Retired Chicago mob figure Steve (Stevie Brown) Annoreno died this summer at 94. A former top loan shark in the Windy City “Outfit,” Annoreno had been inactive in mafia affairs for at least two decades. Annoreno worked for Outfit captains Fiore (Fifi) Buccieri and then Buccieri’s protégé Angelo (The Hook) LaPietra. In the 1960s, he ran his juice loan racket out of the Family Amusement Center pool hall on Roosevelt Road. His operation was busted in 1970 and the following year he was convicted of racketeering and extortion and sentenced to 15 years in prison. He was released from federal prison in 1981. Annoreno’s name surfaced in the historic 2007 Family Secrets Trial. The trial’s star witness, one-time Southside crew hit man, Nick (Nicky Slim) Calabrese, testified early in his mob career he was assigned to apprentice under Annoreno by his capo LaPietra. The landmark Operation Family Secrets case charged 18 gangland slayings dating back to the Nixon administration. Annoreno is the fourth member of the Chicago mafia to cash in his chips since the spring. Longtime Outfit Godfather John (Johnny No Nose) DiFronzo died in May at 89. Imprisoned Cicero crew enforcer Anthony (Tough Tony) Calabrese — no relation to Nick Calabrese — was cut down by cancer in June while a suspect in two unsolved Outfit murders and Cicero crew soldier Paul Spano passed away at the ripe old age of 87 last month.
