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INTRO

Many of today’s followers probably heard about infamous African-American or black gangsters such as “Bumpy” Johnson, Teddy Roe or even Nicky Barnes, names that are written high on the history list of the world’s most dangerous criminals, possibly below the names of Pablo Escobar and Al Capone. In reality, black organized crime often followed the footsteps of the older and already established crime syndicates from different ethnicities, although the black gangsters managed to bring certain rackets on much higher level than before and also somehow managed to label those same rackets as their own. This situation brought the likes and also envy of many mobsters and as always, there were other lesser-known black gangsters who played major role in separating the black criminal element from the rest of the other ethnic criminal syndicates, thus becoming independent in their own ways, and even some notorious criminal bosses like Capone left them alone or joined their illegal ventures. But obviously not all crime bosses were the same and so, this is a story regarding the evolution of Chicago’s black organized crime and on how they managed to break the chains and battled their way through all of the obstacles, either from the government or from other and more powerful criminal organizations such as the infamous Chicago Outfit.

THE FORGOTTEN DAYS

Story goes that Chicago’s African-American criminals were already organized in syndicated vice, even before the arrival of traditional Italian organized crime groups. At first, the sophisticated black organized crime groups operated independently and also played an important part in creating the base for all future organized crime syndicates. Same as the Irish, Jewish and Italian organizations, the black criminal syndicates ran speakeasies and nightclubs, and participated in illegal policy gambling and prostitution even before the start of the 20th century, and Chicago’s South Side was a “black metropolis” that had its own elected officials, business community and criminal underworld that at first, it had little interaction with “white” Chicago but later the situation began to change, after all the U.S.A. was and still is the home of people from many ethnicities.

Reports say that by 1840, a large number of runaway slaves began arriving in the “Windy City” and by the end of the Civil War, there was already a large African-American population living in Chicago. The first blacks to settle in Chicago were concentrated in the center of the city along the banks of the Chicago River, but later the majority of the black population moved south where the rents were cheaper, located near the railroad terminals and Chicago’s vice districts. Chicago’s so-called South Side “Black Belt” grew to be the second largest African-American area in the whole U.S., except for New York’s Harlem area which exceeded it in size. Chicago’s black metropolis was populated by less than half-a-million residents at the time, and so Chicago’s highly organized “machine” of white politicians were willing to work with anyone who could deliver the vote and contribute financially to their political organization, and when the black precinct captains, doctors, lawyers and even gangsters became one of the main donators for the local political machines, it also became the main point when black and white organized crime also created a strong partnership, after all the black gangsters were the ones who controlled the whole black population from around the South Side, one way or the other, meaning either for voting or vice.


Chicago’s “Black Belt”

During the 1880’s Chicago’s black criminals were incorporated into both the First Ward political machine of Irish political crime bosses, “Bathhouse” John Coughlin and “Hinky Dink” Mike Kenna, and also the Second Ward organization of Republican Alderman William Hale Thompson. Later, the expanding African-American community on Chicago’s South Side developed into an independent political force whose endorsement was sought by both Republicans and Democrats, and so the black community quickly learned that the political life of the community was closely connected with the world of saloons, brothels and gambling houses.

Old-time Irish gambler Patrick “Patsy” King was a former Mississippi riverboat gambling operator who arrived in Chicago sometime during the late 19th century and became closely associated with the local Irish crime syndicate which at the time was headed by Casius “King Mike” McDonald. “Legend” goes that King allegedly devised one specific gambling game which late became known as the “policy” racket, and that King personally introduced some of African-American racketeers from the South Side. Policy was illegal, but it was played freely on the streets, storefronts, private homes and social establishments. One of the main attractions for the working-class bettors was the small amount of money which was required to play, and even the poorest bettors were able to win $50 with just a nickel or dime. A bettor would pick three numbers out of 100, and then would place a nickel to a dollar with a payout of 10 to 1, but the odds against winning were 1 in 1000. Then the bettor would handpick three numbers out of a box which was filled with 100 paper clips that contained the numbers from 1-100. If the bettor’s three numbers were drawn, he won.


Patsy King

But the truth was that rarely happened so King became very rich with his game and his main connection to the black community was one African-American individual know as Sam Young aka “Policy Sam”, who in turn allegedly explained the rules to the black people and used the same tactics as King, by taking bets and pulling numbers out of his hat. With the financial backing of King, Sam Young took the policy game on a higher level. In fact, so-called policy wheels allegedly originated in Chicago, around 40 years before they arrived in New York or Philadelphia, mainly because the black gangsters on the East Coast didn't have the legit business fronts, police cooperation and political influence as the black gangsters of Chicago. By the early 1900’s, King together with one of Kenna’s underlings, Tom McGinnis, controlled the policy wheel companies called the ''The Union and the Phoenix'', which were located at their headquarters known as The Emporium, obviously with the help of black organized crime.


Sam Young

Besides Young, one of the black community’s earliest vice lords in Chicago was John “Mushmouth” Johnson who was born in St. Louis to a woman who had been a nurse for Mary Todd Lincoln. At the age of 30, Johnson migrated to Chicago and by 1890, he operated many gambling games on South Clark Street together with many white people, such as Andy Scott, a known vice operator who worked for the leading Irish mob. During those days many rising black racketeers in Chicago were brothel owners, gambling operators, pimps and policy runners. The policy gambling became a “homegrown” operation, obviously because I was played exclusively in the black neighborhoods and besides providing millions of dollars for its operators, it also provided jobs and expectations for many poor people, and so Johnson obviously saw his future in the whole scheme.

In 1901, Johnson became main partner in the “The Emporium” and besides craps, poker and billiards, the main game was Policy. The public quickly labelled Johnson as the head of a huge gambling syndicate, and was also referred as the "head henchman" or "lieutenant" of First Ward aldermen Kenna and Coughlin. Johnson could consistently garner the vote of the ward's black population for the two aldermen, and in return the corrupt aldermen also placed him in charge of collecting protection money from the gambling dens in the city's growing Chinatown district on Clark Street.

But in 1903, Chicago’s Mayor Carter Harrison revoked the license of one of Johnson’s biggest saloons and also described him as a “card cheat” who robbed patrons “stone blind” at his craps, hand faro and draw poker tables. Witnesses told the committee that it was impossible to win at Johnson’s gambling hall, and even if a patron did win a pot, every effort was made to “skin” him of his winnings at another game before he left the resort. Next, the city of Chicago had declared an all-out war on most of the major South Side brothels and gambling houses, which were shut down. The anti-policy legislation law became very drastic that targeted all persons involved in the racket, and the whole pressure on the policy racket forced the black syndicate to temporarily withdraw from the game and went completely “underground”.


“Mushmouth” Johnson

Finally, in 1906 tired from all of the continuing government assaults and also from the whole stress, Johnson allegedly retired and died of natural causes in 1907. A huge crowd attended his funeral at the Institutional AME Church, including many government officials and police inspectors. Some accounts indicate that Johnson’s money may have helped establish Binga State Bank, the nation’s first black-owned bank, in 1908, and later one of his daughters, Eudora Johnson had married Jesse Binga, the bank’s founder.

BACK IN THE GAME

Back during the 1890’s, Italian immigrants began arriving in great numbers on the city’s South Side, and one of the most prominent was Giacomo “Big Jim” Colosimo, who later became quite known in Chicago's First Ward mainly because he had many friends in the local criminal underworld and was also very popular among his fellow Italians who by that time represented the majority of the population on Chicago’s South Side. In no time, Kenna and Coughlin made Colosimo their prime “street tax” collector for every saloon and brothel from around the Loop, Chinatown and the South Side, and even the late “Mushmouth” Johnson’s had to pay monthly fee regarding every joint that he controlled and in fact, Johnson’s collections from the whole South Side first went to Colosimo who in turn gave percentage to Kenna and Coughlin. By 1911, there was so much corruption in Chicago, that one known Police lieutenant at the time known as Thomas J. Howard publicly said that there was no gambling in his city, a statement which instantly placed him on the list of Chicago’s so-called police “blind platoon”.

