I don’t think that Alex ever planned the takeover of Guzik’s empire, but he only took advantage from the situation that Guzik was in and reacted in the right time. This was the start of one of the key criminal careers in the Chicago Mob. Alex received connections to many union, gambling and prostitution operations and above all connections to the First Ward Democratic organization, which was “Outfit infested”. Previous Alex’s connection with the First Ward was a childhood friend from the Near South Side named Joseph Bagnola Logan. Bagnola added his third name “Logan” because that’s how identified himself in his early boxing days. After that he became a huge handbook operator and close associate of Alex in his gambling operations. But Bagnola for long time also had a huge protection from the law which was provided by the ancient corrupt Alderman Michael Kenna, who was the infamous and legendary committeeman of the First Ward in Chicago until his death in1946.


Infamous Alderman Michael Kenna


Although Bagnola was cool with Alex, he was opposed by Guzik and his lieutenant Hyman Levine. The problem was that few years back, Levine wanted to spread his gambling operations in Bagnola’s territory, who in turn asked for help from Alderman Kenna to block Levine from entering his operations. Bagnola was always known as independent operator and was never extorted by anyone. As for Levin, he was one of the syndicate men who successfully muscled the ancient gambling magnates Mont Tennes and Moe Annenberg out of their businesses, so Bagnola was a small fish for Levine. But when Kenna died, the only one who protected Bagnola from being murdered by the Guzik faction was Gus Alex, who in turn was the only one that took percentage from Bagnola’s operation from that point on. Later on Bagnola, Guzik and Alex all had interest in the Harvey Wrecking Company.


I believe that with associations like these, Alex had the ticket to easily walk free out of the police stations and courts. Alex even helped his brother George in beating the draft evasion case. The jury was easily fixed and George Alex was again a free man. At the end of the trial Judge John Barnes added “I have sat here for 15 years. This is the second worst miscarriage of justice I have seen” then he angrily pointed towards the jury and said “You and each of you is discharged from any further jury duty in this building.” George didn’t have the connections to bribe the jury, but his younger brother did. Alex also took care of Guzik’s cash, eventually for the other bosses also, as “financial courier”. Alex began travelling around the states, handling the cash by investing in legitimate businesses and hiding it in different banks and accounts. During that period former Capone associate and First Ward Committeeman Daniel Serritella allegedly once said that Gus Alex was one of the top flight Capone mob members.


In 1947, Alex was already employed at the Atlas Brewing Company which was divided between ex-bootlegger Joe Fusco and Alex’s mentor Jake Guzik. The company was controlled by the Chicago mob since the bootlegging days of John Torrio and Al Capone. Because of his reputation, Alex was selling more beer and other alcoholic beverages more than any other salesman in the Chicago area. At first he was paid flat salary of $400 a month by his own terms. He never asked for change of contract or increase of salary. In fact, he wanted to create an image of a modest businessman. But in just three years his monthly payment was raised up to $7,500. While he made deals with the restaurant owners, he also reminded them, the bartenders and the other personnel that they better vote a certain way in the coming Bartenders Union election or “the joint would be closed.” Alex even used the same beer in his own joint known as the Bluebird Tavern on 22nd Street between Wabash and Michigan. Also his name wasn’t registered in the company’s records and Alex received his salary with the help of the general manager of the company Stanley Stupner, old mob associate, and his personal expense account and therefore he was able to conceal the fact that Alex was employed by the company. In a police record dated October, 1947, Alex is described as one of the underworld figures directly involved in the Chicago Teamsters Union Local 705, an independent union with more than 6000 members. So if you consider the fact if Alex and his associates for example took $10 a month from each member of the union, they collected $60,000 each month or almost 700,000 dollars in today’s money. Alex was also directly involved in the Tile Setters Union in Chicago with over 1000 members.


In 1948, one of Guzik’s lieutenant and main handbook operator Hyman Levine suffered a stroke which left him paralyzed for the rest of his life. Also Malcolm Clarke retired to Caifornia, so now Alex took over Levin’s and Clark’s operations and tripled his income. But on March 18, 1948, Gus Alex was devastated of the bad news that his father Nick Alex passed away. It was a huge and lavish funeral. Mountains of lavish floral pieces crammed Coletta’s Undertaking Parlors at 2600 Wentworth Avenue. At Mae Key’s Restaurant next door at 2604 Wentworth Avenue, everything was on the house. Many women wore mink and camel-hair coats, and light grey hats seemed almost like a uniform among the male mourners. Later it became a typical gangland affair with fifteen carloads of flowers. Just few of the biggest mob names that attended the funeral were Nick’s son Sam Alex, Jake Guzik, Sam Hunt, Bruno Roti, Ralph Pierce, Murray Humphreys, Claude Maddox and Eddie Vogel. This was a sign of big respect towards the Alex family, especially Gus Alex, who was rewarded with the presence of a big part of the Outfit’s “Royalty.” Alex always had high regards for his old man and later on each memorial day, the Alex family visited the grave of Nick Alex and together with a Greek priest, conducted a lengthy ceremony in honour of their husband, father and grandpa. Gus Alex never failed to pay homage to his father for the rest of his life.


