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2024-03-28T11:57:52Z
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Fitness Behind Bars: Gangsters tell how they train their bodies and minds in prison
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/fitness-behind-bars-gangsters-tell-how-they-train-their-bodies-an
2021-05-19T17:30:00.000Z
2021-05-19T17:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/fitness-behind-bars-gangsters-tell-how-they-train-their-bodies-an" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237151455,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237151455?profile=original" /></a>By David Amoruso for <a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank">Gangsters Inc.</a></p>
<p>Doing time is no picnic. In prison you’re away from your loved ones, your home, and surrounded by stone-cold killers, gangsters, and crazies, who could shank you if they feel like it. How does one remain sane and healthy in such an environment? Gangsters Inc. sat down with two guys who tell us how to come out of prison fitter than ever.</p>
<p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Cecchetelli" target="_blank">David “Chicky” Cecchetelli</a> is no stranger to doing time or hanging around with serious individuals. As an alleged associate in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-springfield-mafia-crew-of-western-massachusetts-a-family-busi" target="_blank">Springfield crew</a> of late <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family" target="_blank">Genovese crime family</a> capo <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bruno-hit-how-the-genovese" target="_blank">Adolfo Bruno</a>, he dealt with the pressures of working under the always watchful eye of law enforcement and the subsequent heat that came with it. He spent several stints in prison for bookmaking conspiracy. Rather than let it get him down, he made the best of it.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237151479,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237151479?profile=original" width="192" height="331" /></a>“People don’t realize that if you put your head on straight in there it is real easy,” Cecchetelli (right) tells us. “You do your time and don’t let the time do you.” While serving his time in Canaan penitentiary in the mid-2000s, he got straight into his routine. “I walked 6 miles every day in the morning and afternoon. I didn’t have new weights but I made do. I ate healthy. I ordered off the commissary, cause you’re not gonna eat and lose weight off of the food they give you. You do a routine and you’re not drinking, not smoking cigarettes, and then you can come out looking like a movie star.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/top-5-of-true-stand-up-wiseguys" target="_blank"><strong>Top 5 of True Stand Up Wiseguys</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Cecchetelli says he has always struggled with his weight. He goes up and down like a yoyo. “Back then I was huge when I went in. In less than a year I lost almost 200 pounds. I had a tan and looked like I had done a spa thing on the Bahamas.”</p>
<p>Former drug kingpin and writer/producer of hit Netflix documentary “WHITE BOY” <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Ferranti" target="_blank">Seth Ferranti</a> can relate. “I would do cardio, pushups, pull ups, burpees, planks, and set ups every day for an hour or two,” he writes to Gangsters Inc. “Distance running and sprints and the exercise bike. Plus I played a lot of sports too. Soccer, basketball, football, volleyball, softball, I did it all.”</p>
<p>He had plenty of time to do it. While still in his teens, Ferranti (right) set up a drug ring that spanned five states, selling <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Marijuana" target="_blank">marijuana</a> and <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=LSD" target="_blank">LSD</a> to college kids. He was caught by the DEA in 1993 when he was 22 years old. Authorities slapped the kingpin label on him and sentenced him to over 25 years in prison. He was released in 2015 after serving 21 years.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237151901,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237151901?profile=original" width="183" height="328" /></a>Serving the long stretch that Ferranti (right) served, he also watched his diet. “I used to get a guy from the kitchen to smuggle me vegetables like onions and green peppers. I paid the butcher in the kitchen to bring me raw meat which I would cook in the prison microwaves. I would usually mix this with some rice and then boom I had a nice and healthy home cooked meal. I ate a lot of tuna and oatmeal too plus peanut butter and protein bars were the staples of my diet. I combined this with a vigorous exercise routine.”</p>
