Чикаголық құмар ойыншысы және контрабандист Джо Айелло

Italian American bootlegger

Giuseppe "Joe" Aiello (; September 27, 1890 – October 23, 1930) was a Sicilian bootlegger and organized crime leader in Chicago during the Prohibition era. He was best known for his long and bloody feud with Chicago Outfit boss Al Capone. Aiello masterminded several unsuccessful attempts to assassinate Capone, and fought against his former business partner Antonio Lombardo, a Capone ally, for control of the Chicago branch of the Unione Siciliana benevolent society. Aiello and his ally Bugs Moran are believed to have arranged the murder of Lombardo, which directly led Capone to organize the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in retaliation. Despite being forced to flee Chicago multiple times throughout the gang war, Aiello eventually took control of the Unione Siciliana in 1929, and ranked seventh among the Chicago Crime Commission's list of top "public enemies". Aiello was killed after Capone gunmen ambushed him as he exited a Chicago apartment building where he had been hiding out, shooting him 59 times. After his death, the Chicago Tribune described Aiello as "the toughest gangster in Chicago, and one of the toughest in the country". In July 1907, at the age of 17, Aiello immigrated to the United States to join family members already residing there. After arriving in New York City by boat, he worked a series of menial jobs in Buffalo and Utica, New York, before connecting with his father, brothers and cousins in Chicago. The family set up several businesses in both New York and Chicago, including the financially successful Aiello Brothers Bakery, and they become importers of such groceries as olive oil, cheeses and sugar. Aiello was president of the company, which was called Antonio Lombardo & Co., and Capone was said to have lent both men $100,000 to start the enterprise. With the enactment of Prohibition and the start of bootlegging, the sugar import business brought Aiello into contact with organized crime, along with his brothers Dominick, Antonio, Andrew In Chicago they made a small fortune selling sugar and other home cooked alcohol components to the Genna crime family, When the Genna family lost power in Chicago following gang wars, the Aiellos believed themselves the successors of their territory.

In November 1925 Lombardo was named head of the Unione Siciliana, a Sicilian American benevolent society that had been corrupted by gangsters. An infuriated Aiello, who had wanted the position himself, believed Capone was responsible for Lombardo's ascension and he resented the non Sicilian's attempts to manipulate affairs within the Unione. essentially ending a Chicago gang peace treaty that had been in force since the 1926 murder of Capone rival Hymie Weiss. and the trio of Billy Skidmore, Barney Bertsche and Jack Zuta, who ran vice and gambling houses together, although they became less receptive to Aiello after Capone personally approached and threatened Skidmore. and instead privately supported Aiello from the sidelines without actively participating. Aiello plotted to eliminate both Lombardo and Capone, and starting in the spring of 1927 made several attempts to assassinate Capone. who responded by dispatching men to destroy one of Aiello's stores on West Division Street with machine gun fire.

In November 1927 Aiello organized machine gun ambushes across from Lombardo's home and a cigar store frequented by Capone, but those plans were foiled after an anonymous tip led police to raid several addresses and arrest Milwaukee gunman Angelo La Mantio and four other Aiello gunmen. After the police discovered receipts for the apartments in La Mantio's pockets, he confessed that Aiello had hired him to kill Capone and Lombardo, leading the police to arrest Aiello himself and bring him to the South Clark Street police station. Upon learning of the arrest, Capone dispatched nearly two dozen gunmen to stand guard outside the station and await Aiello's release. The men made no attempt to conceal their purpose there, and reporters and photographers rushed to the scene to observe Aiello's expected murder. Aiello was said to have fled to Wisconsin under the protection of the Milwaukee crime family, and also briefly took refuge in Buffalo with his ally there, crime family boss Stefano Magaddino. With Aiello still in hiding, Capone started targeting Aiello's men and killed several over the next few years, including his brother Dominick. They conspired to eliminate Lombardo, a task they assigned to hitmen Frank "Tight Lips" and Peter Gusenberg. Lombardo was shot to death on a busy Chicago street on September 7, 1928, and although never arrested, at least one of the Gusenberg brothers is believed to have been among the shooters. After Lombardo's death, Aiello attempted to elevate his ally Peter Rizzito to the Unione Siciliana position, but Rizzito was killed by shotgun blasts outside his home.

