Hey guys,

Let me start off by saying I'm not really all that interested in Al Capone. I'm from Illinois, so he's really the only gangster people talk about here. I just grew bored with him before I really knew anything about him.

That being said, I was reading a little about him last night. I knew the basics; Prohibition, St. Valentine's Day Massacre, "Scarface", etc. But I never knew his reign only lasted seven years. I couldn't believe that. I mean, I'm sure there a few bosses whose time lasted shorter than that, but for as big of a legend he is....I was like wow.

It's because he made himself public as shit. John Gotti's reign didn't last any longer(at least on the streets) and he's known as well. It's all about how "media friendly" they are.

You could say the same about Nicky Scarfo and Joey Merlino; the more publicly-accessible mafiosi are the more media (and law enforcement) attention they receive.

If he had paid his taxes then maybe he would have been around longer, but then again he still would have caught syphilis and died at an early age, only 48

Yep the women and taxes were his downfall, which it shouldn't have been that way. Kind of ironic given how dangerous he was.

yes, I think youre right not being in the shadows has caused many mobster downfall.

True, I could have. But my personal opinion is that neither of them held the juice that Al Capone and John Gotti had. I could be wrong, but still, it's my personal opinion. Which is why I didn't put them up.

It was only 7 years, but during that 7 years he reigned over Chicago, even threw the Mayor down the steps of City Hall.

Add to that the natural fascination with rich and powerful men, plus Capone wasn't ugly and even did some charity work...a legend is born. People are easy to impress.

Capone was a man of his word

Castellano got hit on December 16th, 1985. Gotti was arrested at the Ravenite for the last time on December 11th, 1990. His reign was almost five years to the day. But don't forget, he was also held without bail during his first RICO trial. The guy had maybe three years at the top all total.

three years isn't long at all , and look at the damage the dunce did. I firmly belive it takes brains to stay at the top, and gottis iq was about -8.

I agree that his notoriety is because he never tried to stay under the radar, same as Gotti. The opposite of that for me would be Accardo or Chin.

you mean Paul Ricca, not Tony Accardo

I'm not sure who Paul Ricca is, I'll have to look him up. I just meant that Accardo always seemed low key to me. I always felt that one reason he stayed on top so long and never went to prison.

Ok, just did some reading on Paul Ricca. I had never known that he was the real power after Capone. Thanks for the info!

What I meant was that Accardo was never the undisputed #1 throughout his entire duration at the top tier, a la Gigante, Ricca, Gambino, etc.

^^^^

wasn't louis campagna in charge before he died?

accardo was chairman for 20 years.....no fault in that

I had always thought that Accardo was the ultimate in secrecy besides Chin, but I guess if I've heard of them, that's contradictory. :-) Carry on....

He was actually the opposite of low key for a while. He bought that humongous mansion in River Forest. I think Ricca told him to tone it down a bit because the feds were all over his ass for tax stuff and the house didn't help things.

Thanks Snakes! Great info, and I've got a lot of reading to do.

You'll probably run across Bill Roemer, some good info about his personal experiences take any he wrote about the outfit with a grain of salt.

Roemer greatly inflated Accardo's importance in the Outfit but his bio on him is a decent enough read.

roemer had a man crush on accardo. But the guy served his family for 8 decades 20-90 and had 7 burglars slaughtered for attempting to rob his house. And the man was 73 years old when that happened. So although roemer can be taken with a grain of salt, ACCARDO was the real deal.\

What do you mean accord was greatly inflated??? To what degree? In what year did accord stop having the last say for the outfit?

Accardo started having the "last opinion" after the death of Paul Ricca.

I don't think it's really fair to say that Roemer had a crush on Accardo. There was a small group of Outfit mobsters who were disrespectful to FBI agents, like Giancana, DeStefano and Spilotro. There was another group that showed them respect, and that group included Ricca, Accardo, English, Nicoletti, etc. Naturally they are going to form a more favorable opinion of the mobsters who were friendly and respectful in how they spoke with them. This wasn't just Roemer's opinion, but the other agents who worked in Chicago like Ralph Hill and Vincent Inserra. They considered Ricca, Accardo, etc more reasonable, easier to deal with. It didn't mean the FBI wouldn't go after the friendlier group, but it did mean they'd really go after the group that acted like street thugs.

The other thing about Accardo was that he was the only person who could rein in Giancana or anyone else. No one else had the power and authority to do that but Ricca, but Ricca tended to be either less available or he was in prison or avoiding deportation for part of the period Roemer was out there.

faithful one, I don't think giancana was reined in at all, he strutted around like he was a movie star, sued the fbi, got his picture all over the news papers, brought ungodly heat to the outfit, with all his power he acted like a fool.

Ricca couldn't control his guy so they sent momo off to Mexico

Accardo was part of the ruling panel for about 40 years

Having the power to rein someone in is different than exercising that power. For the most part Accardo didn't interfere with Giancana running the Outfit. After all, Giancana was the boss and Accardo considered himself retired while acting as a consultant. Ricca didn't interfere either, but it doesn't mean that he couldn't overrule Giancana should he decide to do so. In other words, Ricca and Accardo didn't micromanage.

They also knew that being the boss was going to be a source of heat and they were trying to avoid prison, and in Ricca's case, deportation. Accardo and Ricca both succeeded, but Giancana was sent to prison then when he came out wanted nothing to do with running the Outfit. Being boss means having a target on your back. Look what happened to Giancana's successors: Battaglia, Alderisio, Cerone and Aiuppa all went to prison. Ricca and Accardo died free men.