In 1966, Giancana was out of prison but was ordered by Ricca to take a short vacation in Mexico, for at least two or three years, and join their associate Nick Circella in spreading their international gambling operations. Giancana wasn’t an easy person to be told to take a vacation, so I believe that the only individual in the Outfit that had the courage and authority to accomplish that was Ricca. Giancana was still the boss and never officially stepped down from the position and Ricca never pushed him for, so now the “acting boss” of the Chicago Outfit was Sam Battaglia, which indicated that Giancana still had his power in Chicago since Battaglia was one of his closest associates and allies. But in reality, by now Battaglia was loyal to Ricca and Accardo, not to Giancana. Less than a year later Battaglia was imprisoned on extortion charges and again, the Outfit was a “headless” organization. It is not known for sure if Jack Cerone or Phil Alderisio ever ruled the years of 1967 and 1968, but by 1969, Accardo was the “new” boss with two other “contestants” under his rule, including Joseph Aiuppa and one non-Italian boss, Gus Alex. Alex was a very well connected racketeer and corruptor, who dreamed for the last 10 years about retiring from the Outfit but Ricca and Accardo, especially Ricca, has forbidden for Alex to leave the mob and so, just for punishment, he elevated the Greek mobster to a boss of a ruling panel. If you were a talent in the Outfit, that was it, the only way you were getting out of the organization was in a wooden box. All of these guys such as Alex, Alderisio, Cerone and including Accardo, still gave Ricca a considerable respect and deference, which indicates that he was still the top boss of the organization.
By 1968, Ricca was 71 years old and his troubles with diabetes were giving him hard time. But still the biggest problem was the law and the government who wasn’t about to give up and so they decided to strike again. In November, 1968, Ricca ordered his long time pal Tony Accardo to go on a trip to Naples, Italy, and bring along Ricca’s oldest sister Emilia De Lucia. So that same month Accardo and Emilia arrived in Chicago for visit to her older brother. But on December 5, 1968, she was summoned to appear before an immigration hearing officer to show cause why her visitor’s visa should not be revoked sine she falsely stated on her visa application that she had never been convicted of felony, when in fact she was convicted of a murder back in Italy, several years ago. So when Ricca received information about the order, he immediately placed his sister on the Alitalia Airlines flight back to Naples, Italy, on December 4.
So maybe his sister’s shortened vacation was good for Ricca because he was about to face a new trial and did not have the time for excursions. On August 19, 1969, the U.S. Attorney’s Office made an indictment against Jack Cerone and four other Outfit members Joe Ferriola, Don Angelini, Dom Cortina and Frank Aureli, on interstate gambling charges thanks primarily to Lou Bombacino’s testimony. During the trial, among numerous other mobsters old man Ricca was also subpoenaed to testify for the prosecution. On April 28, 1970, Ricca was rolled into the courtroom in a wheelchair, dressed in his pajamas and bathrobe because he was recovering from fractured pelvis. He was asked if he ever associated with Jackie Cerone and his testimony was needed to confirm that Cerone and Bombacino, a bookie and a rat at the moment, knew each other. Ricca had first-hand knowledge about the connection between Cerone and Bombacino but at first he didn’t say a thing by taking the Fifth Amendment. In fact, Bombacino personally met with Cerone and Ricca. Ricca knew Bombacino because Bombacino's brother used to make dietetic pastries for the boss. But later the government used the same strategy, which was used also on Giancana several years ago, with the help of Chief Judge William Campbell who forced Ricca to admit his associations under a grant of immunity.
Paul Ricca taken to a trial on a stretcher regarding his medical condition
Now Ricca had two choices, one choice was by keeping his mouth shut and of to prison, or talk his way out of it and break the “omerta”, or the Mafia’s code of silence. Now the whole organization was clearly mad at Bombacino, but they were mostly mad at Cerone for implicating the boss of the Chicago mob. I believe that it was decided by Accardo and Alex that Ricca should answer only the questions regarding his “normal” associations with Cerone. And that’s what the old man did. He was asked more than hundred questions by the prosecutors, on which he mostly gave shady answers but he managed to confirm Bombacino’s testimony about his meeting with Cerone at a restaurant in Harwood Heights, Illinois. In fact, Ricca admitted that he was present during Cerone conversation with Bombacino regarding gambling matters. And so the prosecutors were satisfied because Ricca’s testimony was the key part in sending all of the defendants to prison on May 9, 1970. Ricca was considered too big to take the fall for a guy like Cerone. I mean don’t get me wrong, Cerone was also high profile member of the Outfit but he wasn’t even close to Ricca’s stature. Plus he was a sick old man so another conviction would’ve been a real death sentence for the old “Don” and that’s why I strongly believe that Cerone never objected regarding this matter. As additional info, five years later Louie Bombacino was killed by the Outfit in Arizona while hiding under false name.
