Few organized criminal networks in the United States have ever enjoyed the colorful history and awesome power as the one that developed in the City of Chicago. Since at least the 1910s, “The Windy City” sprouted a criminal underworld that would eventually rival all others.
The city’s reputation became such that to this very day when many people think of Chicago, the first thing that comes to mind is the notorious “Scarface” Al Capone, Frank “The Enforcer” Nitti, the bloody St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, gangland warfare, and the “Roaring Twenties” Prohibition Era. Unfortunately, for many years, that harsh assessment of the city was not very far off the mark.
What eventually became known, simply, as “The Outfit” started out in the early 1920s as a sprawling multi-ethnic hodgepodge of loosely formed criminal gangs comprised of young fledgling hoodlums and racketeers, bootleggers, leg-breakers, labor union goons, gamblers, contract killers and other anti-social characters that formed Chicago’s overall criminal underworld. They started out as rival gangs competing for control over Chicago’s lucrative turf and vast criminal pie. During Prohibition, the city became notorious for hundreds and hundreds of gangland murders and daily street warfare.
But by the end of Prohibition in 1933, whoever hadn’t already been bumped off eventually either fell by the wayside or joined up to form one massive and streamlined criminal syndicate under the notorious “Scarface” Al Capone, blending these former criminal competitors into a monolithic criminal giant. And any lingering hoodlum malcontents who didn’t fall into line were quickly killed off, one by one.
By the time the gunsmoke cleared, the “Chicago Syndicate” had been born. And sitting at the very summit of power was Chicago’s Cosa Nostra…better known as the Italian Mafia.
Back in the 1910s and 1920s, Italian immigrant criminals who hailed from their respective towns and villages across Southern Italy and Western Sicily had started out as separate underworld networks. Each province of Southern Italy boasted its very own “mafia,” so to speak. Naples and the Campania Province had the Camorra. The Calabria Province had the “Societa Onorato.” And the Island of Sicily had its Mafia.
But in 1931 with the culmination of the infamous “Castellammarese War,” the Camorra, Societa’ Onorato, and Mafia had come together in solidarity to form one single monolithic organization that stretched from coast to coast. These iconic criminal visionaries also formed an overall “board of directors,” so to speak, comprised of the most powerful Mafia clans across the nation’s 26 Families. This governing body, based in New York City, became known as “The Commission.”
For their part, Chicago’s criminal set had originally been a loose hodgepodge of Irish, German, Jewish, English, Greek, Italian, and other ethnic gangs until years later when the Italian gangs closed ranks and consolidated their power over the city’s underworld.
Torrio and Capone
One of the most important early Italian racket bosses was “Big Jim” Colosimo, a Calabrian who became the city’s most prominent underworld figure. Soon, his gang’s ranks were bolstered by several key racketeers who had been sent from Brooklyn, New York to help Colosimo gain control over the city. The two most important of these imports were a veteran mafioso named Johnny Torrio, and his young protege, Alphonse Capone.
But Torrio and Capone soon grew tired of Colosimo and his rigid ways and decided to eliminate him. One afternoon, a lone gunman (suspected to have been Capone) shot him to death in the vestibule of his cafe. Torrio became the new boss and Capone became his trusted number-two man. But Capone had even bigger plans, and he eventually sidelined his benefactor and assumed total control over their growing criminal organization.
This era in Chicago became known as “The Roaring Twenties,” and Al Capone soon rose to criminal stardom!
Al Capone, a Neapolitan by birth, ruled his gang fiefdom with an iron fist. In the coming years, the “Capone Gang” became a sprawling multi-ethnic gang of top racketeers. Little by little, Capone and his men killed off perceived rivals until he and his organization completely ruled The Windy City.
Yet, as powerful as they had become, he and his gang were still perceived as “independents” and outsiders as far as the traditional Sicilian Mafia was concerned. Because Capone was a Neapolitan by birth, he technically could not join the ranks of the infamous Sicilian Mafia.
But that all changed with the advent of the historic Castellammarese War. Fought between the years 1929 and 1931, this nationwide Mafia conflict would forever change the face of Chicago’s underworld after Capone was approached for aid by New York Mafia boss Giuseppe (Joe the Boss) Masseria.
Masseria sent emissaries to Capone and offered to formally induct him into the ranks of the Mafia and immediately elevate him to the rank of “capo di decina” with a regime of 10 initiated mafia soldiers if Capone would help eliminate Masseria’s rival, Chicago Mafia Family boss Joe Aiello. Eliminating Aiello would help Masseria defeat the overall forces of his arch-enemy, rival New York City boss Salvatore (Don Turiddo) Maranzano, and weaken the opposition.
Capone, ever the astute businessman, immediately passed the order to have Aiello murdered. He was soon rewarded by Joe Masseria, who officially brought Capone into the Mafia…The rest is Chicago mob lore.
Despite all his underworld machinations and plots to achieve ultimate power, Joe Masseria was eventually murdered in 1931, and Maranzano became the victor. Months later, Maranzano himself was murdered by Salvatore (Charlie Lucky) Luciano, Vito Genovese, Frank Costello, and other “young turks” who decided to seize power from the old-timers (the so-called “Mustache Petes”) altogether.
This is when the total amalgamation of the three rival Italian criminal networks came together as one, and the Commission was formed. It’s also when Chicago was allowed to become its own separate Family, allied with but autonomous from their previous affiliation as a single “regime” of the larger and more powerful Masseria Family.
The Chicago “Outfit” is Born
Over the coming years, Al Capone and key members of his Mafia “Family” would greatly expand their fledgling borgata. The Chicago “Family” was eventually suspected to have grown to one hundred or more formally “inducted” soldiers, with hundreds more additional criminal “associates” of various ethnic backgrounds bolstering its ranks.
