3 – Hymie Weiss
Born as Henry Wojciechowski in Poland in 1898, Weiss rose to prominence as the leader of a North Side Gang in Chicago during the prohibition era. He helped establish the gang with Dean O’Banion and George Moran, and they were in direct competition with Al Capone. Weiss’ reputation for violence preceded him, and he was apparently the only gangster that Capone feared.
Weiss’ family moved to America when he was young, and they lived on Chicago’s North Side. As a youth, he messed up a burglary and knocked over a fragrance shelf, so the police mocked the teen by dubbing him ‘The Perfume Burglar.’ Weiss befriended O’Banion when they were both teenagers, and they eventually set up their gang with Moran and controlled bootlegging and a number of other illegal activities in their area of the city.
He was known for his explosive temper. When police questioned his brother Fred on his whereabouts in 1926, Fred said that the only time he saw him in the last 20 years was in 1920 when Hymie shot him. On other occasions, when photographers tried to take his picture, Weiss would threaten to kill them. When O’Banion was murdered in 1924, Weiss swore to get revenge on Al Capone and his gang and declared war.
On January 25, 1925, Weiss and his men were suspected of shooting at Al Capone’s limousine outside of a restaurant on the city’s South Side, but their target wasn’t even there. He was also suspected of involvement in the murder of Angelo Genna on May 26, 1925. Capone survived a near miss on September 20, 1926, when Weiss’ men opened fire on him and his bodyguard Frank Rio as they ate at the Hawthorne Hotel. The assassination attempt persuaded Capone to attempt a truce with Weiss. However, he refused to meet Weiss’ demands to hand over the men that killed O’Banion.
A week later on October 11, 1926, Weiss and four of his men were seen at the Jury Selection process for the murder trial of Joe Saltis. Weiss was probably looking to forge an alliance and looked to bribe the jury to ensure the acquittal of Saltis. As the five men crossed the street to enter the same flower shop where O’Banion was murdered, two hidden gunmen opened fire with a shotgun and machine gun. Weiss and one of his bodyguards died in the attack. Jack McGurn was suspected of involvement in the attack and in the age old tradition of ‘settling scores,’ the North Side Gang did not allow him to get away with it although it took many years for them to gain revenge.