Joe Aiello
Encyclopedia
Giuseppe "Joe" Aiello was a Chicago bootlegger during the 1920s and early 1930s who had a longstanding, bloody feud with Chicago Outfit
boss Al Capone
.
, Sicily
, Aiello was one of 10 boys in his family. In July 1907, Aiello immigrated to the United States to join family members already residing there.
The Aiello family set up a number of businesses in both New York and Chicago
. They became importers of groceries such as olive oil
, cheese
s, and sugar
. Aiello was the co-owner of a cheese importing business alongside a fellow Sicilian, Anthony "The Scourge" Lombardo
. The Aiellos also opened a bakery and a confectionery shop. With the enactment of Prohibition
and startup of bootlegging, the sugar import business brought the family into contact with organized crime. In Chicago, the Aiello family began supplying sugar to gangs illegally distilling spirits, a territory previously occupied by the Genna family
, a Sicilian-American criminal gang. He is an ancestor of Bonanno crime family
mobster Antonino Aiello and Bonanno crime family street soldier Anthony Aiello
.
, a bootlegger who used his position at the Unione to mediate disputes among the Chicago gangs. The death of Merlo in November 1924 reignited Capone's ambitions to control the Unione. Lombardo, a Capone ally, became the new head of the Chicago branch. Lombardo's success angered Aiello.
, $35,000 to put prussic acid in Capone's soup. Instead, Esposito exposed the plot to Capone. During the summer and autumn of 1927, a number of hitmen hired by Aiello to murder Capone were themselves slain.
Capone heard of the arrest, and dispatched a large team of gunmen to stand guard outside the station, ostensibly to await Aiello's release. Three Capone gunmen, including Louis "Little New York" Campagna
, then got themselves arrested near the front of the station, probably intentionally, for having been placed in the cell next door to Aiello they duly informed Joe that he was as good as dead. Pleading for 15 days' grace to sort out his affairs and leave the city, Aiello was given police escort out of the building and duly appeared to do just that, disappearing to New Jersey with some of his brothers.
, an enemy of Capone from the North Side Gang
of Chicago. Two of Moran's hitmen, the brothers Frank "Tight Lips" Gusenberg
and Peter Gusenberg
, were soon given the task of removing Antonio Lombardo, which they succeeded in doing on a busy Chicago street on September 7, 1928. Though never arrested for the crime, they appear to remain the chief suspects to this day, in that as well as the murder of Lombardo's successor as head of the Unione Siciliana, Pasqualino "Patsy" Lolordo
.
Still believing he had a chance to take the throne himself, and apparently ignoring the fact that it appeared to be a somewhat dangerous position to occupy, Aiello was due to attend a mob meeting at the Statler Hotel
in Cleveland, at which the Unione Siciliana leadership would be discussed. Allegedly, Aiello elected instead to inform the police of the meeting, leading to the arrest of 23 apparent mob figures, including such notables as Joe Profaci
and Joseph Magliocco
.
The murder of Lolordo was the next major event in the battle for control of the Chicago mob, and again Aiello was believed to have masterminded the killing, as with that of Lombardo. Capone had long ago had enough of Aiello and Moran, and retaliated with the St. Valentine's Day Massacre
, a hit that wiped out the Gusenberg brothers and their regular partner-in-crime James Clark, two other Moran men but not Moran himself. The shooting decimated Moran's forces (he was effectively removed as a threat from this point) and removed almost all support Aiello had banked on in recent months. But the massacre had another side to it as well. True, Moran's forces had been weakened, but he himself survived the attack. With the remainder of his gang, he managed to keep his territory through the end of prohibition and the early thirties. The massacre did one thing that Capone did not expect - bring down the big man himself. After the massacre, the government went after Capone with everything they had.They were able to get him on tax evasion charges and ship him off to prison, effectively ending his reign as boss.
and John Scalise
, as well as the new head of the Unione, Joseph "Hop Toad" Giunta, trying to convince them that they would all be winners were Capone wiped out, with Aiello himself taking over the North Side of Chicago following the departure of Bugs Moran. But in April 1929, getting wind of the plot, Capone beat them to the punch and had the three men killed (the scene famed by a number of movies in which Capone murders associates with a baseball bat at a banquet is based on the killings of Anselmi and Scalise).
