Eight stony-faced men sat in Manhattan's Federal Court last week and heard a veteran blackmailer call them blackmailers. The Government had charged that the eight men (seven ex-Capone hoodlums and one Newark labor official) had shaken down the movie industry for $1 million.
The Government's star witness: Shake down Expert Willie Bioff, who was let out of jail to sing on his ex-chums. Dapper, wily Willie, nothing loath, sat calmly in a swivel-chair, hands clasped meditatively over his stomach — and sang.
Said Blackmailer Bioff: yes, he knew the defendants well. Seven of them were "The Syndicate" that had helped him filch at least $1 million in union dues, and blackmail the czars of Hollywood on a Hollywood scale. Staring coldly back at Willie Bioff's fat, pointing finger was an all-star police lineup: Gunman Paul ("The Waiter") de Lucia; pistol-packing ex-Capone Muscleman Phil D'Andrea; Beer-war Veteran Charles ("Cherry-Nose Joy") Gioe; Machine-gun Expert Louis ("The Man to See") Compagna; Frank ("The Immune") Maritote, alias Frankie Diamond; 14-time indicted Ralph Pierce; John Rosselli and Newark's Louis Kaufman.
For three days Willie Bioff prattled away about the troubles and triumphs of the shakedown industry. His recital not only damaged the defendants, but scorched U.S. workers who tolerate criminal union leadership and Hollywood bigwigs who take orders from the underworld.
Open Hands, Cold Feet. Said Willie Bioff to the Court: Back in 1934 he was just a smalltime operator in Chicago labor circles, working with his pal, George E. Browne, ex-president of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes. (Both are now serving time for extortion.) "The Syndicate" took Bioff and Browne over. Thereafter, Chicago movie exhibitors—and finally even the big Hollywood studios—paid heavily and often for the usual "protection" from what was euphemistically called "labor trouble."
Under the bland, long-lashed stare of roly-poly Defendant Louis Compagna, wily Willie Bioff testified: "Compagna came to see me and said he heard what I said about resigning. 'Anybody resigns from us resigns feet first, understand?' he tells me. So I didn't resign."
If Grandma Must Go. Then the Court got an eyewitness account of Willie's business with one Jack Miller, labor representative for a group of Chicago movie exhibitors :
Bioff: "I told Miller the exhibitors . . . would have to have two operators in each booth. Miller said, 'My God! That will close up all my shows.'"
Prosecutor: "And what did you say?"
Bioff: "I said: 'If that will kill grandma —then grandma must die.' . . . Miller said that two men in each booth would cost about $500,000 a year. So I said well, why don't you make a deal? And we finally agreed on $60,000."
Judge John Bright: "What was this $60,000 paid for?"
Bioff (beaming): "Why, Your Honor, to keep the booth costs down. . . . You see, Judge, if they wouldn't pay we'd give them lots of trouble. We'd put them out of business and I mean out."