Joseph Francis Saltis (8 September 1894[1] – 2 August 1947), known as "Polack Joe", was a Rusyn American Prohibition era organized crime boss who, with Frank McErlane, operated an illegal bootlegging crime family in the Back of the Yards neighborhood of Chicago, until his territory was seized by Al Capone and the Chicago Outfit.
With the assistance of John "Dingbat" Oberta (sometimes spelled "O'Berta"), a candidate for the Illinois State Senate, Saltis began supplying illegal alcohol to Chicago's speakeasies in the Back of the Yards neighborhood.
On August 6, 1926, Sheldon Gang member John "Mitters" Foley was killed by Frank Koncil while in Saltis's territory.
[7] With his associates gone and his organization all but destroyed, Saltis quickly retired to his home on Barker Lake in Winter, Wisconsin.
[citation needed] Saltis later died at age 53 from complications of a stomach ulcer in Chicago's Cook County Hospital in 1947.