Policy King Vs. The Outfit

This is a 7-page presentation by Nathan Thompson from 2009 about Policy Kingpin, Theodore "Teddy" Roe and his war against Outfit boss, Sam Giancana & The Caifano brothers. Which ultimately cost him his life, but only after he was diagnosed with an inoperable form of stomach cancer. Giancana later commented to some of his guys "Negroe or no Negroe. Teddy went out like a man. And it was a shame we had to kill him."














I find Roe and his story fascinating. From being half Italian for one. To raising up the money to pay the ransom of one Ed Jones, to essentially telling the Jones Bros to go fuck themselves and that the policy business they created is now his, as a form of compensation. To murdering Fat Lenny Caifano, after Caifano and his brother were actually sent to gun him down. Being denied bail 8 times for this crime, which in all actuality was an act of self defense. To finally winning his freedom after his lawyers, linked the prosecutors to the Outfit themselves. And managing to stay alive, until he effectively gave up after being diagnosed with cancer, and relieving his bodyguard detail, before being murdered a short while after. The guy seems like a true gangster. I have this book, Organized Crime In Chicago, Beyond The Outfit. And there's a picture of Roe in which he shares a strong resemblance to Vito Genovese. Of course there was no relation, I just thought it was interesting.

Sinatra,

thanks for the excerpt. BF brought up that author in the other thread and I have not been able to get my hands on the book.

No problem, gets. And yeah, I think I've seen BF mention him and the author before. Its funny because I think it was Toodoped who posted a picture of Roe in the rare photos thread and I made a statement about he could pass for Italian. That was before I ever knew he was born to a black mother and an Italian father. Seems even the police assigned to catch him liked the guy. One officer said he was a gentleman gangster and wasn't the flamboyant, loud and flashy type. A half Italian African American living on the Southside of Chicago , and refusing to concede his business to the Italians, the predominant force in organized crime at the time. The guy deserves a movie about his life.

And that's his house in the second photo, I think the other two buildings on the side are later additions. Picturing the house by itself, as it's described, as a mansion, it's freaking huge. He clearly made the best of his business.

Black and Italian? He's the Roy Campanella of gangsters.

Would make for an interesting film or mini series.

Numbers and policy racket would be great subject for an extensive documentary.

now there's a 1.3 billion dollar powerball game coming up

the fucking irony

@ Sinatraclub

Yes I actually posted the 1st of 7 here on the boards a couple years ago. I want to clarify a few things. 1. Before the Jone brothers syndicate , there was Mushmouth and another after him ( can't remember his name right now). 2. Ed Jones and his brothers retired from the business after Ed's kidnapping and Ed passed the business to Ted Roe on good terms. 3. Mickey " Chief Mick" Cogwell was the last major policy racketeer per say.
Policy in Chicago was at its peak in the 1930s, 18 Million racket, and the Big 12 formed a Policy King Fraternity which included those from NYC, Pittsburgh, Philly, Baltimore, D.C, and major Mid West cities. Get the book as it goes in depth and list the other Policy Kings of the Big 12 and their rackets' locations.

@Gets
Amazon.com brother! That's how I got my copy.

Yea, Mushmouth and the others are mentioned in the Organized Crime In Chicago: Beyond The Mafia book I mentioned earlier. The Italians had been trying to take over the black numbers racket since the Capone days. Some others simply worked with them instead of outright trying to take over. It mentions Giancana actually sought permission to perform an outright takeover and Accardo granted his request, but Roe proved to be a tough challenge.

Indeed. What's also interesting is the chicago black underworld transition into drugs racket in which the racketeers change from Policy Kings to Drug Kingpins.

I really like the old school black gangsters (pre nicky barnes). It seems as if the drugs of the 70's changed everything for the worse.

Anyway , the blacks shouldnt have trusted the italians. Didnt a black "friend" of sam giancana introduce him to the numbers racket when they were in prison together back in the 40's? Sam double crossed him and sent him packing to Mexico.

Also I read somewhere that the mob boss of Rhode island ( patriarch) use to work as a body guard for a black numbers king early on in his criminal career. The numbers king ended up getting killed and many speculated that patriarca had , in concert with other italians , double crossed him for his rackets.

Dont know if this is true or not

Sam Giancana met Ed Jones in prison. Jones basically took him for under his shoulder, explaining the policy rackets and how much he'd made off them.

Great read! There is a pretty extensive chapter about this in "Doublecross" which was written by Sam Giancanas brother and grandson.

