The FBI also learned from their wiretaps that Sam Giancana was planning to operate in the Dominican Republic.Giancana was actively trying to corner the gambling market in Jamaica and Larner already had tied up controlling interest in two racing tracks, the national lottery and two casino's.Larner also expanded a car theft ring from the U.S. to Jamaica. In the meantime Giancana also expanded the Outfits gambling holdings in the Bahama's.They also organized another car theft ring to the Middle East and because of the constant war conflicts over there,with the help of Meyer Lanskys old contacts,they expanded their weapons smuggling operations and also narcotics.They also had gambling operations in Iran and Beirut.The National Crime Syndicate smuggled narcotics(with the help of the mobs mastermind Charles”Lucky”Luciano) from the Middle East to Europe.From Italy,France and England,the drugs were smuggled in the United States.But Larner found another way by smuggling raw opium,like from the Philippines.He also expanded his tobacco smuggling and prostitution operations from there.They were also involved,together with Meyer Lansky,in a few gambling operations in Engalnd and Germany.Giancana and Larner also smuggled weapons in South Korea since the early 50’s and they continued doin it with the help of the Chinese Triads member,Chiang Kai-shek.In Japan they started a prostitution and gambling rings with the help of the Yakuza’s.This statements can be proved with many records of airplane reservations made by Giancana,Larner and many other Outfit members or associates.But later Larner got smart and started to invest in airplane companies so he wont leave any traces of his travels behind him.

The Central Intelegence Agency knew about these criminal activities and wanted to join in.The CIA used these operations to get info’s from all of these countries and to make their own influence around the world.These gangsters later acted like spy’s for the CIA and were feeding the government officals around the world with money and power thus making them their own allies.Taking over the world,no?!Now do I have to explain more why the government needed the help of these so called “Mob stars”?!I think not. These are the reasons why I always say that this period was THE “golden era” for the Chicago Outfit and the National mob in general.By this time the Chicago Outfit was the most powerful crime family in the U.S. and if not,the whole world.Nobody can denide that.

By now all of Larners dirty cash came mostly from the coin machines all over Chicago and around the country, but that wasn’t the only source.He smuggled tobacco,narcotics,prostitutes and weapons around the world.Reports say that by now most of his cash went to the Federal Reserve of Chicago and from there was wired to banks in Switzerland,Panama and the Grand Caymans.Big part of his cash went to Outfit guys like Paul Ricca,Tony Accardo,Sam Giancana and ofcourse Ed Vogel and some of it went to many government officals,like politicians,police enforcement,military and also to some government intelligence guys.Since he was an international gangster now he established strong contacts with the government intelligence organization because they needed international hoodlums like him and he needed them.

Back in Chicago, the FBI started to notice all of the illegal operations around the coin machine business.Government investigator Arthur Kaplan handled the juke box and coin machine investigation in Chicago.He found out that some underworld figures had established an association in order to keep a monopoly of the coin machine operations in the city.Kaplan also found out that the Outfit had put in a man by the name of Red Waterfall to run the association.Kaplan was very confused because nobody seemed to know who Red Waterfall really was.Waterfall did not live at the address he gave in his application for office and the banks he gave as a credit reference did not exist. He seemed never to have had a picture taken, and only the most meagre description of his physical appearance could be obtained from the operators themselves, who were obviously too afraid to point a finger at the man who was extorting thousands of dollars from them.So Kaplan started to follow trail’s like reservations and money trails from Chicago to Miami Beach to Texas to Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Little Rock, Arkansas, to Hollywood, California and to many other places around the country. By tracing insurance applications for a Chris-Craft cruiser and hotel reservations in a Texas hotels, he finally was able to prove that Hyman Larner was also Red Waterfall.This was bad for Larner ,the Outfit and soon for the CIA also.

So one thing led to another and Larner was called to testify before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management in 1958.When Bob Kennedy's boys tried to find him and the records which would tell them more of the union business association and its ties to the national juke box ring,Larner disappeared.He was hiding in Florida but was later found and was subpoenaed.On February 26th 1959,44 year old Hyman Larner took the stand in front of the Senate Labor- Management Committee which was headed by senator McClellan and Robert Kennedy. The Committee asked him how he maintained a fleet of six cars, home in Florida, two 27-foot cabin cruisers and two Chicago apartments on the $8,700 a year income that he reported for tax purposes.He also asked whether he hired hoodlums to throw sulphuric acid on machines of non-members of his Chicago Independent Amusement Association and break up machines to force operators to join up and pay the fee for each machine.Also the next question that the board had for Larner was very sensitive and that was wheter his house in Florida was used for shipping out arms to the Cuban revolution.This ment that the FBI knew about his secret operations and has putted him in a very uncomfortable situation.Lamer refused to answer their questions on the grounds of possible self incrimination and invoked his Fifth Amendment rights more than fifty times.It was suggested by Senator Karl Mundt that Larner’s testimony should be considered for possible contempt action because of his “capricious” use of the Fifth Amendment.Senator McClellan agreed but said he thought little would come of it in view of the recent court decisions.The other witnesses were Larner’s wife Myrtle Larner,Sam Greenberg, Fred Tom Smith, Jim Rini, Alex Ross, Chuck English, Rocco Pranno, Joseph Gagliano and Larner’s boss Edward Vogel.Rini and Ross were handcuffed together when they appeared infront of the committee.All of them took the fifth.

