Organized Crime in Chicago: Beyond the Mafia

Q&A with Organized Crime in Chicago author Robert M. Lombardo
University of Illinois Press
February 4, 2013


Robert M. Lombardo is an associate professor of criminal justice at Loyola University Chicago and a former Chicago Police officer. He answered our questions about his new book Organized Crime in Chicago: Beyond the Mafia.

Q: What is your definition of organized crime?

Lombardo: I use the term organized crime to define the political corruption that afforded protection to gambling, prostitution, and other vice activity in large American cities from the second half of the nineteenth century until the end of the twentieth century.

Q: Conventional wisdom traces the roots of organized crime in large U.S. urban centers to the Sicilian mafia. What’s wrong with this paradigm?

Lombardo: Tracing organized crime to the South of Italy ignores the historical record. Organized crime in Chicago existed before Italian immigration, and it existed in Chicago’s black community independent of Italian participation for a period of almost 50 years. Additionally, much of the information upon which this “importation” model is based comes from popular, non academic sources.

Q: When did reports of organized crime first surface in Chicago?

Lombardo: In 1873 Michael Cassius McDonald organized Chicago’s saloon and gambling interests into “Mike McDonald’s Democrats,” and elected their own candidate, Harvey Colvin, Mayor of Chicago. With Colvin in office, McDonald organized the first criminal syndicate in Chicago composed of both gamblers and compliant politicians.

Q: Al Capone is synonymous with “Chicago mafia.” Are there more influential figures about which the general public is unaware?

Lombardo: Mike McDonald for sure, but also Chicago Mayor Ed Kelly. Kelly “franchised” all vice activity in Chicago to the Capone Syndicate during the 1940s.

Q: Do related crime syndicates still operate in Chicago today?

Lombardo: There may be some bookmakers and old-time gangsters still around, but traditional organized crime in Chicago is largely a thing of the past. The Chicago Outfit as the progeny of the old Capone Syndicate is almost dead. They have been destroyed by law-enforcement efforts.

Q: What was the most interesting thing that you learned while researching the book?

Lombardo: What I found most interesting was the untold story of Lt. Joe Morris and the Chicago Police Scotland Yard detail under Mayor Kennelly. Had they not been disbanded by Richard J. Daley, they would have drove the Chicago Outfit out of town.

http://www.press.uillinois.edu/wordpress/?p=11240

Interesting post.

Traditional Organized Crime in Chicago is mostly a thing of the past. That was the author's statement which must have made Ivy happy since it's his mission in life to prove somehow, someway, that the Outfit is basically a thing of the past and the 5 New York Families are more powerful than God. Well, the author is not all wrong. However, He is not all correct either because he doesn't understand HOW the Outfit has changed. The Loan Sharking Racket is different because now things are put up as collateral instead of only a guys eyeballs. Bookmaking still is widespread and largely controlled by the Outfit. However, what's changed is that when a bettor can't pay he is cut off which really hurts the compulsive gambler. in addition, many times the money is now put up front instead of only by credit. Also, the offshore bookmaking is partially controlled by the Outfit which is basically legit. Poker machines in themselves are not illegal and are around Chicago. The Outfit simply doesn't use violence to eliminate any competition. The local police simply close down the individual who has a non Outfit poker machine or the Outfit ignores the competition. What Mike Sarno did years ago (Bombing) was stupid and not sanctioned by DiFronzo. That's why he was basically on his own with his legal troubles. There's plenty of Union & City Activity going on in Chicago involving Bids concerning construction, Office Cleaning etc. which are legit and more like white collar organized Crime. Is old traditional Organized Crime almost dead in Chicago. No, it's just changed and also evolved into more of a white collar way of doing it.

The Outfit has also become predominantly intermarried. It is very difficult to get close to these guys if you are not related to them in some way. But just because they aren't being indicted every few months doesn't mean they have went away.

This refers to Lombardo's article: 'Drove the Outfit out of town' First of all it's 'Driven' not Drove. Secondly, Driving the Outfit out of town would have been like trying to freeze hell.

Chicago change with the times.

It always interest me when school professors (college)do research and come up more myth than fact. I lived a stones throw from Scotland Yard's boarded-up headquarters at 2075 Canal Port and knew some of the "Yard Men". Yes, I'M THAT OLD (BORN 1931). The Yard didn't have the man power to halt the operations of the Outfit. R. J. Daley disbanded THE UNIT IN 1956 because they bugged the hotel that had the Democratic headquarters. I guessed he feared "something"?

I live two doors away from the former Scotland Yard hq and have just found out about it and found your reply in my research. This is one of the most fascinating things I've discovered.

I have a lot of issues with Lombardo's take on the Outfit and other aspects of OC history. Elsewhere he called the Black Hand an example of mass hysteria, a social panic. If you read the papers from the early 1900s when this was going on, the Black Handers were called terrorists. They kidnapped children and bombed houses. They were callous cold-hearted murderers who didn't care who they went after. For the victims of the Black Hand it was not just some social panic.