asbury 321-374

29
\-/ affsppted to rule-, the Chicago underworld during thc saturnalia of crime and corruption"which has beencallei ,, a noble.experiment " wererecofnized by their fellows asgenu- il-.Iig Shots-Johnny Toiio, who ,u.ce.ded Colosimo. AI Capone, who succeeied Torrlo; andDion O'Banion antl {f.i. W.eis1, peerless gunmen, andpretenders to the thronc who revolted against Torrio and Capone and wereeventu_ ally crushed. The biggest of the Big Shots, of course, werc Torrio and Capon., uttdalthough C"apon. achieved an inter_ natronal reputation and accumulated a great deal morc money than ever fell into the hands of Torrlo, the latter was themore accomplished criminal. Torrio buirt themachine oI outlawry; Capone onlykeptit running, replacing andadding parts. Torrio maintained peace in gingland fo? more thai., lltt..,y:.ut: by strategy_und .o-proirisf, with only an occa- :t:nut dtsctphnary-murder; Capone ruledby the gun andthc bludgeon and held his position by incessaningnting and frc_ quent massacre of his enemies. Torrio's authorilv was so nearly absolute that he seldom carried a r.volver'and frc- quently walkedthe streets alone; Capone burdened himsclf with two holstered pistols under his armpits, wore a bullet_ proof vest, and rode in a seyen-ton armoredcar equipped with a machine-gun. He wentnowhere withouta bodyg.iu'rd. As an organizer and administrator of underwoita of_ CHAPTER X 'rE' THIE BIG SIilO]IS NLY Foun of the gangsterchieftains who ruled, or fairs Johnny Torrio is unsurpassed in the annals of Amcri- can crime; hewas probably thenearest thing to a real ma-stcr mind that this country hasyet produced. He conducted his evil enterprises as if they had been legitimate business' In the morning he kissed his wife good-by and motored to his magnificent\ furnished offices on thesecond floorof the Four Deic.s. There he bought and sold women' conferred with the managers of his brbthels and gambling dens, issued in' structionito his rum-runners andbootleggers' arranged for the corruption of policeand city officials, and senthis gun squads out to slaufhterrival gangsters who might !: itl"i' fering with his schemes. But he neveraccompanied his kil- lers on these forays,for Torrio himself wasnot a gunman; he once boasted proudly that he had neverfired a pistol in hislife. When the day's work wasdone, Torrio returned to his MichiganAvenue- aPartment and, except on rare occasions when f,eattended the theater or a concert, spent the evening at home in slippers andsmoking jacket, playing cards with his wife or listening to phonograph records. Unlike mostof his fellow gangsteis, Torrio disliked to talk shop;his-favorite topic oI co-nversation was music, and he frequently aston' ished musicians by hisknowledge of the worksof great-com- posers and his critical comments uPon them. Though his Lank account and safe-deposit boxes bulgedwith the pr.o' ceeds of debauchery, Toriio eschewed dissipation with the holv scorn of the anchorite. He neither smoked nor drank, he wasnever heard to utter a profane or obscene word, and as far as he was concerned, the womenwho filled his bor- dellos were just so manyarticles of merchandise. His wife, a Kentucky girl who knew next to nothingof-his business, calledhim ,ithe best and dearest of husbands " and said that her married life had been" like one long, unclouded honevmoon.t' 32r

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Page 1: Asbury 321-374

\-/ affsppted to rule-, the Chicago underworld during thcsaturnalia of crime and corruption"which has been callei ,, anoble.experiment " were recofnized by their fellows as genu-i l-. I ig Shots-Johnny Toiio, who ,u.ce.ded Colosimo.AI Capone, who succeeied Torrlo; and Dion O'Banion antl

{f.i. W.eis1, peerless gunmen, and pretenders to the thronc

who revolted against Torrio and Capone and were eventu_ally crushed. The biggest of the Big Shots, of course, wercTorrio and Capon., uttd although C"apon. achieved an inter_natronal reputation and accumulated a great deal morcmoney than ever fell into the hands of Torrlo, the latter wasthemore accomplished criminal. Torrio buirt the machine oIoutlawry; Capone only kept i t running, replacing and addingparts. Torrio maintained peace in gingland fo? more thai.,

lltt..,y:.ut: by strategy_und .o-proirisf, with only an occa-

:t:nut dtsctphnary-murder; Capone ruled by the gun and thc

bludgeon and held his position by incessaningnting and frc_quent massacre of his enemies. Torrio's authorilv was sonearly absolute that he seldom carried a r.volver'and frc-quently walked the streets alone; Capone burdened himsclfwith two holstered pistols under his armpits, wore a bullet_proof vest, and rode in a seyen-ton armored car equippedwith a machine-gun. He went nowhere without a bodyg.iu'rd.

As an organizer and administrator of underwoita of_

CHAPTER X

'rE'

THIE BIG SIi lO]IS

NLY Foun of the gangster chieftains who ruled, or

fairs Johnny Torrio is unsurpassed in the annals of Amcri-

can crime; he was probably the nearest thing to a real ma-stcr

mind that this country has yet produced. He conducted his

evil enterprises as i f they had been legit imate business' In

the morning he kissed his wife good-by and motored to his

magnificent\ furnished offices on the second floor of the Four

Deic.s. There he bought and sold women' conferred with

the managers of his brbthels and gambling dens, issued in'

structionito his rum-runners and bootleggers' arranged for

the corruption of police and city officials, and sent his gun

squads out to slaufhter rival gangsters who might !: itl"i'fering with his schemes. But he never accompanied his kil-

lers on these forays, for Torrio himself was not a gunman;

he once boasted proudly that he had never fired a pistol in

his l i fe.When the day's work was done, Torrio returned to his

Michigan Avenue- aPartment and, except on rare occasions

when f,e attended the theater or a concert, spent the evening

at home in slippers and smoking jacket, playing cards with his

wife or listening to phonograph records. Unlike most of his

fellow gangsteis, Torrio disliked to talk shop; his-favorite

topic oI co-nversation was music, and he frequently aston'

ished musicians by his knowledge of the works of great-com-

posers and his critical comments uPon them. Though his

Lank account and safe-deposit boxes bulged with the pr.o'

ceeds of debauchery, Toriio eschewed dissipation with the

holv scorn of the anchorite. He neither smoked nor drank,

he was never heard to utter a profane or obscene word, and

as far as he was concerned, the women who filled his bor-

dellos were just so many articles of merchandise. His wife,

a Kentucky girl who knew next to nothing of-his business,

called him ,ithe best and dearest of husbands " and said

that her married life had been " like one long, unclouded

honevmoon.t'

32r

Owner
Comment on Text
Answer Number 1
Page 2: Asbury 321-374

ii

2

O u c r the love-lorn Colosimo was no longer either an an-noyance or a potential menace, Torrio weni ahead with theexpansion of ,his system of suburban bordellos and road_houses. under the iommand of capone, Mike de pike Heit-ler,.Harry Cusick, and Charley Carr, his agents went intoStickney,

_ Forest View, posen, Burr Oaki Blue Island,Steger, Chicago Heights, and other Cook County towns westand southwest of Chicago, in many of which'there werelarge foreign populations] and soon transformed them frompeaceful suburbs into brothel-ridden Babylons. Footholdswere gained in these towns_partly by corrupting village andcounty officials and partly by bribing propirty-6s,ner-s. Be_fore a resort was opined, thi neighb"orlooa was thoroughlycanvassed, and if a man who owne d a home near the f rJ-posed dive would agree not to cause trouble, Torrio soiu.dsome of his rnost pressing financial problems. Was he carry-tng a heavy mortgage ? Torrio paid it. Did he need a newcar' a new furnacet or a new iuite of furniture? Torriobought them. Did his house need painting or a new roof ?Torrio,sent carpenters and painters, and to6k care of the bill.

Many of the resorts thus established were more viciousthan any of-the old Levee dives, because they were operatedwithout police supervision of any description. So,ri. *.r.elaborate cabarets with assignaiion houses attached, de-signed to appeal to automobile parties from the city. Oiherswere combination dives similai to the Four Deuces and theRex. Still others, catering principally to the foreign workersin the steel mills and manufu.tuiin[ plants, were built likebarracks, with bedrooms upstairs, uid on the ground floor alarge drinkilq

""-d gambling room where prosiitutes mingled

with and solicited the customers. In mosiof these placeJthebenches and tables were fastened to the wafls and floor to

322

prevent them from being destroyed during the brawls which

were of frequent occurrence'

Some of Torrio's suburban dives housed from forty to

sixtv Eirls' who worked in three eight'hour shifts' The larg'

il';ili.. -di".["at,

a sixty-girl"house in Stickney' and.lh.e

;;;y:;iti-M"pl. Inn near For"est View' a community which

*"1 lo compietely under Capo-1e';jomination that in the

underworld it was.om-only ialled Caponeville' The Stock'

;l; *;, more than an immoral resort; it was also a hide-

"*uu una a munitions dump' It was raided by the Chica-go

illtl."J; ;;';;;.; oi'A"i"unt state's Attornev wil'

i#H.'M.d;;gt; in ci..,o in 19z6, and was found to be

" *tloUf" laby?i"nth of secret Passages' and hidden ro.oms

."".rt"".a unj., the roof and Letwein the floor and ceiling

oi th. first and second stories' One of these chambers was

finJ *irn cork, furnished with soft rugs and comfortable

.ou.t,.t and easy chairs, and fitted-with a speakirtg'tY9: 1-L:

a dumbwaiter. A criminal secreted there could keep hts.own

ioof.ou..ftrough th" p'nctured eyes of female figur;s !ill^:"-l

on the ceilings-of the saloon and gambli.nB room' ,i.1 :^e-lt-t:.I

steel-lined p-anels built into the walls the poltce ot:t"^1"1::

large quuniities of dynamite, rifles, shotgll)'gttn'oes' au'

toriatic pistols, machine'guns, and ammunltlon'

Thf decent citizens-of Forest view, unable to prevent

the invasion of their town by Torrio and Capone' waited,for

several years for the Cook County authorities to heed tnelr

."-pi"iltr. and close the Maple inn'.but were finally com-

pelled to take matters into their own hands' After the raid

I;;;; sio.t ua. Al Capone, who by that time had, suc'

;ffii i;;; ;. head oi the operating syndicate' closed

the resort, intending to resume operations as soon as tne

*uu. .f public indig"nation had subsided' But the dive was

;;;.t ,"Jp.n.d. Afiout daybreak on.May 3o'tg,?9:,,!::."

automobiles drove up to the Inn and a score of Vlgtlantes

j".p;; ;"t and quickly surrounded the building' Over'

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powering the Negro watchman, they smashed in the doorsand set hre to the structure in half a dozen places. Firecomp_anies were summoned from Berwyn and other towns,but the firemen made no attempt to extinguisf, tfr. nrrn.r,a-lthough they laid hose lines and protected n-ear_by proo.r,u.yh.l representatives of Capone urged them to'save theInn, they replied that they.ouldn't sp7re the water.

county were divided into spheres of influence' in each. of

which an allied gang chieftain was suPreme' with sub'chiefs

*orking under fris Sirection. A few of thttt leaders them'

selves owned and oferated breweries and distilleries' but

in the main they t;;.i;;t ih.i' 'upplies

from Torrio and

were principally concerned with ttiling, making deliveries'

protectine shipments, terrorizing saloon-keepers who re-

frr.d to buy fiom the syndicate, and furnishing 9","-:l--:::

punitive expeditions against hi-iackers and independents wno

attempted,o .n.rou.i ' rp"l ' io"io terri tory' Tltrf : : l

Side was allotted to Dion O'Banion, captain of a tamous

gang of bandits, burglars, and safe-crackers' 3 fotttott,

it. "W.r,

Side was -earmarked for Terry Drugga.n .a1o

Frankie Lake, and the remainder, including the suburbs tnto

which Torrio had already penetrated with his prostttutes'

was ruled by Torrio's own men under the direction ot ftarry

Cusick, Al Capone, and Frankie Pop-e, sometimes called the

Millionaire N.trUov.--Part of the'South Side remained in

Torrio's hands, and'the rest of this rich area was split up

;;";g Danny Stanton; Ralph Sheldon' one of the many

lri-in-ut. proiu..a ii a notirious political club called Ra'

pen's Colis; Polack joe Salt is, ontt u more or less honest

:;i;;*k;.. i' l"rilt; and Frank McErlane' whom the

Illinois Crime Sur*y called " the most brutal goL-un Y,hoever pulled a tr iggei in Chicago,"-a savaQe' merci less Kttter

*itn'.-utl, pigfif.?.y.s set ii a f.at ted"'face' McErlane's

favorite weaPon *ur'u sawed-off shotgun loaded with slugs'

and he was without fear, pity, or remorse''--- A, long as th... ,iliunces remained unbroken' Johnny

Torrio .orn*und.J the services of between seven hundred

,J.ign, hundred gunmen' the most vicious tg^gttgirtl:: :f

crimini ls ever brought together in one city' Accordtng to

the well-kno*n Ct-i?uio i?utn"tist James b'Donnell Ben'

n.it, nin.ty'five per ..it of them were of foreign Olt*,,1lu

of thi. ninlty'five Per cent' eighty-five Per cent were rtalrans

325

3

ArnrADy the foremost vicemonger in the United States,with an annual income from prostiiution of at least a hun-dred thousand dollars ayear,jolrn_ny Torrio began to ;r;;;-ize the beer and liquor ir"ffic of Chicago and Cook Countvin the late summer-of r9zo. He held l5ng confer;".; ; i i .the leaders of the principal criminal g"ng. and persuadedthem to abandon bank robbery, burgla"ry,

"and bariditry, for

the time being at least, in fav,or oi boott.gging und'r,tr*running. He promised them riches beyonl-thiir wildestdreams, and more than made good his promises. He formedan alliance with Joseph Stenion,

-.rb", of a well-known

f amily. and a wealthy brewer before prohibition, and tookover the five breweries which, according to the Illinois crimeSurvey, Stenson was operating in paitnership with TerrvDruggan and Franki. L1k_": co'-capiains of thi Vrii.y;;;;and trusted henchmen of Morris

^Eil.r, trustee of the chi-

:lg" ,S"::,:.ry. District and political boss of the Twentieth

ward. Utthztng Stenson's business experience and connec_

1."-] | '^,1ot:: acquired more breweries. Some were bought

out'ght. uthers were leased. A few remained in the haidsof their-original owners, while Torrio and his gangsteis" fronted " for them-that is, assumed ownershii un-a u..cepted responsibility in the event of trouble.

