By this time there were two main crews of “runners” for distributing the product, and came from the South and Southwest Side. These groups were mainly supplied by Nick D’Andrea’s organization and above all, they were mostly formed by young and dangerous dope dealers, who were quite “thirsty” for the old mighty dollar. One of the leaders was William Franklin Jr, whose main job was to kill potential informants against the Outfit. The main problem during this period were not the undercover agents, but instead the other street dealers, who re-sold the already bought product. So the problem was that by now many of these dealers were getting “high” out of their own supply, meaning slowly some of them were loosing their minds by not returning a dime to the Outfit-connected distributors, since many of the dealers used the drugs for their own satisfaction, and that’s why Franklin was there to “remind” them about their debts. The thing was that Nick D’Andrea wasn’t one of those Outfit associates, who “reminded” their costumers by breaking their legs and arms, but instead he instantly sought for approval for their murder “contracts” from his boss, which was the murderous Al Tocco. For example, on January 12, 1980, two of Franklin’s costumers Gregory Burgess and Andrew Jackson Jr., both 29, and both of Park Forest South, got the idea not to pay for their cocaine stash, and so both were repeatedly shot to death inside their apartment. When the police arrived on the scene, they found the dead bullet-riddled bodies of the two dealers and a whole lot of drug paraphernalia, which indicates that they were both heavy users. The next–dope-related murder occurred in 1981, when the dead body of 21-year old Darrell Harris appeared in Markham, Illinois and so the feds, with the help of the testimony of one of Franklin’s nephews, managed to arrest the Outfit’s hitman and a year later, Franklin was sentenced to 300-years jail term. According to one FBI report, the feds believed that Franklin was involved in six more drug-related murders.
The interesting thing was that during that period, mainly because of the huge cocaine epidemic, many of the law enforcement officials connected most of the organized crime-related murders with the dope peddling business but in reality, regarding the Outfit’s part, they still killed their own people out of various reasons, which were mostly backed by the old “rule list”, like for example, never kill your own boss. In July, 1981, the Outfit’s Chicago Heights “capo” Al Pilotto was shot several times while playing golf but miraculously managed to survive, thus creating a situation where people simply knew that somebody was going to get killed, and this time that “somebody” was none other than Nick D’Andrea. I really don’t know if he was really involved in Pilotto’s murder attempt scheme, but I’m almost positive know that D’Andrea wasn’t killed because of his drug peddling operations. So in September, 1981, the body of 49-year old D’Andrea appeared in the trunk of his burning Mercedes-Benz near Crete, Illinois. Years later, according to one Outfit informer, it turned out that the so-called “death squad” only wanted to talk to D’Andrea regarding the shooting of Pilotto, but the problem was that one of the gangsters Sam Carlisi used too much force just to scare the guy and probably killed the poor victim. The “death squad” was formed by members of the Melrose Park crew, such as Carlisi, who in turn was the capo of the faction, and his cohort James Marcello, and also from the Chinatown faction, which by now was headed by former dope dealer Angelo LaPietra. According to Nick D’Andrea’s wife, she said that after receiving a phone call from someone, who I personally believe was one Outfit member Sam Guzzino, her husband became very upset and from that point on, the late D’Andrea began carrying a gun and started noting the license plates of cars passing their house. But there was also another problem of which nobody knew except for the feds and that was the selling of cocaine to undercover agents in recent months. So sooner or later, D’Andrea was about to be busted, and later probably killed by his cohorts.
Nick D’Andrea
So 18 days later, after the body disposal of the late Nick D’Andrea, the feds went after his brother Mario and his band of dope peddlers. On October 1, 1981, Mario D’Andrea managed to sell a pound of pure Colombian cocaine to an undercover agent. Shortly before 3 p.m. that day, by prearrangement, the undercover agent met with D'Andrea at the gas station to complete the deal in which the agent was to receive cocaine for $54,000. As the cocaine and cash changed hands, the agent quickly identified himself and tried to arrest D'Andrea, but that’s when all hell broke loose. D’Andrea pulled out a .38 caliber pistol from his waistband and fired three shots, missing the agent each time. As bystanders scattered for cover, the agent fired five shots from a .357 magnum revolver, thus mortally hitting D’Andrea. The other agents, while watching the shooting from concealment, converged on the scene and arrested two D'Andrea's companions, which in fact were his nephew 19-year old Richard D’Andrea, who in turn was the son of the late Nick D’Andrea, and also Mike Skeans, another “runner” for the dope peddling ring. Probably, it was not a nice scene for young Richard who in turn had to watch as his uncle slowly died on the street. After the demise of the D’Andrea brothers, according to the feds, Curry and Pronger again allegedly took over the dope rackets for the Chicago Heights faction under Tocco.