<p>Despite his vigorous workout routine, Ferranti says there were other inmates whose workouts made his look tame. Ferranti: “They would lift weights all day - bench press, squats, deadlifts. I used to hit the weights when I was younger but as I did time and got older I moved away from weights and did mostly body weight exercises. Some guys did Tabata routines or CrossFit type of stuff. They were vicious with it. There would always be a crew of dudes that seemed to be out on the yard working out all day. And they were shredded up and cock diesel.”</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Working out with Mafia boss Vinny Basciano</strong></span></p>
<p>Cecchetelli knows the type, but was especially impressed by the mental toughness of some fellow inmates facing life in prison, or worse, like alleged <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bonanno-crime-family" target="_blank">Bonanno crime family</a> boss <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Basciano" target="_blank">Vincent Basciano</a>, who was housed in the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Manhattan, New York. “It's a bad place,” Cecchetelli says of the MCC. “You’re in lock down all the time. It's a heavy hitter joint. I was there before I was transferred to Canaan penitentiary.”</p>
<p>He was only there for 2 months, but immediately hit it off with Basciano. “He took a liking to me for no other reason than I made him laugh,” Cecchetelli explains.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/a-personal-table-at-rao-s-bonanno-mobsters-chat-about-loot-from-l" target="_blank">A personal table at Rao’s</a>: Bonanno mobsters chat about loot from Lufthansa heist at famous East-Harlem restaurant</strong></li>
</ul>
<p>While they were housed together, Cecchtelli got an up-close look at Basciano’s discipline and focus. “I have never seen a guy do better time than Vinny Basciano. He would run up and down the stairs between the bottom and top tier and sweat would drip to the floor. It was a great workout and Vinny was religious in doing that every single day.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237152866,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237152866?profile=original" /></a>Basciano (right) had a strict routine that began with a shave and shower in the morning. At 8 o’ clock sharp, he would be in the prison library studying his books to fight his case. He would work on that all days until around 4 pm. Then he’d put on his sweatpants, shirt and sneakers and do his workout consisting of running the stairs and bodyweight exercises like burpees.</p>
<p>“I would watch him for a week and then he would bust my chops,” Cecchetelli says. “’Come on! Let's go! Join me!’ he would say, but I could never keep up with him. He would run up the stairs back and forth forever. But by doing the steps, walking the stairs with Vinny I was losing a lot of weight in those 2 months.”</p>
<p>What struck him most, was how relaxed Basciano looked. “He was always smiling, tan, like he was on vacation. I was in there for a lousy bookmaking case and he was in there facing the death penalty so that was a big difference. This guy is going in for the rest of his life and he’s laughing with me!”</p>
<p>Inside, all you have is a positive mindset to keep you going. And if you want to stay fit you have to think outside the box. Despite what you may have seen on television, prison is not outfitted like a gym. Inmates have to get creative.</p>
<p>Cecchetelli: “Guys would take a broom and unscrew the broom off the stick. Then they would take these big plastic milk cartons which would hold 4 gallons of milk and replace the milk with rocks or sand from the yard and put them on the stick so they had a barbel of dumbbell for weightlifting.”</p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237153093,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237153093?profile=original" /></a><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Gang workouts</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.gangstersinc.org" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237153486,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237153486?profile=original" /></a>Working out helps one to cope with the insanity that goes on in prison. It keeps the mind quiet and the body lean. In turn, this helps when things get dangerous, which, behind bars, can happen in the blink of an eye. If you are attacked, you need to be able to defend yourself. A strong body helps with that. No wonder then that members of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/street-gangs" target="_blank">prison gangs</a> have turned a simple workout into something else altogether.</p>
