The Chicago Outfit, one of the most infamous organized crime groups in the world with its own history filled with dark tales of gangsters and serial killers mixed with the greed for the all mighty dollar. During the pursuit of gold and riches, these people learned how to organize themselves into an unholy brotherhood that managed to infiltrate even in the highest levels of society. They used to portrait themselves as ordinary everyday people and also as modern day robin hoods. In reality they were nothing more than egoistic and barbaric villains with the sense for shrewd business deals and destruction of society. Most of these so-called mobsters came from the dirty slums and filthy streets of Chicago that used to be filled with poverty and death. So the gangster’s natural tactics of forcing other people to go the wrong way was by violence. Violence is the main rule for going up in the underworld and also to maintain order among the gangsters themselves. So to be considered a very violent and at the same time shrewd person in the underworld is a great achievement because everyday you have to deal with all kinds of murderers, psychopaths and backstabbing thieves. If you ever had the chance to ask a mobster about how he could do so many nasty and evil things to people, he would simply reply that there’s nothing personal in that and that’s all just business. If we agree with the ill logic of the mobster, any killing would be instantly justifiable, right? Why the need to observe the first precept of non-killing out of respect for life then? Now, this is rather classic unwholesome rationalisation of the unrepentantly abusive people who don’t think even for second that “what goes around comes around” in this life. In other words, if one wilfully, intentionally, with greed, hatred and delusion creates or supports suffering for others, one instantly creates negative karma for oneself too or the people that the one loves most. It’s just the way it is. So this is the story about a high profile member of the Chicago Outfit who foolishly justified his destructive deeds and non-constructive actions and along the way managed to awake the law of karma. In the end he became just another “wasted talent” in a long line of other wasted talents. “As I have seen, those who plow iniquity and sow trouble reap the same“. - Job 4:8


Sam “Teets” Battaglia was one of the most notorious criminals within the Chicago mob. Sam came from a criminal blood line and was surrounded by notorious relatives who by osmosis brought him in to the “life”. Even when he was just “small potatoes” in the criminal world, Sam again managed to bring the attention from the law and at the same time caught the eyes of the big shots of Chicago’s underworld. When he reached the top, Sam already represented someone who was known as a veteran and who survived through the notoriously gun-toting days of the late 1920’s and early 30’s upon which legend thrives, were certainly very “exciting” days. He also witnessed the birth and formation of the Chicago Outfit and tasted its glory days. Sam managed to hurt a lot of families and spread fear and hatred among his fellow mobsters. In the end he got what he deserved, but the sad thing was that his own blood got the worst of it. This is his story...


The influx of many immigrants to America from Southern and Eastern Europe came in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This immigration of biblical proportions is very well known in the history books and as time it became a part of our common pop cultural memory. Most of us heard about the stories of squalor and struggle in New York’s Lower East Side, or perhaps about the ethnic enclaves in Boston or Philadelphia. Of course these immigrants didn’t settle only on the Eastern Seaboard but they went everywhere where there was a demand for supply of labor in the newly industrialized U.S.A. Many of the newly arrived Italians, Polacks and Greeks went to the midsized cities on the Midwestern rivers and lakes such as Chicago, Detroit and Wisconsin where the humming industry gave opportunity for the skilled. Today in our modern world, these immigrant stories are best portrayed in the movies like The Godfather Part II, where we can see that the Italian people brought not only their original traditions like food and religion but also their criminal activities and groups such as the world wide infamous crime organizations known as the Mafia and Camorra. Back in Europe these two criminal groups represents two separate organizations, for example the Camorra comes from the southern part of Italy and the Mafia comes from Sicily. In the old days, the two groups brought their differences to the newly formed world and clashed into constant conflicts for profits and territories. But their children or in other words the “young turks” that were born in the U.S. changed the old ways and brought the criminal empires on a level which their fathers could’ve only dreamed of.


