THE ENFORCER is a semi-fictonal made-for-TV account of the life of Al Capone's "button" man. Nitti the gangster and Nitti the family man are both explored and the contrast between the two is startling. A 95 minute time constraint tends to make the story telescopically episodic. The Sicilian-born Nitti first made a living in America as a barber. His side activity as jewel thief and fence drew the small-time crook into organized crime, and he quickly rose to become first an enforcer and then a front for the Capone mob. A 1932 attempt on Nitti's life by the Chicago police failed. In 1943, after several extortion indictments were handed down, others in the Outfit placed blamed on Nitti. The day before he was to appear before a grand jury, the disgraced mobster ended his own life with a bullet to the head. His suicide was witnessed by two railroad workers.
Nitti: The Enforcer (1988)
THE ENFORCER is a semi-fictonal made-for-TV account of the life of Al Capone's "button" man. Nitti the gangster and Nitti the family man are both explored and the contrast between the two is startling. A 95 minute time constraint tends to make the story telescopically episodic. The Sicilian-born Nitti first made a living in America as a barber. His side activity as jewel thief and fence drew the small-time crook into organized crime, and he quickly rose to become first an enforcer and then a front for the Capone mob. A 1932 attempt on Nitti's life by the Chicago police failed. In 1943, after several extortion indictments were handed down, others in the Outfit placed blamed on Nitti. The day before he was to appear before a grand jury, the disgraced mobster ended his own life with a bullet to the head. His suicide was witnessed by two railroad workers.
