I also don’t know if you noticed but all of these previously mentioned big time Mob-connected food stores or companies operated in a different time periods, or one after the other, which again means that the boys were always prepared with a replacement. So no matter if Peterson warned the public and government, still the simple criminal tactic worked perfectly fine when one company takes all the government heat, while the rest of the Mobbed up firms continued to operate largely under the radar and since the main ingredient in the beef sandwich or Italian sausage pizza is meat, the Outfit’s involvement in the business took a step further. At the time, the whole meat industry in Chicago was under the watchful eye of the government and so some of the Outfit’s meat packing businesses began spreading out of the city, to another area, which was under the auspices of one different crew. During the mid 1960’s, the crime boss of Chicago’s southern suburbs and also northern Indiana, was Frank LaPorte, an old time mobster with criminal history since the Capone days. It was a time when the Mob already established itself around the country like in Phoenix, Arizona, and constantly brought its own members and my personal belief is that the main reason for those constant imports in this particular territory was the narcotics business but that’s another story. So during that time LaPorte gave the order to one of his underlings known as Armand D’Andrea to go down to Phoenix and establish himself as their top overseer. So D’Andrea succeeded to rise at the top of this whole operation and became in charge of LaPorte’s rackets and legit enterprises in Arizona. Besides in Phoenix, back home D’Andrea was also the guy in the Joliet area, and one time he was also considered by Illinois authorities to be the heir-apparent to the Outfit’s leadership of those same two areas. Now don’t get me wrong, D’Andrea wasn’t the first Chicago Mob representative in that territory, but instead there were previous members who already made space for the future reps such as himself. Since he was the top overseer, D’Andrea also controlled his own crew down there which included Joseph DiCaro, Joe Tocco, Philip Faustino and others, and most of these guys had their own food businesses in that same area.


For example, many restaurants around Phoenix bought their meat supplies from one Outfit-connected firm which was known as the Golden West Meat Co., located at 410 S. 59th Ave and was operated by Joseph DiCaro. As I previously stated that back in Chicago, this guy belonged to LaPorte’s Chicago Heights faction and in fact, DiCaro was heavily involved in the counterfeit businesses, but “somehow” the government was always one step in front of him, which was possibly the main reason for his relocation in Arizona, since as I previously stated that it became their main dope smuggling ground out of obvious territorial reasons. So there were more than few incidents regarding the meat company, since DiCaro’s main salesman for the firm, Philip Faustino, terrorized many butcher shops and restaurant owners, which led to his numerous arrests by the police. For example, by the end of the decade, the problem for Faustino was the Best Meal Co. of Phoenix, which with the help of his violent methods, became closely affiliated with DiCaro's Golden West firm. Besides extortion, the other connection between the two businesses was the renting of freezer space by the Golden West. So one day a conflict erupted between the two firms and later, as a response, Faustino allegedly was involved with the disappearance of a load of the Best Company meat. The victims quickly took the problem to the media and the government, which also in no time visited DiCaro, who in turn denied everything by saying that Faustino has never been directly or indirectly an employee of either DiCaro or of the Golden West Meat Co. but later, Faustino was accused of giving false information and was arrested by the police. In the end, nothing really happened and slowly the whole thing was buried under the ground. As additional statement, DiCaro also did not have any blood relations to the DiCaro brothers and Outfit members, Charles and Joseph, from the South Side.


The most interesting thing regarding Faustino’s activities was that besides being a fearless loan shark and a pimp, he was also one of the best Italian cooking chefs in the state of Arizona. It is possible that Faustino managed to upgrade his cooking skills back in Chicago when he used to cook for one whole Outfit crew on daily basis. So before entering the meat business, Faustino worked as the main cooking chef at the Pappa Joe’s pizzeria and restaurant, which was owned by Joe Tocco. In 1965, Tocco opened up the legit enterprise which was located in the northern part of Phoenix, in an area known as the Valley. In reality, Tocco’s joint was used for collecting the proceedings from their local loan sharking schemes, narcotics sales and handbook operations, but above all, the place was also used as storage for an arsenal of untraceable weapons, which were allegedly often passed out for numerous executions all around the country. And when you think of Phoenix or Arizona, you probably don’t think of pizza, but that was the product which Tocco’s restaurant was famous for but the reality was that it had a darker purpose. You see, during that period the frozen pizza business was used by the LaPorte group for transportation of narcotics, since many Outfit members at the same time began investing their cash in that same venture.


