Background
Guzik was born on March 20, 1886, in Kraków, Poland, the son of Max Guzik. He was raised in Chicago and became a citizen through the naturalization of his father in November 1898.
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Guzik was born on March 20, 1886, in Kraków, Poland, the son of Max Guzik. He was raised in Chicago and became a citizen through the naturalization of his father in November 1898.
In the decade preceding World War I, Guzik, like his brother Harry, emerged as a vice operator in Chicago's South Side red-light district. With the closing of the red-light district in 1914, the brothers moved their activities to the suburbs. Jack's early years were important for the contacts he made. These included "Bathhouse" John Coughlin, First Ward alderman, and his political associate, Michael ("Hinky Dink") Kenna, who between them protected gambling and vice in downtown Chicago from the 1890's through the 1930's. More important was John Torrio, who, as manager of James ("Big Jim") Colosimo's vice and entertainment activities in Chicago and its suburbs, was a rising underworld figure. Indeed, according to one account, Torrio financed Guzik's purchase of a Chicago brewery about 1919, thus launching him in the liquor business even before prohibition. With the coming of national prohibition in January 1920 and the convenient assassination of Colosimo that May, Torrio was free to devote his considerable managerial skills to bootlegging. His most important aides were Guzik and a young man, recently arrived from Brooklyn, named Al Capone. In addition to interests in suburban vice resorts and growing participation in gambling, their rapidly expanding enterprises involved ownership of breweries, arrangements with importers in port cities such as Detroit and New York, and distribution of liquor to speakeasies in the downtown Loop and suburbs. On January 24, while riding with his wife in Guzik's limousine, Torrio was shot. He was hospitalized, then served his sentence, and afterward prudently left Chicago. With Torrio's departure, senior partners in the organization, sharing the profits of all enterprises, were Al Capone, his brother Ralph, Frank Nitti, and Jack Guzik. Guzik, the only Jew and some twelve years older than Capone, was respected for his business sense and was especially close to Capone, who was more violent and publicity-prone. Building on earlier investments and on the political influence gained when Capone-led gunmen controlled the polling booths in April 1924, the senior partners turned Cicero, a Chicago suburb, into a regional gambling center. Guzik and the Capones spent much of their time there on business and pleasure. In 1927 they financed the Hawthorne Kennel Club in Cicero to provide the finest dog racing in the Chicago area. This was the beginning of investments in dog racing that soon extended into Florida and other states. In the Loop, where the group had firm political connections through Coughlin and Kenna, they not only dominated bootlegging but also, by 1930, coordinated gambling. Guzik, working with Hymie Levin, took special responsibility for Loop gambling. The success of the group in gang wars allowed its members to expand their bootlegging activities. After elimination of the beleaguered North Side gang in the notorious St. Valentine's Day Massacre of February 14, 1929, the Capone mob tapped the economic opportunities in the growing entertainment district on Near North Side. Because Capone spent much of his time in Florida from 1927 on, and part of 1929-1930 in Philadelphia jails, Guzik often exercised day-to-day supervision for the senior partners. Guzik's relatives shared the wealth. His brother Harry managed a number of syndicate vice activities. Another brother, Sam, operated slot machines in the western suburbs of Chicago. Louis Lipschultz, brother of Jack's wife, was in charge of bootlegging in Cicero and nearby suburbs. Finally, after the marriage of Guzik's daughter, Jeanette, in 1929, his son-in-law became a business associate. The worldwide notoriety of the Capone gang triggered investigations by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that, from 1929 to 1931, resulted in prison terms for the four senior partners, as well as Sam Guzik and Louis Lipschultz. In November 1930, Jack Guzik was found guilty of evading taxes of $229, 000 on an income of $650, 000 for 1927-1929 and was sentenced to five years and a fine of $17, 500. When the appeal failed, he served from April 7, 1932, until December 14, 1935. Upon release he still faced civil tax liabilities, which the government in 1939 set at $628, 787. After protracted negotiations he settled for $100, 000 in 1942. When Guzik left prison, prohibition had ended, and the enterprises they had put together in gambling, prostitution, nightclubs, labor racketeering, and numerous legal businesses were still expanding. Guzik and Nitti remained as senior figures until Nitti's suicide in 1943; then Guzik and Tony Accardo became major coordinators. So close was their partnership that they often filed joint tax returns. Guzik, along with Hymie Levin, resumed responsibility for Loop gambling. For the remainder of his life, he maintained offices in the Loop, coordinated politics in the First Ward, and oversaw the lucrative gambling of downtown Chicago. He also had interests in casinos and handbooks throughout the Chicago area. By the 1940's, Guzik and Accardo controlled the local company that, on contract with Continental Press, distributed racing and sports news to bookmakers. After 1947 they further expanded their Chicago gambling interests by systematically muscling in on the city's black-and Italian-run policy syndicates. By the 1940's, if not earlier, Guzik was the most important figure in Chicago-area gambling. In the early 1940's, Guzik, Accardo, and their Chicago associates became interested in Continental Press. When James Ragen, chief owner and manager, refused them a partnership, they established a rival Trans-American Publishing and News Service. They called on underworld acquaintances throughout the country to set up regional distribution companies for Trans-American; and they used their own control in Chicago to give Trans-American a local near-monopoly in distributing sports news to gamblers. On June 24, 1946, Ragen was shot, and died following hospitalization. Within a year Guzik and friends reached an accommodation with Ragen's successors, leading to the dissolution of Trans-American and its merger with Continental. Three gunmen associated with Guzik were indicted for Ragen's murder, but were freed after witnesses died, recanted, or fled. In his own appearance before the Kefauver Committee in March 1951, after dodging a subpoena for months, Guzik gave only his name and claimed his Fifth Amendment right to silence. In addition to his Chicago interests and the race wire, Guzik was an investor on a national scale in a variety of enterprises. In 1926 he purchased Miami real estate; and he and his family became frequent visitors to Florida. Over the years he invested in dog tracks and race tracks in the state, as well as casinos in the Miami area. In 1949 Guzik and Accardo muscled in on the "S & H Syndicate, " which controlled Miami-area bookmaking. This investment did not turn out well, however. Guzik was also among those who transformed Las Vegas into a national gambling center after World War II. Because the IRS showed continued interest in Guzik's finances, his investments were often hidden; and it is impossible to trace the full range of his influence. Despite his local and even national importance as a coordinator of illegal enterprises, he seldom gained the notoriety of his more flamboyant colleagues. He died in Chicago.
Barely five feet tall, and sometimes known to friends as "The Little Fellow, " Guzik resembled a fat penguin more than a criminal leader.
He was an American mobster, crime boss, and businessman who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit.
Louis Lipschultz, brother of Jack's wife, was in charge of bootlegging in Cicero and nearby suburbs.
