The thing was that Alex in fact never took the marriage thing very seriously and continued to have fun with numerous other lady models or high class prostitutes. For example, he, 70 year old Eddie Vogel and one Ben Stein, a labor racketeer, spent good times at the Riviera health club which was located at the Outer Drive East Apartments building. The three gangsters had lavish parties by the pool with high class female escorts in bikinis. Also most of the cabanas were furnished with only a few chairs and a table but their cabana had carpets, fancy drapes, rich wall hangings, and constantly ordered exotic drinks from the nearby bar.
By 1969 the situation within the Outfit was like this: Giancana was out of the country, allegedly spreading gambling operations in Central and South America and Alex’s associate from the Melrose Park area and allegedly one-time boss Phil Alderisio was sent to jail. The prime sources for income which was the policy racket and the Hispanic version called the “Bolita” were on the downfall, partly by the government’s hand, and partly by some of the African-American and Hispanic operators who decided to take back their previously owned rackets, again, under their rule. The Outfit’s handbook operations were also on the downfall and most of the Outfit-connected clubs around Chicago were closed down. Eddie Vogel was retired in California and now the only guys that remained big in the game and worked for Alex were old man Les Kruse and Hyman Larner, who by now was out of the country and controlled the import/export of vending machines in Chicago and the U.S. But one thing is for sure that the First Ward “administration” was still in full effect. Now the alderman of the First Ward was the late Bruno Roti’s son Fred Roti, also considered a “made guy” in the Chicago Outfit. Back in 1962, Giancana decided to dump D’Arco as alderman of the First Ward, and after that the position remained free for one year, then Alex advised Giancana that Fred Roti is the right guy for the job but Giancana ruled down the proposition because everybody knew who Roti’s father was. So there were other candidates but by now story goes that Alex again influenced over his superiors about placing his close associate Roti in the position.
On December 7, 1969, Alex attended the wedding of Louie Arger’s daughter at the Sheraton Blackstone Hotel. She was getting married with the son of Henry Susk. Among the early arrivals were Gus Zapas and Albert Frabotta, who both wore a dark business suits and cashmere coats. Zapas ignored the detectives and reporters but seemed confused by their presence but Frabotta displayed his temper inside the hotel, by walking around in the lobby and pointing out the detectives to the other arrivals. The detectives had hoped to get a glimpse of Alex, who was one of the most expected guests, but he had ducked in or quickly went in through a rear door to pay his respects. Alex was now on high position and tried to avoid any public attention.
Now the main guys were still Paul Ricca, who was slowly becoming senile, old but tough Tony Accardo, who still commanded huge respect among the Outfit members and 55-year old Gus Alex. Ricca and Accardo were obviously not foolish to take the “cursed” boss position and Alex was the perfect guy for the job but luckily for him, he was not Italian. So the bosses decided that they are going to pick one of the few last remaining “capos” from the old days, who in turn was going to share the top position with Alex and Accardo, until that same individual was groomed to continue and lead the organization on his own. In fact this is called a ruling panel and the third member was Joey Aiuppa the former boss of the Cicero and Melrose Park areas. Now because of this situation I decided to write this story on how different was the Chicago faction from the rest of the American “La Cosa Nostra” organization. Now all of the Italian street bosses answered to the ruling panel, which also included Gus Alex, a non-Italian member. The late 1960’s was a tough period for the Outfit so by 1970, Ricca and Accardo did not have a lot of options. Alex managed to breach one of the main rules that governed this unholy criminal brotherhood for more than 100 years, and that was the rule that you had to be mainly Italian to get to the top position within the organization.
