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Retired Intelligence Detective Gary Jenkins tells how Tony Accardo started in the Circus street gang stealing from stores, pedestrians, and loading docks in Chicago’s Loop. Accardo caught the eye of Al Capone during prohibition and was brought in as a bodyguard. He was able to recruit and manage his own crew with Ross Prio and the three Doms, Dominick DiBella, Dominic Nuccio, and Dominick Brancato. From this power base, Accardo started his rise. His first real show of ambition was when he decided he should become the president of the Unione Siciliana. He used this deadly crew to murder the sitting president, Vincent Benevento. From this point, Anthony Accardo was taken very seriously by both the Sicilian faction and the non-Sicilian faction in the Outfit. He was smart enough to keep Ross Prio and Paul Ricca close to him when he took over as the boss.
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Transcript
Well, hey, all you Wiretappers out there, got a story about Anthony Big Tuna Ocardo. I always wondered, you know, we talk about him a lot. We know that, you know, his nickname is Joe Batters because supposedly when he was a, gunsel or a driver or whatever for Al Capone, which he started back in the old days, I’ll go back into that a little bit, that he once beat somebody to death with a bat, And Al Capone said, well, you’re a real Joe Batters, aren’t you?
Of course, there also is the big tuna thing. And that comes from his love of, fishing for those huge big fish, you know, marlin and tuna and fish like that. And there was a picture of him with a great big tuna strung up, I believe. But Anthony Accardo was a really interesting guy. He’s kind of like the Paul Castellano of Chicago, it seemed to me like. Like he was capable of, you know, came up through the ranks. Maybe paul didn’t come up to the ranks quite so much but they were sophisticated lived in big houses they had they lived like you know uh.
Big company executives uh the ceos, of a major corporation and they lived that life so let’s go back and take a look i just want to talk a little i’m not talking about his entire life but just enough to give you a feel of where he came from and how he got to be the boss. Usual story, Francesco and his wife Maria Cardo and their son Martin, and Martin was born, his brother was born in Sicily, came to Chicago, directly from Chicago, from Sicily in 1903 with, you know, I don’t know how many others, that was a huge immigration from Sicily and southern Italy to the United States. And in 1906, they had another son and named him Antonio Leonardo. I didn’t know his middle name was Leonardo. That was Anthony Accardo, and he’ll grow up to become the most powerful and feared mafia boss outside of New York City. And some would even argue that in the entire United States, in the entire world, really, at one time in his heyday.
He kind of took Tony Accardo, he kind of took the usual route to the mob. I mean, every one of these guys, I’ve done a lot of these stories, and every one of them is basically the same. He started out in the Little Sicily or Little Italy area around Grand and Ogden, which I think they call the Patch. Started going to the Catholic school, Holy Name Cathedral School, dropped down to fifth grade. He and another Tony, Tony Capizio, started doing petty thefts in downtown Chicago. You know, the loop where the train goes around down in that area. A lot of pickpocketing and smashing grabs and shoplifting and everything you can do down there. and he found that was a lot better than going to school.
But he was born, you know, the black handers were already here. They were the older men in the early, in the turn of the century, 1903, 05, 06, 10, 12, 19, early teens. And they were the guys, and they preyed on their own. They preyed on the other Italian immigrants. And the new guys that were born around this time, as they came up, and by the time the Prohibition came along, They were of an age, and they started taking over from the old black handers, and he was one of those guys.
Chicago Gang Beginnings
As a teenager, he was recruited by a guy named Vincenzo DiMora into something called the Circus Street Gang. You know, they had the 42s, which, you know, the story behind that is it wasn’t 42nd Street in Chicago. It was because Alibaba and the 40 Thieves, that was 41, and so those guys decided they would call themselves the 42s. Uh, DeMora graduated onto the big leagues and started working for big Jim Colosimo during the prohibition. Uh, the teenager at the time, Anthony Accardo was a gopher and a small time thief. And, uh, Al Capone and Johnny Torrio came along working for big Jim and killed him. You know, it was kill off the boss and take over. And those, of course, Al Capone ends up Johnny Torrio tries to kill him and he just retires. And Capone brings the outfit into a new level of sophistication with the bootlegging money. It’s huge money. This happened all over the United States, Kansas City, New York, everywhere. The young Turks that came up during that time, took over some black handers, got in the Prohibition, and made an immense amount of money and really made it into a business. During this time, Tony Accardo and Tony Capizio, they gained a certain amount of notoriety. Their territory, the circus, they were still in the circus gang, and.
