In 1954, Patrick had been employed as a salesman for the Club Specialty, Inc. He was selling plastic specialty items and was also involved in the advertising businesses. With his legitimate job, legit business establishments and the illegal handbook business, Patrick made over 1 million dollars a year. By now his friend and business partner Dave Yaras invested heavily in Florida and also in Cuba. One of their guys in Cuba was Johnny Roselli, a high ranking member of the Chicago mob. He was the manager of the San Souci Hotel and Casino in Havana. So Yaras convinced Patrick to invest and so they became part owners of the hotel. Also on January 22, 1955, Patrick attended the wedding of Claude Maddox's daughter. Maddox was in the mob since the days of Al Capone. This shows that during this period Patrick was considered as a top ranking member of the Outfit.
The mid 1950’s were hard for Outfit boss Tony Accardo and the Outfit in general. Accardo started having many problems with the law and needed to lay low for a while. Also on February 21, 1956 the Jewish crime lord Jake Guzik died from a heart attack. So the mid 50’s was the time for the “changing of the guard” among the Outfit’s leaders. The real boss of the Outfit Paul Ricca came from Chicago’s West Side, so he decided that one of his prime underlings Sam Giancana should be the chief executive for the Outfit. So now the West Side mob became the prime force on the streets of Chicago, especially the Taylor Street crew which was headed by Giancana himself. It was reported that Lenny Patrick, a fellow westsider, became one of Giancana’s top lieutenants. Many bugs and phone taps revealed that Patrick had direct connection with the Outfits boss. Patrick became the base of one of the largest bookmaking operations in the city and also expert on orchestrating high profile gangland executions. He was identified as the syndicate overlord whose activities included extortion, mayhem and murders. His business interests included hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, liquor stores, aluminium products, a disposal service, vending machines, insurance and industrial uniforms.
By the late 1950’s the Jewish population in Chicago migrated from the West Side to the North Side of the city. The boss of the North Side was an old school ruthless gangster named Rosario Priolo aka Ross Prio, who oversaw the Outfits rackets. With the backing of the Outfit’s boss Sam Giancana, Patrick won the approval of Prio to move to Rogers Park and operate his own bookmaking schemes. Patrick made a deal with Prio and another old Capone gangster Lester “Killer Kane” Kruse to share his profits with the two bosses in exchange for protection. By paying off undisclosed aldermen and three police captains, Patrick’s protection was granted. So now Patrick began expanding his operation all over the North Side of Chicago. In June 1957, Patrick and Dave Yaras had purchased the Luxor bathhouse on North Avenue. This establishment was operated as a bathhouse open to the public, but also had plush quarters for gambling on the upper floors. The Luxor Baths was also used as a meeting place for known Chicago syndicate members. Once there was a big Outfit meeting between Lenny Patrick, Jack Patrick, Hyman Godfrey, Fifke Corngold, and Joey Aiuppa. In August 1957, Patrick took another legitimate job and worked for Irving Kaufman, the president of the Irv Sales Co., at a salary of $150 per week. Patrick performed a "watch service" but his identity remained anonymous. He checked on employees in the approximately 201 branch stores in Chicago and its vicinity, calling in his reports. Patrick also took over the late Harry Kovin’s Reliable Products Company. The company was listed officially in the name of his brother Jack Patrick. In 1958 the brothers also took over the Douglas Park Hotel where Jack Patrick was the day manager and Lenny was the night manager. The hotel was fronted by one of their associates Louis Hennick. Also He and his brother Jack also operated a commercial bingo game at 3242 West Roosevelt Road and that the bingo operation had been going strong for years. On February 21, 1958, it was reported to the FBI that a meeting was held at the Trade Winds Restaurant in Chicago at which both Patrick and Irwin Weiner, a major organized crime and Teamsters figure, were present. The purpose of this meeting was probably the mob's penetration in the unions.
