Joseph Glimco
Joseph Paul Glimco was an Italian-American labor leader and well-known organized crime figure based in Chicago. He was considered "Chicago's top labor racketeer" in the 1950s. One high-ranking Chicago Teamsters leader noted in 1954, "He is the mob. When he opens his mouth, it's the syndicate talking". Glimco was active in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and a close associate of Teamsters president Jimmy Hoffa. He was a capo in the Chicago Outfit, an organized crime syndicate, and oversaw the syndicate's labor racketeering efforts. He worked closely with Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo, who led the Chicago Outfit from 1943 to 1957, and Sam "Momo" Giancana, who led the syndicate from 1957 to 1966. A United States Senate committee once claimed that Glimco ran "the nation's most corrupt union".
Among his numerous aliases were Joey Glimco, Tough Guy Glimco, Joseph Glinico, Joseph Glielmi, and Joey Clinco. He was also known as "Little Tim" Murphy, a reference to Timothy "Big Tim" Murphy, a Chicago mobster and labor racketeer whom the Chicago Outfit feared and subsequently murdered in 1928.
Early life
Glimco was born Giuseppe Glielmi in Puglietta, a frazione of the town of Campagna in the Province of Salerno, Campania in Italy, in 1909, and emigrated to the United States with his family in 1913, settling in Chicago. He had two brothers, including Frank, and a sister. Glimco attended public school but quit after the seventh grade to earn a living as a shoeshiner and newspaper delivery boy. He owned two newsstands when he was 20 years old. Glimco's criminal career began about the same time as his departure from school. By the time he was 18, he had been arrested five times and convicted twice for disorderly conduct and once for larceny. By the time he was 25, he had been arrested another 16 times—including arrests for murder, bootlegging, motor vehicle theft, criminal intimidation, bombing, and public brawling.In 1932, he married Lena Pierini, an Italian-American woman, and they had a son; Joseph Jr., and a daughter, Jo Anne Kosey. His brother Frank married Dona Alex, the sister of Gus Alex, a hitman for Chicago Outfit financial and legal advisor Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik.
Around the time of his marriage, Glimco became an associate of important Chicago Outfit leaders Tony Accardo and Louis "Little New York" Campagna. Campagna became Glimco's "mob patron", helping to guide his decisions and actions and keep him out of law enforcement trouble.
Glimco applied to become a naturalized U.S. citizen in November 1931, but his application was turned down in November 1932 due to his extensive criminal record. He applied again in June 1938, and was denied for the same reasons in July 1939. He applied a final time in 1940, and his petition was approved in 1943.
Organized crime and labor activities
Glimco had an extensive career as a labor racketeer in the 1930s. By 1930, he had become an established "labor slugger", assaulting or threatening to assault union members or employers in order to help organized crime gain control of labor unions. One of his chief soldiers was Dominic Senese. Probably his first assignment was to help the Chicago Outfit run the Commission Drivers Union, IBT. Soon thereafter, Glimco became a protégé of William J. "Witt" Hanley, secretary-treasurer of the Produce, Fresh & Frozen Fruits & Vegetables, Fish, Butter, Eggs, Cheese & Poultry Drivers Union, Local 703, IBT. Hanley had strong mob ties, and Local 703 president William "Klondike" O'Donnell was a notorious gangster. Glimco became the "office manager" for the Poultry Handlers Union, IBT, in 1933, organizer for the Poultry Handlers in 1937, and later an organizer for the Poultry Drivers and the Fish Handlers & Filleters unions as well. Both locals were part of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen national union. Among his frequent associates were a number of other labor leaders and staff with strong ties to organized crime. Glimco was overseeing the extortion of the city's Fulton Street and Randolph Street poultry dealers by 1934, and two years later was such a prominent labor racketeer that the Chicago Tribune named him one of Al Capone's chief soldiers. After Capone went to prison in 1931, Glimco openly associated with the titular head of the Chicago mob, Frank Nitti.In 1940, Hanley brought Glimco to see Dominic Abata, founder of the taxi drivers' division of Local 777, IBT. Hanley told Abata to put Glimco on the payroll; intimidated, Abata made Glimco the division's executive director. After Hanley's death in 1944, Glimco began to take over a larger number of the labor rackets in Chicago. He also started to exercise more active control of Taxi Drivers Local 777 as well as the Produce Drivers union. In 1944, Glimco was elected secretary-treasurer of Local 777, and in 1950 became the local's sole pension and welfare fund trustee.
