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Book The North Side Gang  The History and Legacy of the Organized Crime Mob That Fought Al Capone for Control of Chicago

Download or read book The North Side Gang The History and Legacy of the Organized Crime Mob That Fought Al Capone for Control of Chicago written by Charles River Editors and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-03-20 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading "I hope, when my time comes, that I die decently in bed. I don't want to be murdered beside the garbage cans in some Chicago alley." - Bugs Moran 20th century Chicago was an ideal breeding ground for organized crime. A buzzing circuit board dotted with towering skyscrapers, brick buildings, worker's cottages, and an eclectic collection of greystone manors, the Windy City was further decked out with electric entertainment districts, the theaters, clubs, brothels, restaurants, and niteries that lined its streets. The city was illuminated by dazzling marquees and light-up signage, and enlivened by the muffled medley of midnight chatter and big band music seeping out of the nightspots. Those who ambled along the boardwalks flanking the Chicago River were greeted by moored commercial fishing boats bobbing in the water, as well as bustling stalls stocked with trout, salmon, and rainbow smelt. The rise of Chicago's gangland can be attributed to a number of factors. First, there was the sudden explosion in its population, which saw an influx of immigrants - mainly from eastern and southern Europe, as well as Americans from neighboring and faraway states - teem into the city in search of promising job opportunities and a better life. The abrupt inundation of permanent citizens rendered the already suffering policeman to civilian ratio out of kilter, and the authorities' control of the city became further unzipped. Moreover, children and impressionable youths were regularly exposed to the overwhelming and unblushing presence of organized crime, meaning that the transitions of petty thieves and minor-league thugs to career crooks and full-time gangsters were only natural segues. The privileged pursued politics, medicine, law, and other respectable professions, but the poor folks, set several steps back by their limited resources, turned to crime. Plenty were desperate to feed their families and cheat the unjust system. In the midst of it all, the Chicago Outfit, one of the longest-running criminal organizations in the land of the free, was perhaps the most notorious of them all. The baleful brotherhood bore a terrifying brand defined by cutthroat competitiveness, sadistic torture tactics, and excessive bloodshed, among scores of other despicable acts. On February 14, 1929, members of the North Side Gang arrived at a warehouse on North Clark Street in Chicago, only to be approached by several police officers. The officers then marched them outside up against a wall, pulled out submachine guns and shotguns, and gunned them all down on the spot. A famous legend is that one of the shot men, Frank Gusenberg, dying from 14 gunshot wounds, told police that nobody shot him. Though Gusenberg's statement is probably apocryphal, nobody opened their mouths. Nobody was ever convicted for the "Saint Valentine's Day Massacre," the most infamous gangland hit in American history, but it's an open secret that it was the work of America's most famous gangster, Al Capone. While the North Side Gang is not as infamous as Capone's mob, the fact that the North Siders were the targets indicate just how powerful Capone's rivals were. Indeed, members like Bugs Moran would carry on a rivalry with Capone that lasted upwards of a decade. The North Side Gang: The History and Legacy of the Organized Crime Mob that Fought Al Capone for Control of Chicago profiles how the group rose in the criminal underworld, and all the controversies that ensued. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the North Side Gang like never before.

Book The Chicago Outfit  The History and Legacy of the Organized Crime Syndicate Led by Al Capone

