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Observations of An Ex-Cop in La La Land |
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Part 3 |
 ALUMNI PORTRAIT NO. 3 Horace "Tight Pants" Donato refused to concede his waistline had swollen to a size 40 after years of devouring linguini. He once shot a man who complained he was hit in the eye by one of Donato's burst pants buttons. |
Consider the case of
Paul 'The Waiter' Ricca
of TheColumnists.com
Paul “The Waiter” Ricca (1897-1972) was his
Chicago Outfit name, but Paul De Luca Angelo Ciolo was his real
name. When he was 20 he expertly sliced a young man to death
back in Napoli, Italy. The young man, Emilio Porillo, was only
17 when he decided not to marry Ricca’s sister. Paul cut
him up and watched the boy die in a garbage-strewn alley in Naples.
Some say Ricca’s “sister’s honor” bit, was
only his cover story and the killing was really a Mafia hit committed
for a much less “honorable” reason. He only served
two years in prison for the murder, and when he got out, he killed
the witness who had testified against him--Vincenzo Capasso.
Ricca went on the lam winding
his way through Europe eventually obtaining entry to the US through
Ellis Island. Soon after arriving in New York, he moved to Chicago
and got a job as a waiter at "Diamond" Joe Esposito’s
Bella Napoli restaurant, hence his nickname "Paul the Waiter,"
a name Ricca detested. He claimed he “managed” the
restaurant and was not a “waiter.”
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in a rare photograph. |
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Diners at Bella Napoli restaurant included Al Capone and other Outfit guys who all took a liking to Ricca. They say Paul subsequently set up “Diamond” Joe Esposito for a Capone hit for reasons unknown. (Maybe he refused to marry Paul's sister, too?) Paul soon quit his restaurant gig to become a bootlegger and a theatre manager of sorts, to wit, a striptease joint, owned by Capone. The best was yet to come for him.
Ricca eventually went on to more important jobs within the Outfit, and was soon acting as Capone’s “emissary” to the New York crime families. During his tenure Ricca had numerous meetings in New York and Atlantic City with the East Coast families.
My father, who was an NYPD
Lieutenant Detective, told me that Ricca had had a violent argument
in NYC with a lowly “family member” who insisted on
calling him, “The Waiter.” This NY gangster would taunt
Ricca by laughingly ordering him to pour him some more wine,
calling him “waiter man.”
Shortly after these insults to Ricca, my father and his NYPD
detectives discovered the nude torso of a body in a suitcase.
It had been dumped in the NYC train station. The torso had been
expertly cut off from the arms, legs and head of the person using
a very sharp knife and other cutting instruments. The penis and
testicles were also missing. Pop Murcia reminded me that Ricca
was infamous for his expertise with a sharp knife and other cutting
instruments. Further, the NY family member who insulted Ricca
disappeared and was never heard from again. To this day I don’t
know if the NYPD ever identified the person belonging to the
torso, but I know the murder was never pinned on Ricca.
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and stuffed in that suitcase. Investigators believe Paul "The Waiter" Ricca packed the suitcase, after slicing off his victim's head, arms and legs. |
I was reminded of this “torso” incident while watching a recent re-run of "The Sopranos" TV series in which two of Tony Soprano’s capos were depicted in a butcher shop, cutting up a body for disposal. I found my father’s photograph of the “torso” case. Maybe the "Sopranos" writers heard of this old “torso” case and it triggered their writing of that episode?
In 1927 Al Capone was “best man” at Ricca’s wedding. But when Capone went to prison, Ricca distanced himself from Capone, as he didn’t like the notoriety Capone generated. Ricca had seen enough to know that being “public” was extremely dangerous to his occupation.
Many “in the know”
say that it was Paul Ricca who took what were mostly disorganized
criminal activities and turned them into “organized crime”
(at least in Chicago). He was said to be a man of “refinement,”
well read, an interesting speaker and, yes, a cold-blooded killer!
It’s been said that Ricca had much respect for "decent"
women and that he rarely used any curse words, but thought nothing
of using them as prostitutes in the Outfit's whorehouses. One
authority claims this convicted murderer was once a dinner guest
at the Roosevelt White House. Various police authorities state
that Ricca was also suspected in more than 55 murders during
his long career in crime.
Some self-proclaimed experts only credit Ricca for being “number one” after taking over from Frank Nitti (1940-1943), but others credit Ricca with running the Outfit more than 40 years. The “Waiter” was a private person, avoiding publicity at all costs. He worked well behind the other “number ones” he gave his blessings to, such as Frank Nitti, Tony Accardo, and Sam Giancana. But it was only Accardo who remained his most trusted life-long friend.
Paul “The Waiter” Ricca became “number one” after Frank Nitti committed suicide. That’s right… suicide. Nitti is, perhaps, the only well documented suicide in the history of the Outfit. After Nitti was indicted for income tax invasion (and it looked doubtful that he would beat the rap), he knew his time had come. Insiders say Ricca would not take the risk that Nitti might talk in exchange for a deal with the G-men. Perhaps Nitti knew this, too, and figured Ricca would or had already ordered his death. So Frank Nitti loaded his revolver, walked to the railroad tracks near his home and blew his brains out. Independent, credible eyeball witnesses observed Nitti “buy the farm” in broad daylight.
Ricca did a few years in the Federal Penitentiary at Leavenworth after he and others were convicted of shaking down Hollywood motion picture studios via the Outfit’s infiltration into their union affiliations. This landmark case revealed to authorities the new direction the Outfit was taking towards infiltrating legitimate business. A guy like Jimmy Hoffa would soon be linked to these not so good fellas. With the Ricca era, we can see clearly that gangsters no longer had to be of Italian decent to be in the Chicago Outfit. As you will see, it was expended to every nationality and race in time to come.
I never met Paul “The Waiter” Ricca. He died in his sleep of natural causes on October 11, 1972. I know he left behind a legacy of lessons for the new Outfit leaders to learn from in due time. The days of machine gun blasts and dangerous extortionary practices were narrowing and being replaced by well organized, quasi-legal ventures into legitimate business enterprise. Maybe Ricca really was a “manager” and not a “waiter” as he often argued, if only because he managed to educate the Outfit members so very well. In Chicago, except for Giancana, Outfit Bosses tended to shy away from the limelight. This most definitely was a Ricca teach-by-example lesson.
Next up in my “Gangster
College” series will be a man who totally subscribed to
the Waiter’s teachings, none other than “Big Tuna”
himself – Tony “Joe Batters” Accardo, arguably
the most successful Chicago Outfit Boss of all time. He’s
the only Outfit boss schooled by both Al “Scarface”
Capone and Paul “The Waiter” Ricca. They say Accardo
was the wisest of them all–he never spent a night in prison.
Stay tuned.
©2003 by Andy Murcia. The caricature of Andy Murcia is ©2003
by Jim Hummel. The gangster cartoon is from IMSI's Master Clips
Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd. E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506,
USA. The photos are from official sources.
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