So during this period, “new doors” were opened for the Chicago boys in the world of drug trafficking, thanks to their deported cohorts from the Detroit Mafia such as Serafino Mancuso and Frank Coppola. For the last 10 years, the American boys received most of the heroin from two main sources. The first source went by the name of Salvatore Caneba, a Sicilian Mafioso who came from the Palermo area and in 1950, managed to establish himself in New York and became one of the most prominent narcotics peddlers. Back in Sicily, Caneba had a brother who went by the name of Ugo and was also a Mafioso. So Ugo Caneba’s job was to contact some major Corsican drug traffickers with laboratories in Marseilles, France, such as the Arnaci brothers and Marius Jacques Ansaldi, who in turn supplied the Caneba brothers with the product, which was destined for the U.S. The second source was Francesco Pirico, also from the Palermo area, who in turn was a distributor of large quantities of diverted heroin from the Schapparelli Pharmaceutical Co. which supplied many U.S. costumers. But by the early 1950’s some of the Italian boys started operating their own heroin laboratories, thanks to two of their native gangsters such as Francesco Saverino from Trapani, Sicily, and Enzo Berti from Pisa, Italy. For example, Berti was an individual with a doctor’s degree in philosophy but also had connections in Turkey from where he managed to bring morphine base and with the help of his laboratories, he converted it to heroin. So the so-called deported faction of the Detroit mob such as Mancuso and Coppola, through Saverino, made close contacts with Berti who in turn gladly accepted their “invitation” for making business.



Frank Coppola


Story goes that after establishing the connection, there was a meeting in Italy between various deported representatives for some of the American crime families, such as Mancuso and Coppola for the Detroit faction and also for St. Louis, Charles Luciano for the New York factions, and Dominic Roberto for the Chicago Outfit. And on this particular meeting, the boys decided that every faction should have its own overseer of the narcotics shipments and the bigger cities were going to have jurisdiction over the smaller cities regarding the racket. For example, it was decided that the Chicago faction was going to function as the principal source for narcotics in the Midwestern and Southwestern sectors of the country. According to some reports, Chicago has occupied this position since the early 1030's, during a meeting between Chicago and New York, including Luciano and Meyer Lansky on one side, and Paul Ricca and Rocco Fischetti on the other. So the Outfit was going to be supplied primarily by the New York faction, with exception of some situations where the Florida faction will deliver, and after that the Chicago boys were going to distribute the product to all Midwestern cities, such as Detroit and including New Orleans, and also the ones of secondary importance within the network of the narcotic traffic, such as Omaha, Tulsa, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Iowa, Los Angeles, Houston, Denver and sometimes St. Louis, which in turn all generally depended on Chicago for the illicit narcotic drugs trade.


So the shipment from Sicily was carried by two Italian Mafia “couriers” known as Salvatore Greco and Antonio Sorcio, who in turn delivered it to three major points, one in New York where it was received mainly by the Luciano group, the second in Cuba, which was received by local criminals in connection with U.S. Mob, and the third in Canada which was also received by local Mafia groups such as the Cotroni faction. According to one confidential government informant, the points in Canada and Cuba, where sometimes used as decoys and allegedly the New York point was always the main receiving destination. Also according to some government records, two of the main New York guys who received and at the same time, flooded the city of Chicago and the whole Midwest with heroin, were Joe LoPiccolo and Rocco Mazzie. For example, LoPiccolo was a former Chicagoan who by the mid 1930’s served for the Mangano crime family in New York and in time became close associate of the Tampa crime family in Florida. Later he became one of the biggest heroin traffickers for the U.S. Mafia, mainly from Havana, Cuba and then through the Florida area. Other prominent New York connections for the Chicago boys were also two narcotics traffickers from the Luciano crime family, known as Anthony Pisciotta and Thomas Garibaldi. So from this point on, the main “overseers” of the Midwestern narcotics trafficking were Raphael Quazarano, John Priziola, and Paul Cimino of the Detroit faction, Anthony Giordano of St. Louis and Giacomo Ammirato a.k.a. James Emery from Chicago. In fact, Emery was Roberto’s successor as “capo” of the Chicago Heights faction and right after the European meeting, he was called upon by Roberto and Luciano in Italy possibly to receive further instructions.



