By the late 1950’s, 90% of the hauling firms in the Windy City were controlled by the Dutch population which became know as the “Dutch Mafia”. They were not some bloodthirsty criminal organization but the thing was that they kept the business among their own people. Some sources say that back in the old days the Dutchmen had the garbage business in their blood and they controlled it since the late 1920’s. During that period, the Dutch scavengers formed an association to regulate the whole business and also eliminate any possible competition, which was known as the West Side Garbage Association. The members decided not to compete with each other and traded accounts to concentrate their routes for greater efficiency and by the 1959, the association changed its name to Chicago and Suburban Refuse Disposal Association. Known Dutch families such as the Huizengas or the Van Tholens controlled 90% of the garbage business in Chicago and profited with over 20 million dollars a year. I believe that the Dutch control over the waste business was one of the reasons on which the Outfit never had the same satisfaction. But that didn’t last long because the lucrative idea lured the Outfit like a shark following the smell of blood, but in this case it was the smell of cash.
So it wasn’t all “milk and honey” for the Hollanders because they already had previous experience with some of the ancestors of the Outfit. Back in the late 1920’s when the Dutch formed their association, one the first gangs which tried to invade their business was the Capone gang. They faced many difficulties with union goons, mobsters, police harassment, and in later years, environmental regulations. The Dutch scavengers had problems with one corrupt teamster local known as the Excavators’ Union, which was headed by Daniel Tognotti, a member of the Capone gang. By defying Tognotti’s union, the Dutch took it rough. One day, one Dutchman saw his barn burning down to ashes, along with his horse and wagon. The “Caponites” also pulled many people out of their cars and kicked them right there on the street, on broad day light. But one night, reports of a shooting at Union hall, 220 South Ashland Avenue, brought five detective bureau squads to the meeting of business agents of various unions. The entrance was first denied to the two motorcycle policemen from the Warren avenue station with the threat "break down the door and we’ll shoot your heads off." When the cops managed to enter the hall, they found no evidence| of any shooting and explanation was made that an alleged fist fight had occurred between two members. But the police later learned, through an anonymous telephone call, that Tognotti had been shot in the fight, and was taken away immediately afterward.
So now more than 20 years later, Sam Giancana’s administration wasn’t much respectful one either, and that is why they furiously took the first step in taking over the garbage disposal business in their city. By this period few of the Outfit’s “best guys” in the garbage business were Willie Daddano, Rudy Fratto, John Roselli, Albert Pranno and Frank LaPorte and the main contact between them and the boss regarding the business, was Gus Alex. For example in 1958, since Roselli was one of the main guys for the Outfit in Las Vegas, Nevada, he became Assistant City Manager for the city and according to some FBI reports, he took over, or according to other sources he tried to take over the garbage business by buying off the top administration. With the help of Paul Dorfman, Jimmy Hoffa, the Teamster Union and with the financial backing of Bendal Kettleman, part owner of the El Rancho Casino, Roselli attacked the already established hauling firms through a firm which was on the downfall. In fact, Roselli got the idea when a guy named Max Choson, owner of a hauling firm, asked for help to return his hauling licence from political people back in Chicago who had close contacts to the Outfit and that is when Roselli came to the scene. Everything went smooth until two years later in 1961, the scandal was revealed by the media and the federal government and that’s when Roselli cut all of his connections to the operation and after that Choson lost all of his rights to ever haul garbage in the city of Las Vegas ever again.
Back in Chicago, things started to boil up in the waste industry. The Outfit’s big shots such as Daddano, Fratto, Pranno and LaPorte formed a waste hauling company which was known as the West Suburban Scavenger Service at 2945 5th Avenue. In reality the company was formed with a very small investment but largely started to steal scavenger stops from other scavenger firms which belonged to the Scavenger Association which in turn was controlled by the Dutch “Mafia”. All of these so-called territorial bosses, except for Rudy Fratto and Albert Pranno who were just members, very easily took over all of the stops in their areas by being one single step ahead of the Dutch organization. That one and also very important step was the Outfit’s control of the bars, stores and restaurants all around the city and so all of the owners, since most of them were Mob front men, agreed to make deals with the West Suburban Scavenger Service. The same deal was also for the owners who paid street tax to the Mob because if some of them refused, automatically they went out of business.
