SPOTLIGHT: Tony Accardo is Joe Batters by Neil Gordon
Tony Accardo is Joe Batters
by Neil Gordon
Accardo had secrets, not the boyish yarns of pranks and horseplay, but Hitchcockian tales of the macabre. He owned Las Vegas, from the Desert Inn and Sahara to the Stardust and Caesars. Why has this story never been told? Accardo killed everyone in his path. Ruling his criminal empire from the depths of the shadows, he influenced national policy, exploited the FBI, owned Supreme Court Justices and fixed presidential elections. Add in the mobbed-up careers of Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack, every gangster from Al Capone to John Gotti crossed his path.
With the passing of Tony Accardo (aka Joe Batters) in 1992, America lost forever the inside story on Jimmy Hoffa, Sam Giancana, Bugsy Siegel, Lucky Luciano, Johnny Roselli, Lee Harvey Oswald, Marilyn Monroe, and President John F. Kennedy.
Arguably some of the most scandalous assassinations of the 20th century, if anyone in history knew where the bodies were buried, it was “Joe Batters.”
BOOK I - Al Capone and Prohibition
Chapter 1 - The Circus Gang; Tony Accardo is made
Chapter 2 - Hawthorne Inn drive-by; Hymie Weiss & Frankie Yale murders
Chapter 3 - The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre
Chapter 4 - Joe Batters baseball bat drubbings
Chapter 5 - Al Capone - tax trial & Alcatraz; Accardo forms his own crew
Chapter 6 - Paul Ricca and Tony Accardo take charge; Jack McGurn murder
BOOK II – Tony Accardo anointed boss of Chicago’s Outfit
Chapter 7 - Hollywood Extortion Trial; Frank Nitti suicide; Paul Ricca to prison
Chapter 8 - James Ragan & Dago Mangano murders; Titanic Thompson
Chapter 9 - Murray Humphreys - 5th Amendment & Teamsters takeover
Chapter 10 - The Jukebox Wars; Allgauer’s Fireside Restaurant torched
BOOK III – The Big Tuna
Chapter 11 - Lucky Luciano’s Havana Conference; Ernest Hemingway
Chapter 12 - J. Edgar Hoover; Accardo’s Nova Scotian affair
Chapter 13 - Accardo lands 500-lb big tuna; Buffalo/Erie policy wheel
Chapter 14 - Accardo mistress target of attempted kidnap & murder
BOOK IV – Las Vegas
Chapter 15 - Flamingo; Bugsy Siegel execution; Frank Sinatra
Chapter 16 - Stardust Casino; Lefty Rosenthal; Battle of the Sexes
Chapter 17 - The Rat Pack; Apalachin
BOOK V – Camelot
Chapter 18 - JFK - fixed presidential election and extramarital affairs
Chapter 19 - Villa Venice; Commission sanctions Luciano and JFK murders
Chapter 20 - Sinatra’s Cal-Neva Resort; Jack Ruby recruits Lee Harvey Oswald
Chapter 21 - Marilyn Monroe; JFK assassination; Warren Commission fix
Chapter 22 - Dorothy Kilgallen
BOOK VI – Murder Chicago Style
Chapter 23 - Mad Sam DeStefano; Joey the Clown Lombardo
Chapter 24 - Caesars Palace; Evel Knievel; Howard Hughes
Chapter 25 - Desilu; Mario Puzo pens The Godfather; Sinatra/Brando feud
Chapter 26 - Sam Giancana
Chapter 27 - Jimmy Hoffa; Johnnie Roselli execution; Tokyo Joe Ken Eto
Chapter 28 - The Last Supper
BOOK VII – The Levinson Heist Murders
Chapter 29 - The Idol’s Eye theft; dinner at Chez Paul
Chapter 30 - Accardo’s River Forest home burglarized
Chapter 31 - Chicago thieves castrated, mutilated, and tortured
Chapter 32 - Tony Spilotro murder; Tony Accardo sleeps with the fishes
Neil Gordon is the author of the sensationally terrifying book Joe Batters, the definitive work on Tony Accardo and The Chicago Outfit. A creation of nonfiction, this is the last untold story of the 20th century.
Gordon’s story began as a kid. While growing up in Phoenix, his father Dean, a novelist of Caribbean intrigue, surrounded his son with tales of mystery, suspense, and adventure. In 1972 when The Godfather premiered at the Cine Capri Theater, it was an eye-opener, and Gordon was hooked into the history and lore of the Mafia.
A graduate of DU’s Hotel and Restaurant School, Gordon career included owner/operator of a Scottsdale steakhouse and blues club, and ten year stints as Senior Buyer with City Meats Phoenix and Vice President of Meat Operations at Braunger Foods in Sioux City, Iowa.
While vacationing in Nova Scotia where his father grew up, a stop at what was once his great-great uncle’s house changed Gordon’s life. The man renovating the house happened to be Chicago’s mob boss Tony Accardo’s illegitimate son, Stephen. Stephen’s mother, who survived a mob hit and attempted kidnapping, was one of many affairs Tony Accardo took to his grave. The story of Joe Batters started to manifest.
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