Antonino Joseph "Tony" Accardo (28 April 1906 – 22 May 1992) was boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1947 to 1957, succeeding Paul Ricca and preceding Sam Giancana, and again from 1971 to 1973, succeeding Felix Alderisio and preceding Joseph Aiuppa.
Biography[]
Antonino Leonardo Accardo was born in Chicago, Illinois on 28 April 1906 to a family of Sicilian immigrants. He joined Claude Maddox's Circus Cafe Gang as a youth, and Chicago Outfit member Jack McGurn recruited Accardo into his crew. During Prohibition, Accardo was nicknamed "Joe Batters" for using a baseball bat to kill three Outfit traitors, and he was later nicknamed "Big Tuna" for catching a large tuna fish during a fishing expedition. In 1932, he became the Outfit's head of enforcement and a captain under Frank Nitti, and he became underboss after Nitti's suicide and Paul Ricca's takeover of the family.
Ricca was imprisoned in 1947, leading to Accardo becoming the acting boss, and the Outfit moved into slot and vending machines, counterfeiting cigarette and liquor tax stamps, and expanding narcotics smuggling. The Outfit came to dominate much of the organized crime operations in the American West under Accardo's rule, and Accardo and Ricca let flashy figures like Sam Giancana get all of the attention while they worked behind the scenes. In 1957, he made Giancana the boss and became his consigliere, hoping to attract less heat. Accardo and Ricca exercised power behind the scenes, and they decided to depose Giancana and replace him with Joseph Aiuppa after Giancana became too hot. In June 1975, Giancana's heat led to Accardo sending Dominic Blasi to whack him in his basement during dinner. Ricca's death in 1972 left Accardo as the sole authority within the Outfit, and he was a co-boss from 1971 to 1973.
In 1978, Accardo had three thieves and four related people murdered by having their throats slit, retaliating against them for the burglary of his River Forest, California home. In 1992, he died at his home in Barrington Hills, Illinois of respiratory and heart conditions.