I, a. I am William H. McSwiggin, known by the Chicago Outfit as the “hangman prosecutor”. While Chicago and many other American cities are embroiled in the largest law enforcement bribery program in U.S. history, I have stood strong against this temptation. My career as a justice official was assisted by my father, a renowned Chicago police detective. It was from him that I obtained my infallible moral character and inability to be corrupted by the Chicago Outfit. Moreover, I developed a close relationship with the famed Illinois State Prosecutor, Robert Crowe. At merely 26 years old, I am the youngest prosecutor in Cook County history. It has become abundantly clear to me that the simple imprisonment of criminals involved in mafia operations …show more content…
August 18th 1920. On this day the 19th amendment was passed, enabling the Chicago Outfit and rival gangs to terrorize Chicago and many other U.S. cities for decades. The Italian and Irish mafias were unprecedented in American criminal history. Never before had organized crime been so coordinated and efficient in enacting their criminal agenda. The South Side Gang, hereinafter referred to as “The Outfit”, was started by Italian immigrant Vincenzo Colosimo who worked with his friends and family to establish the Outfit as Chicago’s foremost criminal operation. After recruiting his nephew, Johnny Torrio, they developed a conflict over whether to move their criminal operations into bootlegging. The conflict eventually to the murder of Colosimo, ordered by Torrio and allegedly carried out by Frankie Yale. With Torrio at the helm, the Outfit gained significant wealth and power. Torrio was responsible for the recruitment of Al Capone who would eventually succeed him once Torrio was imprisoned after a failed assassination attempt on him. The Outfit operated with relative immunity until my murder which brought national attention to their disregard for the law and barbaric tactics. They received even more attention when the Outfit attempted to murder George Moran, a North Side Gang leader, in a parking garage. They dressed up as police officers and emptied bullets from machine guns into the bodies of seven North Side Gang members, but failed to kill Moran. While the Outfit …show more content…
The Chicago Outfit cannot and will not be stopped until they are held accountable for their illegal actions. It is time that we end the intimidation of justice officials by the Outfit and take down their status as being above the law. I am strongly opposed to the strategy that was employed by Ness and Hoover and believe that while their motives were noble, the end result did not go nearly far enough to punish Capone for the crimes he committed. Al Capone’s tenure as an inmate in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary was a complete failure, with many alleging that the infamous mobster received special treatment from the guards. On the contrary, one could claim that Alcatraz would be a better alternative to his execution, however Capone’s time in Alcatraz cannot be used as evidence of this because of his mental deterioration by that time. I will not be satisfied until Al Capone and the senior leadership of the Chicago Outfit pays for their crimes against society with death. Jail sentences are not harsh enough and will do nothing to prevent the continuation of their operations. Our end goal should not be Al Capone in prison. Instead our end goal should be the complete and utter elimination of all Chicago Outfit operations. This can only be done through the execution of Al Capone and the outfit’s senior
When James “Whitey” Bulger appeared in court for the first time in June of 2013, one would never know that he was once the most feared criminal in Boston. At 84 years old, Bulger “shuffled into a federal courthouse” like “a dinosaur in an orange jumpsuit.” (McMorrow 1) After 16 years of escaping the wrath of the FBI, Bulger was finally being put on trial for his long list of heinous crimes including 11 murders, money laundering, weapon violations, and racketeering. (McMorrow 1) However, even more shocking than his convictions was the relationship Bulger had with the FBI, which unraveled before the eyes of the court and people across the country.
Andrew Diamond examines several Chicago gangs and multiple other movements in Chicago during the end of the 1950s through the 1960s. Diamond follows Dr. Martian Luther King Junior’s ambition to desegregate Chicago, the most segregated city in the United States. King focused his attention first to the West Side’s most notorious black street gangs. This source shows how racial solidarity within the city and youth gangs became a vital source of inspiration for the civil rights movement that was developing during this period. This article suits those who are studying the impact that gangs have on urban community, influences and inspiration for black West Side Chicagoans, historians, and other academic professionals.
The Outfit obtained power and control in the 1920’s. Giacomo “Big Jim” Colosimo obtained solid control over portions of the criminal world and ran hundreds of brothels. Giovanni “Papa Johnny” Torrio wanted The Outfit to explore the business of underground liquor operations upon the implementation of prohibition; when Colosimo refused,
They have a manifesto which means that if someone dies that they will have more people coming up, the saying is kings die but we multiple(Gangland history channel ). They are one of the only gangs that did have women in the gang, the women in the gang are known as the Latin queens and were just as strong as the Latin kings and very well respected. They way you got in the gang was by “blood in “ which you had to get jumped in and was beat up by 3 min and if survived you were in the gang. At the top of the gang was Lord Geno who ran everything in the prison and would take over the prison
We are here in this courtroom to see if my client, Steve Harmon, will be convicted of being associated to the robbery of a drugstore, and to the death of Alguinaldo Nesbitt. The robbery occurred approximately 4 o'clock on 175th Street in Harlem. The owner of that drugstore,who died from a gunshot wound, was Mr Nesbitt. Nesbitt was a hardworking man, a well respected man who did nothing to deserve his end. It was truly a horrible crime, but it was not committed by Mr. Harmon, nor did he have any in the crime.
