Chicago mob boss Joe 'The Sledgehammer' Andriacchi dies at 91, sources tell I-Team

CHICAGO (WLS) -- An old-time Chicago mob boss has died. According to I-Team sources, 91-year-old Joe Andriacchi died in his sleep last weekend.

His pedigree goes back to the 1960s when his nickname became "The Sledgehammer" for his not-so-delicate method of breaking into a safe.

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Andriacchi rose through the ranks of the Chicago Outfit as a thief and safecracker but was apparently not talented enough to stay out of prison for burglary in the late 60s.

When he emerged from the penitentiary, he continued climbing the crime ladder to become a trusted boss who supervised lucrative Rush Street crews.

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Eventually, with the deaths of more elderly gangsters including John "No Nose" Difronzo, Andriacchi on several occasions assumed the number two slot in the Outfit, becoming the operations major domo for the mob.

"Generations are rolling on here in terms of the outfit history," said Chicago organized crime expert and author John Binder.

Binder said Andriacchi was also nicknamed "The Builder" in his later years because he owned a construction company.

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"By about 1950 the IRS no longer allowed you to put down, 'Oh, I made $300,000 in miscellaneous income last year,' they wouldn't accept that," Binder said. "You had to show a source of income. So, all these guys like Accardo are running around saying, 'I had all this miscellaneous income,' all suddenly started to find some sort of, in many cases, you might call it a front job."

Federal investigators have long suspected Andriacchi was involved in the disappearance of suburban mobster Anthony "Little Tony" Zizzo, who went to a Rush Street meeting and was never seen again. The suspected motive perhaps a feud with Mike "Fat Boy" Sarno.

"If somebody set him up, somebody arranged to have a little lunch with him... He left his house, his wife knew that, that morning to go, I think, meet someone for lunch. And then his car was found and Tony Zizzo's wasn't," said Binder.

The Outfit is a business where members are either related by blood, a blood oath, or both, and Andriacchi was related both ways to one of Chicago's most powerful and memorable mob bosses: Joseph "The Clown" Lombardo was Andriacchi's cousin.

Lombardo went down in the big Family Secrets mob murders trial and died in federal prison. Andriacchi was able to avoid that prosecution.