Louis Campagna

Capone era

In 1919, New York mobster Al Capone moved to Chicago to help South Side Gang boss John Torrio deal with rival bootleggers. After Campagna's release from the reformatory, Capone summoned him to Chicago to become his bodyguard. In the long bloody war with the rival North Side Gang, Campagna proved to be a reliable gunman. During this violent period, Campagna reportedly slept on a cot outside Capone's suite at Chicago's Lexington Hotel, ready to protect his boss. Campagna also worked with Calabrian Frankie LaPorte, the Chicago Heights boss, and was believed to be Capone's boss who reported back to the Commission for Chicago.

Known for his reckless and unpredictable nature, Campagna attempted to besiege a Chicago police station in November 1927. Bootlegger Joe Aiello, an ally of the North Side Gang, had unsuccessfully attempted to bribe a hotel chef to poison Capone. In retaliation, Capone placed a $50,000 bounty on Aiello. When Campagna discovered that Aiello was in jail on a murder conspiracy charge, he and 20 other Outfit gunmen went to the station to try to get him. When Campagna arrived, the police noticed that he was carrying a handgun and immediately arrested him. The police then placed Campagna in a cell next to Aiello's. An undercover police officer in a nearby cell later overheard the following exchange in Sicilian between the two mobsters:

Campagna: "You're dead, dear friend, you're dead. You won't get to the end of the street still walking."

Aiello: "Can't we settle this? Give me fourteen days and I'll sell my stores, my house and everything and quit Chicago for good. Can't we settle it? Think of my wife and my baby."

Campagna: "You dirty rat! You've broke faith with us twice now. You started this, we'll finish it."

During the early 1940s, Campagna extorted $1 million from the U.S. film industry through the takeover of the International Alliance of Theatrical, Stage Employees & Motion Picture Operators Union in Los Angeles. Louis then turned to his cousin Albert Campagna for help. However, Albert wanted nothing to do with his cousin Louis for fear that his children would become targets. Soon after Louis' imprisonment, his wife Charlotte successfully petitioned the government to transfer him closer to Chicago at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. In the late 1940s, a group of Campagna associates collected over $190,000 to pay his tax debt to the federal government (reduced from $470,000).

In August 1947, after 42 months in prison, Campagna was released on parole his first of eligibility.

After his release, Campagna returned to Chicago to work for the Outfit under boss Sam Giancana.

Final years In the early 1950s, Campagna was summoned to testify before the U.S. Senate in the Kefauver Hearings on organized crime. However, apart from revealing his income from the Cicero gambling operations, Campagna did not provide any useful testimony. In his later years, Campagna spent time at his two farms in Fowler, Indiana and Berrien Springs, Michigan, as well as his house in Berwyn, Illinois.