Remarkably, Aiello then finally got his chance to head up the Unione Siciliana himself. A conference in Atlantic City of numerous mob bosses saw Aiello's promotion as the only way to restore order in Chicago, and Capone apparently accepted this, at least temporarily.
Aiello's time in charge coincided with Capone serving a year in prison for carrying a concealed weapon - apparently at the behest of other mob leaders who felt his profile had got too high and he needed to be away for a short time while things blew over. Aiello, ever a man to bring misery onto himself, duly saw this as an opportunity to scheme yet again for Capone's permanent retirement.
When Frank J. Loesch
, chairman of the Chicago Crime Commission
compiled his "Public Enemies
" list of the top 28 people he saw as corrupting Chicago in April 1930, Capone headed the list, while Aiello was ranked in seventh place. The list was widely published gaining Aiello a measure of nationwide notoriety.
On October 23, Aiello was making plans to permanently leave Chicago, allegedly to move to Mexico. Upon leaving Prestogiacomo's building, a gunman in a second-floor window across the street started firing at Aiello with a submachine gun. Aiello toppled off the building steps and moved around the corner, out of the line of fire. Unfortunately for Aiello, he stumbled into the range of a second submachine gun nest on the third floor of another apartment block. Aiello was taken to Garfield Park Hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival. The coroner eventually removed 59 bullets from his body.
Before eventually being placed in Riverside Cemetery
in Rochester, New York
, Aiello was originally buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery
in Chicago on October 29, 1930, close to former friend and foe Lombardo. Aiello's funeral lacked the show of many organized crime funerals of the age; the cars filled with mourners and police on motorcycles who started the trip from Aiello's home disappeared before reaching the cemetery. Besides the hearse, all that remained of the procession was a car containing Aiello's widow Catherine and three Ford Sedans containing flowers.
Chicago Outfit
The Chicago Outfit, also known as the Chicago Syndicate or Chicago Mob and sometimes shortened to simply the Outfit, is a crime syndicate based in Chicago, Illinois, USA...
boss Al Capone
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...
.
Arrival in America
Born in BagheriaBagheria
Bagheria is a town and comune in the Province of Palermo in Sicily, Italy.-Etymology:According to some sources, the name Bagheria originates from the Phoenician term Bayharia meaning "land that descends toward the sea." Other sources claim that it derives from the Arabic Bāb al-Gerib, or "windy...
, Sicily
Sicily
Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...
, Aiello was one of 10 boys in his family. In July 1907, Aiello immigrated to the United States to join family members already residing there.
The Aiello family set up a number of businesses in both New York and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
. They became importers of groceries such as olive oil
Olive oil
Olive oil is an oil obtained from the olive , a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin. It is commonly used in cooking, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and soaps and as a fuel for traditional oil lamps...
, cheese
Cheese
Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....
s, and sugar
Sugar
Sugar is a class of edible crystalline carbohydrates, mainly sucrose, lactose, and fructose, characterized by a sweet flavor.Sucrose in its refined form primarily comes from sugar cane and sugar beet...
. Aiello was the co-owner of a cheese importing business alongside a fellow Sicilian, Anthony "The Scourge" Lombardo
Antonio Lombardo
Antonio "The Scourge" Lombardo was an American mobster. He was advisor, or consigliere, to Al Capone and later President of the Unione Siciliana.-Biography:...
. The Aiellos also opened a bakery and a confectionery shop. With the enactment of Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
and startup of bootlegging, the sugar import business brought the family into contact with organized crime. In Chicago, the Aiello family began supplying sugar to gangs illegally distilling spirits, a territory previously occupied by the Genna family
Genna (crime family)
Chicago's Sicilian Mafia, also known as the Genna crime family, was a Prohibition era crime family in Chicago, United States. From 1921 to 1925, the family was headed by the Genna brothers, known as the Terrible Gennas. The Sicilians operated from Chicago's Little Italy and maintained control over...
