Ross Prio was riding high. He often held court at the Sunshines Restaurant in Niles, Illinois. He was driving in a 1961 tan Pontiac Vista and his personal and family chauffer and bodyguard was Marco Glitta, brother of the infamous Rush Street crew member Mike Glitta. He also occasionally played golf at the Tam- O’Shanter golf course in Niles and was constantly accompanied by his associates such as DiVarco, DeMonte and Vince Solano. Solano acted from time to time as Prio’s substitute driver to discuss business and was also his main guy in the union business. Solano was main official in the International Hod Carriers and Builders Union, Local 1 in Chicago. Solano held this position for more than 20 years.


Vince Solano

Prio and Solano together held interest in The Torch Club at 900 North State Street, which was fronted by Eddie Sturch. Sturch was an ex-convict and also a powerhouse in the 42nd Ward Democratic organization. For the Christmas holidays, Prio usually sent several packages of high quality cheese as gifts to Ricca, Giancana, Accardo, Alex and Ferraro. On April 7, 1963 there was a big North Side mob meeting for breakfast at the Sunshines Restaurant, including Ross Prio as boss of the crew, his lieutenants Joe DiVarco, Dom DiBella, Mike Glitta, Tony DeMonte and Bill Gold, also present was muscleman and strip joint operator Larry Buonaguidi, North Side gambling operators Frank Orlando and Ralph Scaccia, and also North Side gambler and operator of the Waltor Club Pete Speren.

By now Ross Prio made so much money that he stood miles away from most of the top gangsters and their wealth combined together with the wealth of some of the most prominent legitimate businessmen in the country. He held a legitimate no show job as a salesman at the Attendant Service Corporation at 2634 Fullerton av., for a salary of $10,000. He also had another no show job as a salesman at the Zenith Cigarette Vending Corp. again for a salary of $10,000. Prio and his wife lived in a $60,000 residence at 1721 North Sunset Ridge Road in Glenview, Illinois. He also bought a big residence with swimming pool in Miami at 6600 Southwest 116th Street, Florida where he and his wife spent the winter days. So Prio also invested some of his money in real estate in the Miami area. He bought 50% interest in twenty one-half acre lots in South Miami which was known as Miami Ten Acres. The value of the property was approximately $100,000. Prio’s partner in this deal was John McDonald of River Forest, Illinois. One of Prio’s associates in Miami, Pete Arnstein informed Prio that the Kingston Hotel and Yacht Club at 6380 Indian Creek Drive was for sale. Arnstein used control a big prostitution ring from the hotel which was on a very good location. Prio gave the money to Arnstein and also gave him very specific instructions not to contact him directly in any way and also told him that he will hold him responsible for the many that he gave him. Than Prio sent two of his lieutenants Dom DiBella and Dom Nuccio to Miami to watch over the money transactions and the purchase of the hotel. When Prio became a secretive owner of the hotel he also bought a big yacht. He became one of the kings in that area. Two or three years later Prio sold his interests in the hotel.

Back home, Prio got his interest in several companies such as The Rush Currency Exchange, 7710 Sheridan Building Corporation, Clover Town and Country Homes, The Continental Insurance Company, The Hollywood Glass Company, The Homer Gwin Insurance Company, Schur Hauptman Company, Chevrolet-Cadillac Agency and The Engers Buick Company. Prio used to buy Buicks from the Engers Co. on low prices and than re-sold them for higher prices. Also all of the proceeds from the bolita racket were deposited at the Rush Currency Exchange at 941 North Rush Street. Also Kenneth Leonard and Charles Buffano, who allegedly were the “owners” of the Universal Cigarette Service Co., were in fact a frontmen for Prio and DiVarco in the cigarette machine business. Buffano was also an old ex-Capone associate. The Universal Company was in association with the Zenith Corporation in which Prio allegedly worked as salesman. In the early 1960’s a rival company by the name of George Muller and Sons Vending Service was taking over some of the cigarette stops that the Outfit previously controlled so later the rival company was bombed by “unknown” individuals. Prio also had financial interests in the Associated Life Insurance Company of Chicago, through his frontmen Dan Conero and Morris Isaac. Prio’s son Ross Jr. worked as an officer in the Hollywood Glass Company in which Prio had $5,000 equity. There are also rumours that many bombings occurred on other rival glass companies during this period.

