Billy Winslow (1895-1920) was a New Jersey resident who was hired by Jimmy Darmody and Al Capone to help them in ambushing a convoy near Hammonton, Atlantic County on 7 January 1920.
Biography[]
Winslow after being shot
Billy Winslow was born in Hammonton, New Jersey in 1895. In January 1920, he was hired by Jimmy Darmody and Al Capone to take part in an ambush of one of Arnold Rothstein's deliveries as it headed from Atlantic City to New York City, intercepting the convoy at Hammonton. Winslow's car was overturned, and he played dead on the road. When the convoy stopped to investigate, Darmody and Capone ambushed the drivers, shooting them after Capone was startled by some deer in the woods. Darmody, Capone, and Winslow escaped, but Winslow was later arrested by the Bureau of Prohibition for his role in the massacre. Winslow testified about Darmody's involvement, and he was sentenced to hard labor at the East Jersey State Prison in Rahway. However, the corrupt agent Eric Sebso proposed taking Winslow to New York so that Enoch Thompson, Darmody's boss, could not prevent Winslow from testifying. Sebso himself would do Thompson's work, pulling the car over outside of the city. Sebso let Winslow out of the car, and Sebso relieved himself before telling Winslow that he should not have "lunged at him", shooting the confused Winslow in the head. Sebso claimed that Winslow had attacked him, justifying his death as "self-defense", when he was really hired by Thompson to do the job.