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Chicago Outfit
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The Chicago Outfit, shortened to "The Outfit" is a crime syndicate based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Dating back to the 1910s, it is part of the United States phenomenon known as the Mafia; however, the Chicago Outfit is distinct from the "Five Families" of New York City, though all Italian-American crime families are ruled by The Commission.
The Outfit is the only criminal organization that has a monopoly on traditional organized crime in the city of Chicago, whereas the Five Families compete with each other for control of racketeering activities in New York.
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Encyclopedia
The Chicago Outfit, shortened to "The Outfit" is a crime syndicate based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Dating back to the 1910s, it is part of the United States phenomenon known as the Mafia; however, the Chicago Outfit is distinct from the "Five Families" of New York City, though all Italian-American crime families are ruled by The Commission.
The Outfit is the only criminal organization that has a monopoly on traditional organized crime in the city of Chicago, whereas the Five Families compete with each other for control of racketeering activities in New York. The Outfit's control reportedly reaches throughout the western United States to places as far away as Los Angeles, California and parts of Florida. The Chicago Outfit is also known to have large control over neighboring states including Iowa, Wisconsin and other areas of the midwest
Unlike the "Five Families," the Outfit has had other ethnic groups besides Italian Americans in its upper echelons since its earliest days. A prime example of this was the Jake Guzik ("Greasy Thumb") who was the top "bagman" and "accountant" for decades until his death. He was Jewish and either Polish or Russian depending on the source. To this day, the Outfit bears the influence of its best-known leader, Al Capone. In fact for decades after Capone had left the scene, the Outfit was known as "the Capone Gang" or "the Capones" to outsiders. The Outfit's membership is moderately estimated to be between 30-50 made members comprising a core group with more than 150 associates estimated.
Overview
Since its founding, the Chicago Outfit has been operating in order to keep and expand its status and profit throughout[polling place]]s, under Salvatore Giancana in the 1960 presidential election. Along with the voting allegations, The Outfit was involved in a CIA-Mafia collusion during Castro's overthrow of the Cuban government. In exchange for their help, the Outfit would be given access to their former casinos if they helped overthrow Fidel Castro (Operation Mongoose or Operation Family Jewels). Having failed in that endeavor, and facing increasing indictments under the administration of President John F. Kennedy (JFK), they are suspects in the JFK murder, as well as the murder of his brother Robert Kennedy. The Outfit controlled casinos in Las Vegas and "skimmed" millions of dollars over the course of several decades.
History of the Chicago Outfit
Pre-Prohibition
The early years of organized crime in Chicago in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were marked by the division of various street gangs controlling the South Side and North Side as well as the Black Hand organizations of Little Italy.
Giacomo Colosimo ("James," "Big Jim") centralized control in the early 20th century. Colosimo was born in Calabria, Italy, in 1877, emigrating to Chicago in 1895, where he established himself as a criminal. By 1909 he was successful enough that he was encroaching on the criminal activity of the Black Hand organization.
His expanding organization required the procurement of extra muscle. This came in the form of Colosimo's nephew Giovanni Torrio ("Johnny The Fox") from New York. In 1919, Torrio brought in Al Capone, thus providing Capone's entrance to Chicago. In time, Colosimo and Torrio had a falling out over Torrio's insistence that they expand into rum-running, which Colosimo staunchly opposed. In 1920, Torrio arranged for Frankie Yale to kill Colosimo, ending the argument.
Torrio brought together the different parts of Chicago criminal activity, with a lasting effect on Chicago in general, and Chicago crime in particular.
Torrio-Capone and the birth of the Chicago Outfit
Severely injured in an assassination attempt by the North Side Mob in January 1925, the shaken Torrio returned to Italy and handed over control of the business to Capone. Capone was notorious during Prohibition for his control of the Chicago underworld and his bitter rivalries with gangsters such as George "Bugs" Moran and Earl "Hymie" Weiss. Raking in vast amounts of money (some estimates were that between 1925 and 1930 Capone was making $100 million a year), the Chicago kingpin was largely immune to prosecution because of witness intimidation and the bribing of city officials.
While Eliot Ness of the Bureau of Prohibition concentrated on trying to dry up the flow of the illegal liquor to Chicago, the United States Department of the Treasury was devising a strategy of using the Supreme Court's 1927 decision on bootlegger Manny Sullivan to bring down Capone. Sullivan had argued that the Fifth Amendment prevented him from reporting how much income tax evasion he had engaged in. Al Capone and a number of the other Outfit members were soon indicted, but Capone went unscathed until February 1931, when he was convicted for owing more than $215,000 to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), according to a Capone biography on the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) website.
From Nitti through Accardo
After Capone was jailed for tax evasion, his hand-picked successor, Francesco Nitto (also known as "Frank 'The Enforcer' Nitti"), a former barber and small-time jewel thief, only nominally assumed power. In truth, power was seized by Nitti's underboss, Felice DeLucia (also known as "Paul 'The Waiter' Ricca"), who was acknowledged as "boss" by the leaders of the growing National Crime Syndicate. Over the next decade, The Outfit moved into labor racketeering, gambling, and loan sharking. Geographically, this was the period when Outfit muscle extended its tendrils to Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin, Kansas City, and especially to Hollywood and other California cities, where The Outfit's extortion of labor unions gave it leverage over the motion picture industry.