Jim Emery, Dominick Roberto and Charles Luciano in Italy (taken from Matthew Luzi's book "The Boys in Chicago Heights")


According to some government reports, the narcotics shipment from New York or Florida, which was destined for the Chicago boys, at first arrived in Lake County, Indiana, where it was welcomed by mobsters who were closely associated with the Outfit. One of those faces was an old time Outfit “capo” known as Tony Pinelli, who back in the late 1930’s was transferred to Sierra Madre, a city in Los Angeles County, where he was considered semi-retired from the Mob, a statement which I hardly believe in since there are many reports where he was associated with the Los Angeles crime family. But in 1953, Chicago racetrack publicist and alleged Outfit associate Jack Doyle who ran everything about gambling in Lake County was indicted because of his testimony during the Kefauver investigations and so Accardo and Giancana took a plane to Los Angeles where they met with Pinelli and gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse. And so Doyle was quickly replaced by Pinelli, who in turn brought his own group of mobsters to fill in the empty space. Some of those guys were Gaetano Morgano, Paul Miccolis, Pinelli’s nephew Tony Gruttadauro, Frank Zizzo and John Formosa. Some government reports say that even though Pinelli was considered of higher stature rather than the rest of the members, still Morgano was the one who was looked upon as the main guy of the Chicago faction in Northern Indiana. As for Formosa, he was a pimp and so-called main liaison between the Outfit’s bosses and the Indiana faction. According to few statements which were made by one confidential informant, during this time the whole Northern Indiana faction actually operated under the auspices of Jim Emery and the Chicago Heights faction.


So this particular crew was mainly involved in three rackets, including bookmaking, prostitution and vending machines but once a month, they were the ones who received the large quantities of heroin which were destined for the Chicago market. And how did they import the product? Simply, their “relatives” in Montreal, Canada; Florida or New York would send the heroin hidden in food cans, cheese or even wine bottles and with the help of Paul Miccolis and Frank Zizzo, who owned few pizzeria businesses in that area, the product safely arrived and was prepared for further distribution. These guys considered themselves legitimate businessmen, like for example Zizzo was the owner of the Pepper Pot Pizza restaurants with locations around Gary and Hammond. But before transporting the larger part of the shipment, the Indiana boys kept some of the product for their part of the deal and distributed it around their own territory.


Proof for that is during that same exact time period, the heroin addiction problem in Northern Indiana went on a higher level which was never seen before. One of the group’s main “runners” in Gary for example, was Weldon “The Bear” Drisselle, who in turn controlled a band of nearly 20 dope peddlers. They mostly sold their product at a local steel plant with the help of some the employees. But by the end of 1955, dozens of deaths from heroin overdose occurred in the same area which quickly brought the attention of law enforcement. The main problem was that some of the more “thirsty” addicts who previously never tried more pure and stronger product such as the current one, and so they usually injected the same dose as the one with regular heroin which obviously was a lethal dose. And so by February, 1956, the government managed to arrest 118 individuals, including 76 residents of Gary and 42 residents of East Chicago. Many of the witnesses were identified as addicts, aged 18 to 28, including husbands and wives, most of them steel plant employees. Among them were Drisselle and his crew of “runners”, which, according to some reports, probably was the main reason for the arrests since one of the members, previously talked to the cops. The informant, who in turn was an ex-employee at the steel plant and later a simple street dealer, said that, on a good day, he earned over $500 from the drug business.


Even though the crew mainly operated in Northern Indiana, since they belonged to the Outfit, some of them also had few operations around the city of Chicago. For example, Gaetano a.k.a. Tommy Morgano was the guy with a loan sharking operation on Chicago’s Near North Side, who also owned a pizzeria business in that same area. His loan sharking enterprise operated behind the twin legitimate facades of a factoring business and frozen pizza pie company, which allegedly served as financial backup for the highly regarded gambling business. Obviously, Miccolis’ and Zizzo’s pizza businesses were closely connected to Morgano’s, which was the easiest way of transporting the heroin from Indiana to Chicago. Part from the shipment which arrived at Morgano’s pizza company on Chicago’s Near North Side, was previously transported to another pizza parlor which was located in Calumet City.


