Allan May

Louis Fratto

"Cockeyed Louie" Fratto stared down three U.S. Senate committees -- Kefauver, McClellan, and Capehart -- by taking "the Fifth." His 30-year reign as the mob's lead man in Iowa netted him numerous civic honors, but not one day in jail.

by Allan May

According to Pulitzer Prize winning reporter Clark R. Mollenhoff, Louis Fratto, better known as Lew Farrell, "was not a master criminal. He was no more than a second or third operator from the lower ranks of the Capone mob in Chicago." This may have been Mollenhoff's opinion when the Capone gunman arrived in Des Moines, Iowa, in September 1939, but things would change.

As a cub reporter for the Des Moines Register during the early 1940s, Mollenhoff witnessed, "the tentacles of Lew Farrell reach into the Des Moines Police Department to promote his friends; into the Sheriff's Office for a gun permit; into the Prosecutor's Office to kill a criminal indictment; into the local courts to manipulate decisions on evidence; and into the state political arena."

Luigi Thomaso Giuseppe Fratto was born in Chicago on July 17, 1907. In Steven Fox's Blood and Power, the author discusses Fratto's nickname Lew Farrell, a name Fratto used most of his life, which allowed him an almost dual identity. Fox states, "As young boxers Vincent DeMora, Girolamo Santuccio, Joseph Aiuppa, and Louis Fratto took the ring names of Jack McGurn, Bobby Doyle, Joey O'Brien, and Lew Farrell, and when they graduated from boxing they kept the names."

Tom Pendergast

Other than Tammany Hall in New York, the Pendergast machine in Kansas City was the longest-running and most thorough melding of vice and politics ever seen in the United States. So complete was the marriage of underworld to political world, that Tom Pendergast – the son of Irish immigrants and unabashedly known as "Boss Tom" to everyone in town – controlled not just the political machine that bore his family name but the local Mafia as well.

by Allan May

Before the Pendergast dynasty took root, the early Mafia influence in Kansas City involved Black Hand extortion, which, as in other cities, was carried out by Italians against Italians. This activity came to an end with the onset of Prohibition in 1920. The Mafia faction under control of the DiGiovanni and Balestrere gang then focused on bootlegging.

Once the Pendergast machine got rolling, the other Italian hoods that rose to prominence did so under the Pendergast banner. The underworld bosses, beginning with Johnny Lazia in the late 1920s right through the death of Charles Binaggio in 1950, were different from their counterparts in other cities because of their close ties to the Kansas City political scene. It would not be until the emergence of the iron-fisted Nick Civella in the mid-1950s – after Boss Tom had been dead 10 years – that Kansas City would take on a more traditional organized crime structure.

James Capone

Imagine having the most notorious gangster in U.S. history for a brother. James, the oldest of the seven Capone brothers, did everything he could, including changing his name and becoming a Prohibition agent, to distance himself. He didn't quite make it. The others lived their lives in Big Al's orbit.

by Allan May

Gabriel and Teresa Capone, like many Italians, produced a large family; seven boys in a row, followed by two daughters. Sons James and Ralph were born in Italy, Frank, Alphonse (on Jan. 17, 1899), John, Albert and Matt were born in America. The daughters were Rose and Mafalda.

Wilfred "Willie Boy" Johnson

For 15 years "Willie Boy" Johnson ratted out his mentor John Gotti and other major New York crime family figures to save his own skin and got away with it. And then an assistant U.S. attorney, in a turf battle with the FBI, deliberately blew his cover – and his chances for staying alive.

by Allan May

Wilfred "Willie Boy" Johnson was a mob guy that other wise guys loved to have around. He was a "gofer" who would do anything he was told in order to curry favor with the men he idolized. By the time he was in his mid-40s, his allegiance had already cost him 18 years in prison for assault, robbery, and murder. A long-time friend of John Gotti, Johnson served the Dapper Don in many capacities including driver, bodyguard, and gunman.

Willie Boy would come to have another moniker that Gotti didn't know about. To the FBI he was "Wahoo," a star mob informant with impeccable information.

Anthony D'Andrea

The political feud between Anthony D'Andrea, the head of Unione Siciliana, and John Powers, the entrenched alderman of Chicago's 19^th Ward, was a fight to the death.

by Allan May

The Unione Siciliana was as mysterious an organization as the Mafia, the Black Hand and the Camorra. In some circles there is still a belief that the Black Hand, known in Italy as Mano Nera, became the Mafia and in turn the Unione Siciliana.

In 1962, Italian historian and author Giovanni Schiavo wrote the hard-edged book, The Truth About The Mafia and Organized Crime in America. Schiavo was a prolific author on Italian/American history. His writings spanned four decades. His 1962 publication, however, seemed to have come right from the public relations department of Mafia, Inc.

Mike Merlo

As president of Unione Siciliana, Mike Merlo was able to keep the peace among Chicago's various underworld factions during the early years of Prohibition. When he died of cancer in 1924, Al Capone set his sights on taking over control of the Unione and its fabulously profitable "alky" stills. First Angelo Genna and then Samoots Amatuna were murdered -- each within six months of taking over the Unione – paving the way for Capone's man to become president.

by Allan May

'In Chicago, the 'Unione' was in the early period of Prohibition engaged in a kind of piecework, sweatshop, alcohol-distilling enterprise. Hundreds of Sicilian immigrants were equipped with stills, and they sold their alcohol to the central organization.'

--Theft of the Nation, by Donald R. Cressey:

When Mike Merlo, the president of the Unione Siciliana died of cancer in late 1924, Chicago's Little Italy turned into a battlefield of competing bootleggers. At stake were the immense profits Prohibition had unleashed. His death would trigger a series of events that would change the face of Chicago's underworld, paving the way for Al Capone to gain control of the coveted Unione.

Ironically, Merlo's death did not create front-page headlines. In fact, below is the entire article from the back pages of the Chicago Daily Tribune covering his death:

MICHAEL MERLO, LEADER OF CHICAGO ITALIANS, IS DEAD
Michael Merlo, 44, 433 Diversy Parkway, president of the Union Sicilian society and a leader of Chicago Italians in the Democratic party, died yesterday at his home of a complication of diseases. Mr. Merlo is survived by his wife and six children.

This was hardly a fitting accolade to Merlo's prestige in the community, especially in view of the $100,000 in floral tributes spent on his funeral.