Giancana: (disgusted voice) The more I tell ya not to have anybody call here, the more you have ‘em call
Blasi: I didn’t have him call here Sam. I just called over there
(Blasi leaves)
Nicoletti: So anyway like I said, I got two spots that im going with slots. The two spots and that’s about six bits a week between the two of ‘em. So now im putting pool tables up and shuffle alleys. Pool tables you cant put many of them up. The other ones a five ball. It’s a kid game. If you come into a place and give the man $5,00 rental on the machine it aint gonna make much. Its just to keep the place covered.
Giancana: Well if other people cant put that stuff out there must be something there
Nicoletti: I realize that Moe because if they got half of it and say they give the salon keeper 10 and if they wind it up with 10 they’ll wind it up with the lemon. See what I mean? But they’ll never go into Melrose Park because them guys wont take ‘em. But they are looking for stuff like im putting in shuffle alleys and pool tables in there but I cant get that many in
Giancana: Why coudnt you get the machines in and take the meter off?
Nicoletti: Well we tried once before and we covered the meters
Giancana: What if you take it off?
Nicoletti: Take the meter off altogether?
Giancana: Yeah
Nicoletti: Well we could’ve done that too. At least than we could take the bartender’s word, half a load is better than none. But what he told me, this is true, ill show you what we pay there in a year. All of these guys are all looking for money. You know how much money I owe in that town? They keep asking me wheres my money. So I tell ‘em wait ill go over and take it out of the bank (laughs). I paid out almost $11,000 in that time alone. Theres one guy Harlow’s, he owes $2,000, the guy said whata you gonna do and I said if you’re game enough we’ll put the machines back in there. Ill see if I can get ahold of this other guy to hold still and try to get your money back. He said im not gonna run away but what can I do
Giancana: Well how come he owes $2,000?
Nicoletti: He had four machines in there
Giancana: Oh, they assessed him
Nicoletti: Yeah, they just brought the bill up there. If they had brought the bill in the night before we’d gave the money. Every spot you gotta take off takes so much money. So you couldn’t just take it off unless they had already pay for it and now I must still owe it there right now, I got to be busy at home because I gotta keep track of it. So I must owe another couple of $2,000 at least. Now they expect to get it from the soft stuff, so how you gonna get it from the soft stuff?
Giancana: Well you gotta take off the whole register off
Nicoletti: You mean take the meters off?
Giancana: Yeah, it’ll be a legit machine than
Nicoletti: That’s right and let ‘em go, just take the bartenders word. What the hell is the difference? He’s not gonna cheat ya. Half of it is his annual
Giancana: We’ll charge the bartenders $15,00 or $20,00 a week for the machine. So whatever he makes he keeps.
Nicoletti: Well we could’ve done that too, on the good spots you could say here give me so much a week
Giancana: That’s right
Nicoletti: I don’t know but as far as this here, if I can go with the jars I can make, I talked to Hy (Larner) and he told me but I don’t know what kind’ve a deal we’re gonna work out on the jars
Giancana: You mean you have to pay Hy for the jars?
Nicoletti: Yeah, enough to make a living because there’s no pay out of this stuff, lets face it. Moe the most I can have in that town is 35 at most if I wasn’t paying. But even if I was paying rental on the machines, right, but even if you pay rental on the machine and he gives you half it’s a moral victory because you wind up with about $250 bucks at the end of the month. And then you gotta form your own company, like I had to tell ‘em and I said who am I running these machines from. To begin with they’ll want to know but I don’t have to answer them. But this guy’s a weak sister, this Swede, you know it? (referring to Mayor Carson of Melrose Park) He grabs the envelope and that’s it. They can sneak underneath the bar because them guys all want that stuff. But that’s what I wanted to see you about. We just gotta do the best we know how. But there’s a business out there that I want to show you that I want to get in. I gotta get both feet on the ground, I don’t know whether im going or coming. I wanted to get in with Sharky (Frank Eulo, former 42 gang member) but here’s the set up, here’s the deal I wanta show ya. That other joint I been out for a year, there’s no money in there. Im selling the lot, we had half and half on the lot. My half of the lot.
Giancana: Whats the business?
Nicoletti: This is a liquor store that Comes Back Liquors in Melrose Park. The whole building there. It’s a half a block long. The guy wants $125,000 for it, for the building. He got a mortgage of $56,000, he wants to transfer the mortgage over and form a corporation. Actually what he wants is $75,000 cash. He’ll show $50,000 and take the other $25,000 under the table. This is his price that he’s asking how but I know he’ll come down lower. He’s got now, this store is $550,000 a month rental.
