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William Gates

William Gates (born 1902) was an American businessman and son of a wealthy Kentucky distillery owner during Prohibition. He helped his father sell whiskey across the Southern United States, though he eventually decided to move operations north to Chicago, Illinois, where he attempted to make an exclusivity deal with the Chicago Morello crime family. However, Don Marcu Morello realized Gates had no gang backing, punching him in the face and taking the liquor without paying.

As Gates drowned his sorrows at the Blue Tropics nightclub, Salieri crime family soldato Paulie Lombardo overheard his troubles, and offered to make a deal: the Salieris take the merchandise under the cover of a robbery, which would allow Gates to report to his father that Morello can't be trusted. This plan would be enacted on 22 September 1933 in a downtown parking garage. However, Carlo Renzetti, a mole for the Morellos, told Morello about this deal and caused a sizable force to be sent to the garage.

Gates was shot in the chest, and his goons were gunned down; however, Gates survived, and stays in the garage until the rest of his men could arrive. Bill Contoli stayed with Gates while Tommy Angelo, Sam Trapani, Renzetti and Paulie Lombardo escaped with the booze.

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