By the end of 1948, Alex started spreading some of his gambling operations from South Side and the Loop, to the Cicero area. He got a job as a general manager at a famous club known as the Turf Nighclub. It was a place with all kinds of gamblers and also was filled with prostitutes. The club was secretly owned by Outfit bosses Louis Campagna, Claude Maddox and Maddox’s second in command Joseph Aiuppa. On December 12, 1948, one of Alex’s low level associates and ex-convict Tony Harris from the Cicero area was arrested on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, leaving the scene of an accident and being a hit and run driver. Driving east on Ohio Street, Wilfred Smith paused with his car at the intersection preparatory to making a right turn. Suddenly Harris bumped Smith's car from the rear. Smith completed his turn and parked at the west curb. Harris also made a right turn and rammed the left rear fender of Smith's car, after which he continued south in State St. Smith got out and examined the fender of his car. As he was standing in the street, Harris, who had circled the block, ran his car into Smith. In a matter of seconds Smith leaped to safety. Harris again rammed Smith's car, after which he backed into a taxicab and again drove away. Smith got up managed to obtain the license number of Harris' car, and while preparing to make the telephone call to the police, a man from the gathered crowd yelled “If I was you I wouldn't make that call. Eddie Sturch wouldn't like it." Eddie Sturch was a political lieutenant of Senator William J. Connors and also a known Chicago Outfit associate. At the East Chicago Av. police station, after Smith filed a complaint against Harris, the latter told him, "You'll hear from Cicero about this, Gus Alex will take care of you." I bet Smith felt disappointed for filling the complaint against Harris after hearing that last statement.


By 1950, Gus Alex shared his possessions and riches with a very beautiful blue-eyed bombshell named Marianne Ryan. They married few years earlier in a secret ceremony and some say they went to Santa Barbara, California and others to Las Vegas, Nevada. Marianne came from Schuyler, Nebraska somewhere around the mid 1940’s at the age of 19 and was employed as a Chicago’s professional fashion model. At first she worked as a top model at the Carson Pirie Scott and Company and later she transferred to the College Inn of the Sherman Hotel in Chicago where she also worked as a “model” but only during the evening hours. That’s where she met the love of her life, which was Gus. Alex had another nickname which was “handsome”, obviously because of his fine looks, expensive clothes and jewelry, such as the diamond ring on his small finger. It was a large diamond that appeared to be at least 3/8” in diameter. On March 29, 1950, Alex took his lovely wife together with his 84 year old mother, his two brothers Sam and George and their families, and all of his four sisters and their families, on a two month vacation in Yeraki, Greece. On their way back the huge family also visited Italy and France. Alex’s sister Dorothy also married Frank Climco, who was the brother of Joseph Glimco, a known Outfit union racketeer. It was a flawless connection between the two families. Joey Glimco was the President of Local 777 of the Taxicab Drivers Union, Local of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. Joey started his criminal career as enforcer for Frank Nitti and later for Louis Campagna. During prohibition he worked as a gunman for protecting the beer trucks and later was given authority to control the poultry handlers union. This was all before he became a president of the taxicab union in the 1950’s. His brother Frank Glimco worked as a route supervisor for the Chicago Tribune. When the guys who owned the newspaper realized that Frank was related to Joey Glimco and Gus Alex, they immediately eliminated his employment. Alex had a very strict rule about not having any of his relatives engaged in criminal activities and so he pulled some strings and Frank was again employed as assistant in the Office of the City of Chicago.