Assisted by such capable men as Francesco (Frank “The Enforcer” Nitti) Nitto, the Fischetti brothers, Felice (Paul “The Waiter” Ricca) DeLucia, Antonino (Joe Batters) Accardo, Louis (Little New York) Campagna, Frank Rio, and, in future years, the likes of such hoodlums as Salvatore (Sam Mooney) Giancana and Joseph (Joe Doves) Aiuppa, the “Outfit” became the most powerful Mafia Family in the Midwest, all the way out to the west coast. It also became the closest and most powerful ally of New York’s notorious Five Families.
From the 1930s forward, using their vast resources, not the least of which was the unique power structure and hierarchal design of their criminal organization, their legendary control over Cook County’s Police Department and many local, state, and national politicians, the Chicago Syndicate virtually had the run of the city, and called it their own.
The Outfit’s well-known acceptance of racketeers and gangsters into their ranks to bolster their strength, regardless of ethnicity, opened their doors to a wide spectrum of capable criminals from all walks of life who contributed their considerable talents to allow the Chicago Mob to consolidate their power and place a virtual stranglehold over a wide range of labor unions, legitimate businesses, entire industries, and virtually every single criminal racket worth controlling in the City of Chicago as well as many of its outer suburbs and neighboring states.
All Crooked Roads Lead to the “Outfit”
Besides the City of Chicago and its outlying counties and territories, the Outfit’s presence was also felt in such other major cities as Las Vegas, NV; Phoenix, AZ; Gary, IN; Des Moines, IA; Calumet City, IN; Miami Beach, FL; Omaha, NE; Los Angeles, CA; Caribbean Islands like Nassau in the Bahamas; Havana, Cuba; and even across the U.S. border into Mexico.
Collectively, the overall Chicago Syndicate’s wealth and assets ran well into the billions of dollars. Their pivotal control over several international unions and dozens upon dozens more racket-ridden locals aided their control over many industries.
Some good examples of the Outfit’s deep penetration into Chicago’s labor unions reads like a who’s who of the American labor movement: Chicago Local #278 of the Bartenders Union; Local #304 of the Hotel & Restaurant Employees Union; Local #450, Hotel, Restaurant & Bartenders Union; Local #593, Hotel, Motel, & Apartment Employees Union; Local #711, Laborers & Hod Carriers Union; Culinary Workers Chicago Joint Council Executive Board; International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union Locals #703, Produce & Dairy Haulers Union; Teamsters Local #705, Freight Truckers & Delivery Drivers Union; Teamsters Local #714, Trade Shows & Exhibition Workers Union; Teamsters Local #727, Chauffeurs, Funeral Drivers, Greasers & Wash Rack Attendants Union; Teamsters Local #777, Chicago Taxi Drivers & Livery Workers Union; Laborers International of North America Union Locals #1, Local #5, and Local #1001; Local #110, Motion Picture Operators Union (IATSE); Local #136, the Machinery Movers & Helpers Union; the Chicago District Council of Carpenters Union; the Amalgamated Workers Union; Local #46, Laundry Workers Union; Local #134, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (jukebox and coin machines); and Operating Engineers Union…to name but a few.
And the above-named unions are but a smidgeon, a small dot, of all the labor locals under mob control. The FBI and U.S. Office of Labor Racketeering once released a report stating that nearly every single union local (and several Internationals) in Chicago was under the mob’s purview in one form or another.
And the Beat Goes On…
Through the decades, the boss and top hierarchy of the Chicago Syndicate often changed according to retirement, attrition, murder, the changing times, or the level of law enforcement scrutiny and publicity leveled at them.
Family “bosses” were often really only front bosses and nominal straw leaders who were appointed to lead the troops. They were “propped up” to look like the ultimate powers of the Outfit when in reality, they were not. On review, the “boss” seat often looked like a game of musical chairs, with leaders coming and going.
But through it all, over the years, there was one constant….make that two constants – their names were Paul Ricca and Tony Accardo. Front bosses came and went, but the real powers behind the throne were these two wily old mafiosi who were, without a doubt, both criminal masterminds and master tacticians.
It was Nice While it Lasted
Today, as with all Cosa Nostra borgatas throughout the entire country, Chicago’s Outfit is but a wisp of its former self. Gone are the lofty union appointments, pervasive bribery and corruption of policemen and politicians who once capitulated to the underworld’s demands, the vast array of multimillion-dollar a year rackets, and their rigid monolithic Roman legion-like structure.
Is the Outfit still around and active in some recognizable shape or form? The answer to that question is a weak, unenthusiastic yes. But for how much longer, nobody knows. For all intents and purposes, the Chicago Mob is on life support.
The Chicago Outfit “Overall” Membership Chart
The unique Chicago “Outfit” chart that follows below depicts the known membership of the DeLucia/Accardo Family hierarchy and their formally “inducted” soldiers, their “non-Italian” hierarchy bosses and overall criminal associates as well as the many “uninitiated” Italian racketeers who affiliated with them for the twenty year period from the 1950s through the 1960s.
Note: Please keep in mind that over the years, contrary to popular belief, it was taken for granted that many of Chicago’s Italian hoodlums were, in fact, “made” members of the Mafia when, in actuality, they were high-level, uninitiated Outfit “associates.” Button Guys deeply researched and named 736 racketeers; 155 “made” members of the Family and another 581 “associates” known to be active from 1950-1970. Many of these associates were formally inducted into the ranks of Cosa Nostra in later years, but the Outfit was a huge organization, and admittedly, it is still quite possible, even probable, that we missed a few guys. Also, a few of those named as soldiers might have actually been top-ranked associates and vice versa. Several of those named as associates may have actually been soldiers. But regardless of any specific rank, understand that all those listed were part of the overall Chicago Syndicate at one point or another.