Another interesting situation occurred but this time it was down in Florida. As I previously stated that until now, the main overseer of the dope racket for the Outfit down in South Florida was still Giancana’s old pal James Tortoriello but things were about to change. Before his arrival in the Ft. Lauterdale, Tortoriello belonged to the West Side faction of the Outfit, under the deceased crime bosses such as Giancana, Buccieri and Battaglia but since then, many things obviously has changed. So one night, in 1982, as he relaxed on his front porch at a quiet Deerfield Beach street, suddenly two carloads of gunmen sprayed Tortoriello’s house with bullets like it was the bootlegging days of the 1920’s. Again, few minutes later, the two slow-moving limousines appeared for the second time and fired another round of bullets. The 72 year old mobster remained untouched but obviously, he was scared to death. When the cops questioned Tortoriello on who could’ve been so angry at him, in a classic Cosa Nostra style, at first the old gangster refused to answer the question and later, he said that he doesn’t have an enemy in the world. The next day, Tortoriello packed his bags and went into hiding or simply disappeared. You see, even though he was slowly getting too old, Tortoriello went through a lot, meaning he was a suspect in numerous killings and rubbed elbows with few of the most dangerous criminals in the world. He even had few legends which constantly surrounded him, such as the one when he reportedly knocked out a cow with a single punch, just to win a bet. So my point is that Tortoriello was not some guy who was about to be easly scared or pushed around but in this situation, it was quite the opposite which indicates that he probably knew his attackers and was also probably aware of the problem.
According to the feds, during this period Tortoriello was heavily involved in cocaine and weapons trafficking, which were two of the main illegal activities for some of the high profile criminals in that area. But the problem was that since Southern Florida was regarded as the chief entry point for contraband arms and narcotics from Latin America, the President of the U.S. Ronald Reagan created a special task force which was destined for that same area, thus placing a lot of pressure over the local criminal syndicates. Now I’m only guessing but since Tortoriello was already under federal investigation for smuggling weapons, maybe the boys from back home wanted to send him a “message” or they simply missed their target and made him a lucky guy. I personally believe in the second option, mainly because the hit squad made a second turn so they can give another try on hitting their target. Also, story goes that after the death of Tortoriello’s previous boss Sam Giancana, the old gangster became a quite beefy individual who very often disobeyed the orders from his superiours. So maybe the bosses back home wanted for Tortoriello to step back from the trafficking operation, mainly because of the new problem with the government, but the old man probably refused and made the whole situation too complicated. Whatever was the real reason for the shooting, one this is for sure and that was he no longer was the Outfit’s overseer for any racket in that area. While being on the run, in1983, one of his sons Mark Tortoriello was fatally shot during an alleged cocaine transaction, which obviously went wrong. Story goes that Mark Tortoriello has sold low quality drugs to someone, who in turn returned and shot him to death. In addition, one year later in 1984, James “Mugsy” Tortoriello joined his deceased son, since he was found shot to death in a warehouse near the Fort Lauderdale-Holywood International Airport.