Besides being Italian, story goes that Colosimo was also quite respected by the black population from around the South Side, obviously because he knew every one of their so-called leaders, including precinct captains, saloon owners and racketeers. Colosimo’s prime rackets were extortion, gambling and above all prostitution, which means he was involved in “white slavery” that mainly included white, Chinese and also many black women. Colosimo exploited every one of his sources to the black community regarding his rackets that brought millions of dollars at the time, literally. This means that the Italian boss, together with his Irish protectors Kenna and Coughlin, was able to return or give the needed political protection to the black racketeers, thus playing a major role in bringing back the policy racket on the scene, big time. Reports say that for every two-dollar that the prostitutes earned, Colosimo took around $1.20 and that’s why I believe that Colosimo was mostly interested in his “golden egg” aka the prostitution racket, instead of the policy operation, but the black racketeers were able to satisfy him by supplying him with their “product” that gave them the “green light” to operate their own rackets. It wasn’t all “fun and games” because many women were raped or beaten on daily basis, or were under the influence of narcotics, and some were even killed.


“Big Jim” aka “Diamond Jim” Colosimo

Besides Colosimo and his Irish political connections, there was another Italian family that also played a major role at the time in bringing back Chicago’s black crime syndicate on its feet. After the death of Johnson, it was allegedly Sam Young who continued in -re-building the old policy empire but with the financial backup of the Benvenuti family. Interesting thing to note is that the Benvenuti’s didn’t arrive from Sicily or the southern part of Italy, but instead their roots were from the northern part or from the town of Pisa, something which was quite rare in Italian organized crime at the time. Another thing which was quite rare was that the Benvenutis lived on South State St, near 29th St, an area that had few Italians and was mostly populated with Jewish and African-American immigrants. The Benvenuti brothers, Julius, Caesar and Leo, must've gained early familiarity with the black population due to growing up on the same block and this was probably a big push for their multi-million dollar criminal careers as "policy kings" in primarily black communities.

The Benvenutis were also politically connected and one of their best friends was First District congressman Arthur W. Mitchell. Same as Colosimo, they also walked freely through the black neighborhoods and everyone was glad to have their acquaintance. In reality, it was allegedly Julius Benvenuti who brought back Sam Young in the Policy game and also gave him the financials to open up a new policy wheel at the Pullman Restaurant at Thirty-First State Street, which was named the Frankfort, Henry and Kentucky policy wheel, including Chicago’s first “well-regulated” policy wheel called The Blue Racer. Benvenuti allegedly placed Young as his prime operator for their policy wheels and also supervised the games at many carnivals or picnics that were organized by Benvenuti himself.


Julius Benvenuti

By the end of the 1910’s Benvenuti and Young operated another policy wheel called The Interstate Springfield Policy Company, which became the largest policy operations in Chicago, and they allegedly began generating millions of dollars a year. The Interstate Springfield Company employed almost 500 policy runners who collected bets from 10 cents to one hundred dollars throughout the South and West Sides of Chicago. Benvenuti was a close friend of Jim Colosimo and his new lieutenant John Torrio, and it is quite possible that Benvenuti paid his “street tax” which was far from the cash that he made on monthly basis, and conducted the campaigns for many government officials.

Colosimo and the Benvenuti brothers obviously played a major role in bringing the black crime groups near the top of Chicago’s crime scene at the time, but the reality was that they also played a major in bringing the lucrative policy racket under their “umbrella”, or at least they were the so-called “bridge” between Italian and black organized crime, in which the old Italian racketeers will keep their deal while the younger generation will exploit the so-called “deal” on a much different level.

THE NEW BLACK SYNDICATE

Since the late Johnson was and possibly still is considered as the city’s first “big time” black racketeer who began creating his own “small” criminal empire, obviously it was Young who inherited all of his lucrative operations, political connections and criminal contacts. Young and his associates slowly became the most important financiers of both Chicago’s political world and criminal underworld, from the obvious point of view of their numbers, their wealth and their power. That’s why some African-Americans later also became staunch supporters of the Republican Party and the newly elected Mayor William Thompson, the most corrupted government official in Chicago’s history. Sources say that it was Young who introduced Mayor Thompson to one of his candidates known as Oscar De Priest, and since the mayor depended on the black vote, he placed De Priest as a Second Ward Alderman, who in fact became the first influential black alderman.

In no time, De Priest organized a “colored voters club” that demanded contributions from local gamblers in order to support upcoming elections, another move which completely cemented the relationship between black organized crime and local politics. This also meant that no matter the ethnicity, every gambler from their area was obliged to donate cash to De Priest and his organization. “King Oscar,” as the Chicago Tribune referred to De Priest, ran what was described as his own “Tammany Club” from a real estate office at 35th and State. De Priest received a monthly tribute of thousands of dollars from gambling houses and brothels that he protected in the “Black Belt”, and so their rackets flourished free without any police interference and also without any problems from potential rivals.


Oscar De Priest

For example, in 1916 eleven black gambling operators were arrested by the cops and the individual who appeared on behalf of the defendants, was Assistant City Attorney Sam Hamilton, and in the end the case was dismissed, a situation which brought “mild public furor”. Besides assistant attorneys and politicians, De Priest also had several professional bondsmen such as Abraham Poll, who also had his own gambling place on the city’s South Side that was operated by De Priest’s people. One of De Priest’s prime black gamblers was Henry “King Teenan” Jones who in turn operated several lucrative joints, such as the Tammany Club at 31st Street and also the Pioneer and Pekin Inn clubs and several other gambling rooms, all located on South State Street.

Four other prominent individuals who were part of De Priest’s organization were William Lewis, another black gambling operator who was allegedly the “number three guy”, followed by Arthur Codozas who in turn was owner of the infamous Elite No. 1 Café, also Dr. Brown who was a black physician that also worked as collector for some of De Priest’s gambling profits and Joe Davis who had connections in almost every police station around the South Side, thus often having the information if a police raid was on its way to some of the gambling dens. The same job was also given to another individual known as Arthur Filed, black managing editor for the Illinois Chronicle. Government sources at the time reported that De Priest, Jones and Lewis were allegedly the “top unofficial representatives of the syndicate”, a report that was not far from the truth. Some sources at the time speculated that old man Patsy King returned from Florida and again joined Sam Young in the lucrative operation that was headed by De Priest, and both remained as “puppet masters” for the whole syndicate. Besides Chicago, they also allegedly expanded their operations around Northwest Indiana, probably with the help of their Italian accomplices.

Old racketeers such as Young and De Priest played it smart by mainly having legitimate and publicly respected individuals doing their “dirty work” and that’s how they kept their clean image in the eyes of both black and white communities, at the same time. But as any criminal syndicate, they also had their own enemies who refused to bow down to their requirements. One of those enemies was an individual known as Alfred “Mexican Frank” Gordon, former gambling operator for the old Irish mob who had an unsuccessful conflict with De Priest’s organization and lost everything, and that’s why in January 1917, Gordon decided to testify against De Priest and his cohorts. Even though De Priest had all of the right connections to get everyone out of trouble, something wrong happened that forced most of his accomplices to also start talking to the government, including his prime lieutenant Henry Jones. In the end, De Priest obviously used his contacts only for himself, and besides losing his alderman seat, the following year he was acquitted on all charges. In 1919, De Priest had no shame at all and again tried to ran for alderman but was defeated by another black candidate known as Louis B. Anderson.

THE NEW REGIME

By the late 1910’s, large portion of the black population moved westward along Lake Street and into the Near North Side’s “Little Hell” Italian community, where the rents were the cheapest. The thing was that same area was under the control of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra organization and rules were quite different then the previous ones with Colosimo and Torrio. During those days the Sicilian Mafia was still fighting its way up the ranks of both Chicago’s organized crime and political groups and they also had many internal conflicts, and so the black racketeers didn’t have much problems with the Sicilians regarding their rackets. As for the ones who remained on the city’s South Side, they continued their close collaboration with the Colosimo syndicate. In 1920, Colosimo was killed and was allegedly succeeded by his former lieutenant John Torrio, who in turn allegedly brought Al Capone from New York to Chicago.