At the beginning of 20th century one small town on the Midwest became one of the centers for the arriving Italian immigrants who later spread around in the nearby cities. That town goes by the name of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Kenosha is situated on Lake Michigan on Wisconsin’s southern border with Illinois. Nearly equidistant between Chicago and Milwaukee, Kenosha was an emerging industrial port city and was the home to many new company factories. So Kenosha attracted many Italian immigrants from Calabria, mostly from the Cosenza area and also Sicilians mainly from the Palermo area. One of those Italian families was the Battaglia’s. Salvatore Battaglia and his wife Giuseppa(Josephine) Scaletta Battaglia arrived somewhere around the late 1890’s and during their stay they brought four sons and two daughters to this world. The brothers were Frank (born 1906), Sam (born 1908), Anthony (born 1914) and the youngest one Joseph (born 1916). Salvatore “Sam” Jr. was born June 30, 1908 in Kenosha County. Later the family moved to Chicago on the Near West Side part of the city on Taylor Street. During the 1910’s it was reported that over 10,000 Italian immigrants lived in the blocks around Taylor Street between Halsted and the Chicago River. There were also other immigrants such as the Polish Jews and Greeks in the same area but 70% of the population belonged to the Italians. The poverty and the poor conditions in the area led to the formations of many notorious criminal gangs and of course the most powerful ones were the Italian gangs. Because of the bad financial conditions inside the big Italian families, many young people dedicated their lived to crime and the Battaglia brothers were no exception.



Chicago’s West Side at the beginning of the 20th century


The Battaglia’s were a very big family. Some of Salvatore Sr. blood relatives already were established with their families in Chicago. So the young Battaglia brothers had a lot of cousins that already knew the area. Two of their oldest cousins, Paul Battaglia (born 1895) and August “Augie” Battaglia (born 1897), were the first of the Battaglia clan who entered in the world of crime and later brought all of their younger cousins into the same world. During the late 1910’s one of the main street crime group on Taylor Street was the Genna crime family. This crime group was led by 6 Sicilian brothers who managed to set up a cheese and olive oil distribution company and sold these commodities to their fellow immigrants. But the problem was that their main business was the “Black Hand" style extortion plots in that area and they were the ones that decided on who’s going to live and who’s going to die. For example, Tony Genna was a shrewd building contractor and architect and was also the most intelligent of all brothers. Sam Genna was a saloon keeper and political fixer of the gang. His brother James was a prominent thief and burglar while Angelo and Mike were the bloody enforcers. At the beginning of the roaring 1920’s the law of prohibition of alcohol came to effect and so the Gennas found their new way of making illegal profits. Because of the numerous competitions in this new venture the Gennas needed a bigger army and recruits. Angelo “Bloody” Genna had the ability to make others do his bidding through brutal force and later became street-level recruiter for the gang. By this time Paul Battaglia fought his way through the streets of Chicago and managed to catch the eye of Angelo Genna. Paul became a significant soldier for Angelo because he had the connections to many hungry young hoodlums who would’ve done anything for a quick buck. Through his younger blood relatives like Augie, Frank, Sam and Joseph, Paul had countless connections to all kinds of young burglars and shoplifters. Many of the youngsters were recruited by Paul to work in the Genna’s alcohol stills and were usually paid $15 a day because of the high risk. Later the “Bloody Gennas” as they were called, became known as the kings of corn sugar alcohol on Chicago’s West Side.





