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6Chop shop5 wars leaves trail of deathThe so-called “chop shop” wars that raged in the Chicago metropolitan area from 1969 to 1983 left a deadly trail of suspected crime syndicate figures, many with ties to the south suburbs.About eight months before Calumet City junkyard owner Richard Ferraro disappeared, another reputed chop shop operator. Steven Os-trowskv of Flossmoor, was killed out-V 9side his South Chicago Auto Parts store.He had apparently refused to make an accommodation with William Earl (Billy) Dauber, an enforcer for Albert Tocco,” a Chicago Crime commission publication said.DAUBER, WHO was once an enforcer for James (Jimmy the Bomber) Catuara, an Oak Lawn resident, before switching his alliance to Tocco, was killed along with his wife Charlotte in a July 2, 1980, ambush in rural Will county.Dauber was a suspect in a number of murders of chop shop operators in the area and government sources said mob leaders feared that Dauberwould turn informant.According to authorities, Ferraro is belived to have operated a chop shop at his Calumet City junkyard and had served as a lieutenant for Catuara, an aging area crime syndi cate boss who was beginning to lose control of his mob holdings.Catuara was urged by syndicate higher-ups to retire and bring underlings such as Ferraro into line for takeover of those holdings by another longtime mob leader.BUT CATUARA was either unwilling or unable to do so, and as a result he and a number of his associates were murdered during the chop shop wars, officials said.According to the Chicago Crime commission, 42,000 auto thefts were recorded in Chicago and Cook county in 1978, the height of the reputed war.The multi-million dollar operation supplied sufficient motive for the power struggle between various mob groups that culminated in Catuara’s muder on July 28, 1978, authorities believeBy Pete Reynolds
Newspaper Details
Calumet City Star
Calumet City, Illinois, US
Thu, May 19, 1988
Page 3
Full Page
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IL, USA 07 May 2020
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