Fiore Buccieri

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Fiore "Fifi" Buccieri (December 16, 1907-August 1973) was a Chicago mobster and member of the Chicago Outfit. He is a distant relative of Edward Buccieri who was murdered in Las Vegas by Anthony Spilotro susposedly after a dispute with Allen Glick.

A member of the 42 Gang along with future syndicate boss Sam Giancana, both he and Giancana worked as gunmen under Al Capone during the 1920s, with Buccieri's first arrested in 1925 on a concealed weapons charge. During the bootleg wars of Prohibition, Buccieri was reportedly involved in at least ten gangland slayings.

Following Giancana's takeover of the syndicate in the mid-1960s, Buccieri served as a top enforcer and personal hitman under Giancana and was also involved in syndicate activities including labor racketeering bombing, arson, and loan sharking. A favorite method of intimidation used by Buccieri was to warn the acquaintances of a "juice" victim not to ride with the person "because he is going to get hit". When the victim heard about the alleged murder contract, he would quickly pay up.

Buccieri would often have men staked out at employment offices and when an unemployed worker was rejected, his men would issue business cards which referred to Buccieri as a "loan officer". Although, those out of work were generally seen as poor investments, Buccieri was easily able to intimidate his "juice" victims to the extent they would resort to illegal means in order to pay off Buccieri.

Buccieri, along with Jackie "The Lackie" Cerone, James "Turk" Torello, Samuel "Mad Sam" DeStefano, Dave Yaras and others, participated in the torture murder of loanshark William "Action" Jackson. Wrongly suspected of being an informant for the FBI (as well as using syndicate money for his own use), the 300-pound Jackson had been placed on a meat hook and tortured with devices including ice picks, baseball bats, a blow torch and an electric cattle prod for two days before dying from his wounds. Details of the execution were later recorded by federal authorities in conversations between Buccieri and Cerone.

The subject of later federal investigations, Buccieri was dubbed by federal agents "the lord high executioner" the Chicago Outfit in 1966. The celebration of his 62nd birthday, which was attended by hundreds of mobsters both from Chicago and elsewhere, was observed by both federal and local police officials. The birthday celebration was also suspected to be a cover for a mob summit meeting in which Giancana officially assumed leadership from Anthony Accardo.

Buccieri would continue to help keep Giancana in power until his death from cancer in 1973. With Gianacana killed in his home only two years later, authorities claimed Giancana's death may have never been ordered had Buccieri still been serving as his bodyguard.

[edit] Further reading

United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Governmental Affairs. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Organized Crime in Chicago: Hearing Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Govermental Affairs. 1983. [1]
United States. Congress. Senate. Government Operations Committee. Organized Crime and Illicit Traffic in Narcotics: Hearings before the Government Operations Committee. 1964. [2]
A Report on Chicago Crime. Chicago: Chicago Crime Commission Reports, 1954-1968. [3]