Ricca helped and mentored a lot of people in his life but his most successful minions were “hidden in his closet.” For example Ricca mentored two Outfit members such as Romeo Nappi or Sam De Stefano, who in turn were two individuals very different from each other. De Stefano met the Outfit boss back in the 1940’s in Leavenworth prison, where Ricca “blessed” his new recruit and gave him a chance to make some real cash and eventually to be initiated into the organization. But the problem was that this kid De Stefano had no special skills and was a very illiterate individual but he had a quite “nice” history for Ricca’s taste. De Stefano knew Giancana, Nicoletti, Caifano since the days of the old 42 gang and “Dino” as he was known, was the most psychotic of them all. So now De Stefano was one of the most successful loan sharks in Illinois and above all, one of the most bloodthirsty, and according to some accounts even satanic killers that the Outfit ever had. As for Romeo Nappi, he was something quite opposite of the murderous De Stefano. He was the younger brother of Ralph Nappi, one of Ricca’s oldest mob associates. But huge tragedy occurred when Ralph was murdered back in 1941, during a drunken saloon fight in Wisconsin. So from that point on Ricca took care and at the same time mentored Ralph’s younger brother into corruption and crime. Besides being directly connected to the city’s “boss of all bosses”, Nappi also had direct connection to the First Ward and Pat Marcy. Nappi also took a cut from the policy racket and had strong ties in Chicago’s Police Department. As additional info, the Nappi brothers were in fact nephews of one of Ricca’s associates since the old Capone days, named Anthony Iorii.


After their deaths, Ricca took care for many mobster’s wives and children. For example when Nitti took his life, Ricca took care of his kid or when Capone went to jail and even after his death, Ricca and the Outfit took care for his wife and child, until one day when Giancana decided to stop the “tradition.” Ricca respected the codes that guided his criminal brotherhood because with out those codes and rules, their organization could’ve never existed. But by the early 1960’s the only few guys that still respected the rules were the last ones who witnessed the Capone era, including the non-Italians such as Murray Humphreys and Eddie Vogel. According to Humphreys, the new generation in the organization lacked from respect and toughness.


Now the First Ward was represented by political figures and Outfit “henchmen” John D’Arco Sr. and Pat Macy, who in turn were overseen by Frank Ferraro and Gus Alex, who in turn were overseen by Humphreys. Now these guys, and including Libonati and dozen of other associates on high places, played a major role, as I previously stated, in the early release of Paul Ricca. So on October 21, 1961, the government released the boss after serving two years and three months out of a three year sentence. When he was released from jail, Ricca wasn’t ready to take control of his organization because the government wasn’t finished with him yet and so there was another huge problem waiting on the outside.


Even long before his second conviction, the government realized that Ricca’s real name was not “Paul Maglio” but instead it was Felice De Lucia who was in fact was a murderer on the run and so they revoked his citizenship. Story goes that back in 1947, when Ricca was released from prison, the cops allegedly received an anonymous phone call by someone who disliked the old boss. "Ricca's real name is Felice De Lucia," the mysterious caller whispered, "He was convicted of two murders in Italy. Check under the name De Lucia and you will see." With these words, the person who apparently bore a grudge against Ricca furnished the government with the clew it needed to the gangster's true identity. So this one phone call gave immigration authorities the information they had sought to institute denaturalization and deportation proceedings. On June 8, 1957, Judge Walter La Buy of the Federal District Court ruled that Ricca has obtained his citizenship by fraud and ordered his citizenship revoked.


Judge La Buy acted after the government had produced 2 witnesses and 70 documents and charts at a series of hearings during which Ricca presented no defence and volunteered nothing more than his name and address. The government’s most telling witness was the real Paul Maglio, the man whose name and identity Ricca had taken. It was Maglio, a laborer in the United States since he has immigrated in 1920, who told Judge La Buy that he ha worked in the city hall at Apricena, Italy, keeping track of birth and death records, an that he was the only Paolo Maglio born in that city of 6,000 people. At the time of the court hearings, Maglio had been under strong guard of the Federal Bureau of Investigation for three years and FBI agent was always at his home. Another witness, thru a deposition, was Mrs. Margaret Perillo Terribile, also an American citizen now, who testified that her brother was murdered in their native town in Italy, and that the murderer, Felice De Lucia, got off with a three year jail term because of his youth. While Mrs. Terribile was returning to her native Italy, she fled the country in terror. Federal agents visited her and got her story several months before and when they returned to her home to take her deposition, they discovered that a "stranger" had visited there in the interim. Mrs. Terribile’s husband was quite frightened, and he persuaded her not to talk.


