Lawrence "Dago Lawrence" Mangano (February 27, 1892 – August 3, 1944) was a Chicago

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

figure and member of the

Chicago Outfit The Chicago Outfit (also known as the Outfit, the Chicago Mafia, the Chicago Mob, the Chicago crime family, the South Side Gang or The Organization) is an Italian-American organized crime syndicate or crime family based in Chicago, Illinois, tha ...

during the 1920s to the 1940s. He was a relative of Joseph Mangano and Philip Mangano, of Chicago, and a suspected relative of

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Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

Boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, a ...

Vincent Mangano Vincent Mangano (born Vincenzo Giovanni Mangano; ; March 28, 1888 – disappeared April 19, 1951, declared dead October 30, 1961) was an Italian-born mobster also known as "Vincent The Executioner" as named in a Brooklyn newspaper, and the head of ...

Early years

made man In the American and Sicilian Mafia, a made man is a fully initiated member of the Mafia. To become "made", an associate first must be Italian or of Italian descent and sponsored by another made man. An inductee will be required to take the oat ...

and a

caporegime A caporegime or capodecina, usually shortened to capo or informally referred to as "captain" or "skipper", is a rank used in the Mafia (both the Sicilian Mafia and Italian-American Mafia) for a ''made member'' of an Italian crime family who head ...

Al Capone Alphonse Gabriel Capone (; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the ...

during

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

, Mangano oversaw the

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

protection money A protection racket is a type of racket and a scheme of organized crime perpetrated by a potentially hazardous organized crime group that generally guarantees protection outside the sanction of the law to another entity or individual from viol ...

from all criminals in the Near West Side of Chicago, including everyone involved in

illegal gambling Gaming law is the set of rules and regulations that apply to the gaming or gambling industry. Gaming law is not a branch of law in the traditional sense but rather is a collection of several areas of law that include criminal law, regulatory law, c ...

fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, s ...

and

prostitution Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...

. Although Mangano received police protection through

bribe Bribery is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corr ...

ry, in 1928, a number of Mangano's establishments were raided by police Captain Luke Garrick. Garrick's house was then bombed in retaliation. Although Garrick survived the bombing, no further interference was taken by local law enforcement in the district. Over the course of his life, Mangano claimed he had been arrested over 200 times without ever spending a night in jail, explaining, "They were all bum raps...and besides I had good lawyers." After the end of Prohibition, in 1933, Mangano kept a very low profile. However, he remained involved in criminal activities throughout the decade.

Drive by shooting

In August 1944, Mangano was driving back from

Cicero, Illinois Cicero (originally known as Hawthorne) is a suburb of Chicago and an Incorporated town#Illinois, incorporated town in Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, Illinois, United States. Per the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was ...

, with his lady friend, Rita Reyes, and his bodyguard, Michael Pontillo. They stopped for a brief drink at the all-night Paddock Lounge. Back in the car, someone in Mangano's group noticed that a black sedan was following them and they pulled over to the side of

Blue Island Avenue Blue Island Avenue is a street in the city of Chicago, Illinois that once led to a ridge of land that early pioneers gave the name "Blue Island" because at a distance it looked like an island in the prairie. The blue color was attributed to atmosp ...

. As the sedan pulled alongside them, several unidentified gunmen armed with shotguns shot and killed Mangano. The gunmen then turned the sedan around, drove back and killed Pontillo as he was pulling Mangano out of the street. An

autopsy An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any di ...

later revealed that Mangano's body contained over 200 shotgun pellets and six

.45 caliber This is a list of firearm cartridges which have bullets in the to caliber range. *''Length'' refers to the cartridge case Case or CASE may refer to: Containers * Case (goods) A case of some merchandise Merchandising is any practic ...

bullets. The bullets had been rubbed in garlic, supposedly believed by mobsters to cause infections (not that it was necessary in Mangano's case).Mangano bio
/ref> Police officials and the media speculated that Mangano had been killed either in a dispute with the Outfit over a recent cigarette

hijacking Hijacking may refer to: Common usage Computing and technology * Bluejacking, the unsolicited transmission of data via Bluetooth * Brandjacking, the unauthorized use of a company's brand * Browser hijacking * Clickjacking (including ''like ...

, or from withholding gambling revenue. Mangano's murder was never solved.

Bibliography

*Bernstein, Lee. ''The Greatest Menace: Organized Crime in Cold War America''. Boston: UMass Press, 2002. *Chiocca, Olindo Romeo. ''Mobsters and Thugs: Quotes from the Underworld''. Toronto:

Guernica Editions Guernica Editions is a Canadian independent publisher established in Montreal, Quebec, in 1978, by Antonio D'Alfonso. Guernica specializes in Canadian literature Canadian literature is the literature of a multicultural country, written in ...

, 2000. *Johnson, Curt and R. Craig Sautter. ''The Wicked City: Chicago from Kenna to Capone''. New York:

Da Capo Press Da Capo Press is an American publishing company with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. It is now an imprint of Hachette Books. History Founded in 1964 as a publisher of music books, as a division of Plenum Publishers, it had additional of ...

, 1998. *Kobler, John. ''Capone: The Life and Times of Al Capone''. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. *United States. Congress. Senate. Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce. ''Investigation of Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce: Hearings Before a Special Committee to Investigate Organized Crime in Interstate Commerce''. 195

*By United States. Congress. Senate. Government Operations Committee. ''Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics: Hearings before the Government Operations Committee''. 196

*Kelly, Robert J. ''Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States''. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. *Sifakis, Carl. ''The Mafia Encyclopedia''. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. *Sifakis, Carl. ''The Encyclopedia of American Crime''. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2001.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mangano, Lawrence 1892 births 1944 deaths Murdered American gangsters of Italian descent Chicago Outfit mobsters People murdered in Illinois Male murder victims Deaths by firearm in Illinois