1884
March 19, 1943

AKA: The Enforcer

Mobster

A onetime barber, Frank Nitti rose to become an important player in Al Capone’s (see entry in volume 1) mob. An “enforcer” and organizer for the gang’s bootlegging operation, he became a leader of the Chicago mob after Capone was imprisoned for tax evasion in 1931. Nitti’s notoriety grew with the TV series The Untouchables, which fictionalized his role. He survived being shot by his enemies, only to take his own life in 1943 in Chicago. At the time, he faced a prison sentence for racketeering (threatening a business for profit).

Frank, The Enforcer

Francisco “Frank” Nitti was born in Naples, Italy, in 1884. He arrived in the United States before the era of Prohibition (a period, from 1919 to 1933, when the 18th Amendment outlawed the manufacture and sale of liquor). Nitti settled in Chicago, where...