Now, the rest of the shipment, according to the “European deal”, first arrived in the territory of Chicago’s south suburbs, which by now was still controlled by Jim Emery and was considered the most lucrative area for selling heroin, mainly because of the numerous and poor African-American population. Or as Attorney General Robert Kennedy once said: “Organized crime, one of the biggest businesses in America, has many faces. Some are well known, like that of the gambler operating a roulette wheel, and another is that of the narcotics peddler, trading on the misery of the poor.” On top of that, for the last decade Emery controlled a huge lucrative illegal empire which almost resembled like a separate faction from the Outfit. Emery had three main “capos” including George Tuffanelli, Joe Guzzino and Frank LaPorte, the same guys who were appointed as overseers of the narcotics shipment. According to one government informant, since Emery was considered the top boss of the group, he also appointed Guzzino and LaPorte as the main “couriers” between him and Dominic Roberto in Italy, which totally explains the numerous FBI reports regarding the duo’s travels to Italy. So after taking their part of the deal, the rest of the shipment was divided in two separate parts which were destined for Detroit and New Orleans. For example, there are some reports which indicate that Guzzino had numerous and direct contacts in New Orleans with one Julian Lopez, who by the feds was described as the chief narcotics supplier for that area. This particular dope smuggling operation was meant only for the so-called Chicago Heights crew or Emery’s faction of the Outfit, which obviously with the permission from their higher ups, they operated without any problems. In fact the Chicago Heights crew was the first Outfit group which brought the narcotics trade around Chicago’s territory on higher level and also opened the doors for the rest of the “thirsty” factions.


So as you can see, at first, in Chicago the "dope" business was centred mainly on the South Side but later also spread in low-rent hotels on the Near West Side and in East Garfield Park and then all the way through Melrose Park. This was mostly because the Outfit’s top bosses belonged to that territory, such as Giancana, DeGrazia’s successor Sam Battaglia, Fiore Buccieri, and it was the perfect timing for them since they recently took over the policy and numbers operations in those same areas. The thing was that the operators presented the perfect “army” for their narcotics trade. On top of that, during this period the Outfit’s so-called West Side Bloc has become a complete political and economic powerhouse that controlled political corruption in the city, county, and state levels. The West Side Bloc controlled the political machinery of the near West Side wards, some of which were heavily Italian, for nearly 40 years. But the thing was that they had really some problems in spreading the dope business across the whole city, for example on the Near South side and Loop, mostly because some of the top bosses there did not approve the racket since they mostly believed in political corruption, gambling and extortion. Yes, there were some mobsters who stayed away from narcotics and the dirtiest racket that they ever touched was prostitution. I’m talking about guys like Murray Humphreys or Gus Alex who truly denied selling drugs but since they weren’t the ones at the top of the organization, they still had to keep their eyes and mouths closed and gave their services whenever they were needed.


So since the New York faction of America’s Cosa Nostra became the main supplier of heroin for the whole country, some Outfit crews quickly decided to exploit their connections from that same area. Now, the first Outfit member who was considered “big time” in the dope business was Joseph Mendino. This nervous fella mainly operated a huge handbook operation on the city’s Near North Side but besides that he belonged to the West Side faction and was direct to his boss Sam Giancana. My personal belief is that Mendino’s New York connections were some high level members from the Bonnano crime family, which I believe were the same people who sometimes were responsible for sending the shipment to his cohorts from the Chicago Heights faction. Mendino received his shipment through a pizzeria business which was located on Taylor Street and was owned by one of Mendino’s associates known as August Deveno. According to some government reports, the pizzeria allegedly handled between 5 and 10 kilos of heroin per month and since Mendino was considered as a member of the organization, he was obliged to use more than few “middle men” and one crew, so he can place the product on the streets for sale. Two of his most prominent associates were Joseph Iacullo and Frank DeMarie, who in turn had direct contact with the product and delivered it to the “runners”. For example, Iacullo had a huge “junk crew” under his auspices which generated, according to the government, over $5,000,000 a year. That’s why all of these guys lived lavishly, like for example Mendino managed to build a $100,000 mansion in the southwest section of Lake Forest. The ranch type structure, made of stone, was built back in 1951 “coincidentally” at the same time when the “junk crews” started providing huge profits. On the front side of the house, there was a huge $3,000 window which was painted with religious pictures. Also, two blocks down from Mendino’s estate, was the $75,000 brick house of 28 year old DeMarie, with a long red flowering hedge along the driveway.


But Iacullo’s runners were not some low level criminals but instead some of them had long time Outfit connections and one of those guys was Tony Pape. Back in the old days, this particular West Side hoodlum used to terrorize the streets together with many Outfit guys, thanks to his older brother Frank Pape who in turn allegedly was a member of the old 42 gang. According to some police records, since 1929 Tony Pape was arrested more than 20 times and top of that, once he served a year and a half in prison on murder charges. Later, he became a major player in the sale and distribution of counterfeit cash and also vending machines and so my point is that this guy was no joke and was known for taking his job quite seriously. Pape also had few runners around him, such as his younger brother James Pape, Frank Coduto, Anthony Ponzi, Tony Sperna, Anthony Schullo and Roy Pinna. I don’t know if you noticed but most of the guys in the crew were from Italian descent and even though they had direct contact with the product, still they were not the ones who often sold it directly on the street but instead the “lowest” job usually belonged to black low level criminals and ex-convicts such as Harold Scales, Samuel Felton and Joseph Burns.