During his rise, Paul was arrested numerous times for burglary and for receiving a stolen property. In 1923 Paul was arrested together with his mentor Angelo Genna for carrying a concealed weapon. They were taken to a police station but according to mob lore Angelo’s reputation was too scary so the cops decided to drop the charges. While Paul was making a name for himself in the underworld, young Sam Battaglia and the rest of the brothers followed their older cousin’s footsteps. August Battaglia worked at one of the stills that were controlled by the Gennas. Augie, as he was known among his fellow criminals, was a mild-mannered and very likeable person but at the same time very deadly. Augie and Paul also collected cash from other small time bootleggers that owed money to the Gennas. Augie was the guy who sweet talked the debtors and if they didn’t pay up than they had to deal with Paul. Their younger cousin Sam was a tall blue eyed youngster with brown hair and with the guts to rob everything and anyone at any time. Sam started holding up drivers of merchandise trucks and managed to steal the trucks and the goods. One of his “specialities” was doing stick ups on wealthy people. He was often in company with his elder brother Frank. Frank was two years older than Sam and was a very ruthless street thug who always kept a gun in one of his pockets. He was known as a guy who would shoot anyone, even cops. Joseph was the youngest one and was also a very wild hoodlum who was arrested numerous times for vagrancy. The Battaglia brothers had their protection from the Genna organization and were running wild all across the West Side.



Paul Battaglia


But in 1924 the Genna brothers became targets of another criminal group which came from the North Side of the city. This group thought that the Gennas had a hand in the assassination of their beloved leader Dean O'Banion. This “unusual” thinking was born because of Genna’s association with another fast rising criminal group which was led by Italian crime boss Giovanni Torrio and his second in command Alphonse Capone. Torrio and Capone were in all out war with the Northsiders and both groups were making allies all around Chicago. This was a terrible time period for Chicago’s underworld which was filled with backstabbing games and soon the streets were filled with blood. The young turks such as the Battaglia brothers were in the middle of the crossfire. The Gennas started receiving hits from all sides but the main problem was the internal dissatisfaction among the ranks. Many of their so-called soldiers started betraying their bosses and the reason was greed. The Genna brothers were wielding way too much wealth and they gave almost nothing in return so some of their associates started to change sides. For example their two prime enforcers Albert Anselmi and John Scalise became more loyal to the Torrio/Capone mob and the list went on. So the Battaglia brothers saw the writing on the wall and started to seek their independence.


The year of 1925 was a black year for the Genna family. On May 26 Angelo “Bloody” Genna was killed during a car chase by the North Side group. His body was riddled from machinegun bullets but somehow managed to survive for an hour. Next on June 13 his brother Mike “The Devil” Genna was killed by two cops because of a previous shootout. Mike and two of his associates were in a shootout with the Northsiders and killed two police officers in the process. On July 8, Tony Genna was betrayed by one of his associates. He received a call and was called on a meeting. When he met his partner Tony was killed right on the spot. James Genna fled to Italy and the rest of the brothers waved the white flag.


Now the Battaglia brothers were left to be on their own and they didn’t work for any of the big criminal groups but instead Paul managed to gather another small juvenile gang under his wing. This juvenile gang was known as the 42’s and their leader or “smarthead” as he was called, was 22 year old Jospeh Calaro aka Joey “Babe Ruth” Cole. Calaro was a runner for Paul during the Genna period and was also a close friend of Augie Battaglia. Calaro was a very flashy dresser, he wore silk underwear, silk shirts and a suit and overcoat made from very expensive materials and also had a diamond ring on his left hand. The gang’s activities ranged from stealing coins from telephone booths and stealing cars to murder. They also held up nightclubs, robbed cigar stores and stole from peddlers. They even killed the horses that pulled peddlers’ carts, and sold their hind legs to businesses that purchased horse meat, which decades later will grow in a huge illegal business. Many of these young hoodlums were used by the big time criminals and bootleggers to do their dirty work. Some of the young turks were awarded for their evil deeds and some were found with a bullet in the back of their heads. Calaro and Augie used to take 5 to 10 dollars from every member, every month, in case of "hard times". 17 year old Sam Battaglia felt quite comfortable as a part of this gang since many of its members were almost his age and also had the same criminal mentality. Sam felt as a member of a real Italian criminal organization similar to the Capones or the Aiellos from the North Side. In reality they were small potatoes in Chicago’s underworld because they were bunch of young ruthless murdering teenagers with no sense for business or love and kindness for any human being. Sam met a lot of up and coming young hoodlums and rapists such as Salvatore “Sam” Giancana and Pete Nicastro. Giancana showed him how to steal cars and Nicastro showed him that everyone can be killed, even the cops. Sam became a very ambitions young criminal but the time for his rise in the underworld was just too early.


