For centuries the garbage problem around planet Earth has not been solved. There are many reasons for this problem such as the huge number of residents around the world and the constant waste produced in our homes, businesses and industrial sources. Yeah there’s probably always a simple solution for everything but that is not the main problem. The main problem is that the garbage, which poisons our world on daily basis, is very expensive and highly lucrative. More garbage means more money or “one man's garbage is another man's treasure”, at least that’s how the saying goes. From the beginning of the 20th century, we started producing too much waste and we are still doing it today. For example, during the mid 2000’s, the American population threw out about 570 billion pounds of municipal solid waste and so that’s a lot of garbage for someone to pick it up. And so where’s the smell of money, that’s where the Mob usually hangs out.





Now we all know that through the decades, or should I say after Prohibition, many American mobsters got into plenty of different moneymaking schemes, such as gambling, prostitution, union racketeering and above all, legitimate enterprises. The gangsters learned early in the years of prohibition, on how to create and bring to a peak of financial power and illicit industry. When prohibition was repealed and the sources of incomes of this industry were stopped, the gangsters, wise in the ways of muscling in, attempted with an amazing degree of success to force men engaged in legitimate business and the worker members of trade unions to pay them tribute. So since the formation of the new Mafia commission, every crime family around the country was involved in certain legitimate business. They were doing it previously and they continued doing it. The legit enterprises were very easy to exploit, and were highly profitable but the main role was for usage to launder dirty money from their other illegal enterprises. Also with the help of the control over the unions, many doors into the legitimate world became open for the racketeers.


Many businessmen complained but only to certain and close individuals that the racketeers were ruining their business and they were afraid to tell their stories out loud because of fear of retaliation from the hoodlums. But the biggest problem was the few business men, mostly greedy for excessive profits, who opened the doors for the racketeers, but those same business men soon found out that this was a dangerous bargain, made worse by the fact that it was almost impossible to break. It was difficult for them to break free from all that the underworld has to offer because they enjoyed being romanced by the gangsters and they thought that this was the good life, but in reality their view of the good life was obviously distorted. So the crime syndicates were exacting tribute and made huge progress toward getting complete control of many labor unions and a dozen major industries. All of the people employed in the industries, such as workers engaged as janitors and in garbage removal service, were one per cent of Chicago's population, and under hoodlum domination, they held the power to paralyze the city. Major industries that suffered in greater or lesser degree from the racketeer "plague" included the milk industry, the coal industry, the laundry industry, the gasoline industry and above all, the garbage industry.


There was always something between the garbage business and the Mob, and that is why I believe by now we’ve seen a lot of examples where gangsters and garbage often go together. Looks like the business of garbage collection always satisfied the gangster’s need mostly because it’s legal and highly lucrative. The crime syndicates in America recognized the garbage business somewhere around the beginning of the 20th century, when many of the cities decided to stop collecting commercial waste and placed the private haulers in a very dangerous situation. That’s because from this point on the private hauling firms had the chance to make a lot of money, thus making them easy targets for extortion. Garbage removal is always used by gangsters as a vehicle of extortion and when there is a monopoly control, the refusal to remove garbage or waste can put a company out of business. Because it is comparatively easy to gain and maintain control, gangsters and racketeers have been attracted to the multimillion-dollar industry and important in their organization is a friendly labor union which can act as an enforcing arm. As expected, a huge number of mobsters from the East Coast and Midwest, with the help of corruption, intimidation and murder, declared war to all of the hauling firms around the country. The mobsters quickly divided up routes, rigged contract bids, and extorted non-mob haulers and customers in order to quash competition and keep their prices high. Many gangsters or front men often got no-show jobs at the firms, which gave them a legit job to put on their tax return and explain their income.


But during my career of researching the Chicago Mob, I’ve noticed that many people don’t know or confused the fact that the Outfit was also involved in the garbage business. During the 1940’s, three of the most powerful East Coast crime families, the Genovese, Bonanno and Lucchese, controlled the garbage hauling industry on national level and with the help of their cooperation and the creation of various garbage hauling firms, they commanded absolute power. The Chicago faction of America’s La Cosa Nostra also had more than few colourful controversies over the hauling business for many decades but some sources say that the Outfit was never involved in the business like their partners in New York for example. I personally agree on one thing and that was the time and difference in entering the business between the two factions. The East Coast families directly entered the garbage business through extortion and intimidation, thus grabbing the hauling firms by their necks. I really don’t know if the East Coast crime families were previously involved but all I know is that the Chicago boys didn’t directly enter the business but instead they used already formed unions from which they controlled the hauling firms around their city and they did it since the 1920’s. At the beginning they didn’t fight for pickup spots or dumping grounds, but instead they extorted the people and firms who competed between themselves.


