Career
Suspected in at least four gangland slayings, Mesi operated three off track betting parlors on Chicago"s Westside and was associated with Outfit boss Tony Accardo. Sponsored by Twenty-Sixth Ward committeeman Matthew Biesczat, Mesi was hired as a foreman in the city"s sanitation department as a reward for his work in the 1959 city elections for the ward alderman and mayor, Richard M. Daley. Mesi was one of many organized crime figures found to be Chicago city employees by the Chicago Crime Commission.
When questioned by authorities, Biesczat claimed he just wanted to give Mesi, a convicted criminal, a legitimate job.
Although city officials denied knowledge of his prior arrests, Mesi stated, "A record like mine, you can"t hide. The city knew about it when they hired medical " Mesi was taken into custody where he was fingerprinted and his arrest record forwarded to the City Commissioner of Streets and Sanitation.
However. the commissioner apparently never received lieutenant In 1971, Sam Mesi died of natural causes.