Crime was always a part of our civilization and history and it’s too hard to get rid of it. Some people say that the ones who think that crime pays are really wrong… well that’s the case with most examples but not all. In history and even today, many criminals own mansions, planes, yachts, jewels, furs, cars, designer clothes, designer drugs, endless supply of entertainment and even islands. Unfortunately every criminal has to be very careful in keeping their place on top of the game which is a very hard thing to do. So only a hand full of criminals managed to stay on the top and make a lot of money. Every famous city, such as Chicago, had its own crime heroes like Al Capone or Frank Nitti. Yes these guys made a lot of cash but didn’t last long and in the end they lost everything. Criminals are in fact business men on the wrong side of the tracks. So if many of these hoods ended up as heads of legitimate businesses they could’ve make a big success. But even on the wrong side, some hoodlums remained as top businessmen in the underworld and also stayed in the shadows and never prevailed over their superiors, which was a very smart tactic because they never took the fall. Such is the example of Chicago Outfit big shot Ross Prio.

Rosario Priolo was born on May 10, 1900 (some reports say its 1901) in Ciminna, Sicily. Ciminna is a small town located approximately 30 miles southeast of its capital, Palermo. It is not known when and why but during his early age Rosario was left by his mother in a foster home. Few years later he was adopted by another family which bear the name Priolo. During the 1900’s Sicily was a very poor place and during that period over one million and a half of Sicilians were forced to migrate around the world. It was the first exodus of biblical proportions, but not the last. On June 21, 1909 the Priolos together with 9 year old Rosario sailed off to the new land of opportunities the United States of America. They settled on Chicago’s North Side which was an area where the Sicilian population was the most prominent one. As the Sicilian population grew, the vicinity of Oak and Townsend was the center and became known as “Little Sicily”. The “dark people”, as they were called, pushed slowly into the district where the industry demanded cheap labor. So the former more prosperous European community such as the Germans and Irish began moving further north and west of the city center. With their arrival, the Sicilians also brought their traditions and secret societies such as the Black Hand gangs and the Mafia. Some of the Sicilians that previously arrived in the United States already established their criminal operations and managed to absorb their newly arrived cousins and friends into their organizations.


Rush Street Bridge 1900’s

At the time one of the most prominent Sicilian gangsters in that area was Rosario Dispenza. Dispenza was a big time Mafioso who owned a saloon in Little Sicily and it was believed that it was a school for future Mafiosi. Same as the Priolos, he also came from the town of Ciminna, Sicily which was the answer for all of their prayers. The Priolos understood the value of knowing or coming from the same place as the big time Mafioso who controlled the area where they lived. But this was the new land and Dispenza was mostly involved in extorting his own people. In 1914 Dizpenza together with one of his close associates Tony Puccio were killed by rival gangs. Now the new “Don” was a former priest from Sicily who went by the name of Anthony D’Andrea. D’Andrea was also an extortionist and was involved in politics, so by 1920 he became the head of the Unione Siciliana, a fraternal organization in Chicago, and became one of the leading criminal figures on the city’s North Side. But besides these big faces, there were numerous smaller criminal gangs that operated in the same area. For example, another smaller Italian gang that operated in the North Side was as the infamous Gloriana gang. This crew was led by Salvatore “Charles” Gloriana that represented a small group of organized thieves and killers, primarily Italian and few Irish. It is not known ( or at least I cant find any info) whether 20 year old Rosario Priolo rose in one of these gangster groups but I presume that it was the Gloriana gang since many of the members were almost his age and in future together they continued their criminal activities. So I again presume that Priolo started his criminal career with one ruthless Gloriana gang member known as Dominick Nuccio. Nuccio was 5 years older than Priolo and was known as burglar and also as assassin. Back in 1919 Charles Gloriana, Nuccio, and seven other gang members were convicted for a violent burglary and were sentenced to 20 years in Joliet State Prison. On April 28, 1920, the Supreme Court reversed the convictions and remanded the defendants for a new trial, which was later dismissed.

