(Narrator) Previously on "the making of the mob: Chicago"...
They say I violate the prohibition law.
Who doesn't?
(Narrator) After rising to the top of the Chicago underworld
and evading the law for more than a decade,
the government closes in on al Capone
using a two-pronged attack.
One led by eliot ness...
Prohibition bureau!
(Narrator) The other by the IRS.
I want to nail this son of a bitch.
(Narrator) With the law moving in,
Capone spirals out of control.
I want him taken care of, and I want you to do it now.
(Narrator) Soon he's indicted and brought to trial,
not for the violent crimes he's committed,
but for tax evasion.
(Judge) Court finds the defendant guilty
on five counts.
(Narrator) The kingpin is sentenced to 11 years in federal prison.
They got me locked up like a caged animal in here.
(Narrator) Now it's up to al Capone's inner circle
to save his empire.
♪
(Narrator) After building himself up from a poor kid from Brooklyn
to become the most powerful mob boss in the country,
al Capone now finds himself locked up in a federal prison.
But just over two years into his 11-year sentence,
Capone is hand-selected to be transferred to America's newest
and harshest maximum-security prison...
Alcatraz.
(jonathan eig) You might ask, why do you need to send
a guy convicted of tax evasion to Alcatraz?
The reason is that the prison was new
and, and the president wanted to justify the expense
of building this fabulous new prison.
And the best way to get publicity for that
and scare people out of a life of crime
is to send al Capone there
because that's gonna get the most headlines.
(Narrator) Designed to hold the country's most dangerous criminals,
the federal prison is located on a secluded island
off the San Francisco bay,
where inmates live under dire conditions,
and al Capone is no exception.
Over 2,000 miles away in Chicago,
the empire Capone left behind is dealing with a new problem.
Prohibition has recently been repealed,
and one of the outfit's most important sources of income
dries up.
(david eisenbach) The end of prohibition presents a real problem
for organized crime in America.
That is, well, how do we make money now?
(Narrator) With Capone cut off from all communication,
his most trusted men, frank nitti,
Tony accardo,
and Paul ricca,
know they desperately need to keep his organization
from completely collapsing until their boss returns.
So nitti, the oldest
and most established of Capone's inner circle
takes the reins of the outfit.
("Nitti") We have no revenue, okay?
("Accardo") We do have revenue.
There are hundreds of card games
all over the city.
Dice games on every corner.
We're not gonna replace the bootlegging revenue
with card games.
You think it'll be enough to pay off the cops?
Hmm? The judges?
Half of city hall?
No.
People aren't spending money.
Not on food, not on clothing, not on gambling.
But they'll still drop a quarter for one thing
without even thinking about it.
The movies.
What?
You want to go into the movie business now?
(Chuckles)
No.
I want to hold it hostage.
♪
(Narrator) With Americans now flocking to theaters by the thousands,
the movie business is raking in millions of dollars a month.
(Michael green) Hollywood is just bursting.
So for the outfit, it means
there's a lot of opportunity out there,
and they're going to target the opportunity.
(Narrator) To take advantage of Hollywood,
nitti recruits a ruthless street thug with a reputation
for shaking down small businesses in Chicago.
His name is Willie bioff.
(Green) Willie bioff is a Jewish kid from the streets of Chicago
who is accepted into high-ranking places
by guys like frank nitti.
(Narrator) Bioff has been extorting local cinemas
by forcing their projectionists to go on strike
unless theaters agree to pay him a major fee.
And now, nitti wants to use the same tactic in Hollywood.
("Bioff") If the theater owners don't pay,
their projectionists don't show up.
You can't show a movie without a projectionist.
We're interested in the studios.
The studios?
Which ones?
("Nitti") Paramount.
Warner bros., fox, all of them.
You'll negotiate the terms and collect the payments.
You think you can handle it?
Yeah, I can handle it.
Good.
("Ricca") I trust you, you know that.
I just don't trust this guy.
