Milwaukee Phil Drove a "Hitmobile" Too

Milwaukee Phil

A recent story about the killing machine on wheels discovered in New Orleans, the one driven by the son of the underboss of the Marcello crime family that several law enforcement officials insisted no longer exists, reminded us of something we'd come across in our general story research.

Another mobster had also retrofitted a vehicle for killing a lot of people. His name?

Felix "Milwaukee Phil" Alderisio (1912-1971) was one of the Chicago Outfit's most feared hitmen.Originally from New York, he moved to Chicago when he was still a child. As a teenager, he moved to Milwaukee where he fought as a boxer under the name of "Milwaukee Phil". .

He's said to have taken out 13 or 14 fellow mobsters deemed unworthy of breathing. 

His claim to infamy was his "Hitmobile," a modified automobile that outdid what our pals in New Orleans had rigged up. Alderisio was able to cleverly control the headlights and tail lights of the car to avoid police detection (they didn't know if he was coming or going). The car also was painted black and was replete with a compartment hidden in the backseat used for the storage of weapons and torture devices. 

When Alderisio wasn't killing for Tony Accardo or Paul Ricca (the two guys running the Outfit in Alderisio's day) he ran his own prostitution, gambling, and extortion rackets in Milwaukee.

He is believed to have been boss of the outfit from around 1969 to 1971. An unpopular as a leader, he was eventually convicted of bank fraud and extortion. While serving time for those convictions, he died at the federal prison in Marion in 1971 at the age of 59.

His body was sent back to Chicago where he was buried in a ceremony attended by Accardo himself.

Outfit enforcer Frank "The German" Schweihs  had once been "Milwaukee Phil" Alderisio's bodyguard.

Around that time, the German had been dating Eugenia Pappas, also known as "Becca." Young and beautiful, with big brown eyes, she was only 18 years old when she dated Schweihs,one of Chicago's most fearsome and untouchable hoodlums.

Her father, concerned over this love affair, moved the family to Arizona, to give his daughter a chance away from Schweihs. Eventually, though, she returned to Chicago. A few weeks later, she stopped dating Schweihs, and someone shot her to death.

Becca was last seen a week or so before Christmas of 1962. Her distraught father went to the newspapers for help in mid-January.

On Feb. 9, a tugboat captain found her body floating in the Chicago River. She'd been in the water about two weeks. Authorities surmised she was killed while sitting in the passenger's seat of an automobile. She was buried on Feb. 15, 1963. "You've seen those wakes where people get emotional and loud," one family friend has said. "This wasn't like that. It was silent, completely silent. That was worse."

Schweihs was hauled in for questioning by a celebrated crime fighter, Richard Cain, the homicide chief of the Cook County sheriff's police. But the case against Schweihs, if there ever was one, dissipated and he was released.

Schweihs had a long police record, but no convictions. 

Cain was also the detective who cleared Schweihs of the Pappas killing. He was also a bodyguard for Outfit boss Sam "Momo" Giancana.

On Dec. 20, 1973, Cain was in Rose's Sandwich Shop on the West Side. Two men with shotguns walked inside and ventilated him twice in the face.

As for Schweihs, he's dead.