Origin and Existence of the Chicago Outfit

Jason Caprio

4-27-14

Origin of the Chicago Outfit

            The Mafia has been one of the longest lasting influences in Chicago. Though everyone knew that the “Chicago Outfit,” the name of the Mafia organization in Chicago, has been around for quite some time, it isn’t very well known just how it started, who and how the leadership was passed on, or if it is even alive to this day. 
It all started with the big separation between nationalities during the period of the massive amount of emigrants coming to America. The Italians started in the north-eastern regions of the United States, but began to migrate to the industrial areas of Illinois and Michigan. There the Italians started to grow their own communities and split theirs between other nationalities,(Made in America 1).
 The one piece of the Italian culture that followed the immigration all the way to Chicago was La Costra Nostra, “our thing”. This lead to the spreading of criminal syndicates around Chicago which developed into many small organizations that grew over time. A man named Giacomo Colosimo, or “Big Jim” began to take control over the underground network of Chicago such as prostitution and gambling. Once Jim had the underground in full control he allowed his nephew, Giovanni “Johnny” Torrio, to join the business,(Chicago Outfit).
 The Prohibition act was passed in 1919, which allowed the illegal production and distribution of alcohol to be a new tactic for making money in the underground.  Johnny saw this as a great moment to seize so more money can be brought in. He talked to his uncle Jim about adding this new franchise, but Big Jim turned the idea down. Johnny couldn’t allow this opportunity of making so much money pass, so he had Big Jim assassinated and took his position as the leader of criminal syndicates,(Made in America 7). 
The death of Big Jim lead to fights between multiple small criminal organizations across Chicago over control of bootlegging since there was no longer anyone they had to answer to. Eventually there became a big separation between the north and south side of Chicago. There was Jonny Torrio who was in control of southern Chicago and a man named Dean O’ Banion, who was in charge of the north side,(Chicago Outfit)
 Now Dean had no problem with Torrio for quite some time until Dean tricked Torrio over a large profit in which Torrio responded with revenge. He had Dean assassinated which broke out into an all-out war between the north and south side. Over a span of time, both sides had many gunfights until the North gain an advantage when they attempted to assassinate Torrio. Torrio survived, but decided to surrender his leadership as ruler of the south and give it to his best man, Al Capone,(Chicago Outfit, Made in America 10).
 Al began knock off each fraction that made up the north side one at a time, all the way until the famous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre where he scared off the last head of the North side syndicate. After Capone had his run as ruler over all the criminal syndicates in Chicago, he passed the torch on to his best man, Frank Nitti. Nitti first act was to appoint the man who helped him claim his throne as ruler over the outfit, Paul Ricca, as his right hand man. After Nitti and Ricca were in control, Prohibition ended, which also closed the bootlegging franchise for the Mafia. Nitti had a nice uncontested control over the Outfit, until he was blamed for the increasing notice of gangsters in Hollywood. He responded with this assumption by committing suicide because he was terrified of having to possibly go back to prison. The boss of the Outfit was continuously passed down from Nicca to another mobster until 2007,(Chicago Outfit)
 In 2007, the Outfit was nearly crushed because high appointed family members were arrested which disrupted the balance of the hierarchy. Even though the Outfit suffered horribly from this hit in the chain of command, they still exist to this day, though not as strong as they were 80 years ago, they still impact Chicago and even this Countries future. Truly the Chicago Outfit was something that began small and unnoticeable, but has grown into a part of the city’s history that can’t be destroyed.

Sources

-          "Chicago Outfit." American Mafia History. 01 Mar. 2014 <http://americanmafiahistory.com/chicago-outfit/>.

-          "Made In America." Al Capone: Chicago's Most Infamous Mob Boss. 01 Mar. 2014 <http://www.crimelibrary.com/gangsters_outlaws/mob_bosses/capone/index_1.html>.

