DIELAND: Al Capone - Capone Takes Over

For several years after Capone arrived in Chicago, things were comparatively quiet among the various gangs that had carved up Chicago's rackets. Nonetheless, reform-minded William E. Dever succeeded the spectacularly corrupt Mayor "Big Bill" Thompson. With city government nominally in the hands of an earnest reformer, the daily process of payoffs and corruption became more complicated. Torrio and Capone decided to put many operations out of the city into the suburb of Cicero, where they could purchase the entire city government and police department.

"Big Bill" Thompson and William "Decent" Devers (Historical Society)

Shortly after opening up a brothel in Cicero, Torrio took his elderly mother back to live in Italy, leaving Capone in charge of the business in Cicero. Capone made it clear that he wanted an all-out conquest of the town. He installed his older brother Frank (Salvatore), a handsome and respectable-looking man of twenty-nine, as the front man with the Cicero city government. Ralph was tasked with opening up a working-class brothel called the Stockade for Cicero's heavily blue-collar population. Al focused on gambling and took an interest in a new gambling joint called the Ship. He also took control of the Hawthorne Race Track.

For the most part, the Capone conquest of Cicero was unopposed, with the exception of Robert St. John, the crusading young journalist at the Cicero Tribune. Every issue contained an expose on the Capone rackets in the city. The editorials were effective enough to threaten Capone-backed candidates in the 1924 primary election.

On election day, things got ugly as Capone's forces kidnapped opponents' election workers and threatened voters with violence. As reports of the violence spread, the Chicago chief of police rounded up seventy nine cops and provided them with shotguns. The cops, dressed in plain clothes, rode in unmarked cars to Cicerco under the guise of protecting workers at the Western Electric plant there.

Frank Capone, who had just finished negotiating a lease, was walking down the street when the convoy of Chicago policemen approached him. Someone recognized him and the cars emptied out in front of him. In seconds, Frank's body was riddled with bullets. Technically, the police called it self defense, since Frank, seeing the police coming at him with guns drawn, had drawn his own revolver.

Al was enraged and escalated the violence by kidnapping officials and stealing ballot boxes. One official was murdered. When it was all over, Capone had won his victory for Cicero, but at a price that would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Frank Capone killed by police (Anthony Berardi)

Capone threw his brother a funeral unmatched in opulence. The flowers alone, provided by racketeer florist Dion O'Banion, cost $20,000. Lavish though it was, Frank's funeral was different than Big Jim Colosimo's. Bergreen says that "the perfume of crushed blossoms, however sweet, did little to soothe the raw and sullen mood. There had been a festive air about "Big Jim's funeral, but Frank Capone's youth ensured that the tone of this last rites was entirely tragic; instead of singing, there was wailing...Chicago Police Chief Collins dispatched the same cops who had shot Frank to death to observe his funeral. Capone restrained himself from mounting a full-scale war against the Chicago Police Department."

Capone's temper stayed under control for about five weeks. But then, Joe Howard, a small-time thug, assaulted Capone's friend Jack Guzik when Guzik turned him down for a loan. Guzik told Capone and Capone tracked Howard down in a bar. Howard had the poor judgment to call Capone a dago pimp and Capone shot Howard dead.

William H. McSwiggin, called "the hanging prosecutor," decided to get Capone, but in spite of his diligence he wasn't able to win a conviction, mostly because eyewitnesses suddenly developed faulty memories. Capone got away with murder, but the publicity surrounding the case gave him a notoriety that he never had before. He had broken out of the Torrio model of discreet anonymity once and for all.

At the age of twenty five after only four years in Chicago, Capone was a force to be reckoned with. Wealthy, powerful, master of the city of Cicero, he became a target for lawmen and rival gangsters alike. He was keenly aware that the next lavish gangster funeral he attended could be his own. The fragile peace that Torrio had constructed with other gangs was blown apart by Prohibition. Gangland murders were reaching epidemic proportions.

William McSwiggin, the "hanging prosecutor" (A. Berardi)

While Capone's name was often linked with these murders, the fact was that there were many other gangsters responsible that Capone and Torrio had tried to keep in line. One flamboyant example was Dion O'Banion who had a burgeoning bootlegging and florist business. Schoenberg describes him as having a perennial-boy likability. Dion "never acted tough. His habit of calling even enemies 'swell fellow' mirrored an ingrained cheeriness and courtesy. He chronically beamed at the world; it amounted to a fixed grin, belied only by unblinkingly cold blue eyes. He was an indefatigable handshaker and backslapper, though never at the same time: at least one hand stayed free to go for one of the three gun pockets tailored into his clothes."

O'Banion was known for bizarre behavior which included gunning down a man in front of crowds of people for the flimsiest of reasons and then killing a man after meeting him at Capone's Four Deuces, which dragged Capone into a murder investigation needlessly. There was a growing sense of realization that something was going to have to be done about Dion O'Banion's irresponsible and childishly impulsive behavior.

Dion O'Banion (UPI)

The worst problem was the antagonism between two Torrio-Capone allies --Dion and the Genna brothers, who were close friends of Torrio. The dispute arose when the Gennas started selling cheap rotgut booze to O'Banion's customers. While it didn't really hurt O'Banion's vast beer income, it was the principle that mattered to Dion. Then Dion hijacked a truckload of the Genna's liquor and Torrio wondered how he was going to keep the peace this time.

