Get FBI email alerts According to the FBI, Inendino was carried as an informant of the Chicago office under symbol number 6931-C from March 1965 until May 1969 and from May 1974 until March 1975. These votes can be negotiated with various groups who control the Irish votes and others. James sentenced her to a very short term of supervision. No one was ever charged, which is how most of the 1,100 gangland murders in Chicago have gone over the decades. Today I would like to celebrate the life of my good friend, the late Judge James Zafiratos. He says the Outfit is "involved in the wholesaling and to some extent importation" of cocaine and heroin that gangs sell on city streets. Their current boss is Salvatore "Solly" DeLaurentis. Although mob affiliation with casinos has never really gone away, in the 1970s legitimate owners started buying up casinos in Vegas, and by the end of the 1980s the Outfit was largely out of Vegas. Salvatore "Solly D" DeLaurentis is the best known, un-incarcerated Chicago mob figure today-and considered "consigliere" to the Outfit. But now, at age 68, the Outfit enforcer is said to have a debilitating back injury from a high-speed, rear-end collision that occurred after he was released from federal prison. As I wrap up these stories about my good friend, I want to disabuse anyone from thinking that Zafiratos was a judge who conveniently found defendants not guilty because of who they were associated with, or related to, or because of other personal feelings he may have had. Matassa, 68, is a reputed made member of the Chicago Outfit who has been associated with some of the mobs most notorious figures, including former reputed boss James Jimmy Light Marcello. Dorfman was dead in the parking lot of the Hyatt, the infamous purple-colored hotel which has since been demolished. The Family Secrets case, which began in 1999 and resulted in the indictment of 14 subjects in 2005 for racketeering and murder, dealt a crushing blow to the Chicago mob. An example of Romies direct and/or indirect influence over Italian and Greek American Cook County Judges, who were full judges (not associate judges), was cajoling them to vote certain ways in judicial elections. Burnstein Op-Ed: Reports Of Chicago Mob Legend Jimmy I's Role As Informant Missing Context, Rewarding FBI For Hypocrisy, Bad Faith Chicago Mafia Don Solly D DeLaurentis Not Present At Underboss Jimmy I's Wake, As Windy City Underworld Mourns Loss Pagan's MC Parties In The Ozarks As Part Of Expansion Agenda, Recruiting Rally In Branson, Missouri Runs Smoothly GR SOURCES: Hells Angels Want . Matassas name surfaced in the historic Operation Family Secrets mob trial in 2007 when Outfit turncoat Nicholas Calabrese testified Matassa was a longtime member of the Outfits notorious Rush Street crew who reported to capo Vince Solano. The woman explained that it was her husbands birthday and that she didnt have any money to buy him a gift. SEE ALSO | Chicago mob enforcer wants 2nd dose of mercy from federal judge. As the Chicago mob has shrunk in power and presence, the FBI has shifted resources away from pursuing traditional organized crime. It is organized under a variety of crews that engage in various . The once-secret FBI files cover mostly the 1970s and 1980s, when DiFronzo was rising in power but hadnt yet reached the pinnacle of organized crime in Chicago. By the early 1970s, Romie was the Outfits point man in these matters, a state of affairs that would persist until the mid-1990s. These days ex-con DeLaurentis claims he has gone clean--literally. This announcement complements a U.S. Department of Justice criminal indictment, which charged Archaga Caras in 2021 with conspiracy to violate the racketeering laws of the United Sttes, conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States, and possession of a machine gun in relation to a drug-trafficking crime. "Now it's treated as some undeniable fact by a lot of people," he said. Binder, a retired University of Illinois-Chicago professor and Ph.D., has studied the 1960 election and assertions that Outfit vote fraud carried the day for John Kennedy. In his active years, Romie had personal friendships and/or serious acquaintanceships with eight Chicago mayors. 