St.Valentines Massacre

Jason Caprio

4-20-14

St. Valentines Day Massacre

            On February 14^th, 1929, seven men were brutally murdered by mysterious gunmen, who then proceeded to escape in a black Cadillac and in time where no one could identify who they were. The men that were killed worked for the notorious “Bugs” Moran, owner of a gang. They were Johnny May, Frank & Peter Gusenberg, James Clark, Adam Heyer, Frank Snyder, Albert Weinshank, and Reinhart H. Schwimmer,(Chicago Tribune).
 The day of this event is known as the St. Valentines massacre. This is an event that leads to the big chase of Al Capone, the notorious leader who ordered the execution. To understand any of this, the backstory must be told.
 It all started with Torrio, the man that Capone worked for. Torrio was nearly murdered by a group of assassins but managed to survive. Not too long after he was in the hospital, he was sentenced to prison time because the police raided and found many underground breweries that he owned. He then proceeded to call up his second-in-command, Capone, to tell him that he is retiring and that he is putting Al in charge. Al Capone gladly took the seat as the new crime boss, and set up his plan to take over all the crime in Chicago,(history.com).
 One group of gangs that gave much competition to Capone was “Bugs” Moran, also known as the man who ordered the assassination attempt to Torrio. Capone began to rise to power in Chicago, but Moran was still in the way. Capone decided it was time to both claim his revenge for Torrio and to finish Moran off for good,(history.com)
Al knew that seven of Moran’s men and Moran himself were going to be at the garage on February 14^th, 1929, so he set up an assassination. He hired five of his men, two to wear police uniforms and the other three to wear street clothes similar to a detective, and gave them a black Cadillac with utilities that gave it the appearance of a Chicago police car. The seven gangsters of Moran’s group were waiting in the garage for the boss to get there, when two cops came in and three detectives. Two men were armed with Tommy guns, another had a pump action shot-gun, and the other two had revolvers. Moran’s men were not troubled, for they have dealt with the police before and knew they would get out of the situation, oh but how wrong they were. The seven men were lined up against the wall shoulder to shoulder to each other. In less than two minutes, massive wave after wave of gun shots came at them, mutilating and dismembering them. The supposed officers and detectives immediately drove off in the black Cadillac without any hesitation, the news struck Moran as a huge surprise, and was thankful for his life that he was running a little late to get to the garage. Seven mutilated bodies lay on the floor in the garage, but one was still alive. Frank Gusenberg, though very close to death’s grip, was still hanging on to life. He was found and driven off to the hospital, but didn’t make it once he arrived. The only information he gave was that it was cops who killed him and his buddies,(Eig, 187-194).
 Capone’s plan had worked. Moran decided to retire from the Mafia which gave Capone the title as the big boss over all the crime of all of Chicago. What he didn’t know was that since he was the growing Mafia boss in Chicago, he was first to be blamed for the massacre. Police began to do research about Capone, which lead to the discovery of his income tax evasion. Not too long after the massacre, Congress appointed more Prohibition agents to enforce the law and make sure that a massacre such as that was to never happen again. Capone thought he had gotten away with the assassination, and that it played out perfectly, but what he didn’t know is that he allowed the beginning of his downfall as quickly as he allowed his rise to power,(Eig,193-194).

Sources

-          "Valentine's Day Massacre takes place." History.com. A&E Television Networks. 02 Mar. 2014 <http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/valentines-day-massacre>.

-          "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre." Chicago Tribune. 14 Feb. 2014. 28 Feb. 2014 <http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-02-14/news/chi-chicagodays-valentinesmassacre-story_1_al-capone-smc-cartage-co-george-bugs-moran>.

-          Eig, Jonathan. Get Capone: The secret plot that captured America's most wanted gangster. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.

