Giuseppe Guinta
? to 1929.
"Hoptoad"

Guinta briefly led the Chicago Unione Siciliana in 1929 and tried unsuccessfully to organize a revolt among Sicilians affiliated with Al Capone's Chicago gang.

Joe Guinta took over the Unione presidency upon the death of Pasqualino Lolordo in January 1929. He continued resistance to Capone's attempts to dominate the Unione and drew John Scalise and Albert Anselmi, believed at the time to be Capone enforcers, into a plot to eliminate their boss.

Capone learned of the conspiracy against him. On May 7, 1929, he invited the unsuspecting Guinta, Scalise and Anselmi to a celebration at the Hawthorne Inn in Cicero. At the dinner, he had the three men suddenly bound and proceeded to beat them to death with a baseball bat. A few bullets were thrown in for good measure.

So ended Guinta's career and the Chicago rebellion. The beating deaths, however, caused a great deal of concern among Capone's New York colleagues (many of whom were proudly Sicilian and strongly objected to Neapolitan Capone's abuses of their countrymen). Capone had to answer for his actions at a mid-May conference in Atlantic City.

Guinta was replaced as Unione boss by Capone's greatest Sicilian rival Joe Aiello.

� 2007 T.Hunt
The American "Mafia"