, a Sicilian-American criminal gang. He is an ancestor of Bonanno crime family
Bonanno crime family
The Bonanno crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia ....
mobster Antonino Aiello and Bonanno crime family street soldier Anthony Aiello
Anthony Aiello
Anthony Aiello is an American professional ice hockey player who is currently playing for the Oklahoma City Barons in the American Hockey League . He was selected by the Minnesota Wild in the 5th round of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft.-External links:...
.
Unione Siciliana
At that time, a benevolent society called the Unione Siciliana was set up to help Sicilian immigrants settle in the United States. While the Unione was originally intended for legitimate charitaeble purposes, it was soon taken over and corrupted by Sicilian gang members. Unione officials soon began demanding "protection money", or tributes, from its members, promising retribution to those who refused to pay. Al Capone wanted to control the Unione, but he was barred from even joining it because his background was Neopolitan, not Sicilian. The head of the Chicago branch of the Unione was Sicilian Mike MerloMike Merlo
Mike Merlo was a Chicago political figure associated in his later years with the Johnny Torrio-Al Capone organization. As head of the Unione Siciliana fraternal group, Merlo wielded considerable influence both in Chicago's Democratic Party politics and also within Chicago's criminal underworld...
, a bootlegger who used his position at the Unione to mediate disputes among the Chicago gangs. The death of Merlo in November 1924 reignited Capone's ambitions to control the Unione. Lombardo, a Capone ally, became the new head of the Chicago branch. Lombardo's success angered Aiello.
Feud with Lombardo and Capone
In addition to the Unione Siciliana position, Aiello was also angry at Lombardo due to a long disagreement over control of their cheese importing business. At this stage, Aiello decided to eliminate both Lombardo and Capone. Aiello tried without success to assassinate Capone. On one occasion, Aiello stationed Angelo LaMantia with a submachine gun across the street from Capone's favorite cigar shop, but he was spotted in time. On another occasion, Aiello offered the chef of Capone's favorite restaurant, Joseph "Diamond Joe" EspositoJoseph Esposito (mobster)
Joseph "Diamond Joe" Esposito was a Prohibition-era Chicago politician who was involved in bootlegging, extortion, prostitution and labor racketeering with the Genna Brothers...
, $35,000 to put prussic acid in Capone's soup. Instead, Esposito exposed the plot to Capone. During the summer and autumn of 1927, a number of hitmen hired by Aiello to murder Capone were themselves slain.
Police custody
Police raided a number of addresses and arrested numerous Aiello associates, including Milwaukee gunman Angelo LaMantia, who confessed that he had been hired by Aiello to kill Capone and Lombardo. Aiello himself was then picked up by police and taken to South Clark Street police station.Capone heard of the arrest, and dispatched a large team of gunmen to stand guard outside the station, ostensibly to await Aiello's release. Three Capone gunmen, including Louis "Little New York" Campagna
Louis Campagna
Louis "Little New York" Campagna was a New York mobster and a high ranking member of the Chicago Outfit for over three decades.-Early years:...
, then got themselves arrested near the front of the station, probably intentionally, for having been placed in the cell next door to Aiello they duly informed Joe that he was as good as dead. Pleading for 15 days' grace to sort out his affairs and leave the city, Aiello was given police escort out of the building and duly appeared to do just that, disappearing to New Jersey with some of his brothers.
Allies with Bugs Moran
Aiello had recently taken up an alliance of sorts with George "Bugs" MoranBugs Moran
George Clarence Moran , better known by the alias "Bugs" Moran, was a Chicago Prohibition-era gangster born in St. Paul, Minnesota. Moran, of Irish and Polish descent, moved to the north side of Chicago when he was 19, where he became affiliated with several gangs...
