Paul Ricca,when he arrived in the U.S. as a young man he worked for Diamond Joe Esposito where he met a lot of future gangsters.Paul connected with young immigrants with criminal backgrounds under the bloody Gennas smugling moonshine.Ricca was always at the restaurant Bella Napoli,once owned by the Gennas,thats where he got the nickname "The Waiter".There was a sayin about the place"A guy can play a husband at home,but at the Napoli you were a man."The place was also once owned by Diamond Joe.Ricca was described like an enigma by the ppl around him,handsome guy with a firm square jaw and that he clenched when got angered.He had the talent to cloak his criminal nature when in company with high class people.He was said to be a man of “refinement,” well read,an interesting speaker and a cold blooded murderer.He was also actin like a watch dog,ppl had to be calmed infront of him cuz rumours are that he used to react very bad on jumpy and shifty persons.At sit downs Paul didnt want to see emotions.Ricca had a big temper,if some1 said somethin worng to his face,that person always had the taste of a hot lead in his mouth.He was also good with knives.There was this story that Ricca had a argument with some guy in New York,this guy was insulting Ricca and after that he's torso was found in a suitcase with the head,arms and legs removed from the body.

After some time with climbing the ladder to win Joe Diamonds favour,Ricca became a close friend with Al Capone.At sometime he was a theatre manager of sorts,managed a striptease joint, owned by Capone.He was soon acting as Capone’s “emissary” to the New York crime families.In 1927 Al Capone was “best man” at Ricca’s wedding.After Diamond Joe's death(there are rumours that Paul subsequently set up “Diamond” Joe Esposito),Ricca used his "old school" skills and went on low profile.While Al Capone became an obstacle to "free enterprise",a guy who every1 in the world was looking for him.Ricca respected Capone a lot but business is business.Ricca wasnt happy with Capones sentence and maybe Al was his close friend but they had some real action goin on and biz to run and with Capone out of the way there was no stopping Ricca.

The media says that Frank Nitti was the boss but that was all good with Ricca.He wanted to stay under the radar and confuse the government power.Rumours r that when there were major business deals,Nitti was nowhere to be found.Nor people like Guzik or The Camel took orders from Nitti.

During his rise Ricca had numerous meetings in New York and Atlantic City with the East Coast families.While Nitti was still actin as a front boss for the general public and with the end of prohibition,there was a meeting in Chicago at the Bismark Hotel,with men like Lucky Luciano,Rocco Fishetti,Harry Ducket and Sylvester Agoglia.Meyer Lansky was also ova there but wasnt let by Ricca to attend the meeting.The meeting was mostly about the takeovers on the unions from coast to coast.

In 1936 the Chicago outfit took over the movie unions and many known stars from back in the days were sponsored by the mob,people like Gary Grant,Clark Gable,Jimmy Durante,George Raft and even the Marx Brothers.The Chicago outfit took over many unions and Ricca was the top guy.For examle,the barbers union he handled pretty well.He have sent Mooney Giancana to kick the shit out of every barber in the state with the help of young people like Mad Sam DeStefano,Turk Torello and Fat Leonard.

The most ruthless mobsters were under Ricca's rule,men like Sam Giancana were his bodyguards,drivers or hitmen.They looked at him like he was their "general".Rumours are that he had some enforcers or hired killers as a special breed,with no territory and can only be called by members of the hierarchy or by the Boss.Hes two best advisors and financial cronies were The Camel and Guzik.
Under his rule were his lieutenants such as Tonny Accardo,the Fusco and the Fischetti brothers,Sam Hunt,Louis Campagna,Johnny Roselli,Cherry Nose Gioe and main enforcer from the old days,Sam"The golfbag"Hunt.They were given specific territories with soldiers/associates under their rule,who hustled on the streets.Money from unions and many other illegal activities were taken and distributed up the ranks.

It’s been said that Ricca had much respect for "decent" women and that he rarely used any curse words,but thought nothing of using them as prostitutes in the Outfit's whorehouses.Theres a ruour that he was once a dinner guest at the Roosevelt White House.Police authorities state that Ricca was also suspected in more than 55 murders during his rise as top guy in the Chicago outfit.

Ricca made a sucesfull push to power in 1937 and the new direction of the Outfit was taking towards infiltrating legitimate business.There were many rumours that every local or state politician was eating out of Ricca's hand.


And here's an article about how Ricca got out of prison and the extension of his power in the 40"s:

http://www.ipsn.org/ricca_paul.htm

Toodoped, Well a lot of what's written here is what I've been saying about Ricca. It even talks about Giancana and some other Taylor St. men being in Ricca's Crew.

The other article on the bottom where you have to click on it, says Ricca was the Boss all the way up until 1957. However, I still maintain that the Outfit was never a Dictatorship and that there were usually 3 Top men.

