As we can see clearly from the above conversation that Battaglia was virtually playing games with the committee but deep inside of him he wasn’t laughing because he knew that this kind of publicity wasn’t good for him, or his associates and the organization in general. As additional info, Battaglia took the fifth more than sixty times during the questioning.



Battaglia at the McClellan Committee









Anyways, the next year in 1959, Roger Touhy, who was known for his hatred toward the Chicago Outfit, was released from prison after 25 years of incarceration. Touhy had a quite a good reason to hate the Outfit because he was railroaded to prison in a conspiracy between the Outfit and the state attorney's office as a result of the framed kidnapping of John Factor. In fact Factor helped the Outfit to get rid of Touhy once and for all and was now their front man in the Stardust Casino in Vegas. While Factor and the Outfit were growing rich off the Stardust, Roger Touhy hired a quirky, high strung, but highly effective lawyer named Robert B. Johnstone to take his case. A brilliant legal tactician, who worked incessantly on Touhy's freedom, Robert Johnstone managed to get Touhy's case heard before federal judge John P. Barnes, a refined magistrate filled with his own eccentricities. Judge John P. Barnes released a 1,500-page decision on Touhy's case, finding that Touhy was in fact framed in a conspiracy and that John Factor had kidnapped himself as a means to avoid extradition to England. Touhy and Johnstone fought back by drawing up the papers to enter a $300,000,000 lawsuit against John Factor, Paul Ricca, Tony Accardo and Murray Humpreys as well as former Cook County state attorney Thomas Courtney and Tubbo Gilbert, his chief investigator, for wrongful imprisonment. As some of the big shots in the Outfit knew, murder was bad for business because it brought a lot of heat from the government and also made a lot of enemies. They used to be afraid that murder may bring unwanted attention to their illegal operations and schemes, but this was a different situation which brought their Las Vegas operations in great danger.


In the early evening of December 16, 1959, Roger Touhy prepared to drive to a meeting with Ray Brennan, Touhy's ghost writer of his biography, "The Stolen Years". At 5:00 p.m. Walter Miller, a retired Chicago cop who had once guarded John Factor and who was now acting as Touhy's bodyguard, pulled his car up to the front of Roger's sister's home and waited for Touhy. Miller walked out of the car to help Touhy while the two old men slowly walked up they suddenly heard a call from one of the two men running toward them. Instinctively, Miller reached and pulled out his police badge and said to the men "Wait, hold on, we're police officers" but it was too late. The men were running toward them, already pulled out their shotguns as they sprinted across the frozen street. Miller aimed and fired at the men who fired back with shotguns. Miller raised his left arm to cover his face and nearly had it blown off at the elbow. Hundreds of pellets lodged into his back and legs. Almost at the exact moment that Miller was blown backwards, two huge blasts from the killers' shotguns knocked Roger across the porch and then smashed him face first into the ground. Hundreds of pellets tore a hole in Touhy's left inner leg, the other pellets dug into his right upper rib cage. The leg was barely attached to the body. The killers disappeared into the night. Touhy was brought to a hospital where Father Richard Birmingham was brought into the room and gave Roger Touhy the last rights of the church, which he completed at 11:23. Two minutes later, at 11:25, Roger Touhy expired. Miller survived the attack and was taken to the Loretto Hospital under strong police surveillance and armed guards. A crime reporter from the Chicago Daily News sneaked in and managed to ask Miller about his attackers. Miller gave a description of man known as Sam Battaglia. Later the reporter gave Battaglia’s name to Police Captain Russell Corcoran who immediately issued an arrest warrants for Sam Battaglia and Marshall Caifano. The police force knew that the duo were the kind of people that murder was an “everyday thang”. The gruesome reputation really preceded them because the cops questioned and always took them as suspects about every possible murder that occurred in the Chicago area.