I don't know. Well, he knows the business.
What business?
Union business, the movie business.
He's been in the racket, but he hasn't been in Hollywood.
Yeah, I know that, but it's the same business.
Essentially it's the same business.
You know what that business does to people, though.
Flashy, everything out in the open.
You know that.
He'll be fine.
You know that if anything happens,
it's gonna be on your head.
Not mine or Joe.
(Narrator) While nitti may have confidence in bioff,
Paul ricca has reservations about using a low-level gangster
in such a high-profile position.
With few options to maintain their empire,
ricca and nitti know the fate of their organization
rests with Willie bioff.
♪
(Bell ringing)
(Narrator) With al Capone locked away in jail,
acting boss of the Chicago outfit frank nitti
sends street thug Willie bioff
to infiltrate Hollywood's labor unions.
You here to see me?
(Grunting)
(Man groaning)
(Eisenbach) The most famous of the labor extortion rackets
is, of course, what happened in Hollywood,
when the syndicate, Chicago,
was able to take over the unions making movies.
(Narrator) Once bioff muscles his way into a high-ranking position
in the film industry's largest union,
he uses his power to threaten strikes
on Hollywood productions,
unless the executives agree to pay the outfit big money.
Willie.
Mr. Warner.
It's all there.
Always a pleasure.
♪
(Narrator) With each shakedown bringing in upwards of $50,000,
bioff begins leading the Hollywood high life...
Buying fancy cars,
building a lavish home...
...and running up tabs at celebrity hotspots.
Bioff gets a little too big for his britches.
There are people in the outfit who occasionally do this.
They begin to think they're big enough
to get away with being seen,
with being part of the community, of high society.
(Narrator) Despite his high profile,
bioff's operation is bringing millions
back to nitti and ricca.
(Music playing over dialogue)
(Narrator) But while the outfit leaders are enjoying success,
one man is feeling looked over.
For years, Tony accardo worked
as al Capone's bodyguard and enforcer.
(Whistling)
(Grunts)
(Narrator) But with the mob kingpin in jail,
the man known as "Joe batters" is worried he'll be left behind
if he doesn't start bringing in money himself.
(Frank cullotta) There's a misunderstanding about gaining more power
in the Chicago outfit.
It's not that you had to go out and get notches on your gun
in killing people.
If you're bringing a lot of money into the organization,
that gives you power.
(Narrator) While nitti and ricca focus on Hollywood,
accardo sees an opportunity
to break into a new racket in Chicago...
Slot machines.
("Accardo") I'll ask you one more time,
yes or no?
I told ya, no.
I tried.
(Grunts, groans)
Yes or no?
Yes.
Thank you.
(nathan Thompson) Tony accardo started out as a muscle guy.
Known killer, known tough guy.
So by the time he's ready to ascend to the leadership level,
he's a very focused and a very feared man.
How we doin'?
It's trickling in.
(Coins jingling)
(Narrator) For guidance, accardo turns to the outfit's second in command,
Paul ricca.
(john binder) Accardo and ricca were close their entire lives.
I mean, they both go all the way back.
(Narrator) Working together,
accardo and ricca build a network of slots
in Chicago bars.
While it only costs a nickel a game,
even the lowest paid workers are able to play the slots.
And a single machine is able to bring in up to $20,000 a year.
("Nitti") Ten grand, ten grand,
a hundred, five grand.
That's a lot of money, huh?
(Narrator) By the end of 1939,
accardo is proving himself as an earner.
And with nitti as acting boss and ricca as his number two,
the outfit is bringing in more money than ever before.
Salud.
(Narrator) As the profits roll in,
they soon get even better news.
After spending over seven years in federal prison,
al Capone is released.
But the ruthless Chicago kingpin is a shell of his former self...
...as years of frequenting prostitutes
has finally caught up with him
in the form of a debilitating disease...
Syphilis.