One of Prio’s most prominent investments was the Playboy enterprises. One of his close friends was Arnold Morton who was the manager of The Playboy Club at182 East Walton Street in Chicago. In fact Morton was a frontman for the Outfit. Prio was a constant “guest” at the joint both for pleasure and business. I say pleasure because the joint handled a big prostitution ring that was operated by the Outfit. The place also had special Playboy marked cars, Playboy coats and also Playboy towels which were handed out in the restrooms. The place was constantly visited by high profile crime figures such as Gus Alex and Sam Giancana. According to some informants Prio also had close connections with Hugh Hefner, the owner of the world famous Playboy magazine. The club became suspicious in the eyes of the law when the club’s administration discounted the services of the Star Disposal Service, which was a legitimate company, and took the services of the West Town Suburban Scavenger Service, which was an Outfit controlled company. But the government wasn’t able to obtain sufficient evidences of Prio’s involvement in the club because he always used other legitimate people as fronts. Prio owned one-fourth of the shares and 80% of the stock was owned by Hugh Hefner and the Playboy magazine. In February 1961, Prio also had purchased the franchise for the Playboy Club that was located in Miami. But later the franchise was purchased back by Hefner because of a racial incident that occurred in the club. Prio and the Outfit wanted the club to operate as a segregated joint but Hefner opposed any segregation and that’s why he purchased it back from Prio for $697,000 which was much higher than the price that was previously bought. In 1963 Outfit associate Augie Circella, owner of the Follies Burlesque Theater, wanted to join the Playboy association and to invest in a new club on Chicago’s North Side that would be called the Playgirl Club. But he needed permission from the boss of that area which was Ross Prio. So Circella contacted his friend Gus Alex, who contacted Pat Marcy, the Outfit’s force in the First Ward, who in turn contacted Prio and asked him to do Circella a favour. So Circella won the approval of Prio but the deal was to take Prio as one of his partners in the club. Circella invested $40,000 in the joint and placed a former policeman who acted as front in the operation. Few years later Prio also considerably invested in another multi-million dollar Playboy Club which was located at Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Don’t get confused by the chain of people involved in making of the contacts. The reason for that was Gus Alex evading any close associations with prominent hoodlums during the periods when the government placed enormous pressure over the organization. Alex was a very paranoid gangster with suicidal tendencies. There is a story when Prio wanted to rent an apartment in the same building where Alex resided at 1150 North Lake Shore Drive. Alex advised Prio about his moving in the same building, which can bring a very bad publicity. Alex has always been very sensitive to any bad publicity regarding him and his residence which might alienate his neighbors. Prio was a very reasonable guy and so he agreed.

