Maybe Ricca also wanted to explain to the New York bosses the current and future situation within the Capone mob since Luciano and Capone were dear friends. So I strongly believe that another thing on the agenda was the huge problem with the notorious Chicago boss. The low-key individuals such as Lansky and Ricca were supremely intelligent persons who always let other loudmouthed gorillas get the “spot light” and with that also the heat from the government but by now Capone went too far and became too much of an obstacle. Capone became a guy who everyone in the world was looking for. The national mob respected Capone a lot but business is business. There’s really no evidence about this claim but one month later after this meeting, Capone was sent to prison on tax evasion charges. So this raises the question whether the rumour is true, that on this particular meeting the group decided and also helped in the plan of putting Big Al in jail. As I previously stated in some of my past articles, some say that Capone could have walked free on the charges up to the last minute before the jury in the case retired to make its decision and all Capone had to do was pay the money on the back taxes that he owed. But someone didn’t want that to happen so it was nothing against Capone personally, but instead it was all just business.
Later when the meeting finished, as they were leaving the hotel, suddenly all of the gangsters were arrested by the Chicago Police, including Ricca, Luciano, Lansky, Sylvester Agoglia, Harry Brown and John Senna a.k.a. Rocco Fischetti. As additional info, Fischetti gave his alias “John Senna” to the police while being arrested. In Luciano's pockets the police found a statement of "accounts receivable," amounting to $46,655 and in cash, he carried over $900 and Lansky $250. The other men each carried more than $100. Later they were all released after being booked and printed since the cops had no reason to hold them. As additional info, Agoglia was another “import” from Brooklyn, New York, who came to Chicago and became member of Ricca’s crew or to be specific, member of the old Taylor St. crew.
Ricca, Agoglia, Luciano, Lansky, Fischetti and Brown
When Capone was sent to serve eleven years in jail, his associate Frank Nitti was sent also, however, he received only 18-month sentence. The same day when the bosses went to jail, Nitti sent word to Ricca to send some of his henchmen to murder Matt Kolb and 3 other persons. Kolb was an ally of Roger Touhy, Capone’s rival and he was killed at his speakeasy gambling club, the Club Morton on the corner of Dempster and Ferris Road. The other three murdered persons were brothers of Touhy. Suspect in all of the murders was Paul Ricca and many mob historians say that he was directly involved, a statement in which I highly doubt because by now Ricca was too high up in the ranks and was also too smart to get directly in a situation like that. It was obvious that Ricca ordered the killings because the Touhy-Kolb gang started to move in on Capone's gambling base, which was their next best thing. Ricca’s involvement in the murders was also confirmed by Roger Touhy himself, who was very positive regarding the question.
Now the old Capone gang was in the hands of the lieutenants of that same group, such as Frank Rio, Phil D’Andrea or Paul Ricca and at the same time the organization needed a new boss, but there was a huge problem. If the organization was really involved in Capone’s imprisonment, then to tell you the truth I don’t blame them. Capone made a spectacle out of the Mob and almost every possible newsman followed these so-called “Gangstars” and wrote their stories. Everybody in the country wanted to take a picture with Al Capone and his boys, which was a huge disaster for the alleged secret criminal society. So everybody in the Capone mob knew that with Capone’s and Nitti’s absence, Ricca was next in line to take the “acting boss” position and I believe that he really did. The reasons for that were obvious, his political and bootlegging remains from the late Joe Esposito and also he took over what Esposito left off in the labor rackets, also his Mafia contacts on the east and west coasts from which he had the full support, and above all, his intelligence, deadliness and greed, which guided him for the rest of his life. In the old days the U.S. mob always had some charismatic leaders, and Ricca was a guy who expressed his charisma, not through aggression by terrorizing members, but instead he made it possible through a sophisticated ability to involve all who feel the same way to unite in a common cause. Don’t get me wrong, Ricca also had the sense of ferocity but he mostly worked on getting involved all who needed to feel part of a common cause, which was the criminal organization. During this time high level criminals like Ricca and their common cause was obviously the control of illegal business, but to propose the business with little resort to violence. This kind of attitude helped the bosses to create a mythology of the Mafia leader in the minds of the general population and made them believe that the organization was more caring and protective, thus hiding its vicious and cruel aspects during the process of justification of its existence.
