The Boys in Chicago Heights: The Forgotten Crew of the Chicago Outfit (True Crime)

This book chronicles the history of the Chicago Heights street crew, a major subsidiary of the Chicago Outfit during Prohibition and beyond. Chicago Heights was a developing manufacturing center with a large Italian immigrant population when the crew first formed, predating Prohibition itself. Early bosses competed for control until a violent gang war consolidated the crew under Al Capone's organization. Throughout the twentieth century, the Chicago Heights crew generated significant revenue for the Outfit through gambling enterprises, union infiltration, and stolen auto operations. This account traces the crew's history from its origins through its final known boss, including photographs. It documents a street crew whose importance to the Chicago Outfit has been largely overlooked and misunderstood in historical accounts.