Francesco Raffaele Nitto, better known as, "Frank 'The Enforcer' Nitti
Francesco Raffaele Nitto, better known as, "Frank 'The Enforcer' Nitti
Francesco Raffaele Nitto, better known as, "Frank 'The Enforcer' Nitti" was one of the top henchmen of Al Capone and later the front man for the Chicago Outfit.
1943, many top members of the Chicago Outfit were indicted for extorting the Hollywood film industry. The Outfit was accused of trying to strong arm some of the largest Hollywood movie studios, including MGM Studios, Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, and RKO Radio Pictures.
The studios had cooperated with The Outfit to avoid union trouble stirred up by the mob.... Read story
At a meeting of Outfit leaders at Nitti's home, Nitti underboss Ricca angrily blamed Nitti for the indictments. Ricca said that since this had been Nitti's scheme and that the FBI informant, Willie Bioff, had been Nitti's trusted associate, Nitti should take the fall for the Outfit and go to prison. A severe claustrophobic as a result of his first prison term, Nitti dreaded the idea of another prison confinement. It was also rumored that he was suffering from terminal cancer at this time. For these or other reasons, he ultimately decided to take his own life.
The day before his scheduled grand jury appearance, Nitti shared breakfast with his wife in their Riverside, Illinois home. As his wife was leaving for church, Nitti told her he planned to take a walk. After his wife left, Nitti began to drink heavily. He then loaded a .32 caliber revolver, put it in his coat pocket, and walked five blocks to a local railroad yard. Two railroad workers spotted Nitti walking on the track of an oncoming train and shouted a warning. They thought the train hit him, but Nitti had managed to jump out of the way in time. Then two shots rang out.
The trainmen first thought Nitti was shooting at them, but then realized he was trying to shoot himself in the head. The two bullets went through his hat. Nitti finally sat on the ground against a fence and, with the railroad workers watching from a distance, shot himself in the head. Frank Nitti died on an Illinois Central railroad branch line in North Riverside, Illinois on March 19, 1943.
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