The government’s hunt continued with the arrest of one of the so-called “dope receivers” Augie Deveno. In March, 1961, Deveno together with one of his associates and also a cook at his pizzeria known as Sam Lamargo, also managed to sell heroin to an undercover agent. In fact, in just two months the boys made six sales of narcotics to the federal agent, and each sale was valued at $2,000, which is a total of $12,000. According to government reports, Deveno’s pizzeria handled $500,000 a year dope distribution for Chicago’s crime syndicate. In April, both defendants were sentenced to 10 years in prison. After the trial, Deveno’s brother Tommy threatened the federal agent who in turn testified against his older brother. Outside the courtroom, Tommy Deveno approached narcotics agent Joseph Arpaio and allegedly said, "We're going to kill you yet, Arpaio." The hoodlum was later arrested and placed in custody. You see, all of these low level criminals who were connected to Outfit, felt like they owned the world and they could kill anyone at anytime. Obviously this was a huge mistake since every one of them ended up in prison.
The last remaining group from the so-called old North/West Side drug peddling ring was the notorious Guido crew. The Guido brothers, Louis and Don, together with Louis Vasselli still “hustled” on the streets and by now their crew became even bigger and more lucrative. In fact, Louis Guido and Vasselli formed a new and larger crew of drug peddling “runners” because by now they started associating with many different crews from all around the Chicago area, which later some of them were taken under the Outfit’s rule. For example, new members in the crew which came from the South Side were Alex Micele, John Pellegrini, Anthony D'Agostino and Frank Milazzo, all known drug peddlers. The guys who usually had direct contact with the costumers were Pellegrini and Micele, but from time to time they gave an opportunity to Milazzo to get the job done. After the “business transaction” with the costumer was over, one of the three “runners” would visit one small nigh club which was located on the city’s North Side and leave the drug money for the Guido brothers. The crew was riding high but there was one old problem and that was some members of the crew were too reckless or crazy to be involved in the drug business, especially if it was controlled by the Outfit. But guys like Buccieri and Giancana were not stupid because as I previously stated, they were connected to the crew only through associates such as Torello and Infelice. They did not use members of the organization, obviously because they did not want to place their organization’s name again in the newspapers’ headlines. In other words, if something ever happened to the crew, the boys were left on their own. Guys like the leader Nick Guido or Vasselli were too crazy to go into war with, meaning a conflict would bring too much of an unwanted attention. If they made money, it all was good, and if they didn’t, again it all was good.
And somewhere along the way, the “looney” boys managed the screw things up. So one day, at the end of October, 1962, Vasselli and Gaynor went to Al Sacko’s apartment to make a business deal. In reality, Sacko’s apartment was used by many dope addicts, who in turn were his main market for the distribution of the product. In fact, the business deal was for Vasselli to get a piece from Sacko’s operation, and while talking, they tested the drugs that they had in front of them. You see, most of these guys were addicts and so they didn’t pay attention because their minds were too much influenced by narcotics. That same day, McGarry called the apartment asked for Vasselli to leave him one package of heroin “at the usual place”. That “place” was a window sill, on which before leaving Vasselli placed the package and later on, McGarry passed by to pick it up and left some money. The problem was that the package wasn’t meant for McGarry but instead it was meant for one of his “friends” who was an undercover agent. The next day, Pellegrini and Milazzo were arrested in the apartment building where Louis Guido lived as they were returning narcotics which customers claimed were of poor quality. In one week all of the defendants where arrested including Guido, McGarry, D'Agostino, Pellegrini and Milazzo, except for Vasselli, who in turn fled town and became one of the FBI’s Most Wanted.
During the trial, Louis Guido and the rest of the gang were stunned from all of the “surprises” that the prosecutors had prepared for them. The first “surprise” was Stanley Miller, a “runner” for the gang and also one of the defendants, who in turn decided to switch sides and testified for the government against his fellow criminals. Miller told the jury that he sold narcotics to Sacko and McGarry, two of the five on trial for conspiracy to deal in narcotics and that he also bought the dope from Vasselli and Gaynor. The next “surprise” was Patricia Guido, the wife of Nick Guido, who recently was sentenced to prison on burglary charges because of his wife’s testimony. Miss Guido testified that she saw and also heard Nick’s brother, Louis Guido talking or being involved in narcotics deals. In the end, all of the defendants were found guilty and received sentences between 10 and 12 years in prison. As for Vaselli, he was convicted in absentia from 25 to 50 years regarding the narcotics charges. During a nationwide search for Vasselli, in June, 1964, the feds unknowingly stumbled upon him in San Francisco but his real identity was established much later, after he had paid a $65 fine for drunkenness under his real name. And so on September 1, the feds managed to locate Vasselli and arrested him in some Calumet City motel and quickly placed him in prison. As I previously stated that the Guido gang was the last faction of the old North/West Side dope peddling ring, which lasted for more than a decade.
