Sumner continuously tried to warn the government that if the Meadowmoor dairy succeeds in building up a business at 8 or 9 cents a quart, certain well-known gangsters with huge criminal records will be able to take over control of the milk drivers. To these allegations, the Mob’s front man C. C. Davis, who in turn was the president of their company, made emphatic denials by saying "I have nothing to do with gangsters, and I never saw one in my life. All I know about them is what I read in the newspapers. None of those men has anything to do with this concern. We are going to start delivering milk in the morning. We already have contracts that are about to be filled. The milk will be up to the health department standards and we have been issued a permit to distribute by the city health department, and its every bit as good as the 11 cent milk which now is being distributed. It indicates that the monopoly which has been holding up the babies of Chicago for many years has its back to the wall. What is racketeering if it isn't taking 2 cents more a quart for milk than is justified? Our office is going to give this organization, the Meadowmoor Diaries, every legal aid in its fight to reduce the price of an absolute necessity to the children of Chicago. As for attempts to link this concern to racketeers in any way, the charges are false in their entirety. All we ask is that the public to investigate and not have the wool pulled over their eyes." To tell you the truth, I believe that with this statement Davis managed to capture the hearts of the readers and also every other poor citizen, whose additional two cents really meant something for them. Later, the police and federal officials questioned Humphreys about the Meadowmoor firm and also questioned its officials regarding Humphreys. Privately, Humphreys obviously would’ve possibly admitted to his cohorts that he was in the milk business, but according to some reports, he wasn't telling anything about anything to anybody, since he didn't want anyone to know about his own legit or illegal income.


In no time, the Meadowmoor Diary began to drive its competitors in the dairy business one by one out of the market by following the plan of selling Grade A dairy products. So with all the effort, in the end the law was passed which states that high quality milk could not be sold as fresh milk more than 72 hours after it left the cow and it clearly stamped the date on milk bottles where the consumer could read and understand it. When Humphreys and the Mob succeeded in passing the law passed, they did not do this out of care for the everyday citizens, but instead they have obviously done this because of huge profits, I mean, if the Mob took at least a couple of cents from every glass of milk which was poured in the state of Illinois or even the city of Chicago, then it must’ve been one quite lucrative scheme. On top of that, this so-called practice was later used for all meat, fish and dairy distributors across the country, which again opened the doors for many Mob-controlled businesses to enter the market. Even though the Mob succeeded in its goal, still the war with Milk Drivers’ Union was far from over, or in other words, I believe that the main point of the conflict was the personal grudge between Humphreys and Sumner. In 1934, the veteran union leader fearlessly decided to testify under oath in front of a grand jury regarding the $50,000 ransom which he paid to Humphreys regarding the kidnapping of Fitchie, which occurred back in 1931. Sumner’s testimony was given in the United States courthouse before Bolon B. Turner, member of the United States Tax Board of Appeals and Master in Chancery George E. Q. Johnson who in turn, quickly ordered for the federal agents to find Humphreys and arrest him on a charge of evading income tax payments. The funny thing was that Humphreys did not deny getting the money, which the government sought to collect $37,000 tax on the ransom and so that same year, Humphreys was sent to prison for income tax evasion.


