Another major and also key player who worked under Alex and Ferraro was Louis Briatta, the guy who extorted every single business in the Loop, and also oversaw every gambling operation in that territory. He kept the wire rooms operation “locked down” to the point where every gambling bet was reported to him. Briatta and the Outfit used methods of securing a number of legally obtained telephones for the operations. One method was to go to a slum area and contact the owner and number of tenants in an apartment building and arrange to pay for the telephone bills of the persons contacted. Then they ran extensions off these phones to one room in the building which was the headquarters for the handbook operation. The persons in whose names the phones were listed were not allowed to use their phones between 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., the time period when the tracks were running. In order to facilitate quick results of the races for the bookmakers, Briatta had his own men over the racetracks with two-way radios, who in turn relayed information to another person outside of the track next to a telephone who then called in the results immediately to the bookmaker’s headquarters for dissemination to other bookmakers around the state.
Briatta was in fact brother-in-law of Alderman John D’Arco and was also related to Mayor Daley. In fact, Daley’s son was the husband of Briatta’s daughter Mary. Briatta was the main “messenger” between Ferraro and D’Arco. For example, once Briatta handed to Ferraro $24,000 and of this amount, $13,000 was returned to Briatta and was instructed by Ferraro to take the money to D’Arco or Marcy. Briatta’s headquarters was a barber shop located at 1074 West Polk Street and his apartment was located just above the barber shop. He was often visited by his own three brothers and criminals associates Joe, Mike and Tom Briatta. Tom and Mike operated a tavern in the vicinity of Taylor and Halsted Street and also liquor store known as the Rush Liquors on Rush Street and Joe was very close to Pat Marcy. Because of their connections to Alderman D’Arco, all of the brothers were on the city’s payroll in high paying jobs but never showed up. For example, Louie received $684 for 22 days of work, Mike received $705, Tom received $646 and for Joe $500. Briatta’s job was to watch for the bookmakers who tried to cheat the Outfit by reporting only the loosing bets, thus the Outfit was in the position of sharing only their losses, not winnings. For example, one bookmaker known as John McDonald, a veteran betting commissioner, decided to stop sending the “cream” of his bets to the Outfit. So one day he was visited by Briatta and one of his henchmen and was viciously beaten and was stripped of from his operations and was exiled from Briatta’s territory.
Two of Briatta’s main bookies were Leo Bloom and Johnny McDonald, who ran a master bookmaking operation from the Sherman Hotel, which was located in Chicago’s Loop. Both Bloom and McDonald were known veteran bookmakers for the mob in Chicago, who served only big bettors such as federal judges or various aldermen. But sometimes Bloom and McDonald had a very dangerous habit by not reporting good bets to Briatta. The kind of bets that the bettors will surely loose, so they kept that action for themselves. But the bookies forget that these types of schemes can be easily spotted by people such as Briatta, Ferraro or Alex, because they started receiving smaller and thinner envelopes. There were no police raids, the customers flow remained the same, or in other words, everything was in its place. So it became obvious that somebody was stealing. Briatta personally visited the pair and started beating them so hard that he almost killed them. Bloom did not take the beating so kindly, because he considered himself a veteran with many influential customers and friends. Therefore he went to P. J. Cullerton, Cook County Assessor and oldest of several brother who were highly placed in Chicago’s politics at the time. Cullerton in turn went to John D’Arco and told him “If there’s anymore of such treatment of Bloom, I personally will visit Mayor Daley about it.” Cullerton and Bloom played a dangerous game because they hardly knew about Daley’s mob ties but in the end Briatta stopped the violence over the bookies in return for their complete honesty and loyalty.