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After doing 12 years for stealing $10 million in a Ponzi scheme, he said he was a . Copyright 2023 WLS-TV. Over the years the Outfit has learned that killing people brings too much heat from law enforcement. James was aware of how confusing his name could be to pronounce, and he addressed this in an amusing anecdote. In this artist sketch, alleged mobsters Joey "the Clown" Lombardo, from left, Frank Calabrese Sr. and James Marcello sit in court on June 19, 2007, as jury selection begins in the city's biggest organized crime trial in years. That year the FBI was just starting to secretly listen to conversations in his office, where they had hidden eavesdropping devices as part of a new investigation. The lions share of the dues that were collected $40 per paycheck for each worker went to pay Matassas salary, Kennelly noted. Instead, they take a piece of his business, and then, over time, exercise more and more control over the company. "He's old too" said Lopez, who proudly carries his own nickname "The Shark." He gave his Social Security number and then he lied and said he worked some places when he didnt., But Assistant U.S. Attorney Niranjan Emani noted that Marcello, whod claimed to have learned his lesson when facing sentencing in the Family Secrets case, instead just found a new way to steal.. Their unique education was eventually passed down to the now-retired Illinois State Senator Jimmy DeLeo by Romie personally, primarily during the early 1990s. By submitting your email to receive this newsletter, you agree to our. The guys hanging on to the carpet like a cat, one union member told the Tribune at the time. The Chicago Outfit has a long and bloody history of retribution for the screw-ups of its foot soldiers and bosses, from garroting to gunshots. New York gets most of the attention regarding LCN, McNamara said, but historically, going back to the days of Al Capone, Chicago LCN has always been a player, particularly in places like Las Vegas.. As youngsters, Romie lived on the 900 block of Chicagos West Polk Street, and James lived near Blue Island Avenue and Roosevelt Road, not too far from Romie. I, along with the Chicago legal community and all those James knew throughout his life, can attest that he took his responsibility to the law with the utmost seriousness. Hes just not cooperating at all. The former secretary-treasurer of the Independent Union of Amalgamated Workers Local 711, Matassa, of Arlington Heights, pleaded guilty in February to an embezzlement charge alleging he put his wife on the unions payroll in a do-nothing job for four years while lowering his own salary to qualify for early retirement benefits from the Social Security Administrations Old-Age Insurance program. He saw the ability to make a quick, cheap, easy buck and he went with it, Emani said. The movie states: "it was easy for the mob to help Joe Kennedy get his son elected president. These details should help my steady readers understand why Romie only reported to the very top level within the Chicago Outfit. Their killings were fictionally portrayed in the Martin Scorcese movie Casino.. emailStay Connected The judge is going to ask is there a threat that would be posed to the community? One file, from 1982, showed cars parked near the deli, including one that was registered to D&P Construction Co., Inc. a waste-hauling business that the FBI contended was secretly controlled by DiFronzo and his brother Peter DiFronzo, who died at 87 in 2020. Binder and other mob experts agree no Kennedy would have enlisted the mob's help in that kind of deal because Chicago organized crime was a top target of JFK's, and especially his brother, soon-to-be attorney general Robert Kennedy. He doesnt talk to those people anymore, your honor.. CHICAGO (WLS) -- For decades, Chicago mob boss Marco D'Amico was dogged by a bad mugshot depicting him with Coke-bottle glasses that magnified a pair of bulging eyeballs. ", During that television interview conducted at the federal lock-up in Chicago, DeLaurentis said he was "a bricklayer by trade" and a part-time gambler. The Chicago Outfit Today Lesson Summary The Chicago Mob The Chicago Mob can be traced back to when Italian immigrants made their way to Chicago; this branch of the American Mafia comprises. "Did he get jammed up on something related to current stuff and did he agree to therefore cooperate with them? We will no longer respond to comments left on the ANP site. 1 ranking for business relocations, expansion, AMC movie theater popcorn coming to Walmart in new at-home snack line, Wild Things 2023 Conference: Glorious gamut from poaching in forest preserves to queer ecology, Dear Abby: He likes wearing lingerie, wishes wife accepted it. Clearly, Romies