What's In a Mobster Nickname?

By Rachelle Bowden in Miscellaneous on May 10, 2005 6:31PM

"Tony the Ant," "Joey the Clown," "Joe Batters": You've heard these nicknames of Chicago mobsters in the news a lot lately because of the recent FBI smackdown. Today Slate gave us some insight into how the mobsters got their nicknames.

It seems the nicknames are self-appointed, come from other mobsters, or are from the press. Anthony Accardo was known as "Joe Batters" because he beat the living shit out of a couple people with a baseball bat and Al Capone said "This kid is a real joe batters." But the press called him "Big Tuna" after seeing a photo of him sport fishing. So he's got a name given to him by a mobster and by the press.

Another mobster, Vincent "Chin" Gigante got his nickname as a shortened form of "Vincenzo," his real name. The NY-based mobster was so paranoid that he never wanted anyone to say his name out loud and insisted that people just rub their fingers across their chin to refer to him.

The kingpin of the Chicago mafia that we've been hearing so much about lately, Joseph "Joey the Clown" Lombardo (pictured here) got his nickname from the press and it refers to his corny behavior and lame jokes. At then end of one of his trials "Joey the Clown" tried to evade photographers by taking a newspaper and making a mask with eye-holes and running out of the courtroom. He also once told reporters that his jewelry was made of "canarly stone" becuase you "canarly see it". Get it? Can hardly see it!? har.

To read more on mobster nicknames, check out the full Slate article. If Chicagoist had nicknames they'd be Erin "The Muscle" Johnson, Scott "Music Man" Smith, Sarah "The Advisor" Neilson or Sam "Encite Comment Riots" Bakken. What would your mobster nickname be?