October 11, 1926
Henry Earl J. Wojciechowski, or Hymie Weiss as he was better known, is said to have been the only man that Al Capone ever feared. It was the 1920s and Chicago was rife with criminality derived from Prohibition. The city had been divided into sections, with Johnny Torrio and Al Capone running the South Side and the Genna brothers controlling Little Italy. Until recently, the North Side had been helmed by Dean O’Banion. But O’Banion was dead and Weiss, O’Banion’s friend and lieutenant, was determined that someone was going to pay.
The North Siders were an extremely loyal bunch and Weiss in particular had a gallant side. The gang, for instance, shunned the prostitution rings that the other mobs found so lucrative. Weiss had a vile temper, though, one that could explode without warning. Because of the frequent debilitating migraines he experienced, it’s now believed that he was suffering from cancer. Weiss’s agony no doubt led to the wild outbursts that he was known for.
Perhaps aware that he was ill, Weiss may have decided he had nothing to lose in going after the South Siders and the Gennas. The mayhem started immediately and for several years Chicago bled.
The crime reporters of the time had a field day. Headlines on mob warfare in 1925 alone included:
• January 24—Johnny Torrio, wounded by Weiss, heads to Italy, leaving the South Side gang to Capone.
• May 27—Angelo Genna is killed by North Siders Bugs Moran and Vincent Drucci.
• June 13—Mike Genna is shot down by police.
• July 8—Antonio Genna is murdered in the street.
As a result of all this, the surviving Gennas headed to New York, while the residue of their gang was taken over by Salvatore Amatuna then Joe Aiello, enemy of Capone. More telling, Capone increased his security. On August 10, 1926, Weiss and Drucci battled it out with Capone men at the Standard Oil Building, while September 20, 1926 brought another bold attack, this time at Capone’s headquarters at the Hawthorne Inn.
Capone was now ready for a truce and had a delegate, Tony Lombardo, meet with Weiss and Bugs Moran. Capone himself did not attend the meeting, but participated over the phone.
At first the meeting seemed productive enough, with Capone offering Weiss territory in the South Side. But Weiss’s demands were high; he expected nothing less than two of the murderers of Dean O’Banion—Albert Anselmi and John Scalise. So far, Anselmi and Scalise had done nothing that could be construed as being disloyal to Capone, so his reply to Weiss on that matter was brief and to the point—he wouldn’t do that to a dog. With that, the conference was at an end.
Deciding that it was now time, Capone ordered Weiss’s assassination. The hit was meticulously planned. Capone’s men rented the building next to the North Side hangout—Schofield’s Flower Shop—in preparation. This was the very place where O’Banion had met his demise. Other locations were rented across the street from the shop, giving the gunmen optimum vantage points. On October 11, 1926, when Weiss arrived at Schofield’s, along with North Side ally Patrick Murray and several others, the gunmen opened fire. Murray was killed instantly and Weiss, hit several times, collapsed. He died on his way to the hospital.
Weiss was buried not far from his pal Dean O’Banion, and with his death the North Siders were inherited by Drucci and Moran. But it wasn’t over—not by a long shot—and the battle for Chicago continued.