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INTRO

One of the rare questions out there is, are the small cities more criminally lucrative than the big ones? Well, if you'll bear with me for a bit, it turns out there's more of a mystery here than you might think. We all know that there's more valuable stuff to steal in the big cities, so robbery is more profitable, also extortion, prostitution and gambling, mainly because of the larger population. But with the greater number of people, comes the greater rivalry, meaning in the business world, especially in the criminal underworld. The gangsters who lived small towns and were members of the Chicago Mob, I believe that things were quite different. Back in the old days the racketeers were involved in every kind of dirty business but above all, in politics, and so corruptors like that surely knew the way on how to control a small group of people, and of course with less competition comes more profit. There are even examples where the whole towns were involved in shady businesses and one of those small towns was Burnham, Illinois.

Although Burnham may not be one of the first smaller towns you think of when you think of crime, but I think that it should be. The tiny village is located 18 miles south of Chicago’s Loop area, which was created back in 1907 when the local residents voted to incorporate the area as the village of Burnham. The village's boundaries are Hammond on the east, Chicago on the north, and Calumet City to the south and west. During the time there was a huge commercial development in the village and also transportation and housing needs were being spurred by the growing steel industries. The strong demand for workers' housing led to residential growth in Burnham, Hegewisch, and Calumet City. For 40 years, from 1908 to 1948, the history of Burnham was tied to the activities of its Mayor and Irish racketeer, Johnny Patton.


John Patton

BORN IN THE USA

Born in 1883, in the small town of Burnham, Irish hoodlum John Patton became one of the most extraordinary individuals, who largely contributed to the so-called term “menace to society”. Story goes that Patton since young age, or to be precise at the age of 14, worked at a local bar which was visited by many interesting figures, such as politicians, business men and of course big time gangsters and hoodlums. In fact, young Patton was mentored by members of the old and original Irish Mob, such as Mike McDonald, and was connected to the Irish political machine under Mike Kenna and John Coughlin. Even though it was a small place, still due to its strategic location straddling the Illinois/Indiana border and the inherent jurisdictional confusion, Burnham became the best place for opening brothels and saloons.

Story goes that young Patton was a very talkative young fella who loved to tell stories and also to listen to other people’s problems, but in reality, he was a ruthless criminal who loved to rob rich drunks. Besides gambling, another racket which was operated in 90% of the bars at the time, was prostitution and so all of the girls were trained to empty the drunken’ costumer’s pockets.

THE BOY MAYOR OF BURNHAM

During the elections for village president in 1908, none of the elderly candidates were interested for the position and so the youth had taken over the presidency with the idea that they might be able to squeeze something out of it. Connections are everything in this world and so Johnny Patton was elected as village president or the so-called position as “Mayor” of Burnham, obviously with the help of Kenna and Coughlin. Patton received the nickname “the boy mayor of Burnham” because he had taken office somewhere around the age of 23 and when first elected, Patton became the youngest mayor in Illinois. At the time nobody cared if a small time crook was head of one of the smallest places in the country, but they were wrong.


The Boy Mayor of Burnham

The same year when he got elected, Patton was threatened with arrest as the result of prize fights. On June 12, 1908, the cops raided a building in Burnham which was the main place for those type of activities and after firing few shots, they managed to arrest 53 “fans”. The main thing which connected Patton to this whole mess was his ownership of a saloon in that same building, just above the floor where the fights occurred. Also, many of the people, who managed to getaway from the cops, had taken shelter in Patton’s saloon. When the cops asked Patton about his alleged connections these illegal activities, naturally he denied any responsibility.

Over the years, Patton proved to be also quite useful for the town and its citizens by bringing clean water directly from Chicago and connected sewer services into Burnham and above all, he also maintained the order on the streets. I believe that keeping the order wasn’t some very hard thing for the young Mayor to do so because the town population at the time was nearly 1000 residents and I also believe that there was no other more powerful racketeer than Patton in that same area. He was a dyed-in-the-wool Democrat and nearly all inhabitants were strong for him.

POLITICAL CRIME BOSS

With Patton’s “help”, Burnham became open-wide as the skies. Patton figured that if the respectable rich people wanted to stop by for a chicken dinner, they could also play the slot machines and have a good time with some of the girls. The town was filled with roadhouses and became open 24/7 for anyone who loved to buy the “bottled joy of life” or dance to the sound of a nickel piano. Many of these roadhouses were operated by one of Patton’s associate Frank Hitchcock who in turn was former Chicago bagman for corrupt figures such as Kenna and Coughlin, but later functioned as Patton’s lieutenant. In fact, Hitchcock became Burnham's number one criminal and besides operating the roadhouses, he also used to do a lot of hijacking and kidnappings.


Frank Hitchcock

During the 1910’s, Patton also controlled his own burglary crew which operated in the Burnham, Hammond and Calumet City areas and had a score like at least three robberies a week. Patton’s leaders of the crew was one Italian gangster and saloon owner Charles Costantio and also Julius Rosenthal. Other prominent gang members were the Dominick brothers, Jerry Orlando, Ben Chaken, Frank Lemar, Charles Dwartz, Martin Duffell, Frank Quinn and Jerry Raffles. Usually, Constantio helped in storing the stolen goods until Patton inspected and found a way to dispose of them or in other words, to sell them. The crew met twice a month and usually at these meetings they divided the proceeds of former robberies and planned new ones. Story goes that if a member failed to attend these meetings, he was fined $200 by Patton or Constantio.

But as the famous saying goes “there’s no honor among thieves”, well the same thing goes for Patton’s gang. One time the crew stole a lot of silk and Constantio bought the shares of the other members for $1,700. Later the gang stole it from him and sold it to Patton for $3,000. Patton met with the gang at the Island hotel in Burnham, two weeks later, and laughed at them because he had sold the goods for $19,000 and so he bought himself a $100 worth of wine to celebrate.

The 'round the clock businesses attracted red light enterprises which were mostly operated by old time pimps at the time such as the Guzik family, Mike Heitler and Jim Colosimo, and so Patton worked with them all. At one time Burnham had more disorderly houses and prostitutes per capita than any comparable spot in the world and so the people who were thirsty for pleasure and the old mighty dollar, quickly flocked to Burnham.

