong-arm tactics. Lasky was constantly denied for an application regarding the food distributor's license, which in fact was a direct order from Chicago’s Mayor at the time, on the advice from detectives of the license control unit who maintained that Lasky was just a "front" for the crime syndicate gangsters.


Even though few of the Outfit’s main legit enterprises were being closed down out of various reasons, still some of the boys managed to flow under the radar but it was the same old song, meaning they only used the food business as front for their illegal activities, until they slipped somewhere along the way. Remember Meyer Ditlove, the guy who was Siciliano’s associate and served time for his involvement in the meat scandal? Well by the late 1950’s he was out and was also back in business, but this time he got connected to a different crew. In 1957, Ditlove quickly collected all documents and cash for the opening of the Twin Food Products Company, which was located at 3250 Wentworth Av. and mainly produced shortening products. In fact, shortening is any fat that stays in a solid form at room temperature and it’s used to make crumbly pastry and other food products that should not be elastic. Although butter is also solid at room temperature and is frequently used in making pastry, the term "shortening" seldom refers to butter, but is more closely related to margarine. In addition, the shortening business is lucrative same as the previously mentioned legit businesses but the problem for Ditlove was that he thought that because of his old reputation of being Mob-connected, many of his costumers or rivals would fear of him and would obviously buy his products or make deals with him. But the reality was quite different, meaning during the first few months, Ditlove’s income from the company was quite small and so if he wanted to maintain his business, he obviously needed to find more money. So Ditlove quickly turned for help to his buddies in the Mob, such as Leo Rugendorf, the enforcer who was previously mentioned regarding the meat business, back in the late 1940’s.



Well by now Rugendorf went up through the Mob’s ranks and also had a legit job as a bondsman but the important thing was that he was connected to one of the Outfit’s most powerful crews at the time, the so-called Melrose Park group, which was heavily involved in the loan sharking business. So Ditlove asked Rugendorf for a loan, who in turn quickly took the request to his superiors such as Albert Frabotta and Phil Alderisio, the two fellas that served Sam Battaglia, the captain of the group. The interesting thing was that during this period, Battaglia’s group lend money not only to ordinary individuals, but they also gave loans to companies which were on the downfall such as car companies, building supplies wholesale companies, clothing factories and in this particular case, food companies. So in no time, the company became quite successful, mainly because of guys like Battaglia, Alderisio or Marshal Caifano who held interests in the company and also became few of the main stockholders. Beside Detlove, the group’s main front men at the company were Rugendorf, who served as the company’s president, and also Ditlove’s son-in-law Lawrence Rosenberg, who in turn served as secretary and treasurer. Since many of these members of the Melrose Park crew were quite known for their violent and murderous styles, automatically hoodlum tactics were quite often applied on many night clubs, hotels and restaurants to induce them to buy the products from the Twin Company. And since the business was quite lucrative, the company’s administration opened up two more so-called sister companies such as Twin Distributing Company and The P&S By-Products Company, which were used for the production of meat by-products used in the manufacturing of commercial shortening, and obviously tripled the income. In addition, meat by-products are the non-rendered, clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals, which includes lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, fatty tissue, stomachs and intestines, mostly suitable for the use in the producing of food for animals such as dogs and cats.


But as I previously stated that it was a matter of time for the government to knock on the door, since the group began using these companies as places for lending money or in other words, for loan sharking operations. Countless of individuals, happy or frighten, went in and out of the firms and so people began noticing or hearing things. On top of that, the hot-headed Battaglia and Alderisio slapped or chased people around regarding “juice” debts in public places or in the firms. So many investigators, and also newspaper reporters, began eyeballing the operation that quickly lighted up with the 1961 Chicago Tribune article which disclosed that the Twin Food Company was working without a rendering license since 1957, and on top of that, they also reported that the company was controlled by known Chicago hoodlums and was protected by unnamed high profile member of the Democratic Party. So in March 1961, the government forced the chief sanitary officer of the Chicago Health Department to testify against the Twin Food plant, who in turn gladly revealed numerous violations of the health laws, and the rendering operations of the same company. In no time the whole operation was quickly ordered to be halted and on top of that, health inspectors condemned over 1,000 pounds of meat and other products. And so like any other criminal case, this one also began with a trial, in which the company’s president Leo Rugendorf was called in for questioning. While some of the witnesses testified against the firm, Rugendorf tried to intimidate them by making motions as if cutting his throat. As I previously stated that the problems for the Twin Food firm did not begin from the company itself but instead it began from the loan sharking operations, which were overseen by the same people who controlled it. So one thing led to another and next thing you know the company was completely closed down for the next year.


The 1960’s was the so-called “Golden Era” for the Outfit’s entrance in the legitimate world, and one of the first individuals who warned the nation regarding the problem was Virgil Peterson, operating director for the Chicago Crime Commission at the time. In fact, Peterson especially warned the Chicago board of health and other government agencies to keep a sharp eye on the criminal activities in the food industry. So by now if we count the years regarding the Outfit’s involvement in the meat or food business, we might look at several decades, which was the main reason for Peterson’s warnings. In other words, he was quite aware that it was very hard for the Outfit’s top administration to simply forget the operation, since as I previously stated that it was their main money laundering scheme and so their main legit income had to be huge. For example, Tony Accardo, the one-time chief executive and also one-time overseer of the meat business, continued to stick his fingers in the food industry with the help of Dominick’s Finer Food Super Market which was located at 6415 North Central Avenue, or even his successor Sam Giancana took the old school way by presenting the finest Italian dishes at the infamous Armoury Lounge, until he decided to transform the joint into his own headquarters. Story goes that one Outfit associate Joe Pignatello was the best Italian chef at the time in all of Chicago who worked at Giancana’s headquarters, but later he was relocated to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he cooked for the biggest players at the Villa d’Este, located east of the Vegas Strip which in fact was the main meeting place for the Outfit’s top hierarchy. Giancana’s bodyguard and Outfit member Dominick Blasi also controlled his own food enterprise known as Mr. B’s, which in fact was a beef stand located in Melrose Park. As I previously stated at the beginning of this story that one of Chicago’s most favourable dishes was and still is the Italian beef sandwich, which in fact really grew in popularity during this decade, the time when also the deep dish pizza and the hamburger were already infiltrating the big popularity. Blasi’s front men were one John Contagessi and also Angelo Ruggiero who in turn was a known Mob lawyer, and their beef stand was just one of the many “competing” beef stands which suddenly popped up around the West Side, especially Taylor St., and succeeded in making the Italian beef sandwich primarily a city thing, instead of a neighbourhood thing. In addition, Sam Giancana enjoyed his food so much that during his stay in prison, which occurred in 1965, some of his peers smuggled in all kinds of steaks, fried chicken parts, sausages, pasta, whiskey and wines into his jail cell.

