Organized crime in America existed since the 19th century and it was compiled by many different nationalities like the Irish, Polacks, or Greeks. But in the early 20th century the two most powerful ethnic groups in the underworld were the Italian Mafiosi and the Jewish gangsters. With the amalgamation of these two groups, one of the most powerful criminal underground was created. It has been always said that the Italians mafia was the iron fist, and the Jewish mob was the velvet glove, but in some cases these two groups were ruthless and violent at the same level. Unlike in other cities, the Jewish mobsters in Chicago never achieved true independence from the Italians that took turns calling the shots for the local syndicate. But in the end, one Jewish criminal called his own shots and brought the Italian crime syndicate to its knees.

During the early 1920’s in Chicago the prime architects of the so-called Jewish or Kosher Nostra, as some journalists referred to it, were infamous criminals like Hershel and Maxie Miller, Samuel “Nails” Morton and Maxie Eisen who ruled the West Side. During that period Chicago’s West Side was the center for the Jewish community and of course of its own criminals. These guys pulled the strings that brought many powerful politicians and gangsters around the country under the umbrella of the emerging national crime syndicate. For example, the Miller brothers worked as extortionists and election enforcers for the 20th Ward alderman Emanuel “Manny” Abrahams and controlled the vice activity among the Orthodox Jews. In 1920 Hershel Miller and Nails Morton were charged with the murders of two police officers but later both were acquitted, claiming self defence. Morton was a known hijacker and protector of the Jewish community and also had connections throughout Chicago’s criminal underworld. He often fell into gang warfare with other ethnic groups such as Irish, Italians, Germans, Poles, and Greeks. Soon he became a leader of the Jewish crime scene and offered protection against non-Jewish gangs.


Samuel Morton

Later the men in the Jewish mob had to pick sides because they were surrounded by the more powerful Irish and Italian gangs. Samuel chose the Irish Dion O'Banion gang. Maxie Eisen, close associate of the Miller brothers and Morton, was a bootlegger and also confidant of the Irish Dean O’Banion gang. Once he served as the facilitator for a legendary sit down between the Capone and O’Banion gangs. This criminal group of Jewish gangsters was known as the 20th Ward Group or later as the Lawndale area Jews.


Part of the Lawndale area

By 1930 most of the West Side Jewish community had moved to the Lawndale area and the 24th Ward. The area became the birth place for many legendary gangsters and was also the home base of the Jewish criminal faction and their criminal activities. When Prohibition ended, the illegal gambling operations were very important for Chicago’s organized crime syndicate and the Jewish gambling bosses and politicians like Jake Arvey and Moe Rosenberg, a former junk dealer, were making sure that the illegal profits kept rolling in. Jake Arvey was Rosenberg’s attorney and was considered his protégé. Now because gambling became the new “deal”, the newly formed Chicago Outfit needed a new army of ruthless thugs with the ability to count numbers.

The Outfit’s most famous Jewish gangster Jake Guzik also grew up right along Roosevelt Road and just a little bit west of Maxwell Street and later moved to the Loop. His father, Max Guzik was one of the first Jewish criminals to make an alliance with the Italian mob. He and his partner Big Jim Colosimo were heavily involved in the prostitution business. During the early 1920’s, with the changing of the guard, Jake Guzik became Johnny Torrio’s and Al Capone’s closest ally. With Guzik around, everybody made money and nobody went to jail. In those days, it cost Guzik a hundred dollars just to walk through the Loop. He made no bones about it. He paid off all of the cops that stood in his way while walking around the Loop, Michigan Avenue and Main Street. He had parties once a month by having all of the best prostitutes there, booze and of course his favourite judges, lawyers and policemen would be at these things. Everything was for sale. The Capone gang were even selling murders for 10 grand. Cicero, Capone’s headquarters, lay just west of Lawndale, and a lot of new Jewish “students” worked occasionally for the gang. Guzik became the recruiter who brought a lot of new young Jewish gangsters into the newly formed Chicago Outfit and developed a lot of new schemes. Also the young hoods started noticing these “underworld stars” that walked the streets of Chicago like gods and with their non-profit legitimate jobs, the young bloods felt disappointed and cheated by society and decided to dedicate their lives to crime and fast money. In other words they became a product of the West Side Jewish neighbourhood.


Jake Guzik

One of the most prominent young criminals was Leonard “Blinkey” Patrick. In his prime years he became a real Chicago gangster and member of the most infamous organized crime group called the Outfit. Like most syndicate hoods, Lenny Patrick was all about money and nothing else. Patrick belonged to the so-called "Jewish arm" of the Outfit and started his criminal career as a robber and later became a ruthless killer and shrewd money maker. He was born on October 6, 1913 on Chicago’s West Side and was the son of poor Jewish immigrants from England. He had two older brothers, Jack and Mike. Their parents wanted a normal life for their kids so Patrick attended school at the Shepard Grammar Elementary, which was located at Fillmore and Francisco Streets in Chicago. But like any other poor family, Lenny left school after finishing seventh grade and went to work as delivery boy. By the age of 16 he quit his job, joined a small street gang and became involved in many hold-ups, robberies and also ran dice games with cabdrivers on the West Side sidewalks and started making small profits. A year later Patrick, and his two brothers, became members of the Danny McGeoghegan gang. Danny aka John Walsh came from Tampa, Florida and was rated by Chief of Detectives William Shoemaker of Chicago as the "No.4 toughest and most dangerous" man in Chicago’s gangland. Once he was indicted for $11,000 robbery of the Pulaski Building and Loan Association in which the treasurer, Michael Swiontkowski, had been shot to death.

In such company Lenny needed to show his gangster qualities. In 1932, at the age of 19, Lenny got into a quarrel during a dice game with an older boy named Herman Glick. Glick felt cheated by Lenny and kicked the shit out of him. A week later, Lenny bought a gun, found his target and shot Glick few times in the head. Glick was still alive but later died in hospital. While in his deathbed Glick identified Lenny as the gunman. Lenny was arrested and spent a month in the Cook County Jail but later was released because the prosecutors couldn’t use a dead man’s statement. This was Lenny’s first murder so he started gaining ruthless reputation among his fellow criminals in the neighbourhood. The same year Lenny and his brother Jack Patrick were participants in the robbery of the University State Bank of Chicago, in which cashier Carlson J. White was murdered. It is not known which one of the bandits took the shot.

In 1933 Lenny’s gang planned to do a robbery of the State Exchange Bank of Culver, Indiana. On May 29, six gang members got in a car and rolled into Culver. At the wheel was Joe Switalski aka Jack Shea, a former Chicago policeman and former chauffeur of Joe Saltis, the infamous Chicago beer baron. Other members in the car were the gangs leader Danny McGeoghegan, Emmett Kearns aka Edward Murphy, Walter Grabowski, Lenny Patrick and his brother Jack. Once the car got near the bank, they were noticed by a barber, who poked his head out for air and saw the bandits car, bristling with guns and yelled out "bandits" that was heard for blocks. The president of the bank was standing beside one of the windows and saw the robbers adjusting their masks and he instantly set off the burglar alarm. Five of the gangsters rushed into the bank, leaving their driver in the getaway car. Once in the bank they pistol whipped few pedestrians and bank clerks and forced the rest of the customers to lie down on the floor. One of the bandits ordered Carl Adams, the assistant cashier, to open the vault door, which he did. The bandits had scooped some $12,000 from the tills and vault. The robbery lasted for two or three minutes, but in that short interval, gun fire started out side. Switalski, with his automatic gun, exchanged fire with some vigilante group, formed by local men. A moment later, a bullet cut into the forehead of Switalski and another one into his shoulder. McGeoghegan rushed out and saw that his buddy was wounded and rushed back into the bank to assemble his associates. They all acted cool and at gun point they took few hostages and used them as shield from the vigilante’s fire. They threw the stolen cash into the car and shifted Switalski, who was bleeding profusely, from under the wheel to the back seat, and a new driver took the wheel. The hostages were ordered to stand on the running boards and the car thundered away to the west in a cloud of dust and gunfire. Outside the city limits, the bandits ordered their hostages to jump.

A local medical doctor, who had witnessed the bloody conflict, jumped into his car and rapidly went after the bandits. But he made a mistake because he came to close and one of the bandits noticed him, jumped to his feet and fired at the doctor’s car at close range, stopping him. They ordered him out and cursed him soundly for trying to follow them. An argument ensued between the bandits over leaving the wounded Switalski. McGeoghegan ordered them to leave him with the doctor. The robbers continued to a combined woods and swamp near the little town of Ober. While driving through the woods they crashed with their car and got stuck between two trees and could not go further. A small party of armed local vigilantes and government people followed the car tracks along the dirt road. They found and arrested the wounded Switalski who was left by the road and proceeded to chase the remaining five gangsters in the woods. They cautiously followed the tracks of the bandits car into the woods and in just few hours they found and arrested all of the gang members, including the Patrick brothers and McGeoghegan.

On June 28, 1933 all of the gang members stood for trial and received prison sentences. Most of the gangsters, including Lenny Patrick received a 10 year prison terms, except for McGeoghegan, who received 25 years. Lenny first went to the Indiana State Reformatory and on February 22, 1934 he was transferred to the Indiana State Penitentiary. During his stay in prison, Lenny met many high profile mob associates. They taught him that bank robbery is not the right thing to do because there was too much heat brought by the many ruthless and unorganized bank robbers, plus the take was always too small. So Lenny learned and “graduated” on other more profitable rackets like gambling and loan sharking. Gambling was the lifeblood of organized crime because it was socially acceptable, reaped huge profits and led to other revenue streams like loan sharking. After serving 7 years, Lenny was paroled on March 11, 1940 and was released from prison.


Leonard Patrick

Out of prison, Lenny Patrick first did minor chores like being a bagman, street tax collector and enforcer for Jewish mobsters and eventually drifted into the orbit of the "Jewish faction" of Chicago’s organized crime along Roosevelt Road. He became a legend for his easy use of violence and strong defence of his territory and also learned how to operate the gambling racket. Later Patrick took a job working for Jewish racketeer and gambling boss Ben Zuckerman. He was also known as "Zookie the Bookie," a gambling big shot who was a power in the 24th Ward under the protection of Alderman Jake Arvey. Arvey became a notorious political fixer who turned out record numbers of Democratic voters in every city election he was personally involved with. He served as alderman of the West Side ward from 1934 until 1940. Zuckerman had an army of criminals to do his dirty work and operations. Two of his top guys were Willie Tarsch aka William Galatch and Ben Glazer. Both worked as gambling operators for Zuckerman but story goes that Glazer was the real brains behind their operations. Tarsch was a part owner of Glazer’s R & K restaurant at 3216 Roosevelt Road, a widely known gambling house.

Also two of Zuckermans best protectors were politicians Patrick Nash and his partner Ed Kelly, who made sure that Zuckermans gambling profits kept rolling in. Zuckerman was a precinct captain and from that position he inherited the gambling concession in the 24th Ward and was making millions of dollars. He owned the biggest gambling establishments on the West Side and was practically immune from arrest and considered himself above the law. As a former bootlegger, Zuckerman also secretly owned a beer distributing company named The Central-West Beer Distributors Inc at 2408 South Pulaski Road. He had Dave Weinberger as a frontman and major stock holder in the company. Zuckerman had a no show job at the company allegedly working as a salesman and helper in the shipping room. From time to time, Weinberger transferred shares of stock to Zuckerman’s wife as a “gesture of good will”. Many of Zuckerman’s gambling parlors served as hangouts and headquarters for many hoodlums. Some of them were even members of the Chicago Outfit. One of Zuckerman’s most infamous gambling associate was Lawrence “Dago” Mangano, public enemy no.4 with high position within the Outfit. He was a very ambitious Mafioso with high connections throughout Chicago who had a famous saying “Us public enemies got to stick together.”

By now Lenny Patrick was involved in the biggest dice games in Chicago and in the process met many other rising Jewish gamblers, bookies and loan sharks. In 1943 Patrick was also doing jobs for Dago Mangano and with his help he also met many high profile Italian Outfit figures like Paul “The Waiter” Ricca and Tony Accardo. They were mostly impressed by his blood thirsty skills and of course for making the big buck. Patrick also became associated with bookies and enforcers like William Block, Harry “The Greener” Krotish, Jack Rubenstein aka Jack Ruby and he’s future partner in crime and best friend David “Yiddles” Yaras.

Dave Yaras was born on November 7th, 1912 in Chicago’s Lawndale area and was one of Jake Guzik’s best “students”. During the late 1920’s Yaras started working as a chauffer and bodyguard for Guzik. By that period the Capone/Guzik syndicate was muscling in the coin machine business, so Yaras began as a pinball and slot machine concessionaire. After the imprisonment of Al Capone, Yaras started working for Chicago’s West Side Italian boss Paul “The Waiter” Ricca. During the early 1930’s Ricca made a deal with the New York mob about financing and smuggling narcotics around the U.S. so Yaras worked as their smuggler in south Florida and transported narcotics up to New York. He also worked as a messenger for the Outfit’s top bosses.