So, Patton became involved heavily in the prostitution business, which by this time was one of the most lucrative underworld operations. During those days many criminals in the nearby big cities such as Chicago already had their problems with the law and they had to constantly relocate their businesses but in the tiny town of Burnham, it was a whole different story. For example, when World War I occurred back in 1914, Burnham became known among military circles as the “lawless village” and in no time, the town resembled an army base. Huge number of soldiers filled the brothels and resorts and that’s when the so-called “Boy Mayor” made his first big amount of cash.

ENTER CHICAGO’S UNDERWORLD

Patton quickly started investing his money in other various brothels and gambling joints around the Chicago area, especially in the south suburbs and also around northwest Indiana. Story goes the situation became so bad that the Mayor of nearby Hammond threatened to publish the names of brothel secret owners from his town and also closed the road to Burnham. But it was a time of huge political and police corruption and on top of that, Patton was the law in his own town and so his business remained untouched.

Chicago crime lords such as Jim Colosimo immediately invested in Patton’s operations and together with Hitchcock, they invested in a brothel known as the Arrowhead Inn, which of course was located in Burnham at Entre and Chippewa Streets. Previously the whole joint was owned by Chicago racketeer Ike Bloom but now it was operated by people who were instructed personally by Patton himself. Even the former chief of police worked there as a bartender and also few aldermen worked as waiters. Story goes that the only time the board of aldermen held a meeting was when the waiters gathered around and talked about the good old days.


Jim Colosimo

If some of the infamous racketeers considered Chicago’s notorious Levee as a mob haven at the time, the south suburb of Burnham came second. But when the Levee was closed down back in 1915, Burnham became the number one place for fun because it was the era of the automobile and the town was just 15 miles south of the Levee, which was a very short distance by car. The club became a real “cash cow” for Colosimo and the rest of the gang and so the old Italian boss became one of the most prominent partners of Patton. Also, story goes that with Colosimo’s help, many old Jazz headliners provided musical entertainment to the Arrowhead crowd.

There was also another small time investor in that same joint known as Joe Hogarty, who became the start for an ongoing war between Colosimo’s and Patton’s faction and another gang which was led by Moss Enright. Enright was former member of the old Irish mob and knew Patton for quite some time. Enright started as enforcer and later his prime racket became union racketeering. In fact, Enright was already in conflict with members of the Italian faction, such as Mike Carrozzo, mostly in the union business. Carrozzo was enforcer and alleged bodyguard for Colosimo, who recently began infiltrating the unions.


Joe Hogarty

On November 22, 1916, Enright’s brother Tommy entered Patton’s joint with Sonny Dunn and few other men who were accompanied by few nice looking girls. They were greeted by Joe Hogarty himself, who was also accompanied by two girls. According to witnesses, the parties sat together, drank and laughed all night. Suddenly someone made a remark for someone’s girlfriend and Hogarty stood up, went to the bartender and borrowed two guns. While Hogarty was gone, Dunn stood up and went looking for him because he knew that there was going to be trouble. Hogarty took the revolvers and saw Dunn and told him to stop but later the two men returned to the table and Hogarty placed two revolvers on the table and remarked to the men on the table something like “Now I’m going to show who’s a tough guy!” He shot two times, one went through Enright’s hat and one in Dunn’s hip. Suddenly all of Enright’s seven men stood up, made a circle around Hogarty, pulled out their guns and pumped 18 bullets into his body. After that Enright’s party left the joint and quickly took a train which headed for Chicago. Some mob historians claim that Hogarty was an enemy of Patton and Colosimo which is obviously false, because there are strong facts which imply that he was their ally.

This became a huge disaster for Patton and his friends back in Chicago, who owned a lot of stock in that joint, because Hogarty’s murder attracted a lot of media and police attention since it was such a spectacular hit. During this period many clubs around Burnham were shot or bombed, and many people were killed during the process. For example, three gunmen entered in Sol Van Praag’s joint in Burnham and besides shooting the whole place up, they also shot to death his main operator Joseph Grabiner known only as the “Jew Kid”. In fact, Praag was an old time corrupt politician and ex-pimp from the First Ward who enjoyed a lot of privileges with his partnerships such as the Colosimos and the Guziks.

One police officer remarked that “Burnham is as safe as Siberia for the stickup mob.” At the beginning of 1918, some “unknown” hoodlums also fired few shots at John Patton but luckily for him, they missed. When the cops asked him on who might’ve been responsible for the attack, he simply blamed some freight car thieves but did not give any names. Not long afterward in September, 1918, the police arrested one of Patton’s associates in his burglary crew, Ben Chaken regarding a robbery and took him to the Burnham police station. Before one of the cops got out of the station, Patton entered and stopped him. The cop was said to have accepted $100 to leave Chaken's cell open so he can walk out, which he really did.

The cops had to search for few days until they got him. Chaken was found as he tried to join the army and later to save his own skin, Chaken started talking and every member of the gang, including Patton, were arrested in connection with the wholesale robbing of cars in the Calumet City area. Also, thousands of dollars worth of merchandise was said to have been recovered by the cops of the South Chicago police. During one of the raids the cops found large quantities of government goods, consigned to the army in France and it was also said that much of the stolen goods from Chicago’s South Side had been hidden in Burnham.

As usual, Patton protested at being detained because he was taken while applying himself assiduously to a large steak in Colosimo's resort. At first, he made few jokes for the cops and invited them to dine with him. Then, as the seriousness of the situation dawned, Patton grew more vociferous. He was taken in an automobile to his home, which was searched and then a search was made also at the Burnham city hall. Nothing was found and so Patton was driven over eighty or ninety miles of Indiana highways while the cops plied him with questions. Upon the return to Burnham the angry Mayor was released and he made a statement in which he denied all knowledge of stolen goods or of thieves. “I didn't have nothing to tell them, I don't know anything about the crooks. This is the first time in my life I've ever been arrested or called a thief. Its shame." he said. Patton was released on $3,000 bond and was later discharged by United States Commissioner Lewis F. Mason.

