The Chicago Outfit, also known simply as "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 its cousins, the "Five Families" of New York City, though all Sicilian- and 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.

Another point that makes The Outfit different from the Five Families is that while until recently New York City mafia families had a 100% Sicilian-Italian rule in order for a guy to become, "Made," The Outfit has had other ethnic groups in its upper echelons since its earliest days. A prime example of this was that an unlikely Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik was the top financier of the Chicago Mob for decades until his death. Yet, 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, Alphonse ("Big Al," "Scarface") Capone; in fact, for several years after Capone left the scene, The Outfit was known as "the Capone Gang" or "the Capones."

History of the Chicago Outfit

Pre-Prohibition

The early years of organized crime in Chicago in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was 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 ("James," "Big Jim") Colosimo 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 ("John" "Johnny The Fox") Torrio 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 due to 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, according to a Capone biography on the FBI's website.

From Nitti through Accardo

After Capone was jailed for tax evasion, his hand-picked successor, Francesco ("Frank 'The Enforcer' Nitti") Nitto, a former barber and small-time jewel thief, only nominally assumed power. In truth, power was seized by Nitti's underboss, Felice ("Paul 'The Waiter' Ricca") DeLucia, 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 Oufit 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 ("Joe Batters," "The Big Tuna") Accardo as underboss.

However, later in '43, 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, due to 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 "Joey Doves" Aiuppa, Felix "Miwaukee Phil" Alderisio and John ("Jackie the Lackey") Cerone, to serve as front men over the years, this due to some "heat" that Accardo was originally getting from the IRS, in the '50s. 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 of 1992, Tony Accardo, Chicago's one-time crime boss and ultimate 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

As the result of an investigation dubbed, "Operation Family Secrets," many mobsters in The Outfit were under indictment as of April 25, 2005 in connection with 18 murders as well as two attempted bombings of the known mob hang outs Tom's Steakhouse, in Melrose Park, Illinois, and Horwath's, in Elmwood Park, Illinois, stretching back four decades. Included were James "Little Jimmy" Marcello, Nicholas Ferriola, Joseph "The Clown" Lombardo, Sr., Michael Marcello, Frank "The German" Schweihs, Frank Calabrese, Sr., Paul "The Indian" Schiro, former Chicago Police Department officer Anthony "Twan" Doyle, Thomas Johnson, Joseph Venezia, and Dennis Johnson. Another successful bombing still unsolved of the electronic store Polk Brothers, in Melrose Park, had been added in the indictment, however no evidence existed in that case and the State's star courtroom witness Nicolas Calabrese had no knowledge of the incident so the charge has subsequently been dropped.
Two among the indicted have died. Frank "Gumba" Saladino was found dead in a hotel in Hampshire, Illinois. FBI Agent Robert Grant said there was no indication of foul play, and he did not believe Saladino, 59, had killed himself. Grant said $25,000 in cash and $70,000 in checks were recovered at the scene. Michael Ricci has also died.

In April 2005, federal indictments for racketeering and murder were brought upon many top mobsters for gangland slayings including Michael "Bones" Albergo, Dan Seifert, Paul Haggerty, Henry Consentino, John Mendell, Donald Renno, Vincent Moretti, William and Charlotte Dauber, William "Butch" Petrocelli, Michael Cagnoni, Nicholas D'Andrea, Richard D. Ortiz, Arthur Morawski, Emil Vaci, Anthony ("Tony," "The Ant") Spilotro, Michael Spilotro and John Fecarotta.

On January 11, 2007, Deputy United States Marshal John Thomas Ambrose, 38, a former supervisory inspector of the Marshals Service's Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force, was charged with revealing information concerning the cooperation and travel plans of Nicholas Calabrese, expected to be a key witness in the government's Operation Family Secrets murder conspiracy case, to an associate of reputed outfit boss John "No Nose" DiFronzo. The current operations are said to be controlled now by Sam "Wings" Carlisi's grandson, Carlo Capinelli, who spends most of his time in Las Vegas, Nevada.

On September 10, 2007, the federal trial based on "Operation Family Secrets" concluded in Chicago. On trial were Joseph Lombardo, James Marcello, Frank Calabrese, Sr., Paul Shiro, and former Chicago police officer Anthony Doyle. The men were accused of a racketeering conspiracy which includes 18 counts of murder, many of which have gone unsolved for decades, although many people have speculated for years some "hits" were carried out by the younger "connected" associates. An anonymous group of jurors heard the case, only known by numbers not their names. All men have been found guilty on racketeering conspiracy, bribery, illegal gambling and tax fraud. On September 21, 2007, a federal jury in Chicago, in a second round of deliberations, found Frank Calabrese, Sr., committed seven murders, James Marcello two murders and Joseph Lombardo one murder. As a result, the men face up to life in prison because the slayings were committed in the course of the racketeering conspiracy. The jury, however, was unable to reach a decision on the one murder attributed to defendant Paul Schiro.
Bosses of the Chicago Outfit