Ladies and gents, Im back with another free article for you to enjoy. Salut'

Intro

Arizona aka “Baby State” aka “The land of sunshine” is located in the southwestern region of the United States, and it is the sixth largest and the 15th most populous of all the 50 states. Arizona was officially recognized sometime around 1912 and two decades later many people began arriving to the state so they can retire from their everyday work or regarding their health issues because the southern part of Arizona is known for its dry climate, with very hot summers and mild winters. On the other hand, northern Arizona features forests of pine and spruce trees, mountain ranges with ski resorts in the areas of Flagstaff, Sunrise, and Tucson. This means that the ordinary or everyday citizen favored Arizona as a recreational spot, but another group of people saw the state’s so-called “dark potential”.



Mafia Takes Over

You see, Arizona also has a strategic position because it is one of the Four Corners states, meaning it has borders with New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, California, and Mexico, and one point in common with the South Western corner of Colorado. So, some of the more organized criminal groups such as the American Mafia easily realized that the state of Arizona is the perfect territory regarding their smuggling operations such as alcohol, gambling machines, narcotics and white slavery, and above all, it was far from their home cities such as New York, Chicago or Detroit.

There’s a great dilemma on which crime family took the first step in Arizona, since some researchers say that it was the Detroit or the Cleveland family, while others say it was the New York Mafia. I personally believe that it was for the so-called Jewish mob that first placed its foot in Arizona sometime shortly after the end of Prohibition, mainly because of their poppy fields which were located in Mexico. “Legend” goes that one of the first Italian racketeers who was invited to operate in Arizona was allegedly Pete Licavoli from the Detroit mob. Licavoli became important figure in Tucson during the early 1930’s, where he operated an illegal gambling wire service and also liquor distribution, and by the mid 1930’s the Cleveland mob also owned their own ranch in Arizona near the Mexican border, through their Jewish associate Moe Dalitz.


Pete Licaovili


Moe Dalitz

Some of Dalitz’s visitors were New York’s Jewish mobster Louis Buchalter and Genovese caporegime Mike Coppola who in turn had a residence at Tucson’s East 5th Street and was constantly observed by government officials because he was always in the company of other mobsters from around the country. In 1938, Al Polizzi, Buchalter and Licavoli met at Coppola’s house in Tucson to discuss the Nazi government, which disrupted their traditional drug trafficking routes out of Europe and tried to sort out alternate routes for their raw materials source. They decided that Mexico would be the best location and they were probably dealing with Enrique Diarte, a Tijuana based Mexican narcotics trafficker, who during the late 1930s and early 1940s was probably the biggest drug dealer in that area.


Mike Coppola

So, my point is that there wasn’t only one crime family which ruled Arizona but instead Ill say that the situation was similar as the one in Las Vegas, meaning Arizona was probably an "open territory" for the national mob, meaning anyone was able to do their own legal or illegal operations, obviously without stepping on anyone’s toes.

The Chicago Boys

During the late 1940’s and early 1950’s the Chicago Outfit was spreading like a cancer throughout the United States and also the whole world. I know that this sounds like script for a fictional movie but it’s true. Besides their business adventures on all of these different continents, their prime dirty cash came from home, or to be exact, the Western part of the U.S. Back in 1943, the infamous Hollywood extortion case in which most of Chicago’s crime leaders were imprisoned, spread a lot of waves throughout the underworld which resulted with reinforcing their operations east of Los Angeles and that is Las Vegas, Nevada; and a little bit more eastern to Phoenix and Tucson, since the Chicago boys still considered Arizona as a "haven" and virtually untapped territory.

During the late 1940’s Pete Licavoli owned the Grace Ranch which became meeting place for the national crime syndicate. During the “migration” of the Chicago mob to Arizona, Licavoli started often having meetings with the Outfit’s top boss Paul Ricca and his chief executive Tony Accardo. Later other big shots who often visited Licavoli’s ranch were Accardo’s underboss Sam Giancana and also Presidential Candidate and Senator Barry Goldwater. So, during that time Arizona became the headquarters for the Midwest mob which spread its rackets in areas around New Mexico, Nevada, South Western Texas, Southern California and Mexico.


Outfit “royalty” Paul Ricca and Tony Accardo

Never break the “Omerta”

By the late 40’s Chicago crime retiree William” Bob” Nelson moved to Tucson, AZ and lived rather quietly in his then-rural East Bethany Home Road neighborhood for six years. "Nelson" was in fact former Outfit associate and extortionist named Willie Bioff who changed his name by taking his wife's maiden name. Back in 1943, Bioff testified against the top leadership of the Chicago mob regarding their role in the infamous Hollywood extortion scandal which resulted in convictions for mob boss Paul Ricca and others. In exchange for selling out his partners, Bioff walked away from prosecution as a free man and managed to keep the millions that he had stolen as well. The thing is that Bioff wasn't really hiding out in Arizona, in fact he became a rich and very likable person among high society. Bioff was a natural fixer and understood politics and soon he became popular within the golden elite of Arizona politics and met Senator Barry Goldwater, in November of 1952.