By 1970, Ricca, the original elder statesman of the Chicago mob, acted like a real old good fella in retirement. One day he stood in the front the yard of his River Forest home, idly pushing aside small heaps of dried leaves with his pointed alligator shoes as a fail sun shone on his bald pate. "You know," he said wistfully to one of his friends, "It's not like the good old days anymore. Remember when the dog tracks were running in Illinois? There was so much money around to be made." Ricca paused to rub his custom tailor-clad paunch and look back on a career as a Mafia chief that started back in 1920 when he entered the United States illegally. "I guess someday they’ll deport me to Italy," the old hoodlum said. "But I'll be back. Right now, I’m kinda worried about Tony Accardo. You think he’ll beat that federal gun charge? It's a bum rap." As he talked, Ricca's gesticulating hands caused the solar rays to ricochet off his solid gold cuff links which bear the likeness of Pope Paul VI, a treasured gift from an old Mafia pal in Rome. "No, it s not like the good old days," he repeated. "All the old-timers are either dying off or in jail." He turned to face that two-story concrete fortress he calls home at 1515 N. Bonnie Brae Av., River Forest, as he paused for effect. "It's just not much fun any more, hanging around the house with nothing to do," he said in the tones of a man indignant with society’s failure to face the problems of this nation’s well heeled Mafia senior citizens. Then Ricca clambered into his black and yellow Oldsmobile and slowly drove off into the setting sun toward Meo's Norwood House restaurant, there to break bread with his pal, Accardo.
In the summer of 1970, the government had to turn up the temperature even more for Ricca and Accardo by serving them subpoenas which took them before a Los Angeles federal grand jury, a body deeply interested in the reported hoodlum control of three Las Vegas emporiums and that time-honoured gangster practice of illegally skimming off millions of dollars from gambling casino take. Now, none of this government attention would probably have been focused on these two elder mob statesmen if it wasn’t for their long time associate and also a know “blabbermouth under stress” Johnny Roselli. With granted immunity from prosecution, Roselli reportedly began talking freely with authorities about his long time association with Accardo and Ricca, whose west coast and Las Vegas interests he has represented for over two decades. And apparently, Roselli's inability to dodge the government’s questions has now prompted the Justice Department to give serious thought of attacking the Outfit’s leadership. That same year, Roselli even tried to extort money from Morris Dalitz, an infamous Jewish mob boss in the Las Vegas area. So Ricca called upon his trusted “capo” from the Chicago Heights area, Frank LaPorte and gave him instructions to tell Roselli to stop any further actions regarding the extortion of Dalitz. So Roselli became extremely agitated and kept repeating over and over to LaPorte that he was being made to look foolish and that in fact Dalitz owed money to Roselli. But LaPorte again told him that this order came from the top, meaning Ricca and Accardo, and that he had no intentions of going back to the bosses with information such as that one, because he knew that he was going to run back and forth with messages. By now Roselli became quite a problem for Ricca and the Outfit, but the biggest problem was that Ricca himself strictly forbidden any high profile “hits” during this time period and so Roselli was spared, for now.
