Salvatore Joseph "Sam" Battaglia (November 5, 1908 – September 7, 1973) was an American

mobster A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...

and high-level member of the

Chicago Outfit The Chicago Outfit (also known as the Outfit, the Chicago Mafia, the Chicago Mob, the Chicago crime family, the South Side Gang or The Organization) is an Italian-American organized crime syndicate or crime family based in Chicago, Illinois, ...

criminal organization.

Early career

Battaglia was born in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. At age 16, Battaglia joined bosses

Johnny Torrio John Donato Torrio (born Donato Torrio, ; January 20, 1882 – April 16, 1957) was an Italian born-American mobster who helped build the Chicago Outfit in the 1920s later inherited by his protégé Al Capone. Torrio proposed a National Crime Sy ...

and Al Capone in the

at the start of the gang war against the mostly

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

North Side Gang The North Side Gang, also known as the North Side Mob, was an Irish-Polish-American criminal organization within Chicago during the Prohibition era from the early 1920s to the mid-1930s. It was the principal rival of the South Side Gang, als ...

, which was under boss

Dean O'Banion Charles Dean O'Banion (July 8, 1892 – November 10, 1924) was an American mobster who was the main rival of Johnny Torrio and Al Capone during the brutal Chicago bootlegging wars of the 1920s. The newspapers of his day made him better known ...

. By the late 1930s, Battaglia had become a high-ranking member of the Outfit and a formidable

loan shark A loan shark is a person who offers loans at extremely high interest rates, has strict terms of collection upon failure, and generally operates outside the law. Description Because loan sharks operate mostly illegally, they cannot reasonably ...

. Debtors behind in their payments would be brought to Battaglia in the back room of the Casa Madrid restaurant, in Chicago, where they would be severely beaten or killed. Supposedly Battaglia's nickname "Teets" came from one such encounter. Another

was questioning Battaglia's handling of a debtor and Battaglia yelled back at him, "Shaddup, or I'll bust ya in da teets!"

Outfit member

By 1950, Battaglia had an extensive

criminal record A criminal record, police record, or colloquially RAP sheet (Record of Arrests and Prosecutions) is a record of a person's criminal history. The information included in a criminal record and the existence of a criminal record varies between coun ...

that included over 12 counts of burglary, robbery, and murder (he was a suspect in seven homicides). A close associate of Outfit boss Giancana, Battaglia was considered as Giancana's successor once he stepped down. While testifying before the

Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations The Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI), stood up in March 1941 as the "Truman Committee," is the oldest subcommittee of the United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (formerly the Committee on Governme ...

of the U.S. Senate Committee on Government Operations investigations on

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

, Battaglia pleaded the

Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution The Fifth Amendment (Amendment V) to the United States Constitution addresses criminal procedure and other aspects of the Constitution. It was ratified, along with nine other articles, in 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights. The Fifth Amend ...

over 60 times. As long-time Outfit leader Antonino ("Tony," "Joe Batters") Accardo stepped away from the limelight to shield himself in the 1950s, Battaglia struggled for power along with rivals Giancana,

Felix Alderisio Felix Anthony "Milwaukee Phil" Alderisio (April 26, 1912 – September 25, 1971) was an American enforcer, bagman, hitman and burglar for the Chicago Outfit. He was underboss to Sam Giancana during the 1960s, and boss from 1967 to his imprisonmen ...

and Fiore "Fifi" Buccieri. 1965 Battaglia became outfit boss, succeeding Giancana, who had fled the country. However, in 1967, Battaglia was convicted of violating the

Hobbs Act The Hobbs Act, named after United States Representative Sam Hobbs ( D- AL) and codified at , is a United States federal law enacted in 1946 that provides: Section 1951 also proscribes conspiracy to commit robbery or extortion without refere ...

for obstructing interstate commerce and sentenced to 15 years in prison. With Battaglia in prison and Giancana living in exile in Mexico, Felix "Milwaukee Phil" Alderisio took over as day-to-day boss.

References

Bibliography

*Kelly, Robert J. ''Encyclopedia of Organized Crime in the United States''. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2000. *Sifakis, Carl. ''The Mafia Encyclopedia''. New York: Da Capo Press, 2005. *Sifakis, Carl. ''The Encyclopedia of American Crime'' (2nd. ed) New York: Facts on File Inc., 2005.

External links

Battaglia Brothers
by John William Tuohy
Chicago Sun-Times: A century of Chicago mob bosses
{{DEFAULTSORT:Battaglia, Sam 1908 births 1973 deaths American gangsters of Italian descent Chicago Outfit mobsters Al Capone associates Chicago Outfit bosses People of Venetian descent

Early career

Outfit member

References

Further reading

Bibliography

External links