I also don’t know if you noticed but all of these previously mentioned big time Mob-connected food stores or companies operated in a different time periods, or one after the other, which again means that the boys were always prepared with a replacement. So no matter if Peterson warned the public and government, still the simple criminal tactic worked perfectly fine when one company takes all the government heat, while the rest of the Mobbed up firms continued to operate largely under the radar and since the main ingredient in the beef sandwich or Italian sausage pizza is meat, the Outfit’s involvement in the business took a step further. At the time, the whole meat industry in Chicago was under the watchful eye of the government and so some of the Outfit’s meat packing businesses began spreading out of the city, to another area, which was under the auspices of one different crew. During the mid 1960’s, the crime boss of Chicago’s southern suburbs and also northern Indiana, was Frank LaPorte, an old time mobster with criminal history since the Capone days. It was a time when the Mob already established itself around the country like in Phoenix, Arizona, and constantly brought its own members and my personal belief is that the main reason for those constant imports in this particular territory was the narcotics business but that’s another story. So during that time LaPorte gave the order to one of his underlings known as Armand D’Andrea to go down to Phoenix and establish himself as their top overseer. So D’Andrea succeeded to rise at the top of this whole operation and became in charge of LaPorte’s rackets and legit enterprises in Arizona. Besides in Phoenix, back home D’Andrea was also the guy in the Joliet area, and one time he was also considered by Illinois authorities to be the heir-apparent to the Outfit’s leadership of those same two areas. Now don’t get me wrong, D’Andrea wasn’t the first Chicago Mob representative in that territory, but instead there were previous members who already made space for the future reps such as himself. Since he was the top overseer, D’Andrea also controlled his own crew down there which included Joseph DiCaro, Joe Tocco, Philip Faustino and others, and most of these guys had their own food businesses in that same area.


For example, many restaurants around Phoenix bought their meat supplies from one Outfit-connected firm which was known as the Golden West Meat Co., located at 410 S. 59th Ave and was operated by Joseph DiCaro. As I previously stated that back in Chicago, this guy belonged to LaPorte’s Chicago Heights faction and in fact, DiCaro was heavily involved in the counterfeit businesses, but “somehow” the government was always one step in front of him, which was possibly the main reason for his relocation in Arizona, since as I previously stated that it became their main dope smuggling ground out of obvious territorial reasons. So there were more than few incidents regarding the meat company, since DiCaro’s main salesman for the firm, Philip Faustino, terrorized many butcher shops and restaurant owners, which led to his numerous arrests by the police. For example, by the end of the decade, the problem for Faustino was the Best Meal Co. of Phoenix, which with the help of his violent methods, became closely affiliated with DiCaro's Golden West firm. Besides extortion, the other connection between the two businesses was the renting of freezer space by the Golden West. So one day a conflict erupted between the two firms and later, as a response, Faustino allegedly was involved with the disappearance of a load of the Best Company meat. The victims quickly took the problem to the media and the government, which also in no time visited DiCaro, who in turn denied everything by saying that Faustino has never been directly or indirectly an employee of either DiCaro or of the Golden West Meat Co. but later, Faustino was accused of giving false information and was arrested by the police. In the end, nothing really happened and slowly the whole thing was buried under the ground. As additional statement, DiCaro also did not have any blood relations to the DiCaro brothers and Outfit members, Charles and Joseph, from the South Side.


The most interesting thing regarding Faustino’s activities was that besides being a fearless loan shark and a pimp, he was also one of the best Italian cooking chefs in the state of Arizona. It is possible that Faustino managed to upgrade his cooking skills back in Chicago when he used to cook for one whole Outfit crew on daily basis. So before entering the meat business, Faustino worked as the main cooking chef at the Pappa Joe’s pizzeria and restaurant, which was owned by Joe Tocco. In 1965, Tocco opened up the legit enterprise which was located in the northern part of Phoenix, in an area known as the Valley. In reality, Tocco’s joint was used for collecting the proceedings from their local loan sharking schemes, narcotics sales and handbook operations, but above all, the place was also used as storage for an arsenal of untraceable weapons, which were allegedly often passed out for numerous executions all around the country. And when you think of Phoenix or Arizona, you probably don’t think of pizza, but that was the product which Tocco’s restaurant was famous for but the reality was that it had a darker purpose. You see, during that period the frozen pizza business was used by the LaPorte group for transportation of narcotics, since many Outfit members at the same time began investing their cash in that same venture.


This so-called scheme first occurred back at the beginning of the 1950’s, but decade later, when most of the Outfit’s rackets were on the downfall, the boys quickly turned to the frozen pizza business, including the top boss Paul Ricca. The other main group which controlled the operation for Ricca, was the Taylor St crew headed by one ruthless captain known as Fiore Buccieri. Since during those days, Ricca was still considered the “Father” of Chicago’s Italian crime syndicate and in the style of a true Mob boss, he often “blessed” the careers of many famous individuals. For example, once he helped the famous Italian singer Sergio Franchi to become famous but the thing is that individuals like him were pure artists, meaning they only needed some good start or push, such as Ricca, so they can finish their job on their own with the help of their artistic skills. But there is also a different kind of entertainers, which I like to call them “Sinatra” type of fellas, who besides singing, acting or entertaining the audience, they also like to mingle with gangsters and racketeers and from time to time, to slap around people here and there. One of those artists was one of America’s greatest singers and entertainers known as Vic Damone. In fact, Damone was one of the famous “puppets” for the Chicago Outfit and also for the Genovese crime family in New York, by constantly touring the Mob’s casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada, as a performer. He even appeared publicly at some of the Outfit’s gatherings, such as the one which occurred in 1963, at Chez Paree Lounge, where Damone was the main guest of honour and also opening entertainer. He even made a guest appearance at Sam Giancana’s headquarters, the Armoury Lounge, which in fact was a simple bar but for Damone, it was like he was singing at the White House, followed by his own singing group known as The Vagabonds. But the most interesting thing regarding Damone’s shady activities were his deep criminal connections, such as being a front man for the syndicate.