They were being threatened, and some Irish gangsters, young Irish guys, Irish, they were called the Hanlon Hellcats, were moving in on their territory, what they thought, and Capizio and, Arcado showed up at one of their joints. It was an Irish joint. I can’t remember the name of it. And they ambushed them and they killed two or three of them. It’s my understanding. At least they killed one. I couldn’t find out a lot about that. And as they were running off, the cops were showing up. They were running off. Ocardo made sure they threw the guns away and they couldn’t find the guns, but they got arrested. They beat these murders. An early, you know, case that Ocardo beat. He beat all the rest of them all of his life, except I think one income tax case. Because they didn’t have the evidence you know it’s kind of startup that was always in kansas city and you know i’m sure other cities too, if you had somebody killed murdered and you found the gun nearby, it was a mob murder you didn’t even don’t even ask me the name don’t even know the name you just tell me somebody that throws away the gun right away as soon as it seems like they’re getting away within a block or two it’s a mob murder, rusty’s two-bit booger-eating morons out here you know they want to hang on to that gun and they get caught with a gun or their buddy gets caught with a gun or their girlfriend gets caught with a gun and they do the ballistics and, bam they trace it back to them.
Capone’s Introduction
Well kind of a famous mobster in chicago at the time machine gun jack mcgurran, took notice of these two guys and and he introduced them to al capone took them down to the story is he took them down to lexington hotel you never know about these stories but took him down to the Lexington Hotel, and, supposedly Capone told him, I’ll take you on, but if you fuck up, it’s going to come out on McGurin. He’s going to pay the price, so be on notice here. Ocardo, he came up in the Capone organization. He was a good helper and bodyguard and anticipated in the rackets. Prohibition is pretty much being over by then. I think it was over by then, and there was a lot of other rackets that needed to get into the gambling and loan sharking and, burglaries, commercial burglaries and fencing and all those other rackets, especially gambling, off-track betting in Chicago was big.
And it’s about the same time a lot of these other guys, whose names you’ll recognize, Murray the Camel Humphreys, who were contemporaries, Sam Giancana, Paul Rica, Louis Campagna, Joey Iupa, Joey Doves, and Gus Alex, these will be men that
Outfit Racketeering
will help and be part of the big tuna’s rise on up to the top. Of course, in 1932, Capone’s convicted of tax evasion, sent to prison for, what, 11 years. So Frank Nitti, the enforcer Nitti, takes over. He’s a new outfit boss. He does a little time during that time for income tax, year, year and a half. And during that time, he couldn’t take it. He found that he was claustrophobic, is my understanding, and he did not want to ever be locked up again. When he takes over being the boss, he brings in Anthony Accardo and Tony Capizio, and his crew. And they both were kind of developing little crews at the time. And Ocardo had Gus Alex, for example, and Joey Doves Iupa brought them in. And they were responsible for NITI for any enforcement activities against folks that refused to pay their street tax or kick up any tribute on up to NITI.
They had a crew, and they started getting involved in gambling, loan sharking, bookmaking, extortion, distribution of untaxed alcohol, untaxed cigarettes is a big deal. Chicago had a big tax on cigarettes, so we used to have the same thing. And so you’d get these cigarettes from people who would get them from no-tax states like back east where they’d make the cigarettes, I want to say Kentucky and North Carolina.
And have those untaxed cigarettes and then not buy the tax stamps. So they were doing those kinds of rackets. Joy Doves, for Ocardo, started taking care of all the street crimes, which is kind of this is a development of the more modern day up into the 70s Chicago outfit, in which Joy Doves takes care of all the street crimes, especially gambling, loan sharking.
