It was during
Prohibition that Accardo received the "Joe Batters" nickname from Capone himself due to his skill at hitting a couple of Outfit traitors with a baseball bat at a dinner Capone held just to kill the two men. Capone was quoted as saying, "Boy, this kid's a real Joe Batters"' Accardo went on to save Capone's life multiple times, such as when two men attempted to murder Capone while he was eating lunch. The Chicago
newspapers eventually dubbed Accardo, "The Big Tuna," after a fishing expedition where Accardo caught a giant
tuna. In later years, Accardo boasted over federal
wiretaps he participated in the infamous 1929
St. Valentine's Day Massacre in which, allegedly, Capone gunmen murdered seven members of the rival
North Side Gang. Accardo also claimed that he was one of the gunmen who murdered
Brooklyn, New York gang boss
Frankie Yale, again by Capone's orders to settle a dispute. However, most experts today believe Accardo had only peripheral connections with the St. Valentine's Day Massacre and none whatsoever with the Yale murder. However, on October 11, 1926, Accardo may have participated in the assassination of then Northside Chicago gang leader
Hymie Weiss near the
Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago.
Caporegime [edit]
In 1929, Capone was convicted of
tax evasion and sent to prison for an 11-year sentence, and
Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti became the new Outfit boss, after serving his own 18-month sentence for tax evasion. By this time, Accardo had established a solid record making money for the organization, so Nitti let him establish his own crew. He was also named as the Outfit's head of enforcement.
Accardo soon developed a variety of profitable rackets, including gambling,
loansharking,
bookmaking,
extortion, and the distribution of untaxed alcohol and cigarettes. As with all
caporegimes, Accardo received 5% of the crew's earnings as a so-called, "street tax." Accardo in turn paid a tax to the family boss. If a crew member were to refuse to pay a street tax (or paid less than half of the amount owed), it could mean a death sentence from The Outfit. The Accardo crew would include such future Outfit heavyweights as
Gus "Gussie" Alex and
Joseph "Joey Doves" Aiuppa.
Personal life [edit]
In 1934, Accardo met Clarice Pordzany, a
Polish-American chorus girl. They later married and had four children. In fact, Accardo had two grandsons, one of whom was
Eric Kumerow, who was drafted by the
Miami Dolphins of the
National Football League. Unlike the majority of his colleagues, Accardo had a strong marriage and was never known to have been unfaithful to his wife. Clarice Accardo died of natural causes on November 15, 2002, at age 91. For most of his married life, Accardo lived in
River Forest, Illinois, until he started getting heat from the
IRS about his apparent high lifestyle. So, he bought a ranch home on the 1400 block of North Ashland Avenue, in River Forest, and installed a vault. Accardo's official job was that of a beer salesman for a Chicago brewery.
Chicago Boss [edit]
In the 1940s, Accardo continued to gain power in the Outfit. As the 1940s progressed, it became evident that a number of Outfit bosses and members were going to have to face serious consequences for their parts in the extortion of the
Hollywood movie industry's unions. However, because Nitti was
claustrophobic, he was fearful of serving a second prison term, the first for tax evasion. So, Nitti committed suicide in 1943.
Paul "The Waiter" Ricca, who had been the de facto boss since Capone's imprisonment, became the boss in name as well as in fact and named Accardo as
underboss. Ricca and Accardo would run the Outfit either officially or as the powers behind the throne for the next 30 years, until Ricca's death in 1972. When Ricca subsequently received a 10-year prison sentence for his part in the Hollywood scandal, Accardo became acting boss. Three years later, as a parole condition, Ricca was barred from contact with mobsters. Accardo then became boss of the Outfit. In practice, he shared power with Ricca, who remained in the background as a senior consultant.
Under Accardo's leadership in the late 1940s, the Outfit moved into
slot machines and
vending machines,
counterfeiting cigarette and
liquor tax stamps and expanded
narcotics smuggling. Accardo placed
slot machines in gas stations, restaurants and bars throughout the Outfit's territory. Outside of Chicago, The Outfit expanded rapidly. In
Las Vegas, The Outfit took influence over gaming away from the
five crime families of
New York City. Accardo made sure that all the legal Las Vegas casinos used his slot machines. In
Kansas and
Oklahoma, Accardo took advantage of the official ban on alcohol sales to introduce bootlegged alcohol. The Outfit eventually dominated organized crime in most of the Western
United States. To reduce the Outfit's exposure to legal prosecution, Accardo phased out some traditional organized crime activities, such as labor
racketeering and extortion. He also converted the Outfit's
brothel business into
call girl services. The result of these changes was a golden era of profitability and influence for the Outfit.
By keeping a low profile and letting flashier figures such as
Sam Giancana attract attention, Accardo and Ricca were able to run the Outfit much longer than Capone. Ricca once said, "Accardo had more brains for breakfast than Capone had in a lifetime."
Change of leadership [edit]
After 1957, Accardo turned over the official position as boss to long-time, money-making associate Giancana, because of "
heat" from the IRS. Accardo then became the Outfit's
consigliere, stepping away from the day-to-day running of the organization, but he still retained considerable power and demanded ultimate respect and won it from his men. Giancana still had to obtain the sanction of Accardo and Ricca on major business, including all assassinations.
However, this working relationship eventually broke down. Unlike Accardo, the widowed Giancana lived an ostentatious lifestyle, frequenting posh
nightclubs and dating high-profile singer
Phyllis McGuire. Giancana also refused to distribute some of the lavish profits from Outfit casinos in
Iran and
Central America to the
rank-and-file members. Many in The Outfit also felt that Giancana was attracting too much attention from the FBI, who was forever "tailing" his car throughout the greater-Chicago area.
Some conspiracy theorists, however, are divided as to whether this "
hit" was sanctioned by the Outfit bosses or possibly by the U.S. government, which had
subpoenaed Giancana just before he was murdered to testify on his knowledge of certain alleged government conspiracies.
Ricca died in 1972, leaving Accardo as the ultimate authority in the outfit.
The burglary [edit]
In 1978, while Accardo vacationed in California, burglars brazenly entered his
River Forest home. Within a month, the three suspected thieves were found strangled and with their throats cut. Prosecutors at the time believed Accardo, furious that his home had been violated, had ordered the killings.
In 2002, this theory was confirmed on the witness stand by Outfit turncoat
Nicholas Calabrese, who had participated in all of the subsequent murders. The surviving assassins were all convicted in the famous, "
Family Secrets Trial," and sentenced to long prison terms.
Death and burial [edit]
In the late 1970s, Accardo bought a home in
Palm Springs, California,
[2] flying to Chicago to preside over Outfit "sit-downs" and mediate disputes. By this time, Accardo's personal holdings included legal investments in commercial office buildings, retail centers, lumber farms, paper factories, hotels, car dealerships, trucking companies, newspaper companies, restaurants and travel agencies.
Accardo was buried in
Queen of Heaven Mausoleum, in
Hillside, Illinois. Despite an arrest record dating back to 1922, Accardo spent only one night in jail or avoided the inside of a cell entirely (depending on the source).
Search Results
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Accardo
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