After serving 18 months in jail, Humphreys was back on the streets and was quickly labelled by the government as Public Enemy No. 1 and the scandal wasn’t over yet. In November of 1936, Cook County State’s Attorney Investigator Tubbo Gilbert and Dr. Herman Bundesen were indicted for allegedly helping the Teamsters fix milk retail prices in Chicago. Despite the numerous testimonies and hundreds of evidences, still the case quickly went down the toilet and story goes that the States Attorney at the time, refused to bring the case to court and allegedly refused for Tubbo Gilbert to resign from his position. So with nowhere else to go, it was reported the other large dairies and also union members began encouraging Sumner to make peace with the Meadowmoor, but the reality for the union was different. My personal belief is that Sumner could’ve not overlook the fact that the ordinary citizens were “blinded” with the “illusion” of lower prices and high quality product, which was obviously good for them, but it was the opposite for the union drivers. I mean even today there are some articles in which the authors stated that we should be thankful to the Chicago Outfit for helping in passing the law for the grading of all dairy products. But the union’s problem was that the Meadowmoor company sold their product at 8 cents per quart, while the unionized home delivery milk cost 13 cents per quart. So this meant that differential of 4 cents per quart, sent the ordinary citizens to carrying their milk home from the food stores, instead of being carried by the milk drivers straight to their homes. According to some reports, the number of unionized milk delivery routes in the Chicago area dwindled from 7,000 to 4,000 in a very short time period and many wagon drivers lost their jobs, and on top of that, the Meadowmoor employed only non-union drivers, thus forcing the workers to get out of the union. To make things even worst, Sumner again testified against Humphrey’s actions, which quickly formed a rebel faction within his union and that same year he and Fitchie were unseated from their high positions within the organization.


In plane words, it was a win-win situation for Humphreys and the Mob, and as for Sumner and the rest of his administration, they were on the losing side. So the new administration began “cooking” plans for collaboration with the Meadowmoor and its unionization, which occurred during the next decade. It was obviously their only solution since the change was already done. I mean, they were even forced to reduce their drivers and also the cost of home delivery to a minimum since more and more of the business went to the food stores, which a quite large percentage were supplied by the Meadowmoor company. In reality, Humphreys made the unthinkable for one quite ruthless criminal, who grew up on the cold streets of Chicago and opened the doors in the legitimate world for the rest of his criminal cohorts. This particular scheme managed to place him among the top guys of the Mob’s administration, which by now was led only by Chicago’s Italian faction, including Paul Ricca and Louis Campagna.



An old Meadowmoor Diaries milk crate (thanks to Paul Scharff)


During that same decade, the Italian faction quickly used the new law regarding the prices and quality of all milk products and so they quickly joined the legal venture. But the problem was that these guys were quite different in making business, rather than Humphreys. I mean, Humphreys used violent methods to a certain level until somebody really got out of line, and the Italians also used violent tactics but in a way of “shoot first, ask questions later”, meaning they killed a lot of people and the worst thing was that they did the same thing between themselves. During the 1940’s, Chicago’s North Side which was the old territory of the late Joe Aiello, was still controlled by the Sicilian Mafia, but this time they were in a strong alliance or they simply belonged to the so-called Chicago Outfit, which still ruled by bosses from Neapolitan heritage. It was a period when some the “Northsiders” or the so-called best money makers, used the “Milk Business Model” and transferred from the milk business to spreading influence and control over the quite tasty and famous cheese production.


Back in the mid 1930’s, the crime boss of the North Side became Vincenzo DiGiorgio a.k.a. James DeGeorge and besides being a Mafia leader, one of his main passions was the legitimate business. Story goes that he created one quite lucrative and at the same time murderous crew, which he always taught to invest their illegal cash in legitimate enterprises. One of DeGeorge’s main crew members was the infamous Outfit big shot Ross Prio, who in turn was allegedly the mastermind behind the crew’s legit income. You see, Prio was an individual who grew up in a different criminal society, meaning at the beginning he allegedly came up in a criminal gang instead of a Mafia society. Proof for that were his close associations with non-Italian criminals such as one Marcus Lipsky, something which his Sicilian cohorts from the north rarely did. Now this guy is one of the lesser known individuals within Chicago’s criminal history, who in fact was, same as Humphreys, one of the cornerstones for the Chicago Mob. When Prohibition was over, the duo decided to launder their dirty bootlegging cash through a legitimate company which was known as L&P Milk Company., and the initials obviously stood for Lipsky and Prio. Since the reality was that they were both racketeers and cold blooded killers, many of their competitors were frightened, thus creating a quick success for the two mobsters. On top of that, when Humphrey’s organization managed to fix the prices in the milk selling business, it was not a coincidence when the L&P Milk quickly joined the Meadowmoor and Prio managed to gather even bigger fortune. It was also not a coincidence, with DeGeorge’s advices regarding invested money in legit income, when Prio again managed to use the situation and got himself involved in another legitimate venture, which was known as the Uptown-Chicago Diary Company, located at 3639 Harrison Street. This time he brought two of his enforcers such as Sol Miller and Johnny Ingraffia, one being a salesman and the other the company’s treasurer, with Prio as the president. In other words, guys like Prio who followed the old Welshman’s and DeGeorge’s advices, really got rich only from their legitimate incomes but the different thing was that they were quite more violent.