Fencing, those kinds of things, while Gus Alex bribes the cops and the politicians
Hollywood Union Extortion
and keeps on that side. Well, Ricardo kind of started that way back then with these two guys. Paul Rica, you know, during the war and after the war, I’ve done a story on this where the top outfit guys got involved in extorting money by controlling the unions out in Hollywood. The big time Warner Brothers and big time production companies extorting money from them through a guy named Willie Bioff, who ends up testifying against him and sends Paul Rica to jail, along with Campania and several others. I think Johnny Roselli and I don’t remember all of that, maybe Cherry Nose Gioia. But a lot of those guys, old school guys that had come out of Prohibition up into during the war went to jail. And Paul Rica was one of them. And during that time, you know, Cardo comes down to Leavenworth and visits Rica and visits them in jail. And he’s kind of, he’s like moving on up. And he was really the sharpest tool in the outfit toolbox, I believe. I mean, this guy.
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Sicilian Union Power
Using, I’m saying I forgot his name, using Iupa for the street stuff and a guy like Gus Alex and Murray the Camel Humphreys and people like that in the more sophisticated areas. But there during the war and at the end of the war, there was still an old holdout for the black hand days named Vincent Benevento.
He’s also called the cheese king because he had a cheese shop and sold cheese benevento was the head of the union siciliano it was a really powerful fraternal group within the italian community wasn’t and it was you know all sicilians, whereas the outfit was a combination al capone was a neapolitan, and and you know they had uh well humphreys was welch supposedly and uh Alex, of course, was Greek, and.
There were several, Jake Greasythumb, Guzak was Jewish, and there were several other Jewish guys involved in it. And this was the Sicilians here. It was a really powerful fraternal group, and he was extorting money. Ben Benetto was extorting money himself from gambling clubs and bars and had his own crew out there, especially around in the north side and northwest side of downtown.
So, Ocardo decided he needed to be the new president. He could see that would give him a certain legitimacy. He’s getting it among the outfit guys, but he wanted it among the Sicilians too. And he thought he needed to be the new president of the Union Siciliano. He knew he had to kill Benevento to get himself elected and, of course, take over all his rackets because he had all these near north side, west side, around downtown rackets.
Ross Prio’s Rise
Well, another guy during this time, a contemporary of Ocardo’s, who really was involved up around Rush Street, which is right north of downtown, was a guy named Ross Prio. A little background on him. He also came out of the patch. Again, he was a contemporary of Ocardo’s, about the same age. And he had these rackets on the north side.
He stayed out of the headlines pretty much, but he had a reputation on the streets that he was willing to torture or murder or do whatever the job needed to be done to get his way. It’s much feared. It’s claimed that at one time there was a politician who was under the pay of the outfit, and he had somebody that had a suit against him, a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, and I don’t know the details of the suit, but he just invoked Prio’s name, and that guy dropped that lawsuit. So he was the kind of guy that was a scary guy and had that reputation.
Another little thing about Prio, he is, of course, brought in by Capone, just like Ocardo and the rest of them were. And if you remember, Capone got in the dairy business. Capone’s responsible, correct me if I’m wrong, he’s responsible for putting an expiration date on milk because they bought some milk at his house and everybody got sick because it was bad milk. And he said, hey, you know, they need to put an expiration date on the milk. And he actually bought a dairy himself, the Meadowbrook or Meadow-something dairy. Ross Prio got into the dairy business, and he ended up owning part of the nationally known Ready Whip Company. He was followed along his mentor, Capone’s footsteps. It’s also claimed that he was the outfit’s representative to the National Commission because he was Sicilian. He ran his crew. He had some crews he ran out of Chicago Heights, And he was in the north side, rackets, gambling, strip clubs, fencing, all that. Kind of an interesting little thing. There’s a movie out there called The Outfit, and it’s about a guy that runs a tailor shop. Well, he based himself out of Solano’s Tailor Shop.
And during the 50s and 60s, the cops that watched that place and knew anything about it reported that all the outfit guys would visit Prio at his shop. Murray the Camel Humphreys, Gus Alex, Tony Cardo, Jackie Lackey-Saron. He was a little bit younger than those guys, but an up-and-comer.
He was always, Rossi Prio was always the guy that didn’t want to go all the way to the top. He was under the guy at the top, and he liked having the ear of the guy at the top, but he was always under that guy. When Sam Giancana was boss, he was an important connection. and Sam, it’s claimed that Sam would consult with him on any murders before he would sanction him.