During the early 1920’s Little Sicily was considered as the most colorful Italian neighborhood, and was home to more than 20,000 Italians. It was also the time for prohibition of alcohol. By now many Sicilian gangs began to flourish in the area such as the Aiello brothers and were mostly involved in extortions and bootlegging booze. But at this time the North Side wasn’t ruled by the Italians but it was under the auspices of an Irish mob boss known as Dean O’Banion. His gang wasn’t completely Irish but it was also mixed with Jewish and Italian gangsters. Also another prominent force was rising in Chicago and that was the Torrio mob which was led by Italian boss Johnny Torrio. At first Torrio and O’Banion had a deal not to interfere in their territories, but soon the Torrio mob took control of Chicago’s downtown area known as the Loop, as well as much of the South Side. However, it was also intent on seizing the profitable Gold Coast territory, which drew the ire of O'Banion. So on November 10, 1924, O'Banion was murdered in his North Side flower shop by Torrio allies and in 1925 Torrio himself survived an assassination attempt. With O’Banion dead and Torrio out of the game, the city’s underworld was split into two warring factions, one led by O’Banion’s protégé Bugs Moran and the other one by Torrio’s protégé Al Capone. So now many of the smaller gangs had to choose their side. Previously O’Banion made a lot of problems for his remaining “officers” because he quarrelled with many North Side gangs such as the Gloriana Gang, the Circus gang and the Genna crime family from the West Side. So by now many Gloriana gang members such as Priolo and Nuccio joined the Capone mob.

By 1927, 27 year old Rosario Priolo Americanized his name and changed it into Ross Prio. At the time he became heavily involved in bootlegging and extortion operations on the North Side for the Capone mob and started making the big buck. He also became an associate of Tony Capezio, a ruthless member of the infamous Circus gang, also from the North Side. In 1929 on St. Valentines Day the Bugs Moran gang was exterminated in an infamous massacre that occurred that same faithful day. Because of his close associations with Capezio and also because his illegal operations in that area, Prio was questioned by the cops regarding the killings but nothing came out of it. The same year, on June 19, Prio was again arrested in the company of Henry Finkelstein and Dominick Nuccio. They were arrested by Sergt. John Martin's squad in a raid on a still at 2014 West Kinzie St. It was said that the still was one of the largest ever found by that time in the Chicago territory. At the police station the three men were questioned in numerous killings, including a murder of a detective and also in numerous kidnappings. Later the charges were dropped and the three gangsters walked free. During prohibition Prio amassed a big fortune and began expanding his illegal operations. With the help of his fortune and newly formed connections, on September 24, 1929 Prio also received a U.S. citizenship. In 1930 he married to a beautiful young Italian girl named Marie Teramani and later they brought a son and a daughter to this world, known as Ross Jr. and Joanne. Together they lived in a house on 6139 North Campbell Avenue.

