The William "Action" Jackson murder is one of the most brutal in Outfit history. And when you think of guys like Mad Sam and Spilotro, that's really saying something. About two years ago, I saw Goodfellas. Loved it. Moved on to Casino, and that was a bad idea. Turns out I have a phobia of head injuries, due to my epilepsy, so the vise scene left my traumatized. Call me whatever names you want, I refuse to read any more about the M&M murders than I already did. So instead, I learned a little bit more about that era through the Action Jackson murder. My question is, there are dozens of versions. Few of the sources I can find will even cite their own sources, it's a real headache. You wouldn't believe how many versions there are. Maybe there was a screwup in the coroners report?

This one is from a mafia encyclopedia. Appropriately enough, titled "The Mafia Encyclopedia." Under the entry for 'buckwheats', slang for brutal murders, the book says this: "Life Magazine once recounted the agonizing death of a 300 pound mob loan shark named William Action Jackson whom the Chicago Outfit suspected of being both a stool pigeon and a knock-down artist. To get him to confess, they took him to a mob meat rendering place where he was tied up and hung from a meat hook. Bullets were pumped into him and he was worked over with ice pick and baseball bats; and eletric cattle prod was used on his rectum. It took two days for Jackston to die". This version is what piqued my interest. In the internet versions, there were no bullets OR ice picks, and it took Jackson three days to die, not two. Secondly, I really don't know what a knock-down artist is.

The most common version is a bit different. As I've seen in most online sites, Jackson was hung by his rectum, then had his legs broken, then fried 'down there' with a wet cattle prod before he passed out and never woke up. In these versions, motive was for being a suspected rat. Nothing more, nothing less.

mafiahistory.blogspot.com has a different take on Jackson's murder. The author claims it was ordered directly through Accardo as a message of what happens when you steal from the organization. Nothing to do with ratting this time. And there are two discrepancies here, in this version he was hung upside down by his feet instead. So here we have three motives. Here, for stealing from Accardo, which doesn't even make too much sense. In the Mafia Encyclopedia, for being a so-called 'knockdown artist', and a suspected rat. Everywhere else, only for being a suspected rat.

My question is, why so many inconsistencies? What was the real motive, and which story is correct? Generally I'd trust a book before a blog, but I really can't say with all these variations all over.

If Mad Sam thought Action Jackosn was informing or with-holding some of the "Juice" money then either is reason enough for someone in that life to be killed.
The brutality of it doesnt suprise me either - we ARE talking about DeStefano and Spilotro here.
DeStefano once had a guy tied to a scolding hot radiator then brought the mans family in to urinate on him to "cool him down".
The guy was nuts..........no wonder Spilotro turned out nearly as bad with a mentor like him!

Hi.I have The Mafia Encyclopedia. If you notice there are slight variations even within that book concerning the reasons. What's common though is that he was suspected of being a rat and of stealing money. Either one is a death sentence.

Stefano was the worst but Buccieri, who was closer to Giancana than Stefano and was just about as sadistic and murderous as Stefano, was also involved in the torture-murder along with Jackie Cerone. It was evidently Cerone and/or Buccieri who came up with the idea of the cattle prod. Supposedly Buccieri took pictures of Jackson's mutilated corpse and passed them around.

The source for Buccieri's claims is evidently an FBI wiretap.
Jackson was a collector for one of the Outfit's loansharking operations. Loanshark loans (or occasionally a specific type of loanshark loans) are occasionally referred to as "knockdown loans", hence "knockdown artist".

I don't know if Jackson was an informer or not but to label him one is a form of dehumanization which allows people to justify such incredible savagery-not that people like Buccieri or Stefano need any justification.