By 1971, because of his health issues, Ricca was mostly out of the picture, so Accardo took the position as elder statesman of the ruling panel. So now Alex wasn’t directly involved in any illegal operations, but he regularly took his cut and issued orders or gave business advices on daily basis. Now the boss position of the non-Italian faction was shared by Kruse and Pierce, although some sources say that in fact Pierce became the top guy. Alex also reduced his public meetings with Kruse and Pierce by making “message drops” or local places which were used for leaving messages or payoffs to the bosses. Sometimes these places were visited by Pierce or Kruse, who in turn delivered Alex’s share of the schemes, who later also visited these places and took what ever it was delivered to him. Two known “message drops” were Celano’s Custom Tailors at 600 block of North Michigan Avenue and the offices of Outfit lawyer Maurice Walsh located at 39 South LaSalle in the Loop area. As usual, it was from great importance to everyone in the organization, never to mention Alex’s name in front of outsiders. Alex bought for him and his wife $50,000 (or $300,000 in today’s money) condominium in the Regency Towers South in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to spend their Christmas holidays. Alex had all the money and power that one criminal ever wished for, but he was still not satisfied because he still belonged to the criminal society and on top of that, now he was a leader. So Alex again tried to play the “health card” with Ricca and Accardo and asked for permanent retirement in Florida but he was denied because his skills were still very much required by the Outfit. Accardo also ordered that at least one of the two top bosses, Alex and Aiuppa, should be always in the Chicago area. If one ever needed to leave Chicago, he informed the other boss about the longetivity and location of the trip. Accardo even issued an order to the other area bosses that every important decision must be cleared through either Alex or Aiuppa.
Outfit boss Gus Alex
Joe Aiuppa was an old timer who started his career as a gangster since the old Capone days and always worked closely with the non-Italians. In fact he was brought into the mob by a non-Italian member, so he had no problem in sharing the top position with Alex. The thing was that Aiuppa was a very illiterate individual and Alex was the opposite, so he very often gave advices and sort of held certain control over Aiuppa. Aiuppa also very often attended meetings with members of the non-Italian faction such as Lenny Patrick and Dave Yaras but his closest associate of them all was Hyman Larner. But besides the cigarette and slot machine operations, according to some reports, Aiuppa might’ve been also involved in the narcotics racket, since Larner was heavily involved in the international gambling boats, which were a perfect front for the racket.
By 1972, the U.S. government mostly attacked the Outfit members of Italian descent but later realized that the true force behind the organization were the non-Italian members. So in November, the government had subpoenaed almost every non-Italian mobster from Chicago, including Gus Alex, Dave Yaras, Lenny Patrick, Lester Kruse and Gus Zapas, to appear in front of a special federal grand jury regarding the racketeer’s involvement with politicians and the police. Alex was subpoenaed by Miami-based agents as he lolled in the sun at his residence in Florida. In the end they all took the fifth. In fact by now Alex acted like a legitimate businessman and was very hard to get him implicated in some illegal operation. Alex mostly gave his instructions through public payphones. He was known for walking for more then six blocks and then entered into a garage where a payphone was located. Early in the mornings Alex usually would drove off with his 1971 red Pontiac GTO convertible to the Apex Amusement Company located at 7700 Milwaukee Avenue in Niles, Illinois. Over there he worked as the Public Relations Director for two hours and then returned to his residence where he spent most of his time. Story goes that by this time Eddie Vogel sold all of his interests to Alex and all of Vogel’s underlings came under his rule, including Hy Larner. The same year, in mid October, the father of the Chicago Outfit, Paul Ricca died of natural causes. Immediately after Ricca’s funeral, Alex packed his bags and went to his apartment in Florida for a long vacation.
As additional info, although Giancana was out of the country and was overthrown by most of his peers back home, according to the Mafia code mixed with that old Sicilian mentality, he still held the boss title because in reality he never stepped down. Giancana still had loyal Outfit connections such as Richard Cain, Hyman Larner, Dominick Blasi, Charles English, Charles Nicoletti and also Lester Kruse. During this period most of these guys didn’t make any profits with Giancana, except for Kruse and Larner. According to some stories, after he got out of jail, Richard Cain tried to enter the casino boats operations, but he was denied by the Giancana-Kruse-Larner faction. These excursion boats ran from New York to Florida and into the Caribbean and were operated by one of Giancana’s and Larner’s lieutenants James Tortorielo. Cain’s plan was to recruit all of the best gambling operators and biggest high rollers from the Chicago area and assured them about the arrest-free conditions on the cruse ships. After that Cain was allegedly called by Alex, which makes a lot of sense since Cain answered to him and Pat Marcy, and the two were involved in a violent argument. Alex allegedly objected Cain’s plan to drain all the gambling money from the city and Cain in a very disrespectful manner gave Alex his last answer. Later that same day, Cain was murdered. The bosses figured it out that if Cain and Giancana made their come backs, a lot of old headaches would’ve came back also.