With the imprisonment of his boss Al Capone in 1932 and the end of prohibition in 1933, Prio considered finding and infiltrating other sources for his income. So like any other smart gangster, by the mid 1930’s Prio was investing his dirty cash from bootlegging and gambling into legitimate enterprises. Together with another old Capone associate Marcus Lipsky, Prio opened a milk producing company known as L&P Milk Company. L&P stood for Lipsky and Prio and Marcus was the forntman. Another of Prio’s legitimate businesses was the Uptown-Chicago Diary Company at 3639 Harrison Street. Prio was the company’s president, John Ingraffia was the company’s treasurer and Sol Miller was a salesman for the Diary. But even in the legitimate world, Prio used his dirty tactics. In 1937 his company’s rival was another newly formed milk company known as the Belmont Farm Products plant at 2714 Belmont Avenue. The problem was that some of the retailers that bought their milk from Prio’s company didn’t care about going far south to buy their supplies so they transferred to the Belmont Farm, which was closer to them. So Ingraffia and Miller visited the Belmont Company president Gustaf Palmer and told him to stop selling his products to these men because they were alleged communists. Palmer told them that he didn’t care who they were as long they paid for his products. Than Miller threatened Palmer by saying “You’ll see pretty soon you can’t get away with that.” Than Prio visited one of the independent retailers, Joseph Bart who shifted his allegiance from Prio's firm to Palmer's. Prio warned him that if he doesn’t return as a customer he would find an axe in his head. Bart was also followed one day by Miller and another man on his route to home and he called on the police for protection. On January 13, 1938 unknown men entered the Belmont plant through a skylight and by using axes and hammers they smashed three pasteurizing machines and set to fire the plant with naphtha and gasoline. So after all of these harassments from the Prio group, the victims decided to report these men to the Albany Park police. On January 15 Prio, Miller and Ingraffia were arrested and charged with malicious mischief and intimidation. The three men were released on $2,000 bonds and as usual the case was later dropped.


Rosario Priolo aka Ross Prio

Another of Prio’s legitimate business at the time was the Willow Laundry Company which was located at 758 Willow Street. His partner in this company was former Capone member from the North Side Gaetano “Black Tom” Oneglia (some sources say that it’s Thomas Neglia). Together they also operated a gas station and purchased a parking lot. At the same time Sam Herdan who was the owner of the Ace Loan Company in Chicago, contacted Prio to invest $8,000 in the same company and later to take it over, which he did. According to some reports with all of his new legitimate investments, by now Prio was making one million dollars a year.

By the 1940’s the crime boss of Chicago’s North Side was Vincenzo DiGiorgio, also known as James DeGeorge who originally came from the Chicago Heights area. The Chicago Heights mob was closely connected with the Outfit since the Capone era. He became boss when his predecessor Tony Pinelli left to Calumet City and later to California. DeGeorge was a mobster and also a shrewd businessman who looked like Winston Churchill with the big cigar and all. He controlled many illegal rackets but was mostly involved in legitimate businesses.


Vincenzo DiGiorgio aka James DeGeorge

His organization was formed by Vincent “Don Vincenzo” Benevento and his nephew Nick DeJohn, Gaetano “Black Tom” Oneglia, James DeAngelo, Sam “Snakes” Gervase and Onofrio Vitale, Ross Prio, Jimmy “The Monk” Allegretti and the so-called “Three Doms” Dominick Nuccio, Dominick Brancato and Dominick DiBella. Most of the guys like Benevento, DeJohn or Oneglia were killers in their own right but they were mostly involved in legitimate businesses and eliminated their competition “Mafia Style”. By now the Chicago Outfit had two most lucrative areas, one was the Cicero area and the other one was the North Side. The North Side crew was a big money making machine that was infiltrated in every possible legitimate and illegitimate enterprises. For example, after his milk operations, Prio and his associates ventured in another lucrative legitimate business such as the distribution of a milk product known as cheese. Prio became partner in the famous Grande Cheese Company together with the company’s manager who was another Sicilian immigrant known as Giovanni Vincenzo DiBella (no relations to Dominick DiBella). Few other partners of Prio in the company were Vincent Benevento, Gaetano Oneglia and James DeAngelo. Benevento was also known as the “Cheese King” because of his enormous operations in the cheese business. All of these guys were stockholders in the company. The company was located at 134 North La Salle St. and its president was one of Prio’s associates Fred Romano. Prio acted as a general manager for the company. The Outfit’s influence and control over the industry started from the cheese production, through a distribution system, to the corner pizza shops. The control over the industry has reaped enormous amounts of unreported cash for organized crime in Chicago and the continuation of that illegal cash flow was guaranteed through roughshod and illegal tactics in the marketplace. It has brought death, arson, insurance fraud, economic loss to legitimate business, and higher taxes for everyone. But this very profitable operation also resulted with an internal war within the Chicago mob and also with the end of many high profile crime figures.

