The Spotter Gets Spotted

 

Joseph Nerone was known throughout the Italian underworld as Il Cavaliere. He attained some infamy the previous year when he put Tony Genna on the spot. After his tenure with the Gennas, Nerone ventured into Chicago Heights and became a successful racketeer. 

On August 20, 1926 Nerone, now going by Tony Spano, was lured to a barber shop in Chicago. It appears that he was somewhat apprehensive because as he pulled up to the shop in his expensive sedan, he had his gun out. As he stepped from his car, three men stepped out of an alley and opened fire on him. 

Nerone managed to get off a few shots before being riddled in the head and belly and dropping dead. In the aftermath of the shooting a couple of the surviving Genna brothers, whom authorities believed were in Italy, were picked up for questioning. It was assumed that they killed him in retaliation for setting up their brother Tony. Another theory was that he may have been bumped off by a Chicago Heights outfit known as the Piazza gang. Other reports have him as a member of that gang.

Joseph Nerone AKA Il Cavaliere

Shaking Hands Can Be Unhealthy

By 1925 the six Genna brothers, or "The Terrible Gennas" as they were known ran the illicit activities in Chicago's Little Italy. practically the whole neighborhood was on the Genna's payroll cooking alcohol. The Genna empire began to fall in spring of that year when, depending on who tells the story, either Al Capone or the North Side gang struck out at them.

The first to go was brother Angelo that spring, followed by brother Mike, both of whom were the muscle of the family. On July 8, 1925,  brother Anthony aka Tony the Gent, received a phone call from a former associate named Joseph Nerone, alias Anthony Spano, known in the underworld as Il Cavaliere because of his polished demeanor. Feeling that the Genna's didn't pay him his worth, Nerone had moved on to Chicago Heights, and a more lucrative bootlegging career.

Nerone asked to meet Genna at the corner of Grand Avenue and Curtis Street.  Genna arrived first and waited. A sedan pulled up and Nerone alighted. Genna went up to greet him. As the men shook hands, two men walked up and fired a number of shots into Genna's back before running off. Nerone too, fled the seen.

We know that Nerone set up Genna because Tony the Gent didn't die right away. Later at the hospital, he was overheard telling his brother Sam that the Cavaliere was behind the murder. 

With the death of Tony, the Genna family was all but through in the Chicago underworld.

Tony the Gent Genna