As I previously stated that the Outfit has become the main supplier of heroin for the midwestern and southwestern parts of the country, and so Iacullo’s group was one of the main crews which acted as “transporters” for the product. So even though this particular crew sold their product mainly on the North and West sides, they also had buyers from around the country, such as Abe Aubrey from Dallas, Texas. This fella was mainly connected to the Outfit in receiving stolen goods which were shipped from Chicago to Dallas, but the thing was that Aubrey was also a major wholesaler of heroin, who received his product strictly from the Chicago boys. In fact, according to the government, Aubrey was one of their main distributors of heroin for the whole Southwest. But in September, 1951, he was arrested and sentenced to 20 years in jail for transportation and selling of a large narcotics shipment. So Aubrey did not actually bought such large drug shipments from the Outfit, but instead the Chicago boys, such as the Iacullo gang, only acted as “transporters” of the shipment which was destined for mainly Texas or even Nebraska. Yes, the boys also had customers from Omaha, Nebraska such as Tony Biase, who in turn was known drug pusher with close criminal contacts from around the Midwest. Biase sometimes received his product straight from New York, but since he was a Midwest guy he mainly received it through Chicago. Another quite important figure in the narcotics trade also from the Texas area, such as Huston, was Vito Giordanello. He mostly took his stash from Chicago, but one day he decided to change his supplier, and that’s when he got arrested and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. With the previous examples we can see that this was a huge drug peddling network in which drugs and money continuously flew back and forth.


The second so-called “junk crew” was controlled by one Outfit member known as Pasquale “Patsy” Clementi, and together with two other syndicate “heavy weights”, Willie Messino and Joe Gagliano, they operated a quite lucrative loan sharking operation around the Elmwood Park territory. But the thing was that Clementi had a brother known as Patrick who was heavily involved in the dope business and with the help of his brother, he also had strong dope connections in the New York area. Patrick Clementi’s dope connection to the “Big Apple” was one of his main runners known as Carlo “Bananas” Urbinati, who in turn was quite active in the policy racket. In fact, Urbinatti was married to the sister of another Outfit duo known as the Inglesia a.k.a. English brothers, Sam and Charles, and he was their most active operator. Now, Urbinati’s main dope peddling associates were John Tanno, Tony Mates and Dominick Argentine, and these guys sold almost everything. Like for example, besides heroin, Tanno was also known for smuggling morphine and Amidone, which was a synthetic drug similar to heroin and was used for treatment of dope addicts. He was also a long time associate of Mendino in the dope business. In other words, these fellas were making money out of selling almost every illegal narcotic drug, which obviously made them quite rich. Even though they weren’t considered as official members of the Chicago crime syndicate, some of these guys owned many clubs and other forms of joints around the Elmwood Park area, which in fact was Tony Accardo’s old territory. Both Urbinati and Argentine owned two clubs known as the Derby Lounge and the Triangle Inn Tavern, two signs for their accumulated wealth from selling dope.



Pasquale “Patsy” Clementi


Carlo Urbinati


The third “junk crew” was allegedly headed by one drug peddler and Outfit associate known as Tony Dichiarinte and his group was also heavily involved in the dope business. In fact, Dichiarinte’s real job was fixing sports games, especially basketball games, with the help of one Outfit associate known as Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal. For example, Rosenthal’s job was to line up the players who were willing to cooperate in skimming with points, and Dichiarinte’s assignment was to gather the betting money from Outfit higher ups such as Sam Battaglia, Fiore Buccieri, Phil Alderisio and Chuck Nicoletti, thus slowly becoming one of their most prominent narcotics peddlers. Few of the group’s most active members were Spartico Mastro, the Pisano brothers Sabatine and Salvatore and George Ginnone. Even though Mastro was considered by law enforcement as the “leader of the pack”, mostly because he was the owner of their “headquarters” which was the Eatabite restaurant, still the guy with the so-called Outfit-connection was Dichiarinte. The crew operated mainly on the North/West Side, but they also had “runners” all across the western suburbs. They recruited them mainly from other groups which worked in the numbers racket and were mostly from African descent, such as Amos Jones, James Bowman and Morris Taylor. The individuals who supplied Dichiarinte with heroin were two members from the Lucchese crime family in New York and known drug peddlers, Tony Castaldi and Tony Catoma.