The only witnesses that dared to testify were the coin operators that were terrorized by the Chicago Amusement Association and the union.Two of them were Herman Klebba and Mr.Romaszaievicz from the L&S amusement company.Two Chicago gangsters were also wanted for questioning about coin machine rackets but were mysteriously missed.The two gangsters were Sam Giancana and Ralph Capone.Later both were found and refused to testify, invoking the 5th Amendment.After this the same year the Chicago Independent Amusement Association broke up.


The Devil Himself-Hyman"Hy"Larner infront of the McClellan Committee in 1959

Now Larner was getting too much of a public attention and also saw that things were getting too hot,not just from the government but also within the Outfit.In the early 60’s when the FBI already knew that the mob was making deals with the U.S. government behind closed doors, they placed so much heat over the Chicago Outfit which became a big obstacle for their business enterprises.Also in 1962 after the assassination of JFK there were rumours that the mob had a part in it so guys like Giancana,Roselli,Cain and Larner,who had so many “dark secrets”, were under constant surveliance. The FBI even invented the famous “Lock-step” program.

But Larner was a greedy person and also loved the excitement and there was still a lot of business to run so he kept going.There was still gambling,prostitution and also narcotics and Sam was still the boss.Also Larner still had his own shares in the juke box business and vending machines and his underlings still collected street tax from the machine operators around the country.Since they lost Cuba,Larner increased his shares in Vegas,Nevada by placing more vending machines.Also in 1964, it was reported to the FBI that Leonard Patrick and Larner were partners in the Venocoa Music Company and it was reported that the same due had their shares in the City Music Co. also.In the 60’s the music business was booming so Larner and the Outfit took their share.Larner and Patrick got involved in bootlegging music records which brought a lot of money.

Also by the mid 60’s Edward Vogel was connected to Apex Cigaret Service inc. company and also the Deluxe Cigarette Service Inc. and since Larner had too much heat over his head,Vogel made his business partner Joe Mahoney general president of the companies.Both companies were loccated at 4246'Lincoln Ave., Chicago, where they shared a common telephone number. The Chicago Crime Commission also has identified Edward Vogel as having control of both firms.Vogel was now believed to be living in California.

The Chicago Outfit in general loved Giancana’s crew and associates because of the cash they made for them and also the power that they owned,but these guys problem was that they got too much involved with the government and also attracted too much heat.Also Giancana had another big problem by which Larner started to think twice before goin into business with Sam.The truth was that Sam Giancana was a flashy mob boss that made a big ammount of money and had a “Godlike” feeling.You see,the heat from the government because of the CIA connections wasn’t that much of a problem,the real problem was that Giancana started running around with famous beautiful girls and pop stars publicly infront of the press and that was very bad for business.It attracted too much of a public attention.

So in the mid 1960’s,on the orders of Sam’s boss Paul Ricca there was a meeting to dismiss Giancana and place a new boss.To cool things down,Giancana had an idea to fled the country and go to Mexico where he had many illegal operations and was close to home.The Outfit and the national mob they all agreed.Also in 1965 Murray”Curley”Humphries,the overlord of the non-italian faction died of an alleged heart attack.Also by this time Larner’s mentor Eddie Vogel retired from the business and rumours are that he had over $12.000.000 stashed.Now two guys were nominated for the top spot,Gus Alex and Hyman Larner.Gus was the obvious choice because he had the “muscle” and also the most political connections in Chicago.But that wasn’t the real reason,Larner also had political connections but the thing was he had too much pressure from the FBI because of the coin rackets and CIA connections and wasn’t much around because of his constant travels.The thing that protected Larner was the handling of the Outfit’s money.Larner was absolutely brilliant when it came to handling the dirty cash, probably the best the mob had ever seen.He was responsible for moving the Outfits money through South Florida to Panama and investing it around the world.Paul Ricca,Sam Giancana,Tony Accardo,Murray Humphries(while he was still alive)Eddie Vogel and even other mafiosos from other cities trusted their funds to Larner. Also two FBI agents,who diecied not to be identified(one of them was probably retired agent Francis Marrocco),said that Larner was absolutely the guy who was responsible for moving the Outfit’s money through South Florida and Panama.