During this period Prio also held a lot of judges under his rule such as Judge Daniel Covelli of the Superior Court in Cook County, Illinois. Back in the late 1950’s Prio’s associate Bill Gold was arrested on gambling charges and was scheduled for a long sentence. Gold’s brother went to ask Ross Prio and asked him to intercede with Judge Covelli. So because of Prio’s close relationship with the judge, Gold’s sentence was reduced to only six months. This period was the prime time for Prio and according to some resources he was the chairman of a certain Outfit group, including Gus Alex, Frank Ferraro and another old timer Murray “Curley” Humphreys. Prio almost received an equal stature of Sam Giancana but he played it smart by evading the top spot because of all of the media and police attention that occurred during that period. According to mob lore, Prio became so powerful that once he managed to dismiss a mob hit that was sanctioned by Sam Giancana himself. The story goes when the feds bugged an Outfit controlled joint in Miami and overheard a conversation between mob big shot Jackie Cerone and few other individuals. Cerone advised the hitters in on a projected killing and that they shouldn’t be seen by Prio, who at the same time and in the same area enjoyed the sunshine. The plan was to lure the victim in a car and later to cut him up and to throw the remaining pieces in the sea. But suddenly the hit was cancelled on Prio’s orders. Probably because he didn’t want any undesirable errors that might occur during the hit while he was in the same area. So thanks to Prio, the guy continued to live. There’s also another example of respectability from Giancana towards Prio. One day Giancana was having a meeting at the Fresh Meadows Golf Course with some of his West Side associates like Sam Parde, Nicky Visco and Queenie Simonelli. Suddenly Vince Solano appeared and whispered to Giancana that his boss, meaning Solano’s boss, is waiting for him outside. So Giancana, the Outfit’s boss, immediately departed from his associates to join Ross Prio in the back seat of a car outside the club house. Solano waited outside the car for almost 20 minutes until the meeting was over. After the meeting Giancana got out of the car and went back to his associates. Don’t forget that Giancana was a Sicilian and according to Sicilian mentality and respectability if you are the boss of the Mafia than you don’t get up for anyone in the organization. Also during Giancana’s rise in the organization he didn’t show much respect towards the elder mobsters except for Ricca, Humphreys and Accardo.

Prio was also known to have been a man of honour. He wasn’t an egoistic maniac like most of his associates in the mob, but he knew when to apologize when needed. For example, in 1964 there was a meeting between the First Ward Alderman Don Parrillo, Ross Prio and Kenneth Leonard. According to Parrillo, the purpose of the meeting was for Prio and Leonard to apologize to Parrillo for being unable to give him their account. So Prio asked Parrillo if there’s anything that they can do for him. Parrillo answered that they could give him their change from the vending operations. Prio agreed and so Parrillo received $5,000 a week in change from the Zenith Company. Parrillo was receiving the money dollar per dollar because some banks at the time were paying a premium to receive change. Also the same year, an African-American criminal burglarized many houses and establishments along Rush Street. Later the burglar was caught by the police and was thrown in jail. But the problem was that his bond was arranged by a bondsman who was in fact a close friend of one of Felix Alderisio’s associates Leo Rugendorf. So Prio arranged a meeting with Alderisio and told him that one of the burglarized victims was Prio’s close friend and also told him that he wants to be insured that Rugendorf’s bondsman does nothing favourable for the burglar. Prio wanted the burglar to be convicted and sentenced to jail and also told Alderisio that he wants the furs that were stolen from his friend to be returned. So the burglar was convicted and the furs were also restored. So the ones that “deserved”, were rewarded by Prio himself, but ones that tried to go against his will, were severely punished. For example, Mandel “Manny” Skar was an ex-convict, hotel and club owner and was also close associate of many top Chicago hoodlums. The loud talking Skar, who often bragged that his friends were top mobsters, owned the $10 million dollar Sahara Inn hotel at 3939 North Mannheim Road in Schiller Park. Later the 300 room hotel was taken over by Marshall Saving and Loan Association which had loaned Skar the money. Later Skar ventured in opening his own two clubs on Rush Street which was Prio’s territory. Now everybody knew that if you want to operate freely on Rush Street, you had to pay a small amount of cash to the boss, which was Prio. So Skar tried to stretch his luck by refusing to pay any street tax to Prio’s collectors, which was imposed to every tavern owner in that area. According to some reports, Skar owed the Rush Street crew $2,000 in street tax and wasn’t going to pay the debt. Prio advised Skar that if he’s not going to pay the debt h’es going to take some of his gambling operations. Skar again refused. So Skar was begging to be made an example. On September 11, 1965 Skar working in his garage behind the 17-story apartment building in which he lived at 3800 North Lake Shore Drive. As he stepped out from the garage, a volley of gunshots rang out. Skar was hit once in the right eye, left cheek, chest and right knee. Skar was dead.