Briatta’s main collector and muscleman was Sid Frasin, who was the one that kept all of the bookies in line. However, one day Frasin, same as Tornabene, was caught stealing some of the cash and was exiled, or disappeared from the streets of Chicago. There’s also another story that one day he had to collect a huge sum of cash and decided to steal it and fled Chicago forever. After the situation with Frasin, the next two of Briatta’s main henchmen were Nick Garambone and Phil Katz. These two guys controlled the bookmaking and wire operations like no other. For example, Garambone was in charge of the persons who answered the telephones and it was his responsibility to lay off bets when Briatta became overbalanced on one horse or one team in the sporting field. Garambone was also closely connected to Ralph Pierce. As for Katz, he exercised control over all of the individual bookmakers from whom he made the collections and also controlled other individuals who took measures to insure that each bet was called into the Briatta organization. His headquarters was in a realty office in the Oriental Theater building at State and Randolph Street. These two fellas didn’t worked only for Briatta, but they also directly answered to Ferraro, Alex and Humphreys. Both Katz and Garambone made regular payments to Police Lieutenant Daniel McCain who was in charge of the Intelligence Unit of the Chicago Police Department. Briatta, same as many of his associates, was also closely connected to the North Side mob with the help of Aaron Oberlander. In fact, Briatta and Oberlander, together with two of Alex’s relatives, operated a large handbook operation near the corner of Oak and Rush Street.
Same as Tornabene, Briatta was also a “made guy” and was considered a very powerful individual. He and First Ward Alderman John D'Arco made a handsome profit on the sale of lands and real estate. He belonged to a special group of criminals with powerful connections and huge illegal enterprises. He was one of the few made members that used to hang around at the Celano Tailoring Shop with the top bosses like Ricca and Accardo. But the problem was that Briatta started having serious health issues, which caused him to take a step back from the rackets. After Tornabene, Briatta was the second guy who got out of the Chicago Outfit alive and…almost well. Briatta continued to work every day at his Rush Street Liquors store with the image of an old “mob veteran.” So now somebody had to replace Briatta and take over the rackets. Ferraro and Alex needed someone with reputation and lots of experience in making collections and so Alex turned to the boss of the Taylor Street crew, Fiore Buccieri, for help. Buccieri was the loan shark’s loan shark so he had a tough and big crew of collectors and also had the number of people to lend one to the First Ward crew. In 1963, Alex and Buccieri met in a hotel in New Mexico. Buccieri agreed to help but only if he take a “small” percentage from the collections. Buccieri was a very greedy individual, but also very aggressive and murderous so Alex did not stood a chance because he knew and witnessed Buccieri’s short temper, and agreed on the proposal. So now the new collector for the First Ward was Sam Gearis and his son Arnold. The father and son were known for making $6,000 per week from their collections. Arnold was the one who usually made the collections by starting his daily rounds in the morning from Edith Restaurant which was located near the corner of Halsted and Jackson Street and from there he travelled across the Loop on foot. With the help of the duo, Alex even muscled into to the Greek restaurant business in the vicinity of Halsted and Harrison Street, like the Kepisha Restaurant and Tavern at 524 South Halsted or the New Athens Restaurant. The so-called owner of the New Athens Restaurant was Spiros Cerr who has reportedly received $250,000 from Alex for remodelling of the joint.
Some of Ferraro’s and Alex’s partners or associates in the gambling operations were their friends from the old days Frank Caruso, Jimmy Catuara, Sam Cesario, Gus Zapas, the Bravos brothers, Rocco DeStefano, Mickey Farr, Nick Kokenes and Gus Liebe. By now Catuara was a high profile member of the Chicago Heights crew but was also closely allied with Caruso and Ferraro. The Chicago Heights crew was headed by an old time mob boss Frank LaPorte who in turn was also a close friend of Alex. LaPorte, Alex, Kruse, Giancana, Curry and Rocco Fischetti, controlled a huge crap game operation at the J&J Picnic Grove club, in Will County, Illinois. Catuara had operations on the Near South Side and the Loop, and also in Chicago Heights and Calumet City. Catuara and Alex controlled a huge crap game operation in a garage building at 31st and Parnell Street and another one at 232 West 31st Street and also they had interests in one gambling joint known as the Red Fence Lounge in Dixmoor, Illinois. Catuara had a henchman of his own who operated as enforcer and collector known as Pete Gushi. In reality Gushi’s main job was professional burglar but he also had the skills to intimidate people. For example, one day Catuara and Gushi visited the owner of the Box X Tavern in Calumet City and gave him one of the most brutal beatings. Catuara allegedly stood over the victim with a shotgun while Gushi administered the beating with fists and a baseball bat. Two other prominent Catuara’s associates and henchmen were Angelo LaPietra and Tony Maenza. These men were notorious and hardened criminals who had been arrested for all kinds of criminal activities, including murder.