David Yaras

During the early 1940’s gambling became the number one source of illegal income for the underworld in America. Most of the action in Chicago could be found in the South West side where Zuckerman and Mangano were two of the top gambling bosses. Their gambling interests were protected by the Kelly-Nash political machine and another Outfit political associate, Joseph Adduci. Even since the late 19th century there was a big competition in Chicago’s underworld over the gambling business, so this period was no exception. When 1943 arrived, it was the start of the gambling battles, which turned every bit as vicious as the bootleg wars of the 1920s. Also with new operations like union racketeering and narcotics springing into existence, the number of killings increased as syndicate figures battled for dominance. The Chicago Outfit was taking over almost every form of gambling business. Guys like Sam Giancana were taking over the policy racket from the black population and Mangano with his partner in crime Tony Accardo were taking over the bookmaking and wire service businesses on national level. By this time the Outfit picked up almost every gambling activity on all fields: casinos and nightclubs, horse race betting, betting on baseball, football, and basketball games.

Also the same year the top echelon of the Outfit was indicted in the infamous Hollywood extortion case. Top level guys like Paul Ricca and Frank Nitti were heading to prison so the clouds of war were over the horizon and the backstabbing and double cross games were on the rise. On March 19, 1943 Outfit boss Frank Nitti decided to shoot himself in the head with a loaded .32 caliber revolver. Nitti had no choice because Ricca and the boys told him to take the fall in the extortion case for everybody or else. On December 30th, 1943 a Federal Grand Jury returned a guilty verdict against Ricca, Louis Campagna and others and sentenced them to 10 years in prison. The top layer of the Chicago leadership was removed. Also the same year, one half of the political Kelly-Nash combine died, Nash on October 6, and Kelly had to assume the chairmanship of the central committee. So Patrick’s boss Ben Zuckerman lost half of his protection and became vulnerable. Now the two top guys that remained on the streets were Tony Accardo and Lawrence Mangano.

As I said before, Lawrence Mangano was a very ambitious mafia hood with very greedy intentions and now he saw the chance to move in on Zuckerman’s vast gambling empire. Mangano reached out to Lenny Patrick, Dave Yaras and William Block to do the job on Zuckerman, promising them a portion of Zuckerman’s gambling operations. Besides taking over the gambling operations, Mangano also delivered an ultimatum to Zuckerman to confine his beer peddling operations to the district east of Sacramento Avenue. On January 14, 1944 Patrick, Block and Yaras visited Zuckerman in his office at the beer company at 4:30 pm. An hour later they left his office and went into their car and waited until Zuckerman got out. At 6:00 pm Zuckerman left his office and went home at 4042 Wilcox Street. He arrived in front of his house at 6:30 pm and was about to enter his home when a gunman jumped out from a car parked nearby, ran towards him and fired one shot. Zuckerman fell to the ground and the hitman fired two more shots into his head. The killer ran back to his car, which contained two other men and sped away. That was the end of 49 year old Benjamin “Zookie The Bookie” Zuckerman. Two hours later his closest partner Ben Glazer heard what had happened, instantly fell to the ground and died from a heart attack. Mangano was questioned about the murder but the cops got nothing. Also a suspect was one of Zuckerman’s associates William Galatch. Story goes that Mangano and Galatch made a deal to remove Zuckerman from the game and to divide his operations among them.

Now Mangano was the Outfit’s top man on Chicago’s West Side and became also known as “the king of the west side”. He controlled dice and card games, bookie joints, brothels, the vending machines business, the theft and kidnapping business and also the votes in that part of the city. Plus the top men above him were in jail, so he saw himself as the destined leader of the Chicago Outfit. But the problem was that other mobsters moved up the ladder also. As I said before, eventually two Outfit members were in contention for the top position…Accardo and Mangano. Both were big earners and also great leaders. When Capone went to jail, the Outfit always had something like a ruling panel at the top of the organization formed by few area bosses and one top advisor or chairman. With Accardo and Mangano at the top, the Outfit resembled like a two headed snake praying on society. Things were cool until the greedy Mangano decided to make a very stupid move. On July 9, 1944 a truck that transported cigarettes valued at $15,000 was hijacked by unknown criminals. It was Tony Accardo’s truck and the hijack occurred on Mangano’s territory. Later three men were arrested in connection with the theft and all three reported that the theft was engineered by Mangano. Accardo was big in the cigarette business, legitimate or illegitimate, so he didn’t tolerate this and asked for approval from the higher boss Paul Ricca, who resided in jail, to do a hit on Mangano. Theres also another story that Mangano on many occasions tried to move in on Accardo's gambling operations and he also refused to cut the Outfit into his gambling business at a time when the mob was bringing all gambling operation in the state under their control. Little did he know that few of his associates Lenny Patrick and Dave Yaras were the informers for Ricca and Accardo.

So one night on August 3, 1944, Mangano together with his friend and bodyguard Michael “Big Mike” Pontillo and a young girl named Rita Reyes, visited a bar in Cicero named the Paddock Lounge for relaxation. After more than a few drinks, at 4:00 am they left the club, climbed into Mangano's shiny maroon 1941 Mercury and headed home. Mangano was at the wheel driving along Blue Island Avenue on the West Side when suddenly he spotted a black sedan following them. Mangano thought they were cops so he stopped the car and got out to talk to them. As the black sedan rolled towards him and slowed down, a gunman pulled a shotgun and blasted at Mangano hitting him in the chest. Mangano fell in the street as the sedan raced away, screeched around a corner and was gone. Pontillo and Reyes got out of the car and managed to drag Mangano to the sidewalk. Mangano was still alive but the killers took no chances. They circled the block and careened again. Pontillo saw them and pushed Reyes down to safety. Few more shotgun blasts roared and Pontillo fell beside Mangano, mortally wounded. With over 200 shotgun pellets in his body, Mangano managed to remain alive for at least an hour. When the cops asked who shot him he said “If I knew I’d tell you”. Mangano was rushed to the hospital where he begged the doctors to put him to sleep. He died at 5:48 a.m. and Pontillo followed him in death five hours later. Questioned about the Mangano murder were Dominic Nuccio, Dominick DiBella and Dominic Brancato. The trio was known as a hit squad for the Outfit at the time. There were only family relatives at Mangano’s funeral who embraced each other tearfully. None of his mob associates and alleged friends showed up which shows it was a sign of disrespect. With Mangano out of the way and Paul Ricca still in jail, Tony Accardo became the acting boss of the Chicago Outfit.


Tony Accardo

By informing on Mangano’s activities, Lenny Patrick showed his loyalty towards the Outfit and was rewarded with few of Manganos bookmaking operations and territories. With the help of Jack Arvey’s protégé as Democratic boss and Harry Truman pal Arthur X. Elrod, Mangano’s associate Willie Tarsch was forced to work with Patrick and Yaras. Together with Elrod, they took care for the Outfit’s share of Tarsch’s vast bookmaking business. Patrick also asked the Outfit’s higher ups to use their political influence and to help his old friend and prison mate Edward Murphy, who was still in jail for the bank robbery they did together back in 1933. Murphy’s parole was granted on November 11, 1944 by an order issued by the governor of Indiana and on January 8, 1945 he was discharged from parole by executive decree. Later Murphy became a silent partner of Patrick and Yaras in the bookmaking business in the 22nd, 23rd and 24th Ward. Murphy kept a hotel room near the center of his operational territory and worked in anonymity. With the help of the Outfit’s political protection, they controlled the gambling business in that vicinity and consequently won the confidence of the gambling syndicate for that territory. During this period they managed to build their gambling empire in the Lawndale and Fillmore St. districts.

By the end of 1944, big time bookmaker Willie Tarsch decided not share his profits any more and so he fired Lenny Patrick, his brother Jack and Dave Yaras from his gambling houses. Tony Accardo wasn’t satisfied with Tarsch’s decision so he told Elrod to arrange a sit down between the bosses. At the meeting Elrod told the boys to “take care of it your own way”. On April 7, 1945 Tarsch had been called from a restaurant at 3714 Roosevelt Road by Patrick’s partner Dave Yaras. He told Tarsch to meet him near a building at 3710 Roosevelt rd. right away. In few minutes Tarsch appeared at the spot and saw Yaras standing at the corner. In a matter of seconds Yaras pulled off a shotgun and blasted at Tarsch three times. Tarsch was struck in the head and died immediately. After Tarsch’s death a wave of shootings and bombings followed, creating havoc and disrupting gambling operations in the neighborhood for weeks to come. When the smoke cleared, in 1946 Lenny Patrick took control of the bookmaking business and gambling operations on the predominantly Jewish West Side. He became known for taking bets on baseball, football, horse racing and also ran poker and blackjack games and even bingo. Also the same year West Side big shot Sam “Momo” Giancana was released from jail with his idea to take over the vending machine business and the black policy games. The Outfit was very interested in Giancana's new idea so they spread the word among their members. Giancana brought in the English brothers, Willie Daddano, Dave Yaras and Lenny Patrick and they started buying pin ball machines, juke boxes and all kinds of vending machines and within few months, the operation employed 100’s of people. The coin machine business became one of the biggest operations for the Outfit and was overseen by Jewish mobsters Edward Vogel and Hyman Larner. Also in May of 1946, the boys showed the black policy kings, the Jones brothers, how things worked in the Outfit. Giancana sent Yaras and Patrick to kidnap one of the brothers, Eddie Jones and held him for ransom. They released him five days later at the corner of Loomis and 62nd Street, with adhesive tape over his eyes and cotton stuffed in his ears. His brother George Jones paid the $100,000 ransom and the brothers instantly left Chicago and retired to Mexico. The Outfit took over the policy racket on the South/West Side with Paul Ricca placing the Manno brothers in charge. Patrick and Yaras became widely known as the “torpedoes” for the Chicago Outfit, which can be also described in this next infamous example.

Back in the 1930’s, two men named James Regan and Moe Annenberg started a nationwide racing wire service in Chicago and St Louis. This wire service was very important for the bookmakers to do their business because each bookie had to have fast, up to the minute information on the horse races running across the country. Ragen, was a tough, two fisted, Chicago born Irishman, who had punched, stabbed, and shot his way to the top of the heap. So during the 1940’s the number one racing service out west was Ragen's Continental Press, which serviced thousands of bookies between Chicago and Los Angeles. The Chicago Outfit, know under Accardo, watched the money flood into Regan's office with envy. So the mob bosses decided to set up a rival service called the Trans-American Wire Service, so each mob boss across the country ran their local outlets, doing whatever they had to do to take Ragen out of business. Ragen was a very stubborn person and he didn’t back off. He knew how the mob dealt with their problems so he tried to make a deal through U.S. Attorney Tom Clark to provide information to the FBI on the bookmaking industry in return for protection, but the shady director of the FBI J. Edgar Hoover turned down the offer. Ragen also told columnist Drew Pearson about threats on his life made by Tony Accardo, Murray Humphries and the king of Chicago’s Jewish underground Jake “Greasy Thumb” Guzik. He said that they warned him either to turn over his racing wire service or get hit in the head.


James Ragen

Police Commissioner John Prendergast has assigned Thomas Conelly and William Drury to find the top guys like Accardo, Humphries and Guzik. Accardo and Humphries skipped town but they managed to find Jake Guzik and took him to Scotland Yard and started questioning him about the threats made on Ragen. The cops asked Guzik to take the lie detector and he replied “Captain, what’s the use of kidding ourselves?! If I took a lie test, 30 of the biggest men in Chicago would be diving out of high story windows and I’d have to hit myself in the head”. Minutes later he faked a heart attack and one of the cops handed him a glass of water and cracked a joke about putting some truth serum in it. Guzik recovered quickly and refused the glass of water. Few hours later an order came from the top for Guzik to be released. While leaving, Guzik said to one the cops that questioned him “Im going to get you fired”. Conelly and Drury went to the state attorney’s office to ask why they released Guzik. The state attorney told Conelly “You better watch your step captain. Because if I fire you, you’ll never get back.”

So now the Outfit saw their chance and decided to take care of the problem in their own way. The mob called on Lenny Patrick, Dave Yaras and William Block to take care of the Ragen problem. They prepared for the hit by providing a delivery truck fitted with quarter inch steel plates to make it bulletproof. On June 24, 1946 the trio got into the truck and followed Ragen from his home while driving along State Street. At the corner of 39th and State Street Ragen stopped and waited for the green light. He was in his car alone but was followed by two armed bodyguards in a separate automobile. Lenny Patrick was driving the truck and pulled to the right side of Ragen’s auto. As Ragen waited for the light to change, the tarpaulin on the left side of the delivery truck was pulled up and William Block and Dave Yaras pulled off their shotguns and aimed at Ragen’s vehicle. Two blasts were fired and one tore through Ragen’s upper right arm and shoulder. The two bodyguards jumped from their automobile to return fire but the truck sped away in a matter of seconds. Ragen was still alive and was rushed to the nearest hospital. Ragen was in critical condition and remained alive until August 14, when he died under mysterious conditions. It was later reported that Ragen’s autopsy showed traces of mercury in his blood and abdomen indicating that someone had entered his room and poisoned him. Two weeks later, two unknown figures with diamond rings and gold teeth, tried to snatch Ragen’s body from the cemetery vault. They told the lady who worked there that they are seeking the key from the vault and also offered her money. She refused and told them to come back later so her husband can give them the key from the vault. The two unknown persons disappeared and the lady became suspicious and notified the police. The apparent attempt to steal Ragen’s body was made to thwart the poison investigation because the chemists began tests to determine whether there was enough mercury in Ragen’s vital organs to cause death. Either way the Outfit won the war.