The Three Doms
Rossi Prio had three young toughs working for him in his Northside crew. They’re called the three Doms, Dominic DiBella, Dominic Nuccio, and Dominic Brancato. And they were leg breakers and skull crackers out of the old black hand days, came up again as young guys during the 20s and 30s. And by the 40s and 50s, they’re into their own. So you could say a cardo tony cardo rossi prio particularly and the three doms were ambitious young turks in 1945 when a cardo was wanting to make his move on up, and they knew they had to take out this gangster vincent benevento started a little mob war there in chicago and there were several attempts there were some murders of some underlings on both sides.
Ben Benento had his cheese shop. It’s claimed that he hid out there most of the time and stayed out of sight, but finally they caught him on the street and gunned him down. Ross Prio moved in, took over all his old rackets, the West Street rackets and the Northside rackets, which he had already been operating in that area, and the three doms under him ran all those rackets.
Ross Prio was always content to take that underling role, while Anthony Accardo, the big tuna, he had the reputation, the connections, and had the blessing of Paul Rica. And Paul Rica, when he came out of the penitentiary, he wanted to lay low. But Accardo knew who he owed his success to, and he kept Ross Prio and Paul Rica close to by, just like Sam Giancana had kept Ross Prio close nearby. And Paul Ricca, there’s several reports where Paul Ricca and Anthony Accardo would be up at this, what’s the name? God, all of a sudden, there’s a restaurant on the north side. It’ll maybe come to me by the time I get done with this. Anyhow, they would hold court up there all the time. Three Doms had quiet success running all the north side rackets for Ross Prio. Dominic DiBella and Dominic Nuccio will retire with a reasonable amount of money. Nuccio, I think he goes to Florida, and DiBella, he has a Henry County horse farm, it’s said. Now, Dominic Brancato, he was a degenerate gambler, and he did not.
Retire with any success. He was able to retire or at least be eased out. As a matter of fact, it’s claimed that at the end of his life, some gangsters got together, probably a Cardo made sure they got the money, and he lived on a $200 a month stipend that somebody was giving him. But.
He was such a degenerate gambler, especially about the horses. His nickname was Nags. And he was such a degenerate gambler that he was once arrested late in his life he was arrested for shoplifting a five dollar, bottle of whiskey and he had a thousand dollars in horse race winnings in his pocket now you know a degenerate gambler he wins a thousand bucks on a horse race he’s going to go back and lose that and more within the next two or three days, but that’s what kind of a gambler he was he’ll die now, when rossi prio dies in the early 70s and in Ricardo, remember in the old days, he brings Dominic DiBella back, to run that rush street crew for a short period of time. And I believe the guy named DiBarco ends up taking that over in the end.
Accardo’s Ascent
So that’s kind of the story of that early life of Anthony Accardo and how he, really rose on up to the top. It’s always been fascinating to me. Why did he rise up and not another guy? And it’s a combination of things, I think, personality and ability to get along with people, ability to be in the right place at the right time, luck. You know, they say success is 90% perspiration and about 10% luck. So he was willing to do the work, and then he was lucky at the same time. He also knew, you know, how to hook up with people and partner up with people like Rossi Priot, who had guys working for him that will do the job, you know, and keep their mouth shut. And Chicago was really noted for that. People that do the job, keep their mouth shut. So that’s my take on two cents worth, shall we say, on Anthony Big Tuna Accardo. I think he’s a great mobster. And whether you like mobsters or not, you have to admire his success. You just have to admire his houses that he lived in. If you’ve seen his different houses he lived in, he’s one of the early guys that bought a place down in Palm Springs. Things had two different houses.
Fallen again like Capone. Capone had his place in Florida. So Chicago is one interesting outfit mafia town. Don’t forget, look out for motorcycles when you’re out driving around. I ride a motorcycle. I once did a motorcycle trip to Chicago and did a bunch of mob sites. I need to go back. I got a guy named Alex himself who feeds me little tidbits. and he’s promised to buy me lunch whenever I come to Chicago again. So, Alex, I’m going to be up there one of these days. If you have a problem with PTSD or if you’re in the service or you got a friend or relative that was in the service has a problem with PTSD, go to the Veterans Administration website, get that hotline number and give them a call. There’s help available out there. So thanks a lot, guys. John Daly here. You know what day it is?