From The Archives - February 2015

Louis Campagna was a New York mobster and a high-ranking member of the Chicago Outfit for over three decades.

There is little information about Louis Campagna’s early life. He was born in 1900 in Brooklyn to emigrant parents from Italy. As a teenager it is reported that Campagna joined New York’s Five Points Gang of Manhattan. One of Campagna’s gang associates was future Chicago Outfit boss Al Capone.

In 1919, Campagna was convicted of robbing an Illinois bank and sent to the Pontiac Reformatory. In April of 1924, Campagna was patrolled but returned to the reformatory six months later for a parole violation. In 1923, New York mobster Al Capone moved to Chicago to help south side gang boss John Torrio deal with rival bootleggers. After his final release in November of 1924, Campagna returned to New York. Immediately, Al Capone summoned Campagna to Chicago to be his bodyguard. Campagna proved to be a reliable gunman during the long bloody war with the rival North Side Gang. During this time, it was noted that Campagna slept outside Capone’s hotel room ready to protect his boss.

Campagna was known for his reckless and unpredictable nature, he attempted to besiege a Chicago Police Station in November of 1927. An ally of the North Side Gang, Joe Aiello, had unsuccessfully attempted to bribe a hotel chief to poison Capone. When Campagna heard news of Aiello being in jail on a murder conspiracy charge, he and twenty other outfit members went to the station to get him. Upon arrival, police noticed Campagna carrying a hand gun and immediately arrested him. The police then placed him in a cell next to Aiello’s. In another cell, an undercover officer picked up a conversation between the two. Campagna threatened Aiello telling him “you’re a dead man” and Aiello pleaded "Can't we settle this? Give me fourteen days and I'll sell my stores, my house and everything and quit Chicago for good”. Aiello was shot to death on October 23 , 1930 while leaving his Chicago apartment. The coroner reported the removal of fifty-nine bullets weighing over a pound. No one was charged in Aiello’s murder.

Following Capone’s 1931 conviction for tax evasion, Campagna rose through the Outfit ranks as an extortionist and labor racketeer. In 1934, under Paul Ricca, Campagna invested approximately $1,500 of his own money in two illegal gambling dens in Cicero. He would eventually net $75,000 per year from this investment. In 1935, He participated in the Outfit infiltration of the Chicago Bartender and Beverage Dispensers Union. In 1940, the Union head obtained a temporary injunction against Campagna and other Outfit members. However when the case went to trial, the Union leader refused to testify and the case was dismissed. In 1943, Campagna and his associates stole about $900,000 from the treasury of the Retail Clerks International Protective Association, Local 1248, in Chicago. The funds were never recovered.

During the early 1940s, Campagna extorted one million dollars from the U.S. Film Industry. On December 22, 1943, Campagna was convicted of extortion. A week later, he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment in Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. In August of 1947, Campagana was released with fellow Outfit members on parole their first of eligibility. Supposedly, Outfit boss, Anthony Accardo bribed a district attorney to facilitate their early release.

In the early 1950s, Campagna was summoned to testify before the U.S Senate in the Kefauver Hearings on organized crime. However, apart from revealing his income from the Cicero gambling operations, Campagna did not provide any useful testimony.

On May 30, 1955, Campagna suffered a fatal heart attack. Since the Catholic Church denied Campagna a church funeral, the memorial service was held a funeral home in Beryn. His service, in what observers described as the most lavish mob funeral since Capone’s death.


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