Anyways, by the mid 1980’s, the top echelon of the Chicago Outfit, including Joey Aiuppa, Jack Cerone, Angelo LaPietra and Joey Lombardo were sent to jail regarding the Las Vegas scheme but besides that, the narcotics business was booming like never before. I also believe that the whole situation pushed old man Tony Accardo in a permanent retirement and during this period, the Outfit was led by Jimmy Marcello, Joe Ferriola, James LaPietra, Louis Eboli, John DiFronzo, Al Tocco and Sam Carlisi at the top. So the main Las Vegas scheme was gone, all of their lucrative gambling operations were gone, their political protection was also highly destabilized and so the only lucrative operations which remained for the Chicago boys were loan sharking and the unions. Now my personal belief is that most of these top guys stayed opened to narcotics since I previously stated that the Outfit-related dope business exploded, also most of the other lucrative schemes were gone and above all, some of them such as Ernest Infelice were not strangers to the dope business. For example, Carlisi, Marcello and DiFronzo oversaw all of the Outfit’s factions on the West Side, which by now, according to the feds, were connected to a couple of highly lucrative “junk” crews.
According to government authorities, one of those crews was allegedly connected to one West Side member known as Tony Centracchio, who in turn worked under the auspices of Outfit “capo” for the Grand Avenue crew known as Louis Eboli. Back in the old days, Eboli came up through the ranks of the old Melrose Park crew which was under the auspices of Sam Battaglia and Phil Alderisio, and my point is that he might’ve also been “friendly” with the dope business. Now, there are no real evidences for Centracchio’s direct involvement with the product, but instead there’s hard proof for his brother’s involvement in the dope business. Henry Centracchio was the younger brother of Tony, who before Eboli, he used to work for Joey Lombardo. Even though during this period he was in jail, back in the days Lombardo was also known for having many people around him who were involved in the dope business, such as Dominic DeSantis. So “fearlessly” Henry Centracchio made a connection with one street dealer known as Thomas Guth, who in turn was the main contact to large quantities of cocaine. The thing was that Centracchio and Guth knew each other from back in the days and were involved in all kinds of illegal activities.
Anthony Centracchio
Back in the early 1980’s, Guth served a jail sentence at Sandstone Correctional Facility and over there he met another inmate known as Gary Lewellyn, and the two became close associates. In October, 1986, Guth was released from prison but he maintained regular contact with Lewellyn by phone. One day, Guth informed Lewellyn that he had developed a narcotics operation in Chicago, with the help of Henry Centracchio, who in turn had the men-power to distribute large quantities of cocaine. In the end, Guth asked Lewellyn if he knew anyone who could supply his operation with large quantities of high grade cocaine for distribution on Chicago’s city streets. In a matter of seconds, Lewellyn pronounced the name of one his new fellow inmates known as Jose Martinez, who had close connections with individuals such as Colombian drug lords down in Florida. The plan was for Lewellyn to act as Guth's supplier once he was released from prison. In fact, there was meeting between Lewellyn, Guth and Martinez at federal prison camp at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama. After the meeting, Martinez told Lewellyn that he and Guth had discussed the price and quantity of cocaine that Martinez could supply to Guth after Martinez's release from Maxwell. After his release, both Guth and Martinez went to Miami to meet with their drug suppliers, such as Robert Valido and Jorge Silva, the main people with the Columbian contacts.
So the next part of the plan was for the boys to arrange for an El Camino truck, and with Valido’s help, to build a secret compartment in the truck where the cocaine was to be placed in. After the repairing of the truck, once a month, the vehicle left from Miami to Chicago, usually packed with ten kilograms of cocaine, where it was welcomed by Centracchio’s crew. Because of his brother’s street reputation, Henry Centracchio had connections to many high level Italian dope peddlers from the western suburbs, such as James Aquilla who in turn oversaw a band of “runners”, which were perfect for the whole operation. Back in 1981, Aquilla almost lost his life in a car explosion in Florida, in which his relative, millionaire and Outfit associate Joseph Testa was fatally injured by loosing his right leg and one arm. At the time, federal authorities speculated that Testa may have been killed by a hit man known to work for Centracchio’s boss, the imprisoned Joey Lombardo. The Outfit transported the product all around Illinois with the help of their handbook establishments. Like for example, one day the feds raided an illegal gambling establishment in Elk Grove Village and they also found 10 kilograms of cocaine and according to one source, the operation was controlled by another Grand Avenue crew member known as Marco D’Amico. So Aquilla was the middle guy and his main runners were in fact two Outfit hit men, cocaine addicts and 24/7 drug peddlers, known as Joseph Bravieri and his constant companion Richard Zuniga and these dangerous fellas operated mainly around the Near West Side. Bravieri’s Mob connections mainly came through his older brother Arthur, who used to work in the burglary business for one Outfit “capo” William Daddano. And since both of them, meaning Bravieri and Zuniga, were addicts with a lot of cash, they visited many disco clubs and at the same time made connections to other street dealers and addicts, to whom they sold their product. According to the feds, this particular dope ring made profits around 10 million dollars a month only from the cocaine business and that’s why some of them lived quite lavishly to be considered as “simple” dope dealers. Again, according to some reports, during this period Aquilla lived in a $350,000 “fortress” at 420 Lauder Lane, Inverness. In plane words, business was booming and my personal belief is that many “fat envelopes” went into the pockets of the Outfit’s top administration which by now for certain was under the auspices of Sam Carlisi.