Giancana: Where’s this store at? Is that across the street of the police station?
Nicoletti: No, its right on Lake Street but right outside of Broadway. That whole half of block there just before you hit the Blue Moon.
Giancana: Oh, yeah.
Nicoletti: Well here it is, now his store gets $550,000 a month rental. The restaurant is $275,000. The apartments, in other words, you get 1160 dollars a month rent. He’s got $13,902.00 a year coming in. Now the thing with this guy here is what we can do with him and the business shows it and besides its cheap, hes gotta bar in there too and he gets $25,000 net.
Giancana: You mean that’s what he tells ya?
Nicoletti: Ya. That’s right but it wont do any good to look at his books besides hes cheating and I know hes gotta cheat there to make any money. Hes taking $100 a day over the bar and hes routing $50,000 a day out of that. The thing is hes willing to take this here and split the other five years across and well see if we can get him to carry the mortgage on thouse other five years on the balance of the money. This mortgage will be transferred, see, and you pay $8,000 a year on that. Now on that mortgage well have to carry the mortgage and if I cant get it mortgaged I figure it’ll run about $15,000 a year. So in other words it’ll be $23,000 a year plus 2400 in tax, will make it about $25,000. But the business clears $25,000 net which pays for your building. Everything else is profit.
Giancana: In other word the business’ll carry it?
Nicoletti: The business will carry this here end. Not including the $14,000 for the rent.
Giancana: How much stock has he got?
Nicoletti: He’s got roughly about $35,000 in stock, I was down in his basement. This is just a rough figure but we can go out and knock him down some more. The business and the licence is about $35,000.
Giancana: Yeah I know
Nicoletti: The stock, I know he got deals on ‘em so I know he aint gonna sell ‘em dollar for dollar. His store opens up at 9 to 12, the bar and liquor store. Of course that’s the biggest liquor store out there. In Melrose Park.
Giancana: Well theres two of ‘em on Broadway there, isn’t there?
Nicoletti: Well one of ‘em is closed and the other one is about to. You mean Joey O’Brien’s place?(Joey Aiuppa’s place)
Giancana: Yeah
Nicoletti: Its closed up, they’re down. And the other guy’s getting down too. He’s doing a little business there.
Giancana: Whats happening there?
Nicoletti: Well this guy is knocking ‘em all out. Hes working on volume and hes got better prices. They cant compete with this guy. What im gonna do, I got some money and the rest of the money im gonna get off of Sharky (Eulo). I figure this way we’ll go over there see and start looking into it and see what we can do with this guy. Hes got three apartments there that bring in $335,000 and it’s a half a block long and you got a parking lot. I mean, what the hell, I gotta do something. And I talked to Sharky and he said whatever you got in the balance ill give it to ya.
Giancana: How you gonna show for the money?
Nicoletti: I got a regular legit guy who’ll I’ll have him take my end of the part , I’ll just form a corporation and put it under his name, that’s all.
Giancana: Can he show for the money?
Nicoletti: Yeah, hes got an insurance business hes had it for 13 years. Not only that but we’re gonna put some under the table so there wont be that much to show. I imagine he could cover that. Than I hear another thing here that this juke deal was out for sale in Elmwood Park, this Borolio, you know this Borolio? I don’t know if that guy wants to sell, maybe its just rumours, I know that’s a hell of a spot.
Giancana: In Elmwood Park?
Nicoletti: Yeah. But I don’t know if the guy wants to sell it. I talked to Elmer last night to find out because hes got about 50 stops out there.
Giancana: I don’t think its for sale.
Nicoletti: That’s what I heard but than I asked Elmer and Elmer said I don’t think so. He didn’t say nothing to me.
Giancana: You mean Elmer Conti? ( Conti is the Mayor of Elmwood Park)
Nicoletti: Yeah
Giancana: Well go ahead. If you see your way clear, go ahead. I wish you lotta luck.
Nicoletti: Thank you. Whata you want me to do with these cards? How am i gonna tell this guy Hy, how am I gonna work that? Whats he gonna do, how we gonna work it?
Giancana: Well we’ll see what happends.
Nicoletti: Well im gonna hold the money until the end of the month.
Giancana: Yeah, hold on to the money.