So besides singing privately or making guest appearances for his buddies in the Mob, by the mid 1960’s, Damone slowly took few steps further in the criminal world by entering the food business, which obviously wasn’t for his own legit income but instead it was for laundering the illegal income of the Mob’s bosses such as Ricca or maybe even for the transportation of narcotics. In fact, from that point on Damone was considered close associate of the Outfit and was placed to work under the Buccieri group, including Buccieri’s brother Frank and one Joe Grieco. These guys represented only a part from the group’s huge loan sharking enterprise, or in other words, they made millions of dollars which were about to be laundered through Damone’s “legit” enterprise known as the Vic Damone Pizza Corporation, which was located at the same address as Grieco’s Independent Loan Corporation, located at 2015 North Larrabee St. The whole thing began when Grieco together with his brother Don and Frank Buccieri a.k.a. “Big Frank”, operated their loan sharking behind many pizza parlors, and so one day they decided to open up their own food firm known as Nicky’s Frozen Pizza Co. Then, story goes that Damone was brought in by Frank Buccieri, since the duo were quite close, meaning many times Damone spent his nights at Buccieri’s house, usually with a couple of girls. The trick was obviously in Damone’s name on the contract as the company’s president, and was also written on a fleet of trucks, which dispensed frozen pizza pies all around Chicago, and God knows what else, while behind the scenes the Outfit was giving checks to Damone’s pizza firm, through its director Frank Buccieri, who in turn has drawn the checks from Grieco’s loan business. And as for Joe Grieco, he also held high positions by being Damone’s vice president and also treasurer, since it was a time when the Grieco brothers had the power to form a profit from the high and mighty of businesses, and in the end to produce a sparkling tribute for their captain Fiore Buccieri, who in turn gave a 50% share to his gangland patron Sam Giancana, and in the end 25% went to Paul Ricca.



Interesting cover art of one music compilation in which Damone also appears


Real Sicilian type of pizza


In addition, according to Damone’s own words, when they started the pizza business, he allegedly made a request that they should use one secret recipe which his mother had always used in making pizza and made the their product even better. They used the same machines and facilities which were used in the previous pizza business, and the new company numbered somewhere around 20 workers, who in turn worked at the assembly line where the pizzas were made, boxed and stored in freezers, before being sold. The interesting thing was that the boxes in which the pizzas were being sold, resembled like the ones in which Damone’s phonograph records were being placed, with his picture and name appearing on the pizza box. The reality was that Damone was rarely seen at the company’s offices, and according to one FBI report, the main guys who were constantly present and also operated with the firm were Grieco and Buccieri. Story goes that Damone did not ask for any report and the boys on the other side did not bother to send anything.


But when the name of Grieco became quite known among the loan shark victims, who in turn gathered in many public places to discuss their violent methods in hushed tones, like any other previously mentioned semi-legit food venture, the Grieco boys slowly began to lose their grip over the business, since the government became quite interested in the whole situation. As always the good thing for the Mob was that they already had their own people infiltrated in the government, who in turn quickly warned the bosses regarding any possible future investigation or indictment. So when the scandal managed to hit the newspaper headlines, Damone and boys already closed their shop and after that, the famous singer was constantly questioned by the media or the feds regarding his close connections in the Mob, but every time he did not deny anything except that he never knew that some of these people, such as the Grieco brothers or Frank Buccieri, were members of the Mafia, and he also added that he never did anything illegal. Later a spokesman for Damone also confirmed his story and told the press on how the singer became involved in a pizza operation which allegedly started during one of his appearances at the Sahara North motel in 1962. The spokesman also said that Damone never received a report regarding the company’s status and also never received a dime out of the operation. He also added that Damone never knew any hoodlums and he even denied Damone ever seeing the checks from Grieco’s loan company. Obviously somebody pulled some strings here and there and next thing you know, Damone was off the hook. So in the next decade, Damone continued with his artistic career and as for the Grieco boys, they were involved in a new venture, known as the Lu Lu's Kosher hot dog stand, located at 1000 S. Leavitt St., where they mostly sold garlic scented sausages, which were obviously good for the taste of their boss and constant guest Fiore Buccieri. But slaving over a hot pot was a far cry from being a big shot and I guess somewhere in there lies the moral of this story. In addition, in 1972, Damone allegedly turned down a role for the famous movie The Godfather, who in turn was about to play the “Johnny Fontane” character, which is allegedly based on Frank Sinatra. Damone publicly told a great lie, in which his alleged drop out, was attributed to his huge pride in being Italian, even though agents at the FBI knew that he refused the role out of respect for his buddies in the Mafia, who in turn showed a great dissatisfaction towards the making of the film.


The reality is that I can go on forever writing regarding the Mob’s infiltration in the food business, which was mainly used for their various illegal activities, instead of keeping it clean and making the big buck through larger sales, obviously backed by fear, which is the sole point of this story. As you can see, during the 1960’s many of the Outfit’s members did not care regarding the previous point, and I believe that one of the reasons was that top advisors such as Murray Humphreys were dead and gone and also their ideology was buried with them. But the difference was that criminals like Humphreys were not Cosa Nostra, meaning they often saw a light at the end of the dark tunnel, which means that they fought to become legit individuals by taking over one or few of the most lucrative legitimate enterprises. As for the other type of gangsters, who believed in a 100-year old criminal brotherhood, through the decades they changed and began to rarely saw themselves as legit individuals, since the core of their organization was the illegal income and they also pledged their allegiance to that same brotherhood for the rest of their lives, or in other words, there was no way out for them from the illegal world. For example, the Italian criminal faction quickly got involved in one of their oldest legit businesses and that was the sale of olive oil, but this time it was often impure. This operation mainly began on the city’s West Side, particularly Taylor St., which at the time was under the auspices of Outfit capo Fiore Buccieri. It was a territory where many food shops or any other kind of establishments such as shoe shops, behind closed doors, sold so-called mixed olive oil which after the tests ran by state chemists revealed that the contents of the one gallon cans were not pure, as stated on the label, but instead it was a mixture of other oils such as cottonseed and peanut mixed with the olive oil. Usually, the racketeers offered to sell their impure product for $2 a gallon, and the retail price of pure olive oil was about $5 a gallon. Later chief inspectors for the federal Food and Drug administration in Chicago, determined that the fake oil which was being sold as pure, have mostly been imported. The inspectors managed to examine all olive oil shipped to the city and there were over 50 different brands of olive oil sold in Chicago and it turned out that one third was impure. In addition, this so-called racket exists even today.


Now don’t get me wrong, there were obviously still some Mafiosi who kept their legit enterprises separate from their illegal operations and sometimes they even refused to include any unstable individuals, who might screw up the whole thing. For example, when I explained the case regarding the Twin Food scandal, during the trial, most of the important Melrose Park crew members were being mentioned by the prosecutors except for one who went by the name of Charles Nicoletti. Now the legend goes that this guy was a real serial killer and also top notch money maker and because of that, he was involved in countless legit enterprises but above all, Nicoletti was employed as a potato salesman and had his own grocery store which was named La Joys, located on Taylor Street and on top of that, he also controlled three meat and vegetable markets on the Near Northwest side of Chicago. The point is that Nicoletti mostly kept his food shops clean, meaning he rarely had any illegal operations going on in those same joints. I mean he obviously kept few illegal weapons here and there and was arrested a couple of times, but as I previously stated that he often kept his legal operations completely clean, which obviously protected him from the law for quite a while. There’s also one story which states that Leo Rugendorf asked Nicoletti to include him in the grocery business but he, meaning Rugendorf, allegedly received the middle finger and was backed up only by receiving the contacts for the needed products. This was a sign that Rugendorf was out of the meat and shortening businesses and tried to find a new legit enterprise so he can hide his illegal operations and by asking Nicoletti for a favour, Rugendorf was obviously knocking at the wrong door.


