THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER: DIFRONZO BROTHERS SLIPPED OUT OF FEDS’ GRASP IN FAILED CHICAGO MOB STING

Scott Burnstein, Chicago and Featured and Mafia and Mafia Insider and Midwest

December 8, 2020 – Operation Red October wasn’t to be. The DiFronzo brothers dodged a bullet and remained at the forefront of organized crime in Chicago instead.

ABC Channel 7 TV News in Chicago and Chicago mob expert Jack Binder broke the news of the fruitless joint CPD and FBI investigation into the DiFronzo brothers that began in 1995 and never resulted in any arrests Monday night. Award-winning investigative journalist Chuck Goudie helmed ABC 7’s coverage containing never-before-seen surveillance photos and FBI pyramid charts of the era.

Peter (Greedy Petey) DiFronzo died of complications from the Coronavirus last Friday at 87. His older brother, the sly John (Johnny No Nose) DiFronzo, died of Alzheimer’s Disease two years ago after heading the Chicago mafia for the better half of three decades.

Greedy Petey DiFronzo was his big bro’s right-hand man and for years ran the Outfit’s Elmwood Park regime from his headquarters at D&P Construction in Melrose Park owned by his wife. He did 8 and a half years in federal prison for a 1965 truck hijacking conviction. Per sources, the DiFronzo brothers were often known to employ the “good-cop, bad-cop” routine on unsuspecting extortion targets, with No Nose being the politicly agile “good cop” and the beefier, more physically intimidating Greedy Petey being the “bad cop.”

In 1995, No Nose DiFronzo was fresh off a reversal of his federal racketeering conviction stemming from the shaking down of an Indian reservation in California which almost derailed his rein as Godfather of the Chicago mob. His main Elmwood Park emissary and eventual consigliere Marco (The Mover) D’Amico had just been busted and was off the streets dealing with his own federal racketeering pinch, so DiFronzo and his baby bro themselves were asserting more authority and employing a more hands-on approach in the management of the Elmwood Park crew at the time the feds opened the Operation Red October investigation.

Jack Binder, the preeminent author and researcher on Chicago Outfit affairs both current and historic, showed Goudie and the viewers photos of the two DiFronzo brothers on a “walk-and-talk” meeting in 1996 in Elmwood Park snapped by FBI agents and a chart from the doomed Operation Red October of the Outfit’s administration during the mid-1990s showing No Nose DiFronzo as the organization’s No. 1 shot caller and Greedy Petey as his No. 1 “messenger.”

The no-frills chart identified Joey (The Clown) Lombardo as No Nose DiFronzo’s consigliere and Joe (The Builder) Andriacchi as his underboss. Lombardo died last year in prison at 89 serving a life sentence for his role in the landmark 2005 Operation Family Secrets bust. Andriacchi, 88, is alleged to still play a role in Outfit leadership today. D’Amico, who took the consigliere post upon Lombardo getting shipped behind bars, died back in the spring.

Along with Joe the Builder, the DiFronzo brothers avoided entanglement in the Family Secrets case. No Nose DiFronzo was implicated as taking part in multiple gangland murder conspiracies in court filings and testimony, however, never had to answer for them in a court of law. Greedy Petey DiFronzo was listed in court documents as one of the people the federal government believed were a physical threat to Family Secrets’ star witness, Southside crew hitman Nick (Nicky Slim) Calabrese.

Family Secrets concluded in a slew of convictions and cleared a dozen cold-case murders with guilty verdicts in a flashbulb frenzy of a 2007 trial. Rumors of the DiFronzo brothers getting roped into a so-called “Family Secrets 2” indictment never materialized.

Goudie and his cameraman caught No Nose DiFronzo coming out of a lunch meeting with his brother and other Outfit lieutenants at the Loon Cafe in 2008. When Goudie inquired if the mob don worried about being arrested in Family Secrets 2, a coy and toothpick chomping DiFronzo responded that he didn’t and drove off in his SUV.

Poster Comment:

Though I was just a small time hood on the northwest side of Chicago, reading up on this gangster stuff helps to bring back memories of growing up in Chicago after the meningitis wiped out so much memory.

Congress passing RICO effectively cut the mob off at the knees since just being associated with others to be involved in conspiracies to commit crimes, such as running numbers rackets (bookies) and other extortion activities, really put a crimp in their activities.