Whats up ladies and gents?! As we are coming close to the end of this year, too, I hope that all of us are still alive and well (even my enemies), and can continue enjoying this forum and the productive chats that we have together, followed by all of the free information on organized crime. That's why, I've decided to "celebrate" the moment by making one singe thread regarding all of the Chicago Outfit articles that I posted during the period of 2023/24. Most of the articles are already on this forum and so Ill only post the links, but for the articles that I personally asked to be deleted from that horrible site, (one of my biggest mistakes in my whole life and I apologize about it) Ill re-post some of them here, including the Angelo LaPietra, Mayor Cermak and the Catering Business articles, followed by the newly updated Hyman Larner project. In fact, Ill start with the Larner article. Also, since we still have several months until the end of the year, I advise you to stay tuned at the GBB forum for more free and never released before information on the Chicago Outfit.

P.S.

For all of those who previously missed the whole “action”, and also for those who never give credit when credit is due, I think now you have enough reading material for at least a year

Cent'Anni!

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The Real Life Story of Richard Cain aka Scalzitti

http://gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbth...ain=44186&Number=1098964#Post1098964

Chicago Heights LCN Capo - Albert "Caesar" Tocco

http://gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbth...ain=44032&Number=1095147#Post1095147

Chicago's Most Notorious Family - The Bravieris

http://gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbth...ain=44044&Number=1095498#Post1095498

The Moretti Brothers & The Chicago Outfit

http://gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbth...ain=44064&Number=1096335#Post1096335

Chicago's "Three Dirty Pigs", The Mob & Narcotics

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=43991&Number=1094173#Post1094173

Chicago Outfit "Godfather" - Joey "Doves" Aiuppa

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=43937&Number=1092843#Post1092843

Chicago Cop & Syndicate Enforcer - Tommy Durso

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=43887&Number=1092066#Post1092066

Chicago's "King of Thieves" - Carl Fiorito

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=43825&Number=1090875#Post1090875

Willie Daddano & The West Side Burglary Crew

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=43792&Number=1090072#Post1090072

Chicago's Most Corrupt Cop - Bill Hanhardt

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=43750&Number=1089298#Post1089298

Capone's Infamous Irish Associate - Johnny Patton

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=43704&Number=1088376#Post1088376

The Outfit's Multi-Million Dollar Heist

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=43728&Number=1088883#Post1088883

The Outfit's Arizona Crews

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=43683&Number=1087929#Post1087929

The Outfit's Indiana Crew

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=43662&Number=1087195#Post1087195

Chicago's Richest Undertaker - John A. Sbarbaro

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=43615&Number=1086191#Post1086191

The Real War of The Godfathers - Outfit Style

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=43577&Number=1085784#Post1085784

The Outfit's G.O.A.T. - Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=43549&Number=1085242#Post1085242

Carmine Galante & Chicago's Narcotics Trade

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=43539&Number=1085059#Post1085059

Chicago's Gus Alex & The Genovese/Newark Family

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=42703&Number=1060081#Post1060081

Chicago's Fred Bruno Barbara

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=42692&Number=1059795#Post1059795

Battaglia's Farm - Pingree Grove

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=42673&Number=1059043#Post1059043

Central/South America and the U.S. Mob

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=42640&Number=1058476#Post1058476

Chicago's Guido Gang - 1960's

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...ain=42656&Number=1058702#Post1058702

Truman and the Mob

http://gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1056462

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And now, some of the previously deleted and updated articles. Enjoy, again, and don’t forget to boycott all paywalls and paying sites.


THE OUTFIT’S INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE – HYMAN “RED” LARNER


“He who knows not that the Prince of Darkness is the other face of the King of Light knows not me.”


Chicago is a city with a “disease” which was never cured, “thanks” to some of the symptoms such as the presence of police corruption, widespread gambling and vice, and inefficient and dishonest government. All of these so-called symptoms are caused by the presence of a “virus” known as Chicago’s crime syndicate. When people think of the crime syndicate, they usually form a picture of a room filled with gangsters in grey suits with big cigars, sitting on a large table and decide the faith of the criminal underworld. Well to tell you the truth, that same picture is not very far from the truth but the image of a “perfect” villain is a little bit different. During my research on Chicago’s organized crime for the last 12 years or so, I’ve noticed a different kind of gangster than the rest of the everyday mobsters and criminals. As far as money and power goes, it’s not much different than the rest, but the special ability of pulling strings, convincing people and making things happen with the lowest form of violence, that’s something quite rare to witness. That same type of criminal “puppet master” I believe was the real power behind all of the world’s crime syndicates, no matter his level of status within the organization he belonged to.