Growing Teamsters connections and mob influence
Glimco's influence spread within the mob and the Chicago labor movement beginning in 1950. That year, Glimco made a strong push to take over the Chicago Federation of Labor, terrorizing influential local labor leaders with repeated bombings and drive-by shootings. Glimco forced Abata out of Local 777 in 1951 by making death threats against him, his wife, and his children, replaced him with cab driver Joe Coca, and in 1952 was employed by the local as a negotiator. He was also elected a delegate to the Chicago Federation of Labor, the Illinois Federation of Labor, and Teamsters Joint Council of Chicago. Through most of the 1950s Glimco was considered "Chicago's top labor racketeer". One top Chicago Teamsters leader noted in 1954, "He is the mob. When he opens his mouth, it's the syndicate talking". Federal law enforcement officials, who had been investigating Glimco since 1943, agreed: "We are investigating Glimco because he represents the syndicate". Glimco attended a meeting of top Chicago Outfit leaders at the home of Tony Accardo in April 1952, and a meeting of the Outfit's top labor racketeers at the home of Murray "The Camel" Humphreys in 1953. Humphreys was pushed out of active involvement in most organized crime activities in 1954 due to failing eyesight, and Glimco was named his successor. The Chicago Crime Commission estimated Glimco's income from union salaries, businesses, kickbacks, and extortion payoffs to be $70,000 a month after this takeover. His legitimate business interests included a chemical company, several laundries, a phonograph record distributor, and a number of jukebox leasing firms.Glimco was also wielded increasing power in the Teamsters union. In 1952, he switched sides and threw the support of a large block of Chicago delegates' votes behind the candidacy of Dave Beck, who was challenging incumbent Teamsters President Daniel Tobin for the union's presidency. The following year, Glimco—controlling about 25 percent of the votes in the race for the Teamsters Joint Council of Chicago—orchestrated the defeat of the incumbent president and his slate of three council members and installed his own candidates in office.
Glimco's support of Beck was not strong, however. Glimco began supporting up-and-coming Teamsters official Jimmy Hoffa in the late 1940s. Hoffa was expanding his political base within the Teamsters in preparation for an attempt to unseat incumbent Teamsters President Dave Beck. Hoffa needed to control the delegate-rich locals in Chicago, and to do that he needed Glimco's permission to infiltrate and dominate them. Through his relationship with Paul "Red" Dorfman, president of the Chicago Waste Handlers Union and an associate of Tony Accardo's, Hoffa became a close friend to Glimco and Paul "The Waiter" Ricca. Glimco brokered the deal in which the Chicago Outfit supported Hoffa's organizing drives among Midwestern drivers in exchange for Glimco's access to Local 777's finances. Glimco's actions positioned him to support either man: If Beck won, Glimco's actions in 1952 proved his allegiance to Beck. If Hoffa won, Glimco would have played a critical role in his success.