Since Ricca belonged to the Italian criminal society and the Capone gang was multi-ethnical, Ricca decided to transform the gang into more of an Italian type of criminal organization with specific hierarchy, territories, different business enterprises and money flow within the group. First above all, only the Italians received the top spots such as territorial bosses or capos, or top administration like boss, underboss and top advisor. They were given specific territories with associates under their rule, who hustled daily on the streets. After that the huge sums of money made from numerous illegal activities were taken and distributed up the ranks. The non-Italian members kept their territories but by now they mostly answered to their Italian superiors. But none the less, some of them still had their own votes on certain matters because at the time the Chicago syndicate had few of the most powerful non-Italian gangsters in the country. They were still involved in the inner workings of the organization and shared the daily profits. So now this new organization became known as the Chicago Outfit.
According to some sources, Ricca was quite different than the rest of individuals around him. For example, when he sat with legit associates or public officials he used his talent to cloak his criminal nature. But in front his underlings Ricca was a merciless person because during sit downs he acted like a cold and heartless person and people had to be very calmed because of somebody looked suspicious, the gangster paranoia might took place which can be quite deadly. He also didn’t want to see emotions during business conversations because he was still young and had quite a big temper, and if someone said something wrong to his face, that individual received the taste of a hot lead in his mouth or in a worst case, the feeling of the sharpness of his blades. In plain words, Ricca was a guy who could laugh and cut a guys tongue out at the same time or cry on a baptism at church. He knew what to say and also knew the effect of his words that will have on someone else. In other words, Ricca was a real devil.
By 1933, the men who controlled the Italian faction of the Chicago Outfit were the Neapolitan gangsters Paul Ricca, Frank Rio and Frank Nitti on the top. Ricca was the commission representative and political “fixer”, Nitti was the union and gambling rackets overseer and Rio was leader of the “strong-arm and cement shoes” department. Under them were the Sicilian bosses such as Lawrence Mangano from the West Side and Phil D’Andrea on the Near South Side and Loop. As additional info, I believe that the current leader of the Sicilian faction or Mafia in Chicago was considered to be Phil D’Andrea. There was also Tony Pinelli and Vincenzo DiGiorgio on the North, Charles and Rocco Fischetti on the Southwest, Dominic Roberto controlled the South suburbs, and Ralph Capone and up and coming leader Louis Campagna controlled Cicero. Most of these guys were from Neapolitan heritage and by now a big part of Chicago’s underworld was always controlled by the Neapolitans for nearly 20 years, including the past eras of Colosimo, Torrio, Esposito, Capone and now Ricca and Nitti. Also the boss of the non-Italian faction was considered to be Jacob Guzik.
After his release, the government considered Frank Nitti as the day to day boss of the Outfit. In fact, Nitti stayed close to Capone for a very long time, and had all of the street knowledge that a one crime boss could ever have. He was always well dressed, well mannered and presented an educated man but on the other hand he was also a “shoot first, ask questions later” kind of a guy. And that’s why he received high publicity which was perfectly “ok” with Ricca and the rest of the bosses. On the East Coast, especially in New York the mobsters always fought for the top spot, but in Chicago things were different. I believe that the “front boss” position was invented by its self, a situation influenced by the current complications which were caused by the publicity, which in turn was caused by flashy bosses such as Al Capone. Nitti wasn’t the same type of a guy, but some reports say that he wasn’t the brightest individual in the organization. Maybe the other members knew who really ran the organization but for the public, the government and the rest of the criminal gangs and associates, Nitti was the “capo dei capi.” The plan also stood very well with the rest of the crime families, which main proof was their meetings with Ricca, who in reality was the main Chicago “rappresentante“ since Nitti was being very careful about violating his federal parole.
