Marshall Joseph Caifano

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Marcello Caifano

Born July 19, 1911
Sicily, Italy
Died September 6, 2003 (aged 92)
Chicago, Illinois, USA


John Caifano (born Marcello Giuseppe Caifano] (July 19, 1911-September 6, 2003) was a Chicago mobster who became a high-ranking member of the Chicago Outfit criminal organization.

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[edit] Early years

During the mid 1920's, Caifano joined the 42 Gang, an infamous Chicago street gang, with future Outfit members such as William Morris "Willie" Bioff, Samuel "Teets" Battaglia, and Salvatore "Sam," "Mooney" Giancana. [1]. By 1929, Caifano's rap sheet included convictions for burglary, extortion, larceny, and interstate fraud. As he matured, Caifano followed other 42 Gang members into The Outfit. During this period, Caifano was considered a prime suspect in the murder of gambler Frank Quotrocci after police discovered a hat at the crime scene with the initials "M.C." However, it was later accepted that Outfit boss Al Capone committed this murder.

[edit] Las Vegas days as the big Boss

Caifano would eventually establish autonomy from the Outfit for his Uptown gambling operations. He was suspected in about 10 unsolved homicides, including those of disgraced Cook County sheriff's investigator and suspected Outfit informant, Richard Cain, oil tycoon Raymond J. Ryan and, cocktail waitress Estelle Carey. In 1941, the Outfit had suspected that Carey, the girlfriend of mobster Nick Circella, was cooperating in the federal investigation of the Outfit's scheme to extort money from the Hollywood movie studios. When authorities discovered Carey's body, it appeared that she had been tied to a chair, savagely beaten and then set on fire.

Following the death of his brother, Leonard "Fat Lennie" Caifano, in 1951, Caifano was made overseer of mob-controlled casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada. Caifano had a lovely wife named Darlene Caifano, who was from outside of Louisville, KY. A "blonde-haired bomb shell," it is said that Caifano traded her off to the Godfather of the Chicago Mob, Sam Giancana, a childhood friend of Caifano's, for the "Don" chair of Las Vegas. Caifano was a suspect in ten or more mafia slayings during this time, including the 1953 murder of Louie Strauss. His relative Carmine Caifano, of Louisville KY, who currently resides in Las Vegas, played a part in the Internet Gambling business and the online booming Adult Entertainment industry. His online Casino was shut down due to the United States online gaming laws, that are now still hanging up in the air.

[edit] Arrest and Imprisonment

In March 1980, Caifano was arrested in West Palm Beach, Florida for transporting stolen securities from Illinois to Florida, in 1975. These 2,000 shares of Westinghouse stock, worth $2 million, were stolen from O'Hare Airport in Chicago in 1968. On May 23, 1980, a federal judge in Miami, Florida sentenced Caifano to two concurrent sentences of 20 years each at the federal penitentiary in Sandstone, Minnesota. He was released from prison in 1990. In 2003, Marshall Caifano died the dream of a mafia gangster, of natural causes.

[edit] Further reading

  • Bernstein, Lee. The Greatest Menace: Organized Crime in Cold War America. Boston: UMass Press, 2002. ISBN 1-55849-345-X
  • Giancana, Sam and Chuck. Double Cross: The Explosive, Inside Story of the Mobster Who Controlled America. New York: Warner Books, 1992. ISBN 0-446-51624-4
  • Ovid, Demaris. Captive City: Chicago in Chains. New York: Lyle Stuart, 1969.
  • Reid, Ed. The Grim Reapers, The Anatomy of Organized Crime in America. Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1969.
  • Reid, Ed and Demaris, Ovid. The Green Felt Jungle. Montreal: Pocket Books, 1964.
  • Zuckerman, Michael J. Vengeance is Mine. New York: Macmillan, 1987.

[edit] References

  • Fox, Stephen. Blood and Power: Organized Crime in Twentieth-Century America. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1989. ISBN 0-688-04350-X
  • 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

[edit] External links