For example, on the North Side of the city, the Outfit owned a huge number of legal establishments and so the scavenger business became very lucrative in that area and their guy over there was Rudy Fratto. In a record time Fratto cornered the garbage removal service of more than 250 taverns and clip joints thus receiving the nickname “The Garbage King of Rush Street”. He worked as a salesman for the West Suburban Scavenger Service and quickly received glory for his lucrative scheme. Even though he did very little work on behalf of his company, Fratto took a month salary of $1,000 and by the end of the day everybody was afraid from his because of his background and connections and so business was always good. Many co-workers described him as “good guy to have around for collections.” Always dressed like a businessman with dark shades, which was his trademark who he often wore even in the night. Fratto often shunned notoriety and embarrassing public contacts with public or law officials and lived quietly.
Now the Outfit’s General Foreman at the company was Isadore Scramuzzo and Fratto’s connection to Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters was a 300 pound union strong-arm known as Robert Baker. Usually when Hoffa was in town, Fratto and Baker acted as his bodyguards. But besides being the brother of two very powerful racketeers, Fratto was also related by marriage to Willie Daddano. In fact, Fratto’s daughter was wife of the son of Daddano, William Jr. which became the main reason for bringing Daddano into the scheme and also turning over the accounts and ownership of the firm tohim. Also on the company’s records, Daddano Jr.’s name always came up but on his business card he had the “Jr.” deleted from his name because the name “William Daddano” meant a “great deal” at the time. Another Italian crime boss who joined in the venture was Frank LaPorte. The old man took care of the many scavenger stops all around the Chicago Heights area and south suburbs with the help of his cousin Joe LaPorte. Albert Pranno was another partner in the company and he controlled all the stops around the Melrose Park, Stone Park and Northlake areas. Albert was the brother of Rocco Pranno, the boss of those same areas. In fact if it wasn’t for LaPorte and Pranno, the West Suburban company would’ve been a family enterprise for the Fratto-Daddano clans.
Aside from the West Suburban Scavenger Service, the Outfit controlled another hauling company known as the Standard Disposal and Metal Company at 1216 South Sangamon Street which was mainly dominated by the boss himself Sam Giancana, future boss Gus Alex and his partner Lenny Patrick. The fearsome Patrick was deep in the garbage collection business and once he reportedly stated “This wrap smells to me.” Same as Rudy Fratto, Patrick was also employed as a salesman but this time for the Standard Disposal Company and his executive sales director was another ex-convict, bomber, gambler and suspected murderer David Kaminski. Story goes that what Fratto’s, or should I say, Daddano’s company didn’t grab it was quickly picked up by the Standard Disposal team. Patrick’s job was to call of his “friends” at the markets and offered his scavenger services for a lesser price and they all took the offer because everybody knew about Patrick’s dark reputation. Because of the lesser prices, a price war among garbage hauling firms in the Chicago area has created a windfall for many restaurant, cafe, hotel, real estate, and other operators.
For the first time in years, many clients of private scavengers have been receiving unprecedented rate reductions. According to some investigative reports, many restaurant owners said that their scavenger volunteered to cut his price by 20 per cent and offered a three year contract. The restaurant owners said this was the first time they have been able to get a contract from the mob-controlled scavenger. One cafe owner added "Everybody wants to haul my garbage and they say they’ll do it for cost and not make a cent of profit." And so this became quite relieving situation for the owners who were charged for more than $1,000 a month to have their garbage removed and a price cut can mean a substantial saving for a big client. Some of the members of the Dutch Association were forced haul for less than cost in order to compete with the Outfit backed firms and on the other hand the crime syndicate was throwing a fortune into the attempt to price legitimate scavengers out of business.
So now the two firms declared war to the Dutch Scavenger Association, which in the media became known as the “Garbage War”. In just three months, the Outfit managed to grab more than 500 stops out of the hands of the Scavenger Association. The Outfit sent their goons to customers of the Association, who simply informed them that the new company would take over their garbage pickups. According to some sources, they usually dropped the name of some Outfit member and they got the stops which the Association had for years. Obviously the people feared the Mob because they had problem with guys like Daddano who possessed a very violent nature and were known for killing people with the blink of an eye. Story goes that few bodies pilled up, usually victims who refused to change sides, but strangely none of the murders were connected with the garbage business but besides that the conflict resulted with an investigation by special police intelligence units.