For example, the first faction of the Chicago Mob which got involved in the garbage business was obviously the infamous Capone organization. After the planned hit on union racketeer Maurice Enright, two of the clan’s most ambitious labor racketeers Frank Nitti and his close associate Mike Carrozzo took over his garbage union. During the mid 1920’s Carrozzo, a known gun totting individual, became president for the Street Sweepers and Garbage Collection union and from that point on, every time when the city of Chicago decided not to deal with the Capone mob, he was the main guy who would pull his men out on strike and left the stinking garbage all around the streets. At any given time Carrozzo controlled over 3,000 members, including street sweepers, garbage wagon drivers and dump foremen who had to pay $50 a head for entering the union and on top of that to pay $5 a week. But these men also had the power to completely paralyze the city’s street cleaning and garbage collection services, but only on Carrozzo’s demand who usually threatened the city’s administration with “You'll pay or there’ll be no street work next year."



Mike Carrozzo


Usually, on most of these strikes which were always arranged by Carrozzo and Sam Kart, attorney for the union, the workers always demanded higher wages, an action which usually cost the city of Chicago $500,000 a year and through kickbacks in their own union, the Mob took a big part from the large amount of money. For example, if 600 garbage wagon drivers asked for an increase from $10 to $12 a month, the city was in no shape to negotiate and in the end the workers usually got what they wanted. This was a “practice” which with the help of huge political influence, was performed by Carrozzo and his organization on a time interval from 4 to 5 years. For example, the first four days of rotting garbage on the streets of Chicago occurred in February, 1925, later the second occurred in October, 1929, the third strike occurred in 1933, in which 15 Wards had no kind of collection of ashes, rubbish or garbage for several days because of the usual walkout, and the fourth occurred in 1939. Each time Carrozzo and Kart would march before the committee and demanded their raises, they would threaten with strikes, there would be closed conferences with aldermen and in the end usually there was very little struggle against Carrozzo's demands. Carrozzo appeared before the finance committee usually wearing a Florida tan, flashing diamonds, and puffing clouds of smoke from expensive Havana cigars.


But for the first time in 1940, the city’s council finance threw down, without a comment, the demand for pay raises for Carrozzo’s street workers, which would’ve cost the city amazing $883,000 a year. This became a huge disappointment for the union leader and racketeer because he just wasn’t used to such rejections and the bad luck continued when that same year Mike Carrozzo unexpectedly died of kidney failure at the age of 45 and three years later Frank Nitti also decided to join his old associate to the other side by taking his own life rather than going of to jail. During his life time Carrozzo was the ruler of 25 unions, including the International Union of Pavers and Road Builders, the International Hod Carriers', Building, and Common Laborers' district council. Thru them he ruled with an iron hand and 23 unions, including the street sweepers' and garbage collection, which was the only union that started him on the road to wealth and political power. After his death, the government did not reveal the secret of Carrozzo’s stashed cash but some say that it went over 5 million dollars.


But the Italian faction of the Chicago mob wasn’t the only group involved in the garbage operations, because the Jewish West Side group was also knee-deep in it. Many “famous” criminal faces came from this area such as Ben Zuckerman and Ben Glazer, Ben and Joe Epstein, or Lenny Patrick and Dave Yaras. One of their first associate or friend from the neighbourhood who was involved in the garbage business was Jack Rubenstein a.k.a. Jack Ruby. I believe that you already know who Ruby was so I don’t think that we need further introduction. So, according to some records, Ruby grew up on Chicago’s West Side, the Lawndale area, and by 1937, he was involved in Local 20467 of the Scrap Iron and Junk Handlers Union, in which the crime syndicate showed an interest and some say that Ruby was the connection. The union was formed that same year by attorney Leon Cooke, who worked as financial secretary and was also a personal friend of Ruby. Records provided by the Social Security Administration indicate that Ruby was employed by the union from late 1937 until early 1940, and worked as a union organizer and negotiated with employers on its behalf. But regarding the ownership of the union, Cooke had another partner known as Harry Winnick, who in turn was the main guy, who with the help of the American Federation of Labor or AFL, helped in forming the union. But after a short time, according to Winnick himself, Cooke used strong-arm tactics in chasing away his partner and union president.