But Lenny Patrick, Dave Yaras and William Block were still in trouble. During the assassination attempt, four witnesses saw their faces and identified them to the police. So on March 12, 1947 Chicago police captains Thomas Conelly and William Drury first arrested Block because he was identified by two African-American witnesses, James White and Lucius Davidson, as the man who fired the shots. The witnesses also told the cops that they saw two other men in the truck which was parked at State st. and Pershing rd. From pictures they identified Block’s two companions as David Yaras and Lenny Patrick. Another witness, a church deacon, pointed out Block in a line of nine men in the police office. The deacon said that he was within five feet from the delivery truck when he saw Block handling a shotgun. The last witness, a newsboy who also was within few feet from the shooting, identified the three men, especially Block. The cops also received a tip from a merchant about another eye witness who didn’t come forward. The cops found him and he also identified the three suspects. In a short period the cops also arrested Patrick and Yaras and took them in custody.


Dave Yaras

The weird thing was that instead placing the witnesses in protective custody, the cops sent them home. The first thing that went wrong was when Jake Guzik’s lawyers approached one of the witnesses and persuaded him to accompany them into a hotel room. Story goes that at the same time in the room there was the other witness and one prostitute. The two witnesses whom Guzik’s lawyers visited changed their minds and recanted their stories. However the third witness, the newsboy, persisted in his identification. By now Patrick, Yaras and Block were out on bail and fled the city but suddenly appeared in court after they had learned that the case was collapsing. The case was stopped and there was no trial. It was never explained why the case was not tried even with one witness still available.

Now the wheels of mob justice began turning when one of the witnesses, reported that policemen Conelly and Drury threatened him to make original identification with exposure of violating probation and a $25,000 reward for conviction of Ragen’s slayers. Drury and Conelly were indicted and were called by the grand jury for conspiracy. They refused to appear before the grand jury so Commissioner John Prendergast suspended them. Later again an indictment was returned against Conelly, Drury and the three witnesses charging them with conspiracy and false indictment against Patrick, Yaras and Block. Conelly and Drury immediately pressed for trial but there was a delay. On June 14, 1947 one of the witnesses James White was shot three times in the head by another African-American and died in Bridewell Hospital. After the murder the other witnesses were approached by unknown men and were told to get on the gravy train and to forget that they ever saw these fellows. So that’s what they did and the case was quashed again by Chief Justice Harold G. Ward.


William Drury

As additional information Conelly and Drury also tried to blame Patrick and Yaras for the murder of Bugsy Siegel in Los Angeles. According to Conelly and Drury, they were suspects because of the modus operandi used in the shooting of Siegel. Few years later William Drury was shot to death allegedly by Outfit hit squad “The Three Doms”. Yaras was questioned by the FBI about the murder but they got nothing out of him.

35 year old Lenny Patrick had the real power behind his crime activities, which was the political and police protection that made him feel untouchable. By now Patrick had a legitimate job as a houseman at the Arcade Restaurant located at Kedzie and Roosevelt Roads. He owned a tavern at 3166 Ogden Avenue which as front for a big handbook operation which was operated at the back of the joint. The tavern was also a front for high roller poker games. Together with his brother Jack, Patrick also owned a barber shop which was also a front for bookmaking operations and a New Lawndale Restaurant. At the place they usually served corned beef, salami and chocolate phosphate and in the back room there was a full scale cardbook operation known as “Canadian poker game” and also the place served for street tax payments. He had 50% interest in a blackjack game at a gambling house located at 3613 West Roosevelt Road. So Patrick controlled the whole area from Kedzie to Cicero and from Madison South to 18th Street. None of the bookies or gamblers could open a handbook or place a bet unless they had the “ok” from Patrick. With his partners in crime, Dave Yaras and Willie Block, Patrick kept things under control. Patrick and Yaras also made connections and expanded their handbook operations in Milwaukee, through John Ditrapani, a Milwaukee liquor store owner and reputed rackets boss. Also during the late 1940’s Dave’s brother, Sam Yaras ran a coin machine business in Dallas together with Eddie Vogel and Hy Larner. Patrick’s guy in Dallas was an old friend from the old neighbourhood named Jack Ruby. He was a good handbook operator and Patrick had put him to work on a 60-40 split. In reality Sam Yaras and Jack Ruby represented the Outfit in Dallas.

With the support from bosses Jake Guzik and Tony Accardo, Patrick started taking over the gambling operations on the whole West Side by force. This meant that a lot of people started making problems and they had to go. The first one to go was Harry “The Greener” Krotish, young West Side bookmaker with big ambitions. Krotish was a former painter and decorator who owned the Streamliner Tavern at 1314 North Clark Street. He also worked as collector for Lenny Patrick. Working as ambitious bookmaker and collector in the 24th Ward, 29 year old Krotish started moving on some of the operations that Patrick controlled for the Outfit. He robbed few bookmaking joints and the word on the street was that Krotish wanted to take over. Also all of a sudden Krotish appeared very prosperous and started spending money more freely than he apparently made it as a small bookmaker and tavern owner. Lenny Patrick learned about Krotish’s ideas and moves so he decided to pay him a visit. On December 10, 1947 Patrick called Krotish and told him to meet him at 3140 Vernon Avenue at 04:00 a.m. Patrick together with Yaras waited him in a car and when Krotish went inside, Patrick pulled out a gun and shot Krotish five times, twice in the abdomen, once in the chest and twice behind the left ear. Patrick pushed him out of the car and sped away. Krotish’s body was found still warm at 04:30 a.m. by Andy Harris, an African-American on his return from work.


Harry Krotish and his wife

Two of Krotish’s friends and companions in the robberies George Stathatos and Leo “Little Sneeze” Friedman were next on Patrick’s list. Stathatos was a bookmaker and tavern owner, and also a ringleader of a counterfeiting group who distributed phony currency. On May 22, 1948 Stathatos was kidnapped by Patrick’s men and later tortured into admitting his crimes and also naming his friends. Later he was shot to death in his car in front of 609 North Street. The next day, Friedman, an ex convict, went to pick up some money from an Outfit member named Butch Blasi. When he got back near his home at 2950 Jackson Boulevard, he was chased and shot to death by three hitmen. Friedman was also a close friend of ex-numbers boss Edward Jones. Another friend of theirs, a young West Side bookie with high ambitions and with a “bright” idea for robbing Outfit handbook joints, Norton Polsky was also next on Patrick’s list. On June 10, 1948 Polsky was shot to death by two hitmen near his home 1865 at South Springfield Avenue early in the morning. On September 10, 1948 Patrick was picked up by the FBI and questioned regarding the murders. Patrick told them that he considered himself a close personal friend of these individuals but he also stated that it was his opinion that all of the men had been killed because they were engaged in robberies of handbook houses.

When Patrick’s former associates like Polsky and Friedman decided to rob Outfit joints, they moved their operations also into the area of Broadway, Diversey and Belmont. That territory was operated by Rocco Fischetti and Murray Humphries. Most of the robbers were murdered but some of the old guys thought that Patrick was behind some of the robberies because his partner Eddie Murphy took control of some their joints. So Jack Humphreys, with the backing from his brother Murray and the Fischetti brothers, wanted a small piece of the territory that Patrick, Yaras, Block and Murphy controlled. There was some bickering between these two factions and the gambling balance of power has been upset and so was the boss Tony Accardo. A sit down was arranged between Murray Humphries and Patrick. Humphries told Patrick that allegedly he didn’t care about his brothers operations so they should take care of the problem between themselves. Rumours are that Patrick advised Murphy to give up some of his operations, but Murphy refused. Humphries was a fox so Patrick knew that Murphy became a marked man and when you became a marked man in the mob, usually the guys close to you are the ones that are going to put a bullet in your head. So the top guys pressured Patrick to take care of the problem. On March 21, 1950 Murphy had been shot three times in the back of the head and his body was found by a farmer hanging over a wire fence on a deserted roadside near Hartsdale, Indiana. In Murphy’s pocket, the cops found a .38 revolver, which was fully loaded. Later there was another sit down, chaired by Accardo, between Patrick and Fischetti and the conflict was squashed.


Edward Murphy

Now with most of the trouble makers and rivals out of the way, Lenny Patrick had the chance to become the king of bookmaking on Chicago’s West Side. Once, a police captain Thomas Alcock issued a clamp down on Patrick’s territory, which resulted with the closing of few bookie joints. Few weeks later the captain was transferred to another district. So that’s shows the backup and powerful connections that Patrick and his pals had back in those days. Back in the old days the mobsters didn’t fear that much from the government, they mostly feared from each other. For example, in 1952 Patrick carried messages from the Outfit leaders to Charles Gross the Republican Committeeman from the 31st Ward. Patrick told Gross “They don’t want you to run for mayor. If you are smart, you won’t run, or you get killed.” On February 6, 1952 Gross was blown away by seven shotgun blasts outside his Kedzie Avenue home by Outfit hitman.

After the murder of Edward Murphy, Patrick and Yaras placed David Zatz as "syndicate front" for their handbook operations. Zatz operated a handbook operation from a cigar stand in the State of Illinois office building at 160 W. La Salle Street from 1946 until 1950. When the reporters found out that horse bets were placed at his spot, Zatz lost his state lease. After that Zatz showed up at Town Hall police district and operated many other handbook and gambling operations. He had many contacts with the gambling suckers so he was very good for business and brought a lot of cash. Zatz also had business deals with the gambling lords on the west, especially Los Angeles. His contact was Jimmy “The Weasel” Fratiano from the Los Angeles crime family and also had association with the infamous mobster Mickey Cohen. So Zatz was no joke and he brought a lot of money for Patrick, Yaras and the Outfit in general. Mickey Cohen was a Jewish stubborn mobster that made a lot of guys angry and became a target of many unsuccessful assassinations. In January 1952 rumours were that Zatz was the Chicago guy in Los Angeles to make a deal with Cohen and also to clear things up. From detective reports, Zatz also made few phone calls to Patrick and Yaras in Chicago to explain the situation. When he came back to Chicago, Zatz started having financial troubles and told his Outfit associates that he wants to spread his gambling operations. Now the clouds of suspicion were above him because the Outfit started thinking that Zatz was holding out from their share of his profits. There’s also a report that Zatz had attempted to move a gambling spot that he operated near Division and Clark St. to a new location which was already operated by another Outfit associate. Also the government was on to him and many of his previous operations were closed and they were also looking for him to be questioned about the murder of former Republican Committeeman Charles Gross. In April Zatz was visited by Jimmy Fratiano in Chicago to talk about their gambling profits but for unknown reasons their conversation ended up in quarrel. Also Patrick’s partner David Yaras did not like Zatz very much and wanted to get rid of him. On May 5th, 1952 Patrick called Zatz and arranged to meet him and Yaras, ostensibly to sell him some rare jewelry. Zatz arrived with his car at Orchard st. and Diversey pkwy to pick up Patrick and Yaras. Once they got into his car, Yaras pulled out a gun and shot Zatz once in the abdomen, once near the heart and once in the left elbow. They took him out and placed him in the trunk of the car. So that was the end of David Zatz.

Milton Glickman was also an associate of Patrick in the gambling business. Glickman worked as an inspector in the Ford Motor company plant at 74th street and Cicero Avenue and represented gambling interests at the plant by soliciting bets from the workers. He worked together with Harry Kovin, a big time gambling operator and manager of many establishments and also close friend of Patrick and Yaras. Kovin owned a handbook joint at 3241 W. 16th Street, a tavern at 3814 Madison Street, the Paradise Club at 201 N. Pulaski Road and was also a part owner of the Reliable Products Company at 4046 Roosevelt Road. Kovin was also an extortionist. In June 1952 he and another one of his associates Harry Levine kidnapped a New York salesman and held him as captive in a room at the Sherman hotel. They held and him at gun point and threatened him that if he doesn’t pay a $2,000 over a $500 debt, they are going to kill him. One day Kovin informed Patrick that Glickman was stealing money from them and needs to be punished. Rumours spread around that Glickman laughed behind their backs and spend money all around Chicago. Also one of Glickmans biggest problems was that he was a degenerate gambler. Once he sold a produce stand that he owned for $7,000 and gambled the money straight away. After that he stole and later sold his wife’s jewely. So on January 4, 1953 Kovin called Glickman and told him too meet him and Patrick in a restaurant at 18th Street and Kildare Avenue to talk business. Before leaving, Glickman told his wife that he’s going out for a meeting with Kovin and another guy, to talk about starting a produce stand at Diversey, Kimball and Milwaukee avenues. When Glickman arrived, Patrick and Kolvin took him in the back of the restaurant and then Kolvin pulled out a gun and shot him three times in the head. The next day the cops found Glickmans body stuffed in the trunk of his car in front of the restaurant. When the cops asked Glickmans wife about her husband, she told them that he went on a meeting to talk with Kovin and several other men. The search for Kovin began but he was nowhere to be found so the cops thought that he was dead. The cops first arrested Kovin’s associate Harry Levine and questioned him about Glickmans murder and Kovins whereabouts but they got nothing. A week later they managed to find Kovin and took him for questioning. At first Kovin denied that he knew Glickman but later admitted that they knew each other but didn’t have any information about the murder. The cops didn’t have any evidence to hold Kovin down so they let him go. In the end this was just another job well done for Lenny Patrick and the Outfit.