Jack Patrick hidding his face with a handkerchief
By 1959, Patrick had interests in many North Side restaurants in Chicago, one of which was the Black Angus Restaurant. He used this restaurant as a place to meet with his lieutenants and to divide their weekly swag. Now the FBI listed Patrick among the principal hoodlums in Chicago. Patrick had supervision of the North and West Side handbooks, along with his partners Dave Yaras and William Block. On the orders of Giancana, Patrick also shared some of his West Side gambling operations with Sam Battaglia. Also Patrick’s loan sharking activities were headed by one of his ruthless street tax collectors named George Bravos. Bravos handled a high interest juice loan business and usually the debtors were kidnapped and severely beaten by him if they didn’t pay the required payments. Besides his new operations in the Summerdale and Rogers Park districts, Patrick’s prime headquarters and the place for his largest handbook operations was still the New Lawndale Restaurant.
When the boss of the non-Italian faction Jake Guzik died back in 1956, Murray Humphries, together with Edward Vogel, took over the leadership. Humphries protégé was an up and coming Greek mobster Gus “Slim” Alex and Vogel’s protégé was Hyman “Red” Larner. Gus Alex used to work as a bodyguard for Jake Guzik and was heavily involved in the prostitution business. With Humphries by his side, Alex inherited most of the political connections and became the Outfit’s top “fixer”. Hy Larner, a very shadowy figure, was involved in the coin machine business since the beginning and he also inherited most of Vogel’s smuggling contacts in and out of the country. In the late 1950’s Lenny Patrick had been put to work with Alex on the orders of Sam Giancana. From that point on, Patrick reported only to Alex.
Gus Alex
Later Alex introduced Patrick to another associate from the old neighbourhood in Lawndale, Sidney Korshak. Korshak was a lawyer and also "fixer" for the Chicago Outfit and the mob in general. His partnership with the top echelon of the Chicago crime syndicate, led him to be named "the most powerful lawyer in the world". By this time Dave Yaras also became big among mob circles. Yaras, besides his operations in Cuba, he also became close associate of Jimmy Hoffa, president of the Teamsters Union and together they established the Teamster Local 320 in Miami. The Teamster Local 320 in Miami was originally set up as a front for the mobs gambling and narcotics operations. Yaras and Hoffa organized the distribution by relying on the Teamsters trucking companies to ship contraband to protected drop sites all over the country. Now the non-Italian faction of the Chicago crime family was stronger than ever, because these guys had the skills for making the big buck and were destined for the top spots. These were the men who controlled Chicago’s underworld for the next 10 years. They were called by the press “the corruption squad” but they called themselves the “connection guys.” They were the ties between those in the shadows and those in the light and Lenny Patrick knew and worked with them all.
Lenny Patrick
But as much this period was a golden era for the Chicago Outfit, it also became the beginning of the end for the mob. Back in 1957 the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management, also known as the McClellan Committee, was created and went after the national mob. Chairman John McClellan together with Chief Counsel Robert F. Kennedy and Senator John F. Kennedy questioned and listened to every high profile mob figure from around the country. The committee investigated many mafia bosses including the Outfits boss Sam Giancana. The committee also investigated and charged Dave Yaras in connection with taking over of certain unions and corrupt Teamster inetersts in the Miami area and also about illegal gambling operations in the U.S. and Cuba. Now the Outfit was getting too much of a public attention and also things were getting too hot, not just from the government but also within the organization. The FBI knew that the mob was making deals with secret U.S. government agencies behind closed doors, so they placed so much heat over the Chicago Outfit which became a big obstacle for their business enterprises. The worst thing for the mob was when on January 20, 1961 John F. Kennedy sworn in as the 35th president of the United States. He appointed his brother Robert Kennedy as U.S. attorney general. Indicting the mob was a high priority with the new attorney general, who claimed that the mob used extortion, bribery, and physical violence to rule the nation. Robert also formed a small Justice Department unit of lawyers and investigators, informally known as the "Get-Hoffa Squad," which was assembled to uncover and prosecute the Teamster boss James Hoffa and any unlawful activity within organized labor.
