On May 30, 1955, the Chicago Outfit was dressed in black because one of the top members and truly respected boss Louis Campagna died suddenly of a heart attack. His funeral on South Harlem Avenue was a true Chicago mob gathering which was constantly covered by the media. Both Alex and Guzik attended the wake and confirmed to the public and government that they also belonged to this criminal brotherhood. No matter how smart were these old timers, just by showing their faces on these so-called mob funerals, they automatically confirmed that they belonged to this illegal secret society. Later the bosses realized that the funerals were no good and they started avoiding them. Almost two months later on July 7, 1955, another very influential mob boss who was known as Tony Capezio, the former boss of the Grand Avenue crew, also suddenly died from heart attack. Less than three hundred people attended his funeral, which was a very small number for a boss of his stature, and many of the big shots shun the funeral. The only big shot, who visited Capezio’s funeral, was Sam Giancana. But it will be too late because the old guys had too much “respect” for each other and so with one single mob funeral, they fast-forwarded their own demise. The deaths of Campagna and Capezio marked the beginning of the end of the so-called old guard.
The year of 1956 would also be a “black year” for the old guard because on February 21, Alex’s alleged mentor and financier Jake Guzik died of a sudden heart attack. Guzik was a legend in Chicago’s underworld who gave finesse to the Outfit’s operations. The funeral was attended by numerous politicians, lawyers, and gangsters from all around the country. Guzik was one of guys who witnessed the birth and formation of this infamous criminal organization and even though the guys knew that there was going to be a lot of media and government coverage on the funeral, they decided to pay their last respects to their mentor. Few of the most notables were Tony Accardo, the current boss, the Capone brothers Matt and Ralph, Murray Humphreys and Eddie Vogel, John D’Arco and Pat Marcy, Gus Alex and Frank Ferraro, Ralph Pierce and Lester Kruse, and also the infamous mob lawyers Michael Brodkin and George Beiber. Even though Alex always spoke well of Guzik, according to one confidential informant, after the death of Guzik, Alex in fact extorted Guzik’s family members. I can’t find any other source for this situation so by now ill take it as a speculation. After the death of Guzik, Humphreys became the boss of the “connection crew.” As a matter of fact, I believe that since the kidnapping of Guzik, Humphreys was the real boss. After his mentor passed away, Alex always bragged that if “Shorty” (nickname for Guzik) was still alive, he would’ve been always the first guest on his various festivities.
Anyways on August 19, 1956, Sam Hunt who was one of the last old time bosses from Chicago’s South Side, also died from a heart disease. In fact, the old guys were dropping like flies from heart failures mostly caused by the constant pressure from the criminal lives that they led. A year later Bruno Roti Sr. died and over 3,000 people attended his wake, including Gus and Sam Alex, Frank Ferraro, Frank Caruso and James Catuara. Roti Sr. was remembered as a legend around mob circles. When Phil D’Andrea went to jail for extortion back in 1943, Roti was the one who stepped as the Italian boss of the South Side. He was a very elusive criminal and was rarely seen in public. After the deaths of Roti and Hunt, Roti’s son-in-law Frank Caruso and Hunt’s protege Ralph Pierce were the ones who inherited their positions. Caruso wasn’t even a little bit powerful as his late father-in-law Roti Sr. was, but he grew up with Ferraro and Alex at the old neighbourhood and so he had the support and was easily elevated to a higher position. Now Caruso reported to Ferraro and also shared some of his operations with Chicago Heights mobster James Catuara. As for Ralph Pierce, he became one of the most powerful individuals in the Outfit and was close in stature to Gus Alex.
