Mike Merlo

Michele Merlo
Mike Merlo in a 1921 passport application
Born	January 4, 1880 Sambuca, Sicily
Died	November 8, 1924 (age 44) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Other names	Mike Merlo
Known for	Chicago labor leader whose death precipitated the city's infamous 1920's gangster war
Political party	Democratic

Michele "Mike" Merlo (Sambuca di Sicilia, January 4, 1880 - Chicago, November 8, 1924) was a Chicago political figure and "fixer" associated in his later years with the Torrio-Capone organization. As head of the Unione Siciliana fraternal group, Merlo wielded considerable influence both in Chicago's Democratic Party politics and also within Chicago's criminal underworld during the early years of Prohibition. Although Merlo was able to maintain peace among the city's numerous bootlegging gangs, his death marked the beginning of Chicago's bootleg wars that plagued the city for the rest of the decade.

Born Michele Merlo to Calogero and Maria Merlo in Sambuca Zabut, Sicily, at the age of nine Merlo immigrated with his family from Palermo to New Orleans and, then, in 1900, to Chicago. In 1902, Merlo's father died of a stroke, at the age of 52, leaving the 22-year-old Merlo and his sick mother to fend for themselves. Merlo later became involved in the Chicago chapter of Unione Siciliana, a national organization dedicated to assisting Sicilian immigrants in America. Although Merlo later transformed the Unione into a front for organized crime, he reportedly did have a genuine concern for the welfare of the Sicilian residents of Chicago's Little Italy.

With the passage of Prohibition and the rise of bootlegging in Chicago, Merlo used his position to mediate the frequent territorial disputes between the Chicago bootlegging gangs. These gangs included the predominantly Irish North Side Gang, under boss Dion O'Banion, the Sicilian Genna Brothers gang and the South Side gang, then run by Torrio and Capone. During the early years of Prohibition, Merlo was able to maintain an uneasy peace between these three gangs and the other criminal organizations.