The real Frank Nitti
The real Frank Nitti wasn’t exactly the dapper figure portrayed in the movies… nor was he thrown from a rooftop by Eliot Ness. Yet he filled hospitals in Illinois with his labor.
Francesco Raffaele Nitto, also known as Frank (The Enforcer) Nitti, was born in Sicily in 1883 and emigrated to the United States, where he settled in Chicago and opened a barbershop. He was a petty fence and jewel thief, and went to work for crime boss Johnny (the Fox) Torrio. Torrio was succeeded by Al Capone, who took Nitti as his bodyguard and later appointed Nitti to run Capone’s bootlegging and liquor distribution. The whiskey was imported from Canada, bootlegged, and sold through speakeasies in and around Chicago. Nitti was Capone’s right-hand man, a skilled leader and businessman. When Capone was briefly sentenced to prison in 1929, he made Nitti head of business operations; Jake (Greasy Thumb) Guzik was the head of operations and Tony (Big Tuna) Accardo was leading the execution. Although nicknamed “The Enforcer”, Nitti did not in fact send as many victims to the Illinois hospital as Accardo. Nitti was a shrewd businessman and a loyal Capone lieutenant.
Both Nitti and Capone were convicted in 1931 of income tax evasion. Nitti, however, was only sentenced for eighteen months, while Capone was jailed for eleven years. Nitti was a claustrophobic who found being confined by him terrifying. When he was released, he became the new boss of Capone’s gang. Under Nitti’s leadership, the Chicago Outfit expanded from gambling and prostitution into other rackets, such as control of unions, with the ensuing extortion of businesses such as hospitals in Il. In December 1932, Chicago police under the command of Detective Sergeant Harry Lang raided Nitti’s offices and shot Nitti 3 times in the back and neck. He then shot himself so that the shooting would appear to be self-defense. Testimony was given in court that this attempt to assassinate Nitti was ordered by Anton Cermak, the newly elected mayor of Chicago. Cermak was being financed by mobsters who were rivals to the Capone organization. Nitti survived the assassination attempt and was acquitted of the charges against him in February 1933. In April 1933, Cermak was assassinated while in conversation with President-elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Some historians are of the opinion that the assassin, an Italian immigrant, was trying to assassinate FDR but shot Cermak by mistake. Other historians believe that it was Frank Nitti who ordered the hit on Mayor Cermak, pointing to the fact that the murderous Italian immigrant had been the best marksman in the Italian Army before emigrating to the US, and was unlikely to miss. its objective. .