In 1952, the Outfit bosses decided that they should place their own people, meaning members of the organization, on high positions within the political world. So they decided to make one of their experienced associate John D’Arco Sr. as Chicago Alderman and Chair of the First Ward Democratic Committee. The First Ward is the largest geographical ward in Chicago which includes not only the entire Loop, but also the downtown area of Chicago and the Near South Side as far as south as 31st Street and also the Near West Side. D’Arco was also the owner of the Anco Insurance Company and managed to receive all of the insurance business from all of the big buildings in the Chicago Loop area. But the real power behind D’Arco was Pasqualino Marchone a.k.a. Pat Marcy, member of the Chicago Outfit, who was the executive secretary of the First Ward, and his assistant Benjamin Jacobson. Jacobson publicly bragged “I am the fixer in the First Ward and I’ve been the fixer in the First Ward for 34 years.” Marcy took orders from the Ricca-Accardo-Guzik syndicate and Murray Humphreys, Frank Ferraro, Gus Alex or Ralph Pierce were the people who carried the bosses messages to Marcy. With the help of D’Arco and Marcy, the rest of the “band” like Guzik, Humphreys and Alex gained access to all of the corrupt government officials and made sure that things ran smoothly. But most importantly, both D’Arco and Marcy took care of the judicial elections and so the big shots in the Chicago Outfit were mostly out of the courts than inside. Both Marcy and D’Arco enjoyed their lavish and powerful lifestyle. They rubbed shoulders with famous politicians and state senators and at the same time conspired with underworld figures who took Marcy’s advices quite seriously. Through Alex, his buddy from the old days Frank Ferraro, and Ralph Pierce, the connection guys like Guzik, Humphreys, D’Arco and Marcy controlled all of the gambling, prostitution and extortion enterprises in the city’s First Ward and spread the cash all around the Outfit’s hierarchy. Marcy usually collected envelopes of cash previously collected by the Outfit’s enforcers and collectors, which represented payoffs to Alex and the bosses. After collecting the envelopes, Marcy counted the cash and turned it over to Ferraro.


John D’Arco Sr.


On November 24, 1953, Alex, Guzik and Humphreys had a meeting at their usual place which was the Celano Tailoring Shop at 620 North Michigan Avenue. Suddenly the cops invaded the place and started arresting people. Humphreys ran out of the back door but Guzik and Alex didn’t have the time to run towards the door so they hid and locked themselves in the fitting booths. They were found and arrested by the cops. Later they were questioned about the whereabouts of their other associates that attended the meeting. Both men answered that there was no one else and that they just tried some new suits in the fitting booths. As usual they were released. Both men had high connections in Chicago’s judicial system so it was no problem for them to walk away whenever they wanted to. To make things even better, the Democratic Ward Committeeman of the 11th Ward Richard J. Daley was elected as Mayor of Chicago in 1955. Daley was born in 1902 and grew up in heavily Irish American Bridgeport neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, where he continued to live his entire life and the best thing was that D’Arco was a very close friend of Daley. But besides D’Arco, both Alex and Frank Ferraro had another connection to Daley. Remember Tony Munizzo, who’s father was Alex’s employer as a truck driver?! Well now Munizzo was a personal aide to Mayor Daley and became known as the guy who ran the Mayor’s office. Munizzo obtained favours and even influenced the Mayor’s decisions regarding the Outfit’s gambling operations in Chicago. Alex and Munizzo secretly owned the 31 Excavation Company and obtained city contracts very easily and all the proceeds were directly pocketed by both associates with no actual work being done. Munizzo even contracted several other contractors to take some of his work on sub-contract basis. Even though Munizzo’s operation was a complete extortion, any sub-contractor who entered into business with him, received very little in the way of profit and the sub-contractor’s end of the business deal beard most of the risk if any investigation occurred.


While in Chicago, Alex always visited his mother Christine who lived in a lavish house at 9353 South Spaulding, Evergreen Park, for more than 20 years. By now Christine Alex was an old woman, or in other words, she was 78 years old, blind on one eye and saw very poorly and so that’s why she lived with two more elderly women from Greek descent. Christine barely spoke or wrote in English but her home was without a doubt the most expensive in the immediate area and was equipped with the most modern conveniences, including an electrical eye door. She was often visited by her three sons, including her oldest one James Alex. James was generally a nice guy who operated the Paris-Munger Landry on South Indiana Avenue, and gave a share from the proceedings to his baby brother. Their other brother George lived just two doors down from their mother’s apartment with his second wife and child. George and his son from the first marriage were on the payroll of the Chicago Sanitary District. George worked as $700 a month engineer at a juvenile home in Chicago so one day he was accused by a 16-year old call girl named Judy Kramer that he has beaten and threatened her while she was an inmate of the home. She told the authorities that the beating and threats were made on behalf of her exposure of secrets regarding a vice ring. George slapped her and warned her not to testify against Jimmy Allegretti or others. In reality, George Alex possibly was involved in a prostitution ring which was made of under aged girls and controlled by North Side mobster James Allegretti and probably by one of Alex’s underlings Louis Arger. Allegretti was known for making deals in buying and later selling under aged girls. Miss Kramer was removed from the Juvenile home and placed under a heavy police guard, while George Alex was arrested and questioned. George said that while he worked that same day, he didn't start until 4 p. m. and other employees said they didn't see Alex at the home at the time of the, alleged attack on the Kramer girl. George even took a lie test, which also showed that he was not involved. As for Allegretti, because of the girl’s testimony, he was arrested on a morals charge.