Download or read book The Chicago Outfit The History and Legacy of the Organized Crime Syndicate Led by Al Capone written by Charles River Editors and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-03-07 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading "This American system of ours ... call it Americanism, call it capitalism, call it what you like, gives to each and every one of us a great opportunity if we only seize it with both hands and make the most of it." - Al Capone Sprightly swing music spills across the dimly lit club. The grayish curtains of cigarette smoke part every once in a while to reveal a sparkling stage and tables upon tables of patrons, some incurably inebriated and others high on the fast-paced nightlife. Fabulous flappers in shimmery cocktail dresses and stylish feather headbands throw their hands up and stomp their feet to the addictive beat on the dance floor. Smartly dressed men, their hair neatly parted and slicked back, toss fistfuls of dice onto the plush green baize of the craps tables. Some hover over roulette wheels, staring intently at the spinning flashes of silver, while others finger their playing cards as they sip on tumblers of whiskey, eyeing both the river and the tower of tokens next to them. Frisky tunes, chic fashion, and American gambling are nostalgic, rose-tinted images most choose to project when visualizing the Roaring Twenties, but the other side of the coin brought an uninviting, much harsher reality that most would prefer to sweep under the rug. The first real estate bubble was on the brink of bursting, and progress was evident, but painfully slow, which gave way to yet another era of violent riots, lynchings, and other forms of oppression imposed on minorities. Then, of course, there were mobsters. Remove the silk three-piece suits, burnished Tommy guns, and obscene stacks of cash from the equation, and one would be left with limp, bullet-ridden bodies either slumped over their steering wheels or sprawled out like broken rag dolls on the floors of public establishments, the walls painted with blood spatters and shattered glass littered about. These, they say, are the lucky ones, for their corpses, though laid out as a public message, provide the deceased's loved ones with some form of closure. Over the decades, dozens involved in this deadly game disappeared altogether, never again to see the light of day. In the midst of it all, the Chicago Outfit, one of the longest-running criminal organizations in the land of the free, was perhaps the most notorious of them all. The baleful brotherhood bore a terrifying brand defined by cutthroat competitiveness, sadistic torture tactics, and excessive bloodshed, among scores of other despicable acts. Worse yet, they seemed to be untouchable. Aside from Scarface himself, there was the vindictive and eerily competent Louis "Little New York" Campagna, a vicious assassin suspected of unloading 59 bullets into a traitorous associate. Then there was Anthony "the Ant" Spilotro, the inspiration for Nicky Santoro, Joe Pesci's character in Martin Scorsese's Casino, who, despite his petite stature, was a barbaric, cruel man with an explosive temper and no capacity for remorse. Needless to say, the Chicago Outfit was, at its height, a formidable force to be reckoned with, one that authorities and rival gangs alike wisely steered clear of. But as the old adage goes, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and like a house of cards, its carefully structured hierarchy and the complexity of its operations were most impressive, but one loosely positioned card was all it took to trigger its collapse. Time and time again, Outfit leaders and their minions bent over backwards in a way only contortionists could be proud of to plug the holes rapidly sprouting up, but ultimately it wouldn't be enough. The Chicago Outfit: The History and Legacy of the Organized Crime Syndicate Led by Al Capone profiles how the group rose in the criminal underworld, and all the controversies that ensued.

Book American Gangsters

    Book Details:
  • Author : Charles River Charles River Editors
  • Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
  • Release : 2017-01-11
  • ISBN : 9781542465342
  • Pages : 52 pages

Download or read book American Gangsters written by Charles River Charles River Editors and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-01-11 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Explains the legends and separates fact from fiction regarding Capone's most famous hits, including the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. *Includes pictures of Capone and important people, places, and events in his life. On February 14, 1929, members of Bugs Moran's North Side gang arrived at a warehouse on North Clark Street in Chicago, only to be approached by several police officers. The officers then marched them outside up against a wall, pulled out submachine guns and shotguns, and gunned them all down on the spot. A famous legend is that one of the shot men, Frank Gusenberg, dying from 14 gunshot wounds, told police that nobody shot him. Though Gusenberg's statement is probably apocryphal, nobody opened their mouths. Nobody was ever convicted for the "Saint Valentine's Day Massacre," the most famous gangland hit in American history, but it's an open secret that it was the work of America's most famous gangster, Al Capone. Indeed, "Scarface" has captured the nation's popular imagination since Prohibition, managing to be the most notorious gangster in America while living a very visible and high profile life in Chicago. Born a Brooklyn tough, Capone engaged in a life of crime even as a teenager and had come to Chicago as a young man to smuggle liquor during Prohibition. Allying himself with Johnny Torrio, Capone began to accumulate power almost as quickly as he accumulated a reputation for being merciless, and after an attempted hit severely injured Torrio, the gang's operations were turned over to Capone. Despite his organized crime spree during the '20s, Capone was a popular figure in Chicago, viewed by many as a Robin Hood because he took pains to make charitable donations to the city. At the same time, he bribed government officials and cops, ensuring they looked the other way despite his violent ways of doing business. Throughout the decade, Capone was often out in public, despite several attempts on his life, and the gang war between Al Capone and Bugs Moran was well known and even celebrated to an extent. In the end, it wasn't the bodies or the violence that landed Capone in the slammer; it was taxes. After being convicted, Capone managed to continue running his business rackets from behind bars, forcing authorities to move America's most notorious gangster to America's most notorious prison on Alcatraz Island. Capone and Alcatraz only added to each other's lore. Capone died in 1947, but his life and legacy continue to be the stuff of legends. Even to this day, Chicago's gangster past is viewed as part of the city's lore, and tours of the most famous spots in Chicago's gang history are available across the city. American Gansters: The Life and Legacy of Al Capone looks at the life and crime of Scarface, and the manner in which he has become and remain a staple of American pop culture. Along with pictures of Capone and important people, places, and events in his life, you will learn about America's most infamous gangster like you never have before, in no time at all.