Johnny Torrio

During the days of Prohibition, the illegal production and import of alcohol was considered the biggest racket both by the government and also by most of Chicago’s criminal underworld. Same as his late predecessor, Torrio also continued their old connection to the black syndicate mainly from around the South Side, and also mainly used their saloons and brothels for selling illegal alcohol, while the income from gambling and prostitution came on second place. Besides having one of the most lucrative gambling rackets, still some of the black racketeers decided to enter the so-called “booze” trade, a move that was probably influenced by their Italian accomplices. Some say that the question remains on who was the new main representative for the black syndicate from around the South Side during Prohibition, and if ever there was really one, but the following information might give us the answer regarding that same problem.

The time period from 1920 until 1923 was quite terrible for the black gambling syndicate, especially for the so-called “Policy Kings”, mainly because of the numerous police raids which closed their operations on daily basis. In June 1923, two black gambling operators were killed during a shootout with the police, and the whole situation was followed by huge police haul of known local black racketeers, which also included Patsy King, Sam Young and Oscar De Priest. The problem was that both King and Young were already considered only as “elder statesmen” in the lucrative policy racket and were far from being the leaders of the South Side’s black syndicate, while De Priest continuously tried to re-enter Chicago’s politics by constantly sponsoring his own candidates regarding the old Second Ward.

According to most police reports from that period, the real alleged crime leaders of the Second Ward were three black gambling operators known as Earl Walker, Malcolm McDonald and Pete Robinson. Sources say that Walker was also know as “King of Slot Machines” but his real racket was allegedly operating policy wheels both around the North and South sides, mainly with the help of McDonald’s and Robinson’s connections around the 2nd and 4th wards. Few of their prime lieutenants were Sanford Overall, Eldrige “Cap” White and also one Philip Collenger who in turn was allegedly the main “North Side” connection to the Torrio/Capone group, including one Joe D’Angelo who was also labeled as bootlegger. This crew allegedly controlled numerous gambling joints, including the Baseball Club at 3301 State St, the Lewis Club 121 East 31st St, the Waiters and Porters’ Club at 3415 South State Street and also the Bass at 478 East 31st Street.

In August 1928, 38-years old Walker made one huge mistake which brought a lot of unwanted government attention on him, and that was the beating of a police officer, who in turn a week before that visited one of Walker’s joints and caused problems. In Walker’s mind, the cop was just another black individual who wasn’t expected to “harass” other black individuals, but in the government’s eyes Walker attacked one of their officials and had to “pay” for it. That’s why, the following month, Walker appeared in front of a grand jury and talked freely about his income and also about his dealings with some of his underlings, but never mentioned the names of the Benvenuti brothers or Sam Young but besides being protected, still the whole situation with Walker brought their names in the newspapers. The problem was that Young and the Benvenutis controlled the lucrative “Springfield – Interstate” policy wheel that was located at 29th and La Salle streets, and they didn’t want any of their operations being jeopardized because of stupid mistakes. Some sources at the time still speculated that Young together with the Benvenuti brothers were behind many policy wheels from in and out of the Chicago area, and I personally don’t deny that because the Benvenutis were still considered at the time as the prime players in the policy game business and they still depended on the black criminal element. For example, according to some reports, one black gambling operator known as Walter J. Kelly was the alleged overseer regarding the gambling operations in Gary and Hammond, Indiana; for the Young-Benvenuti syndicate.


Caesar Benvenuti


Leo Benvenuti

SAY HELLO TO THE OUTFIT

By 1931, Al Capone became the undisputed crime boss in the second largest city at the time, and also became nationally recognized as leader of Chicago’s Italian criminal element aka the Chicago Outfit. This meant that all of the local crime groups were either with Capone and his “army” or were against them, and the Benvenutis together with the black crime leaders chose the obvious “side”, meaning they continued collaborating with their old associates who by now reached the top of Chicago’s criminal underworld. Some mob historians say that the Benvenutis allegedly never paid a dime to the Outfit and remained independent, a statement which I personally highly doubt, mainly because they were obliged to pay their “street tax” to the Mob, meaning if the Benvenutis refused to pay and remained independent, that was obviously a bad sign for the Outfit’s influence and its reputation within the brutal criminal underworld. In fact, from that point on, the so-called black crime syndicate became “headless”, meaning by becoming part of the leading Chicago Outfit, all of the black crime leaders were “forced” to answer to the non-Italian bosses of the leading crime group, instead to one of their own. Who knows, maybe the whole situation could’ve been worse?!

Few of Capone’s prime “barons” around the South Side area were his brother Ralph Capone, Phil D’Andrea, Jake Guzik, William Heeney, the Fischetti brothers, Dennis Cooney and Sam “Golf Bag” Hunt. Reports show that Hunt was probably one of Capone’s loyalists who was very much interested in the policy racket, and his fearsome reputation allegedly also preceded him, thus opening “every door” to the world of Chicago’s black organized crime. Large part of Capone’s illegal income allegedly came from the black areas and all of the gambling houses, brothels and also so-called “speakeasies”, especially the ones with the so-called black “jazz’ orchestras, a music style that was on the up and up during those days and the black population was at the top of it. Some sources say that Capone’s financial operations for keeping up the black speakeasies and their illegal operations, somehow allegedly boosted the careers of many famous black musicians and singers.


Sam Hunt

Sam Hunt probably belonged to one of Capone’s old South Side crews that was previously headed by one old Irish mobster and also old Capone loyalist, Dennis Cooney, who mainly operated within the old First Ward, controlled large prostitution rings around the Loop and south, and was also already infiltrated within the world of “policy”. After the days of Prohibition, or from 1932 until 1939, the main black organized crime leaders from around the Chicago area were allegedly the Jones brothers, Edward and George from the South Side, followed by James “Big Jim” Martin on the city’s West Side. During that time, “Big Jim” Martin was probably at the top of all black gambling operations, and his main headquarters was the Airplane Inn at 1900 Lake Street, while the Jones brothers had operations both on city’s North and South sides. In reality, Martin and the Jones brothers came up the ranks of the former criminal organization that was previously headed by Patsy King, Sam Young and the Benvenutis, and also managed to bring the whole “policy” game on a much higher level by working with everyone from the leading crime groups that controlled Chicago at the time, such as Sam Hunt and Capone’s Outfit.


Chicago Tribune article

For example, when Sam Hunt was indicted on murder charges and was about to go to prison, his top “soldier” and black policy operator Ira Kelly from the South Side and Walter’s brother, was the prime guy who tampered witnesses against his boss and that same year he was also arrested on those same charges and never spoke a word against Hunt or any of his people. Kelly and two of his associates, Joseph Monroe and Gus Saunders tried to bribe the prime witness known as James Baxter who in turn saw the murder of his friend, the late Mike Wade, because of a traffic quarrel between him and Hunt.

Hunt’s “right-hand” man regarding their interests in the policy business on the city’s South Side was Ralph Pierce, who in turn had direct contact with the black racketeers regarding their “street tax”. But this time the situation was a little bit different mainly because Pierce wasn’t some friendly individual but instead, he was a young killer who was fighting his own way within the Outfit’s ranks, same as all of the other younger criminals who all wanted their share from Chicago’s illegal rackets, and so Pierce also took percentage from the rackets that were controlled by those same black racketeers. Even though they already had millions of dollars in their own pockets, the thing was that the black racketeers still depended mainly on the Outfit’s political connections and also on their “muscle” or murder, if needed, meaning if they wanted to keep their cash, they need to go with the Outfit.

The so-called Edward Kelly-Patrick Nash political machine in Chicago was allegedly closely connected to the non-Italian “block” of the Outfit, which at the time was represented by Jewish mob boss Jake Guzik who in turn previously witnessed the days of Oscar de Priest and the late Jim Colosimo. Reports show that Guzik probably used the Jones brothers and Martin as one of the Outfit’s prime “donators” for the Kelly-Nash party, by giving them millions of dollars throughout the years, obviously so the black operators can freely rule their gambling empires without any problems. The game and rules were always the same since the old days of “Mushmouth” Johnson, only the faces changed as the decades passed by, but things were about to change for the worse.

