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J é MEET “Little Hymie” Weiss was proud of the havoc he had wrought to the grease-balls. More confident of his strength now than he had ever been, he devoted himself to drumming up more business, to tightening his forces and to adding more and better murderers to his gang. During this pericd he enlisted the services of the infamous Gusenbergs, Pete and Frank, who were te die a few years later in the Valentine Massacre. Frankie Foster, a dapper chap was also a new member, as was Terrible Teddy New- berry, the big bourbon boy. At the same time “Little Hymie” spent a great deai of time trying to woo Big Joe Saltis and his mob away from their loose-connection with Capone. “Little Hymie” knew such an alliance would be a mortal blow to Capone, and so he picked out the precise psychological moment in which to effect so desirable an alliance. Joe was having a tough time of it out south. Mac- Earlane was too restless to confine his activities to the South Side, and the O’Donnelis continued to make inroads into their domain. When Big Joe began turning an attentive ear to the seductive proposals of “Little Hymie” the germ of discon- tent within his gang developed into open revolt. Ralph Sheldon, tubercular but tough, favored remaining with the Big Fellow, and a complete break followed just about the time Angelo Genna was living his last days. Sheldon seceded taking with him such formidable gorillas as John “Mitters” Foley, Danny Stanton, Big Karl Bates, Hugh McGovern, William McPadden, Frank De Laurentis, John Tucceilo, Danny MeFall, Ed Lattyak, Hillary Clements, Benny Butler, Stink Bomb Donovan and others, most of whom ure now dead. Big Joe now had two tough gangs to battle besides the possibility of having the Sheldon forces augmented by killers from the Big Fellow’s staff. Frankie MacEarlane, worth a hundred ordinary gangsters, still remained loyal to his Polish chief however, although Frankie looked upon Big Joe’s association with one John “Dingbat” Oberta with marked disfavor. He didn’t mind the fact that Pollack Joe liked to read a book occasionally and went in for grammatical nice- ites and never let go by an op- portunity to correct his choice and original English. Every- time Frankie would say some- thing like “to hell with them bums, they ain't got no gute,” Joe would hasten with rebuke “Don't say‘them bums’ Frankie and don’t say ‘ain’t got no’.” Frankie could endure this, but John “Dingbat” O’Berta who wore spats and played golf and talked like a book, was too much, and Frankie was sure that “Dingbat” was a wrong guy. It may be that Saltis was attracted to “Dingbat” not so much for the reason that he was & Pole as that he could make fine political speeches at gatherings back-o-the-yards, and locked like a gentleman whether he was or not. Except for the sniffing at “Dingbat” however, affairs were fairly well ordered in Joe’s camp. The first casualty in the new shake-up along the South “Gentleman” Joe Baltis not looking for “Spike” O'Don- nell. Joe bas a well-trained smile. It does its stuff on all occaaions——even when Joe is exploding cartridges in the direction of gentiemen he doenn't oare Bo Inuch for. [26] Side beer front was George “Big Karl” Bates a Sheldon man. In addition to taking his life, the Saltis killers also helped themselves to his sizable bankroll of $2,000. The next month, August, another Sheldon “traitor” died at the hands of the Saltis’ killers. He was William “Buddy” Dickman, a close friend of Bates. Buddy's life was partieu-— larly desired. He had been cloze to Big Joe Saltis and he knew too much to live. Saltis lived in terror that Buddy would squawk, sooner or later. ‘ And s0, af you can see, affairs were going nicely with Polack Saltis and Frankie MacEarlane. For a few weeks they took things easy, except for one more unsuccessful attempt on “Spike” O’Donnell’s life. In this affray, staged in front of the O’Donnell home during the luncheon hour, the O’Dennell automobile was reduced to the outward aspect of a battered tin-can, October 4, 1925, a spectacular attack was made on the Sheldon headquarters in the Ragan Colts’ Athletic Club, a notorious spot for a quarter of a century. Hundreds of bullets were fired, but none of the Sheldon hoodlums were injured, although a hangeron Charles Kelly, was killed. A few days later indefatigable Joe added another scalp to his belt, this time it was his old employee, Ed Lattyak, a Sheldon gangster. During this pleasant pe- ried the alliance between Big Joe and “Little Hymie” was completely effected, and two of Chicago’s toughest Poles now strode, erm in arm, across the realm of Boozedom, shouting “Kosciusko here we come!” To celebrate the fact, the Saltis boys, staged a great robbery at the International Harvester Company’s offices, and so great was public indig- nation that the police, armed with search-warrants, set out in the back-o-the-yards district looking for Mr. Saltis. While they were looking Joe and “Dingbat” helped them- selves to another pot shot at “Spike” O’Donnell on October 16, Three days later they gathered in one of “Spike’s” men, Pasquale Tolizotte and took him for his last ride. A month later both gangs staged a free-for-all battle on a busy street and, for the first time, Joe came out with an O’Don- nel] bullet in one of his broad shoulders and, for almost two weeks, Joe settled down to inactivity. On December 3 matters continued and the Saltis gang murdered two more “traitors” just for practice. The life of one of the victims, “Dynamite Joe” Brooks, was rumored to have been _de- manded by the chief Saltis bomber, “Three-Finger” Pete Kunski out of professional jealousy. “Three-Finger” Pete was a rare bird and most efficient in blowing away the speakeasys of those whe did not use Saltis beer. It is sad to relate that Pete himself came to an end in keeping with his profession. He always carried a tube of nitro-glycerin in his vest pocket (although against orders) and one day while running away from an- | other fuse, he stumbled and ~ 4 fell. There was a loud explo- : sion and they couldn’t find Pete . anywhere. Finally some one ~~ y discovered a hand two fingers of which were missing. It was “Three-Finger” Pete. However, the other victim to die with “Dynamite Joe” Brooka was Edward Harmening, an inde- pendent operator who had been shining up to the Sheldons. If you think that this ia war you ain't seen nothing yet. The shecting was yet to begin in earnest, Joe and Frankie could not sleep well at night because of the fact that they knew their t hatred, John “Mitters” oley, was well and healthy. John “Mitters” however was a deft duck and he was to live for a long period before their bullets found him. In the mean- time a New Year, 1926 had ap- eared on the calendar. Over in Little Italy Samuzzo Ama- tuna, an ambitious chap, was trying to raliy the old a forces. This, together with the afting of the collectors of the Scalice and Anselmi fund, brought another flare-up,