Willie Bioff

Eventually the mob heard about Bioff’s whereabouts and paid him a visit. The mob knew he had the power and connections in Arizona and they also knew that he had stashed millions of dollars from the Hollywood extortion case and so in 1955, Licavoli and Ricca started to shake down Bioff for cash. Bioff paid off for a while, but then he started making noise about going to the feds through his new pal, Barry Goldwater. Bioff obviously didn’t know that Goldwater already knew Licavoli and Ricca. So, one faithful day on November 4, 1955 many people were shocked when Bioff was blown to pieces by a bomb which was placed in his automobile. The score was settled and Bioff’s death sent shock waves through the high society in Phoenix.


Bioff’s murder scene

The First Golden Jew

By the late 1950’s, many of the crime families owned businesses in Arizona with the help of their underlings. Arizona had a lot of action going on during that period and there was plenty of cash to be made for everyone. Crime bosses ran the gambling, prostitution, and liquor industries but freely interacted with more reputable merchants. On Thanksgiving Day in 1958, there was a mob meeting at Licavoli’s ranch in Phoenix. Some of the attendees were Joe Profaci, Joe Bonanno, Joe Magliocco and Tony ”Joe B” Accardo. Federal agents dubbed the meeting the “Four Joes” and according to some sources one of the agendas was their frontman Gus Greenbaum.

Born in 1894, Greenbaum in the first few decades of his life worked as an associate of New York gangster Meyer Lansky and then moved to Al Capone’s Chicago during Prohibition, and later also owned a bookie wire service in Phoenix, which was originally established in 1941 by the Outfit. Greenbaum was a Phoenix socialite seen at all the society balls, usually in the company of Barry Goldwaters, Harry Rosenzweigs and Kemper Marley, Phoenix millionaire rancher and wholesale liquor dealer. In 1946, according to police sources, Marley took up another line of business, one that brought him into contact with organized crime.

Greenbaum was a wild man who was addicted to heroin, always drunk and when he wasn't high he was running around with women half his age who stole from him, and was deeply in debt from gambling at the tables, losing up to $20,000 a week. Kemper Marley and his associates were previously instructed by the Chicago mob to move Greenbaum out of the Phoenix wire service, and they did so. Sources say that Greenbaum refused at first, but after the murder of his sister-in-law, he changed his mind.

When Greenbaum entered Las Vegas during the late 1940’s, he was skimming from the split between the New York crime families and Chicago. After the meeting of the “Four Joes” in Phoenix on December 2, mob boss Sam Giancana on the orders of his mentor Paul Ricca, allegedly sent for Marshall Caifano, a bloodthirsty and ruthless enforcer. On December 3, 1958, the police found Greenbaum dead in bed, his throat was cut almost completely, which made his head almost falling off. Down the hall, in a different bedroom, they found Greenbaum's wife with her throat cut as well. She had been knocked out with a heavy bottle which caved in the right side of her eye. Local lore has it, the hitmen then ate the steaks that the Greenbaums previously cooked.


Outfit victims Bess and Gus Greenbaum

The Bonanno’s Arrived

New York’s crime family leader Joe Bonanno had a seniority as a La Cosa Nostra boss and was considered a “legend”. He was a very ambitious man who had many operations in and out of the country, for example in Montreal and Quebec, Canada. He had extensive business enterprises, including large holdings in cheese companies and other legitimate businesses in Wisconsin, California and also in Arizona. Bonnano had his first taste of Arizona back in 1941 when he settled in Tucson, left his family there and often traveled back and forth to New York. When he needed to keep a low profile, Arizona was the place to be.

In 1953, when the U.S. Government brought deportation proceedings against him, Bonanno was able to get personal testimony or affidavits on his behalf from many prominent persons in Arizona, including a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church Francis J. Green, a Member of the U.S. House of Representatives Harold Patten, and Evo DeConcini a member of the State Supreme Court. Bonanno was parlaying some of his illegal profits from New York into a large land holding and legitimate businesses in Arizona. One of the biggest projects was the building of a giant cotton farm located between Phoenix and Tucson. Bonanno kept a low profile but he also attended a lot of “high profile” parties. Tom Renner, an experienced reporter assigned full-time to organized crime figures, obtained a guest list of one of those parties held in 1959, which included the Arizona governor, the states attorney general, the Pima County sheriff, two state congressmen, the heads of Arizona’s major regulatory agencies and obviously, Joe Bonanno.


Bishop Francis J. Green


The Treachery

Bonanno was aware of the tremendous wealth emerging on the west side of the country and wanted to make close connections with the Los Angeles crime family and as a member of the Mafia commission, Bonanno already had oversight jurisdiction over the two northern California families--in San Francisco and San Jose. Story goes that Bonanno allegedly wanted to overthrow one of the Southern California mob bosses and allegedly also wanted to the same back in New York, by plotting to kill some members of the commission. Whatever is the truth, by 1963 Bonanno was in serious trouble and so he was called before the commission to explain himself but Bonanno refused and rumors were that he was hiding in Tucson, Arizona. Then in 1964 Bonanno’s crime family split into two factions and that was the start of the infamous “Banana Wars”.