Lilo, thanks for mentioning the participation of Jackie "the Lackey" Cerone,as well as Mad Sam DeStefano, Jimmy "Turk" Torello, and David Yaras have been mentioned as being participants in the Jackson torture murder! As you mentioned, Fiore Buccieri,a/k/a"Fifi", a member of the infamous 42Gang as well as a bodyguard for Salvatore/Sam "Momo" Giancana was once labeled as "lord high executioner" during the 1960's. Having all of these men standing over a suspected informant who's been stealing from the Outfit, with the green light...NOTHING TO LAUGH AT! All of these guys enjoyed inflicting pain upon people who were problems, there is actually a wiretap transcript in which Cerone is recorded with other Outfit hitters down in Florida, not certain, to whack out Frankie "X" Esposito I believe! Well on the tape, Cerone describes certain moments/activities that took place at the Jackson torture/murder. These men had to set an example to any others in their world, this is what you get when you cooperate and steal. DeStefano is rumored to have kept a late debtor chained in his basement for a week, only to throw a banquet dinner in his honor and inviting his whole family, well in the middle, Sam grabs the microphone and let's everyone in on how this guy owes him and proceeds to bring him out all bloody and beat up only to force his family members to urinate on him in front of the crowd!!! He was given a wide berth by Outfit bosses, as for that story know one actually knows how much is fact and how much is fiction, but Sam was considered a pure maniac psycho path, he mentored Anthony Spilotro who murdered him with shotguns, Sam's brother Mario aided Tony in putting Sam out of his misery. Thing was the trio were having court troubles and Sam's outrageous behavior in the court room was having adverse effects and the powers that be in the Outfit sad that Sam had to go and he went. Publicity was shunned and frowned upon by most Outfit bosses.

Thanks for clearing up the knockdown artist thing. I forgot another motive, where a couple of informants thought Jackson was killed for raping an imprisoned mobster's wife? If the circulating pictures thing is true, I'm starting to think the plotters intentionally leaked multiple (very minor) motives just to keep the family in line. Makes sense, no? It would be Accardo's way of reminding the family that you can be whacked for any number of reasons, so don't take any chances.

Dont get me started on Sam's behaviour in court.
He sometimes did his own defending.
He would talk through a bullhorn and ask the jury if they had ever seen an elephant!!!!!!!

One time in the 50's - DeStefano was driving his car in Chicago with a load of lemons and oranges scattered across his dashboard and filling up the back window of his automobile.
He had fixed a sign to the car saying "This is a lemon".
Cops pulled over this "fruity" mobile and took Sam to the station where they found to their dismay there were no actual traffic violations they could charge him with!!!!
Then there was the time he kidknapped a blackman at gunpoint and took him home and forced him to have sex with his (Sam's) wife!!!!

The man was a loon of the first order!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What was with the bullhorn? I've seen newsreel footage where he's giving what appears to be a press conference in front of his home. He's sitting in a wheelchair and yelling through a bullhorn. I noticed he didn't look physically threatening. I think the average person could have easily overtaken him unless he was armed.

Sam sometimes talked through a bullhorn in court claiming he wanted to be heard better (in reality he was just taking the piss)
Yes, Sam could be over-powered. A guy named Leo Foreman actually physically threw Sam out of his office.
However Foreman was later murdered in Sam's basement!!!!!.
The FBI used to go to Sam's house to question him and he was suprisingly polite and respectful to them.........then one day the FBI men were told by their supervisor that Sam had been pissing in their coffee!

Yup, the coffee piss story is in Roehmer's book, which also has an account of the Action Jackson murder story in it.

I have that Life Magazine article where they talk about the wire tap of the Jackson hit. I will see if I can find it and post.

Yup, Here is the article from Life that details the Jackson hit (part 1)

Life article part 2

According to Life Magazine, Giancana forced Accardo to give up the Outfit by shooting a bullet over his head.;

But again, I'll never understand how The Outfit trained a legion of sadistic torturers, which New York never saw many of. Thanks, TonyG. According to the article, they chained people to a stretcher and pulled the chains out until their joints popped. Are there any examples of this? I'm curious to know if the bosses were ordering torturing, or the soldiers were just going wild with bloodlust.

@BarrettM, most of the Outfit's most sadistic, ruthless killers were members of a gang called the 42 Gang, a sort of farm team for the Chicago Outfit;Giancana,DeStefano,Buccieri,& Battaglia are just a few who went on to Outfit stardom. Have you heard about Sam's drug addicted brother Michael, well if there was one thing in which Sam and most of the Outfit old timers didn't like was "the babania", drugs. Every Boss received a share, they just either didn't know where it came from or chose to be selective in their ways, after all, THEY ALL TOOK THE MONEY made from drug sales in one form or another. Well, Sam decided to put his brother out of his misery, he whacked him out and then proceeded to clean him, he actually washed him, trying to take any marks or traces of drugs off of the dead body. He supposedly said that he'd rather have his brother dead than have to see him as a junkie! Not to mention, the order came down that Michael was making too much of a problem, robbing Outfit connected gamblers
and money carriers, so Sam quickly got the job done.