Also the so-called “protectors” of this huge drug peddling ring were not spared a bit by the whole situation. The problem occurred when the three greedy narcotics detectives or the “three dirty piggies”, Teller, Cooperman and Austin, managed to sell one quarter of a kilogram heroin to one dope peddler known as Otis Sears. The problem was that they sold the product directly to Sears, who in turn managed to get himself arrested by the feds and started talking about everything, obviously to get a lighter sentence. He mainly talked about the three corrupt detectives and their close associates such as Pullings and Spurlak and their alleged dope peddling connections in New York and around the Midwest. So in less than a week, the whole dope peddling ring was arrested and brought in custody. In October, 1960, 13 defendants stood trial including the three detectives and they all pleaded not guilty. The three policemen were charged with conspiracy to violate narcotics laws by buying, selling, and aiding in the transportation of the same narcotics and the same story went for the rest of the crew. The whole thing became spectacular which was followed by a series of clashes between Chicago’s police and federal narcotics agents. But the interesting thing was that during the trial, which occurred before Judge Julius H. Miner in the federal District court, Teller and Cooperman gave testimony which conflicted with that given by federal agents on the arrest of a dope peddler. And so Judge Miner quickly decided that the testimony of Teller, Cooperman, and Austin, made the federal agents' testimony false. Now, I don’t know if they were protected by their own boys, meaning their colleagues from Chicago P.D., or maybe their other “colleagues” from the Outfit, but this became an unbelievable “twist” in the whole situation, which made the three defendants look not guilty. And so in April, 1961, all three detectives and two of their associates also from the police force were acquitted on all charges, and as for Pullings, Spurlak and the rest of the gang, or the so-called “sacrificial lambs”, all received heavy sentences between 5 and 12 years in jail. The only individual who got out of the whole situation “clean” was Armando Piemonte, mostly because he was not positively identified by the government witnesses.
Even the Indiana faction suffered a huge blow by loosing few of its most prominent members. In 1963, the feds heavily attacked Northern Indiana’s gambling operations, thus arresting both Morgano and Zizzo on gambling charges. Zizzo was sentenced to three years in jail, while Morgano was deported back to his native Enna, Sicily, which automatically made Zizzo the next boss of the Indiana faction. Many government reports show that even though he was deported, Morgano still received proceedings in the form of checks from his illegal operations back in the U.S. Also, Morgano’s deportation will soon prove to be quite instrumental for making new routes in the narcotics trade around the country.
But during the same period or should I say, during the early 1960’s, “big things” were happening both in Chicago’s underworld and the world of narcotics. By now, the Outfit’s oldest boss Paul Ricca was again fresh out of jail and at the same time, the so-called “number two guy” Tony Accardo also had many legal problems which almost got him in prison. So my point is that during that troubled time period, Giancana literally had the whole criminal organization in his own hands. After the tax evasion trial, which came out to be quite threatening for Accardo’s personal freedom, the old boss also became the victim of the so-called “new world”. In fact, according to one Chicago Tribune Article, one of his sons joined the recently “invented” hippie movement and became a user of marijuana and LSD. So my personal belief is that all of those government cases regarding the narcotics racket, plus his son’s life style and addiction, contributed heavily over Accardo’s decision to go against narcotics. Maybe there was another reason, which further convinced the crime boss regarding his decision on drugs, and that was the infamous 1963 testimony of Mafia informer Joe Valachi, member of the Genovese crime family in New York, the same group which was closely connected to the Chicago Outfit. During his testimony, the former Mafioso gave one quite interesting and at the same time debatable information, regarding the Outfit’s attitude on narcotics. Valachi said that the Outfit made a rule for its members to get paid $200 a week to not get involved in the “dirty” business. He even added that during his last stay in prison, word got around that the price went to $250. I really don’t know if Valachi’s testimony is 100% accurate, but all I know is that after all of these occurrences, there were different opinions among the crime bosses regarding the dope racket. I’ve read many wiretapped conversations between some of the Outfit’s members for this particular period, and almost every one of them were against Giancana’s decisions, mostly because of his lifestyle, absence and his involvement in the dope business. Story goes that they almost divided in two groups with Giancana, Buccieri, Battaglia and Nicoletti on one side and Accardo, Humphreys, Frank Ferraro, Pat Marcy and Gus Alex on the other.