(Eig) Capone had syphilis from before the time he was married,
and in Atlanta, the penitentiary there,
he was already diagnosed with tertiary syphilis.
By the time he got out of jail in 1939,
he was really starting to slip mentally.
(Car engine sputtering)
(Narrator) After rounds of experimental treatments,
Capone moves to his estate in Miami
to live under the care of his wife and family.
(laurence bergreen) At that time, there was no known cure for syphilis.
Finally, sulfa drugs came along and penicillin,
but that wasn't until the 1940s.
At that point, he was in a cloud.
He was unable to rescue himself.
He was just in a fog of dementia.
(Narrator) For Capone's top lieutenants,
losing the man who taught them everything is devastating.
But little do they know,
things are about to go from bad to worse.
♪
(Narrator) For the past five years,
Willie bioff has been shaking down
some of Hollywood's biggest studios.
Always a pleasure.
(Narrator) But as the flashy mobster gets greedier,
he's soon linked to growing corruption in the film industry,
and the mafia's key player in Hollywood is arrested.
(Eisenbach) This is an incredible disaster, right?
You know, one of your top guys goes to jail.
You've got now the heat of the media glare on you,
and now this is a major federal investigation.
This was terrible for the Chicago mob.
(Man) We know you're just the middleman.
Just doing your job.
We need the ones pulling the strings.
I haven't got any names.
Ten years is a long time to spend in prison.
No names, no deal.
(Frank calabrese) Rat is the lowest form of life.
It's worse than being dead, worse than being killed.
It's something that nobody ever wants to be.
Frank nitti.
And, uh, Paul ricca.
(Narrator) When word gets back to Chicago that bioff is talking,
ricca and accardo know the investigation
could take down the entire outfit.
So the two men band together and make a bold move.
So you wanted to talk?
This bioff business...
What about it?
Someone's gonna have to take the fall.
I've done my time.
You're the reason we're in this mess.
So now we're pointing fingers?
You're the one who got us involved in Hollywood.
You're the one who brought in bioff.
What I did, i did for the outfit.
You're gonna turn yourself in tomorrow.
We'll make sure you get the best lawyers.
I told you already, I've done my time.
I'm not going back in there.
I'm not taking the fall for this.
We're not asking.
(Hillel levin) Frank nitti was really not such a tough guy.
He did not want to go back to prison,
and he came undone.
♪
(Narrator) Desperate to stay out of prison,
frank nitti decides to take matters into his own hands.
♪
(Tires screeching)
(Sighs)
(Gun clicks)
(Sighs)
(Gun clicks)
(Gunshot)
(Narrator) On march 19, 1943,
frank nitti, one of al Capone's longest serving,
and most trusted lieutenants,
takes his own life.
♪
I think his fear was not so much going back to prison,
but what prison was like.
He didn't like being closed in like that.
Didn't like to be in tight, tight, tight spaces.
And at the end, he became very, very claustrophobic.
♪
(Narrator) With nitti dead, Paul ricca is forced to take the fall.
And in December of 1943,
he's convicted for the Hollywood extortion scheme
and is sentenced to 10 years in prison,
leaving day-to-day control of the outfit to one man.
(Levin) When frank nitti committed suicide,
Paul ricca was the next in line to take over
but in his place, Tony accardo,
a guy with a sixth-grade education,
had to step up.
♪
(Narrator) Tony accardo started out as an enforcer,
but has now become the new boss
of the largest criminal organization in America.
♪
Bulger. Here to see Mr. Paul ricca.
(Narrator) Recently made the acting boss of the Chicago outfit,
Tony accardo looks for advice from the man
who was supposed to take over for frank nitti,
and the only person he trusts
to advise him on day-to-day operations,
his friend Paul ricca.
(Calabrese) This is an organization
where a lot of times, a boss can be in prison
and he's going to still be a consigliere,
which is a consultant, to whoever steps in that spot.
How you holding up?
I've been better.
How are things?
You making sure everybody's getting their money?