Harry Kovin

In 1954, Patrick had been employed as a salesman for the Club Specialty, Inc. He was selling plastic specialty items and was also involved in the advertising businesses. With his legitimate job, legit business establishments and the illegal handbook business, Patrick made over 1 million dollars a year. By now his friend and business partner Dave Yaras invested heavily in Florida and also in Cuba. One of their guys in Cuba was Johnny Roselli, a high ranking member of the Chicago mob. He was the manager of the San Souci Hotel and Casino in Havana. So Yaras convinced Patrick to invest and so they became part owners of the hotel. Also on January 22, 1955, Patrick attended the wedding of Claude Maddox's daughter. Maddox was in the mob since the days of Al Capone. This shows that during this period Patrick was considered as a top ranking member of the Outfit.

The mid 1950’s were hard for Outfit boss Tony Accardo and the Outfit in general. Accardo started having many problems with the law and needed to lay low for a while. Also on February 21, 1956 the Jewish crime lord Jake Guzik died from a heart attack. So the mid 50’s was the time for the “changing of the guard” among the Outfit’s leaders. The real boss of the Outfit Paul Ricca came from Chicago’s West Side, so he decided that one of his prime underlings Sam Giancana should be the chief executive for the Outfit. So now the West Side mob became the prime force on the streets of Chicago, especially the Taylor Street crew which was headed by Giancana himself. It was reported that Lenny Patrick, a fellow westsider, became one of Giancana’s top lieutenants. Many bugs and phone taps revealed that Patrick had direct connection with the Outfits boss. Patrick became the base of one of the largest bookmaking operations in the city and also expert on orchestrating high profile gangland executions. He was identified as the syndicate overlord whose activities included extortion, mayhem and murders. His business interests included hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, liquor stores, aluminium products, a disposal service, vending machines, insurance and industrial uniforms.

By the late 1950’s the Jewish population in Chicago migrated from the West Side to the North Side of the city. The boss of the North Side was an old school ruthless gangster named Rosario Priolo aka Ross Prio, who oversaw the Outfits rackets. With the backing of the Outfit’s boss Sam Giancana, Patrick won the approval of Prio to move to Rogers Park and operate his own bookmaking schemes. Patrick made a deal with Prio and another old Capone gangster Lester “Killer Kane” Kruse to share his profits with the two bosses in exchange for protection. By paying off undisclosed aldermen and three police captains, Patrick’s protection was granted. So now Patrick began expanding his operation all over the North Side of Chicago. In June 1957, Patrick and Dave Yaras had purchased the Luxor bathhouse on North Avenue. This establishment was operated as a bathhouse open to the public, but also had plush quarters for gambling on the upper floors. The Luxor Baths was also used as a meeting place for known Chicago syndicate members. Once there was a big Outfit meeting between Lenny Patrick, Jack Patrick, Hyman Godfrey, Fifke Corngold, and Joey Aiuppa. In August 1957, Patrick took another legitimate job and worked for Irving Kaufman, the president of the Irv Sales Co., at a salary of $150 per week. Patrick performed a "watch service" but his identity remained anonymous. He checked on employees in the approximately 201 branch stores in Chicago and its vicinity, calling in his reports. Patrick also took over the late Harry Kovin’s Reliable Products Company. The company was listed officially in the name of his brother Jack Patrick. In 1958 the brothers also took over the Douglas Park Hotel where Jack Patrick was the day manager and Lenny was the night manager. The hotel was fronted by one of their associates Louis Hennick. Also He and his brother Jack also operated a commercial bingo game at 3242 West Roosevelt Road and that the bingo operation had been going strong for years. On February 21, 1958, it was reported to the FBI that a meeting was held at the Trade Winds Restaurant in Chicago at which both Patrick and Irwin Weiner, a major organized crime and Teamsters figure, were present. The purpose of this meeting was probably the mob's penetration in the unions.


Jack Patrick hidding his face with a handkerchief

By 1959, Patrick had interests in many North Side restaurants in Chicago, one of which was the Black Angus Restaurant. He used this restaurant as a place to meet with his lieutenants and to divide their weekly swag. Now the FBI listed Patrick among the principal hoodlums in Chicago. Patrick had supervision of the North and West Side handbooks, along with his partners Dave Yaras and William Block. On the orders of Giancana, Patrick also shared some of his West Side gambling operations with Sam Battaglia. Also Patrick’s loan sharking activities were headed by one of his ruthless street tax collectors named George Bravos. Bravos handled a high interest juice loan business and usually the debtors were kidnapped and severely beaten by him if they didn’t pay the required payments. Besides his new operations in the Summerdale and Rogers Park districts, Patrick’s prime headquarters and the place for his largest handbook operations was still the New Lawndale Restaurant.

When the boss of the non-Italian faction Jake Guzik died back in 1956, Murray Humphries, together with Edward Vogel, took over the leadership. Humphries protégé was an up and coming Greek mobster Gus “Slim” Alex and Vogel’s protégé was Hyman “Red” Larner. Gus Alex used to work as a bodyguard for Jake Guzik and was heavily involved in the prostitution business. With Humphries by his side, Alex inherited most of the political connections and became the Outfit’s top “fixer”. Hy Larner, a very shadowy figure, was involved in the coin machine business since the beginning and he also inherited most of Vogel’s smuggling contacts in and out of the country. In the late 1950’s Lenny Patrick had been put to work with Alex on the orders of Sam Giancana. From that point on, Patrick reported only to Alex.


Gus Alex

Later Alex introduced Patrick to another associate from the old neighbourhood in Lawndale, Sidney Korshak. Korshak was a lawyer and also "fixer" for the Chicago Outfit and the mob in general. His partnership with the top echelon of the Chicago crime syndicate, led him to be named "the most powerful lawyer in the world". By this time Dave Yaras also became big among mob circles. Yaras, besides his operations in Cuba, he also became close associate of Jimmy Hoffa, president of the Teamsters Union and together they established the Teamster Local 320 in Miami. The Teamster Local 320 in Miami was originally set up as a front for the mobs gambling and narcotics operations. Yaras and Hoffa organized the distribution by relying on the Teamsters trucking companies to ship contraband to protected drop sites all over the country. Now the non-Italian faction of the Chicago crime family was stronger than ever, because these guys had the skills for making the big buck and were destined for the top spots. These were the men who controlled Chicago’s underworld for the next 10 years. They were called by the press “the corruption squad” but they called themselves the “connection guys.” They were the ties between those in the shadows and those in the light and Lenny Patrick knew and worked with them all.


Lenny Patrick

But as much this period was a golden era for the Chicago Outfit, it also became the beginning of the end for the mob. Back in 1957 the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management, also known as the McClellan Committee, was created and went after the national mob. Chairman John McClellan together with Chief Counsel Robert F. Kennedy and Senator John F. Kennedy questioned and listened to every high profile mob figure from around the country. The committee investigated many mafia bosses including the Outfits boss Sam Giancana. The committee also investigated and charged Dave Yaras in connection with taking over of certain unions and corrupt Teamster inetersts in the Miami area and also about illegal gambling operations in the U.S. and Cuba. Now the Outfit was getting too much of a public attention and also things were getting too hot, not just from the government but also within the organization. The FBI knew that the mob was making deals with secret U.S. government agencies behind closed doors, so they placed so much heat over the Chicago Outfit which became a big obstacle for their business enterprises. The worst thing for the mob was when on January 20, 1961 John F. Kennedy sworn in as the 35th president of the United States. He appointed his brother Robert Kennedy as U.S. attorney general. Indicting the mob was a high priority with the new attorney general, who claimed that the mob used extortion, bribery, and physical violence to rule the nation. Robert also formed a small Justice Department unit of lawyers and investigators, informally known as the "Get-Hoffa Squad," which was assembled to uncover and prosecute the Teamster boss James Hoffa and any unlawful activity within organized labor.

On January 31, 1962 an F.B.I. electronic surveillance of Sam Giancana, in discussion with Gus Alex and Edward Vogel indicated that the Outfit’s gambling activities were concerned, for all practical purposes has come to an end. This occurred primarily because of the intense pressure placed upon the organization by the Federal government. This fact, coupled with the fact that the state and local police have been forced to move against the syndicate, has brought the Outfit to the realization that for the time being "everyone is on his own", meaning that the members no longer received support from the organization nor can anyone expect influence to be brought to bear on their behalf. All this “harassment” over the mob bosses and the disruption of their business enterprises unleashed a widespread and murderous hostility toward President Kennedy and his crime-busting brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy.

The Chicago Outfit had very “colourful” history for killing politicians and government people. For example, back in1958, Benjamin F. Lewis became the first black alderman to represent the 24th Ward. Lewis desperately wanted to be independent but as long as Mayor Richard Daley’s organization controlled the ghetto vote, he had to take his orders. Story goes that Lewis was not cooperating with the criminal element in the 24th Ward, which was controlled by Lenny Patrick and Dave Yaras. So on February 28, 1963 Lewis was tied to a chair in his office and was shot in the head three times by unknown assassin. Patrick and Yaras were questioned by the cops and as usual the cops got nothing.


Benjamin Lewis

On Friday November 22, 1963 President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, at 12:30 pm. Lee Harvey Oswald, an employee of the Texas School Book Depository from which the shots were suspected to have been fired, was arrested for the murder of a local police officer, and was subsequently charged with the assassination of Kennedy. On Sunday, November 24, Oswald was being led through the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters toward an armoured car that was to take him to the nearby county jail. But than the most unbelievable thing happened. Lenny Patrick’s boyhood friend and criminal associate Jack Ruby stepped from the crowd and shot Oswald in the chest, fatally wounding him on national television. When the Police hauled Ruby away from the murder scene, not far from the hallway where Oswald shouted out to the press, "I'm just a patsy," Ruby shouted out, "I've been used for a purpose."


Jack Ruby

Because of Ruby’s mob connections, immediately after the assassination of Oswald rumours spread around that the mob had a part in the JFK hit. As a result of information provided by informants, the feds picked up Lenny Patrick on November 25, 1963 and interviewed him. According to the FBI interview report, Patrick said he and Ruby knew each other since kids and that they both attended Shephard Grammar School, but were not close friends. Patrick also stated that he frequently saw Ruby in the old neighborhood and always spoke with him, as did everyone else who grew up in the West Side. Patrick denied having anything to do Ruby and that the last time he saw Ruby was about 10 or 12 years prior to the assassination. Ruby’s sister Eva also said that her brother didn't manage to get in touch with Patrick so the investigators concluded there was nothing to it. The fed also questioned Jack Patrick and he said that he also knew Ruby from the past but haven’t heard about him for quite a while. Next for questioning was Dave Yaras. Yaras said that he knew Ruby as "Sparky," a young hustler and fight fan from Division and Damen Street area, 30 years ago. Yaras also stated that his late brother Sam Yaras, who also resided in Dallas, was acquainted with Ruby. Irwin Weiner was questioned and he also admitted knowing Ruby from the old days but hadn’t done any contacts in years. Later reports showed that Ruby and Patrick had contacts a month prior the assassination. Reports showed that Ruby had also contacted Weiner in October 1963 and also made few telephone calls in Chicago to Patrick and Yaras. But for “unknown” reasons the Warren Commission investigators credulously accepted the word of these lying and murderous Chicago hoodlums and accepted the fact that Ruby had no underworld ties. I think that Ruby’s sister also had to lie out of fear for her life and her family’s lives. To me it looks like that if there were dark secrets to be kept, most lawmakers did not want the public to know about them so they ignored them. As for the ordinary people in those days the gangsters and the government spies were very romantic figures, not dirty tricksters. The “lone nut, who in turn was killed by another lone nut” theory prevailed and that’s why JFK’s assassination, for me, remains unsolved even today.

Even with the Kennedy brothers out of the picture the damage has already been done. The heat was on and the Outfit was on constant surveillance by the feds. For example, the overlord of the non-Italian faction of the Outfit Murray Humphries spent most of his time in court rooms and also had too much heat over his head from the government that he became paranoid beyond reasonable doubts.


Murrary Humphreys heading to court and playing the role of a helpless feeble old man.

As for Lenny Patrick, he still continued to control gambling and "juice" operations on the West Side and North Side of Chicago. In the Lawndale area he still had his headquarters the New Lawndale Restaurant from where he ran his main operations. But because of the many police raids, Patrick lost control of the Filmore District in Chicago and later the cops raided the New Lawndale Restaurant wire room and arrested several people. So Patrick had to move his operations to the Four Duces Lounge at 2222 West Devon Avenue, and became his "place." Now Patrick was building his new bookmaking empire with the help of his new partnership with Willie “Potatoes” Daddano and his three new enforcers Ralph Detente, Mike Detente and John Reda. He was also expanding his operations outside of Chicago by attending a meeting at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco with his partner Dave Yaras and his son Ronald and also Louis Tom Dragna and Nicolo Licata, the big shots of the Los Angeles crime family. Also Ernest Debs, a Los Angeles County supervisor and a close friend of a major California officeholder, was also allegedly present. Later an FBI informant advised that Patrick "has been moving well toward the top of the Chicago criminal organization and might be a replacement for Gus Alex, who appears to be working for power because of the contacts he has made without advising other members of the organization."


