Louis Campagna

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Louis "Little New York" Campagna (1900 – 1955) was a New York mobster and a high ranking member of the Chicago Outfit for over three decades.

A member of New York's Five Points Gang during his teenage years, Campagna was brought to Chicago by fellow former Five Pointer Al Capone as a bodyguard. Campagna proved to be a valuable gunman during the long and bloody gang war with the Chicago North Side Gang. Campagna reportedly slept on a cot outside Capone's suite of rooms at the Lexington Hotel, ready to protect his boss from gangsters should they shoot their way through at least fifty gunman stationed downstairs.

Known for his reckless and unpredictable nature, Campagna was arrested by police as he attempted to storm a Chicago police station in an attempt to murder mobster Joe Aiello. Aiello had been plotting Capone's death with North Side boss George Moran. As he was taken to a cell next to Aiello, a conversation was transcribed by a police officer fluent in Italian:

Campagna: "You're dead, dear friend, you're dead. You won't get to the end of the street still walking.
Aiello: "Can't we settle this ? Give me fourteen days and I'll sell my stores, my house and everything and quit Chicago for good. Can't we settle it ? Think of my wife and my baby."
Campagna: "You dirty rat ! You've broke faith with us twice now. You started this, we'll finish it."

Aiello was later shot to death while leaving a North Kalmar Avenue apartment, on October 28, 1930. During a later autopsy, a coroner reported removing 59 bullets weighing over a pound from Aiello's body.

Following Capone's 1931 conviction for tax evasion, Campagna rose through the Outfit ranks as an extortionist and labor union racketeering under Outfit boss Paul "The Waiter" Ricca. Working with Willie Morris Bioff and George Browne, Campagna extorted millions from Hollywood film studios during the late 1930s. In 1943, Campagna was convicted with much of the Outfit's leadership and sentenced to ten years imprisonment. He then turned to the only true family he had; his cousin Albert Campagna. Albert however wanting nothing to do with his cousin Louis in fear that his two daughters and two sons would become a target. However, released after three years, Campagna returned to running syndicate operations under Outfit boss Sam Giancana until retiring to his 800-acre Indiana residence. In 1955, Campagna died of a heart attack on his yacht while sailing off the coast of Miami, Florida.

[edit] Further reading

  • Binder, John. The Chicago Outfit. Arcadia Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-7385-2326-7
  • Giancana, Sam and Chuck. Double Cross: The Explosive, Inside Story of the Mobster Who Controlled America. New York: Warner Books, 1992. ISBN 0-446-51624-4
  • Kobler, John. Capone: The Life and Times of Al Capone. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81285-1
  • Reppetto, Thomas A. American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2004. ISBN 0-8050-7798-7
  • Schoenberg, Robert J. Mr. Capone. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992. ISBN 0-688-12838-6

[edit] References

  • Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. ISBN 0-8160-5694-3
  • Sifakis, Carl. The Encyclopedia of American Crime. New York: Facts on File Inc., 2001. ISBN 0-8160-4040-0

[edit] External links