The Gangs of Chicago
I'm only interested in those cool Italians who take up only the last forty or so pages of this book. I hope I got this right.
In the beginning there was Jim Colosimo who employed Johnny Torrio as his number two. Colosimo then foolishly went and fell in love, leaving Torrio almost solely in charge of affairs. So Torrio had Colosimo shot in the neck. Torrio then took over as the most respected gangster in Chicago. To bolster his ranks, he hired a 23-year old slugger and gunman from New York to work as a bouncer at one of his “resorts”. The young man’s name? Alphonse Capone.
Capone proved himself to be capable and rose quickly to become Torrio’s right-hand man. While Torrio tended to negotiate and compromise his way to gangland supremacy, Capone favoured shooting holes in the opposition. And so it was that these two alter egos led the largest vice organisation in Chicago.
Opposition came in the form of Dion O’Banion who split from the Torrio-Capone faction after a dispute over share of profits. O’Banion double-crossed Torrio, costing him hundreds of thousands of dollars and a run-in with the police. In response, Torrio and Capone sent Mike Genna, John Scalisi and Albert Anselmi to O’Banion’s flower shop (O’Banion loved flower arrangement – I know… doesn’t make sense to me either) and had him shot.
The shooting went something like this: The three men entered the flower shop and approached O’Banion while he was clipping the stems off a bunch of chrysanthemums. “The center man of the three (Mike Genna) simply grasped O’Banion’s hand and suddenly jerked him forward, and before the gangster could recover his equilibrium and snatch a pistol, the men on either side had fired five bullets into his body, and a sixth – the grace shot to make death certain - into his head.”
O’Banion was succeeded by Hymie Weiss who declared war on Torrio and Capone. His opportunity came when Torrio foolishly attended O’Banion’s funeral and was rewarded with bullets in his jaw, right arm, abdomen and chest.
But the bugger survived.
However, when he recovered, he had no appetite left for gang life and left Chicago for good. He is estimated to have been worth up to thirty million dollars at the time of his retirement.
The attack on Torrio sparked the gang wars that lasted from 1925-1930. More than five hundred men were killed in these wars and Capone alone is thought to have killed between twenty and sixty. Mike Genna was shot and killed on July 13, 1925 but his assailants were police officers.
Weiss made a dozen attempts on Capone’s life in the year following O’Banion’s death. The closest he came to succeeding was on September 20, 1926 when eleven automobiles filled with Weiss gangsters drove past the Hawthorne Inn (Capone’s headquarters) and riddled the building with bullets. Capone was lunching at a restaurant next door and escaped injury.
Weiss was dead twenty days later. As he walked towards his office on October 11, 1926, he was gunned down by Capone’s men with a shotgun and a machinegun. Fifteen bullets were found in Weiss’ body.
But Capone wasn’t just ruthless to the enemy. The bodies of Joseph Guinta, John Scalisi and Albert Anselmi (the latter two were involved in the O’Banion shooting) were found on May 8, 1929. The case was never solved but many suspect that they were killed under orders from Capone who suspected them of plotting against him.
Ironically, what eventually forced Capone from Chicago wasn’t another gang lord but the common man. The Chicago Crime Commission, aided by local newspapers, turned the spotlight on gangsters, establishing them as “public enemies”. This move raised public anger against the hoodlums and “gangdom began to feel the lash of an aroused citizenry.”
Al Capone fled Chicago in 1929 but was arrested in Philadelphia on charges of carrying concealed weapons. He was sentenced to a year’s jail but only served ten months. A few months after his release, Capone scoured the country for a place to retire but not one state allowed him refuge. He returned to Chicago in the summer of 1931 and was arrested by Federal agents after which he was sentenced to eight years in Alcatraz Prison, San Francisco Bay.
In the beginning there was Jim Colosimo who employed Johnny Torrio as his number two. Colosimo then foolishly went and fell in love, leaving Torrio almost solely in charge of affairs. So Torrio had Colosimo shot in the neck. Torrio then took over as the most respected gangster in Chicago. To bolster his ranks, he hired a 23-year old slugger and gunman from New York to work as a bouncer at one of his “resorts”. The young man’s name? Alphonse Capone.
Capone proved himself to be capable and rose quickly to become Torrio’s right-hand man. While Torrio tended to negotiate and compromise his way to gangland supremacy, Capone favoured shooting holes in the opposition. And so it was that these two alter egos led the largest vice organisation in Chicago.
Opposition came in the form of Dion O’Banion who split from the Torrio-Capone faction after a dispute over share of profits. O’Banion double-crossed Torrio, costing him hundreds of thousands of dollars and a run-in with the police. In response, Torrio and Capone sent Mike Genna, John Scalisi and Albert Anselmi to O’Banion’s flower shop (O’Banion loved flower arrangement – I know… doesn’t make sense to me either) and had him shot.
The shooting went something like this: The three men entered the flower shop and approached O’Banion while he was clipping the stems off a bunch of chrysanthemums. “The center man of the three (Mike Genna) simply grasped O’Banion’s hand and suddenly jerked him forward, and before the gangster could recover his equilibrium and snatch a pistol, the men on either side had fired five bullets into his body, and a sixth – the grace shot to make death certain - into his head.”
O’Banion was succeeded by Hymie Weiss who declared war on Torrio and Capone. His opportunity came when Torrio foolishly attended O’Banion’s funeral and was rewarded with bullets in his jaw, right arm, abdomen and chest.
But the bugger survived.
However, when he recovered, he had no appetite left for gang life and left Chicago for good. He is estimated to have been worth up to thirty million dollars at the time of his retirement.
The attack on Torrio sparked the gang wars that lasted from 1925-1930. More than five hundred men were killed in these wars and Capone alone is thought to have killed between twenty and sixty. Mike Genna was shot and killed on July 13, 1925 but his assailants were police officers.
Weiss made a dozen attempts on Capone’s life in the year following O’Banion’s death. The closest he came to succeeding was on September 20, 1926 when eleven automobiles filled with Weiss gangsters drove past the Hawthorne Inn (Capone’s headquarters) and riddled the building with bullets. Capone was lunching at a restaurant next door and escaped injury.
Weiss was dead twenty days later. As he walked towards his office on October 11, 1926, he was gunned down by Capone’s men with a shotgun and a machinegun. Fifteen bullets were found in Weiss’ body.
But Capone wasn’t just ruthless to the enemy. The bodies of Joseph Guinta, John Scalisi and Albert Anselmi (the latter two were involved in the O’Banion shooting) were found on May 8, 1929. The case was never solved but many suspect that they were killed under orders from Capone who suspected them of plotting against him.
Ironically, what eventually forced Capone from Chicago wasn’t another gang lord but the common man. The Chicago Crime Commission, aided by local newspapers, turned the spotlight on gangsters, establishing them as “public enemies”. This move raised public anger against the hoodlums and “gangdom began to feel the lash of an aroused citizenry.”
Al Capone fled Chicago in 1929 but was arrested in Philadelphia on charges of carrying concealed weapons. He was sentenced to a year’s jail but only served ten months. A few months after his release, Capone scoured the country for a place to retire but not one state allowed him refuge. He returned to Chicago in the summer of 1931 and was arrested by Federal agents after which he was sentenced to eight years in Alcatraz Prison, San Francisco Bay.
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