Slowly the government realised that they started loosing the battle with Paul Ricca, because by now he and the rest of the organization kept a very low profile and the violence was brought to a minimum, an order which was issued by Ricca himself. So now the government was mostly concentrated on the New York crime families because of the constant bloodshed that was going on for more than few years. As the search for New York mobsters went on, Accardo and Ricca kept their cool. They took a long look at the slaughterhouse that was building in the “Big Apple” and issued orders that any other forms of unnecessary violent conflict should be avoided. In a Northwest Side restaurant in August, 1972, the two former directors of Chicago’s criminal underworld sat at a back table and discussed current activities while having lunch. They resembled of Statler and Waldorf, the famous pair of the comedy series “The Muppet Show” but in Mafia style. Now witness the following conversation, which took place between the two elder statesmen…
First, Accardo laid the groundwork for the exchange: A certain New York family, he told his friend of many years, had been trying to keep all the rackets for itself. It was this family that was to blame for the scandalous violence. "That family is having a lot of trouble," Accardo continued, “They want to keep it all in the family. The mother wants all the black market, which means $600,000 or $700,000 a year. And the son wants all the extortion rackets. The son placed himself in a bad position on that." Ricca nodded gravely and grunted his agreement. The two old hoodlums were constantly eating and most of their words became muffled by their vocal gourmet artistry. It was clear that Accardo and Ricca were talking about the Colombo crime family and were obviously dismayed at the gunning down of the family boss Joseph Colombo, as he addressed an Italian-American Civil Rights League. They recalled the murder of another old friend of the national mob commission days, Tommy Eboli, who was also a victim of the East Coast warfare on July 16, 1972. They even discussed Eboli’s partner and their long time friend, Louie DeChiaro who was in charge of looking after Eboli’s sons Thomas Jr. and Louis. In fact, Louis Eboli was member of the Outfit located in the Stone Park area. They dicussed the situation of their dead father in New York, and that DeChiaro was walking the streets of Chicago in the company of two bodyguards. But Accardo and Ricca were in no mood to permit similar indiscretions in Chicago so they assured DeChiaro and the Eboli brothers that nothing was going to happen to them. By the end of the meeting both Mafiosi closed their dialog by stating "Better them than us," Accardo offered philosophically. "You're right, Joe," Ricca replied, "Better them than us." With these last statements, they definitely showed their frame of mind.
Towards the end of his life, still many FBI agents were assigned to tail Ricca everywhere he went. By now old man Ricca was 74 years old, bald on the top with white hair on the sides, a diabetic who slowly became senile. Story goes that he often spent his remaining days at his favourite place, the O'Hare Airport, just watching around, sometimes in the company of the few old timers who often came to visit him for a chat. So some reports say that Ricca was faking it and the Justice department thought that Ricca was doing something illegal and so it doubled the number of agents assigned to the old man.
Ricca’s last known photo
During the last few years Ricca’s health deteriorated and also suffered a diabetic stroke. Diabetes alone is a very serious risk factor for heart disease and so on September 14, 1972 Ricca was brought to hospital for treatment of a heart ailment. During his stay in hospital, he was often visited by Accardo and Gus Alex but after almost a month, on October 11, 1972, Ricca died of a heart attack in his sleep at the Presbyterian St. Luke’s hospital. As additional info, the Outfit’s union boss Joey Glimco was the last person to see Ricca alive at the hospital.
As usual, at the funeral, for the most part, the mourners were either Mafia members, family, or friends. Few of the curious got past the eagle-eyed musclemen generously distributed about the funeral chapel on North Harlem Avenue. Some journeyed from afar and some from not so far, in fact, from just across the street in Elmwood Park. But to a man they all agreed that the criminal cartel that is the National Brotherhood of Crime had lost one of its finest. For there was little doubt, even in their own minds, that things would never again be the same.
There was time to be spared for a few kind words about the deceased mobster, lying there in a casket surrounded by big red roses, a rosary clutched in his hands. There were moments to offer a warm welcome to Ricca family members who had flown the thousands of miles from his native Italy to pay homage to their departed relative. There was even time for a few snickers at the mode of dress affected by Antonio and Luigi Iervolina, Ricca's nephews from near Naples, and including his brother-in-law Angelo Chiacchio, followed by Ricca’s sister, Clementina Iervolino. During the funeral the men gathered in small huddles, anxiously discussing what the future might bold for them' and their tottering house of racket-riddled cards. Most of these guys were dry-eyed because after all, real gangsters don’t cry. The only gangster that was truly crashed by Ricca’s death was none other than Tony Accardo. According to some sources, the tough old man had tears in his eyes when he allegedly said to the people around “I lost the best friend a man could have”, which was also written on some of the flower bouquets at the funeral.