Leo Foreman ended up stuffed in a sewer and wound up staying there until the Spring when water was backing up in the neighborhood, it was literally only blocks away from DeStefano's Sayre Ave. home. Spilotro and Mario DeStefano,Sam's brother, worked Foreman over with ice picks to the balls, hammer to the knees, while awaiting Sam's arrival.As he lay dying, they used a butcher's knife and each carved out a chunk of skin from Foreman's forearms. A robe/pajama clad DeStefano yelled from a bedroom, "Greed killed you"!

@Gary H, I've also read about that story, disturbing is the only word that comes to my mind at the moment. Sam was given a wide berth by the Outfit bosses, he came in handy whenever they needed a lesson taught or wanted to set an example.

As far as Giancana FORCING Accardo to "give up the throne", this has been a subject of debate for awhile now!! It seems that you have two sides to every story, ESPECIALLY THIS ONE. Giancana loyalists say one thing while Accardo's say the other. From what I've been able to gather, through books, magazine articles and newspaper stories, is that Sam was released from prison, where he was informed about how much money the South Side Blacks were making from, "the policy/numbers" racket, which the past bosses never really considered. Well, upon his release, Sam meets with the upper heirarchy of the Outfit at the time, explains what he's got planned with regards to taking over the South-Side policy racket and what he estimates "the take", to be. Some say for this he was rewarded and named "street boss", while in all reality, Accardo, who demoted himself to consigliere, always maintained a tight grip on whoever he put into the boss's chair.
Let's remember, publicity was shunned, low key, under the radar is what helped make Accardo the man he was in the Chicago Outfit.
He was a top dog for over 50 years, never spent a night in prison
and managed to avoid the spotlight while raking in millions from the Vegas Skim to Joker Poker Video Machines.

Trivia note: The torture murder of Jackson made it into the book "The Exorcist," yes the one made into the film. There is a page of quotes on the first page of the book, depicting the evil of society, and the Jackson murder is highlighted, memorialized forever in that great book about demonic possession.

Classic book and movie. Here is the excerpt from the book -


'Now when [Jesus] stepped ashore, there met him a certain man who for a long time was possessed by a devil.... Many times it had laid hold of him and he was bound with chains.... but he would break the bonds asunder.... And Jesus asked him, saying, "What is thy name?" And he said Legion....'
Luke 8:27-30



James Torello: Jackson was hung up on that meat hook. He was so heavy he bent it. He was on that thing three days before he croaked.

Frank Buccieri (giggling): Jackie, you shoulda seen the guy. Like an elephant, he was, and when Jimmy hit him with that electric prod...

Torello (excitedly): He was floppin' around on that hook, Jackie. We tossed water on him to give the prod a better charge, and he's screamin'....

Excerpt from FBI wiretap of Cosa Nostra telephone conversation relating to murder of William Jackson



...There's no other explanation for some of the things the Communists did. Like the priest who had eight nails driven into his skull.... And there were seven little boys and their teacher. They were praying the Our Father when soldiers came upon them. One soldier whipped out his bayonet and sliced off the teacher's tongue. The other took chopsticks and drove them into the ears of the seven little boys. How do you treat cases like that?

Dr. Tom Dooley
Dachau
Auschwitz
Buchenwald

Spent all month reading more and more about these Outfit days. Not particularly interested in the Kennedy stuff, just the chain of command and their brand of justice. Interesting that that Life article claims Giancana was ordering those torture murders. In the many articles I've read, Outfit orders are only referred to as coming from, 'The Outfit Bosses'. Which is annoyingly ambiguous. In the Outfit's case, that could be Accardo? Ricca? Giancana with Accardo and Ricca's permission? Hell, even Frank Balistrieri. Accardo is the most likely suspect, what with the blowtorch fascination. I'm just really curious at to which one of the bosses could give the go-ahead to use a medieval rack on someone.

