Joseph Saltis

Joseph "Polack Joe" Saltis [Soltis] (1894 in Hungary - 1947 in Winter, Wisconsin) was an early Prohibition gangster who, with Frank McErlane, controlled bootlegging in the Southwest Side of Chicago, Illinois.

Originally a Slovakian immigrant who had become a saloon owner in Joliet, Illinois, Saltis moved to Chicago with the announcement of the Volstead Act in 1920. With the assistance of John "Dingbat" O'Berta, a candidate for the Illinois State Senate, Saltis began supplying illegal alcohol to Chicago's speakeasies. By 1925, Saltis effectively controlled the Southwest Side. Saltis, by now extremely wealthy from bootlegging, purchased a residence in Winter, Wisconsin. Employing over half of the town's sixty citizens, Saltis later tried to have the town named Saltisville in the town's general election, but failed by one vote. Saltis also built the Barker Lake Golf Course in Winter.

During this time, Saltis remained on good terms with his South Side neighbor Al Capone, whose Chicago Outfit began dominating Chicago's bootlegging soon after his arrival in the early 1920s. Indeed, by the mid-1920s, only the Saltis-McErlane organization remained independent from the eight satellite gangs under Capone's control. However, soon becoming entrenched in territory disputes with many of Capone's satellite gangs, Saltis began talks for a secret alliance with Capone rival Earl "Hymie" Weiss's North Side Gang. Throughout the next year, Saltis began preparing for war as smaller rivals such as the Southside O'Donnell's (for which an attempt would be made on his life in late-1925) and sometimes allied Sheldon Gang began to threaten Saltis's hold on the Southwest Side as soon gunmen such as Frank "Lefty" Koncil, Charlie "Big Hayes" Hubacek, and Frank McErlane joined Saltis's ranks.

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