Outfit big shot Lenny Patrick

By this time Lenny Patrick also had a new legitimate job at Herman Sales Co. working as a premium salesman and was contacting various business houses in the Chicago area. He also had his own shares in the A-1 Industrial Uniform Co. in which Dave Yaras also owned an interest. Also the music bootleging business was a big cash cow for the Outfit and the mob in general. So when Hy Larner took a trip back from Panama to Chicago, he and Patrick became partners in the Venocoa Music Company. It was also reported that Patrick and Larner were attempting to purchase the City Music Company. Patrick made another very profitable partnership with Rocky Potenza. They were involved in a massive bookmaking operation on the North Side of Chicago and Lou Henneck was their frontman at the Top Hat Inn, who ran all of the books.

Murray “Curley”Humphries was now getting old and too paranoid so in 1965 he died of an alleged heart attack caused by an attempt from the feds to arrest him. Also the last big Jewish mob boss Eddie Vogel was now retired in California and rumours were that he had stashed over $12.000.000. Now few guys were nominated for the top spot of the non-Italian faction. One was Hyman Larner but he left the country because of the heat from the government and went to Panama. Next in line was Dave Yaras, but the thing was during this period Yaras spent most of his time in Miami, Florida expending the Outfit’s bookmaking rackets. So Gus Alex was the obvious choice because he had the “muscle” and also the most political connections in Chicago. Alex’s second in command was his brother Sam, his “connection guys” were Pat Marcy from the 1st Ward and Sidney Korshak and Lenny Patrick remained his street boss in Chicago. By now, according to an FBI informant, the three chief "juice men" in the Chicago area were Fiore Buccieri, Mad Sam DeStefano and Lenny Patrick. After Sam Giancana’s exile to Mexico because of his flamboyant life style and the heat that he brought upon the organization, the upper echelon in Chicago's organized crime was changed. The Outfit’s top boss Paul Ricca was considered as an elder statesman and Tony Accardo was brought back again at the top spot of the organization. The second echelon in Chicago was composed of Sam Battaglia, Jack Cerone, Joey Aiuppa, Frank Ferraro, Ross Prio, Fiore Buccieri, Frank LaPorte and Gus Alex, Ralph Pierce, Francis Curry, Leonard Patrick.

You see, back in those days the Chicago Outfit was not your traditional organized crime family. They had many non-Italians as high ranking personas so it was not the Mafia. It has been very diverse but operated under the principals of Southern Italian organized crime. They had Italian guys who were considered as “made” members of the Outfit but never had a formalized swearing in ceremony, like New York and the rest of the national crime families, so it was virtually impossible to tell who was a made member of the Chicago branch of the Mafia and who was a syndicate associate. The non-Italian guys like Lenny Patrick were not “made” guys but they were not associates ether. They were considered as members. They had their own territories and kicked up to their non-Italian bosses like Gus Alex, who was a member of the Outfit’s ruling panel. Back in 1962 the feds recorded a conversation with the help of a hidden wiretap, between Outfit made member and big shot Jack Cerone and Dave Yaras. Cerone bragged about some killings that he and his partner Johnny Whales, a Polack, pulled off in the old days. Unfortunately, one day Johnny “went off his rocker” and disappeared. He had become afraid of the Italians and told Cerone he feared that they might kill him. Than Cerone told Yaras “You see, Dave, he didn’t understand that we (The Outfit) got Jews and Polacks also. I told him this but he was still afraid.” Also when FBI agent Bill Roemer went out to see Lenny Patrick, to see what he knew about Jack Ruby, Patrick told Roemer that he knew Ruby, but that he wasn't really "our guy", meaning he was not a member of the mob. Patrick also often attended meetings with Italian high profile members. On March 11, 1965, an FBI informant advised that Patrick, Albert Frabotta and Phil Alderisio had met with a bondsman named "Stuck" who was working for Irwin Weiner. The reason for this meeting was not known.

By the mid 1960’s the Chicago crime bosses made a complete takeover of the bookmaking and loan shark operations by extracting a 50% tribute from the gross profits of all of the bookies and juice men in the area, thus making a multi-million dollar a year racket. During this takeover there was a clash between some of Chicago’s top hoodlums, for example Fiore Buccieri and Mike Patrick, Lenny’s older brother. The problem was that some of Patrick’s men took over some of the operations in North/West area in which Buccieri was the overlord of the juice racket. At first Patrick’s men frequented a cigar store and other establishments in Buccieri’s territory and made bookmaking loans across jurisdictional lines. Later Buccieri learned of their presence on his territory and summoned Mike Patrick to a mob sit down. The sit down occurred in a Cicero social and athletic club which served as a front for Buccieri’s juice operations. During the exchange of words, Buccieri stood up and shouted “If you don’t want to give us half of your juice business, we’ll take it all eventually”. Buccieri also demanded a cut of the Patrick brothers’ gross profits from usurious loans to patrons of their gambling operations on his territory. After the noise died down, Mike Patrick came out shaking hands with Buccieri and looked like they had come to some type of agreement.

As for Patrick’s partner, Dave Yaras, business was also booming. While in Miami, Yaras met multiple times with another gambling Jew by the name of Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal. Rosenthal was one of Dave’s “students” in the bookmaking business down in Miami. They constantly met each other to talk business at the Miami Beach Bayshore Country Club, which was Dave’s headquarters. Rosenthal was Dave’s frontman and operator at the Multiple Sports News Service, which provided the “line” for bookmakers of sport events on national basis. During June and July 1967, on the orders of Yaras, Rosenthal purchased explosives, detonators, guns and ammunition to be used against rival bookmakers. For example, Alfie Mart was a Miami bookmaker and his headquarters got blown up for resisting the services of Rosenthal’s company. Also the automobile of Irving “Mickey” Zion, another Miami bookmaker, was blown to pieces. Next, the cleaning shop of another Miami bookmaker Jack “Chappie” Rand was bombed and totally destroyed. Back in Chicago, Yaras maintained his interests through Patrick and his son, Lenny Yaras. With the help of his father, Lenny Yaras served as president of A-1 Industrial Uniforms Company and also with the help of his mentor Lenny Patrick he was involved in the bookmaking business. He became a member of Patrick’s Rogers Park crew and because of their close association which inevitably led other mobsters to refer to Lenny Yaras as “Little Lenny,” in an effort to distinguish him from his same-name superior. Dave’s other son Ronald Yaras operated the Unique Import Trading Ltd. previously known as the M&E Sales Corporation. Roland also acted as a messenger between Lenny Patrick and his father in Miami. He also constantly travelled to Miami and other cities, like Los Angeles, Dallas and Tampa, spreading legitimate and illegitimate operations and at the same time delivering messages to his father and the Outfit about their gambling operations around the country.


Tampa Mafia boss Santo Trafficante Jr. and Dave Yaras

By the mid 1960’s things weren’t so good for Patrick’s bookmaking operations. On October 28, 1965 the feds raided one of Patrick’s biggest betting centers in the Buena Terrace hotel, 4246 Sheridan Road. The center handled at least $100,000 a week in wagers. Arrested at the scene were Harold Sawyer and Sam Ehrenberg. Also the year of 1966 was a quite bad period for Lenny. Everything started on April 22 when Chicago detectives acted on warrants based on information provided by the FBI and followed a trail of telephone betting lines. First the detectives broke down a door that led to second floor apartment at 5045 Clark Street but the four-room flat was empty. Than they found wires leading from two telephones that were hidden by furniture which was shoved against the wall. The wires were tacked to a window that led to ceiling and than thru holes to the apartment above. The detectives went up the stairs, broke down another door and this time they were successful. Two men were busily destroying records of a bookmaking operation which was operated under the auspices of Lenny Patrick. In the end a few ledgers were found, but most have been flushed down the toilet. The men arrested identified themselves as Sam DeBaise and Robert O’Connor. Also on April 27, the federal agents raided two large scale horse and sports betting wire rooms in the North and North/West Side rackets sanctuary of Patrick. The first one was in a six-room apartment on the third floor of a building at 5002 N. Kimball Avenue, which was a rapid fire betting relay station, whose operators phoned bets they received at 15 minute intervals to clearing house elsewhere in the city. The records were kept on a fast dissolving paper which was dunked and destroyed in a bathtub seconds after the wagers were relayed to the clearing house. This reduced the chance of the gamblers being caught in a raid with records of their operation. But this time the feds disclosed a monthly betting and expense records hidden under a pile of lingerie in a dresser drawer. The records showed a daily wagers from individual bettors ranging as high as $1,500. The persons arrested in this raid were Tim Dorsey, the guy who ran the wire room and Mrs. Elaine Benefield, the owner of the apartment. During an hour period the cops handled thousands of dollars in baseball and horse bets. At the same time, the internal revenue agents, broke their way thru the doors of another third floor apartment at 1339 Early Avenue, also arresting two men who were caught by surprise as they took horse and sports bets over two phones. The men arrested were Ben Chockler and Art Becker, a known Outfit associate. The cops broke in so quickly that the gamblers had no chance to destroy the records. The records that were seized indicated a monthly handle of at least $50,000 in bets, all funneled thru Lenny Patrick’s clearing house, a gambling center that changed locations by the week because of the constant pressure from the authorities.

The next year, on April 27, 1967 Chicago detectives led a raiding party on a second floor apartment at 3001 Gunnison Street. The apartment had been barricaded with shields of 3-inch-thick plywood, braced with 2 by 4-inch timbers, 3-inch long steel bolts and steel angle irons. The detectives used sledge hammers and crowbars and managed to batter their way into one of the most heavily fortified gambling centers ever found in Chicago. Behind the barricades the cops found a clearing house which handled an estimated $50,000 a week in wagers for North Side bookmaker Lenny Patrick. In another apartment at the rear of the second floor in the building, the cops found two telephones that were connected with the previous apartment. The two men arrested at the scene were again Sam DeBaise and another guy John Russo. Both were known as Outfit associates and long time bookmaking operators. The last big strike was on September 9 when Chicago detectives raided an apartment on the 10th floor of a building at 40 E. Oak Street. The cops arrested Aaron Oberlander as he sat near two telephones over which he reportedly took major sports bets from businessmen in offices near North Side. Scattered on the table before Oberlander were numerous records of what appeared to be wagers, which had been written down in Hebrew. The cops had to bring a Hebrew speaking detective to decipher the records. The same day other group of detectives led a raid on a clearing house in a 26th floor apartment at 420 Belmont Avenue. This clearing house served for more than 20 North Side bookmakers, including Oberlander. The clearing house operated two seasons, seven days a week from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Arrested at the scene were Sheldon Perlman and Eddie Gilman. This gambling ring was also operated under the auspices of Lenny Patrick. With wire room after wire room being raided, Patrick’s loan sharking activities were also slowly shutting down.

Now with the bookmaking business being under attack by the government, Outfit guys like Lenny Patrick were looking to find new ways to make the quick buck. Patrick started getting involved in shakedown activities on supermarkets, home improvement businesses, bookies, pimps, prostitutes, drug peddlers and hijacking. Patrick had a quite “friendly” relationship with Louis Steinberg, the president of Steinberg-Baum discount chain. On November 15, 1970 Patrick attended a meeting with Outfit members Mario DeStefano and Charles Nicoletti in a North Western Avenue pizza parlor to share Steinberg’s companionship. Steinberg wrote checks, some as high as $900,000 and were cashed in different banks and than transferred to the chain’s 20 different subsidiaries or affiliates, with different corporate names which some were owned by the Outfit. The FBI also received a report that Patrick was getting involved in narcotics on the West Side. Some sources say that his supplier was Fred Morrelli, owner of the Century Music Company. Patrick also got involved in the union shakedowns with one of Ross Prio’s underlings and chauffer Vince Solano. Also a 1970 FBI report states that Patrick still controlled bookmaking in the Douglas Park District and the North Side of Chicago with the help of his lieutenant Ben “Peggy” Olshansky and old school gambler from the old days, Joe Epstein. The same year Patrick again tried to swindle, now the ageing and sick Fiore “Fifi” Buccieri. One of Buccieri’s underlings and long time protege, Carmen Trotta a known interstate hijacker, was discovered for maintaining a secret business relationship with Patrick and his North Side crew. On March 22, the cops found Trotta’s body in Lyons and in his pocket they also found a list of coded telephone numbers and one of the numbers led right to the telephone installed in the home of Patrick in Jarlath Avenue. Lenny was questioned about the murder but the cops got nothing out of him.

