Organized Crime

Charles "Cherry Nose" Gioe

Charles "Cherry Nose" Gioe was the victim of his own naivete. He was forthright before the Kefauver Commission and he fatally misread "Joey" Glimco, Chicago's top labor racketeer.

by Allan May

Charles "Cherry Nose" Gioe was a peripheral character in the Chicago Outfit who climbed the leadership ladder by simply living longer than his peers. In a 24-year mob career that came to an abrupt but predictably violent ending in 1954, Gioe stood out for being a mobster who didn't hide behind the Fifth Amendment when the Kefauver Commission came calling. His gullibility caught up with him when he misinterpreted "Joey" Glimco, Chicago's top labor racketeer.

It is not known how Gioe (pronounced Joy) came by his nickname. His biographical data commences on Feb. 17, 1930 when he and future Chicago mob boss Anthony "Joe Batters" Accardo were arrested for carrying concealed weapons. The two were released the same day and the case was never tried. William Roemer, in his book Accardo: The Genuine Godfather, tells us that Gioe was one of Accardo's "closest pals" during the early 1930s, along with Lawrence "Dago" Mangano who, like "Cherry Nose," rose to a high level in the Chicago Outfit but is best remembered for his own highly publicized murder.

Gaetano "Thomas" Gagliano
If the ingredients for being a successful mob boss are keeping a low profile, avoiding arrest, shunning media publicity, and above all else longevity, then no Mafia leader can match the ghost-like performance of Gaetano "Thomas" Gagliano.

by Allan May

As patriarch of what has evolved into the current-day Lucchese Family, Gagliano headed one of the original five New York crime families from September 1931 until his death in February 1951, a reign conducted in an unequaled and almost complete anonymity. In all my research into the history of the American Mafia, I have never seen a picture of Gagliano, nor come across a single obituary. No don before or after him ever slipped so unobtrusively through the cracks.

Charles "Lucky" Luciano

Lucky Luciano briefly reestablished himself as the "boss of bosses" at the mob's summit in Havana, but before he could consolidate his power the U.S. government forced the Cuban government – under threat of a medical-supplies boycott -- to deport him to Sicily. When he finally did make it back to New York in 1962, his remains were in a coffin.

by Allan May

The year 1946 was a busy one for Mafia chieftain Charles "Lucky" Luciano. He was released from prison after serving 10 years, deported and paroled to his native Sicily, and, within eight months, had made it all the way to Havana, Cuba as part of his plan to get back to the United States. This stopover, on the way to his intended final destination – New York City – would be the site of an important mob summit – the "Havana Conference" – and would bring the wrath of the U.S. government down on the tiny island. The Feds made it clear that having Luciano just 90 miles from the U.S. mainland was too close and demanded that Cuban officials send him back to Italy.

Frank "the Bomp" Bompensiero

"The Bomp" was the most feared hit man of his era. His specialty was murdering fellow mobsters. He got away with being an informant for 10 years until the FBI hung him out to dry. He would die the same way he had lived.

by Allan May

Before turning FBI informant in 1967, Frank "the Bomp" Bompensiero had been the most feared Mafia hit man in Southern California for more than 30 years. Killing fellow mobsters was his specialty. His reward from the Los Angeles Mafia was to be made boss of San Diego. When his long-time friend Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno found out in 1976 that the Bomp had turned informant, it took the Mafia more than six months to get the hit on Bompensiero executed. Later, after Fratianno had transformed himself into a media event by becoming an FBI informant himself, he said during a television documentary in 1991 that Bompensiero "had buried more bones than could be found in the brontosaurus room of the Museum of Natural History."

Bompensiero was born in Milwaukee in 1905. Not much is known about his early years. The first murders he was involved in for the mob turned out to be "messy" ones. In California during 1937, newly arrived Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel laid down the law and stated that all West Coast gamblers would have to share their profits 50-50 with him. The lone dissenter was Lew Brunemann, a gambler from Redondo Beach who had aspirations of controlling all the gambling in southern California.

Nicodemo Scarfo

"Little Nicky" Scarfo took over the Philadelphia Mafia in 1981 following the murders of long-time Philly boss Angelo Bruno and his successor, "Chicken Man" Testa, but it took a war with Harry Riccobene to consolidate his power.

by Allan May

Two decades of tranquility in the Philadelphia Crime Family came to an end on the night of March 21, 1980. Late that evening, as Mafia boss Angelo Bruno and his driver John Stanfa sat in a car outside Bruno’s row house in South Philly chatting and smoking cigarettes, a gunman stepped out of the shadows, leveled a shotgun behind the "Docile Don’s" right ear and pulled the trigger.

Johnny "The Fox" Torrio

A mentor to Al Capone, a confidante of Lucky Luciano, Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello, Torrio even managed to win the begrudging respect of law enforcement.

by Allan May

Some people think that Johnny "The Fox" Torrio retired from organized crime after he turned his crime empire over to a young Al Capone in 1925. Far from it. Many crime historians believe that Torrio’s most significant contributions to organized crime came years later, an opinion shared by Torrio’s contemporaries on the other side of the law. Virgil W. Peterson of the Chicago Crime Commission called Torrio, "an organizational genius." Elmer Irey, the famous head of the Treasury Department’s Intelligence Unit, called Torrio, "the father of modern American gangsterdom." Irey claimed, "He was the smartest and, I dare say, the best of all the hoodlums. And when I say best I am referring of course to talent. Not morals."

The events leading to Torrio’s exodus from Chicago began on May 19, 1924 when North Side Gang leader Dion O’Banion, somewhat of a fox himself, delivered Torrio into the hands of federal authorities. O’Banion, Torrio and Capone jointly owned the Sieben Brewery. When O’Banion was tipped off to an upcoming federal raid on the brewery he went to Torrio and Capone with a concocted story about retiring and heading west. He sold his share to the two and made plans to meet Torrio at the brewery the night of the raid.

When the federal raiders appeared, Torrio realized O’Banion had doublecrossed him. He also realized that because this was his second federal offense that he faced certain prison time if convicted. Torrio seethed in anger and plotted O’Banion’s death. On Nov. 10, 1924, O’Banion was gunned down in his own flower shop.

Lawrence "Dago" Mangano

He’s obscure now, but "Dago" Mangano was one rung away from the top of the Chicago Outfit’s ladder in 1944 when hit men pumped some 200 shotgun pellets and five .45 caliber bullets into him.

by Allan May

Lawrence "Dago" Mangano was listed by the Chicago Crime Commission as a public enemy as early as 1923. The day before his funeral in 1944 a Chicago Times article called him, "the immigrant who became ‘public enemy’ No. 4." In William Roemer’s book Accardo: The Genuine Godfather, he states, "In 1931 he (Tony Accardo) was arrested, again with a guy who would ascend the ladder and become one of the most famous names in the Chicago mob: Dago Lawrence Mangano." For someone who was rumored to be that close to the top leadership rung on the Chicago Outfit’s ladder, little is known of Mangano.

Mangano grew up in Chicago’s notorious "Patch" section, an area that also spawned "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, Frankie Pope, Albert Anselmi, and "Diamond Joe" Esposito. His first recorded prosecution was in 1912 for pandering. One source says he was arrested over 200 times, but never spent a day in prison, this being attributed to "bum raps" and "good lawyers." Another source states, "he had a long record of charges and imprisonments for vice, gambling, larceny, etc."