On this day in 1872 Anthony D’Andrea was born in Valledolmo, Sicily. D’Andrea was one of the first mob bosses in the Chicago area during the 1910’s, as well as being a political leader. During his career he co-owned a company with Martin Merlo who was the brother of Mike Merlo.In 1921 D’Andrea, at the age of 48 was shot while entering his apartment (exactly a year on from the date that Jim Colosimo was shot and killed).

On this day in 1872, Anthony D'Andrea was born in Valledolmo, Sicily, a small hilltop town in the heart of the island that would produce more than its fair share of men destined to shape the American underworld. D'Andrea emigrated to the United States and eventually settled in Chicago, where he would carve out a reputation as one of the most powerful and politically ambitious figures in the city's early organised crime landscape.

D'Andrea rose to prominence during the 1910s, operating at a time when Chicago's criminal underworld was still taking shape and the foundations of what would become one of the most notorious crime organisations in American history were being laid. He served as president of the Unione Siciliana, a powerful Italian-American fraternal organisation that was frequently exploited by mob figures as a vehicle for influence, criminal networking, and political muscle. His ambitions, however, extended well beyond the underworld. D'Andrea repeatedly sought elected office in Chicago's nineteenth ward, positioning himself as a legitimate political leader within the city's Italian community, though his campaigns were dogged by controversy and accusations of voter intimidation and fraud.

During his career, D'Andrea co-owned a business alongside Martin Merlo, the brother of Mike Merlo, who would later serve as a respected president of the Unione Siciliana and whose death in 1924 would set off a chain of events culminating in one of the bloodiest periods in Chicago mob history. These connections illustrated just how tightly interwoven the worlds of business, politics, and organised crime were in early twentieth century Chicago, a city that was rapidly becoming a proving ground for the ambitions of men like Johnny Torrio and the young Al Capone.

D'Andrea's life came to a violent end on the 11th May 1921, when he was shot by an unknown gunman as he entered his apartment building at the age of 48. The timing carried an eerie historical resonance — his death came almost exactly a year after the killing of Big Jim Colosimo on the 11th May 1920, the powerful Chicago vice lord whose murder effectively opened the door for Torrio and Capone to seize control of the city's criminal empire.

Though D'Andrea never achieved the lasting notoriety of those who came after him, his story represents a crucial chapter in the early evolution of Chicago's organised crime scene, demonstrating how Sicily's sons sought to command not just the streets, but the levers of power itself.