The English Bros

So, the Chicago Outfit got wind of the Bonanno situation and Outfit boss Sam Giancana decided to make some swift inroads by sending the English a.k.a. Inglesia brothers out to Arizona to enforce their real estate deals, prostitution, jukeboxes and vending machine operations. Chuck English and his brother Sam arrived in Phoenix in 1962 and were greeted at the airport by their third brother Joseph English and also one Leonard Russo. First, they resided at the Safari hotel near Phoenix and later bought their own ranches near Tucson and Flagstaff, Arizona.


Charles English

The English brothers were very enthusiastic over their property holdings and business enterprises in Arizona since they mostly bought and later re-sold many properties for much higher prices. Each of the brothers usually received 15 times the amount of their previous investment. The English brothers also monopolized the distribution of records to jukebox operators in the state of Arizona. Rather than selling original recordings, the English bros had original records cheaply duplicated by the thousands and then put counterfeit manufacturers’ labels on them. And of course, they didn’t bother making royalty payments to anyone. Story goes that by this time Joe Bonanno refused to cut in the English bros in some of his operations and usually ignored them, a situation which Giancana saw it as a personal disrespect.

Since Charles and Sam travelled very often back and forth to Arizona, their brother Joseph English remained as their representative who in turn had his own place known as the Guiseppe's Italian Restaurant, at 7018 E. Main St., Scottsdale. In 1963 Sam English incorporated the Rim Rock Ranch, 265-acres high in the mountains near Phoenix, Arizona. He purchased it for about $330,000 and also had a million dollar business formed of real estate, construction, loans, and expansion of jukebox operations. Sam even had his own corporation named The Rim Rock Inc. together with one Marvin Browning, a business associate who came from the Cicero area. Sam also managed to transform his mountain ranch into a place for staging many western movies. He also made his ranch available for Hollywood stars and also for mob meetings and whenever the reporters visited his ranch, Sam usually appeared in cowboy outfit.


Sam English

One of his most often visitors at the ranch was Berwyn alderman George Vydra who in turn had personal business relations with Sam English since both were involved in the pornography business in Arizona through one movie firm, and also in the music business. But on Christmas day 1965, the lifeless body of George Vydra was found in his car and the official report stated that he allegedly died from carbon monoxide poisoning, but the evidences showed otherwise. Vydra’s father said that when he found the body in the car, the ignition key was turned off, the gasoline tank was almost full and the truck motor was cold. Also, his father said that when he entered the garage, he didn’t smell any exhaust fumes. People that knew him also said that he never showed any signs of depression and never had any suicidal thoughts, like female singer Jane Darwyn who said that she, Vydra and Sam English were recently splitting profits from a corporation formed to sell her records. Immediately, Sam English was also questioned by government official Charles Siragusa but he got nothing.

The English bros ranch business was shortly lived because of the massive government heat and so the ranch fell into disuse. So, in 1966 Sam English decided to go back to Chicago and lay low for a while because he also started having heart problems and so he gave the leftovers from his empire in AZ to his brother Joseph.


Joe English

Rivalry

During the mid 1960’s rumors surfaced that there was a rivalry in Arizona between Joe Bonnano and the Chicago Outfit. Bonanno's hold on his crime family slowly faded away and the old boss concentrated mainly in Arizona. The Chicago guys again saw this as a threat for their business on the west coast and they also saw Bonanno’s problem as a chance to dominate over all of Arizona’s rackets and rumors spread around that the Outfit disliked him a lot, especially Chicago boss Sam Giancana. Some sources say that Giancana even supported Bonanno’s rival Gaspar DiGregorio during the infamous “Banana Wars”.


Bonanno and DiGregorio

In 1965 Giancana was imprisoned and Bonanno’s son Bill allegedly came to Chicago to attend a meeting with the Outfit’s top echelon at a restaurant located in Melrose Park. The agendas on the meeting were Bonanno’s alleged plot, followed by Bonanno’s huge presence in Arizona and dividing territories. Also story goes that Bill asked for help from the Outfit to operate freely in Arizona and that Chicago’s top boss Paul Ricca agreed, after all Arizona was an open territory. Later Giancana’s brother Chuck Giancana wrote in his book that Sam once told him that a lot of Outfit guys would love to see Bonanno taken out but “He’s not worth the bullet”.

In 1968 Joe Bonanno suffered a major heart attack and that was the last straw. He allegedly informed the National Mafia Commission that he was retiring in Arizona and as time passed by, the shootings diminished. It was claimed that Bonanno allegedly became legit but the thing was that no one really believed him, not even his fellow mobsters who already had their stakes in Arizona. The truth is that there were no official Bonanno family crews operating in Arizona after the internal conflict, however some of his members who were still loyal to him, became semi-retired and also ended up in Phoenix or Tucson, Arizona.

Reinforcement

During the mid 1960’s business was booming and rumors spread among investigators and federal agents that a rivalry among mobsters was on the rise in Arizona. Most prominent Arizona-based members were crime groups loyal to one faction of the Bonanno crime family and the Chicago Outfit. During this period, these two groups were involved in various illegal activities, from loan sharking and bookmaking to smuggling narcotics and gambling devices. But they also ran a lot of legitimate businesses like real estate and also managed a lot of locals, firms or small factories.

