Joseph Glimco

Joseph Paul Glimco (born Giuseppe Glielmi; January 14, 1909 – April 28, 1991) was an Italian-American labor leader and well-known organized crime figure based in Chicago.

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 (receiving six months to a year's probation each time).

By the time he was 25, he had been arrested another 16 times—including arrests for murder (twice), bootlegging (twice), motor vehicle theft, criminal intimidation, bombing, and public brawling.

He was also known as "Little Tim" Murphy, a reference to Timothy "Big Tim" Murphy, a Chicago mobster and labor racketeer (also well known for his close ties to the Teamsters) whom the Chicago Outfit feared and subsequently murdered in 1928.

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 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.

After Capone went to prison in 1931, Glimco openly associated with the titular head of the Chicago mob, Frank Nitti (a relationship that only ended with Nitti's suicide in 1943).

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 (who oversaw the Outfit's bribes to police and politicians and ensured that income due to the Outfit was not skimmed by lower level mobsters).

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 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.

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.

In 1940, Hanley brought Glimco to see Dominic Abata, founder of the taxi drivers' division of Local 777, IBT (which represented many Chicago taxicab drivers).

Hanley told Abata to put Glimco on the payroll; intimidated, Abata made Glimco the division's executive director.

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.

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.

He was considered "Chicago's top labor racketeer" in the 1950s.

Glimco's influence spread within the mob and the Chicago labor movement beginning in 1950.

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 (IBT) 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.