While the witnesses were testifying, the dapper Ricca sat in court, alternately fixing them with a stony glare and chuckling at their broken English. Another witness received different treatment. He was the Rev. Nicholas Scola, who officiated at Ricca's marriage back in 1927, with Al Capone and Capone's sister as witnesses. Father Scola admitted that he was an unwilling witness and William Stewart, Ricca's lawyer, was heard to say, "That's all right, father, we understand you were an unwilling witness." An unwilling witness is given assurance that he has nothing to fear. Others, who honour their obligation as citizens to tell the truth in court, appeared in terror and one even fled the country. Everybody was scared of the old man.


Everyone thought the end of the road was in sight and that soon Ricca would be winging his way back to Italy or whatever country receives him. So now the judges of the United States Court of Appeals were forced to listen hours and hours of long arguments from Ricca's lawyers regarding his appeal of the deportation order, and after a while took the petition under advisement. Ricca's attorney, William Stewart, argued that the crime of which Ricca was convicted in Italy was not "moral turpitude," and that it was "voluntary homicide with provocation," tantamount to justifiable homicide. But Robert Caffarelli, assistant United States attorney, argued that Ricca served a three year prison term in Italy for the crime, and that he had falsified his citizenship application by concealing two murders back in Italy.


So with out any hesitation, the government ordered for Ricca to be deported from the United States but again the boss appealed. On April 2, 1962, the U.S. Court denied another hearing and Ricca was asked to choose a country where he would like to be deported to. But Ricca’s lawyers had written letters to 47 nations in Europe, and South and Central America, purportedly asking refuge there but in reality with each letter Ricca enclosed press clippings detailing his crime syndicate connections. All 47 countries immediately replied that he wasn't welcome. The United States, it appeared, was stuck with Ricca. Only one country said that would take Ricca and that was Monaco but only as temporary guest. When the reporters asked Ricca about the situation, he replied "No country in the world would take me permanently, so I guess I have to stay in this country for a while".



Ricca during the deportation trial






The kind of lives that people like Ricca lived or live, or at least criminals on his level, is not the “easiest way” to get through this journey of ours, but on the contrary, it is a very difficult, ugly and violent kind of life. A normal individual simply could not go through that same kind of life because you have to deal with all kinds of bad people on daily bases, and on top of that, you have to deal with the law, also on daily basis. So besides his constant legal problems, Ricca also had to deal with problems within the National Syndicate since he was one of the original Mafia Commission members.


During the early 1960’s, the infamous New York Mafia boss Joe Bonanno was aware of the tremendous wealth emerging on the west side of the country and so he wanted to make close connections with the Los Angeles crime family which already had an alliance with the Chicago Outfit. Rumours were that Bonanno had plans to depose Frank DeSimone, the southern California boss, and replace him with his own son Bill Bonanno. As a member of the commission, Bonanno already had oversight jurisdiction over the two northern California families such as San Francisco and San Jose but the Chicago guys didn’t like that. Also one of the Commission bosses Joe Profaci died in 1962, and was succeeded by a good friend of Bonanno's Joe Magliocco. Story goes that Bonanno and Magliocco plotted against some of the members of the Mafia commission, Tommy Lucchese and Carlo Gambino, but in fact it wasn’t Bonanno who made the plan but it was Magliocco himself, but who knows?!