Torrio exercised general.supervision over every phaseof the liquor traffic, bul to facilitate operations tn. Jiti."rJ

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trI

or Sicilians. Ten per cent were Jews, and most of the re-matnlng hve per cent were of Irish extraction. About fortyper cent were paroled convicts, f rom the ranks of the nineh.undred and fifty criminals who had been released fromll l tnors penal inst i tut ions by the state Board of pardons a'c lParoles in less than three vears.

+

T," "

most important of the independent gangsters for,tho.- Johnny Torrio made no provision in the"all"ocation ofterritory were the four O'Donnell brothers, Edward, Steve,Walter, and Tommy, generally called the South Side O'Don-nells to distinguish ihJm frorn Myles and Klondike O'Don-nel l , unrelated but also cr iminals, who f lour ished on the farWest Side and in the suburban city of Cicero. T.he probablereason for the exclusion of the South side o'Donnelrs wasthe fact that the leader and eldest of the four brothers, Ed_ward, better known as Spike, was in prison at Joliet whenthe.country wenr dry, hiving_been convicted oi complicitf

* ,1. daylight holdup of the-Stockyards Trusr und Siuingl

5ank. A cr iminal s ince boyhood, Spike O'Donnel l had beJnsneak thief, pickpocket, burglar, fobtpad, labor slugger, andbank-robber; he had shot half a dozen men, had bien twicetr ied for murder, and had been accused of several otherkill ings. Ffe was also deeply religious, and not even theprospect of

.1 good murder or a holdup coulJ keep him

from attending Sunday Mass at St. peter 's Cathol icChurch.

Without this devout and gi f ted out law to lead them,the O'Donnells were nothing riore than good journ"y;;;burglars and gunmen; for mo*re than a yeai they'hung iboutthe Four Deuces, grateful for whatev., .rr.b, mi"ght bethrown to them by Torrio and Capone. But the fortrires of

326

the clan began to improve when Governor Len Small parolccl

Spike O'Dinnel l at the earnest request of s ix state senators'

f ive state rePresentat ives, and a iudge.of the Criminal Court

of Coot County. Within a few months after Spike's return

to Chicago the O'Donnel ls hi- jacked several t ruckloads ot

Torrio b?er, imported a crack New York gunman' Henry

Hasmiller, and enlisted a dozen thugs, most of them con-

victs on parole, as truck'drivers, bodyguards, and beer. drym'

-.r . . ih.n Spike O'Donnel l

^^d'- u".^ngem:n:: ,with a

Joliet jury andbegan running beer into the South Srde terrr-

i"ty #rrrJn had bJen assigo.Id.t" Iit Saltis and Frank Mc'

Erlane. Drummers pr...itd the shipments' and by- slugging

and otherwise terror'izing saloon-keePers' a method of. sales'

-un.hip devised by O'donnell and immediately coPied by

;h;; girng l"ud"rr, th.y soon built up what Spike O'Donnell

descrii'ed "s

a " nice little business'"

By Torrio's orders the-gunmen of the Salt is and Mc'

Erlane gangs struck at the iiterlop-ers with the speed and

f..o.ity-of i corn"r"d rattlesnake' On the night of ?t:t:li

ber J, i9r3, ^band

of tr iggermen headed.by^P'"."y McI'al l

una'f ' t"nt i McErlane, pt-o*t ing the South Side in quest ol

O'Donnell beer drummers, surprised Walter and Tommy

O'Donn.ll, George Bucher, Jeiry O-'Connor, and Gegrge

M;gh;" in Jo" illatka's saloon bn Lincoln Street. AII es-

capee throuqh sicle and rear doors excePt O'Connor'.who

was captur.a Uy NIcFall and marched out of the saloon'

n. ft" lt.pp.d into the street, McErlane blew his head ofi

*irft u ,hoigun. Ten days later Bucher and Meegha-n 1i'er.esnatched from an O'Donnell truck in the wilds of Cook

C"t",y and forced into an automobile by two.men Yl:

" ,'lok

'cm fo'r a r ide," a phrase, incidental ly, which is said to have

b..n .oin.d by Hymie Weiss' The-bodies of Bucher and

Meeghan, t ands i i .d b.hind their back and their bodies

filled'with shotgun slugs, were found next morning in a ditch'

327

t

It

I

Page 5: Asbury 321-374

The ride murder, frst of i ts kind, was repeated on Decem-ber r, rgz3,whenMorrie Keane was ki l led una SnorW pnun

.*u* rTjg.ysly_wounded and left for dead. A f;;;,i;,

Iater Philip Corrigan was blasted with u ,t otgun";nil.driving-an O'DonnJl beer truck, and Walter O,n8nn.tt unaHenry I{asmil ler were shot to death in a gun battre at Ever-green Park. Meanwhile ten separate attempts had beenmade to ki l l Spike O'Donnell, ani several bullets had foundtemporary lodgment in his body. He fought back ,";;g; i ; ,but he lacked the guns to cope with his enemies. With thescore seven to two in favor of Torrio's ki l lers, Spike O,Don-nell f inal ly abandoned his " nice l i t t le business " and left chi-cago. He returned in a year or so, after Torri" frirnr.ithad f led, resumed,his bootlegging activit i .r , , i ,orgf, ; ;smaller scale than before, unJ"b.i. . interested in-r.u.rr lracketeering cnterprises. Apparently he had reached an un_o!rstandlng with Al Capone, for he was not molested. FIealso went into the wholesale coal business, and despite hi;long criminal record and the fact that hrs name appeared onthe list of public enemies issuecr by the crime c;il;J;;his political friends obtained for hiin a contract to supply thecity with coal.

Most of the ki l l ing in the war against Spike O,Donnellwas done by the ferocious Frank McErlane, who included atleast f ive of o'Donne' 's men in his l i fet ime bag of trr ir i*".The others probably fel l before the f laming pistols of WalterJtevens, the dean of Chicago gunmen_hl *u. f i f tv_six inr923--and one of ganglindrs most picturesque f,g";;.Stevens was f irst heaid of in Chi.ago as a henchman ofY":rI

Enright, who with his gang pSrformed proa;ei.. ofo.o1o,:g' sJuggrng, and murder on behalf of labtr unlons inthe rndustrtal wars in the early part of the twentieth centurv.Enriglrt was ki l le d in February'tgzoby Srr;t j i ; 'e;;; ; ; i ;a Sici l ian gunman and blackmuii. , * 'ho was afterward de-ported, at the behest of Big Tim Murphy, best_kno*n of

328 ONE OF THE SEVERAL

TERRITORY MADE BY

From the Chicago

DIVISIONS

'l rtbune

OF

THE GANGS

Page 6: Asbury 321-374

labor racketeers. l Stevens's name was connected with adozen murders during his service with Enright, and he wasdcf ini tely impl icated in, .several , among them the ki l l ing ofPeter Gentleman, a policeman,s son tu-rned bandit und [un_man. The murder-of a pol iceman in Aurora, I l l inois,-putStevens in pr ison, but he was soon pardoned by GoveriorLen Small as a reward for servicei p..for-ei when theGovernor was tr ied for malfeasance.

- Like Johnny Torr io, Stevens kept his home l i fe dist inct

from his business. He was wel l educated, a student of his-tory, and an omnivorous reader, being especial ly fond of theworks of Robert Louis Stevenson, RoUert Burns, and JackLo'don. Ffe never drank, and didn' t learn to smoke unt i lh.e was fifty years old. He adopted three children and gavethem good educat ions, and cared for an inval id wife for r iorethan twenty years, giv ing her the best medical at tent ion ob-tainable. He was extremely puri tanical in his views; he dis-approved of the theater, expunged immoral passages fromthe classics before br inging th.m into his home, rJfused toperrni t his chi ldren to wear short skir ts or to use rouge orlipstick, amused his- fullow gunmen by inveighing biiterlyagainst the so-called flaming youth of-the peiiod,"and f.e'_qucnt ly made long speeches upholding old- iashioned idealsand morals. But he would kill a man for fifty dollars andcrack a skull for twenty.

Neither Stevens nor McErlane was ever punished forthinning th-e ranks of Spike O'Donnel l 's gang. I t was com-m-on knowledge that McErlane had muider.d O'Connor,Meeghan,

5:u1", and Bucher, but Torr io was able to keephim out of ja i l f or several months ; the pol ice f inal ly arresteihim because of the uproar raised by the newspapers. McEr_lane was indicted, and the Grand Jury ordered that he be

1 Cosmano was one of the many Uru.O-t"n..ffi

Jim colosimo, but was ambushed by colosimo and badly wounded. I{e was inja i l when Colosimo was murdcred.

330

held without bai l ; but he was immediately set f ree utt t l t ' t '

bonds, and in Apri l r 92+ the State's Attorney nol le-prossct l

the case. Simi lar disposit ions were made of indictments

found against Joe Sal i is, Ralph Sheldon, and others accuscd

of comfl ic i ty in the ki l l ings. Danny McFal l , an unimpo,r-

tant member of Torr io ' . g*t squad - his value lay chief ly

in the fact that he was a Deput lSheri f f -was tr ied for the

murder of O'Connor, but was acquit ted, and soon thereafter

vanished from chicago. walter Stevens also ret i red, af tet

an attempt had been made to ki l l h im. tn glngland i t was

said of Sie'ens, as of Torr io : " He could dish i t out but he

couldn' t take i t ."

5

W n p N Johnny Torr io led his atmy of pimps and.harlots

into chicago's suburbs he rnade no attempt to establ ish bor-

del los in c" icero, which not only was the largest community

in Cook County outside of Chicago, but with ' PgPu.lu:t.?:

of more than f i ' f ty thousand was the f i f th largest c i ty in I l l i -

nois and one of the state's most important manufactur ing

centers. I t had long since outgrown the wi ldness of which

the Chicago n.*.pu!.rr had complained in Civi l War t imes,

and in thf main *u* u prorp.tou. and law'abiding ci ty ' I t

was preyed upon, of course' by the usual assortment ot

crook.d'pol i t ic ians, and harbored the normal-quota of sa'

loons, most of which remained open after prohibi t ion went

into effect and were suppl ied with beer by the West Side

O'Donnel ls, Klondike ,nd Myl. t . But there were no broth'

els in Cicero, and the only form of gambi ing permit ted was

slot machines, hundre ds oi which were in operat ion under the

control of a pol i t ic ian named Eddie Vogel In co-operat ion

u, i th the O'Donnel ls and Eddie Tancl, a Bohemian saloon-

keeper who had a large fol lowing among foreign-born voters,

Vogel dominated the ci ty government headed by Mayor

Joseph Z. Klenha.

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I t was probably fear of the West Side O'Donnellsrather than the opposit ion of the poli t icians that had keptTorrio out of Cicero, for the O'Donnells disapproved ofprostitution and would have nothing to do with it. But inthe fal l of tgz3, having gained control of the remainder ofCook County, Johnny Torrio made a carefully planned andlong expected assault upon Cicero. Characterlstically, heemployed strategy instead of force. Making no arrange-ments for protection, he sent a score of prosti tuaes into Ciceroin October rgz3 and opened a bordellb on Roosevelt Road.The Cicero police immediately closed the dive and arrestedthe women. Torrio opened another resort at Ogden andFifty-second Avenues. It was wrecked by the police, and theharlots locked up. Torrio then withdiew his forces, buttwo days later deputies from the ofrce of Sherifi Peter Hofi-man descended upon Cicero and confiscated every slot ma.chine in the city.