As we can see, the milk business was going pretty well for Prio and the Mob but by the late 1930’s, when one Sicilian businessman arrived in Chicago, the whole situation literally changed for the better and also for the worst. That individual went by the name of Giovanni Vincenzo DiBella, who in turn was just another Sicilian immigrant and cheese maker with many Mafia connections. My personal belief is that DiBella might’ve been brought be two of Prio’s Sicilian cohorts and Mafia members known as Thomas Oneglia and Vincent Benevento, who in turn was also traditionally involved in the cheese making business around the Grand Avenue area. And since both Prio and Benevento were heavily involved in the diary business, DiBella came as a perfect combination, regarding him being a professional cheese maker. Back home, or should I say in Sicily, the milk production mainly consists of sheep, goats and cows, but in reality more Sicilian cheese is produced from cow's milk rather than from goat's milk, even though there are more goats than cows in the country. Certain Sicilian cheese products which were made in ancient times were still made during the 20th century and even today. The “legend” goes that some of the better-known ones are made from cow's milk, including Ragusano, which is a product with mild flavour and the recipe comes from the province of Ragusa located in southeastern Sicily, or Provola, which comes from various Sicilian regions such as Nebrodi or Madonie, and is usually served in tasty smoked form, or even Caciocavallo which is also made from cow's milk but it has quite funny, confusing and at the same time cryptic name that literally means "horse cheese".



Ragusano cheese


Provola cheese


Caciocavallo


So with the help of the individual who had the skills of producing all of these tasty and traditional Sicilian cheeses, the group decided to invest in the infamous Grande Cheese Company, located 134 North La Salle St. and this time Prio wasn’t the company’s president, but instead it was one of Prio’s close associates known as Fred Romano, who in turn together with two other front men Tony Paterno and Gabriel Spataro, founded the Grande Cheese Company for the purpose of owning, leasing and managing dairies around the city of Chicago. In reality, DiBella was the real owner and as for Prio and the rest of the North Side faction, they all had personal interests in the company by being the main stockholders. Even though Romano was the company’s president with Spataro as the managing director, according to some reports, Prio visited the company on daily basis and acted as the real general manager. In fact the company had a quite lucrative start by having huge cheese production, and with the help of their distribution system, meaning truck drivers, they delivered their products to all food stores and restaurants around the city. Just imagine on how many grocery stores, hotels and restaurants did the Italian Mob owned at the time in Chicago, all supplied by the Grande Cheese, which obviously reaped enormous amounts of cash, and in fact was the perfect money laundering operation for the Outfit.


The funny thing was that when all that cash began arriving, the whole situation became quite bloody, or in other words, lots of greed from the mobsters has only brought violence, arson, insurance fraud, economic loss to legitimate business, and higher taxes for everyone but also, a lot of dead bodies on the streets. From 1943 until 1947, six North Side area mobsters or should I say, the company’s main stockholders were killed on the orders of the Outfit’s top administration, and even DeGeorge received a “contract” on his head, but somehow got a “pass” and was transferred to Wisconsin. During that period, the Outfit was led by one Tony Accardo, who in turn quickly placed Prio as the new leader of that same faction. On top of that, the so-called management of Grande Cheese changed several times, including once in 1946, when one Giuseppe Uddo of New Orleans became the front man, and later was succeeded by another front man known as Eugene Taormina. But the problem was that the owner of the Grande Cheese, John DiBella, was shaking in his boots, understandably because of the dangerous situation and so according to some reports, DiBella begged Prio to help him and relocate the whole cheese making factory to a different city or state. To tell you the truth, I completely understand DiBella since all of the murders which occurred were later connected to his company out of obvious reasons and so relocation was the best solution for the problem. According to one story, since he became a territorial boss, Prio used his contacts in Wisconsin, such as Al Capone’s brother Ralph, who in turn completely relocated to that area during the recent period and took care of the Outfit’s lucrative vending machine business in that same territory. There’s even another possibility for DeGeorge’s involvement, since he was also transferred in that same area and created many lucrative connections.