(both leave)
As I said before, Charles Nicoletti already earned the admiration of the Outfit for his professionalism in the business and creativity while doing his job. Also a lot Outfit members didn’t have the stomach for the things that this guy was capable of. For example in 1962, two ruthless criminals Billy McCarthy and Jimmy Moraglia got into an argument with the Scalvo brothers, Ronnie and Phil. The reason was that one night Billy McCarthy went into the Black Door, a Outfit-connected saloon in Rosemont, and got very drunk and abusive. The two brothers, who managed the bar and their father was closely tied to Outfit boss Tony Accardo, got into an argument with Billy, beat him up and threw him out of the bar. Later Billy found Jimmy and told him what had happened and they foolishly wanted revenge. A couple of nights later Billy and Jimmy went back to the Black Door to get even with the Scalvos. Instead, they got another beating. Enraged, they wanted to kill the Scalvos and they did. A week later the Scalvos and one cocktail waitress were shot to death in their car. This murder caused the Outfit’s big shot Accardo much grief and anger. So the mob called Nicolleti and Alderisio to take care of these two thugs. Nicoletti called in on one of their old friends from the 42 gang, Samuel aka “Mad Sam” aka “Mad Dog” DeStefano. DeStefano knew Billy and Jimmy because they owed him money. On May 2nd, Nicoletti and Alderisio were looking all around Chicago for Jimmy and Billy. But that’s when the cops showed up and took the two hit-men in on suspicion charges. They arrested the two well known hitmen in their black car which was previously mentioned in some of the murders during “the big clean up” that occurred in the 1950’s. Later the press dubbed the car as the infamous “hitmobile”. It was a dark collared sedan designed for committing murders. The car had three switches under the dashboard. Two of the switches disabled the taillights so it will make the car harder for tracking at night and the third switch opened hidden compartments that held an impressive collection of weapons and torture devices. The cops found the noted hitmen crouching on the floor of a hit car parked on a dark street. This is one example were Nicoletti’s and Alderisio’s creativity comes to light. The cops confiscated the car and few days later they were released as usual.
Nicoletti and Alderisio arrested
But this didn’t stop Nicoletti and Alderisio from finishing their task. DeStefano called one of his bloody underlings and also a fast rising star in the Outfit Anthony “Tony the Ant” Spilotro. Spilotro and Billy McCarthy shared a mutual friend named Frank Cullotta. Later Cullotta lured McCarthy to a meeting but instead of Cullotta being there when McCarthy arrived at the meeting spot, Spilotro was there, along with Alderisio and Nicoletti. Billy was kidnapped and later was tortured in every kind of way. Later Spilotro used his dark imagination and placed Billy’s head in a vise and squeezed to the point where one of his eyes popped out under the pressure. According to Cullotta, who years later became a government witness, Spilotro told him that Nicoletti was eating pasta when Billy's eye popped out. Under huge pain Billy gave the whereabouts of his friend Jimmy so in the end Spilotro slashed his throat with a sharp knife. Jimmy was soon located and Spilotro had his throat slit too. Ther bodies were found in a trunk of a car on May 15th, 1962 on 55th Street in southwest Chicago. Their bodies were in the trunk for 2 weeks before they were discovered. The newspapers called the double murder the M & M Murders. This was another job well done for Nicoletti and Alderisio.
