Stone Park

Stone Park is such a small community that I have overlooked it for the near decade amount of time this site has been active.  When driving down Mannheim Road it is easy to pass through this suburb very quickly with hardly noticing one was here.  Stone Park is not a dangerous place to live and never really was but is still a storied gangland suburb…and I don’t just mean Italian organized crime.

Stone Park was destinated to be a suburb for poverty-stricken Illinoisians as this land was completely untouched through the whole 19^th century and a large portion of the early 20^th century.  Professional building companies and settlers passed on this land over and over as suburbs all around Stone Park were built up well but the Great Depression years of the 1930s.  It took desperation during the Depression for people to finally start building homes in this area.  Desperate families living off government funding (welfare) became the first residents that purchased house buildings kits sold at Sears as they built their homes by themselves.  The town built itself to a population of 636 residents by the time the town was incorporated in 1939.  Jobs were not plentiful in this community, and it lacked storm sewers; therefore, flooding was brutal to say the least.  Residents were very impoverished even after the Depression and World War II (Fact source: https://www.Encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org)

Local legend states that Al Capone once operated a brewery in Stone Park; however, I have an issue with that claim because from my knowledge, I have not heard of any businesses in Stone Park prior to the 1930s and Al Capone was only active until 1931 when he went to prison.  I am not trying to say there was no Chicago Outfit activity prior to or during the 30s but it probably was not Al Capone in particular.  I have looked it up and I can’t find any history of Stone Park prior to the 30s and my best online source https://www.Encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org doesn’t even go into their history until the 30s and makes it sound like nothing was here.  By the 30s though the Chicago Outfit may have been settling here because this impoverished simple town was easy to operate dirty business in due to the town official’s and resident’s desperation for revenue.

In the year 1950, a series of severe floods destroyed about one third of the houses.  This flooding cleared way for a new wave of development in Stone Park as new subdivisions were platted and the town’s population grew.  Organized crime was right there to help develop the community by adding exclusive businesses that catered to gambling and vice.

By the 1960s, Stone Park was a well-known mostly Italian neighborhood ran by the Chicago Outfit and several porno shops and strip clubs once dotted Mannheim Road.  Even in present years Stone Park is still a large site of adult entertainment.  Corruption of government officials and Stone Park police has plagued this community for decades and in these golden years of the 1960s and 1970s it was rampant.  There likely is books written about some of the organized crime activity in Stone Park but it is not so readily available on the internet; however, I am not delving too deep into Chicago Outfit activity because my specialty is street gangs; therefore, we will now shift more focus to how Stone Park became a well known mobster gang land to a known street gang land.

In the year 1976, Hispanic people, mostly Mexican people began heavily migrating to the neighboring suburbs of Melrose Park, Franklin Park and Maywood.  Stone Park also received several Hispanic families until the Hispanic population reached 30% by the 1980 census.  These early Hispanic residents faced racial discrimination and at the youth level many Hispanic kids were the victims of bullying and harassment.  This brought in the notorious Latin Kings of Chicago to settle the suburbs of Maywood, Melrose Park and Franklin Park.  Now I am not sure if the chicken laid the egg or the egg laid the chicken…so to speak…so I am not sure if Latin Kings’ arrival caused the Simon City Royals to come to the area or if the arrival of the Royals drove the arrival of the Latin Kings but in 1976 Latin Kings arrived in nearby suburbs while Stone Park became populated by Simon City Royals.  I am not sure if Royals arrive first in Stone Park or if Latin Kings arrived first in Maywood, Melrose Park and Franklin Park but surely one of the reasons for the formation of one group or the other was because of the other group.  Even though Stone Park developed a strong Hispanic population beginning in the later 70s, there were no Hispanic gangs in Stone Park in the 70s. Hispanic migration was likely driven by an increased white flight pattern of the late 70s where white families were now able to afford houses in more functional suburbs and Stone Park was not considered one of those functional communities that was desirable to the middle class.  The new Hispanic residents were primarily immigrants from Mexico and these hard-working new residents added onto their homes and made them more valuable and sturdier.  The fact that many of the newly arrived Hispanic families were immigrants may have also contributed to no formation of gangs like Latin Kings as those groups usually tag along with migrating Hispanic Chicago families.