Most of us already possess the knowledge about flashy and quite known organized crime leaders such as Al Capone, Charles Luciano or Sam Giancana, probably because most of the mainstream authors are only interested in selling books instead of showing the real faces and picture of organized crime. The general public put its trust in their directives and sadly keeps on buying the same old mainstream historical and criminal culture their whole lives. Because of this mainstream “Mob propaganda”, many people are blinded even to the reality of the existence of the real criminals behind the scenes, who in turn caused the massive criminality. The basic thing or problem in this case is that most of us started with the hunger for knowledge regarding the formal structure and function of the Italian crime syndicates and so as any beginner, most of us had accepted every possible information without questioning it, first. But the most beautiful part of growing up in this so-called “Mob-research business” is the fact that the reality is always far divorced from the official story which was drilled into our heads by every day myths and legends. My point is that virtually every highly organized crime syndicate all over the world, has a secret or shadowy individuals who secretly pull the strings behind the scenes and those same individuals usually operate outside the bounds of the syndicate’s traditional rules and formalities.

For example, Hyman a.k.a. “Hy” a.k.a. “Red” Larner was one of the rare low profile and shadowy criminal figures in the United States underworld’s history. The first moment when he was recognized by the government or the press as an underworld figure, he was immediately labeled by the media as the “Ivy League Mobster", the ”Riddle Man” or “Chicago’s Mystery Man.” At first, Larner was mostly described as a “front man” or “puppet” for other Italian big shots in the so-called Chicago Outfit but I personally believe that this guy was more than that. In fact, I believe that this guy was one of the main international underworld connections between the World’s public officials, secret agencies and above all, America’s Cosa Nostra. Larner was the kind of individual who understood the most lucrative rackets, something which obviously made him a very smart and shrewd person, who during his whole lifetime was always followed by many mysterious situations.

Because he wasn’t Italian, Larner very rarely appeared on any of the government’s Chicago criminal charts but still there are strong evidences and reports that he was involved with the Outfit’s major leagues and also major businesses for a long time period and was also labelled by some informants as one of the Mob’s “higher-ups”. His elusiveness gave him the opportunity to stay in the shadows and to pull some important strings here and there, or maybe he really was just a “puppet” for the leading Italian faction, something which is for you guys to decide.


Hyman “Red” Larner

Hyman Oscar Larner was born on November 4, 1913 on Chicago’s far North Side. His parents Joseph Perry Larner (born 1887) and Annie Ester Atzman (born 1886) previously arrived from Poland in the United States and later settled in Chicago. Since young age or at the age of 15, he was a tall Jewish boy who loved to play sports and his favorite one was basketball, but the problem was that he came from a very poor family who didn’t have the money to support him. So young Larner decided to make some money and started selling flowers on the street corners to young lovers as they passed by. Young Larner never drank or smoked and always kept himself in a perfect condition and that’s how one day he managed to receive a chance to play for his high school team and later received some publicity on the basketball courts. But at the same time many of his young friends dedicated their lives on other things such as crime and so I couldn’t find any detailed info regarding Larner’s criminal beginnings, so I must go way back in the past of Chicago’s underworld, so we can try and understand the circumstances that surrounded young Larner, which in fact brought him into the “Life.”

During the 1920’s, on Chicago’s South Side, the Italian and the Jewish mobsters were in a very close relationship, probably since the beginning of the 20th century, followed by other alliances that included other criminals from different nationalities, like Greek or Irish. So a lot of these mixed-up gangs at the time worked for many political bosses, mostly as “bummers” during elections or union protests, but on the other hand, all of those political bosses couldn’t last a week without the backup of those same violent guys or as the general public calls them “gangsters.”

One of the up and coming gangsters at the time was Jewish racketeer Edward Vogel and this guy was Chicago’s “copy” of New York’s Arnold Rothstein. During the mid-1920’s, Eddie Vogel and his brother William, were two of the most infamous bootleggers and slot machine kings on Chicago’s South Side and the Cicero areas. The Vogels worked with all of the criminal groups, including Italian, Irish, Greek and including their own, the Jewish organization which at the time was still in close alliance with the Italian group headed by John Torrio and Al Capone, but the problem was that they were in war with another “outfit” from the North Side over the lucrative Cicero area, which in fact disrupted Vogel’s main operations.