Obviously, the constant releases of Patton from jail became also the constant hard and painful reality of Burnham, which became the new tale of “Sodom and Gomorrah”. Many innocent bystanders got hurt or even killed on streets of Burnham, mostly by drunken drivers and street hoodlums with guns. For example, in just one week, five fatal accidents occurred in the small town which was a huge problem. Patton didn’t care as long as the profits came right in his pockets but the problem was that nobody can control an alcohol fueled crowd, and at the same time thirsty for wild sex and big sums of cash. Once, two guys kidnapped a man from the Loop area in Chicago, brought him to Burnham, robbed him out of his $200 and they had thrown him at the railroad tracks, where he got ran over by a train.

When the war ended, Patton’s joint again drew plenty of heat. On May 18, 1919, Chicago Tribune reporter Morrow Krum entered the Arrowhead Inn and saw Colosimo, Patton and another individual sitting at one of the tables. After that the reporter entered in one of the phone booths at the place and called his office to inform them on the situation at the club and other joints around the Burnham area. When he finished his phone call, he stepped out on the veranda and was accosted by none other than Jim Colosimo. “You dirty rat, we heard you calling your office” Colosimo said, so Krum stepped away and as he did so, Colosimo punched him in the mouth. Suddenly a group of men, who had been standing behind Colosimo, jumped the reporter and one short guy particularly, punched the poor news guy so many times in the face that one of his eyes was dislocated. At the end the short guy allegedly told the reporter that “You’re damn lucky to get out of here alive, you rat”.

Besides that, the reporter still did some damage by reporting that at the Arrowhead Inn, the Beverly Gardens and the Jeffrey Gardens, alcoholic drinks were being purchased with all the side trimming of women and songs. Immediately warrants for the arrest of Colosimo and his short violent friend, which I believe was John Torrio, were issued but very typical of that era was that nobody ever got arrested and in a short time period the whole thing went down the toilet.

FRIEND OF THE MAFIA

Now all of these so-called legal problems were very bad for business, and when business is down, other rivals usually try to take your place. So, somebody had to do something and that somebody was none other than Colosimo’s right hand man John Torrio. Now Patton was considered a connected guy but Torrio was connected on another level since he belonged to the Italian criminal secret society which was widespread all over the country. So now Torrio and Mike Carrozzo had to take one old problem in their own hands by asking help from their “relatives” far on the east coast in the Buffalo area in upstate New York.


Mike Carrozzo

So, the problem was solved when the guys on the east coast sent one of their best hitman known as Tom “Tommy the Wop” Fusco who on February 5, 1920, pumped hundreds of shotgun pellets into Moss Enright’s body. Later information came up that two weeks before the slaying of Enright, the imported Italian hitman was first seen with Carrozzo and later with Torrio at Patton’s joint the Burnham Inn. Right after the killing of Enright, all the joints in Burnham were searched by the cops but they found nothing. When they questioned Carozzo regarding the killing, he simply said “If I had killed Moss Enright I wouldn’t be ashamed to admit it, I’d be proud of it.” As additional info, just three months later, Jim Colosimo was also killed at his own joint.


Maurice Enright

The birth of Prohibition in Chicago was marked with the death of Colosimo and now Patton’s new partner in crime was John Torrio. Now, we all know that Torrio was quite different than his previous boss, meaning he had no limits in choosing schemes or people for making the big buck and he handled the “dirty stuff” in a very different way. Torrio and Patton were two very similar individuals with good vocabularies, no accents, and never uttered a profane or a lewd word. During this period, according to the money trail, Patton possibly answered to Al Capone’s non-Italian representative Jake Guzik and those so-called criminal connections between various criminals, such as Guzik and Patton, became known as “the vice syndicate.”

THE BIG BUCK

The first problem Torrio had with his new partner in crime John Patton was the robbing of rich drunken costumers. Patton still had many associates, such as Hitchcock, who believed in their old ways of doing crime, but Torrio showed them that those kinds of criminal actions were bad for business. For example, if an “unauthorized” robbery occurred in some of Patton’s nightclubs on some of the drunken “gentlemen”, and especially if he was sufficiently important to be worth bothering about, then Torrio would go personally to the thieves, recover the money and return it to its rightful owner.

During Prohibition, the combination between Torrio and Patton proved to be quite lucrative since one news account from the year of 1920 refers to the village as the “cabaret town” of Cook County and adds that of all of the small towns in the country, Burnham is “perhaps the one most often visited by amusement seeking visitors.” Two of the first so-called roadhouses which were operated by the Torrio/Patton alliance were the Burnham Inn and the Speedway Inn. The Speedway Inn was fronted by Patton’s associate John Williams and was protected by policeman Joseph Lupe. Every time the cops decided to raid the joint, Lupe signaled the gang so they can hide most of their “equipment”. In fact, the joints were quite near the industry area of Southeast Chicago, also the south suburban towns such as Harvey and Chicago Heights and also Northwest Indiana, a location which proved to very lucrative. Burnham’s location also played major role in making an easy getaway for the visitors to avoid any possible raid by the police by simply slipping across the Indiana border. Later the duo also opened the Coney Island Café and the Barn and also bought the Roadside Home on the road to Joliet, Illinois. The Roadside Home was a real fancy joint with a huge floral garden, and inside the place had that old English architecture, three stories high with gabled roofs.

Also, some of the brothels in Burnham were built like barracks, with a bar and a large drinking room below stairs and dozens of small bedrooms above stairs. These so-called barracks were mainly for the foreign workers in the nearby mills and so as a precautionary measure, the chairs and tables in the large drinking room were firmly fastened to the floor which was a method to prevent the guests from hitting themselves over their heads when they became fighting drunk. Some sources say that just one of these “30-girl barracks” produced $10,000 a month in profits.

This was the time when many rich gangsters such as Torrio, also started buying breweries and also started gathering many independent gangs under their rule, who in turn retailed the product. During that time, Patton owned a huge house at 142d Street and Burnham Avenue, which was built atop a huge underground garage for alky trucks and he also owned a massive brewery at 2800 E. 138th Pl. Many truckloads of booze hauled from Burnham to Chicago’s South Side but also many bootleggers who bought booze from Patton, found themselves fooled by the seller himself, meaning Patton already had many Prohibition agents in his back pocket and so he had a scheme of his own.