Joe Bonanno


Whatever was the truth, by 1963, Bonanno was in serious trouble with the New York crime families, the Chicago Outfit and other crime families from around the country. Story goes that Bonanno was called before the Commission to explain himself but he refused by not showing up and rumours were that he was hiding in Tucson, Arizona. Here’s what Ricca, Giancana and one Mafioso who acted as investigator for the Commission and was also a high level member of the Genovese crime family in New York, Tommy Eboli, had to say about the Bonanno situation:

GIANCANA (referring to Eboli about Bonanno): Why don’t you just kill this guy? Why do you want to send him a message for? What are you doing is giving the guy an opportunity to strengthen his position and give you trouble. Now we don’t want no trouble.

EBOLI: That will be straightened out. Hey Paul (referring to Ricca), when I got to tell you something, I talk to you the same way as I talk to Vito (Genovese), but what I want to talk about over here is between you and I. I don’t want you going back talking to Sam (Giancana) and I don’t want Sam going back and talking to Tommy Brown (Tommy Lucchese). I’m not coming here to say anything. I want to give you my opinion now that you asked me…

RICCA: Listen, first of all, it’s true, Bonanno has the right to ask for those three guys, but in a case like this, its technicality. When they sent Angelo Bruno, and he’s representing the Commission, you should of listened to him. If this guy (Bonanno) is honest, if the guy has nothing to worry about, but by him not coming in, it makes you believe he gots something to worry about.


Then a year later, Joe Bonanno came back to New York and mysteriously disappeared and was not heard from again for almost two years. It was claimed that Joe was kidnapped in front of his lawyer's apartment in New York City by rival factions. It still remains a mystery whether this is true or not, but during this period there were many tapped conversations between mobsters from around the country, badmouthing Joe Bonanno. The same year his crime family split into two factions and that was the start of the infamous “Banana Wars”. As additional info, Tommy Eboli and Ricca’s slot machine operator distant relative Guido DeChiaro were related thru marriage.


On July 29, 1963, Ricca chaired a meeting at the Staley’s Restaurant in Chicago, in which most of the top members of the Outfit were present, including Accardo, Frank Ferraro, Jack Cerone and Joey Glimco, and also present were the non-Italian faction bosses such as Murray Humphreys, Gus Alex, Fred Smith and Ralph Pierce. It is not known what was the purpose of this meeting but my guess is that there might’ve been more than one topic. Regarding Giancana’s absence on this meeting because of his constant travels with famous girls, so I strongly believe that he was one of the topics. Ricca and Accardo had to take a more active role in the day to day actions because Giancana’s absence caused a rebellion within the organization so the two top elders kept the Outfit from breaking into several factions which in their opinion would’ve make it extremely vulnerable to government investigations and also loosing business to other crime families. Another problem that some of the guys like Ferraro and Humphreys had with Giancana was he sanctioning an interview between two federal agents and one of his henchmen Charles Inglesia. During the interview Inglesia allegedly said that the legendary singer Frank Sinatra was used by Giancana as intermediary between him and the President John Kennedy. Story goes that Humphreys was so mad because the simple involving of Sinatra caused a great damage of the hoodlum organization around the country.


Another topic might’ve been the constant government attacks on the gambling business in Chicago and the converting more to the labor rackets and the vending machine business. I say the vending and union businesses because of the presence of Alex, Smith, Humphreys and Glimco. And my third opinion is that one of the topics must’ve been the Bonanno situation on both west and east coasts of the U.S.


Another big meeting was held two months later in September during a wedding party of the son of an Outfit associate known as Ben Felichio. The wedding was held at the Conrad Hilton Hotel in which the bosses received a separate room for their meeting which now included Giancana, Ricca, Accardo, Ferraro and Humphreys. By now these five individuals controlled the infamous Chicago Outfit. I have a very funny picture of this meeting by Giancana being placed in the middle of the circle and also being questioned like a little naughty boy, but in reality some sources say that the main topic on the meeting was the extreme downfall of the gambling racket in Chicago. I also believe that on this meeting Giancana was told to “lay low.” But even though Ricca was the “almighty”, still Giancana had many supporters who by now were elevated on higher positions within the organization which means that most of these guys controlled many soldiers and associates who in turn represented Giancana’s “army.” And I also don’t believe that a guy like Ferraro had the guts or even stature within the organization to talk against the boss in his face. Giancana was always a trouble maker and I believe that Ricca was very well aware of that even before he made him boss and that’s why Ricca used to always let things go.