The second “junk crew” came also from the western suburbs and again my personal belief, and also the government’s, is that this particular group constantly sent envelopes straight to Carlisi, obviously through his own members from that area, such as Tony Zizzo and Al Tornabene. In fact, the Centracchios and Tornabene were quite close in doing business together and on top of that, Tornabene was considered a blood relative of Carlisi. So this crew was led by two Outfit crew-members and also middle men for the Melrose Park faction, known as Victor Plescia and Frank Bonavalante, the main individuals who distributed their product mainly around the Cicero, Berwyn, Bridgeview and Riverside areas. In fact, according to some sources, Bonavalante was the older brother of Joey Bonavalante, who in turn was an alleged “lieutenant” under Zizzo. So Bonavolante’s main role was financing the cocaine purchases with Outfit money, in return for a share of the resale profits. As for Vic Plescia, according to the feds, he oversaw the wholesale and retail drug operation which was mainly the distribution of cocaine and even though he was headed the conspiracy, his main couriers were Nick Rizzato and Tony Grossi, who in turn travelled many times to Miami, from where they purchased dozens of kilos of the product. According to one report, Plescia acquired his product from the same Columbian source as Centracchio’s crew. The interesting thing was that one of Plescia’s couriers such as Nick Rizzato worked as a Chicago police officer and so it was easy for him to transport the product since usually no one dared to search a man of the law. In addition, Rizzato was the brother of Anthony Rizzato, one of two Chicago police officers who were slain by sniper fire back in 1970.
After the courier’s brought the cocaine to Chicago, Tony Grossi together with his father Canillo distributed the product in street-use quantities, obviously with the help of their runners or street dealers, such as Norman Demma, Lizzio DeSantis, Kevin Geiger and also Plescia’s wife Cora. According to the government, this particular group of runners was capable of distributing up to 50 kilos of cocaine per month, which in fact was a quite lucrative amount. Also, during this period it was the beginning of a new era of everyday communications, such as pagers and mobile phones, which were constantly used by the dope dealers and other kinds of criminals, mainly because they foolishly believed that those devices were untraceable by the electronic surveillance of the feds. For example, when Plescia wanted to call for action, he simply paged his cohorts by using the code number 8, which indicated that the product has arrived. From that point on, of anyone from the crew wanted to purchase cocaine, they simply called for Plescia, who in turn first checked with one of the Grossis for availability, and then called back to whoever it was and set up the whole drug transaction. After the transaction was finished, percentage from the cash went into the pockets of Bonavalante and the rest of the Outfit’s hierarchy.
As you can see, even through the 1980’s, some high level members of the Outfit were still heavily involved in the dope business, which by now the connection lasted for more than three decades. But during this period, neither the Outfit, nor the Columbians were the strongest organization in the “Windy City”, since other gangs from the Latin or African-American element already began to flourish in the underworld. By the mid 1980’s, many Mexican drug cartels were created and they began flooding the United States with all kinds of narcotics and on top of that, during the same time period, the use of cocaine was reaching epidemic proportions in cities large and small across the nation, thus sparking turf wars and escalating drug-related violence. Now, during my research on the Chicago Outfit, I’ve realized that they were not that kind of an organization, I mean yes they killed a lot of people but always avoided internal conflicts and their main goal wasn’t narcotics. As for the new breed of criminals, they just didn’t care about any of the rules and that is why, the Outfit immediately got pushed out from the number one spot, thanks to the endless urge for violence of the new criminal generation, made out of various ethnicities.
