The Chicago Outfit: Challenging the Myths About Organized Crime

Abstract

Americans have had a love affair with gangsters since the 1920s. Romanticized in novels, movies, and television programs, they have been portrayed as outlaws, entrepreneurs, men of honor, and benevolent godfathers. Stereotypes of organized crime (OC) figures are an enduring feature of popular culture in the United States and so are myths about OC families and gangsters who populate them. This article confronts these myths as they apply particularly to Chicago's OC family known as the Outfit. Eight such myths are discussed: the Mafia is operating in America; OC families consist of only Italians; all members of OC families must take an oath; nobody testifies in OC families; drugs sales in OC families are prohibited; Al Capone was not the boss of his gang; the St. Valentine's Day Massacre was not a Capone operation; the Outfit helped elect President Kennedy. © 2013 SAGE Publications.