Anthony "The Hatchet" Chiaramonti
Donald "Captain D" DiFazio was already paying $500 a month in street tax on behalf of his boss, Jimmy Stolfe, a co-founder of Connie's Pizza, when DiFazio was asked to take a ride.
DiFazio told a federal jury last week that mobster Joseph "Shorty" LaMantia was doing the driving and deposited him at a parking lot across the street from the Connie's Pizza on Archer.
DiFazio proceeded to describe to jurors how he got squeezed from both ends.
His testimony is fascinating.
In the parking lot, DiFazio said he met Anthony "The Hatchet" Chiaramonti.
A prosecutor asked DiFazio what the nickname told him about the Chiaramonti's reputation.
"The name speaks for itself," DiFazio testified.
The Hatchet was upset over company plans to build a Connie's in Lyons.
DiFazio stressed he wasn't an owner of Connie's, just an employee, but to the Hatchet, this was a distinction without a difference.
If the restaurant was built, someone was going to get hurt, the Hatchet vowed.
It wasn't clear to DiFazio why the Hatchet was mad, but he figured it was a shakedown of some sort.
Chiaramonti, a top juice loan collector, came by his nickname because he was known to use a hatchet on people late on making their payments.
But he was not limited to that method, authorities have said.
One time, a restaurant owner was late in paying up, and the Hatchet plunged a fork in his chin.
Another time, the Hatchet slammed a different restaurant owner onto a grill to encourage payments.
The Hatchet was charged and convicted as part of Sam Carlisi's crew in the early 1990s.
One FBI tape played during that trial showed the Hatchet strangling an FBI informant who was behind in his payments.
In the Family Secrets case, DiFazio, who is not charged, was captured on tape paying street tax to Frank Calabrese Jr., who was collecting for his father, reputed Outfit killer, Frank Calabrese Sr. The elder Calabrese was in prison at the time.
On tape, DiFazio describes the Hatchet and LaMantia as "a couple of f------ nuts."
DiFazio was concerned because he was already paying off one mobster, Calabrese Sr., and shouldn't have been getting squeezed by another. DiFazio wanted inquiries made to figure out what was going on.
But DiFazio's immediate problem of the Hatchet was soon taken care of, thanks to another dispute.
Chiaramonti was gunned down in late 2001 at a Brown's Chicken in Lyons during a mob battle over who controlled the highly lucrative video poker machines in the western suburbs.
Anymore info on why the hatch was killed?
STEVE WARMBIR RESPONDS: Nothing new on the Hatchet, but prosecutors haven't started playing the secret prison tape recordings between reputed Chicago mob boss James "Little Jimmy" Marcello and his half brother Michael.
Now has not a man been sent to prison already for his part in the hatch killing?
I'll check my files but I think his name was in the paper and he is in wit protection now.Any thing on this yet Steve?
STEVE WARMBIR RESPONDS: Robert C. Cooper was sentenced in 2003 to 22 years in prison for being the driver of the car used in the hit on Anthony "The Hatchet" Chiaramonti.
Cooper has helped authorities build a case against Anthony Calabrese, who hasn't been charged in the Hatch hit but is in federal prison on another case.
And just to head off an anticipated question, Anthony Calabrese is no relation to Frank Calabrse Sr.