For example, once came along a buyer from Milwaukee and bought two trucks filled with booze. As the trucks abandoned the Burnham area and entered the South Side, two policemen stopped the drivers and arrested them. Now the drivers were taken to custody at the South Chicago police station and later were turned over, including the booze, to Prohibition agents Victor Bougner and Frank Hassett. From this point on the agents took the booze and the drivers, of course after the buyer from Milwaukee already paid $1,000 to the Burnham Inn to take the problem in front of John Patton. So, the truckers were told to inform the buyer that his trucks would be on a certain location. Later the trucks really showed up as far as the deal went but there was a problem because the booze was always gone. In May, 1925, both corrupt agents were arrested and discharged from the force. As for Patton, he was arrested and questioned regarding the scheme but he left the police station like nothing ever happened. From this point on, Patton was considered a big time bootlegger and also a full-fledged member of the Torrio crime organization because he and Torrio were not some “15 minute eggs” of gangdom but instead they managed to place the boozedom on a much higher level by organizing the traffic on a wholesale scale.

If some criminal wanted to open a brewery in the Burnham area, first he had to go and see Patton for permission and if he does not, the brewer’s life became troubled. Patton always followed a certain kind of twist in his dealings by keeping his word only with the Torrio group. If he told Torrio that he would bring $30,000 that same day, he really did it with no questions asked. Obviously, he feared for his life but he was no squawker. The Irish racketeer was all about business and his corruption funds became so large that most of the government officials couldn’t stand up against the temptation. The big time racketeers such as Torrio and Patton realized that there was a fortune from booze and girls even before Prohibition, but now there was much bigger fortune under Prohibition.

UPS AND DOWNS

In 1923, Chicago’s South Side and the southern suburbs, which was Torrio’s territory, was constantly raided by government agents, which in fact was an operation for a sweep through the area. On June 10, ten detectives raided the Speedway Inn and arrested 36 people, confiscated all of the gambling equipment and also arrested the keeper John Williams. Fifteen places were raided that same day all over the South Side. On January 22, 1923, Patton was arrested in the early morning hours by South Side Chicago police after they had stopped a truck in which Patton and one Harry Benson of Hammond were hauling eleven cases of booze. Patton was held before the federal grand jury by United States Commissioner James IL, Glass on charges of violating the prohibition law. “Unusually”, later all charges were dismissed.

This meant that Torrio’s empire started to crumble down and so did his peace arrangements with the North Side faction and by 1925, Torrio was out of the way and the new leader of the South Side faction became Al Capone. On April 7, 1925, Capone gathered all of his top men including Frank Nitto, Mike Carrozzo, Paul Ricca, Joe Fusco, Robert Larry McCullough, Jake Guzik, John Patton, Joseph Piza and Anthony Arrisso, each carrying from $500 to $15,000, at one of Capone’s headquarters located at 2146 South Michigan Boulevard, to announce the formation and rules of the new organization, which by now became known as the Capone mob.


Chicago’s “Unholy Trinity” John Patton, John Torrio and Al Capone

But somebody noticed the gangsters and notified the cops and so an hour later, a huge police squad raided the joint and arrested all of the participants at the meeting. The police recovered records which revealed that Patton, Capone and the rest of the bosses, were operating an efficient illegal organization which was engaged in operations netting millions of dollars a year. Story goes that during the raid, Patton attempted to bribe his way out of the situation by asking the detectives on what was their price to return the documents and at the same time he showed them $5,000. He was arrested for attempted bribery and like always, when the case came up in federal court the accused gangsters were freed and the books were returned. Of course, Patton was personally discharged by a very friendly judge and again, not long afterward Patton was arrested again on charges of dry law violations and extortion conspiracy, but he was freed again.

Later Patton was again nabbed carrying 14 cases of whisky, but he was freed again. From this point on Patton became the number one suspect in every gangland slaying or bootlegging raid that occurred in the Chicago area. For example, in June, 1925, Sicilian gangster Mike Genna was killed by rival factions and the cops immediately questioned Patton but as usual they got nothing. He was later also questioned regarding the shooting of two policemen.

One of the most gruesome stories which involved Patton’s name was in 1927 when Capone decided to make some “changes” at the Hawthorne Hotel located at 4823 22nd Street, Cicero, which was his new headquarters. Capone decided to kill one of his frontman known as Theodore Anton, who was later found buried in quicklime on an abandoned parking lot in Burnham, near Patton’s home. The Capone crew had its own rules, so anyone who belonged to their criminal brotherhood had to follow the same “program”.

For example, one problem occurred in 1925, when Patton’s partner in crime Frank Hitchcock decided to go “solo”, meaning he became independent. But Capone and Patton never thought that Hitchcock would change sides by cooperating with the rival gangs from the North Side. There are also other numerous mistakes which Hitchcock did, for example swindling a lot of gangsters for their money and also his wealth was estimated at $500,000, which was a lot of money during those days for a criminal of his stature. So, on July 27, 1927, very early in the morning Hitchcock and his wife reached their home in Burnham, where they were met by four swarthy men who first took his wife’s jewelry and forced him to enter their car. Few hours later the cops found Hitchcock’s dead body at 135th Street and Torrence Avenue, only a very short distance from Burnham. He had been shot through the head from the back and nobody was ever convicted for the murder.

MY BEST PAL

By now the relationship between Capone and Patton became a whole new lucrative situation. But besides that, they also became close friends because they both loved the same sport which was golf and for their own luck, Patton also ran a country club called Burnham Wood which featured a nine-hole golf course, and of course his frequent guests were Capone and his men. Capone loved playing golf and Patton was very good at it and so on September 15, 1928, the duo enjoyed a game of golf on a sunny Saturday morning at the Burnham golf links. Some sources say that they were also accompanied by Jake Guzik, Jack McGurn and Fred Burke.

According to the story, after finishing the game, Capone and Patton got into an automobile when Capone’s .45 caliber pistol suddenly discharged. It was in his right hip pocket and so the bullet plowed down through the fleshy part of his right leg, narrowly missed the abdomen and then imbedded itself in his left leg. In a state of panic, Patton took his wounded buddy to the Hammond hospital, where he was given an extensive suite under a false name. A physician was summoned and the treatment of the wounds began and Capone was saved. Months after the accident, Capone always remarked that Patton was a terrible person but he sure knew how to play golf because according to numerous sources, Capone was the worst player of them all.



