Charles "Babe" Baron (1907-1992[1]) was an organized crime figure in Chicago, Illinois. He owned a successful Chicago new car dealership ( Charles Baron Ford) as well as holding the rank of brigadier general in the Illinois National Guard. He was involved in illegal gambling as a handbook operator for the Chicago Outfit.
Along with Dave Yaras and Lenny Patrick, Baron served as a protégé to Democratic Party ward boss Jacob Arvey.[citation needed] He was also a close associate of Patrick Hoy, a Henry Crown employee of General Dynamics who was later able to arrange a job for Sidney Korshak at the Hilton Hotels.[2]
Twice arrested for murder, including that of bootlegger James Walsh, whom he shot and killed following a prize fight in 1929, and of North Side Gang financier "Smiling" Gus Winkler, on October 9, 1933.[1] Baron was identified as an associate of John Roselli during the Kefauver Hearings, in the 1950s.[2]
A former general manager of Meyer Lansky's Havana Riviera in pre-revolutionary Cuba, Baron was one of the first to be granted a gaming license by the Gaming Control Act, in 1960, and served as the official greeter of the Sands Hotel and Casino, in Las Vegas, under Joseph "Doc" Stacher.[2]