Sam “Teets” Battaglia, the Outfits future boss and also leader of the old Melrose Park group, also known as the Grand Avenue crew, pooled 25% of his crew’s funds and started investing heavily in commercial real estate in Arizona, where he owned a massive industrial office complex. The crew also owned car leasing companies, laundries, hotels, motels, resorts trucking, building supplies wholesale companies, clothing factories, food processors, dairy products and theatres.


Sam Battaglia

The second Outfit crew which also arrived in Arizona at the time was the Chicago Heights mob which was headed by legendary caporegime Frank LaPorte. In 1965, LaPorte sent one of his crew members Joe ”Buddy” Tocco as one of the Outfit’s representatives in both Phoenix and Tucson. Joe Tocco was the older brother of Albert Tocco, a rising star in the Outfit. Joe Tocco opened a pizzeria called "Pappa Joes" and was visited by many underworld figures, and investigators said that it became a meeting place for the mob. Tocco was known for always having an arsenal of untraceable weapons which he often passed them out when some guy needed to be eliminated. Tocco’s favorite “tool” was the baseball bat and was known for "whacking" people in their heads. Once there was this manager of a striptease bar who refused to give Tocco a portion of his business. So, Tocco sent for one of his best enforcers Roy Romano to find this guy and to “straighten” him out. The victim was pistol-whipped and his nose was also ripped off from his face.


Joe Tocco

Besides being a ruthless guy, Tocco was also a very greedy individual. Sometimes he gave none or little of the take from the illegal operations to his underlings. Once he was picked up on a listening device planted in a Phoenix warehouse. Tocco talked about that he managed to outline a $12,000,000 bootleg-tape scam which would pirate the music recordings of major label artists. Rumors were that Tocco made over $3,000,000 per year for himself only. Tocco was known for talking to reporters from time to time but never said anything incriminating. One day when he was visited by investigative reporters in his restaurant, Tocco turned to the reporters and said “If you guys are reporters you better get the fuck out before I get mad”. Tocco later took a screwdriver and waved it into the reporters’ faces.

Tocco had many associates with mob connections who often hang out at his joint. Some of his most prominent “guests” were William Kaiser, a vending machine operator associated with the English bros and also a big time robber. One of Kaiser’s associates was Jerry Mandia who operated a prostitution ring that was fronted as an escort service in Phoenix. Ernest Saviano Jr. was another regular at Papa Joe's and a longtime friend of Tocco. Saviano also knew and was closely associated with Kaiser and his cousin Armand D’Andrea in many Phoenix business deals. Saviano was also a former Chicago Heights policeman who have been associated with Albert Tocco, Guido Fidanzi and boss Frank LaPorte. His cousin D’Andrea was a top Outfit guy in Joliet, Illinois; and one of LaPorte’s prime crew bosses in that same area. In fact, D’Andrea was LaPorte’s prime overseer in Arizona and Joe Tocco probably answered to him, which means that D’Andrea was either a powerful soldier or maybe some type of capo.


Armand D’Andrea

Frank Mancini, also cousin of Armand D'Andrea, was another resident at Papa Joe's, who worked as auditor for the State Highway Department and he incorporated an entertainers' guild in Arizona with Joe Tocco and another regular visitor at his joint Joseph DiCaro (not to be confused with Joe “Spider” DiCaro from the South Side crew). Frank’s son, Dominic Mancini, was another regular customer of Papa Joe's and also a former Phoenix policeman. Philip "Beep" Frustino used to cook at Papa Joe's and was one of the best Italian chefs in the area and was also associated with DiCaro's Golden West Meat Co.


Joe DiCaro

FBI Bomber

The strangest situation occurred when on July 3,1968 shots were fired into the house of the daughter of former Chicago boss Sam Giancana in Tucson. On July 22, 1968 two bombs exploded around Joe Bonannos home, including one in Pete Licavolis ranch. The home of Bonanno’s close associate Peter Notaro on North Rosemont Boulevard was also damaged in an Aug. 16, 1968, bombing. His wife and daughter, Wanda, were home, but were uninjured. Few months after the bombings, 15 more bombs exploded around Tucson. Rumors were that it was a mafia feud, but the truth was completely different.

After the bombings, two men were arrested in 1969, William Dunbar and Paul Stevens, and they gave an information that they worked for one FBI agent named David Hale. Hale was a crooked cop, connected to the mob and wanted his share of the profits in Tuscon and also had a plan to ignite a mob war. Agent Hale was taken for questioning and in defense he said that he was framed by the mob for putting too much heat on them. During court testimony in 1969, William J. Dunbar Jr. and Paul M. Stevens said Hale led them to believe he had the backing of the FBI when they helped him set off the bombs. A police officer testified Hale was also implicated by Jerry Max Pasley, a Tucson bartender and hoodlum. During the investigation on Hale, J Edgar Hoover had ordered him fired if he wouldn't resign.


FBI agent David Hale


Jerry Pasley

After that the allegations against Hale exploded in the press, and so Assistant U.S. Attorney Joana Diamos had lunch with two FBI agents. She told them the county attorney had met with her boss, Richard Burke, trying to get him to prosecute Hale in federal court. Diamos "feels that the county attorney has a bad case and is trying to push it off on the federal government, if possible," an agent wrote. Burke wanted to call on Joe Bonanno to testify against Hale but later was told that he would probably refuse.

