Word: giancana
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...many as 15 state legislators. Known as the West Side Bloc, a newspaper euphemism to avoid libel suits, the Mob opposes anticrime bills in the state legislature, forces gangsters onto the payroll of Mayor Richard Daley's Chicago machine, and corrupts the city police department. Salvatore ("Momo") Giancana may be hiding in Mexico, but his stand-ins, Tony ("Big Tuna") Accardo and Paul ("The Waiter") DeLucia still pack influence. Example: When a Justice Department report charged 29 Chicago policemen with being grafters, Daley pooh-poohed the allegations, took no action. Some of the 29 were subsequently promoted...
...Beckley has a kind of associate status, in which favors and profits flow back and forth. As in certain other areas, LCN is content to get a cut while leaving active management to a relative outsider. Another big layoff man, Sam DiPiazzo, once told of an attempt by Giancana's Chicago family to extort 50% of his six-figure take. As DiPiazzo related the story, he was forced to go before a committee in Chicago, where he haggled the bite down to a mere $35 a day. His big bargaining point was that he cooperated with "the Little Man," Louisiana...
...July 20, somebody fired a shotgun at the Tucson home of Anthony Tisci, a son-in-law of Sam ("Momo") Giancana, commander of the 300-man Cosa Nostra army in Chicago. Then dynamite destroyed a shed at the Grace Ranch, the property of Pete Licavoli, aging chieftain of Detroit's Mafia. On the night of July 22, a bomb thrown onto Joe Bananas' patio blew out part of a wall. All the buildings that have been attacked belong to Bonanno henchmen and acquaintances...
Lippy, Unlamented Mobster. His sea of troubles washed over the hood last May, when U.S. Attorney Edward Hanrahan haled him before a grand jury and craftily granted him immunity from prosecution for any crimes to which he might admit complicity. But Giancana, the syndicate's top man in Chicago, still refused to talk. Since he was thus in no danger of incriminating himself, a federal judge ruled that Sam was in contempt of court. Last week the U.S. Supreme Court upheld that ruling, in effect consigning him to his cell for as long as he chooses...
Meanwhile, the mob was already split over who should succeed Silent Sam Giancana as head of Chicago's hoodlumhood. One night last week two groups of aspiring chieftains reportedly held simultaneous meetings. One was attended by such upstanding citizens as Paul ("The Waiter") Ricca, Tony ("Big Tuna") Accardo and Jackie ("The Lackey") Cerone. The other gathering was graced by Sam ("Teetz") Battaglia, Felix ("Milwaukee Phil") Alderisio and Fiori ("Fifi") Buccieri. The betting was that several of the syndicate's leading lights would soon resort to silence-one way or another...