Billy McCarthy and Jimmy Moraglia
Leo Foreman was a Chicago convicted swindler, bondsman and president of the LeFore Insurance company. He was an aggressive monster of a man, six feet, two inches tall and 270 pounds with horrible Outfit connections like Mad Sam DeStefano, Alderisio and Nicoletti. Foreman’s road to demise began when DeStefano received a minor traffic ticket. Mad Sam instead of paying the fine, foolishly went to trial. Foreman told DeStefano that he will take care of the problem because one of the judges was his friend. So when DeStefano went to the trial he was fined several hundred dollars for contempt even though he was found innocent of the traffic violation. When the decision was read, he went really mad and cursed everyone in the courtroom. But most of his anger was directed at Foreman. That was strike one. Julius Greco, one of Nicoletti’s mob associates, was serving a 15 year sentence in Leavenworth prison. Foreman told Nicoletti that he allegedly was being related to a Minnesota Senator Hubert Humphreys and thorugh his relationship, Foreman was going to obtain a presidential pardon for Greco. So Nicoletti and DeStefano called Foreman for a meeting at DeStefano’s house to make a plan for their next move. But as time passed by Nicoletti realised that Foreman was lying because he was unable to cause Humphreys to take any action. Nicoletti became very mad because of that and started thinking about Foreman’s future in this life. That was strike two for Foreman. After a short time Foreman made another huge mistake. Joe Stein who was owner of a loan company, loaned money to Foreman but he never saw his money again. Foreman didn’t know that Stein’s partner in his company was Felix Alderisio. After a while, Alderisio walked in Foreman’s office and opened a dispute. In rage Foreman pulled out a gun and pointed it at Alderisio and told him to back off. Alderisio just smiled and told him “We’ll see about that” and walked out of the office. That was strike three. When Nicoletti heard about the bad news he calmly ordered to DeStefano to go and see Foreman and to take care of the problem in “Action Jackson” style (Action Jackson was mobster who received a very gruesome torture and death by the Outfit). As additional problem Foreman owed DeStefano $7,000 so Mad Sam wanted to take his money first before killing him. When DeStefano went to Foreman’s office and confronted him with his evidence, Foreman admitted that he might have made some “arithmetic mistakes.” DeStefano went into a rage and started cursing him. With this Foreman again pulled a gun and kicked DeStefano out of his office. On November 13, 1963 Nicoletti appeared at Foreman’s house and advised him that DeStefano was ready to let bygones be bygones, if Foreman helped fence a diamond theft and paid back his debt. So on November 14, Foreman was lulled into a basement were he was shot in his legs by Mario DeStefano, Chuckie Crimaldi and Tony Spilotro. Foreman was lying on the floor crying in pain and suddenly Mad Sam appeared, dressed in pajamas, and went to work. Before the torture, Mad Sam told Foreman that he was going to be a blood sacrifice to Satan. After being viciously tortured for hours, DeStefano shot Foreman in the head. Foreman’s body was stuffed into the trunk of a car which was found few days later.
Mad Sam DeStefano
During the early 1960’s the new administration under Giancana had already expanded their illegal and legal enterprises in and out of the country big time. For example, Nevada, California, Iowa, Wisconsin, Arizona, Texas, Florida, etc. and also around the world, including Mexico, Cuba, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Jamaica, Western Europe(England, France, Spain, Italy)the Middle East(Israel, Iran, Iraq),China and even Japan. They were mostly opening casinos around the world while also importing and exporting gambling and vending devices, stolen cars, prostitutes, weapons and narcotics. During this time the Outfit became not just national threat but also a world wide threat. During this period the only government organization that knew about these big criminal activities was The Central Intelligence Agency or the C.I.A. But instead to try and eliminate this menace to society, the agency joined and made an alliance with these criminals. As i stated in some of my previous articles, the CIA used the Outfit’s criminal operations to get informations from all of these countries and to make their own influence around the world. These gangsters acted like spies for the CIA and were feeding the government officials around the world with money and power thus making them their own allies. Few of Chicago’s most prominent gangsters that got involved with the C.I.A. plots were Sam Giancana, Johnny Roselli, Hyman Larner and Richard Scalzetti aka Richard Cain. Both Giancana and Roselli were very flashy mobsters that liked the adventures and also wanted to be known as the prime gangsters in the country. Cain was a government guy and Larner was known as international gangster since day one. My point is that there are evidences that these guys were involved in international operations and also loved the nature of that kind of crime and alliances. There are also evidences that Nicoletti’s partner Felix Alderisio also made a lot of travels to Europe and Asia thus making international illegal enterprises. One proof was that Alderisio had an obsession with collecting antics from around the world. Alderisio also made frequent trips to Havana, Cuba in connection with his gambling operations and was also well acquainted with all the big time gamblers from that area. So these guys brought a lot of attention from the government because some of them started having godlike feelings for themselves because of the cash amounts that they made and also the power they gained. As for Nicoletti, he was a very quiet guy and very deadly but wasn’t flashy and didn’t like the limelight like the rest of his companions. Because of his relations with these flashy mobsters, Nicoletti was constantly picked up and questioned by the feds. For example on May 15, 1962 Nicoletti was interviewed by the feds at a gambling spot in Niles, Illinois. He was questioned about his associations with Giancana and Roselli. In a quasi-cooperative attitude Nicoletti’s only comment was “I never see him no more”.
As a writer of this article I also want to state that I can’t find any evidences that Nicoletti had any C.I.A. connections during this period. There are only evidences that he was strictly a Mafia guy. I’m saying this because years later, speculations are going to spread around from various government and other suspicious sources that he was one of the guys involved in many CIA/Mafia operations because of his close associations with these high profile Outfit figures with secret government contacts.
