The pace of development then picked up, with more than half of the area's housing stock constructed during the 1950s. Its size and poverty also made Stone Park vulnerable to organized crime, for which it became notorious. Local lore suggests that Al Capone ran a brewery here during Prohibition, while the hometown boy and gangland criminal Rocco Pranno made Stone Park his base in the 1960s. For a time Pranno's brother controlled all political offices in the town, while Pranno himself ran a crime syndicate from his office table at the Club D'Or on North Mannheim Road. Since the 1960s, Stone Park has transcended its gangland image.
In 2022, Rocco Pranno's grandniece released the novel, The Lemon Tree Girl (Sabrina Austen Scott, author). Told from the viewpoint of a younger sister, the book contains fictionalized accounts of events in Pranno's life including the Kiddieland heist and racketeering operations.
Further reading
Kennedy, Robert F.The Enemy Within: The McClellan Committee's Crusade Against Jimmy Hoffa and Corrupt Labour Unions. New York: Da Capo Press, 1994. ISBN0-306-80590-1
Scott, Sabrina Austen. The Lemon Tree Girl: A Mafia Story. Amazon, 2022. ISBN 979-8985541403