This so-called scheme first occurred back at the beginning of the 1950’s, but decade later, when most of the Outfit’s rackets were on the downfall, the boys quickly turned to the frozen pizza business, including the top boss Paul Ricca. The other main group which controlled the operation for Ricca, was the Taylor St crew headed by one ruthless captain known as Fiore Buccieri. Since during those days, Ricca was still considered the “Father” of Chicago’s Italian crime syndicate and in the style of a true Mob boss, he often “blessed” the careers of many famous individuals. For example, once he helped the famous Italian singer Sergio Franchi to become famous but the thing is that individuals like him were pure artists, meaning they only needed some good start or push, such as Ricca, so they can finish their job on their own with the help of their artistic skills. But there is also a different kind of entertainers, which I like to call them “Sinatra” type of fellas, who besides singing, acting or entertaining the audience, they also like to mingle with gangsters and racketeers and from time to time, to slap around people here and there. One of those artists was one of America’s greatest singers and entertainers known as Vic Damone. In fact, Damone was one of the famous “puppets” for the Chicago Outfit and also for the Genovese crime family in New York, by constantly touring the Mob’s casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada, as a performer. He even appeared publicly at some of the Outfit’s gatherings, such as the one which occurred in 1963, at Chez Paree Lounge, where Damone was the main guest of honour and also opening entertainer. He even made a guest appearance at Sam Giancana’s headquarters, the Armoury Lounge, which in fact was a simple bar but for Damone, it was like he was singing at the White House, followed by his own singing group known as The Vagabonds. But the most interesting thing regarding Damone’s shady activities were his deep criminal connections, such as being a front man for the syndicate.


So besides singing privately or making guest appearances for his buddies in the Mob, by the mid 1960’s, Damone slowly took few steps further in the criminal world by entering the food business, which obviously wasn’t for his own legit income but instead it was for laundering the illegal income of the Mob’s bosses such as Ricca or maybe even for the transportation of narcotics. In fact, from that point on Damone was considered close associate of the Outfit and was placed to work under the Buccieri group, including Buccieri’s brother Frank and one Joe Grieco. These guys represented only a part from the group’s huge loan sharking enterprise, or in other words, they made millions of dollars which were about to be laundered through Damone’s “legit” enterprise known as the Vic Damone Pizza Corporation, which was located at the same address as Grieco’s Independent Loan Corporation, located at 2015 North Larrabee St. The whole thing began when Grieco together with his brother Don and Frank Buccieri a.k.a. “Big Frank”, operated their loan sharking behind many pizza parlors, and so one day they decided to open up their own food firm known as Nicky’s Frozen Pizza Co. Then, story goes that Damone was brought in by Frank Buccieri, since the duo were quite close, meaning many times Damone spent his nights at Buccieri’s house, usually with a couple of girls. The trick was obviously in Damone’s name on the contract as the company’s president, and was also written on a fleet of trucks, which dispensed frozen pizza pies all around Chicago, and God knows what else, while behind the scenes the Outfit was giving checks to Damone’s pizza firm, through its director Frank Buccieri, who in turn has drawn the checks from Grieco’s loan business. And as for Joe Grieco, he also held high positions by being Damone’s vice president and also treasurer, since it was a time when the Grieco brothers had the power to form a profit from the high and mighty of businesses, and in the end to produce a sparkling tribute for their captain Fiore Buccieri, who in turn gave a 50% share to his gangland patron Sam Giancana, and in the end 25% went to Paul Ricca.



Interesting cover art of one music compilation in which Damone also appears


Real Sicilian type of pizza


In addition, according to Damone’s own words, when they started the pizza business, he allegedly made a request that they should use one secret recipe which his mother had always used in making pizza and made the their product even better. They used the same machines and facilities which were used in the previous pizza business, and the new company numbered somewhere around 20 workers, who in turn worked at the assembly line where the pizzas were made, boxed and stored in freezers, before being sold. The interesting thing was that the boxes in which the pizzas were being sold, resembled like the ones in which Damone’s phonograph records were being placed, with his picture and name appearing on the pizza box. The reality was that Damone was rarely seen at the company’s offices, and according to one FBI report, the main guys who were constantly present and also operated with the firm were Grieco and Buccieri. Story goes that Damone did not ask for any report and the boys on the other side did not bother to send anything.


