CRIME: The Little Red Car

The nation's No. 1 hood, Anthony Joseph ("Tony") Accardo, 54, alias Joe Batters, is the very model of a modern mob general. He is popularly credited with half a dozen murders dating from his days as gunman to the late Al Capone, but has never spent a night in jail. Unlike Capone, whom he eventually succeeded as grand vizier of Chicago crime, Tony cleverly paid his taxes on enough income from gambling and "miscellaneous sources" (more than $1,000,000 between 1940 and 1955) to justify his $500,000 mansion in suburban River Forest, Ill. and his lavish vacations in Florida. Even...