Roger Touhy lying on the ground while bleeding to death


On December 18, Battaglia and Caifano were brought in for questioning and were also taken into custody. But the problem was when Miller was called to identify the attackers he suddenly changed his previously given statements. Miller said that he didn’t mean the “Sam Battaglia, who was known as an infamous hoodlum but another “Sam Battaglia. He also later denied that he ever singled out a suspect and said something like "I saw some strangers. I wouldn't know whether they were black, while or colored. I wouldn't know who they were and that's that." Coroner Walter McCarron asked Miller about a reporter's statement that he said one of the killers might have been Sam Battaglia, Miller replied "I was loaded with morphine and I couldn't have identified my own brother." It was obvious that Miller was very much afraid for his life and the lives of his family, so he decided to keep quite and developed the infamous “Chicago amnesia”. I personally don’t believe that he saw Battaglia as one of the shooters but maybe he recognized one of them that belonged to his crew. Also many Veteran Chicago police officers were dubious that the Battaglia of that period would ever have to do his own gun slinging. They were right because Battaglia was 51 years old and was also way too big to do the dirty work by himself. Although we can’t exclude the possibility that the killers were from his own crew but we can say for sure that he wasn’t involved directly. If you ask me, I would place my bets on four mobsters, including Charles Nicoletti, Joseph Amabile, Lenny Patrick or William Block so pick two. Plus I’m sure that the guys who pulled the strings in Touhy’s murder were Murray Humphreys and his number two guy Gus Alex. According to a wiretapped conversation between Humphreys and Outfit member Joey Glimco, Humphreys had two main reasons to push for the murder. One was that he had never forgiven Touhy for humiliating him back in 1931 and the second was the lawsuit that Touhy planned to set on motion against Humphreys, Ricca and Accardo. Also the very same day of Touhy’s assassination, Gus Alex fled Chicago and went straight to hiding in New Jersey. Anyway the murder of Roger Touhy remained unsolved.


Battaglia’s reputation as a guy who shoots first and asks question later, was not only known among the police men but it was also known among his fellow mobsters. In January, 1960, the FBI caught a wiretapped conversation between top echelon guys from the non-Italian faction of the Chicago Outfit like Murray Humphreys, Les Kruse and Ralph Pierce. Pierce took over as one of the South Side bosses after the death of Sam Hunt. The three hoods discussed a situation in which Irvin Hornstein, a well known jewel fence from Chicago, owed the Stardust Casino in Vegas $7,400 and that for months he has failed to settle the debt. In this regard, Pierce made a comment that only “Teets” is the right guy that can solve the problem. Humphreys suddenly jumped up and said that “Teets” is out of the question because they needed Horstein to stay alive. Humphreys knew that recently Battaglia personally chased half way through Melrose Park and almost publicly killed a small gambling debtor for lousy $300. But not everyone was lucky as Hornstein. Ralph DelGenio, who worked as a truck driver, was also known as money collector for Outfit’s loan sharks, especially for Sam Battaglia. But one day DelGenio made a huge mistake by not bringing a $100,000 of loan collections. Story goes that his son Frederick DelGenio was responsible for the missing cash. The cash reportedly was stolen and hidden by Frederick with out the knowing of his father. Ralph DelGenio was picked up by Battaglia’s goons and was taken to a basement for questioning regarding the stolen cash. On June 20, 1961 Ralph was found in his auto parked on the edge of the Loop. He had been beaten and kicked to death.


The same year, there was a high profile mob conference between Murray Humphreys, Frank Ferraro and Sam Battaglia. The purpose for this meeting was the safety of their meeting place which was located in room 108 of the St. Clair Hotel at 162 East Ohio Street in Chicago. Battaglia was very much concerned that law enforcement agencies might become aware of their meeting place in that hotel room. And he was right because the feds already bugged the place and listened to every conversation. In this connection Humphreys made the following reply to Battaglia’s concerns:

HUMPHREYS: The danger in the spot is, putting too much confidence in the operators. Frankie is the one that does that. I talked to him the other day. He only gives the operators five a month. I said, Frankie, you’ll never get by that way. You’ll have to give them money. You want people on your side, you’ll have to give them something. So I said, you oughta give those girls 100 dollars for Christmas present, and he said ok, I think I will. That’s up to him. That’s up to him. You cant give them too much, but if you give them 20 dollars a month see, that’s cheap for you to protect yourself. What’s the use of kidding. But then if you get an important call, than you gotta get off your ass, and go out and call. You, because any conversation goes out on the telephone, now, Sam, say you should talk to me, than I’d know you right away. Just say “Hi”, or what is it. I’ll see you over a Jake the Plumber with a bum name, and that’s all the conversation. Now they’d have to figure out that conversation. All right, the next time you call, you say “Hi”, you understand, they don’t know who the hell it is, do they? They don’t know, but then they may get your voice, after a while, see. You have to give them credit for something. Of course, the government is famous for breaking down codes. That’s nothing for them to break down codes. If you use a code on them, in a little while, they’ll work it out. But it may take them some time. Now take… he’s a lazy fuck. He’s out in Cicero. He says, this guy was over today, and says this and says that, or George did this or that, and then he’s putting the finger right on you, see? Because he’s lazy, and didn’t come down. All he has to say, is I want to see you, where can I see you? All he has to say, is the Tailor’s. Everybody knows about the tailor. At one time we used have one, two, and three, and four, and we’d change, back and forth. But that was among ourselves. I’d defy them to find out where we was at, unless they’d follow, say, number four, then they’d break it down, but then we’d change our numbers every month, and Mooney (Giancana) would come to me, and say, now this month is going to be such and such, you know, se we’d change the numbers, Gussie (Gus Alex) and I would, and Frank (Ferraro) and Mooney and Joe (Joe Batters a.k.a. Tony Accardo).


According to this statement which was made by Humphreys himself, we can see that he was a very shrewd mobster and always taught the younger generation on how to keep low profile and at the same time, how to keep in contact and keep their operations floating. Battaglia was a good learner and managed to keep his gambling and loan sharking operations real tight. The nucleus of all of Battaglia’s vice operations was composed of five clubs that were located in hoodlum-dominated Melrose Park, including The Avenue Lounge a.k.a. The Casa Madrid, The Charm Club Inc., Mary Ann’s Tavern a.k.a. Mary Lou’s, Angelo’s and Club Twenty. One of Battaglia’s most profitable clubs was the Chez Paree Club which had a national reputation. The club had a back room which was known as the “Gold Key Club” and this room was operated for many years as a gambling concession by Battaglia himself. Battaglia used to take 60% of all gambling operations and 40% were given to his operators. Battaglia received complete police protection including the use of Melrose Park police officers to escort Battaglia’s men to the local bank with the previous day’s receipts. Guys like Alderisio, Pranno, Daddano and Nicoletti became more and more powerful so Battaglia gave them their own independent operations and territories. But the deal was they still had to include him in major operations as their partner and also they still gave him a small cut from their profits as a sign of respect. That cut was usually split between Battaglia and the boss of the Outfit Sam Giancana. Now the main members or operators for the Melrose Park crew were Rocco Salvatore and Battaglia’s younger brother Joseph. They oversaw almost every gambling or loan sharking operations for their boss, for example the high stakes card games. The card games were conducted in the early morning hours at a recreational hall located at 2111 West Lake Street and in a building complex which was located at 26th and Lake Streets in Melrose Park. The card games were operated by Elmer Del Percio, his brother Willie Del Percio, Gerald Nargie, Angelo Pacheco and John Zitto. Zitto was a long time close associate of Battaglia in the gambling business. This crew was also involved in many card-cheating operations. The scheme was done with the help of a peephole that was made in the ceiling above the players and short-wave electronic signals were sent to Battaglia’s accomplices that were involved in the cheating. They managed to swindle many people from Chicago's elite of millions of dollars. Joseph Battaglia’s major chore was hauling each dawn to a night depository the thousands of dollars which were taken across the gambling tables of these card games. According to FBI reports, some of the biggest transfers were made under the escort of the Melrose Park police.