Manny Skar(middle)

Back in the early 60’s, the government declared war against the mob in Chicago by raiding some of their most prominent gambling operations. The government was led by Attorney General Robert Kennedy against the current boss of the Outfit Sam Giancana. The feeling of personal hate was felt on both sides. The Kennedy administration was attacking with raids and deportations and the Outfit’s defence was the corruption within the judicial system and the media. One day Giancana met with Ross Prio to discuss the Kennedy problem and to construct a defence tactic. During the meeting Prio told Giancana that he was very concerned about Kennedy’s appearance in front of the Italian American Civil Rights group on Columbus Day in Chicago. He felt that Frank Annunzio, who was the leader of the group, should be told to tone down Kennedy because this was an obvious attempt of Kennedy to convince the Italian population that he is very friendly with this ethnic group. Prio advised Giancana that he is connected with an official of a new magazine in Chicago which was known as Show Business Illustrated. Prio said that this official was ready to editorialize the magazine against all law enforcement officials that created the investigations against the Outfit. One suggestion was that this official should comment on the fact that Kennedy was spending all of his efforts on bookmakers and not paying attention on the real threat of the country which was the communists lobby. But even with the help of their dirty tactics, the raids continued which weakened the gambling empire of Giancana, Prio and the Outfit in general. Giancana and Prio couldn’t understand why their bookmaking operations were constantly raided by the cops. Later they realized that there was a high profile informant within their organization but they didn’t know who it was. Later Giancana received false information that one of his juice collectors William “Action” Jackson was an informant for the FBI. The innocent victim Jackson was kidnapped and tortured for several days until his heart stopped. According to mob lore, after the murder, photos of Jackson’s gruesome death were handed down among Outfit members as a message to those who might think to rat on the organization.

At the beginning of 1963 most of the North Side lounges, such as the Liberty Lounge, The Rubi Lounge, The Allegro, The La Femme and the Playhouse, which were owned by Prio, have been knocked off by the police. Prio was very angry about the raids, especially about the raid on the Playhouse joint since it was its first raid in more than 30 years. The same year Sam Giancana offered $50,000 to Police Lieutenant Thomas Mahon of the Sheriff’s Police Department in Chicago, in exchange for information in advance on the police raids. Mahon turned down the offer. Few days later he received a telephone call from an individual who identified himself as Ross Prio. Prio told Mahon that he wished to do business considering the offer for the annual payment and that he should contact him at the Team O’Shanter Golf Course and to talk it over. Mahon again refused and never made any contacts with Prio. This is an example that during this period even some of the cops were scared to take bribe from the mob. The Outfit was under attack and the top administration had to take some precautions. In early November, 1964 Sam Giancana, Tony Accardo, Ross Prio and Joseph DiVarco met at the La Strada Restaurant on Prio’s territory on Chicago’s North Side. Obviously the purpose of this meeting was the constant attacks by the government on the Outfit’s gambling operations. Prio had a plan to use their remaining police contacts and advised that all of the bookmaking establishments should remove all of the records, fortified the entrances and to leave a “fall guy” to take the arrest at each location so that it is not that obvious that the information of the anticipated raids is leaking to the hoodlums. At the same meeting it was discussed the big loss of cash because of the government’s constant attacks. So the boys had to make a sacrifice by making a wide spread arson and bombings on some of their own restaurants and other establishments so they can take the insurance money. All these guys needed money because their businesses were going bad so they set their places on fire. There was also another meeting between Giancana, Solano and Prio. Giancana advised Prio that from now on he should contact him only at the Maggio’s Steak House, which was three blocks west of Giancana’s old headquarters the Armory Lounge. During the meeting Giancana also discussed with Prio the policy drawings which were held on Sundays had cost the organization a considerable amount of cash and told Prio to cease the operation. Prio agreed.