One of those new criminal organizations was the Hernandez crime family which was based in Matamoros, Mexico, and through Texas, they managed to send large shipments of cocaine and marihuana all the way to Chicago. According to the feds, the organization was headed by Elio Hernandez and his sons, and these guys were quite dangerous, mostly because they were known for doing ritualistic murders. So besides being drug dealers, they also represented a gruesome cult and sacrificed their victims in such a way, in which they believed was the only way to protect their dope peddling operations and above all, themselves. One of the family’s main representatives in the U.S. was one Mexican drug lord known as Manuel “Poncho” Jaramillo, who settled himself in Mission, Texas, which is a small place near the border. Even though Jaramillo supplied drug dealers around country such as in New York and Miami, according to the government, his main connections were in Chicago. Story goes that Jaramillo’s second job, besides overseeing their dope racket, was money laundering or in other words, he invested drug money in legitimate enterprises. But even for that, he still needed some good underworld connections, and there was no other organization for such “pleasures” if it wasn’t for the Mob.
So one thing led to another and next thing you know, Jaramillo made a close relationship with none other than Chicago Heights capo Al Tocco. As I previously stated, during this period Tocco was considered one of Chicago’s most dangerous criminal overlords around the South suburbs, mainly because he had the garbage business locked down in that territory, and also the union business, loan sharking and obviously, narcotics. Now, the main connection between Tocco and Jaramillo was one dope dealer know as Mike Habiniak from another small town on Texas’ border. To tell you the truth, I really don’t know on how the hell Tocco was connected to Habiniak but all I know is that the a deal was made in which on the supply side of the dope ring were the Mexicans and the people from Texas, and on the distribution end of the ring was the Chicago Outfit, thanks to Tocco. It was just like in the old days, when Tocco’s predecessors used the “welcome” the main drug shipments for the organization. This time there weren’t any made guys of the Outfit involved in the racket but simple, Tocco’s faction acted as a wholesale distributor to mainly two dope peddling gangs which in turn, after the distribution of the shipment, they gave a good percentage from their income to Tocco and the boys. In addition, even though they were connected with the Mexican drug lords, still much of the dope shipment which was meant for the South suburbs came from Florida, or in other words, the Colombians. The main reason for this was that the Hernandez crime family was mostly involved with the Chicago Heights faction in money laundering operations, thus putting the dope business on second place.
According to the feds, one of those South-suburban gangs was headed by one dope dealer known as Sam Mann. In fact, Mann previously did not have any Mob connections but instead he was acquainted with individuals who were obliged for the rest of their lives to pay “street-tax” to their so-called territorial crime lords, such as Tocco. Again, most of these individuals were involved in the auto-theft racket, which by now was still one of Tocco’s most lucrative operations. Back in the old days, Mann was involved in the auto-theft racket together with one Tony Rovy and his associate Robert Hardin. So the main connection to the Mob was in fact Rovy, who in turn also worked as collector and a hit man. Rovy's criminal background can be traced back more than 20 years, which included 26 arrests and numerous convictions for which he served a total of one year and nine months in jail. By the early 1980s, Rovy allegedly headed the auto-theft ring for the late Outfit henchman William Dauber, who also supported the dope racket and on top of that, he was a heavy user of cocaine. Rovy also has been linked to the shooting death of one reputed drug dealer Phil Voss outside a Calumet City tavern back in April 1982, but the problem was that the evidence was not strong enough to bring murder charges against him.