Frank Nitti
One example in deceiving their rivals, on who was the real boss of the organization, was when the first real threat that the newborn Outfit failed to notice, which occurred in 1931, when Anton Cermak was elected Chicago's 36th mayor, by defeating Republican William Hale Thompson and immediately established a Democratic stranglehold on the mayor's office. Cermak built the strength of the Democratic Party by bringing together diverse factions and was a very ambitious guy, but maybe too ambitious for a man in his position. In fact, there’s a story that Cermak was backed by the Outfit and to make a long story short, Cermak wanted to take over the city of Chicago, literally, and went on a mission to destroy the Outfit by turning his back with the help of creating rival gangs. Ted Newberry, the guy who was arrested with Ricca back in the old days during their trips to New York, sided with Cermak against the Outfit and Newberry probably assured Cermak that their main obstacle was Frank Nitti. So on December 19, 1932, Cermak, in a gangland fashion, summoned two members of his special squad, Harry Miller and Henry Lang to Nitti’s office at 221 N. LaSalle Street. So the duo entered Nitti’s office, arrested the boss and suddenly detective Lang fired five shots into Nitti. Miraculously Nitti managed to survive and slowly recovered in a hospital. So I believe that Cermak and Newberry thought that Nitti was the boss and so with “the head dead, the body dies.” But they were wrong and now they were in real danger.
Now Ricca again took the top position as “acting boss” of the Outfit and now it was in his responsibility to determine whether the organization should retaliate or not. My opinion is that the rest of the National Syndicate was against such a decision, because everybody knew that with knocking down the mayor of the nation's second largest city would bring down more heat on the Mob then one simple Cermak ever could. I’m not going to imply on anything but this is how things went down the next year. Word went out that Cermak was going to attend the speech of President Franklin Roosevelt in Miami, Florida, on February 15, 1933. One week before the gathering, Outfit members Murray Humphreys, a known labor terrorist, and Rocco Fischetti were arrested in Florida and were questioned for their purpose in Miami and later were released. Besides being involved in the labor rackets, Humphreys was also a good logistician for orchestrating kidnappings, bombings and murders. Few days later on February 13, Frank Rio and William White were also arrested and questioned for their purpose in the Miami area. Now these two guys had also rackets of their own, but their main job was murder.
So on February 15, among the thirty or more noted visitors and local leaders on the platform, present was also Mayor Cermak. Suddenly the President singled him out for greeting when he arrived. He then spoke briefly, standing in the back seat of his car. There were great cheers as he finished and immediately Mayor Cermak rose from his seat and stepped to the front of the stand. Leaning over he shook hands with Mr. Roosevelt and later the Mayor moved away. While Cermak stood few feet away from the President’s car, there was a startling interruption when at that moment five shots rang out. A man in about the fifth or sixth row of spectators stood up and began shooting. The Mayor was only a few feet away from the car and about as near as Mr. Roosevelt to the man with the pistol. Neither was more than twenty feet from the man who fired. Cermak received a bullet in his stomach, and four other individuals, who stood behind Cermak, were injured, while President Roosevelt remained unharmed. Cermak died 19 days later from complications of the operations that he was submitted on, not from the bullet hole. Zangara was declared as crazy anarchist who missed his original target which was the President. And just twelve days after Cermak’s death, Joe Zangara was executed by the government. There’s not even a shred of evidence about any Mob involvement in the assassination, but if you ask me, the problem is that there’s too much coincidence in the story. Some of the police detectives in Chicago strongly suspected that the assassination was in fact an Outfit related shooting and so they contacted the police department in Miami and gave them a list of Chicago gangsters who resided or were on a trip at the time in that area, including 18 gangsters, 12 of whom were known Chicago Outfit members and associates. But the arrests were never made because it turned out that the request had been deleted by the State's Attorney Thomas Courtney. If the mob was really involved in the Cermak killing, then I believe that Ricca gave the last “go-ahead” for the job.