Tony Accardo
But even though Accardo allegedly changed his mind and voted against narcotics and on top of that he was still considered quite powerful member of the national syndicate, during this period his mentor Ricca was still alive and Giancana was still considered the chief executive, and since Giancana had his own number two guy, Accardo became something between them, a position which did not gave him the needed authority over the whole organization so he can stop the “decease”. On top of that, Giancana’s administration was still in full effect and so Accardo was powerless. In other words, Giancana still had “untied hands” in choosing in which illegal venture his organization will be involved in, mostly thanks to Ricca’s “open mind”. Don’t get me wrong, Ricca also supported his old friend Accardo but he always kept the “peace” between the members since he was considered a long-time representative for the Chicago faction of America’s Cosa Nostra, who in the past was constantly pressured by the old time bosses to keep his “animals” in line. In other words, Ricca was always the guy in the middle. Story goes that there was a meeting between the Outfit’s top bosses regarding the problem and allegedly they decided to stay away from the dope business, at least for awhile, mostly because of the constant government “heat” and on that particular meeting Giancana allegedly also agreed and supported the “anti- drug movement”.
The thing was that this so-called “pact” stood only for the West Side faction, which was divided between Accardo and Giancana, and allegedly the rest of deal was that the dope trade should be transferred mainly on the South Side of the city, meaning the black population, and should be also very tightly controlled. The crew which was chosen for overseeing the racket was again the Chicago Heights faction which by now was led by Frank LaPorte since his predecessor Jim Emery died back in 1957. It was not a coincidence that during this period more than one half of the dope addicts in Chicago belonged to the African-American element from that area. The main point of the so-called “transfer” of the dope racket mainly on the South Side was mostly because of Ricca’s and Accardo’s close and daily associations with members from the West Side faction and so they wanted for them to stay “clean”. Many of these West Side members were involved in highly lucrative rackets, and that is why the old bosses did not want for them to be labeled as dope peddlers by the government, since the whole point of organized crime individuals is to portrait themselves as legitimate businessmen. On top of that, neither Ricca nor Accardo wanted to be labeled as associates of dope peddlers and drug addicts. It was highly unacceptable for them, since it was going to ruin for them their alleged images as legitimate tycoons.
But still, I believe that the main problem was the presence of a huge difference between bosses such as Ricca, Accardo and Giancana, meaning in their life styles. For example, Ricca was an old timer who loved to dress well, not too flashy, and also loved visiting parties but he was more of a family type of a guy, or at least that’s how he portrayed himself. The same story goes for Accardo, who according to some “mob lore”, he never had a mistress. But Giancana on the other hand, was more of an “orgy” type of a guy, meaning he had women all around the country and also loved to visit parties, but sometimes on those same parties two or three guys had sex with only one female at the same time. Also, both Ricca and Accardo spoke Italian and respected the old ways, as for Giancana, according to some reports, he knew only few words of the Italian language. In other words, Giancana was more open minded regarding the “new world” and lived the “American Dream”, including flashy dressing, swing and jazz music, booze and above all, narcotics, I’m not stating that Giancana did drugs, but during that period many young or rich persons around the city did, and the Mob boss was there to supply it. Same as the old days, like during Prohibition, when Al Capone was “only” there to satisfy the citizen’s demand for booze. So my point is that Ricca was smart enough to realize that by now Giancana had the whole top administration loyal to him and going against a man like that, was pure suicide. And so Giancana managed to bring back the old “Al Capone days” by going out in public with famous girls or famous actors and singers but at the same time satisfied the generation’s “thirst” and brought the Outfit’s income on much higher level, like for example still forcing Chicago’s dope business to become one of the prime rackets for the organization.
