Al Capone's Beer Wars

A Complete History of Organized Crime in Chicago During Prohibition

Prometheus Books

Contents

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

— John Adams

Since the 1920s much has been written about gangland in Chicago during Prohibition. In fact so much has appeared in print that the reader can be forgiven if he or she believes that it has all been done already. However, a careful examination of the literature shows that a complete history of the subject has yet to be written.

The recent histories of the Chicago Outfit had little to say about Prohibition. For example, Gus Russo devotes just forty-six pages to the almost one hundred years from 1837 to 1932. Similarly, in terms of bootlegging, Robert Lombardo covers the Prohibition Era in roughly twenty pages. Neither volume contains any major, new research on the bootleggers and their era.

Broader books on Chicago's underworld are also incomplete accounts of the Dry Era. John Landesco's highly commendable study, which is the first academic research done on organized crime (in Chicago or anywhere else), only extends to the middle of 1928. This is probably because he was under extreme time pressure to complete his work for publication in 1929 as part of the Illinois Crime Survey. In the process, Landesco discusses most of organized crime in Chicago from 1905 to 1928, although he does not mention narcotics trafficking, labor racketeering (outside of its use of bombing as a tool), or policy gambling. He also tends to survey a variety of specific events, as opposed to chronicling the broader evolution of each racket.

Other works that appeared before the repeal of Prohibition focus on the most sensational, and therefore the most violent, incidents during the Dry Era in Chicago. These include the drive-by shooting at the Hawthorne Hotel in Cicero, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, and the murders of Dean O'Banion, Earl "Hymie" Weiss, the Genna brothers, William McSwiggin, "Diamond Joe" Esposito, and Jake Lingle. The famous booklet X Marks the Spot by Hal Andrews is also incident-driven, although it provides a somewhat broader look at the world of bootlegging.

Herbert Asbury and Virgil Peterson cover the history of organized crime in Chicago beginning in the 1800s. However, each volume devotes only about sixty pages to the Prohibition Era — in fact, Asbury barely mentions 1931 — and the focus is heavily on the Capone gang and, once again, on the most interesting violence. Although Kenneth Allsop's work is entirely devoted to Chicago's bootleggers; on that subject his book does not go beyond 1930. These authors also retell the Dry Era stories that receive so much attention from earlier writers without bringing anything new to the table.

The Capone biographies, not surprisingly, deal largely with Alphonse Capone and his gang. In terms of the gang wars, they are primarily interested in Capone's mob, its allies, and its most important enemies, and they go little beyond the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. These books are also rooted in the tradition of telling the story primarily by recounting the most interesting murders. Mars Eghigian's masterful biography of Capone's successor Francesco Nitto (aka Frank Nitti) contains much information on organized crime during the time period in question. Yet the focus on its intended subject, Frank Nitti, does not allow it to cover all aspects of Chicago's underworld.

The emphasis on major gang killings and attempted murders, which runs through most of the literature on the underworld in Chicago and elsewhere, regardless of the era, is likely because these events are fascinating in their own right. Admittedly they often contribute to the larger view because the deaths of gang leaders frequently affected the outcomes in gang wars in major ways, although the murders of reporters and politicians played no part in that. But this focus shifts attention away from the important issues of how the various gangs during Prohibition arose, expanded and contracted, and sometimes fell. It also misrepresents the violence in various ways. For example, many of the most famous events are spectacular because the Thompson submachine gun was used in them, giving the impression that this weapon was far and away the most common tool in the gangland arsenal. However, a careful examination of gangland killings indicates that it was, in fact, used quite infrequently during the Dry Era — even in Chicago where it was introduced into the underworld. And this emphasis on violence shifts attention away from what the gangs were really doing — running illegal businesses to enrich the members.

In sum, in what has been written to date many of the major bootlegging gangs are barely discussed or are not mentioned at all, and parts of the gang wars receive little or no attention. Also, there is no accurate map showing the areas controlled by the bootlegging mobs in Chicago at a given point in time much less multiple maps that illustrate changes in the landscape over time. Therefore, there is no full history of Prohibition Era organized crime in and around Chicago. Similarly, the story of how the Torrio-Capone gang, which was one of a dozen bootlegging mobs in Chicago at the start of the time period, with an often minor presence in other rackets, came to control virtually all of the city's underworld in 1934 has not yet been told.

Furthermore, there has not been a full treatment of the evolution of prostitution, gambling, labor racketeering, business racketeering, and narcotics trafficking — what organized crime consisted of before Prohibition and what it returned to afterward. There has not even been a complete discussion of the business aspects of bootlegging in the books to date. Frankly, the essence of organized crime in the Dry Era is missing in much of what has been written.

This book hopes to remedy the situation by providing a complete history of Chicago's underworld during Prohibition. It covers not only the bootlegging and the fighting between the bootlegging gangs, but also the other important rackets that existed before and during the Dry Era. To that end, it begins with a discussion of organized crime before 1920 and examines the evolution of those activities over time. In terms of the bootlegging gangs and the gang wars, while it covers the details as necessary it concentrates more heavily on the broader picture. It also examines the effects of law enforcement and politics on the underworld, especially how the authorities and various citizens' groups fought organized crime, a topic that has not received the attention it deserves. In the process this book refutes a number of myths and misconceptions about the gangs, the gang wars, and the rackets in Chicago.

I have used a variety of resources to tell the story. First and foremost are the major Chicago newspapers, which even at this late date have still not been fully examined. The crime reporters in Chicago were experts in their field and were generally very well informed about what was going on in the underworld — partly because some of them had one foot in that world. They also had important contacts in the upperworld, especially with the police. Various inaccuracies that have arisen over the years can often be corrected based on newspaper articles alone.

There are also a number of official records that are important in this history, such as material in the files of the Chicago Crime Commission (CCC), Chicago Police Department (CPD) crime statistics, reports, and ballistic tests done in conjunction with the department, as well as investigations into prostitution and gambling conducted by private agencies such as the Juvenile Protective Association (JPA) and the Committee of Fifteen. A variety of genealogical records, including birth and death certificates, have also been examined to better understand who the criminals, and the victims, really were.

Finally, over the years I have been contacted by scores of relatives of Chicago organized crime figures. Usually they were seeking information about the careers of their gangster kin, because when they were growing up not a single word was said about it in their home. However, in several cases they and other informed individuals had interesting details, and more, which they were willing to share. I have used that material when it was credible, either because it was well documented or it was supported by other facts.