In the early 1970’s it looked like the Outfit’s glory days were almost over and Patrick’s criminal empire was slowly crumbling down. The father of the Chicago Outfit Paul “The Waiter” Ricca died from natural causes on October 11, 1972. Just about everybody who was anybody in the underworld went to pay their last respects, including Lenny Patrick. Patrick and the Outfit in general, knew that they have lost one of their finest in one of their not too fine hours. Two months later, the second most important and powerful boss Ross Prio died on December 22. Now the Outfit knew that things would never be the same. Yes they were gangsters, but fools they were not. They knew that the foundations of their multi-million-dollar-a- year rackets empire were slowly sinking into a quagmire of federal grand jury investigations, pushed by the probing fingers of hundreds of federal agents, state and local police.


Outfit royalty Paul Ricca

Also the changing of the social and economic patterns of the populations in Chicago had their big effect on the Outfit. For example, the policy racket which had poured untold millions in mafia coffers over three decades was virtually dead. Thou it once had suckered thousands of black men to come North from the deep South in search of a new and better life. The new generation of Northern-born blacks had seen their elders cheated for too many years by platoons of their own people working for white Mafia masters. So they weren’t about to be suckered too. The big floating crap games were also gone and with the many of the large wire rooms being driven out of business, the horse and sports betting was on the down low. Even the vending and coin machine business had its own problems made by the up and coming black and latino gangs. Many of the Outfit’s racketeers were driven out from their lucrative sanctuaries. Also the skimming of illegal profits from gay bars and striptease joints was reduced, especially on the Near North Side and Rogers Park, Patrick’s territory. Many of the joints had being raided and copious quantities of booze were confiscated because of violation of federal and state liquor tax laws. For example, The Backstage Lounge was one of the most famous striptease joints that preyed on wealthy businessmen and local socialites in search of erotic kicks. Donald R. Hammond was the frontman for his father Donald Joseph Hammond, who was a Lenny Patrick’s close associate and enforcer since the old days. Mayor Daley, acting as the city’s liquor license commissioner, filed a compliant against the Backstage Lounge on 11 charges raging from prostitution to drink hustling. On July 13, 1973 Mayor Daley revoked the liquor license but the place still remained open for business. The next day the cops raided the place and arrested 24 people and seized two hidden books which showed a $60,000 weekly gross. Among the arrested were Donald Joseph Hammond and his son. However, even thou the main guys were in jail, the place remained open for those who wanted to spend $24 for a bottle of phony champagne and the company of strippers.

But with all of the effort and pressure made by the government against organized crime, they still couldn’t touch the heart of the Outfit because still many corrupted policemen and politicians protected the core of organized crime in Chicago. Many of the high ranking government officials socialized with the underworld and made no bones about attending gangster wakes and weddings. Some of the policemen even chauffeured the Outfit bosses and did their dirty work. All this was very well known in Chicago’s police Department but rarely was a finger raised. If there was any action and someone got noticed by the public, they were summoned in the chief’s office, slapped on their hands and cautioned to lay low until the heat goes down. According to a police lieutenant, Outfit boss Joey Aiuppa once told him “Every month I will see that there’s a c-note ($100) or some worldly goods in your mailbox. You’ll be on the pay roll. All I want from you is information so they will not kicking me with the point of the shoe, but with the side of the shoe. You understand? If I make money, you make money. You have a chance to make a little money now. Do you think the guy with $4,000 or $5,000 job, driving a new car with $100 suits, you think this all is done with his salary? Do you?” With those few words, Aiuppa defined the name of the game. Another example is when a lieutenant in command of a detective unit fell under the shadow of an accusing finger from the FBI as a fellow who constantly met with Lenny Patrick. Patrick also used the cop as his chauffer and as wiretapper on his own bookmakers, just to make sure they weren’t cheating their boss. Later the lieutenant got transferred and that’s all. Another example is when a top police commander frequented weekly one of Patrick’s gambling joints. The FBI noted the other government officials but nothing happened. So this shows us that Patrick still had many government officials in his back pocket and maintained his illegal operations on the streets of Chicago.

But then a federal grand jury subpoenaed 40 top Chicago Outfit hoodlums to appear in a special investigation on organized crime and its involvement with police and politicians. First on the list was the Outfit’s financial advisor and political fixer, Gus Alex. Alex was reportedly served his subpoena by Miami based FBI agents as he lolled in the sun at his $50,000 Fort Lauderdale condominium. Second on the list was Dave Yaras who got his grand jury summons as he was about to tee off at the Bay Shore Country Club in Miami and third on the list was Lenny Patrick in Chicago. Among those summoned were also two of Patrick’s lieutenants Eugene “Yudie” Lufman and Norm Rottenberg. Alex, Yaras and Patrick managed to whistle in and out of the grand jury with a grin on their faces. However Lufman and Rottenberg were not so lucky. They decided to keep their mouths shut and rather go to jail than to talk about Patrick’s enterprises under court-bestowed grants of immunity from prosecution. So they represented themselves as a stand up guys in the eyes of their Outfit peers.

Now the justice department was fast closing in on the Outfit, so Yaras and Patrick were quick to read the handwriting on the wall that their operations were in trouble. They drew up a master plan for foiling the FBI in its efforts to destroy the rackets empire. But in doing so, they accidently foiled up themselves. Here’s what happened… Yaras and Patrick thought that many of their bookmakers were getting arrested because of the many loosed-lipped horse players and gamblers that knew their phone numbers. Therefore, Yaras and Patrick ordered their bookies that they should telephone their clients instead. Further, they should keep moving at all times. So the increased mobility and with the changing of the telephone traffic pattern made the gamblers tougher to catch and it also sentenced the bookies to an endless of coin-operated phone booths on frozen, rain-swept or boiling hot street corners. Also the new strategy reduced the profits because the bookmakers couldn’t always find their clients. What had once been the biggest gambling operation in Chicago, started to disintegrate. Previously an active Outfit bookmaker managed to handle an average $50,000 a week or maybe $1,000,000 a month. Now they were lucky if half that much business flew thru their phones.

With his gambling empire slowly tumbling down, Patrick suffered another huge setback. On January 4, 1974 his 62 year old “brother from another mother” and long time partner in crime Dave Yaras died suddenly from a heart attack while playing golf in Miami Beach. Pals for more than 25 years, a period when the two of them were countless times arrested by the cops and questioned in numerous murders. Together they created the gambling network on Chicago’s West and North side, thus making millions of dollars for the Outfit. Thus, the crocodile tears that Patrick shed at Dave’s grave were probably more for the pending demise of their gambling enterprises than for the demise for his buddy. Outfit bosses Jackie Cerone and Gus Alex, who were also by the graveside, understood and they extended their condolences to Patrick. There were indications that some of the betting was still laid off thru Miami, thanks to the ingenuity of the late Dave Yaras. The same year, Dave’s son Ronald was killed. Story goes that Ronnie was whacked by the Trafficante crime family because of an ongoing feud between mob-connected lounge and bar owners that spilled over into Miami from Tampa.

Also the same year Patrick’s old boss Sam Giancana was deported by the Mexican government under the pressure of the U.S. The Mexican authorities entered Sam's estate San Cristobal and deported him back home. At the same time Giancana was also subpoenaed to testify before a Chicago grand jury about his alleged CIA contacts. So now the new administration, headed by senior advisor Tony Accardo and boss Joey Aiuppa, decided to eliminate Giancana. On June 19, 1975, Giancana was murdered in the basement kitchen of his Oak Park home with 6 shots from a .22 in his head. After the hit the Chicago mob was never the same and neither were the multi million dollar rackets. It was the end of an era, an era that began with the man who died that faithful summer day.

And just when things couldn’t get any worse, the special federal grand jury, headed by U.S. Attorney James Thompson and his strike force chief Peter Vaira, decided to go after Lenny Patrick again. With additional grants of immunity from prosecution, the government planned to force Patrick to tell them about his illegal operations, his payoffs to crooked policemen and his connections with the Outfit bosses. Story goes that Patrick agreed with the feds, behind close doors, to testify at the tax trial of police lieutenant Ronald O’Hara especially about the case when he paid the policeman $500 a month not to raid his gambling joints. Later on September 10, 1975 Patrick’s attorney Sherman Magidson said that his client is not going to testify because of the threats made on his life. The attorney said that Patrick received threats from an “unknown” policeman, who Patrick knew had a big reputation for violence. Federal Court Judge Prentice Marshall charged Patrick for a criminal contempt of court for his refusal to testify under a grant of immunity and sentenced him to 4 years in jail. With Patrick in jail, his bookmaking operations were mostly closed down by the late 1970’s because of the new Federal gambling legislation. In 1978, Patrick had served 21 months of the 4-year sentence and on July 3, he was released and placed under the supervision of a halfway house.

On July 21, 1978 Lenny Patrick was taken in the U.S. Courthouse, Chicago, Illinois to testify on the matter of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby’s possible mob connections. Patrick was questioned by James McDonald, senior attorney with the Select Committee on Assassinations, House of Representatives. Patrick again didn’t say much except that he knew Ruby from the old days as young man and denied Ruby’s mob activities. But he also said that his late partner Dave Yaras was more knowledgeable about Ruby’s activities… “He was closer to him than me. He used to be a little friendly with him.” If anyone’s interested, you can read Patrick’s testimony right here: http://jfkassassination.net/russ/m_j_russ/patrick.htm

By the early 1980’s some of the feds thought that Lenny Patrick was retired from the mob. He had successfully cast the image of a gentle old man who was somehow getting by on a monthly Social Security check. But they were wrong because Lenny Patrick, now in his early 70’s, was still a gangster to the core and was also too greedy to quit. He was back on the streets and with his old bookmaking empire turned to dust, Patrick assumed charge of his new street crew and went into the juice loan business, card games, extortion of wealthy businessmen and street-taxing bookmakers in the Rogers Park neighborhood on the city’s Far North Side and in the city’s Near North Suburbs. He worked together with one of the top 7 syndicate directors who held sway on the North Side, Vincent Solano and also with the boss of the infamous Rush Street Crew, Caesar DiVarco. But still, Patrick’s real boss was Gus Alex. Alex still had friends in high places like in Washington DC and in Hollywood California and also lived a glamorous life style on North Lake Shore Drive. Alex seemed untouchable by the law and Accardo and Aiuppa still took his advices very seriously.

Patrick’s crew consisted of his top enforcers James LaValley, Raymond Spencer, Nicholas Gio and Mario Rainone. Also one of his closest associates was Lenny Yaras, the gang’s go-between for mob bookies and street tax collector. Yaras was also direct with Solano and DiVarco. Outfit member Joe Vento was in charge of the gang’s juice loan and extortion crew together with Pete Buonomo, Gary Edwards and Phil Tolomeo. So business was booming again. The crew's gambling business alone involved an extensive network of offices, one of which cost $500,000 to open, served 800 betting customers, had a weekly payroll of $20,000 to $30,000, and accepted $80,000 in wagers in a single week. And in addition to paying its employees' salaries, the crew had to shell out for rent, phone service, utilities, pagers, and sports journals printed out of state. By the mid 1980s, Patrick’s crew also extorted nearly half a million dollars year from legitimate businessmen and bookies and another half a mil from the juice loan biz. Lenny Patrick spent most of his time at a restaurant in Lincolnwood named Myron and Phil’s Steak, Seafood and Piano Bar in Lincolnwood Illinois, where he received his daily cut. He sat in the bar with a dozen old men playing gin rummy and cursing each other in Yiddish. In the process, he also extorted monthly street tax of $1,500 from the same bar. Patrick also had a daily routine. He lived in an apartment at 7425 West Belmont Avenue and drove a 1981 Maroon Oldsmobile. At the beginning of the day some of his bookmakers and extortionists like George Sommers would visit him and gave his tribute. Than Patrick would go out and visit his juice collector and bookmaker Raymond Spencer or Lenny Patrick who lived at 6400 N. Cicero Ave. in Lincolnwood, to take his daily tribute also. Later he visited Myron’s and Phil’s bar and by the end of the day he would go to Harlem Avenue to make a few phone calls on a public phone and later returned home.

By the end of 1984, rumours spread around that the Outfit’s top hierarchy will be indicted for skimming millions from the Las Vegas casinos. So before indictments were released, the street taxes paid by bookmakers to operate in the Chicago area were increased from 15 to 25% to make up for the loss of income to the Chicago Outfit by the Las Vegas losses. Mob's extortionists raised the "fear fees," or money paid for protection, and loan sharks were levied with a surtax of sorts by the Outfit. Not everyone was satisfied by the increase which resulted with the violent deaths of many bookmakers.

