Previously on The Making of the Mob: Chicago."
I'll be in touch.
After forming an alliance with their Irish rivals,
led by Dean O'Banion,
Italian gangsters Johnny Torrio and Al Capone
are forced from the city by new mayor William Dever.
Shut them down.
This is a raid, nobody move.
Son of a bitch.
To keep their empire intact,
they take over the neighboring suburb of Cicero,
turning it into a mob paradise.
But when Torrio leaves town for personal reasons...
You keep the wheels turning until I get back.
Al Capone is left on his own.
When it seems like he may lose control
of Cicero in the upcoming elections,
Capone enlists his brother Frank
to rig the vote.
I need you to do whatever it takes.
But as chaos breaks out on the streets,
an army of plainclothes Chicago police officers
descend on the town...
Frank Capone?
and gun down Al Capone's brother
in broad daylight.
- Synced and corrected by VitoSilans - -- www.Addic7ed.com --
After the murder of his brother Frank,
Al Capone is out for revenge.
Mr. Capone?
Things were never the same after the death of Frank.
And Capone wanted revenge.
Capone was not inherently a violent person.
He became more and more violent
in response to his surroundings.
Before Capone can set his plan in motion,
his boss and mentor, Johnny Torrio,
returns from Italy,
reclaiming his control of their criminal empire.
I'm sorry, Al.
If there is anything that I can do...
What is this?
It's a list of every undercover cop
that was in Cicero the day Frank was killed.
I want your blessing.
No.
You weren't there, Johnny.
The way they killed him.
They butchered him.
They deserve to die.
Every single one of them!
Hitting these guys will not make things better.
It will make things worse for all of us.
Do you understand me?
All right.
Fine.
When Torrio returned from his trip to Italy,
Capone wanted revenge, but Torrio wanted him
to take it down several notches.
He didn't want an all-out war to erupt.
Because he knew that it would just lead
to more and more murders and deaths.
Aah!
Despite Capone's personal loss,
Torrio returns to a booming business...
that's raking in an impressive $10 million a month
thanks to Capone's leadership...
and the peace policy Torrio brokered years ago
with the Irish gang leader, Dean O'Banion.
The peace treaty that Johnny Torrio had instituted
set down a framework in which they could all operate
and prosper.
Together, the mob kingpins
rule over territory that covers the entirety of Chicago,
holding jurisdiction over numerous smaller gangs.
But as Torrio and Capone's empire gets larger,
it's becoming harder to keep those smaller factions
under control.
After a small group of Italian mobsters
makes a move on O'Banion's territory...
I'm sick of this shit.
The Irish gangster and his trusted associates
Hymie Weiss and Bugs Moran
see a growing problem.
Torrio claims it wasn't his men.
That's bullshit.
He's been planning this from the start.
It was a mistake doing business with those guys.
I run this city.
Not the Italians.
We have a couple of dozen guys,
four trucks.
If we hit them tonight...
No, we're gonna be smarter than them.
What are you going to do?
I don't know, Weiss.
I don't know.
O'Banion had resentments towards the Italians.
Some of this went back to the tribal nature
of Chicago, in the street gang culture
that he had grown up in, but O'Banion knew that
he had to be more sophisticated
and shrewd and cagey
in the way he went about bringing down Johnny Torrio.
Convinced that Torrio and Capone
are behind the attacks,
in the spring of 1924,
O'Banion puts together a plan
and calls a meeting with his Italian partners.
Are you going to tell me what this is about?
I want you to buy me out.
Why?
I'm done with this bullshit.
The cops, the politicians, the two-bit street thugs.
I'm tired of it.
How much do you want?
500,000.
I think that's fair.
I got into this business to make money,
and I've reached a point where...
I've made enough of it.
I'll need a little time to think about it.
You got till Monday.
Show up at the brewery with the 500,000,
and we can do the deal.
If you had asked Johnny Torrio or Al Capone
what they did for a living,
they'd say they were businessmen.
Torrio was skeptical
about what O'Banion was offering him,
but part of being a businessman is you went
in the direction of the money.
I'll get back to you.
Now, Torrio and Capone have to decide
if O'Banion can be trusted.
After ruthless Irish gangster
Dean O'Banion announces his retirement,
he offers his partner, Italian mob boss Johnny Torrio,
an opportunity to buy him out.
I don't know.
I just don't buy it.
It's too good a deal to pass up.
But still...
If he wants to get out,
let him.
He's getting old.
We get a bigger slice of Chicago
without spilling any blood.
I just don't trust him.
He's an Irish scum, but 500,000,
that's too good to pass up.
Greed is big in organized crime.
They were making hundreds of thousands a day
when a home would cost you $3,000
and a car would cost you $400.
So, you can imagine the kind of money it was.
But when is enough?
500,000.
It's all there.
Well, it's been a real pleasure.
For what it's worth, working together was not so bad.
Yes, it was.
Police! Nobody move!
Okay.
Son of a bitch.
Oh, did you see Torrio's face?
O'Banion double crosses Torrio.
When they meet to close the deal,
he arranges to have the Chicago police
raid the brewery and arrest Torrio.