In 1943 West Side boss and head of the Outfit Paul “The Waiter” Ricca and few other big shots were scheduled for a trial for extortion. Ricca ruled the Outfit with an iron fist and also had a seat on the National Mafia Commission. So since he and the boss of the Cicero area Louis Campagna were “busy” fighting the government, the natural order of things was to place someone from the North Side as front boss of the Outfit for day-to-day operations. But Ricca didn’t do that. He placed one of his close associates Tony “Joe Batters” Accardo from the Grand Avenue crew as his replacement. This move brought a lot of envy among some members in the Outfit such as Vincent Benevento and another hoodlum known as Lawrence “Dago” Mangano from the West Side. During this period these mobsters tried to use the situation while Ricca was fighting for his freedom. The situation became simple, one side tried to dominate the rackets and the other side kept it from being dominated or in general they fought for the top spot. There were also rumours that other mobsters from Kansas City and St. Louis were involved in the conspiracy. Now Ross Prio was in a very tough situation. His associates from the North Side wanted to take over the Outfit’s operation but he knew that Ricca and Accardo were very shrewd guys and things could get much worse for him. He also knew that Ricca had his own spies in every possible Outfit crew who provided informations for any possible rebellion against the boss. So now Prio was again in a situation to choose whether he’s going to join the king or go against him. Prio chose to join the king which was a very smart move. Accardo ordered that Prio should take care of the problem by himself so he can prove his loyalty towards the organization and Ricca. So Prio gave the order to his main murder logisticians known as the “Three Doms” to eliminate the “bad blood”.


The Three Doms: Dominick Brancato, DiBella and Nuccio

The “clean up” began with one of Prio’s closest associates 48 year old “Black Tom” Oneglia. On December 7, 1943 Oneglia went to the barber shop at 1608 Sedgwick Street for a shave and a hair cut. While being shaved in the barber’s chair, suddenly three hitmen burst in and shot to death Oneglia while his face was still covered in lather. Than the killers drove off in a black automobile and were never seen again.


Oneglia murdered

On February 25, 1944, 42 year old James DeAngelo and 50 year old Onofrio Vitale were called for a meeting. At the same day both went missing. Later on March 11 DeAngelo’s battered and bound corpse was found in the trunk of his wife’s car on the North Side of Chicago. He was tortured for several days, four of his ribs were broken and there were also several holes on his skull made by a small sharp instrument. Also year later Vitale’s corpse was found stuffed in a sewer. Ross Prio was questioned by the cops regarding the murders and he said that he knew nothing of Vitale except that he was a good cheese curer and an excellent salesman. On DeAngelo, Prio said that he knew him casually. On March 2, 1944, 39 year old Sam Gervase was shot to death in his refrigerator repair shop at 609 Division St. Gervase's body was found crumpled in the rear of the store, riddled by five bullets mostly in the head and chest. Clenched in his right hand was his own .38 caliber revolver from which all six shells had been fired. On August 3, 1944, “the West Side King” Lawrence Mangano was shot by the “Three Doms” while driving along Blue Island Avenue on the West Side. Later he died in a hospital.