Edward Vogel

Vogel was a guy with many lucrative business ideas but the problem was that he needed real and strong “muscle” so he can easily achieve some of his goals. Vogel already established most of his operations around the Cicero area and so being the smart guy that he was, he used the 1924 Cicero elections as a “test” on who was going to win over Chicago’s underworld and so later can be used as force regarding Vogel’s future plans. Vogel’s plan started as “peace operation” between some of the warring factions but soon they’ll realize that the effect would be quite the opposite.

The first plan was to unite all of the gangs who had interests around the Cicero area, into fixing the elections and the good thing was that they all knew that if they all played along with Vogel and helped him with the elections, millions of dollars could’ve been made. Vogel also knew that if his choice as “puppet Mayor” was elected, then Cicero would’ve been a wide open territory for gambling, booze and prostitution. Millions were about to be made for all the gangs who played along and some of the leading South Side crews headed by John Torrio already had their own stakes in the bootlegging and gambling businesses in Cicero and now, with the help of one same idea, they all have sent their own reinforcements to help with the elections, including members and enforcers from the Northwest area such as the Dean O’Banion gang and the Sicilian Mafia under Mike Merlo who in turn was one of the main “peacemakers” between all of the warring factions.

Historically, it was one of the most violent elections that ever took place in the city of Chicago. Torrio already had a big vice joint in Cicero but he had no political protection and the joint was closed many times and so it was very important to him that his so-called “satellite” gangs immediately went to work by polling booths with machine guns to see if the local residents "voted right". So the violence continued with cars filled with gunmen who paraded on the streets of Chicago. Few hoods entered the office of Democratic candidate and one campaign worker was shot in both of his legs and held against his will with eight other campaign workers until the elections were over. Also Stanley Stanklevich, another Democratic worker, was kidnapped and again 8 others were held as prisoners.

On February 29, 1924 scenes of gunplay and ferocious fights were the main cause for the brief closure of the elections. That same day gangsters shot up the headquarters of the Democratic candidate for president of the village board. The poor guy fled the scene in panic with bullets whistling at his heels and took refuge in a nearby house and stayed there until the police came to escort him safely to the station. Another incident occurred when the Democratic candidate for town clerk William Pflaum was beaten by six men at his own residence. He was beaten over the head with pistols and then the gangsters fired few shots in the ceiling and then they fled the scene. But some of the people around Pflaum’s residence heard the shots and so they curiously gathered around the house and so when the hoodlums got out, they started punching the curious people with brass knuckles and also with their pistols. Also eight people, including one 14-year old boy, who passed around Democratic flyers on the streets, were severely beaten by unknown hoodlums that same day. So this indicated that the Torrio gang or the North Side mob really joined forces because they did not have the amount of people to do all of these crimes in just one day on their own.

A month later, on April 1, 1924, regarding the elections, Torrio gang members Frank Capone and Charles Fischetti had a clash with the police which resulted with the death of Frank Capone. This became one of the main causes for the big conflict between the Torrio gang and the rest of the other gangs, because some of the high level Torrio gangsters thought that the murder of Frank Capone was one big setup.


Frank Capone

As for Eddie Vogel, by now he stayed in the middle and was very well aware of the problem, but the thing was he didn’t care because in the end he just needed a winner and also a backup for his own greedy needs. You see, in many different cities at the time, the Jewish gangsters were mostly the prime muscle, but in Chicago that job belonged to the Italians so this means that the one who was in alliance with the Italian mob, was the strongest of them all.

And so by the end of 1924, the leader of the North Side faction Dean O’Banion was murdered allegedly by the Torrio faction, also the boss himself, John Torrio was almost killed in the beginning of 1925, allegedly by the North Side group in retaliation for the O’Banion murder. It was a very nasty period, filled with lots of backstabbing, followed by rivers of blood. The conflict became even greater but in the end, the newly formed Al Capone crew was in control over the lucrative Cicero area which became a captive city and Vogel received what he had planned in the first place. Vogel’s main business, besides smuggling booze, was the slot machine business and so from his connection with the new mob in power, he reaped richly from its benefits. He didn’t care on who operated a certain territory, as long as he or she was a friend of the Capone crew, and so he easily placed his machines all over the gambling joints. They had special holes in the walls of the establishment where the slots were placed, and so if the cops entered the joint, small automatic doors immediately closed the holes, thus hiding the machines.