On January 31, 1962 an F.B.I. electronic surveillance of Sam Giancana, in discussion with Gus Alex and Edward Vogel indicated that the Outfit’s gambling activities were concerned, for all practical purposes has come to an end. This occurred primarily because of the intense pressure placed upon the organization by the Federal government. This fact, coupled with the fact that the state and local police have been forced to move against the syndicate, has brought the Outfit to the realization that for the time being "everyone is on his own", meaning that the members no longer received support from the organization nor can anyone expect influence to be brought to bear on their behalf. All this “harassment” over the mob bosses and the disruption of their business enterprises unleashed a widespread and murderous hostility toward President Kennedy and his crime-busting brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy.
The Chicago Outfit had very “colourful” history for killing politicians and government people. For example, back in1958, Benjamin F. Lewis became the first black alderman to represent the 24th Ward. Lewis desperately wanted to be independent but as long as Mayor Richard Daley’s organization controlled the ghetto vote, he had to take his orders. Story goes that Lewis was not cooperating with the criminal element in the 24th Ward, which was controlled by Lenny Patrick and Dave Yaras. So on February 28, 1963 Lewis was tied to a chair in his office and was shot in the head three times by unknown assassin. Patrick and Yaras were questioned by the cops and as usual the cops got nothing.
Benjamin Lewis
On Friday November 22, 1963 President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, at 12:30 pm. Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository from which the shots were suspected to have been fired, was arrested for the murder of a local police officer, and was subsequently charged with the assassination of Kennedy. On Sunday, November 24, Oswald was being led through the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters toward an armoured car that was to take him to the nearby county jail. But than the most unbelievable thing happened. Lenny Patrick’s boyhood friend and criminal associate Jack Ruby stepped from the crowd and shot Oswald in the chest, fatally wounding him on national television. When the Police hauled Ruby away from the murder scene, not far from the hallway where Oswald shouted out to the press, "I'm just a patsy," Ruby shouted out, "I've been used for a purpose."
Jack Ruby
Because of Ruby’s mob connections, immediately after the assassination of Oswald rumours spread around that the mob had a part in the JFK hit. As a result of information provided by informants, the feds picked up Lenny Patrick on November 25, 1963 and interviewed him. According to the FBI interview report, Patrick said he and Ruby knew each other since kids and that they both attended Shephard Grammar School, but were not close friends. Patrick also stated that he frequently saw Ruby in the old neighborhood and always spoke with him, as did everyone else who grew up in the West Side. Patrick denied having anything to do Ruby and that the last time he saw Ruby was about 10 or 12 years prior to the assassination. Ruby’s sister Eva also said that her brother didn't manage to get in touch with Patrick so the investigators concluded there was nothing to it. The fed also questioned Jack Patrick and he said that he also knew Ruby from the past but haven’t heard about him for quite a while. Next for questioning was Dave Yaras. Yaras said that he knew Ruby as "Sparky," a young hustler and fight fan from Division and Damen Street area, 30 years ago. Yaras also stated that his late brother Sam Yaras, who also resided in Dallas, was acquainted with Ruby. Irwin Weiner was questioned and he also admitted knowing Ruby from the old days but hadn’t done any contacts in years. Later reports showed that Ruby and Patrick had contacts a month prior the assassination. Reports showed that Ruby had also contacted Weiner in October 1963 and also made few telephone calls in Chicago to Patrick and Yaras. But for “unknown” reasons the Warren Commission investigators credulously accepted the word of these lying and murderous Chicago hoodlums and accepted the fact that Ruby had no underworld ties. I think that Ruby’s sister also had to lie out of fear for her life and her family’s lives. To me it looks like that if there were dark secrets to be kept, most lawmakers did not want the public to know about them so they ignored them. As for the ordinary people in those days the gangsters and the government spies were very romantic figures, not dirty tricksters. The “lone nut, who in turn was killed by another lone nut” theory prevailed and that’s why JFK’s assassination, for me, remains unsolved even today.
Even with the Kennedy brothers out of the picture the damage has already been done. The heat was on and the Outfit was on constant surveillance by the feds. For example, the overlord of the non-Italian faction of the Outfit Murray Humphries spent most of his time in court rooms and also had too much heat over his head from the government that he became paranoid beyond reasonable doubts.