Even though Capone was the boss of the organization, he still very much respected Patton because the “Boy Mayor” was involved in the rackets way before many of the members of the newly formed organization, including Capone himself. By now Patton was 42 years old and had the experience of a long time racketeer who knew how to exploit the government system on another level. In other words, guys like Patton were at the same time mentors and associates of the Capone organization. Story goes that Patton worked closely with Capone in the matter of arranging gambling operations and so he didn’t stay long with the whorehouses and the booze but instead he started investing his dirty cash in race tracks.

THE RACE TRACKS

It was a time when the U.S. government was “confused” on whether greyhounds were legal to be used for racings or even whether the whole race tracks were legal or not. So, by 1929, there were only two race tracks in the Chicago area, one was the Hawthorne Kennel Club in Cicero and other track was located in Homewood, Illinois. The second track was owned by Homer Ellis, a known gambler and slot machine king from the Chicago Heights area and also a known Capone associate, and as for the Hawthorne Kennel Club, the track was owned by Capone’s Cicero guys.

The operation was managed by John Patton and another Capone associate known as Edward O’Hare, a guy who was regarded as the czar of dog racing in America. O’Hare acted as president and Patton was the secretary and treasurer and also both owned 85% of stock in the half-mile dog track and grounds and the rest was owned by small group of “Chicagoans”. The duo and several other men also had been partners in a south side real estate enterprise which generated a lot of cash. It was a lucrative relationship because O’Hare, through Patton, gained the Mob’s protection, and as for Patton and the Mob they got one of the best race track operators that money can buy.


Eddie O’Hare and Jonny Patton

In 1932, the imprisonment of Al Capone marked the end of Prohibition and also the birth of another criminal organization known as the Chicago Outfit which was headed by Capone’s successor Paul Ricca. Under Ricca’s rule, Patton allegedly became official associate or member of the Cicero-South Side crew which at the time was headed by Ralph Capone and Charles Fischetti.

That same year the Hawthorne race track was demolished and another brand new race track was built on the same place and was known as the Sportsman’s Park race track which also converted to horse racing. Again, the main “managers” were O’Hare and Patton but this time they operated under the watchful eye of Paul Ricca. This criminal administration also had huge respect for Patton but the thing was that these guys were deadlier than the rest of the previous leaderships and so I believe that the aging Irish racketeer had to be quite careful.

O’Hare rarely had direct dealings with Capone because Patton always served as middleman. That is why Patton spent most of his time in the penthouse at Sportsman's Park with his main operator William H. Johnston, who mainly controlled the race track. By now O’Hare had $190,000 worth of stock in the track and Patton had $220,000 in stock which shows that he was superior over O’Hare. Patton’s son James was also a stockholder in the track.

By 1935, besides taking over the unions, the Outfit also devised a plan to spread their race track operations in Miami, Florida. This plan was orchestrated by O’Hare, Patton, Guzik, Ricca and Nitto and by 1939, the race tracks in Florida became known as the “Capone gang” tracks. Few of the most prominent race tracks in Florida owned by the Outfit were the Miami Beach Kennel Club, Jacksonville Kennel Club Inc., Orange Park Kennel Club, The Tropical Park and The Outdoor Clubs Inc. Again, Johnston operated all of the race tracks and Patton was a shareholder in every single one of them but he also held a job as assistant treasurer at the Orange Park Kennel Club Inc. in Jacksonville, Florida and vice president of the Miami Beach Kennel Club. One of the most lucrative tracks was the one in Sulphur Springs near Tampa, Florida, known as the Outdoor Clubs where Johnston was the president and Patton was the man from the shadows.

PUBLIC ENEMY

In no time the Chicago Tribune published a chart of the Chicago Outfit that listed the names of Patton and O'Hare as members of the infamous organization. The tracks also attracted a lot of politicians and high class people, including the director of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover. As additional info, members of the New York Mafia such as Frank Costello, through his associate Frank Erickson, also held interest in some of these race tracks and because of their control over the numerous race tracks, during this period Patton and Erickson were considered two of the biggest bookmakers in the country.

Patton quickly became known from coast to coast in the gambling business but the more money he made from gambling, the higher he went on the media’s and government’s organized crime charts and there was a good reason for that because this guy was highly involved, on daily basis, with the top echelon of one of the most infamous criminal organizations at the time. For example, Nitto’s wife Annette Caravetta worked as a secretary to O'Hare at the Sportsman's Park race track. Members of the Illinois racing commission were asked on how they happened to issue a race track operator’s license to O'Hare and to Patton, both of whom had been associated for years with the Capone mob. Leo Spitz, chairman of the commission said that no information had ever come before the commission identifying O'Hare or Patton with the Capone gang and that no protests were ever made against them.

Patton’s income has doubled when the Outfit decided to kill 46-year-old O’Hare for various undesirable reasons, on Wednesday November 8, 1939; while driving in his car. Minutes before he got shot, O’Hare had a meeting With Johnston and Patton in his office. Now Patton was the prime guy who oversaw the operations, again through William Johnston or “Big Bill” as he was called, who in turn “somehow” took over the race track and became the major domo for all race tracks in America.


William Johnston

THE HIGH LIFE

Other than being the main guy in the race track business, Patton was also involved in the cigar business in East Chicago. In fact, he owned a company which manufactured cigars and distributed them all around the states of Indiana and Illinois. Patton even owned a slaughterhouse which employed over 80 people and so many people looked at him as savior because he mostly gave them jobs at his clubs or race tracks but at the same time, they feared Patton because deep inside they knew that he had the power to get away with murder easily. Patton often had new recruitments and taught them on how to collect and also how to operate the cash registers and all of that.

I also believe that no matter what kind of business Patton was involved in, by the end of the day his biggest passion was his position as “head” of the town of Burnham. For example, in 1942 the pride of Burnham was its nine-hole golf course, which started back in 1924 and finished in 1925, became the main reason for a legal war between the town and its neighbors from Calumet City. Previously the golf course was operated by the Calumet Memorial Park district for 13 years but with the help of Patton’s influence, members of the county board took from the Calumet Memorial Park district the right to operate the Burnham Woods golf course and awarded it back to Patton's village of Burnham. The board turned the golf course over to Burnham over the protests of attorney who represented the park district. The forest preserve district was made up of 10 Democrats and 5 Republicans. Patton and all of the Burnham officials were Democrats, while Calumet City officials were Republicans.

