Jake Guzik
Encyclopedia
Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik (May 20, 1886 – February 21, 1956) was the financial and legal advisor, and later political “greaser
”, for the Chicago Outfit
.
, Galicia
, Poland on May 20, 1886, Guzik immigrated to the United States
in the early 1900s. His parents were from Katowice
, Poland. He later became involved in prostitution
, and allegedly white slavery
, in the South Side of Chicago's Levee
vice
district with his brother Harry, eventually driving rival Jack Zuta
out of business. He later became a powerful political "fixer" operating from St. Hubert’s Old English Grill and Chop House, where Guzik received "bagmen" who delivered scheduled payoffs to various police precinct
s and city
official
s.
, informed him and later allied with the Outfit
.
Starting under Capone, Guzik was the trusted treasurer and financial wizard of the mob, and in the years after Capone's fall, he was considered the real brains of the organization, along with Paul "the Waiter" Ricca
and to a slightly lesser degree, Tony Accardo
. Because Guzik was incapable of using a gun or killing anyone, Capone protected him, and once killed a man for him out of pure friendship. Such friendship was not forgotten, and Jake Guzik to his dying day a quarter century after Capone's removal from the scene, continued to be one of the most honored chiefs of the Chicago Outfit, and some say virtually its boss.
During the 1940s and 1950s, when the national syndicate was dominated by what was called the Big Six, it was Guzik and Accardo who flew east weekly to meet with the other heads of the organization: Joe Adonis
, Frank Costello
, Meyer Lansky
and Longy Zwillman.
Guzik, a childhood pimp, had joined the Capone organization early on when, without even knowing him, he had saved Capone from an ambush, having overheard two gunmen from a rival gang planning the hit. Once a man did him a good turn, Capone embraced him and would never turn on him - unless that man later first betrayed that trust.
In May 1924, Guzik got into an argument with a freelance hijacker named Joe Howard, who slapped and kicked him around. Incapable of physical resistance, Guzik returned to Capone to relate what had happened. Capone charged out in search of Howard and ran him down in Heinie Jacob's saloon on South Wabash Avenue, bragging about the way he had "made the little Jew whine." When Howard saw Capone, he held out his hand and said, "Hello, Al." Capone instead grabbed his shoulders and shook him violently, demanding to know why Howard had mistreated his friend. "Go back to your girls, you dago pimp," Howard replied. Capone wordlessly drew a revolver and jammed it into his head and after several seconds emptied the revolver into it.
After the Howard killing - which required a certain amount of fixing - Guzik became Capone's faithful friend, ready to do anything for him. Years later when Capone was in fading health, it was Guzik who saw to it that Capone and his family never wanted for anything.
Capone quickly came to depend on Guzik's advice in the various gang wars that developed as he tried to organize Chicago. Jake also served as the mob's principal bagman in payoffs to police and politicos, hence the origin of the nickname Greasy Thumb. Actually, the name was applied years earlier to Jake's older brother Harry, a procurer of whom it was said "his fingers are always greasy from the money he counts out for protection." Later, the title was transferred to Jake. One of his chores was to sit several nights a week at a table in St. Hubert's Old English Grill and Chop House, where district police captains and sergeants who collected graft for themselves and their superiors could pick up their payoffs. Also calling at Guzik's table were bagmen sent over from City Hall.
The only serious legal problems that Guzik ever had were with tax men, and he eventually did a few years behind bars. He handled incarceration with aplomb and afterward returned to mob money duties. At the Kefauver Committee hearings, he made an interesting if uncommunicative witness, pleading the Fifth Amendment on the ground that any response to the questions might "discriminate against me."
Never once was Guzik's position in the mob questioned, even though the Outfit was in many ways a dog-eat-dog crime family. All the big bosses - Nitti, Ricca, Accardo, Giancana, Battaglia - gave Jake complete authority on legal matters. They were not Capone, but they knew Guzik's loyalty was firm to the gang that Capone built. When Al Capone was released from prison in 1939, reporters asked Guzik if the Big Fellow was likely to return and take up command of the organization. "Al," Jake said, "is nutty as a fruitcake." From anyone else the remark might have been taken as a disparagement, but it was Guzik merely being honest; all the other gang members knew his devotion to Capone was unwavering. Guzik was much admired and protected by Capone while Capone was alive, partially because of his complete loyalty and fiscal honesty to Capone and his organization, and partially because of his quiet, businesslike and low profile way of taking care of gang affairs. While not known for certain, it is frequently reported that Guzik never carried a gun a day in his life. Guzik died of a heart attack on February 21, 1956, while at his post at St. Hubert's, partaking of a meal of lamb chops and a glass of Moselle, and making his usual payoffs. At his services more Italians were in attendance at the temple than ever before in its history.
on three episodes of the popular 1959-63 ABC crime drama The Untouchables
. He was portrayed by Joe Turkel
in the 1967 Roger Corman
directed film The St. Valentine's Day Massacre. He was also portrayed by Joe Caniano in the 2010 episode "Emerald City" of Boardwalk Empire.