But when the name of Grieco became quite known among the loan shark victims, who in turn gathered in many public places to discuss their violent methods in hushed tones, like any other previously mentioned semi-legit food venture, the Grieco boys slowly began to lose their grip over the business, since the government became quite interested in the whole situation. As always the good thing for the Mob was that they already had their own people infiltrated in the government, who in turn quickly warned the bosses regarding any possible future investigation or indictment. So when the scandal managed to hit the newspaper headlines, Damone and boys already closed their shop and after that, the famous singer was constantly questioned by the media or the feds regarding his close connections in the Mob, but every time he did not deny anything except that he never knew that some of these people, such as the Grieco brothers or Frank Buccieri, were members of the Mafia, and he also added that he never did anything illegal. Later a spokesman for Damone also confirmed his story and told the press on how the singer became involved in a pizza operation which allegedly started during one of his appearances at the Sahara North motel in 1962. The spokesman also said that Damone never received a report regarding the company’s status and also never received a dime out of the operation. He also added that Damone never knew any hoodlums and he even denied Damone ever seeing the checks from Grieco’s loan company. Obviously somebody pulled some strings here and there and next thing you know, Damone was off the hook. So in the next decade, Damone continued with his artistic career and as for the Grieco boys, they were involved in a new venture, known as the Lu Lu's Kosher hot dog stand, located at 1000 S. Leavitt St., where they mostly sold garlic scented sausages, which were obviously good for the taste of their boss and constant guest Fiore Buccieri. But slaving over a hot pot was a far cry from being a big shot and I guess somewhere in there lies the moral of this story. In addition, in 1972, Damone allegedly turned down a role for the famous movie The Godfather, who in turn was about to play the “Johnny Fontane” character, which is allegedly based on Frank Sinatra. Damone publicly told a great lie, in which his alleged drop out, was attributed to his huge pride in being Italian, even though agents at the FBI knew that he refused the role out of respect for his buddies in the Mafia, who in turn showed a great dissatisfaction towards the making of the film.


The reality is that I can go on forever writing regarding the Mob’s infiltration in the food business, which was mainly used for their various illegal activities, instead of keeping it clean and making the big buck through larger sales, obviously backed by fear, which is the sole point of this story. As you can see, during the 1960’s many of the Outfit’s members did not care regarding the previous point, and I believe that one of the reasons was that top advisors such as Murray Humphreys were dead and gone and also their ideology was buried with them. But the difference was that criminals like Humphreys were not Cosa Nostra, meaning they often saw a light at the end of the dark tunnel, which means that they fought to become legit individuals by taking over one or few of the most lucrative legitimate enterprises. As for the other type of gangsters, who believed in a 100-year old criminal brotherhood, through the decades they changed and began to rarely saw themselves as legit individuals, since the core of their organization was the illegal income and they also pledged their allegiance to that same brotherhood for the rest of their lives, or in other words, there was no way out for them from the illegal world. For example, the Italian criminal faction quickly got involved in one of their oldest legit businesses and that was the sale of olive oil, but this time it was often impure. This operation mainly began on the city’s West Side, particularly Taylor St., which at the time was under the auspices of Outfit capo Fiore Buccieri. It was a territory where many food shops or any other kind of establishments such as shoe shops, behind closed doors, sold so-called mixed olive oil which after the tests ran by state chemists revealed that the contents of the one gallon cans were not pure, as stated on the label, but instead it was a mixture of other oils such as cottonseed and peanut mixed with the olive oil. Usually, the racketeers offered to sell their impure product for $2 a gallon, and the retail price of pure olive oil was about $5 a gallon. Later chief inspectors for the federal Food and Drug administration in Chicago, determined that the fake oil which was being sold as pure, have mostly been imported. The inspectors managed to examine all olive oil shipped to the city and there were over 50 different brands of olive oil sold in Chicago and it turned out that one third was impure. In addition, this so-called racket exists even today.