THE GREEDY GENERATION

In January 1939, the syndicate’s prime black representative in Northwest Indiana, Walter Kelly, was shot to death by unknown assassins. At the time, none of the investigators knew the motive behind the murder but instead, they simply added Kelly’s name to the long list of murders that occurred during that same decade. During those the days the leadership of the Outfit’s Chicago Heights crew was still fighting to keep the “throne”, allegedly because there was still some internal backstabbing and also numerous betrayals, mainly because of some of the old Sicilian remnants who previously decided to join to wining Capone mob but now, they decided to take the leading spots in their own hands, thinking that Capone’s Outfit was allegedly “weak”, but they thought wrong.

The old Chicago Heights crew had jurisdiction over Calumet City, Will County and also around Northwest Indiana, or mainly in Gary and Hammond. So, from 1933 until 1939, numerous killings occurred around the Chicago Heights, Calumet City, Joliet and Northwest Indiana areas, and most of the victims belonged to the so-called “old rebel group”, which means that Capone’s Chicago Heights loyalists were sending a “message” one last time regarding their already established positions and lucrative interests, and that’s why I personally believe that Kelly was either one of the many victims of that same conflict, or he was eliminated because of another and completely different reason. In addition, the late Walter Kelly was former drug dealer and was also the brother of Ira Kelly who continued working as top lieutenant for Sam Hunt and the Jones brothers on Chicago’s South Side.


Walter Kelly’s murder scene

The other problem was that during the same time period and later during the early 1940’s, “Big Jim” Martin survived an assassination attempt and also several of his joints were bombed by unknown individuals, and they also tried to extort him multiple times, including a robbery. Reports say that the botched murder attempt on Martin was carried out by Outfit member Jack “The Lackey” Cerone. The Benvenuti brothers also started feeling the same pressure with the bombings of some of their establishments, and even Jake Guzik was allegedly kidnapped by some group of people who in turn allegedly asked for ransom and so, Guzik was later released. This means that someone was obviously putting pressure over the “old guard”, and that same “someone” wasn’t coming from the government but instead, the pressure was coming from within the Chicago Outfit.

In 1940, Edward Jones was on trial regarding tax evasion charges and was sent to jail, where he unknowingly met the biggest problem of his life, or in plane words Jones met Sam Giancana, who in turn was a soldier for the Outfit at the time and was also imprisoned regarding similar charges. The problem was that Giancana was the prime definition of being both treacherous and cunning individual at the same time, and was also part of the rising younger generation of the Chicago Outfit, that “ate” everything in its way. Most mob historians believe that Giancana’s alleged plan for taking over Chicago’s policy racket started during his stay in prison or during his new business relationship with Jones, but I personally think that the so-called “plan” was already in full effect even before Giancana went to prison back in 1939. This also means that Giancana and his cohorts probably had the backing of some of the Outfit’s top bosses, which in fact was a sign of some type of “slavery” and also disturbance of the peaceful collaboration between the black racketeers and Italian organized crime.


George and Edward Jones

By 1942, both Eddie Jones and Giancana were released from prison, and Jones was again instantly attacked by the government regarding a different case but this time, Jones managed to beat the case but he obviously wasn’t able to beat the “case” against Giancana and the Outfit. In May 1946, “Big Ed” Jones was kidnapped in front of his house and the three kidnappers even started a chase with a police patrol car, in which one police officer was wounded by a bullet that was shot by one of the abductors. Some sources say that the three abductors were Giancana and two of his closest associates Fiore “Fifi” Buccieri and Leonard “Fat Lenny” Caifano. According to reports, after his release from prison, Giancana allegedly received the captain or “capo” position for the Taylor Street/Cicero crew, and so both Buccieri and Caifano were his soldiers or crew members. Giancana and his boys first allegedly told Jones to take a permanent “vacation” or else, and in the end, they also allegedly asked for $100,000 ransom or 1.6 million dollars in today’s cash, and so the victim was released.


Leonard “Fat Lenny” Caifano and Sam “Mooney” Giancana

Four months later, Jones’ prime repair man for all for his gambling paraphernalia, Robert Wilcox, was shot to death by unknown hitmen and so, Jones obviously realized the point of the “message” and took the first train to Mexico and allegedly never returned to Chicago ever again, thus leaving his rackets or what was left of them to some of his lieutenants such as Theodore Roe. Story goes that Roe’s dad was Italian while his mother was allegedly black (maybe it was the opposite), something which probably made him a pure example and possibly last evidence of the old and good relationship between both the Italian and African-American populations, including criminals. Roe started as lieutenant for the Jones brothers and back in 1945, he managed to avoid a kidnapping attempt for the first time, mainly because Roe was more of a “gangster’ rather than racketeer, meaning he had the so-called “street sense”, knew his way with weapons and was also a natural tough guy.

The problem was that in June 1951, Giancana’s men again tried to kidnap Roe, but this time the black gangster fought back, thus killing Giancana’s personal capo “Fat Lenny” Caifano during the process. In fact, Roe was probably the first Chicago black gangster who had the courage to show the “middle finger” to the more powerful Italian mob, and was probably the first one who implanted the idea in the minds of the black criminals that sooner or later they will be to do everything on their own. But by the end of the day, or in August 1952, Roe was killed allegedly by two hitmen that were sent by one of Giancana’s lieutenants Sam “Teets” Battaglia, and the black criminals were reminded once again that there was no “playing around” with the Outfit. Story goes that Roe was terminally ill of cancer and simply “sacrificed” himself because he allegedly already knew that he was going to get killed by the Mob. In addition, that same year, “Big Jim” Martin also finally saw the “writing on the wall” and decided to take all of his cash, family and friends, and also fled to Mexico.


Theodore Roe

During the late 1940’s and early 1950’s, while being Tony Accardo’s underboss, Giancana never released his “clutches” from the policy racket, mainly because some of the Outfit’s lucrative operations were on the downfall, including the tobacco and meat rackets. That’s why Giancana and his cohorts still relayed on the advices that were given by the older bosses from the South Side, such as Guzik and Hunt. In fact, Hunt created one of the Outfit’s first official policy crews that was directly controlled by official Outfit members and associates, such as Pierce, the Manno brothers, Pete Tremont and also three infamous black policy operators known as James Irving, Charles “Fat Charlie” Avent and Tom Pierson. The main purpose of this group was to directly bring the millions of dollars from the policy racket within the Outfit, without sharing it with any other separate ethnic criminal syndicate. For example, Tremont and the Manno brothers allegedly took over all of the interests which were previously controlled by “Big Jim” Martin, while Irving and Peirson took over the South Side, previously controlled by the late Teddy Roe and the exiled Jones brothers.


Tom Pierson

In 1951, Sam Hunt was indicted on gambling charges and one of his prime black lieutenants Charles Avent was also listen in the same case and so, Avent fled the city for some time until the government issued a search warrant. In October that same year, Avent returned to Chicago and turned himself in, but he never mentioned Hunt’s name or any of the fellas who belonged to the Outfit. As usual, later the case against Hunt was dismissed but so the old boss began spending some time out of the Chicago area, together with his daughter, and probably continued receiving his weekly or monthly envelopes from his interests in the gambling racket from around the South Side. Hunt’s obvious successor as the prime overseer of the policy racket and the rest of the illegal activities that were controlled by the black racketeers, was Ralph Pierce who still answered to Jake Guzik and also to his second in command and also highly respected non-Italian mobster known as Murray Humphreys. In fact, during this period Guzik was unsuccessfully trying to avoid the government’s attacks, and similar as Hunt, the old Jewish boss and prime representative for the Outfit’s non-Italian group began spending time in Florida or other places which were far from the reach of Chicago’s local police and government investigators. This meant that both Humphreys and Pierce slowly began to take completely control over Guzik’s Loop and South Side crew, including his old political, union and police contacts, with allegedly Humphreys being Guzik’s future and logical successor.