Prohibition and the Mafia

Jason Caprio

4-13-14

Prohibition and the Mafia

            The creation of Prohibition was a huge movement in America during the 1920s. The Mafia was an organization that took Prohibition and made something out of it. Illegal selling of alcohol became just one of many activities that the mafia already used, but was still an important role that was played.
 Prohibition began with the Women’s Suffrage movement. Women used Christianity as ammo to get rid of alcohol and the distribution of it in America so the country would become cleaner,(Behr 35-44). Unfortunately, not everyone agreed with this, so selling alcohol secretively became a huge thing in the 1920s. Crime began to grow exponentially and become more organized. The Mafia saw it as just one more opportunity to bring in more profit to their organization. The Law would enforce Prohibition, but only if they were those that stayed true to it. Many officials of the Law were anti- Prohibition, loved to sneak alcohol for themselves and friends, and would even go undercover to make sure that alcohol could still be sold. They were too scared to do it themselves though. They and a vast majority of the public needed somebody to be willing to sell alcohol undercover, and the gangsters were more than happy to do it. The Mafia needed to make sure that nobody would get in their way while they sold alcohol underground, so they developed many tactics,(Behr).
 Mafia organizations would make deals with politicians. An example would be Ed Konvalinka and the deal he made with Torrio and Capone. The deal was that if both Torrio and Capone worked to help Ed get elected, he would not do anything to get in their way of selling alcohol. They would abide by his deal and would hijack the elections of democrats and hold voters at gun point to make the vote for Ed. Another example is the way that the Sicilian Genna Brothers handled it. One way police would find breweries is by the scent it gives off, but the Genna Brothers used ingredients that gave off scents that threw off their trail. The warehouse worked in the wide open where there were no attempts to hide the production of alcohol, they had literally been working right underneath the law’s nose and they didn't even know,(Behr 175-193).
Although Prohibition gave the Mafia a chance to bring in more money as a positive note, there were some negative effects that came out of this. The production and distribution of alcohol by multiple Mafia families lead to some competition and fueled the flame of turf wars, but around this time, Capone was in charge of the majority of the illegal breweries. Families would dish it out on each other for putting one another out of business, or for snitching to the police and getting the other side caught, but Capone would ultimately decide what, when, where, and how  it happened,(Behr)
 Prohibition was a time when America couldn't get up on its feet. It would have fights with its own citizens, the underground, and the Law. It gave reason for the police to break and enter with very few warrants involved, the citizen’s reason to question all that they trusted, and the Mafia the chance to bring in more money and antagonize the Law. Prohibition was just one of many factors that allowed the continuation of the Mafia. 


Sources

- "Chicago Outfit." American Mafia History. 01 Mar. 2014 <http://americanmafiahistory.com/chicago-outfit/>.

- "Organized Crime and Prohibition." Organized Crime and Prohibition. 01 Mar. 2014 <http://www.albany.edu/~wm731882/organized_crime1_final.html>.

-Behr, Edward. Prohibition: Thirteen years that changed America. New York: Arcade Pub., 2011.

"The Untouchables" Historical Accuracy Review

Jason Caprio

4-6-14

 The Untouchables Historical Accuracy Review

Any cinematic film that is about the American Mafia is always taken two ways, accurate or inaccurate. With the film The Untouchables, it makes some nice attempts at trying to be accurate with history, but they took one too many shots in the dark. It is understandable that making a movie one hundred percent accurate is near impossible, the film however would overlook or not look hard enough for factual evidence of the detailing and scenes of the movie.

First off, they did pull off a few scenes and details for the movie that may have not seemed important, but would be a big issue if they got it wrong, so there is some props to be given to the creators of this film. The main character in the movie was named correctly for one thing. If the film screwed up on this, the reviews of this movie would be lessened more than it already is. Elliot Ness, the man who organized the group was accurately stored in the movie along with the roles he played and how the character is portrayed.  There is even a scene when Capone beats one of his associates to death with a baseball bat. This is a fact that is partially true. Capone was known to have committed acts of assault with a baseball bat that were near fatal, but never one that took a life,(The Untouchables, Tunzelmann).

Next, though they did pull off some historical accuracy, they still bombed it over all. For all those that saw the movie, they would remember the accountant, one of “The Untouchables” and the one that discovered Capone’s income tax evasion. This is completely false. The accountant did not even discover the income tax evasion nor did he even exist. The one who did actually bring him down and discovered the income tax evasion was Frank J. Wilson. Most of the crew who are in The Untouchables did not really exist. The real untouchables were twice the amount than what is shown in the movie, and the group is extremely diverse,(Eig, Tunzelmann).

Finally, there is the whole plot of the movie. The Untouchables never had anything to do with Capone’s case of income tax evasion. They did partake in many brewery raids, but they never did anything with the case itself. There is Ness with his whole idea that no one is allowed to drink and that during the existence of the untouchables, he never took a sip of alcohol. This is misleading because the actual Elliot Ness was an alcoholic. Trying to make Elliot Ness look like he was a clean, always playing by the rules cop was a waste of the film maker’s time. The reason they did portray Elliot Ness as a rule follower was to make him look like the honest and strong protagonist who never went against his own rules, when in actuality, he did. Sure in the end of the movie he began to bend the rules a little bit, but the real Elliot Ness did this from the very beginning,(The Untouchables, Tunzelmann).

