Individual Details

Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik

(20 Mar 1886 - 21 Feb 1956)

Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik was the financial and legal advisor, and later political “fixer”, for the Chicago Outfit. Born in Moscow, Russia ( although other sources state near Kraków, Poland) on March 20, 1886 , Guzik immigrated to the USA in the early 1900s. He later became involved in prostitution, and allegedly white slavery, in the South Side's Levee vice district with his brother Harry Guzik eventually driving rival Jack Zuta out of business. He later became a powerful political "fixer" operating from St. Hubert’s Old English Grill and Chop House; Guzik received bagmen who delivered scheduled payoffs to various police precincts and city officials. In the early 1920s Guzik, supposedly hearing a plan to murder Al Capone, informed him and later allied with the Chicago Outfit. On May 8, 1924 Capone personally killed gang member and hijacker Joe Howard in a saloon on South Wabash Avenue after he had assaulted Guzik. Guzik continued to act as a bagman for the Chicago Outfit until April 1930 when Guzik and Ralph "Bottles" Capone, brother of Al C a pone, were convicted of tax evasion. Guzik himself, found to have earned over $1 million, was charged with paying only $225,000. In October Judge John H. Lyle issued arrest warrants for twenty-six gangsters, including Guzik, charging them with vagrancy. Guzik's defense claimed he was a horse player and, as proof he was an honest citizen, noted that he was living less than a block away from the state attorney. Guzik was later sentenced to five years imprisonment. Upon his release Guzik assumed total control over the Chicago Outfit's finances for the next twenty years as a high ranking member of the Chicago Outfit, representing the Chicago crime syndicate in the Mafia Commission known as the "Big Six", until his death from a heart attack on February 21, 1956. His only surviving American relatives, Marian Guzik (nephew) and Marian's daughter Wanda K. Guzik, live in Los Angeles, California. The rest of his family lives in Poland, France, Germany,Central and South America. In 1910, Congress passed the Mann Act, named after the Chicago born US Representative who introduced the bill, which also became known as the White Slavery Act. For several years, the law did severe damage to the flow of enslaved women into Chicago's Levee and New York's brothels. The Guzik brothers can take some credit for introducing the Mann Act. Harry and Jake Guzik (1886-1956) were either Polish or Russian Jews; they kept changing their place of origin, and had immigrated to America with their parents as children. They were among the best known brothel operators in the Levee . Harry was the boss, and Jake worked for him at a dingy saloon on 21st street, McCarthy & DuValls, described by those who knew it as "a real cesspool." At that time, Jake Guzik was working as a waiter and legend has it that he acquired his name 'greasy thumbs' because he kept slippi n g his thumbs into the soup. The Guzik's never acted like thugs, they were smarter then most of the low lifes around them, and both were said to be "easy-going", mild-mannered men. Down the road, Jake was appointed to be the Torrio organization's chief account and general business manager , and soon worked his way up to the gangs number two position, right behind Al Capone.

Events

Birth	20 Mar 1886	Kraków, Malopolskie, Poland
Residence	1900	Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States
Marriage	13 Apr 1907	Lake, Indiana, United States - Rose Lipschultz
Residence	1910	Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States
Draft	1917	Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States
Residence	1930	Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States
Death	21 Feb 1956	Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States
Burial		Oak Woods Cemetery, Chicago, Cook, Illinois, United States

Families

Spouse	Rose Lipschultz (1889 - 1976)
Child	Jeanette Alyce Guzik (1908 - 2003)
Child	Arthur Charles Guzik (1909 - 1995)

Father	Max Guzik (1855 - )
Mother	Mamie Zeitlin (1858 - )
Sibling	Harry Guzik (1875 - )
Sibling	Morris Guzik (1876 - 1903)
Sibling	Joseph Guzik (1879 - )
Sibling	Fannie Guzik (1883 - 1972)
Sibling	Benjamin Guzik (1885 - )
Sibling	Rebecca Guzik (1889 - 1935)
Sibling	Bernice Guzik (1890 - )
Sibling	Charles Guzik (1891 - 1905)
Sibling	Mollie Guzik (1893 - )
Sibling	Katie Guzik (1895 - )
Sibling	Samuel Guzik (1898 - )

Individual Details

Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik

Events

Families

Endnotes