By 1984 Patrick’s associate Lenny Yaras had risen up the ranks in the Outfit. He ran a lucrative bookmaking operation out of Rogers Park and was regarded as associate and close friend of many Outfit big shots and operated on about the same level as them. Yaras was also associated in the bookmaking business with gambling bosses Donald Angelini and Dominic Cortina, members of the Cicero crew under the rule of Joe Ferriola. At the same time Yaras was involved with another bookmaking crew led by the Pettit brothers, also part of Ferriola’s extended gambling network. On February 10, 1985, 44 year old Lenny Yaras, left his office at A-1 Industrial Uniforms Co., at 10 a.m. He walked over to his late-model Oldsmobile, parked next to the curb out front. He was at ease as he slid into the front seat behind the steering wheel. As soon as he shut the door, a tan Chevrolet swung in front of his auto, preventing it from going forward. Than, two masked gunmen jumped out and shot Yaras four times, hitting him in the face, throat and once in each leg. The killers jumped back into their stolen car which was driven by a getaway driver and fled. Later the car was found torched in an alley a little less than two miles west of the murder scene. Yaras was laying down on a bundle of files on the passengers seat, dead. Who was responsible for rubbing out Yaras, and the reasons why, it is not known. There’s a story that Yaras fell out with the Cicero crew, especially with Joe Pettit. Yaras allegedly schemed from the share that was intended for the Pettit bros and Ferriola. Also a mob informant told the Chicago Crime Commission that Ferriola once said, "Things are coming apart in Chicago and something has to be done about it." The informant also added that it was Ferriola’s belief that bookies and collectors were working together to hold out on delivering the correct street tax and that Yaras was the most blatant of the group. Later that year, David “Red” O’Malley, an ex-cop turn mobster charged with the murder of Yaras, but later was acquitted at a bench trial. Thomas Maloney, the jurist presiding over the murder case, issued his verdict on November 25, 1985. He found O’Malley’s identification by witnesses “unconvincing” and acquitted him. Red O’Malley was hooked up with the Cicero crew. Immediately after Yaras’ death Joseph Pettit took over his bookmaking operations. Also the main thing that I want to point out is that his mentors Lenny Patrick and Gus Alex must’ve known and had to give the ok for the hit. Patrick’s old friend Dave Yaras was spinning in his grave but that’s the way it goes in the mob. It’s nothing personal, just business.


Lenny Yaras

Eather way, in 1986 Outfit boss Joey Auippa, his underboss Jackie Cerone, Joe Lombardo, Milton Rockman, and Angelo LaPietra and other mobsters from Kansas City were indicted for skimming millions from the Las Vegas casinos. So the same year, Joe Ferriola became the Outfit’s acting boss. As for 73 year old Lenny Patrick, it was business as usual. He continued his juice loan and extortion operations with his band of cut-throats on Chicago’s North Side. He and his crew had a very terrible and fearful reputation which can be seen in some of these examples. In one case, Patrick demanded a $150,000 extortion payment from Ray Hara of King Nissan in Niles. Hara paid the money and Patrick gave Gus Alex his tribute of $75,000. Also Patrick managed to extort $100,000 from the owners of two suburban restaurants. His boss Alex received $25,000 from the payment. Patrick met with Alex regularly in a variety of places, including Northwestern Memorial Hospital, to deliver payments to him. In another occasion, Patrick ordered Mario Rainone and James LaValley to extort at least $200,000 from the owner of an undisclosed Italian restaurant in Northbrook in 1987. Two days after confronting the owner at the restaurant, Rainone phoned him and warned him that if he didn't pay the $200,000 his “entire family would wind up in Mt. Carmel Cemetery.” So the owner had no choice but to pay his “debt”. The co-owner of a Lincolnwood Illinois restaurant and his son-in-law, the owner of a Wheeling restaurant, made regular payments after Rainone beat them up. They also made a large cash payment of $100,000 to Rainone who also threatened to "blow away" the children of the owner of a Chicago restaurant. In another case he threatened to cut off the head of a businessman and display it on the flagpole outside his Northbrook restaurant. But not everyone was easy to do a shakedown. In 1987 Steve Triantafel, the owner of Touhy House in Skokie Illinois for 33 years, was visited by one of Patrick’s thugs to shake him down. Triantafel lifted him up by the throat and promised to kill him if he ever returned. Also Paul Tamraz, the owner of Motorwerks of Barrington, a Mercedes-Benz car dealer, was also shaken down by one of Patrick’s hoods, with a reputation as "a bone-crusher", who demanded $500,000 and threatened his family. But Tamraz had connections in the Outfit and he complained to unnamed mob boss. After that the extortionist never came back.

Joe Ferriola was a very greedy mob boss who attracted significant attention shortly after taking over as head of the Chicago Outfit. He constructed a $500,000, 14-room home on Forest Glen Lane in Oak Brook, Illinois and also owned a home in Florida and a tri-level log home in Green Lake, Wisconsin. So one thing led to another and he started having legal problems with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service. Because of the constant heat made by the government and the pressure of being the Outfit’s boss, Ferriola started having health problems. So by 1987, Sam “Wings” Carlisi occupied a supervisory position within the Chicago Outfit. In that capacity, Carlisi coordinated the activities of his crew and at the Lenny Patrick Street Crew. Carlisi used his position to authorize criminal activities which benefited his crew and the Outfit in general. Carlisi provided funding for the Patrick Street Crew’s juice loan operation and took an interest in the profits from that business. Again, Joe Vento as a member of Carlisi’s crew, was assigned to supervise the juice loan operation of the Patrick crew, together with Tony Zizzo. The interest rates on all of these loans were between 2.5% and 5% per week, and the loans were made to debtors with the understanding that violence could occur to them if timely payments were not made. In 1988, Lenny Patrick contacted Carlisi and asked him for permission to expand his juice loan business. Carlisi approved and gave Patrick permission to do so. Carlisi told Patrick to contact Jimmy Marcello who scheduled a meeting between the three. During the meeting, Carlisi and Marcello agreed to advance Patrick $100,000 for juice loans, with the understanding that Patrick would repay the entire investment before taking any profits and that thereafter Carlisi and Marcello would receive a one-third share of any juice loan profits generated by Patrick’s operation. Few days later Marcello met with Patrick and gave him $100,000 in cash in a paper bag. Several weeks later, Patrick contacted Marcello again, and requested additional $100,000 in cash. Marcello approved and gave him the cash. Periodically, Patrick arranged to meet Marcello and repaid him from $10,000 to $20,000 on the funds advanced. During 1988, Patrick’s juice loan business was booming. Once he handed down $75,000 in cash to Sam Cralisi and also gave periodically $5,000 to Vento and Zizzo as supervisors for the racket. Patrick steadily repaid the loan, and within 2 years the seed money had ballooned into $ 500,000.


Sam Carlisi

The same year Marcello called Patrick and arranged for the two of them to meet at a restaurant in Westchester, Illinois. Marcello spoke on behalf of Carlisi and told Patrick that they had a job for him. Marcello advised Patrick that there was a problem between the owner of the Lake Theater in Oak Park, Illinois, and the projectionists union. Willis Johnson owned a chain of movie theaters and had been in a labor dispute with the projectionists union since 1983. In 1985 Johnson decided to automate projection at one of his cinemas, the Lake Theater. In early 1988, when negotiations with the union broke down, Johnson announced plans to automate all of his theaters. This didn't sit well with Carlisi, Marcello, and Zizzo, whose sons just happened to be card-carrying members of the projectionists union. As a result, Marcello contacted Patrick and explained that Carlisi wanted him to give Johnson "a little trouble" and make him "join the union.” Patrick agreed to undertake the job.

Patrick than called one of his best enforcers, Mario Rainone and instructed him to scare the owner of the Lake Theater. Mario Rainone met with his subordinate, James LaValley, explained the situation, and told LaValley to use an incendiary grenade to start a fire at the theater. LaValley and another member of the Patrick’s Crew, Nicholas Gio, surveilled the Lake Theater on a number of occasions to determine how to undertake the job. LaValley decided to throw an incendiary grenade on the roof of the theater. Rainone approved the idea and provided LaValley with the incendiary grenade. On a date unknown, LaValley and Gio traveled to the Lake Theater with jugs containing gasoline and the incendiary grenade. They punctured holes in the gasoline containers and threw them on the roof. LaValley then attempted, but failed, to get the incendiary grenade on the roof. Later the same night, on the instructions of Mario Rainone, LaValley and Gio returned to the Lake Theater and attempted to ignite the roof by throwing a homemade “Molotov cocktail” on the roof. That device also failed to start the fire. Within a few days after these attempts, Mario Rainone and another individual went to the Lake Theater and threw a Mark II military explosive-fragmentation hand grenade on the roof of the theater. The grenade malfunctioned and did not detonate and was later found by a janitor, who promptly turned the dud over to the police. In reality Rainone failed and made the Outfit look like incapable organization.

By the end of 1988, Outfit boss Joe Ferriola had serious health problems and was replaced by Sam Carlisi to oversee the day to day operations. On March 11, 1989, Ferriola died at The Methodist Hospital, in Houston, Texas, after receiving a second heart transplant, so Carlisi became the top boss of the Chicago Outfit. During his time of rule, Carlisi made a fatal mistake on the request of his connection guy, Gus Alex. All of the cooperations and convictions began with the plot to kill one of their associates that caused flipping domino effect which inadvertently changed the face of the Outfit.

Anthony “Jeep” Daddino was an associate of the Grand Ave. crew and worked together with Tony Zizzo in the collection of juice loans and the operation of a card room in Franklin Park, Illinois. On September 29, 1989, Daddino together with another Grand Ave. ruthless associate Frank “The German” Schweihs were found guilty and convicted on many charges. The Outfit higher-ups were very worried about the convictions, but the bosses knew The German would never talk, but Jeep was another matter. So Carlisi decided that something had to be done. He arranged a meeting with met with Jimmy Marcello and Lenny Patrick. Again, Patrick took the job. He discussed and planned the murder of Daddino with Mario Rainone. Patrick advised Rainone to meet with Marcello to get the details. Marcello then met with Rainone and told him that his job will be to pick the lock on Daddino's house in order to let the two hit men in. The two hitmen were Rudy Fratto Jr. and “Willie the Beast” Messino. Marcello also told Rainone that the hitmen were not going be there but they would only arrive after he radioed that all was clear to enter the house so he lend Rainone a walkie-talkie to make sure the job went off without a hitch.

On October 1989, Rainone drove in his pickup truck to Rosemont and located Daddino’s house. When he got near the door of Daddino’s home, he saw two guys sitting in a car down the street. First he thought they were cops but then he noticed that they were two familiar faces. When the guys in car saw that they got noticed by Rainone, they ducked down behind the dashboard of their car. Rainone figured it out that those guys were in fact Fratto and Messino. The deal was that they should’ve wait for his call on the radio to enter the house so Rainone knew something was not right. He realized that he was not the hunter, but the prey. Without a moment more of thought, he got back to his truck and fled away with high speed.

The other day, Rainone got in touch with Patrick and told him what happened. Patrick assured Rainone that there wasn’t a contract on his life, but Rainone didn’t believe him. And he was right. Patrick knew about the double-cross because his boss Gus Alex ordered the murder. Alex got a word that an extortion case was on the way and that he feared Rainone would talk because Alex received 25 percent of the proceeds in the extortions. In fact it was an old Outfit trick. One man is ordered to kill another and both are slain at the same time. However, the scheme didn’t go according to plan and Rainone, fearing for his life, decided to call the FBI and told them that he was ready to cooperate. He met with the FBI agents and they told him to wear a wire on his boss Lenny Patrick. Rainone agreed. Few days later, Rainone went to Patrick’s house unannounced because he feared that Patrick would set him up again. Rainone managed to tape several incriminating conversations, including one over the phone where he and Patrick discussed the set up in the Daddino conspiracy. So now the feds caught a real break and they went after the big fish. They raided Lenny Patrick’s home and found many incriminating documents that involved many members of his crew and also certain intelligence that he was involved in with Gus Alex. The feds also played to Patrick some of the tapes that Rainone recorded. The old man took off his reading glasses and thought about the 50 year period of loyalty to the Outfit and felt tired. Patrick didn’t want to die in jail so he agreed to cooperate too. Also few months later another member of Patrick’s crew, Gary Edwards, began cooperating with the FBI.

By the end of 1989 Rainone had cooperated with the government briefly by joining the witness protection program because he feared a hit had been put out on him. But when the Outfit got wind of the situation, they bombed and blew to bits the front porch of his mother’s home. The bomb was placed by Nick Calabrese on the orders of Jimmy Marcello. Rainone got the message and eventually stopped cooperating and pled guilty to extortion charges and was sentenced to 17½ years in prison. "He didn't tell them anything," his lawyer said. Also word got to the Outfit about Edwards’ possible cooperation with the feds. So now the top guys ordered Patrick to shut down his loan operation. But despite the order, Patrick continued to funnel Edwards with a $ 5,000 payment to Carlisi's crew through LaValley. Patrick was a very smart guy. He persuaded LaValley to talk to Zizzo to overrule the order and allow the crew to resume its loansharking activities. But later LaValley heard that Edwards was really cooperating with the FBI, became frightened, returned the money to Patrick, and called Zizzo to ask if he would be rubbed out for unwittingly aiding Edwards. Zizzo told LaValley not to worry and that he would let Marcello and Carlisi know of Edwards' defection.

Now Lenny Patrick took the situation in his own hands. He called Gus Alex and arranged a meeting, while wearing a wiretap. Patrick managed to secretly tape a recording where he and Alex discussed payments to an unnamed union official. But Patrick’s cooperation with the feds came to a halt when the government realised that he still continued to pocket money from illegal activities even after the FBI paid him $7,200 over two months. For example, when Rainone went with the feds, old man Lenny started personally collecting the monthly extortion payments. So the government indicted him on racketeering and extortion charges and tossed him in jail. The indictment was handed down in 1991, which charged Patrick, Nicholas Gio, Mario Rainone and Gus Alex with various offences. James LaValley was also mentioned in the indictment but he also decided to cooperate with the feds.