Ricca was really the most powerful Outfit Boss of all time. I would put Accardo second, Giancana 3rd, Auippa 4rth and DiFronzo 5th.

Giancana would be more highly ranked had He not left Chicago.
DiFronzo would be more highly ranked had He not retreated.

Your right,Ricca was the boss till his death(maybe a lil bit less in last few years) not as a dictatorship but i think that he always had the last word.The proof for that is the extermination on his underlings after his death.And yes Mooney would have been the next boss if he hadnt left Chicago or hadnt made himself much visible to the public.

Great read!

Thanx man

@ chicago: Al capone don't even get a honorable mention??? The guy only consolidated the competing gangs and turned it into a outfit, he had almost the whole chicago on his payroll, the outfit generated the most money in its history when capone was boss he tooked a green ricca and accardo in and taught them the rackets and if u read any of his old interviews he knew prohibition was' t going to last and he already started expanding gambling operations and infiltrating unions and getting into legit busineses before he went to alcatraz

The Big Fella, I was talking about after Capone. From Ricca forward. Your're RIGHT, Capone would be right in there. It just depends how far back we want to go.

giancana's real power came from paul ricca

giancana seemed like a bad boss.....he did a lot of brainless shit

yeah he was a gangster but sometimes the toughest gangster shouldn't call it

Belive me Mooney wasnt a brainless gangster,hes greatest mistake was when he left for Mexico and maybe he should've whacked some of his cronies(Aiuppa,Cerone and maybe Accrdo,after Riccas death).I think that even the flamboyant life style didnt get him in trouble.That was Roemer's bullshit.He made a lot of money with gambling(he was close friend with the Genovese fam.Costello,Lucky)numbers,and every racket you can think of.Im not sure about drugs,but rumours are that he was involved in that also

Ricca just gave Mooney his chance. Mooney earned a lot on his own like taking over the policy rackets in Chicago. Mooney was a great leader. His men loved him and they were all very suucessful. He had the whole God damn F.B.I. ON HIS BACK. Very DIFFICULT for anyone to deal with. He did the best he could about it.
Mooney fell in love with Phyllis McGuire. Not the worst thing a man has ever done.

If Giancana had whacked Accardo or any of his guys, there would have been a real big war and Giancana might not have won. Accardo and his guys weren't pushovers. At that point, giancana's guys were old and Ricca wasn't there to protect him anymore.

I'm sure Carlo Gambino and Tommy Lucchese had the whole FBI on their backs too. They kept a low profile and didn't date any celebrities. Giancana fell in love with more than McGuire. You left out his relationships with Marilyn Monroe and Judith Exner. He was the John Gotti of his time.

I believe you're reading my mind. I was thinking about making a comment relative to Giancana and McGuire. No doubt in my mind he fell in love with her, and she with him. There's an old saying that goes something like this: "a man in love will follow an erection right over a cliff." Sorry for the vulgarity, but I do think it applies here.

This type behavior happens every day. Just watch the news and read the paper. Many careers have been ruined because of poor judgement and emotional involvement. I believe it's called BEING HUMAN !

Has any member on this board ever fell victim to such an experience? I'll go first. Absolutely !

Sam Giancana was the greatest, most prolific gangster in Outfit history, one of the top three in cosa nostr history period. He Did more during his 8 year tenure as chief Guy than aiuppa or accardo did throughout their entire lifetimes. This is not debatable. His only fault was skipping town. It was an unfortunate knee jerk decision that came back to bite him in the ass.

And yes, he should Have knocked down those frugal grand Ave shit heads when he had the chance. He would have crushed them had he moved in on them at the proper time.

Low-profile is a made guy in Italy,dressed as peasant,in some small villiage growin tomatoes,far away from the cities,flooding whole countires with drugs,prostitues and god knows what else.In the U.S.(except chicago maybe),well theres a funny sayin by Joey Cantalupo "When your made,the whole world knows your made"

John gotti doesn't deserve to Have his name mentioned in the same sentence as Mo G. He was nowhere near his level.

Mulberry, I hear what you're saying about the women and Mooney.
However, operation lockstep was NEVER done on anyone else but Mooney. I was there as a kid. My father had to help Mooney all the time. It was horrible harassment. Mooney sued the F.B.I. and they had to back off a little.

Like what?

I've always considered Sam Giancana one of the realest mobsters there ever was, he was 100% cosa nostra, and he could've had just as much power -as a boss- in a city like New York as he did in Chicago I really believe that.