Frank Caruso also used Gushi’s “services” by orchestrating a robbery of $180,000 worth of cigarettes. In fact, Caruso was mostly involved in the crap game operations and high profile burglaries. For example, when the feds raided one of Caruso’s most profitable crap game operations on 238 West Cermak Road, besides the $5,000 and three large poker tables, the cops also found numerous burglary tools, including masks, dynamite blasting caps and wires. Few of Caruso’s most profitable bookmakers were his brother Morris Caruso, Al Carfagno and Dominick Scalfaro. Also Caruso and his associate Gus Liebe, controlled the Tomahawk Athletic Club at 2418 South Wentworth Avenue. In fact, the club was their main crap game operation which generated over $50,000 per day. But on May 18, 1963, the cops raided the place and arrested Caruso and Liebe and their operators Abe Glickman, James Cordovano and James Kapande. Alex and Ferraro both had interests in the joint. Caruso controlled all gambling, vending machines and loan sharking activities from 22nd Street (Cermak Road) on the north to possibly as far South as 63rd Street and also controlled the policy racket in the First Ward. His headquarters was a tavern known as “The Bowery.” In one year, Caruso made over $300,000 only from the loan sharking business. As additional info, by now Gus Liebe was a lieutenant for Les Kruse in the gambling operations and also worked as his front man.
Gus Liebe hiding his face from the newsmen
Gus Zapas was one of Humphrey’s guys, known as a labor terrorist and also a professional bomber. Back in the 1950’s he was involved in numerous kidnappings and was also involved in the policy racket. He was the guy who connected James Gottlier, landlord of the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas, with 1.5 million dollars loan from the laundry workers and another 5 million dollar loan from the Teamsters Union. In fact, Zapas was also a business agent of the Laundry Cleaners and Dye House Workers Union, Local 46. Before his election as business manager of the union, there was a meeting between Humphreys and Alex. Even though they were close friends, at the meeting Alex opposed Zapas to take the position, however he was overruled by Humphreys, who had the last word regarding the union activities. Besides that, Zapas and Alex were involved in a scheme whereby all buildings under construction in the Loop area and perhaps the Near North Side area, were forced to have a toilet on every floor of the construction. They had arranged to obtain this concession and it was believed that the other contractors had been muscled out. In fact, Alex and Zapas couldn’t have done this with out the help of Chicago Building Commissioner Sidney Smith. Alex and Zapas were so close that they even shared same girlfriend. Zapas dated a well-built and gorgeous blonde, who from time to time passed her to Alex for his own entertainment. The girl’s name was Sherry Gordon who worked in a dress shop and was also a bookkeeper for Zapas and Alex.
Alex and Zapas had a mutual friend known as George Dicks. Dicks was also a labor terrorist, who allegedly was one of the seven men who obtained $2,000,000 from the Master Barber Association of Lake County for protection. Also unidentified union officials at the highest levels of Local 705, which represented the Freight, Cartage, Warehousing, Public Works, movers and many thousands of other members in and around the Chicago area, were getting $2,000 a month in kickbacks from a major trucking firm for exceptions to their contract for hauling special commodities into Chicago. The conduit was a sham company run by Dicks, Zapas and Alex. They even maintained control over the Local 136, Machinery Movers, Riggers and Machinery Erectors Union.