In August 1970, Paul Dean, a columnist with The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, openly criticized the FBI in a letter to Hoover for cloaking the Hale affair. Senator Mark Hatfield of Oregon and Vice President Spiro Agnew sent letters to Hoover saying that "A bombing by an individual is a terrible thing and should be punished severely, but a series of bombings by the FBI is one hundred times worse." By the end of September 1970, Hoover learned that Richard Burke, the U.S. attorney for Arizona, was planning to call a federal grand jury on the Tucson bombings. At the FBI headquarters, Hoover expressed contempt that Burke was knuckling under a media pressure. In April 1971, the chief assistant U.S. attorney for Arizona explained the investigation of Hale was going slower because he was doing it without the assistance of the FBI. Who knows, maybe Hale suspected a rivalry between the mobsters from wiretaps and informers and wanted to make create a conflict for his own selfish reasons or he simply followed orders. Acting Police Chief William Gilkinson revealed that Hale was also supported by other very well known people that you would never suspect to be in a situation such as this. It was said that at the top of this vigilante group were community leaders and the second element were the mobsters and other local hoodlums who were employed to plan and carry out the bombings.

In the interview, Hale said his confidential informants told him the late Tucson hoodlum Charles J. "Batts" Battaglia ordered some of the bombings on his own. Battaglia was a LA crime family member, who was a close associate of the Bonannos and was also linked to the sporadic violence during the "Banana Wars" back in New York. Either way, the case about the infamous Arizona bombings remains a “mystery” even today.

Joe Bonanno Retired?

One strange situation occurred after the infamous bombings. Charles Battaglia was imprisoned back in 1967 in Leavenworth for extortion and during his stay in prison, authorities reportedly intercepted messages from Battaglia to Bonanno suggesting they should take Arizona away from the Chicago mob and divide it, with Battaglia taking Phoenix and the north and Bonanno taking Tucson and the southern area of Arizona. They also had an alleged plan to provide false testimony to free Battaglia from prison. Both mobsters were charged with conspiracy based on these messages but were acquitted in March 1970 after one witness disappeared and the other was discredited.


Charles Battaglia

After the deaths of some important “Godfathers” from both the New York and Chicago areas, during the mid 70’s there was a new wave of up-and-coming mobsters who arrived in Arizona. There are reports that some of these “new” guys asked for an advice from Joe Bonanno and so maybe the old man saw another opportunity in renewing his influence and connections. By this time Bonanno was also giving interviews to reporters and was like a public person but it seems there’s also lots of truth in the saying “once a criminal, always a criminal”.

The New Chicago Gang

By the mid 1970’s the Chicago mob still kept its influence around the state of Arizona since the city of Phoenix and its underworld was allegedly still controlled by underworld figures with strong Chicago connections. One group of the Chicago faction was still under the control of Joseph Tocco and the other one was also still under the control of the old Melrose Park group aka the Grand Avenue crew under a new leadership since during the early 1970s two of the prime leaders for the Grand Avenue crew, Sam Battaglia and Phil Alderisio, both died in jail.

So, the new overseers for the crew’s rackets in AZ were Tony Spilotro, a Las Vegas enforcer for the Chicago family, and Paul Schiro, a Chicago hoodlum with connections to the New York mob. Schiro arrived in Phoenix back during the early 1960’s together with Spilotro and were considered as two of the most dominant mob figures who were mainly involved in gambling, burglary, fencing of stolen goods, and drug trafficking.


Tony Spilotro

The full extent of the narcotics ring in Phoenix wasn’t known, but government investigators had documents that the gang supplied a major portion of hard drugs for the Chicago market. In fact, the Outfit used Arizona’s strategic position for which I already talked about at the beginning of this story. You see, the gang was funneling drugs from Mexico into the Chicago area through the Arizona territory. The gang was a mixed crew of burglars and dope peddlers, including Phoenix-based Frank Moreno and Fred Pedote, Arden Lee Smith, a heavy narcotics dealer who fled to Mexico to escape a jail term, and Brian “The Mad Pineapple” Ho, a weapons and drug dealer who worked in a Phoenix service station. Since Spilotro spent most of his time in Las Vegas, it was for his pal Schiro to run the day-to-day operations. Federal agents valued the drug traffic at the time at around $8 million per year.

Never Break The “Omerta” #2

Back in 1969, the U.S. Attorney’s Office made an indictment against Chicago Outfit boss Jackie Cerone and also four other members Joe Ferriola, Don Angelini, Dom Cortina and Frank Aureli, on interstate gambling charges, thanks primarily to Louie Bombacino’s testimony. After that Bombacino went to Tempe, AZ; and lived under the name “Joseph Nardi”. During his stay in Tempe, Bombacino was eventually caught peddling stolen irrigation equipment and also profited from a gambling and prostitution rings. So in 1975 the Chicago Outfit again presented its rule in Arizona, especially when Bombacino started his car in the morning of October 6 and suddenly a dynamite explosion ripped his Lincoln Continental, that blew out 75 of his neighbors windows and hurled portions of his car a quarter of a mile away. The hit on Bombacino was allegedly carried out by Tony Amadio, old time member and hitman for of the late Chicago Heights boss Frank LaPorte and also close associate of Joe Tocco.