That same year Vogel, with the help of Capone, passed the word along all Western suburbs that he wanted to install slot machines and other gambling devices around the locals. It was the time of Prohibition so he did not expect to have much competition over that same venture, but the problem came from different source. With the spreading of his illegal network, Vogel received a very large illegal income and he started having many government officials on his payroll such as David Morgan who was the Chief investigator for the West Suburban Minister's and Citizens association and the best thing was that the guy loved being on somebody’s payroll.

Morgan also had a share from Vogel’s rackets in Cicero and so one day, for unknown but obviously selfish reasons, Morgan tried to inform the government about Vogel and his associates but the problem with the Mob at the time was that 99.9% of the city cops were under their payroll. There’s of course another side of the story, told by government officials, that one month previous of the shooting, Al Capone declared an ultimatum to the city’s reformers after the numerous attempts with bribes previously failed. So the only way to stop the association’s activities was to eliminate the Chief investigator. What ever was the truth on July 8, 1925, few of Vogel’s underlings found Morgan and placed him on the pavement, meaning he was shot multiple times but miraculously survived and never again said a word against Vogel and his illegal operations.

The slot machine business was a multi-million dollar business, but as I previously said that it was the time of Prohibition of alcohol which was the most lucrative illegal business during that period, and so many of these so-called “small time” businesses remained mostly unnoticed by the law and media. I think that Vogel realized that Prohibition was a huge mistake which was soon going to be corrected, and as for the gambling and slot machine business, he already saw the real future. He wasn’t the only guy, because many mobsters on the East Coast also started getting involved in the same operation.

In 1926, 79 members of the Cicero vice ring were called on a hearing by a federal grand jury for violation of the prohibition laws, which included Al Capone, the O'Donnell and Vogel brothers and even the president of the town Joseph Klenha and Ted Svoboda, the chief of Police. None of the above mentioned showed up.

It wasn’t a coincidence that the U.S. Mob in general became involved in the production of slot machines during the late 1920’s and early 30’s, as exemplified by the business activities of mobsters such as Eddie Vogel. He was now one of the main and big time dealers of slot machines in numerous gambling joints around the Chicago area, but only the ones that were owned by the Capone mob. If the bootlegging business brought almost 60 million dollars a year budget for the Capone crew, then the slot machine business brought smaller amount of at least 5 million dollars a year. Clearly it wasn’t a small amount but compared to bootlegging booze, it really was, and the reason for that was still the limited control of the Capone mob over certain parts of Chicago which was the South Side, Cicero and the West Side. But still, I believe that a big part out of the alleged 5 million dollar budget went right into Vogel’s pockets.

In 1930, Chicago racketeers Ted Newberry, Jake Guzik, Dennis Cooney, Peter Fusco, Paul Ricca, Eddie Vogel and Chicago’s Mafia representative Salvatore Loverde, all took a train to New York allegedly to watch a boxing match. But on their way, the train was stopped by the police and ordered the gangsters out. The cops also found a briefcase which contained $60,000 on which the gangsters planned to place a bet on the Sharkey-Schmeling fight. Later they were all released. By now Vogel was a very rich guy and has made its mark mostly on the new slot machine and gambling industry and embodied the fundamental nature of the Chicago Mafia racketeering style.

The early 1930’s presented the beginning of the Great Depression and being a basketball player and selling flowers wasn’t much of a choice and so Larner also started selling ice cream bars and eventually got involved in the selling of penny peanut machines. He started visiting all of these taverns and shops along the Northwest Side and in 1930, he had the pleasure to meet a local gambling and coin machine operator known as Matt Kolb. The young and tall Jewish kid allegedly asked the senior gangster if he wanted to buy some of his machines and Kolb agreed but he had other ideas for the tall boy. In addition, Kolb was allegedly in alliance with the Touhy gang which in fact was in war with Capone and all of his allies.

At the time Kolb owned almost all of the gambling joints on the Northwest Side and he was also involved in numerous other legal and illegal businesses and so he introduced young Larner with the slot machine business. At first Larner began working as a collector for the slots and became quite successful, obviously because of his physical appearance. But the problem was that by 1931, the Capone gang ruled supreme over the city of Chicago and so was Eddie Vogel. After the St. Valentines Day Massacre back in 1929, in 1931 the North Side crew came also under the rule of the Capone family. But even that wasn’t enough for the rising mob, so instead Capone had a thorn in his eye which was the Northwest area and Kolb, who in turn was one of the main obstacles.


