Chicago Mafia’s Joe ‘The Builder’ Andriacchi Latest in Line

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Organized crime runs deep in Chicago’s DNA.

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Aside from the flashy Al Capone, the gangsters of the Second City may not have gotten as much headlines and documentaries as their New York cousins, but they are just as deadly.

Thousands of gangland rubouts remain cold. That’s how The Outfit wanted it. Low, quiet and here’s a stuffed envelope for your troubles, copper.

And for some bizarre reason, some of The Outfit’s impressive crime bosses have had long lives.

Joe “The Builder” Andriacchi, known in gangland as “The Sledgehammer,” retired from active duty in August. He was 91.

“Andriacchi was a top executive in The Outfit for a long time, or close to it, and with his death there’s a generational handover because now they’re all gone,” said John Binder, a longtime Outfit follower and author.

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Anthony “Big Tuna” Acardo, Joey “Joey Doves” Aiuppa and Joseph “Joey the Clown” Lombardo (Andriacchi’s cousin) are all now deceased.

Andriacchi was born on October 20, 1932, and grew up in a large family on Chicago’s North Side. His parents, Bruno and Angelina Andriacchi, were hardworking Italian immigrants. His father worked as a construction laborer and later as a street sweeper for the sanitation service. His mother cooked and cared for her children.

The future gangster attended Wells High School in the old neighborhood.

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“He grows up in the Grand Avenue neighborhood, starts out as a burglar/thief, with some specialty in opening safes (hence Sledgehammer), and from there he becomes an Outfit man,” Binder told the Chicago Sun-Times.

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“It’s pretty clear that he’s served as underboss at least twice… An underboss is the guy who runs the day-to-day operations, the right-hand man of the top guy.”

The Sledgehammer also seemed to possess a rare criminal trait: he stayed out of prison except during a three-year sentence for a burglary in the late 1960s.

“(He is) not only a muscle man, but also smart, at least by gangster standards,” said the Chicago Tribune said about him in the late 1980s.

That’s not to say there weren’t problems along the way. In 1958, Andriacchi — then 25 — and a buddy were arrested for severely beating a Chicago police officer who had the audacity to take the friend in for questioning in a series of burglaries.

For doing his duty, the officer suffered a concussion, a severed ear and a pierced tongue due to his tooth.

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But as the Trib noted, Andriacchi had some brains. Ever since Capone went down, not because of murder, bootlegging, drugs or prostitution, but because of tax evasion, Windy City mobsters have been wary of the IRS. Most of them had jobs — at least on paper.

Andriacchi was different. He was nicknamed “The Builder” because of his construction company.

“All these guys have had some kind of front for tax purposes since the ’50s, a profession that they claim is where they get their income from, but that’s a farce, but Andriacchi really had a profession,” Binder told the Solar Times.

“It wasn’t just a sham. He owned a construction company and he was apparently quite good at it. It was a successful construction company.”

In addition, the gangster was a silent partner in several Chicago restaurants.

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Like my friend, former Gambino underboss Salvatore “Sammy the Bull” Gravano, who was virtually unknown until publicity-loving godfather John Gotti turned the spotlight on HIGH, Andriacchi kept it a secret.

But by the 1980s, the OldFellas, who made up the top of The Outfit, were either dead or facing lengthy prison sentences.

The Builder’s name suddenly began to be whispered in the early ’80s as one of The Outfit’s power brokers. And he remained at the top even as the feds clamped down on the organization and sent dozens of gangsters to prison.

Time and cancer have taken care of the others.

But it was the explosive 2007 Operation Family Secrets investigation that dealt the Outfit a major blow, sending its top officers to prison.

Snitch Nick Calabrese—who admitted to freezing 14 people on orders from Outfit bosses—flipped out, became an informant for the prosecution, and testified. On the FBI’s list of 16 mobsters who wanted to put a bullet in Calabrese’s head was Joe “The Builder” Andriacchi.

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Andriacchi was now seen as the leader, or the kingmaker, depending on how you viewed Byzantine mafia politics.

“Does the conviction of four top Mafiosi on Monday mean the end of the Chicago Outfit? Hardly. Who runs the Chicago Mafia is unclear,” said the Solar Times he asked at the end of the trial.

“Notable mobsters who have not been charged in the Family Secrets case, but who remain powerful within the Outfit, include Joe ‘The Builder’ Andriacchi.”

Maybe the Chicago-born gangster shouldn’t be on the cover of People magazine, but the federal government now knew exactly who De Bouwer was.

Anthony “Little Toes” Zizzo, 71, certainly did. Andriacchi remains the prime suspect in the 2006 disappearance and suspected murder of the Chicago underboss.

Zizzo was reportedly the last approved kill by The Outfit.

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@HunterTOSun

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