After the murder of Dauber, both Mann and Rovy began paying their “debts” to one of Tocco’s new chief enforcers, Clarence Crockett. And since then, the duo got heavily involved in transporting cocaine from Florida, straight to Calumet City, which in fact was their main territory. But by the mid 1980’s, the crew grew stronger by even having their own protection in the form of a Calumet City police sergeant known as Russell “Rusty” Larson. The thing was that both Larson and Mann grew up together on Chicago’s South Side, and years later they repeatedly travelled from Calumet City to Florida to buy drugs for resale in the south suburbs. The reality was that the 16-year veteran of the Police Department protected Mann’s activities from raids and surveillances by other law enforcement agencies, and sometimes he even acted as security during the transportation of the drug shipment. According to one source, cocaine was being sold and snorted literally under the noses of some Calumet City police officers because Mann was confident that his buddy from the police force would protect him from arrest. But even with that, one day in 1985, Mann was stupid enough to get himself arrested by the feds for possession of cocaine and was sentenced to two years in prison. After Mann’s imprisonment, Rovy allegedly took over as leader of the crew, which by now included Larson, Hardin, and also Mann’s girlfriend Terri Miller and her sister Michelle, along with one Nenad Vidojevic. The interesting thing was that after all of those years, the Chicago Heights faction still managed to hold the same “dope peddling” territory which was the South suburbs and also Lake County, Indiana. During that period, proof for that were Rovy’s vast cocaine and marihuana operations in northern Indiana.
The next crew operated mainly around the Orland Park and Joliet areas and was headed by one notorious Italian dope peddler known as Dante Autullo Jr. Story goes that this guy was big in the business, and owned a $400,000 pizzeria shop south of Orland Park known as 31st Street Pizza Restaurant, where the drugs were imported, and he also owned a $600,000 nightclub known as Rush's 21st Century Lounge from where the product was distributed. Also Autullo was connected to a large crew of runners who were overseen by two of his closest associates, John Cappas and Salvatore Dattulo. Now, Cappas was the main connection to the Outfit through a couple of his “business partners” such as the Messino brothers Chris and Clement. In fact, they were the nephews of another Outfit “heavyweight” known as Willie “The Beast” Messino, and they both were former Chicago police officers who left the department back in 1974 for alleged participation in an auto theft racket from their auto body business Auto Abbey, which was located in Harvey, Illinois. According to the feds, even though his father belonged to the West Side faction, still Chris Messino was considered a member of the Chicago Heights faction under Al Tocco.
The other “interesting” thing with both Cappas and Dattulo was that they were in their early 20’s and so they were connected to many young dope dealers and addicts, who constantly filled their pockets with cash, and the problem was that they looked upon at Autullo as their “Mafia Godfather”, mainly because of his lavish lifestyle. Once, Autullo sold one of his expensive houses for much lesser price to Cappas, so it can make it easy for him to attract rich kids and to transform them into their own runners for their dope peddling operation. He owned a $500,000 worth of property in Homer Township, Will County including his expensive home near Lockport. For example, one of those kids was Daniel Joyce, a dealer, cocaine addict and also the son of the current State Senator at the time, Jeremiah Dorsey. According to one report, the Senator’s son once almost became the shooting target of the same gang in which he belonged to, mainly because of his drug peddling debts, which later were quickly repaid. Many of these young individuals really felt fear in Cappas presence mainly because of his background and also the things which he was capable of committing. Once, two 17-year old graduates from the Marist High School allegedly took their own lives after they said that drug dealers had threatened to torture and kill them for not paying their dope debts. But the federal investigators were trying somehow to determine if the two youths who committed suicide were involved with drug dealers working for Cappas, since he also was a former graduate o the same high school.
John Cappas
In reality, Cappas was the key figure in this whole operation, mainly because he had the street contacts and also, he was the most dangerous individual among his fellow members, which made him the prefect collector and hit man for Autullo and also the Chicago Outfit. One of Cappas main enforcers was Nick Ahrens, who was known for always carrying a gun and was quite known as one very notorious individual. As I previously stated somewhere during this long story, that these fellas were involved in many Outfit-related illegal activities, which ranged from extortion to murder, but the thing is, in this example this wasn’t the deal. Some of the shooting in which these fellas were involved were Outfit-related, but some were simply drug-related. For example, two other young and ruthless enforcers and drug dealers for Cappas were Ray Bonnema and Bryan Bafia. Now, if someone owed money to these two fellas, they were usually known for shooting up the vicitms’ houses or cars. According to the feds, Cappas once bragged that he made $1 million a year from the dope ring, an amount that cannot go unnoticed by the local Italian crime syndicate, which by now still extorted almost every dope peddler in their territories.