<p>Cecchetelli: “Everyone does these workouts, but these groups do it altogether and it sets them apart from the regular prisoners. You might have six Italian guys working out together, to keep each other company, but not in the numbers that these guys are doing it in. That's very noticeable when you are in a yard with these people.”</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>ALSO READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-guards-go-on-assaulting-inmates-without-consequences" target="_blank"><strong>How guards keep assaulting inmates without consequences</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>“The Surenos would be out en mass doing burpees on the yard,” Ferranti adds. “Their routine consisted of 113 Navy Seal style burpees (see video below by Moses Cuevas for an example). Then they would hit the track for a five mile run. These dudes didn’t fuck around. There would be 20-30 of them exercising together. Shirts tied around their heads, tattoos representing their hoods and gang affiliations. It was quite a sight. They were known as the most vicious dudes on the yard and their exercise routine confirmed. They didn’t fuck around in anything they did. They went hard as fuck.”</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ijm1mtRKv8I?wmode=opaque" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Back on the streets</strong></span></p>
<p>As inmates are finishing up their sentence, they should be looking like a million bucks of pure muscle, ready to impress the ladies. But back home, they are stripped of their strict regime and faced with lots of temptations.</p>
<p>“I got out and was buff and trained,” Cecchetelli tells us. “Got out and was in a parole house in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Boston" target="_blank">Boston</a>. Still kept good. I was enjoying the food again, but I watched what I ate and ate healthy. Then as time goes on, on a date or with the fellas, I would have a glass of swine. In the life, no matter where you go, there is food. No matter where you went there was food. Go to their houses: food. Go to dinner: food. Food is everything! When people die, there is food. When people celebrate, there is food. When people are sad, they have food. Whether people are happy or sad, they have food. Now, anything, whether it's gambling, sex or food, anything in abundance is no good No matter what it is.”</p>
<p>With age comes wisdom. After getting to know his pitfalls, Cecchetelli has adapted. He goes for walks and loves to swim. He has his cheat meals on a specific day and tries to eat healthy the rest of the week. “Everyone needs that break. You gotta pick and choose your battles. In prison you can be a lot more structured. You don't have to worry about the outside world as long as your kids are healthy, your wife is happy, and you got money coming in. The only worries you have are about working out, getting through your time and finishing your sentence. That's it so when you're in there it's a lot easier losing weight. A lot easier than when you’re on the street.” </p>
<ul>
<li><strong>Back to the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/organized-crime-in">Organized crime in the United States section</a> on Gangsters Inc.</strong></li>
</ul>
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<li><strong>Check out the latest news on organized crime and the Mafia at our <a href="https://gangstersinc.ning.com/blog/list/tag/news">news section</a></strong></li>
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The Hook: Life and bloody crimes of feared Chicago Mafia enforcer Harry Aleman
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/the-hook-life-and-bloody-crimes-of-feared-chicago-mafia-enforcer
2018-12-26T13:30:00.000Z
2018-12-26T13:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
https://gangstersinc.org/members/GangstersInc
<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-hook-life-and-bloody-crimes-of-feared-chicago-mafia-enforcer" target="_blank"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237107455,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237107455?profile=original" /></a>By Gary Jenkins</p>
<p>Harry “The Hook” Aleman was one of the Chicago Outfit’s most feared mobsters. In the first of a 4-part series documenting the life and violent crimes of this notorious thief, enforcer, juice loan collector, and hitman I recount how Aleman’s criminal career began.</p>
<p>He was born Harry Peralt Aleman on January 19, 1939 in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Chicago" target="_blank">Chicago</a>. He has been accused of as many as 18 murders by the Chicago Crime Commission and most folks believe that number is way low. He was an important tool in the Outfit’s enforcement of street tax on bookmakers and other gray area businesses like porn shops and the bar business. <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-chicago-outfit-overview" target="_blank">Chicago Outfit</a> associate and government agent Red Wemette described <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Schweisch" target="_blank">Frank “the Geman” Schweisch</a> as the collector and enforcer for <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/chicago-boss-joseph-lombardo" target="_blank">Joe Lombardo</a> and the Grand Avenue Crew. Well, Harry “The Hook” Aleman was a similar collector and enforcer for <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Ferriola" target="_blank">Joe Ferrolia</a> and the Taylor Street Crew. </p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Bloodlines of “The Hook”</strong></span></p>