When the reporters asked Patton regarding the situation, he denied that he and the Democratic overlords connived to transfer the golf course from the Calumet Park district to his own government. “We haven’t closed the deal yet with anybody” Patton said, “I wasn’t crazy about getting the golf course, anyway. It should be a profitable proposition, but we plan to pull all the money we take out of it right back in.” But the problem was that one finger pointing at the “Boy Mayor” belonged to Sig Pazkowski, a member of the Calumet Memorial Park district board. Sig said “Patton told me: “You fellows are butting your heads against a stone wall, because my fellows want the golf course and we’re going to get it.” And they did. Now the scale of fees were as follows: during week days, 50 cents per person, and 35 cents after 5 p. m.: Saturdays, 75 cents to 4 p. m. and 50 cents there- after; Sundays and holidays, $1 until twilight, then 75 cents. The nearest estimate that could be obtained as to the number of $1 players was somewhere between 100 and 1,000 each day and so much of the loot found itself in the pockets of Patton & Co.

It was also reasoned that Patton's grab of the course was an indirect way of bringing pressure on the Calumet City officials. They reasoned this way: The ground on which the golf course was built was owned by the forest preserve district, which until now leased the land to the Calumet Memorial Park district. The park district consisted of Calumet City, which has a valuation for tax purposes of $5,000,000, and Burnham, which has an assessed valuation of nearly $2,000,000. The two villages, as the park district, invested $170,000 in making the land into a golf course and so bonds were issued to provide the money. Now these bonds must be paid off. Calumet City's share amounts to about five-sevenths and Burnham's to two-sevenths. But because of the latest transfer of the golf course to Burnham and Patton, the village of Burnham collected the full income from the course. It was a win-win situation for Patton and his “gang”. This also shows that Patton entered the decade of the 1940’s with the same powerful connections as ever and that he still held a high position as prominent gambler and political fixer within the Chicago Mob.

SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

By the early 1940’s the Chicago Outfit suffered a hard punch in the face which was delivered by the government, with the imprisonment of the top criminal administration. I believe that this was the main reason for which Patton lived quietly and well during that period, by still being one of the biggest stock-holders of many the race tracks around the country and most of the stock was in his sons’ names, James and John Jr., followed by Capone associate Robert Larry McCullough, who was now the chief of security at the Miami Beach Kennel Club, and also Annette Caravetta, the widow of the late Frank Nitto.


Robert McCullough

There are also some reports that by now some of the new up and coming mobsters such as Sam Hunt and Ross Prio allegedly introduced Patton to other gambling operations as well, such as the Bolita and numbers racket. There is not much info on what was going on with Patton during this period except that he bought a nice house in Miami and spent most of his time at the beaches. But in 1948 Patton suffered a heart attack which was the main reason for him keeping a low profile and by the age of 66 in 1949, he retired from his long time position as village president or “mayor” of Burnham. Story goes that Patton also retired from all illegal activities, although still held few interests in Burnham, Cicero, Stickney, Forrest View, Calumet City, Chicago Heights and Northwest Indiana.

FROM THE PAST COMES THE STORMS

And so at the beginning of the 1950’s, trouble came along. During that time the U.S. Crime Commission hearings in Washington, D.C. named Chicago Mob associate John Patton of Miami, and William Johnston as longtime associates of the Chicago Outfit. In 1951, the Kefauver Committee called Patton to testify and at the time, he acknowledged that he was a principal partner for four dog-racing tracks in Florida and a horse track in Cicero. Patton also admitted his friendship with governor Fuller Warren and that his dog track partners had contributed $100,000 to Warren’s campaign. When asked who had been responsible for the past criminal activities in Burnham, Patton refused to give a straight answer but instead named Jim Colosimo, John Torrio, Al Capone, Frank Nitto, Paul Ricca, Louis Campagna and other high level mobsters as his personal friends.


Old man Patton

BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU’RE DEAD

Two years later or in 1953, Patton was diagnosed with cancer and was told that he did not have more than a year to live. Patton fought his illness bravely but on top of that for the next 3 years he was getting a lot of attention from the press and also the government. On December 23, 1956, in his farm home near Earl Park, John Patton has died at the age of 73. Patton had shown the old-fashioned, plug-ugly and safecracking gangdom, the way to a golden future which was the wide open criminal operations in such a small town which offered plenty of fun and business for every criminal and also every ordinary “adventurer”, at the same time. It’s a pure fact that Patton was one of the first individuals who gave the Italian mob the idea of expanding their “wide open” criminal network way beyond the borders of Illinois. In the end, John Patton left behind his wife Mary, his two sons and two daughters and also a long legacy of corruption, murder, greed and betrayal.

Cheers

The Tribune announcing Patton's death....

Looks good TD, will read it later. Because of their numbers, early arrival, and ability to speak English, the Irish held the dominant role in the Catholic Church in Chicago, so Italians, Polish and Catholic Germans forged some strong links with them.

I agree and check it out. Patton was huge player in Chicago's underworld.

Anton Rench, Patton's representative in Stickney Illinois...

Great read. Capone's Irish foes may have hogged the limelight, but his Irish associates were the silent powerhouses, navigating beneath notice

Thanks a lot @G and nicely said. In fact, we can safely say that some Irish political crime bosses and racketeers such as McDonald, Kenna, Coughlin, Patton and O'Donnell fits that same description.

Also, Chicago's O'Hare airport was named after Eddie O'Hare's son who in turn was a fighting pilot i think.

Patton's associate from the Lake County/Cicero areas William Skidmore

I know you put a lot of work into these scholarly articles, it's a shame more people don't appreciate your contributions.

Thanks for the compliment @CNote. It was different situation back in the days since now we have lots of "google" competition.

Thanks TD. Another great job.

You're always welcome bud and thank you too for your constant support.

Two of Patton's associates Bill Goldstein and Edward Sneed from around the Lake County area and the southwest side, including Charles Wells who became an informant. Later old man Johnston "unofficially" succeeded Patton's crew and joined the North Side crew....


