Fiore "Fifi" Buccieri (December 16, 1907 – August 17, 1973) was a Chicago mobster and 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, tha ...

who specialized in

loansharking 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 ...

Early years

As a youth he was a member of the Chicago 42 Gang with future Outfit boss Sam "Momo" Giancana. He was the brother of mobster Frank Buccieri. During the 1920s, the two men worked as gunmen for future Outfit boss

Al Capone Alphonse Gabriel Capone (; January 17, 1899 – January 25, 1947), sometimes known by the nickname "Scarface", was an American gangster and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the ...

. In 1925, Buccieri was arrested for the first time on

concealed weapon Concealed carry, or carrying a concealed weapon (CCW), is the practice of carrying a weapon (usually a sidearm such as a handgun), either in proximity to or on one's person or in public places in a manner that hides or conceals the weapon's pre ...

s charge. During the bootleg wars of

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...

, Buccieri was reportedly involved in at least 10 gangland slayings. In the 1960s, following Giancana's rise to the day-to-day "boss" position in the Outfit, Buccieri served as a top enforcer and personal hitman. He was also involved in labor

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Originally and of ...

bombing,

arson Arson is the crime of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, wat ...

and loan sharking.

Top Loanshark

As a loan shark, Buccieri would send his men to stake out employment offices. These thugs would pass out business cards to the unemployed that listed Buccieri as a, "loan officer." The mob generally viewed unemployed workers as poor loan prospects; however, Buccieri was so effective at intimidating his "juice," or "loan interest," victims that they would steal or rob to pay him off. Buccieri would often warn friends of a "juice" victim not to ride around with him, "''because he is going to get hit''." When the victim heard this warning, he would quickly pay up. Buccieri, along with Jackie "The Lackey" Cerone, James "Turk" Torello, Samuel "Mad Sam" DeStefano and Dave Yaras participated in the infamous torture murder of loanshark

William "Action" Jackson William Jackson, also known as Action Jackson (December 13, 1920 – August 11, 1961) was an enforcer and loan collector for the Chicago Outfit. He earned his nickname of "Action" because it was slang for "Juice Man", which meant debt-collector. ...

. The Outfit suspected Jackson of stealing its money and working for the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

(FBI) as an informant. The 300-pound Jackson was hung on a

meat hook A meat hook is any hook normally used in butcheries to hang meat. This form of hook is a variation on the classic S hook. Types *An S-shaped hook or jointed hook is used to hang up meat or the carcasses of animals such as pigs and cattle ...

and tortured with ice picks, baseball bats, a blow torch and an electric

cattle prod A cattle prod, also called a stock prod or a hot stick, is a handheld device commonly used to make cattle or other livestock move by striking or poking them. An electric cattle prod is a stick with electrodes on the end which is used to make catt ...

. This ordeal went on for three days, until Jackson finally died of shock. Federal authorities later obtained details of Jackson's murder from conversations overheard between Buccieri and Cerone. As it turned out, Jackson was not an FBI informant.

Later years

The subject of later federal investigations, Buccieri was dubbed by federal agents, "the lord high executioner," in 1966. onflicts with given birth year of 1907 Buccieri's 62nd birthday celebration, attended by hundreds of mobsters from Chicago and around the nation, was observed by both federal and local police. They suspected that the party was a front for a mob summit meeting in which Giancana officially took over the Outfit from Anthony Accardo, which might have been an erroneous thought at some level, because Giancana has just spent the previous 12 months in federal prison and got booted that year as The Outfit's top day-to-day boss after getting out of prison, taking over the top spot nine years earlier. In 1973, Fiore Buccieri died of

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

. In 1975, Gianacana was murdered in his home. Some authorities speculated that the mob would not have ordered Giancana's death if Buccieri were still alive and acting as his bodyguard.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buccieri, Fiore 1907 births 1973 deaths American gangsters of Italian descent Chicago Outfit mobsters Mafia hitmen

Early years

Top Loanshark

Later years

Further reading

References