Fairfield is a city in and the county seat of Wayne County, Illinois, United States, and the location of Frontier Community College. The population was 4,883 at the 2020 census.
Owen Vincent "Owney" Madden was an American gangster who was a leading underworld figure in New York during Prohibition. Nicknamed "The Killer", he garnered a brutal reputation within street gangs and organized crime. He ran the Cotton Club in Manhattan and was a leading boxing promoter. After increased attention from law enforcement in New York, Madden moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1935, where he remained until his death from natural causes in 1965.
Charles "Charlie" Birger was an American bootlegger during the Prohibition period in southern Illinois.
Jewish-American organized crime initially emerged within the American Jewish community during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In media and popular culture, it has variously been referred to as the Jewish Mob, the Jewish Mafia, the Kosher Mob, the Kosher Mafia, the Yiddish Connection, and Kosher Nostra or Undzer Shtik. The last two of these terms are direct references to the Italian cosa nostra; the former is a play on the word for kosher, referring to Jewish dietary laws, while the latter is a calque of the Italian phrase 'cosa nostra' into Yiddish, which was at the time the predominant language of the Jewish diaspora in the United States.
Salvatore Joseph "Sam" Battaglia was an American mobster and high-level member of the Chicago Outfit criminal organization.
Louis "Little New York" Campagna was an American gangster and mobster and a high-ranking member of the Chicago Outfit for over three decades.
William Daddano Sr., also known as "William Russo" and "Willie Potatoes," was a top enforcer and loan shark for the Chicago Outfit and a participant in some high-profile robberies.
Waxey Gordon was an American gangster who specialized in bootlegging and illegal gambling. An associate of Arnold Rothstein during prohibition, he was caught up in a power struggle following Rothstein's death. Fellow Rothstein associates Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Meyer Lansky provided authorities with evidence that led to his imprisonment for ten years.
Joseph Esposito was an American politician best known for his involvement in bootlegging, extortion, prostitution and labor racketeering in Chicago, Illinois during the Prohibition era.
James Matthew Ragen, Sr. was an Irish businessman and co-founder of the Chicago-based street gang and political club Ragen's Colts.
Joseph Francis Saltis, known as "Polack Joe", was a Rusyn American Prohibition era organized crime boss who, with Frank McErlane, operated an illegal bootlegging crime family in the Back of the Yards neighborhood of Chicago, until his territory was seized by Al Capone and the Chicago Outfit. Saltis then retired to Wisconsin.
Samuel Jules "Nails" Morton was a soldier during World War I and later a high-ranking member of Dean O'Banion's Northside gang.
Lawrence "Dago Lawrence" Mangano was a Chicago organized crime figure and member of the Chicago Outfit during the 1920s to the 1940s. He was a relative of Joseph Mangano and Philip Mangano, of Chicago, and a suspected relative of New York City Mafia Boss Vincent Mangano.
Walter Stevens (1877–1931) was a freelance enforcer and "hitman", popularly known as "dean of the Chicago gunmen", during Prohibition. Although having the reputation of a violent gangster, credited with the deaths of at least 60 men, Stevens was a devoted husband to an invalid wife and his three adopted children. Stevens was uncharacteristically cultured compared to his fellow gangsters, refraining from drinking and reportedly quoting classical literature from authors such as Robert Louis Stevenson and poet Robert Burns.
The Labor Sluggers War was a 15-year period of gang wars among New York City labor sluggers for control of labor racketeering from 1911 to 1927. This began in 1911 with the first war between "Dopey" Benny Fein and Joe "The Greaser" Rosenzweig against a coalition of smaller gangs and continuing on and off until the murder of Jacob "Little Augie" Orgen by Louis "Lepke" Buchalter and Gurrah Shapiro in 1927.
Egan's Rats was an American organized crime gang that exercised considerable power in St. Louis, Missouri, from 1890 to 1924. Its 35 years of criminal activity included bootlegging, labor slugging, voter intimidation, armed robbery, and murder. Although predominantly Irish-American, Egan's Rats did include a few Italian-Americans and some Jewish immigrants, most notably Max "Big Maxie" Greenberg.
Frank L. "Buster" Wortman was an American St. Louis-area bootlegger, gambler, criminal gang leader, and a former member of the Shelton Brothers Gang during Prohibition. Wortman would eventually succeed the Sheltons, and take over St. Louis's gambling operations in southwest Illinois until his death.
Phillip "Dandy Phil" Kastel was a Jewish-American organized crime figure, gambler, and longtime associate of both the Genovese and New Orleans crime family.
Halfway, Illinois was a rough and very wet unincorporated community nicknamed "Little Juarez" in Williamson County, Illinois, at what is believed to the crossroads of Illinois Route 37 and Prosperity Road between Marion and Johnston City. Its heyday was between 1915 and 1925. The name originated because it was about halfway between Marion and Herrin, located a few miles to the west on what is now a county highway. The nickname came about from the general lawlessness, shootings and proliferation of gambling and booze, even during Prohibition.
The College Kidnappers was a group of alumni from the University of Illinois who specialized in kidnapping wealthy mobsters for ransom. These mobsters were targets because they were less likely to approach the police and could pay the ransom.