So sometimes personal contacts can do so much but sometimes they can really screw things up. Like for example, two other of Ruby’s contacts were John Martin, the new union president and Paul Dorfman. These two guys knew people on both sides of the line and in reality they were gangsters. Born in 1902, Dorfman was one tough red-haired, bull-necked ex-prize fighter, with God knows how many skeletons in his closet, who knew every criminal or racketeer on the West Side. He earned the nickname “Red” as a featherweight fighter. In fact, Dorfman was a close associate, almost like a member, of the Chicago mob and plus he knew Ruby since childhood. Back in the old days of Prohibition, Dorfman worked as an enforcer for Ralph Pierce and the Capone gang. At the time Pierce led the main enforcement squad for the gang during the 1928 elections in the 20th Ward. That same year Dorfman was arrested for using strong-arm tactics against those who opposed Capone’s candidates. Now I don’t have any real evidence on whether Ruby or Cooke intentionally or unintentionally brought these guys into the union, but by 1940, they managed to hit the newspapers.


The first couple of years the union worked perfectly with more than 500 members and that is why there is not even one small piece of information of any criminal activities during that time period. There are reports that Ruby brought many members to the union, signed some decent contracts and in a record time won respect among his colleagues and employees. Ruby had quite good reputation and there’s no real indication that it had criminal connections. So the problem was that honest respect wasn’t something on which his new colleagues from the Chicago mob relayed on and so by 1939, rumours surfaced that Cooke wanted to control the union all by himself in order to get rid of the criminal element such as Martin and Dorfman. As for the two criminals, they used Cooke’s “soft spots” because the union did not pay any sick or death benefits and so they managed to gather more than few “rebels” and go against Cooke.


On December 8, 1939, Cooke entered Martin’s office and quarrelled over Martin’s failure to get more money for union employees in certain junkyards. In reality, Martin stole money from the union and Cooke wanted it back and so during the confrontation, the two men started a fight. Suddenly Martin grabbed a gun from under his table and pointed it towards Cooke, who in turn began to run and received one bullet in the back. Later he went to the hospital alone and after several days, for unknown complication on the wound, Leon Cooke died at the age of 28. So immediately the wheels of Mob justice began to turn and on January 5, 1940, Martin was subsequently acquitted on the ground of self-defence. Now again according to some accounts, the ownership of the union should’ve been given to Ruby, but that didn’t happen because shortly after Cooke’s death, he was allegedly unable to devote himself further to union activities and left its employ and devoted himself to bookmaking.


Now the next in line for leadership of the new union stood Paul Dorfman who in turn fully brought the organization under the rule of the Outfit. Now I personally believe that this was the first contact of the Chicago wiseguys with the garbage business. According to some accounts, Dorfman was a close friend with Tony Accardo and Lawrence Mangano, two known Chicago Outfit “illuminati” also from the West Side. Dorfman took Cooke’s former job as secretary treasurer of now known as the Waste Handlers Material Union local 20467 of the American Federation of Labor and immediately placed his associates William Green as president of the union and Joseph Briegel as union organizer. In other words, the Waste Handlers Union was just an outgrowth of the old Scrap Iron and Junk Handlers Union with membership of over 7000 members.



Paul Dorfman


The infamous racketeer had a quite violent career like for example on March 18, 1942, had a violent quarrel over the telephone with one Morton Lynn, an executive director of the Chicago Waste Products Merchants’ association, over the wages which were paid to employees over a South Side junkyard. Few hours later, Dorfman showed up at the association’s offices at the Hotel Sherman and slugged Lynn with brass knuckles, while constantly cursing at him. As usual, the cops had to show that they “really cared” about the law and order and so they arrested Dorfman and took him for questioning. As any other fraudulent criminal, Dorfman defended himself with the same old “self-defense” and that Lynn was the one who allegedly took the first swing. The investigators knew that Dorfman wasn’t telling the truth because first of all he wasn’t some long time member of the union or in fact he wasn’t a member at all and he never worked on the streets. But those same investigators also had “the power to see the future” or in other words, they knew that by the end of the day he was going to walk out of the police station like nothing ever happened. And so the poor victim probably knew the real identity of his assailant and so out of fear he didn’t want to prosecute and so the charges against Dorfman were dropped.


The Jewish racketeer caught quite a break when his “friend” in the organization Tony Accardo became the acting boss of the Outfit. According to some investigator reports, Dorfman was seen quite often at the boss’ home and in some locals around the West Side area. But the strangest thing occurred when Dorfman’s older brother Joseph was found shot in the left side of his head and .45 caliber revolver lay down beside his body. According to the neighbours, few minutes before the shot they allegedly heard “muffled noises” coming our of Dorfman’s apartment. The funny thing was that the coroners’ jury could decide whether it was a suicide or murder and in the end they ruled out that it was an accident. Since there’s no evidence about any wrongdoing, there’s also no room for any speculations but you can never tell with these people.


