Bagman: Payoff man or collector Although the word bagman was first applied in the United States to traveling salesmen who carried their wares in bags, "bagmen" maintained a different livelihood in underworld parlance. Stolen goods were carried off in bags by thieves, who thus became bagmen. Later they sold the loot to fences who also carried the booty around in bags, often to give the appearance of being salesmen. Since fences were always in peril of being caught by police, they carried a supply of money in their bags to pay their way out of trouble. In time, the term bagman exclusively connoted an underworld character who carried around money—cash to be used for bribes, or already collected from bribers, or for other illegal enterprises.
The Mafia was always big on using women as bagmen. The most famous of these was Virginia Hill, probably the bedmate of more mafiosi than any other woman in America. During the Kefauver hearings, the senators tried to figure out why she was used so much as a bagman. In executive session, Senator Charles W. Tobey of New Hampshire professed puzzlement why so many men in organized crime were so willing to give her expensive presents and large sums of money.
"Young lady, what makes you the favorite of the underworld?" he asked Hill.
"Senator," a much-sanitized version of her reply went, "I'm the best goddamned lay in the world."
Certainly less outspoken was Ida Devine, the wife of Irving "Nig" Devine, a longtime associate of Meyer Lansky. Dubbed "the Lady in Mink" because she always dressed well, Ida once traveled by plane from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and then by train to Chicago and Hot Springs where she picked up more money before returning to Chicago. She then flew to Miami, her handbag always clutched tightly in her hand. That was hardly surprising since she was carrying $100,000 in cash. At the end of the line she handed over the money to Meyer Lansky.
The top payoff man of the Capone-Chicago syndicate was Greasy Thumb Guzik, so-called because his fingers got greasy from handling so much money. He was the mob's bagman in paying off police and politicians. His duty was to sit nightly at a table at St. Hubert's Old English Grill and Chop House, where district police captains and sergeants could pick up their payoffs. Other visitors to Guzik included bagmen for various Chicago mayors and other high officials. It was entirely fitting that Guzik died at work and with his boots on, at St. Hubert's partaking of a sparse meal of lamb chops and a glass of Mosel. Less philosophical were those who had not made their pick-ups in time.
It was well known that mob payoffs in New York City for years went through Frank Costello, although it seems likely that he seldom handled the money directly. For instance, for many years payoffs to the police department were handled by Joe Cooney, better known as Joe the Coon. Every week he delivered $10,000 in small bills to the commissioner's office, a sum said to have been increased to $20,000 during the regimes of Joseph A. Warren and Grover A. Whalen. Because he was a redhaired, freckle-faced Irishman, Joe the Coon attracted little attention as he walked about with a brown paper bag (stuffed with bills). Still, Lucky Luciano advised Costello