Willie Daddano
So this shows that the Association proved to be quite incapable in defending its customers when the Outfit decided to muscle in on the multi-million dollar garbage business but the Dutch organization had another ace up its sleeve, and that was their control over the dumping grounds. And on top of that, both of the Outfit’s garbage companies were non-Association members which meant that they were restricted from dumping their garbage on dumps which were controlled by that same Association and that is why, many drivers who worked for the Outfit were forced to dump the garbage illegally. Many drivers or helpers for the West Suburban and Standard Disposal were fired or they personally quit their jobs because they objected to dumping waste in illegal zones because they had been jailed for it before. So the Outfit-owned companies threatened to sue the dump operators for the obvious refusal to accept business from anyone who was not an association member and after that the Standard Disposal and Metal Company made a temporary injunction against the Association, eight dump yards, and other defendants in a $1,500,000 anti-trust suit. Standard claimed that there has been a conspiracy to suppress competition and so the dump operators were forced to allow Standard to dump only 10 loads a day of "backed up" garbage. But after four years they withdrew their lawsuit.
But the problem escalated in 1962, when the two Outfit-owned hauling firms stepped on each other’s toes. You see, in those days the Outfit was like an organized and blood thirsty pack of wolves, which in times when there was no “food” on the streets of the “Windy City” they started to prey on each other. Story goes that the West Suburban started to muscle in on some of the scavenger stops which were already under the control of the Standard Disposal. Now I don’t feel surprised because the early 1960’s was a quite tough period for the Outfit and its boss Sam Giancana, and on top of that some of his violent cronies such as Daddano didn’t care about the rules because they felt disappointed of Giancana’s actions. I believe that if one start researching the Chicago Outfit, he or she might came upon a “myth” in which Daddano and Giancana were in a conflict allegedly over the boss position. Well I personally believe that the conflict was quite real but it occurred under different circumstances and that is why there were no dead bodies left on the streets. Plus, the top elder statesman for the Outfit at the time was Paul Ricca who strongly advised that the murders should be taken to quite lower scale.
The main reason for that was the constant heat by the FBI over the whole gambling network which was the main cash resource for the organization. Giancana himself was under tremendous pressure and so I personally believe that he did not have the pleasure, time and space to go into a conflict and to show his unchallenged leadership once more. Plus if the conflict was taken on the streets I also believe that this would’ve been the end of the organization for few simple reasons. First of all Lenny Patrick and Rudy Fratto’s brothers Louis and Frank were together in the window cleaning business which was also a very lucrative operation. On the other hand, Daddano and Gus Alex were also very close associates and that is why I hardly believe that there was never space for further problems because if all of these so-called business friendships went down the toilet, it was going to be the end. So instead, Gancana decided to make a smart move and sent his best negotiator Gus Alex, who in turn gave irrevocable and threatening instruction, not to Daddano, but instead to Rudy Fratto. Alex allegedly told Fratto to inform Daddano that the top administration has decided to close down all of their garbage hauling operations for at least some time, until the heat went down.
Because all of these so-called government and internal problems, the Outfit started doing a lousy job of actually running their garbage businesses. For example their trucks were junks, their drivers careless and untrustworthy, and the routes were not run efficiently and so in 1963, under the orders of his boss, William Daddano sold his company, for much higher price, to Dick Evenhouse who was a member of the Scavenger Association. The most powerful crime family in the U.S. was on the downfall at the time and so few years later Giancana was jailed for one year and later fled the country, while his “dear” friend Daddano was jailed for 15 years. In fact, the Outfit failed because the government, in an indirect way, helped the Dutch “Mafia” in removing every obstacle, such as the Mob, from their further achievements in the garbage industry.