With Guzik’s death, Alex inherited another very important connection that will bring his operations on another level. This “connection” was named Sidney Korshak. Korshak grew up on Chicago South Side and later became a lawyer and 90 % of his clients were gangsters and racketeers. Back in the early 1940’s Korshak formed a partnership with a former Cook County inheritance-tax attorney and a former assistant attorney general of Illinois Harry Ash. Their offices were located at 100 North LaSalle, which was also the address of the First Ward Democratic headquarters. Korshak started his criminal career when he started working for Alex Louis Greenberg, the long time mob financier. Because of his mob connections, besides being lawyer, Korshak became the number one messenger for the Outfit’s hierarchy. When Korshak told somebody something, the individual opposite of Korshak knew that he was talking for the whole Chicago Outfit, and that was quite terrifying. But this situation was only for the people that were involved in the organization, as for the legitimate world and political elite Korshak resembled as a very powerful, influential and legit individual. Most of the people from the upper world didn’t know who Korshak really was. One day Korshak introduced Alex to a personal friend of his who went by the name of James Hoffa. Hoffa was a labor leader and the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which became the mob’s main financial supply. Alex became close friend of Hoffa and together they often visited the Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. John O’Brien, who was a very influential member of the Teamsters Union, was also a long time friend of Alex. Together they grew up in the same neighbourhood on Chicago’s Near South Side. The Outfit’s main connection to Hoffa was labor racketeer Paul Dorfman who in fact was directly connected to Korshak, Humphreys and Alex. Paul and his son Allen owned an insurance firm in Chicago which dealt extensively with funds from the Teamster Union Locals welfare funds. Both Dorfman and Korshak were also used by Humphreys and Alex as negotiators in obtaining financial interests in numerous hotels and casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Sidney Korshak
By the mid 1950’s both Korshak and Alex had another advantage which was Korshak’s brother Marshall who was an Illinois State Senator. From that point on Alex had claimed employment at the senator’s office for salary of $15,000 per year and senator Korshak always recommended Alex as a man of excellent financial responsibility. And the truth was that the Korshaks and Alex were very close. Usually at night the two couples visited the Whitehall Club or the Pump Room at the Ambassador East Hotel in Chicago. Alex and Korshak owned Fritzels, the bandbox on Randolph and Clark Street, the Prevue Club, and all the arcades on South State Street. In 1958, Alex received word that the McClellan Committee was preparing a subpoena for a public hearing on organized crime and so in the old fashioned way, Alex took his wife and went on the lam. While being pursued both by the committee and the FBI, Alex went on a luxury tour around the country. He took his wife’s maiden name and travelled as Mike Ryan. For ten whole months, Alex stayed in many luxurious places such as the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Mexico City, The Flamingo, Sands and Desert Inn hotels in Las Vegas, the baths at Desert Hot Springs, California or stayed on a huge yacht named “Miss Mary II” which moored in Jackson Park Harbor on Lake Michigan in Chicago. During his stay on the yacht, his daily meals were brought from the mob owned Fritzel’s Restaurant. In fact, the guy who took care of Alex was Sidney Korshak. Korshak also leased a beautiful villa to Alex in Palm Springs’ Ocotillo Lodge and also gave him a white Lincoln Continental Mark III convertible with license plates in Korshak’s name.
So the FBI got wind of the situation and questioned the Korshak brothers regarding their associations with Alex and his whereabouts. Both brothers gave the same answer by denying any direct associations with the suspect and that both brothers knew Alex from their wives associations with the suspect’s wife. Sidney’s wife Bernice Korshak also worked as a model and was close friend with Marianne Alex.
