Joe Aiello
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Joe Aiello | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born | 1891 Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, Italy |
| Died | October 23, 1930 Chicago, Illinois, USA |
Giuseppe "Joe" Aiello (1891 - October 23, 1930) was a Sicilian-American mobster during the 1920s and early 1930s.
Contents |
[edit] Arrival in America
Aiello was born one of nine brothers in Castellammare del Golfo, Sicily, and migrated to the USA in July 1907, where he joined various members of his family including his brother Andrea and numerous cousins.
The Aiello family set up a number of businesses in both New York and Chicago, primarily importing groceries such as olive oil, cheeses and sugar. The latter ingredient would bring them into their first contact with the criminal underworld due to its use as an ingredient in alcohol production - the family would supply sugar to gangs distilling spirits, a territory previously occupied by the Genna family. The Aiellos also branched out into opening a bakery and a confectionery shop, among other ventures.
[edit] Unione Siciliana
At that time a benevolent society by the name of the Unione Siciliana was set up to help any non-English speaking Sicilians settle in the USA. Corruption soon set in - Unione 'officials' began demanding protection money or tributes from its members, who frequently faced retribution if they refused to pay.
Joe Aiello was the co-owner of a cheese importing business alongside a fellow Sicilian by the name of Antonio Lombardo. The death of the much-loved head of the Chicago branch of the Unione, Mike Merlo, eventually led to the promotion of Lombardo to the top job, much to Aiello's disappointment as he had wanted the job himself, but to the joy of Al Capone, who had pushed for Lombardo to get the job so that he could control the organisation himself.
[edit] Falls out with Capone
Aiello wanted greater control over the importing business, Antonio Lombardo & Co., which led to numerous quarrels between himself and Lombardo, and in turn between Aiello and Capone. The falling out became permanent, and Aiello began to think about removing his former allies for good. Plots to kill Capone and Lombardo were uncovered - at one point a gun nest believed to have been organised by Aiello was discovered across the street from Capone's favourite Chicago cigar shop. Aiello even offered the chef of Capone's favourite restaurant, Joe Esposito's Bella Napoli Café, $35,000 to put acid in Capone's soup. The chef duly exposed the plot to Capone, who reacted with predictable fury.
[edit] On the run
In the following weeks, during the summer and autumn of 1927, a number of hitmen hired by Aiello to murder Capone were themselves slain. Police raided a number of addresses and arrested numerous Aiello associates, including Milwaukee gunman Angelo La Mantio, 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, 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.
[edit] Allies with Bugs Moran
Aiello had recently taken up an alliance of sorts with George "Bugs" Moran, an enemy of Capone from the North Side gang of Chicago. Two of Moran's hitmen, the brothers Frank 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 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.
[edit] Made President of Unione Siciliana
Aiello then turned to Capone killers Albert Anselmi and John Scalise, as well as the new head of the Unione, Joseph "Hop Toad" Guinta, 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, Scalise and Guinta).
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.
[edit] Murder
The rumours and gossip eventually got back to Capone, who resolved to finally dispose of Aiello for good. A number of Joe's associates were wiped out during 1930, including Peter "Ashcan" Inserio and Aiello bodyguard Jack Costa. Aiello meanwhile secreted himself in the house of Unione Siciliana treasurer Pasquale "Presto" Prestogiacomo, at 205 Kolmar Avenue in Chicago.
On October 23, Aiello was making plans to leave Prestogiacomo's house, allegedly to move to Mexico for good. Upon leaving the building, a machine gun in a second-floor window across the street opened up on him, and Aiello toppled off the building steps and around the corner, out of the line of fire. Unfortunately for Joe, he stumbled into view of a second gun nest set up on the third floor of another apartment block, and his time was up. 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 Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Chicago on October 29, 1930, close to former friend and foe Tony Lombardo. His funeral lacked the show of many organised crime funerals of the age, and many cars with mourners and police on motorcycles who started the trip from his Lunt Avenue home eventually disappeared upon arriving at Mt. Carmel. Besides the hearse, all that was left was a car containing Aiello's widow Catherine and three Ford Sedans containing flowers.
