Frank Nitti

Frank Nitti
File:Frank Nitti.jpg Frank Nitti

Francesco Raffaele Nitto, better known as Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti (January 27, 1888 – March 19, 1943) was an Italian/American gangster, one of the top henchmen of Al Capone and later a mob boss in his own right.

Early life and Prohibition

Frank Nitti was born in Sicily in the 1880s; his gravestone lists his birth year as 1888, but his US immigration documents say 1883. He immigrated to New York City after the end of the First World War, and later moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he set up business as a barber, with a profitable line as a jewel fence on the side. Nitti built an extensive network of associates in the Chicago underworld, and eventually came to the attention of Chicago Mafia boss Johnny Torrio.

Nitti later worked for Torrio's successor, Al Capone. Nitti ran Capone's Prohibition-busting liquor smuggling and distribution operation, importing whiskey from Canada and selling it through a network of speakeasies around Chicago. Nitti was one of Capone's top lieutenants, trusted for his leadership skills and business acumen. Despite his nickname "The Enforcer", Nitti used Mafia "soldiers" and other underlings to commit violence rather than do it himself.

The Outfit under Nitti

In 1930, both Frank Nitti and Al Capone were convicted of income tax evasion and sent to prison. However, Nitti only received an 18 month sentence while Capone was sent away for eleven years. Upon Nitti's release, the media hailed him as the new boss of the Chicago Mafia; in reality, Nitti lacked the iron control over the capos that Capone had enjoyed. The Capone empire now began to fragment, with Nitti acting as a frontman.

When Prohibition and bootlegging ended, Nitti and the Chicago Outfit branched out into other areas, including illegal gambling, prostitution, and the control of labor unions (which lead to the extortion of many businesses). Under Nitti, the Outfit started earning tremendous profits.

On December 19, 1932, a team of Chicago police headed by Detective Sergeants Harry Lang and Harry Miller, raided Nitti's office in Room 554 at 221 North LaSalle Street. Lang shot Nitti three times, then shot himself (a minor flesh wound) to make the shooting look like self-defense, claiming that Nitti had shot him first. Some historians believe Lang shot Nitti under orders from Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak. According to this theory, Cermak wanted his own underworld friends to take over Nitti's empire after his death..

Unfortunately for Lang and Miller (and whoever ordered the shooting), Nitti survived the shooting. In February 1933, Nitti was acquitted of attempted murder. During that same trial, Miller testified that Lang received $15,000 to kill Nitti. Another uniformed officer that was present at the shooting testified that Nitti was gunned down unarmed. Harry Lang and Harry Miller were both fired from the police force and each fined one hundred dollars for simple assault.

On February 15, 1933, Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak was shot as he was talking to President-Elect Franklin Delano Roosevelt after a speech in Miami. Cermak died three weeks later of his wounds. Some historians believe that the shooting was arranged by the Outfit in retalliation for Nitti's attempted murder, and that President Roosevelt was not the intended target. The shooter was a Sicilian immigrant named Giuseppe Zangara who pleaded guilty and was executed in the electric chair for the crime.

Downfall and Death

In 1943, many top members of the Chicago Outfit were indicted for extortion. These individuals included Nitti, Paul Ricca, Joe Capagna, Ralph Pierce, Johnny Roselli, Nick Circella, Phil D'Andrea, and Charles Gioe. The Outfit was accused of trying to strong arm some of the largest Hollywood movie studios, including MGM Studios, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, and RKO Radio Pictures. The studios had cooperated with the Outfit to avoid union trouble stirred up by the mob.

At a meeting of Outfit leaders at Nitti's home, Nitti underboss Paul Ricca, angrily blamed Nitti for the indictments. Ricca said that since this had been Nitti's scheme and that the FBI informant, Willie Bioff, had been Nitti's trusted associate, Nitti should take the fall for the Outfit and go to prison. A severe claustrophobic, Nitti dreaded the idea of prison confinement. It is also rumored that Nitti was suffering from terminal cancer at this time.

In any event, the day before a grand jury appearance, Nitti shared breakfast with his wife in their Riverside, Illinois home at 712 Selbourne Road. As his wife was leaving for church, Nitti told her he planned to take a walk. After his wife left, Nitti began to drink heavily. He then loaded a thirty-two cailber relvolver, put it in his coat pocket, and walked five blocks to a local railroad yard. Two railroad workers (William F. Sebauer and Lowell M. Barnett) spotted Nitti walking on the track of an oncoming train and shouted a warning. They thought the train hit him, but Nitti had managed to jump out of the way in time. Then two shots rang out. The trainmen first thought Nitti was shooting at them, but then realized he was trying to shoot himself in the head. Nitti finally sat on the ground against a fence and, with the railroad workers watching from a distance, shot himself in the head. Frank Nitti died on an Illinois Central railroad siding in North Riverside, Illinois on March 19, 1943.

In pop culture

Film

• Bruce Gordon played Frank Nitti in the 1959 television show "The Untouchables,". This famous program depicted Treasury Department officer Eliot Ness's struggle against the Nitti-led Capone forces during Prohibition.
• Nitti was played by Harold Stone in Roger Corman's 1967 film The St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
• Sylvester Stallone played also the role of Nitti in the movie Capone (1975) directed by Steve Carver.
• The Nitti character also appeared in Brian DePalma's 1987 movie The Untouchables, in which actor Billy Drago portrayed him as Capone's assassin. In the film, Nitti kills two of the members of the untouchables before he is killed after being thrown off a building by Eliot Ness.
• In 1988 Nitti was portrayed by Anthony LaPaglia in the TV movie Frank Nitti: The Enforcer. This film offers a relatively sympathetic portrayal of Nitti, emphasizing his double life as a gangster and a devoted family man.
• Stanley Tucci's portrayal of Nitti in 2002's Road to Perdition was much closer to the historical figure than Drago's, although the events depicted in the movie are fictional. Tucci played Nitti as Capone's ruthless but levelheaded advisor/right hand man who assigned violent criminal acts to trusted underlings, in contrast to Drago's characterization of him as a violent sociopath who personally (and enthusiastically) did Capone's dirty work.

Music

• On the intro to the Makaveli album, Tupac thinks "I'm tougher than Nitti"
• Hardcore hip-hop duo M.O.P mention Nitti in their 1994 song 'How About Some Hardcore'
• Rapper Big L mentions Frank in his song 'Lifestyles Of Da Poor & Dangerous' by saying, "We stormed the city, shootin shit up like Frank Nitti"
• Underground artist Brotha lynch hung referred to himself as The Sacramento Frank Nitti, the black version all you heard was da mac burstin'.
• Rapper Too $hort mentions Frank in his song 'Freaky Tales' and more recently female artist Lyfe on $hort's "Quit Hatin' Pt.2"
• Flint rap group Project Born has a member named Frank Nitti.
• Frank (of rap duo Frank-N-Dank), goes by the alias Frank Nitti.
• West Coast rapper DJ Quik referred to Nitti on "U Ain't Fresh" from the Balance & Options album
• Many other allusions to Frank Nitti by hip-hop artists exist as well, drawing on the mobster's feared gangster infamy and violent persona. Other notable references include: Eightball's "Pure Uncut (Remix)" (1998), Too $hort's "Quit Hatin' Pt. 2" (2002), Tru's "Gangstas Make The World" (1997), The Luniz's "I Got 5 On It (Remix)" (1995), Young Buck's "Caught in the Wind" (2005), Chubb Rock's "Cat" (1991), Aceyalone's "Rappers Rappers Rappers" (2001), Esham's "Any Style You Want" (1995).
• South Park Mexican - Wiggy Wiggy, "Do you take fools out like the homie Frank Nitti"
• Lord Infamous - Fuckin' Wit Dis Click, "Let's go smoke with that chick with no pity I bloody cut chop up they shell goes in 20 gauge Finally thinkin' like I was Frank Nitti"
• Rapper AZ begins his 1995 classic Doe or Die in direct address to Frank Nitti.

Other

• Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Antero Niittymäki was nicknamed "Frank Nitti" by head-coach Ken Hitchcock. Niitymaki has a portrait of Nitti on his helmet.
• Mentioned by Oakland-based Rap Band, The Coup, in lyrics for Fat Cats, Bigga Fish: "recognized him as the mayor of my city, who treats young black men like Frank Nitti"

Further reading

• Binder, John J. The Chicago Outfit. Arcadia Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-7385-2326-7

External links

• The First Shooting of Frank Nitti by Allan May
• Gambino.com - Frank Nitti
• My Al Capone Museum: Frank Nitti
• Seize The Night: Frank Nitti
• Federal Bureau of Investigation - Freedom of Information Act: Frank Nitti
• Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti at Find A Grave
• Frank Nitti at Encyclopædia Britannica