(1899 - November 23, 1965), was a Chicago mobster of Welsh descent who was the chief political and labor racketeer in the Chicago Outfit during the Prohibition. It has been suggested that the nickname "the Camel" derived from his preference for wearing camel hair coats. However, a more likely explanation is that "the camel" evolved from his other nickname, "the Hump", which came from his last name.

Joining the Chicago Outfit in the mid to late 1920s, Humphreys worked with Al Capone to build relationships with Chicago politicians, businessmen, and labor leaders. Humphreys feuded with Capone over the control of the Outfit until Capone went to prison in 1931 for tax evasion. Humphreys was later indicted for the December 1931 kidnapping of Union president Robert G. Fitche, but escaped conviction.

In 1933, Humphreys helped Al Capone arrange a fake kidnapping. The "victim" of this crime was to be John "Jake the Barber" Factor, a British con artist wanted in his home country for stock swindling. Factor, a Capone friend, was facing extradition proceedings when Humphreys faked his disappearance. In addition, Humphreys framed Capone rival Roger "Terrible" Touhy with the kidnapping charge. Touhy received a 99 year prison sentence.

In 1959, Touhy was finally released from prison. However, a month later Roger Touhy was found murdered. Six months after Touhy's death, Humphreys supposedly bought several shares of an insurance company. Eight months later, Humphreys redeemed these shares for $42,000. An IRS investigation soon determined that these shares had been originally owned by John Factor. The IRS claimed that the $42,000 was a payment from Factor to Humphreys for the fake 1933 kidnapping; they forced Humphreys to declare the money as income and pay taxes.

In 1965, Humphreys was charged for perjury to a federal grand jury. While being arrested, Humphreys pulled a gun on FBI agents, but was disarmed. However, the National Crime Syndicate was reportedly alarmed by this latest example of erratic behavior; within hours of his arrest, Murry Humphreys was found dead of a heart attack. A small wound was discovered on the body near the right ear, raising speculation that Humphreys was killed by an injection of air from a hypodermic needle. This theory was never confirmed.

Anybody wanting more ifo on the hump i throughly recommenend The outfit by Gus Russo

A legend.

I read that he was the one who invented the word "Money Laundering" cause he used to launder money in the Laundery place he owed..

Hump might be the single most interesting and influential character in the history of Chicago's organized crime.

I often wondered if Tom Hagen might have been based partly on Murray Humphrey. There is no doubt Humphrey, a non-Italian, was part of the Outfit's inner circle, was trusted and respected, had extraordinary influence on the bosses over a long period of time, and exerted tremendous and far-reaching political pressure to get what he wanted. I wouldn't hesitate to refer to Humphrey as a consigliere although over the same period of time, other more prominent names were attached to that title. Turnbull once pointed-out in another thread that it's sometimes difficult to discern between a specific individual's role as a consigliere and that of a group of advisers functioning as a Don's "kitchen cabinet." Over the 30-some years Humphrey was involved, he was clearly part of that "kitchen cabinet."

Even today, in observing the reports from the recently concluded "Family Secrets" trial, I am amused at the media's efforts at trying to "pigeon-hole" specific names into a pre-determined spot on an organizational chart.

John Factor's younger brother was Max Factor, whose cosmetics company was part of Revlon.

tony b.

The Camel is a good example of the eclectic approach to crime that the Outfit took under Torrio and Capone--reaching out to non-Sicilians and even non-Italians who could contribute. Jake (Greasy Thumb) Guzik was Torrio's political protector, taught Capone everything about the Three B's (Booze, Broads, Bets) and became his Number Two. After Capone went to Alcatraz, Guzik ran the Outfit alongside Frank Nitti.
Interestingly, John Kobler, Capone's best biographer, shows an Outfit rogue's gallery of photos. He lists Humphreys as "Robbery Expert." I was under the impression that, in his later years, he ran the labor rackets for the Outfit.
YTB, that's a very interesting analogy between Humphreys and Hagen. Another non-Italian who could fit that bill (broadly) was Hugh (Apples) McIntosh, who was nominally Carmine Persico's bodyguard but was really his consigliere.

Yeah i have read The Outfit by Guy Russo.
Excellent book i have to say!

Reboot?

Hump was the goods.

Unit 5131 East Tower (on the right) "Murray's Place"

Legend. But...

In 1933, Humphreys helped Al Capone arrange a fake kidnapping. The "victim" of this crime was to be John "Jake the Barber" Factor, a British con artist wanted in his home country for stock swindling. Factor, a Capone friend, was facing extradition proceedings when Humphreys faked his disappearance. In addition, Humphreys framed Capone rival Roger "Terrible" Touhy with the kidnapping charge. Touhy received a 99 year prison sentence.

Sounds like Capone and the Hump were a couple of rats. They used law enforcement to set up and arrest their rival Touhy. That's ratting to me.

That article sounds like one big conspiracy theory, capone and the hump battled for control of the outfit???? C'mon, capone gave Murray his orders and he marched, everybody in Chicago loved capone, even after capone died years later accardo would still refer to him as the boss, nobody in the outfit never tried taking control from capone while he was on the streets and those who did never lived to tell the story, people in the outfit was scared to cross capone

Silly. That's not considered ratting. The guy didn't commit the crime, and they never talked to the cops. Most of the mob guys used their police connections to crack down on the black gangsters to take over their rackets.

don't tell anybody that because they would like to believe they took over by force

Russo's book focuses largely on him.

Probably in no small part because I think he was able to get many interviews with his widow (second wife).

Silly. That's not considered ratting. The guy didn't commit the crime, and they never talked to the cops. Most of the mob guys used their police connections to crack down on the black gangsters to take over their rackets.

Fake ratting is just as bad as real ratting. Especially if it ends up with the same result. At least that's the deal where I'm from, I don't know about Chicago.

Everyone loves Capone so he gets a pass but he shouldn't.

Actually dry-snitching is quite popular in the underworld if it will get rid of their enimies, where are u from bigred?

Philly. I don't know if what Capone and Humphreys did was really "dry snitching" since dry snitching is "accidentally" (quotes important) snitching on people by talking out loud. There's was no accident.

What they did is usually done by people with power and connections as opposed to what we usually think of snitching which is done by people with little else to use. If anything it's worse since it's abuse by the powerful.