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In Chicago, the combination of federal pressure and a new challenge to family discipline by Mafia underlings and independent bookies has led to three Mob executions since Jan. 10. Investigators contend that the murders were sanctioned by four aging Windy City Mafia chieftains as they spent the Christmas season in the warmth of a Palm Springs, Calif., retreat. The four, according to investigators, were Accardo, 79, the longtime Chicago boss, who suffers from cancer and heart trouble; Joseph Aiuppa, 77, the operating chief, who has a bad heart and is rumored to suffer from throat cancer; John (Jackie) Cerone, 70, the Chicago underboss, who has been indicted with Aiuppa for allegedly skimming Las Vegas casino profits; and Joseph ("Joe Nagaul") Ferriola, 58, who heads the Mob's gambling operations in Chicago and has had heart-bypass surgery.
Ferriola, who apparently aspired to rule the Chicago empire, carried some complaints to his aging superiors. A Mob source told an investigator that Ferriola said, "Things are coming apart in Chicago and something has to be done about it." Some of the syndicate's bookies were holding back too much of the profits. One such deadbeat, Ferriola declared, was Leonard Yaras, the North Side betting boss. "Yaras has to go," Ferriola said. "He's putting our money in his pocket." Another sports bookie, Hal Smith, was said not to be giving the Mob any cut at all. According to the Mob source, Ferriola contended that Charles (Chuckie) English, 70, once an aide to former Chicago Boss Sam Giancana, was trying to regain the power he had lost after Giancana was killed in 1975. Complained Ferriola: "Chuckie's been bad-mouthing me all over Chicago. He tells everyone who will listen what a bunch of bums we are."
Ferriola's bosses were apparently sympathetic. On Jan. 10 Yaras was sitting in his car near Rogers Park in Chicago, where he normally collected the Mob's cut from bookies, when two gunmen opened fire, killing him. On Feb. 10 Smith's body was found in the trunk of his car in suburban Arlington Heights, Ill. He had been brutally beaten, and his throat was cut. On Feb. 13 English finished a roast pig dinner at Horwath's restaurant in Elmwood Park, Ill., trading small talk for more than two hours with, among others, two Cook County judges and two village trustees. He patted his stomach, hitched up his belt, waved goodbye and walked toward his white Cadillac De Ville coupe. As he reached for the car door, two men wearing ski masks pumped five shots into his body, one hitting him between his eyes.
More such Mob executions are expected elsewhere. "With so many of them facing heavy indictments," says one investigator, "they can't run the risk of anybody talking. So they've been buying insurance." Said another: "There are a lot of scared hoods out in the street wondering if they are next."