Book American Gangsters

Download or read book American Gangsters written by Charles River Editors and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2013-10 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Explains the legends and separates fact from fiction regarding Capone's most famous hits, including the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. *Includes pictures of Capone and important people, places, and events in his life. On February 14, 1929, members of Bugs Moran's North Side gang arrived at a warehouse on North Clark Street in Chicago, only to be approached by several police officers. The officers then marched them outside up against a wall, pulled out submachine guns and shotguns, and gunned them all down on the spot. A famous legend is that one of the shot men, Frank Gusenberg, dying from 14 gunshot wounds, told police that nobody shot him. Though Gusenberg's statement is probably apocryphal, nobody opened their mouths. Nobody was ever convicted for the "Saint Valentine's Day Massacre," the most famous gangland hit in American history, but it's an open secret that it was the work of America's most famous gangster, Al Capone. Indeed, "Scarface" has captured the nation's popular imagination since Prohibition, managing to be the most notorious gangster in America while living a very visible and high profile life in Chicago. Born a Brooklyn tough, Capone engaged in a life of crime even as a teenager and had come to Chicago as a young man to smuggle liquor during Prohibition. Allying himself with Johnny Torrio, Capone began to accumulate power almost as quickly as he accumulated a reputation for being merciless, and after an attempted hit severely injured Torrio, the gang's operations were turned over to Capone. Despite his organized crime spree during the '20s, Capone was a popular figure in Chicago, viewed by many as a Robin Hood because he took pains to make charitable donations to the city. At the same time, he bribed government officials and cops, ensuring they looked the other way despite his violent ways of doing business. Throughout the decade, Capone was often out in public, despite several attempts on his life, and the gang war between Al Capone and Bugs Moran was well known and even celebrated to an extent. In the end, it wasn't the bodies or the violence that landed Capone in the slammer; it was taxes. After being convicted, Capone managed to continue running his business rackets from behind bars, forcing authorities to move America's most notorious gangster to America's most notorious prison on Alcatraz Island. Capone and Alcatraz only added to each other's lore. Capone died in 1947, but his life and legacy continue to be the stuff of legends. Even to this day, Chicago's gangster past is viewed as part of the city's lore, and tours of the most famous spots in Chicago's gang history are available across the city. American Gansters: The Life and Legacy of Al Capone looks at the life and crime of Scarface, and the manner in which he has become and remain a staple of American pop culture. Along with pictures of Capone and important people, places, and events in his life, you will learn about America's most infamous gangster like you never have before, in no time at all.

Book The Chicago Outfit and the North Side Gang  The History and Legacy of Chicago s Most Notorious Rival Mobs