Agree on the picture in "Organized Crime In Chicago, Beyond The Outfit." Kinda looks like Genovese, didnt look like a black man.

Sinatra,

His house looks like a dormitory.


BF,

I'm gonna have to buy on amazon, eventually.

@Sinatra and Black Fam@ Getts
Yo, thanks for posting this, the name of the book, and where to get it, this is a great story, maybe what American Gangster shoulda been based on.......

What's crazier is they were crying broke a few months ago, lol

Jackie Cerone shot BIG JIM Martin in 1950 with two shotgun blast but he lived and run to Mexico . On Jackie Cerone FBI files you can read what he says about it and other Hits he did

As additional info, even though the policy game was always considered as a black mans racket, legend goes that Patsy King, an Irishman, was the one that devised the game and became very rich. King met a black man on one of the riverboats, named Sam Young that worked as a porter. Allegedly King has taught Sam on how the game worked and they started operating together. Policy Sam, as he was known, came to Chicago’s South Side in 1885 and explained the rules to the black people and used the same tactics as Patsy King, by taking bets and pulling numbers out of his hat. With the financial backing of Patsy King, Sam Young took the policy game on a higher level.Theres also a story that some Chinese guy who was a partner of King and Young, was in fact the one who brought the game.

Anyway during the 1910’s a lot of African-American people moved from the South Side to the Near North Side’s “Little Hell” Sicilian community. So Sam Young met a lot of influential Italians and made alliances that helped in spreading his policy racket big time. One of his best Italian connections was a tavern owner Julius Benvenuti, who was a Sicilian millionaire and well known among the black community. Benvenuti placed Young as the headman for his policy wheel and supervised the game at many carnivals or picnics that were organized by Benvenuti himself. Young and Benvenuti even payed for police protection and conducted the campaigns for many government officals and they were definitely big deals.

Back in those days there was less violence among Chicago's criminals. Obviously there were bombings and beatings but rarely a murder.So my point is that in those days there was a more of a "good business climate" between the operators,like in these two previous examples, rather than murderous rivalry.

If the only time which the Outfit could killer a black gang boss and with Roe only because he wanted to die like a man that in hospital bed.

" Back in those days there was less violence among Chicago's criminals. Obviously there were bombings and beatings but rarely a murder.So my point is that in those days there was a more of a "good business climate" between the operators,like in these two previous examples, rather than murderous rivalry."

Chicago always had a particular high murder count even then depending on accurate reporting. Before the rise of Prohibition there was in the mid to high 100s. After Prohibition it basically doubles.

@Furio

Im not talking about the independent low level criminals or black hand gangs that killed whole families that refused to pay. I was talking about a particular crime group that existed during the 1890's untill late 1920's. These guys invented organized crime in Chicago. Guys like Mont Tennes, Jim O'Leary, King Mike, Mushmouth Johnson, Sam Young, John Gazzola, Mike Heitler,John Condon, Tom McGinnis,Charles Smith, Harry Perry and Bud White and Kenna and Coughlin. They rarely used murder as a tool but managed to control a multi-million dollar operations in those days. When two of these guys decided to go to war against each other, they bombed and burned their homes, work offices and vice joints for 5 years but in the end no one was killed. During their criminal careers they obviously murdered few people here and there but nothing close to as the Capone mob or any previous Italian gang. The most "violent" guy which was Tennes, he ran gambling in Chicago wide open and also had a wire service which covered cities all over the country. In the old days the Irish, German or British crime lords were always less brutal than the Italian or Jewish.

@Furio

There was plenty of mob murders as well. At one point Jackie Cerone said they was Killing one guy a day to keep every thing in check

TooDoped,

Ah, I get your point now. I would exchange that latter statement, Dutch, Polish, Slovak (spelled right ?), and English as lesser violent but Irish is up their with Italians and Jews. Came across an old article about the gangland violence & policy racket in which a black resident stated that "he didn't care about the killings between the Irish & Italians criminals ( I think) as long they don't come over towards Southside with the violence, they can kill each other all day."

Funny, Little Hell became MY neighborhood, Cabrini Green, lol, long history of crime....

That area has got a pretty interesting history. Intitially "Swedetown" and Kilgubbin with a lot of Swedes and Irish living there some 100-130 years ago. Then "Little Sicily" and then CabriniGreen. I went through by car when I stayed 6 months in Chicago 2006, it wasnt a pretty sight