Stories
Prohibition EraThe failed hot on Eddie Diamond
Sometime in 1927, Eddie Diamond was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis, by the following year Eddie packed up his family, his wife Kitty and young son John and moved out west to Denver. Eddie also took with him, one of Jacks torpedos, Dominick Bifano. Meanwhile...
The Roaring Twenties
The Roaring Twenties. The Prohibition Laws, the Eighteenth Amendment & Volstead Act, had just been passed banning the sale of alcohol across the United States but it was largely ignored in the cities, New York, Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis etc.Before Prohibition...
George Cassiday – The Bootlegger to Congress
George Cassiday was born in 1892 and fought in the First World War and a founder of the Irish Veterans Association upon his return after the war, he found employment difficult after the war and almost by accident he became a bootlegger, he would also become known as...
“Jelly Roll” Hogan & The Hogan Gang – St. Louis
Edward "Jelly Roll" Hogan was the leader of the Hogan Gang and arch enemy of the Egan's Rats Gang in St. Louis, Hogan and his gang strong armed their way into the illegal alcohol business and had many running battles with members of Egans Rats along the way. And like...
Little Augie Orgen’s Fatal Mistake
It’s believed the partnership between Jack “Legs” Diamond and Jacob “Little Augie” Orgen started when Jack cut Little Augie into his narcotic and bootlegging business, for a slice of Little Augie’s Labor Union racket. This deal didn’t sit well with Little Augie’s top...
Coll ambushes Carmine Borelli
February 12, 1930, the Schultz-Coll war began with the shooting of Carmine Borelli, one of Dutch Schultz’s top lieutenants, and Mayme Layton aka Mary Smith, on Inwood Ave, the Bronx. Apparently Vincent “Mad Dog” Coll believed Borelli knew of Coll’s war plans against...
Diamonds hit on Schultz
October 15, 1928, Arthur Flegenheimer aka Dutch Schultz and his partner Joey Noe (pronounced Noy) we’re drinking in the Swanee Club, a notorious speakeasy on West 125th Street in Harlem. Just as the sun began to rise, Dutch and Joey left the Swanee and headed downtown...
The St. Valentines Day Massacre
On this day, 90 years ago one of the most famous Mob Hits of all time took place, the St. Valentines Day Massacre in Chicago, where seven men were shot to death by rival gangsters. What started with the death of Dean O'Banion in 1924 ended on St. Valentines Day in...
Dean O’Banion The North Side Gangster
Dean O’Banion was born in Maroa, Illinois in 1892, where he spent his early childhood before moving to Chicago in 1901 with his father, brother, and sister. O’Banion’s mother, Emma Brophy, who was first generation Irish her parents were from Ireland, died of the...