The organization is part of the larger Italian-American Mafia. The Outfit rose to power in the s under the control of Johnny Torrio and Al Capone , and the period was marked by bloody gang wars for control of the distribution of illegal alcohol during Prohibition.
Since then, the Outfit has been involved in a wide range of criminal activities, including loansharking , illegal gambling , prostitution , extortion , political corruption and murder. Capone was convicted of income tax evasion in and the Outfit was next run by Paul Ricca.
He shared power with Tony Accardo from until his death in ; Accardo became the sole power in the Outfit upon Ricca's death and was one of the longest-sitting bosses of all time upon his death in Though it has never had a monopoly on organized crime in Chicago , the Outfit has long been the largest, most powerful and most violent criminal organization in Chicago and the Midwest in general.
Heightened law enforcement attention and general attrition have led to its gradual decline since the late 20th century, though it continues to be one of the major and most active organized crime groups in the Chicago metropolitan area and the Midwestern region. The early years of organized crime in Chicago, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, were marked by the division of various street gangs controlling the South Side and North Side, as well as the Black Hand organizations of Little Italy.
Big Jim Colosimo centralized control in the early 20th century. Colosimo was born in Calabria , Italy, in , and immigrated to Chicago in , where he established himself as a criminal. By , with the help of bringing Johnny Torrio from New York to Chicago, he was successful enough that he was encroaching on the criminal activity of the Black Hand organization.