Matt Kolb

Kolb was a guy who operated more than 150 joints, which was a multi-million dollar operation so if Vogel had the chance to place his machines around Kolb’s joints, it would’ve been a very lucrative operation for the young Jewish mob boss. But every time Vogel’s people came to place their slot machines around the area, all of the owners refused. Jake Guzik, the leader of Capone’s non-Italian group, allegedly personally tried to sweet talk Kolb into changing his mind. But things went on halt when in 1931 Chicago Mafia boss Al Capone was indicted of income tax evasion. But the problem was that things weren’t on halt at all because that same day Matt Kolb was killed at his speakeasy gambling club, the Club Morton on the corner of Dempster and Ferris Road. The shooting suspects were George Barker and Capone’s underboss Paul Ricca.

After Kolb's death, all of his slot machine operations and operators came under the rule of Eddie Vogel and the Capone mob. In fact, this was a major push for Vogel and his slot machine empire in Chicago and a new beginning for young Hyman Larner. The slot machines that were built during this period usually had a payback of about 50% when they weren’t bugged. When half the money you feed in its retained, it doesn’t take long before the machine had it all. And when the bug was used, you lost even faster. It was this type of machine that was called the “one-armed bandit”. Now, to place the lucrative “one-armed bandit” all around the Chicago area, you had to own a huge army of street enforcers and collectors for the job. So I believe that this is the right time period for Hyman Larner to be transferred from the Northwest to the Cicero area and South suburbs and got involved in the illegal activities of the Jewish faction of the newly formed Chicago Outfit.

During his teenage years, Hyman Larner was a thin boy with red hair and a high pitched voice, but besides that he was a tall tough kid. Besides working as slot machine distributor and collector, Larner was also hired to descend on political or union gatherings of rival candidates that opposed the Outfit. Larner’s sole purpose was orchestrating a disruption by using bone-breaking tactics with fist fights and in some cases even a murder. In the end many of these young enforcers usually ended up in a hospital or in worst cases, at the morgue.


The infamous “one-armed bandit”

So Vogel used the same enforcers who collected his street tax on the machines, also in the election dealings. On April 12, 1932, it was another one of the most violent election days in the history of Chicago. More than 40,000 cops were watching to prevent fraud and organised terrorism during the election. Again, there was few shootings, few kidnappings, and countless street fights which resulted with more than 100 street hoodlums being arrested. Young Larner, together with numerous other hoodlums, was recruited and armed with machineguns and baseball bats to “keep the peace” at ballot boxes during the elections. Vogel was quote influential so it wasn’t hard for him in finding “fresh meat,” or in other words finding young hoodlums with criminal brains. Maybe Vogel also saw something else in Larner besides his ruthlessness, and that was the ability to hide his real nature, which was the main thing in succeeding in the “dirty” business.

By constantly visiting these various and numerous gambling joints around the Chicago area, Larner met a lot of high profile Outfit mobsters such as Rocco Fischetti who operated Cicero’s Rock Garden Club. Fischetti, sometimes known as Ralph Fisher, has been in charge and in control of this large gambling establishment and young Larner always came on the right time to take his boss’ cut. Larner also met Frankie Foster, a Chicago gangster who operated illegal gambling for many years and was a very close friend of Vogel. Foster was considered as one of Chicago's toughest mobsters during the decade of the 1930's and was one of the men involved in the infamous Alfred Lingle killing. Also Nathan Hornstein, close partner of Vogel in the slot machine racket, who also became one of Larner’s mentors.

So young Larner besides working as a collector and also being involved in political violence, he was now given several illegal gambling operations by just placing Vogel’s slot machines and after a while, with the help of his new contacts, he forced many new local owners to pay tribute to the Outfit. Larner knew how to deal with all independent slot operators who tried to muscle in on the Outfit’s territory, for example throwing acid on their machines or in rare examples, in their faces. Soon the slot machines represented only a portion of the businesses that Ed Vogel controlled, and became the foundation of other future lucrative activities. This situation gave Larner the opportunity to created his own family and in 1935, he married Myrtle Redman and the following year they received their first child or son Morton Sheldon Larner.

By the late 1930’s, the U.S. mob already placed its foothold in Miami, Florida, and a lot of gangsters opened their own joints, private houses and operated many illegal operations. A Miami grand jury once reported that "in much of the city, residents and tourists alike could find numerous street machines and other gambling devices." Mob bosses such as New York’s Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello or Chicago’s Ed Vogel, Ralph Capone and Jake Guzik already sent their own men and oversaw their gambling machine operations in Miami. So I believe that Larner was probably one of those young “enforcers” who expanded the gambling machine rackets and became one of the Outfit’s representatives in Florida, since there are records from that period regarding he visiting that same area.