By the late 1940’s some of Dorfman’s old pals became quite known criminals and started forming their own crew or faction within the organization. Previously, most of these men were under the direct rule of few Italian crime bosses but generally they answered to Jack Guzik. Even though Guzik ruled the Loop and Near South Side, he was born and grew up in the Lawndale territory and so he also knew most of these guys and with his reputation he had no problem in controlling these individuals. The main individual I believe was Joe Epstein who oversaw a large bookmaking operation in that area for Guzik and Accardo. Also this was the main crew which was involved in the slaying of James Ragen, the owner of the largest wire service on the Midwest and so my point is that this crew was huge in the eyes of Accardo and the rest of the Outfit bosses.


Now Dorfman was known as a quite nervous, trigger happy, sometimes psychotic type of individual and so his name became known on international level. For example, he had contacts in the Cleveland and Detroit crime syndicates and was also a close friend with legendary gangster Abner Zwillman from New Jersey but above all, he was closely connected to the Lucchese crowd in New York through one Johnny Dioguardi. He even had close relations to many legitimate leaders of the Chicago federation of labor and its political allies and because of these contacts Dorfman would make one of the biggest steps for the Outfit’s top administration and that was his close relationship with the infamous union leader and racketeer James Hoffa. In fact, Dorfman was the first Chicago mob connection to the union leader, but that’s another story, as for now, let’s get back to the garbage business.


Dorfman ran the waste union “perfectly” until the first “bump” which occurred in 1948. It was the time period when Accardo decided to grab the union business by its throat and forced his organization to heavily invest in legitimate enterprises. On his orders the organization invaded the restaurant and bartender union, the meat workers union and the waste industry thus leaving a pile of dead bodies down the road. One of the murders which connected Dorfman’s waste union to the situation was the slaying of Nathan Gumbin, a wealthy businessman and director of the Waste Trade Industry. On July 27, 1948, Gumbin was on his way home when two assassins drew alongside his expensive sedan and suddenly one of the assassins shouted at Gumbin, poked his shotgun through the window and shot Gumbin in the head. Gumbin’s 19 year old son was also in the car, seated beside him. According to the young boy, the hit was so fast that he didn’t even notice the assailants.


According to some sources, Gumbin dealt with Dorfman and his Waste Handlers’ Union and according to government records, Gumbin’s murder was linked to a previous killing of Charles Crane, another industrialist who also dealt with the Waste Handlers’ Union. The Intelligence Unit of the Chicago Police Department also reported that Gumbin, Crane, and hundreds more waste and rag dealers, were allegedly paying monthly instalments to a person named "Dorfman" to guarantee no labor troubles. In fact, Gumbin was forced by Dorfman himself, to make monthly payments to his organization, with a guarantee of no labor problems if the payments were made on time.


Now Dorfman’s name was linked to not just one, but two killings at the same time. On July 29, 1948, Dorfman returned from his vacation in Eagle River, Wisconsin, and immediately communicated with the police after hearing that the government was looking for him. As usual, Dorfman said that he knew nothing about the killings and that he and Gumbin were very close friends. In the end he also added that he would donate $1,000 for the one who will solve Gumbin’s murder and that was that. Again, he walked out of the station like nothing ever happened. Years later, few of the top Outfit members had a meeting in Miami and one of the attendees mentioned the execution of Gumbin as an example, and the fact that he refused to take part in a deal. By the end of the day, Gumbin’s murder remained unsolved. But the problem was that the damage has already been done, meaning the crime investigators had their eyes focused on Dorfman and his waste union.


During the early 1950’s, the government declared war against organized crime by organizing senate hearings and brought the Mob in front of the eyes of the public. During these so-called congressional investigations, Dorfman consistently refused to talk about his organized connections and activities on the ground that a truthful answer might land him in jail. He told the senate that “I know bankers, management officials and civic leaders, too. No one gives me credit for that thou.” But even though he was never sent to jail for his crimes, few years later his position at the Waste Handlers’ Union started to shake down. Obviously the government placed some pressure over the AFL-CIO regarding Dorfman’ shady business through insurance agencies which were mostly conducted by his wife and stepson Allen. So in December, 1956, Dorfman was suspended from his job on charges of maladministration of the union’s health and welfare fund. According to one consultant for the waste union, the expenses in operating the welfare fund, during the last 10 years were ridiculously high. So by 1957, mostly because of his background and current underworld connections, Dorfman was kicked out of the union and was also banished from the waste industry. Later the AFL-CIO executive council unanimously rejected Dorfman’s appeal to be reinstated as secretary treasurer in the Waste Handlers’ Union, in fact this was the end for Dorfman’s career in the waste union but a small “bump” in his union racketeering career. Because of his constant relations to union chief Hoffa, this wasn’t quite the end of Dorfman’s connections in the waste business mainly because some of his close associates in the underworld had another quite lucrative idea.