So maybe this is a new thinking but if Giancana was still involved in the international gambling racket, which I truly believe that he was, then he also must’ve been advised about the plot. We all know that by now one of the most profitable enterprises for the Chicago mob were the casinos in Las Vegas but these so-called international “experiments” brought hope for the Outfit in gaining new highly lucrative schemes. So my opinion is that by now Giancana received money only from these new “not yet much profitable” operations and didn’t get a penny from any illegal operation from back home. So he decided not to share his proceedings with the rest of the group or he just wanted a bigger share. Either way, somebody pulled the strings in Mexico and Giancana was deported back to the U.S. where he was subpoenaed to testify before a Chicago grand jury about his alleged CIA contacts and automatically his cut from the international operations was taken over by the Aiuppa-Alex- Kruse-Larner group.
According to one FBI report, in May, 1974, Aiuppa suffered from a serious affliction that involved arthritis in his knees, and has been unable to function due to his lack of capacity to move around. At the same time period, Accardo also spent some time in Palm Springs, so my point is that during this brief period Alex was the only boss of the ruling panel that took care of day to day operations. The report also says that in fact Alex’s brother Sam was the one who delivered the messages between his brother and Aiuppa. Sam resided approximately one mile from Aiuppa’s residence in Oak Brook, Illinois. By now, except for Accardo and Aiuppa, there was almost no one else in the Outfit who rated more respect than Alex.
Anyways, after the Giancana murder in 1975, according to the Mafia code, Aiuppa became the official boss of the Chicago Outfit and the organization again evolved and took a new form. Now they were more of a low key crime group and mostly transferred their operations in different directions, such as loan sharking and extortion. Aiuppa made his organization in the form of a real “Cosa Nostra” family, with boss, advisor and underboss, capos and soldiers. There are some indications that even the “blood on a burning saint” ritual was brought in effect when certain new members were made into the organization. Now the first ward was still in control of Pat Marcy, the Near South Side or the China Town crew was still under Frank Caruso, Alex’s friend from the old days Jimmy Catuara was next in line to take over the boss position of the late Frank LaPorte but since he had too much heat over his operations, the Outfit’s ruling panel decided that one of LaPorte’s close associates Al Pilotto should be the new boss of the Chicago Heights crew. As additional info, the late LaPorte never liked Catuara and even though Alex was his friend, Catuara still didn’t get support because he was too “visible.” Also the forming of the new Grand Avenue crew, which was formed by the former Giancana administration such as Marshall Caifano and Louis Eboli, who previously worked for Battaglia in the Melrose Park area or Tony Spilotro who came under Nicoletti and the late Sam DeStefano. The boss of this group was Joey Lombardo, experienced mobster and above all Accardo loyalist. As for old man Accardo, now he was the family’s elder advisor, next to the boss, and Jack Cerone, another Accardo loyalist, took the position as number two or the family’s underboss. From this we can see that Accardo managed to form his own administration, something which his former partner the late Paul Ricca was doing it for more then 30 years. This new “face” of the Outfit returned to its roots and operated strictly from the shadows for the next 10 years.
Now the non-Italian faction of the Outfit transformed into a list of mob associates and only because of his high rank, Alex remained as elder statesman for the Outfit. In fact, Alex took Ricca’s place but still controlled the outside connections such as front men, lawyers, union leaders, police captains and of course judges and aldermen. He was like the boss of the “associate-faction.” These numerous associates were Alex’s “personal crew.” He closed all of his illegal operations in the Loop and the area became an “open territory”, meaning that if some of the Outfit members wanted to start their own operations over there, they were not going to be opposed by Alex. Also, since Hyman Larner was mostly conducting business out of the country, his crew members answered to both Alex and Aiuppa. Guys like the Bastone brothers, Tommy Russo, the guy who took Larner’s position in Chicago, Jimmy Johnson, Albert Meo, William Pappas and Allen Rothman, their main front man for the Vencoa Music Company. This crew also had shares in companies such as the Vending Corporation of America, Skill Amusement, Apollo Vending, Coney Island Amusement, Flip Amusement, B&T Vending and the Town and Country Vending. Larner never lost touch in Chicago and always maintained the cash flow to the Outfit’s hierarchy. Rothman, Larner and Alex were the guys who exported over 50 million dollars worth of food, drink and cigarette vending machines in Brazil. As additional info, Hyman Larner also had concession for slot machines in casinos located in various places such as Panama, Jamaica, Ecuador and Argentina. For example in Panama, Larner once made shipments of $500,000 in just six months.
