GUZIK, JACOB

GUZIK, JACOB (Jack, Jake , "Greasy Thumb "; 1886–1956), U.S. gangster, the trusted treasurer, financial wizard, and legal advisor to Al Capone. He was born in Moscow to Max and Fannie, an Orthodox couple who raised 10 children. The family immigrated to the U.S. when Guzik was a year old and settled in Chicago, where Max supported the family by running a small cigar store. Guzik became a bartender and pimp in the whorehouse run by his older brother, Harry. In the early 1920s Guzik supposedly overheard a plan to murder Capone, informed him, and the two became lifelong allies. Guzik became a powerful political "fixer" operating out of a restaurant, where he received district police captains and sergeants who collected graft for themselves and their superiors. Also stopping by were bagmen sent over from City Hall. His nickname "Greasy Thumb" derived from the green stain earned from counting the money of mobster kingpin Capone, who once called Guzik "the only friend I can really trust." Guzik was convicted of tax evasion and went to prison in 1932, serving three years of his five-year sentence. Upon his release, Guzik assumed total control over the finances of Capone's Chicago Outfit for the next 20 years. Guzik brought numerous lawsuits against newspapers for portraying him as a gangster, dismissing the wisdom of such suits saying, "I'm paying these judges, so why shouldn't I use them." Guzik received an Orthodox Jewish funeral, and a lavish one, his bronze coffin alone costing $5,000. Rabbi Noah Ganz of the Chicago Loop Synagogue eulogized Guzik as a man "who never lost faith in his God. Hundreds benefited by his kindness and generosity. His charities were performed quietly. And he made frequent and vast contributions to my congregation."

[Elli Wohlgelernter (2^nd ed.)]