substantial reach was not limited to the City of Chicago. Unlike New Yorks infamous Five Families, the Chicago mob consists of only one family, often referred to as the Outfit. It is organized under a variety of crews that engage in various criminal activities. In fact, in a recent sentencing memo asking Kennelly to impose about a two-year prison term, prosecutors said that Matassa had no criminal history and a seemingly normal upbringing.. Mafia Report: Chicago Outfit Addendum Nine, Mafia Report: Chicago Outfit Addendum One, Mafia Report: Chicago Outfit Addendum Two, Mafia Report: Chicago Outfit Addendum Three, Mafia Report: Chicago Outfit Addendum Four, Mafia Report: Chicago Outfit Addendum Five, Mafia Report: Chicago Outfit Addendum Six, Mafia Report: Chicago Outfit Addendum Seven, Mafia Report: Chicago Outfit Addendum Eight, Mafia Report: Chicago Outfit Addendum X, Mafia Report: Chicago Outfit Addendum XII, Mafia Report: Chicago Outfit Addendum XI. Our goal now, McNamara said, is to keep them from gaining strength again. While smiling at the Judge, Daley said, If you ever need anything. James graciously accepted the mayors shillelagh and thanked him for it. That accident -- apparently now in litigation -- is one of the things prompting him to ask a federal judge in Chicago for mercy again. Instead, the state license went to one in nearby Des Plaines. "He's a senior citizen, Chuck, I mean, aren't we all? In early 2016, just months after having his supervised release terminated, Marcello was brought into the Social Security scheme by his longtime friend Walter Paredes, of Rosemont, who was recruiting people on behalf of imprisoned serial con man George Ruth, court records show. Jala Taylor, 24, of Tifton, pleaded guilty to distribution of methamphetamine on Oct. 11, 2022, and was sentenced to serve 24 months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release on Jan. 27. The Chicago Outfit runs the Las Vegas casinos and use the cash flow for laundering their criminal profits. The hoodlum's sharp eyesight was evident during one legendary encounter he had with police in 1983. Marcello also claimed to have worked for Lehman Brothers, the American global financial services firm whose collapse in 2008 helped trigger a global financial crisis. Among the companies Marcello claimed to have worked for was the Peanut Corporation of America, a peanut-processing business that collapsed amid one of the largest lethal foodborne contamination scandals in U.S. history. A photocopy of an old surveillance photo contained within the FBI files of late Chicago mob boss John DiFronzo. Two Indiana state troopers kneel at the edge of a shallow grave in a cornfield where the bodies of reputed mobsters Anthony Spilotro and Michael Spilotro were found in 1986. Despite photo. A Chicago mob figure convicted years ago in the landmark Operation Family Secrets investigation was sentenced Monday to four months in federal prison for participating in a Social Security scam. (Verna Sadock/AP). His nickname, "the Mover," was an apparent reference to his well-honed skills at getting things done, whether those "things" involved collecting on juice loans or convincing Outfit-connected business owners that it would be in their best interest to pay the mob's so-called "street tax," a fee for permission to operate. That is the gurgling sound made by a decomposing corpse in a car trunk. One day while on the bench, an elderly lady appeared in Zafiratos courtroom. Rafon Carithers, aka Tweed, 34, of Tifton, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine on May 19, 2022, and faces a maximum sentence of 40 years of imprisonment to be followed by at least four years of supervised release and a $5,000,000 fine; Jehmeil Carmichael, 35, of Tifton, pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years of imprisonment to be followed by at least three years of supervised release and a $1,000,000 fine; McKevor Mulkey aka Chevy, 32, of Tifton, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances on April 19, 2022, and faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment to be followed by at least five years of supervised release and a $10,000,000 fine; Rishaun Richardson, 26, of Tifton, pleaded guilty to possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute on Aug. 23, 2022, and faces a maximum sentence of 20 years of imprisonment to be followed by at least three years of supervised release and a $1,000,000 fine; and. 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