Giuseppe (Joe Lo) Lolordo

Giuseppe (Joe Lo) Lolordo was a DeCavalcante capo, born in Ribera, who got his start under the auspices of Chicago's Al Capone and served as a bodyguard to Chicago mob heavyweight, Tony Lombardo. Lolordo was suspected of being a gunman in the infamous St. Valentine's Massacre in 1929 after his brother, Pasqualino, was killed during a transition of power.

Giuseppe (Joe Lo) Lolordo - aka Joseph Lolordo, Joe Lordo, Joseph Lo Lord, and Peppino Lolordo - was born in the little town of Ribera, in the Agrigento province of Sicily back on January 3, 1898.

After immigrating to this country in April 1914, he resided in Manhattan at 423 East 18th Street. By the late 1920s, he had moved right over the “59th Street Bridge,” out to the Astoria area of Queens County.

Joseph Lolordo.

In 1923, he married an American-born Italian girl named Anna (nee’ Cascio,) born in 1901, and together they raised one son named Vincent, who was born to them in 1924. In 1965, agents noted that his son had become a doctor. Vincent graduated from NYU and resided at 900 Park Avenue in Manhasset, Long Island, one of the wealthiest suburbs in the New York area.

Informants reported to the FBI that Joe Lolordo was also thought to have been a brother-in-law to former boss Filippo (Big Phil) Amari, who headed this Cosa Nostra network from the 1930s through 1958 before retiring to Ribera, Sicily.

The Chicago Connection

There are conflicting reports about when Lolordo moved to Chicago with his family as a child. But the family did migrate there, where both he and his older brother Pasqualino (Patsy) rose to become top members of the Al Capone mob.

Pasqualino Lolordo became a recognized top mafia member and racketeer in the Chicago area. He was also documented as attending the 1928 national summit of Sicilian mafia leaders at the Hotel Statler in Cleveland, Ohio, which the Cleveland Police Department raided.

Pasqualino Lolordo

Several incidents would encourage Lolordo to head back East permanently. The first was the machine-gun attack on him and two of his closest associates in broad daylight on a Chicago street. The next was the murder of his brother, Patsy. The third was the infamous 1929 Saint Valentine’s Day murder of seven members of the Bugs Moran gang. Lolordo was alleged to have been one of the gunmen behind those "Chicago Choppers" (machine guns) that fateful morning in that damp Clark Street garage.

Lolordo was said to have pled with Al Capone to go on that bloody assignment so he could avenge his brother's killing, which was thought to have been the dirty work of the Moran Gang. It is said that Capone extended him that "honor" to exact revenge on Pasqualino's killers.

Pasqualino was killed in his home while making a toast with his guests.

After the 1929 "massacre," Joe Lolordo became a prime police suspect, so he took it "on the lam" back to New York City. But after an intense, months-long manhunt for the three alleged killers, Joe eventually turned himself into the authorities.

Chicago Police repeatedly grilled him about the homicides, but he eventually beat the case on a "lack of evidence" and was released.

Lolordo was said to have originally gotten his start under the auspices of Capone and the Chicago mob, and it was believed he was a personal bodyguard of boss Antonio (Tony) Lombardo.

Tony Lombardo's body is carried from the hospital.

He was one of two bodyguards accompanying Lombardo as he was walking on a busy street in Chicago's Loop on August 9, 1928, when assassins opened a volley of machine gun fire on the three hoods. Lombardo was caught in the head and died instantly. Joseph Ferraro, Lombardo's other bodyguard, was shot twice in the back. Lolordo was chasing the killers down the street, shooting at them when police arrested him. He was charged with gun possession and jailed.

It was alleged that Bugs Moran ordered the killing because Lombardo had refused to turn over his seat on the Unione Siciliana to rival, Joe Aiello.

Joseph Ferraro

Joe's brother Pasqualino was killed on January 8, 1929, in his home while he was entertaining. The gunmen, though never identified, were guests of his that evening. Pasqualino had just been voted in to take Lombardo's spot as chapter president of the Unione Siciliana. And like Lombardo, Bugs Moran had ordered the killing. Thus, why Joe Lolordo settled his score on February 14, 1929.

These two incidents are what drove Lolordo to kill those seven members of the Moran Gang on February 14.

Back to New York

After all that mess, Joe Lolordo decided to leave the Windy City for good and relocated back to the Big Apple. By the 1930s, he was firmly settled back into the Astoria section of Queens where he resided in a first-floor apartment with his wife Anna, and his father-in-law Vito Cascio.

This was a private residence located at 23-03 32nd Street. His son Vincent J. Lolordo became a practicing dentist with an office located at 30-09 Broadway in Astoria.

Joe Lolordo

Lolordo stood about 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed 165 pounds. He had a dark complexion, dark brown eyes, and black hair, which turned mostly gray by the 1960s. Authorities also noted that he had a thin scar that ran across his forehead.

Back on May 15, 1919, he became naturalized as a U.S. citizen at the New York Supreme Court Building. His naturalization application listed his name as Joseph Lo Lord and that he had served in the U.S. Army between June 6, 1917, and January 5, 1919.

An interesting side note is that although he was honorably discharged from the Armed Services, he had faced summary court-martial on several occasions for Army infractions. One was for being AWOL for one week from December 29, 1918, to January 4, 1919. He was sentenced to two weeks of hard labor and forfeited two-thirds of his military pay for one month.

A second incident led to his being tried and convicted in another summary court-martial on January 12, 1919, for contracting venereal disease during the same period. He was sentenced to be confined to his camp for three months.