Yeah, well...
Well, what?
We need something new.
You're in charge now.
A lot of people are gonna be looking to you
to see what you do next.
If you want this,
you're gonna need to prove yourself.
And that means making a big move.
Like finding a new racket, bringing in some new money.
Exactly.
You remember Sam giancana?
Your old driver?
Yeah.
I heard from him recently.
He said he had a few ideas, things we can tap into.
You should meet up with him, see what he has to say.
All right, I'll talk to him.
Good.
(Narrator) Born and raised on Chicago's West Side,
Sam giancana began his mob career driving bootlegging runs,
quickly establishing himself as a street-smart gangster
with a knack for making money.
But so far, he's struggled to move up in the outfit,
because he also has a reputation as being a loose Cannon.
(Binder) Sam giancana was notoriously off-center.
He was unstable,
maybe a little bit crazy, so he picked up the nickname "mooney."
That was a nickname that stuck with him for years.
♪
You were Paul's driver?
That's right.
He said you had some ideas for me.
Okay.
You ever hear of Eddie Jones?
Yeah. What about him?
Well, he and I spent a lot of time together
while we were locked up.
He runs one of the biggest policy wheels
in the south side.
That's a black racket.
Nobody's been able to bust into it.
Nobody's got the connection to it that I do.
His racket's pulling in over a million a year.
And thanks to his big mouth, i know it inside and out.
How to work the odds, how to handle the bookies...
And how we can get in on it.
I'll think about it.
All right.
Just... don't think too long.
(Narrator) The racket that giancana wants the outfit to move in on
is one of the most lucrative in America,
known simply as "the policy."
(robert lombardo) The policy racket in Chicago was essentially an illegal lottery.
Put a dollar down, you get your number,
and then, once a week, there's a "drawing"
and it determined whether or not you win something.
(Narrator) Operating out of Chicago's south side,
it's run completely by African Americans.
(Thompson) The 1920s, '30s,
policy generated upwards of a quarter of a billion dollars
annually nationwide.
The proceeds that was generated from the policy racket
took care of the neighborhood and it helped establish
many of the early, legitimate, black-owned businesses.
(Narrator) The policy is broken down by neighborhoods.
Each has its own lottery known as a "wheel"
and is run by local gangsters.
And the most successful policy king in Chicago
is Sam giancana's old cell mate,
Eddie Jones.
(Thompson) Ed Jones was the most powerful policy racketeer in the country.
He was the king of policy kings.
At one time, the Jones family was hailed to be
the richest black family in America.
(Narrator) Wanting to prove to accardo
that he's ready to move up in the outfit,
Sam giancana decides he's going to take over the policy
by any means necessary.
(Thompson) Sam giancana was very cunning,
very sneaky, deceptive.
For him, the eyes on the prize
is becoming a made guy in the Chicago mob.
Whatever I have to do to make that happen
is what I have to do.
(Distant horn honking)
That's him.
Giancana?
Eddie Jones.
What the hell is this?
Get him in the car. Now.
(Siren wailing)
Let's go.
Now.
♪
(Narrator) In a bold move to get in on the policy rackets,
Sam giancana goes behind Tony accardo's back
and kidnaps one of the biggest policy kingpins,
Eddie Jones.
(Groans)
Let's try this again.
Your policy wheels, your territory,
and whatever cash you're sitting on,
and maybe I'll consider letting you live.
Go to hell.
(Groans)
How many times are we gonna have to do this?
Tell you what.
You let me go now,
and I'll pretend this never happened.
(Groans)
(Grunts)
What the hell are you doing?
You want in on the policy, don't you?
So you shoot up a police car?
I did what I had to.
(Grunts)
Nothing gets done without my approval.
Nothing!
You understand?
Answer me when I'm talking to you.
Do you know who I am?
Yeah.
If you're gonna kill me, get it over with.
How much does your policy wheel bring in a year?
Two million. Give or take.
I'll make this simple.
