20. The New York Troubleshooter Called in to Solve a Chicago Problem
When the competition with the North Side Gang heated up, Al Capone called in his former boss, Frankie Yale. Born Francisco Iole in Calabria in southern Italy, Yale had arrived in the US at age eight. As a teenager, he joined the Five Points Gang, quickly developed a violent reputation as a ferocious fist fighter and brawler, and was first arrested in 1912 at age nineteen for disorderly conduct. He grew up to become an early New York mafia leader and hitman, and had employed a young Al Capone in his operations.
Yale began his organized crime career as a protection and extortion racketeer, and in 1913 he was arrested for the robbery and assault of a dry goods store. He walked after the store owner retracted his identification of the culprit. By 1917, he had invested his rackets proceeds into a bar in Coney Island, which became his base of operations. His criminal enterprise typified a new trend in American Mafiosi “families”: the employment of Italians from all regions, and not just from the boss’ hometown or district as had been the case traditionally.