Joseph "Joe" LASPISA

Family Monument:
LASPISA
Individual marker:
JOE LASPISA
1880 - 1921
Note about stone: Family monument is a dramatic affair with a life-size statue of a woman, a planter on a pedestal carved into the stone on the left and a photo of Joe Laspisa on the right (see below). The name LASPISA is carved in raised relief block letters with an olive branch above it. There is a step carved into the stone below the statue. Joe's individual gravestone is a simple flat granite marker.
Note about Joe: Bodyguard to Chicago mobster, Anthony (Antonio) D'Andrea, the leader of Chicago's Unione Siciliana. From Allan May's americanmafia.com website:
"...Four days later, former D’Andrea bodyguard Joseph Laspisa was murdered. Laspisa was the president of an Italian mutual benefit society called Ventimiglia and was busy planning its annual picnic. On this beautiful Sunday afternoon Laspisa had dropped off his son at relatives and was taking care of some business involving the outing. Around 2:00 p.m. Laspisa was seen driving on Oak Street with two men in the back of his automobile. All of a sudden the two men drew guns and aimed them at the back of Laspisa’s head and fired. Laspisa’s body was blasted forward over the steering wheel. While the two killers jumped out and vanished, the automobile hopped the curb and came to rest after hitting a building located next to St. Philip Benizi Catholic Church. As a crowd of onlookers gathered around, the shadow from the cross of the church rested on the car.

At the sound of the shooting and the crash, many of the parishioners ran to the street. They were soon joined there by Reverend Louis M. Gianbastiano who urged the crowd, “If you know who the men were who have done this fearful crime, and if there is in you the least spirit of Americanism, you will go to the police and tell. You owe it to the good name of your race, which has been shamed on many occasions by your silence. If you know these men, I implore you in the name of all good Italians, in the name of all good Americans, and in the name of the Lord, to tell the police.”

Laspisa’s wife soon arrived at the scene. Upon seeing her husband’s body she became hysterical. She cried out, “Why did they kill him. He was not a politician. He was not a gunman. He was not of the Black Hand. He was the best man in the world. He was just as good a friend to Alderman Johnny Powers as he was to ‘Tony’ D’Andrea. Everybody liked him, loved him. Why? Why? Why?”

Found in the car, next to posters advertising the upcoming picnic, was Laspisa’s straw boater, which had powder burns on it. Police advanced two theories for the murder. The first was that D’Andrea’s killers silenced him in case he knew more about the murder than he told the police. The second theory, in spite of all the wonderful things his wife had to say about him, was that Laspisa was murdered in revenge for a killing he had allegedly been involved with in 1913. A boarder at the Laspisa household had been found in an alley a short distance from the home riddled by shotgun pellets. When Laspisa’s body arrived at the morgue it was placed on the same slab as his alleged victim.

Laspisa’s attorney made a statement to the police that the murder was surely a mistake. He claimed, “No one would want to kill Joe Laspisa. Everyone liked him” Commenting on Laspisa’s memberships in Italian social associations he said, “As far as I know he did not belong to the Unione Siciliana, D’Andrea’s organization. No they must have killed the wrong man.”

Section T

Contributed on 1/17/09 by pasteffen99
Email This Contributor

Suggest a Correction

Record #: 21275

Don't Follow