Jake Guzik

Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik (March 20, 1886 – February 21, 1956) was the financial and legal advisor, and later political “greaser,” for the Chicago Outfit.

Guzik was born near Kraków, Galicia, Poland on March 20, 1886, and emigrated to the United States in the early 20th century. His parents were Jews from Katowice, Poland. Guzik later became involved in prostitution, and allegedly sexual slavery, in the South Side of Chicago's Levee vice district with his brother Harry, eventually driving rival Jack Zuta out of business. He later became a powerful political "fixer" operating from St. Hubert’s Old English Grill and Chop House, where Guzik received "bagmen" who delivered scheduled payoffs to various police precincts and city officials.

In the early 1920s, Guzik, supposedly overhearing a plan to murder Al Capone, informed him and later allied with the Chicago Outfit. Starting under Capone, Guzik was the trusted treasurer and financial wizard of the Outfit. Guzik worked for Capone, and later Paul "the Waiter" Ricca and Tony Accardo. Because Guzik was incapable of using a gun or killing anyone, Capone protected him, and once killed a man for him. In May 1924, Guzik got into an argument with a freelance hijacker named Joe Howard, who slapped and kicked him around. Incapable of physical resistance, Guzik related to Capone what had happened. Capone charged out in search of Howard and ran him down in Heinie Jacob's saloon on South Wabash Avenue, where Howard was bragging about the way he had "made the little Jew whine." When Howard saw Capone, he held out his hand and said, "Hello, Al." Capone instead grabbed Howard's shoulders and shook him violently, demanding to know why Howard had mistreated his friend. "Go back to your girls, you dago pimp," Howard replied. Capone then wordlessly drew a revolver and jammed it into his face, and after several seconds emptied it into him.

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