Cermak is helped after being shot
In 1934, the Outfit was getting heavily involved in the gambling and slot machine business. That same year in June, Ricca visited New York and had a meeting with Mafia chieftain Frank Costello who ruled supreme over the gambling business in the U.S. Ricca established a very good business relationship with Costello and became allies and once they got arrested during a raid in a Blue Island gambling place. Later Costello has admitted having an acquaintanceship with Paul Ricca in New York. The same month Ricca also attended sort of a mob gathering in Louisville, Kentucky. This was a very busy period for the Outfit’s “emissary” because it was the time when the Outfit bosses started gaining their gambling stronghold on the Midwest. At the same time, back at home, the non-Italian faction of the Chicago Outfit, headed by Murray Humphreys and overseen by Charles and Rocco Fischetti, launched an attack on Chicago’s South Side dry cleaners union and it was one of the first big financial sources for the organization. The gangsters learned that with control over the unions, they also controlled the work force and also controlled the lives of countless families sustained by those jobs. The tactics of strong-arming the unions, created a new army of up and coming mobsters. If there wasn’t any union, the Outfit quickly made one up and many people suddenly became members of some unions they’d never heard of before. As additional info, that same year Ricca bought a house for $15,000 and after that the house burned down and later he collected $50,000 from the insurance. The American Camorrista was living the “life.”
On November 22, 1935, Ricca age 37, 5300 West Jackson Boulevard, owner of the Playhouse Theatre applied for insurance in the Northwestern National Life Insurance Company. With this record we can see that Ricca had a legitimate job and was the owner of the famous World Playhouse theatre and it looked like he still had his connections in the theatre business since the old days of the late Diamond Joe. As I previously stated, this so-called theatre business will bring a lot of cash for the boss but also a lot of headaches. As additional info, three years later Ricca applied to the Equitable Life Assurance Society for a retirement annuity and he even gave applications for beneficial membership in the Italo-American Union formerly known as Unione Siciliana.
For example, during the mid 1930s, Nitti and Ricca were part of an extortion plot involving the International Alliance of Theatrical, Stage Employees & Motion Picture Operators union. Nitti and one of his main lieutenants and boss of Des Moines, Iowa, Charles Gioe, had their own associates Willie Bioff and George Brown acting as front men for the organization. In fact Bioff was brought to the attention of Ricca by Lawrence Mangano and Browne was brought by Nitti himself. On Christmas Eve 1934, as boss of the Outfit, Nitti held a party for the Outfit's Royalty, including Ricca, Campagna, Gioe, D’Andrea and Rio. Also invited were Browne and Bioff. During the evening Nitti brought the topic of Tommy Maloy, labor leader and a close friend of everybody in that room. Reports say that Nitti needed to control Maloy’s union by any means and to continue his domination of the all the unions that ran the entertainment business. Browne and Bioff knew that Maloy was a walking dead man. Then they met again at Harry Hochstien's house in Riverside, a political leader from the 20th ward who owed a favour to Frankie Rio. Also present at the dinner was Ricca. After the meal, Nitti again mentioned Maloy’s union and said that they should take it over as soon as possible. After that there was a silence in the room and Frank Rio turned to Nitti and said "Will Maloy stand for partners moving in on him"
Nitti said "Not Maloy"
Ricca said "Can we scare him?"
Nitti answered "Not at all. We really ought to have the projectionists"
Rio said "Ill take care of it right after the first of the year"
Two months later, on February 4, 1935, Outfit assassins fired shots at Maloy, thus blowing half of his head. With Maloy dead the Outfit took over the projections union and looked forward for the movie industry. Now the Chicago mob took over the movie unions and many known movie stars from back in the days were sponsored by the gangsters, people like Gary Grant, Clark Gable, Jimmy Durante, George Raft and even the Marx Brothers.
