Earl "Hymie" Weiss (January 25, 1898 - October 11, 1926) was a Polish-American mob boss who became a leader of the
ProhibitionProhibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is a sumptuary law which prohibits alcohol. Typically, the manufacture, transportation, import, export, and sale of alcoholic beverages is restricted or illegal. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries...
-era
North Side GangThe North Side family Gang, also known as the North Side Mob, was the dominant Irish-American criminal organization within Chicago during the Prohibition era from the early to late 1920s and principal rival of the Johnny Torrio-Al Capone organization, later known as the Chicago Outfit.- Impact of...
and a bitter rival of Al Capone.
Born Earl Wojciechowski in Chicago, he grew up on the North Side with his Polish-American family. At some point, the family changed its last name to "Weiss". Earl would gain the nickname "Hymie" later in his career.
Earl "Hymie" Weiss (January 25, 1898 - October 11, 1926) was a Polish-American mob boss who became a leader of the
ProhibitionProhibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is a sumptuary law which prohibits alcohol. Typically, the manufacture, transportation, import, export, and sale of alcoholic beverages is restricted or illegal. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries...
-era
North Side GangThe North Side family Gang, also known as the North Side Mob, was the dominant Irish-American criminal organization within Chicago during the Prohibition era from the early to late 1920s and principal rival of the Johnny Torrio-Al Capone organization, later known as the Chicago Outfit.- Impact of...
and a bitter rival of Al Capone.
Early years
Born Earl Wojciechowski in Chicago, he grew up on the North Side with his Polish-American family. At some point, the family changed its last name to "Weiss". Earl would gain the nickname "Hymie" later in his career. He was Catholic, despite the Jewish-sounding moniker. As a teenager, Weiss soon became a petty criminal and ultimately befriended an Irish-American teen
Dean O'BanionCharles Dean O'Banion was an Irish-American mobster who was the main rival of Johnny Torrio and Al Capone during the brutal Chicago bootlegging wars of the 1920s...
. With Weiss and
George "Bugs" MoranGeorge Clarence "Bugs" Moran was a Chicago Prohibition-era gangster born in St. Paul, Minnesota. Moran, of French descent, moved to the North side of Chicago when he was 19 and was affiliated with several gangs while being incarcerated three times before turning 21...
, O'Banion established the North Side Gang, a criminal organization that would eventually control bootlegging and other illicit activities in the northern part of Chicago.
Rivalry with Chicago Outfit
The biggest threat to this massive organization was not from arrest or prosecution by police, the district attorney, or the city's elected officials (each of whom had numerous members on the Torrio-Capone payroll). The $100 million-a-year (in 2000's U.S. dollars; at the time this amounted to roughly $10 million annually) faced their greatest challenge from a single rival: the Northsiders gang.
Gang War
After Dion O'Banion's murder on November 10, 1924, Hymie Weiss took command of the North Side Gang and swore to avenge his friend's death. On January 24, 1925, Hymie and Bugs Moran ambushed
Johnny TorrioJohn "Papa Johnny" Torrio, also known as "The Fox" was an Italian-American mobster who helped build the criminal empire known as the Chicago Outfit in the 1920s that would later be inherited by his protege, Al Capone...
outside his South Side home. Despite being badly wounded by pistol and shotgun fire, Torrio survived the attempt on his life.
The rival gangs squared off for war. Hymie Weiss and his pals were suspected of gunning down Sicilian crime boss Angelo Genna on May 26, 1925. The Gennas were longtime enemies of Dion O'Banion and were suspected of having a hand in his murder. Whether or not the North Siders actually killed him is still debated today.
After spending the better part of a year in jail, Hymie Weiss marshaled his men for a major strike on their rivals. On September 20, 1926, Al Capone was having lunch with bodyguard Frank Rio at the Hawthorne Hotel when a caravan of cars cruised past the Hawthorne Inn and riddled it with hundreds of submachine gun bullets. According to some accounts, the second-to-last car stopped in front of the hotel where Capone was cowering. A gunman, clad in a khaki Army shirt and brown overalls, casually walked up to the hotel's front door and emptied a
Thompson submachine gunThe Thompson submachine gun is an American submachine gun, invented by John T. Thompson in 1919 that became infamous during the Prohibition era. It was a common sight of the time, being used by both law enforcement officers and criminals...
into the room.
While Capone survived the attack, this act scared Al enough to an attempt a truce. At a peace conference on October 4, 1926, Hymie insisted that the trigger-pullers in the O'Banion murder (
John ScaliseJohn Scalise was an American organized crime figure of the early 20th century and, with partner Albert Anselmi, was one of the Chicago Outfit's most successful hitmen in Prohibition-era Chicago.-Early life:...
and
Albert AnselmiAlbert Anselmi was a Chicago mobster who became an infamous hitman during the Prohibition era for the Chicago Outfit criminal organization....
) be executed. Capone refused Weiss's terms and took more radical means to end the gang war.
Murder
Hymie Weiss was suspected of having formed an alliance with South Side beer baron Joe Saltis, who went on trial for murder in October 1926. It was widely rumored that Weiss would buy off the jury in order to ensure an acquittal for Saltis.
Jury selection began on October 11, 1926, and Hymie and four of his men were sighted there. At 4 o'clock that afternoon, Weiss and his pals left for their State Street headquarters, the old Schofield flower shop. Hymie Weiss and his men were crossing State to enter the shop when two gunmen hidden in a nearby rooming house opened fire with a submachine gun and shotgun. Weiss and bodyguard Paddy Murray were killed while the other three were wounded. Bullets from the fusillade chipped the cornerstone of the
Holy Name CathedralHoly Name Cathedral, formally the Cathedral of the Holy Name, is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, one of the largest Roman Catholic dioceses in the United States. It is also the parish church of the Archbishop of Chicago...
directly across the street; one bullet hole is still visible in the building.
Although often said to have left an estate of $1.3 million dollars, Weiss's estate was actually calculated at $10,601.78 during a 1927 hearing between his family members and girlfriend Josephine Simard.
Hymie's killers were never definitely identified, but Chicago Police suspected that the machine gunner may have been
Jack McGurnJack "Machine Gun" McGurn was an Italian-American mobster and key member of Al Capone's Chicago Outfit.-Early life:...
. Rumor had it McGurn earned his nickname of "Machine Gun Jack" from the Weiss hit. From 1926 to 1929, George Moran took charge of the North Side Gang. During that time, McGurn was especially singled out for repeated Northsider hit attempts, the Northsiders being known for considering "personal scores to settle" of greater importance than regular gang business. It has also been speculated that the man in charge of the hit was
Frank NittiFrancesco Raffaele Nitto, better known as "Frank 'The Enforcer' Nitti" was an Italian American gangster...
.
Health
Weiss was said to have suffered from arterial cancer, which gave him blinding headaches, dizziness, and fainting spells. Often, he would relax on a couch on the second floor of the Schofield flower shop. Because of his illness, Hymie often said he didn't expect to live to an old age, which may explain his fearlessness in fighting his rivals. To this day, it is said that Hymie Weiss was the only man Al Capone ever truly feared.