But even with all of the precautions that took place, the loss of cash still continued. On July 23, 1964 the central bookmaking office of the Outfit in an apartment at North Jersey, Chicago was raided by the feds. On August 14, 1966 forty-three men and women were arrested in a raid by federal agents and city police on a West Side crime syndicate crap game. The gambling unit managed to arrest Vernon Bailey as manager of the game, but their main quarry Prio’s close associate James “Kid Riviera” Williams eluded them. The telephone and doorbell to the first-floor apartment at 2118 Warren blvd. were found to be listed in Williams' name. The detectives battered down the apartment doors at sunrise, an hour and a half after the dice game had started. On their way into the flat, the cops seized a look-out equipped with a walkie-talkie radio. The other half of the two-way radio set was found in the apartment, but police moved so quickly a warning was never sounded. They also found a large amount of white powder that appeared to be a narcotic. On October 7, 1967 the cops raided a big clearing hose on Chicago’s North Side. The clearing house, which reportedly serviced more than 30 individual bookmakers for the North Side mob, was controlled by Ross Prio. The clearing house was located half a block from the offices of the Illinois Crime Investigating Commission at 300 W. Washington St. Those arrested identified themselves as Louis Kopple, 57, of 540 Aldine av., and Edward M. Camp, 63, of 5907 N. Bernard av. Both have been arrested for gambling before. Kopple was arrested previously in another North Side clearing house. The “front" that was used to disguise the large scale betting operation was very unusual. A large quantity of picture frames were hung about the walls, although the records that were found in the place indicated little legitimate business was conducted there in the last 10 months.

The same year the Illinois Crime Investigating commission declared public hearings about the penetration of the Chicago Outfit into the vending machine and juke box businesses. Those who were scheduled to make an appearance were Charles “Chuckie” English, Joseph “Gags” Gagliano, Gus Alex, Lenny Patrick and Ross Prio. These so-called public appearances were very bad for Prio’s publicity in the legitimate business world. So although he was subpoenaed to appear before the committee, his lawyer Bernard McDonald advised him to stay away because the creation of the commission was not legal.


Ross Prio taken for questioning

This was a tough period for the Chicago mob and many high profile figures fled town like rats abandoning a sinking ship. For example after his release from prison, Sam Giancana fled the country and went to Mexico to further establish their gambling operations in South America. Also Hyman Larner, who was next to Prio as the richest gangsters in the organization, packed his bags, took his wife and fled to Panama. Back in the mid 1960’s Prio’s right hand man Jimmy Allegretti was imprisoned and was sentenced to 7 years in jail. In prison he suffered from diabetes which caused blindness and other defects. With Allegretti’s absence, DiBella, DiVarco and Solano took care of the Rush Street crew. In 1967, the guy who was responsible for Allegretti’s imprisonment, Gerry Covelli was killed on the orders of Ross Prio.


The wreckage of Covelli’s car after the bomb blast June 18, 1967.

As for Prio, who by now was in his mid 60’s, there wasn’t any serious business problems. He sold some of his shares in the legitimate business world and became richer than ever. His bolita racket, which was also in the downfall, remained as his one and only illegal income. Even if he stopped his involvement in the illegal and legal businesses, he and his family still had the cash to live the rest of their lives like kings without lifting their fingers. He and his wife enjoyed their lives by frequently visiting the Williams Bay area in Wisconsin. Prio also mostly hang around DiVarco’s Shirts Unlimited Shop on North State Street in Chicago. He still lived a very fashionable life style by wearing funky pink hot knickers and driving fancy cars. But rumours spread around the underworld that Prio “went soft”. In fact he really did go “soft” and the reason for that was the fading away of most of the gambling rackets, the constant heat from the FBI and the loss of many former allies in the Outfit. Maybe he didn’t want the top spot in the North Side any more and wanted to retire from the business. But being one of the prime money makers in the organization was like a curse. By now Prio wasn’t anymore the chairman of a certain crime administration but he was still the boss of the North Side. Now Tony Accardo, Joseph Aiuppa and Gus Alex were the main players on the top of the organization. So now Gus Alex handed down his orders to Felix Alderisio or Fifi Buccieri who in turn handed down the order to Prio to spread the information among the rest of the Outfit members.

