It's a tour that you can't refuse
Outing spotlights suburbs' mob homes

By Angela Rozas
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 21, 2005


Move over Ernest Hemingway, Frank Lloyd Wright and Bob Newhart. The Historical Society of Oak Park and River Forest is adding a few new names to its roster of celebrated residents.

Like "Joe Batters," "Momo" and "Machine Gun Jack."

For the first time in its 37-year history, the society is sponsoring a trolley tour of the homes and history of the Made Men of organized crime who once resided in the two towns.

The sold-out tour Sunday will be led by River Forest author John Binder, who penned the book, "The Chicago Outfit."

While tour operators have taken visitors for years through Chicago mob sites, no tour has focused solely on Oak Park and neighboring River Forest's role in organized crime, maybe because it was considered tacky or unflattering. Heritage and history have always been a bit highbrow in Oak Park, once home to Hemingway, Wright and Newhart.

"When we talk about Oak Park history now, we're not trying to just give the Chamber of Commerce version," said Historical Society board member Peggy Tuck Sinko. "We want to tell the truth. There are many good things, but there are other things that weren't so good."

The tour is called "Welcome to the Neighbor Hood!" and will benefit the historical society.

Binder, a finance professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, will take visitors to see the outside of 14 homes in the area where the infamous and lesser-known mobsters lived.

Visitors will go to the 1400 block of Ashland Avenue in River Forest to a white brick ranch that was home to Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo, head of the Chicago mob from 1943 to 1955.

The home was custom-built for Accardo, including a walk-in banklike vault where federal authorities once found hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, and an extensive basement where he could meet with other mobsters at a 32-person conference table, Binder said.

Visitors will cruise over to the 1100 block of South Wenonah Avenue in Oak Park to a modest brown brick home where the gregarious Sam "Momo" Giancana lived and was shot to death in the basement in 1975.

Unlike some of the more entertainment-focused tours in Chicago, where guides are known to dress up in dark mob-style suits and crack cement-shoes jokes, Binder said his tour will be more history than flash.

In other words, no fedoras.

"That's campy," Binder scoffed.

Binder developed the tour from his own notes and research, having studied mobster history as an "obsessive hobby" for the last 14 years. He was once president of the Merry Gangsters Literary Society, a loose organization of writers, former detectives and ordinary folk who gathered to talk about mob history.

"People are fascinated with the dark side," Binder said. "Ninety-nine point nine percent of us lead quiet, normal, law abiding lives. ... Who wants to watch a TV show or read a book about that? The dark side is totally different."

Other than the home where Giancana was murdered, the tour will have very little else related to mob crimes. That's because both towns were considered places where mobsters went to live, but not do business, said Historical Society research director Diane Hansen.

That approach has left a somewhat more positive impression on local residents, adding a sort of twisted dynamic to the town's pedigreed history.

"They didn't go on shooting rampages or anything like that," Hansen said. "They didn't bring the neighborhoods down. If anything, they kept them safer. Nobody wanted to come into a hired boss' territory. So a lot of people think it's actually good that they were there."

The tour sold out in two days. There's a waiting list for potential tours later in the summer or fall.

Interesting. Thanks Don Tekki.

SC, Geoff, wasn't the guy who wrote the book "The Chicago Outfit" at the Chicago convention last year?


Don Cardi

The name sounded familiar so I did some research... I came across a link to pics from the convention. Look at this one - the gal in front is Georgia Durante (she was all over the place at the convention) and the guy in the black shirt was a nephew of Al Capone. Look over his right shoulder ... is that Geoff??



Anyway, here's a link to that site:

2004 Gangster Convention in Itasca, IL

Anyway, that tour looks like its kind of fun. Thanks for posting about it, Don TEKKY.

OK.... I KNEW that name sounded familiar ....He WAS at the convention.

Thats John Binder - the second from the right:

Sorry to take this off-topic, DT, but I HAD to include these 2 pics from last year's Gangster convention;

These two are Don Cardi's and Geoff's best friends from the convention:

Offtopic too : why are there only grown up? this subject is interesting for people of my age and adults..so why isn't there many youth?

Actually the Bartender was TIS's favorite! He was the one who made the cute little blue drinks for her all weekend. Everytime Mikey or I would order drinks from him, he would ask " ...and do I have to make that frozen blue drink ?"

Rebenggggaaaa is Geoff and Mikey's boy. Ask Consigliere's lady about the part of the night when Geoff had Rebenggaaa doing scenes from Scarface with Mikey and at one point when they were doing the Rebenga hit scene Mikey pretended to stab him and this guy Rebenggaaa fell so hard to the floor that all his change fell out of his pockets, his watch flew off, and his hat went flying. Everyone was on the floor laughing hytsterically.

Thanks for bringing this back to the surface SC. Great memories!


Don Cardi

Accardo's house on Ashland was the one that got burglarized in the 1970's while JB was at his winter home in Palm Springs. That house, under subsequent owners, has actually been open to the public for an estate sale on two separate occasions. The legendary basement conference table was still there on both occasions but has since been removed. That was actually his second home in River Forest. His first was an ostentatious Tudor-style mansion on Franklin Avenue, further south in the village.

Not sure if the tour includes a "drive by" for the location of the Armory Tap, Giancana's headquarters, or the spot in the forest preserves along Thatcher Avenue where a county worker found the gun that killed Giancana, approximating the drive that Giancana's killer must have taken to either a) get home (which qualifies one or two people as the killer!); or b) visit Accardo and make a report. It would also be a worthwhile tour if they cross into Elmwood Park for a look at Jack Cerone's old home. Horwath's Restaurant in Elmwood Park, site of the Chuckie English hit (and location filming for a West Wing episode), was recently demolished. The Sears department store at North and Harlem, bordering all three suburbs, was the starting point for Roemer's famous midnight meeting with Accardo, immortalized in Roemer's book, Man Against the Mob.

There's plenty more, if you're ever in the neighborhood...

tony b.

Wasn't the Armory torn down?