<p>Aleman’s mother was Italian, his Mexican father was a native of Durango, <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mexico" target="_blank">Mexico</a>. Aleman’s maternal grandmother was of Sicilian heritage and she owed a 3-floor brownstone style building at 917 S. Bishop Street in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Chicago" target="_blank">Chicago</a>. All her extended family of uncles, aunts and cousins lived in and around this house in a neighborhood just west and south of Chicago’s Loop. Years later in a probation interview Harry Aleman described his father Louis Aleman as "sort of a Mexican godfather" who was allegedly involved in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Drugs" target="_blank">narcotics</a> trafficking. His mother Mary was an abused wife and Harry would become the target of his father’s angry fists as he grew up. Harry once stated, "My father was hard on me, extremely hard. He beat me every day until I left home. He used his fist or a horsewhip. If I looked at him the wrong way, he beat me. If my mother stepped in, she got hit herself."</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237107274,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237107274?profile=original" /></a>Gangster of fine arts</strong></span></p>
<p>Harry was given a respite from his father’s abuse when Louis Aleman went to prison for a 4-year <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Robbery" target="_blank">robbery</a> bit from about 1946 to 1950. Young Harry Aleman excelled at Crane Tech high school from 1951-1955. He was a halfback on the football team, a member of the physics club and took up boxing at the North Side Duncan YMCA club. His <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Boxing" target="_blank">boxing</a> career gave him his nickname “The Hook” because he had a devastating left hook. He graduated in 1955, rare for a hoodlum of that generation, and enrolled in the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and graduated in 1958 with a commercial art diploma. It seems that Harry Aleman had displayed skill at painting and this ability will provide him with something do during his subsequent incarcerations.</p>
<p>Aleman’s official police record starts after graduation from the Academy of Fine Arts. He told a probation officer that during this time he sold race track tout sheets and worked at the produce markets on the Near West Side, where he sold produce and was able to sell some of his drawings. In 1960, Chicago police arrested Aleman for malicious mischief; in 1961 for gambling; in 1962 for possession of burglary tools, assault and criminal damage. In 1965 police arrested Aleman for aggravated assault. In 1966, he was charged with grand theft auto and armed robbery. In 1968, the police arrested him for criminal damage to property and in 1969 for aggravated <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Kidnapping" target="_blank">kidnapping</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: Untouchable "Little Jimmy" -</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/untouchable-little-jimmy-profile-of-chicago-mafia-boss-james-marc" target="_blank"><strong>Profile of Chicago Mafia boss James Marcello</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Falling in love</strong></span></p>
<p>In 1960, Harry became infatuated with a beautiful young spunky widow named Ruth Mustari who worked at a Rush street bar. When he first met Ruth, she was having trouble with a former boyfriend named Richard Fanning. On December 10, 1960, Mr Fanning was found beaten and stabbed to death near his South Side home. In 1964, Aleman married Ruth Mustari, a widow with four children. Ruth's first husband, Frank Mustari, had been an Outfit connected mobster as well. He was killed in 1957 in an attempted murder of a hijacker and tavern owner. In this case, his victim was armed and shot first. The man was killed a few months later. Ruth was the ultimate mob wife. She always stood by her husband’s story that he was a commercial artist and she always maintained that the family was dead broke most of the time. A great story showing how Ruth was the classic mob wife happened in 1976. Harry Aleman was indicted for the murder of Billy Logan, Ruth came to the Cook County Jail with a suitcase containing $350,000 to bail him out, not realizing that she needed only $35,000.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/how-the-chicago-outfit-made" target="_blank"><strong>How the Chicago Outfit made its Hollywood dreams come true</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>In later years a friend of Harry’s named Lou Almeida went into the witness protection. Almeida who has served time for armed robbery, grand theft, burglary, and bond jumping, recalled that he and Aleman grew up together near Taylor Street and Racine. He remembered how Aleman met his wife, Ruth. She was working in a State Street nightclub club and all the neighborhood guys loved Ruth because she was so beautiful. He remembered Harry as a very slim physically fit guy who wore sharp suits and skinny little ties in the fashion of the times and they called him "The Sheik" because he dressed nice. Almeida recalled. "Everybody looked up to him because his family was supposed to be in the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Mafia" target="_blank">Mafia</a>.” The two young hoodlums hung around in the neighborhood pool hall on Taylor Street. He remembered Harry liked to bet on the horses and he always had money and nice jewelry and clothes. Almeida said He remembered that Aleman was a strict father to his adopted children. On one occasion Almeida remembers that Harry asked him to give one of his adopted sons a good beating because the kid was getting drunk and staying out late. Harry didn't want to beat him up because Ruth would be angry.</p>