Murrary Humphreys heading to court and playing the role of a helpless feeble old man.
As for Lenny Patrick, he still continued to control gambling and "juice" operations on the West Side and North Side of Chicago. In the Lawndale area he still had his headquarters the New Lawndale Restaurant from where he ran his main operations. But because of the many police raids, Patrick lost control of the Filmore District in Chicago and later the cops raided the New Lawndale Restaurant wire room and arrested several people. So Patrick had to move his operations to the Four Duces Lounge at 2222 West Devon Avenue, and became his "place." Now Patrick was building his new bookmaking empire with the help of his new partnership with Willie “Potatoes” Daddano and his three new enforcers Ralph Detente, Mike Detente and John Reda. He was also expanding his operations outside of Chicago by attending a meeting at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco with his partner Dave Yaras and his son Ronald and also Louis Tom Dragna and Nicolo Licata, the big shots of the Los Angeles crime family. Also Ernest Debs, a Los Angeles County supervisor and a close friend of a major California officeholder, was also allegedly present. Later an FBI informant advised that Patrick "has been moving well toward the top of the Chicago criminal organization and might be a replacement for Gus Alex, who appears to be working for power because of the contacts he has made without advising other members of the organization."
Outfit big shot Lenny Patrick
By this time Lenny Patrick also had a new legitimate job at Herman Sales Co. working as a premium salesman and was contacting various business houses in the Chicago area. He also had his own shares in the A-1 Industrial Uniform Co. in which Dave Yaras also owned an interest. Also the music bootleging business was a big cash cow for the Outfit and the mob in general. So when Hy Larner took a trip back from Panama to Chicago, he and Patrick became partners in the Venocoa Music Company. It was also reported that Patrick and Larner were attempting to purchase the City Music Company. Patrick made another very profitable partnership with Rocky Potenza. They were involved in a massive bookmaking operation on the North Side of Chicago and Lou Henneck was their frontman at the Top Hat Inn, who ran all of the books.
Murray “Curley”Humphries was now getting old and too paranoid so in 1965 he died of an alleged heart attack caused by an attempt from the feds to arrest him. Also the last big Jewish mob boss Eddie Vogel was now retired in California and rumours were that he had stashed over $12.000.000. Now few guys were nominated for the top spot of the non-Italian faction. One was Hyman Larner but he left the country because of the heat from the government and went to Panama. Next in line was Dave Yaras, but the thing was during this period Yaras spent most of his time in Miami, Florida expending the Outfit’s bookmaking rackets. So Gus Alex was the obvious choice because he had the “muscle” and also the most political connections in Chicago. Alex’s second in command was his brother Sam, his “connection guys” were Pat Marcy from the 1st Ward and Sidney Korshak and Lenny Patrick remained his street boss in Chicago. By now, according to an FBI informant, the three chief "juice men" in the Chicago area were Fiore Buccieri, Mad Sam DeStefano and Lenny Patrick. After Sam Giancana’s exile to Mexico because of his flamboyant life style and the heat that he brought upon the organization, the upper echelon in Chicago's organized crime was changed. The Outfit’s top boss Paul Ricca was considered as an elder statesman and Tony Accardo was brought back again at the top spot of the organization. The second echelon in Chicago was composed of Sam Battaglia, Jack Cerone, Joey Aiuppa, Frank Ferraro, Ross Prio, Fiore Buccieri, Frank LaPorte and Gus Alex, Ralph Pierce, Francis Curry, Leonard Patrick.