Louis Bombacino

Reunited in Crime

Stories were continuously circling around that there was still a big rivalry between former New York mobsters and the Chicago guys for control of organized crime in Phoenix, according to published accounts of a series by a team of investigative reporters. The stories said Phoenix "has a flourishing but disjointed network of organized crime operatives” and that they mostly “fought” over the legitimate businesses that they controlled, such as the entertainment industry, the music tape industry, real estate business, the garbage industry and various food and service- related operations. Also, the sport betting business was a very heavy gambling action during this period.

One news report stated that Joe Tocco exerted influence of sorts over street level activity on one side of the “street”, while on the other side was Edward “Acey” Duci, Bonanno crime family associate, who was probably the most vocal of the New York group mobsters. He used to talk publicly to reporters about their rivalry with the Chicago guys and he once said “I think they're nothing but rejects from the Chicago mob. We're gonna eat up the Chicago boys."


Edward Duci

But it seems the reality was quite different. For example, Chicago mobster Paul Schiro had no problems with anyone because he was all about business. In a joint operation with other NY mobsters, the “Phoenix mob” moved in to control of an extensive network of massage parlors. They also had a several Phoenix lawyers and judges in their pocket, who were availing themselves with prostitutes and orgies.


Paul Schiro

In January 1976, based on mob and law enforcement intelligence information, a mob meeting reportedly was held in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Previously Joe Bonanno moved to 255 Sierra Vista Drive, where he was continuously overseen by federal agents. Representatives at the meeting were from all over the states and it was said that some came from as far away as Denver, Colorado; including members of so-called the Smaldone Family. During this period federal agents made reports that Bonanno used the alias “Mr. Veccio” and made several trips to Colorado. Also, federal officials noted that after each visit, Joe’s sons allegedly would fan out in meetings by passing the information or messages from their father.

After the meeting story goes that the mob had developed a silent partnership by skimming money from Arizona’s greyhound racing industry, land fraud and also in stealing gold. Exactly how the Phoenix mobsters were aligned is hard to determine because loyalties and alliances changed almost every day.

Once a Criminal, Always a Criminal

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

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


Licavoli

The Big Businesses

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

Ned Warren was a dangerous con artist who found great fun in selling undeveloped land in Yavapai County to unsuspecting buyers." Born as Nathan Jacques Waxman in Boston, he came to Arizona in 1961, one year after his parole from Danbury federal prison. Warren’s primary racket was selling lots in substandard or effectively nonexistent subdivisions in the Arizona desert to people who regarded such purchases as investments, and also bundled the loans his investors took out on the plots and resold them as securities. Robert Goldwater, the brother of Senator Barry Goldwater and Harry Rozenzweig, the former GOP boss in the state, were the secret power brokers behind the land fraud operations. Later Warren divided his earnings and funneled it to a real estate commissioner and also to the Mob, especially the Chicago Outfit.


Ned Warren

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

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

Cleaning The Closet

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

In 1975, Ed Lazar was one of Warren’s closest associates and also president of Warren’s Consolidated Mortgage Corp. One day Lazar decided to testify before a grand jury about the sale of virtually worthless land for as much as $400 million and also regarding his past business dealings with Warren. Warren knew a lot of people so the information got to him and so he wanted Lazar, the crooked real estate commissioner and every one else who was considered a threat, to be eliminated. Warren turned to his partners in the Chicago Outfit, looking to advance his own stature in his own way. The Mob sent for Chicago Heights member Nick D’Andrea and Robert Hardin and so in February 1975, Jack West, a retired lumberman disappeared and was never found. Three days later after the disappearance of West, Ed Lazar was slain in a Phoenix parking garage stairwell by two hitmen. The next day Lazar was scheduled to testify about Warren’s shady dealings but it was obviously too late.


Ed Lazar

Don Bolles was a Phoenix news reporter who loved to write about organized crime and to expose them, and so one day Bolles made an investigation about possible dog track skim money going to the Mob, something which led to a spin-off as a “big time story”. Bolles as a reporter for the Arizona Republic and had been hunting for proof of a Mafia silent partnership in the state’s greyhound racing industry. So on June 2, 1976, a dynamite bomb was detonated by remote control beneath the car seat of Bolles’ Datsun Sedan in a Phoenix hotel parking lot. He had gone there to meet a source named John Adamson, a local hoodlum who was suspected in setting him up. Before lapsing into a coma, Bolles’ last words were “Mafia”, “Adamson” and “Emprise” which in fact was a company known as Emprise Corp. from Buffalo, N.Y. Bolles was in coma for 11 more days, and finally died on June 13, 1976, after the amputation of both legs and one arm. Bolles had the power to uncover much of Arizona's underworld figures, or big businessmen involved with people in organized crime but his murder virtually halted all organized crime activities in the Valley for at least two or three years.


Don Bolles

Later John Harvey Adamson, who was one of the hitmen in the Bolles murder, said that he was hired by Phoenix contractor Max Dunlap and that James Robison, a Chandler plumber, detonated the bomb. They acted on the orders of Kemper Marley, a Phoenix rancher and liquor magnate. The late Bolles previously had written stories about Marley something which allegedly forced him to resign from the state Racing Commission. But there’s also another side of this story.