Now Rocco Salvatore used the alias Bobby Doer and worked as a front man in many mob owned gambling clubs, especially The Charm Club. Salvatore also operated other very profitable enterprises for Battaglia in the western suburbs, such as real estate. Richard Derrico was another member of the crew who operated a large gambling operation on 2413 West Lake Street. Joe Dom Scaccia was another high profile gambling operator for the Battaglia group who operated a large scale gambling operation out of his Square Deal Auto Wreckers shop. Nicholas Palermo was another high profile associate of Battaglia who worked as a “Mob plumber”. Palermo was a prominent extortionist and also owned the Mayo Plumbing Co. in Melrose Park with his brothers, Gino and Frank. Palermo was the uncle of Tony Accardo’s son-in-law. He knew Accardo for over 40 years and was considered as a part of his “inner circle.” Also John Tarrara was one of the members of the Battaglia group who was also a close associate of Paul Ricca. Other members of the crew were loan shark operator Anthony Padavonia and gambling operator Pasquale Clementi. One of Battaglia’s main protectors was a Police Captain from the Oak Park Police Department by the name of Lewis Case. The Police Captain even served from time to time as Battaglia’s family chauffer and escort. Battaglia collected his juice loans with the help of a private detective named Julian Burkman from the Advanced Detective agency at 64 West Randolph Street in Chicago. Burkman’s job was to locate recipients of juice loans from Battaglia who tried to skip out on their debts. In Franklin Park, Battaglia also oversaw many vending and pinball machine operations with the help of three ruthless enforcers, Sam Ariola, Guy Cervone and Louis Eboli. One day, two men were caught cheating on a pinball machine in a tavern and were picked up by River Grove policemen. In the police station, the two cheaters were subsequently turned over to Ariola, Cerovone and Eboli by the cops. So the two cheaters were taken to a Franklin Park warehouse and were viciously beaten with baseball bats.


Battaglia’s organization derived tremendous sums of illegal income from these wide open casino type around the clock gambling joints and vending operations. And don’t forget that this were only two operations. So if you include the large scale of loan sharking and other illegal or legal activities, we’ll see a much larger picture of Battaglia’s underworld network. During this period, the Outfit ran a lot of legitimate businesses like real estate and also managed a lot of locals, firms or small factories. For example, Sonny Lazarus who was the public adjustor for the Lazarus Company lent $150,000 from Battaglia personally. This resulted from Sonny’s gambling addiction on horse betting. So in order to afford Lazarus the opportunity to pay off his debt, he was utilized by Battaglia as a public adjustor on countless fraudulent insurance claims which resulted from fire to theft losses. Battaglia stayed in touch with Lazarus directly or through his brother Joseph. Also Battaglia together with Phil Alderisio and Irwin Weiner opened an investment firm known as the I.S.P. Company. The “I” presumably stood for Irwin, the “P” from Phil and the “S” for Sam. Their company maintained very large amounts of cash in the Exchange National Bank probably for hoodlum operations. The trio also had their fingers in many other companies such as the Grayslake Peat Moss Company, the General Leasing Company and the First Finance Company. Battaglia’s chauffer and constant companion Joseph Rocco also rose through the ranks and became an associate of the Marshall Savings and Loan Company. Battaglia’s chief handbook operator Frankie Beto, owned a storefront called Harrison Court Cleaners on 2905 West Harrison Street. The name “Court Cleaners” came from the fact that most of its handbooks clients were lawyers who came from the nearby law library. Battaglia, Alderisio, and Beto even had their own shares in one of the Outfit’s most profitable operations the Sahara Inn Hotel which was fronted by Manny Skar. The gang even took small parts of their funds and started investing heavily in commercial real estate in many cities outside of Chicago. For example, the crew started to invest their dirty cash in a massive industrial office complex located in Tucson, Arizona. Also with the help of Battaglia’s old friend Lou Fratto, who was now the boss in Des Moines, Iowa, they also invested in a car leasing companies and building supplies wholesale companies in that same area. They even had shares in clothing factories, food processors, dairy products and theatres, for example in Indiana or Wisconsin.


By this time Sam Battaglia was one of the kings of Chicago’s underworld. He was intimately acquainted with the top echelon guys like Ricca, Giancana and Accardo and because of that he felt untouchable. Almost every Saturday Battaglia went to Ricca’s house in River Forest for a nice Italian dinner. Battaglia even became the fishing companion of Accardo in Bimini and elsewhere. Accardo had three main fishing companions when he took off for his frequent forays for fish, Jackie Cerone, Joey Aiuppa and Sam Battaglia. This was a clear sign that Battaglia was slowly groomed by these “ancient” bosses for a higher position in the organization. Accardo and Battaglia had their own shares in the Fox Head Brewery Company in Waukesha, Wisconsin. On June 13, 1959, Accardo, Battaglia, Rocco DeStefano, "Foggie" Fillichio, Marshall Caifano and Jack Cerone visited the brewery, with arrangements for the brewery tour being made by Cerone who was the brewery’s representative at the time. Also every Sunday night, Battaglia held a meeting at his house together with Weiner, Frabotta, Alderisio and Rocco Salvatore, to establish their present and future operations. His underlings attended these meetings almost without a fail.