Download or read book The Chicago Outfit and the North Side Gang The History and Legacy of Chicago s Most Notorious Rival Mobs written by Charles River Editors and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-03-28 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading 20th century Chicago was an ideal breeding ground for organized crime. A buzzing circuit board dotted with towering skyscrapers, brick buildings, worker's cottages, and an eclectic collection of greystone manors, the Windy City was further decked out with electric entertainment districts, the theaters, clubs, brothels, restaurants, and niteries that lined its streets. The city was illuminated by dazzling marquees and light-up signage, and enlivened by the muffled medley of midnight chatter and big band music seeping out of the nightspots. Those who ambled along the boardwalks flanking the Chicago River were greeted by moored commercial fishing boats bobbing in the water, as well as bustling stalls stocked with trout, salmon, and rainbow smelt. The rise of Chicago's gangland can be attributed to a number of factors. First, there was the sudden explosion in its population, which saw an influx of immigrants - mainly from eastern and southern Europe, as well as Americans from neighboring and faraway states - teem into the city in search of promising job opportunities and a better life. The abrupt inundation of permanent citizens rendered the already suffering policeman to civilian ratio out of kilter, and the authorities' control of the city became further unzipped. Moreover, children and impressionable youths were regularly exposed to the overwhelming and unblushing presence of organized crime, meaning that the transitions of petty thieves and minor-league thugs to career crooks and full-time gangsters were only natural segues. The privileged pursued politics, medicine, law, and other respectable professions, but the poor folks, set several steps back by their limited resources, turned to crime. Plenty were desperate to feed their families and cheat the unjust system. In the midst of it all, the Chicago Outfit, one of the longest-running criminal organizations in the land of the free, was perhaps the most notorious of them all. The baleful brotherhood bore a terrifying brand defined by cutthroat competitiveness, sadistic torture tactics, and excessive bloodshed, among scores of other despicable acts. Worse yet, they seemed to be untouchable. Aside from Al Capone himself, there was the vindictive and eerily competent Louis "Little New York" Campagna, a vicious assassin suspected of unloading 59 bullets into a traitorous associate. Then there was Anthony "the Ant" Spilotro, the inspiration for Nicky Santoro, Joe Pesci's character in Martin Scorsese's Casino, who, despite his petite stature, was a barbaric, cruel man with an explosive temper and no capacity for remorse. On top of the infamous M&M Murders, a 25-year-old Spilotro was implicated in the murder of real-estate broker and loan shark Leo Foreman. As if the excruciating blows to the head, ribs, knees, and groin via hammer weren't enough, Foreman was stabbed another 20 times with an ice pick before he was finally relieved of his misery with a bullet to the head. When Foreman's body was eventually recovered in the trunk of a deserted car, it was discovered that "chunks of his body" had been sliced off while he was still breathing. While the North Side Gang is not as infamous as Capone's mob, the fact that the North Siders were the targets indicate just how powerful Capone's rivals were. Indeed, members like Bugs Moran would carry on a rivalry with Capone that lasted upwards of a decade. In the end, the rivalry would hasten the downfall of both men. The Chicago Outfit and the North Side Gang: The History and Legacy of Chicago's Most Notorious Rival Mobs profiles how the groups came up in the criminal underworld, and all the controversies that ensued as a result of their rivalry. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Chicago Outfit and North Side Gang like never before.

Book Al Capone s Beer Wars

Download or read book Al Capone s Beer Wars written by John J. Binder and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2017 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Based on 25 years of research using all available sources, this is the definitive history of organized crime in Chicago through the end of the Prohibition Era"--

Book Guns and Roses

Download or read book Guns and Roses written by Rose Keefe and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2003-09-01 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on information compiled from police and court documents, contemporary news accounts, and interviews with O'Banion's friends and associates, Guns and Roses traces O'Banion's rise from Illinois farm boy to the most powerful gang boss ...

Book American Mafia  Chicago

    Book Details:
  • Author : William Griffith
  • Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
  • Release : 2013-10-01
  • ISBN : 1493006045
  • Pages : 235 pages

Download or read book American Mafia Chicago written by William Griffith and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2013-10-01 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyone knows stories about the American Mafia and its varied forms of crime, from racketeering to stock manipulation to murder. American Mafia: Chicago explores the Windy City, strolling through its neighborhoods and imagining scenes from the past—telling the stories of the men, women, and families and revealing the events behind the legends and the history of the families' beginnings and founding members. Featuring the most fascinating stories from the early days, when loosely-organized, incredibly secretive gangs terrorized neighborhoods with names like Little Hell, through the mob’s headiest years, when Al Capone and his men pretty well controlled the city, American Mafia: Chicago offers tantalizing glimpses into the era when Chicago was ruled by gangs with their ever-twisting allegiances and tangled webs of relationships. Most of the buildings are gone now. But the stories are still there, if you know where to look.

