Here are few examples of some "Hollywood movie action" from the old days. Enjoy
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In 1960 Outfit capo and main representative for the whole West Side group Sam "Teets" Battaglia flourished in his “secret” love life. One of Battaglia's associates Ralph DelGenio owed lots of cash to his boss and during his “questioning”, DelGenio gave Battaglia information that his son Frederick was dating a local girl and that they stole the cash and maybe the girl knew where the money was hidden. After the murder of Ralph, his son Frederick went to prison in Texas on robbery charges, so Battaglia decided to pay a visit to the girl.
When Battaglia met the girl for the first time, he already forgot about the money because he was looking at a 28 year old 5 feet tall blue-eyed blonde bombshell and fell in love immediately. The name of the girl was Darlene Fasel Kalivoda. She was the daughter of a very wealthy River Forest industrialist who disowned her because of her association with hoodlums. She became Battaglia’s mistress for many years to come. Battaglia employed her as a receptionist and secretary for Leo Rugendorf at the Twin Food Company and also bought her a nice house on North Harlem Avenue in Elmwood Park. Miss Kalivoda also became Battaglia's constant companion on journeys gambling joints around Melrose Park as he picked up the day's take.
In June 1961, one day the pair was driving in their 1960 maroon Oldsmobile towards Bloomingdale, Illinois. They were returning from an outing at Battaglia’s Free Meadows farm. While approaching the small town, Battaglia pressed hard on the accelerator and the car darted in and out of the holiday traffic. Police Chief George Mueller of the Bloomingdale police took notice of this and began a pursuit of Battaglia on Lake Street. While he was chasing Battaglia, the cop radioed to Sgt. Richard Loy for assistance. The pursuit continued for more than a mile before the cops managed to curb Battaglia’s car at Lake and Bloomingdale road.
Battaglia stepped out of his car and instantly started cursing and yelling at the cops. Chief Mueller said to Battaglia that he was speeding, and Battaglia replied “You’re a liar!” Furthermore Battaglia called the cops "a couple of keystone cops", whilr miss Kalivoda sat calmly in the car while Battaglia continued to curse at the cops and also refused to show his driver license. After a while Chief Mueller had enough of Battaglia’s behaviour and said “You’re going to jail” and Battaglia again replied “Try and put me there.”
So the cops started to push Battaglia across the street to Bloomingdale’s one room police station and locked him up in a single cell. Battaglia cursed and fumed there for more than an hour while the cops wrote out charged for driving 70 miles an hour in a 50 mile zone, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and disobedience of a police officer. Police Magistrate James Bell fixed Battaglia’s bond at $417. The still cursing Battaglia opened his wallet and produced the $417, and Chief Mueller estimated that at least $2,000 remained. Battaglia with some parting shots of profanity stomped out of the police station and drove away at a normal rate of speed. So this “adventure” ended ignominiously for the pair because of Battaglia’s terrible temper, but because of that kind of temper, three months later Battaglia’s reputation as one of the toughest gangsters was shattered to pieces by an ordinary Chicago police sergeant.
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On August 22, 1961 police sergeant Francis Nash and his partners detectives John Zitek, Maurice Guerin and Frank Kenny set out to look over a mob conference between Giancana, Battaglia and other Outfit chiefs. The meeting was said to have been arranged by Giancana to discuss measures to head off police investigations of eight recent gang murders which have been linked with the Outfit’s juice operators. The meeting was in adjournment by the time Nash and his squad arrived at Giancana’s residence. So the police squad checked few more suburban gang hangouts and then headed back to Chicago thru Oak Park. When they arrived in Oak Park, the cops saw Battaglia and Rocco Salvatore sitting in a car near Battaglia’s residence. When the two hoodlums spotted the police squad they sped off with their car with the detectives in pursuit. The chase went at high speed for more than a mile until Salvatore slammed his car to a stop in an alley near Elmwood Av. and Division St. in Oak Park. Nash’s squad was close behind.