But even in that huge pile of greedy and murderous mobsters, who at the same time doubled or tripled their legal or illegal incomes by mixing the two enterprises, still there was some hope with the presence of smarter associates who managed to follow the path of former members from the old era, who somehow managed to transfer at least some of their criminal knowledge. So such an old school move was made by one non-Italian Outfit member from the South Side, who went by the name of William McGuire. This guy was a former policeman, turned gambling operator and labor racketeer, who was known for being a front man for the Outfit but the interesting thing was that he was more than that, meaning he was often in the company of the so-called bosses of the non-Italian faction, including Ralph Pierce and Les Kruse, who in turn reported to Humphrey’s successor Gus Alex. Even though he was also closely connected to the Italian faction, with Charles Inglesia a.k.a. English or Sam DeStefano, still by the end of the day my personal belief is that McGuire’s boss was either Kruse or Pierce, who in fact was the so-called main overseer of the South Side for quite a long time.


You see, during the 1960’s Chicago's South Side was largely populated by African Americans and also with Hispanic population. In fact, during that time the prime working-class was the Mexican community, also followed by a large numbers of Puerto Ricans, which means that the Latino population in Chicago continued to diversify. As I previously stated that they were mostly centred on the South Side, but later some of the Hispanic population from different areas also settled around the Lower West Side and soon this so-called colonia became known as La Villita which means Little Village or some even call it Chicago’s “Little Mexico”. They obviously brought their traditions with them and in no time, Latino-owned businesses which ranged from clothing stores and vending machines, to restaurants, bars and food stands which have sprung along Cermak Road, thus adding to the growing economic power of Chicago's Hispanic population. But my personal belief is that these legit enterprises were just a small portion of the economic power and I think that the real money obviously came from the illegal activities, such as the famous Bolita game, which was a multi-million dollar gambling business, or the prostitution racket and even narcotics. The reality was that all of these things doubled the opportunity to make a fortune and serve the community, and also the ability to take an active role in the city’s affairs of highest level. But if we put their shady activities on the side, still one of the most lucrative legit incomes was in fact their traditional food business. Their so-called neighbours, the African-American population presented their rib joints and chicken shacks, as well as a plethora of specialized bakeries, butchers, grocery stores and fishmongers, giving Chicago’s foodways a decidedly ethnic flavour, thus pointing out the so-called “Soul Food” of the 1960’s. But since the Hispanic food is one of the most regarded in the world, and it’s similar to the Italian cooking style, in no time it became one of the Mob’s targets.



Hispanic type of food


During the mid 1960’s, Chicago’s Latino restaurant scene, especially the Mexican, has literally exploded and much of the joints promised food that was truly traditional, using signs with phrases such as “Netamente Mexicanas”, which means “Distinctly Mexican” or maybe even “verdades platillos nacionales”, in translation “true national dishes”. This was a simple trick just to emphasize their own fellow immigrants that they would find the flavours of home at these restaurants. Some even named their joints after the hometowns or states of which the family or owner had previously arrived. For example one of the most traditional meals was, and still is, the tamales which are quite notable mainly because during those days the meal was typically eaten in their homes as a special occasion food due to the amount of labor involved, since the Emergency Farm Labor Program at the time, recruited over two million Mexican nationals to work in the U.S. on short-term labor contracts. And so for a restaurant to offer tamale, it was a pure sign that there was a solid customer base from Hispanic heritage. This is in fact dish made of dough, which is often starchy and usually corn-based, and after that it is steamed in a corn husk or banana leaf. The wrapping is discarded before eating and the tamales can be filled with meat, cheese, fruit, vegetable or any other stuff depending on the taste. So the selling of tamale was quite good business for some of the restaurant owners, but we all know that all of traditional meals are made of certain products, and in the Latino community the food product which brought the real cash was the so-called tortilla. It doesn’t mean anything if you’re a vegetarian or carnivore, still by the end of the day everyone loves tortillas. It is like olive oil and cheese for the Italians, or sausages and beer for the Germans, and across Mexico, tortillas are a staple, so it’s no surprise that a number of tortillerias opened up around Chicago to provide this essential food to the community. The product is made out of ground corn, which is previously prepared in an electric corn mill, and later we make dough or masa for the tortillas. In fact, this is an ancient process that renders this variety of corn digestible, and makes its nutrients more available, and allows the corn to form into dough. After that balls of dough or masa are placed onto the conveyor belt and they are hand-cranked through the rollers of a press, and then dropped onto a propane-fired pan to cook and in the end, the product looks something like a pancake but thicker. In addition, early tortillas took hours to make but during the 1960s, small-scale tortilla-making machines which churned out hot, steaming tortillas every several seconds.



Tortilla


Tortilla machine


So the lucrative thing regarding the tortillas is quite obvious, since during the 1960’s, there were over 100,000 Chicagoans who ate the product on daily basis, and so for one to control at least a third from the whole business that meant the profits were quite huge. And we all know that the Mob is able to catch the scent of a huge pile of cash, from quite a long distance, just like the sharks, which can catch the smell of blood from few miles away. One of those “sharks” was Willie McGuire, with a plan to corner Chicago’s million dollar-a-year tortilla market. As I previously stated that McGuire was also involved in the labor rackets, especially the garbage business and unions, and with the help of those same skills, he would make a move on the tortilla business. The first thing which McGuire had done was the forming of some kind of independent teamsters union, which was about to organize all of the Hispanic bakers and also their drivers. Now, the connection between the Outfit and the Hispanic underworld was obviously formed with the help of the same vices which they controlled or shared, such as prostitution, narcotics, but above all the lucrative Bolita racket. Years ago, the Outfit managed to infiltrate the business through bombings, threats and murder, meaning the boys killed off more than few Hispanic gang leaders and gambling operators, thus creating their own control over the operation, obviously with the help of the Latino operators who decided to pay their tribute to the Mob.


