What's an election without talk of the mob? (Chicago Way)

Chicago Tribune ^ | 3-20-11 | John Kass

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Once upon a time in Chicago, a prominent Northwest Side political boss from the 36th Ward was asked about the connection between the Outfit and politics.

"What does that mean, 'mob associated'?" asked then-state Sen. James A. DeLeo, D-How You Doin? "In the year 2001, is there really a mob in Chicago?"

So much has happened since then, including that little trial called the Family Secrets case. Outfit bosses went to prison for life. Mysterious mob hits were solved.

And political figures — including guys from the 36th Ward — cringed as their names were mentioned in testimony, though they were never charged.

*snip*

But what really frosted Rice happened last week. Former mobster Frank Calabrese Jr. — the author of a new book on the Family Secrets case — held a series of interviews with reporters and mentioned politics and the Outfit.

Calabrese's book centers on the decision he made to wear a government wire against organized crime. But in interviews last week, Calabrese mentioned politics, specifically, the 36th Ward.

He also mentioned DeLeo, who recently retired from the state Senate but retains the post of Democratic boss of the 5th Congressional District.

Calabrese went out of his way to tell me DeLeo didn't do anything illegal in his presence. But Calabrese said his father, imprisoned Chinatown Crew boss Frank Calabrese Sr., specifically ordered him to get close to DeLeo.

"The 36th Ward was always strong with the Outfit, just based on who lived in the area," Calabrese told me. "… My father wanted me to strike up a friendship with Jimmy DeLeo."

And did you?

"I did," Calabrese Jr. said. "He was a real nice guy. He was a politician."

Does the Outfit trust politicians?

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The beat goes on ..

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.. Ping!

[screaminsunshine]

Mobacracy.

[proxy_user]

I like the part where the Mafia guy says he doesn’t trust poltiicians, and doesn’t want to hang around with them too much.

[Emperor Palpatine]

Here's some interesting history for you.

The Chicago Machine was really put into place by Anton Cermak. Cermak was elected as a reform mayor in the wake of the corrupt Big Bill Thompson regime. Thompson was in Capone's pocket, (as he was in Colosimo's and Torrio's pockets before Scarface.) Cermak, (good friend of mobster Roger Touhy), however got even greedier than Thompson and demanded huge cuts of the illicit profits of the Outfit, (Then led by Frank Nitti as the Big Fella was in prison for tax evasion.)




This greed earned Cermak the sobriquet Ten-Percent Tony. It also earned him the ire of the Chicago mob. Cermak demanded huge payoffs from the mob to be allowed to operate unmolested and Nitti just wasn't having it. The mob imported a Sicilian contract killer named Giuseppe Zangara to rid them of the parasitic Cermak. Zangara whacked Cermak as he appeared with President Roosevelt in Florida.




The legend is that Zangara's real target was FDR and he missed, hitting Cermak. But some fifty years after the fact FBI wiretaps and buggings confirmed that Zangara, (who played crazy at trial and true to Omerta never talked), was in fact hired to get rid of Ol' Ten-Percent Tony and the financial squeeze he was putting on the Syndicate.

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Interesting .. thanks.

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Interesting .. thanks.

[Cheburashka]

But some fifty years after the fact FBI wiretaps and buggings confirmed that Zangara, (who played crazy at trial and true to Omerta never talked), was in fact hired to get rid of Ol’ Ten-Percent Tony and the financial squeeze he was putting on the Syndicate.

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You have any proof of that? Zangara wasn't much of a contract killer, since he was shooting from within a crowd and had little chance to get away. Which he didn't. Unlike nut cases, contact killers want to get away to spend the money they were paid.

[HiTech RedNeck]

Is it possible that Zangara had been promised a fortune to his family if he gave his life in the mission?

[Cheburashka]

Only family I’m aware he had is the uncle he came to America with. Did his uncle get a fortune?

Sometimes when a person acts like a nut it’s because he is a nut. I’m open to alternatives if someone has hard evidence, but without hard evidence...

[Emperor Palpatine]

Start with an article in the Spring 2002 Northwestern University Law School Journal of Criminology called "Criminology: Lunatics and Anarchists: Political Homicide in Chicago" by Edward M. Burke. Next would be Gus Russo's "The Outfit: The Role of Chicago's Underworld in the Shaping of Modern America"