It's audacious, and it's crazy.
This is one of the few instances
when gangsters used intelligence and cunning
to overcome their enemies
as opposed to just pulling out the guns.
What about Capone?
I'm not worried about Capone.
He won't give us any trouble.
I was set up,
and the first thing that went through my mind is
I couldn't believe that I allowed somebody
to set me up.
I knew, at that point, I would never, ever
trust anybody again in this life but myself.
With prior convictions,
Torrio will have to serve a mandatory prison sentence.
But before he does,
he's able to get out on bail.
So, now what do you think of your friend O'Banion?
I'm going to find that sonofabitch,
and I'm gonna kill him.
It's about time.
Torrio and Capone had been had,
and they had to pay back O'Banion for that.
There was no question about it.
And there's just a question of, you know,
how long would they wait, and how would they do it?
With Torrio's blessing,
Capone spends months planning the hit.
These kind of murders, there was a certain amount
of artistry to how the murders were done.
Where they took place, what sort of message
was delivered by the way that the murder was done.
And there was a certain amount of...
respect and admiration
that went along with strategizing
a hit so that it would play out in that way.
Capone knows that catching O'Banion off guard
is nearly impossible.
So he decides to place an order
with O'Banion's flower shop
for nearly $20,000 worth of flowers.
Knowing that O'Banion personally oversees
his biggest arrangements.
"The Man Behind the Gun,"
sung by S. H. Dudley.
O'Banion was incredibly dangerous and feared.
Torrio and Capone were taking a chance,
but in the flower shop, he was in his inner sanctum.
And that can often lead people to, uh,
let their guard down.
I'll be with you in a minute.
Just finishing up here.
On November 10th, 1924,
Dean O'Banion is gunned down in his flower shop.
And in the wake of the gangster's death,
an all-out gang war will soon erupt
on the streets of Chicago.
Four days after being gunned down
in his flower shop,
Chicago's most powerful Irish gangster
Dean O'Banion is laid to rest
in one of the most lavish funerals
Chicago has ever seen.
More than two dozen cars are required
to transport the extravagant floral arrangement,
as a crowd of 10,000 comes
to mourn the death of the infamous gangster.
Gangster funerals were
an institution unto themselves, especially in Chicago.
It was remarkable, I mean, it was hard to imagine that
this was actually a gangster who had just been killed.
O'Banion's funeral was huge.
The extent of the power of the underworld was
just incredible.
Not only did the other racketeers show up,
but also the political leadership showed up.
Local aldermen, committeemen,
other elected officials from city government.
Among those in attendance
are none other than the two men responsible
for O'Banion's death.
Rival Italian gang leaders
Johnny Torrio and Al Capone,
infuriating O'Banion's loyal lieutenants
Bugs Moran and Hymie Weiss.
Sorry for your loss.
Everyone in the underworld knew that Torrio and Capone
were the architects of O'Banion's murder.
So, when Johnny Torrio and Al Capone showed up
at O'Banion's funeral,
it was a dagger in the heart of Weiss and Moran because,
not only were they members of O'Banion's gang,
they worshipped him... they looked up to him.
You see that look in his eye?
They're gonna pay.
After O'Banion's funeral,
Weiss takes control over what's left of his empire.
Hymie Weiss was connected with Dean O'Banion
from a young age.
It is said that Weiss was
more more prone to violence than O'Banion
and that he was more decisive perhaps than O'Banion.
But before he can take revenge
on Torrio and Capone, Weiss knows
he has to defend his turf against other rival gangs
who think the death of Dean O'Banion means
that it's open season on the Irish gang's territory.
Chaos breaks out
as smaller Irish and Italian gangs
throughout the city
begin a violent battle for turf.
It's the beginning of an era of bloodshed in Chicago
known as the Beer Wars.
During the beer wars,
over 300 people were murdered.
You had to establish your authority.
You had to prove you couldn't let people
get away with standing up to you,
because pretty soon, other people would do it.
This is when we see, really, the height
of the gangland shootings.
Somethin' like 75 to 100 murders a year.
These are the different neighborhood gangs
going after each other.
There's a lot of competition, and there's a lot of shooting.
Amidst the turmoil,
Weiss and Moran see an opportunity
to take their revenge on Torrio.
And it's a job
they want to carry out personally.
Look at... you always find these people, don't you?
You know, that's right, I know all the Italians in Chicago.
You ready?
Come on.
My mother's the best in the world.
Oh, my darling...
Look, you have... you got plenty of fur coats.
You don't need any more...
Hey, Johnny!
This is for O'Banion.
Come on, let's get out of here!
Let's go!
- Go... go, go. - Let's go!
Help!
Help me!
Somebody...
On January 24th, 1925,
Johnny Torrio is shot five times at point-blank range.
Somebody, please help me!
But miraculously, he survives.
Weiss and Moran wanted to hit him with six shots,
the exact same number of shots
that'd been used to kill O'Banion.
But they hit Torrio five times,
and the gun jammed on the sixth shot.
And that might have been what saved Torrio's life.
You look like shit.
Yeah? I feel like shit.
You'll bounce back.
I know you will.
I'll keep the wheels turning till you do.
