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M'GURN DEADLY ‘AND DEBONAIR IN ALL HIS KILLINGS Desire to Avenge Death of Father Said to Have Prompted Crimes. If epitaphs must be written for hood]ums, it can be said for “Ma- chine Gun Jack” McGurn, who was slain early today, that not since the medieval days of the Italian city States has there been a hired killer as gracious, debonair and deadly. What their velvet-clad and tlumed young men with Florentine Gaggers were to the Sforzas or thu Medici, McGurn was to no less jt buccaneer, “Scarface Al” Capone, who revered him for his deadliness and his loyalty. The legend about McGurn on the career as a killer to avenge his father, slain by blackhanders when prohibition. McGurn, born Gebhardi, was a carefree youth living in the snadow ot Notre Dame church at Sibley and Oregon streets when his father was slain, A relative “ribbed” the young man up and told him the names of at least six men responsible for the murder of his father, the story goes. When this relative had stirred in the young man a passionate desire Wor revenge, he had launched Me (Gurn on his career. Within the Inext year, according to underworld gossip, McGurn had killed every fone of the Sicilians “fingered” in the death of his father. ‘the admiration of near west side is that he started his | McGurn was a boy in his teens. This |was about the time of the birth of | His First Marder. ‘The first murder was obvious! nervous piece of work for the sens{= tive young west sider, but once over the hiil of his first homicide, Mc Gurn went, in the parlance of the day, to town. His efficiency and earnestness ta redressing wrongs with a pistol won “Scarface Al” Capone, then rising to prominence as Chicago's biggest gang leader. Once under the wing of the rising Capone, McGurn was made. A close friendship developed be- tween the two social outlaws, and among all his associates, Capone trusted McGurn to the last line. It was McGurn, according to competent police informers, who first learned some years ago that ambition had stirred within the breasts of John Scalise, Albert Anselmi and Joseph Giunta, who planned to kill Capone and seize his organization. McGurn informed Capone of the plot. A few nights later McGurn was host to Scalise, Anselmi and Giunta at a spaghetti party in Cicero. The next morning the bodies of the three were found in Ham- mond. ! McGum was shot once in an at? fempted assassination as he stooc. in a Cigar store in what was the: the McCormick hotel, Ontario an Rush streets. This was in the days of the intense rivalry between the Capone mob and the north side gang of George (“Bugs”) Moran, The St. Valentine Murders. This rivalry was liquidated seven years ago yesterday, when a squad of Capone killers walked into the garage at 2122 North Clark street and mowed down seven Moranites and their associates. McGurn was reported to have been at that party, along with Fred (“Killer”) Burke and the late Gus Winkler. McGurn was the target for assassins a second time, on March 7, 1928. Machine gunners riddled his automobile on the west side, but he escaped unscathed. McGurn in his lifetime had been accused of about everything but pickpocketing, but never served a Jail term. He was convicted in the state courts for gun carrying and on ® vagrancy charge, but beat both cases in the Illinois Supreme court. He was also con' court of vit act with the wom: widow, but won a in the United State: McGurn was indil in the St. Valentin: but the case dropped. He estal that he was with the Stevens hotel the mass killing. His’ golf was 5 him dare to comp! right name, in t! a , tournament a few Ve as the first six holes then discovered thm che eg with a warrant isn SY Thomas A, Green in Felony court, were following him. He blew up and quit. He stood trial and was convicted in the lower court. “it is a good thing he is gone,” Judge Green said today. “Men of his type have no place in the com- munity. His case is a point in the argument for an amendment to the constitution to permit men with tgputations as gunmen to bet dearched on ‘probable cause’ by po- ' ice. Since the breakup of the Capone gang, accomplished through the in- come-tax conviction of the leader, McGurn, along with other notorious members of the mob, had drifted almost into obscurity, McGurn had spent his time golfing and taking care of a few handbooks in which he was interested in Cook county outside Chicago. Brother Claims Body. The body was claimed at the morgue by McGurn's brother, An- thony Gebardi, 622 South Morgan street, who filled out a blank con+ taining: some family history at the request of Henry Vala, a clerk in the coroner's office. MeGurn was born July 2, 1903, at La Gota, Italy, and was brought to this country as a baby by his ‘parents, Thomas and Josephine Verderams Gebardi. The dead hoodium's profession was given as golf professional at the Maywood" ountry Club for seven years prior ko February, 1935. ‘ According to the brother, McGura carried no insurance and had no* ;'Property, real or personal, “