<p>The couple had no biological children, and in later years Ruth Aleman once said, "He was wonderful to my children, He took the kids to Kiddieland, to dinner, on picnics, camping. He always had time for the kids. In the Cook county probation interview Harry said of his step children, "I raised them, I consider them my own. I couldn't be any closer if they were my own blood. I love my kids. I love my wife. I have six grandkids--this gives me hope." She would say that Harry always came home for dinner and asked the children about their day and how they were doing.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>The vicious Hook</strong></span></p>
<p>In his 20s, Harry Aleman was well known on the near north side of Chicago as a vicious guy who had no fear and did not back down. In 1962 Aleman, his brother Freddie and two other men were in a bar on North Rush Street and became involved in an altercation. Witnesses saw Aleman push a woman through a plate glass window. This witness was Howard Pierson, the 23-year-old son of the commander of the Chicago police robbery section. Pierson claimed he chased Aleman and his friends out of the bar and flagged down a police car. The passing officers caught up with Aleman and were questioning them when Howard Pierson caught up. Knowing that Pierson was the guy who told the cops, Aleman, without warning, sucker punched Pierson with his famous left hand and broke his jaw. For that incident, Aleman received two years' probation.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>Married to the Mob</strong></span></p>
<p><a href="http://www.facebook.com/GangstersInc" target="_blank"><img class="align-right" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237108065,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237108065?profile=original" /></a>Joe Ferriola, a man who would eventually rise to become the boss of <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-chicago-outfit-overview" target="_blank">the Outfit</a>, had married the sister of Aleman's mother. Ferriola took the young Aleman under his wing and as Ferriola continued to rise in the mob, so did Aleman. He joined up with the so-called Taylor Street crew with Butch Petrocelli, Louis Almeida, Leonard Foresta and James Inendino. The group made their headquarters the Survivor's Social and Athletic Club, on Taylor Street just west of Racine Avenue in Chicago’s Little Italy. In the 1970s, Ferriola instructed his Taylor Street crew "to organize Chicago the way it was back in the '30s and '40s.” What he meant was he wanted them to identify and contact all known neighborhood gamblers who earned a living at sports booking, off track race betting or any other forms of gambling. As an added source of income, Aleman and the others started to commit home invasions and burglaries. The crew turned all proceeds over to Ferriola and he paid each crew member $500 for his work. During this time Joe Ferriola became the Outfit’s underboss, he instructed all Outfit crews to extract a street tax from all independent bookmakers for the right to operate.</p>
<p>Although he was slightly built, 5 feet 8 inches tall and 145 pounds, Aleman became so feared in underworld circles in the 1970s that small time hoodlums trying to collect <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gambling" target="_blank">gambling</a> debts simply invoked his name to collect. Two Chicago loan sharks were convicted of extortion and sent to prison in 1978 for collecting a $6,500.00 debt from a South Side tavern owner by saying that Aleman would come after him if he didn't pay. Prosecutors said it was a ruse and Aleman was not involved in any way.</p>
<p>Harry the Hook teamed up with a childhood friend named Butch Petrocelli. The team hung out at the Survivors Athletic Club on Taylor street. This was the kind of mobster social club you see in the movies. The cappuccino machine was always going. In the winter the men sat around tables and talked or played cards. As the weather warmed up, by summertime, the dangerous looking inhabitants were standing out front wearing wife beaters or polo shirts and sansabelt slacks. Inside Petrocelli and Aleman developed skills as bombmakers by packing 2-inch pipes with black powder and a little nitroglycerine. These were used to get the attention of any businessman who refused to cooperate with the gang.</p>
