Paul Ricca
Paul "The Waiter " Ricca actually Felice DeLucia ( born November 14, 1897 in Naples, † October 11, 1972 in Chicago ) was an Italian- American mobster and head of the Chicago Outfit.
History
1915 Felice DeLucia was sentenced to two years in prison because he had killed a man who wanted to testify against him in court. After serving prison he ascended on 10 August 1920, ship and emigrated to New York City, where he changed his name to Paul Ricca. After that he went to Chicago.
In Chicago, he got a job as a waiter in a restaurant, which belonged to Joseph " Diamond Joe" Esposito. And derives its nickname of Ricca, " The Waiter " ( en: The waiter, top ), although he very quickly became a full-time gangster, as were the Mobster of the city and out in the restaurant.
So Ricca soon came under the wing of Frank Nitti, who was jailed Al Capone succeeded as leader; but especially under the Johnny Roselli in Los Angeles. The Chicago Outfit was expanded in the West and had obtained by the infiltration of the unions influence on the movie studios in Hollywood. Large film companies as RKO, Paramount Pictures, MGM and 20th Century Fox were skimmed off.
However, these machinations were revealed in the film industry and on 18 March 1943, a meeting at the home of Frank Nitti took place, on which this has been discontinued. In particular, Ricca was afraid at the meeting of the end of the whole outfit, if the administrative pressure persisted. Just Nitti was known as a gangster in sight of the press, police and judiciary. On the following day Nitti committed suicide.
However, this prevented the judiciary not to the continuation of the ongoing investigation and on December 30, 1943 Ricca was sentenced along with Phil D' Andrea, Johnny Roselli, Willie Bioff, etc. to imprisonment. Ricca and Co. were serving their sentences in federal prison in Atlanta. The local Head Warden Joseph W. Sanford was a typical Southerner, hated Italians and Catholics and had a Ku Klux Klan background. As D' Andrea prison food due to illness refused to can be brought from outside food can, Sanford ordered a urine test and then refused the request from. Ricca even made an effort to Leavenworth, which was closer to Chicago, to be laid, but this request was leaning from Sanford. The competent supervision in Washington did not speak out in favor of the transfer.
It was only in May 1945 succeeded the multi-millionaires Louis Campagna, D' Andrea, Charles " Cherry Nose" Gioe and Ricca to achieve the transfer on the grounds that it was their families no longer reasonable to deny the fare to Atlanta. Although the prison in Atlanta protested, laying in July 1945 was performed. From Leavenworth Ricca was back in business. Anthony Accardo visited him there under the name Joe Bulger. In the wake of Accardo frequently Eugene Bernstein was, a tax expert who had worked for ten years at the IRS. It came to a deal with the tax authority and when Harry Truman gave in to pressure from Chicago, the release of the gangster was allowed although prosecutor Boris Kostelanetz had been strictly against it. As, however, went over his position on General Clark, the probation was granted immediately. On August 6, 1947 Ricca, Gioe, Campagna and D' Andrea were released. After all, they had to accept a penalty of U.S. $ 500,000. Later it turned out that the lawyer of the outfit was a personal friend of the chairman of Bewährungsauschusses.
These remarkable circumstances ensured that the newspapers in Chicago hired its own research, which led to a congressional hearing in September 1947. Accordingly, the outfit over Jake Guzik had contacted the New York families, where Frank Costello had to flex its political contacts.
After his release Ricca served as consigliere of the outfit because the judiciary would be another act in the first line of the outfit probably not be tolerated. Perhaps, then, were Anthony Accardo and Ricca a kind of leadership duo, in which the weight is shifted more and more to Accardo.
Ricca moved to Detroit in his later years and died of a heart attack on 11 October 1972.