Next on the hit list was “Don Vincenzo”. On December 28, 1945 Benevento was working in one of his cheese stores at 1057 Grand Avenue. Three gunmen entered the store and ordered Benevento to raise his hands. So he didn’t raise his hands and one of the gunmen fired four times from an automatic pistol at Benevento. He was hit twice in the stomach, once in the neck, in the right arm and left armpit. But miraculously Benevento managed to survive the attack. While in the hospital, the cops questioned Benevento but true to the gangster code of “omerta”, he refused to identify to attackers and said that it was a simple robbery. When the cops searched his apartment they found a huge arsenal of weapons, including a Thompson submachine gun, eight shotguns, six rifles, eight revolvers, two pistols and a basket full of ammunition. All of the weapons were loaded and well oiled. Benevento said that he owned the weapons because he loved to hunt. It was clearly that he was prepared to defend himself from the wrath of the Outfit. On March 1, 1946 Benevento told his wife that he’s heading south and fled Chicago and traveled around the country constantly. On September 20, 1946 Benevento called his wife Jane and told her to meet him at the Johnson Cabins, about three miles south of Lake Zurich. In the early hours of September 21, Benevento and his wife were sleeping in their cabin when suddenly two cars came near the place. Three hitmen burst the cabin door and fired seven shotgun blasts and few .45 caliber pistol bullets at Benevento. His wife was lying next to him but remained untouched by any of the bullets. Benevento’s body was riddles by the blasts and so were the mattress and the wall behind the bed. This time he was dead for sure.


Vincent Benevento

After the murder of “Don Vincenzo” his nephew Nick DeJohn also fled Chicago and went to San Francisco, were he lived under the alias Vincent Rossi. On May 9th 1947, DeJohn was seen that afternoon with another Outfit member known as Leonard Calamia driving around San Francisco and shopping. Later he was told by Calamia that they should have a meeting in a bar known as LaRocca's Tavern on Columbus Avenue, wich was a mafia hangout.They met with Sebastian Nani,a gangster out of Brooklyn, San Francisco Crime Family members Tony Lima and Michael Abati,Frank Scappatura and Outfit member Frank Tornabene. At the end of the meeting, DeJohn had been garroted or strangled with heavy braided fishing line, allegedly by Calamia. In the eyes of the police the only thing that connected some of these victims together was that they were stockholders in the Grande Cheese Co. DeJohn’s death signalled the end of the old time North Side crew and coming of the “new blood” headed by Ross Prio himself. After the murders one of the owners of the Grande Cheese Company John DiBella, contacted Ross Prio and asked him for help to move the company elsewhere. So in 1949 the company was moved to 1 S. Main St. in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Ross Prio was responsible for the Wisconsin state law concerning the pasteurising of milk for the making of cheese. Years later, one of the main shareholders in the company was New York mafia boss Joe Bonanno.

James DeGeorge, who was still the main guy on the North Side, was punished by the Outfit for the failure to fulfil his obligations towards the organization. He was demoted as boss of the North Side and was transferred to Wisconsin. After that the coast was clear. Now, guess who became the new boss of the most lucrative area at that time in Chicago?! That’s right ladies and gentlemen, it was Ross Prio. Prio took over the vast network of bookmaking parlors and brothels along Rush Street and the Near North Side, which at the time was an area that enjoyed a post war economic renaissance. And The Devil said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendour, it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to.” (Luke 4:6-7) That “anyone” was Ross Prio.

During the late 1940’s the Outfit’s coin machine king Edward Vogel started spreading his operations in Dallas. His representative there was Sam Yaras, the brother of a Jewish big time hoodlum Dave Yaras. Ross Prio also played a major role by sending one of his associates from the milk business, Marcus Lipsky. According to federal and Texas authorities Lipsky masterminded the Outfit’s takeover of the Dallas rackets, after planning the murders of four established Dallas gambling operators as a Machiavellian show of strength. Prio also became something of a “peacemaker” among Chicago politicians. During the same period, there was rivalry for the position of Alderman between Fred Gable and Mathias “Paddy” Bauler. Bauler was backed by Ross Prio and the Outfit so during the campaign the headquarters of Bauler were bombed. It was a trick made by the Prio group so they can blame Fred Gable for the act and to get him out of the way. And they succeeded because Gable and another individual were arrested so Bauler became the Alderman of the 43rd Ward. Adverse publicity followed and Gable was eventually released from jail and immediately filed a million dollar damage suit against Bauler and his organization. After that Prio himself visited Gable and told him to drop the suit against Bauler or else. Gable reportedly dropped the suit against Bauler and Prio allegedly rewarded Gable with $30,000 cash. After the settlement, Bauer allowed Prio and his associates to operate freely in his ward.