So Gus Alex became the boss of their faction.Gus took over the coin machine racket and all of Vogels and Larners contacts in Chicago.Maybe Larner was very pleased with that because now the coin machine racket was under the governments investigation and all of the government heat fell on Gus.Proof for that was when in the mid 60’s Gus was banned from Switzerland for 10 years after Congress complained his repeated trips were to stash money in Swiss bank accounts so he was resitricted to go out of the country for some time.Also future Outfit boss Joey Aiuppa controlled his own coin machine rackets.Proof for that is when Aiuppa was a partner in Taylor & Co., back in the late 50’s. That was a furniture company that served as a front for the production and distribution of slot machines. Aiuppa was convicted back in 1960 for “failing to register as a dealer in gambling devices.”So by now I belive he still had his own shares from the coin rackets.In other words the new guard of the Outfit took over some of Giancans and Larners operations.But you see they made a mistake,gambling was already under big pressure from the government and that was one of the biggest money sources for the Outfit in general. Larner didn’t want any public attention,in fact he hated it a lot.He started to feel like a vampire that was placed right under the sun light.So he decided to take matter in his own hands and followed his bosses foot steps.He fled the country immidietly and vanished from the eyes of the FBI.He took his wife and settled in Panama.He bought a big house on a top of a hill outside of Panama City and he also took all of his cash and stashed it into Manuel Noriega’s national bank and also took care of Noriega’s drug shipments into the U.S. and weapon shipments that went back to Panama.

Because the FBI was all over the Outfit Larner stopped dealing directly with Outfit members but with the help of his enforcers and couriers, he stayed in contact with the top echelon.So now Hyman Larner concentrated on his smuggling operations with the help of his old contacs and continued to work for the Outfit and to make the big buck.In other words Larner became the main “go to guy” out of the country.He also travelled back and forth to Mexico to see how his old boss Sam Giancana was doing but he rarely visited the U.S.By these visits,the duo again started another lucrative gambling enterprise.Story goes that Sam Giancana had gambling joint in Cuernavaca,Mexico and they also managed to skim from the gambling rooms on cruise ships that went from Mexico to the Caribbean and they also brought many high-rollers.They also used this cruise ships to smuggle narcotics and coin machines to Central and South America.Larner and Giancana were engaged in big lucrative smuggling operations in which they also included Santo Trafficante Jr.Also their partner in Mexico was again,Richard Cain.He was the identified in official CIA files as having visited the CIA's Mexico City Station in the mid 60’s,He had an investigative agency in Mexico for the purpose of training Mexican government agents in police methods, in investigative techniques, and in the use of the lie detector.In reality he was there to corrupt the Mexican officals and to maintain smooth business operations for Giancana and Larner.They also made some connections in Colombia with the drug cartels and also started shipments into the U.S.Larner also began to supply Panama and other countries from Central and South America with his gambling machines.For the next several years they made another big amount of cash that went straight in their own pockets and also they have sent their “best regards” to Outfit back in Chicago which made the new administration very happy.

Giancana trusted Larner a lot and Hyman also respected Giancana but to a certain point. Larner never forgot the days when his operations exploded around the world,thanks to Sam,but Sam was starting to get a little bit too paranoid and unsecured and story goes that he wanted to get back to Chicago and reclaim his position as top boss,again.Someone told the bosses back in Chicago about Sam’s idea which made them angry.In 1972 Sam’s protection Paul Ricca died of natural causes and that was the beginning of the end of the infamous Taylor Street crew.Some members of the crew died of natural causes and other…well they were simply eliminated.

First to go was the lunatic Mad Sam DeStefano. DeStefano was a good earner for the bosses, especially Ricca and Accardo, but he was just too “loud”. So on April 14, 1973 with the “ok” from Tony Accardo,Mad Sam was shot to death.Giancana heard about the “clean up” and began to feel more paranoid.Story goes that Larner used this situation by skimming Sam from his money that were ment for the Outfit bosses back home.Somebody also contacted the U.S. government and told them about Sam’s activities. Also on December 20, 1973 Richard Cain was shot to death by two shotgun blasts because the new administration thought he was an informer for the FBI. In 1974 the U.S. government pressured the Mexican government officals to deport Giancana and they did.Mexican authorities entered Sam's estate San Cristobal and deported him back into the U.S. At the same time Sam was also subpoenaed to testify before a Chicago grand jury about his alleged CIA contacts.Now the boys in Chicago saw their chance to eliminate Giancana and on June 19, 1975, Sam was murdered in the basement kitchen of his Oak Park home with 6 shots from a .22 in his head allegedly on the orders of new Outfit boss Joey Aiuppa and his senior advisor Tony Accardo. On August 9, 1976,Johnny Roselli's decomposing body was found in a 55-gallon steel fuel drum floating in Dumfoundling Bay near Miami, Florida. Also on March 29, 1977,Chuckie Nicoletti, one of Giancana’s closest underlings received three .38 caliber slugs to the back of his head while waiting in his Oldsmobile in the parking lot of the Golden Horns Restaurant in suburban Northlake, Illinois. Most of these so called CIA collaborators (except Mad Sam) were murdered during the 70’s.

