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”.