Jack Cerone was the capo of the Chicago Outfit’s old Elmwood Park Crew from approximately 1955, which was around the time of the death of his then direct boss Tony Capezio, until the early 1970s, which is when he was elevated to the position of underboss.
In the roughly 20-year run that Jack served as capo of the Elmwood Park crew, he had a number of Outfit underlings whom he supervised. Some of his most famous underlings were Willie Messino, John DiFronzo, Joe Andriacchi, Lee Magnafichi, Rudy Fratto Junior, Mike Castaldo, and Michael Magnafichi. When Jack became underboss of the Outfit, the Elmwood Park crew served as his own administration. The members of the crew, to a large extent, consisted of his reserved assassins, as well as heads or leaders of various Outfit departments. At that time the boss of the Outfit, “Joey O” Aiuppa, had his own administration.
These administrations were similar to how the president and vice-president of the United States have their own administrations. Of course, like the USA, both Outfit administrations worked together for the same common good. Jack appointed Joe “Gags” Gagliano as the new capo. Holding the position of capo of the Elmwood Park crew was the equivalent of being Jack’s chief of staff. Not long after his appointment Gags suddenly passed away, and was replaced by John DiFronzo.
While it is heavily rumored in some Outfit circles that Jack was usually not very generous to his underlings, he did make sure that all of his men lived somewhat better than average lives for the most part. His men all owned nice homes, raised families, had a few bucks socked away, and were able to routinely treat their wives and children to luxuries.
Some people who even merely associated with Jack made money for themselves. An example would be Dr. Joseph Giacchino, a now formerly licensed medical doctor. This man’s medical license was revoked several years ago for a litany of egregious and reprehensible violations (all a matter of public record accessible in great detail via a simple internet search).
As a result of Jack’s affection for the doctor and his indirect but serious influence in the intimate legal community of the greater Chicagoland area, Giacchino made a great deal of money treating auto accident victims who were in need of physical rehabilitation. Jack was primarily influential with Italian-American lawyers, who were happy to kiss-the-ring so-to-speak by referring their injured clients to Jack’s guy.
This party might have gone on at least another decade if Jack had not gone to jail.
When 1986 came, Jack Cerone went off to prison along with a few other gangsters including his boss, Joey O. Immediately prior to leaving for prison, Jack appointed John DiFronzo to succeed him as the Chicago Outfit’s underboss, which would later become known as the period in which the infamous members of the Elmwood Park crew would begin their professional demise as gangsters.
Under John DiFronzo’s authority, the members of the Elmwood Park crew eventually fell on hard times (as explained in Addendum Three), with the exception of the DiFronzos, Lee Magnafichi, and Mike Castaldo. The DiFronzos avoided hard-times by being treacherous with their cohorts. Lee avoided hard-times by natural circumstances, as cancer caused him an early death in late December of 1989. Castaldo avoided hard-times by reasons that I will explain a little later in this addendum.
According to public records, during the multiple decades in which the aforementioned gangsters spent under the authority of Jack Cerone, not once did they have issues with bankruptcies or foreclosures. In the roughly 15-years under John DiFronzo’s authority, almost every one of them (and their close associate-doctor) fell on hard times. Below are some examples of the demise of the aforementioned gangsters under DiFronzo’s authority. It should be noted that Addendum Three serves as an excellent precursor for the content in this piece.
On March 16, 1992, Willie Messino’s River Grove, Illinois, home went into foreclosure. A foreclosure lawsuit was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County – Case # 92 CH 02670, against Willie’s then-wife, Victoria E. Terpening-Messino, who was the listed property owner. It is believed by credible sources that in the matter of Willie’s home foreclosure, his wife mismanaged funds that were earmarked for the mortgage payments, in large part because of Willie’s lack of providing necessary funding for his wife to live an adequate lifestyle.
This sort of problem never occurred when Willie was under Jack’s authority.
Rudy Fratto Jr.
On March 23, 2001, gangster, Rudy Fratto Junior’s parents, Rudolph and Doseline “Dottie” Fratto, filed for bankruptcy protection in the Northern District of Illinois – Case # 01-10328. Their then supposed enterprising gangster-son, Rudy Junior, who often bragged to many of his ridiculous claim of being a high-ranking Outfit boss, was unable to bail out his own parents from their financial troubles. According to the petition, the relevant debts didn’t even rise to a significant amount. Credible sources close to the Fratto family have indicated that some well-off immediate relatives were unwilling to bail out the elderly Frattos from their financial mess because of concern that Rudy Junior might somehow end up with the money.
This makes me wonder if Rudy Junior was the cause of his parents’ financial collapse in the first place. On January 24, 2012, gangster, Rudy Fratto Junior’s Darien, Illinois, home went into foreclosure. A foreclosure lawsuit was filed in the Circuit Court of DuPage County – Case # 2012 CH 000336.
On September 17, 2001, residential property in the name of Michael Magnafichi went into foreclosure. A foreclosure lawsuit was filed in the Circuit Court of DuPage County – Case # 2001 CH 001287.