True to His Name

It seems that “Joe Lo” ended up with the proper underworld nickname, as he was known as a very low-keyed old-timer. In keeping with his profile, in 1964, FBI agents noted that their already 67-year-old target drove a medium-priced, 1963 Blue Mercury sedan, and lived quietly in a working-middle-class neighborhood.

By 1966, Lolordo was retired and collecting a pension from Local #394 of the Hod Carriers Union, whose headquarters was located at 657 Marshall Street in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Although technically listed as a laborer, he was considered to have been very influential in the affairs of this union.

Joe Lolordo talks to detectives in 1928.

In 1965, he listed employment with the Glenwall Construction Company at the General Motors Plant in Linden, New Jersey. His position was that of a labor foreman and shop steward representing his union local.

At the time, several top FBI informant sources also identified Lolordo as a senior member and very influential “capo di decina” in the New Jersey-based Sam DeCavalcante Family. It seems that Lolordo thrived during the tenure of Family boss Filippo (Big Phil) Amari, as well as under his successors Nick Delmore and Delmore’s nephew, Sam DeCavalcante .

After Sam the Plumber assumed the leadership in 1964, the FBI documented that Lolordo was one of only two ‘capo di decina’ operating crews in the New York City area for their borgata.

During this same period, he was known to frequent and hang out at several locations, including the Laborers Union Hall of Local #394 in Elizabeth. Joe also generally hung out and operated from a private mob social club based in Astoria, which was a nondescript storefront with blacked-out windows from which various mob figures and neighborhood denizens congregated to play cards, drink expresso, and converse.

The club was operated by the Giacobbe brothers and was one of the acknowledged headquarters of the DeCavalcante Family’s New York faction. There were two similar private mob social clubs in South Brooklyn operated by soldier Umberto (Vadoo) Gallo , and another by capo Frank (Frankie Coch) Cocchiaro.

Sam the Plumber Tapes

The aging mafioso’s name became somewhat prominent again in the late 1960s when the infamous "Sam the Plumber tapes" were released to the news media and general public. The FBI had installed a hidden microphone in the plumbing company office of DeCavalcante and recorded every word spoken between the mob boss and his associates.

During a criminal case DeCavalcante was fighting in court, his lawyers requested all evidence be presented to better defend their client. This gave the government carte blanche to expose him as a Mafia leader. On those tapes, Sam had repeatedly mentioned Lolordo and others as members of his Family. The result was that Lolordo was called several times to give his testimony before various federal grand juries.

Sam the Plumber

In 1969, Joseph Lolordo was officially listed as one of seven "captains" named on a U.S. Senate Hearing chart for the Simone DeCavalcante Family. He was assigned FBI case # 92-8054, a designation indicating that the government had opened a “racketeering case” against him.

Joe Lolordo was said to have been primarily active in alcohol-tax bootlegging, gambling, shylocking, and labor union rackets. But because of his extremely low-profiled, old-world persona and mode of operation, not much direct evidence was ever uncovered about him.

What is known, is that some of his closest associates included the following:

Nicholas (Nicky Dell) Delmore - The recognized boss of the borgata during the late 1950s-early 1960s era.

Simone Rizzo (Sam the Plumber) DeCavalcante.

Francesco (Big Frank) Majuri - The NJ-based co-underboss of the Family.

Salvatore (Skinny Sal) Caternicchio - Another Sicilian-born soldier and member of Local #394.

Joseph (Joe Tiger) Sferra - A soldier, later elevated to capo. He served, for a time, as a top official and business agent of Local #394.

Luciano (Fat Lou) Larasso - A top caporegime who later rose to underboss. Lou was an important member who was very close to Sam. He was later killed by John Riggi.

Pietro and Giuseppe Galletta - Both were documented as Sicilian-born soldiers in the New York wing of the borgata.

Antonio (Tony) Lombardo - The 1920s boss of the Sicilian mafia in Chicago, who was later killed.

Joseph (Hop Toad) Giunta - Another 1920s underworld power in Chicago who was also later murdered.

A Low Profile

Although Lolordo was not known to have ever been arrested in New York, microfilm records of the Chicago PD did reveal that he was arrested back on September 7, 1928, on an undisclosed charge (believed to be for suspicion) for which he paid a $50 fine. And, of course, we know that he was picked up on that gun charge for shooting at his would-be killers that fateful day back in Chicago.

Lolordo mostly kept a low profile after he returned to New York. His only other arrest aside from his troubles in Chicago, happened in New York on March 27, 1917. He was arrested on a gun possession charge, convicted, and served 100 days in prison.

Joseph (Jo Lo) Lolordo

After his retirement in the late 1960s- early 1970s, the old ‘capo di decina’ was known to have made several trips back to his hometown of Ribera with his wife Anna to visit relatives.

Giuseppe (Joe Lo) Lolordo died on November 13, 1978. He was 80 years old.

Until next time..."The Other Guy"

Giuseppe (Joe Lo) Lolordo

You May Also Enjoy

Shot Right Between the Eyes

The Sting of Justice

Chicago’s “Cowboy” Gangster

Welcome Back!

Retrieve your password

Are you sure want to unlock this post?

Are you sure want to cancel subscription?

Giuseppe (Joe Lo) Lolordo

Unlock The Door to the Underworld

Purchase Subscription

You May Also Enjoy

Shot Right Between the Eyes

The Sting of Justice

Chicago’s “Cowboy” Gangster

Welcome Back!

Retrieve your password

Are you sure want to unlock this post?

Are you sure want to cancel subscription?