<p>This duo first came to the attention of law enforcement in 1969. A painting contractor told <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=FBI" target="_blank">FBI</a> agents that he had lost $6,000.00 to an Outfit bookmaker and he had been threatened with death if he did not pay the “Vig” on the debt because they converted this debt to a juice loan. He had been accosted by two men who beat him up, threatened to bomb his house and kill his wife. The contractor planned to meet these two extortionists and make a payment and alert nearby agents. When he arrived at the preselected meeting spot, the agents caught Harry Aleman and Butch Petrocelli parked nearby. The victim identified them as the two men who had beat and threatened him. A grand jury was presented this evidence and no indictment was ever returned. This would not be the first case against Harry Aleman that just disappeared inside the Cook county judicial system.</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>READ: The Message:</strong> <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-message-dont-fuck-with" target="_blank"><strong>Don't Fuck With Mob Boss Antonino Accardo</strong></a></li>
</ul>
<p>Harry Aleman will never be a made guy and never be a boss, but he will become the leader of home invasion crews, hit teams, keep the Taylor Street’s Crew’s bookies in line and collect from loan shark victims who were behind.</p>
<p><em>The Chicago Tribune, Everybody Pays by Maurice Possley and Rick Kogan provided many of the material for this article.</em></p>
<p><span style="text-decoration:underline;font-size:12pt;"><strong>Also read:</strong></span></p>
<p><strong><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-hook-life-and-bloody-crimes-of-feared-chicago-mafia-enforcer" target="_blank">The Hook: Life and bloody crimes of feared Chicago Mafia enforcer Harry Aleman</a></strong><br /> <strong>The Hook – Part 2: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-hook-part-2-chicago-outfit-mobster-harry-aleman-murders-his-w" target="_blank">Chicago Outfit mobster Harry Aleman murders his way to power</a></strong><br /> <strong>The Hook – Part 3: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-hook-part-3-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-vicious-chicago-outf" target="_blank">The beginning of the end</a> for vicious Chicago Outfit hitman Harry Aleman</strong><br /> <strong>The Hook – Part 4: <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-hook-part-4-the-downfall-of-harry-aleman-chicago-s-most-feare" target="_blank">The downfall of Harry Aleman</a>, Chicago’s most feared hitman</strong></p>
<p><span style="font-size:12pt;"><strong>About the author:</strong></span></p>
<p><em>Gary Jenkins retired from the Kansas City Police Department in 1996 after a 25-year career. He then attended the UMKC School of Law and graduated in 2000. He was admitted to the Missouri Bar and continues to practice law today. He is a Board member of the Kansas City Police Pension System and The Jackson County Historical Society. During the past 10 years, he produced three documentary films. The first two were <a href="http://undergroundrailroadkansas.com/">Negroes To Hire: Slave Life in Antebellum Missouri</a> and <a href="http://undergroundrailroadkansas.com/">Freedom Seekers: Stories From the Western Underground Railroad</a>.</em></p>
<p><em><a href="https://ganglandwire.com/about-2/">Gangland Wire</a> is Jenkin's third documentary film. During Gary's KCPD career, he was assigned to the KCPD Intelligence Unit, investigating organized crime. In the 1970s, a grass roots development in the City Market area, became known as the River Quay. A Mafia dispute over parking rights and strip clubs would destroy the area. The resulting investigation will allow FBI agents to convict La Cosa Nostra leaders in Kansas City, Chicago, Cleveland and Milwaukee.</em></p>
<p><em>Additionally, Jenkins created a smartphone app titled <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kansas-city-mob-tour/id958652599?mt=8">Kansas City Mob Tour.</a> This app utilizing maps, text, photos and video conducts the user on a tour of famous Kansas City mob sites.</em></p>
<p><em>He produces and co-hosts a podcast titled <a href="https://ganglandwire.com/">Gangland Wire Crime Stories.</a> Using the audio podcast format, Jenkins tells true crime stories from his experience and obtains guests who have either committed crimes, investigated crimes or reported on criminals. </em></p>
<p><em>His most recent project is his book documenting the investigation into Las Vegas skimming activities. Jenkins uses actual wiretap transcripts to tell the story of this investigation. The book is titled</em> <a href="https://ganglandwire.com/store/"><em>Leaving Vegas: The True Story of How the F.B.I. Wiretaps Ended Mob Domination of Las Vegas Casinos.</em></a></p>
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East Hartford Genovese mobster John Barile gets 71 months for arson, fraud, gambling and extortion
https://gangstersinc.org/profiles/blogs/east-hartford-genovese-mobster-john-barile-gets-71-months-for-ars
2016-06-11T11:30:00.000Z
2016-06-11T11:30:00.000Z
Gangsters Inc.
