Theodore L "Teddy" Roe was an African-American organized crime figure who led an illegal gambling empire in South Side, Chicago during the 1940s and early 1950s.
19 Facts About Theodore Roe
1.
2.
Theodore Roe was born in Galliano, Lafourche Parish, Louisiana to an African American sharecropper, and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas.
3.
Shortly after Theodore Roe began working for Jones, Jones decided to get involved in policy and he made Theodore Roe his first "runner", or salesman of lottery chances.
4.
The Jones-Theodore Roe wheels were already netting over $25 million annually, by 1946 and Giancana's crew, seeking to move in, kidnapped Ed Jones and held him for a ransom that included $100,000 and a promise to hand over control of his gambling business.
5.
Theodore Roe paid the $100,000 ransom but after Jones was released, he refused to surrender his own share of the policy business.
6.
On June 19,1951, Theodore Roe ended up killing one of the kidnappers, Fat Lenny Caifano, who was not only a made man, but the brother of capo Marshall Joseph Caifano.
7.
The Chicago Police Department arrested Theodore Roe and charged him with murder.
8.
Dad always said Theodore Roe was 'respected' because he refused to give in to the Italians, the Outfit.
9.
Theodore Roe was not a loudmouthed flambuoyant jerk and definitely not a murdering thug like the drug lords who took over that same neighborhood years later.
10.
On June 25,1951, Theodore Roe was further charged with conspiracy to violate the Illinois State anti-gambling statute.
11.
Theodore Roe pleaded self-defense and his defense team was able to link prosecutors to the mob causing key evidence against Theodore Roe to be thrown out.
12.
Theodore Roe eventually beat the case, but not before being denied bail six times before and during the trial proceedings.
13.
On one occasion, an elderly woman who had hit the number with one of the shady gangster wheels in town, came to Theodore Roe to complain that the gang had not paid her her money for the hit.
14.
Theodore Roe has been known to walk the streets of poor black neighborhoods passing out fifty dollar bills to needy people.
15.
Theodore L Roe lived in Chicago with wife Carrie until his death.
16.
Theodore Roe had several relatives who lived in Dermott, Arkansas in Chicot County including a brother and a sister.
17.
Meanwhile, Theodore Roe stayed in his mansion on South Michigan Avenue.
18.
Theodore Roe died outside his former home at 5239 S Michigan Ave.
19.
Theodore Roe was laid out in a $3,500-$5,000 casket and received the biggest funeral of any Chicago African American since Jack Johnson in 1946.