. Having thus served notice that if he couldn't bring pros-titutes into Cicero no one else could operate slot maihines,Torrlo suggested a compromise and

-ide " treaty of peace

with Vogel and the O'Donnell brothers, which was sciup.t-lously observed for nearly three years, to the great profitof all concerned. Under the terms of this pact Vogel\ slotmachines were returned to him, and the O'Donnells weregranted exclusive rights to sell beer to the saloons on Roose.velt Road and in several other sections of the city. ThetJgaty also confirmed their possession of that pori ion ofChicago's West Side in which they had been operating. Tor-rio agreed not to import harlots nor attempt to eitablishbrothels, but was permitted to open gambling houses andcabarets, to sell beer anywhere in Cicero e*cepi in the terri-tory allotted to the O'Donnells, and to use the city as a basefor all of his operations except those connected with vice.Eddie Tancl, notorious for his bad temper and fighting abil-ity, would take no part in the peace conference; he defied

332

Torrio from the start, and profanely declared that he would

iuv lr., from whomever he pleased' He had long been

;;l:.ci;*iit' ii. o'o"nnells, but quarreled with them when

;t;.t*;;;.ii;;"g needlei beer'instead of real beer' or'

ji;ffiilo; tt. d'Donnells and Torrio to leave Cicero'

i.-t.pfii,a that he would leave only in. his comn' which he

did. He was killed it'Nout-b" '9'4by

Myles O'Donnell

and Jim Doherty, ostensibly in a dispute over a meal cnecK'

As soon as terms for tire occupation of Cicero had been

asreed upon, Johnny To"io turned the city over to AI Ca-

;il",il";;'T;;il'' ;gnt'nuna man and a full pa.rtner in

5["i#1" .nt.rprir.., #d departed on an extensive tour

of Europe, u..ornp"nitd by..his wife and mother' He also

took with him a million doilars in securities and letters of

credit, which h. d;;;iJ in European banks against the

time, which amanoi hi' inttlligence must have recognized as

t"""a to come, when he shoulJbe compelled to flee Chicago'

He returnea to A*,'ica in the spring of rgz4'leaving his

*",t.t to spend her declining ytu.t* ott a seaside estate in

Italv. with half a do,tn autJmobiles and a stafi of thir-ty

;;;7;";',";h;-l;.;;;oman in the province' Meanwhile

AiC;p";. hud b..n o'ganizingCitt 'o' Tott io had captured

iiliy;linoui nring"u shotibut Capone consolidated the

."tq".it, in ablaze of"gunfire and a wave of lawlessness'

The violen., ,eu."h.d a climax on election day, April r,

r924, which brought the--o:l disorderly twenty-four hours

in Ci..ro'. historyl Bands of heavily lrme{ gangsters' com'

manded by Capon' and camp.aigninf f.or fIayol

*]::11.1:U

Itr. p"-o.ratic ticket, terrorized the city f rom dawn to dusK'

A man was killed in Eddie Tancl's saloon' 'I'wo others were

,t ot a.ua in Twenty'second Street' Another man's throat

was slashed. A policeman was blackjacked' Citizens -who

attempted to vote Republican were.slugged "ttd 1-t:::1jt:-

the polls. " Automo6iles filled with gunm"" -l::"^o::,:1"

streets," said the illirroi, Crime Survey, " slugging and kid'

333

Page 8: Asbury 321-374

napping elect ion workers. Pol l ing places were raided byarmed thugs and bal lots taken at the point of the gun fromthe hands of voters wait ing to drop them in the box. Votersand workers were kidnapped, taken to Chicago and held pr is-oners unt i l the pol ls closed." Late in the afternoon honestci t izens appealed to Chicago for help, and seventy pol icemenwere sworn in as deputy sheri f fs by County Judge Edmund K.

Jarecki and rushed to Cicero by automobi le. A pol ice squadcommanded by Detect ive Sergeant Wil l iam Cusick camcupon Al Capone, his brother Frank, Dave Hedl in, andCharley Fischett i , wi th pistols in their hands, standing infront of a pol l ing place at Cicero Avenue and Twenty-second Street. Frank Capone shot at Patrolman McGlynn,but missed, and McGly"n ki t l .d him. Fledl in was wouni.d.Fischett i was chased into a f ie ld and captured after a gunbatt le in which no one was hurt . Al Capone f led down CiciroAvenue, encountered another group oi pol icemen, and witha gun blazing in each hand fought them off unt i l darknesscame to his aid and he escaped. He was never arrested,though a long and frui t less invest igat ion was made by theState's Attorney's off ice to learn where he and other gang-sters had obtained their pistol permits. I t developed thatmost of them had been issued by suburban just ices of thepeace. Frank Capone was given a funeral which ecl ipsedthat of Big Jim Colosimo, with a si lver-plated casket andtwenty thousand dol lars ' worth of f lowers. As a gesture ofsol idar i ty, every saloon and gambling-house in Cicero re-mained close d, with t ight ly drawn bl inds, for two hours.

- M_ayor Klenha and his t icket were, not unexpectedly,

elected by tremendous major i t ies, and Al Capone wis mast irof Cicero. Almost overnight the ci ty became one of thetoughest in the United States. I t was said that the way todetermine when one crossed the Chicago l ine into Cicero wassimply to sni f f . " I f you smel l gunpor""d.r , vou're in Cicero."The one-t ime peaceful streets of downtown Cicero werc

33+

fi l led with arrogant ' roister ing, swaggering gangstcrs ' : rrr ' l

crowded with saloons and gambling-houses' Onc l t t t t r t l t ' t ' t l

unJ .i"ty of these places .ui full blast day ""q "iUf'f '.il.t]l

s idewalk barkers uiging passers-by to step in ' Among tht 'nt

were the notor ious Ship, owned by Capone and managed Dy

Toot, Nlondi ; the Hawthorne Smoke Shop, owned by Torr i t r

and managed by Frankie Pope, where an avetage -oi

htty

thousand dol lars a day *u' 6t t on the races; and Lauter-

back's, which operated the largest g-ambl ing.guTtt in the

countrlr with a hundred thousand dollars in chips-ir-e9'"n'l{

risked'on a single turn of the roulette wheel' Whisky sold

lo, ,.rr.nty-five" cents a drink' beer for thirty-five t*':-i

stein, and * in. fot thir ty cents a smal l glass' - I .orr to and

i:,ru :-l; * il ilJ. $: s:fi 1i:3'i "# : -':xL l :" [i :!of the syndicate; his job was to protect the dive and see that

Torr io and Capone ieceived their spl i t , which ranged.from

;;;y-fi". to fi 'fty Per cent of the- gioss leceipts' The house

*u, ui .o compel l id to Pay the sa. lary of the agelt ' . - -

Capone ruled Ci.eto f tom his hladquarrers in the Haw-

thorne inn on Tvrenty-second Street; he occupied an entire

floor, posted armed gangsters at every entrance' 3;1{ 1:

stal ledbul let-proof steel shutters at the wtndows' ' t l rs or-

ders transcended al l law; he was obeyed without quest ion

by the police, and by city officials and employees frcli1e

Muuor^ down to the lowl iest street-cleaner ' Once when

M;ir ; t Klenha fai led to do as he had been told ' Capone

knocked His Honor (sic) down on the steps of the City Hal l

and kicked him as he struggled to his feet ' A pol iceman wno

saw the assault twir led ni i night- ' t ick and strol led away' On

another occasion, when thelown counci l seemed about trr

pass a measure which Capone had ordered them to dcfcat '

iungr, .r , broke up the meeting' dragged 9i" 9f the tr t tstctrs

into the street, und , luggtd him with a blackjack' Arthrrr-

St. John, editor of the B?wyn Tri 'bune, was kidnappct l lnt l

335

I

Page 9: Asbury 321-374

shot because he protested against the invasion of Berwynby Torrio's harlots and gunmen. His brother Robert, edittrof the Cicero Tribune,was beaten because of his anti-Caponeeditorials and because he interfered with a disciplina.y ilug-ging which was being administered to a Cicero policeman.

-

6

T n B fortunes of Johnny Torrio reached their peak im-mediately following the conquest of Cicero. In the latespring of rgz4, in partnership with Al Capone, he was run-ning twenty-five large brothels scattered ihroughout CookCountyr probably twice as many gambling-houies and im-moral cabarets in the suburbs and in Chicago, and was op.erating or handling the output of sixty-fivJbreweries. liealso controlled seve ral distilleries, and was running enormousquantities of hard liquor into Chicago from Canada and theAtlantic seaboard, using trucks and automobiles with secretcompartments built into the top and floors. Most of Torrio'sb.rewe-ries were-in operation for nearly ten years; many con-tinued to manufacture beer even after ihev had been officiallvpadlocked by_the_.Federal government. Trucks belongingto Torrio and allied gang leaders, loaded with beer

"ani

whisky. and guarded by armed gunmen, rumbled day andnight through the str!ers of Chicigo and Cook County, sup-plying at least three-fourrhs of thelwenty thousand drinkingplaces which came into existence after ihe dry amendmenihad gone into efiect on January t6, rgzo.

^._ E*.:pt for an occasional attempt at hi- jacking by Spike

O'Donnell and a few other independent gungrt.r{ Torrio',liquor convoys were seldom moleited; on ih. iontrury, when-ever a particularly valuable shipment was made, the criminalguards were frequently supplemented by detachments ofuniformed policemen. For as the money rolled in, Torrioexpanded to appalling proportions the system of corruption

n6

bv which he had kept his brothels immune from interfcr-

.i.". U" gave liberally to campaign funds, and bought po'

ii."-.r,, piohibition "nd

.nfot..mInt agents, judges' p.oliti-

cians, und .ity and county officials as he needed them;

hundreds op.iy received their bribes each week at,a p.ay.9!

,tution conveniently established in a downtown office build-

ing. la was not without reason that Torrio boasted: " I own

,-h? poli..." Many officials, of course, refused t9 * g.9 along "

with the gangsteis. Morgan Collins, Chief of Police from

rg23 to rg27, was ofiereJa thousand dollars a day'.un.q:n

unoih., occasion a hundred thousand dollars a month' if he

would guarantee Torrio's opera-tions -"q"i.n:'

molestation'

E. C. fettowley, Federal Prohibition Administrator for lI'

linois, refused two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to

drop padlock proceedings ag.ainst a distillery' William I'

Wu"[tr, United States District Attorney, was oftered htty

thouind dollars to abandon the prosecution of several

important gangsters accused of violiting the Volstead li'

Bui fo, all"praitical purposes Johnny-Torrio dominated the

political machines oi Cfii.ugo and Cook County, and to. a

Iorn.*hut lesser degree the- Federal enforcement agencies

for those districts, tffroughout the first and second adminis'

trat ions of Mayor Wil l ]am Hale Thompson, iust ut.+1

Capone did during most of Thompson's third term' " In

.iril., close to Caione," said the Illinois Crime Survey, ".it

was well known that he had contributed substantially_to the

iho-pron campaign." ' Chicago witnessed a typical d.e1on'

stration of Toriiois power in tl4,when he compelled Gov'

ernor Len Small of i l l inois to pardon Harry and Alma Cu'

sick, convicted of pandering while operating a Torrio brothel

at Posen, before tirey had even begunto serve their sentences'

Torrio's p"yroll, exclusive of th" huge sums disbursed

I Frank J. Loesch, president of the Chicagl Crime Commission' was

quoted as stying that the u-ount was $z6orooo' Judge John H' Lyle said it

was $r5orooo.

X7

Page 10: Asbury 321-374

for protection, was not less than thirty thousand dollars aweek. The profits from his various criminal enterprises weren"u":accurately computed, but evidence obtained by the au-thorities from time io time indicated that they toialed anenormous amount. The Chicago Daily News said,in ry24that Torrio's arrangement with the brewer Joseph stensonput forty--eight million dollars into stenson's poctet in fouryears. " Nobody," the News continued, ,, has ever riskeda guess at the clearings of the many-sided Torrio.', Whenthe Stockade in Stickney was raided'in 1926, the police con-fiscated records which ihowed that the

"rr.rug. weekry net

earnings of the dive since its establishment wire five ihou-sand dollars. The Maple Inn at Forest view earned almostas much, and it was estimated that Torrio and Capone pock-eted a net income of three thousand dollars a weeffrom eachof the other suburban resorts. This was a grand total ofapproximately four million dollars a year, oiwhich ten percent, or about four hundred thousand dollrrr, was paid outfor protection. Federal investigators .declared that fromvice and gambling combined roriio and capone divided neteatnings of two hundred thousand dollars a week. Ledgersseized in a raid on the gangsters'headquarters, transfeiredin ry4 from the Four Deuies to an elaborate suite of officeson Michigan Avenue, listed profits of three million dol-lars a year_from wh]-sky, beeryand wine. But these ledgersformed only a_small part of the syndicate's bookkeeiingsystem; the police estimated that the total annuat prontifrom the manufacture and sa-le of-liquor were at least'thirtymillion dollars. Edwin A. olson, united states District Ai-torney, told the newspapers that Torrio and Capone oper-ated on a gross basis o1 siventy million dollars

^yLur.