By 1976 at the latest the Simon City Royals had fully settled into this suburb from Chicago.  Violent gang wars Royals were involved in, in Chicago brought many of the older Royals to this suburb to settle and raise families.  This Simon City Royal branch became known as the “Stone Royals.”  These Royals connected with the Chicago Outfit and hooked themselves into the gambling rackets an the vice racket that often operated out of the strip clubs.  Many of the Stone Royals hooked into the drug trafficking game as Stone Park was ideal for dirty business.  Stone Royals fought vicious battles against Latin Kings from Franklin Park, Melrose Park and Maywood and in public schools Stone Royals fought with Latin Kings in school.  Stone Royals roamed the area visiting neighboring suburbs and this brought them more friction from enemy groups.

The Stone Park Simon City Royals completely dominated Stone Park, and I even remember in my early years of working for Chicagogangs.org seeing forum posts of Stone Park Royals bickering with other gangs.  This was in the early 2000s I saw this online activity, and this was the point when the Stone Royals were in their last years of existence in the suburb.

It is a fact that Stone Park Simon City Royals ruled this suburb in the later 1970s and the 1980s decade.  The downfall of the Stone Royals began in the late 1980s when white flight accelerated.  Beginning in 1987, more Hispanic migrants along with Chicago Mexican families now began to settle in this little suburb.  Alongside this Hispanic migration came a serious group of Latin Kings that settled at the intersection of 37^th Avenue and Soffel Avenue closer to the village’s eastern border with Melrose Park.  Latin Kings immediately clashed with Stone Royals and several shootings and beatings became common sight.  The later 80s and early 1990s were some of the craziest years as Latin Kings and Simon City Royals had a showdown for dominance.  During these years Imperial Gangsters, Unknown Assassins and Latin Counts made their way into Stone Park, but these groups would not last as they were not as well organized as the Latin Kings.  Simon City Royals would have remained as a force to be reckoned with but they faced incarceration and a loss of interest in living here as they retired from gang life and moved to more affluent suburbs, this was reflective on the U.S. census results that reported 58% Hispanic population in the 1990 census.  The Latin Kings of 37^th and Soffel had keen interest in remaining here and fought viciously to maintain their presence as they spread to 39^th Ave and from Division Street to North Avenue.

Stone Park was ripe with corruption, and this could have been part of the open door that invited Chicago gangs into the village.  Beginning in 1978 and continuing until 1999 Anthony Centracchio, Thomas R. Tucker, Robert S. Urbanati and Robert D. Natale were operating a Rico operation that obstructed law enforcement and assisting the operation of illegal video poker gambling.  Urbanati and Natale were considered employees of the enterprise.  Louis Eboli was the leader of this operation until he died in 1987, Anthony Centracchio took over leadership after Eboli’s death.  The second in command was Thomas Tucker who was a Stone Park police Lieutenant.  Urbanati was Franklin Park police officer from 1968 until 1995.  Robert D. Natale was a Stone Park police officer from 1971 until 1989 and after his retirement he became the Stone Park mayor (Fact source: United States of America, Plaintiff-appellant, V. Anthony T. Centracchio, Thomas R. Tucker, Robert S. Urbinati, and Robert Natale, defendants-appellees, 265 F.3d 518).  To make it worse, the chief of police of Stone Park Harry Testa was dirty from 1974 to 1984 as he took payoffs.  Harry Testa and Thomas Tucker were involved in auto insurance fraud and all these men were working with the Chicago Outfit accepting bribe after bribe.  Testa was even convicted of distributing cocaine in 1992.  It is no wonder this village became a haven for gang activity by the early 1990s because corruption was rampant.  There are no doubt Chicago gangs like Simon City Royals and Latin Kings were connected with this, the Royals were at least connected as Franklin Park and Stone Park Royals faced heavy incarceration for drug trafficking in the early 90s.

By the mid-1990s the Stone Royals were in reduced numbers and Latin Kings had taken over the village.  The final days of the Royals and Latin Kings clashing was the mid-90s.  By the later 1990s most of the Stone Royals had left the village leaving a small number of them to face off against the much more powerful Latin Kings.  Beginning in 1999, as federal investigations began to crack down on the local corruption law enforcement began sweeping the village for gang activity into the early 2000s and all other gangs besides Latin Kings left the village for good accept Latin Kings. Latin Kings would continue to grow stronger during and after the sweeps and continue to be a part of this town perhaps permanently.   By the 2000 census 79% of Stone Park was Hispanic as most of the rest of the white population left in the early 2000s and Stone Royals followed.

In current years, Stone Park is over 93% Hispanic but has quieted down greatly since the crazy 1990s years and is not one of the more dangerous suburbs in Chicago area but still is a flawed suburb.