North Side Gang

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The North Side Gang was a gang of Irish and Polish mobsters operating in Chicago during the US alcohol prohibition in the 1920s . She became known for her deadly competition with Al Capone and his Chicago outfit , which culminated in the Valentine's Day massacre .

history

The main focus of the gang during the alcohol prohibition was on the production, smuggling and trading of alcoholic beverages that were banned at the time. For a long time she controlled the north of Chicago - from which the name North Side Gang derives - and with it also the large breweries and distilleries located in this part of the city .

Because of the high profits generated by the illegal alcohol business, there were repeated conflicts over distribution between the various gangs in the city, all of which were ready to expand their sphere of influence within the city at every possible opportunity. The North Side Gang was also involved in many such conflicts as a result. The Chicago Outfit , led by Johnny Torrio and Al Capone , the local representative of La Cosa Nostra with mainly Italian-born members from the south of Chicago, the so-called South Side , to which the North Side Gang finally succumbed after numerous bloody conflicts, turned out to be their greatest competitor .

Dean O'Banion

Irish-born Dean O'Banion is considered the founder of the North Side Gang . The prankster O'Banion was a feared murderer who asserted his interests with other gangsters with violence. He set up his headquarters in a flower shop, which he ran both as a hobby and to cover up his real field of activity - together with a florist . In this flower shop, O'Banion was shot dead by members of the rival Capones gang.

Capone used his old New York contacts and ordered his colleague Frankie Yale , whom he knew from his days with the Five Points Gang , to eliminate O'Banion. Yale, who had been President of the Unione Siciliana in New York since 1917 , took advantage of the death of Chicago President Mike Merlo , who died of cancer on November 8, 1924. O'Banion, who had been granted a lucrative additional legal income from the numerous murdered gangsters with his flower shop, had a corresponding order for Mike Merlo. Given Merlo's natural death, there was nothing suspicious when the trio Yale, John Scalise and Albert Anselmi entered Dean O'Banion's store two days later on November 10, 1924 to pick up the order. Yale, who was considered inconspicuous, shook hands with O'Banion and held it, his two companions then opened fire on the Irishman. Yale was arrested by the police but released because of an existing alibi .

Hymie Weiss

O'Banion's successor was Hymie Weiss . Weiss, who had given O'Banion advice on many issues, wanted to avenge O'Banion by all means. A reconciliation with Capone failed because he made the amicable end of the gang war dependent on the extradition of the killers who had murdered O'Banion on behalf of Capone. There were various mutual assassinations on the leaders of the Capones organization and on the heads of the North Side Gang . Eventually Weiss, who was said to have been the only person Capone ever feared, was shot dead on October 11, 1926 by members of the Capone-led gang in front of the flower shop where O'Banion had previously been murdered .

Vincent Drucci

After Weiss's death, Vincent Drucci and George Moran led the North Side Gang . Both negotiated an agreement with Capone to end the mutually costly and criminally damaging gang war. Shortly afterwards, on April 4, 1927, Drucci was shot dead by police in connection with his arrest.

George Moran

Moran was the last leader of the North Side Gang . This was weakened in the following period by new disputes with the gang led by Capone. In early 1929, Capone planned to wipe Moran together with much of the North Side Gang in one blow. For this purpose, he had his killers raided a warehouse on February 14, 1929, from which he knew that Moran would hold a meeting there with several members of the North Side Gang on the same day, including the failed assassination attempt on Moran in January of that year as well the next steps towards the advance of the Capone Gang should be discussed. The killers met Moran, who happened to be late, but not in the warehouse. The seven men gathered in the warehouse, six of whom belonged to the North Side Gang, were mercilessly shot by the Capone killers. This Valentine's Day massacre initiated the decline of the North Side Gang, which was accelerated by the end of Prohibition in the early 1930s. Even the alliance with Giuseppe Aiello , Al Capone's most important Italian-American opponent, could not avert the downfall of the North Side .

Moran, who had lost the core of his followers in the attack on Valentine's Day, died completely impoverished on February 25, 1957 in prison, where he was being held for bank robbery, of cancer. He received a funeral for the poor.

Members

  • Louis "Two Gun" / "Diamond Jack" Alterie , French-American, (1888–1935)
  • Barney Bertsche
  • Francis Cavanaugh (1906-1940)
  • Lucas "Lucky Luke" Cavanaugh (1928–1979), continuing leader of the gang into modern times
  • Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci (1901–1927)
  • John Duffy († 1924)
  • Frank “Tight Lips” Gusenberg (1892–1929); Victims in the Valentine's Day massacre
  • Peter Gusenberg († 1929); Victims in the Valentine's Day massacre
  • Adam Heyer alias "Frank Snyder" (1889–1929); Victims in the Valentine's Day massacre ; Operator of a dog racing track
  • Dan McCarthy
  • Samuel "Nails" Morton alias Samuel Markowitz († 1922)
  • Albert Kachellek alias James Clark (1887-1929), victim in the Valentine's Day massacre , was involved with the Gusenberg brothers in the murder of Lolordo, a friend of Al Capone
  • John May (1893–1929), victim in the Valentine's Day massacre : possibly just an ordinary mechanic, was already on trial for robbery and theft.
  • George "Bugs" Moran , maiden name Adelard Leo Cunin, French-French-Canadian descent (1891–1957)
  • William "Willie" Marks
  • Ted Newbury († 1933)
  • Dean O'Banion (1892-1924), founder
  • Alexander O'Shea († 1989)
  • James "Jimmy O" O'Shea (* 1963)
  • Reinhart H. Schwimmer; Victims in the Valentine's Day massacre ; actually just an optician, friend of Dean O'Banion
  • Billy Skidmore
  • Albert "Gorilla Al" Weinshank, alias Weinshenker (1893–1929); Victims in the Valentine's Day massacre
  • Earl "Hymie" Weiss alias Henry Earl Wojciechowski (1898–1926)
  • Jacob U. "Jack" Zuta (1888-1930); 1927 by the Chicago Outfit crossed over

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Al Capone Bio: Myths (English)

Web links