His absence from the indictment allegedly raised some eyebrows within the Outfit and rumors began circulating that Patsy Rich was a snitch. In the months before he was killed, indictments were filed against mob-affiliated figures in the pornography industry out of Illinois and Ohio for tax fraud. Ricciardi and the Chicago mob porn racket were the subjects of two grand juries, first in 1979 and then again in the mid-1980s. The theater had been a venue for vaudeville during Prohibition. By the 1980s, the Admiral had transitioned into being a strip club. Per FBI records, he ran a sports book and a juice loan operation out of the Admiral, too. In 1971, Ricciardi bought the Admiral Theatre on Lawrence Avenue in the Albany Park section of the Northside and turned it into a porn palace. Ricciardi’s cousin was notorious mob killer and one-time Chicago mafia don Felix (Milwaukee Phil) Alderisio. Tiny but ferocious, the powerful mob chieftain still remains a suspect in several high-profile Chicago gangland slayings.
BIJOU THEATER CHICAGO TRIAL
He was one of the Northside crew’s most reliable and feared collectors and beat a murder rap at trial in 1995. Vena, 70, came up through the ranks of the Outfit as a ruthless enforcer for legendary Northside shot-callers like Lenny Patrick, Gus (Slim) Alex and Vincent (Innocent Vince) Solano. Ricciardi’s slaying was one of three high-profile gangland hits in less than ten years connected to beefs in the Chicago porn business. Repeated attempts by Northside soldiers to get a foothold in the area brought brewing tensions that soon boiled over to violence. The Grand Avenue gang planted a flag in the near Northside neighborhood of Old Town in the late 1960s. And maybe some other reasons, like a longstanding feud within the crime family between two neighboring crews over porn and the illicit sex trade.įor years, the Northsiders and Westsiders fought for dominance in the Windy City pornography racket. He was slain for being a suspected informant and stealing shakedown money. The man they called Patsy Rich never made it to the merger. The Northside crew merged with the Grand Avenue regime, sometimes called the Westside crew, approximately two decades ago. Ricciardi and Albie Vena were both members of the Outfit’s now-shuttered Northside crew in the 1980s. He had headed a large portion of the Chicago mafia’s lucrative pornography racket, according to FBI informants. Patsy Ricciardi, 59, was found shot twice in the back of the head in the trunk of a stolen car on the outskirts of Lincoln Park on July 26, 1985. Upwards of a dozen unsolved mob homicides are getting a fresh set of eyes, per sources. The long-gestating inquiry’s principle target is alleged to be reputed Grand Avenue crew chief and overall street boss Albert (Albie the Falcon) Vena. The family of Athan and Helen, including their daughters Olympia and Marina, Olympia’s husband George Crist and their son Athan, owned and operated the theatre through a number of name changes – The Rivoli, Downtown Cinema and Downtown Family Cinema.According to sources, the 1985 murder of Chicago mobster and porn king Patrick (Patsy Rich) Ricciardi is one of the many cold-case gangland hits being probed in an ongoing federal racketeering investigation of current Outfit leaders. He wooed her, they married, and eventually they purchased the building. He developed a spark for Helen, the piano player for silent films at the Bijou Theatre.
Prakas, a Greek immigrant, began operating a luncheonette and confectionary in the retail portion of the building. 600 seats for Ladies and Children, Matinees 5 cents, Nights Everybody 10 cents.” In 1929 Athan G.
In 1911 advertisements appeared in The Bridgeport Post newspaper for the Bijou Theatre, which was building a reputation for “High Class Vaudeville and Pictures, Three Shows Daily, Saturday and Holidays Four Shows. He taught waltz, polka, tap and ballet until his death in 1950. Quilty, a master dance instructor, conducted his College of Dancing within the two-story ballroom area. In 1910 Peter Dawe leased, operated and eventually bought the Bijou Theatre.
The modified plan included a two-story ballroom above.
BIJOU THEATER CHICAGO MOVIE
However, during construction, the plans for an opera house were converted into a movie house in response to the growing popularity of silent films at the time. Southey to design a three-story commercial building to include an opera house and retail store. Ashmun purchased the property, located at 269-275 Fairfield Avenue in Bridgeport. The Bijou Theatre is the oldest building in America that opened as a movie and live performance space and is still operating as a movie theater and live entertainment venue.
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