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<div><p><a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/east-hartford-genovese-mobster-john-barile-gets-71-months-for-ars"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9237067468,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9237067468?profile=original" width="500" /></a>By David Amoruso</p>
<p>Reputed East Hartford wiseguy John A. Barile was sentenced to 71 months in prison on Thursday for arson, insurance fraud, gambling and extortion offenses. 52-year-old Barile has longstanding ties to the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-genovese-crime-family">Genovese family</a> crew in <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bruno-hit-how-the-genovese">Springfield</a>. His current crimes seem picked straight from the movie Goodfellas.</p>
<p>Together with an associate, Barile owned Enzo’s Restaurant and Lounge in Middletown. By 2009, Enzo’s was facing financial difficulty, and Barile began planning to cause a fire at the restaurant in order to collect the insurance proceeds. He informed his co-owner about the plan and began consulting with others on how to start the fire to make it look like an accident.</p>
<p>On the evening of January 9, 2010, Barile and several others got together to discuss the fire at Enzo’s. They planned it for the next morning. Barile placed greasy rags in the kitchen around the fryolators and applied grease to the kitchen walls. Later in the evening, after the restaurant had closed, a fire began in the kitchen. Rather than extinguishing the fire, Barile transferred the fire to one or more of the greasy rags. He then let the place burn as he himself left the restaurant.</p>
<p>Later, he sought payment from an insurance company for losses suffered as a result of the fire, and concealed his role in causing the fire from the insurance company and law enforcement. The insurance company ultimately paid $189,787.69 to the scamming wiseguy to settle the insurance claims related to the fire.</p>
<p>A sum he now has to pay back as part of his guilty plea.</p>
<p>The insurance fraud was just one of many illegal rackets, Barile had going on. From 2010 through till early 2014, he also conducted an illegal sports-related bookmaking operation. This illegal <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gambling">gambling business</a> involved at least five other people including sub-bookmakers. During this period, this was his main source of income. At times, the gambling business grossed more than $2,000 per day.</p>
<p>One bettor who repeatedly placed bets with Barile’s <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gambling">gambling business</a> eventually owed him approximately $50,000 from unpaid gambling losses. On November 8, 2011, Barile and two associates met the bettor at a parking lot in Hartford. At the meeting, the mobster tased the bettor with a Taser or similar device in order to punish him for not paying his debts and enforce <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Extortion">collection</a> of the payment.</p>
<p>In February of this year, Barile pleaded guilty to one count of arson, one count of mail fraud, one count of conducting an illegal gambling business and one count of collecting an extension of credit by extortionate means.</p>
<p>He was released on a $350,000 bond and placed under electronic monitoring. He is ordered to report to prison on July 12, 2016.</p>
<p>This isn’t the first time Barile’s mob crimes got him in trouble. In 1997, he was convicted for conspiring to violate the federal RICO Act and contempt of court stemming from his involvement in an Mafia-controlled <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blog/list?tag=Gambling">illegal gambling business</a>.</p>
<p>He ended up serving 2 and a half years.</p>
<p>That time, he was one of over a dozen Genovese family mobsters charged with gambling and loansharking, including leaders Anthony Volpe and Francesco Scibelli. Another interesting name on the list of indicted mobsters was <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bruno-hit-how-the-genovese">Adolfo Bruno</a>, then just a soldier, he eventually would become capo of the <a href="http://gangstersinc.ning.com/profiles/blogs/the-bruno-hit-how-the-genovese">Genovese family’s Springfield crew</a> only to fall victim to a power struggle.</p>
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