, an enemy of Capone from the North Side Gang
North Side Gang
The North Side family Gang, also known as the North Side Mob, was the dominant Irish-American criminal organization within Chicago during the Prohibition era from the early to late 1920s and principal rival of the Johnny Torrio-Al Capone organization, later known as the Chicago Outfit.- Early...
of Chicago. Two of Moran's hitmen, the brothers Frank "Tight Lips" Gusenberg
Frank Gusenberg
Frank Gusenberg was a German-American contract killer and a victim of the Saint Valentine's Day massacre in Chicago, Illinois.-Early life:...
and Peter Gusenberg
Peter Gusenberg
Peter Gusenberg a.k.a. "Goosey" , and his brother Frank were German-American contract killers and members of Chicago's North Side Gang, the main rival to the Chicago Outfit. Peter Gusenberg participated in an infamous attack on Al Capone during a vicious gang war.-Early life:Peter Gusenberg Jr...
, were soon given the task of removing Antonio Lombardo, which they succeeded in doing on a busy Chicago street on September 7, 1928. Though never arrested for the crime, they appear to remain the chief suspects to this day, in that as well as the murder of Lombardo's successor as head of the Unione Siciliana, Pasqualino "Patsy" Lolordo
Pasqualino Lolordo
Pasqualino "Patsy" Lolordo was an organized crime figure and head of the Chicago chapter of the Unione Siciliana a "front" organization for the Mafia, of which Lolordo was considered one of the most powerful capos during the late 1920s.Lolordo succeeded Antonio "The Scourge" Lombardo, an...
.
Still believing he had a chance to take the throne himself, and apparently ignoring the fact that it appeared to be a somewhat dangerous position to occupy, Aiello was due to attend a mob meeting at the Statler Hotel
Statler Hotel
The Statler Hotel company was one of the United States' early chains of hotels catering to traveling businessmen and tourists. It was founded by Ellsworth Milton Statler in Buffalo, New York.- Early ventures :...
in Cleveland, at which the Unione Siciliana leadership would be discussed. Allegedly, Aiello elected instead to inform the police of the meeting, leading to the arrest of 23 apparent mob figures, including such notables as Joe Profaci
Joe Profaci
Giuseppe "Joe" Profaci was a New York La Cosa Nostra boss who was the founder of what is today known as the Colombo crime family. Established in 1928, this was the last of the Five Families to be organized. He was the family's boss for over three decades.-Family ties:Profaci's sons were Frank...
and Joseph Magliocco
Joseph Magliocco
Joseph Magliocco, also known as "Joe Malayak" was a New York mobster and the boss of the Profaci crime family from 1962 to 1963...
.
The murder of Lolordo was the next major event in the battle for control of the Chicago mob, and again Aiello was believed to have masterminded the killing, as with that of Lombardo. Capone had long ago had enough of Aiello and Moran, and retaliated with the St. Valentine's Day Massacre
St. Valentine's Day massacre
The Saint Valentine's Day massacre is the name given to the 1929 murder of 7 mob associates as part of a prohibition era conflict between two powerful criminal gangs in Chicago: the South Side Italian gang led by Al Capone and the North Side Irish gang led by Bugs Moran. Former members of the...
, a hit that wiped out the Gusenberg brothers and their regular partner-in-crime James Clark, two other Moran men but not Moran himself. The shooting decimated Moran's forces (he was effectively removed as a threat from this point) and removed almost all support Aiello had banked on in recent months. But the massacre had another side to it as well. True, Moran's forces had been weakened, but he himself survived the attack. With the remainder of his gang, he managed to keep his territory through the end of prohibition and the early thirties. The massacre did one thing that Capone did not expect - bring down the big man himself. After the massacre, the government went after Capone with everything they had.They were able to get him on tax evasion charges and ship him off to prison, effectively ending his reign as boss.
Made President of Unione Siciliana
Aiello then turned to Capone killers Albert AnselmiAlbert Anselmi
Albert Anselmi was a Chicago mobster who became a hitman during the Prohibition era for the Chicago Outfit criminal organization....
and John Scalise
John Scalise
John Scalise was an American organized crime figure of the early 20th century and, with partner Albert Anselmi, was one of the Chicago Outfit's most successful hitmen in Prohibition-era Chicago.-Early life:...
