Joe 'The Builder' Andriacchi, reputed Chicago mob leader, dies at 91
Joe Andriacchi, who for decades was a reputed high-ranking Chicago mobster, has died. He was 91.
He was known as "The Builder" because of his ties to the construction industry, and, earlier in his career, as "The Sledgehammer" because of his skills as a safecracker.
Mr. Andriacchi died earlier this month, according to sources and published accounts.
Speculation that Mr. Andriacchi had risen to the top ranks of the secretive criminal organization emerged in the 1980s and continued for decades as other mob figures around him died or went to prison.
Mr. Andriacchi was not charged in the bombshell federal Family Secrets case, which sent several Outfit leaders to prison in 2017 and landed a major blow to the Chicago mob.
A Sun-Times story after the trial stated: "Does Monday's conviction of four top mobsters mean the end of the Chicago Outfit? Hardly. Who runs the Chicago mob isn't clear. Reputed mobsters not charged in the Family Secrets case who are still powerful in the Outfit included Joe 'The Builder' Andriacchi."
The FBI placed Mr. Andriacchi on a list of 16 people who were top threats to the life of Nick Calabrese. Calabrese, who himself admitted to killing 14 people, had a target on his back after he became a government informant and testified against the mob at the Family Secrets trial. The list was part of a government application for Calabrese to be allowed into the federal witness protection program.
Mr. Andriacchi was a longtime resident of west suburban River Forest and had also lived in Elmwood Park.
A 1989 Sun-Times story described him as being "not only a muscleman but smart as well, at least by gangland standards."
Mr. Andriacchi served three years behind bars for burglary from 1968 to 1971.
In 1958, when Mr. Andriacchi was 25, he and a friend were accused of beating a Chicago police officer who was trying to take Mr. Andiacchi's friend in for questioning about several burglaries.
The beating left the officer with a concussion, a cut left ear and a tooth-punctured tongue.
Mr. Andriacchi's nephew, Donald Andrich, owned a trucking firm that was booted from the city's no-bid Hired Truck program after a 2004 Sun-Times investigation revealed the program was riddled with mob connections.
Mr. Andriacchi was born Oct. 20, 1932, and grew up in a large family. His parents, Bruno and Angelina Andriacchi, according to U.S. census data, came to the United States from Italy.
Bruno Andriacchi listed his job as a construction laborer and a street cleaner for the city's sanitation department.
Joe Andriacchi attended Wells High School on the North Side.
"He grows up in the Grand Avenue area, starts out as burglar/thief, with some specialty in opening safes, and from there he ends up becoming an Outfit guy," said Chicago author and organized crime expert John Binder. "It's pretty clear he served as an underboss at least twice .... an underboss is the guy who ran things on a day-to-day basis, the top guy's right-hand guy."
Binder noted that Mr. Andriacchi was a cousin of Joey “The Clown” Lombardo, who was convicted in the Family Secrets trial and died in prison.
"All these guys since the ’50s have had some sort of front job for tax purposes, some occupation they claim their income is from that's a sham. But Andriacchi actually had a real occupation, it wasn't just a sham. He owned a construction company, and he apparently was pretty good at that. It was a successful construction firm," Binder said, noting that Mr. Andriacchi was rumored to have been a silent partner in several major restaurants in Chicago.
"Andriacchi had a long run in the Outfit at or near the top, and with his death, you've sort of got a passing from one generation to the next because now they're all gone," Binder said.