So according to another report, these guys were somehow responsible for the company’s licence concerning the pasteurising of milk for the making of cheese in that particular state, and the next year, the company was successfully moved to 1 S. Main St. in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, which in fact was an area known as the bootlegger's paradise during the 1920’s and early 30’s. It was the perfect location for the company not because of the many semi-retired bootleggers, but instead of the fact that the state of Wisconsin has been making cheese since the 1800’s in order to not waste excess milk. One hundred years passed and the state became home to over 1,500 cheese factories, producing over 500 million pounds of cheese per year and making the state the largest American cheese producer, a title that no other state managed to beat even to this day. According to some reports, by the mid 1950’s, since he was considered the biggest stockholder, Prio allegedly passed some of his shares to DiBella but also brought some new partners into the cheese venture, such as the Milwaukee crime family and DiBella’s personal friends from the Bonanno clan in New York. It was obvious that DiBella had a long time friendship with Joe Bonannao, but it is possible that the Milwaukee group was brought in by Prio and the Outfit. My personal belief is that Prio never lost his interest in the company since during the holidays, he was known for constantly sending huge packages of high quality cheese as gifts to the Outfit’s top administration, until his death.


Many other Chicago mobsters followed Prio’s way of making legit income, including Gus Alex the so-called “King of Greeks” and also one of Humphrey’s protégés. During the same time, Alex also began investing in the cheese business and laundered his illegitimate income through a firm which was known as the Ward Cheese Co. located at 1026 W. Polk St. and was ran by one John Fontana Sr., who in turn was a long time grocer. The thing is that this was a different operation, meaning the company was placed in a building on that same location, which in fact was a front for a huge bookmaking operation which was ran by the West Side faction, under one Fiore Buccieri and also Sam Battaglia and Lenny Patrick. In other words, it was just another example of how the new generation transformed their legit enterprises into something which was again quite illegal. In addition, Alex also invested in another cheese operation, at the same time when Prio relocated the Grand Cheese in Wisconsin, and was known as the Berst Corporation Wholesalers of Cheese, located in Portage, Wisconsin, and was fronted by one Carl Berst.


So by now we can come to a conclusion that both Humphreys and Prio were somehow of a revolutionary gangsters, who brought new ways of hiding their real nature and to “wash off” their sins through the selling of cheaper and better milk, and later with the producing of high quality cheese. You see, the old guys played fair, meaning they laundered their money through legitimate business, which in turn helped the everyday citizen or buyer. But by the late 1940’s, the old Capone administration slowly began losing its grip over the organization, when the younger up and coming criminals somehow began to “pollute” the Outfit’s legitimate world, which was previously created by the old timers. Right after the diary businesses, the second most lucrative and legal income for the Mob was the selling of meat. In fact, the meat industry always represented the cornerstone of Chicago’s history, like for example from the Civil War until the 1920’s, the city was the country's largest meatpacking center and also became the official headquarters of that same industry. The preparation of beef, lamb, pork, chicken and other conventional meat for human consumption has always been closely tied to livestock raising or technological change, government regulation and urban market demand, thus creating a huge lucrative industry. To tell you the truth, meat always has a huge impact on the environment rather than any other food we eat and that's because livestock require so much more food, water, land, and energy, than plants, to raise and transport. And in those days, the American population used to eat more meat per person, rather than any other country around the planet. So in such a lucrative environment, many criminals found their own way of making the situation even more lucrative.