In my country we have a saying “when two individuals are fighting over something, usually the third individual gets it all”, meaning while Daddano and Giancana were “fighting” over the garbage disposal business, another Outfit member successfully flew under the government’s radar, at least for awhile, and controlled his own hauling business. That guy was known as Charles Inglesia a.k.a. English, gambling and coin machine racketeer from the West Side. In 1966, English was involved in the garbage business together with another Outfit member known as Rocco DeStefano, through a firm which they controlled and was known as the Calumet Land Reclamation Company at 9558 Colfax Avenue. Back in the old days, Rocco DeStefano was the king in the cigarette wholesale empire. Now, three of their “inside guys” at the firm were Frank and Vito DeStefano, brothers of Rocco, and William McGuire, known associate of English. There was no record of McGuire being employed at the firm, as for Frank DeStefano he worked as company’s general superintendent and also as secretary treasurer and his brother Vito was a salesman. All of the stock in the firm, the gangsters owned through the firm’s president Richard Byrnes.
Now the scheme which involved the company was quite catastrophic because it involved ripping huge additional profits by directing all of their scavenger trucks to dump the garbage illegally and so tons of all kinds of waste has been buried on district property, usually under a layer of dirt and clay. The main problem was that the 85 acre garbage dump, which was Outfit-controlled, was illegally expanded and included property owned by the metropolitan sanitary district and so the 10th Ward Democratic Committeeman Edward Vrdolyak started raising hell because of the illegal operation. So in their own style, Frank DeStefano and William McGuire visited Vrdolyak at his office and threw a $5,000 stack in $100 bills, on his table. But the two gangsters witnessed something rare in their lives, and that was the refusal from Vrdolyak. He chased the gangsters out of his office and immediately called Chicago’s Mayor Richard J. Daley and informed him about the bribe situation. Vrdolyak allegedly said “The people in this ward have had this dump crammed down their throats, that’s why I promised before my election last year that I would fight this thing and I will continue to fight it. They burn garbage at night and violate every city ordinance in the book.” In 1969, the Mayor ordered a hearing regarding the garbage dumping operation which could result in revocation of the company’s permit. The Calumet firm was charged with eight violations, including excess elevation of fill, insufficient cover, improper drainage, improper placement of trash, and the use of subterfuge in regard to the ownership of the permit. Year later, the firm’s permit was banned and so was the hoodlum’s influence.
Even though the organizational structure has quite changed, the Outfit’s garbage disposal “saga” continued during the 1970’s with the help of another quite different made member of the crime organization known as Fred Roti. This shrewd and intelligent little criminal came from a long line of Mafia blood, meaning his father was an Outfit leader from the Chinatown area named Bruno Roti Sr. The main thing which made Fred Roti different than the rest of the made members of the organization, was the job that he occupied and that was the 1st Aldermanic position. Back in 1968, Roti was backed by the Mob and the Democrats to replace 1st Ward Alderman Donald Parillo, who had previously resigned. Roti won the special election and held the position for more than two decades. Like his father, Roti also decided to expand his Mafia “privileges” to one of his blood relatives, who by coincidence was involved in the garbage business, known as Fred Barbara.
Fred Roti and Edward Vrdolyak
Fred Bruno Barbara was in fact Roti Sr.’s grandson and was also a long time resident in Chinatown who in 1975 started working as a simple garbage truck driver. Also he was a relative to the crime boss of the Chinatown area known as Frank Caruso who was the son-in-law of the late Bruno Roti Sr. So in other words Barbara was surrounded by family members who were high profile gangsters of the Chicago Outfit and so his future in the garbage business was “crystal clear”. In two years, Barbara bought two more garbage trucks and formed his first company known as A. Barbara Trucking Co. which was the main reason for attracting the Outfit’s attention. His grandfather and 1st Alderman Fred Roti decided to help his nephew by pulling few strings here and there, thus giving him few city deals just to get him started. From this point on Barbara had no problems in getting city deals for garbage hauling and the reality was that some of those deals may have been highly lucrative, meaning millions of dollars. Proof for that is when only a year later Barbara opened up another hauling firm known as the F. Barbara Trucking Co. at 3260 South Damien Avenue.