Goldstein


Sneed


Charles Wells

In 1951, John Patton was questioned by the U.S. Crime Commission hearings in Washington, D.C. aka the Kefauver Committee. Here are few quite interesting snippets from the hearings:

The Chairman: Mr. Patton, please. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you will give this committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

Mr. Patton. I do.

Mr. Halley. What is your full name, please?

Mr. Patton. John Patton.

Mr. Halley. Where do you live?

Mr. Patton. 14200 Av, Burnham, Ill.

Mr. Halley. How long have you lived there?

Mr. Patton. About 64 years.

Ml- Halley. Mr. Patton, before we get into your further testimony, can you tell me why the committee had so much trouble serving a subpoena on you over a period of almost 6 months?

Mr. Patton. I don't know.

Mr. Halley. We sent our investigators to your home.

Mr. Patton. Yes.

Mr. Halley. We were always told you were not home and nobody knew where to reach you.

Mr. Patton. Your investigators came there three times.

Mr. Halley. We telephoned frequently.

Mr. Patton. No, now, wait a minute. Let me tell it.

Mr. Halley. Go ahead and tell it your way.

Mr. Patton. I was home there several times when they told me that the investigators just left. I didn't go looking for them. I seen the mail man every day, either at the farm or at the house, and I wasn't away. I might have been away 5 or 6 days during that period.

Mr. Halley. Do you have a radio at your home?

Mr. Patton. Yes, sir.

Mr Halley. Wasn't the radio carrying stories daily that this committee was looking for you?

Mr. Patton. I have seen it in the papers, but I don't believe everything in the papers. After I came in here, I seen by the papers where you people were out to get me arrested.

Mr. Halley. Do you believe it now?

Mr. Patton. No, sir. I don't believe the papers.

Mr. Halley. Do you believe that we want to talk to you now?

Mr. Patton. I presume that you did want to talk to me.

Mr. Halley. Did you have any reason for not wanting to talk to the committee?

Mr. Patton. Not a thing.

Mr. Halley. In effect, you were just ducking it deliberately?

Mr. Patton. No, I wasn't.

Mr. Halley. That one day you read in the papers the committee was going to get out a warrant of arrest for you, is that right?

Mr. Patton. I’ve seen that several times.

Mr. Halley. Is that when you decided to come in?

Mr. Patton. I didn't come in. I waited until you sent me a letter to come in.

Mr. Halley. We sent you a registered letter?

Mr. Patton. Yes, and I went and received it.

Mr. Halley. That was a foolish thing to do,

Mr. Patton. Are you advising me it was foolish?

Mr. Halley. That is how we got service on you, isn't it?

Mr. Patton. Yes.

Mr. Halley. Mr. Patton, what are your present business interests?

Mr. Patton. Well, trying to get rid of you fellows is my principal business, but I haven't been doing much this summer except staying on the farm. I keep on buying a few cattle and trying to sell them.

Mr. Halley. Do you own any stock in any company?

Mr. Patton. Yes, sir I own some stock in the Miami Beach Kennel Club, and the one at Tampa.

Mr. Halley. Your son owns stock in them, too?

Mr. Patton. He owns stock in Tampa. And I think that is all of the stock I got any place.

Mr. Halley. Jacksonville Kennel Club?

Mr. Patton. No.

Mr. Halley. Sportsman's Park?

Mr. Patton. No.

Mr. Halley. National Jockey Club?

Mr. Patton. No.

Mr. Halley. Does your son own stock in that?

Mr. Patton. Yes, sir.

Mr. Halley. Do you have any other business interests?

Mr. Patton. I got an interest in a farm.

Mr. Halley. What are you worth today, Mr. Patton?

Mr. Patton. Oh, I don't know, three, four hundred thousand, maybe ; it depends a lot on the market.

Mr. Halley. It could be more?

Mr. Patton. Could be more.

Mr. Halley. You used to be the famous boy mayor of Burnham?

Mr. Patton. I don't know anything about being famous, but I was the mayor of Burnham, the president of the village of Burnham.

Mr. Halley. You are working at being famous right now; aren't you?

Mr. Patton. No, sir; no, sir.

Mr. Halley. When were you mayor of Burnham?

The Chairman. He wasn't; he was president of the village.

Mr. Patton. President of the village of Burnham for about 38 or
40 years.

Mr. Halley. For that whole length of time?

Mr. Patton. Yes.

Mr. Halley. How did you get to know Al Capone?

Mr. Patton. I don't know how I got to know him. I got to know him ; that's all.

Mr. Halley. You were pretty good friends?

Mr. Patton. I guess I was all right with him.

Mr. Halley. Was he all right with you?

Mr. Patton. As far as I am concerned, yes.

Mr. Halley. Did you know Frank Nitti?

Mr. Patton. Yes, sir.

Mr. Halley. Eddie O'Hare?

Mr. Patton. Yes, sir.

Mr. Halley. They were all one crowd; weren’t they?

Mr. Patton. How do you mean, "one crowd"?

Mr. Halley. Well, they were a gang of rumrunners, weren’t they bootleggers?

Mr. Patton. I don't know whether they were bootleggers. I don’t think Eddie O'Hare was a bootlegger. I didn't know Eddie until later around 1928. I don't know what he did in St. Louis. He was a lawyer and I can't keep track of lawyers, you know.

Mr. Halley. I hope the lawyers can keep track of you from now on.

Mr. Patton. Oh, they have did it pretty well.

Mr. Halley. Well, this one had a hard time up to today, tell me, you can't have any doubts that Capone and Nitti were in the beer- running business?

Mr. Patton. No, I have no doubts.

Mr. Halley. Was Frank Nitti connected with the dog tracks?

Mr. Patton. Yes.

Mr. Halley. You are talking now about which race track?

Mr. Patton. Sportsman's Park.

Mr. Halley. He was up there with Eddie O'Hare; is that right?

Mr. Patton. Yes.

Mr. Halley. Was Larry McCullough an associate of Capone's?

Mr. Patton. No; Bob never hung around much with them Italian fellows at all.

Mr. Halley. Well, weren't you?

Mr. Patton. He might have been with them at times, a lot of times, but he never did that.

Mr. Halley. How did Bill Johnston get into the set-up with you and Eddie O'Hare?

