Saying Goodbye To The Builder: Longtime Windy City Mafia Leader Joe Andriacchi Dies Quietly In His Sleep
Old-school Chicago mob luminary Joseph (Joe the Builder) Andriacchi passed away over the weekend at the age of 91. His family is trying to keep the news on the down low and has not put out an official obituary. Known as the consummate gentleman wiseguy, Andriacchi oversaw the Windy City’s Rush Street nightlife district for decades and was alleged to have silent ownership interest in the Rosebud restaurant chain.
Soft-spoken and classically understated in his demeanor, “Joe the Builder” held every Outfit administrative post possible in his lengthy career in the rackets and leaves earth as one of the most revered, respected and wealthy mafia leaders in America. Originally making a name for himself in his early hoodlum days as a master safecracker, he did three years in prison for burglary (1968-1971) but stayed out of handcuffs for the rest of his gangland tenure on the streets. He held street boss-acting boss duties in the 1990s, the underboss job in the 2000s and served in the Outfit’s consigliere role in his final years, per federal law enforcement charts.
The FBI still considers Andriacchi a top suspect in the August 31, 2006 kidnapping and murder of Chicago mob underboss Anthony (Little Tony) Zizzo, who vanished on his way to a sit-down on Rush Street purported to be called by Joe the Builder to resolve lingering animosities between Zizzo and then new acting boss Michael (Fat Mike) Sarno regarding video-poker machine routes. Andriacchi’s cousin, Joseph (Joey the Clown) Lombardo, had just got locked up on racketeering and murder charges in the landmark Operation Family Secrets case and Zizzo’s slaying went on to steady a shaky Outfit ship finding its footing under a new administration.
Ninety-year old Lombardo died behind bars in 2019. Sarno, 66, is in the final half of a 25-year federal prison stretch that stems out of a 2010 extortion conviction. According to sources on both sides of the law, the infirmed Sarno often provides advice and sometimes direction for current Chicago mob shot callers on the street via prison phone calls and visits.