Murray Humphreys

By this time, all of the policy interests from around the large North Side area completely fell under the jurisdiction of new Italian caporegime that was represented by Ross Prio and his crew of made members and associates. Prio and his crew were also very much interested in taking over lucrative operations that previously belonged to other ethnic gangs, such as the “Bolita” game that was mainly operated by the Latino population and was similar to the African-American policy racket, an operation that was already inherited by the Prio group.

POISONING THE BLACK MASSES

Besides almost making monopoly over the policy racket, by the early 1950’s the Chicago Mob also began its involvement in narcotics trade and the black population was allegedly again, their main target. In fact, the Outfit’s bosses didn’t want any narcotics products floating around their own neighborhoods, but instead they mainly sold the product around the areas that were mainly filled with black population, and the saddest thing was that all of narcotics which the Mafia imported, were later mainly sold by black racketeers and gangsters to their own people and again, the city’s Northwest and South areas became the prime targets for the Mafia’s new “venture” aka heroin. In addition, as I we already saw in the previous case with the late Indiana gambling boss, Walter Kelly, it seems that somehow the line between the policy racket and the narcotics trade was quite thin.

One of the most notorious black crews that was also involved in the Outfit’s narcotics trade on the city’s Northwest Side was headed by dealers such as Amos Jones, James Bowman and Morris Taylor. These individuals were supplied by one Outfit member from around the Elmwood Park/Grand Avenue areas known as Tony Dichiarinte, who turn allegedly received his shipments from one of the east coast families, such as the Lucchese crime family in New York. But in 1951, Morris Taylor got pinched by the cops for possession of narcotics and while in jail, he decided to “spill the beans” and told the investigators that he attended several meetings with James Bowman, who in turn drove with him to the West Side where they usually met members or associates of the Outfit regarding narcotics deals. After that, everyone got arrested while on “duty”, including Bowman who received 10 years prison sentence for the sale, possession and transportation of narcotics.


Tony Dichiarinte

Another large Outfit-related dope peddling ring from around the South Side which also used black dealers was headed by Mafia individuals such as James Cordovano, Joseph DiCaro and Anthony Annerino. Sources say that Cordovano was allegedly the one who had close connection to a large African-American group, mainly with the help of one Marvin Moses, followed by Archie Robinson, Charles Venton, Thomas Matas and Melvin Harris. The interesting thing about these crews was that they also had an associate known as Jack Clayton, who in turn owned a private airplane to transport narcotics from Chicago to Kansas City, including California, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Arkansas, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

The main problem that no one could’ve predicted was that the narcotics business was going to disrupt the lucrative policy racket, meaning many black operators started selling and also using drugs, and also some began stealing money from the policy game and later invested it in narcotics for whatever reason. There were also less and less “street runners” regarding the policy operations, while on the other hand the number of street dope dealers was getting higher and higher, including the number of addicts and also deaths of young people. Huge number of the African-American dope dealers suddenly appeared all around the South Side, and during the mid 1950’s the so-called “undisputed king of the policy operations” around the south was James Irving. The problem was that the old timers such as Irving were only interested in the policy racket since the operation alone brought them millions of dollars a year and they didn’t need any more complications such as the dope peddling business, which in fact was highly regarded by the younger generation. On top of that, by 1956 most of the old “Capone” mobsters were dead, including Sam Hunt, and so the younger generation of the Outfit, especially the Italians, began to take whatever was left by their late predecessors.

RETURN OF THE MACK

Some of the up-and-coming young black criminals saw the Italian mobsters as their role models and on top of that, they saw future criminal success in the narcotics trade, something which they previously rarely received from their black superiors in the policy racket. One of those younger and quite ambitious black criminals was Nolan Mack, a known enforcer, policy operator and above all, narcotics peddler, who worked closely with Outfit capo Frank Caruso, who in turn mainly controlled the Chinatown area and Near South Side, but also had some interests around the much larger South Side. Besides Caruso, Mack was also allegedly connected to another Outfit dope peddler known as Americo DePietto who in turn belonged to the so-called leading West Side mob.


Nolan Mack

Mack had a criminal record with over 20 arrests, like back during the 1940’s when he served time twice for burglary and bank robbery, and was considered as “savage criminal”, mainly because Mack had very “short fuse”, high temper and was always “bullet on”. He was arrested numerous times for beating up people for just looking at him the wrong way, while his first narcotics violation occurred back in 1955 and from that point on, he was arrested 10 more times for peddling narcotics until he was imprisoned in 1957 and was sentenced to 5 years, but served only 4. Shortly after his release from prison, the first thing which Mack did was executing the murder of his ex-partner in the drug business, Shelby Faulk, who was found shot to death in his white Cadillac in an alley at the rear of 7304 Union Av., allegedly because Faulk tried to take over Mack’s business while the latter was absent.

Because of the protection which he already established in his deal with the Outfit, Mack had the power to place in line every drug dealer and policy operator that crossed his path, and in the eyes of the Outfit, Mack was the perfect man for the job mainly because he was able to demand respect within the black community with the help of fear and intimidation, and “Mafia-type” guys like Caruso and DePietto also knew on how to exploit individuals like that and to make the whole business relationship quite lucrative. So, DePietto introduced Mack to another Italian dope peddler known as Joe Battiato who in turn handled the narcotics stash from his apartment at Belden Avenue, and every time when Mack visited the location, the two exchanged two brown paper bags, which obviously contained money and heroin. Mack allegedly had an easy way to sell the product on the streets in no time, mainly because he had a large crew of drug dealers and most of them worked at food stands, barber shops or even worked as janitors or taxi drivers, and few of the most prominent ones were Opal and Charles Cole, Louis Pierce, Charles Armstrong, Charles Brooks, LaFauncie Johnson and Eddie Clark. The whole point was to maintain the deal between the Outfit’s Westsiders, who financed most of the narcotics shipments, and the South Side mob which distributed the product around the local neighborhoods.


Americo DePietto

Mack did not possess any personal police or political connections, but instead that was the job for his friends in the Outfit who acted as “protectors” for their street dealers. For example, one day, the cops found two pounds of pure heroin worth around $100,000 (or around one million dollars in today’s cash) in Mack's apartment, but shortly after he was released on all charges on the grounds that the arrest and confiscations were made without a search warrant. During the arrest, Mack allegedly said to one of the agents that he would kill the next officer who will attempt to arrest him. Also, sometimes Mack and the Outfit were able to receive information if anyone from Mack’s crew was talking to the cops. One such example occurred in January 1963, when one of Mack’s street dealers, Louis Pierce, was constantly “harassed” by the cops by always raiding his home and arresting him in public places, meaning the government managed to stir the thoughts of suspicion among the crew members, including their leader. That same month, 48 years old Pierce was found shot to death in his car in front of his home at 4115 Vincennes Av. Several months later, the body of 30 years old Charles Brooks was found in the Fox River, after experiencing the same government tactic.

But like most criminal stories, everything went smooth until the government decided to place 24/7 surveillance over the black gangster and some of the agents constantly wondered around the “Black Belt” with hope to find anyone who was willing to talk. Luckily, on October 25, 1963, two federal agents received information that Mack was about to drive 2 kilos of heroin with his car from one point to another. Reports say that that the main cops who was assigned to follow Mack, was narcotics agent Wayne Valentino. As they approached State Street, Mack noticed that he was being followed and suddenly curbed Valentino's car, thus forcing him to smash into a lamp post. Valentino quickly radioed agent Gayle Ruhl for backup, who in turn took up the pursuit on the expressway, and when Ruhl came close behind, just west of the Loop on the expressway, Mack slammed on his brakes and stopped the car. So, agent Ruhl pulled his car in front of Mack's but before Ruhl could jump out, Mack again hit the gas and smashed his car from behind and sped northward. Ruhl quickly took up the chase again and at California Avenue on the Northwest expressway, Mack stopped again and so did agent Ruhl with his auto.

