Anthony Accardo

Birth:	Apr. 28, 1906
Death:	May 22, 1992
Organized Crime Figure. Born in Chicago, Illinois in 1906, he joined the city's organized crime family, the "Outfit," during the late 1920s. He served under three bosses (Alphonse Capone, Frank Nitti, and Paul Ricca), before becoming the boss himself. He expanded the Outfit's influence to most of the western states, eventually succeeding in allowing the Outfit total independence from the eastern mobs which had their own ruling commission and territories. Anthony Accardo, who was also known as the "Big Tuna," ruled the family from approximately 1943 until 1957, when he abdicated leadership to his underboss, Sam (Momo) Giancana. When Giancana went to prison in 1965, he returned to full control untiL the early 1970s, when his new underboss Joseph Aiuppa took the reigns - always with his supervision. His years on the Chicago throne were remarkable by their brutality and bloodshed, particularly on violators of the drug ban enforced in the city. He, unlike other mob bosses throughout history, was serious about this rule. When the Chicago leadership was decimated by Las Vegas casino skimming convictions in the mid-1980s, he returned to the fold and reinstated a new administration, remaining in the background to survey their management. When he passed away in 1992, the family he had turned into a vast army of money-making killers was a shell of its former self.