That same year, Frank Nitti, who by now had the last word regarding the union activities, decided to spread the Outfit’s influence. So he sent a message to George McLane, a veteran business agent of the Chicago Bartenders and Beverage Dispensers union, Local 278, to put Louis Romano on the union’s payroll "or else." At first McLane refused but later he was called on a meeting with Nitti, Ricca and Louis Campagna the LaSalle Hotel. Ricca and Campagna kept quiet during the meeting but Nitti told McLane that "The only way to overcome this is to put one of our men in as an officer", meaning to put Romano on the payroll. McLane replied that this was impossible, and Nitti said, "We have taken over other unions. You will put him in or get shot in the head." After that statement, Ricca and Campagna, true cold-blooded killers, gave two very serious looks at McLane, who in turn developed low blood sugar from the tense situation. And so McLane agreed and placed Romano on the union’s payroll with a “no show” job. But the problem for McLane was that this was just the beginning of the pressure. After very short time, McLane was again summoned to the old Capri Restaurant on the third floor of 1232 North Clark Street. He said present at this meeting were Nitti, Ricca, Campagna, Joe Fusco, Jake Guzik and Murray Humphreys. When McLane entered the restaurant, Nitti called him over to his table to take a seat. Again, Ricca and Campagna kept quiet as Nitti told McLane that he had to put his man Romano in as an officer of the union. McLane replied that this was impossible as he had to have the approval of the executive board, and the man had to be a member of the union. After that Nitti replied "Give us the names of anyone who opposes, and we will take care of them. We want no more playing around. If you don't do what we say, you will get shot in the head. How would your wife look in black?"
Now McLane took the “proposal” to the executive board which in turn refused to accept Romano as an officer. When McLane returned and told the gangsters about the decision, Murray Humphreys became very angry and then demanded the names of those who had opposed, and McLane refused to give them to him. Then Humphreys said, "We will take care of that. This is your last chance. This is the only way we will stand for anything. Put in our man or wind up in an alley." McLane then again went back to the board and told them about the threats and what it meant, and it was finally
agreed in the latter part of July, 1935, to put Louis Romano in control of the union.
Also George Scalise, a union racketeer with the help of Campagna, arranged a meeting in Chicago with Nitti and Ricca, to discuss a plan for taking over the building service international and affiliated unions, including the strong Chicago elevator operators' union, which was run by Matthew Taylor, an honest labor official with a record of 39 years of service to the labor movement. The two top bosses favoured Thomas Burke for head of the union, but that a deal was made whereby Scalise should get the job, in return for which he was to "kick back" part of his take to the Outfit. So Scalise immediately bought up a group of small unions out of the treasury of the building service international and began a campaign to take over Matthew Taylor's elevator operators with 3,500 members. In 1936, Nitti and Ricca sent Louis Schiavone to approach Taylor and informed him that the Outfit wanted to put their own man in his union and he was also promised that he would be paid well if he would get out. Taylor refused and short time later, he was summoned to the Bismarck Hotel, and there he met Campagna. When they got thru dinner, Campagna threw a certified check for $50,000 at Taylor and said “Matt, I want you to step out as president of the elevator operators' union, and we want to take that union over, because we can help our cause then. We can’t get any place now because Burke is disliked in the Loop.” Campagna referred to Thomas J. Burke, the vice president of the building service international. Even though Taylor again refused the offer, Scalise was made president of the union. Taylor, realizing he was beaten, agreed to bring his union into the international, but first he went to Atlantic City and obtained from Scalise a written promise that the local funds would not be touched and that there would be no interference with local affairs. Scalise gave the written promise, but he continued his campaign to get the union treasury. On May 18, 1939, Taylor was robbed by stickup men of his brief case containing the Scalise written promise. There was also $5,000 of bonds in the brief case, but these were nonnegotiable and valueless to the thieves. On July 5, 1939, Louis Schiavone was shot and killed in Oak Lawn and story goes that he might have been killed for attempting to double-cross Ricca and the bosses.