Regarding the previous case in which Mack threatened the cops that if anyone of them ever tried to arrest him again, he was going to kill someone, and so the black gangster was obviously telling the truth. Suddenly, Mack jumped out from his car as Ruhl got out of his own and also showed his badge, Mack quickly ducked behind his car and fired three shots at Ruhl who in turn dropped beside his auto and returned fire as traffic sped by on the expressway. The windows of both cars were shattered by bullets or fragments, since Ruhl felt glass splattering across his face as he fired his gun. With all of the blood crawling down his face, the federal agent cautiously made his way alongside his car and approached the rear of Mack's auto, and then the agent saw Mack's foot sticking out from behind the car and yelled “Raise your hand any higher and I'll kill you!". Mack continued to raise the revolver and Ruhl suddenly fired his gun several times thus forcing the gangster to slump back on the pavement as other agents and police pulled up. Shortly after that, Nolan Mack was pronounced dead at Belmont hospital which was the end of one of Chicago’s most notorious black gangsters, but was followed by a legacy that largely contributed to the creation of the different and also quite notorious black criminal element from around the Chicago area. In addition, Mack’s older brother Ranza continued working for the Outfit regarding the sales of narcotics, but two years after his brother’s death, Ranza was sent to seven years prison on narcotics charges.


Investigators doing a search on Mack’s car

THE LEGACY

All of the previous collaborations between Chicago’s black criminal gangs and the Outfit, made a lot of money for the Italian leaders but also brought the black crime bosses on a much higher level in both the world of corruption and within the so-called “street life”. For example, back in 1958, Benjamin F. Lewis became the leading black alderman and official representative for the old 24th Ward. Previously, Lewis knew all of the former black racketeers and “Policy Kings” who ruled most of Chicago’s black population and in fact, that’s how he got his votes to became an alderman but not without the Outfit’s protection. Sources say that the prime Mob guys who had direct contact with the black alderman were Dave Yaras and Lenny Patrick, two of the Outfit’s most feared Jewish members. In addition, another report says that besides Yaras and Patrick, the Outfit’s North Side leader and caporegime Ross Prio also allegedly had ties to Lewis, with the help of two if his close associates.


Alderman Benjam Lewis

During the early 1960’s, according to one confidential informant who allegedly heard a story from one imprisoned narcotics dealer, that the main black criminal in the dope business at the time was one fella only known as “Tennessee” aka Thomas “Shaky Tom” Anderson. There are not much details out there regarding Anderson’s early criminal career or his first contacts with the Chicago Outfit, except that he was connected to the Mob since the late 1940’s, when he used to work as a bookkeeper and that he had full university education and later operated a grocery store on Chicago’s South Side from where narcotics were allegedly sold on daily basis. According to some reports, Anderson received his accounting training at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee; for which he was nicknamed by some of his “street colleagues” as “Tennessee”. Anderson’s criminal sidekick was one 300-pound African-American enforcer known as James “Kid Riviera” Williams who never finished 4th grade, and this scary fella also had connections all around Chicago mostly on the South and North sides, like for example being pictured by the government for having meetings with high level members of the Outfit. These two fellas were the prime operators in the policy business, crap games operations and also narcotics, for certain individuals of the Outfit such as Ross Prio, Ken Eto, Gus Alex, Frank Caruso, Lenny Patrick, Dave Yaras, the English aka Inglesia brothers and above all, Ralph Pierce.

The other most interesting and almost unbelievable information that same informant also gave to the government, was regarding Anderson’s deep involvement in the narcotics business and also in the murder of Alderman Benjamin Lewis. Back in 1958, Lewis became the first black Alderman to represent the 24th Ward and some sources say that he “desperately” wanted to be independent but as long as Mayor Richard Daley’s organization controlled the “ghetto vote”, he had to take his orders. Other reports say that both Lewis and Anderson knew each other since the “old days”, and when Lewis became alderman, he allegedly began financing some of Anderson’s narcotics dealings, mainly heroin, with the help of frequent loans or investment money regarding the purchase of the product.


“Shaky Tom” Anderson

I believe that to have a 24th Alderman as financier in narcotics dealings was a delicate situation which could’ve been seen only in the city of Chicago at the time, meaning both Anderson and Williams managed to achieve something that was never previously achieved by any other black racketeer or gangster from the Chicago area, at least not since the days of Oscar De Priest. By dealing with high profile criminals, such as the ones from the Outfit, somewhere down the way they became dependable on these individuals, and that’s what happened to Lewis. Story goes that Alderman Lewis allegedly received a huge loan from Anderson, who in turn received the cash from the Outfit, meaning it was all “Mob money”. And so, in the old days if you took cash from the Outfit, it was obviously expected from you to return the money with interest, no matter who you were, or else.

So, one thing led to another and in February 1963, Lewis was found shot in the back of his head three times, while being handcuffed to a chair in his own office. Even though the government arrested every possible Outfit member and associate from the 24th Ward, including Patrick, Yaras and the English brothers, still the real assassins were Anderson and Williams but the government wasn’t able to connect them to the murder. The only “evidence” against the black gangster duo was that they reportedly had threatened Lewis’ shortly before the murder, same as many other criminals. The cops also interrogated hundreds of other suspects but in the end, the police file remained to be about three feet thick which ended with a sentence such as “Lewis was probably not cooperating with the criminal element in the 24th Ward”, and the whole case remained unsolved.


Lewis’ murder scene

Reports that after the assassination of Alderman Lewis, the black gangster duo completely took over all policy and narcotics operations around the 24th Ward, and also kicked up percentage to their peers in the Mob. From that point on, both Anderson and Williams also controlled an “army” of crap game operators, and also had a bunch of apartments where most of the games occurred. At the front of every building, they had a “look-out” equipped with a walkie-talkie radio, with the other half of the two-way radio set in the apartment above. The apartments were usually equipped with well-stocked bars, with a bartender and bar maids who furnished relaxation for those who became tense while handling the dice. The thing was that besides gamblers, these establishments were very often visited by narcotics users and addicts since many of the operators or bartenders were in fact drug dealers for Williams in his dope peddling business. Williams also had a sort of a “commission” of enforcers and operators such as Vernon Bailey who operated on the West Side, Sammy Bell on the South Side and Sandy Wilborn on the North.

Like many of the former policy kings such as the Jones bros and others, by 1964 sources say that Anderson already had millions of dollars stashed in his personal safe and quickly decided to leave the U.S. and spent most of his time in Mexico. Other government reports also stated that Anderson was probably still receiving certain income from all of the illegal operations that were under Williams’ control, mainly from around the Chicago and Northwest Indiana areas. Williams also allegedly created many emerging juvenile crime gangs, a situation that obviously started to look quite ominous on the horizon. For example, when one of Williams’ black drug dealers known Orville Drake died back in 1961, he left to his own kid Fred a large box full of heroin, which contained enough dope for his son to sell it on the streets for the next few years.


James “Kid Riviera” Williams

In June 1965, two of Williams’ prime policy runners, Johnny Williams and John Butler, were arrested by the cops regarding their involvement in the policy racket. According to Johnny Williams, during this period “Kid Riviera” began losing most of his illegal operations, allegedly because of his close connections to the Outfit. Besides Williams and Butler, other black associates which were arrested during different police raids included Cornelious Haynes, Lester and Jesse Hoskin, and Carl Irving. So, in April of 1966, the “good times” for “Kid Riviera” Williams were about to be finished forever because the feds managed to hit one of his main gambling and at the same time, drug peddling places. That “faithful day”, 15 policemen entered on the first-floor of a ten-story building at 2118 Warren Blvd. and arrested almost 50 men and women, which some of them were gamblers, while the rest were drug addicts. The cops also managed to arrest the main operator Vernon Bailey, who in turn tried to hide half-a-pound of heroin but failed. The problem was that Williams managed to elude the whole government operation and was never caught by the feds, but instead it is possible that he also fled the city like his predecessors and mentors, for at least few years.

