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Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins brings you the best in mob history with his unique perception of the mafia. In this episode, we delve into the intriguing life of Charles “Chucky” Nicoletti, a notorious Chicago Outfit hitman known for his involvement in numerous mob hits and his alleged ties to significant events like the JFK assassination. Nicoletti’s background is painted with a turbulent upbringing, including shooting his father in self-defense, leading him to join the infamous 42 Gang alongside other notorious mob figures. His partnership with Milwaukee Phil Alderisio solidified his reputation as a feared hitter in Chicago.
The episode explores Nicoletti’s involvement in high-profile hits, such as targeting the M&M brothers, which involved brutal torture methods made infamous in the movie “Casino.” His cold-hearted demeanor earned him the nickname “Typewriter,” though the moniker’s origin remains a mystery. Nicoletti’s demise came in 1977 when he was ruthlessly gunned down in his Oldsmobile in a suburban parking lot, suspected of being a part of internal mob conflicts as critical figures like Giancana, Richard Cain, and Mad Sam DeStefano faced similar fates.
The narrative weaves through the intricate web of Chicago mob connections, hinting at ties to CIA operations, the JFK assassination, and the plot to kill Castro. The episode speculates on the possible motives behind Nicoletti’s assassination, pointing to shifting allegiances within the Outfit after the deaths of influential figures like Giancana and Ricca. The mysterious circumstances surrounding Nicoletti’s death, coupled with the demise of critical associates, emphasize the dangerous and volatile world of organized crime in Chicago during that era.
Throughout the episode, the host reflects on the broader implications of Nicoletti’s story, urging caution on the roads and highlighting resources for PTSD, addiction, and seeking help. As the podcast delves deep into the underworld of Chicago mob history, the legacy of figures like Chucky Nicoletti serves as a chilling reminder of the ruthless nature of organized crime and its far-reaching consequences.
#chicagooutfit #tonyaccardo #samgiancana #mafia #underboss #organizedcrimegroups
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Transcript
[0:00]
Introduction
[0:00]Well, hey, all you wiretappers out there back here in the studio of Gangland Wire. This is Gary Jenkins, retired Kent City Police intelligence detective, here to bring you another mafia biography. You know, I’ve been doing these short bios to make sure everybody, when we talk about, we mention a name, you know, you have some place to go to say, hey, let’s look back on the website or because there’ll be like the whole transcript will be on the website and the synopsis of what I’m about to say about whatever mobster it is that I’m discussing. So we’re going to go to Chicago Outfit. In the 1960s, there was a man by the name of Charles Chucky Nicoletti, who was questioned by some FBI agents, one of whom was Bill Romer, Bill Romer Jr., who you all know, or a lot of you outfit guys will have heard of Bill Bill Romer, the FBI agent, he wrote several books, and he’s often cussed and discussed about how truthful he is in his books. He probably does use a little literary devices, a little literary license, as we say, to make a story come together and make it a little bit better, but tried to turn him as an informant.
[1:14]And according to Romer, Chucky, the typewriter Senator Nicoletti gave him the names of several car dealerships that he worked at. He was very cordial and went back out. They checked all the employment leads and there was always somebody there to say, oh, yeah, he worked there. And he never flipped on anybody and never talked to the FBI after that. Other than, I suppose, you know, maybe say, hi, these guys will always drop by somebody’s house or their place of employment or their business or see them on the street and just start trying to talk to them.
[1:47]Eventually, there was some information in Chicago that he flipped. I just don’t know. And, you know, during the 1960s, Chicago Tribune did report on Nick Letty meeting on a regular basis with the chief of police of the Chicago suburb of Melrose Park, where I believe he lived. The chief, Dominic Simono, had been born and raised in Melrose Park, so they probably knew each other. And he came up through the ranks of that department, been a sergeant, and eventually became the chief when the old longtime chief had resigned or retired, rather. Chicago Tribune reporters at the time, the Tribune was, they were like all over the place on these mob guys up in Chicago. They found that he was meeting him on a real regular basis at the same place as actually it was a weekly Slicker Sam’s Bar in Melrose Park. Now, Slicker Sam’s was a mob-associated owned bar. a guy named Sam Slick. Rosa owned this barn and nothing really seemed to come out of this discovery. They never brought up, got anything on this chief of police, Sinemono. They did find he once appeared in a traffic court and put a good word in for another low level outfit guy who was there on a speeding ticket, you know, like big time corruption there. This is just one of the many, many instances where the Chicago outfit and some police, law enforcement, you know, prosecutor, judge.