I

338

7

Wrrn the police demoralized and helpless and the whole

machinery of law'rnforcement in a condition of collapse'

criminals'who for years had lurked in the dark corners of

the underworld came brazenly into the oPen'- They took

service under the captains of the gangs and so shared gener'

ouslv in the Eolden flood of ptohibition, but at the.same

ii-.'they didn''t neglect their own specialties' Banks all over

Cil.rgo'wer. robi"d in broad dayfight by b,andits who

scorni to wear masks. Desk sergeants at police statlons

grew weary of recording holdups - f166 one hundred to

two hundred were repor"ted .u.ty night' Burglars.marked

out sections of the ciiy as their own ind embarked upon a

.ou.r" of systematic piundering, going from house to house

iigrti "n.i

night without hinirint"' Ftnces accompanied

thieves into stores and appraised stocks of merchandise be'

i"t. ttt.y were stolen. Pickpockets and confidence men flour'

',**,'}::.T*"i *:u;::::x: *:'i # i3.:.11 &.',[introduction of armored cars and armed guards. for the de-

livery of money f rom banks to business houses' Automobtles

were'stolen by the thousands. Motorists were forced to the

curb on busy streets and boldly robbed' Women who dis'

plaved iewefrv in night clubs or at the theater were followed

'"..if,.ia up. W.uttly women seldom left their homes unless

accompanied bY armed escorts.

ihi.ugo sLemed to be filled with gangstels - gangsters

slaughterinlg one another, two hundred and fifteen in four

y."t? t g""g"rters being killedty. the police, one hundred and

li*ty'ii th"e same leigth of iime; gangsters th?oti1q,,:P

saloons for amusem.nl; g"ngtters t[rowing bombs'.called

" pineapples "; gangsters improving their marksmanshtp on

machin.lgun t"ng.i in spariely settled districts; gangsters

339

Page 11: Asbury 321-374

speeding in big automobiles, ignoring traffic laws; gangstersstrutting in the Loop, holstered pistols scarcely concealed;gangsters giving orders to the police, to judges, to prose-cutors, all sworn to uphold the law; gangsters calling ontheir friends and protectors at City Hall and the CountyCourt Flouse; gangsters dining in expensive restaurants andcaf6s; tuxedoed gangsters at the opera and the theater, theirmink-coated, Paris.gowned wives or sweethearts on theirarms; gangsters entertaining politicians and city officials at

" Belshazzar feasts," some of which cost twenty-five thou-sand dollars; gangsters giving parties at which the guestsplayfully doused each other with champagne at twentydollars a bottle, popping a thousand corks in a single eve-ning; gangsters armed with shotguns, rifles, and machine-guns, convoying beer trucks ; gangsters everywhere - exceptin jail. And all with huge bank-rolls; a gangster with lessthan five thousand dollars in his pocket was a rarity. Theyhad so much money a new argot was invented to describe it.A thousand dollars was a grand, abbreviated to " gran"'Ihundred-dollar bills were leaves, and twenty-five dollarswas scornfully called two bits. Five-, ten-, and twenty-dollarbills were chicken-feed; they were given to newsboys fora paper, to hat-check girls in restaurants, to dazed pan-handlers.

" It's all newspaper talk," said Big Bill Thompson,Mayor of Chicago.

8

JonNNy ToRRIo and Al Capone were r id ing high inthe spring of rgz4, but great trouble for them was loomingon the horizon of the underworld. and most of i t was to becaused by Dion O'Banion. As a boy, O'Banion sang in thechoir of the Holy Name Cathedral and was remarkablefor piefy and obedience; as a man, he was a swashbuckling,

340

ambidextrous, flower-loving, cheerful murderer' who wore

a carnation in his buttonholE and carried three pistols stowcd

awav in special pockets bui l t into his expensive clothing by

.*oJt, tai lorr . Chief of Pol ice Morgan Col l ins character-

i ;JJ o,t" ; ion as , , Chicago's arch-cr iminal " and declared

that he had killed, or o,iertd killed, at least twenty-five

men. But he was never brought to tr ia l for any,of these

.ti-.., for politically he was inly less importa.nt thalTlr-

r io or Cupon.. He was part icular ly powerful in the I ' 'orty-

...*a arid Forty'third ward. on iht North Side' and for

vears he and his gunmen had kept them safely in the Demo'

lrr t i . column. So widely was his abi i i ty as a vote'getter

recognized that a question-and-answer wheeze develoPeo

in dtti.ugo: " Whoill carry the- Forty'second and Forty'

third? rr ' i r

613union, in his pistol pocket '"

As the Norr.-t., ryi4 eleition aPProached' Demo-

::t!:I:iT':SffJ:$:il:111'I':"il:ff lili:"+:':i:l;such a calamity, a test imonial dinner was held in October at

the Webster dotel on Lincoln Park West, at which the gang

leader was Presented with a platinum watch.richly.encrusted

with rubies and diamonds. Who sponsored the dinner and

bought the watch was never divulged' Prominent among

ift"-'ju.t,. were Frank Gusenberg, .Sihemer Drucci' George

ii;;: M;';n, Maxie Ei'.1 qyTi" Weiss; Louis ot::ii:'

whl besides being one of O'Banion's crack gulT:".*us Presl-

dent of the ThJater and Bui lding Janitors ' Union' Jerry

O'Connor, gambling'house owner-andvice president ",f ,:l '

union; and ihe union's secretary, Con Shea' notor iot ts latror

; i ;gt ; . and racketeer, who had served a term in Sing Sing

for'?h. attempted murder of a woman' But also present

were Colonel Albert A. Sprague, Chicago's Commissioner

of Public Works and Demo"cratic candidate for United

States Senator; County Clerk Robert M' Sweitzer; Chief

of Detect ives Michael 'Hughts, hal f a dozen pol ice captains

34r

Page 12: Asbury 321-374

and lieutenants, and many lesser office-holders and politi-cians. When ordered by Mayor William E. Dever to !x-plain why he had attended the dinner, Chief Hughes saidhe had understood that the pafty was to be in honor of

Jerry O'Connor. " But when I arrived," he said, " andrecognized a number of notorious characters I had throwninto the detective bureau basement a half-dozen times, Iknew I had been framed, and withdrew almost at once."

The gang chieftain accepted the platinum watch withpleasure, but whoever put up the money for it did so in vain.For favors expected and received, by slugging, bribery,shooting, kidnapping, and the use of floaters and repeaters,O'Banion delivered both the Forty-second and Forty-thirdwards to the Republican ticket, headed by United StatesSenator Charles S. Deneen and Robert E. Crowe, the latterrunning for re-election as State's Attorney. Crowe defeatedthe Democratic nominee, Michael I. Igoe, nearly two to one.

9

O'BaNIoN was a product of Litt le Hell, on the NorthSide near the Sicilian quarter and Death Corner, wheretenements swarming with children were interspersedamong brothels, disorderly saloons, and immoral cabarets.Throughout his formative years he was surrounded by crimi-nal infuences, and under the pressure of environment hesoon forgot the moral lessons taught by the priests of theCathedral. FIe became a thieving loafer and a member ofthe Market Street gang, and then a singing waiter in Mc-Govern's Cabaret at Clark and Erie Streets, one of LittleHell's toughest dives. Ffe sang sentimental ballads whilepicking the pockets of maudlin customers. At this time hewas known as Gimpy O'Banion, because his left leg was atrife shorter than the right, but no one ever called himGimpy, and lived, after he had become a Big Shot. From

3+2

robbins drunken revelers, o'Banion turned to highway rob'

;;;:'bTiltn, ,ta t"re-cracking' tle served three months

iltil.;;il;iiil ifoe, *h'n fr' *t' seventeen vears old'

i"t-U"tgf"ry, and tlirei'months in rgrr for assault' And

,hu, *ui all'the time he ever sPent in prison'""--

Wh; prohibition tu-" upon the fand in r 9zo' O'Banion

was well known ,o ih. police as a dangerous hoodlul "{

as chief of one of the mo.t tuccetsful criminal gangs uhl:ago

h". "u.,

harbored. His followers included such notorrous

;;;-.; and bandits as tlandsome Dan McCarthy' Bugs

ffi;;;; Ni;*i" Eisen, Frank Gusenberg; Vincent Drucci'

t,i:: *-ai* i*m'f,::.ff.';;; f T',::; \:d;i;;"r;t Hy-i"'W"i*, *nt was o'B.anion's alter-ego and

second in commanJ of int gan$ i and Samuel J' Morton'

called Nails, *t o t "d

*on thi Cio'ix d'e ruerre in France and

had returned from-ihe world wa, a-Fitst Lieutenant in

the United States et-y Morton died as the result of what

his fellow gung.,",. ;lgarded as-despicable treacheryi l'

was thrown and kicked io deuth while iiding a horse in Lin'

coln Park. e.o--iiie of the O'Banion galg' determined

to exact vengeance' kidnapped the horse a few days later'

led it to the spot;i;;t M;;ton's body had been found' and

solemnly " bu.ptJ it ofi," each gangster firing a shot into

the animal's head.

Morton, known by the police to have committed several

murders, was buried with elaborate religiou:' {t,"tt:,1il: 1id

military honors, "na

t'i ' funeral was aitend:1 Y^j[it^i"t

assortment of truckling city, state, county' and Federal offi'

cials. "piu. tno.,luna'J.Js," saii the baity \'y:"'q?idtribute to Morton';;ili";;" who had made the West Side

safe for his race. nt "

young man.he had organized-a 'de-

fense society to a,i*-' jt*'b'aittrs' from thJWest Side"'

A vear after Morton's death a memorial service was planned

;;t;tt rti."a", uta the printed announcement of the servicc

343

Page 13: Asbury 321-374

carr ied the names of Rabbi Fel ix A. Levi , the ReverendJohn L. O'Donnel l , General Abel Davis, and Captuio EaMaher. I t was also announced that yonnry io; i l ' ; iv#.WeissJerry Druggan, and other .r i , , , inJt, , ; ; i ; ; ; i ; t ; l -

, f111 Th. pr incipat address was to be del ivered ;y;-*; i i -

known lawyer, Frank Comerford. The plan was abandonedwhen General Davis withdrew from the committee; he saidi t would be a mistake to f launt Morton's record " in the f acesof decent ci t izens.t '

O'Banion's income,from the l iquor traf f ic, though notnearly so large as that of ei ther Torr io or Capone, *u?uum_cient to make him a: lery r ich man; i t was

"r i i_" i .d bt ;h;

pol ice after his death that he had banked armost u - i l l iondol lars a year from this source alone. He supplem."r.Jf . i ,

booze.ea.rnings with the proceeds of f requent safe_robberies,payrol l holdups, and hi jackings. At least two of his ex_piol ts were noteworthy- even for Chicago. He led his crewof gunmen into West Side rai l roud yuid, and stole a hun-dred thousand dollars' worth of Cinadian liquor f;";' ;f rc ight car; and in r9z4 he carr ied out the famous robbervof the Sibley

-warehouse, trucking out one th";r*t;;;;i

hundred and f i f ty barrels of bond"ed whisky and IeavinE intherr stead as many barrels of water. He was indicted?orthrs, together with , . : : .of

!13 Sungrt"rs, four ci ty detect ives,and officials of the Sibley Wa*rehiuse Company, but no onewas convicted. In tgzz O,Banion furthe,

"rg_.ntrd hi ,

income by buying a half- interest in Wil l iam E] S.hof i . ld, ,

loy.r-shop on North State Street, direct ly opposite theCathedral where he had once served as choir 'boy. 'Ar;d:land's off ic ial f lor ist o 'Banion sold thousands of dolrars,worth of f lowers to the fr iends and foes of s lain gun*.n,for underworld et iquette demanded that a ki i ler send ex-pensive f loral t r ibutes to the funeral of his vict im. E,venwithout the business of the gangsters, ownership of the shoowould have brought great proiperity to O'Ba'nio", i; ;:

34+

had considerable business abi l i ty and possesscd a consrtrr t i t t l '

love of f lowers' He had a knack of arranging bloott ts ' : t r r ' l

unless hampered too much by instruct ions his f lor i r l crcrt-

t ions were, in muny instances, works of art '

For three years after O'Banion joined Torr io 's leagtrc

of gunmen he appeared to be content with what he could

get out of the North Side. But after the taking o-f Cic.ercr

f , . b.gun to express dissat isfact ion; several of his ki l lers had

,uppJrr.d Al 'Capone during the elect ion-day r iot ing in th9

.uturbun ci ty, and he had got nothing out of i t but a br ief

word of thanks. To placate the disgrunt led O'Banion, Tor-

r io turned over to him a str ip of Cicero terr i tory in which

the beer concession was worth about twenty thousand dol lars

a month. O'Banion soon quintupled this business; he can-

vassed the south and west sides and persuaded f i f ty saloon-

keepers who had been buying beer from the Sheldon, Salt is-

McErlane, and Druggan-Lake gangs to move into Cicero'

where they competed with saloons which were supplied by

Torr io and Capone. Torr io demanded a share of the new

revenue) and in return offered o'Banion an interest in the

svndicate's earnings from brothels. But o 'Banion refused.

i ik. th. O'DonnJls, he was not interested in prost i tut ion.

O'Banion also nursed a gr ievance against Torr io 's al '

l ies the Genna brothers - $26, Jim, Pete, Angelo, Tony'

and Mike, known as the Terr ible Gennas, who were the

special pets of Diamond Joe Esposito and high in the coun-

ci l , of t i re Unione Sici l iana. Thi North Side gang chieftain

complained that the Gennas were "mu-scl ing. in." on. his

territory and flooding the district with bad whisky -w.hich

they soid for three dol lars a gal lon. O'Banion had been

get i ing from six to nine dol lars, but del iver ing a much be-t te r

i rad."of l iquor. He demanded that Torr io dr ive the Gcn-

las buck to the West Side, and when Torr io protested t l rat

he could not accomplish such a miracle of discipl int l . . l l l '

f iery O'Banion angi i ly threatened to do i t himself ' ' l 'h is

345

Page 14: Asbury 321-374

was a task which no one but the North Sider would evenhave considered, for of all Chicago gunmen the Gennas andtheir henchmen were the most feared.

