Patrick O'Donnell (died 1948) was an Irish-American crime boss who led the O'Donnell Mob in Chicago during the 1930s and 1940s. In 1948, he was assassinated after attempting to move his gang into New York City.
Biography[]
Patrick O'Donnell was born in Ireland, but he later emigrated to the United States and settled in Chicago. He worked as an enforcer for the Chicago Outfit starting in the 1910s before founding his own family, the O'Donnell Mob, in 1930. He became infamous for killing dozens of policemen, and, in 1948, he decided to move his gang to New York City. Concerned that O'Donnell would continue killing police, the corrupt NYPD sergeant Chris Ferriera hired the mafioso Aldo Trapani to assassinate O'Donnell at the Crest View Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Trapani killed several Irish mobsters on the hotel roof before tracking down O'Donnell, killing his prostitute bodyguard, and throwing O'Donnell from a balcony. O'Donnell's corpse landed on a car below, and many witnesses were bribed into telling the newspapers that O'Donnell had either been depressed or had slipped.