From The Archives - March 2015

Charles Fischetti has been regarded as a member of the Capone syndicate since the early 1920s. During the last of the 1920s and the early 1930s he was referred to as the “body guard of Al Capone”. He was also Al Capone’s cousin and he reputed consigliere.  
In the early days of Prohibition, Fischetti was a small time bootlegger employed by Capone. He was a gunman goon, muscle man who stopped at nothing to acquire a dollar. Fischetti and his brother Rocco ran the lavish Vernon Country Club. Most of his activity, reportedly, was in connection with the operation of gambling houses. On January 8, 1933, Fischetti was found guilty; a sentence of $300.00 fine and one year in the House of Correction was imposed. He was freed under $5000 bond and his attorney Tyrell Richardosn, given thirty days to file an appeal. On March 11, 1933 Fischetti failed to appear in court and the judge ordered his bond forfeited. However, there is no record whether Fishetti served the year in the House of Correction and paid his fine. In 1953, he was arrested for disorderly conduct but was released on a writ of habeas corpus and was freed. Captain William J. Drury of Chicago regarded Charles Fischetti as “one of the ‘general managers’ in this huge underworld syndicate”.  According to the Chicago Tribune, Fischetti was known as the gang’s fixer and traveling salesman. When any of the bad boys got out of line, Fischetti’s job was too “whistle them in” – in other words, to make them behave with an “or else” warning.  Acquaintances said Fischetti was not liked and was never known to have done a kind deed or helped any of the less fortunate of his criminal associates. In 1950, Fischetti’s gambling interests are said to have extended to Wisconsin, Ohio, and Michigan as well as Illinois. Fischetti and his brother Rocco surrendered the second of April in 1951 to the sergeant-at-arms of the United States Senate having been sought to testify before the Senate Crime Investigating Committee (Kefauver Committee). Charles Fischetti died nine days later, before he could testify.



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