MURDER MEN OF CHICAGO

Hokitika Guardian, 21 January 1930, Page 2

MURDER MEN OF CHICAGO

By EGDAIt WALLACE in “Daily Mail.” 11. The English reader must have a landmark to guide him into the gang wars ol Chicago, and perhaps there is none better than tho killing of Hermann Rosenthal, a. gambling saloonkeeper, in New York in 1912. Y r oa will remember how PoliceLieutenant Charles. Becker, tnreatcn.eu with a “sque.d” iioin Kosemliui, the gambler, who had been subsidising him, took four men horn the tombs Prison —“Lefty Lou,” “Gyp hie Blood,” and two companions—and loosed them at Kosentnal, who was shot down and lus “squawk” silenced for ever. The lour gangsters went to the chair. Whitman, the District Attorney eventually sent Becker along the same road, and lie sat in the death house with the warden’s arm around him lor the whole or a day before lie was executed. Wanlinan was governor now and had the power of pardon. On the night of Becker’s execution he took his car and drove anywhere, so that he might not listen to the telephone appeals or see the frantic callers who sought to save Becker at the last moment.

TOO OLD TO KILL

“Lefty Lou” and “Gyp the Blood” welre members of the drive Points gang. Toriio was one of it's “vicepresidents.” He was big enough to merit “Big Jim” Colosimo’s call to Chicago. Colosimo was growing old. He was very old by the gangland standard—toj oid, at all rate to do has own killing. He had “bampeel off” a few of his personal enemies and had shot three blackmailers to death with a “sawed-off” shotgun. But the blackmailing threats were getting on his nerves. John Torrio came to Chicago to the big restaurant on 22nd Street and \\ a bash-avenue which Colosimo owned. He had other establishments less easily written about. There had been several immoral establishments, and he extracted levy from each ef them. Two-thirds of the women’s horrible gains went into the pocket of Big Jim. With Torrio behind him, the threats ol (blackmail ceased. The. establishments, which had been closed by the police in a great and virtuous “drive,” were reopened. Torrio and A 1 Capone invaded tiio suburbs, planted new and elaborate inns in these small townships, one of which had a population of SU,JUO, and in Cicero alone, according to one authority drew 15,004 dollars (£3000) a month from each nouse.

“AIOST SINISTER FORCE.”

Torrio became the most - sinister force in Chicago, and when Jim Colosimo went the way of all-flesh—he was shot dead in the vestibule’of his restaurant, possibly by the gentleman who escaped the earlier operations ot his sawed-off shotgun—Torrio became tht king. It was he and Capone, with a wellknown brewer of Chicago (wao for some mysterious reason is stid alive), who opened the Sieben Brew.;iy. The daily distribution of liquor aas perfectly organised; almost every gang leader in Chicago Avas “in” on it.

There were ill-defined spheres of activity. The Torrio-Cavore outfit practically covered the whole of beerdrinking Chicago. They were il.e bosses of every immoral house of import auee in and around the city. Affiliated by interest were the wild Genua brothers.

Dion O'Banion, who was once an altar-boy but had graduated io safe blowing, 'was' a lieutenant and drew his share of the profits until lie decided to run a gang of his nv n and began to “muscle in’’ (this fen i need no very elaborate explanation) on the operations of his former tn nas.

BRIBES TOO BIG He was also a purveyor of idnibol in its cruder form, and ns be succeeded in annoying the Gennas by under-sell-ing them, so he distressed the TorrioCapone gang by his extravagance. He was giving more bribes to the police than las Italian competitors—“ Giving a thousand where lie gave two hundred I’’ said Al Capone indignant lyBut, worst of all, he had an “in’ with the police, was much too friendly with them. Alter he cut his connection with the brewery—his rivals bought him out—it was raided with such suspicious promptitude tli.it Dim.. was instantly booked for “m.c lorn journey.’’ ■ lie had an interest in a very profitable business, proochh the only profitable legitimate business with which ne, as a gangster, bad ever been associated. He became a florist, and used the flower shop in State-street as bis headquarters. Every gang funeral was remarkable for the number of flowers to mark their respect for the men whose death in more cases than one they bad encompassed. A notorious gangster died, one Alike Merlo. Somebody telephoned to O’Banion and ordered a wreath; they would call for it that afternoon. At two o’clock an undertaker’s sober automobile pulled ip) before the door and three men got out. I stood in the shop one dark winter night and talked to Mr Schofield. “Dion was standing here”—there Wits a ledge on one side of the shop—“leaning his arm on this. He put. out

his hand, and it was taken by the middle man of the three,” lie explained.

And while the middle man of the three held the gangster's hand tightly so that lie could not reach for the guns that were skilfully disposed about his person, the man on each side shot him.

Me staggered back and fell. One of the gangsters turned his gun lor the final shot through the cheek —the little piece of mosaic which was ch.pped out of the floor has never been replaced.

£1,500 COFFIN

The gangsters disappeared instantly, and there followed that remarkable funeral which was described in every newspaper in the work!. 1 saw the hill. The flowers alone cost £7(;0. 'I lie coffin-cost £1,50.); it was made of silver; angels stood at each corner. All the gangs were represented among the mourners. By mutual agreement, guns were left behind or taken on ahead to the cemetery, where they were returned to their owners. Hymie Weiss and Altorie, O’Manion’s two assistants, “wept like children.” A 1 Capone, who was credited with engineering this dramatic exit, sent a basket or roses. Dion’s friends sent to a hard-bitten old Driest and asked him-to arrange for a service in the Cathedral of the Holy Name which was immediately opposite O’Banion’s shop. The old priest replied in nncliurclily language, but referred the matter to the archbishop, who refused not only a service in the Cathedral but burial in consecrated ground. So the ex-altar boy was buried as an outlaw. Later, by some manoeuvring, he was exhumed and buried within eighty feet of a.bishop. Who killed O’Bnnion? Undoubtedly among his murderers were two gentlemen named Anselmi and Soalisi, "ho had come to America without a passport and had got themselves smuggled across the frontier.

They left Italy in a hurry, after serving terms of imprisonment for robbery and association with jbaiulits. They were now wearing silk shirts, and under the high protection of the Genua brothers, the youngest of whom, inappropriately named Angelo, was to die six months later.