On May 23, 2012, gangster, Joe Andriacchi’s River Forest, Illinois, home (and other properties) went into foreclosure. A foreclosure lawsuit was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County – Case # 2012 CH 19094.
On September 5, 2017, organized crime associate Dr. Joseph Giacchino’s River Forest, Illinois, home went into foreclosure. A foreclosure lawsuit was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County against Dr. and Mrs. Giacchino – Case # 2017 CH 12068.
While Giachinno did not rely directly on Jack Cerone for his income, Jack’s departure from society in 1986 caused a cascade of problems for the volatile former doctor. Giacchino relied on Jack Cerone’s guidance over the previous decade more than he might admit. Without Cerone’s steady hand, Giacchino ended up exercising poor judgment in a wide variety of personal and professional matters.
Shortly after the time of the bankruptcy filing of Rudy Junior’s parents, Giacchino and Rudy Junior regularly teamed up to commit an assortment of bizarre medical-related scams for fast money. One of their scams pertained to me and Joseph Vasselli, a retired food company executive and multi-millionaire, and involved Michael B. Cohen (a now disbarred/suspended Chicago area attorney and former assistant United States Attorney). Cohen was around because he had recently advised Giacchino’s wife on a couple of very complicated legal matters.
The scam included a multifaceted extortion plot creating a manufactured scenario of outrageous and unjust proportions designed in a wildly unsuccessful and very desperate attempt to publically embarrass and humiliate Joseph Vasselli into paying off unjust and bogus medical bills and other ludicrous expenses supposedly generated in my name. The manufactured details of this horrendous plan caused my family great embarrassment and unjust humiliation as well.
For complicated reasons pertinent to the well-being of multiple innocent parties, at this time I will not elaborate any further on details involving the scam that wronged both Joe Vasselli and me. It should be noted that this very experience was a prime motivating factor for me to begin writing what I have learned about the Chicago Outfit through my family’s experiences, as well as my personal experiences with these bizarre people.
Finally, we come to Mike Castaldo. He was spared the ignominy of bankruptcy and ruin that so many other Elmwood Park Crew members suffered, and in Mike’s case, largely because of the treacherous nature of Rudy Fratto Junior.
In very early 1990, one of the most successful loan-sharks of the Elmwood Park crew, the now late Mike Castaldo, was ordered by DiFronzo to start turning over his vast monthly juice loan collections to Rudy Junior. Rudy was, at this time, temporarily one of DiFronzo’s collectors. This arrangement assured that Castaldo would be an unwitting victim of Fratto’s despicable character. It should be noted that Fratto was known by some sources close to him to be a deceitful, jealous, and selfish individual.
DiFronzo began a transformation from being a full-fledged gangster to a bona fide federal informant in the mid-1990s. Around this time Castaldo was involved in an extortion case in the Northern District of Illinois, which resulted in him spending approximately one year in prison. As indicated in Addendum Three, DiFronzo was in prison for approximately one year on a case in California unrelated to the Castaldo matter. DiFronzo was released from prison before Castaldo. While Castaldo was in prison serving his sentence, Rudy Junior had managed to unjustly poison DiFronzo’s mind with respect to Castaldo’s otherwise excellent reputation among some of his associates.
Aside from Castaldo’s unethical choices as far as how he made some of his money, I stand in agreement with my now late social acquaintance/friend, Willie Messino, that Castaldo was a man’s man. This was highly evident to me even though the limited exposure that I had to him in the late 1990s through the early 2000s. This makes it even more incredible that Fratto thought he could destroy this man’s reputation among his superiors.
So why would Rudy Junior attempt this slander? His motivation to unjustly destroy Castaldo’s credibility with DiFronzo was a damage control strategy. According to sources, Rudy Junior stole from the funds he collected from Castaldo prior to Castaldo’s incarceration. While Castaldo was away, Rudy Junior’s embezzlement of the juice loan funds was detected by DiFronzo. To address his theft Rudy Junior threw Castaldo under the bus. This underhanded trickery worked for a little while until the situation became known to Willie Messino. Willie quickly met with DiFronzo to backup Castaldo as being one of the most standup and honorable people that Willie had ever known.
I cannot say for sure if Willie truly succeeded in totally changing DiFronzo’s mind (Rudy Junior is very good smearing his friends and colleagues), but I can certainly say that DiFronzo told Willie that he accepted Willie’s defense of Castaldo. This entire matter ended up causing some estrangement between Fratto and DiFronzo, which was consistent with DiFronzo’s main objective to distance himself from his crew.
So Castaldo avoided falling on hard times because of his rift with DiFronzo. Castaldo’s talent for making money, whether he was involved in organized crime or not, allowed him to thrive while his former associates slowly sank into debt.
This concludes addendum four.
The Mafia Report Series:
5/13/20 – Mafia Report: Chicago Outfit
5/31/20 – Mafia Report: Chicago Outfit – Addendum One
6/4/20 – Mafia Report: Chicago Outfit – Addendum Two
6/24/20 – Mafia Report: Chicago Outfit – Addendum Three
