FRANK NITTI
Frank Nitti
Frank Nitti was the man who took over control of Chicago after Al Capone. Capone had been put inside in 1932 for income-tax evasion. Capone was sentenced to eleven years imprisonment. Capone knowing that he was going to be out of the scheme of things for the immediate future knew it was imperative he had someone loyal, someone he could trust holding his position of power in Chicago in his absence. That man was frank Nitti.
Nitti got down to business almost immediately; he summoned those close to Capone to a conference, outlining how things were going to operate in Capone's absence, with him as head, holding the fort as it were. Most of the Outfits top men were in attendance including Jake Guzik, Murray Humphreys and Gus Alex, these men were not Italian but their loyalty was never in question and they were crucial to the Outfit's success. Anthony Accardo and Paul Ricca also attended. At the summit Paul Ricca was promoted to Under-boss, he would be Nitti's
right arm when enforcing the Outfit's law on the streets of Chicago. Another promoted that day was Tony Accardo the man who had been Capone's bodyguard, he was given the rank of Capo.
It was never going to be easy for Nitti in the early part of his reign. The Outfit's biggest earner was history thanks to the government repealing the extremely unpopular Volsted Act, or Prohibition as it had come to be known. Nitti had to diversify the Outfit's interests into areas that had once played second fiddle to their main earner bootlegging. Nitti did a great job, he spread the Outfit's interests far and wide into prostitution, gambling, labor racketeering. He got the Outfit involved in legitimate business enterprise also, owning taverns all across Chicago while also taking a keen stake in the slot-machine operations. It could be said Nitti was responsible for the Outfit becoming more organized, taking it from an operation that was an organized band of bootleggers in the Capone years to what it was later to become. Gambling was to become the lifeblood of the Chicago mob just as bootlegging had been in the Capone era. Like all Mafia bosses Nitti had to spend most of his time ducking the law and after just a few months into his reign, Nitti had to deal with constant pressure from the cops. Much of the pressure the cops were placing on Nitti had been instigated by an old Capone foe, Teddy Newburry.
Teddy Newburry had been a close friend of Bugs Moran, Moran was the Irish hoodlum who had been at war with Capone over control of the liquor trade. Following the St Valentines Day massacre that had devastated the Moran gang on February 14th 1928, Moran had decided to retire. Newburry noting that Capone was out of the way imprisoned on his tax-evasion rap thought the time was right to make a move on the Outfit, thinking it more vulnerable with Capone behind bars. Newburry at the time was friends with Mayor Cermak, and through his friendship the Mayor dispatched a number of officers to arrest Frank Nitti at one of Nitti's hangouts at 221 North La Salle St. During the attempted arrest a gunfight ensued which left Nitti seriously wounded.
Nitti took a few weeks to recuperate from his wounds after which he began taking steps to throw some payback Newburry's way. Within three weeks of Nitti being wounded Tony Accardo was sent to clip Newburry, which he duly did. Mayor Cermak was gunned down in Miami on a trip to meet the presidential candidate, Nitti denied any connection to Cermak's death. As a result of the shootout at La Salle St. Nitti was to appear in court charged with shooting police sergeant Lang of the Chicago police.In the course of the trial it transpired that Sergeant Lang had shot himself in order to make himself out to be a hero in the eyes of his colleagues and the general public. The jury returned a not guilty verdict to the charge against Frank Nitti.
With Newburry dead any outside opposition to Nitti and in turn the outfit in Chicago was gone. The Outfit grew stronger and Nitti helped implement a more hierarchical structure to it's already strong member base. He ordered everyone to keep a low profile and clear of the media limelight Al Capone had so often enjoyed. For the most part everyone succeeded in doing just that.
Nitti stayed at the helm of the outfit for eleven years and in that time it grew stronger than ever. Pressure began to pile on Nitti in 1943 when he was indicted in the Hollywood extortion case. Nitti had been using his muscle and influence in the Unions to extort money from the Hollywood movie studios. The government indicted Nitti, Paul Ricca and nine others The trial was to last seventy-three days and all were found guilty. On the day after the trial started Frank Nitti returned from court to his home in Riverside, Chicago. He later took a walk out by the railroad track of the Illinois central railroad, drew a gun from his waistband and proceeded to blow his brains out. Frank Nitti successor to Al Capone died instantly. The remaining defendants in the trial were sentenced to ten years each.
No one knows for certain why Nitti did what he did. He was a fearless individual who had earned the name 'The Enforcer' in his early years. Maybe he had had enough and the Hollywood extortion case was a bridge too far. Nitti is probably one of the most underrated bosses in Italian organized crime history, the Outfit owes much of it's power and longevity to the forward thinking and organizational skills of Frank Nitti of that there can be no doubt.