It was a time when many Democratic leaders and friends or associates of the Roti crime family became owners of hauling firms and divided the contracts between themselves. When Chicago’s Democratic Machine was at its highest level, politicians and other corrupted government people gave the ward controlled distribution of city services to give priority to those loyal to the party. For example, John P. Touhy was the chairman of the State Central Democratic Committee and at the same time was owner of the McKay Contractors hauling firm. During the winter of 1979, the city of Chicago was struck by a huge snowy blizzard and all of the streets were blocked because of the huge amounts of snow. Now the city’s Acting Comptroller was Anthony Fratto, also long time associate and protégé of the Roti crime family, who ordered payments totalling $200,000 to 10 firms that allegedly did snow-removal work after the paralyzing blizzard.
But someone informed the Justice Department that the city deals were in fact fraudulent and so all of the payments had been held up. The investigators also learned that larger part of the payments were planned for four firms including Fred Barbara’s two hauling companies, John Touhy’s company and D & B Trucking, whose owner Edward Norton, was fired for refusing to cooperate with a police investigation of the frauds. According to government reports, all of these firms were under federal investigation but the thing was that if a person was cynical about politics, such as the average Chicagoan, than he or she would assume that the government reports were based more on clout than on performance. The main difficulty or problem for the government was that not all of hauling firms were under federal investigation and with that, it was hardly fair to withhold payment from all 10 firms on the chance that the Justice Department might get around to charging some of them with fraud. So two years later, in 1981, Fratto made a classic Chicago-style scandal and ordered all of the payments to be paid to the hauling firms. As for the snow, it mostly melted by itself.
Back in 1979, the Capo of Chinatown Frank Caruso has died from natural causes and was replaced by one bloodthirsty mobster known as Angelo LaPietra. Now Barbara and LaPietra also knew each other since the old days, and my personal belief is that during next few years Barbara has tightened his Outfit connections in the garbage business more than ever and according to some accounts by 1983 he also might’ve become a close associate of the Outfit. During this period, together with his cousin Frank “Toots” Caruso, the son of the late Frank Caruso who bore the nickname “Skids”, Barbara also got involved in the loan sharking business or as the Chicago slang goes, the juice racket. Since he had a lot of cash, he only gave large loans with high interest mostly to truck companies that needed large amounts of fast cash and politicians with bad habits such as gambling. After awhile Barbara was arrested together with Caruso on charges for trying to collect an illegal high-interest loan from an undercover FBI agent. They were arrested at the bar in Lake Point Tower on December 6, 1982, together with another Outfit big league such as Joseph LaMantia, “servant” to Outfit boss Angelo LaPietra, and LaMantia's son, Aldo Piscitelli Jr. The plan was for them to meet the undercover agent at the bar, who was posing as someone refusing to repay an illegal, high-interest $20,000 juice loan. Allegedly LaMantia had threatened the agent to "cut his heart out'' and to "stick his head with an icepick'' if the loan wasn't repaid.
Angelo LaPietra
When the cops questioned Barbara, he had no identification and told the feds that his name was "Frank Bruno Russo,'' but later one of the officers found a gun in Barbara’s vehicle and took him to the station. During the trial, Barbara's lawyer argued that his client never made a threat' to the agent and that he was just enjoying a video game at that bar'. Prosecutors later added that Barbara’s firm was deeply involved in illegal gambling with the Outfit's Chinatown or 26th Street Crew. Barbara told the prosecutors "Show me my connection to organized crime. Did I turn the corner? You show me anything in the last 24 years that reflects to that nature." I believe that this time Barbara was in a tough spot because he was probably the prime money maker for the organization through the garbage business but he got lucky when some of his friends in the political world such as the Mayor of Chicago reacted and Barbara together with his cousin and the Outfit friend were found not guilty. According to this, Barbara had gangster qualities and also sense for violence. In one accident, one of Barbara's truck drivers accused his boss of hitting him with a big piece of wood while they were at Barbara's trucking offices in July 1988. Another proof for Barbara’s deep involvement with the Outfit was his presence together with LaPietra, James DiForti and other Outfit hoodlums in a car while watching the bombing of a certain restaurant in the Elmwood Park area. According to some reports, Barbara was in fact a “self-made man”, and that he might've been through a Mafia ceremony.