Legal troubles
Glimco began having legal troubles in 1954. Law enforcement officials first tried to connect him with the slaying of Charles "Cherry Nose" Gioe on August 19, 1954. According to police, Glimco had allegedly ordered the bombing of a Howard Johnson's restaurant at 4240 North Harlem Avenue in Norridge, Illinois, on May 18, 1954, in an attempt to force the construction contractor to employ union labor. Gioe, a top Chicago Outfit underboss recently released from prison, ordered Glimco to end his dispute with the contractor and Glimco allegedly had Gioe murdered for this interference in his business. But the investigation ended without any action taken against Glimco.The Gioe investigation led to a major press expose and additional legal actions against Glimco. On August 30, 1954, the Chicago Daily Tribune began running a six-part series exposing Glimco's criminal past, mob ties, and infiltration of the Chicago labor movement. "Glimco was well on his way to take over the teamsters unions" until the Daily Tribune series exposed him and put a halt to his plans. A grand jury investigation, prompted by the Daily Tribune series, opened two days later, and Glimco was indicted on charges of conspiracy and racketeering under the Hobbs Act. Glimco challenged the constitutionality of the Hobbs Act and claimed the statute of limitations had run out, assertions the government contested. The bad press and indictment led the Teamsters international headquarters to conduct two probes into Glimco's union activities, both of which exonerated him of any wrongdoing. A lengthy legal investigation followed the indictment, during which Glimco associates and other witnesses refused to testify, Glimco was alleged to have bribed police to avoid prosecution, and Glimco's legal team made repeated legal motions which delayed the trial for significant periods of time. After a 12-day trial, Glimco was acquitted of all charges on March 26, 1957. Meanwhile, three more federal grand juries began investigating Glimco, looking into additional racketeering charges, his juke box leasing businesses, and the finances of the Fish Handlers & Filleters union.
Glimco was elected president of Local 777 on March 10, 1958.
Just a month earlier, however, the United States Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in Labor and Management subpoenaed Glimco as part of its investigation into labor racketeering. The Senate Labor and Public Welfare Committee had investigated Glimco's stewardship of the Local 777 pension and welfare fund in 1954 but never developed enough evidence to prove wrongdoing. But the Daily Tribune exposé and additional Senate investigations in 1957 led to a new focus on him. The committee also subpoenaed Glimco's personal financial records, Local 777's financial and other records, and the Local 777 pension and welfare fund's financial and other records. Glimco initially refused to turn over the records but would let the Select Committee view them in his presence, and then claimed that he had no personal records. When the records were turned over, they were incomplete and Glimco did not stand guard over them day and night as he had pledged. During his testimony before the Select Committee on April 24, Glimco asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 80 times. Select Committee Chairman Senator John Little McClellan and Chief Counsel Robert F. Kennedy exchanged sharp words with Glimco:
The Select Committee also investigated the union contracts Glimco negotiated in June 1958, and Glimco's alleged domination of various Teamster unions in July 1958. But despite this extensive investigation and intense public questioning, however, Glimco was never prosecuted for these allegations.
The Select Committee hearings lead to additional investigations into Glimco's activities, however. Committee investigators looked into Glimco's jukebox businesses, and eventually named him "boss of the jukebox rackets" in early 1959. Despite a grand jury probe which identified Glimco as the owner of the biggest jukebox racket in the region, Glimco was never indicted. It was later alleged that he bribed witnesses to avoid indictment, but was never prosecuted on these charges. On March 11, 1959, the Select Committee held a week-long hearing into Glimco's union affairs, during which witnesses said they had been threatened, assaulted, and intimidated by him and his associates; that they had signed over portions of their wages to him in order to avoid assault; that he had extorted money from businesses and union members alike; that he had bribed witnesses to avoid prosecution and/or imprisonment; and that he had signed sweetheart deals with employers. Glimco testified before the Select Committee for the second time on March 12, 1959, but repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights again and again. During the hearings, investigators discovered that Glimco's police records had been destroyed by the Chicago police in 1949 at the request of State Representative Andrew A. Euzzino of Chicago, and that many of the records relating to earlier investigations into Glimco's alleged racketeering were missing.
The 1959 Select Committee hearings did reveal, however, that Glimco had used union monies to fund his legal defense efforts—money Senators and committee investigators said constituted income which Glimco did not report to the Internal Revenue Service. These few facts would later become important in convicting Glimco on tax evasion charges in 1968.