Now don’t get me wrong, there were obviously still some Mafiosi who kept their legit enterprises separate from their illegal operations and sometimes they even refused to include any unstable individuals, who might screw up the whole thing. For example, when I explained the case regarding the Twin Food scandal, during the trial, most of the important Melrose Park crew members were being mentioned by the prosecutors except for one who went by the name of Charles Nicoletti. Now the legend goes that this guy was a real serial killer and also top notch money maker and because of that, he was involved in countless legit enterprises but above all, Nicoletti was employed as a potato salesman and had his own grocery store which was named La Joys, located on Taylor Street and on top of that, he also controlled three meat and vegetable markets on the Near Northwest side of Chicago. The point is that Nicoletti mostly kept his food shops clean, meaning he rarely had any illegal operations going on in those same joints. I mean he obviously kept few illegal weapons here and there and was arrested a couple of times, but as I previously stated that he often kept his legal operations completely clean, which obviously protected him from the law for quite a while. There’s also one story which states that Leo Rugendorf asked Nicoletti to include him in the grocery business but he, meaning Rugendorf, allegedly received the middle finger and was backed up only by receiving the contacts for the needed products. This was a sign that Rugendorf was out of the meat and shortening businesses and tried to find a new legit enterprise so he can hide his illegal operations and by asking Nicoletti for a favour, Rugendorf was obviously knocking at the wrong door.


But even in that huge pile of greedy and murderous mobsters, who at the same time doubled or tripled their legal or illegal incomes by mixing the two enterprises, still there was some hope with the presence of smarter associates who managed to follow the path of former members from the old era, who somehow managed to transfer at least some of their criminal knowledge. So such an old school move was made by one non-Italian Outfit member from the South Side, who went by the name of William McGuire. This guy was a former policeman, turned gambling operator and labor racketeer, who was known for being a front man for the Outfit but the interesting thing was that he was more than that, meaning he was often in the company of the so-called bosses of the non-Italian faction, including Ralph Pierce and Les Kruse, who in turn reported to Humphrey’s successor Gus Alex. Even though he was also closely connected to the Italian faction, with Charles Inglesia a.k.a. English or Sam DeStefano, still by the end of the day my personal belief is that McGuire’s boss was either Kruse or Pierce, who in fact was the so-called main overseer of the South Side for quite a long time.


You see, during the 1960’s Chicago's South Side was largely populated by African Americans and also with Hispanic population. In fact, during that time the prime working-class was the Mexican community, also followed by a large numbers of Puerto Ricans, which means that the Latino population in Chicago continued to diversify. As I previously stated that they were mostly centred on the South Side, but later some of the Hispanic population from different areas also settled around the Lower West Side and soon this so-called colonia became known as La Villita which means Little Village or some even call it Chicago’s “Little Mexico”. They obviously brought their traditions with them and in no time, Latino-owned businesses which ranged from clothing stores and vending machines, to restaurants, bars and food stands which have sprung along Cermak Road, thus adding to the growing economic power of Chicago's Hispanic population. But my personal belief is that these legit enterprises were just a small portion of the economic power and I think that the real money obviously came from the illegal activities, such as the famous Bolita game, which was a multi-million dollar gambling business, or the prostitution racket and even narcotics. The reality was that all of these things doubled the opportunity to make a fortune and serve the community, and also the ability to take an active role in the city’s affairs of highest level. But if we put their shady activities on the side, still one of the most lucrative legit incomes was in fact their traditional food business. Their so-called neighbours, the African-American population presented their rib joints and chicken shacks, as well as a plethora of specialized bakeries, butchers, grocery stores and fishmongers, giving Chicago’s foodways a decidedly ethnic flavour, thus pointing out the so-called “Soul Food” of the 1960’s. But since the Hispanic food is one of the most regarded in the world, and it’s similar to the Italian cooking style, in no time it became one of the Mob’s targets.