In October 1963, Ricca and Giancana attended a meeting with Buddy Jacobson, representative of the First Ward and Democratic organization, in which the bosses told Jacobson that they were satisfied with the workings of the Democratic party but there was too much pressure from the FBI and so Ricca advised Jacobson that the organization must be patient and wait for the pressure to lift. On November 16, 1963, Ricca together with his associate Guido De Chiaro took a flight to Miami and the duo was greeted by old timer Tony Ricci. While leaving the airport, the trio as arrested by the Miami intelligence squad and were taken for questioning. They said that they were visiting their old friend Ricci while vacationing and so they were released. While in Chicago, Ricca and Accardo started having meetings in open places or among large crowds. For example, during December, 1963, Jack Cerone chaffered Ricca and Accardo on daily basis, usually to the Loop area where the two bosses would usually get out of the car and immediately mingled with the crowd.


Because of these constant meetings, the federal agents who followed Ricca’s every step, now they were quite sure about his position within the organization and that’s why the government decided to take another shot at Ricca. In 1964, the government decided to act again and quickly and so on July 7, less than an hour before Ricca was to be bundled onto an airliner bound for Italy, his lawyers acted faster and quickly field a petition for review with the United States Court of Appeals and so Ricca was safe again. The lawyers acted within minutes after Chief Judge William Campbell of federal District court had denied Ricca’s plea for a stay of the deportation order and a writ of habeas corpus. But Ricca had yet another legal maneuver up his sleeve and he used it. That September, while the temporary stay order of the appeals court remained in effect, Ricca asked the immigration board of appeals to re-open his case. He said he had new evidence to present and the request was immediately granted. Now “Felice” in Italian means “happy” I think, so I believe that the old boss was very happy about the whole situation.



Ricca and his attorney Jack Wasserman




While fighting with the law and dealing with national mob problems, Ricca’s son, 26 year old Richard, decided to get married. His father didn’t hesitate for second and arranged the wedding. At first it started as a quiet affair with no more than 100 guests that attended at the St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic church in River Forest. But a big number of uninvited guests such as news photographers, reporters, members of Chicago’s Intelligence Unit and River Forest Police officers, milled about outside. The only Outfit members that arrived at the church were Tony Accardo and Jack Cerone. This was an indication that Cerone was slowly groomed by Ricca and Accardo for the top position. Later, the old “Don”, dressed in a grey suit, welcomed his guest at the mob owned Villa Venice Restaurant on a lavish party. Now the guest list has changed quite a bit because many “scary faces” started to appear, such as the new “acting boss” of the organization Sam Battaglia who was followed by Marshall Caifano, Albert Frabotta, Phil Alderisio, Gus Alex, Ross Prio, Joey Glimco and Murray Humphreys. The mobsters and their furclad wives and girlfriends were quickly ushered into the restaurant by seven bodyguards while the hikers quickly moved their cars away from the entrance. But like any other criminal organization, there are always those who attract too unwanted and unneeded attention. For example Ricca’s “crazy student” Sam De Stefano drove his car slowly around the cops and reporters while constantly glaring at them. He wore sweater and slacks at the wedding. Also one of the Inglesia brothers, Charles, yelled at the cops “You guys are wasting the taxpayer’s money!” Some of the gangsters arrived with taxis by previously leaving their cars in a nearby garages or parking lots so the police won’t check the licence plates.


By the end of the year, many members of the Outfit were confused on who was running the organization. So the First Ward faction which was the “command centre”, and now was headed by Pat Marcy and Gus Alex, held separate meetings with Accardo and one of Giancana’s underlings Phil Alderisio to determine whether Sam Battaglia, the number two guy, was the “acting boss” of the organization. By 1965, it was concluded that Battaglia was the new leader of the Outfit, while Giancana served one year in jail.


