On this day in 1914 the labor racketeer who helped Jimmy Hoffa become General President of the Teamsters Union was born. Johnny Dio who was born Giovanni Dioguardi was involved in many scandals during his lifetime and appeared in the 1950’s McClellan hearings.

The photo you see here was of Dio trying to leave the hearing quickly, without having his photo taken. However one lucky photographer managed to get ahead and snap this sneering expression which has now become an iconic image of Dio, and Teamsters corruption.

Johnny Dio was also subject of an attack on Victor Riesel, in which acid was thrown in the newspapers columnists face. Riesel and would be permanently blinded by this attack, and Dio was questioned and then arrested for his involvement.

On this day in 1914, one of organised crime's most cunning and ruthless labour racketeers entered the world. Born Giovanni Dioguardi on April 29, 1914, in New York City, the man who would become infamous as Johnny Dio grew up in the shadow of the city's teeming underworld, eventually rising to become a significant figure within the Lucchese crime family and one of the most feared mob-connected union manipulators in American history.

Dio's criminal career was built on the exploitation of organised labour, a racket that had been perfected by earlier mob figures but which Dio elevated to an art form. Working closely with the Lucchese family, he established a network of paper locals — phoney union branches that existed primarily to extort businesses and funnel money into mob coffers. It was through this web of corrupt union influence that Dio forged one of his most consequential partnerships, throwing his considerable weight behind Jimmy Hoffa's campaign to seize control of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. By delivering bloc votes through his network of crooked locals, Dio played a pivotal role in helping Hoffa ascend to the General Presidency of the Teamsters, one of the most powerful and lucrative union positions in the country.

Dio's notoriety reached a national audience during the landmark McClellan Committee hearings of the late 1950s, when Senator John McClellan and a young Robert Kennedy hauled organised crime figures and corrupt union officials before the Senate to account for their activities. A photograph taken outside the hearings, capturing Dio's contemptuous sneer as he attempted to dodge the cameras, became one of the most iconic images of the entire era — a single expression that seemed to embody the arrogance and defiance of the mob's stranglehold on American labour.

Perhaps the most shocking episode connected to Dio was the savage attack on labour journalist Victor Riesel in April 1956. Riesel, whose syndicated newspaper column had been a persistent thorn in the side of corrupt union bosses, had acid thrown in his face outside a New York restaurant, permanently blinding him. The attack was widely attributed to Dio's orchestration, and though the case initially stalled after witnesses were intimidated into silence, Dio was ultimately arrested and charged in connection with the conspiracy.

Johnny Dio's legacy is that of a man who helped corrupt two of America's most powerful institutions — organised labour and democratic governance — and his story remains a stark reminder of how deeply the mob once embedded itself into the fabric of everyday American life.