Joe Andriacchi, who was considered a high-ranking Chicago gangster for decades, has died. He was 91 years old.

He was known as “The Builder” because of his connections to the construction industry, and earlier in his career as “The Sledgehammer” because of his safecracking skills.

According to sources and published reports, Mr Andriacchi died earlier this month.

Speculation that Andriacchi had risen to the top ranks of the secret criminal organization emerged in the 1980s and persisted for decades, while other Mafia members in his circle died or went to prison.

No charges were brought against Mr. Andriacchi in the high-profile federal “Family Secrets” case, which sent several Outfit leaders to prison in 2017 and dealt a major blow to the Chicago Mafia.

A Sun-Times article after the trial said: “Does Monday’s conviction of four top mobsters mean the end of the Chicago Outfit? Not likely. It’s unclear who runs the Chicago Mafia. Among the alleged mobsters who were not charged in the Family Secrets case but still wield influence in the Outfit was Joe ‘The Builder’ Andriacchi.”

The FBI placed Mr. Andriacchi on a list of 16 people who posed the greatest threat to the life of Nick Calabrese. Calabrese, who admitted to killing 14 people, had become a target after testifying as a government informant in the Family Secrets trial against the Mafia. The list was part of a government request to place Calabrese in the federal witness protection program.

Mr. Andriacchi was a longtime resident of the western suburb of River Forest and had also lived in Elmwood Park.

A 1989 Sun-Times article described him as “not only muscular but smart, at least by gangster standards.”

Mr Andriacchi spent three years behind bars for burglary from 1968 to 1971.

In 1958, when Mr. Andriacchi was 25, he and a friend were accused of beating a Chicago police officer who tried to take Mr. Andiacchi’s friend away for questioning about several burglaries.

As a result of the blows, the police officer suffered a concussion, a cut on his left ear and a pierced hyoid bone.

Mr. Andriacchi’s nephew, Donald Andrich, owned a trucking company that was excluded from the city’s no-bid hired truck program after a Sun-Times investigation in 2004 revealed that the program was riddled with Mafia ties.

Mr. Andriacchi was born on October 20, 1932, and grew up in a large family. His parents, Bruno and Angelina Andriacchi, came to the United States from Italy, according to U.S. Census data.

Bruno Andriacchi stated that his occupation was that of a construction worker and street cleaner for the city cleaning service.

Joe Andriacchi attended Wells High School on the North Side.

“He grows up in the Grand Avenue area, starts out as a burglar/thief, specializing in opening safes, and eventually becomes an Outfit guy,” said Chicago author and organized crime expert John Binder. “It’s pretty clear he served as an underboss at least twice… an underboss is the guy who runs things on a day-to-day basis, the right-hand man of the top guy.”

Binder pointed out that Mr. Andriacchi was a cousin of Joey “The Clown” Lombardo, who was convicted in the family secrets trial and died in prison.

“All of these guys had some kind of fake job for tax purposes since the ’50s, some kind of job that they claimed to be earning their income from, but it was just a sham. But Andriacchi actually had a real job, it wasn’t just a sham. He owned a construction company and was apparently pretty good at it. It was a successful construction company,” Binder said, noting that there were rumors that Mr. Andriacchi had been a silent partner in several major restaurants in Chicago.

“Andriacchi was at the top of the team for a long time, or at least close to it, and with his death there is a generational change, so to speak, because now they are all gone,” said Binder.