Chicago Outfit Research Paper

Very few organizations had the influence and had the control over America’s underworld like the Chicago Outfit. The Outfit was a group of gangsters that were ruthless and they were willing to take any means necessary to get what they wanted. They took over a city and took advantage of a federal law that greatly benefited organized crime. The most famous of all mafia kingpins, Alphonse Gabriel “Al” Capone, controlled the Outfit and had a major hand in making it one of the most powerful organizations for many years. His influence on Chicago and the rest of the United State would last for decades. We are going to explore the rise of the Chicago Outfit in Chicago’s underworld.
James “Big Jim” Coloismo immigrated from Italy to Chicago, and he had quickly taken control of a large portion of the city, becoming known as Chicago’s most powerful gangster before Prohibition building an empire around labor …show more content…
Prohibition made it very easy for organized crime syndicates to make money. Americans wanted alcohol and were they were willing to obtain it illegally. Wanting to expand their empire, they decide that they are going to move into the movie business and the Outfit started extorting money from Hollywood by taking control of the projectionist unions (Binder, 2001). Eventually the Hollywood scheme fell through and Frank Nitti was sentenced to 10 years in prison (Binder, 2001). Not wanting to go to back to prison, Nitti shot himself in the head in a Chicago railyard, making Ricca the boss and Tony Accardo then took over as the underboss (Chicago Outfit, n.d.). Ricca would eventually would serve his own prison sentence from fallout from the Hollywood scheme, and Accardo would take temporary control of the Outfit, just to take permanent control a short time later (Binder,