Organized Crime in Chicago: Beyond the Mafia
Who first organized crime in Chicago? According to former Chicago policeman and professor of criminal justice Lombardo, it was not Italians. Corrupt aldermen and ward bosses had a network of neighborhood saloon keepers, prostitutes, and bookies delivering illicit goods and services in place in the 1870s, long before a wave of Sicilians and Neapolitans immigrated to the city. The politicians’ primary aim was to finance their political power, but everything changed during Prohibition. Rich with bootlegging cash, gang bosses unseated the politicians as the lords of crime. Breaking their boundary agreements, ruthless and greedy mobsters then began a period of open warfare. Lombardo recounts more than 100 years of the rise and decline of various criminal organizations, including the Syndicate, the Forty-Two Gang, and the Outfit, in this history explaining the role of organized crime in Chicago. Because Chicago crime is depicted in many popular books and movies, this history will find eager readers everywhere. --Rick Roche--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.