We can see that there are no records of Ricca being present on these meetings and that’s because by now he was back with the deportation problem. But Ricca attended one meeting in 1965, with Joe Bonanno’s son Bill, who came to Chicago to attend a meeting with the Outfit’s top echelon at a restaurant located in Melrose Park. The agendas of the meeting were the New York plot, Bonanno’s huge presence in Arizona and dividing territories. Story goes that Bill asked for help from the Outfit to operate freely in Arizona and that Ricca agreed on the terms, after all Arizona was an open territory and assured the young mobster that he wasn’t going to have any troubles with the Chicago faction. Later Bill Bonanno said that he was very impressed by Ricca and that he was a true Mafia “Don”.


Countless series of hearings were held that same year in Chicago and the "new evidence" amounted to a plea by Ricca’s team that Italian police would persecute him if deported. For more than 20 times in just few months, Ricca travelled to the offices of the United States immigration and naturalization service and that’s why his lawyers argued that the gangster was also a sick man, and was very hard for him to travel all the time. So now plans of a top secret legal maneuver were designed for the filing of a petition before the Tribunal in Rome, asking that Ricca be declared not a citizen of Italy. During this period there are many FBI surveillance recordings of Ricca at the O’Hare Airport while meeting with numerous Outfit members and associates, mostly politically connected, such as Giancana, Accardo, Gus Alex and Ricca’s attorney Jack Wasserman, regarding the deportation problem.



Ricca at the offices of the United States immigration and naturalization service






In November, 1966, Ricca’s brother-in-law Michelangelo Chiacchio was his guest in Chicago. Chiacchio was a famous lawyer in Naples, Italy and was married to the Ricca’s’s sister Louisa. There was also another brother-in-law, Enrico Iervolino who was married to his sister Clementina, but this guy was quite influential, meaning he was the long time Mayor of Ottaviano, Italy. And obviously these two individuals were some of the most instrumental people in obtaining Ricca’s freedom because the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the deportation order of Ricca and in the meantime the Italian government finally had revoked his murder conviction and refused to accept him by any means. So the U.S. government had no other choice but to allow the Outfit boss to remain in the country, unless or until they find a country that would accept him, which was impossible. Ricca’s attorney Wasserman said that “We accomplished our objective at 3 o’clock. If we hadn’t done it they would have deported him at 5 p.m.” As additional info, during his meetings at the O’Hare Airport, Ricca also met other unknown individuals from Italy and also entertained other similar guests at his home in River Forest.


Speaking about Ricca’s connections in Italy, there is a wiretapped conversation between Ricca, Gus Alex and Accardo, where Alex stated that he was planning to take a trip to Naples and so Ricca advised him to inform him about the time of the trip so he can inform his people over there about his presence. And in fact Ricca’s family was quite powerful over there, obviously because his brothers-in-law. Here’s a small part from the conversation between the three bosses regarding “contracts” and travelling advices:

ALEX: I’ll see you on Saturday, right?

RICCA: No, no, no Saturday. I’m’a busy. What do you want from me? I’m gonna be busy. What do you want from me? AAAhhhh...tomorrow I got a date at 12:30 at the Imperial House...want to come?

ALEX: What time?

RICCA: 12:30

ALEX: No, you can’t. That’s when the show is on. (some fashion show)

ACCARDO: On Thursday? I thought it was on Friday.

RICCA: No, that’s right. It was the Palmer House.

ACCARDO: Now, you say one joint, and then you wind up at another. Do you know where the hell are you going?

RICCA: Empire room.

ACCARDO: Oh, that’s in the Palmer House. (laughs)

ALEX: I didn’t get a chance to tell you. I got the “contract”, and on Sunday, the thing was consummated. We get to find the little guy. The guy that counts (laughs)...When do you figure of giving out these contracts?

ACCARDO: Right after I come back (from Mexico). We’ll start planning something.

ALEX: Paul, how many relatives do you got over there? (referring to Italy)

RICCA: Four or five, maybe, why?

ALEX: I’m going over.

ACCARDO: Don’t bother to go to Naples. You won’t miss anything there.

RICCA: They watch you there. If you want to go to Naples, I’ll send word.