Years later, after Roy Romano became an informant, he said that the guys who carried out the hit were allegedly people that worked for Joe Tocco. Accarding to Romano, the guys who allegedly planted the bomb were John Harvey Adamson, William Rocco D'Ambrosio and Frank Mossuto and by that time they worked for Romano who in turn answered to Tocco. Romano also said that the killing was a mistake. The dynamite bomb was planned to explode before Bolles got into his car and later to telephone him with a message to stop writing about organized crime activities in Phoenix. The real truth is that the investigation into Bolles' death was horribly botched and police records were destroyed or permanently misplaced.

In 1976 Tony Serra, another close associate of Warren, was in prison for land fraud. One day Serra decided to give clues to investigators and claimed that he knew the whereabouts of other incriminating evidences against Warren. So in January 1977 Serra was found dead in his jail cell and no one was ever blamed for his murder.

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

Beginning of The End

The 1980’s was a very bad period for the Mob because the government started putting a lot of pressure on organized crime and that same situation also gave the birth of many informants, and so the Outfit’s empire in Arizona also started crumbling down.

Roy Romano had stepped onto the public stage in the fall of 1983, when, in return for immunity from prosecution, he turned state's evidence against Phoenix Mob representative Joseph Tocco and also gave detailed testimony about his own criminal activities as a member of Tocco’s crew. The 64-year old Tocco started serving a state prison term for racketeering in Arizona and he pleaded guilty to controlling an illegal enterprise and filing false tax returns and to witness tampering, obstruction of a criminal investigation, extortion, prostitution, fraud, robbery and conspiracy to commit burglary and theft. In exchange for reduced sentence for crimes that could have cost him 60 years, Tocco also provided the government with some useful information about the Bombacino murder and implicated Tony Amadio who at the time was serving a term for burglary in California. This means that Joe Tocco also became a “rat”.

On Valentines eve February 13, 1985 Chuckie English went up to Horwaths, a Chicago area restaurant, and later he was shot to death on the parking lot by two men in ski masks. The same year the Mafia Commission Trial began in New York and crippled the Eastern families forever, followed by the 1986 trials in which the top administration of the Chicago Outfit was also convicted for skimming profits from Las Vegas casinos and sent to jail. Also, the same year in June, Tony Spilotro and his brother Michael were beaten and strangled to death in Bensenville, IL, and buried in a cornfield in Enos, IN. After Spilotro's murder, Paul Schiro allegedly became the overseer of the Outfit's interests in Arizona and was allegedly allowed to carry out his own burglary operations. Besides that, the underworld in Arizona completely changed during the 1980s but that doesn’t mean that the old rackets disappeared, but instead they gradually were taken over by new owners.

Never break the “Omerta” #3

Even though by this period the national mob was on its knees, they still managed to enforce their rule of silence. Emil “Mal” Vaci was a close associate of Schiro and also worked as a maitre d' at Ernesto's Backstreet, 3603 E. Indian School Road. But his real job was being a hitman and also one of the key operatives for the Outfit. In early 1986, Vaci testified twice before a grand jury investigating organized crime in Las Vegas casinos. He also had been granted immunity and was due to testify a third time but on the night of June 7 1986, 73 years old Vaci was drove around Phoenix in a car by his Outfit associates who in turn pumped six bullets from a .22-caliber pistol into the back of his head, wrapped him in plastic and dumped him into a canal along 48th Street between Thomas and McDowell roads.


Emil Vaci

Goodbye Chicago Mob

On January 24, 1995 Joseph “Buddy” aka "Papa Joe" Tocco died at the age of 72 in a minimum-security unit at a state prison in Perryville. Tocco was found collapsed on the floor of his prison cell with a internal bleeding. Paul Schiro was convicted in 2001 for his role in the mob-connected jewelry theft ring headed by William Hanhardt, a former Chicago police chief of detectives, and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison. Also, in 2007 a federal judge in Chicago sentenced 71 years old Paul Schiro to 20 years in prison during the so-called Operation Family Secrets trials. The court also concluded that Schiro was responsible for the 1986 murder of his friend Emil Vaci. Schiro did not pull the trigger on his friend but was in a nearby car, acting as a lookout and listening to a police scanner, according to court testimony. In fact, this was simply a reminder that Arizona has totally lived out its Chicago Outfit connections.

New Operations

During the 1990’s Allen Glick, who was previously used as a puppet for the Chicago Outfit at the casinos in Las Vegas, had financial ties with Jerry Simms, the owner of Turf Paradise in Arizona. The controversy over the new owner of Turf Paradise racetrack has erupted into a squabble between state agencies, with a Gaming Department investigator ripping the state Department of Racing for research into the background of Jeremy E. "Jerry" Simms. Simms was bribing a coastal commissioner and lent large sums of money to Allen Glick. In 1995 Simms loaned $2.2 million and received back nearly $2.6 million from Glick. Then Simms made a couple of more loans and failed to report on his 1996-98 tax returns in which Simms wrote off as gambling losses. The tax write-offs were not legitimate. Like Glick, Simms also helped the FBI win numerous convictions while testifying under an immunity agreement. Simms, a bank founder and financier, says he was naive and stupid but never knowingly broke the law. He says he went to the FBI when he realized his associates were corrupt. Records show Simms did not go to federal authorities until nearly two years after the bribes and extortion attempts. In the year of 2001 the governor of Arizona has dismissed Racing Department director Jim Higginbottom over a controversy involving the background check and subsequent licensing of Simms. Simms, who acquired Turf Paradise from Hollywood Park the same year, was issued a three-year permit by the racing commission to operate Turf Paradise and off-track wagering venues statewide.