Ross Prio was 5’ 3” tall, weighted 180 pounds, heavy build, with dark complexion and wore glasses. His appearance was like out of the movies, with bodyguards, black Cadillacs and $500 suits. The early 1950s were the heyday of the North Side mob which by now became known as the Rush Street Crew. Prio controlled the whole North Side including the Near North Side and North into Niles, Illinois. He lived in a big house at 6116 Forest Glen, Sauganash Illiniois.


Home of Mob Boss Ross Prio at 6116 Forest Glen as it looked March 31, 1953

Prio’s right hand man was Jimmy Allegretti. Allegretti was a Neapolitan and was also a mean money making machine. He took profits from gambling operations, extortion and mostly prostitution. He owned and extorted hundreds of clubs, restaurants, taverns and also held an army of bookies and prostitutes under his rule. Allegretti made over $20.000 a month only from extortion. He ran prostitution and gambling rackets mostly at 35 and 36 districts of Chicago to the whole North Avenue. Almost every hotel, tavern, bar or club on North Side paid protection money or held at least 20 of Allegretti's prostitutes night and day. Mostly the price for his hookers went from 20$ to 500$. He was also involved in fur burglaries. This business generated from 500 to 700.000 dollars a year and they sold from 200$ to 1000$ dollars for one fur coat. He even was involved in horse betting and wire services which generated almost half a mil per year. He also had shares in several casinos in Hot Springs, Arkansas and was involved in the bartenders and waitress unions. Allegretti also was connected to a car theft ring and shipped cars to Guatemala, which generated 10.000$ a week and also held a lot of meat markets and stores.


James Allegretti

Other two most prominent members of Prio’s crew were Joseph “Caesar” DiVarco and Anthony "Tony Mack" DeMonte. DiVarco was a psychopath who rose in the organization through murder. Previously he worked under the auspices of the “Three Doms” and also became a professional extortionist and juice lender. DiVarco grew so big that theres rumours on who was second in command after Prio. Was it Allegretti or DiVarco? The two teamed up to operate so-called legitimate companies which provided foodstuffs and supplies to the area's nightspots. For example, the restaurants and meat shops bought their meat from C & B Meat Provision Company, which was owned by Allegretti and DiVarco. Also many of the taverns and hotels purchased automatic glassware washers from the Sterile Glass Company which was also owned by the duo. Tony DeMonte controlled all card and dice operations for the crew. Although these guys were Prio's prime money makers, Prio also had some assistance from William Goldstein aka Bill Gold, who was the prime bookmaker. Gold obtained the line and race results from the Ernest Sansone organization. Also Frank Tornabene, was one of Prio’s main players in the prostitution racket. Tornabene’s associates in his prostitution ring were Sam Elia, Thomas Rizzo, Robert Smith and Eileen “Bunny” Curry, a well known Chicago madam. Joseph "Big Joe" Arnold and Mike Glitta were two ruthless guys that were mostly involved in the juice loan and prostitution rackets. Arnold also worked as extortionist and Glitta some times was used as a frontman in some of Allegretti’s strip joints. Other members of Arnold’s juice crew were Lawrence “Hornsby” Moretti, Lawrence “Larry the Hood” Buonaguidi, Joseph “Red” Amari, August Giovenco, Victor Musso, Michael "Bones" Albergo, Libero “Tony” Ingignoli and Thomas Immerso. These guys handled a $500,000 a year juice loan racket. Dominick DiBella, Nuccio and Brancato became Prio’s overseers of many illegal activities and also liaisons between Prio and other bosses of the organization. The Three Doms were supervising more than 40 gambling joints which poured millions of dollars annually into the pockets of crime syndicate gangsters and their crooked cohorts among police and politicians. This was one of the best money making crews in the Outfit’s history and Prio’s word was their law.