O'Banion offered Torrio an out. Dion offered to retire to Colorado if Torrio bought out his interest in the Sieben Brewery. Knowing full well that there was going to be a raid, O'Banion arranged to close the deal with Torrio at the brewery. Not only did Torrio end up in jail, but O'Banion refused to return the money for a now padlocked brewery. Even worse, he bragged about how he had tricked Torrio. His fate was sealed.

Angelo Genna (Goddard)

Mike Merlo, the head of the Unione Sicilana in Chicago, a group that provided national cover to gangsters of that era, died of cancer. A huge funeral was planned in which Dion, florist to the gangs, naturally had a large role. Frankie Yale, head of the powerful New York branch, agreed with Torrio and Capone that Angelo Genna, who Dion had just humiliated over a gambling IOU, would take over the Chicago branch.

2 days after Merlo's death on November 10, 1924, Dion was in his flower shop fixing flowers for the Merlo funeral when 3 gangsters came into the shop. Dion's employee left the men alone to their business. O'Banion had expected the visit to pick up a wreath. He greeted the men and prepared to shake hands. One of the men pulled O'Banion's arm and knocked him off balance.

Dion's flower shop (Chicago Tribune)

Dion's employee heard six gun shots and ran to help his boss who was lying on the floor in a pool of blood. The three men had vanished. It seems certain that two of the men were the vicious Silician assassins John Scalise and Albert Anselmi. There is some confusion as to whether the third man was Frankie Yale, who was in town for Merlo's funeral, or Mike Genna. None of the likely murderers ever came to trial.

Dion's funeral was stupendous. The Chicago Tribune loved every gaudy detail of it: "At the corners of the casket are solid silver posts, carved in wonderful designs. Modest is the dignified silver gray of the casket, content with the austere glory of the carved silver post at its corners....Silver angels stood at the head and feet with their heads bowed in the light of the ten candles that burned in the solid golden candlesticks they held in their hands...And over it all the perfume of flowers.

Mike Genna (Goddard)

But vying with that perfume was the fragrance of the perfumed women, wrapped in furs from ears to ankles, who tiptoed down the aisle, escorted by soft stepping, tailored gentlemen with black, shining pompadours."

Some 10,000 people fell in before and after the funeral cortege, while another 5,000 people waited at the cemetery. Twenty-six cars and trucks carried the funeral flowers, three bands and the police escort.

Dion's funeral was a celebration for Torrio and Capone because they took over Dion's excellent bootlegging territory and they had finally rid themselves of a dangerously unpredictable colleague. What they didn't appreciate at the time was the aftermath of Dion's death and what it meant to them personally. While the police scratched their heads over who killed O'Banion, Dion's friend "Hymie" Weiss knew exactly who was responsible and he vowed revenge.

Dion's lavish funeral (Anthony Berardi)

From that moment on, Capone and Torrio looked over their shoulders constantly for "Hymie" Weiss and his another Dion associate, Bugs Moran. "Hymie" Weiss's real name was Earl Wajciechowski, which he shortened to Weiss. The nickname "Hymie" stuck somehow and everyone assumed he was a Jewish gangster, when he was in fact a very devout Catholic. George Moran was a violent and unstable man who got the nickname "Bugs" because everyone thought he was nuts or "buggy".

Torrio was so concerned for his life that he decided to leave Chicago for awhile and went to Hot Springs, Arkansas. Capone was just as worried and took every possible security measure. Still, over the next 2 years, the former colleagues of Dion O'Banion would make a dozen attempts to assassinate Capone.

Hymie Weiss (Goddard)

Bergreen details the profound effect that the threats had on the way Capone did his business. "Although he himself was unarmed as a mark of his status, he never went anywhere without at least two bodyguards, one on either side. With the exception of his home on South Prairie Avenue, he was never alone. He traveled only by car, sandwiched between bodyguards, with a trusted, armed chauffeur named Sylvester Barton...he preferred to travel under cover of night, risking travel by day only when absolutely necessary."

In January of 1925, twelve days after the Weiss-Moran gang tried to assassinate Capone, Johnny Torrio came back to Chicago. He and his wife Ann were just returned from a shopping trip and got out of their car to walk to the door of their apartment building.

Bugs Moran (Chic Sun-Times)

Torrio walked behind her carrying packages. Weiss and Bugs Moran jumped out of a car and, thinking that Torrio was still in his automobile, fired wildly, wounding the chauffeur. When they finally saw Torrio, they shot him in the chest and neck, then his right arm and his groin. Moran held a gun to Torrio's temple and pulled the trigger, but the firing chamber was empty and poor Johnny Torrio, the peacemaker, heard only a faint click.

At the hospital, Capone took over while surgeons removed the bullets in Torrio's raw body. The hospital was a dangerous place for a gangster. The security was rotten. So Capone arranged for Torrio's security on his own, which included Al sleeping in his room on a cot making sure that his beloved mentor was safe.

Four weeks later, Torrio shocked everyone by appearing in court to face the charges on the Sieben Brewery raid. The frail, shaken man pleaded guilty and was given a sentence of nine months. Things could have been much worse. He became close friends with the sheriff, who made sure that there were no more assassination attempts while he was in jail, and was treated like a privileged gentleman.

But things would never be the same for Torrio. He wanted out of this life of violence. He wanted to retire and live quietly on his substantial earnings. He called Al to the jail in Waukegan in March of 1925 and told him that he was retiring from the Chicago rackets and going to live abroad. Torrio was turning over his vast assets to Al and the rest of the Capone brothers. It was an amazing legacy: nightclubs, whorehouses, gambling joints, breweries and speakeasies. Capone's power increased immensely.

Torrio after murder attempt (A. Berardi)