Mob FilesPublic-domain archive of American organized crime
Front and profile prison photographs of Nick Circella with a placard reading USPLK-60609 2-9-44.
Open the full imageJPG, 1600 × 1234 px, 0.3 MB

Nick Circella, Leavenworth inmate 60609, 1944 (National Archives)

Front and profile mug shot from the Leavenworth inmate file of Nick Circella, inmate 60609, with a placard dated 2-9-44. A copy is stored here.

Date
1944-02-09
Kind
photograph
Source
National Archives Catalog
Retrieved
2026-10-12
NAID
12089393
Rights
A Bureau of Prisons record, public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105. Series "Inmate Case Files" (NAID 571125), U.S. Penitentiary Leavenworth, Records of the Bureau of Prisons (Record Group 129). The National Archives catalog marks the item "Use Restriction: Unrestricted."

The National Archives catalog titles this item “Photograph of Nick Circella.” It is a front and profile mug shot from the Inmate File of Nick Circella (NAID 12004248), U.S. Penitentiary Leavenworth, inmate number 60609. The placard reads “USPLK-60609 2-9-44”; the date on this page is the placard’s.

The catalog states only the name and the inmate number. It does not state the offense, and the file unit has no other digitized pages. The photograph itself does not tie Circella to a case. The Second Circuit’s 1944 opinion in United States v. Compagna names a Circella who “kept a night club in Chicago” in its account of the motion-picture extortion testimony, and a 1947 FBI report quotes a July 1945 Bureau of Prisons teletype in which “Warden HUNTER states NICK CIRCELLA says no ill feeling exists” between him and two of the men convicted in that case. Neither record gives his offense, sentence or commitment date. See the Hollywood extortion case and his person page.

The copy stored here is downsampled to 1600 pixels from the 2.65 MB catalog file.

itemUnited States v. Compagna, 146 F.2d 524 (2d Cir. 1944)Second Circuit opinion of December 20, 1944 affirming the convictions of Compagna and six others for a conspiracy to extort money from motion-picture producers and exhibitors, 1935 to 1940.itemFBI Atlanta report (file Atlanta 58-62), autumn 1947: Warden Sanford on the prisoners and their 1945 transfer to Leavenworth (Vault, John Roselli Part 02)The Atlanta office's report for the 1947 parole inquiry. Warden Sanford said he made no parole recommendations, recalled an inmate informant's report that three of the men "had stated they had $10,000 to arrange their transfer", and said the transfer to Leavenworth was "done by bus on July 28, 1945."