[3:07]Lawyers, you know, had some professional or not professional, friendly sort of relationship, and they knew each other. You know, a lot of it is a lot of people like to gamble. And Chicago Outfit were the, you know, they ran all the gambling. It was pretty open in many ways. In Chicago, especially like the horse races, and they had off-track betting. If you wanted to go throw money down on the horse race up at Arlington, You had a mob guy or sports betting, of course. So that’s a lot of where meet them in bars. That’s a lot of where that interaction in mid-level, lower-level criminal justice system, people and governmental officials might hook up with mob guys. It was more of a friendly kind of a thing. Now, Nick Letty, it’s been alleged over his lifetime he was involved in as many as 20 mob hits. In 2010, Playboy magazine published an article by a guy named Hillel Levin, and he implicated Chuckie Nicoletti in the assassination of President Kennedy, JFK’s assassination. And there was a guy who was an inmate in the Illinois Department of Corrections named James Files at the time, had gotten somebody’s attention and was making these allegations. Now to go back a little bit.
[4:22]Nicoletti was born like 19, 1916, I believe, in Chicago. He was, grew up, his parents were Italian immigrants from Sicily. They lived on the, what we call the near west side, you know, close to downtown. That’s kind of where I think the patch is over there on the west side and close to downtown. And an interesting sidelight, Chucky Nicoletti shot his father four times in self-defense. His father was a drunkard and had attacked Chucky many times during his young life. And he was pursuing him with a knife. And he got to the gun that they had stashed in a desk drawer, a bedroom, you know, a sock drawer or something, and turned around and shot his father four times and killed him. And he was exonerated by the coroner’s office. They just had a coroner’s inquest and said, you know, self-defense.
[5:11]
The 42 Gang
[5:11]He dropped out of school and he joined the 42 gang. Now, the 42 gang, I’ve said this many times. I always like to remind you guys that it’s not because there’s 42 members. It was because they said that Alibaba and the 40 Thieves was 41 and they wanted to have one more than Alibaba’s gang. So they were the 42 gang. Everybody came up through that.
[5:32]Teach Battaglia, Lou Farrell, actually Louis Fratto, Matt Sam Distefano, Willie Potatoes Dadano, Sam Giancana. I mean, all these guys came up through that 42 gang, it seemed like. He hooked up with Felix Alderacio, Milwaukee Phil. And this pair was like the most feared pair of hitters in Chicago.
[5:57]They were the guys that the Chicago police caught sitting in a hit car and had. There was pictures of the paper and the paper of it. They had these hidden compartments for guns. It was like a 62 Ford, I believe. And they’re running surveillance on somebody. And it was about the time they were. Getting ready to take out the M&M brothers or the M&M friends, Jimmy Moraglia and Billy McCarthy. They had killed a couple of outfit associate guys for actually no reason. Somehow, for some reason, I don’t remember the exact reason, Ocardo said they got to go. Milwaukee Phil Aldericio and Chucky Nicoletti, and they recruited Tony Spilotro. The Ant Spilotro kidnapped these two guys. You know, there’s a famous story where Frank Culotta said that he helped set up a rally, I believe, for Spolatro. He said, I didn’t know what they were going to do with these guys. He said, I thought they just wanted to talk to them. But he said they got set up and that’s where they got McCarthy first. The famous scene out of Casino where Tony Spolatro has a man’s head in a vice and he’s squeezing it. Well, that really happened here. Here, Tony Spilotro put Billy McCarthy’s head in a vice and squeezed it and squeezed it, and one eye popped out of his socket.