But the crew suffered a great loss when in 1951 Taylor got pinched by the cops for possession of narcotics and also for distribution and in the end received a heavy sentence. While in jail, Taylor decided to spill the beans and told the investigators that he attended on several meetings with Bowman, who in turn drove with him to the West Side where they usually met Pisano or Ginnone. The imprisoned informant later added that the two dope peddlers would give Bowman a large quantity of heroin, and after that Bowman would divide the stash between him and Taylor for further distribution. After selling the last package of heroin, the same process repeated itself over and over. From that point on, everyone got arrested while on duty, including Pisano and Ginnone who received 5 years in prison each and Bowman who received 10 years prison sentence for sale, possession and transportation of narcotics.


Now this is a good example where you can see on how the Outfit’s “system” for dealing narcotics really worked, meaning almost everyone got arrested but the group’s leadership and the members from the Outfit remained untouched by the law, thanks to the faithful “middle men”. Even though they were sent to jail, they still kept their mouths shut because they knew if they talked, their relatives and associates would’ve been killed instantly. So the government’s “domino effect” was broken with the help of the “code of silence” and nobody got hurt and above all, Accardo and Giancana remained immune from the whole situation. But I cannot say the same thing for Iacullo and Pape and their lucrative band of drug peddlers.


During this period, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics upgraded its organization by bringing about 200 skilled agents to combat illicit dealers and traffickers in narcotic drugs and they even started using “new” methods by infiltrating their own undercover agents into the “junk crews”. One of those undercover cops, who successfully managed to infiltrate Iacullo’s gang, was agent Harry Mattera. At first, the agent somehow managed to get close to Frank Coduto and had a chance to witness the whole operation, first hand. In time, Mattera started buying packages of heroin from Coduto for prices between $800 and $1,000, which financed by the FBN. On July 23, 1953, he met Coduto and told him that he desired to purchase two ounces of heroin and that he had $800, which Coduto said was necessary to pay for it. He also told Mattera to accompany him to the corner drug store, known as the College Pharmacy, where Coduto said, "I'll have to give the fellows a call." Mattera gave Coduto the $800, whereupon Coduto went to the rear of the store and made a telephone call. After that, Coduto told Mattera that the delivery would be made about 8:30 p. m. Mattera decided to wait in a tavern until that time and then rejoined Coduto in his car. Suddenly, a 1949 Plymouth car approached them and pulled up parallel to their Cadillac. The driver of the car was in fact Sperna and Iacullo was seated next to him, who in turn threw a package into Coduto’s lap. After that, Iacullo and Sperna drove off into an unknown direction, and as for Coduto, he gave the packages to Mattera, which in turn contained heroin. On August 13, 1953, Mattera again told Coduto that he desired to purchase two more ounces of heroin, but this time Coduto said that the order could not be filled because the fellows were out of town. Mattera asked what fellows he meant and Coduto said, "The fellows that were in the car the other day, the other time", meaning Iacullo and Sperna. On September 18, Mattera had another conversation regarding a heroin purchase with Coduto in the same drug store1 and right there he gave Coduto $800. After that, Mattera went to a restaurant at Ogden Avenue and Madison Street where he saw Tony Schullo having a conversation with Coduto. Later, entered the restaurant and gave Mattera a wrapped newspaper in which an envelope containing heroin was placed.


But the problem was that Coduto was only a “runner” and so Mattera decided to go up the ladder and try to make a contact with a member of the gang of higher stature such as Pape or Iacullo. So on October 13, 1953, Mattera was seated in a booth in the College Pharmacy with Coduto and Schullo. During their conversation, Mattera played it smart by telling Coduto that he was very dissatisfied with his methods of transacting business and that he refused to do any further business with him. Suddenly Schullo “took the stage” and said to Mattera "Well, don't bother, from here on in, I will take care of you, and I will take care of your needs." Mattera knew that Schullo was closer to Pape rather than Coduto and so he told him that he, meaning Mattera, wished to purchase some good quality narcotics and Schullo made a telephone call from the rear of the store, whereupon he returned and told Mattera that "his connection" would be there about 9 o'clock. That was the first time when Mattera spoke with Pape and at the same time personally received a package containing narcotics from Pape and gave him $1,650. But one day, Pape stopped selling dope to Mattera for no particular reason and suddenly the whole situation became quite frightening. Mattera became suspicious that the gang might’ve detected him and so he gave another try, but this time he asked Coduto to sell him counterfeit money, an illegal operation in which the whole gang was also involved in. And again, Coduto also refused and told Mattera to stop bothering him. In that same moment, Mattera phoned to his superiors in the agency and informed them about the situation and for this reason, the bureau quickly decided to make the arrests.