Aiello was also believed to have masterminded the murder of Pasqualino "Patsy" Lolordo, Lombardo's successor as head of the Unione, who was killed in his home on January 8, 1929. Police alleged that Aiello suggested a truce with Lolordo, and when Lolordo invited Aiello into his home for a toast of friendship, Aiello and two others shot him to death. When police later questioned Lolordo's widow, she screamed when she was shown a photo of Aiello, but refused to explain why she was afraid and would not answer questions about him. The violent retaliation against Aiello indirectly led him to finally become head of the Unione. During a conference in Atlantic City, numerous mob bosses supported Aiello's promotion with the hopes of restoring order in Chicago, and Capone apparently accepted the decision, at least temporarily. However, Aiello's accession coincided with Capone serving a year in prison for carrying a concealed weapon, which Aiello saw as an opportunity to take control of some of Capone's territory and scheme yet again for his assassination. Aiello gained a measure of nationwide notoriety around this time after ranking seventh on Chicago Crime Commission Chairman Frank J. Loesch's "public enemies" list, released in April 1930, which identified the top 28 people he saw as corrupting Chicago. Through his Mafia boss allies Magaddino and Gaspar Milazzo, Aiello arranged a meeting with Joe Masseria, the capo di tutti capi based in New York City, seeking support in Aiello's efforts against Capone. Mafioso Joseph Bonanno later described as a key incident in starting the Castellammarese War in New York City. Masseria openly supported Capone, requiring a strong alliance with him following the death of Masseria ally Giuseppe Morello. During the early months of 1930 Aiello arranged several unsuccessful assassination attempts against Capone bodyguards, including Jack McGurn, Phil D'Andrea and Rocco De Grazia. Aiello hoped to leave Capone vulnerable by depleting his security, and Capone began to suspect Aiello had spies within the Chicago Outfit because he seemed to have inside knowledge about where his targets would be and when. In August 1930, two months before Aiello's death, the state's attorney conducted a raid on Aiello's home, obtaining records as part of a series of raids by the United States government to fight against gangland activities in Chicago.

In 1930, upon learning of Aiello's continued plotting against him, Capone resolved to finally eliminate him. He moved in on October 13, 1930, and rarely left the apartment. However, his wife and child occasionally visited him, and Frank Nitti biographer Mars Eghigian Jr. theorized that Capone's forces located Aiello by tracking his family members. Men who gave the names Morris Friend and Henry Jacobson rented rooms in an apartment across the street overlooking Prestigiacomo's apartment building and began observing Aiello. attempting to move out of the line of fire. Instead, he moved directly into the range of a second submachine gun positioned on the third floor of another apartment block, and was subsequently gunned down. where he was pronounced dead. The coroner eventually removed 59 bullets, weighing over a pound, from the body. noting that the precision machine gun ambush was typical of his attacks. However, at least one press story at the time speculated Moran could have been behind the hit. Some historians later suggested Mafia forces outside Chicago may have been behind the hit as part of the Castellammarese War, but Virgil Peterson, an expert on Chicago organized crime, believed the murder was strictly related to city gang warfare. Aiello was originally buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery in Chicago on October 29, 1930, close to former friend turned rival Lombardo. Capone continued to hunt down Aiello's allies even after his death. One month after Aiello was killed, police discovered an abandoned machine gun nest, manned by alleged Capone gangsters, in a house opposite the home of four of Aiello's former henchmen. Aiello's nephew, Frank Aiello Jr., was fatally shot through a window while he was playing cards in his Milwaukee home on May 23, 1931. Authorities believed the killing was related to the Chicago feud, despite Frank's apparent lack of ties to organized crime. Aiello's death left Capone effectively unchallenged in his control over Chicago, and brought 70 years of peace to the city in terms of the Chicago Outfit leadership. Aiello was believed to have been responsible for the deaths of at least 24 people throughout his life, according to the Chicago Tribune, which described him as "the toughest gangster in Chicago, and one of the toughest in the country".