Mr. Patton. Oh, Bill Johnston, first time I knew Bill Johnston he was bookkeeper at the barns, back there for the horsemen.

Mr. Halley. What happened with respect to the Miami Kennel Club? Who took over control of that after O'Hare died?

Mr. Patton. Well, Charlie Bidwell and I imagine he got some of Eddie's…it was Bidwell and Johnston.

Mr. Halley. Bidwell and Johnston?

Mr. Patton. Yes.

Mr. Halley. What interest did you have?

Mr. Patton. I don't know how much I had there — about as much as they had.

Mr. Halley. And between the three of you, you ran the track?

Mr. Patton. Yes.

Mr. Halley. Have you been active in politics in Florida?

Mr. Patton. No, sir, no.

Mr. Halley. Did you talk to Bill Johnston about the contribution he made to Fuller Warren's campaign in 1948?

Mr. Patton. Yes.

Mr. Halley. Did you contribute any money to it?

Mr. Patton. No, sir; and I will tell you why, because I was sick; maybe I would have gotten into it, but I was sick in bed about that time. I had a heart attack, and I had three nurses, and they weren't bothering me much when I was down there.

Mr. Halley. What did Johnston say to you about his idea of financing this campaign for Fuller Warren?

Mr. Patton. He was always a little nutty about Fuller Warren, He thought he was going to be the next President of the United States, I suppose.

Mr. Halley. Did he talk about what it would mean to him, Bill Johnston, or to you, John Patton, if Fuller Warren was elected?

Mr. Patton. It didn't mean anything to me. I don't know what it meant to him. I didn't want to be made a colonel. Bill is a colonel, I think.

Mr. Halley. Well, did it mean anything else to him?

Mr. Patton [shrugging shoulders] I don't know.

Mr. Halley. Of course, it would make him a pretty influential fellow in the State of Florida?

Mr. Patton. Sure.

Mr. Halley. There was no doubt about that?

Mr. Patton. Sure. I know if I gave him that much money I would want to talk to him.

Mr. Halley. It was a big political contribution?

Mr. Patton. Yes, sure, that is it.

Mr. Halley. Did he ask you to put any money into it?

Mr. Patton. No, he didn't.

Mr. Halley. After Fuller Warren was elected, did you have any discussion?

Mr. Patton. No.

Mr. Halley. Do you know Tony Accardo?

Mr. Patton. His name was Batters when I knew him.

Mr. Halley. Joe Batters?

Mr. Patton. Yes, sir that is what I know him by.

Mr. Halley. By the way, do you know Fuller Warren?

Mr. Patton. Sure.

Mr. Halley. Pretty well?

Mr. Patton. Well, I know him enough to talk to him and say hello to him.

Mr. Halley. How well do you know Joe Batters?

Mr. Patton. Just to know that that was his name, Joe Batters, and sometimes if I would meet him I would forget what his name was.

Mr. Halley. How well did you know the Fischettis?

Mr. Patton. Well, I knew them longer than I knew Batters, and I didn't know them any too good.

Mr. Halley. Was Batters in the gambling business?

Mr. Patton. Not to my knowledge, until I seen it in the newspapers, now it looks that way.

Mr. Halley. Did you know Guzik, Jack Guzik?

Mr. Patton. Oh, sure, sure, sure.

Mr. Halley. Pretty well?

Mr. Patton. I think I knew Guzik, yes, I knew him longer than I know the rest of them, yes.

Mr. Halley. Well, I think you have been pretty frank. In fact, Mr. Patton, you almost make me sorry I had so much trouble finding you. I think you have pretty well made up for it.

Mr. Patton. Thank you. Thank you. We get along all right.

Mr. Halley. Let's see if we can work it a little further along, and maybe really be helpful.

Did you know Paul Ricca?

Mr. Patton. Yes, sir.

Mr. Halley. How long have you known Paul Ricca?

Mr. Patton. Maybe 15 or 20 years, I am just guessing. It may be more or it may be less.

Mr. Halley. He also was a pretty close associate of Capone, wasn't he?

Mr. Patton. I don't know. I have seen him around Capone. But, I have seen a million — I have seen a lot of people around him.

Mr. Halley. You know Louis Campagna?

Mr. Patton. Yes.

Mr. Halley. "Little New York" I think they call him?

Mr. Patton. Yes.

Mr. Halley. You have known him about the same length of time?

Mr. Patton. Yes. Look how many I met outside, out here for the last 3 days, that I have been out there.

Mr. Halley. Like a gathering of the clan?

Mr. Patton. I don't know where you got all of them guys.

Mr. Halley. All of your old friends?

Mr. Patton. They weren't my old friends. They are all new ones.

Mr. Halley. You are a friendly fellow, Mr. Patton, but, tell me, how about Ricca and Campagna, how did you get to know them 15 or 20 years ago?

Mr. Patton. Well, I think Ricca at one time, I think he used to take a lot of bets, laid bets, at bookmakers. I think he was interested in that. I don't know who was with him in it. I think that is what Ricca did.

Mr. Halley. Did you do a lot of betting?

Mr. Patton. No. I have never made a bet on a horse in my life. If there were three or four people sitting here, say, "Put a dollar on a bet with you," I would bet a dollar. I don't know how to read a racing form.

Mr. Robinson. One last question, weren't you much closer to Mr. Nitti than you were
to O'Hare?

Mr. Patton. No, I was at Eddie O'Hare — I was with Eddie O'Hare all the time in business, and we never had an argument or dispute, about money or anything.

Mr. Robinson. Wasn't there friction between Mr. Nitti and Mr. O'Hare?

Mr. Patton. Not to my knowledge.

Mr. Robinson. Had you ever heard there was?

Mr. Patton. No, sir.

Mr. Robinson. Never at any time?

Mr, Patton. No, sir.

Mr. Robinson. When they were in the office together, did they speak to each other?

Mr. Patton. Always in my presence, I think.

Mr. Robinson. That is all.

The Chairman. All right, Mr. Patton. We will see you again some time.

Mr. Patton. I hope not.

Very interesting TD. Love the transcript.

Thanks Jimmy, it means a lot! Stay tuned for more free articles and dont forget to boycott all paywalls. Cheers