History in University Village

Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Star co-founded Hull House in 1889 at 800 South Halsted Street.  It was the nation's most influential and best-known settlement house, providing social and educational opportunities for working class people, many of whom were European immigrants.  By 1907, the single mansion was converted into a massive, sprawling 13-building complex.  The residents of Hull House impacted local government by establishing the city's first public playground and first public bathhouse, as well as the first juvenile court in the United States.  Hull House was designated a a National Historic Landmark on June 23, 1965, and a Chicago Landmark on June 12, 1972.  Today the Jane Addams-Hull House Museum at this address is part of the College of Architecture and the Arts at the University of Illinois-Chicago.  It continues to operate under the Jane Addams Hull House Association, which is composed of several social centers in Chicago.

St. Ignatius College Prep at 1076 West Roosevelt Road is a co-educational, Catholic, college preparatory school that was founded in 1870 by Fr. Arnold Damen, a Belgian missionary to the United States.  Its lengthy list of accomplished alumni includes legendary comedian and TV star Bob Newhart, Chicago Cardinals owner and NFL Hall of Famer Charles Bidwell (his family now owns the Arizona Cardinals), Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jack Higgins, sports columnist and television personality Michael Wilbon, movie stars Casey and Nina Siemaszko, and an enviable regiment of politicians, including William M. Daley, Daniel Hynes, Michael Madigan, Dan Lipinski, and Todd Stroger.  

Francesco Raffaele Nittoni, later known as Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti, was born in the Salerno province of Italy and emigrated to the United States at the age of 12.  While in Brooklyn, he became a neighborhood friend of Al Capone's older brothers, dropped out of school early, and worked as a pinsetter, factory worker, and barber.  By 1918, he had moved to Chicago, but came by way of Galveston, Texas, where he was involved in some sort of organized criminal activity and may have stolen cash from two local gangsters, necessitating a speedy departure.  He and his wife Rosa took up residence at 914 South Halsted Street, which is now a massive science and engineering building on the UIC campus.

Before long, Nitti had become a skilled liquor smuggler, and he ended up working for Johnny Torrio and then Al Capone.  He would get his hands on Canadian whiskey and distribute it to a network of Chicago speakeasies.  Despite his nickname, Nitti preferred to let other strongmen do the dirty work.  In 1931, Nitti and Capone were convicted for tax evasion, although Nitti received only an 18-month sentence, compared to the eleven years handed down to Capone.  Nitti apparently suffered from claustrophobia, a syndrome particularly incompatible with incarceration.

Following his release from prison, he was hailed by the press as the leader of the Chicago Outfit, although mafia historians believe he was more of a figurehead than a boss.  Nonetheless, Nitti led the Outfit into new opportunities for racketeering, through labor unions and corporate extortion.  On December 19, 1932, a group of Chicago police raided his office.  Nitti was shot three times in the neck and back by Sergeant Harry Lang, who then shot himself, inflicting a minor flesh wound to create the impression that Nitti attempted to kill him.  Nitti survived.  In February 1933, he was subsequently acquitted on charges of attempted murder of a police officer.  (Some sources report that the trial ended in a hung jury.)  At the ensuing trial, Lang's partner, Harry Miller, testified that Sergeant Lang was offered $15,000 to kill Nitti.  Another police officer testified that Nitti was unarmed during the confrontation.  Both Lang and Miller were later fined and expelled from the force.  Nitti allegedly believed that Chicago Mayor Anton Cermak ordered the hit, and many mob historians believe that the mayor’s subsequent assassination (he was campaigning in Florida with President Roosevelt at the time) had Nitti’s fingerprints on it.

In 1943, many top members of the Chicago Outfit, including Frank Nitti, were indicted for extorting money from several prominent Hollywood movie studios.  On March 18, 1943, there was a mob gathering at Nitti’s house in Riverside.  At the meeting, his henchmen blamed him for getting them into the Hollywood extortion racket and wanted him to take the fall for the whole gang.  Nitti ordered everyone to leave.  The next morning, dreading the prospect of another claustrophobic term in the pen, and possibly aware that he was dying of a terminal illness, Nitti waited until his wife left the house, tossed back a couple hard drinks, and walked to a nearby railyard with a pistol.  The first two shots went through his hat.  His third shot landed.

Samuzzo “Samoots” Amatuna was a renowned Chicago mobster who reputedly got his start as a bodyguard for the Genna brothers.  The Genna family controlled a substantial bootlegging operation on the west side of Chicago and worked with Al Capone’s notorious “Outfit.”  Samoots was implicated in the murders of Paul Labriola and Frank Lombardi and allegedly attempted to kill 19th Ward Alderman Johnny Powers by detonating a bomb on his doorstep.  In 1925, Amatuna declared himself the leader of the famed Unione Siciliane.  Among other business pursuits, Samoots owned the Bluebird Café at Halsted and Taylor Street in Little Italy, where he reputedly played the fiddle and sang for his restaurant patrons.  Like many of his colleagues, however, his life ended violently.  He was killed while getting his haircut on November 13, 1925.