Murray Humphreys - Mob Career

Mob Career

"He was skinny and dapper and handsome in a sinister sort of way, a representative of the new breed of racketeer, part thug and part businessman. And he enjoyed Capone's favor." Capone: The Man and the Era, by Laurence Bergreen

The 27-year-old Humphreys was put into the racketeering side of the business but also carried out some killings for the mob around this time.

From the late 1920s to the early 1930s, Humphreys, along with “Red” Barker, William “Three-Fingered Jack” White and William “Klondike” O’Donnell, was one of the mobsters who orchestrated the Outfit’s takeover of the Chicago labor unions. (Humphreys was later indicted for the December 1931 kidnapping of a union president, Robert G. Fitche, but escaped conviction.)

In 1933, with Capone behind bars for income tax evasion, the chief investigator for the State Attorney's office described Murray Humphreys as, “'public enemy No. 1' and 'the czar of business rackets in Chicago.'” Later that same year, Humphreys was indicted for income tax evasion himself. On the run for 18 months, he finally gave himself up near Whiting, Indiana, and entered a plea of guilty. Sentenced by a Federal Judge to 18 months in Leavenworth Prison, Humphreys wound up serving only 13 months of his sentence.

Humphreys likely had a hand in arranging the 1933 fake kidnapping of John "Jake the Barber" Factor, a British con artist wanted in England for stock swindling. Factor, a Capone friend, was facing extradition proceedings when the Outfit staged a fake disappearance and framed Capone rival Roger "Terrible" Touhy for allegedly kidnapping Factor. Touhy received a 99-year prison sentence but was released in 1959, only to be murdered several weeks later. Six months after Touhy's death, Humphreys supposedly bought several shares of an insurance company and eight months later redeemed the shares for $42,000. An Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigation soon determined that these shares had been originally owned by John Factor. The IRS claimed that the $42,000 was a payment from Factor to Humphreys for the fake 1933 kidnapping; they forced Humphreys to declare the money as income and pay taxes.

In 1947, Humphreys was assigned the difficult task of securing paroles for four important Outfit members, the most prominent being Felice "Paul Ricca" Deluca. The four had been in jail three years already, but some new indictments were coming up that promised to not only destroy their chances for parole, but add on some serious time to their sentences. A deal was made with the U.S. Attorney General at the time, Tom C. Clark. Clark had the power to quash the new indictments and push the paroles along, but he was reluctant to face the outcry that would surround him if the mobsters were freed. The Outfit promised him that “if he had the thick skin to do it, he'd get the next appointment to the Supreme Court.” Clark delivered, and on October 3, 1949, he received President Truman’s nomination to the Supreme Court, which had been brought about by the Mob’s “leverage” on Truman himself:

After considering the problem, Humphreys hit upon the solution: He would tap a 68-year-old Missouri attorney named Paul Dillon, a litigator he had employed in 1939 … Humphreys' kinship with the Missouri-based Dillon was a natural result of his role as the Outfit's political liaison to that state. And in the shadowy world of underworld-upperworld collusions, this linkage gave Curly Humphreys leverage over the most powerful politician in the United States …Dillon was the St. Louis, Missouri, version of Chicago's Sid Korshak, with one notable exception: Dillon's gangster associates in Kansas City, Missouri, had sponsored the ascendancy of the 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman. Humphreys knew that by playing the Kansas City card he was subtly threatening to open a Pandora's box that Washington would be forced to address. The Outfit: The Role of Chicago's Underworld in the Shaping of Modern America, by Gus Russo.

The Chicago Tribune, outraged by Clark’s appointment, spoke of, “Clark's utter unfitness for any position of public responsibility and especially for a position on the Supreme Court.” And, the Tribune added: “We have been sure of Clark's unfitness ever since he played his considerable role in releasing the Capone gangsters after they served only the bare minimum of their terms.”

Other career highlights for Humphreys include his discovering, and utilizing the intricacies of the legal system's "Double Jeopardy" rule and the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment for the Mob’s benefit.

When Jake “Greasy Thumb” Guzik died in 1956, Humphreys became the Outfit’s chief political fixer and financial manager, or, in the words of one Mafia historian, their “strategist, councilor, and master schemer.” Guzik’s death of a massive heart attack occurred at St. Hubert's Olde English Grill, which had long served as a secret contact spot for mob fixers and prominent Chicago judges. Knowing that Guzik’s body could not be found at the restaurant without compromising some of the Outfit’s most valuable judicial stooges, Humphreys had the body surreptitiously removed from the restaurant and taken home to Mrs. Guzik, who was curtly informed that her husband had officially died at home.

"By the time the late fifties rolled around, it was pretty well understood that Murray Humphreys had dined with presidents and kings all over the world, from the Philippines to Iran. But his real claim to fame was the fact that he'd single-handedly put some of the nation's richest labor unions in Chicago's pocket - a move that was worth billions to the Outfit, particularly in the gambling industry. With a resume like that, you could understand why Sam Giancana made Murray Humphreys one of his top financial advisers. But it wasn't just his brains that attracted Mr. G.; Humphreys had class, too. He could fit into the country club set as well as politicians and executives. He was also about as cold-blooded as a guy could get, which was a real interesting combination for a guy in his position. It made him even more dangerous." Double Deal, by Michael Corbitt and Chuck Giancana.

Giancana and his much valued “adviser” had rather dissimilar styles, illustrated by the following: both men were constantly tailed by Federal agents, but when Giancana grew impatient of a car tailing him, he put his foot to the gas and brought about a race between him and his pursuers. Humphreys, however, one day when he had had enough of being followed, got out of his car, sent his driver home, went up to the car that was following him and said: “You've been following me all day. There's no need for two cars. I'll ride with you.” (He did just that, and apparently even bought the officers lunch.)

Sam Giancana and Murray Humphreys both topped the FBI’s Top Hoodlum list, “Top Hoodlum” being a program put into operation in 1957 for the purpose of combating organized crime; the Mafia in particular. When Chicago FBI agents under the leadership of William F. Roemer finally discovered that a second-floor tailor shop on North Michigan Avenue, in the heart of what is now "Magnificent Mile," was a frequent meeting place for such Outfit notables as Humphreys, Tony Accardo, Sam Giancana and Gus Alex, the FBI painstakingly installed a hidden microphone in the shop after hours. “One microphone was worth a thousand agents,” said Roemer, fondly remembering the bug they christened, “Little Al.” ("Little Al" remained in place undetected for five years, and gave the FBI invaluable knowledge about the inner workings of the Mafia.)

From listening to the bugged conversations, the agents developed a fondness for the Hump, who was often heard to say, “Good morning, gentlemen, and anyone listening. This is the 9 o'clock meeting of the Chicago underworld.” Unlike Giancana, whose every other word was profane, Humphreys never swore. In addition to having “perhaps the most brilliant mob mind in Chicago,” as William Brashler has put it, he was also a marvelous raconteur. J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets, by Curt Gentry