So with the help of those same connections, McGuire managed to send word to some of the Hispanic bakers with an invitation to come to a meeting, regarding the tortilla business. But few months before the meeting took place, several bombing occurred, and also many vehicles, owned by the tortilla bakers, were being damaged. All of that violence was in fact the so-called “invitation” to the meeting, which occurred on May 26, 1964, during a dinner at the La Margaritas restaurant, located at 868 N. Wabash Av. On one side, there was McGuire, who represented himself as the union’s president, together with his union associates, and on the other were the confused and frightened tortilla bakers. The main guy who did the talking was obviously McGuire, who in turn told the bakers that his plan was to unionize their drivers and also to raise their wages and fringe benefits. In the end, McGuire offered the bakers a deal, in which he gave them a choice of having union drivers or to let one of his men to handle the distribution of their products, meaning the tortillas. The reality for the bakers was quite different since McGuire’s obvious plan was to compel the bakers to turn their distribution and transportation over to his new organization so later, he can control the whole market. You see, during those days the prices of the tortillas were at 10 to 12 cents a dozen in one pack, placed in all stores. So with control of the entire supply, a future distributor such as McGuire could regulate the prices as he chose.

When the meeting finished, most of the bakery owners decided to join McGuire’s union but more than a dozen felt frustrated and became angry at him and instantly refused his offer. So the next day, in a true Mob style, McGuire began harassing the 12 bakers who balked at the plan, by sending corrupt building and health department officials, who in turn inspected their workers on daily basis. In some cases, even corrupt police squads managed to arrest few truck drivers allegedly for various violations. To tell you the truth, these poor Latino bakers did not have many choices since they did not have anywhere else to go, meaning the Outfit already had an alderman and a huge number of city enforcement and health departments under its payroll, which were obviously and unwittingly used in attempts to harass the legit businessmen and bring unwanted pressure upon them. But as I previously stated that during this period the Latin community heavily invested in the highest circles of society, and one of their guys out there was Arturo Velasquez, the owner of the Automatic Music Company, located at 4539 S. Ashland Av. This guy was active in Latin-American community affairs and has served many times on committees for the offices of the mayor and governor but also he had a shady history of being involved in the vending machine racket and also the Bolita game. In fact, it was Velasquez who notified the feds of the plot regarding the control of the tortilla supply. The investigation has been conducted jointly by the state’s attorney’s office, the feds and the police labor squad and in no time, all of the suspected city department officials, the unknown alderman, and the district police were informed by intelligence detectives that they were being “used” in the plot and if they did not stop, they were going to be arrested.


So McGuire and the Outfit quickly got wind of the situation, and in their own violent and animalistic style, they decided to send a message to Velasquez in the form of a bomb. The interesting thing was that same day, or earlier that night, a meeting was held in Velasquez's company, which also included Governor of Illinois Otto Kerner and State's Attorney Daniel Ward, regarding the arrangement of a dinner in behalf of the re-election campaigns and possibly regarding Velasquez’s huge problem. An hour later after the finishing of the meeting, a dynamite blast shattered all of the windows and damaged a big part of the building, but luckily no one was hurt. This was an obvious threat towards Velasquez, but the main question is, was it also a threat meant for the governor and the state’s attorney, and if it was, then this was one hell of a message. No matter if was or wasn’t meant for the high government officials, from that point on every investigator in the country had his eyes on the case. So by the end of that year, McGuire was called to testify in front of a grand jury regarding the tortilla racket, but as usual, like a true racketeer, he took the Fifth Amendment on almost every question. No matter if McGuire managed to escape jail sentence, still the Outfit’s so-called “tortilla operation” was finished forever. On top of that I also believe that nobody really cared, since during this period the Outfit’s top administration was crumbling down and most of the lower members were left on their own, meaning they had much trouble with the law that their illegal enterprises were quite disrupted, thus having almost nothing to invest into their legal operations.


Even though this decade was quite troubled for Chicago’s Italian underworld, still the Outfit entered into the 1970’s with one stable and quite strong hierarchy and also with many ventures, including the food business. By now, the most powerful crew was the so-called Grand Avenue group which was led by one Joe Gagliano, since his boss Jackie Cerone was sentenced to prison. Gagliano was a known as the top guy in the loan sharking business and the thing was that he inherited one quite murderous group which was formed by former or up and coming professional killers and extortionists, who in fact were no different than the rest of the Outfit’s crews from this particular era and the next case which I’m about to explain consists many gaps, and the main reason for that were the many murders and unexplained connections. So one of the most lucrative and legit operations at the time was the catering business, which became the new style of business in providing food service for the citizens. Now, the most interesting thing regarding the catering business is the mobile caterers, which serves food directly from a vehicle, cart or truck which is designed for the purpose at outdoor events. All kinds of food products are provided at remote sites such as weddings, funerals, working places, ships, planes, concerts or at sites such as hotels, public houses and other locations. Every owner offers different catering food options for the costumers including Italian, Chinese or Mexican cuisine or maybe even Kosher, Balkan or vegetarian styles, mostly depending on the costumer’s taste. For example the Italian catering is usually completed from savoury dishes perfect for any occasion, such as mouth-watering combination of contemporary Italian appetizers, Italian entrées, pasta dishes and Italian desserts’ artfully prepared with superior quality and also flavourful dishes like Chicken Marsala, Eggplant Parmesan, Fettucine Alfredo, Lasagna, Italian meatballs or a gourmet pasta station, where chefs often create pasta dishes made to order for each guest. But for some other reasons, the mobile catering service in the Chicago area never really reached its peak.



Mobile catering during an outdoor event


I believe that, like in some of the previous examples, the mobsters did not have any problems in infiltrating the business, since they already owned many restaurants, working sites or hotels in which weddings often occurred, or cruise ships which travelled around the world, including the air-catering. So in 1970, Gagliano was already into the food catering business with the help of one of his associates known as John Schaffer a.k.a. Juan Atilano, the owner of the restaurant La Hacienda Del Sol, located at 1945 N. Sedgwick St. on the city’s North Side and also the part owner of the Thunderbird Catering Co. at 4242 S. Racine Av. on the South Side. It was a beautiful scheme since, besides his alleged Mob connections, Schaffer had no criminal record and was clean, and on top of that he had a professional “team” under his rule which carried out the operation. For example, besides Schaffer, another individual with hidden interests in both establishments, and was also employed as manager, was Jack Clarke, one quite controversial consultant for the Chicago Police Department, undercover agent for the FBI and private investigator, who in turn also had many connections on Chicago’s docks which made him the Mob’s perfect puppet. In fact, Clarke was one of the worst kinds of criminals since he worked for three different “agencies”, including the police, the feds and the Outfit, and paid, with tons of cash, many high profile informants from within the crime syndicate regarding underworld activities, but above all he worked for himself. The other half of the “team” was completed by one quiet, unassuming, hardworking and intelligent lady who went by the name of Rita Payonk and she was the group’s main bookkeeper for both establishments and knew all the secrets and schemes, which in fact were tax evasion and forcing other establishments to buy their catering products or trucks. By now the Thunderbird Catering Co. had almost 100 mobile catering trucks, which in fact became one of the leading companies who were on the rise in making a monopoly around Chicago. In addition, Miss Payonk was in fact Clarke’s friend who in fact brought her into the firm and there’s also one possibility that Schaffer’s Outfit “friendship” really came from Clarke’s personal connections.


