Author
Abstract
In the late 1800's, an alliance was formed between First Ward political leaders in Chicago and gamblers and brothel owners. The underworld became organized, and eventually the infamous Capone gang was spawned. Headed successively by Big Jim Colosimo, Johnny Torrio, Al Capone, Frank Nitti, and Tony Accardo, the syndicate is still active in gambling and vice—always sources of underworld wealth. Capone gangsters have maintained a vital interest in the beer industry from Prohibition to the present time. They have corrupted labor unions and exerted influence over trade associations. They have invaded the field of finance, food business, automobile sales, and the coin-machine industry. Running through the diversified activities of the Capone organization is a pattern of ruthless discipline imposed by violence. Of fifteen gang killings in the Chicago area in 1961, eight of the victims had connections with Capone-syndicate gambling establishments and five were dealing with loan sharks. A union president who opposed the misappropriation of union funds by a Capone hoodlum was ambushed and slain by two gunmen imported from Detroit. During the Roaring Twenties, the gang leader was ostentatious and flashy. Today, although he has outward refinements, he has not basically changed. His methods of operation remain much the same as they were in years gone by.
Suggested Citation
Virgil W. Peterson, 1963.
"Chicago: Shades of Capone,"
The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 347(1), pages 30-39, May.
Handle:
RePEc:sae:anname:v:347:y:1963:i:1:p:30-39
DOI: 10.1177/000271626334700105
Download full text from publisher
Corrections
All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:347:y:1963:i:1:p:30-39. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.
We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .
If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through
the various RePEc services.