Oh, and I've found the coroner's report for the Jackson murder! As much as I like the Mafia Encyclopedia, looks like they got this one wrong. Hell, so did plenty of other sources I would normally trust. Here's the coroner's report (use CTRL + F to find) and an excerpt:

[ quote=Ba rrettM]Spent all month reading more and more about these Outfit days. Not particularly interested in the Kennedy stuff, just the chain of command and their brand of justice. Interesting that that Life article claims Giancana was ordering those torture murders. In the many articles I've read, Outfit orders are only referred to as coming from, 'The Outfit Bosses'. Which is annoyingly ambiguous. In the Outfit's case, that could be Accardo? Ricca? Giancana with Accardo and Ricca's permission? Hell, even Frank Balistrieri. Accardo is the most likely suspect, what with the blowtorch fascination. I'm just really curious at to which one of the bosses could give the go-ahead to use a medieval rack on someone.

Oh, and I've found the coroner's report for the Jackson murder! As much as I like the Mafia Encyclopedia, looks like they got this one wrong. Hell, so did plenty of other sources I would normally trust. Here's the coroner's report (use CTRL + F to find) and an excerpt:

[/quote]

Don't forget that using a blowtorch was one of Marshall Caifano's favorite methods of torture. I'm surprised that nobody ever mention him in the whole thing being that it's pretty common knowledge that he liked to use a blow torch for torture.

I've never heard of this. Nevertheless, interesting. Can you name any victims? Do you think he was involved in the Estelle Carey murder?

Paul Ricca, clever guy, had the foresight to implement "bearding" in Chicago. When Paul was alive (before he deteriorated), Accardo and Mooney were "bearding" for him, meaning Paul was the real boss but they "wore the boss's badge" and everyone thought they were boss and underboss. After Paul died, Mooney was legitimately the boss, but there was friction between him and Accardo. After Mooney was off the grid, Teets and Phil were legitimate consecutive bosses for a very short period of time, while Accardo enjoyed retirement. When they went to prison, Accardo returned and, drawing on Paul's wisdom, was bearded by Aiuppa and Cerone (and for a short time by Carlisi and DiFronzo) for as long as he was alive. With Accardo, Aiuppa, Cerone, and Carlisi all dead or in prison by the early nineties, DiFronzo became the de facto boss, and pulled his guys back. Whoever the actual boss is at a given time is the guy who gives orders and approves/denies requests.

I've spent a lot of time researching the deal with Accardo stepping aside and Giancana taking over. I've talked with Outfit authors and historians and they said Accardo turned over the criminal activities to Giancana because of his impending IRS problems. You may recall the issue with the little red Mercedes being listed as a tax write off by Accardo. During this time, and the appeal, Accardo stepped down to avoid more attention from the news media. I feel sure Paul Ricca played a role in the decision-making process when Accardo stepped aside and became a consigliere with Ricca. Ricca had the final say in Outfit business but pushed Accardo to assume more responsibility.

As far as shots being fired into Accardo's home, the answer I got was that it did not happen. I'm simply telling you what was told to me by outfit authors and historians. Even one of our forum members (Chicago), who knows a lot about The Outfit regardless of who he is, said this did not happen.

There were reports that some shots were fired in Accardo's direction as he walked near his home. The conventional wisdom is that a couple of guys involved in the Hollywood Extortion case may have been responsible. Both men were later found murdered. I can't recall their names but I believe one was named Gioe. Not for sure about this.

The transfer of power was a good move for Accardo and a bad move for Giancana because the FBI was coming to town. Roemer and company were on their way, and I'm sure you know the rest of the story.

You're a bit confused. Mooney went to Mexico in 1966. Ricca died in 1973. Mooney came back from Mexico in 1974 and never regained his old position and was killed a year later.

According to Gus Russo Jackson was killed for raping a woman. I forget who, but someone's wife.

I had the good fortune to live in Berwyn in the 1960's. I worked at Eddie Novak's Union 76 on 29th and Harlem, and Fiore "Fifi" Buccieri (MR. Buccieri as we called him) lived around the corner at 29th & Maple. I lived down the block on Wisconsin, along with Al d'Andrea and his family. Went to school with his lovely daughters Patty & Maura. As for Fifi, I washed his car almost every week and serviced it many times. He was loved by all his neighbors, for his help with lawn care & snow removal, and his generosity (I always got a $5 tip, and this was the '60's!).

I was widely known in our community that the actual reason he tortured and killed Jackson was that he wanted Jackson's wife for himself. And true to the mob code of those days, he actually married Jackson's widow about a year later.