James “Jimmy the Monk” Allegretti


But Alex was a type of person who couldn’t stay in one place for a longer period because he was a travelling guy. He liked to travel probably because he wanted to escape from the terrible things that he witnessed on daily basis. So by the end of every month Alex would visit his older brother Sam at his huge farm in Cassopolis, Michigan and also delivered a fat envelope of cash as a sign of respect for the old timer. Sam Alex expanded his farm land with the help of his younger brother by investing huge sums of money in land and also investing in considerable amount of cattle. The farm was taken care of by two couples, one Greek and one German who also lived on the huge property. The farm even had its own private lake. Sam lived under different name known as Sam Taylor or Herbert Taylor. Sam’s neighbours did not know who he really was because he never directly engaged in any type of criminal activity and has never been arrested over there. He was highly regarded in the community and had a very good reputation. Sam lived quietly with his wife and they had no children but there was no reason for them not to love the other children from around the neighbourhood. With the huge desire for one day to have their own, Sam and his wife have done wonderful things for the kids in the neighbourhood. For example at Christmas time the couple had a practice of leaving huge boxes of toys at the doorsteps, “anonymously”, and when there was snow, Sam had the practise of hitching a sled to his tractor and taking children for rides around the school field. Since there’s not even one report for Sam’s involvement in any illegal operations during this period, I believe that Sam lived with the money that he took from the unions for over ten years ago but by now he was mostly financed by his younger brother Gus. But Sam wasn’t totally out of the game because he often gave business advices to his brother and in the end he usually took a cut from that same enterprise. When in Chicago, and besides visiting his relatives, Sam usually met with the Outfit’s leaders. There are many reports showing that Sam was seen at many mob owned casinos or other establishments around the country.


For example, during the mid 1950’s Sam visited an old mob legend known as Owen “Owney” Madden, a former New York mobster who was retired in Hot Springs. Madden owned a big gambling joint with 30 slot machines, three big crap tables and one roulette. It was a very fancy place, or as Sam put it “It was no bus stop…” and had no cash limits. The crap tables were so crowded and busy that it was very hard to get near them. Reason for this huge business was that at the time only two casinos were functioning in Hot Springs. Madden’s casino and another one which was named “The Southern Club”. After that Sam went to Chicago and told his brother about the beautiful place and also about the new bright idea. Hot Springs was a “clean” place which was considered as a “retirement home” for mobsters, so every illegal operation was done “under the radar”. Sam advised Gus that he and “old man” Guzik should pay a visit to Madden and talk business about spreading some of the Outfit’s gambling operations. So a Chicago mob delegation was formed by Gus Alex, Jake Guzik, Eddie Vogel and Murray Humphreys, and went for a meeting with Madden. These four guys had the power to take over a whole city with the skills for corruption, union racketeering, prostitution and vending machines. During this period the Chicago Outfit was one of the most powerful crime families in the country and so I don’t think that Madden refused the partnership. Plus Madden was backed by Frank Costello, the number one gambling boss from New York, who also had good business relationship with the boys from Chicago. In just few years the Chicago boys opened more than few gambling joints and also owned the Oaklawn Race Track. So the Alex brothers, Humphreys and other Outfit big shots such as James Allegretti had their own shares in the race track. In fact during this “unholy alliance”, Hot Springs has become one of the wealthiest, politically corrupt illegal gambling towns in the U.S. long before Las Vegas really started up.