You see, back in those days the Chicago Outfit was not your traditional organized crime family. They had many non-Italians as high ranking personas so it was not the Mafia. It has been very diverse but operated under the principals of Southern Italian organized crime. They had Italian guys who were considered as “made” members of the Outfit but never had a formalized swearing in ceremony, like New York and the rest of the national crime families, so it was virtually impossible to tell who was a made member of the Chicago branch of the Mafia and who was a syndicate associate. The non-Italian guys like Lenny Patrick were not “made” guys but they were not associates ether. They were considered as members. They had their own territories and kicked up to their non-Italian bosses like Gus Alex, who was a member of the Outfit’s ruling panel. Back in 1962 the feds recorded a conversation with the help of a hidden wiretap, between Outfit made member and big shot Jack Cerone and Dave Yaras. Cerone bragged about some killings that he and his partner Johnny Whales, a Polack, pulled off in the old days. Unfortunately, one day Johnny “went off his rocker” and disappeared. He had become afraid of the Italians and told Cerone he feared that they might kill him. Than Cerone told Yaras “You see, Dave, he didn’t understand that we (The Outfit) got Jews and Polacks also. I told him this but he was still afraid.” Also when FBI agent Bill Roemer went out to see Lenny Patrick, to see what he knew about Jack Ruby, Patrick told Roemer that he knew Ruby, but that he wasn't really "our guy", meaning he was not a member of the mob. Patrick also often attended meetings with Italian high profile members. On March 11, 1965, an FBI informant advised that Patrick, Albert Frabotta and Phil Alderisio had met with a bondsman named "Stuck" who was working for Irwin Weiner. The reason for this meeting was not known.
By the mid 1960’s the Chicago crime bosses made a complete takeover of the bookmaking and loan shark operations by extracting a 50% tribute from the gross profits of all of the bookies and juice men in the area, thus making a multi-million dollar a year racket. During this takeover there was a clash between some of Chicago’s top hoodlums, for example Fiore Buccieri and Mike Patrick, Lenny’s older brother. The problem was that some of Patrick’s men took over some of the operations in North/West area in which Buccieri was the overlord of the juice racket. At first Patrick’s men frequented a cigar store and other establishments in Buccieri’s territory and made bookmaking loans across jurisdictional lines. Later Buccieri learned of their presence on his territory and summoned Mike Patrick to a mob sit down. The sit down occurred in a Cicero social and athletic club which served as a front for Buccieri’s juice operations. During the exchange of words, Buccieri stood up and shouted “If you don’t want to give us half of your juice business, we’ll take it all eventually”. Buccieri also demanded a cut of the Patrick brothers’ gross profits from usurious loans to patrons of their gambling operations on his territory. After the noise died down, Mike Patrick came out shaking hands with Buccieri and looked like they had come to some type of agreement.
As for Patrick’s partner, Dave Yaras, business was also booming. While in Miami, Yaras met multiple times with another gambling Jew by the name of Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal. Rosenthal was one of Dave’s “students” in the bookmaking business down in Miami. They constantly met each other to talk business at the Miami Beach Bayshore Country Club, which was Dave’s headquarters. Rosenthal was Dave’s frontman and operator at the Multiple Sports News Service, which provided the “line” for bookmakers of sport events on national basis. During June and July 1967, on the orders of Yaras, Rosenthal purchased explosives, detonators, guns and ammunition to be used against rival bookmakers. For example, Alfie Mart was a Miami bookmaker and his headquarters got blown up for resisting the services of Rosenthal’s company. Also the automobile of Irving “Mickey” Zion, another Miami bookmaker, was blown to pieces. Next, the cleaning shop of another Miami bookmaker Jack “Chappie” Rand was bombed and totally destroyed. Back in Chicago, Yaras maintained his interests through Patrick and his son, Lenny Yaras. With the help of his father, Lenny Yaras served as president of A-1 Industrial Uniforms Company and also with the help of his mentor Lenny Patrick he was involved in the bookmaking business. He became a member of Patrick’s Rogers Park crew and because of their close association which inevitably led other mobsters to refer to Lenny Yaras as “Little Lenny,” in an effort to distinguish him from his same-name superior. Dave’s other son Ronald Yaras operated the Unique Import Trading Ltd. previously known as the M&E Sales Corporation. Roland also acted as a messenger between Lenny Patrick and his father in Miami. He also constantly travelled to Miami and other cities, like Los Angeles, Dallas and Tampa, spreading legitimate and illegitimate operations and at the same time delivering messages to his father and the Outfit about their gambling operations around the country.
Tampa Mafia boss Santo Trafficante Jr. and Dave Yaras
