On September 25, 1925, Spike O'Donnell flattened as Frankie McErlane sped by bullets spraying wildly over the corner of 63rd and Western. O'Donnell walked away from the shooting unharmed and unaware he had survived the first Chicago gang shooting involving a Thompson submachine gun. A month later, after practicing with the novel weapon. McErlane returned. This time, he … [Read more...] about Peter Von Frantzius specialized in arming the city’s criminals
O'Banion
Alphonse Al Capone, “Scarface”
Alphonse Capone grew up in the Brooklyn slums and was thrown out of school in the sixth grade for attacking his teacher. While working as a bouncer at the Harvard Inn for Frankie Yale, then head of the Unione Siciliane, Capone cracked many a drunk's skull and was himself cut across the cheek, thus acquiring the nickname "Scarface". By 1919, Capone was suspected of two … [Read more...] about Alphonse Al Capone, “Scarface”
Charles Dean O’Banion, the bootlegger that ruled the Northeast side of Chicago
Born in 1892 and crippled in a childhood accident, Dion O'Banion started as a singer, pick-pocket and jackroller in the Chicago Northside's Little Hell neighborhood. By 1920, he led a gang of burglars, safecrackers and robbers and was allegedly responsible for killing more than 25 people. When Proibition came in, O'Banion became a bootlegger and ruled the Northeast side of … [Read more...] about Charles Dean O’Banion, the bootlegger that ruled the Northeast side of Chicago