Ever since the “big game” ended in Chicago, the Las Vegas operations were always on the up and up. Still the main guy who took care of Alex’s interests in the casinos was Les Kruse, who often travelled to Vegas and returned with the cash from the scheme which usually was carried by a third person since Kruse was very well known to the government officials. Kruse generally stayed and took money from the Stardust and the Dunes casinos. During this period Alex’s guy in “Sin City” was Phil Ponto, a boyhood friend from the area of 26th and Wentworth. Also by now Alex and Kruse heavily invested in real estate in the Florida area.
Even in his 60’s, Alex still had the swagger and lavishly enjoyed his life. On daily basis, he visited Eli’s Place for Steaks Restaurant at lunch hour or in the evenings he visited the Buttery, a plush discotheque which was located at the Ambassador Hotel. He still had fine escorts under his arm and still felt young. But in 1976, Alex lost most of his power on the streets of Chicago with the loss of two of his prime and long time lieutenants. During the past few years, Ralph Pierce was suffering from considerable dizziness and loss of balance. His private physician advised him to visit a hospital in California and get a complete check-up and possibly to submit to an operation on his neck artery for possible clogging. I don’t have information on what happened next, but on July 2, 1976, Ralph Pierce died of a heart attack and just after a month, in August, he was followed in death by his old pal Lester Kruse, who also died from natural causes at the age of 69. Back in the good old days, Alex, Pierce and Kruse represented a “Mob Triumvirate”, like the ones in ancient Rome formed by Julius Caesar, Pompey the Great, and Marcus Crassus, but those days were now over forever. Back in 1974, Dave Yaras died of a heart attack while playing golf in Miami Beach and by 1977, Lenny Patrick was in jail. Mob boss Edward Vogel died of cancer on June 12, 1977, at Columbus Hospital of natural causes at the age of 82. Before he died, he was constantly in the company of his associate Alex, who visited the old man two times a day. Some sources say that Alex was one of the people who were present at the moment when Vogel departed from this world.
The old non-Italian faction was slowly fading away. These guys rarely spent time in jail, shared a huge amount of power and influence, and made a lot of money for the organization because they had the brains for the job. But the thing was that these non-Italian bosses rarely had their own non-Italian protégés to take over things. The reason for that probably was that back in the old days, the mobsters that came under guys like Guzik or Humphreys grew up with the Italians and associated with them their whole lives. I believe that’s why they mostly had gangsters from Italian descent under their rule and so the story of the once powerful and different faction of America’s La Cosa Nostra was coming to an end.
By now most of the illegal operations in the Loop were closed down and so Alex took his cut from numerous bribes for fixing cases, judges and police captains. He still held the same position at the Apex Amusement Company and made $50,000 a year, still had his own shares in the Vegas casinos and still maintained his long time very profitable friendship with Outfit lawyer Sidney Korshak and the Teamsters Union. But by 1977, Korshak received a lot of bad publicity. For example, California state attorney general Evelle Younger included Korshak in a well-publicized list of organized-crime figures with ties to California. Also during a statewide racetrack strike, Korshak was asked to step down as a labor negotiator, only because of the press of his other business. But still, according to some FBI reports, Korshak and Alex served as managers for the money from the Las Vegas scheme, which were later spread among the Outfit bosses.
Sid Korshak
Also, since Alex was banned from Switzerland, now the bosses saw no real reason for him to spend most of his time out of Chicago. Remember when I previously stated that Alex had problems with Giancana’s constant absence?! Well now the tables have turned because the bosses didn’t care about his alleged health problems, they cared about their protection. So, two of the Outfit’s commission bosses at the time, Charles Nicoletti and Dominic DiBella, complained to Aiuppa about Alex’s lack of presence in important moments. So Aiuppa sent a message to Accardo, who also resided from time to time in Florida, to convince Alex to get back to Chicago and to start taking care of things a little bit better. So Accardo and Alex had a meeting, where Alex stated that he had no intentions of staying in Chicago nor that he had any intentions of taking greater responsibilities and in the end, he tried to sweet-talk Accardo in retiring together in Florida and into buying a apartment right next to his. Alex was no fool. He knew that Nicoletti was behind the rebellion and Aiuppa had to go along with it because he was now the boss and Nicoletti was his main tough guy. By now the Outfit was divided in two main factions, one was the “Management” led by Aiuppa and Alex, and the second faction was headed by Nicoletti, who took care of all the “dirty stuff.”
Now, the Outfit “veteran” Nicoletti was in a situation where he had to seek approval for every important decision, from both Aiuppa and Alex. For him Aiuppa wasn’t a problem because they knew and worked together for a long time period, but Alex was a different story. For example, Alex complained to Accardo that a lot of “wild guys” were running around with out control, such as Joey Lombardo, Tony Spilotro or Frank Schweihs, with the approval of Aiuppa and Nicoletti. And because of those guys, other members of the group also suffered losses. Alex also explained to Accardo that these individuals were responsible for every gangland hit or mob related missing cases that occurred in Chicago or Las Vegas for the last few years and also added that these guys lied to them about not been involved in some of the murders. But Alex forgot about one thing, and that was even if Accardo ever had any problem with this, there was no way that he alone was going to take on the younger generation. But by the end of the meeting Alex brought another very touchy subject to the table and that was narcotics. The old bosses like Accardo or Alex, made their money and wanted to live out the rest of their lives quietly. But the problem was that some of the old big shots who didn’t saved their cash or didn’t had the chance to make it, wanted to get involved in narcotics since the bookmaking and loan sharking businesses were on the downfall. So guys like Aiuppa and Nicoletti happily financed this business and also influenced the new generation, who in turn gladly got involved. Now during his younger days, Accardo maybe took few envelopes of cash from the narcotics trade but generally he was against drugs because he believed that gambling will always exist as a racket. So, Accardo “advised” Aiuppa that he should take care of his men a little bit better and to keep them “clean”, meaning no narcotics and so Alex can safely return to Chicago. As for Nicoletti, he was overruled and was stripped from his rackets. He was quite mad at Aiuppa and Alex and they knew that. So on March 28, 1977 the House Select Committee on Assassinations wanted to question Nicoletti about his alleged involvement in the JFK assassination. Nicoletti wasn’t aware of the situation but “someone” else was and I believe that “someone” was Alex. So the next day Nicoletti was shot in the back of his head while in his automobile, probably by the same “wild guys” that he previously controlled.
While in Chicago, Alex was still very nervous because by now the amount of money which he has amassed through the good years was so big that he had no need for any further illegal income, but instead he was pulled back even further within the organization. He again and for the last time, played the “retirement and health card” with Accardo and Aiuppa and also advised them that Jack Cerone, the Outfit’s underboss, was the perfect candidate to take over his contacts and operations. In the end, Alex also informed the two bosses that his wife Suzanne developed breast cancer and she needed him during the therapies. As cruel as they were, the bosses considered Alex’s proposition and in the end, without any emotions, refused the proposal. Alex’s mistake was the proposal itself or in other words, his candidate which was Cerone. Accardo and Aiuppa respected Cerone, but they never trusted him because he was a loose cannon. If Alex had any better candidate then Cerone, he might’ve had quite good chances in receiving the long wished retirement from the Outfit.
So now Alex had no other choice but to become very cautious and tried to avoid any government surveillances, the best way he could. Once Alex managed to obtain the license plate number of a federal agent’s car during the course of surveillance and had it checked out through the Motor Vehicle Department in Springfield, Illinois, through a contact of his in the Chicago Police Department, and again four days later, he had it re-checked through the Cook County’s Sheriff’s Office. According to some sources, Alex spent much time in securing his meetings, which became quite a problem for the feds. Through the years Alex allegedly obtained information that most of government agents avoided working in the late evening hours or early morning hours, right after midnight so he scheduled most of his meeting during those time periods, especially during the weekends, in far remote areas. But his paranoia became more of a waste of time, because he was less productive during the meetings. By now Alex was in his mid 60’s and wasn’t getting any younger. He attended meetings only with the top guys, meaning Accardo and Aiuppa. Alex sometimes avoided meetings with the number two guy Jack Cerone because he considered the guy, as I said before, a “loose canon”, and which Cerone really was.