, as well as the new head of the Unione, Joseph "Hop Toad" Giunta, trying to convince them that they would all be winners were Capone wiped out, with Aiello himself taking over the North Side of Chicago following the departure of Bugs Moran. But in April 1929, getting wind of the plot, Capone beat them to the punch and had the three men killed (the scene famed by a number of movies in which Capone murders associates with a baseball bat at a banquet is based on the killings of Anselmi and Scalise).
Remarkably, Aiello then finally got his chance to head up the Unione Siciliana himself. A conference in Atlantic City of numerous mob bosses saw Aiello's promotion as the only way to restore order in Chicago, and Capone apparently accepted this, at least temporarily.
Aiello's time in charge coincided with Capone serving a year in prison for carrying a concealed weapon - apparently at the behest of other mob leaders who felt his profile had got too high and he needed to be away for a short time while things blew over. Aiello, ever a man to bring misery onto himself, duly saw this as an opportunity to scheme yet again for Capone's permanent retirement.
When Frank J. Loesch
Frank J. Loesch
Frank Joseph Loesch was a prominent Chicago attorney, reformer and a founder of the Chicago Crime Commission which attempted to combat the widespread corruption and organized crime related violence during Prohibition....
, chairman of the Chicago Crime Commission
Chicago Crime Commission
The Chicago Crime Commission is an independent, non-partisan civic watchdog organization of business leaders dedicated to educating the public about the dangers of organized criminal activity, especially organized crime, street gangs and the tools of their trade: drugs, guns, public corruption,...
compiled his "Public Enemies
Public enemy (term)
Public enemy is a term which was first widely used in the United States in the 1930s to describe individuals whose activities were seen as criminal and extremely damaging to society, though in fact the term had been used for centuries to describe pirates and similar outlaws.The modern use of term...
" list of the top 28 people he saw as corrupting Chicago in April 1930, Capone headed the list, while Aiello was ranked in seventh place. The list was widely published gaining Aiello a measure of nationwide notoriety.
Murder
The rumours and gossip eventually got back to Capone, who resolved to finally eliminate Aiello. Several Aiello associates were wiped out during 1930, including Mika Bizzarro, Peter "Ashcan" Inserio and Aiello bodyguard Jack Costa. Meanwhile, Aiello hid in the Chicago house of Unione Siciliana treasurer Pasquale "Presto" Prestogiacomo.On October 23, Aiello was making plans to permanently leave Chicago, allegedly to move to Mexico. Upon leaving Prestogiacomo's building, a gunman in a second-floor window across the street started firing at Aiello with a submachine gun. Aiello toppled off the building steps and moved around the corner, out of the line of fire. Unfortunately for Aiello, he stumbled into the range of a second submachine gun nest on the third floor of another apartment block. Aiello was taken to Garfield Park Hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival. The coroner eventually removed 59 bullets from his body.
Before eventually being placed in Riverside Cemetery
Riverside Cemetery (Rochester, New York)
Riverside Cemetery in Rochester, New York was founded in 1892 to serve the growing population in the northern part of the city. Situated on 123 acres of land between Lake Avenue and the Genesee River, the cemetery is the permanent resting place of over 250,000 people...
in Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, Aiello was originally buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery
Mount Carmel Cemetery (Hillside)
Mount Carmel Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery located in the Chicago suburb of Hillside, Illinois. Mount Carmel is an active cemetery, located within the jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago. The cemetery is located near the Eisenhower Expressway at Wolf and Roosevelt...
in Chicago on October 29, 1930, close to former friend and foe Lombardo. Aiello's funeral lacked the show of many organized crime funerals of the age; the cars filled with mourners and police on motorcycles who started the trip from Aiello's home disappeared before reaching the cemetery. Besides the hearse, all that remained of the procession was a car containing Aiello's widow Catherine and three Ford Sedans containing flowers.