Lawrence Mangano

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Lawrence "Dago" Mangano (d. August 3, 1944) was a Chicago mobster and member of the Chicago Outfit during the 1920s and 30s.

A prominent member of Al Capone's organization during Prohibition, Mangano oversaw criminal operations in the Near Westside including illegal gambling, fencing, extortion and prostitution. Although Mangano received police protection through bribery, a number of Mangano's establishments were raided by police Captain Luke Garrick in 1928 before Garrick's house was bombed in retaliation. Although Garrick survived the attempt on his life, no further interference was taken by local law enforcement in the district. Over the course of his life, Mangano claimed he had been arrested over 200 times without ever spending a night in jail explaining "They were all bum raps...and besides I had good lawyers."

During the 1930s, Mangano kept a considerably low profile although he would be involved in gambling among other criminal activities following Prohibition's end in 1932.

On the night of August 1944, while driving back from Cicero, Illinois with bodyguard Mike Pontelli and his girlfriend Rita Hayes (during which they had stopped for a drink at the all-night saloon the Paddock Lounge), pulled over to the side of Blue Island Avenue after the appearance of a black sedan. The sedan drove towards Mangano as several unidentified gunmen armed with shotguns shot Mangano as the passed him by (the gunmen also made another pass killing Pontelli as he attempted to pull Mangano out of the street). A later autopsy revealed over 200 shotgun pellets and six bullets from a .45 caliber pistol had struck the mobster. The bullets had been rubbed in garlic, supposedly believed by mobsters to cause infection on wounded victims.

Although it was speculated by police officials and the media that Mangano had been killed in a dispute with the syndicate over a recent cigarette hijacking or from withholding gambling revenue, Mangano's murder was never solved.

[edit] Further reading

Bernstein, Lee. The Greatest Menace: Organized Crime in Cold War America. Boston: UMass Press, 2002. ISBN 1-55849-345-X
Chiocca, Olindo Romeo. Mobsters and Thugs: Quotes from the Underworld. Toronto: Guernica Editions, 2000. ISBN 1-55071-104-0
Johnson, Curt and R. Craig Sautter. The Wicked City: Chicago from Kenna to Capone. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998. ISBN 0-306-80821-8
Kobler, John. Capone: The Life and Times of Al Capone. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-30681-285-1
United States. Congress. Senate. Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce. Investigation of Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce: Hearings Before a Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce. 1951. [1]
By United States. Congress. Senate. Government Operations Committee. Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics: Hearings before the Government Operations Committee. 1964. [2]

[edit] References

Kelly, Robert J. Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 0-313-30653-2
Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Crime. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2001. ISBN 0-8160-4040-0