Five of the six Genna brothers were typical Siciliankillers - haughty, overbearing, contemptuous, savage,treacherous, and at the same time devoutly religious; theywent regularly to church, and carried rosaries and crucifixeiin th_eir-pistol pockets. The exception was Tony, known inthe. Italian colony as Tony the Gentleman and Tony theAristocrat, who studied architecture, built model tenementsfor his poor countrymen, was a patron of the opera, andlived elegantly in a downtown hotel. He never liilled, buthe attended all family councils at which murder was planned,and had a voice in all decisions. The qualities that Tony theGentleman lacked were to be found- in ample measuie inthe Gennas' principal followers - Sam Smoots Amatuma,the dandy of gangland, accomplished musician and double-crosser; Giuseppe Nerone, called the Cavalier, universitygraduate and teacher of mathematics; and those ferociousmurderers John Scalisi and Albert Anselmi, beside whomFrank McErlane was the personification of loving-kindness.It was Scalisi and Anselmi who taught Chicago'Jgangstersto rub their bullets with garlic, to increase the cfiances ofgangrene.

The Gennas put hundreds of Sicilians and Italians towork cooking corn sugar alcohol in West Side tenements inthe vicinity of Taylor Street, using a process which is saidto have been invented by their brother-in-law, Harry Spin-gola, a wealthy lawyer. In less than a year the Genna cook-eries and stills were producing thousands of gallons of rawalcohol, which was cut, flavored, colored, and Jold as brandy,whisky, or whatever the customer desired in the way of fineliquor. At the peak of their prosperity, early in r925, theassets of the Gennas, including goodwill and a three-storywarehouse on Taylor Street, were valued at five million

346

dollars; gross sales amounted to three hundred and fifty

thousand dollars a month, of which at least a hundred and

fifty thousand was profit. This lucrative business was Pro'tected by a police and political hookup arranged by Torrio

and Esposito, by which the gangsters paid, monthly, sums

which ranged from a small amount in the beginning to

nearly seven thousand dollars in April r925. Federal agents

investigating the Gennas obtained a confession from their

office manager, who said that five police captains were on

the Genna payroll. He also said that four hundred uni-

formed policemen, mostly from the Maxwell Street station,

besides many plain-clothes officers from Headquarters and

the State's Attorney's office, called at the Genna warehouse

each month to .receive their bribes. In addition, the police

received large quantities of alcohol at wholesale prices.

To show his contempt for the Gennas and to emphasize

his dissatisfaction with Torrio's leadership, O'Banion hi-

jacked a Genna truck loaded with thirty thousand dollars'

worth of whisky. The Gennas immediately polished up their

armament and started on the warpath, but were restrained

by Torrio and by Mike Merlo, president of the lJnione

Siciliana, an important figure in the Nineteenth Ward, and

the most powerful Sicilian or Italian in Chicago. Among his

countrymen Merlots word was law. He was intimately asso'

ciated with Torrio, Capone, and other Italian and Sicilian

gangsters and tolerated much lawlessness, but took no part in

gang wars and was strongly opposed to murder. Both he

and Torrio believed that peace with O'Banion could be ar'

ranged without recourse to the pistol and the shotgun. At

that time, incidentally, the machine-gun had not yet appeared

as an instrument of gang warfare.But O'Banion refused to listen to Torrio's overtures,

and relations between the North Side chieftain and thc

leaders of the Sicilian gangs were strained throughout

the winter of. rgz3-4, although no shootings occurred. 'fhc

347

Page 15: Asbury 321-374

breaking.point was reached in the spring of rgz4, whenO'Banion double-crossed Torrio and swindled him out ofseveral hundred thousand dollars. In partnership with Tor-rio and Capone, O'Banion owned the Sieben Brewery on theNorth Side, one of the largest breweries to operati duringprohibition. About the middle of May tgz4O'Banion calledTorrio and Capone into conference and told them he haddecided to wind up his afiairs and retire to Louis Alterie'sranch in Colorado. To make the story more plausible heintimated that he was afraid of the Gennas. Torrio andCapone bought O'Banion's share of the brewery for a pricesaid to have been half a million dollars, and the propertywas transferred immediately. O'Banion agreed to assist inthe dispatch and protection of one more convoy of beer fromthe plant and suggested May r9 as the best date for mak-ing the shipment.

_ On the night of May r 9 the Sieben Brewery was raidedby a strong force of policemen under the commind of Chiefof Police Morgan Collins and Captain Matthew Zimmer.Thirteen trucks piled high with beer barrels were confiscated,and twenty-eight gangsters and beer-runners arrested, in-cluding Torrio, Hymie Weiss, Louis Alterie, and O'Banion.Instead of taking his prisoners to a police station, ChiefCollins turned them over to the Federil authorities. Whenasked why he had thus taken the case out of thb hands ofthe State's Attorney, Chief Collins replied that the UnitedStates District Attorney " has promised us prompt co-opera-tion." Johnny Torrio dipped into his well-lined pockets andbrought up cash bail for himself and his half-dozln gunmen,but declined to furnish bonds for O'Banion, Weiss,and Al-terie, none of whom had the necessary money on hand. Theywere compelled to await the arrival of Billy Skidmore, iprofessional bondsman and gambler, whose name is stillfrequently mentioned in connection with the Chicago under-world.

348

As soon as the police appeared at the brewery, Johnny

Torrio suspected triachery. Later he obtained- proof .thatO'Banion irad double-*oised him. Through his political

connections the North sider had learned of the raid and had

taken advantage of the knowledge to unload his share of

the brewery upon Torrio and Capone. O'Banion also knew

that the prosecution would be handled by-the united States

District httotn.y, and that Torrio's influence did not ex-

tend to the Fedeial court. He was well aware that he might

himself be fined, but he anticipated that Torrio, as one of

the owners of the brewery and as a second ofiender - Tor-

rio had been fined two thousand dollars in r9z3 for operat'

ing a brewery - would be much more severely punished' -In

th"e main, events occurred as O'Banion had expected' He

paid no fine himself because he was dead by the time the

Lr"*"rv case came into court, but Torrio, one of eleven

defendants who pleaded guilty, was fined five thousand dol'

lars and sentenced to ninJmonths in jail. He remained free

on bail, however, for nearlY a Year.Among Johnny Torrio's dominant traits, and account-

ing in large measure for his greatness as a criminal, were

pa"tience u'nd tt. ability to hold his passions in check' Un-

questionably he hated O'Banion as much as he had ever

hated unyonr, but he went about his business as-if nothing

had happened, realizing that war with the fierce North Sider

would tisrupt his system of liquor distribution, and throw

gangland inio chaoi, as' eventually, it did. But O'Banion

Iooi -"d.

a bad matter worse. Advised by the shrewd

Hymie Weiss to make peace with Torrio and the Gennas,

OiBanion said with huge contempt: " Oh, to hell with them

Sici l ians." This phrase, repeated by O'Banion gunmen as a

choice bit of gattgland rePartee' was really the gangster flor'

ist's death *utt"nt, for to Sicilians and Italians alike it was

a deadly insult. Several t imes during the summet of rgz4

the muider of O'Banion was planned by Torrio, Capone,

349

Page 16: Asbury 321-374

and the Gennas, but each t ime they were stopped by MikeMerlo, who st i l l hoped for a peaceful sett lemeiJ. B;M;; i ;died on Noyember 8, rgz4, to b. , , , . . . "ded by Angelo G.nnuas president of the IJnione Sici l iana, and t*oiayr ' tu, . , DionO'Banion lay dead among his f lowers.

Merlo 's funeral *"r in imposing ceremony. A hundredthousand dol lars ' worth of f lowers

o*.r . sent to his home

by. friends;, jh-.y fil le d not only the house but the lawn out_slde as wel l . The most impressive of these pieces was astatue of the dead man twelve feet high, made ent irelv off lowers, anc said to have been a ,..oiniruui" l*.".rr l i"

11:..11".:: l cortege it was carried in a car preceding the

l"i i : . . , Iylany.of the f lowers came from O,Banion,s Jhoo,

he h l ted a ten-thousand_dollar order for Torrio, and an . iEl_, ' t_thousand-dollar order for AI Capone. Even one ; i , l* i ; ;-nas, Jim, cal led at O'Banion's ploc. and paid ,. lr .n hunJ*dandfifty dollars for a floral tribute. But, as developed later,Genna's visit was really for the purpose of faitliarizinghirnself with the interioi of the ship. 'Al l a* S""j*, '"N"lvember 9, O'Banion and his partneriSchofield', *"rf. . l 'nlraarranging floral design, uni sending them to tt

" Ulrio

i. : ld:T.r. That nighi, after O'Bani"on had gone, , ; ; ;

cal led. by telephone and ordered a wreath. He"said i t wouldDe cat led tor next morning.

About noon on NovJmbcr ro three men entered O,Ban_

::l^t l"t.,l sh.op and walked abreast toward th. gungst..,

wno was clrpplng the stems of a bunch of chrysanihrmumstn the rear of the front room. He was alone in the placeexcept for a Negro porter, mopping the f oor in tn" 'U". f .

IllA,9,r..r the top of a swinging rnlick.r door, the porter

saw u't 'anron advance to meet the callers, heard him sav:" H-ellg, boys, you want Merlo's flowers I "'oni ,u* frf

", .'l<_

tend a hand in greeting. Ordinari ly when O'Banion talkedt? anyone_, particular-ly to strangeri, he kept one hand in apistol pocket. But this t ime he rias off grurd; his , ight hunJ

350

was outstretched, and the lef t , holding a pair of she nrs' w;t t

at his side. The center man of the three simply grasl t t ' t l

O'Banion's hand and suddenly jerked him forward' ant l bc-

fore the gangster could recovei his equilibrium and snatch

a pistol, itt. It.n on either side of him had fired five bullets

inlo his 'body, and a sixth-the grace shot to make death

certain - into his head.

The Negro porter said that two of O'Banion's mur-

derers were I"talians, and that the third might have been a

Greek or a Jew, but he could give no better description o.f

th.i, upp.utrn... The police w-ere never able to obtain suffi-

cient evidence even to justify an arrest, and the crime is stil l

officially unsolved. Bui O'Banion's gunmen learned, to their

o*n ,ui i r fuct ion at least, that the ki l l ing was planned by

Torr io and Capone, and that the man who seized O'Banion's

hand was Mike Genna- The death shots were fired by John

scal is i and Albert Anselmi, each of whom received ten thou-

sand dollars in cash and a three-thousand-dollar diamond

ring. Scalisi sent his ring to his sweetheart in Sicily-' -.

The funeral of O'Banion was the gaudiest of al l gang-

land's burials. His casket cost ten thousand dol lars, and

was shipped from Philadelphia to Chicago in a special ex'

pr.., .ur. Forty thousand persons v.iewed the body as it

i ' luy in state," as the Tr i iune Put i t ' in an undertaker 's

chapel. The funeral procession yit a milelong, l-ed..by three

bund, and a polic. "u.ott

from Stickney, Chief.Collins ha.v'

ing refused to al low Chicago pol icemen to part ic ipate in, the

c.i.moni.s. Twenty-five tiu&s and cars were required to

carry the f lowers. Ten thousand persons fol lowed the hearse,

undi.n thousand more waited al the grave. Cardinal Mun-

delein had refused to allow funeral services to be held over

the dead gangster, but at Mount Carmel Cemetery a-pr iest

who had kno*n O'Banion since chi ldhood reci ted a l i tany,

a Hai l Mary, and the Lord's Prayer. The gangster was

buried in untonsecrated ground, but five months after his

35r

Page 17: Asbury 321-374

death the body was disinterred and reburied in a plot whichhad been bought by Mrs. O'Banion. It was thus placed inconsecrated ground, a circumstance which led Captain JohnStege, an honest policeman who fought the gangsters withgreat vigor, to remark:

" O'Banion was a thief and a murderer, but look at himnow, buried eighty feet from a bishop."'

IO

HvruIE WEIss, who was the second of the Big Shots todie and the third to vanish from the Chicago scene, was bornin Poland. His real name was Wajciechowski, a jawbreaker

which was changed to Weiss soon after his family arrived inthe United States. Chicago police records give his first nameas Earl, but in the underworld he was known as Hymie thePolack, Little Hymie, and Hymie, most often the last. Be-fore prohibition he was a burglar, a safe-blower, and an auto-mobile-thief, and occasionally a hired slugger and killer forlabor unions. His disposition was ugly and savage, although,as his gangster friends often pointed out, he was kind tohis mother. Like so many gangland murderers, he was re-ligious; he carried crucifixes and rosaries in his pockets andwas a regular attendant at Mass. He was a great deal moreprudent and far-seeing than O'Banion, who was impulsiveand headstrong, and the pair made an excellent criminalcombination. The Chicago police always said that it wasWeiss who really built up O'Banion's booze business to suchhuge proportions; he was always ready to adjust complaintsof the saloon-keepers, and slugged them only when he wasunable to keep them in line by peaceful means.

Weiss assumed the leadership of the North Side gang

1 This was true. About that distance away from O'Banionts grave is themausoleum in which lie the bodies of Archbishops Feehan and Quigley andBishop Porter.