Marianne Alex and Bee Korshak
But the Korshak brothers blew their cover when during the interrogation they both referred to Alex as “Gussie”. The thing was that Alex was called “Gussie” or “Slim” only by his close associates. During the interview of Sidney Korshak, he allegedly told the feds that he would attempt to get word to Alex and that he should accept the subpoena. And that’s what Korshak really has done. He went to Alex and advised to take the subpoena because all of this pressure was becoming a real problem. A week later, Alex came back to Chicago where on July 22, 1958, at 6:50 p.m. he was observed by FBI agents. Alex was driving his black Mercedes- Benz at the intersection of Montrose Avenue and Marine Drive, approximately half a block from the Murray Hill Apartments. Alex was extremely cautious as to the possibility of surveillance, and carefully observed his surroundings. While looking in all directions, Alex drove towards the Murray Hill Apartments and as he arrived at the parking lot, a government car blocked his way. One agent approached Alex and asked him whether he was “Gus Alex.” Alex denied his identity, but the agent knew that he was lying and so he threw the subpoena in Alex’s lap. On July 31, at 10:30 a.m. Alex appeared before Senator John McClellan and Robert Kennedy in Washington. Alex dyed his hair gray at the temples to look older and wore custom-made oversized dark glasses. After almost a year long expensive chase for the elusive gangster, in the end Alex refused to answer almost all questions by taking the 5th Amendment. One of the senators, who clearly had a huge revolt towards the underworld scum, snarled at Alex and shouted “Turn around and face me, look straight ahead!” Alex sat like a grounded kid who was about to get the belt from the rubber hose. But the problem was that now Alex belonged to the famous group of gangsters, known nationwide. The McClellan Committee didn’t receive any information or at least any straight answer from these hoodlums, but it showed to the public that the underworld was quite real and nicely organized. And Kennedy knew that the mob was a parasite that operated mostly from the shadows and hated exposure.
Gus Alex in front of the Senate Committee
Alex
During this period the main power base for the Outfit was on the city’s West Side. The West Side Bloc, as they were called, ruled with the same power as the Ferraro and Alex faction. They controlled a vast gambling empire and had huge political protection, which was also called the West Side Bloc. But the thing was that the West Side faction of the Chicago mob was little more violent than the rest of the other factions. This faction has spread a lot of fear across the underworld. This is an organization based on violence and death so it meant nothing back then if you had all the political connections and huge money making operations but no kind of sense for violence. So the main rule was that usually the most shrewd person, but at the same time very violent, was on top of the organization. Proof for that were the recently new big names that appeared on the FBI charts. Prominent Chicago racketeers and murderers such as Fiore Buccieri, Sam Battaglia, Marshall Caifano, Sam DeStefano, Willie Daddano and Phil Alderisio, who showed such an aggressive force that made them unforgettably scary. In a situation where brutal force is the main rule, there’s less chances for fairness and honour. And so just to make things even better Sam Giancana replaced Accardo and became the new boss of the Chicago underworld which was a very good thing for Alex because they had much respect for each other. Giancana’s main connection guys from the non-Italian faction were Alex and Larner, while Humphreys oversaw Alex and also acted as the Outfit’s elder statesman and Larner’s boss Eddie Vogel oversaw all of the coin machine operations in and out of Chicago. Still when it came to voting on certain matters, Humphreys was the one who made the final decisions, not Alex or Larner. But by the end of the day, Humphreys was mostly impressed by Alex’s skills and devotion to the business. Here’s a small part of a wiretapped conversation between Humphreys and the Outfit’s boss Giancana, where they clearly expressed their satisfaction with Alex’s effectiveness:
HUMPHREYS: Is Gussie in town? That guy is like a gipsy, he goes all over. He goes from one spot to the other.
GIANCANA: And he always comes in unexpected. Ain’t nobody gonna set him up.
Through the years, Alex also developed this huge ego that made him felt as one of the most important people in the world. But Humphreys was still the boss and there were examples were he placed Alex back in order, like in this next wiretapped conversation which occurred between Humphreys, Alex and Godfrey:
ALEX: Does he know? Where did you see him, over at the Crossroads?
GODFREY: No.
ALEX: Forget it, I got work to do.
HUMPHREYS: Why don’t you cut it so you can relax a little bit and get this bullshit off your mind? Moe (Giancana) in town?
ALEX: Won’t be until tomorrow.
HUMPHREYS: Now listen here, you and I are gonna have to work in teamwork. Gonna have to work a little bit better. Now I’ll tell you. Don’t go around saying you’re smarter then I am cause we’re not supposed to be smarter than each other. We’re supposed to work like a team.
ALEX: I never told anybody. I never told anybody I’m smarter than you. Whoever told you that is a liar.
HUMPHREYS: You tell everybody Greeks are smarter than the Welsh.
ALEX: Smarter than you?
HUMPHREYS: No, now listen. I want to talk to you. We have to work in teamwork.
From the above conversation we can see that Humphreys was sometimes left out by Alex in the making of final decisions and moves on certain matters. Alex had to join in with Humphreys because he was one of the last witnesses of the old era who also witnessed the changing of the guard many times, so he knew that he should play along with the younger and up and coming members. Plus he was very smart and very generous person and so most of his operations relayed on the help from his underlings such as Alex. In fact, Humphreys had a point because besides them being the “connection guys”, they also acted as mediators between warring factions of the Chicago mob. And on top of that, they controlled their own legal and illegal operations. So they had to work like a team in order to achieve their main goals. This next conversation is between Humphreys and Ferraro but this time it’s regarding the conflicts within the organization and also their dissatisfaction of the Outfit’s top guy.
FERRARO: Yeah. Listen Teet’s (Sam Battaglia) outfit is really in an uproar. Moe (Sam Giancana) was telling me. I said, couldn’t you get them together? He said, no.
HUMPHREYS: They fighting each other?
FERRARO: Well there was…Marshall (Caifano) and Phil Alderisio…I told Moe…
HUMPHREYS: We’ll have to call them in…
FERRARO: …I said to Moe, I said, this happened last week. You should’ve taken care of that the same day.
HUMPHREYS: …they have to put the law down there. You can’t fuck up your own guys. You have to get it right there. Say, what is this? Get together. We don’t allow anything like that.
FERRARO: That’s right.
HUMPHREYS: …we’ll decide the policy, not you guys.
FERRARO: That’s right.
HUMPHREYS: If there’s any dispute, you come to us. That’s what we’re here for.
FERRARO: They almost came to blows.
HUMPHREYS: There’s only one boss and that’s you guys, and you’ve got to say, listen, this is it. I don’t want to hear… you guys shake hands and go out of here as friends.
FERRARO: Find out who the wrong guy is, tell him you’re wrong, and that’s it. Now shake hands.
HUMPHREYS: That’s right. We don’t want to hear anymore of this, and don’t want to hear about you being sore at each other. You just say, this is it and they can tell by looking in your eyes, no more monkey business, you don’t have to be rough. Give them the rules, and that’s the way we want it. That was bound to happen, because you see, you get these guys a free hand, they’re rooting, then they get out, and they get more, and they think they’re big shots. I remember how it used to be in the old days, with us, when Al (Capone) used to run us guys all over. We trusted each other, see?
FERRARO: Yeah.
HUMPHREYS: With three or four guys together, you maybe don’t respect the clique, so they say, so what, and they go ahead and do it anyhow.
FERRARO: This is all one clique.
HUMPHREYS: I know it is.
FERRARO: I said, geez Moe, what the hell did you wait for so long?
HUMPHREYS: That’s the worst thing he can do. He must demand discipline. You have to tell them, they aren’t the musclemen, and if it needs muscle, we’ll do it, and if we want it done, we’ll tell the…not you guys.
FERRARO: I’m gonna find out if he cleared it with Teets. We’ve got no whole story.
HUMPHREYS: Teets turned it in, it got out of control on him.
FERRARO: Must have, sure.
HUMPHREYS: That’s happened a lot of times. This is where you show your…
FERRARO: Authority?
HUMPHREYS: Discipline.
FERRARO: Yeah, discipline.
From the above conversation we can clearly see that both Ferraro and Humphreys show their dissatisfaction of how terrible Giancana ruled over his men and how Battaglia have lost his control over his own crew. There was a certain problem between members of that crew such as Alderisio, Caifano and Albert Frabotta, over some contractor. So Giancana was blamed for the Outfit’s lack of discipline, and also his lack of interest in the Outfit’s internal affairs. So in the end Humphreys, Ferraro and Alex had to straight things up.
The Outfit’s “consigliere” Murray “Curley” Humphreys
Alex made business, played golf, went on family dinners and above all, obeyed Giancana but in reality, he had a lot of problems with his boss. Besides Giancana’s love affairs with famous girls, he also had a bad habit by also having love affairs with the wives or girlfriends of other made members of the Chicago Outfit. We all know that one of the main rules in La Cosa Nostra is, or was, that one made member is forbidden, with the penalty of death, to have a love affair with a woman that belongs to another made member of that same organization. It was among the Italians. But Giancana was the boss and he had the power to have “private moments” with anyone’s wife that he desired to and Alex’s job was to clean his boss’ “dirty laundry.” In fact, because of Giancana’s sex addiction, the problem went so big that even Tony Accardo had to take the role as arbiter. Story goes that Caifano had a beautiful blond bombshell for a wife named Darlene Caifano, and Giancana had public love affairs with his lieutenant’s wife. Giancana was such a crazy guy that he even gave $10,000 to Darlene to invest in Las Vegas casino. Even though everyone in the mob knew what was going on, still most of the time Caifano kept his mouth shut, but according to some reports, after a while, Caifano had lost his nerves. That’s when Alex, Ferraro and Accardo came on the scene and patched things up. Apparently Giancana stopped his affair with Darlene and Caifano swallowed all of his hatred for his boss and continued to operate like nothing ever happened. That’s why my opinion is that Giancana fully backed Alderisio and Frabotta in pushing away Caifano from the operation in the previous example and deliberately avoided the problem.
The most important things for the Chicago mob were its discipline and loyalty and without it, there was no organized crime. The most important thing for the bosses was to keep things quiet or under the radar. So if there wasn’t any crew such as the “connection guys”, the Outfit would’ve been broken into separate crime groups or “crime families”, same as the old days. But because of that “unholy alliance” between all of the crime bosses in Chicago, during this time the Outfit was considered the most powerful illegal organization in the country. Alex, Ferraro, Marcy and Humphreys were the individuals who formed the “heart” of the organization because they were the ones who put the grease on the turning wheels of the Chicago Outfit machine. If anyone of the top three bosses was sent to trail, they were the ones who constantly ran around finding and corrupting officials, implicated in the trials. And because of that, the Chicago mob was under constant government attack. But the government, as any other government in the world, mostly targeted the bosses of the syndicate which were Ricca, Accardo and Giancana. In the old days, and even today, everyone played the card “by cutting the head, the body dies,” well maybe that works in the legitimate world, but not in the Mafia. The boss is a guy who keeps the order among the members of the organization, takes a cut from every possible illegal and legal business that is made out there, and also makes the most important decisions that are previously consulted with his “administration.” Well that particular “administration” is the real power behind the boss because they control everything. So during this time, the boss was an individual who took the heat from the government for the rest of the organization. In the past all of the bosses, except for Accardo who almost went to jail in 1960’s, received long term convictions, including Capone, Nitti, Ricca and Campagna but the guys who had the organization in their own hands remained untouched. During the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s, that specific group of the Outfit was immune and by the early 1960’s things haven’t quite changed in Chicago.
For example, in July, 1959, the Outfit’s oldest leader Paul Ricca was sent to three years in jail in Terre Haute, Indiana on charges of income tax evasion. Now check this out, before the trial, Humphreys and Alex apparently had a detective agency, which placed surveillance on practically all the jurors in the case in order to develop information. Even after the conviction, the “connections guys” were the ones who pulled the strings so Ricca can get an appeal. After two years Ricca won a fair trial, which was constantly visited by Alex himself. On October 22, 1961, Ricca won an appeal and was released on $5,000 bond. Also Tony Accardo was convicted of income tax evasion on November 11, 1960. He was sentenced to six years in prison and was fined $15,000. Later the conviction was overturned by the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled that the trial was affected by derogatory stories in the press about Accardo's role in the crime syndicate. Again the “connection guys” played their role in obtaining Accardo’s freedom. There are many FBI reports with wiretapped conversations between individuals such as Alex, Pierce and Humphreys about their involvement in the trials.