But things became complicated for the Chicago Outfit since in 1971, Gagliano died of natural causes and also two years later, Jack Clarke was indicted for tax evasion in a different case and was sentenced to three years in jail, and on top of that, after a while it was disclosed that he also worked for the feds, which made the situation quite dangerous. Instead of serving three years, Clarke served only 11 months in prison and in 1975 he was called before a grand jury regarding his shady activities, who in turn took the 5th a lot more than few times. After Gagliano’s death, the late big shot who allegedly resented psychopathic violence, as expected the crew completely changed its structure in becoming quite the opposite or in other words, even more violent. Some say that the new boss of the group was Joseph Lombardo a.k.a. Joey the Clown or some even say that even Charles Nicoletti might’ve been the new or onetime overseer who groomed the future captain, so whoever was the new top guy for the crew, the thing was that by the late 1970’s few people in the catering business died from unnatural causes. At first, I really didn’t had any clue on what was the problem, since the case which I’m about to show you has no conclusion but instead it remains unsolved until this day. But if you look at the situation more clearly, one might just find two possible solutions, including the possibility of Clarke’s various government associations or maybe even the main problem was that the front guys such as Schaffer who began noticing that they were losing more money instead of the gaining, because most of them were not aware of their own situation since they obviously did not understand the meaning of “front man”. So for some reasons, or right after Clarke’s testimony, on May 6, 1975, somebody planted a pipe bomb under the hood of John Schaffer’s automobile, which after the explosion, luckily for him, he was quite away from the car and left unharmed. Some of the investigators said that it was a possible murder attempt and some said that it might’ve been only a warning since the bomb was professionally planted, but what were the reasons? When the investigators questioned Schaffer, in an already known victim style, he answered that he allegedly had no clue on who would’ve tried such a thing and he never had a quarrel with anyone.


If Schaffer was telling the whole truth, then the life-threatening situation of his bookkeeper Rita Payonk would’ve never occurred. On January 18, 1976, two masked men armed with high powered rifles, while riding a car, fired more than a dozen of shots as the poor woman drove home but she ended up wounded slightly in the incident. Now, according to the previous information Schaffer was in a position to help his female co-worker but instead, he and Clarke told her that it was a possible mistaken identity and that all of those bullets were meant for someone else. From that point on the poor woman was forced to ask her colleagues on daily basis to escort her to her car after work. But according to some reports, during this period Miss Payonk was again visited more than a couple of times by Clarke, who in turn allegedly advised her that the coast was completely clear and there was no reason for her to be further afraid. So according to her colleagues, on February 6, 1976, she allegedly told them that she wasn’t scared anymore and that all things were good. That same day, 31-year old Rita Payonk was found shot two times at the back of her head and four times in the chest, while being seated and slumped over the wheel of her car in the 1800 block of North Lincoln Avenue. The investigators reported that it was a professional assassination since they found six 38.caliber shell casings on the floor of the victim’s auto but they were not able to determinate if the killer or killers lay and waited inside the car or forced his or their way in. In the end, the investigators connected Payonk’s murder to the narcotics business, since some of the truck drivers were involved in the scheme, which for me personally doesn’t make any sense. After the slaying of Miss Payonk, the government turned its view over the mobile catering business which in fact was one of the first reasons for its huge failure at the time.


My personal opinion is that this was possibly another “St. Valentine’s Day Massacre” type of crime, where you might find many corrupt government officials and mobsters involved in one conspiracy, which usually ends up unsolved forever, and I also believe that the individual in the middle was in fact Jack Clarke. Proofs for that were the high profile slayings of two of Clarke’s former colleagues such as police officer John Lourgos in April, 1977, and also police commander Mark Thanasouras in July that same year. Story goes that both victims were seen on daily basis at the La Hacienda Del Sol and they also associated with owners, truck drivers and employees of the Thunderbird Catering Co. My other belief is that these guys were possible front men for Clarke or whoever was behind him, like shady people from the Mob or the government, but in the end they obviously screw up something. The next proof for that was the murder of the manager of the Thunderbird Co. and long-time employee, who went by the name of Richard Crofton, which occurred in December that same year. He was shot to death “gangland style” by two assassins with ski masks outside his garage, or in other words, six times in the head, chest and back. On top of that, during this period the pressure probably caught up with Schaffer and he died of natural causes and his ownership was inherited by his wife. So before the Crofton murder, Miss Theresa Schaffer told the police that she allegedly received a death threat over the phone. So from this point on, some of the corrupt investigators were no longer in a position to cover up the whole scandal, since it became obvious that something was obviously happening particularly in the food catering business. Many of the newspapers began posting statements regarding the mobile catering alleged war or conflict and so in no time, the whole violent and murderous situation suddenly went down. My personal belief is that these slayings were obviously orchestrated by some organized crime syndicate, which I also believe was the Chicago Outfit, mainly because of the modus operandi in the slayings, which were exactly the same as the ones which were executed by hit teams of the Grand Avenue crew or the so-called 26th Street group.


Somebody obviously cleared the way for the Thunderbird Co. and also killed anyone who might’ve represented a danger for the whole operation, including their own people. You see, by now the catering company became the main player in the industry with almost 150 trucks which made the money flow quite serious since they held their own monopoly within the city of Chicago. The so-called “peace” lasted for nearly 6 years, until “somebody” went on a killing spree for the second time, but from this point on most of the victims belonged to rival companies. For example, in 1983 one of the leading catering firms was the Best Catering Co. which was owned by Theresa Schaffer, one Louis Papalia and also one shady individual with gang land connections known as Mike Spiotto. Obviously their company was successful because of Schaffer’s interest but that same year, “someone” thought differently, meaning it was time for the Best Catering to go fully with the Thunderbird. So one day, in the same style, Spiotto was gunned down by two assassins as he left his girlfriend’s apartment on the city’s South Side. When some of the authorities questioned Spiotto’s family of any possible enemies of theirs but they said that he had no problems in life and that he belonged to some local motorcycle gang, a statement which I again find it quite laughable. During the same time, two other food catering giants such as the E & D Catering and also the M & S Catering companies were suffering for the same problems, meaning some shady individuals were constantly warning them regarding their supply of food catering trucks around the Chicago area and also tried to extort them. At one instance, there was a suspicious fire at one of their plants, and finally, just one day after the Spiotto slaying, the main shareholder in both companies DeMar Thorton was killed together with his wife Norma at the bathroom in their home on the western suburbs. Now the strange thing was that none of the investigators ever cleared any of the previous murders, but since the Thorton slaying was high profile, they quickly “found the murderers and so the police chief at the time declared that the double murder was nothing but a simple drug deal which went wrong and also loudly stated that it was unrelated to any “non-existing” war in the catering business. The police also stated that they allegedly managed to find $250,000 worth of cocaine in one of Thorton’s antique automobiles and also photographs of the couple with local gang members and organized crime figures. So in no time they made quite a big deal out of it by also arresting and convicting two alleged suspects. My opinion is that if the couple was really in the dope business than why didn’t somebody from the investigators previously found or arrested at least one suspect dealing drugs for the late Thortons, but instead they found the stash after their murders. If you ask me, somebody could’ve easily placed the drugs there right after the killings and make the take the whole case in a different direction.


