Angelo J. LaPietra

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Angelo J. "the Hook" LaPietra (1920-1999) was a Chicago mobster and member of the Chicago Outfit, involved in extensive loansharking operations in the city's First Ward during the 1970s and 80s.

A high ranking member of the Chicago syndicate, LaPietra had an extensive criminal record stretching back to 1939 and included charges of murder, kidnapping and narcotics. Involved in criminal operations in the suburb of Cicero, as well as in Chicago's First Ward, LaPietra was a top enforcer under Joey Aiuppa for Cicero criminal operations.

As the result of a five-year federal investigation into organized crime following the murder of a small time Kansas City mobster, LaPietra was indicted along with Aiuppa and Jackie "The Lackey" Cerone among fifteen mobsters from five other cities.

LaPietra was later accused by a Kansas City grand jury with skimming an estimated $2 million from syndicate controlled Las Vegas casinos. Federal authorities further charged that, by using Teamsters pension funds from the Central States Pension Fund, organized crime figures were able to consolidate their control over Las Vegas casinos during the 1950s and 60s. Federal agents had also recorded at least 12,000 hours of phone conversations through wire taps from organized crime figures in Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois and Nevada over a period of four years.

In July 1984, LaPietra's attorney Louis Carbonara requested to federally appointed Judge Joseph A. Stephens, Jr. to have the tapes be transcribed and made available for the defendants. However, due to opposition from Chief David B.B. Helfrey, the U.S. Department of Justice's Organized Crime Strike Force in Kansas City refused to transcribe the tapes claiming the difficulties regarding the numerous jurisdictions involved in wire tapping.

This issue, among other factors, caused a series of continuances and delays as the case continued for two years and, by September 1985, was called by law enforcement officials as one of the longest in 20 years of prosecution into organized crime.

With Aiuppa and Cerone, LePietra pled guilty on January 21, 1986 of conspiring to conceal ownership in a syndicate controlled Las Vegas casino and sentenced on March 27 to 16 years imprisonment and fined $143,409 (Aiuppa and Cerone were sentenced to 28 1/2 years imprisonment and fined $43,000 and $430,324 respectively).

He died shortly after his release in 1999.