While the hot headed Italian faction was busy making headlines by shooting everyone in the head, Larner preferred quieter, more traditional means of exploiting and controlling corruption, thereby remaining out of the headlines and off the FBI’s radar. This not some false rumour but it's a simple historical fact. Larner took over some of Gianacans international contacts and operations and became the main associate for the Chicago mob that controlled all of their international operations. But by now some of his international contacts started to fade away because of various reasons, so Larner mostly concentrated his business in Latin America. Also his old boss Edward Vogel died on June 12,1977 at Columbus Hospital from leukemia. He was 82 years old.

By the mid 70’s there were new alternations in in the coin machine business. The machine,which was marked as The Trade Booster,already replaced the standard coin-operated slot to an electrical slot which operated via cable by the bartender.So during the late 70’s there was this lucrative form of a machine and that was the video poker machines.By the early 1980’s current overssers of these new gambling video machines were the Bastone brothers,Carmine and Sal.They worked for Outfit boss Joey Aiuppa and were close associates of Hy Larner,who by now resided in Panama.Carmine went to Spain to supervise the video poker machine factory that they owned and Larner had his own shares in it.The Bastones also acted like couriers between the Outfit’s bosses and Larner. One of their guys in Chicago involved in the video poker machines was also "Louie the Mooch"Eboli a high-level member of the Grand Avenue crew which was now the leading crew in Chicago. Eboli’s father was Thomas Eboli, alias “Tommy Ryan,”a confidant of notorious New York mob leader Vito Genovese and allegedly one of the acting bosses of the infamous Genovese Crime Family.Also one of Gus Alex associates named Nicholas Gio,who was a Greek-American hitman for the Chicago Outfit,was also involved in these operations.Larners courier was a small Italian guy only known as Alberto and he always came to Miami by plane carrying the Outfits cash from all of the video machines in Panama.Untill the mid 80’s this crew took care of the gambling machines and flooded Chicago with them.Every bar and restaurant also had to pay tribute for the machines.If the places were raided and the cops took the machines,than the machines were replaced back the same day.Theres also another interesting story when the new owner of the Leg's bar in Stone Park wanted to remove the gambling machines from the joint.Thats when Eboli paid him a visit and told him that the gambling machines would have to stay…and the machines stayed.

By this time the video poker machines became one of the biggest money sources for the Chicago Outfit.Nobody knew where all of the big cash came from but truth was that everything came from Panama and parts of South America that had the Outfit’s video pocker machines and the main guy over there was Hyman Larner,supplementing the Outfit’s income from the rackets here.

But nothing lasts forever.One of Larners oldest partners Meyer Lansky died back in 1983 and in 1986 Outfit boss Joey Aiuppa was jailed after conviction for Vegas skimming.The FBI also placed too much heat over the Bastone brothers and in 1987 Louie Eboli died of cancer and also the same year Nick Gio was arrested for murder and sent to prison.The same year Chuckie English was shot to death by Outfit assassins on a parking lot .Story goes that he never really did accept the new Accardo/Aiuppa administration so that was the end of Chuckie.In the beginging of the 1990’s Gus Alex remained as one of the last leaders from the old days and also one of the last associates of Hy Larner.

By now Larner didn’t owned anything to nobody and nobody ever owned anything to him and also by loosing most of his associates,Larner decided to retire from the Outfit.By now he was in his late 70’s and was too old to get involved in big actions.Also in this period there were too much informants among Outfit members so word came down to Larner that somebody talked about his acitivites and whereabouts.So in 1991 the Panamanian newspapers announced that Hyman”Red”Larner had died.Everyone was shocked,even the FBI could not belive the news.Also in 1992 Lenny Patrick decided to become a government witness following his indictment for racketeering charges.His testimony would result in the conviction of one of Larners long time associates,Gus Alex.But few years later in 1995(I think) rumours surfaced that Larner was very much alive and resided in the U.S. in Flathead County,Montana.Larner played it smart again.First he faked his death by corrupting Panamanian newspapers to publish his alleged death and also had suspicion that the U.S. government will send their agents to check out the news.So he decided to come back home quietly to his own country,where nobody will be looking for him.One of the oldest tricks in the book…