Battaglia lived in a big house at 1114 N. Ridgeland in Oak Park. In those days if you were considered a big shot in the Chicago Outfit, there was no better place to buy a home than Oak Park and River Forest. Battaglia's home was valued at $50,000 or $390,000 in 2015 dollars. Bataglia also owned a huge 400 acre farm since the late 1940’s, which was located 55 miles northwest of Chicago on Damisch Road in Pingree Grove, Illinois. It was a huge land which was named The Free Meadows Stock Farm and Horse Breeders and was listed to the caretaker of the place known as Bill Meyers. The farm was located one-half mile north of Pingree Grove, on the east side of Damisch Road with land holdings on both sides of the highway, the more extensive being on the east side. In fact, the property had three different residences, a very large modern swimming pool, a race track and several barns. On all of the property Battaglia had signs posted indicating that the land was posted for shooting games and that all trespassers would be arrested. A mailbox which was placed at one of the entrances of the farm bore the name of Bill Meyers. The farm was valued at $500,000, or 4 million dollars in today’s money. Battaglia owned very expensive trained race horses at the farm and also all kinds of animal stock. Battaglia’s horses were used at the Arlington Park Race Track in Arlington Park, Illinois. Battaglia’s trainer for the horses was Arnold Winick, brother of Albert Winick president of The Rallson Corporation. Battaglia secretly owned the Arlington Race Track and constantly visited the place and gave orders to Albert Winick. Battaglia’s underling Joseph Rocco was also a horse trainer at the farm and was also a constant companion of his boss. Battaglia became very well known in the farming community of Pingree Grove and also a very respectable citizen in that area. Many low level hoodlums visited Battaglia at this place where he usually used them for painting fences or do some repairs on the farm buildings. He even used this farm for loan sharking activities or in underworld slang, juice operations. For example Sid Sheridan, who was a local contractor, was on “juice” to Battaglia. Sheridan was paying off his juice loan by boarding horses at the farm, and paid $60 per month for each one of them. Most of the horses were sold to Sheridan by Battaglia at an extremely over-valued price and that on this semblance of legal transaction Battaglia was able to issue the juice loans. On daily basis in the early morning hours Rocco Salvatore drove Battaglia to his farm, and than both would return to the Casa Madrid in Melrose Park, where they usually remain for two hours during which time Battaglia checked the daily receipts from the gambling profits and loan shark collections and after that he usually went to his home in Oak Park.


Battaglia also owned 200 acres of property in Kane County, Illinois and also in Aurora, Illinois. The name of Battaglia’s sidekick Joseph Rocco was in the records of the Marshall Savings and Loan Company as regards the purchase of a sizeable piece of real estate near Aurora by an Oakhurst realty company. Also records at the Exchange National Banked showed that a trust was formed between Marshall Caifano, Irwin Weiner and his wife Lillian, Phil Alderisio and his wife Molly, Albert Frabotta and wife Santina, and Sam Battaglia and his wife Angela. The trust covered adjoining property which was located at 3240 through 3250 South Wentworth in Chicago. Battaglia has claimed his legitimate income from the Free Meadows Stock Farm, from his job at the Twin Foods, and from a building that he owned and also rented apartments at 3248 West Roosevelt Road in Chicago.


On April 24, 1960 Sam Battaglia organized a Chicago “Mafia party” for his daughter’s wedding. In fact this was a “Mafia marriage” because Joanna Battaglia was marrying Donald J. Gagliano, the son of Outfit big shot Joseph Gagliano. The wedding occurred at the establishment which was owned by Sam Giancana known as The Villa Venice on Milwaukee Avenue, near Wheeling, Illinois. There were approximately 300 automobiles parked in the adjoining lots and every possible member of the Outfit attended the wedding, including Accardo, Giancana, Prio, Alderisio and Buccieri.