352

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Page 18: Asbury 321-374

uDonthedeathofo'Banionandimmediatelydeclaledwaru'pon Torrio, Capone, and the six Genna brothers' kle strucK

;l;'"; a"ton".'on January 12, rg25, wttitt cip-:Lt--t :il

was parked in front of a restaurant at State and trltty'nttn

ilJ;,'W"t*, S.h.-., Drucci, and Bugs Moran drove

slowlv bv and ,"k.J;;;chine with a fu-sillade of bullets

;;';i.g; ;"J automatic pistols'. Capone's th".1|.'t::

was wound"ed, but two of the gangster's bo-dyguard' sltttng

in the rear seat' dropped to the foor and were not hurt'

C"oon" was not in the'car; he had stePPed into the restaurant

; i;* moments before the assailants appeared'

Johnny Torrio attended Dion O'Banion's wake' whlcn

under the circumstances required considerable couragg' lut

ih, ..r.-onies had sca,cely ended before he was in flight'

'f;"tilJ;t o'grnion gun-tn, who were never more than

" l.* iu,ri'p, behind him, Torrio went to Hot Springs' to

New Orleans' to Havana and the Bahamas' and to ralm

Beach and St. f.t.itlutg in Florida' He returned to Chi'

caso some eight or nine dlys after the attemPt upon Capone'

"rr? on the ifternoon of January z+t rg21 went shoPPrng

in the Loop with his wife. About half Past,four o'clock-they

drove up to their home at No. Torr fllde,Av*t:-tlrtl'Jackson Park section of the South Side' It was growrng

i"rt , *d Torrio failed to see the automobile parked "t:Td

the corner in Seventieth Street' Mrs' Torrig goJ out.ot the

car and walked ao*"ia her front door, and Toirio followed,

hi; ;t;t fiiled with p"r..tt. He had taken no more than half

;;;;; ,irf, when two men' armed with a shotgun and

"uio-"ti. pistols, rushed across the street'

Tttty 1:1-fi.1t'at Torrio's car, shattering the windshield and woundlng the

chaufieur. fn.n ih.v tur?ed their guns on Torrio' and the

master of the Aoi"J trafrc fell witf, five bullets in his iaw'

right arm, abdomen, and chest' , r,_^_- n--t- Lr^o, .

For three w..ks Torrio lay in the Jackson-Park Hospi'

tal, closely guarded by two policemen and a band ot gun'

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Page 19: Asbury 321-374

men under the personal command of Al Capone. On Feb-}"ly 9, t925, heavily bandaged, Torrio appeared in theUnited States Court, paid theine imposed upon him in the

*?f Brewery case, ind was sent to the I,"i. Co"rry l"if

3t wa{<!gan to serve his sentence of nine months. The kind-

hearted Sherifi allowed the gangste r many privileges. Hefitted-uphis cell with rugs, ."hriir, and a.o-fortr.bte bed,installed bullet-proof steJ-mesh blinds at the windows, andnrr!d^two deputy sheriffs to patrol the corridor outside thecell. Some time in March t9z5 Torrio summoned Al Ca-pone and his lawyers and transferred to Capone all his b;";h-eIs, cabarets,-ga-mbling-houses, breweries, and distilleries andar nght and title to his high estate in gangland, transac-tions which are said to have i"nvolved seveiar iriilion dollars.When he was released from jail in the fall of ,g;S, ih;;automobiles filled with gunmen waited for him

", ,ri. n"r..

and he was rushed,-l1r"rglr Chicago to Garyr Irdi;;;*"h;he took atrain for NewYork. T"here he blarded

".1;;.;for ltaly. IJnless he returned unbeknown to the police, Tor-:t_o.r":

never again in Chicago, although h. wa.'b"cklrrth.Unrted States within a few years. Ai last reports he was

lyi."S in Brooklyn. Estimates of his wealth when he lef,t

Lnlcago ranged trom ten to thirty million dollars.

II

Jl "," attacks upon Al Capone and Johnny Torrio marked

rne Degrnnrng of the gang wars -which spread Chicago's evilrenown to the far corners of the earth. Coupled irith th"

ilcre,lsed activity of Chief of police Morgan bollins under

the drrect order of Mayor Dever, the flight of Torrio andthe

efi-og9_of Hymie Weiss to exact lr"ngJun.. for the mur_der of O'Banion threw gangland into

" turmoil and com-

pletely disrupted the sysiem"of booze distribution and con-trol of vice and gambling which rorrio had so carefulrv

354

organized. Old alliances were broken, and gang chieftains

wlio had worked amicably together since the dawn or

prohibition became deadly'.ntilitt' Myles a.lg }lo:di\e

b'Donnell joined forces with Weiss, and so dtd Joe lattts

and Frank'McErlane and various other outfits co_mposed

;;"iy oi R-.ri.ans and Irishmen' Ralph Sl:t1,"1ilj

Dattny Stanton remained loyal to Capone, as dtd the ben-

nu, und the lesser Sicilian gangs. In general, ".gTgtt:t

*.u:

either a "Capone guy" or a t'We-iss- guy"' rerrltorlar

claims were ifnored] irucks were hi'iacked' breweries ancl

distilleries robied, and Chicago's streets echoed to the roar

oirhotgunr, the crack of autoiratic pistols, and the rattle-of

;;i":-g"ns. The speakeasy'o*13i: caught in the 1n.1lt:

was slugled and terrorized by- all.factions' lrxcept ror a

tti.r liEi,rtiag spell late in ryi5 andearly in : 9'7.',tl: *1,1:

continued foi five years. Including those who tell tn tne

iaking of Cicero andinthe fighting Gtween Torrio and Spike

O'DJrn.ll, more than five hrindred mtn died' Just how many

of these kittings Al Capone was resPonsible for was never

known, but estlmat.s rairg"d from twinty to sixty' The Chi-

cago Tribune once listed thirty'three persons who were oe'

..tit.a as " Capone's Victims,i and appended to the list this

sisnificant statiment: t' and many others about whom deh'

;l?; l;f*-"iion is not available'" Here are some of the

more important entries in the five-year catalogue of murder:

ThreeoftheGennaswereki l led.Thef i rstwasAngelo.On May 26, rgz5,three men, said to have been Weiss' Bugs

Moran, and Schemer Drucci, came uP behind him in a tour-

i;;;;'on Ogden Avenue and blasied him to death with

sa?ed-ofi shoiguns. Mike Genna was next' On June t3'

rg25,'together"with Scalisi and Anselmi' he exchanged vol'

t.yr'*itti Moran and Drucci, who were seriously hurt but

*'unug.d to escape. Pursued and overtak:lby a police car'

the th"ree Genna gangsters opened fire with shotguns upon

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Page 20: Asbury 321-374

Detectives Michael f._conway, wilriam sweeney, charles B.

walsh, and Harold F. olson. In the battle ttLat followed,Mike Genna and Detectives walsh and olson were killedand Conway was wounded. Scalisi and Anselmi escaped,but were later arrested. At their third trial for the murderof Walsh and Olson, more than two years after the crimewas committed, they were acquitted Lpon the remarkableground that they had only-resisted unwarrant.d police ag.gression. A defense fund of a hundred thousand doltur, *i"texpended on behalf of the two gunmen, and several Italians,among them Flenry Spingola, were murdered because thevrefused to contribute more than once. The third of the Gen-nas to die was Tony the Gentleman; he was slain from am-bush by Joseph Nerone, the Cavalier. Less than a vear laterNerone was shot by a Capone gunman. The Juccessivedeaths of Angelo,

Yif-:, andTonylroke up the gang. Samand Pete went into hiding, and Jim fled to Italyi wfrer" heremained five years. Part of that time he was in an Italianjai l .

Sam Smoots Amatuna was shot to death as he sat ina barber's chair, by two men who were believed to have beenSchemer Drucci and Jim Doherty, the latter one of Mvleso'Donnell's most eficient killers. Amatuna had succeededAngelo Genna as president of the unione siciliana and wastrying to rally the depleted forces of the sicilians. Beforethe-summer of rgzg three more fJnione presidents-An-tonio Lombardo, Pasquale Lolordo, and joseph Guinta _were slain as the result of capone's efiorts to control the or-ganization. Lombardo was li[ed in a rush-hour crowd atState and Madison Streets, one of the busiest corners inthe world. In r9z8 Frankie (Jale, national head of theLJnione, was murdered in Brooklyn, supposedly by Capone'sorders.

- Jim Doherty and Tom Duffy, the latter also an O'Don_nell gunman, were killed on the night of Apl:il 27, r926, less

356

than two months after the death of Amatuna' in front 'of

;i;; b;;t inn on noot'utr' Road in Cicero' In this mr'trtlcr

the machin"-gun upp." 'ed for the f irst t ime in gang warfarc'

".a Af Capoln. himself is said to have handled the weapott'

Slain in the same t"tt i "f

f ire was Wil l iam H' McSwiggin'

a policeman', .on "nJ

an Assistant State's Attorney' JVlyles

;riJKlffir.. O'potnell escaped by throwing- themselves to

il ;;;;;J and shamming feath' Whv McSyisg:1-'1::

ilil.;, and why he was inlhe companv of such notorlous

criminals, huu. n.u.,'ft"" t"pfuined; th'e State's Attorney's

;il;-tttd vaguely;'; ht wui t'ying t'o obtain information'

The police theory was that he'wa-s killed simply because

he chanced to b. *ilh the O'Donnells' At first'McSwiggin

was regarded as a ;;;tt, but.investigation disclosed that

he had long been iti."iri with-the.o'Donnells an-{;{q1

D";;;;y"tE nrny, ,rt"iil n"a often " plaved around " with

;;;';;1'; ia tniiiln auv' before the'murder he had held

a long conterence with Capone at the latter's headquarters

in Cicero. Cupon. "unishe'd

after the killing and remained

in hiding for four -"ttttt'

When he returied to Chicago

he founE that the police had no evidence whatever connect'

inq him with the crime'"'" ^-tft. North Side gangsters made a dozen attempts to

kill Capon., una n.utiy ;ylcleded on September 2.o'] t.9z6'

At noon on that auy, J'nitt Twenty-second Street in Cicero

was filled with .t,opitt' und lunch-hour promenaders'.eleven

automobiles filled'with Weiss gangsteis drove slowly past

the Hawthorne Inn und pou"iinio the building more than

a thousand Uuttets 'nd 'iug'

f'o- machine'guns'.automatic

pistols, and shotguns' Aftfr the roar of thelttack had sub'

iii.J,'u"rret-hoGs were found in thirty'five automobiles

parked at the *,L' fntiae the hotel' woodwork and doors

had been splintered, windows shattered' plasterripped from

walls, and furniture'wr"ck"d in the office ind lobby' 91Pon"'

lunching in a restaurant next door' escaped injury' although

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Page 21: Asbury 321-374

bullets snapped above his head as he lay on the foor. Oneof his gunmen, Louis Barko, was shot in the shoulder. Mrs.Clyde Freeman, sitting with her infant son in a car that wasstruck thirty times, was hit by a bullet that plowed a furrowacross her forehead and iniured her eyes. Another creasedthe skull of her son. Capone is said to have paid physiciansfive thousand dollars to save Mrs. Freeman'Jsighi.

-

Hymie Weiss lived just twenty days after his attackupon Al Capone in Cicero. At four o'clock on the afternoonof October rr, 1926, Weiss drove up to his headquartersaboye O'Banion's flower shop at No. 73 8 North State Street,accompanied by Paddy Murray, his bodyguard; Sam Peller,his chauffeur; W. W. O'Brien , a lawyer; and Benny Jacobs,an investigator employed by O'Brien. They had spent theafternoon at the Criminal Court Building, where Joe Saltisand his right-hand man, Lefty Koncil, were on trial for themurder of Mitters Foley of the Sheldon gang. Incidentally,Saltis and Koncil were acquitted. As Weiss and his fourcompanions walked slowly across the sidewalk, the two gun-men opened fire upon them with a shotgun and a machine-gun from a window on the third floor of a boarding-housenext door, where, as was afterward learned, they had lainin wait for three days. Weiss was killed almosi instantlvby ten machine-gun bullets. Murray, hit fifteen times, feildead beside him. Peller, Jacobs, and O'Brien were wounded,but eventually recovered. Weiss was twenty-eight years oldwhen he died, and possessed a fortune conservatively esti-mated at one million three hundred thousand dollars.

Schemer Drucci, who succeeded Weiss as chief of theO'Banion gang, died ingloriously, according to ganglandstandards, at the hands of a policeman. Arrested for creat-ing a disturbance at a polling place on April 4, r9z7t Drucciwas being taken to a police station when he became enragedand tried to snatch Detective Dan Healy's revolyer. Healyshot him four times.. Drucci left an estate appraised at five

358

hundred thousand dollars. with Drucci gone, Bugs Morrt.n

became leader of the North Side gang and transterrc(l lrrs

headquarters to a garuge 1t N9'.zlzz North Clark Strcct'

Seven men were tiit.a in this garage in the famous St'

Valentine's Day massacre of February r+ rg2g' (Jnc -<rl

the victims was a young optometrisi, Dt' Reinhart H'

Schwimmer, who was'an oTd-ti-t f riend of Moran's and' like

McSwiggin, enjoyed "playi-ng around" with gangsters'

The others were memb.tt oi M-oran's gang-Frank Gusen-

berq; his brother Peter, who had served three years tn a

;';";;i p;ison for a mail-truck robbery in rgzt'J"Tt:

Clark, Mtran's brother-in'law, whose real name was Kasnel-

r.:[iiln" Muy, .uf"'blower and mechanic; Adam Flyer' ex-

convict and expert accountant; and Alfred Weinshank' an

official of the central cleaners' and Dyers' Association,who

had only recently joined the gang' All of these men' watttng

"i irt" gurug" for a truckloui ofiooze which thty,.tY3p:1:.0

w"s bJrng irn into Chicago by the Purple 9."."g 9t L'etrort'

were disa'rmed and lined up against the wall by three glng-

sters wearing police uniforms. Then two other menl ln ptarn

.i"iil"g, .i.!i.a forward and raked the line with machine-

fun.. tn. poii.. arrested Jack McGurn, lohn Scalisi' and

io..pt, Guinta, all of the Capone gu$.1but McGurn proved

un "iiti

and Scalisi "nJ

Cuini, w.ie kill.d before they could

Ut tti.a. Capone himself had the best alibi of all; at the mo-

ment the crime was committed he was talking to the District

A.,orn.y of Miami, Florida. Nevertheless' the qolit: r*:1"certain, though unable to prove, that he had planne-cl the

massacre' and that the machine'guns were operated by Scalisi

and Anselmi. Bugs Moran said: " Only the Capone gang

kills like that."The bodies of Guinta, Scalisi, and Anselmi were found

on May 8, rgz9, huddled on the f loor of an automobilc

putf..a'..rt Gtty;t Lake in Douglas Park' Each of the rncrt

had been shot several times, anJtheir bodies beaten alrnost

3 -59

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to a pulp. The crime was never solved, but the police ad-vanced three theories, all plausible. One was that Moranand his gang had killed the fearsome Sicilians. Another wasthat Capone had put them on the spot in order to make peacewith Moran. The third, which the police believed to be mostlikely, was that Capone had ordered them killed becausethey were becoming too important, especially Scalisi. Thatbrutal thug had become chief bodyguard to Capone after thecollapse of the Genna gang, and had amassed a fortune oftwo hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He had also beenappointed assistant to Guinta as president of the {JnioneSiciliana and had quickly relegated Guinta to the backgroundand himself taken over the conduct of the organization's af-fairs. Moreover, he had been heard to remark, soon afterthe slaughter of the Moran gangsters: t' I am the most pow-erful man in Chicago." Evidence gathered by the police indi-cated that Capone believed Scalisi, Anselmi, and Guinta tobe plotting against him, and that the three were bludgeonedand shot while attending a gangland banquet given to cele-brate the victorv over the Morans.

