Shachna Itzik Birger

Shachna Itzik Birger , better known as Charles Birger (* 1881 in the Russian Empire ; † April 19, 1928 in Benton , Illinois , United States), was an American bully in southern Illinois during the prohibition in the United States on alcohol and will today attributed to Kosher Nostra .

Life

Early years

Birger had emigrated to the United States with his parents. His earliest official mention is his military record , which identifies him as a member of the 13th Cavalry Regiment , stationed in South Dakota . Birger was considered a good soldier and was honorably discharged from the US Army on July 4th ; its last location was Fort Meade (South Dakota) .

After his release he became a temporary cowboy ; then returned sometime after Illinois, married and became first a miner in the just young and expanding mining region in Harrisburg (Illinois) . He later worked as a bartender and when prohibition began, Birger got into the now illegal alcohol business.

Birger's base remained in Harrisburg, but he also built speakeasy outside of it . The authorities from Saline County (Illinois) tried to evict him because he had built a wooden shack as a barbecue stand called Shady Rest right on the border of the district ; it was on old Highway 13 , in the middle between Harrisburg and Marion in Williamson County (Illinois) .

Confrontation with the Ku Klux Klan

As Birger's main rival, the Shelton Brothers Gang , with whom he initially worked, but with whom he should wrestle for control of the coalfield in southern Illinois, should soon prove to be.

But one problem was initially the Ku Klux Klan , which was a proponent of Prohibition in the 1920s, as from their point of view alcohol was regarded as un-American devil stuff brought in by immigrants - Catholics and other religions . On the other hand, it was precisely these immigrants who worked in the coal mines in the region and did not think about changing their old drinking habits.

In the spring of 1923, around 5,000 members of the Ku Klux Klan gathered in Williamson County , which could rely on the local Baptist and Protestant congregations in the small villages and larger cities. The leader was 58-year-old S. Glenn Young , a former federal police officer.

The mob began to wander from house to house in search of alcohol; Alcohol owners were arrested and turned over to the official authorities, who did nothing to counter these illegal arrests and detentions. In some cases, the authorities had even made clan members official auxiliaries. Elected politicians who were caught were chased out of office and replaced by Klan members.

On January 24, 1925, an incident occurred in which Deputy Sheriff Ora Thomas was called to a tobacco store in Herrin, Illinois , where he met Clan Leader Young . Both shot each other down; two clan members escaped in the fray. An official rally was held for the dead Klanman, attended by around 15,000 people.

Birger was still working with his people with the Shelton Brothers gang at that time and they attacked the leaders of the Klan in Herrin in April 1926, using Thompson type submachine guns and shotguns . Although the police were called, they did not appear, so that afterwards only unknown persons could be investigated.

The clan's personnel losses were minor, but the clan's power was broken by the death of its leaders. The elected legal representatives were able to return to their offices and offices and the alcohol smugglers could go back to their illegal activities.

Confrontation with the Shelton Brothers Gang

Birger claimed Harrisburg as "his" city and took action against other criminal activities. As z. B. a small shop was robbed, Birger compensated the shop owner publicly, while the alleged perpetrator was found dead a few days later.

This incident roughly coincided with the beginning of Birger's dispute with the Shelton people, which was to develop into an open conflict by October 1926. The Shelton Gang tried to blow up the small, illegal bar Shady Rest with dynamite , but the bomb failed. Numerous people were killed during the confrontation, and it was never clear which side had the upper hand. Both sides used prepared trucks that had been armored and could be fired from.

A murder in particular was supposed to be fatal for Birger himself. In West City, Illinois , a small town near Benton, Illinois , Joseph Adams lived as the mayor and operator of a small auto repair shop . Birger soon realized that the Sheldon's armored truck was being repaired there and demanded that it be returned. Since Adams did not do this, Birger's people threw a bomb on the workshop as they drove past and demolished the front of the building. Then, in December 1926, Harry and Elmo Thomasson rang the doorbell at Adams' house to allegedly bring him a letter from Carl Shelton ; When he opened the door and began to read the letter, he was shot by the two of them.

In the following month the Sheldon gang answered u. a. with the - now successful - destruction of the Shady Rest ; four corpses were discovered in the rubble that had been burned beyond recognition. The series of explosions and the fire had been so violent that they were not only noticed in the immediate vicinity.

In addition, the Price couple disappeared without a trace around the same time . Lorry Price was considered an ally of Birger and was a state police officer for the state of Illinois. Price had worked with Birger in particular on a large-scale automobile insurance fraud; d. H. Birge's gang stole the cars and when rewards were offered to get the vehicles back, Price found the cars and shared the reward with Birger.

The end

So far, Birger had escaped all charges and after various arrests he was always released after a few days. When he was arrested in June 1927 for the murder of Joe Adams, he did not offer any resistance. He was arrested and taken to another county, Franklin County, Illinois , where he could not exert political or other influence.

Together with the two killers, he was charged and he himself was sentenced to death by hanging, which Birger felt was unjust, since the two shooters had only been sentenced to prison. On April 19, 1928, Birger was hanged in the Franklin County Jail in Benton, Illinois .

When Birger was taken to the gallows , a rabbi accompanied him. He shook hands with the executioner Philipp Hanna, known as the "humane hangman" . His last words are said to have been “It's a beautiful world”.

estate

Birger was buried in the Chesed Shel Emeth Cemetery in University City , a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. His gravestone bears his birth name. His sister Rachel Shamsky and one of his two daughters were later buried near him.

Birger was the last to be sentenced to death in Illinois publicly executed with the gallows; he hit the headlines again in 2006 when the granddaughter of the sheriff in charge of the execution handed over the noose used for the execution to the County Jail Museum .

media

• 1973: Bad Charleston Charlie , a highly speculative US comedy film about Birger's life

literature

• Paul M. Angle: Bloody Williamson - A Chapter in American Lawlessness . New edition. University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois 1992, ISBN 0-252-06233-7 (first edition: New York 1952).
• Gray DeNeal: A Knight of Another Sort . Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, Illinois 1981, ISBN 0-8093-2216-1 .
• Gray DeNeal: A Knight of Another Sort . 2nd Edition. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale, Illinois 1993, ISBN 0-8093-2217-X .
• George Galligan and Jack Wilkinson: In Bloody Williamson . New edition. Williamson County Historical Society, Marion, Illinois 1985 (first edition: 1927).
• E. Bishop Hill: Complete History of Southern Illinois Gang War: The True Story of Southern Illinois Gang Warfare . New edition. Williamson County Historical Society, Marion, Illinois 2006 ( hdl.handle.net - First edition: 1927).
• Ralph Johnson and Jon Musgrave: Secrets of the Mistress Gangs . Register Publisher Co., Marion, Illinois 2010.
• Curtis G. Small: Mean Old Jail . Register Publisher Co., Harrisbur, Illinois 1970.
• Merlin Moore Taylor: The Smashing of Little Egypt's Gangster King . Part I + II (July / August). New York 1930.

Web links

• Shachna Itzik Birger in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Dodging dynamiters . In: Time Magazine , February 21, 1927. Retrieved December 1, 2010. 
• Crime in Southern Illinois: Birger & his Boys by Rich Davis

Individual evidence

1. ↑ genealogytrails.com
2. ↑ Birger's grave with his name in Hebrew ( memento from April 20, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )