◆ SpookStack

~& who KILLED = The scene now shifts to the West Side where “Klondike” O'Donnell and his horde of homicidal hoodlums, inspired by their elimination of Eddi Tanel, have been continuing a sporadic but ruthless warfare against the growing power of King Capone in Cicero, To the “Big Fellow” it is appar- ent that drastic action must be taken against these enemies who are now reported to be trying to rob him, not only of his liquor customers, but of his political protection, At this time police were confronted with what the news- papers called the Beauty Shop Mystery. This institution of beautification at 2208 S. Austin Ave. in Cicero was bathed in machine-gun fire on April 24, 1926, and Miss Pearl Wilson, the proprietress, could not, for the life of her, explain to the police why such a thing could have happened. The police wondered whether or not a new racket had started, say a beauty shop war, when their attention was attracted to an automobile which was parked around the corner. On tracing ita license it was learned that it had been registerd by one John Burns. This was one of the numerous aliases em- ployed by James “Fur” Sammons, and so a hunt for him was made but without success. Jt was even rumored that “Fur” had been terribly wounded in the machine-gun fire and either dead or in the hands of one of Gangiand’s physi- cians—men who treat wounded gangsters for a price and (2) Building in which was located a besuty shop which stopped machine gun bullets believed ftatended for “Far” Sammons, one of “EKlondike's” henchmen. (3) “Three-fzger’ Jack White, another “Klondike” O'Donnell ace. [27] do not notify police. If their patient dies his gang dis- poses of the body. But “Fur” could not be located and finally the police ceased to look for him and the incident of the Beauty Shop Mystery was abandoned as insolvable. During these days there were rumors that political protection in Cicero was about to shift from Capone to the ‘Donnell gang, a rumor which was worked for all it was worth by “Klondike” in his sales talks to the roadhouse owners and dive keepers. To some of them the rumor took on the aspect of truth when it was reported that William McSwiggin, ace prosecutor, in the office of State's Attorney Robert E. Crowe had been seen frequently in Cicero in company with members of the O'Donnell gang, two of whom, curiously enough, he had unsuccessfully pro- secuted for the murder of Eddie Tancl. Other old-timers in Cicero scoffed at this however and pointed to the fact that McSwiggin was merely out in Cicero having a good time, some of the O’Donnell gangsters had been his class- mates in high school. Anyway it was strange that a public official should chum around with the underworld gentry, and it certainly was embarrassing to Al Capone the Big Fellow whatever the reason for it might be. The g people of Chicago who did not know of these strange asso- ciations between hoodlums and prominent public officials, were, therefore profoundly shocked when, in the early. atreet editions, of the morning newspapers they read that William H. McSwiggin was one of three men killed by machine-gun bullets in front of the saloon of John Madigan at 5613 West Roosevelt road. The other two victims, his companions were James Doherty and John Duffy, the men he had tried for the murder of Eddie Tancl. In this murder the public saw a climax to the killings of Gangland, and the question “Who Kiiled MeSwiggin” was on the lips of every strap-hanger for weeks. Indigna- tion and excitement were intense, Demands for an answer to the question persisted and, in the endless columns of newspaper space devoted to the murder, a vast number of different theories were advanced and discussed in detail. + One of the stories related that as “Klondike” O'Donnell, his brother, McSwiggin, Doherty, and Duffy rede into Cicero a Sicilian, standing in the shadows of a building they had passed, raced to Ca- pone’e headquarters, where the ig Fellow was at dinner. He listened to the messenger’s news as he ate and, when he had finished, he calmly walked to the rear of the hotel, tock out the machine guns from a closet, and went out, followed by three men. An eye witness to the mur- der, said that a great autome- bile sped past the four men as they walked out of the road- house and that “fire spit out of what seemed to be a tele phone mouthpiece’ projected through the rear curtain.” McSwiggin fell mortally wounded at the first blast, while Duffy and Doherty walked for some distance be- fore they fell in pools of their blood. More than two-hundred bullets were fired. “Klondike” pulled McSwiggin’s body into his automobile and had it taken to the O'Donnell home, but later it was again placed in the car and taken and dumped on- to a spot in a street of a suburb adjoining Cicero so, as “Klon- dike” later explained, that no one would know that McSwig- gin was with gangsters. Another story has it that “Klondike” had paid $40,000 to McSwiggin and wanted to get it back again. “7 know who killed my son,” said Sergeant Anthony Me- Swiggin, of the Chicago police Sele ir a oe ag ce,