Jake Lingll was killed on June 9, r93o, in a pedestrianunderpass at Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue. Os-tensibly Lingle was a police reporter on the Trtbune earningsixty-five dollars a week, but death revealed him as possess-ing an income of more than sixty thousand dollars a year.F{e drove a big car, owned an eighteen-thousand-dollar sum-mer home, plunged in the stock market, bet heavily on theraces, and maintained an elaborate suite of rooms at one ofChicago's most expensive hotels. He was also disclosed asan intimate friend of Al Capone, as an occasional visitor atCapone's estate in Florida, as the proud owner of a diamond-studded belt given to him by Capone, as the friend of othergang leaders, as a fixer for gambling-houses and other shadyenterprises, as the " unofrcial chief of police," and as the manwho, by his own admission, " fixed the price of beer in Chi-

36o

caso." But the full extent of his underworld connections'

"r?"rrtti..t;;;i hit political Power' were never divulgctl'

l-"" gt"rn"rs, a St. Lduis gu"-un, was convicted of the kill'

trg ;d ;;;tenced to pii.o? for fourteen years' of which he

served ten.*''-i^ri Zuta, believed by +-t police to have l1ll"t1 ll:

murd'er of Jake Lingle, was killed on.August t' t9!91"Jjl'

iuf." Vi"* Hotel "?

l-"ft" Nemahbin niar Delafield' Wis'

consin. As Zuta stood in the hotel's dance pavilion feed'

inE nickels into an electric piano, five men entered' rilalK'

ffi i;;;;l; fii. and carrving a machin'-gy' a rifle' two

.n?,g"tl?ta pirtot.. They liied up.behind Zuta' and when

he turned to face them, a Jmile on itit face, they ridd.led his

body with sixteen slugs and bullets' Zuta had occuPled tne

;;;'. ;;;i,i.n in lvtoiun's gang as Harry Cusick and Mike

de Pike Heitler did in Capone's - he was general mlnager

of brothels and immoral cabarets. As far as Prostltutlon

*u. .on..rned, Drucci, Weiss, and Moran had not seen eye

to eve with Dion O'g'nion' in safety'deposit boxes owned

bu duathe police f ound ledgers, canceled checks' and memo'

;ffi;;'hi;f,i"on^a careFully preserved over a period of

**"f years. They showed ihat Moran'l g:9s: income'

;;;;,;;;; st. Valentine Dav massacre had left him' as

was popularly supposed, with few followers' amount-ed to

;;;.";t;f;"; f,il;.d thou'"nd dollars a week' zuta's

,..ora, also showeJ payment of more than a hundred thou'

sand dollars a week io i' M' K'," identified by the p.olice,as

Mait Kolb, potiti.i"n und gambler, wh.o appattntll-l1n*d

the gang's protection money' They also showed tnat Luta

traa'givJn or loaned money to many.judges' state senators'

and other *.r, nigh in pudfit and private life' But nothing

came of these disclosures'-"'---t;r.ph Aiello died in a burst of machine-gun fire-as hc

,t"pp.a irito the street from an aPartment house on North

Kolmar Avenue on October 23, rg3o' FIe was struck by

36r

Page 23: Asbury 321-374

fifty-nine bullets, weighing all together more than a pound.Aiello was the leader of an Italian gang which had-arisenafter the downfall of the Gennas, and wis allied with BugsMoran. He had been fighting Al Capone for control of theUnione Siciliana and had tried several times to have thegangster king killed, once by bribing a restaurant chef toput prussic acid in Capone's soup, and again by ofiering a re-ward of fifty thousand dollars.

Al Capone attempted to arrange a truce with the em-battled North Siders after Hymie Wiiss and his cohorts hadinvaded Cicero and bombardid ttre Ffawthorne Inn, and latein September 19z6 representatives of both gangs met inconference at the Hotel Sherman. They discussedtheir dif-ferences for several hours, but all pto.pict of peace vanishedwhen Weiss insisted that Scalisi and Anselmi be ,,put onthe spot" for the murder of Dion O'Banion. When Cupon"was told of this ultimatum, he sent word to Moran: ,, Iwouldn't do that to a yellow dog," a statement which, whenrepeated in the newspapers, drew this comment from PoliceCaptain John Stege: " There is no one on earth Caponewouldn't send to death if he thought his interests would beserved." Another meeting of gangsters was held at theHotel Morrison on October zr, t916, which was attendedby delegations from all of the principal gangs, with MaxieEisen, who had embarked upon a privateiari"" as a racket-eer levyi-ng tribute from pushcart peddlers, present as peace-maker. New territorial allotments were agreed upon, andpeace of a sort arranged, but it lasted only a few months.Moran and Capone finally composed their differences afterScalisi and Anselmi had been slain, and the agreement wasratified by some thirty Chicago gang leaders who met in At-lantic City, New Jersey. " We agreed to forget the pastand begin all over again," said Capone, " and we drew up awritten agreement, and each man signed on the dotted linl."

362

There were many gang killings in Chicago after that, but

most of them were disciplinary or protective in character.

Such old-timers as Caponi, Bugt Moian, and the O'Donnells

fought each other no -ot..

th.y hd. ", last realized the

trutl of Maxie Eisen's remark t t' We're a bunch of saps,

killing each other this way and giving the cops a laugh'"

T2

A n o v B the carnage of the gang wars waved the bloody

banner of Al Capo-ne. By thJ late winter of 1927, despite

the fierce enmity of Bugt Motun and the frequent outbreaks

of dissatisfaction in thi ranks of the Sicilians, the one-time

lowly hoodlum from Brooklyn qas by far the dominant fig'

ur. of the Chicago underworid. Moreover, so well had pub'

licity done its w;k, the famous seven-ton armored car, with

the pudgy gangster lolling on silken cushions in its darkened

,..rr..i'r"big" cigar in f,is fat face, and a fifty-thousand'

dollar diamonh ri-ng blazing from his left hand, was one of

the sights of the city; the avlrage tourist felt that his trip to

Chicago was a failure unless it included a view of-Capone out

for a spin. The mere whisper: " Flere comes Al," was suffi'

cient to stop traffic and to set thousands of curious citizens

craning their necks along the curbing. fn Cicero the conduc'

tors oisightseeing busei pointed out the Hawthorne Inn astt Capone Castle."

buring the three or four years in which he was the

criminal boJs of America's second city, Capone's f ame spread

to the far corners of the earth. European journalists trav-

eled four thousand miles to see and interview him; he re'

ceived fan mail from the Orient, from Africa, from Aus'

tralia, and from virtually every country in Europe; once a

woman wrote from London ofiering to Pay his passage to

England if he would run over and kill some neighbors with

s6s

Page 24: Asbury 321-374

whom she had quarreled. He was probably the most talked-of and most written-about man in the world, and was cer-tainly the most shot-at. He was the subject of a greaterliterature, much of it maudlin and most of it untrustworthy,than any other criminal who ever lived, with the possibleexception of Jesse James. Novels, biographies, historicaland psychological studies, magazine and newspaper articles,even poems, all dealing with various phases of Capone'scareer, poured from the presses; plays and moving picturesacquainted millions with his talk and mannerisms.

There were stories of his prodigal spending - he hadsunk half a million dollars in his palatial estate near Miami,Florida; his armored car had cost twenty thousand dollars;he never gave a hat-check girl less than ten dollars, nor anewsboy Iess than five, and a hundred was his minimum tipto a waiter; he carried a roll of fiftv thousand dollars in hispocket and threw it away on whatever caught his fancy.There were stories of his unparalleled generosity - his an-nual expenditure for Christmas gifts exceeded a hundredthousand dollars; to his intimates, at all times of the year,he presented diamond-studded belts and solid-gold cigarettecases encrusted with precious stones; he entertained his po-litical henchmen at elaborate banquets and kept their cellarsfilled with the finest champagne; he was an iasy mark forany one with a hardJuck story; and every winter the big-hearted crook gave Cicero coal yards and department storescarte-blanche orders to supply all of the city's poor familieswith coal, clothing, and groceries. There were stories of hislove of gambling - he shot craps for fifty thousand and ahundred thousand a throw, and never for less than one thou-sand unless he was playing with friends not " up in thebucks "; he bet a hundred thousand dollars at a crack on ahorse-race; at Hawthorne he won three hundred and fiftvthousand dollars in two days, but at New Orleans he losisix hundred thousand in a single afternoon. In l9z8 he said

s6+

himself that since his arrival in Chicago in rgzo he had

" fooled away " seven million dollars'

But Capone could afiord his extravagunl"t: for his pri'

vate fortun. *", estimated at forty million dollars, and he

was overlord of a criminal empire which operated on a gross

income of more than a hundred million dollars a year -

sixty millions from beer, liquor, and alky'cookin$i twenty'

five'millions from gambling-fiouses and dog'tracks; and ten

millions from brothels, roadhouses, cabarets' and other tm'

moral resorts. Another ten millions came from racketeering'

a form of extortion with which American business men have

become all too familiar during the past twenty years' and

which was succinctly described by the Illinois crime Survey

as " the exploitation for personal'profit, by means of violence

of a business association or empl-oyees' organizatiol.'' Pt-t'

haps the best of all definitions of " racketeer " was that Pub'

lisired in the Chica go lournal of Commerce on Decemb er r7 '

t927 ?

" A racketeer may be the boss of a supposedly

legitimate business assotiation; he may be a.labor union

oigunirer; he may pretend to be one or the other' or

bJth; or he may be^just a iourneymln thyg' Whether

he is a gunman who has imposed himself uPon some

union "Jits

l.rd"r, or whethir he is a business associa'

tion organizer, his methods are the same; by throwing

bricks i-nto a few windows, and incidental and perhaps

accidental murder, he succeeds in organizing a group ot

smaller business men into what he calls a protective as'

sociation. He then proceeds to collect what fees and

dues he likes, to impose what fines suit him, regula-tes

prices and hours ofwork, and in various. ways under'

iakes to boss the outfit to his own profit' Any merchant

who doesntt come in, or who comes in and doesntt stay

in and continue to Pay tribute, is bombed, slugged or

otherwise intimidated." 365

Page 25: Asbury 321-374

Racketeering in one form or another has been practicedin the large cities in the world for more than two thousandyears, but nowhere else was the system ever developed tosuch perfection as in Chicago during the overlordship of AlCapone. The Employers' Association of Chicago publisheda report late in r9z7 listing twenty-three separate lines ofbusiness which racketeers either controlled or were attempt-ing to control - window-cleaning, machinery-moving, paperstock, cleaning and dyeing, laundries, candy jobbers, dentallaboratories, ash- and rubbish-hauling, grocery and delica-tessen stores, garages, physicians, drug stores, milk-dealers,glaziers, photographers, florists, boot-blacks, restaurarits,shoe-repairers, fish and poultry markets, butchers, bakers,and window-shades. This list was admittedly incomplete,and probably included no more than half of the businesseswhich had been brought under the domination of the racket-eers. Within another two years the number had been morethan tripled, and hundreds of Chicago business men hadlearned that the report had spoken truth when it said: " Con-ditions are becoming such that any man who dares to opposecertain kinds of racketeers or refuses to pay tribute to themis in actual physical danger."

All of the leaders of Chicago's big gangs maintainedtheir own racketeering departments, and there were alsonumerous independents who preyed upon industries too smallto interest a Big Shot. But at least seventy per cent of therackets ftom 19z6 to r93r were controlled by Al Capone,or by subsidiary racketeers closely allied to him and workingunder his general direction. He controlled a score of laborunions, most of them officered by ex-convicts, and as many

protective associations. To build up this phase of the Caponesyndicate operations, and to hold in line the business alreadyconquered, bands of gunmen and sluggers hi-jacked and de-stroyed truckloads of merchandise, bombed stores and manu-facturing plants or wrecked them with axes and crowbars,

s66

put acid into laundry vats' poured corrosives onto clothing

ir"nging in cleaning and dyeing shops, blackjacked both

*or["ti and employirs, and killed when necessary to enforce

their demands or bieak down opposition. In some instances

capone became a partner in a legitimate business enterprise

in order to protect it from the inroads of rival racketeers.