Mooney did bring the FBI harassment on himself by how he talked to them. Both Ricca and Accardo told him to say as little as possible and talk to them respectfully. Whenever Campagna, Ricca and Accardo dealt with the government they were always respectful. Mooney was fully capable of doing this, like when he was hauled before Congress and Bobby Kennedy berated him, telling him that he giggled like a little girl. He took it and kept his cool, but he pissed off the FBI agents by cussing and threatening them, so they retaliated. While Giancana did initially win his case against the FBI, it was appealed and overturned, so his win was short-lived. Not long after that he was forced to testify with immunity of face contempt; he refused and was sent to prison.

And while some look at him as the greatest Mafia boss ever, in the 1960s his men were complaining that he was never around when they needed him. There are transcripts of made guys going to Humphreys and Ferraro and telling them this and that they were going to have to tell Paul and Joe B.

All true. But his men loved him and were fiercely loyal to him. Some of them complained because they missed him and wanted him around for various things. It wasn't a bad complaining. They weren't complaining because they didn't like or respect him, it was the complete opposite.

I don't care what anybody says, mistakes and all, Mooney was a great Boss. I was there as a kid and my father complained sometimes Mooney wasn't there because he loved him. His made men were all rich. Mooney really cared about his men, unlike Cerone.

This is good stuff ! I've read every book and article I can get my hands on about the FBI and their efforts to get Sam Giancana.

Some of you guys are from Chicago so you would be be privy to more info than anyone. But I'll make a few comments and you can weigh in and share your thoughts if you so desire.

The Lockstep program was utilized not only to get Giancana but to bring ATTENTION to him. The FBI wanted to get Ricca /Accardo, Outfit members, the press and everyone, focused on Giancana. This would bring so much attention to him that dissention and morale problems, etc., would evolve in The Outfit.

There appear to be several reasons why Mooney was AWOL. We've all read about Phyllis McGuire, Judith Campbell Exner, the Kennedy's, Sinatra, etc. But another reason was to avoid the Lockstep program and the FBI. All the confrontations, verbal exchanges and insults were reported in newspapers and magazines, both in Chicago and throughout the country, just exactly what law enforcement wanted. Think about it.

No question in my mind that Giancana's men loved him. He was a true gangster. He just got caught up in a whirlwind and had nowhere to go. Regardless of who The Outfit boss was, they would've had a bullseye on their back. Did Giancana make it easy for the FBI?
Sure. He was rock solid, 100% gangster and he didn't back up for anyone. It was his way, the highway, or the grave. Whether he liked it or not he had become a "Celebrity Gangster." Once the publicity "rained down" there was just too much attention on The Outfit. Some of his men had to decide what to do and where to go. They were extremely loyal to Giancana, but they had to survive, and thus make a choice.

Cerone and Aiuppa were both cheap bastards who had the perception of keeping their guys down. That was probably part of the reason why they hated Giancana so much-his people loved him and all got rich. I don't think he had much of a choice but to get out of Chicago with all the heat on him at that time. Ricca never would have allowed Giancana to move on Aiuppa/Cerone but each had some disgruntled guys under them but then Accardo would have had to go to...Makes for an interesting discussion but just imagine how bad the heat would have been after such a move...

Cerone tried to collect money from the wife of one of his men who had died. I don't remember which man.
Giancana got really upset about it. He embarrassed Cerone at the Armory Lounge in front of his Taylor St. men and some other men from Ross Prio's Crew who were there.
Giancana stood up and said out loud " I hear one of my Bosses doesn't make enough money gouging his own men, so now he has to go and try to collect some money from a widow."

Cerone didn't say anything. All the Taylor St men were staring at him. He got up and stormed out of the place with Willie Messino. True story. I have lots of them.

Today the Armory is called Andrea's Restaurant and it's not a bad little diner.

Giancana reportedly ordered the deaths of more than 200 people from there.

That's a great story. Please share more.

Thanx for this info.Ppl cant find this in a book or fbi file

Imagine if Accardo just disappeared?!...it would've been just another gangster gone.My point is that the heat would've been the same,maybe not in Roemers eyes ...but your right,Ricca never would have allowed that to happened

Mooney loved the lifestyle, he loved to see his men flourish & loved everything that came along with being cosa nostr.

Aiuppa, cerone, accardo cared about $$$ and very little else, including their own men, save for a select few. They were just lesser men.

Well, Accardo wasn't cheap with his men, Auippa wasn't too bad, it was mainly Cerone. Cerone held down Marco. Marco didn't get made until Cerone went to jail in 1986. Johnny made him.

Also, When Willie Messino went to jail for 7 years in 1970, Cerone didn't do much for him either.

Mooney really disliked Cerone. When some of the Taylor St men would see Cerone somewhere, they imitated their Boss out of loyalty and would barely nod their head to recognize him.

They knew that at any time, anyone of them could be called upon to kill Cerone.

Cerone basically ruled the Elmwood Park crew with a shotgun pointed at his head from Taylor St. If it had not been for Accardo,...... you can guess the rest.