Old man Patrick

Lenny Patrick was a guy that would sell his mother short. He entered a guilty plea to extorting more than $300,000 from two restaurants and a car dealership and attempting to shake down other businesses and to avoid a long jail term he agreed, once more, to testify against Gus Alex. But before Patrick went to trial, on May 19, 1992 his daughter parked her 1987 BMW in the driveway of her home in Rogers Park. Several minutes later the car exploded and the bomb left a driveway crater 5 inches deep and 2 feet across. It was probably activated by remote control, perhaps by someone positioned nearby on North California Avenue, in view of the house. Nobody was hurt during the blast. One of the cops that investigated the explosion, told the reporters that "If the motive for the bombing was to get Patrick to shut up, I don't think it will work," "Lenny and Sharon Patrick don't get along. They haven't spoken to one another in years. So I doubt the bombing is going to seriously upset him."

The cop was right. On September 16, 17, 18, 21 and 22, 1992, Patrick testified in a packed courtroom in the Dirksen Federal Building, against his former associates. The old man talked in foul language and made jokes from time to time. In other words he was like your typical uncle, laughing and making cracks. When asked about the 1947 slaying of bookmaker Harry “the Horse” Krotish, Patrick said "I did murder him, but he didn't have a horse," "If he did, I would have jumped on it and run with it." Also when Patrick recalled his involvement in the murders of Herman Glick, Edward Murphy, David Zatz and Milton Glickman, one of the lawyers asked if he had killed anyone other than the murders he mentioned, Patrick replied, "No, I've run out of cemeteries." One of Alex’s lawyers attacked Patrick and called him an "evil incarnate," "this diabolical piece of slime" and "one of the most cunning, conniving, evil, twisted people that you'll ever see." "There's no limit to this man," the lawyer said of Patrick "There's no limit to what he will do or say." Patrick replied "Yes. I am the dirtiest thing living on Earth. I don't have feelings for anybody. Everybody's so afraid of me they shiver when they see me. They put on an extra coat."

Patrick also admitted extorting money from some well-known businesses and people, including insurance executive Allan Dorfman, who was killed back in 1983. He said that his former partner in crime, the late Dave Yaras extorted $300,000 from Dorfman and that he and Yaras split $75,000 and gave the rest to syndicate bosses. In a gruff voice Patrick also explained on how he even leaned on his own relatives by threatening his brother Mike`s son-in-law to coerce Mike to pay off a $250,000 debt. And in the late 1980s, he also extorted $187,000 from his common-law wife`s nephew. He just added ``It was my own money``. Also one of the lawyers asked Patrick "Why are you talking in a low, conspiratorial tone?" "I got a bad throat," Patrick replied. "If I had a Scotch I'd be better off." This caused laughter in the room and also caused the judge to again warn Patrick to “stop the running commentary, this is a court room, not a night club.” He also showed a bit of self-deprecating humor when he described how a lifelong friend scammed him by getting him to put up $165,000 to finance a non-existent bookmaking operation. The friend disappeared, and Patrick had another man he suspected of being involved in the scam severely beaten. Patrick said he got the idea to extort money from the owner of Father & Son Pizza after the owner`s son stopped in a pizza-delivery vehicle and helped push Patrick`s car. ``I wanted to give him a few dollars, but he wouldn`t take it,`` Patrick said. ``But you decided to take some money from him?`` asked the prosecutor. Patrick replied ``That`s what happened``. In the end Patrick also added that Sam Carlisi and John DiFronzo, muscled him out of his "street taxes". Now Gus Alex’ lawyers saw a chance to make it clear that Patrick received orders from DiFrozno and Cralisi, not Alex. But Patrick defended himself by saying "Come on, come on, you're getting out of the tune there," "Now you're trying to tell me I didn't give Alex any of the profits from extortions. That's out, that's out."

In the end, the facts and evidences were too overwhelming so the defendants were found guilty. Alex, Gio, and Rainone received (Gio received additional years because he was already in prison) prison sentences of 188, 137, and 210 months, respectively. Alex was also fined $ 250,000, and both he and Rainone were subjected to heavy forfeitures. For Alex, 76 years old at the time, the prison term was a death sentence. The judge, James Alesia, who was the nephew of bootlegger Roger Touhy who was killed by the Outfit in the past, ordered Alex to pay the cost of prison, about $1,400 a month. To make sure he paid, the government froze almost $1 million in cash and securities as well as his two condominiums, on Lake Shore Drive and in Florida. Old man Alex pulled a folded handkerchief from his pocket, pushed his reading glasses out of the way and wiped the tears that rolled down from his eyes. He was then escorted in a wheelchair out of the court room surrounded by a dozen US Marshals. Patrick was sent to 6-year prison term but because of his testimony it was reduced to 2 years.


Gus Alex

But there was a problem for Lenny Patrick. He admitted, without immunity from prosecution, ordering or personally carrying out six murders in the 1940s and early 1950s. Murder cases carry no statute of limitations. Patrick`s confession caught Cook County States Attorney Jack O`Malley’s office off guard, angering county prosecutors because U.S. Attorney Fred Foreman`s office had not forewarned them. So that meant that Patrick could be charged with decades-old murders by state officials despite his extensive cooperation with federal authorities in the prosecution of top mob figures. So Foreman personally begged O’Malley to delay a decision on Patrick until after Sam Carlisi and John DiFronzo, were tried on separate charges in San Diego and Chicago. Carlisi and DiFronzo were scheduled to go on trial on January, 1993 in San Diego on charges of conspiring to gain control of an Indian reservation`s gambling casino. Also “someone” destroyed some of the records thus making it more difficult for Patrick to be charged with the six murders. Later O’Malley approved for Patrick to testify in the Carlisi trial.

On February 17, 1993, 80 year old Lenny Patrick testified for the government in United States v. Carlisi trial in San Diego. But even as an old man, Patrick was still a liar to the core. Patrick agreed to fully cooperate with the government in any investigation in which he is called upon to cooperate. He also agreed to provide complete and truthful testimony before the federal grand jury and United States District Court proceeding. But Patrick breached this part of the plea agreement by testifying falsely in the Carlisi case. The government, therefore, revoked his plea agreement and reinstated the indictment against him. In reality Patrick perjured himself while testifying against Carlisi, which led to Carlisi's acquittal in this trial. Patrick claimed that he acted in self-defense in each of the 6 murders. Patrick, originally sentenced to 6 years in prison for extortion, was given an additional 3 years as punishment for the perjury. The judge also gave Patrick additional 1 year onto his sentence. Patrick called the additional year a “death sentence.” Patrick pleaded guilty again and agreed to continue his cooperation. But the damage was already done. Patrick's perjury meant Alex's lawyers had a new issue for their appeal and gave Carlisi's attorney a lot more fodder to cross-examine him in the Chicago trial.

In this case Patrick swore to tell the truth and repeatedly acknowledged the district judge's admonishments that he was under oath. Patrick was also aware of the consequences of perjury. With the previous experience, Patrick certainly knew that if he lied in this case, his sentence could be jacked up again and he would likely die behind bars. So on December 16, 1993, Chicago’s top bosses Sam Carlisi and six other crew members were convicted on racketeering charges. Lenny Patrick’s, now truthful, testimony sealed their fate on the Daddino murder conspiracy, the juice-loan operation and ordering the intimidation of the Oak Park theater owner for refusing to negotiate with the projectionists union. Carlisi remained in custody as a flight risk until 1996 when he was convicted of mob racketeering, loansharking, and arson in connection with an illegal gambling business in the Chicago area and the West suburbs and was sentenced to 13 years in prison. When the prosecutor accused Carlisi for being the head of the Chicago mob, Sam rose to his feet and shouted "That's a lie!", "I've sat here, and I can't listen no more! That's a damn lie!" Convicted with Carlisi were his underboss James Marcello, Anthony Zizzo, Anthony Chiaramonti, and Gill Valerio. In the end, all of it had been for nothing. All of the problems began with the plot to kill Anthony Daddino because of the suspicion that he will cooperate. The bosses underestimated Daddino because he remained loyal and went to prison. On January 2, 1997, Carlisi died with fluid in his lungs as he was being dragged out by prison guards in a prison unit to a waiting golf cart. On July 24, 1998 Gus Alex died of a heart attack while confined to a federal medical center in Lexington, Kentucky at age 82.

By now 83 year old Lenny Patrick was released from federal incarceration and eventually disappeared into the Federal Witness Protection Program. There’s not much info about his remaining years only that he reportedly suffered from Alzheimer’s disease in the last decade of his life. On March 1, 2006 Leonard “Lenny” aka “Blinkey” Patrick died of natural causes, apparently in the Chicago area, at the age of 92.

One thing we can be sure of that Lenny Patrick was brilliant in doing his crime activities. He maintained for a long time period because many people around him went down in their own blood by his hand or ended in prison for the rest of their lives. He was involved in many of the Outfit’s key murder hits in overtaking many different rackets that revolutionized their crime activities. Patrick also managed to lie his way out of many difficulties. When asked if the oath really meant anything to him, he replied, "No, it don't." Patrick moved among mob titans like Ricca, Giancana and Accardo, and knew some of the secrets that they knew. Not only the secrets of the forbidden anatomies of bookmaking and juice lending in Chicago, or gangland murders but also the secrets of politics and the Outfit, and maybe vaster secrets, like the one about of the fates of the Kennedys and such. He knew that the only true mysteries were those that can never be solved. All of his life he lived in the unseen heart of the “beast” and in the end he betrayed that same “beast” to save his own ass. Patrick was real life proof that evil really exists. He didn’t care much about his wife, daughters, cousins and neither for his associates in the underworld. He only cared for one person in his whole life…himself.


This article is completed from various infos that can be found on the internet.

L. Patrick is mentioned in just about every Outfit story. According to most historians he was a notorious killer and "beat" numerous murder charges. He was one of the lucky ones who escaped death, became an informant, and died of natural causes. Something rare in OC circles.

Great post Toodoped. Cant get enough of the outfit stuff.

Great read thank you!

thats not true. RFK knew rubys mob connection shortly afterwards, (but he already was out of power and the warren commission was pressed by hoover to accept his "lone nut theory" because most of the commissions information was provided by the fbi), but not the general public. Rumors started spreading first in the (late) 70s that the mob was involved.


i highly recommend to read lamar waldrons book "The Hidden History of the JFK Assassination" - there is no doubt in my mind that this book solves nearly all questions, only the identity of the shooters are still not known, there only strong suspicions..
highly recommended read!

will continue to read now, awesome compilation of the jewish outfit faction!

The closest thing to a "conspiracy" about the JFK assassination is that a Marxist did it but so many liberals couldn't wrap their minds around that so years later tons of people think it was some right wing military-industrial complex plot.

Even then neurosis is a better word really.

Thanks a lot guys and also thank you for the support. I really appreaciate it.

To tell you the truth, i was thinking to myself if i should leave out the JFK/Ruby/Patrick reports and personal comments because i knew that this thread might explode into an endless JFK conspiracy or not debate.

It always pissed me off that [spoiler] in Boardwalk Empire S2 the Irishman Jimmy Darmody leaves the Chicago mob because he feels like it's just an Italian thing. They didn't really care who you were so long as you brought in money and connections. For christsakes, Gus Alex was on their ruling panel for a long time, Jake Guzik functioned as boss in Capone's absence. Need I go on.

That's the interesting thing about the Outfit. I think early history provided a blueprint for their later history. That is to say, their violent prohibition behavior and ethnic inclusion provided a roadmap for later outfit bosses. And both were smart moves. The outfit remained violent to a tee and used that reputation to corner new rackets like no other family, and their inclusion allowed non-Italians like dave yaras (ran a whole city in florida) and frank rostenthal to hold very important positions because they were the best possible person for those jobs. In this way the outfit was a meritocracy.

great read toodoped, we can always count on you for the true history of the Chicago outfit. many thanks to you, young man

will try to order the book " the hidden history of the JFK assassination" thank you mickey2 it should be interesting.

No problem Binnie, its my pleasure.

As BarrettM said, the old Chicago Outfit was a unique criminal organization in the states. They didnt care who you were or where you came from, they only cared about the money and loyalty towards the organization. Thats why i choosed the duo Patrick and Yaras as an example of how the Outfit really worked in those days. Although this guys were small potatoes compared to mob titans like Guzik, Humphries or Vogel who never had any long jail terms and made a lot of money for themselves, the organization and their family legacies

thanks toodoped. great read!

Thanks mickey

GOOD info Toodoped

Thanks ricky.You gave me the idea

" the jewish arm" is usually the arm that is used for picking up a tab or leaving to tip a waitress. for example, Ira Goldberg is right handed and he and some friends are out to lunch, when the check comes, Ira suddenly cant move his right arm in order to reach in his pocket and get money. Thats the jewish arm.
There is also " the jewish ear" which is when someone tells Ira the cost and he claims he cant hear and tries to walk away. This is very common in the Hassidic community.

Well that can surely apply to Patrick's stingy personality.

Any time you done a good job nice one Bro

Crash, you should write for SNL . You gut some imagination.