In 1926 Sam Battaglia was arrested for burglary. The same year his older brother Frank was also arrested on a charge of attempted burglary. Sam spent a year in the reformatory and Frank served four months in the county jail. This was the first time when the Battaglia brothers have hit the newspapers and slowly but surely the brothers were making their names known all across the underworld. On November 13, 1927 the leader of the 42’s “Babe Ruth” Calaro and one associate were caught by the police striping an automobile in the rear of 1317 Elburn Av. When the cops got near them the pair fled the scene but one of the cops fired few shots at them. The next morning, Calaro was found almost dead just few blocks down from the crime scene. He was shot once in the leg and once in the back. Calaro was taken to the nearest hospital but it was too late because he already lost a lot of blood. Now the 42’s needed a new street leader and next in line was another young and very notorious hoodlum Pasquale “Two Gun Patsy” Tardi. Tardi wasn’t like his previous leader Calaro. He usually walked in the same clothes for more than six month and was always out of money. But he was going to shoot anyone at any time and that’s what Paul Battaglia needed.



42 gang leader Pasquale “Patsy” Tardi


By the late 1920’s the most prominent crime group in Chicago was the Capone gang which now was led by Al Capone himself. Al didn’t liked much some of these small criminal groups such as the 42’s, because he considered himself the prime criminal boss of Chicago and all he needed was a sharp shooters, tough bodyguards, shrewd criminals and of course a lot of lawyers since he was considered “Public Enemy #1” by the government. So this meant that if any of these young hoods even tried to do a job on a restricted area, they were going to end up in a ditch. But that never happened because somehow Capone tolerated the young hoodlums to an extent. But not all of Capone’s associates were stubborn as their boss. Jewsih gangster Jack Zuta was one of Capone allies and started his career as a junk dealer and ended up as political fixer and as a pimp. Zuta also had a close relationship with Paul Battaglia and the 42’s. But the problem was that later Zuta changed his loyalty to North Side gang which was in war with the Capone mob. Now things looked bad for Paul and the 42’s because Tardi became one of Zuta’s close henchmen. Tardi worked as a house keeper in Zuta’s brothels and also delivered his services as a hitman. But the biggest problem wasn’t the alliance with the Nortsiders but the real problem was this one hit that Tardi was in on it. Chicago Tribune reporter Jake Lingle became a “stone in the shoe” for Chicago’s underworld, especially for Jack Zuta, because of his reports and stories that usually hit the newspapers headlines.



Jack Zuta

On the afternoon of June 9, 1930, Lingle left the Sherman House Hotel and was on his way to catch the 1:30 pm train to a racetrack in Homewood where he gambled on horses. On his way though the Randolph Street Terminal, he was followed by two young males. One of the youngsters pulled a .38 caliber pistol and shot Lingle directly in the back of the head. Lingle’s death raised a public outcry but his death brought a lot of relief among the city’s gangsters. Right after the Lingle killing on June 30, 1930 Zuta was taken into custody for questioning regarding the murder. He was released the next day and while being given a police escort, the police cruiser was fired on by several unidentified gunmen. The attackers killed two bystanders before being driven off by police. Zuta fled Chicago and moved to Upper Nemahbin Lake, west of Milwaukee and changed his name to J.H. Goodman. So obviously stories spread around that Zuta was singing like a canary and was giving all of his informations on the Capone mob. So on August 1, 1930 Zuta was killed by two Capone hitmen in a road house in Delafield, Wisconsin.