Back in 1952 the Outfit executed policy king Teddy Roe in a gangland fashion, and completely took over the racket in the Chicago area. Now according to numerous reports, Roe was executed partly for refusing to share his policy racket, and partly because of retaliation for the Leonard Caifano murder. So Roe’s killing was probably orchestrated by the West Side Bloc, meaning Leonard’s younger brother Marshall Caifano, Sam Battaglia and Sam Giancana. In fact, Leonard’s murder became too personal for the ruthless ex-42 gang and so that’s why I believe that they had personal connection in the Roe murder. In other words, they were too violent and egotistical to just leave the job for someone else. But according to one FBI report, taken from the testimony of a confidential informant, Sam Alex was the one who was mainly involved in the logistics of the murder, by importing two killers from different cities, including New Orleans and St. Louis. To tell you the truth, the story holds water because there might’ve been big chances that the Outfit was afraid to send their own hitmen again after Roe, since he already killed one of theirs during the first attempt on his life. So if they sent people from the Chicago area again, chances were big that Roe could’ve recognized them for the second time and someone was going to get hurt for sure. For me personally, I think that there are big chances that the killers might’ve been from other cities but I don’t believe that Sam Alex was the main link…but since he was most of the time out of town and hang around with prominent hoodlums so who knows, right?!


Anyways, Guzik and Alex continued to spread the Outfit’s gambling web around the country by looking at Reno, Nevada. The main guy over there was Bill Graham, a casino owner and main gambling czar. The Outfit already had its influence in Reno since the 1930’s, but now Alex wanted to double the profits by opening new gambling operations. The Golden Bank Club was Reno's largest casino in the 1930's and 1940's which was owned by George Wingfield, William Harrah and Bill Graham. During the 1950’s Graham was often called to Chicago for meetings with Guzik and Alex. In fact Graham had a new partner in the casino which was John Drew, who was the Outfit’s guy in Nevada. After that Drew was the one who visited Chicago to get his instructions from Alex or Guzik.


In my previous article on Sam Battaglia, I talked about a situation where bosses like Bruno Roti placed themselves in a very dangerous situation with the younger up and coming generation. As a reminder, in 1953, Sam Hunt, Bruno Roti and Ross Prio wanted to take over the thriving Chicago Restaurant Association and its president the infamous Capone lawyer Abraham Teitelbaum and their enforcers for the scheme were Paul Labriola and Jimmy Weinberg. Then they sent Labriola to all of the area bosses around Chicago to inform them, and at the same time include them, in the scheme. But there was another scheme in which the West Side faction of the Outfit received a much lesser share than the rest of the factions. The three bosses advised Labriola that their names should be kept out of any conversation and if they wanted to send a message they should contact a courier of Sam Hunt. According to some sources, even Accardo secretly took a cut from the scheme. The only problem that the bosses had was by keeping the “double cross” cash only for themselves. Guzik and Humphreys were not informed about the operation or any other member of their crew. But the first guy who received the information about the double scheme was Alex because Labriola and Weinberg were not the kind of people who kept their mouths shut and revealed the information to one of their crew members Nick Kokenes. Kokenes was with the Labriola gang since the early 1940’s which was involved in many burglaries at the time. Back in 1944, one year after the kidnapping if Guzik, Kokenes was charged with the murder of Jens Larkin, who was one of Guzik’s collectors. In other words, Kokenes had quite a resume, and in this case the most important thing was that Alex was very close to Kokenes. Alex was the godfather of one of Kokene’s children. Out of jealousy Kokenes probably told Alex about the scheme. So Alex now had an ace up in his sleeve by holding such a valuable information. He knew that the West Side bloc and the South Side mob relied on each other and the Outfit did not need an internal conflict. The two groups were connected since the days of Joe Esposito and Jim Colosimo. So “somebody” sent a message to the “West Side Mafia Secretary” Sam Battaglia about the scheme. Battaglia called Labriola and Weinberg for a sit down just to see if the information was true. Then the duo made a huge mistake by threatening Battaglia with the information that behind their operation stood Roti and the organization. They thought that since Battaglia was from Sicilian origins, when hearing Roti’s name, he would back off. But they were wrong and this became a huge problem for the organization because if the West Side crew decided to go to war, all of the Outfit’s operations would be jeopardized. Men like Roti, Hunt and Prio were just too important for the organization and it would’ve been a shame if something happened to them. That’s when Alex received the role as a mediator between the factions. According to one statement, Weinberg personally asked Alex if he could smooth things over with the West Side crew. But he was swindled because the bosses made a final decision that Labriola and Weinberg were the only ones involved in the double cross and acted on their own. So my opinion is that Alex was the one who lured Labriola and Weinberg to their demise by organizing a non-existing sit down between the opposite factions. On March 15, 1954 the police found the two “sacrificial lambs” Paul Labriola and James Weinberg garrotted and stuffed together in a car trunk.