November 6, 2021 — The Detroit mob tried muscling in on Chicago Outfit affairs in Northwest Indiana back in the 1980s resulting in a sitdown held in Calumet City, Illinois , per FBI and federal court filings.
In early 1987, Detroit mafia captain Tony (The Bull) Corrado began pressing a pair of Jewish Northwest Indiana bookmakers, Arnold (Arnie the Jew) Bard and Sheldon (Shelly the Whale) Fishman, for protection money. The problem for Corrado was that Bard and Fishman were both already paying protection to the mob in Chicago and had been for years. Racket territory in Northwest Indiana has always been controlled by the Chicago Outfit, dating back to the Capone days during Prohibition.
Bernard (Snooky) Morgano ran the Outfit’s activities in Northwest Indiana, just across the border from Chicago’s far South suburbs, in the late 1980s. Morgano reported to Dominick (Tootsie) Palermo of the Outfit’s Chicago Heights crew. Palermo held court most afternoons at the Taste of Italy restaurant in Calumet City, less than 10 miles north of the Indiana-Illinois border.
At the time he approached Bard and Fishman, the near 400-pound Tony Corrado ran the Tocco-Zerilli crime family’s Midtown Detroit crew. He was introduced to Bard and Fishman separately in Las Vegas.
Bard went to Snooky Morgano on behalf of himself and Fishman in March of 1987. The following month, on April 16, Corrado traveled from Detroit to Illinois and met with Morgano and Tootsie Palermo at the Taste of Italy Restaurant — he agreed to back off his extortion efforts towards Bard and Fishman and returned to Detroit the same day.
The post Butting Heads In The Hoosier State: Detroit & Chicago Mob Families Faced Off For NW Indiana Gambling Turf In ‘87 appeared first on The Gangster Report.