25 Facts About Tony Accardo

At age 14, Tony Accardo left school and started loitering around neighborhood pool halls.

Tony Accardo soon joined the Circus Cafe Gang, run by Claude Maddox and Tony Capezio, one of many street gangs in the poor neighborhoods of Chicago.

Tony Accardo claimed that he was one of the gunmen who murdered Brooklyn gang boss Frankie Yale, again by Capone's orders to settle a dispute.

However, most experts believe Tony Accardo had only peripheral connections, if any, with the St Valentine's Day Massacre and none whatsoever with the Yale murder, which was most likely committed by Gus Winkler, Fred Burke, and Louis Campagna.

However, on October 11,1926, Tony Accardo may have participated in the assassination of Northside gang leader Hymie Weiss near the Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago.

Tony Accardo was named as the Outfit's head of enforcement.

Tony Accardo soon developed a variety of profitable rackets, including gambling, loansharking, bookmaking, extortion, and the distribution of untaxed alcohol and cigarettes.

Tony Accardo's crew included future Outfit heavyweights Gus "Gussie" Alex and Joseph "Joey Doves" Aiuppa.

Ricca and Tony Accardo ran the Outfit for 30 years until Ricca died in 1972.

When Ricca subsequently received a 10-year prison sentence for his part in the Hollywood scandal, Tony Accardo became acting boss.

Three years later, when Ricca was barred from contact with mobsters as a condition for his parole, Tony Accardo became boss of the Outfit; in practice, he shared power with Ricca, who remained in the background as a senior consultant.

Tony Accardo placed slot machines in gas stations, restaurants, and bars throughout the Outfit's territory.

Tony Accardo ensured all the legal Las Vegas casinos used his slot machines.

Tony Accardo phased out some traditional activities, such as labor racketeering and extortion, to reduce the Outfit's exposure to legal prosecution.

Tony Accardo converted the Outfit's brothel business into call girl services.

For example, when professional wrestlers Lou Albano and Tony Altomare, wrestling as a Mafia-inspired tag team called "The Sicilians", came to Chicago in 1961, Accardo persuaded the men to drop the gimmick to avoid any mob-related publicity.

Ricca once said, "Tony Accardo had more brains for breakfast than Capone had in a lifetime".

Tony Accardo then became the Outfit's consigliere, stepping away from the day-to-day running of the organization, but he still retained considerable power and demanded ultimate respect.

In 1978, while Tony Accardo vacationed in California, burglars entered his River Forest home.

Law enforcement officials believed Tony Accardo had ordered the killings in retaliation for the burglary.

In 1934, Tony Accardo met Clarice Pordzany, a Polish-American chorus girl.

For most of his married life, Tony Accardo lived in River Forest, Illinois.

Tony Accardo spent his last years in Barrington Hills, Illinois living with his daughter and son-in-law.

On May 22,1992, Anthony Tony Accardo died of respiratory and heart conditions at age 86.

Tony Accardo is buried in a crypt in the mausoleum at Queen of Heaven Cemetery, in Hillside, Illinois.