New York City, 1943.
The Hollywood extortion case was probably the first time the justice department had managed to indict so many top mobsters at the same time. In the days of the Second World War the Mafia in America were growing stronger and stronger each year. So when so many of Chicago's top outfit men stood trial for the Hollywood extortion case it was a historic event.

The Chicago outfit, as it was known to the locals, had their fingers into many of the Hollywood unions, including the Stage Handlers union and the Movie Projectionist union. These unions were controlled by two of the outfit’s top bosses, Frank Nitti who had taken over from Al Capone and was now the top man in the outfit, and his underboss Paul Ricca. Through the control of the unions Frank Nitti and Paul Ricca were able to extort large sums of money from some of the biggest studios in Hollywood such as the MGM studios, Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Columbia and RKO and everyone of these studios were being shaken down by Nitti and Ricca thanks to their influence of the unions. But things would turn sour for Nitti and Ricca.

The front men for the unions were George Browne and Willie Bioff, who also did okay from the extortion scams on Hollywood studios and both by 1943 were living a life of luxury when they were both indicted by a grand jury in New York of all places. But neither of these two men were the type that could handle a serious stint in prison, and so began talking in order to save their own skins. In doing so the same grand jury in New York indicted not only Frank Nitti and Paul Ricca but also several other mobsters who were also involved in the scam. Joe Campagna, Ralph Pierce, Johnny Roselli, Nick Circella, D'Andrea, Gioe and Moriate were also indicted and stood trial in New York on March 18th 1943.

The trial lasted 73 days and nearly all the defendants were found guilty, but the day after the trial started Frank Nitti went back to his home at Riverside, Chicago and walked down to the track of the Illinois central railroad across the prairie, and it was there that Frank Nitti the proud successor of Al Capone drew a pistol from his belt and shot himself in the head, killing himself instantly. The remainder of the defendants were sentenced to 10 years, thus concluding the biggest mob trial at the time.

However all was not lost for Paul Ricca, Nitti`s underboss, was released from prison after serving only 3 years, in what turned out to be one of the biggest scandals of Harry Truman's administration. Murray Humphreys another top outfit guy had gotten to Tom Clarke who was appointed Attorney general by Harry Truman. Tom Clarke arranged that Paul Ricca be released from prison on parole after just 3 years even though his sentence had been handed to Ricca without the opportunity of parole. Frank Nitti must have been turning in his grave. At this point the Chicago outfit was becoming extremely powerful and influential. Paul Ricca returned to the outfit but was now second in command to Tony "Joe batters" Accardo, who was undoubtedly the most successful of all the Outfit bosses.

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