There are also reports from many young mobsters at the time who regularly met with Meyer Lansky, and many old mob historians say that Lansky was the “financial brain” behind these operations but I look at him more as a leader of his own group which was in alliance with the Italian faction. Yes, he knew how to gamble and how to extort, but by the end of day his main success were his Mafia connections. The Italians gave him physical security for their establishments and also gave him their financial back up. The Chicago Outfit and Lansky's organization started a good working relationship and by this time I believe that most of the young gangsters such as Larner were ordered to watch closely over the Jewish crime boss, while being in the Florida area.

Through Miami, the U.S. Mob already had its own smuggling routes to Cuba and many of the national crime families had their own shares in the Havana hotels and casinos. The Chicago Outfit had its shares in few hotels and casinos in Havana and so wherever the Chicago mob owned gambling joints, Vogel’s gambling machines were always present. As additional info, the West Side faction of the Chicago mob had its own smuggling routes from Cuba since the earliest days of Prohibition and so they had their own top representatives in the country. In fact, the mob never stopped using their smuggling operations since the days of Prohibition.

So with the help of these so-called old smuggling routes, Vogel and Larner started smuggling slot machines in and out of the country, big time. Besides the slots, they also got involved in smuggling tobacco and white slavery or prostitution. Hundreds of prostitutes were smuggled from Cuba into the U.S. or the other way around thus forming a multi-million dollar prostitution ring out of elite hotels and casinos in and out of the U.S.

The Chicago faction of America’s La Cosa Nostra was the main group involved in the prostitution racket and was mainly controlled by the Jewish criminals such as the Guzik crew and Ed Vogel. As additional info, allegedly the term “white slavery” was first used in 1830’s by English reformers in reference to East End Jewish pimps in London, England.

By 1940, Larner also started working at Vogel’s Scully Warehouse and Express Company at 8105-9 Cicero Avenue but in May, 1940, the government decided to strike the Cicero crew and arrested their capo Ralph Capone. Capone was arrested by the police on gambling charges but during his interrogation he was asked if he ever heard of deals about slot machines with the Vogel brothers or any of their associates such as Hyman Larner. As usual the Cicero boss claimed that he did not know anything about the slot machines, Larner or Vogel for that matter. The cops had a good reason to ask such a question since they received information about Vogel’s involvement in certain conflicts in the Melrose Park area and they knew that the Jewish slot machine King worked for Capone. So on May 24, 1940, County highway police seized 105 slot machines in a raid on Vogel’s warehouse and another 95, in taverns that were also owned by the Jewish mob boss.

Now, the slot machines were in fact coin machines right?! And so the same manufacturers of the slot machines started producing new type of coin machine, which was purely for entertainment, and that was the famous and musical jukebox machine. So this was a whole new operation and Vogel dabbled in jukeboxes, meaning he planned to distribute all over different neighborhoods around the Chicago area and would lease it to the bars and other various establishments. The jukebox racket came to out be a very lucrative operation because it was followed, or in other words, it was connected to another very lucrative racket. What does any jukebox need… a record right?! So now the mob also supplied the LPs for the machines, as well as the service to maintain the jukeboxes. The mob would also make copies of recordings and sell them at bargain-basement prices, or in plane words, they started bootlegging records.

So on August 28, 1940, there was a takeover in Chicago’s Melrose Park regarding the jukebox business which was led by Vogel in partnership with the Italian crime boss of that area, Rocco De Grazia. Vogel dispatched his prime lieutenant Larner to burn and smash their rival’s machines. Two truckers of the Universal Automatic music corporation were kidnapped and also several beatings occurred during the conflict. When the “smoke cleared,” Vogel has claimed Melrose Park as his own gambling territory. With Larner’s help, Vogel also expanded his jukebox machine business in Skokie, Illinois and Des Moines, Iowa, since the two areas were already under the Outfit’s “thumb”. According to some reports, in 1941, the government estimated that the coin machine operations of the Chicago Outfit made an amount of 8 million dollars a year (or 140 million dollars in today’s money), which means that at the age of 28, Hyman Larner made his first really big fortune.