During the mid 1980’s, while the Outfit’s top administration suffered terrible losses, Barbara’s lucky star in the garbage business shined like never before. In 1988, the city of Chicago has decided to award Barbara with a multimillion-dollar ash hauling contract, or in other words, 10 million dollars depending on the amount of waste which was planned to be hauled. With this Barbara became the number one garbage hauler in the “Windy city” but with the glory came huge enviousness from the low bidder minority company was obviously and unfairly overlooked because of Barbara’s connections to Outfit member Fred Roti. The first question which was asked was on why the contract was awarded to the highest bidder when there was a legitimate minority owned firm? The opposition also added that the Barbara Trucking had controversial history involving its hauling contracts with the city because of Barbra’s close association with Alderman Roti. Suddenly Barbara’s close associates came on the scene such as Streets and Sanitation Commissioner John Halpin, who defended the awarding of the contract to Barbara by saying that even though the bid was higher, Barbara was the person who more closely fulfilled the requirements of the contract and when it came to garbage, he was the man to find the dumps.
Even Fred Barbara himself defended the awarding of the contract to his company by saying that he had nothing against the Big '0' Movers firm but the problem was that they were trying to perform job where they had no experience or capability. But one little “dirt” that came out of the problem was his already known associations to Roti and also some records showed that Barbara was one of Washington's highest political contributors. So this makes me ask the question on whether Barbara was a “made member” of the Outfit because if he was, than the Mob succeeded in its highest achievement. Many people at the time weren’t aware of the fact that Roti, and possibly Barbara, were members of the Mob but they all knew that at least they were acquainted with the underworld. This became a huge scandal when some West Side activists declared open war on City Hall following the decision by Mayor Eugene Sawyer's administration to award the multi-million ash hauling contract to Barbara. "We are not stupid," said Nancy Jefferson, chairman of the Midwest Community Council. "We are not asleep, and we’re able to go to open war if that’s what City Hall wants and if that’s what it takes to get what’s rightfully ours. Big '0' Movers is by people from this community, Big '0' Movers was legally, openly and fairly the low bidder for this contract, and Big '0' movers is going to get this contract" Jefferson said at a press conference attended by about 50 West Side activists and businessmen. Joseph Banks, executive director of the Midwest Community Council, said "This is a time when we want to see contractors from our community get contracts." But in the end nothing ever changed and the money stayed with Barbara, while the Outfit was laughing far from the shadows.
While everyone in Chicago’s underworld was enjoying the taste of Barbara’s sweet cash from the garbage business, the FBI was preparing for a plan to strike the Chicago Outfit straight in the “heart of corruption” which was Fred Roti himself. In 1990, Barbara’s main connection to his multi-million dollar business 1st Ward Alderman and Chicago Outfit member Fred Roti and four other Chicago Democrats were indicted for numerous acts of corruption, including racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, bribery, and extortion. On January 15, 1993, Roti was found guilty and was sentenced to four years incarceration and served three years in a minimum-security prison in Oxford, Wisconsin followed by six months in a work-release program with the Salvation Army.
From this point on, Barbara “unexpectedly” slowly started seeing the bottom of his garbage firm which seemed to drop out in 1996. Barbara allegedly lost 30 percent of his city business that year, which was about 14 million dollars. This happened when City Hall gave a competitor, Waste Management Inc., a contract to run a recycling program in which Chicago homeowners put glass, bottles and paper into blue plastic bags. A year later, Barbara sold his garbage hauling companies, the Fred Barbara Trucking, Shred-All Recycling garbage transfer station, Envirotech landfill in Downstate Morris and American Disposal Services, Inc. According to some reports, the sale was widely reported to be $58.5 million but the deal may have been far richer because some government reports say that in reality it was over 100 million dollars. Today the Barbara family is still in the garbage business with the help of Barbara's son, Anthony, who runs City Wide Disposal Inc., a private garbage collector. These days, the older Barbara runs a company called Fred Barbara Investments, has an industrial park in Kankakee and other real estate investments in Florida and Texas. Now if you compare Barbara in the garbage business with Dorfman, Daddano, Fratto, English, and maybe even Giancana, these mobsters looked like flies. He achieved something that was never before achieved by any other member of Chicago’s underworld with the right backing, which was the Roti crime family of Chinatown.