Allen Glick

On November 25, 1997 members of New York’s Genovese and Bonanno crime families were indicted in a massive stock fraud and manipulation indictment. The mobsters acquired a large position in the stock of HealthTech International Inc., a Mesa, Arizona, health and fitness firm that was traded on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange. Tens of thousands of shares were given to the mobsters by top HealthTech officials Gordon Hall and Joe Kirkham. During a 12-month period, the mobsters made over three million dollars and still used violent methods to intimidate co-opted brokers and HealthTech executives and to make sure they played ball with the Mob. By 1999 many of the mobsters were sent to prison.

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

Death of a Legend and Arizona Today

Joe Bonanno died on May 11, 2002 of heart failure at the age of 97. He was buried at Holy Hope Cemetery & Mausoleum in Tucson, Arizona; and also marked the end of the Italian Mafia in that same state. Today narcotics and prostitution are everyday operations of the hundreds of multinational gangs that operate throughout Arizona. Gambling has largely become legit and Phoenix became the nation's capital for the human smuggling trade and the consequences of all these activities are magnified because of the limited local economy, segregation, lack of community and weak institutions.

Some say that in the past Arizona was a much safer territory than it is today. In the old days the Mob guys used to have control over crime, but today it’s a “dog eat dog” area. These days many blood thirsty drug cartels formed by meth dealers and human smugglers rule the streets of Phoenix, and the old days of businessmen and politicians socializing with the underworld are long gone. Now, the people with most power and means to make a difference usually live behind walls in Paradise Valley and north Scottsdale, far away from the crime lords and dangerous streets.



Cheers

Some additiinal info regarding the English bros and their presence in AZ..

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=138277#relPageId=181&search=English_arizona

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=139507#relPageId=2&search=English_arizona

.....and dont forget to boycott all paywalls. Fuck 'em!

Another interesting evidence regarding the problem between Chicago and Bonanno, including AZ being an "open territory"...

Nick D'Andrea, Chicago Heights member and hitman allegedly involved in the Jack West and Ed Lazar murders...

....also the entrance of Licavoli's Grace Ranch in AZ...

One of Spilotro's Phoenix-based associates Frank Moreno...

Bonanno's ranch house being damaged by a bomb which was planted on the orders of corrupt FBI agent Dave Hale...

Nice find on that photo Toodoped. There was one bombing by federal agents that almost killed Bill Bonanno's children. He said in his book that when he saw the car driving away he noticed a woman in it, and that is when he knew for certain it was not the mafia doing the bombings.

Thanks and thats the one alright, and yeah the Mafia knew that there was some outside player in the whole scheme, which in the end it turned out to be an FBI agent who was later protected by Hoover, personally. Some speculate that the whole situation was just another FBI secret operation, just to ignite internal war within the Mafia, similar as operation hoodwinked and the lockstep program.

I agree, plus there was a campaign to convince Americans, and more specifically the people of Arizona, the they were going to be taken over by the mafia and have bombings breaking out all over the state due to Bonanno moving there. It seems strange now, but back then they had people believing it.

Thanks for putting all your articles and insights up without a paywall.

This is unbelievable information. Great work!

Thank you very much @Big_T! It means a lot.



Nicely said since in those days people believed in newspaper articles, same as today with internet media and stuff.

As for bullshit paywalls...Ill never do it. People need to learn about these type of stuff for free, not to care about spending cash for some invented information. Cheers and stay tuned for more free articles.

Licavoli's garage was also completely destroyed by a bomb which was also planted on the orders of that same crooked FBI agent...

Article regarding Notaro's situation...

Interesting to note is that besides the bombings of the empty homes of Bonanno, Notaro or Licavoli, the Giancana residence in AZ was the only one which was shot at with people being present in the house. This allegedly made some Chi bosses quite mad, especially Giancana who in turn was out of the country at the time.

Toodoped, do you know which shooting or bombing Bill Boanano spoke of in his book?

The last time I read those books was at least 10 years ago, although I think the shooting for which Bill allegedly spoke about was the attempt on his life during the Banana Wars. I also believe that Chicago or especially Paul Ricca allegedly played a major role in saving Bill's life, again according to Bill himself.

Thanks for a great posting Toodoped!
The work you put into this can't be overstated.
Always a pleasure to read your stuff.
Grazie Mio Amico.

Stay tuned for more free and never released articles, and dont forget to boycott all paywalls.

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Heres one interesting file regarding Charles "Batts" Battaglia making an alliance with Chicago boss Sam Giancana regarding bingo/gambling operations....

Another pic of the silent "Godfather" of Arizona's rackets and also infamous Chicago Outfit associate Ned Warren Sr.....