Chicago Outfit Is One of the Most

Chicago Outfit is one of the most well-known organized crime organizations in the United States. Among some of the Chicago Outfits most notorious members are Giacomo "Big Jim" Colosimo, Giovanni "Papa Johnny" Torrio, and Al Capone. The Chicago Outfit holds a seat among the five families in New York City. Despite the continuously evolving nature of the Chicago Outfit, it continues to operate today.

The Chicago Outfit's roots can be traced back to the early 1900s and the mass influx of Italian immigrants to Chicago (Dickson). These immigrants brought with them organized crime behaviors and attitudes from Italy, which included extortion. During this time, criminal organizations were highly specialized and focused on a specific vice. For instance, one gang controlled individual labor unions, another would control gambling, and another would control prostitution (Binder). However, criminal organization specialization stopped when Colosimo seized control. Colosimo ran hundreds of brothels, was involved in vice, gambling, and labor racketeering, and had high-ranking political connections (Binder). Torrio was brought into Colosimo's business when he arrived in Chicago from New York around 1909, and Capone joined Colosimo and Torrio in 1919 after escaping personal and professional issues in Brooklyn (Binder).

The power dynamic, although functional, would be irrevocably changed with the passing of the 18th Amendment, which introduced Prohibition, in January 1920. In May 1920, Torrio had Colosimo murdered when he refused to enter into the bootlegging business and shortly thereafter, Torrio was involved the Beer Wars (Dickson). The Beer Wars were a conflict between Torrio's Southside Italian gang and Dean O'Bannion's Northside Irish gang. This conflict not only involved alcohol, but also included a battle for territory and distribution rights (Dickson). Control over Torrio's gang was eventually handed over to Capone,

After years of bloody, murderous retaliation after retaliation between Torrio's and O'Bannion's gangs, the city of Chicago was forced to start cracking down on organized crime, and with help from the federal government, was able to arrest Capone on charges of tax evasion (Dickson). However, despite Capone's incarceration, organized crime in Chicago continued to thrive and in 1932, control over Capone's gang was handed over to Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti and his underboss Paul "The Waiter" Ricca (Dickson). In 1934, Nitti consolidated what was left of the Italian gangs after the Beer Wars and Prohibition into what is now considered to be the Chicago Outfit.

Once the 20th Amendment was passed in 1933 and Prohibition was officially over, criminal activities were no longer focused on bootlegging, but rather, focus was shifted to other activities such as prostitution, labor racketeering, and gambling. Furthermore, the Chicago Outfit began to branch out into Wisconsin, Missouri, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas (Dickson).

The Chicago Outfit continues to operate to this day and have found a variety of streams of revenue. In more recent times, the Outfit has found a profitable and steady stream of revenue by controlling video poker machines. However, in December 2010, several members of the Outfit were "found guilty of running a video poker racket, pulling off a string of armed robberies that spanned three years and four states, and protecting their gambling franchise by planting a bomb in front of a Berwyn business that encroached on their turf" (Smith).