◆ SpookStack

O’Banion first began straining the ties that held him to Torrio by muscling in on the territory allotted to the Genna brothers on the West Side. Wamed repeatedly he continued to defy them. O’Banion believed in free speech. He talked often and loudly. He liked to sing too, and no doubt regarded his alley tenor as something quite fine and beautiful. The most injudicious remark he ever made in his long and useless life was directed to Torrio and his Italian henchmen. “To hell with them Sicilians,” he said when warned directly from headquarters to stay out of the Gena territory, “You (meaning Torrio) have got your ideas, and I got mine, We'll quit.” And 80 the inevitable happened. The finger was put on O’Banion, and they killed him and now, six years later, his pals are still trying to avenge him. The death of O’Banion brought more attention to Chicago's underworld (16 Fhe “Tt” boy of Gangland, Dion O’Banion, and is wife, This is @ rere picture of Boosedom's Personality boy, taken on the day of his marriage. (Upper right) X marke the spot where O'Banion was killed in his Httle flower shop on North State Street. (Lower photo) Crowd outside the floral shop just after O’Banion’s sesaseination. and the beer wars than any other dozen deaths. Whereas the other victims of the warfare reached page one of the local prints, O’Banion’s murder and funeral filled the wires of the press associations and landed on page one of the newspapers all over the country, O'Banion was standing in the center of the flower shop busily engaged at the pious business of trimming roses. In the rear of the shop a Negro porter, William F. Crutch- field, was unpacking a crate. Crutchfield later testified that O’Banion had just called to him to sweep up a litter of flower petals at the front of the shop. Fortunately William delayed, probably thus saving his life. For, just as O’Banion uttered these words, three men entered the front door. Crutchfield relates that he heard O’Banion greet them with, “Hello, you boys from Mike Merlo’s?” As he uttered these words O’Banion, holding a large pair of shears in one hand, walked toward the three men, one hand outstretched. One of the men, in answer to the greeting, said that he was from Mike Merlo’s home. Merlo, an Italian political leader, had just died and it is assumed that O’Banion expected these men there for the purpose