Nitti committed suicide in 1943 after refusing to take the "fall" for the Outfit getting caught red-handed extorting the Hollywood movie industry. He had found years earlier being in jail for tax evasion for 18 months to be claustrophobic, and he decided to end his life rather than face more imprisonment. Ricca then became the boss in name as well as in fact, with enforcement chief Tony Accardo (also known as "Joe Batters" and "The Big Tuna") as underboss.
However, later in 1943, following the "Hollywood Scandal" trial, Ricca was sent to prison for his part in The Outfit plot to control Hollywood. He, along with a number of other mobsters, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. However, through the "magic" of political connections, the whole group of Outfit mobsters was released after three years, largely due to the efforts of Outfit "fixer," Murray "The Camel" Humphreys. However, as a condition of his parole, Ricca could not associate with mobsters. While Accardo theoretically took over as day-to-day boss, by all indications Ricca continued behind the scenes as a senior consultant. He and Accardo would share de facto power for the next 30 years, but with Ricca staying in the shadows. When he died in 1972, Accardo (who had joined Ricca in semi-retirement in 1957), was the sole power behind the throne for another 20 years until his death, in 1992.
Beginning in 1957, Ricca and Accardo allowed several others, such as Giancana, Joseph Aiuppa (also known as "Joey Doves"), William Daddano (also kown as "Willie Potatoes"), Felix Alderisio ("Milwaukee Phil"), Jackie Cerone ("Jackie the Lackey"), to serve as front men over the years, this due to some "heat" that Accardo was originally getting from the IRS, in the 1950s. However, no major business transactions, and certainly no "hits," took place without Ricca's and Accardo's knowledge and approval.
The Outfit reached the height of its power in the 1960s. With the aid of Meyer Lansky, Accardo used the Teamsters pension fund to engage in massive money laundering through the Outfit's casinos, aided by the likes of Sydney Korshak and Jimmy Hoffa. The 1970s and 1980s were a hard time for the Outfit, as law enforcement continued to penetrate the organization, spurred by poll-watching politicians. Off-track betting reduced bookmaking profits and illicit casinos withered under competition from legitimate casinos. Replacement activities like auto theft and professional sports betting did not replace the lost profits.
In May 1992, Tony Accardo, Chicago's one-time crime boss and consigliere of close to half-a-century, died. However, compared to how organized crime power struggles emerge in New York City, Chicago's transition from Accardo to the next generation of Outfit bosses has run rather smoothly.
21st Century
In 2005, the U.S. Department of Justice launched Operation Family Secrets, which indicted 15 Outfit members and associates under RICO statutes.
Members
Bosses
- 1910–1920 — Giacomo Colosimo ("James," "Big Jim") (1877–1920)
- 1920–1925 — John Torrio ("Johnny The Fox") (1882–1957)
- 1925–1932 — Alphonse Capone ("Al," "Scarface") (1899–1947)
- 1931–1943 — Francesco Nitto ("Frank Nitti") (1888–1943) Probably a figurehead under "Paul Ricca"
- 1931–1947 — Felice DeLucia ("Paul 'The Waiter' Ricca") (1897–1972)
- 1945–1957 — Antonino Accardo ("Tony," "Joe Batters," "The Big Tuna") (1906–1992) - Remained as top Outfit consigliere until his death and had final say on all major decisions
- 1957–1966 — Salvatore Giancana ("Sam," "Momo," "Mooney") (1908–1975)
- 1966–1967 — Samuel "Teets" Battaglia (1908–1973)
- 1967–1969 — John Cerone ("Jackie the Lackey") (1914–1996)
- 1969–1971 — Felix Alderisio ("Milwaukee Phil") (1912–1971)
- 1971–1986 — Joseph John Aiuppa ("Joey Doves") (1907–1997)
- 1986–1989 — Joseph Ferriola ("Joe Nagall") (1948–1989)
- 1989–1993 — Samuel Carlisi ("Sam," "Wings") (1914–1997)
- 1993–2003 — John DiFronzo
- 2003–2007 — James Marcello("Little Jimmy")
- 2008-present, John DiFronzo
Members and associates
In popular culture
The Chicago Outfit has a long history of portrayal in Hollywood as the subject of films and television, including the highly fictionalized Scarface (1932), Chicago Syndicate (1955), The Scarface Mob (1957), The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967), The Outfit (1973), The Untouchables (1987) as well as both the The Untouchables television series (1959-63; 1993-94). During the 1960s and in to the 1970s The F.B.I. showcased numerous, fictionalized, real Outfit cases on its television program. The television series Crime Story, which ran on NBC from 1986-1988, also portrayed a fictional syndicate mobster rising through the ranks of the Chicago Outfit.
Martin Scorsese's 1995 film Casino is a fictionalized depiction of the Chicago Outfit's skimming operations in Las Vegas. In The Simpsons episode "Viva Ned Flanders" the Las Vegas wedding-chapel priest cites the Chicago Outfit for vesting the power in him to marry. In FOX's Prison Break, character John Abruzzi is the incarcerated boss of the "Chicago Outfit." In the movie Payback, Mel Gibson fights against the crime organization firstly called, "The Syndicate," later in the movie called, "The Outfit."
In the Star Trek episode, "A Piece of the Action", the Enterprise visits Sigma Iotia II, a planet that based its culture on the Chicago Outfit (the fictional book "Chicago Mobs of the Twenties," (Pub. 1992).
See also
Road to Perdition (2002) was a film in which Al Capone and Frank 'The Enforcer' Nitti were depicted acting in concert with an irish gang in lower Illinois during prohibition.
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