Book Al Capone and the 1933 World s Fair

Download or read book Al Capone and the 1933 World s Fair written by William Elliott Hazelgrove and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2017-09-15 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Al Capone and the 1933 World’s Fair: The End of the Gangster Era in Chicago is a historical look at Chicago during the darkest days of the Great Depression. The story of Chicago fighting the hold that organized crime had on the city to be able to put on The 1933 World's Fair. William Hazelgrove provides the exciting and sprawling history behind the 1933 World's Fair, the last of the golden age. He reveals the story of the six millionaire businessmen, dubbed The Secret Six, who beat Al Capone at his own game, ending the gangster era as prohibition was repealed. The story of an intriguing woman, Sally Rand, who embodied the World's Fair with her own rags to riches story and brought sex into the open. The story of Rufus and Charles Dawes who gave the fair a theme and then found financing in the worst economic times the country had ever experienced. The story of the most corrupt mayor of Chicago, William Thompson, who owed his election to Al Capone; and the mayor who followed him, Anton Cermak, who was murdered months before the fair opened by an assassin many said was hired by Al Capone. But most of all it’s the story about a city fighting for survival in the darkest of times; and a shining light of hope called A Century of Progress.

Book The Story of Al Capone

Download or read book The Story of Al Capone written by J.D. Rockefeller and published by J.D. Rockefeller. This book was released on 2016-11-27 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Coming from an Italian immigrant family, Alphonse Gabriel Capone definitely became famous, but for all the wrong reasons. Popularly known as Scarface, Al Capone went on to become famous (or infamous) as the leader of the Chicago Outfit, during the Prohibition era. Before he became the king of the crime scene, he was a Five Points Gang member who then later went on to become a bouncer. From there on, he became the bodyguard of Johnny Torrio, the head of a crime syndicate dealing in illegal alcohol. A conflict with the North Side Gang, which led Torrio to be almost killed, forced him to retire and hand over control to Capone. As his business expanded, his crimes and killings increased, forcing the federal authorities to prosecute him for tax evasion so that his reign on crime could be ended. The prosecution resulted in 11 years of prison for Capone. But how did Capone actually begin his life of crime? What was his childhood like? How did he become such a pain for the authorities? How did his life end? Let’s find out in this book.

Book Remembering Chicago

    Book Details:
  • Author :
  • Publisher : Turner Publishing Company
  • Release : 2010-05-31
  • ISBN : 1618582925
  • Pages : 459 pages

Download or read book Remembering Chicago written by and published by Turner Publishing Company. This book was released on 2010-05-31 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With a selection of fine historic images from his best-selling book Historic Photos of Chicago Crime: The Capone Era, John Russick provides a valuable and revealing historical retrospective on Chicago’s gangster era. Perhaps no city has a more fabled past than Chicago, home of legendary Al Capone. But that fabled past is often portrayed separate from the surrounding web of social realities, without which no event, no period in time can be understood. Remembering Chicago: Crime in the Capone Era addresses this problem by opening with a compelling look at Chicago’s cityscape to include a broad range of cultural phenomena—from suffrage to jazz—essential to the contextualization of crime in the 1920s and 1930s. The history then proceeds as its title suggests—to a riveting overview of crime in Chicago, chock-full of images documenting notorious gangsters and gruesome gangland wars. Al Capone, John Torrio, Earl "Hymie” Weiss, George "Bugs” Moran, and a host of others are all here. Complete with insightful captions by historian John Russick, these photos offer a unique view into Chicago and its nefarious past.

Book After Capone

Download or read book After Capone written by Mars Eghigian and published by Cumberland House Publishing. This book was released on 2006 with total page 572 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Known as "the Enforcer" in the Capone Gang, Nitti has been glamorized in movies. This book gives a warts-and-all portrayal of the gangster.