The Untouchables was a fairly well made movie. Everyone loves the scenes where the shoot outs are going on there is loads of action packed goodness going on, but that is the only one up that the movie gets. They messed up on the historical accuracy, even when they had plenty of information to use that was actual historical evidence; they still distorted the movie’s history. For those that want to see the movie for the action, by all means, knock yourself out, but if you are one who wants historical and factual evidence for on who the untouchables really are and what went on during the time, this is not the movie for you. 

Sources 

- Tunzelmann, Alex Von. "The Untouchables: Punch-drunk with inaccuracies." Theguardian.com 19 Mar. 2009. Guardian News and Media. 02 Mar. 2014 <http://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/mar/18/reel-history-the-untouchables>. 

- The Untouchables. Dir. Brian De Palma. Perf. Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, and Robert De Niro. Paramount Pictures, 1987. 

- Eig, Jonathan. Get Capone: The secret plot that captured America's most wanted gangster. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010. 

Al Capone

Jason Caprio
3-30-14

Al Capone

"He stood five feet ten and a half, and weighed about two hundred pounds, with a powerful chest and hands as big as a grizzly's" (pg.4, Eig) is how the famous mob boss of Chicago is first described at twenty one years old. Many people have heard of Al Capone and have a good general basis of what he did but no one knows how he came to power, the detailing of how he runs his organizations, and so on. Alfonso Capone was hired by Johnny Torrio in 1920. As a side job he owned a business as a decorator in the Levee District. John Torrio organized the assassination of Jim Colosimo, the city's top crime boss. With Jim Colosimo out of the way, John Torrio moved to the top with Capone as his second in command. By opening more businesses and bribing the city council and other politicians, Capone and Torrio gained control of the city. After an assassination that nearly killed him, Torrio decided he no longer wanted to run any gang related organizations in Chicago, so he left Al Capone in charge, and thus, making Al Capone the head of all organized crime in Chicago, (Colbert,  360-363)
Capone was a man who believed in the American system. He thought of it to be the greatest opportunity any citizen of America could get. He states his personal opinion of the American system, "call it Americanism, call it Capitalism, call it what you would like, gives to each and every one of us a great opportunity if we only seize it with both hands and make the most of it," (Colbert, 363).
 Capone was a man who never picked a particular political party. During the time he was with Torrio, he would do business with both the democratic and republican party, but never chose a particular one to vote for,(Eig).
 Capone had to keep an eye on all other opposing gangs to make sure he would stay in power. He would have the assassinations of many mob bosses, leaders, and important members in them to keep his throne. Capone had many tactics for how he would go about dealing with other gang organizations. He would go as light-hearted  as to make peace treaties with other organizations, but only if he knew he had the upper hand against them, to something as pure slaughtering of many opposing members such as the St. Valentines day massacre. Capone always made sure he would have respect shown towards him at all times. Those that lightened up on this would be silenced, no matter the person. Members from his organization, civilians, and members from other gangs would feel his wrath if they dared questioned or opposed him. Because he was so strict on family togetherness and the laws of La Costra Nostra being upheld at all times, made him a very family loving man. He would always show respect to others who were good family figures and role models. He would show both kind and tough love when needed. Al Capone would also be generous in certain fundraisings. He would host weddings, dinner parties, and even opened up a soup kitchen for the homeless,(Eig).
 Al Capone would always make sure that he was seen as the innocent in every situation and that he would do nothing to upset the authorities or the American public, but one thing he did not make sure of was his taxes. In 1931 he was arrested for income tax evasion and lost all power that he worked for in Chicago,(Eig 318).
 Alfonso Capone was a man of high respect, lethal tendencies, and a personality that was new to all that met him. 

Sources

- Eig, Jonathan. Get Capone: The secret plot captured America's most wanted gangster. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010.

- Colbert, David. Eyewitnesses to America 500 years of American history in the word of those who saw it happen. New York: Vintage Books, 1998.