If anyone really believed in the police chief’s words, then nobody would’ve left or sold their food catering businesses, but instead that’s what really happened such as the Papalia family who sold and left the business permanently like many others. On top of that, many close friends and associates of the late Thorton couple stated that there was no need for them to sell any kind of drugs since they had all the money in the world from their legit business. For me personally the only investigator who told the truth was one Patrick Healey from the Chicago Crime Commission who in turn never mentioned any personal finding regarding the narcotics racket, but instead he clearly stated only what have the other investigators told him and allegedly discovered. That’s why in the Healy only stated that there wasn’t much space for democracy in the mobile catering business and that everyone was forced to buy their supplies and food from certain individuals and that was it. One mobile caterer also stated that all of the investigations came to nothing in the end and that they were like fishing expeditions which fished for some alleged impropriety but none really came up. The other interesting thing was that all of the problems again suddenly stopped but this time it was at the same period when the Grand Avenue crew boss Joey Lombardo was indicted and sentenced to prison regarding the extortion attempt of some wealthy construction owner. Also in addition, one Grand Avenue crew member and also the Outfit’s main representative in Las Vegas, Nevada; known as Tony Spilotro, in 1983 went to a trial in which he planned to contact the owner of the catering service which fed all 17 grand jurors and also the underworld informant known as Sal Romano, and to convince him to poison the food which all of the previously mentioned individuals ate. In plane words, Spilotro planned to kill the entire Nevada grand jury, including their main witness, and story goes that he worked out the plot but later for unknown reasons he cancelled the operation. It is possible that the Grand Avenue boys had their fingers in the previous murders and I’m not making a conclusion or anything but instead I’m only placing out some of the facts and my personal opinions on the previous case since it’s quite a mystery.


But that particular “mystery” was one of the reasons for which the government tried to legally ban the mobile food vending units and companies on several occasions, mainly because this kind of food vending was allegedly destroying the business of the local restaurants, bars or hotels and on top of that, some of the investigators tried to prove that most of caterers were not paying their taxes but by the end of the day they couldn’t make one single case. The government tried to ban the food truck business all around Chicago, but according to some reports, “coincidentally” their main target was the Grand Avenue area, obviously for the biggest concentration of food trucks in that same territory. Another problem which allegedly occurred and the government was concerned about was the physical violence among truck drivers, mainly for selling spots. But even with that, by the end of decade most of the top mobsters who were possibly extorting the food catering business were gone and also with most of the competition gone, the Thunderbird firm remained at the top of the industry with Theresa Schaffer as the chief executive. With so many trucks, her company began leasing food truck for a price between $40 and $75 per day, depending on the truck’s condition. Also, during that same time period, over 300 licences were issued to various food vendors. Today, there are less than 100 trucks in all territory of Chicago since it’s the only big city in the U.S. where food trucks have hundreds of restrictions such as parking around public places or staying longer in one place for more than one or two hours. But in Los Angeles or New York for instance, the food trucks and firms are well established and on top of that, they began spreading their businesses in nearby smaller cities.


But as I previously pointed out that the Grand Avenue crew was deeply infiltrated into the food business and I also believe they kept it that way. After the conviction of Joey Lombardo in another case, which this time it included the whole Outfit’s top hierarchy, he was allegedly succeeded by one old timer also from the West Side, known as Louis Eboli who owned and extorted many restaurants, but the problem was that he unexpectedly died of natural causes in 1987, and he was allegedly succeeded by Joe Andriacchi or some sources say that Eboli’s real successor was in fact John DiFronzo, which made Andriacchi the number two guy. So no matter who was the real successor, my point was that the group continued to stick their fingers in the food business, even in the highest of establishments. For example, during the 1990’s Andriacchi allegedly had hidden interest in the Rosebud chain of restaurants which started back in 1975. Originally located on Taylor St. and known as “Boccia della Rosa”, which means bud of the rose, began serving few of the best Italian meals and their own signature dishes such as Chicken Vesuvio and Pappardelle which in fact means square noodles, and so their food became quite popular and attracted celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett or Robert DeNiro. The first time the connection between the Outfit and the Rosebud restaurant came to the government’s attention in 1988, when the cops managed to arrest one bookmaker known as Roger Riccio, who in turn operated a large handbook operation from an apartment located above the restaurant. In fact, all of those apartments were owned and rented by Alex Dana, the owner of the Rosebud and possible front man for the Mob at the time. During the search of the apartment, besides gambling tickets and cash, the investigators also found one picture of smiling Dana shaking hands with DiFronzo, in the company of other mobsters. As usual, the case on Riccio was later thrown away since the cops who led the raid had no warrant. During the trials, Dana’s name stayed in the shadows but few years later, when some reporters asked Dana regarding Riccio’s arrest, he replied “I rent out the apartments upstairs and I don’t recall it.”



Rosebud restaurant


During the early 1990’s, the owner decided to spread his business from Taylor St. to the Rush St. area, which I believe was the main reason for Andriacchi’s further infiltration in the establishment since he allegedly had many interests in that same territory, even though he was a West Side guy. It is possible that he inherited the imprisoned Joey Lombardo’s interests in that area, and it seems that Andriacchi wasn’t involved at all in the inner workings of the establishment, and all I know is that he allegedly kept his hidden interest and possibly even helped the owners to open up another food establishment, five blocks away from the previous restaurant in that same area. But above all, it was obvious that the whole building was a front for illegal gambling operations. The other interesting thing was that in no time, the Rosebud establishments became the Outfit’s daily meeting places, especially the Grand Avenue group which included DiFronzo, Andriacchi and one Marco D’Amico, the group’s top hierarchy and possibly the Outfit’s. Investigators at the time reported that the Rosebud restaurant, particularly on Taylor St., was “very big with organized crime” but the owner Dana always denied that he did not know a single member of the Mafia and that the bad reputation came from the location, meaning it is Taylor St., the Outfit's old stronghold since the 1930’s. In addition, in 2012 Alex Dana stepped down as the general manager and owner of the Rosebud chain and was replaced by his son and a team of his best employees. And with all of those criminal allegations, Dana was never arrested, nor brought to court, but instead in 2015 the successful businessman celebrated 40 years anniversary of his legit business.