Book Frank Nitti

Download or read book Frank Nitti written by Ronald Humble and published by Barricade Books, Inc.. This book was released on 2007 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frank |The Enforcer| Nitti, arguably the most glamorised gangster in history, was an infamous Chicago wiseguy who eventually rose to command Chicago's premier underworld organisation, the Outfit. Although he has been widely mentioned in fictional works, this is the first book to document Nitti's real-life criminal career. Author Ronald Humble chronicles his beginnings in New York's Navy Street Boys, his rise to Al Capone's second-in-command and his eventual leadership of the Outfit.

Book The Man who Got Away

Download or read book The Man who Got Away written by Rose Keefe and published by Cumberland House Publishing. This book was released on 2005 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the life of George "Bugs" Moran, the last of Chicago's North Side gang leaders, discussing his childhood in Minnesota, his early years as a horse thief, his rise and fall in Chicago's Prohibition-era underworld, his life as an outlaw in the 1930s and 1940s, and other related topics.

Book The Insane Chicago Way

Download or read book The Insane Chicago Way written by John M. Hagedorn and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2015-08-19 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “His account of relationships between street gangs of this period and Chicago’s Outfit, the legacy of Al Capone and others, is especially important.” —James F. Short, author of Poverty, Ethnicity, and Violent Crime In The Insane Chicago Way, John M. Hagedorn’s lively stories of extensive cross-neighborhood gang organization, tales of police/gang corruption, and discovery of covert gang connections to Chicago’s Mafia challenge conventional wisdom and offer lessons for the control of violence today. The book centers on the secret history of Spanish Growth & Development (SGD)—an organization of Latino gangs founded in 1989 and modeled on the Mafia’s nationwide Commission. It also tells a story within a story of the criminal exploits of the C-Note$, the “minor league” team of the Chicago’s Mafia (called the “Outfit”), which influenced the direction of SGD. Hagedorn’s tale is based on three years of interviews with an Outfit soldier as well as access to SGD’s constitution and other secret documents, which he supplements with interviews of key SGD leaders, court records, and newspaper accounts. The result is a stunning, heretofore unknown history of the grand ambitions of Chicago gang leaders that ultimately led to SGD’s shocking collapse in a pool of blood on the steps of a gang-organized peace conference. The Insane Chicago Way is a compelling history of the lives and deaths of Chicago gang leaders. At the same time it is a sociological tour de force that warns of the dangers of organized crime while arguing that today’s relative disorganization of gangs presents opportunities for intervention and reductions in violence. “An intricate tale of violence, mafia influence, and police corruption.” —Chicago Reader

Book Al Capone

Download or read book Al Capone written by Deirdre Bair and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2017-10-31 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the height of Prohibition, Al Capone loomed large as Public Enemy Number One: his multimillion-dollar Chicago Outfit dominated organized crime, and law enforcement was powerless to stop him. But then came the fall: a legal noose tightened by the FBI, a conviction on tax evasion, a stint in Alcatraz. After his release, he returned to his family in Miami a much diminished man, living quietly until the ravages of his neurosyphilis took their final toll. Our shared fascination with Capone endures in countless novels and movies, but the man behind the legend has remained a mystery. Now, through rigorous research and exclusive access to Capone’s family, National Book Award–winning biographer Deirdre Bair cuts through the mythology, uncovering a complex character who was flawed and cruel but also capable of nobility. At once intimate and iconoclastic, Al Capone gives us the definitive account of a quintessentially American figure.

Book Chicago Assassin

Download or read book Chicago Assassin written by Richard Shmelter and published by Cumberland House Publishing. This book was released on 2008 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The city of Chicago led the nation when it came to gangland violence during the Prohibition era. As a result, many infamous, unforgettable personalities became a part of America's criminal history. Chicago Assassin is the story of "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn, one of the people responsible for putting much of the roar into the Roaring Twenties. His family immigrated to Chicago from Sicily in 1906, as he grew up in the city's slums and later took up boxing as "Battling" Jack McGurn. After avenging his father's death by killing the three hit men responsible, he came to the attention of Al Capone, who invited him into his organization, known as the Chicago Outfit. There he rose to power and was one of the most feared members Capone's organizations, with more than twenty-five known kills for the mob. "Battling" Jack McGurn became so adept with the Thompson submachine gun that he quickly became known as "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn.