Joseph Ferriola: Rise, Reign, and Death of a Chicago Mob Boss

Joseph Ferriola was the Chicago mob boss who ran the Chicago Outfit from 1985 until shortly before his death in 1989, a tenure defined by gambling and extortion rackets, failing health, and a federal onslaught that gutted the organization he had inherited. Known on the street as “Joe Nagall,” he rose from low-level muscle under Sam “Momo” Giancana to the top of one of the most powerful crime syndicates in the United States, only to be pushed aside by his own underlings in his final months.¹²

From Near West Side Enforcer to Outfit Lieutenant

Ferriola grew up on Chicago’s Near West Side and entered organized crime as a low-level muscleman for Giancana, the Outfit boss of the 1960s. For years he managed the syndicate’s gambling operations across northern Cook, Lake, and McHenry Counties. Law enforcement described him less as a brute than as an organizer with a head for business, overseeing vending machines, gambling, and loansharking (“juice”), and collecting “street taxes” from independent gamblers and bookmakers who worked in Outfit territory.¹

In 1970, Ferriola and four co-defendants, including John P. “Jack” Cerone Sr., Donald J. Angelini, Dominic Cortina, and James Cerone, were convicted on federal charges of conspiring to use interstate commerce facilities to operate an illegal gambling ring, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1952. The ring took sports bets by phone from apartments and poolrooms around Chicago, and Ferriola was identified as a senior figure who resolved disputes within it. He was sentenced to five years and served about three.³²

He climbed quickly after prison. In 1979, following the death of James “Turk” Torello, Ferriola became the Outfit’s chief enforcer, shaking down independent bookmakers and punishing those who refused to pay. By 1981 he was second-in-command, succeeding John “Jackie the Lackey” Cerone, and federal authorities had tagged him as the “heir apparent” to the aging boss Anthony “Joe Batters” Accardo.²

How He Became Boss

Ferriola took over in 1985 largely because the men above him were gone. On January 21, 1986, a Kansas City jury convicted the Outfit’s top leadership of plotting to skim more than $2 million from the Stardust and Fremont casinos in Las Vegas, which the mob controlled through the Argent Corporation. Joseph Aiuppa and Cerone each drew 28½-year sentences and $143,000 fines; Angelo “the Hook” LaPietra got 16 years. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the convictions in October 1987.⁴⁵

With Aiuppa, Cerone, and LaPietra behind bars, and the Outfit’s Las Vegas overseer Anthony Spilotro dead under mysterious circumstances, Ferriola stepped into the top role in late 1985. He had recently recovered from cancer. Day-to-day he reorganized the syndicate under the loose supervision of Accardo, who was by then an octogenarian living in semi-retirement in California.¹

A Shaky Reign

Many law enforcement officials viewed Ferriola as a caretaker for Aiuppa, keeping the organization running while the real decision-makers served their sentences. He never commanded the uncontested loyalty that Accardo or Aiuppa had enjoyed, and his authority eroded on two fronts at once. His health kept failing, and federal pressure kept climbing.²

The FBI and the criminal division of the IRS stepped up their work against Outfit leaders during his tenure, filing racketeering and extortion cases. At the time of his death, prosecutors were reportedly preparing indictments against Ferriola and several top lieutenants for operating a “continuing criminal enterprise.” Aiuppa, watching from prison, reportedly lost confidence in him, and the rank and file grew frustrated with what they saw as inaction. By late 1988 or early 1989, Ferriola’s own underlings persuaded him to step aside. Sam Carlisi briefly took over as operations chief, and John “No Nose” DiFronzo of River Grove soon pushed past both Carlisi and the ailing Ferriola to emerge as the dominant figure.²

Death at 61

Ferriola had been fighting cancer and heart disease for years. He became a patient of the heart surgeon Dr. Michael DeBakey at Methodist Hospital in Houston. The New York Times reported that he died there on March 11, 1989, at about 2:50 a.m., following his second heart transplant in recent weeks. He was 61.⁶ A UPI report the same day described him as awaiting a transplant at the time of his death from a heart attack.¹

What Happened to the Outfit After Him

Ferriola’s death did not set off a succession war. Patrick Healey, former head of the Chicago Crime Commission, predicted reputed underboss Ernest Rocco Infelice would take over; others pointed to Carlisi.⁷⁸²

The federal case Ferriola had failed to stop came less than a year after he died. On February 7, 1990, a Chicago federal grand jury returned a 42-count, 102-page indictment against 20 alleged members and associates of what prosecutors called the “Ferriola Street Crew.” It was the first time the Chicago Outfit itself had been designated a criminal enterprise under the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.⁹

The charges included racketeering, illegal gambling, extortion, loansharking, bribery of police and public officials, and murder. Prosecutors said the crew used “money, muscle and murder” to protect its rackets. The indictment covered the 1985 strangulation of independent bookmaker Hal Smith, who had refused to pay street tax after Salvatore “Pizza Guy” DeLaurentis allegedly told him he was “trunk music,” along with the 1982 murder of Robert Plummer and the 1975 murder of Anthony J. Reitinger Jr. It also alleged the crew paid $35,000 a month in bribes to public officials, law enforcement officers, and imprisoned members of the organization.¹⁰⁹

The eight-year investigation behind the indictment pulled together the FBI, the IRS, the Illinois State Police, and the Chicago police. A key break came from an undercover IRS agent known to the mob as “Larry Weeks,” and from cooperation by crew member William “Slim” Jahoda, who flipped in 1989. The government sought forfeiture of $3.7 million in racketeering proceeds and properties owned by Infelice and DeLaurentis, and U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh personally announced the case. Infelice was convicted at trial in March 1992 and received a life sentence, with the court finding him accountable for ordering the murder of Hal Smith.⁹¹¹

The Family Secrets Footnote

The Ferriola name returned to federal court nearly two decades later through Joseph’s son, Nicholas Ferriola. In June 2007, Nicholas, then 32, pleaded guilty to racketeering, bookmaking, and extortion as part of the “Family Secrets” case, an FBI investigation into 18 long-unsolved Chicago Outfit murders. He was identified as a member of the South Side crew and the alleged godson of reputed mob boss Frank Calabrese Sr. Prosecutors said he admitted running gambling operations from at least 1999 until his March 2007 indictment and extorting payments from the Connie’s Pizza chain. In September 2008, U.S. District Judge James Zagel sentenced him to three years in prison and ordered $9 million in forfeiture, while acknowledging he was financially ruined and could not pay.¹²¹³

1
UPI. Heart Attack Fells Chicago Mob Boss
2
Chicago Tribune. Joseph Ferriola, Chicago Mob Figure, Dies at 61
3
Justia. United States v. Cerone, 452 F.2d 274
4
Chicago Tribune. Aiuppa Sentenced for Casino Skim
5
Justia. United States v. Cerone, 830 F.2d 938
6
New York Times. Joseph Ferriola, 61, Reputed Mob Leader
7
UPI. Speculation Centered on Three Men to Possibly Succeed Joseph
8
CBS News Chicago. John “No Nose” DiFronzo Dead
9
Chicago Tribune. 20 Linked to Mob Indicted
10
Los Angeles Times. 20 Chicago Mob Figures Indicted
11
Justia. United States v. Infelise, 835 F. Supp. 1466
12
East Bay Times. 2 Plead Guilty on Eve of Chicago’s Biggest Mob Trial in Years
13
Chicago Tribune. Son of Late Reputed Mob Boss Sentenced in Family Secrets