Chicago Outfit

The Chicago Outfit is an American criminal organization — not a legal institution — that constitutes the Chicago Mafia and, in a true-crime context, is inseparably associated with Alphonse Gabriel Capone and his criminal network in the 20th century. The organization is also referred to simply as 'the Outfit' and is one of the best-known Mafia groupings in American criminal history.

The Outfit emerged in Chicago in the early 1900s and became particularly powerful during Prohibition in the 1920s and 1930s, when Al Capone was at its head. Its activities included extortion, illegal gambling and a wide range of other forms of organized crime extending across large parts of Chicago and the surrounding area.

In a legal context, the Chicago Outfit is significant because US authorities have repeatedly investigated and prosecuted members of the organization. Among the central legal instruments is the RICO statute — the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act — which allows federal prosecutors to prosecute members of organized criminal networks collectively rather than individually. The FBI has conducted major investigations against the Outfit over the decades, and the organization has been the backdrop for several of the most widely discussed federal criminal cases concerning organized crime in the United States. The cases against Al Capone himself — who was convicted of tax evasion in 1931 — are among the most iconic examples of how US authorities have sought to strike at the organization's leadership through legal means.