◆ SpookStack

Outstanding nietibers of Dion O’Banion’s North Side gang as they jooked in the good old days when O"Banion flashed a gat. (1) George “Bugs” Moran, present leader, (2) “Little Hymie" Weiss, killed. (3) Dapper Dan McCarthy, still up and about. (4) Loule “Three Gun” Alterle (sometimes called State and Madison Street Alterie) now living on 4 ranch in Colorsdc. of buying flowers for the funeral. As he reached to shake O’Banion’s hand, his companions whipped out revolvers and began firing at O’Banion. The porter relates that there were five shots in rapid succession, then a short pause, and a sixth shot. The sixth shot, fired into O'Banion’s head at close range after he had fallen, was extra good measure just to make sure. Crutchfield relates that he tere out into the front room at top speed, just in time to catch a glimpse of the fleeing assassins. An automobile awaited them, they jumped in, sped to Ohio Street, turned West and disappeared into the maize and blur of traffic. To this day no one has ever caught up with that car. Earlier in this book it has been related that when Al Capone came to Chicago he was accompanied by Frankie Yale, of New York. Frankie, a tough killer from the Five Points gang, frequently came to Chicago on contract kill- ings. He was adept. So proficient was he as a murderer that he did a lot of it on the side, probably just to keep in practice as he didn’t nced the money. Anyhow, if you came well recommended, you could buy Frankie’s services. All you had to do was to point out the guy you didn’t want and slip Frankie the dough. . We bring this up because a lot of the “wise” money main- tain to this day that the tall, heavy-set individual who walked up to O’Banion, hand outstretched, was Frankie Yale. Frankie was detained by the Chicago Police a few hours later as he was about to board a train bound for fie) New York. But Frankie had a good alibi. He became a part of the wall of silence against which the words of the police banged in vain. Other parts of this wall, incidentally, were Alphonse Capone and Johnny Torrio. Chief of Police Morgan Collins, explaining why no solution of the murder was forthcoming, stated that O’Banion had been responsible for at least twenty-five deaths in hia short career, and that, as a result, a great many people appreciated the fact that he had been put out of the way. Certain it is that the police, including Mr, Collins, wept not over O’Banion's bier. But other thousands did. His funeral set a high mark for those that came after. Nothing had been seen in Chicago quite like it since the final obsequies were made for “Big” Jim Colosimo, when the business of laying him away drew out so many judges and politicians that the affair took on the external aspect of a political pow-wow. O’Banion’s funeral scandalized the public. The cortege was made up of twenty-four automobiles all leaded with flowers, one hundred twenty-two funeral cars, and with private cars stretching for blocks. As it wended its way through the atreets toward the cemetery a squad of police on motor- cycles cleared a path through traffic. The grief-stricken survivors of the O’Banion gang who had been crying their eyes out for days, could hardly wait until the services were over and the $10,000 casket dropped into ita hole, in order that they might devote themselves to avengi lovable Dion’s death. Louie Alterie, quite beside himself, made a particularly hot remark and one that burned official ears. L{