I have, several in fact. Many lived in the western Chicago suburbs during the forties through the seventies. Some still do.
The Oak Park home where Sam Giancana lived was just a block or so from my grammar school. Giancana was killed gangland-style there in his own basement where he had a full kitchen installed for his cooking hobby. He was preparing Italian food when an unknown assailant broke in, came down the stairs and offed him before the pasta could even be served.
When I was a young lady, my boyfriend and I plus another guy drove to the River Forest home of The Big Tuna, Tony Accardo, where "the other guy" was picking up HIS date who happened to be Accardo's daughter.
I was dying to see the place, so I walked up to the door of the beautiful home with the "other guy"....and was invited in. The Tuna wasn't home, but the daughter gave us a tour. What a place! If I went into detail describing it, it would take all day.
I had a Chicago mob member and his family living in my Villa Park precinct when I was committeeman. He was a Republican. His front job was as a bartender in a local steak house....although he never tended bar there. He never failed to vote, either.
Many gangstahs lived in wealthy Oak Brook which was part of my district when I was in elective office. I'd ring their doorbells and hand them my polical brochure and ask for their vote.
A lot of the Oak Brook mobsters hung out at the old Andy's Restaurant. They'd sit at the bar with their beefy bodyguards actually standing back-to-back with them, silently watching the door like hawks till their bosses decided to get up and leave.
They weren't into politics per se, at all. Their lieutenants took care of payoffs to pols. But they absolutely loved to hang out with politicians at the local restaurant bars.
Well dressed and manicured, most of the mobsters were short and homely like heavy-lidded frogs, had heavy accents, were totally uneducated, had bad complexions and dead eyes. As conversationalists, they were complete duds. They owned lovely, but not flashy, homes in the better parts of suburban towns and villages. Except for family gatherings and basement "business" meetings, they never plied their trades where they lived, never fouling their own nests. But they never mixed with neighbors, either.
My cousin Ginger owned a beauty salon on Lake and Harlem in Oak Park where the mobsters' wives and daughters went. When the women of the family went to visit Europe, mostly to visit and bring money stashes and precious jewelry "investments" to hide with family members in Italy and Sicily, they took my cousin with them to do their hair and nails....sometimes for stays up to a month. She became very-well-to-do taking care of first and second tier mafioso female relatives. She was also in their homes all the time. Can you imagine the chit-chat she participated in?
I could tell lots more tales, but I never want to possibly bore people with reminiscing about the interesting characters I met in two decades spent in the political arena on the doorstep of Chicago. I could write a book about the good, the bad and the beautiful....but I'd never be able to cook pasta again without looking over my shoulder!
Leni
Keep on talking Leni. Very interesting. Maybe a book some day is in your future. Would be good reading. I would be the first to buy.
Well dressed and manicured, most of the mobsters were short and homely like heavy-lidded frogs, had heavy accents, were totally uneducated, had bad complexions and dead eyes. As conversationalists, they were complete duds
Interesting. I'd love to read your book, but would counsel you not to write it.....either the mob or the FBI might decide to fit you for concrete galloushes.