BREAKING THE CHAINS

During the late 1960’s, both the Outfit and the black gangs were under huge pressure from the government, mainly because of the numerous confidential informants and also the raids of their various illegal operations. Finally, some of the black criminals began realizing that their connections to the Outfit in fact brought the full pressure from the government, thus creating the idea of their full independence within Chicago’s underworld. The younger generation of black criminals finally learned the lesson that their previous most lucrative racket the policy wheels were slowly becoming an “old man’s game”, meaning there were less and less policy wheels around the Chicago area, while on the other hand the number of drug dealers was constantly on the up and up. But before all of that, as we already saw, the black crime gangs and the Chicago Outfit had more than few decades of collaboration behind them, and they also had few more future ventures to accomplish as one alliance, a situation that made Chicago’s Italian mob as a “mentor” for the newly created black gangs which “mirrored” or reflected almost all syndicate activities, such as gambling, loan sharking, prostitution, extortion, dog fights and above all, narcotics.

During the late 1960’s and early 70s, one of the so-called most powerful and also “half-independent” black criminal gangs, was the “Blackstone Rangers” street crew. This group was either direct or indirect product of the Chicago Mafia, mainly because at first, they were allowed to operate in the same areas which were controlled by the Outfit, and they also had numerous joint operations, same as the old days, but later or at the same time the Blackstone Rangers began controlling their own areas both around the city’s North and South sides. The government found evidences regarding the alliance between the Blackstone gang and the Chicago Mafia, with the help of constant surveillance that witnessed the meetings between one of the Mob’s so-called “emissaries” and Blackstone Rangers representatives. The Outfit’s representative was one associate known as Morris Lasky, who worked for the Outfit’s North Side crew under Ross Prio, Dom DiBella, Joey DiVarco and Joe Arnold, including high level members from the Elmwood Park crew such as Jack Cerone who in turn was the Mob’s acting boss from 1967 until 1970. On the other side, the Blackstone Rangers were usually represented by two of their top members Charles “Reico” Cranshaw and Mickey Cogwell, or sometimes by their “frontman” William Stratton, under the rulership of their alleged leader Jeff Fort.


Morris Lasky


Charles Cranshaw

For example, in March 1969, Lasky travelled on the Outfit’s orders to south suburban Harvey, allegedly to gain control over the P&P Club at 15038 Page Avenue. A meeting occurred at the offices of James Haines, the mayor Harvey, which also included Lasky and Stratton. Sources say that Lasky told the mayor the ownership of the joint will be in his name, but liquor license will be in Stratton’s name. Ten days earlier, Lasky obtained $24,000 from DiVarco and Arnold regarding the “deal”, but the problem was that the mayor notified the authorities before anything illegal ever occurred and so, their licenses were refused. Later, Lasky, Cogwell and Cranshaw tried to take over the Four Brothers Drugs and Liquor Store at 1100 E. 47th St. Lasky allegedly even planned to place several doctors in the offices who in turn would prescribe the drugs which will be sold through their drug store. The problem was that in June that same year, Cranshaw was arrested for large quantity of marijuana, several unregistered firearms, and also a stolen expensive fur coat. During the search, the cops also found several business cards and one of those was under the name of Shorts Unlimited at 843 N. State Street, the firm that was ran by DiVarco and Arnold.


Joey “Caesar” DiVarco

This shows us that the Outfit, or their North Side crew, was still in alliance with some of the most powerful black gangs, but what about the Outfit’s old South Side and West Side crews? The answer lies in the deaths of some of the Outfit’s leaders and also the “deaths” of some of their crews that occurred at the same time. There were more than several factors that played major roles in the creation of Chicago’s “first” completely independent black crime gangs, especially the changings which occurred within the Outfit at the time. For example, the old First Ward/South Side group that was previously created by old time bosses such as Phil D’Andrea, Bruno Roti Sr. and Frank Ferraro, was now diminished only to First Ward politics and the Chinatown area under the auspices of Gus Alex, Frank Caruso, Pat Marcy and Ralph Pierce, meaning they didn’t care much regarding their old interests around the South Side, which previously included almost all black policy wheels and prostitution rackets, mainly because of the huge government “heat”. Even Fiore Buccieri, the most notorious West Side boss who took over every territory that was previously abandoned by the Alex/Caruso group, still stopped mixing with the black population and stood away from their rackets and areas.

On top of that, in 1972 the Outfit’s top leader Paul Ricca died, a situation which somehow signaled the beginning of the end of the ever-powerful Chicago Mafia. Ricca’s death was followed by the ones of Ross Prio, Frank LaPorte, Fiore Buccieri, Sam Battaglia and many others, including the imprisonments and constant government “heat, mainly because the Outfit was still the number one target when it came down to America’s Cosa Nostra. In March 1972, both DiVarco and Arnold were indicted on tax evasion charges and three months later, they were convicted by a federal grand jury. Again, the new Outfit’s leadership obviously had a lot of trouble at the time in keeping their organization in one piece and to maintain their illegal income, meaning they became weak and so their black criminal accomplices finally saw the chance to become fully independent.


Capone’s original successor Paul Ricca

So, during the early 1970’s the Outfit became quite vulnerable and the new leadership tried to avoid any additional problems, since they already had problems of their own, both with their own membership and the government. In plane words, death and penitentiary have decimated the leadership of the Chicago Mafia, something that was noticed not just by the government but instead also by other ethnic crime groups, such as the Blackstone Rangers and even the Latino gangs. Many new black crime leaders had seen their mentors and predecessors cheated and bilked by white Mafiosi for too many decades, and they weren’t about to make the same mistake. In fact, the so-called “curse of Teddy Roe” began to reveal itself when the black gangsters refused to pay their street tax or to have any type of association with the Outfit. Some sources say that there was even some type of “conflict” between the Outfit and the Blackstone Rangers, mainly because of the so-called street tax, in which the old Mob bosses had to “swallow” their pride and continued to live on without their “product” or their old “friends”.



After that, the so-called Blackstone Rangers became known as the “Black P. Stone Nation”, an organization that started spreading all around the country. Also, since the new leadership of the Chicago Outfit under Tony Accardo, Joey Aiuppa and Gus Alex, officially banned its membership from dealing with narcotics, both the black and Hispanic gangs began entering the illegal trade like never before. Ten years later or during the early 1980, the FBI came out with a report regarding two of Chicago’s most notorious black crime gangs that were allegedly products of the Black P. Nation, and their deep involvement in the narcotics trade, especially the selling of heroin, cocaine and marijuana on the city streets. Besides illegal drugs, many leading black gangs were also involved in stealing legal pharmaceutical drugs and later re-selling them to street addicts, and the level of violence and also number of drug-related murders went on a much higher level. More than forty years later or today, the situation didn’t change much because Chicago’s so-called black crime gangs are responsible for more than 80% of all fatal shootings and all types of homicides that occurred in 2024 around the Cook County area, a situation which is a far cry from the days of former black crime leaders and organized racketeers, such as “Mushmouth” Johnson, Sam Young, Oscar De Priest, Big Jim Martin or the Jones brothers.

Cheers

WOW I missed you TD Chicago has been a melting pot since the early days.

Very comprehensive articles, TD. Well done!

Missed you too buddy lol since I was busy a little bit but i never return empty handed btw nicely said about Chicago and also great song lol




Thanks for the kind words @TB and also for your constant support.

....in addition, there were also at least a dozen less known black racketeers who played major roles in the alliance with the Outfit, and I didnt include all of them because of the longevity of the article, and so later ill try to make one detailed list with photos and stuff, although it is quite rare to find a photo from a black criminal in the newspapers, especially the ones from the 1920s until 1970s

Kid Riviera Williams and his crew....

....also from 1951....

From 1942...

Still doing business together to this day. The black guys do not fear going to prison and doing dirty work that puts them at risk for jail time.

Southern Cicero, Berwyn, the South Side and all southern suburbs were always "gold mine" for the Mob and chances are that the situation might be the same, but obviously not like in the past because of the lack of more sophisticated black gangsters. I still believe that none of the other ethnic gangs in Chicago have the level of infiltration in legitimate enterprises and political donations as people connected to the Outfit.

.....from August 1958.....

....few of the most notorious policy/gambling joints from 1921....

Good point like the wiseguys the black gangsters now are nothing like the Old School.

Nicely said @H. Its all about "dog eat dog" and shoot on sight.

