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Dean O'Banion

Dean O'Banion (8 July 1892 – 10 November 1924) was the boss of the North Side Gang from 1919 to 1924, preceding Hymie Weiss. O'Banion's murder by Al Capone began a series of gang wars between the North Side Gang and the Chicago Outfit that would last until the early 1930s.

Biography[]

Dean O'Banion was born on 8 July 1892 in Maroa, Illinois to a family of Irish descent, and his family moved to the crime-ridden Kilgubbin neighborhood of Chicago's North Side after his mother's death in 1901. O'Banion and his friends Vincent Drucci, Bugs Moran, and Hymie Weiss robbed goods for the city's black market, and O'Banion started a bootlegging operation in 1920. On 19 December 1921, he took part in the first liquor hijacking in Chicago, and his Irish and Polish North Side Gang took over the North Side and Gold Coast neighborhoods of Chicago. O'Banion stirred up bad blood with the Chicago Outfit when he sold alcohol on Johnny Torrio's territory without giving him a cut of the action, and he also attracted bootleggers to his turf; he refused Torrio's offer to take over some brothels, as O'Banion was an opponent of prostitution. From 1923 to 1924, O'Banion fought against the American Mafia as a result of the murder of his henchman Joe Miller by Al Capone in retaliation for Miller's attack on Jake Guzik. O'Banion and Capone developed a fierce rivalry, and O'Banion was alleged to have been responsible for bribing Chicago police to murder Capone's brother Frank Capone and for tipping them off about Torrio's presence at a liquor warehouse that had just been signed over to Torrio by O'Banion. Torrio, once hesitant about ordering O'Banion's death, gave the okay to Capone.

Death[]

O'Banion dead

O'Banion after being shot

On 10 November 1924, Frankie Yale, John Scalise, and Albert Anselmi entered O'Banion's flower shop, and Yale made conversation with O'Banion, asking him what kind of flower said "I'm sorry." O'Banion told him that chrysanthemums or roses would work, and Yale decided to shake O'Banion's hand to seal the deal for the bouquet. However, O'Banion noticed that Scalise and Anselmi had guns drawn, and he was riddled with bullets as he clutched Yale's hand in a handshake. O'Banion fell dead behind his counter, and Yale dropped a chrysanthemum on O'Banion's body. Hymie Weiss took over the gang after his death.

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