Gangland Murders, 1977
According to Chicago Crime Commission records, there were sixteen gangland murders throughout the Chicago area in 1977. That was the worst year since 1935, when there were seventeen gangland murders throughout the Chicago area.
In brief, the victims:
Feb. 12 - James Villarreal, age 24, found stabbed to death in an alley
Feb. 12 - Sam Rivera, age 27, fatally shot in a tavern (his wife was also wounded)
Mar. 4 - Patrick Marusarz, age 21, shot five times while playing cards with three others
Mar. 15 - Henry Cosentino, age 52, found in a car trunk, missing since end of Jan.
Mar. 29 - Chuckie Nicoletti, age 60, shot three times in the back of the head in his car
Apr. 4 - John Lourgos, age 53, gunned down with a shotgun
June 13 - Richard Ferraro, age 36, reported missing following day, never found
June 14 - Thomas McCarthy, age 37, found in a car trunk, shot in the back of the head
June 15 - Joseph Theo, age 33, found in the back seat of a car, shotgunned in the head, disappeared two days earlier
July 3 - John Schneider, age 27, shot in the head, wrapped in plastic, found in car trunk, went missing end of June
July 12 - Earl Abercrombie Jr., age 34, shot twice in the head, found in car trunk, disappeared five days earlier
July 13 - Morris Saletko, age 63, shot to death, found in car trunk
July 22 - Mark Thanasouras, age 49, cut down by shotgun blasts while walking with a woman friend
July 25 - Sam Annerino, age 34, blown away in the street by five blasts of a shotgun
Aug. 25 - James Palaggi, age 44, found in the back of his van, shot, wrapped in plastic, missing for a week
Dec. 13 - Leo Filippi, age 43, found lying on the floarboard of a car’s back seat, shot to death
Sixteen murders. No arrests, no convictions.
Only in Chicago.
Copyright © 2010, 2011 | J.P. Rich Off The Cuff. All rights reserved.
17 Comments
1/17/13 
17 Comments:
what a hit on Chuckie the Typewriter. three .38s up close, then they firebombed his car.
You are right about how Nicoletti was killed. He was shot three times in the back of the head from the back seat. However, his car overheated because he hadn't cut the engine when he was shot and it kept running after his killers fled the scene. So it wasn't firebombed. That's actually how they found him when the fire department arrived to put out the fire. He was still alive when he was found. He lived like seven hours before dying in a hospital. By the way, thanks for commenting.
Sam Rivera, he was my dad and i didn't get to meet him. Not long ago I met his wife n my brother who died recently of leukemia and my sister who still lives in chicago. After 29 years i finally got to meet them but i still got that part in my heart missing about my dad and thats how i came accross this website. Looking for his name and answers
Although it was never brought up (to my knowledge) at the Family Secrets case trial, his death may have had something to do with the murder of Henry Cosentino, one of the Family Secrets murder victims. Your father's alleged friend, Jimmy Villarreal, was a friend of Cosentino's. When Cosentino disappeared (he was later found in a car trunk in a police auto pound), Villarreal tried to find out what happened to him. He walked into an Outfit-run bar with a shotgun looking for answers. No one told him anything, and he left. The Outfit no doubt killed Villarreal for that. The same night Villarreal was found stabbed in an alley, is when your father was fatally shot in the tavern, along with the wounding of his wife. The Chicago Crime Commission only noted that your father was Villarreal's friend, which only leads one to assume they thought his death was related to Villarreal's death. However, his death may have had nothing to do with Villarreal's death.
Sam Annerino was gunned down in broad
daylight with a dozen witness in front of Mirrabelli Furniture store.
Mirrabelli had lost big playing golf a few week earlier and it seems he was not paying up fast enough. A few weeks after the murder the store was
closed. Apparently he got the message.
Lived 3 doors down on 106th st from Mirrabelli furniture and heard the shots as a 6 year old boy.
Fascinating site. Thanks tons for your work.
Big shots are only little shots who keep shooting. See the link below for more info.
#shots
www.ufgop.org
I WORKED for Roger Croach ,South Calument motorS.
I always enjoy outfit tales. This is a great site and I wish that more stories would follow. I thoroughly enjoyed.
I always enjoy outfit tales. This is a great site and I wish that more stories would follow. I thoroughly enjoyed.
He was crying on the 18th green
The car was running when he "departed" and overheated while idling and caught fire.
Jimmy Villarreal was my uncle. His death occurred before I was born in '79. I asked my father once about his murder but I immediately could tell it was too difficult to discuss his brother. So here I am coming across bits of information online. Ironically my mother passed (naturally) 20 years later on the same date. Something I did not know until just now.
I knew your mother she use to cut hair in beauty shop on Clark St in Chicago
dated a nice pretty girl worked at a hot dog stand She was crying one eve when I came by I Said your too pretty to cry like that I need a model for a Trade show Can you hand out literature at MCCormick place for 6 hr 100 dollars We pick you up Drop you off She was So happy Three days later we are dating and she said I should tell you my ex boy friend is coming around again He is Very violent and want to break your face up HE was Rich Ferraro son of the Junk yard owner,,, he never came around Ended up OD'ing on some junk MOuthy Punk no go all show...
Finally I keep trying to find information on my grandfather. Thomas McCarthy; I can never find any information on anything of him and most of my mother's family have passed. So I don't even have any living relatives except my grandmother and she doesn't talk about him. Except that he was shot and killed in O'Hare airport and left in his car
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