Suddenly out of the car came Battaglia and in his own style, he started to curse at the cops. He approached Sergeant Nash and attempted to tear his shirt and challenged him to a fight. Battaglia attacked with two wild haymakers, which missed and then Nash pushed him away with a light left jab. Battaglia, who outweighed Nash by 20 pounds, fell to the ground and cried out “Don’t hit me, don’t hit me again, you’ll kill me!” Meanwhile, Salvatore ran down the alley shouting “Robbers, robbers!” It was a very hilarious situation. A near resident who witnessed the situation called the cops who took the four policemen and the two hoodlums into the Oak Park police station. Story goes that at the police station Salvatore said to his boss that they should retaliate but Battaglia replied “Forget about the whole thing. I don’t want any trouble over this. I don’t want any part of those Chicago coppers.”
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On February 16 1967, Ed Hanrahan the United States attorney in Chicago was bringing in the indictment at 2 p.m. and he told his agents “Find Battaglia and if you let him get away, it'll be your funeral.” The feds had to be very careful because they knew that Battaglia was one of those old time “Apalachin meeting” bosses, meaning if he caught a glimpse of them, they were obviously going to be involved in a high speed chase.
On that same day, Battaglia and his driver Joe Rocco were on their way to his farm in Pingree Grove. Battaglia stopped at a roadside telephone on the way to his 400-acre farm and called a lookout crew which he had at 25th Avenue and Lake Street in Melrose Park and was told he was being followed by a suspicious car. This time it was the IRS agents' turn to be surprised.
Of all the 11 cars, each containing two agents that were tailing Battaglia, all avoided the intersection in Melrose Park except for one unit containing agents not familiar with the case. Someone had forgotten to tell them Battaglia had a lookout there and so Joe Rocco, Battaglia's driver, took evasive action. The agents didn't know it until later, but under the hood of the Ford station wagon, Rocco drove a souped-up Thunderbird engine. Up one street and down another he sped, through one suburb after another. The agent in the IRS lead car had picked up police cars from Schiller Park, Melrose Park, and Northlake. He was speeding along North Avenue at 90 miles an hour but the Northlake police car was gaining on him.
Battaglia and his driver sped through a toll plaza near Rockford without stopping to pay the toll. Four cars in radio communication were right on his tail and they sped through at 80 miles an hour speed without stopping. The gangsters started playing games with the agents by cutting thru to the opposite lanes at emergency crossings and heading the opposite direction. As they all went south they passed other state police cars, notified by the toll plaza, which were heading north. Battaglia was finally tired of the game and his driver left the toll road and drove sedately into Marengo, where the agents telephoned Hanrahan, learned the indictment had been returned, and put Sam Battaglia in handcuffs. Newspaper stories of Battaglia's indictment and arrest said merely that he was apprehended in Marengo by federal agents after a high speed chase on the toll road.
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There are also some earlier examples when the situation was the opposite, meaning gangsters were chasing cops.
For example, in September 1930 the States Attorney announced that West Side Outfit mobster William "Three-finger" White will be called again in front of a jury regarding the murde of Officer Pflaume, for which White was previously released on all charges. The main witnesses again were policemen James McBride of Bellwood and Charles Jones of Berkley.
On October 30th, 1930 policeman McBride was driving to the States Attorney’s office to assist Prosecutor Harry Ditchburne in gathering the evidences for the new trial of White. Suddenly another car approached McBride with Fur Summons on the wheel and Claude Maddox on the passenger seat with a sawed-off shotgun in his hands. A high-speed chase occurred for almost a mile and when the hitmen got near McBride's car, Maddox fired a shot at Officer McBride thus hitting his head and so the gangsters took off.
McBride was heavily wounded, half of his face was in blood, his jaw was shattered and his vocal cords were also affected but miraculously he survived the attack. He was taken to the intensive care unit at West Lake hospital in Melrose Park. With the help of “unknown” witnesses, few hours later Maddox and Summons were arrested and brought to station for questioning. Later both of them were taken to the hospital were Officer McBride laid in critical condition. McBride identified Maddox as the shooter but couldn’t identify Summons. After leaving McBride’s bedside, Maddox and Summons were taken to the Melrose Park police station and later were locked up at the states attorney’s office by Ditchburne and few other detectives.
The attempted murder of policeman McBride was regarded as the most glaring defiance to law enforcement officials. Special guards were placed around the hospital were McBride was staying and also around the states attorney office were Maddox and Summons were locked up. It was clear that McBride was shot at the instance of Jack White in order to hamper the prosecution in the new murder trial. One hour after Maddox’s arrest, he was taken to the court of Judge Joseph David and forfeited his $10,000 bond and was set free until the trial.
Cheers
