Angelo LaPietra

Angelo J. LaPietra (October 30, 1920– March 28, 1999) was an American mobster and caporegime in the Chicago Outfit, involved in extensive loansharking operations in the Chicago's First Ward during the 1970s and 1980s. It is often repeated that he earned his nickname "The Hook" due to the way he murdered his victims—those that did not, or could not pay up. It was said that he would take his victim—bound and gagged—and hang him on a meat hook (piercing the victim's rib cage with the meat hook) and then torture him to death with a blow-torch. The real basis for his nickname was because it was said that once you took a juice loan from him, he would have his "hooks" in you, and he would use the juice on those loans to get you on the "hook" for more loans, or property or businesses as collateral to make good.