At the cemetery, a very unusual and a rare thing occurred and that was a Roman Catholic priest, in a Christian way of forgiveness, delivered something that it looked like a brief message of condolences, which in fact was an initiation of last rites of the Catholic Church. Later the priest told the reporters that “Paul De Lucia received last rites of the church upon his death. What greater consolation can there be for a family than to know that their loved one died in the grace of God.” Indeed it was a “great consolation” for the family because Ricca was twice-convicted murderer and many mobsters, if not all, were forbidden to be given last rites by the church because of their criminal history but this was another proof that even after his death, Ricca still received huge respect from Chicago’s society. But to be honest I believe that one of the proudest moments for the family was the large floral piece which was inscribed in gold letters “OUR DEAR GRANDFATHER”.
Besides Accardo, other prominent individuals that occupied the imposing mausoleum at the Queen of Heaven cemetery were Leo Manfredi, big time bookmaker from the Cicero area, Frank Carsuo, boss of the Near South Side, and Joey Aiuppa, the current boss of the ruling panel and inside, the gangsters listened to Mozart music. But once some of the gangsters saw the reporters, they immediately put their dark shades over their eyes and walked away before Ricca’s remains were interred.
Accardo coming out of Ricca’s funeral
Perhaps Ricca’s true power and danger during his leadership, was the ability to arouse admiration and consent from groups not only from the local territory but also foreign criminal groups, and political people who distained themselves from compliance with the laws and so instead they represented the core values of the Chicago Outfit. Paul Ricca believed in the ability of exercising power with being at the same time charismatic, intimidating and paternal. This ability has a strong power and social recognition which was the main factor for the ability of the Outfit to lay its claim in Chicago and Illinois in general, for a long time period. Besides being the Mob’s chairman emeritus, he was also a murderer. In fact, they were all murderers and they wisely kept the fear of violence as constant threat. There are many false stories such as Mafia strict rules against killing public officials especially in the U.S. Allegedly gangsters like Charles Luciano or Frank Costello or Paul Ricca found it more profitable to bribe than to kill. Yet, Officer Drury was killed, Attorney Bas was killed, and many other public officials. The reality is that the Outfit killed them all, the minute they saw a chance to do it.
In the end I want to say that Felice De Lucia a.k.a. Paul Ricca was a legend, not the kind of which heroes are made, but a legend made from a material from which real life villains are made. He lived by the sword, but luckily for him, he died in bed. The sad thing is that such a good talent was wasted over the pursuit of gold, viciousness, corruption and murder. He was responsible for decisions which led to the deaths of a legion of gangsters, businessmen, politicians, lawyers and even cops, usually who stepped out of line. But moments after the door of his crypt slammed shut, Ricca was forgotten as far as the day-to-day business of the Outfit was concerned. In fact, that was the point of his “criminal machine” to further function even with out his presence. But another thing that occurred during the few years after his death, which was the killings of the many of his former associates, including Sam De Stefano, Ned Bakes, Richard Cain, Sam Giancana, Johnny Roselli and Charles Nicoletti and it looked like that Joey Aiuppa and Gus Alex erased the members that were formerly protected by Ricca himself. My point is that all of these murders caused further destruction of the organization, a problem which was overlooked by Accardo himself.
Even after his death, Paul Ricca still remained in the shadows of mob history, just as the same as he was during his life time. Thru the years, many mob historians or movie producers mostly studied Al Capone, Frank Nitti or Sam Giancana, but no one ever wrote a book or made a movie about Ricca. My opinion is that if it wasn’t for Ricca, maybe the Chicago crowd would’ve had a nicer and cleaner history. Chicago probably will never see a gangster like that ever again because he was the last one of the fathers of this criminal society and to my opinion it would be shameful to remain unnoticed in history by the general population. He was the devil who had refined evil into a lucrative tool and it is to be hoped that weapon was safely buried with him. Ricca left behind his wife, two sons, a daughter and many grandchildren and he never allowed his family to get involved in the “life”, not while he was still alive.
This article is completed from various infos, mostly collected from FBI reports and other criminal records, crime related books and articles, and personal opinions.
