Angela Peterson - The Men Behind Chicago Mob Wives: Vincent Rizza

By Kiesha Joseph

Published By The Prison Rideshare Network

Vincent RizzaBibliography

Vincent Rizza was a long-serving Chicagopolice officer well known for his controversial activities as amember of The Outfit, a Chicago division of La Cosa Nostra.Today, he's famous for becoming a rat, a government witness inthe trial of his fellow mobsters. Vincent was born in 1950 and is known to have resided inBrooklyn, New York for the large part of his life. Later, he becamea dirty cop in Chicago before the US government took him to asecluded location under the Federal Witness Protection Program.Rizzas current residence is not documented, but rumor has it thathe's been seen around Brooklyn, NY.

Little history is known of Rizzas immediatefamily as well as his early part of his life. But, he does have adaughter named Pia Rizza and a grand-daughter. Pia is one of thecast members of the new VH1 reality show Mob Wives: Chicago, aspinoff of the original Mob Wives. In short, you can describeVincent as a man who knew too much about The Outfit and was willingto tell it all to save himself. Since he wasn't a La Cosa Nostramade man, he simply didn't care about the code of honor known asomerta.

For many years, Rizza worked as a Chicagopolice officer with most of his duties revolving around Looptraffic control. It's during this time that the life of Rizza beganto take a new turn that would change everything. The salary of astraight cop just wasn't enough for this husband and father. But,Rizzas choice for a side-job would later shock the Chicagounderworld in one of Chicago's historical court proceedings.

In order to supplement his meager cop salary,Rizza ran an illegal bookmarking operation in Chicago. This illegalenterprise required that he pay street taxes to the local mobcalled The Outfit. These were not the type of taxes that made theirway to the federal government. These taxes were funds that werepaid to members of organized crime in order to protect theexistence of his illegal operation. They were the property of themob bosses.

Rizza paid his street taxes on a regularbasis to The Outfit. He was eventually ordered to report allgambling winners that were not making their payments to Aleman, thelocal Mafia leader. Later, Rizza would testify that one of theseindependent bookmakers that he had offered to Aleman was AnthonyReitinger, who was later murdered. The link between Aleman and themysterious murder of Anthony Reitinger was discovered through theinformation given to authorities by Vincent Rizza.

Rizza resigned from his duties as a Chicagopolice officer after he was arrested in Mexico for attempting topurchase cocaine. He was kicked out of the country. Upon his returnto the US, he knew he had to resign in order to get out of facingdealing with consequences from the Chicago Police Department. Thisis when he became a full-time Chicago bookie to earn a living.

This Chicago Outfit is an alleged crimesyndicate that controls the Chicago streets. The history of TheOutfit goes back to the days of US Prohibition. This syndicate ofthe Mafia is not directly related to the New York La Cosa NostraFive Families. Their New York cousin syndicates are fivedifferent powerful crime families that are always in competition tobe the ruling powers of New York. However, The Outfit monopolizesthe organized crime world of Chicago. They have no competition andare the Windy city's only organized crime family. They also havecontrol of certain parts of Las Vegas and Florida.

When organized crime began in Chicago, itwas all about the control held by local street gangs. Theycontrolled the North Side, South Side and the Black Handorganizations of the Little Italy district. In the early 1900s,James Big Jim Colosimo centralized the control of theseterritories. Around 1909, when he began taking over the control ofthe Black Hand, he needed more muscle to force his way into power.That's when he called in his nephew from New York, Johnny Torrio.In 1919, Johnny decided to bring in Al Capone to the operation.

In time, Torrio and his uncle Big Jimbegan feuding over the way the organization made money. Torriowanted to add bootlegging to their list of financial activities. Hefelt that it was a very lucrative business because Prohibitionstill existed, making it hard to find liquor in Chicago. But,Colosimo was against the idea. So, Torrio put a hit out on hisuncle.

In January 1925, the North Side gangstersput tried to assassinate Torrio, who they didn't respect like theyhad his uncle. Torrio was seriously wounded during the attempt andfeared for his life. He handed control of the entire operation overto Al Capone and fled back to his original home, Italy. Caponeexpanded the operation and The Outfit was born.

Before Rizza retired, he began his lucrativebookie business. During the end of 1974, or the beginning of 1975,while still serving as a Chicago police officer, the police raidedone of his bookmarking operations. The raid by the Chicago Policebrought Rizza to the realization that paying street taxes wouldconsiderably reduce intrusion into his business. The Mafia wouldprotect him from these types of raids. Soon after, he got a visitfrom Inendino and Harry The Hit Aleman, an extremely notoriousChicago Outfit enforcer and hit man.

Seated in a restaurant on Chicagos southwestSide enjoying the evening breeze, Vincents eyes came into contactwith the two men sitting across from him. His attention was drawnto their fixed, sinister stares in his direction. Aleman began theconversation, complaining that Vincent owed him over $40,000. Aftercatching Vincents attention, he continued to say that Outfitchief, Ferriola, had advised him to organize Chicago the way it wasback in the 30s and 40s.

The meeting came to a halt without any dealsbeing sealed. But, Vincent had been made aware that his businesswas in the limelight and he had to do something to salvage hisinvestments. In desperation, he paid a visit to his own clout inthe organized crime chain of command. Angelo Lapietra was hisanswer, and the boss of the Chinatown community, ruled by TheOutfit. Without hesitation, Rizza expressed his concerns and gaveLaPietra a paper sack full which contained several thousanddollars. Aleman took the money and promised to use it to broker adeal with Aleman for Rizza. He was successful in securing adeal.

The deal required half of all of Rizza bookiewinnings to be turned over to The Outfit. In exchange, all ofRizza's losses would be covered by Aleman. Rizza also had to pay$1,000 in monthly street taxes. Rizza wasn't happy with the terms,but he continued making a great profit, even with the taxes and newpartnership.

The deal was also a recruitment that requiredRizza to help Aleman and Inendino scope out other independentbookies they could go into partnership with. They visited Rizzaalmost everyday. Eventually, Rizza telephoned Anthony Reitinger tomake him aware of Alemans harsh street tax demand. Reitingerslucrative $100,000-a-month street bookmarking operation was the newtarget. Rizza informed him that he needed to start paying the taxesimmediately.

Reitinger responded obscenely to Rizzasrequest and stood his ground. He was adamant that he would not paytaxes and was not interested in their deals. Rizza reported this toAleman who said that, he was going to kill him. Rizza tried tochange Reitinger's mind, but he once again refused. Aleman assuredRizza that, Reitinger is a dead man. In his testimony, Rizzasaid Aleman planned to whack Reitinger on Halloween. He wouldn'tattract much attention with a Halloween mask on.

On Halloween night, Rizza recalled seeing anews report on the death of Reitinger. Later, he received a phonecall from Aleman who said,