Even though by now Chicago’s narcotics network looked like it was almost destroyed by the government, the truth was that it was far from finished. Since a big portion of the West Side crews were under the attack of the federal government, the top administration has decided to spread their operations with the help of different sources. As I previously stated that the deal was for the dope operations to be transferred mainly on the South Side, and so Giancana decided to exploit the situation with the help of some of his “new age” capos. One of those guys was Frank Caruso, the boss of Chinatown and Near South Side. He inherited the position back in 1957, when the old time crime boss of that area Bruno Roti Sr. died of natural causes. In fact, Caruso wasn’t even nearly as powerful as his predecessor and at the same time father-in-law, and during my research on the Outfit, I personally always wondered on how this guy managed to get in the top administration during Giancana’s reign as boss. There are reports that he mostly controlled floating dice games and handbook operations in his area and had some shares in few of the many gambling joints around the city and also controlled one or two small unions. On top of that, he had few Italian and non-Italian members from different crews in the same territory such as Jimmy Catuara, Gus Alex and Murray Humphreys who also had their own operations. But the reality was that Caruso had a much more “darker secret” and that was his deep involvement in the narcotics racket which quickly got the attention and likes of Giancana.
Frank Caruso
Caruso’s so-called “success” in the narcotics business was again owed to his connections to African-American gangsters which were located all around the South Side. The term “Black Belt” was commonly used to identify the predominately African American community in that area and so as I previously stated that many African-American criminals were involved in the policy or numbers operations, which were their main illegal income, even before the days of Prohibition. In fact, their operations allegedly jumpstarted the criminal careers of many Italian crime bosses such as Giancana or Battaglia and during this period, many of these so-called policy operators and runners were under the Outfit’s thumb. Until now, the African-American crime groups had their own and separate operations around the South Side, including gambling, prostitution and narcotics, but soon all of that was about to be changed. During the mid 1950’s, the so-called undisputed king of the policy operations around the South Side was an African-American gangster know as James Irving. And I really don’t know if he had any Outfit connections, but by the end of the decade, he was in conflict with the younger generation of black gangsters who in turn were backed by the Outfit. In fact, we already know that the narcotics business and the policy racket were the only things which connected these young black gangsters to members from the Outfit. The problem was that the old timers such as Irving were only interested in the policy racket since the operation alone brought them millions of dollars a year and they didn’t need any more complications such as the dope peddling business, which in turn was highly regarded by the younger generation. Some of the up and coming black criminals saw the Italian mobsters as their role models and on top of that, they saw future criminal success, something which they did not receive from their black superiors. In reality, everything was because of greed.
One of those younger and quite ambitious black criminals was Nolan Mack, a known enforcer, policy operator and above all, narcotics peddler, who worked closely with Outfit capo Frank Caruso. And since during this period the Italian-American Mafia was one of the main importers of heroin in the country, the interest was great and also went both ways, meaning Mack was the muscle and distributor and Caruso was the importer and also had the protection such as political or police connections. Mack had an arrest record with over 20 arrests and during the 1940’s he twice served time for burglary and bank robbery and later became known as “savage criminal”. Don’t get confused that Caruso was Mack’s boss because that wasn’t the case, but the reality was that these two high profile gangsters only worked together and the reasons for that were Mack’s “short fuse” or in other words, high temper and killer urge. He was arrested numerous times for beating up people for just looking at him the wrong way. Mack’s first narcotics violation occurred back in 1955 and from that point on, he was arrested 10 more times for peddling narcotics until he was imprisoned in 1957 and was sentenced to 5 years but served only 4. Story goes that during his stay in prison he caught the eyes of some Outfit associates who in turn recommended him to Caruso’s people. My personal belief that those two associates were the two corrupt Police Detectives Sheldon Teller and Miles Cooperman, the individuals who in fact arrested the whole drug peddling gang including Mack and later his wife Helen and one of his associates Solomon Smalls. The problem for Mack was that during this period, he did not have any “protection” or in other words, he had no Outfit connections.