So by 1969 Prio knew that his good times as boss of the North Side mob were coming to an end. During that period the only Outfit administration that left to lead the organization were the semi-retired guys such as Ricca, Accardo and Frank LaPorte, the boss of the Chicago Heights area. But in reality Ricca and Accardo still had the last word in the Alex-Aiuppa ruling panel. So Prio, as the one who brought the biggest profits in the organization, received a lot of pressure from Ricca and Accardo.

In 1970 Prio attended a meeting with Ricca and Accardo at Meo's Norwood House in Libertyville, Lake County, Illinois. According to some reports, it was a 90 minute heated conversation between the mob chieftains. The biggest problem for Ricca and Accardo was the downfall of Prio’s illegal enterprises. For example, Prio’s top money making lieutenants, DiVarco and Arnold, were loosing the battle with the rising African-American gangsters in the gambling operations. Also the multi-million- dollar-a-year bolita racket was on the downfall because of the constant raids from the FBI. Ricca told Prio to deliver the word down on the streets and to tighten up the operating procedures in the bolita racket. According to FBI surveillance, at the lunch Ricca and Accardo had been visibly upset by the arrests of two top bolita overseers with evidence of their operations in hand. Accardo was also upset about the recent imprisonment of Felix Alderisio and the reduced to skimming of illegal profits from the operations of so-called "gay" bars in Old Town, New Town, the Near North Side and the areas of Rogers Park. The reason for that were the raids which were made by the FBI and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Many of the joints had been raided and copious quantities of booze were confiscated because of the violations of federal and state liquor tax laws. Also the same year Prio’s juice loan and extortion operations were on the downfall because operator his main guy Jimmy Allegretti was out of prison but died from a heart attack while en route to Chicago from the penitentiary.

So after the lunch, 70 year old Prio jumped in his car and drove to the Lake Forest Oasis on the Tri-State Tollway to make a phone call. Then he continued on to Libertyville to kill time in the marketplace before returning to the Oasis for a half-hour meeting with Ken Eto, and Dominick DiBella. Prio pressured Eto and DiBella to make everything in their own power to bring back the bolita operations on higher level. Like all good Outfit soldiers, both Eto and DiBella made the nods and then sped back to the Chicago on a mission to lay down the law to a network of bolita runners on the Near North Side. According to some reports Eto wasn’t able to bring back the bolita racket to its previous level, because the second generation of Latin-Americans got wise to the failings of their elders who were constantly cheated and terrorised for too many years by platoons of their own people who worked for white-skinned Mafia masters. They weren't about to be suckered, too. So Eto had no choice but to start dealing in narcotics just to satisfy the needs of his Outfit bosses.

During the winter of 1972, Prio and his wife Marie, as usual decided to spend their days at their residence in Miami, Florida. But in December 4, 1972 Prio was called to testify before a federal grand jury about crime syndicate gambling operations on Chicago’s North Side. True to the Sicilian Mafia code of “omerta” Prio took the Fifth Amendment. In the end he told the committee “I want to live out my life in peace. I am what I am. I have been this way all my life. I can’t become a fink now.” After the investigations Prio returned to Florida. Almost three weeks later, 72 year old Rosario Priolo a.k.a. Ross Prio died from a heart attack in his Miami residence. The newspapers around the country read “Real life “Godfather” Prio dies at 72”. The newspapers used the term from the famous mafia movie “The Godfather” that was released 9 months prior Prio’s death. And the truth was that Prio was the real “Godfather” because he made a lot of money, remained as one of the top bosses in the Outfit for nearly 30 years, had the power and guts to take a man’s life, never spent a prison term, became sort of a tycoon in the legitimate world and in the end died as an old man. People always say that there is definitely a price to pay for this type of life, but it looks like Ross Prio managed to avoid paying the price during his life time. If there’s life after death, than only God has the pleasure to put the check on Prio’s table.


This article is completed from various infos,FBI files,newspaper articles and personal opinions.