Tony Accardo was born on April 28, 1906. His family migrated from Palermo, Sicily to the Little Sicily area of Chicago. He started as a common street burglar, involved mostly in petty larceny. He came to the attention of Vincenzo de Mora(also known as "Machine Gun" Jack Mcgurn). Accardo joined the Circus Gang, working his way up the ladder of minor league organized crime. He became a member of
Capone's Gang after he succesfully planned and executed the
Hanlon Hellcat shootout. Tony became Capone's bodygaurd. Accardo continued his upward climb under Capone, he gained stature and trust by everyone in the outfit. When
Nitti took over, Tony was put in charge of the very prosperous gambling facit of the
Outfit. Then after Nitti's suicide and the
Hollywood Extortion Case, Accardo became the boss. Under Accardo the Outift prospered. He enforced a city-wide street tax, which ordered that the Outfit get a percentage of any money made illegally. His greatest Move was to Vegas. Accardo made his move to Las Vagas in the form of the Stardust Casino. The Stardust catered to the blue collar gamblers, it was a gold mine for the Outfit. In 1957 Tony decided that he needed to retire and live his life stress free. Accardo decided to become the
consiglieri and give control of the day-to-day operations to
Sam Giancana. This arrangement worked for a few years until Giancana started to get too bold and loud for the position he held. Accardo dethroned Giancana thereby giving himself a more active role in the decision making( which he didn't like). Accardo continued to play an active role in all Outfit moves. He would never spend a day in jail and a attempt on his life was never made. That is the mark of a great Boss. Yet on May 22, 1992 Tony Accardo died of heart problems, and was buried just three blocks from where he grew up.