Greaser
Greasers can refer to:* Greaser , a derogatory term for a Mexican on drugs.* Greaser , a subculture that developed in the United States in the 1950s....
”, for the Chicago Outfit
Chicago Outfit
The Chicago Outfit, also known as the Chicago Syndicate or Chicago Mob and sometimes shortened to simply the Outfit, is a crime syndicate based in Chicago, Illinois, USA...
.
Early life
He was born near KrakówKraków
Kraków also Krakow, or Cracow , is the second largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in the Lesser Poland region, the city dates back to the 7th century. Kraków has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Polish academic, cultural, and artistic life...
, Galicia
Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria
The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria was a crownland of the Habsburg Monarchy, the Austrian Empire, and Austria–Hungary from 1772 to 1918 .This historical region in eastern Central Europe is currently divided between Poland and Ukraine...
, Poland on May 20, 1886, Guzik immigrated to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in the early 1900s. His parents were from Katowice
Katowice
Katowice is a city in Silesia in southern Poland, on the Kłodnica and Rawa rivers . Katowice is located in the Silesian Highlands, about north of the Silesian Beskids and about southeast of the Sudetes Mountains.It is the central district of the Upper Silesian Metropolis, with a population of 2...
, Poland. He later became involved in prostitution
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
, and allegedly white slavery
Sexual slavery
Sexual slavery is when unwilling people are coerced into slavery for sexual exploitation. The incidence of sexual slavery by country has been studied and tabulated by UNESCO, with the cooperation of various international agencies...
, in the South Side of Chicago's Levee
The Levee
The Levee is a former red-light district in Chicago, Illinois, located near the intersection of Cermak Road and Michigan Avenue in the city's Near South Side...
vice
Vice
Vice is a practice or a behavior or habit considered immoral, depraved, or degrading in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a defect, an infirmity, or merely a bad habit. Synonyms for vice include fault, depravity, sin, iniquity, wickedness, and corruption...
district with his brother Harry, eventually driving rival Jack Zuta
Jack Zuta
John U. "Jack" Zuta was an accountant and political "fixer" for the Chicago Outfit.-Early life:Zuta was born on February 18, 1888, to a Polish-Jewish peasant family in Russian Empire. He immigrated to the United States around 1913...
out of business. He later became a powerful political "fixer" operating from St. Hubert’s Old English Grill and Chop House, where Guzik received "bagmen" who delivered scheduled payoffs to various police precinct
Police precinct
Police precinct is a form of division of a geographical area patrolled by a police force.Police forces using this format include:* New York Police Department* Boston Police Department* Portland Police Bureau* Seattle Police Department-See also:...
s and city
City
A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...
official
Official
An official is someone who holds an office in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority .A government official or functionary is an official who is involved in public...
s.
Chicago Outfit
In the early 1920s, Guzik, supposedly overhearing a plan to murder Al CaponeAl Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...
, informed him and later allied with the Outfit
Chicago Outfit
The Chicago Outfit, also known as the Chicago Syndicate or Chicago Mob and sometimes shortened to simply the Outfit, is a crime syndicate based in Chicago, Illinois, USA...
.
Starting under Capone, Guzik was the trusted treasurer and financial wizard of the mob, and in the years after Capone's fall, he was considered the real brains of the organization, along with Paul "the Waiter" Ricca
Paul Ricca
Paul Ricca, also known as "The Waiter" , was a Chicago mobster who served as the nominal or de facto leader of the Chicago Outfit for forty years.-Early life:...
and to a slightly lesser degree, Tony Accardo
Tony Accardo
Antonino Joseph Accardo , also known as "Joe Batters" or "Big Tuna", rose from small-time hoodlum to the position of day-to-day boss of the Chicago Outfit in 1947, to ultimately become the final Outfit authority in 1972, until his death...
. Because Guzik was incapable of using a gun or killing anyone, Capone protected him, and once killed a man for him out of pure friendship. Such friendship was not forgotten, and Jake Guzik to his dying day a quarter century after Capone's removal from the scene, continued to be one of the most honored chiefs of the Chicago Outfit, and some say virtually its boss.
During the 1940s and 1950s, when the national syndicate was dominated by what was called the Big Six, it was Guzik and Accardo who flew east weekly to meet with the other heads of the organization: Joe Adonis
Joe Adonis
Joe Adonis , also known as "Joey A", "Joe Adone", "Joe Arosa", "James Arosa", and "Joe DiMeo", was a New York mobster who was an important participant in the formation of the modern Cosa Nostra crime families.-Early years:Adonis was born Giuseppe Antonio Doto in the small town of Montemarano,...
, Frank Costello
Frank Costello
Frank Costello was an Italian New York City gangster who rose to the top of America's underworld, controlled a vast gambling empire across the United States and enjoyed political influence.Nicknamed the "Prime Minister of the Underworld", he became one of the most powerful and influential Mafia...
, Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky
Meyer Lansky , known as the "Mob's Accountant", was a Polish-born American organized crime figure who, along with his associate Charles "Lucky" Luciano, was instrumental in the development of the "National Crime Syndicate" in the United States...
and Longy Zwillman.
Guzik, a childhood pimp, had joined the Capone organization early on when, without even knowing him, he had saved Capone from an ambush, having overheard two gunmen from a rival gang planning the hit. Once a man did him a good turn, Capone embraced him and would never turn on him - unless that man later first betrayed that trust.
In May 1924, Guzik got into an argument with a freelance hijacker named Joe Howard, who slapped and kicked him around. Incapable of physical resistance, Guzik returned to Capone to relate what had happened. Capone charged out in search of Howard and ran him down in Heinie Jacob's saloon on South Wabash Avenue, bragging about the way he had "made the little Jew whine." When Howard saw Capone, he held out his hand and said, "Hello, Al." Capone instead grabbed his shoulders and shook him violently, demanding to know why Howard had mistreated his friend. "Go back to your girls, you dago pimp," Howard replied. Capone wordlessly drew a revolver and jammed it into his head and after several seconds emptied the revolver into it.
After the Howard killing - which required a certain amount of fixing - Guzik became Capone's faithful friend, ready to do anything for him. Years later when Capone was in fading health, it was Guzik who saw to it that Capone and his family never wanted for anything.
Capone quickly came to depend on Guzik's advice in the various gang wars that developed as he tried to organize Chicago. Jake also served as the mob's principal bagman in payoffs to police and politicos, hence the origin of the nickname Greasy Thumb. Actually, the name was applied years earlier to Jake's older brother Harry, a procurer of whom it was said "his fingers are always greasy from the money he counts out for protection." Later, the title was transferred to Jake. One of his chores was to sit several nights a week at a table in St. Hubert's Old English Grill and Chop House, where district police captains and sergeants who collected graft for themselves and their superiors could pick up their payoffs. Also calling at Guzik's table were bagmen sent over from City Hall.
The only serious legal problems that Guzik ever had were with tax men, and he eventually did a few years behind bars. He handled incarceration with aplomb and afterward returned to mob money duties. At the Kefauver Committee hearings, he made an interesting if uncommunicative witness, pleading the Fifth Amendment on the ground that any response to the questions might "discriminate against me."
Never once was Guzik's position in the mob questioned, even though the Outfit was in many ways a dog-eat-dog crime family. All the big bosses - Nitti, Ricca, Accardo, Giancana, Battaglia - gave Jake complete authority on legal matters. They were not Capone, but they knew Guzik's loyalty was firm to the gang that Capone built. When Al Capone was released from prison in 1939, reporters asked Guzik if the Big Fellow was likely to return and take up command of the organization. "Al," Jake said, "is nutty as a fruitcake." From anyone else the remark might have been taken as a disparagement, but it was Guzik merely being honest; all the other gang members knew his devotion to Capone was unwavering. Guzik was much admired and protected by Capone while Capone was alive, partially because of his complete loyalty and fiscal honesty to Capone and his organization, and partially because of his quiet, businesslike and low profile way of taking care of gang affairs. While not known for certain, it is frequently reported that Guzik never carried a gun a day in his life. Guzik died of a heart attack on February 21, 1956, while at his post at St. Hubert's, partaking of a meal of lamb chops and a glass of Moselle, and making his usual payoffs. At his services more Italians were in attendance at the temple than ever before in its history.
In popular culture
Guzik was portrayed by actor Nehemiah PersoffNehemiah Persoff
Nehemiah Persoff is an American film and television character actor. He was born in Jerusalem, Palestine Mandate.Born in what is now part of Israel, Persoff emigrated with his family to the United States in 1929...
on three episodes of the popular 1959-63 ABC crime drama The Untouchables
The Untouchables (1959 TV series)
The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...
. He was portrayed by Joe Turkel
Joe Turkel
Joe Turkel is an American character actor. He is credited in several films as Joseph Turkel.-Background:Turkel was born in Brooklyn, New York, and served in the U.S. Military during World War II. He currently lives in southern California, and has been involved in writing screenplays.-Career:His...
in the 1967 Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
directed film The St. Valentine's Day Massacre. He was also portrayed by Joe Caniano in the 2010 episode "Emerald City" of Boardwalk Empire.
Further reading
- Binder, John. The Chicago Outfit. Arcadia Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-7385-2326-7
- Johnson, Curt and R. Craig Sautter. The Wicked City: Chicago from Kenna to Capone. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998. ISBN 0-306-80821-8
- Reppetto, Thomas A. American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2004. ISBN 0-8050-7798-7
- Almog, OzOz AlmogOz Almog, an Israeli–Austrian artist was born on April 15, 1956, in Kfar Saba, Israel. He comes from a family of Russian/Ukrainian pioneers and Romanian/Russian immigrants...
, Kosher Nostra Jüdische Gangster in Amerika, 1890–1980 ; Jüdischen Museum der Stadt Wien ; 2003, Text Oz Almog, Erich Metz, ISBN 3901398333