You leave town, hand over your wheel,
and I'll cut you in for 200 grand.
Do I have a choice?
This is the best deal you're gonna get.
If you wanna live, you should take it.
Fine.
It's a deal.
("Accardo") Untie him.
Let him go.
(robert Grant) Tony accardo did not like attention being drawn to him
and would take measures to mitigate that risk.
Sam giancana would take those risks
knowing that it put him at risk
but thought he could manage it.
("Accardo") What you did was stupid.
All right.
I'm sorry.
It won't happen again.
Jones' policy wheel. Can you run it?
Yeah.
I know it better than anyone else.
I got it for us, didn't I?
Well, that's debatable.
Sure.
If I give this to you,
I need to be able to trust you.
That means not making any moves until you talk to me first.
You first. Got it.
I'm giving you something big here.
Don't screw it up.
(Narrator) With accardo's blessing,
Sam giancana takes over Jones' policy wheel,
and soon targets all the other wheels in the city.
Giancana and accardo proceeded to take it over.
They cut heads off.
They blew people up.
These are businesspeople.
But they're still men ruthless enough and willing
to murder for money.
They left African Americans nominally in charge,
but they got the money.
(Narrator) All told, the outfit's takeover of the Chicago policy racket
will earn them upwards of $150 million.
But just as things are improving for the Chicago outfit,
accardo receives devastating news.
Al Capone,
his mentor and the most notorious gangster in America,
is dead.
(Bell tolling)
(Narrator) On January 25, 1947,
former boss of the Chicago mafia,
al Capone, dies at the age of 48.
Mae...
I'm so sorry for your loss.
We'll make sure we look after you guys.
If you ever need anything...
(Narrator) Tony accardo,
Capone's bodyguard and enforcer,
and now the head of the outfit,
is rumored to have sent Capone's wife, Mae, money to live off of
until her death in 1986,
a show of respect to America's most infamous gangster.
(Eig) I think we're fascinated with Capone because he did
what a lot of us dream of doing,
getting rich and powerful.
He seemed like just an everyman, you know.
He didn't inherit this power.
He worked his way up
and built this twisted version of the American dream.
♪
(Narrator) After his death,
Capone becomes an even bigger legend,
inspiring countless books...
Movies and TV shows.
(Eisenbach) Al Capone contributes to the romance of the mobster
as this iconic American man
who is independent,
he's not anybody's puppet,
and he's making his own way in the world.
(Narrator) For nearly a decade,
the son of Italian immigrants
virtually ran America's second largest city,
building a massive illegal operation
valued at over $1 billion in today's money.
(Calabrese) No matter where you go in the world,
when you tell somebody you're from Chicago,
there's two names that are always mentioned,
Michael Jordan and al Capone.
He was and always will be a big part of the Chicago mafia.
(Narrator) The empire that Capone built
is now run by Tony accardo.
And months after Capone's death,
another top figure in the outfit re-emerges,
Paul ricca,
who gets released from prison early
and takes his place alongside accardo
as co-head of the outfit,
which is making more money than ever before
thanks to the policy racket.
(Binder) Ricca was very, very valuable to the organization,
but just because you've returned,
usually you don't displace the guy who was already there.
Accardo stays in as operating boss
and handles things on a day-to-day basis,
but for strategic guidance, he goes to ricca.
Business is good.
Odds are a thousand to one.
Payout's 600 to one at best.
Means we're keeping eight out of every $10 that comes in.
How much is it generating?
About half a million a month.
That's a lot of cash.
I know.
It's becoming a problem.
It's a lot to handle without drawing too much attention.
I was thinking we'd hide it as legitimate cash.
Yeah.
But where?
Vegas.
♪
Las Vegas is a boom town.
The rules haven't been written.
It's the perfect spot to take what they've earned illegally,
in various illegal operations around the country,
including other gambling, and run it through the casinos.
(Narrator) But there's just one problem.
The New York mob is already there.
♪