One notable incident of this description occurred during the

fight to control the cleaning and -dyeing

industry' Morris

Becker, president of a company which operate.d a cleantng

plant ani a chain of stores, was unable to obtain protection

irom the police or the Employcrs'Association, so he reor'

ganizedhil business, gave a fuil partnership to Capone, and

then issued this announcement:

" I have no need of the police or of the Employers'

Association. I now have the bist protection in the world."

r3

Ar, CAPoNB maintained for more than seven years the

headquarters which he had established at the Hawthorne

Inn upon the capture of Cicero in r9z4,but after the depar-

ture of Johnny torrio the Inn was used principally for quiet

conferences with politicians and with police, city, and county

ofrcials. The geniral offices of the syndicate remained at the

Four Deuces rintil that dive was closed by order of Mayor

William E. Dever, and were then transferred to the Hotel

Metropole at No. z3oo South Michigan Avenue' When the

Metropole was invaded by the police during Mayor Dever s

.n.rg"ii. but futile attempt to smash the power of g.angland'

Cupin. and his staff movid to the Lexington-Hotel.at State

and Twenty-second Streets, on the fringe of the.old South

side Levee. In th" raid on the Metropole the police seized

ledgers and documents which comprised a part of the.syndi-

catis bookkeeping system, and Mayor Dever said with

great satisfaction:a'fre've got the goods this time"' From

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Page 26: Asbury 321-374

the Mayor's ofice it was announced that damning proof ofwholesale corruption had been obtained, and that the recordswould be turned over to the Federal authorities. Beforethis could be done they were impounded by Judge HowardHayes of the Municipal Court, and were returned to Caponeafter a special hearing of which the city received no foimalnotification. Edwin A. Olson, United States District Attor-ney, denounced Judge Hayes's action as a direct refusal toco-operate with the government.

At both the Metropole and the Lexington Capone's or.ganization occupied between fifty and sixty rooms on twofloors, the hallways of which were patrolled constantly byheavily armed gunmen. " They operated their own privateelevators and maintained their own service bars," said a con-temporary description of the gangster stronghold. " Gam-bling went on openly and women visited the floors at allhours of the day and night. Nearly every hotel rule andregulation were violated daily. On Sunday mornings espe-cially the lobby was a beehive of activity. Prominent crimi-nal lawyers and high officials of the police department, alongwith politicians and dive-keepers, waited their turn to con-sult with the Big Shot. Policemen in uniform streamed inand out. A blind pig operated in the lobby by a semi-publicofficial did a land office business. In an underground vault,especially constructed, were stored $ r 5o,ooo worth of winesand liquors. The stock was constantly replenished. It wasfor the gang's private use."

Capone himself occupied two rooms. In one, sitting atthe head of a long mahogany table under the framed por-traits of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and BigBill Thompson, the gangster king held daily conferences withhis subordinates, planning sluggings and murders, arranginghi-jacking forays, formulating instructions for rum-runnersand smugglers, and transacting the manifold details of hisextraordinary business. The guns of Bugs Moran and other

368

enemies caused frequent changes in the personnel of Ca-

pone's board of directors, but Jmong those who were active

huring the greater part of his regime.wcre Frank Nitti' sec-

ond in-comriand, who handled most of the protection money;

Jack Cusick, also called Guzik, the business manager. of .the"syndicate,

and his brother Harry, in charge of prostitution'

*i,tr Vit . de Pike Heitler; Jimmy Mondi, Mops Volp'r' and

Frankie Pope, head of the gimbling interests; .HymieLevine, chiei collector; Johnny Genaro and Jim Belcastro'

leaders of the bombing squads; Capone's brother Ralph, also

known as Bottles; Dugo Lawrenle Mangano and Cha-rley

Fischett i , managers oF b..t and l iquor distr ibution; Jack

McGurn, whose real name was Demora, head of the ma'

chine-gun squad and chief hi'jacker; Frankie Rio and Frankie

Diamlnd, captains of the bodyguard; and Johnny-Patton'brewery opeiator and politicai fi*.t, who as the Mayor of

Burnham had invited Johnny Torrio to establish brothels in

that pleasant suburban village.

r4

T n B most important of the many factors which combined

to rid Chicago of Al Capone and disrupt the working of .his

evil machin. *ut the Chicago Crime Commission; it has

brought about more improvJments- in the administration of

crimi'nal justice than any other reform organization in the

history of the city. With the co-operation of the newspapers'

the Cbmmission hammered away without ceasing at $alg'land and the conditions which had made gangland possible.

Though essentially a fact'finding body with no authority to

prosecute nor power to enforci its recommendations, the'commission could and did initiate prosecutions, make in-

vestigations, and engage in crusades. Some of the accom-

plishirents of the Clmmission since it was organized on

January r , r9r9 are:

369

Page 27: Asbury 321-374

It helped eliminate the rings of crooked bondsmen,and compelled the establishment of a bond departmentin the State's Attorney's office.

It procured a special appropriation for a thousandadditional patrolmen, and caused the virtual draftingof eleven of Chicago's best lawyers as special prose-cutors.

It made a thorough and careful survey of the Po-lice Department, on the basis of which the force wasreorganized.

It was principally responsible for the anri-crimemass meeting of the Illinois Manufacturers' Associa-tion, the formation of the Evanston Crime Commission,and the decision of the Industrial Club of Chicago tofinance a statewide survey of crime and the administra.tion of justice.

It made public the records of judges, with regardto.time spent on the bench, disposition of cases, andJurytrials. As a result the average of time on the bench ioslfrom two and a half to four hours a day, with a corre,sponding increase in the number of jury trials and dis-positions.

It sponsored a drastic concealed-weapons and va-grancy act.

It crusaded against automobile thieves and han-dlers of stolen cars, and theft-insurance rates in Il-linois dropped twenty-six per cent.

Under the management of Colonel Henry BarrettChamberlin, Operating Director for the past twentyyears, the Crime Commission has become one of Amer-ica's principal clearing houses for information aboutcrime. Its files contain complete records of more thansixty thousand criminals. It keeps a docket on whichis recorded the progress of every case on trial in thecriminal courts. Everyparole asked for in Cook County

37o

is submitted to the Commission for a rePort. It receives

daily reports from the Police Department on the previ'

ous day's crimes. In the automobile court and in every

branch of the criminal court is stationed an observer

who reports daily to the Commission on the evidence

and the conduct of judges, bailifis, Prosecutors and po-

licemen.

In r93o the Crime Commission struck directly at the

principal figures of gangland, making a public list of twenty'

iight ieading gangsters, headed by Al Capone, and branding

them as public enemies. Copies of this list were sent to

judges, to the State's Attorney, the Sherifi of Cook County,

andlhe Commissioner of Police, together with a letter from

Frank J. Loesch, president of the Commission, recommend'

ing that the gangJters be relentlessly pursued in every legal

*ay us aliens, tax-evaders, inmates of gambling and-disor'

deily houses, and vagrants. " The purpose," said Mr.

Loeich, " is to keep the light of publicity shining on Chi-

cago's most prominent well known and notorious gangsters

tolhe end tliat they may be under constant observation by

the enforcing authorities and law'abiding citizens apprised

of the hazards to be encountered in dealing with those who

are constantly in conflict with the law."The response to the Commission's attempt to keep " the

light of publicity shining on notorious gangsters",was ex'

traordiniry. The phrase " public enemies " caught the popu-

lar fancy at once; editorial writers in newspapers all ovet

the Uniied States discussed its implications, columnists took

it up, books and moving pictures bearing the two simple

*otds as titles were rushed into print and on the screen, and

it quickly became a catch-phrase throughout the country.

Probably no other single action ever undertaken against

criminals received such widespread publicity. And it was

bad publicity for the gangsters. As a Crime Commission

37r

Page 28: Asbury 321-374

report put it, " this move stirred the entire nation to ac-tion, and gangdom began to feel the lash of an arousedcitizenry." Even Chicago police officials made big talk aboutwhat they would do to the gangsters, and what's more, actu-ally did it I By the beginningof ry34 the Crime Commissionwas able to announce that since r93o fifteen public ene-mies had been convicted, nine had died, one was awaiting de-portation, the cases of eight were awaiting disposition in thecourts, and the rest were " on the run and in hideouts be-cause of the existence of various warrants against them."

r5

A r. C A p o N p and his chief bodyguard, Frankie Rio, wentto Philadelphia after the peace conference with other Chi-cago gangsters at Atlantic City in 1929,, and on the night ofMay r6 they were picked up by the Philadelphia police on acharge of carrying concealed weapons. In less than seven-teen hours they had been arraigned in court, found guilty,and sentenced to one year's imprisonment in the Holmes-burg County Jail. Later they were transferred to the East-ern Penitentiary. There has always been considerable mys-tery attached to Capone's presence in Philadelphia at thisparticular time. One theory was that he had gone there toconfer with Maxie Boo-Boo Hofi, the boss of the Phila-delphia underworld. Another was that he was seeking ahide-away as far as possible from Chicago, and had courtedarrest and imprisonment through fear of gangsters who hadnot attended the Atlantic City meeting and with whom hehad not been able to make peace. On the night of his arrestCapone told Major Lemuel B. Schofield, Philadelphia's Di-rector of Public Safety, that he had been rying to retire fortwo years. tt But once iri the racket," he said, " youtre al-ways in. I haven't had peace of mind for years. I neverknow when I'm going to get it. Even when I'm on a peace

372

errand I must take achance on the light going suddenly^out'

I have a wife and an eleven-year'old boy I idolize' at Palm

Island, Florida- If I could go there and forget it all' l loy.to

be the happiest man in the world' I want peace' i"! 1-T

willing to'live and let live. I'm tired of gang murders and

gang shootings."o "Nevertlieless Capone continued to transact his business

from the Eastern Periitentiary; he was given a.private.cell'

allowed to make long-distance calls, and to use the W arden's

office for conf.r.nc.i with his lawyers and with Frank Nitti'

lril C"ti.k, and his brother Ralph, who made frequent

itiot," ehitaaetptria. With two months ofi for g:o.d.!th"Y;

ion Capone was released on March r7' I93o' to hnd hlmserr

brund.h as Public Enemy Number One' In Chicag-o Captain

]onn St.g. had posted L guard of.twtnty'fiut Ptli:,:-:l 11?ront of tl" Capone home on Prairie Avenue' once the ilnest

residential thoroughfare in Chicago, with orders to arrest

the gangste, ",

.oln as he appeaied' But Capone slipped

;;i.;lt ?nto the city and *tni to the Hawthorne Inn at

tl;;;;, *h.r. he spent four days answering his mail iTd,"!'

tending to busineis afiairs' Then, in company 'lvlth hrs

la*v.i he called upon Captain Stege, the State's Attorney'

*i in. United States Diitrict Attorney, to find that none

held a warrant for his arrest' and that no charges whatever

fr"i U..n made against him' There was no law under which

he could be held,lut also there was no law to prevent Cap'

tain Stege from keeping him under.surveillance as 1 .111s'

p..,"a .?"ok. So t*i ,iifotmed policemen were assigned

'to follow Capone, and for weeks they dogged his footsteps

dav and nieht.-- J The fiang chieftain was visibly annoyed by,these t,t*'

tions, alth6ugf, h. made no complaint' He could easily have

nua in" policimen killed, but he was smart enough to r.ealize

that suc'h a crime, with public opinion now so generally ar'

;;;;J d"i"st him, *ouid in all^likelihood send him to the

373

Page 29: Asbury 321-374

gallows. After a few months in Chicago Capone began totravel about the country, apparently seeking a place wherehe could retire and re-establish himself as a private citizen.But he was not wanted anywhere. FIe went to Los Angeles,and the police ordered him to leave within twenty-four hours.He tried the Black Hills of South Dakota. but the Governorof the state said that the National Guard would be called outif necessary to chase him away. He was barred from theBahama Islands, and warned not to tarry in Flavana. Hestarted for Florida, and the Governor of that state notifiedthe sixty-seven Florida sherifis to arrest the gangster andescort him to the border. But there Capone fought back;his lawyers obtained an injunction restraining the Floridaauthorities from molesting him, and he was finally able toreach his estate near Miami.

In the late summer of r93r Capone returned to Chi-cago, and on October 6 was arrested by Federal agents whohad been investigating the sources of his income. He wasindicted, and on October 17, r93r, in Federal court, hewas found guilty on five counts, three of evading payment oftaxes from rg2S to r9z8 on an income of six hundred andseventy thousand dollars, and two of failing to make taxreturns for r9z8 and tgz9. He was sentenced to serve eightyears in Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco Bay. Several ofhis most faithful henchmen, including his brother Ralph and

Jack Cusick, had already been convicted of similar ofienses.Chicago was through with Capone when he went to

Alcaffaz, but it was not through with the conditions thatCapone had fostered. The city is still struggling to erasethe imprint of his firte Italian hand.

Curiously enough, during the decade in which Chicagowas overrun by gangsters and was a synonym for crime andcorruption everywhere in the world, the population of thecity increased by nearly seven hundred thousand.

37+