Nolan Mack
Guys like Mack don’t have bosses because they see themselves as the only bosses around, like for example, when he got out first thing which he has done was the murder of his ex-partner in the dope business Shelby Faulk, who was found shot to death in his white Cadillac in an alley in the rear of 7304 Union av. in June, 1961. Story goes that Faulk tried to take over Mack’s business while he was absent, and the problem was that Faulk totally forgot that Mack was in fact a total psychopath. But “Mafia-type” or should I say organized criminals such as Caruso knew how to exploit individuals like that and make the whole relationship quite lucrative. Even though he was considered the boss of Chinatown, Caruso’s dope peddling ring was formed by a group of “middle men” or Outfit associates which were placed between him and Mack, and most of them belonged to the North/West Side junk crews, such as Ted DeRose, the guy who previously worked with the imprisoned Carl Fiorito and the late William Skally, or Americo DePietto who belonged to the Melrose Park faction and by now was considered a high level associate and leading member of the dope peddling ring, and also Joe Battiato, Frank Carioscia, Angelo Passinni and Mike DeMaro. In fact, both Caruso and DePietto controlled this crew, as the first one being connected to Mack and his South Side crew, and the latter being connected to the West Side group of middle men and also being Giancana’s “inside man” in this whole operation. The whole point was to maintain the deal, meaning it was for the Westsiders to distribute their product around the South Side. Usually, Battiato was the one who handled the dope from his apartment at Belden Avenue and every time when Mack visited the location, the two exchanged two brown paper bags, which obviously contained money and heroin. As for Mack, he had a large crew of his own “runners” which most of them worked at food stands, barber shops or even worked as janitors or taxi drivers and few of the most prominent ones were the “lovely” couple Opal and Charles Cole, Louis Pierce, Charles Armstrong, Charles Brooks, LaFauncie Johnson and Eddie Clark. According to some government records, this “junk crew” supposedly made somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 on a good day.
So like any other drug peddling story, everything went smooth until two of Mack’s runners have been arrested by the cops. The problem was that Mack did not have any police or political connections but his friends in the Outfit did and this is where Caruso and the boys acted as “protectors” for their runners. Once, the cops found 2 pounds of pure heroin worth $100,000 in Mack's apartment but later the narcotics charges were quickly dismissed on the grounds that the arrest and confiscations were made without a search warrant. During the arrest, Mack allegedly said to one of the agents that he would kill the next officer who attempted to arrest him. Also with the help of corrupt officials, sometimes the Outfit was able to receive info if anyone from the organization was giving up Mob secrets, or in other words Caruso and later Mack received info on who got pinched and who was planning to talk. For example, in January, 1963, one of Mack’s runners Louis Pierce was constantly “harassed” by the cops, by always searching his home and stopping him in public places, while searching him for any narcotics and after that they would usually take him to the station. So with a “practice” like that, the government managed to stir the thoughts of suspicion among the crew members and forced them to take few measures. That same month, 48 years old Pierce was found shot to death in his car in front of his home at 4115 Vincennes Av. Several months later, the body of 30 years old Charles Brooks was found in the Fox River, after experiencing the same government’s “practise”. In reality, Caruso and Mack were not in any position to take risk, because as I previously stated that these were small time criminals and they were looked upon as expendable and replaceable.
So the government had enough and placed 24/7 surveillance over the black gangster and some of agents constantly wondered around the “Black Belt” with hope to find anyone who was willing to talk. The reality was that a guy like Mack had a lot of enemies and there was always someone quite angry with a relative who was killed or hooked on drugs by the gang or Mack himself. So on October 25, 1963, two federal agents received info that Mack was about to drive 2 kilos of heroin with his car from one point to another. The reports say that Mack was being tailed by narcotics agent Wayne Valentino and as they approached State Street, Mack suddenly curbed Valentino's car, thus forcing him to smash into a lamp post. Valentino quickly radioed agent Gayle Ruhl, who in turn took up the pursuit on the expressway. Mack weaved in and out of traffic with his car but with Ruhl close behind and suddenly, just west of the Loop on the expressway, Mack slammed on his brakes and stopped the car. So agent Ruhl pulled his car in front of Mack's but before Ruhl could jump out, Mack hit the gas and smashed his car from behind and sped northward. Ruhl quickly took up the chase again and at California Avenue on the Northwest expressway, Mack stopped again and so did agent Ruhl with his auto. The gangster quickly jumped from his car as Ruhl got out of his and showed his badge, thus announcing he was a narcotics agent but the problem was that Mack ducked behind his car and fired three shots at Ruhl, who in turn dropped beside his auto and returned fire as traffic sped by on the expressway. Windows of both cars were shattered by the bullets and Ruhl felt glass splattering across his face as he fired his gun. The federal agent threw aside his empty gun and pulled out another, while his own blood constantly blinded him as he was unable to see for several seconds. He cautiously made his way alongside his car and approached the rear of Mack's auto. Then, the agent saw Mack's foot sticking out from behind his car and as Ruhl approached the rear of Mack's car, the agent yelled “Raise your hand any higher and I'll kill you!" Mack continued to raise the revolver and Ruhl suddenly fired his gun thus forcing the gangster to slump back on the pavement as other agents and police pulled up. Shortly after that, Nolan Mack was pronounced dead at Belmont hospital.
