Federal authorities in Illinois are probing cold-case Chicago mob murders, including the 1977 Chuckie Nicoletti hit and the 1983 Allen Dorfman hit, according to sources in Windy City law enforcement. The fresh look at the unsolved gangland slayings is part of a multi-agency investigation into the Chicago Outfit’s West Side and Cicero regimes, per these sources.
The 61-year old Nicoletti, a veteran mob assassin himself – linked by some to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy –, was shot to death in the parking lot of a suburban Chicago restaurant on March 29, 1977. Dorfman, an insurance magnate and gatekeeper to the robust, mobbed up Teamsters union pension fund, was gunned down in the parking lot of a suburban Chicago hotel on January 20, 1983, weeks away from being imprisoned for racketeering offenses.
When he was slain, Nicoletti was under subpoena to testify in front of the U.S. Senate about the Kennedy assassination. He had been the top muscle for deposed Chicago Godfather Sam Giancana, executed in his kitchen two years earlier. The Dorfman hit was depicted in the 1995 movie Casino, with comedian Alan King portraying the 60-year old second-generation mob associate.
The feds have been investigating the West Siders, known as the Grand Avenue crew, and their alleged leader, captain Albert (Albie the Falcon) Vena since 2013. Vena is alleged to be the Outfit’s street boss, reporting directly to reputed Chicago mafia don Salvatore (Solly D) DeLaurentis of the Cicero crew’s Lake County wing. Longtime Windy City mob player James (Jimmy I) Inendino allegedly runs the Cicero regime these days.
Vena, DeLaurentis and Inendino are all convicted felons who have been suspects in homicides before. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Inendino, 75 today, was part of the so-called “Wild Bunch,” an enforcement subunit within the Outfit tasked with high-priority murder assignments. DeLaurentis, 80, and Vena, 69, both beat murder raps in court in the 1990s.
Vena’s name has popped up in the Dorfman murder before. His build and appearance matched witness descriptions of one of the two triggermen involved and when news of the current federal inquiry broke three years ago, the Dorfman hit was mentioned as possibly playing a role in what authorities were putting under the microscope. Per people familiar with the current federal probe into his activities past and present, Vena is being eyed for his role in other mob hits besides just Dorfman’s slaying.
The post GR EXCLUSIVE: Chicago Mafia’s Grand Ave. & Cicero Crews Getting Glimpses From Feds For Old Outfit Murders appeared first on The Gangster Report.