But according to one Mob historian and writer, Andriacchi’s alleged boss John DiFronzo possibly had a more sinister plan regarding the food business. The individual which I’m referring to is known as Joseph Fosco, whose father used to be a member of the Outfit in the union racketeering business and his son brought up the info in 2011. According to Fosco, the main problem for the recent bankruptcy of one of the largest grocery chains in the history of Chicago is or was the Outfit and its top leadership. In 2017, the Central Grocers Inc., a wholesaler which supplied over 400 independent grocery stores all around the Chicago area and with over 500 employees, filed for bankruptcy after being in business for exactly 100 years, since it first opened up way back in 1917. So with no money, the company’s top administration began firing people and also selling its own store chains and establishments in different areas. Now, according to Fosco the alleged reason for the company’s downfall was in the board of members for Central Grocers, which again according to his statements, it included alleged organized crime figures such as Dominick Gambino, Tony Ingraffia and Paul Butera Sr., who are allegedly tied to DiFronzo and the Outfit. It is quite possible that Fosco received this info from one Teamsters Local, which he also admits it, and I believe it was Local 703, which represented about 300 workers at Central Grocer’s warehouse in the Joliet area. You see, the union tried to stop the company from selling its business by filling a federal lawsuit on April 27, 2017, just to block the whole process. But only seven days later, out of nowhere, the union suddenly withdraw the lawsuit, since they allegedly received some information regarding potential transactions or in other words, they withdraw everything because of “certain confidential information” which will allow the Teamsters to access the sale on its labor contracts. In July, the Central Grocers was purchased by a Minnesota-based grocery company for $61,000,000; a price which according to the sellers was well below the appraised value. The interesting thing was that all top individuals from both parties declined to comment on anything.



Central Grocers Inc.


To tell you the truth, for me personally this whole story really stinks and if Fosco’s claims are true, than the whole situation can be much worse for the ordinary citizen. The problem for which I’m talking about is counterfeit food products that began spreading all across the states from 2014 until now. Some of those counterfeit foods usually include sugar, salt, milk, coffee, cheeses, wines, whiskey, honey and olive oil. For example in 2016, there was a massive seizure of counterfeit honey in Chicago in which almost 60 tons of honey was seized by the agents. Obviously there are billions of dollars to be made with the help of counterfeit cuisine and according to some of the investigators most of these products are smuggled from Mexico, Italy and China. According to other reports, “it could be that 10 percent of the entire U.S. food supply is fraudulent one way or the other.” Story goes that many food producers or larger companies are under assault by well-organized crime syndicates, which the consumer’s health is their last concern. They are even switching seafood with cheaper species, like for example if you order red snapper there are good chances that you will receive tilapia, or if you order tuna you might get escolar, which in fact is fish that can easily cause intestinal problems. The Italian counterfeit syndicates, or mainly the Mafia or Camorra, are known for painting the olives with copper sulfate to enhance the colour or as I previously stated that they put peanut oil instead of olive oil in the bottles. One investigator also stated that the Italian crime syndicates are quite aware of the advantage of this kind of business, meaning the penalties and convictions associated with being caught are quite smaller compared to drug trafficking for example. So if the Chicago Outfit really managed to infiltrate so deep in the food industry, than I believe that this is one of their chances and biggest opportunities to make the big buck once again, just like in the old days.


One thing is for sure that the gangsters, especially the Italian Mafiosi, allegedly took the gastronomy to a higher level in the ordinary people’s minds, but as you saw in the previous examples, the reality is quite different. Times are changing and so are the mobster’s tactics and styles of infiltrating legitimate businesses. You see, it’s the tables filled with food where they talk freely and eat prodigiously, which it became the main force in the collective persona of the Mob. But the thing is that they always consume pure and natural food, instead of the bad stuff that they try to smuggle and sell it to us. It’s a similar situation in which you’re a regular guest at some restaurant and so when you order something, the waiter usually will inform you that the meal is currently not for you and so instead he will offer it to someone who comes in for the first time. In fact, these days’ mobsters are quite the opposite from their predecessors of 90 years ago who rarely ventured outside their own neighbourhoods or restaurants and offered high quality food to everyone who visited their joints. But in time, some even with murder “contracts” on their heads still managed to catch a seat at some famous Italian restaurant with excellent food and by the end of the day, they usually ended up in a body bag. In plane words, where they dined, usually that’s where they died. As I previously stated somewhere in my story, that the days of Murray Humphreys or Ross Prio and grade A milk or high quality cheese were long gone, but instead today we can see a crossing between ancient crimes and the modern ones, which all end up to be bad for the everyday citizen. If you really think about it, the Mob’s plan for the complete take over of the food industry has a quite darker side, meaning they are quite aware of the fact that every individual will be forced to rely on the them for his or hers daily meal. It is obviously our basic need and it’s also a key instrument for positive or negative change, which mostly depends on us, meaning if we don’t fight the so-called “food cancer”, our own future will be quite short.



Fake egg and original


Counterfeit olives


Fake expensive champagne


…and the result would be probably this


…or maybe this

Thank you.

Nice Work Toodoped

Thanx ricky

Nice, Villain. You mention "Joe" DiFronzo in a couple of places where I think you meant to put "John".

Damn i didnt noticed the mistake even when i re-read the article. Too many similar names in one piece. Thanks a lot man and I'll re-edit it as soon as I can.

Nice read, TooDoped. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks a lot buddy and youre welcome

your welcome bro i think i have a hamburger

Looks good Toodoped. I'm going to enjoy reading it.

Thanks man

Toodoped this is very thorough. Great job and thanks for sharing.

Thank you Jimmy and youre welcome

Another job well done. Do you have any files or reading in regards to Capone from when he lost the thrown until his death? That one pic where he wears the boater hat, aviators, big cigar, and smiling is said to have been taken when he was released. He looked like he was in good shape there. After reading your stories, I'm finding Chicago to be the most intriguing. Keep them coming.

Thanks a lot blueracing347, heres a link to the previous thread in which you might find your answers...read the last post...

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=921599#Post921599

Man - Good Job

Good thing I read fast and it still took a lot of time

I like the angles that you were coming from

Makes a good story without getting bogged down in things that aren't all that important

I appreciate the work that went into this

Again Good Job

Thanks a lot FriendoftheFamily and to tell you the truth I'm doing my best to avoid anything which is already known by the general public and I'm also trying to avoid it while working on the "angles" or on the "connections" between the stories. Don't worry I'll get even better and thanks again