But with all of the “glory”, sooner or later the watchful eye of the government always comes along. So one day while smuggling coin machines through out the country, in 1941 Larner was arrested for the first time in Little Rock, Arkansas, for possessing a gaming device and was fined $316.90 and was also sentenced to serve 30 days in jail. This was the first and also the last conviction that Larner ever received during his life time. He faithfully served his bosses and eventually went high up in the ranks of the non-Italian faction of the Chicago Outfit which by now was still headed by Jake Guzik, but in the eyes of the law, Larner was still just another and low level smuggler, wrecker, and a general law-breaker.

During the mid 1940’s Vogel had an idea for placing a new item and that was the cigarette machines, again in all of the Outfit controlled establishments in Chicago and around the country. Legend goes that the original idea came from or was caused by the government’s idea to ban all gambling devices around the country. So the main manufacturers made some new and creative alterations to evade the law. The trick was when the “player” dropped a nickel and pulled the handle, a candy or a bubblegum or a pack of cigarettes dropped out, thus turning the slot machine into a vending machine.

By now the Chicago Mob was involved in all kinds of vending machines, from candy and soda to coffee and condom machines. According to some reports, the cops realized that Vogel’s crew was also dealing with contraceptives and distributed machines which dispensed condoms, mainly in hotels, bars, dancehalls and clubs and so Vogel was referred to as “Birth Control Eddie” by the cops and media.


Chicago’s “King of Slots” Ed Vogel

The cigarette vending machine business was a huge success. With Larner’s smuggling connections, there was no problem in importing Cuban tobacco and cigarettes into the U.S. but the thing was that they first had to pay for their shipments in advance, and so the mob’s first job was to return their previously invested cash, and later to make something extra. So why bother? Instead, Larner got involved in hijacking trucks filled with cigarettes along the nation’s highways. Placed in Vogel’s vending machines, each pack of stolen cigs offered a 100% profit and so again, another very lucrative operation brought a lot of cash for the Outfit and a new big fortune for Larner. Two other top members of the Outfit that were involved in the same kind of racket were the boss and underboss Tony Accardo and Sam Giancana.

By definition Vogel’s crew was a small group made out of shady businessmen and Outfit members, and since their main goal was semi-legit income, they mostly financed business that they thought was the best for them and the organization in general, and so they mostly stayed in the shadows, thus leaving the work to few guys, including Larner, to deal with the problems on the streets. Larner wasn’t some violent guy but instead he was a very calm person, who in a whispering tone would tell the ones that refused him, that they would never see the light of day ever again.

Besides Vogel’s brother William and Larner, few of Vogel’s othet lieutenants were Sam Greenberg and Tony Fragassi who originally came from Evanston and was considered by law enforcement as member of the Chicago Outfit. In January, 1947, William Vogel, Fragassi, Skokie's village president John Wuerth, and four of his trustees, including Harry Hoffman, Carl Bennett, William Permer, Peter Conrad and also Chief of Police Ted Heinz, were indicted for operating slot machines in Skokie, Illinois.


William Vogel


Anthony Fragassi

In fact, the real problem was the sudden appearance of gambling and vending devices around Chicago and Illinois, especially in Skokie, just before the county-wide election. Story goes that the Democratic chieftains, who were in control of the law enforcing machinery, had sent out the "word" so as to replenish the party war chest for the election. So during the trial, the Chief of Police “sang” a little bit by confessing that he took bribes and passed them on to some of his colleagues at the police department. Two of the indicted trustees also talked.

But in the end on May 13, 1947, shady Judge John A. Sbarbaro, also known as the “Mob’s Undertaker” because he arranged all of the funerals for many gangster big shots from the previous Prohibition era, freed William Vogel and all of the indicted in the conspiracy. This was a blow to the face for the government and justice in general and so first on the list was Cicero’s former assistant state's attorney Frank Christensen who allegedly opposed the gambling and coin machine rackets in the Cicero area. But this wasn’t the government’s list, but instead it was the Outfit’s “hit” list. In April, 1949, two assassins sprang from ambush as Christenson was crossing the street to his home. Suddenly one of the assassins shouted "Get into this car, you!” and after that a rapid burst of 10 to 12 shots followed, and Christenson fell on a sidewalk near the door of the building. The poor guy was shot eight times in the head, chest, back and arms and died on the way to the Loretto Hospital.