George and Nick Bravos were cousins of Alex and operated one of the largest bookmaking and loan sharking operations in Chicago. The Bravos brothers dealt only with extremely large bettors such as J. J. Armer, a wildcat oilman, or Howard Sober, a guy who handled the largest shipments of automobiles for General Motors. As for the loan sharking business, the Bravos brothers loaned money generally for 20% for ten months and when they had a large loan outstanding, they would generally attempt to have the debtor take out life insurance for the amount of the loan plus interest. The Omaha Mutual Company of Nebraska was one of the firms which the Bravos bros used to have the debtors insured.
As for Sam Cesario, he was the reputed head of all betting in the Maxwell Street police district and was Phil Alderisio’s guy on the South Side but also gave a cut from his operations to Alex and Ferraro and any problem that he had, he took it to them. Approximately, Cesario operated over 70 books in that area and he was one of the youngest such liaison men and was jealously described by some of the fringe syndicate operators as an overrated punk. One day the cops arrested him and he allegedly yelled “You cannot arrest me, I’m Sambo Cesario!”
Alex and his old pal Nick Kokenes invested in the MGM Lounge in Cicero, in which Kokenes was the general manager. Kokenes had his own gambling operations around Cicero which were run by another Greek mobster, John Photakis. Alex made a lot of money with Kokenes and according to some sources, Alex allegedly once said to Kokenes “If you stop playing the horses, you would be the richest Greek in Cicero.” Another associate of Alex was Joseph Spadavecchio a.k.a. Joe Spa, who ran the loan sharking business in the area of 5th and California in Chicago.
Tony Alfervic was another old friend of Alex and also one of his main loan sharks in the Cicero area. Alfervic and Alex grew up together and Alex trusted him very much but the problem was that Alfervic was a degenerate gambler and he also spent the cash, which was the Outfit’s cut. So same as the previous example with Louis Tornabene, Alfervic was stripped from his operations by Alex and was “fired” from the Outfit. In 1962, Alfervic died from natural causes and during his funeral, Alex passed his hat and collected $6,500 for Alfervic’s family because he knew that Alfervic died broke and left his family without a penny.
Alex also had a personal driver, appointment secretary and bodyguard known as Nathan Ladon, who was also his messenger and voice on certain matters. Ladon owned the Fort Tavern, a gambling house near the Glenview Naval Air Station together with Alex and Eddie Vogel. In fact, Ladon at the same time worked as Vogel’s driver and collector and acted as a messenger between the two bosses. Ladon was paid $50 a week by Vogel for his services and $25 by Alex. Plus he had a percentage of the collections from the coin machines that were operated by Vogel and Alex. Two of Ladon’s guys in the operation were Frank Garnett who was a son-in-law of the late Jake Guzik and Sam Shanker, who was in charge for the pinball and cigarette vending machines in Skokie, Illinois. According to some wiretapped conversations between Ladon, Alex and Vogel, it appears that Ladon wasn’t very intelligent individual because he was often fooled around by the two bosses.
Mickey Farr was another bookmaker for Alex in the First Ward and also a long time friend. But in reality, Farr’s real job was a fight fixer for the mob. He was a very well connected guy and close friend with another infamous fight fixer and member of the mob from New York known as Frankie Carbo and as well as with boxing champion Rocky Marciano and fighting promoter Al Weill. Alex also knew these guys and in their company, he attended few boxing matches in Los Angeles.
Frank Fratto, the brother of Des Moines boss Louie Fratto, was involved with Alex in numerous gambling operations in Du Page County. According to some informant, Fratto had bigger share in these illegal operations, because he was from Italian descent and Alex was not. So Alex played it smart by inviting Willie Daddano to the territory and there was no way for less violent guy like Fratto to say “no” to a much violent guy like Daddano. In fact, Daddano and Alex knew each other since kids and still maintained good relationship so I believe that now Alex received a fair share from the proceedings. Daddano’s guys in Du Page County were Joe Amato and Pasquale Clementi.
Thomas Kennefick has been Alex’s main handbook operator for years in the Bridgeport area of Chicago. Also Leo Schafer was another of Alex’s bookies but in Terre Haute, Indiana. During the early 1960’s Shafer was arrested and convicted for running a multi-million dollar sports service for the Outfit.