Murder scene of Jake Lingle


Now the 42’s were again left without a sponsor and they also became targets. Paul Battaglia didn’t have the brains to be a leader and to become a big shot so the gang became reckless. They didn’t have any money so the boys started robbing everything and anyone. The problem was that the 42’s didn’t know the vast network of money collectors and people that were protected by the Capone mob and during the robbing process they made a few mistakes here and there which costed their own lives and also the lives of their close ones. For example, like the fatal mistake young Sam Battaglia did.


On October 6, 1930 the wife of the Mayor of Chicago William Hale “Big Bill” Thompson, Mary Thompson, went to see a show downtown together with her sister. Mary always dressed very well and also wore expensive jewels on her neck and wrists. When the show ended at around 11:00 pm Mrs. Thompson's driver, a Chicago police officer, picked her up outside the theater and drove her home. When the driver pulled up at the apartment building, at 3100 N. Sheridan, suddenly three men stepped out of a Nash automobile, pulled out their pistols and attacked the driver. One of the attackers kept the driver on the ground with a pistol on his head and the other two forced the Mayor’s wife into the building, pressed their guns against her forehead and told her to give them all her jewels. The criminals took off in their car and got away with 6.5-carat blue diamond ring, a 40-diamond bracelet, and a diamond brooch set. Mrs Thompson was a nervous wreck for several days and when the police came and asked her about the robbers, she gave the description of a tall handsome and good looking youth with blue eyes and brown hair. The street cops suddenly realized that the person involved in the robbery was 42 gang member Sam Battaglia. Mayor “Big Bill” Thompson called the chief of police and demanded immediate action. But the biggest problem for Sam wasn’t the law, but it was the Mayor’s close connections to Chicago’s number one gangster Al Capone. Later the cops arrested Sam and one of his close associates William Carr. Carr was also a member of the 42’s and was involved in many robberies and murders. Also arrested were John “Red” Carr, who was William’s brother, Maurice and Richard O’Connor, Sam Messi, Dave Micoletti and Joe Catrina.



Sam Battaglia arrested for the robbery


The trial for Battaglia was set to be in October 1930 but there was a problem. The court bailiffs were unable to obtain service on Mrs. Thompson, who was wanted as a main witness. Mrs Thompson told the bailiffs that she was allegedly very ill and could not make it to the trial. With or without the positive identification, Sam Battaglia was in court on October 10, 1930. There were numerous newspaper headlines before trial and also pictures showing Battaglia’s face. When Mrs. Lottle Brenner, the wife of the fake “count” Von Buelow, saw Battaglia’s face she immediately called the detectives and told them that she was robbed for $50,000 in gems some months ago and that Sam Battaglia was the one who did it. Mrs. Brenner also insisted that her case should take precedence over Mrs. Thompson’s case because the loss was larger. But Mrs. Thompson was the Mayor’s wife so Mrs. Bremmer’s case was placed on halt. During the trial Mrs. Thompson did not testify, but her driver Policeman Peter O’Malley did. But the problem was that his testimony was challenged by Battaglia’s lawyer Julius Reznik. Reznik said that first O’Malley reorted that he wasn’t quite positive about Battaglia being one of the robbers but later changed his mind that he was. Reznik accused O’Malley that he was just a puppet for Police Commissioner John Alcock and was forcibly influenced to make the identification. Reznik also said that he’s going to bring 6 witnesses to the bench on behalf of Battaglia just to prove that he wasn’t at the crime scene. Than Judge John Lyle turned to O’Malley and told him “I appreciate your position but I don’t want you to get in any trouble. I don’t want you to identify anyone for your chief in order that he can just clean a robbery”. The witness and the prosecutor protested but it was too late. Whether he was telling the truth or not, O’Malley has been compromised. Also maybe Battaglia had some backing or maybe he really had a good lawyer, so in the end he was acquitted due to insufficient evidence, and the missing $17,000 jewels were never recovered. Now Sam Battaglia became a star among the young hoodlums in the underworld. He had the guts to rob the wife of one of the most corrupt mayors in the states, and in the end he got away clean. The young criminals around him were very happy but some of the old gangsters were not.



Mary Thompson