[7:16]They say just as he gave up the name, that was a story he told Collada, I believe. And another saying that came out of this is Collada will say that Spolatro told him that Nicoletti was such a cold-hearted dude that he was sitting over at the side while they were doing this torture, eating a plate of spaghetti, you know, just as the eyeball pops out. He said, man, he said, this is a heartless dude. So if anybody knows about how Nicoletti got his nickname, the typewriter, let me know. But needless to say, this is a little overview of the kind of cases that he
[7:52]
Nicoletti’s Downfall
[7:49]was involved in in Chicago for the outfit. You know, maybe they made up this story about him starting to snitch or something, but he got on the outs. And in 1977, he’s sitting in his Oldsmobile in the parking lot of the Golden Horns restaurant in suburban North Lake, Illinois. Somebody walked up and shot him three times in the back of the head. I don’t know whether they got him to look the other way or somebody was already in the back seat of the car.
[8:16]There wasn’t any witnesses to this. It’s just another mob hit where he killed him in his car, which is a good deal because all the evidence is inside the car. While he sat there dead, his car kept running. It overheated and actually caught on fire. And the newspapers got there. When the firemen got there and then they found the dead body in there and they figured out it was a mob hit, the newspapers at first reported it was a firebomb, but he was shot and the car bar just overheated and started burning. It was a real story on that. You know, what’s another interesting coincidence and weird coincidence, you know, I mentioned about this whole JFK implication and some guy in the prison, you know, drops his name. Well, there was another guy named George D.
[9:02]Morinshilt, something like that. It’s kind of a hard name, who was called to testify in front of the committee investigating the assassination. And he got killed on the same day that Nicoletti got killed.
[9:18]
Conspiracy Theories
[9:15]So, you know, go figures. Truth is stranger than fiction sometimes. Most people would believe that Iupa actually not.
[9:23]Ricardo ordered the murder of Nicoletti because Nicoletti was really closely aligned with Giancana. And, you know, they murdered Giancana already in the famous murder where he’s in his basement cooking sausages and peppers. And the guy, the caretaker at the house, goes down and finds him dead down there. Most people claim that I think Butch Blossie probably did that, who was a real close friend of Giancana. Giancana, Nicoletti, Sam Distefano were all closely aligned with Paul Ricca. Well, Paul Ricca dies, and this little clique loyal to Paul Rica starts getting knocked off like crazy. You know, Richard Cain. Richard Cain got shot in a sandwich shop, and he was a longtime Giancana associate. He had ran messages back and forth when he was down in Mexico. And, you know, Richard Cain had another interesting sidelight. He had connections to the CIA and to the JFK assassination and to this whole plot to kill Castro. So there’s a lot of smoke in there. How much fire there is, I don’t know, around the Castro killing, the JFK assassination, and this clique of Paul Rica, Sam Giancana, Richard Cain, Chuck Nicoletti, all those guys. You know, I don’t know. Now, a lot of people will say, and I think Bill Romer
[10:41]
Burial and Final Thoughts
[10:38]claimed that Harry Aleman was the hitman in that. So who knows? So that’s the story about Chuck, the typewriter Nicoletti, a Chicago outfit hitman.
[10:48]He’s buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillsdale, Illinois. You know, I like to ride motorcycles. So don’t forget, guys, I like to ride motorcycles. So if you’re out there on the streets in your car, look out for motorcycles. If you have a problem with PTSD and you’ve been in the service, be sure and go to the VA website and get that hotline number. And hand-in-hand with PTSD goes drug and alcohol addiction. addiction? Well, former Gambino soldier, Anthony Ruggiano has a hotline on his website and I believe his YouTube channel. And he also is a drug and alcohol counselor down in Florida. So maybe you can have him as your drug and alcohol counselor. Wouldn’t that be something? Don’t forget to like and subscribe, reach out and touch us on our Facebook group. We’ve got 30,000 people on it. There’s a lot of interesting conversations. I always watch stuff that’s on there and comment. And I have a couple other administrators that help me with that. So, you know, just get involved with Gangland Wire. I really appreciate all your support over the last several years. We’re coming up on our, I want to say, eighth year maybe this next year. For sure seventh, but I think it’s our eighth year this next year. It’s been a ride, and we’re going to keep it going. Thanks, guys.