Joseph Gagliano


Battaglia, or the “old man” as he was called by his underlings, even flourished in his “secret” love life. Remember the late Ralph DelGenio and his son Frederick? During the “questioning” of Ralph, he gave Battaglia information that his son Frederick was dating a local girl and that maybe she knew where the cash was hidden. After the murder of Ralph, his son Frederick went to prison in Texas for robbery, so Battaglia decided to pay a visit to the girl. When Battaglia met the girl for the first time, he already forgot about the money because he was looking at a 28 year old 5 feet tall blue-eyed blonde bombshell and fell in love immediately. The name of the girl was Darlene Fasel Kalivoda. She was the daughter of a very wealthy River Forest industrialist who disowned her because of her association with hoodlums. She became Battaglia’s mistress for many years to come. Battaglia employed her as a receptionist and secretary for Leo Rugendorf at the Twin Food Company and also bought her a nice house on North Harlem Avenue in Elmwood Park. Miss Kalivoda also became Battaglia's constant companion on journeys gambling joints around Melrose Park as he picked up the day's take. At the end of the day the pair usually enjoyed a nice dinner at the North Avenue Steak House which was located at 8500 West North Av. in Maywood, Illinois. It was all rainbows and sunshine for Battaglia because the “old man” felt young again.


One day the pair was driving in their 1960 maroon Oldsmobile towards Bloomingdale, Illinois. They were returning from an outing at Battaglia’s Free Meadows farm. While approaching the small town, Battaglia pressed hard on the accelerator and the car darted in and out of the holiday traffic. Police Chief George Mueller of the Bloomingdale police took notice of this and began a pursuit of Battaglia on Lake Street. While he was chasing Battaglia, the cop radioed to Sgt. Richard Loy for assistance. The pursuit continued for more than a mile before the cops managed to curb Battaglia’s car at Lake and Bloomingdale road. Battaglia stepped out of his car and instantly started cursing and yelling at the cops. Chief Mueller said to Battaglia that he was speeding, and Battaglia replied “You’re a liar!” Furthermore Battaglia called the cops "a couple of keystone cops". Miss Kalivoda sat calmly in the car while Battaglia continued to curse the cops and also refused to show his driver license. After a while Chief Mueller had enough of Battaglia’s behaviour and said “You’re going to jail” and Battaglia again replied “Try and put me there.” So the cops started to push Battaglia across the street to Bloomingdale’s one room police station and locked him up in a single cell. Battaglia cursed and fumed there for more than an hour while the cops wrote out charged for driving 70 miles an hour in a 50 mile zone, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and disobedience of a police officer. Police Magistrate James Bell fixed Battaglia’s bond at $417. The still cursing Battaglia opened his wallet and produced the $417, and Chief Mueller estimated that at least $2,000 remained. Battaglia with some parting shots of profanity stomped out of the police station and drove away at a normal rate of speed. So this “adventure” ended ignominiously for the pair because of Battaglia’s terrible temper. But because of that kind of temper, three months later Battaglia’s reputation as one of the toughest gangsters was shattered to pieces by an ordinary Chicago police sergeant. On August 22, 1961 police sergeant Francis Nash and his partners detectives John Zitek, Maurice Guerin and Frank Kenny set out to look over a mob conference between Giancana, Battaglia and other Outfit chiefs. The meeting was said to have been arranged by Giancana to discuss measures to head off police investigations of eight recent gang murders which have been linked with the Outfit’s juice operators. The meeting was in adjournment by the time Nash and his squad arrived at Giancana’s residence. So the police squad checked few more suburban gang hangouts and then headed back to Chicago thru Oak Park. When they arrived in Oak Park, the cops saw Battaglia and Rocco Salvatore sitting in a car near Battaglia’s residence. When the two hoodlums spotted the police squad they sped off with their car with the detectives in pursuit. The chase went at high speed for more than a mile until Salvatore slammed his car to a stop in an alley near Elmwood Av. and Division St. in Oak Park. Nash’s squad was close behind. Suddenly out of the car came Battaglia and in his own style he started to curse at the cops. He approached Sergeant Nash and attempted to tear his shirt and challenged him to a fight. Battaglia attacked with two wild haymakers, which missed and then Nash pushed him away with a light left jab. Battaglia, who outweighed Nash by 20 pounds, fell to the ground and cried out “Don’t hit me, don’t hit me again, you’ll kill me!” Meanwhile, Salvatore ran down the alley shouting “Robbers, robbers!” It was a very hilarious situation. A near resident who witnessed the situation called the cops who took the four policemen and the two hoodlums into the Oak Park police station. Story goes that at the police station Salvatore said to his boss that they should retaliate but Battaglia replied “Forget about the whole thing. I don’t want any trouble over this. I don’t want any part of those Chicago coppers.”