With all of these connections and by taking a cut from all of these illegal operations, Alex was regarded as one of the most important members of the Chicago Outfit. He was in the top ten list of the Chicago mob. Alex had connections from New York with the crime families and all the way to Los Angeles with Allen Smiley, a known former associate of the infamous New York mobster Benjamin Siegel and to Miami with Tony Ricci, a very mysterious New York mobster based in Florida who possibly started his criminal career in Chicago. So Alex made a lot of money and since he had no kids of his own, he spent his cash lavishly.
By the end of the year of 1963, Alex began investing his illegal cash more and more into legitimate enterprises. For example, Alex and Les Kruse purchased an apartment building at 4300 Marine Drive and rented the apartments. Also the Crossroads Restaurants was demolished and on that same place Alex invested in a 12 story elevator parking lot garage. His front man was Sam Kaplan who was also involved in few other parking lots and garages around the Loop. Alex and Kaplan were also associated with the Town Parking Station Inc. and D-Lel Garage Inc. Kaplan also fronted few building projects for Alex and was also well respected among the Jewish community and was very close friend to the Korshak brothers. Alex, Ferraro and Korshak controlled the Duncan Parking Meter Company which manufactured and maintained the parking meters around Chicago and on nation-wide basis. The front man for the operations was former gambling operator for Alex known as Jerry Robinson. Also Alex started receiving tips on the grain trading business so he placed his order at the Gerstenberg and Company and started making transactions. He even invested in oil wells in Texas with the help of Louie Lederer, former Outfit representative in Las Vegas. Lederer was the main connection to a Texas oil tycoon H. L. Hunt. By now the Harvey Wrecking Company was owned by Fred and Harvey Goldberg, who were Outfit associates since the old days and so their interest in the company was a split between Alex and Humphreys. Also Alex and Giancana were hidden owners of the Speedway Wrecking Company.
Alex was the owner of the Town and County Restaurant which was fronted by Tony and Ted Smith and also owned the City-Wide Produce Company which was fronted by George and Nick Maentanis. Alex even had interest in the National Maintenance Corporation which was located at 542 West Madison Street. Joey Glimco, Ben Stein and Louie Arger were Alex’s guys in the company. Stein acted as the owner, Arger as officer and another individual known as Dominic Senese was also a officer of the company. In fact, Sense was a cousin of Tony Accardo. Lou Arger and Alex invested $10,000 in the Cosmopolitan Insurance Company which was located on North Sheridan Road. The head of the company and also Alex’s friend was Irving Silverman, a powerful and rich individual with many connections in Hollywood. Accardo, Alex and Ferraro heavily invested in the Hilton chain hotels with the help of Sidney Korshak because this was the period when the Hilton Corporation required numerous hotels, which some of them were owned by the Outfit. Alex and Ferraro invested heavy cash in the amount of $500,000 in the St. Clair and Eastgate Hotels. Both gangsters were associated in the ownership of the hotels with unknown Jewish businessmen. Alex and Ferraro also owned a drugstore which was located in the lobby of the Croydon Hotel at Rush and Ontario Street. The duo even invested in the Functional Music Company at Wacker and Michigan Avenues and they also owned the Sparten Room which was located in Residence Hall at 1117 North Dearborn. Other of Alex’s legit operations were the Club Rouge at 56 West Randolph Street, which was fronted by “Big Joe” Smith, also the One Step Beyond restaurant on 6800 Grand Avenue, which was fronted by Mike Castalado, and the Living Room club on 867 North Rush Street, which was fronted by Steve DeKosta. So the real owners of the club were Gus and his brother Sam Alex, who helped with the managing of the club. In fact, DeKosta was a cousin with the Alex brothers. Alex and Charles Nicoletti owned the Victory Produce and Victory Spud Service, which dealt with ready cut French fries. They used pressure tactics over many restaurants around the Chicago area to take their French fried products. Also as one of the main bosses in Chicago, Alex also purchased three points in the Dunes Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