Well crafted summary Toodoped.
Im going to add some context in some sections for more discussion if you don't mind. I have the book on the Policy Kings. There's an absence of the 3rd Jones brother, Big 12 Syndicate & their wheels, and a few others dealing with the street gang connection history in your article respctfully.

Thanks @BlackFam and to be honest, I was hoping for you to chime in. Yes, I know I left out lots of information such at the third Jones bro and many other stuff, mainly because i was concentrated on their connections to the Chicago mob and on how the whole situation started and also regarding its most lucrative ending.

For example, I also didnt mention that the old black syndicates were represented by King on the so-called "Trust" which in fact was Chicagos first gambling/crime commission from the early 1900s under Mike McDonald.

Btw, what can you tell me about the "Big 12" and who had a seat on the round table?

Check out my 2014 post

http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...;Main=30562&Number=782645#Post782645

Thanks a lot @BlackFam and I personally enjoyed many of your posts through the years.

One or two questions....Walter Kelly was the brother of "Ily Kelley" who I think was Ira Kelly right? Also, was Henry Young related to Sam Young? In addition, I think that some of the rest of the fellas were either under the Jones bros or Big Jim aka the main reps for all West, South and North policy wheels...although I personally still have some doubts on who was the prime black operator around the North Side and the Rush St areas (the second most lucrative area after the south), or before Shaky Tom and Kid Riviera came on the scene.....the old Chi mobs were very territorial and thats why im askin..

BTW
RIP Quincy Jones !

He grew up in the shadow of the Great Depression in the 1930s on the South Side of Chicago. His mother was taken to a psychiatric institution when he was seven and his father worked as a carpenter for notorious gangsters the Jones Boys.

Young Quincy wanted to be a gangster too. "You want to be what you see, and that's all we ever saw," he said.

He and his brother were "street rats" and, when he strayed into the wrong neighbourhood at the age of seven, a rival gang member "nailed my hand to a fence". Another injury came from an ice pick to the face.

Your welcome.
Walter J. Kelly ( Hooper) & Illy Kelly were indeed brothers & there was a sister in Indiana. I don't think Henry was relatef to Sam though. Nope they were treated as equals by the Jones Brothers & Big Jim but the other midsized to small operators were under their umbrealla. Heres additional info:

Sam Young: http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...;Main=30463&Number=780240#Post780240

Policy Wheels: http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...;Main=30506&Number=781244#Post781244

Policy War 1: http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/u...;Main=30526&Number=781680#Post781680

Again, great stuff and thanks.

Regarding the start of the violence towards the policy kings....they enjoyed very lucrative relationship with the Irish, Jewish and Italian mobs for more than two decades mainly because of bringing the black vote and also by paying street tax which at the time meant nothing for the rich policy operators. But I personally think that some of the first conflicts already started during the days of Prohibition and later the Benvenuti bros played a major role in protecting the policy syndicates. Even though they werent Sicilians or Calabrians, still the Benvenutis were millionaires and held a lot of influence both within the Italian political world and population. Thats why the Benvenutis were allegedly free to operate without being "subservient", although I believe they still paid their street tax and the Torrio/Capone used their political connections around the Northwest Side, and vice versa.

So when Ricca became Capone's successor, I dont believe that all of the conflicts with the black policy kings were sanctioned by the Outfit. Yes, Capone's lieutenant Sam Hunt had to place "few" operators in line mainly because they had problems with Cermak and Newberry. In fact, Newberry and Stanton previously belonged to a different mob, until they joined the Capone mob. Guys like Stanton or William White were loose cannons and thats why they were eliminated. Hunts caporegimes around the South Side were Phil D'Andrea and Jake Guzik who in turn both were deeply involved in politics and corruption, and still had the respect and also the control over the black vote.

As we're exploring the Policy racket era, I'm going add some more info from the book and see how that align with your research on the Outfit. During the 1930s-50s, How many southside crews did the Outfit have?
Excuse the gaps in response, work have me quite busy.

No problem pal, same goes here since we all have private lives.

During the early 1930's, the "leading" South Side crew was product of the old Colosimo/Torrio/ Capone mob and was allegedly headed by Capone's brother Ralph, followed by the Fischettis, Maddox, Willie Heeney etc. In fact, Willie Heeney was one of the prime overseers of both the policy racket and the narcotics trade around the south, possibly even before Hunt. Ralph Capone allegedly controlled the whole Cicero area at the time, including parts from the south side. By the early 1940s the Ciceroa was divided between the Capone and Ricca/Giancana crews on north and south. During the early or mid 1950's, the Capone group gave "birth" of the infamous Aiuppa crew.

As I previously stated, the next crew was headed by Phil D'Andrea (and Guzik) who in turn controlled the leading 20th Ward at the time, including the First Ward, followed by the Near South Side (including Chinatown) and also parts of the south side (and was also high level member of the Italo-American union). In fact, during those days the Ralph Capone and D'Andrea crews shared the large south area. Later D'Andrea was succeeded by Bruno Roti Sr. who in turn infiltrated official made guys within the First Ward, such D'Arco and Marcy. When Roti sr. retired, he was succeeded by Frank Ferraro (in 1956/57 became underboss for Giancana), Frank Caruso (Roti's son-in-law who became capo of the Chinatown area), Guzik's successors Humphreys and Alex (prime reps for all non-Itals), followed by Hunt's protege Ralph Pierce who I think doesnt need any introduction when it comes down to the policy racket. By the late 1960's this crew was half-dead and in 1976/77 the Giancana/Buccieri/Torello/LaPeitra crew from the West Side entered the Chinatown area by "forcing" Caruso into retirement and also absorbed all of his interests and remaining crew members and associates.

Speaking about the West Side.....I think that Giancana's main targets were probably Big Jim Martin and the Benvenutis, obviously because of their vast gambling empire around Giancana's areas, and after that he concentrated his sight at the Jones bros and the South Side, which somehow explains some of Giancana's/Buccieri's interests in that same area during the following decades.

Also, we must not forget to mention the Outfit's Chicago Heights crew which during the old days had jurisdiction around all southern suburbs, including Calumet City and Joliet, followed by Northwest Indiana where there used to be many policy wheels that were controlled by many black racketeers in alliance with the mob...

Hope this helps....

The history of African Americans in Chicago or Black Chicagoans dates back to Jean Baptiste Point du Sable's trading activities in the 1780s. Du Sable, the city's founder, was Haitian of African and French descent.[4] Fugitive slaves and freedmen established the city's first Black community in the 1840s. By the late 19th century, the first Black person had been elected to office.

The Great Migrations from 1910 to 1960 brought hundreds of thousands of Black Americans from the South to Chicago, where they became an urban population. They created churches, community organizations, businesses, music, and literature. African Americans of all classes built a community on the South Side of Chicago for decades before the Civil Rights Movement, as well as on the West Side of Chicago. Residing in segregated communities, almost regardless of income, the Black residents of Chicago aimed to create communities where they could survive, sustain themselves, and have the ability to determine for themselves their own course in the History of Chicago.[5]

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, African Americans accounted for 29% of the city's population, or approximately 800,000 people as of the 2020 census. As per 2023 Census estimates the metro area had just under 1.5 million residents claiming Black alone ancestry, making it the metropolitan area with the fourth-highest Black population after New York, Atlanta, and Washington DC.[6]

The Black population in Chicago has been shrinking. Many Black Chicagoans have moved to the suburbs or Southern cities such as Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.[7][8]

Chicago also has a foreign-born Black population. Many of the African immigrants in Chicago are from Ethiopia and Nigeria.[9]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_African_Americans_in_Chicago#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20U.S.%20Census,as%20of%20the%202020%20census.

Thanks for the additional info @H.

....from 1942....

...followed by Pete Tremont and the Manno aka Manning brothers who played major ruole in keeping the policy racket under the Outfits thumb or for their bosses Sam Hunt and Jake Guzik....


Pete Tremont


Pat Manno


Sam Manno


Tom Manno


Fred Manno


Nick Manno

Good stuff TD !

Again, thanks a lot @H and also thanks for the vid because I havent seen this one before.