Hispanic type of food


During the mid 1960’s, Chicago’s Latino restaurant scene, especially the Mexican, has literally exploded and much of the joints promised food that was truly traditional, using signs with phrases such as “Netamente Mexicanas”, which means “Distinctly Mexican” or maybe even “verdades platillos nacionales”, in translation “true national dishes”. This was a simple trick just to emphasize their own fellow immigrants that they would find the flavours of home at these restaurants. Some even named their joints after the hometowns or states of which the family or owner had previously arrived. For example one of the most traditional meals was, and still is, the tamales which are quite notable mainly because during those days the meal was typically eaten in their homes as a special occasion food due to the amount of labor involved, since the Emergency Farm Labor Program at the time, recruited over two million Mexican nationals to work in the U.S. on short-term labor contracts. And so for a restaurant to offer tamale, it was a pure sign that there was a solid customer base from Hispanic heritage. This is in fact dish made of dough, which is often starchy and usually corn-based, and after that it is steamed in a corn husk or banana leaf. The wrapping is discarded before eating and the tamales can be filled with meat, cheese, fruit, vegetable or any other stuff depending on the taste. So the selling of tamale was quite good business for some of the restaurant owners, but we all know that all of traditional meals are made of certain products, and in the Latino community the food product which brought the real cash was the so-called tortilla. It doesn’t mean anything if you’re a vegetarian or carnivore, still by the end of the day everyone loves tortillas. It is like olive oil and cheese for the Italians, or sausages and beer for the Germans, and across Mexico, tortillas are a staple, so it’s no surprise that a number of tortillerias opened up around Chicago to provide this essential food to the community. The product is made out of ground corn, which is previously prepared in an electric corn mill, and later we make dough or masa for the tortillas. In fact, this is an ancient process that renders this variety of corn digestible, and makes its nutrients more available, and allows the corn to form into dough. After that balls of dough or masa are placed onto the conveyor belt and they are hand-cranked through the rollers of a press, and then dropped onto a propane-fired pan to cook and in the end, the product looks something like a pancake but thicker. In addition, early tortillas took hours to make but during the 1960s, small-scale tortilla-making machines which churned out hot, steaming tortillas every several seconds.



Tortilla


Tortilla machine


So the lucrative thing regarding the tortillas is quite obvious, since during the 1960’s, there were over 100,000 Chicagoans who ate the product on daily basis, and so for one to control at least a third from the whole business that meant the profits were quite huge. And we all know that the Mob is able to catch the scent of a huge pile of cash, from quite a long distance, just like the sharks, which can catch the smell of blood from few miles away. One of those “sharks” was Willie McGuire, with a plan to corner Chicago’s million dollar-a-year tortilla market. As I previously stated that McGuire was also involved in the labor rackets, especially the garbage business and unions, and with the help of those same skills, he would make a move on the tortilla business. The first thing which McGuire had done was the forming of some kind of independent teamsters union, which was about to organize all of the Hispanic bakers and also their drivers. Now, the connection between the Outfit and the Hispanic underworld was obviously formed with the help of the same vices which they controlled or shared, such as prostitution, narcotics, but above all the lucrative Bolita racket. Years ago, the Outfit managed to infiltrate the business through bombings, threats and murder, meaning the boys killed off more than few Hispanic gang leaders and gambling operators, thus creating their own control over the operation, obviously with the help of the Latino operators who decided to pay their tribute to the Mob.


So with the help of those same connections, McGuire managed to send word to some of the Hispanic bakers with an invitation to come to a meeting, regarding the tortilla business. But few months before the meeting took place, several bombing occurred, and also many vehicles, owned by the tortilla bakers, were being damaged. All of that violence was in fact the so-called “invitation” to the meeting, which occurred on May 26, 1964, during a dinner at the La Margaritas restaurant, located at 868 N. Wabash Av. On one side, there was McGuire, who represented himself as the union’s president, together with his union associates, and on the other were the confused and frightened tortilla bakers. The main guy who did the talking was obviously McGuire, who in turn told the bakers that his plan was to unionize their drivers and also to raise their wages and fringe benefits. In the end, McGuire offered the bakers a deal, in which he gave them a choice of having union drivers or to let one of his men to handle the distribution of their products, meaning the tortillas. The reality for the bakers was quite different since McGuire’s obvious plan was to compel the bakers to turn their distribution and transportation over to his new organization so later, he can control the whole market. You see, during those days the prices of the tortillas were at 10 to 12 cents a dozen in one pack, placed in all stores. So with control of the entire supply, a future distributor such as McGuire could regulate the prices as he chose.