Now as you read this article the Chicago police are cracking down on bootleggers in Chicago, and their illegal business. Commissioner Russell says that We're going to make this the knell of gangdom in Chicago.”, and now Elliot Ness, and his untouchables are now waging a war against corruption in Chicago. Elliot Ness is now investigating corrupt officials, and police officers his goal get rid of gang corruption, and bribery in the city of Chicago. His first step in this is to take down Al Capone when we asked Elliot how long he plans to fight Al Capone he replied “Never stop fighting till the fight is
Al Capone came to Chicago in 1919 at 20 years old and became one of the city’s most successful gangsters in 3 years while attacking and defying prohibition (Karamanski). Al Capone, being one of the top gangsters, committed many crimes which involved disregarding the prohibition and many other gang related crimes. But Capone’s success and legacy left a hold on Chicago. Before Capone, Chicago was always worried about its reputation but after, Capone and other criminals turned Chicago against its reputation and pushed Hollywood to enforce a gangster image on the city (Karamanski). Chicago didn’t wanted to be seen as a crime and gangster ridden city, but the acts of many criminals, including Al Capone, established Hollywood’s gangster image of Chicago, which the city would never be able to get rid of.
Lara Graney Mr. Clark US History I 3 March 2016 A Comparison of Enemies On July 4, 1857, well before dawn, a group of men decided to celebrate Independance Day with violence. The gang known as the Dead Rabbits strolled to the Lower east side of Manhattan and instigated a fight with their sworn enemies, the Bowery Boys (Cristiano). The fight continued into the next day, becoming a deadly brawl all over the city.
One of the most dangerous and ruthless men to ever walk the streets of Chicago was born on January 17, 1899--Alphonse Gabriel Capone. Living with his mother and father, Teresina and Gabriele, along with his older brothers Vincenzo and Raffaele, his family moved to a poor tenement in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. Growing up, Capone never exhibited any signs of becoming the master criminal known about today (Biography 1). Al Capone became notorious for holding Chicago in the palm of his hand, controlling the police, judges and the politicians while spreading vice throughout the city. Capone was a promising student, but was expelled from his catholic school at the age of 14 for striking a female teacher, while being disciplined.
Due to the many problems that Chicago faced in the early 1900s, it became a perfect breeding ground for large-scale organized criminal activity. “The Corrupt City” states that there were more reasons for Chicago being corrupt. One of the other reasons was the rapid expanding of
Alphonse Gabriel Capone created a criminal empire that was nearly completely untraceable back to him. Al Capone created his organization to be nearly independent from himself and thus it was nearly impossible to convict him of any crime that was committed by his organization or under his command. Many modern criminal organizations still utilize his strategies to keep their organizations under protection. The effects that Al Capone’s criminal organization had on the society of America was widespread within the police organization, criminal investigations, and organized crime.
Valentine’s Day Massacre, the North Side Gang quickly tore apart. Moran was now struggling to keep the gang alive without his seven powerful men. Prohibition also ended, so he lost control of the alcohol market which lead to a significant loss of income for him. “Bugs” was then forced to commit petty robberies and bank robberies to keep up with his lifestyle. He was eventually caught and charged with attempted robbery of a bank and was forced to serve ten years in prison.
Mr. Moran had previously tried to assassinate Torrio and Capone. Jack McGurn and Capone devised a plan to kill Moran in a North Side
During the 1920s multiple criminal activities were taking place and the majority of illegal activity was due to the eighteenth amendment which prohibited the selling and manufacture of alcohol. Illegal activity that took place was bootlegging and the establishment of speakeasies. With criminal activity on the rise, a major criminal behind many illegal activities at the time was Al Capone. In addition, the Mafia rose with gambling, bootlegging, and illegal marketing.
It was 1920 in America and new amendment had been added to the constitution. It was called Prohibition. Prohibition was a law that made it illegal to sell, produce,import and consume alcohol. Many crimes occurred in 1920 that were alcohol related, so it was thought that if alcohol was banned, then crime rates would drop. How very wrong they were.