This was an obvious mob hit, and it was allegedly sanctioned by the Fischetti brothers Charles and Rocco, and also Ed Vogel. Another incident was the kidnapping attempt of another former politician and Cicero village president John Stoffel. The guy used to hunt down Cicero gamblers but one day out of nowhere decided to quit and got away with a warning. In addition, since the early 1920’s many of Chicago’s crime syndicates were known for killing public officials with the blink of an eye.

You see in all of these previous indictments and conflicts, we cannot notice Larner’s name and that’s because he probably and successfully flew under the government’s radar. I cannot find one single article or sign of suspicion regarding Larner’s criminal activities during this time period, and yet by the late 1940’s the guy lived like a “King”. Larner owned two restaurants and a mortgage company in Chicago and also had interest in four oil wells in Texas and steel companies and other investments such as real estate in Indiana and Milwaukee. He made over $100.000 a year only for himself and had a big apartment in Chicago at 3430 Lake Shore Drive, and also another huge apartment in Skokie, Illinois.

By 1950, the Outfit’s administration gave Larner his own territory in which he operated freely and that was the small town of Oak Forest in the Southwest section of Cook County, an area which I believe was under the control of Cicero’s Rocco Fischetti. Story goes that Larner deeply corrupted the police force and the whole village administration. For example, the chief of police Oliver Christenson and the rest of his officers were involved in gambling, burglary and even peddled pornographic movies. Larner’s headquarters was the Crossroads Tavern at 15301 Cicero Av., and was constantly seen in the company of chief Christenson and other village officials. He even controlled two more taverns in that same area, the Hilltop at 15400 Cicero Av., and Ten Pin Lounge, 6119 150th St., which were a front for gambling operations. As additional info, by the mid 1950’s Larner spread his operations around Calumet Park, Thornton and Markham, Illinois, and he probably shared his income with the Italian capo who controlled those same areas, Frank LaPorte, who in turn was closely connected to Vogel and Larner in the same coin machine racket since “day one”.

Larner also managed to gather another crew of paid enforcers mostly formed by small time ex-convicts, burglars and extortionists. One of these guys was Jim Rini, also known as the “Green Hornet.” Rini was a street-level ruthless Chicago criminal who was responsible for a lot of burglaries, extortions, car thefts and was also a suspect in few mob hits. He also controlled a small band of low level criminals and there was a story that once he did more than 20 crimes in just one night.

Two other associates were Frank Mustari, another suspected killer who was involved in many hijackings and also Alex Ross, a huge ruthless enforcer and official killer for the Outfit. Mustari was the cousin of Sam Rinella, a known Capone member from back in the days. Now all of these guys had an extensive criminal reputation in Chicago as being what was known as outstanding ruthless con men. Once Rini, Mustari and two of their associates Robert Furey and Angelo Divito, once were arrested with a list of 100 prostitutes, suspected of organizing a racket to smuggle the prostitutes out of the country. With out a doubt, this was a syndicate operation operated by Larner and Vogel in connection with the “First Ward” crew headed by Jack Guzik and his Greek protégé Gus Alex. In fact, by now Vogel still answered to his non-Italian representative on the Outfit’s board of directors, Jake Guzik who in turn was grooming Alex to take his place in near future. This situation also created close collaboration between Vogel, Larner and Alex.


Jim Rini


Alex Ross


Angelo Divito

This crew of extortionists, collectors and hitmen was also often hired by the Chicago Heights crew under Jim Ammarati and LaPorte and also by other crews from around the Northwest area, such as the Willie Daddono and Ross Prio crews, and all of these groups had their own deals with Vogel regarding the slot and vending machine operations. For example, one Vogel’s and Larner’s close associate was Francis Curry, crew boss of the Joliet area and associate of the Chicago Heights mob. Curry and Larner were given permission to operate their machines in Will County but paid tribute to the Chicago Heights crew administration.

Another example is when Dennis Kelly who was a union delegate and Chicago Outfit associate, one day he allegedly decided to move on some of Curry’s and Larner’s gambling operations so he was shot by a few shotgun blasts but managed to survive. Both Vogel and Larner knew that all of the bloodshed wasn’t good for their business operations so the two Jewish gangsters decided to spread their multi-million dollar income in a different way, and also to go up within the corrupt upper world. They also realized that there was a frequent and unsubstantiated link between some of the manufacturers of coin-operated vending and game machines and the Chicago Outfit. They knew that jukeboxes, pinball and vending machines were the domain of their organization and so by placing their machines in protected businesses, the Outfit shared the take with the manufacturer. This deal was in fact followed by one huge or massive corruption.


Francis Curry