Original Armour meat packing plant in Chicago at the beginning of the 20th century


The whole thing started at the beginning of the 20th century when the owners of the meat packing companies had developed the first industrial assembly line, which it required more than dozens of separate jobs, including from the killing of an animal to the processing of the meat. Until the factory killing machines were invented, some of the workers did the killings with their own hands. You see, not everybody have the guts to do such a thing all day long, but instead the job required stronger people, in their mind and body so they can be able to do all of that knocking, ripping, and gutting. So in time some of the more criminal minded fellas, or maybe their children or even their relatives, began chopping up almost every living animal around the state and labelled it as the generally known and eatable types of meat and during the 1910’s that was one of the many meat scandals which had shaken the meat processing industry and the city of Chicago. Younger criminals from all ethnicities began stealing horses from the stables of local fruit peddlers or any other source, and those same animals were later chopped by those same criminal gangs and in the end, the meat was sold wherever it was needed. For example, the lower class of people at the time was known for often buying horse meat, which was obviously cheaper and it was quite easy to find. Even though there’s literally nothing wrong with horse meat, which is still quite common and it’s served as a special meal in some countries, at the time in the U.S. it was considered that the meat from that particular animal may not be properly checked by food inspectors and not to be fit for human consumption and instead it was meant for the animals such as dogs and cats. Even some of the politicians began throwing statements that the horse is a noble animal and should not be brought on the kitchen table and some even went too far, by comparing the practice with cannibalism. So the government decided that it was better for all meat packers or restaurant owners to put signs on their joints, if they already decided to sell horse meat. So usually when a new law comes out, such as the Meat Inspection Act., which in fact regulated the food additives, the more thoughtful criminals try to find a lucrative way out of the situation. Some reports show that during those days many workers at Drainage Canal ate horse meat on daily basis, and they bought it from a nearby meat packing house, which in fact bought worn-out horses from those same workers, who in turn used them at the working site. And in no time, many greedy meat packers and restaurant owners began buying horse meat, which was later labelled it as beef or any other similar meat and obviously made more money. So naturally this kind of practice slowly created a huge “welcome” for the criminal underworld, which in turn quickly began penetrating the so-called business by supplying the needed “product”.


Until World War II, the very own suggestion of using horses for food was still quite obnoxious to many, but the conflict forced the ordinary citizen to overcome the prejudice. So during the war, many European ships still carried wheat flour, olive oil and also so-called cured meat which is preserved by various methods such as salting, drying or smoking, for example salami, bacon or sausages. It became sort of a tough period when the U.S. government informed everyone around the country that each family would be limited to only 2.5 pounds of beef per week, or 130 pounds of beef a year. But the most interesting thing was when some high level government associates and politicians suddenly “changed” their minds and began preaching that the horse meat was way more clean and healthier than most types of meat, which in fact was a way of saying “buy it because it’s cheaper”. In no time, the whole situation forced many restaurant owners and meat market salesmen to put more horse meat instead of beef on their menus. Another interesting situation occurred when many butcher shops suddenly popped up around the country and began selling minced or in other words, ground meat, which is still used for the preparation of all kinds of carnivore meals. It was a time when the so-called hamburger began rising at the top of the menu for all Americans around the country, which in fact it’s quite easy recipe, with minced beef shaped in a circle, slightly burned on both sides and placed between two buns. Even though it was not quite official, but after the war, Chicago has become the hamburger capital of the world. So when many of the restaurant owners and butcher shops began mixing the beef with horse meat, that’s when the Mob got deeply involved. In addition, during this period thousands of pounds of ground meat mainly came from Huston, Texas, which was sent by independent organized crime groups with connections to Chicago’s crime syndicate. For example, in 1948 the Huston police swooped down every school cafeteria and seized samples of ground hamburger meat for analysis. Later the state laboratory reported that every sample was “horse meat-positive" and later the investigators found more than 50,000 pounds of horse meat in one ware- house which was labeled "boned meat," and 20,000 pounds, unlabeled, in another warehouse.



Horse meat


Beef


Ground meat with 80 percent horse