He was known to place far greater trust in the bribability of lawmen, seemingly respectable businessmen, labor union leaders, and public officials.

Humphrey's value to the Chicago Outfit was also due to his abilities as a fixer: to ensure that his fellow mobsters attracted as little publicity as possible.

Whereas some senior wiseguys, such as Sam Giancana and Filippo Sacco, welcomed the limelight, others took their cue from Humphreys and conducted themselves behind the scenes and out of public view.

By the time he had turned 13 years old, Humphreys was in the custody of a Chicago judge by the name of Jack Murray, who apparently attempted to interest the young hoodlum in a law career.

During the next few years, Humphreys appears to have been involved in several jewel thefts and burglaries and by age 16, he was serving a 60-day sentence for petty larceny in Chicago's Bridewell Jail.

According to a later acquaintance of Humphreys, the young criminal's private ultimatum to the prosecutor went something like this: "You try to get me indicted for burglary and I will weep in front of the grand jury.

Taking a temporary job as a door-to-door salesman, Humphreys met an attractive young college student from Norman, named Mary Brendle.

Briefly going legitimate, Humphreys got a job as a short-order cook at a restaurant on Halsted Street, though Murray's "legitimacy" would be short-lived after he met customer Fred Evans.

[4] —Capone: The Man and the Era, by Laurence BergreenThe 27-year-old Humphreys was put into the racketeering side of the business but also carried out some killings for the mob around this time.

In 1933, with Capone behind bars for income tax evasion, the chief investigator for the State Attorney's office described Murray Humphreys as "'public enemy No.

It is likely that Humphreys had a hand in arranging the 1933 fake kidnapping of John "Jake the Barber" Factor, a British con artist wanted in England for stock swindling.

Other career highlights for Humphreys include his discovering and exploiting the intricacies of the legal system's "double jeopardy" rule and the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment for the Mob's benefit.

When Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik died in 1956, Humphreys became the Outfit's chief political fixer and financial manager or, in the words of one Mafia historian, their "strategist, councilor, and master schemer".

By the time the late fifties rolled around, it was pretty well understood that Murray Humphreys had dined with presidents and kings all over the world, from the Philippines to Iran.

But his real claim to fame was the fact that he'd single-handedly put some of the nation's richest labor unions in Chicago's pocket - a move that was worth billions to the Outfit, particularly in the gambling industry.

When Chicago FBI agents under the leadership of William F. Roemer finally discovered that a second-floor tailor shop on North Michigan Avenue, in the heart of what is now "Magnificent Mile", was a frequent meeting place for such Outfit notables as Humphreys, Tony Accardo, Sam Giancana and Gus Alex, the FBI painstakingly installed a hidden microphone in the shop after hours.

In addition to having "perhaps the most brilliant mob mind in Chicago," as William Brashler has put it, he was also a marvelous raconteur.Murray Humphreys:Go out of your way to make a friend instead of an enemy.Humphreys' first wife Mary Clementine Brendle, known affectionately as "Clemi", was an Oklahoman with part Cherokee ancestry.

Clemi's many relatives lived nearby and Humphreys soon endeared himself to his acquired nephews and nieces: "I was a small child, and he was always super nice to me," recalled Ray Brendle nearly 60 years later.

Another nephew once recalled how, "every holiday, uncle Lew would go downtown, fill the station wagon with turkeys and other food, and give it to the underprivileged Indian children."

An FBI agent trying to understand his growing regard for "The Camel", guessed that: "it is probably a common pitfall for lawmen to develop affection for those of their adversaries who have more of the good human qualities than their other targets."

The following year Humphreys married his mistress Jeanne Stacy, but soon re-established friendly relations with Clemi, frequently calling her by phone and making occasional visits to Oklahoma.

After his second marriage Humphreys bought a home in Florida under the alias of, "Mr. Lewis Hart", supposedly a retired Texas oilman.

"In 1965, Chicago boss Sam Giancana was jailed by Federal Judge William J. Campbell for his refusal to answer questions regarding the syndicate's activities.

When Giancana refused to say anything, he was charged with "Contempt of Court" and sentenced to be jailed "for the duration of the grand jury or until he chooses to answer."

Picking up the paper, the porter had been surprised to see the reader's face displayed on page one, accompanied by an article about his being sought by the grand jury for questioning.

Another struggle ensued, which ended in the agents forcibly taking the key from Humphreys' pants pocket and opening the safe.

That night, at approximately 8:30 p.m., Ernest Humphreys found his dead brother lying fully clothed and face down on the floor of the same room where he and the agents had fought.

Each was a challenge – the difference being that I enjoyed the fruit of my success so much more against Giancana than I did against 'The Camel' ... in Chicago there would be plenty more mobsters to choose as targets.

But none like Hump.Roemer: Man Against the Mob, by William F. Roemer Jr. Sandy Smith, the Chicago Tribune's top crime journalist, reported Humphreys' death in an article entitled, "His Epitaph: No Gangster Was More Bold".

Another newspaper man, Mike Royko, had the following quip to offer: "[Humphreys] died of unnatural causes – a heart attack".