Al...
I'm not coming back.
What are you talking about?
Of course you're coming back.
I'm lucky to be alive.
Next time, I might not be so lucky.
I've made too many enemies.
We can handle them.
I'm leaving you in charge.
Of the clubs...
Oh, Johnny.
The breweries, everything.
Johnny, I ain't ready for all that.
Yeah, you are.
But you gotta do what I did.
What? Get myself shot to hell?
You find yourself good people...
who you can trust.
I won't let you down.
Get out of here, kid.
Get to work.
Johnny didn't want to be a part of it anymore.
And Johnny just handed the reins to Al.
And that's when Al Capone went
from being the prince of Chicago
to the king of Chicago.
I wanna take a look at your books here.
Only 25 years old,
Al Capone is now in charge of an empire
in the midst of a brutal war.
This is the height of tension between
the North Side and the South Side gangs.
There's a lot of tension... there's a lot of violence
in Chicago at this time,
and it seems like it's about to boil over.
Preparing for a large-scale battle
against his Irish rivals,
Capone assembles a team of top lieutenants.
So you see, the costs are up over here.
Gambling, brothel.
Then you see the return from that
a little later, down here.
It's a nice profit, it's very tidy.
Good job, Nitti, yeah.
I like what you've done here.
He puts his best numbers guy
in charge of managing the finances,
gangster Frank Nitti.
Frank Nitti was one of the smarter guys
in the operation and also one of the more violent.
Somebody Capone could really count on in much the same way
that Torrio had counted on Capone.
Who's driving this truck?
Okay, get moving.
Capone knows he'll also need a top strategist.
I just wanted to thank you again for all of your contributions.
Lets get down to business.
So he turns to a man known
as much for his ability to smooth talk anyone
as he is for his violent past.
His name is Paul Ricca.
That way, we both win.
Paul Ricca, when he was a boy in Naples,
he basically slit a man's throat,
he said, because his sister was dishonored.
He did two years in prison,
and on the day he comes out,
he slices the throat
of the witness that fingered him.
After fleeing to America,
Ricca works as a manager at one of Capone's establishments...
quickly moving up through the ranks
and transforming his reputation from brutal killer...
Excuse me.
To shrewd negotiator.
For muscle, Capone brings on
a brutal killer to serve as his personal bodyguard
and head of enforcement,
Chicago native Tony Accardo.
Where're you going?
Tony Accardo was, first of all,
larger than a typical mob guy.
He was pretty tall.
And he was pretty burly.
And he was renowned for having killed some people
with a baseball bat.
You should've known better.
And that's why his nickname
forever after was "Joe Batters."
With Frank Nitti,
Paul Ricca,
and Tony Accardo in place,
Capone is ready to take action.
Through sheer force, Al Capone would seek
to consolidate all of the Chicago underworld.
Al Capone's stated intention
is to exterminate the Irish gangs in the city.
I want Capone.
He's yours.
But as Capone and his team
plan their next move,
on the north side,
Irish leaders Hymie Weiss
and his number two, Bugs Moran,
are already prepared to strike.
How we doing?
Profits are good.
We've secured two new joints across the bridge.
We brought in new roulette tables.
And that new whiskey that you like,
it's proving very popular.
Good job.
Gotta leave in 15 minutes.
On September 20th, 1926,
Al Capone's biggest rivals,
Irish gangsters Hymie Weiss and Bugs Moran,
try to gun him down,
to avenge the death of Dean O'Banion.
There were over 2,000 machine gun bullets
that were shot through the windows and the walls
so that some people were hurt,
some bystanders, innocent people were hurt.
News of the drive-by shooting
makes Chicago headlines.
This was not a quiet assassination
in the dead of night
that nobody was supposed to know about.
This was deliberately done in a very public way.
Moran and Weiss are not only attempting to kill Capone,
they're attempting to send a message
beyond the underworld to the entire city
that Capone is persona non Grata
to what's left of the Irish gangs.
And it's their intention to take him out.
So, what now?
We need to take control of the situation
and make peace on our terms.
They don't want peace.
They want us six feet under.
Next time, we might not be so lucky.
And what do you suggest?
Take the whole crew out.
Let's not make any rash decisions,
all right?
We should think this through.
We go all out full force
and get ourselves killed?
Use your brain for once, all right?
I am using my brain.
I'm thinking about Al's safety.
Enough, I'm not going to sit here and wait.
We need to hit them, hit them hard.
We'll show them...
who owns this town once and for all.
Starting with Weiss.
Is that clear?
We'll get it done.
Sons of bitches.
Violence is critically important to the mob.
Essentially, you crossed them, you were dead.
Bottom line.
If you go to those extremes to eliminate Capone,
there's gonna be retaliation.
To take out Weiss,
Accardo brings on one of Capone's top hitmen,
Jack McGurn.
Jack McGurn, known as "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn,
was born in Sicily as Vincenzo Gibaldi.
Jack McGurn was the name he boxed under,
because he had about six or seven
professional fights.
But, by about 1926,
he becomes the top killer in the Capone gang.
But getting to Weiss won't be easy.
He's trailed constantly
by up to five bodyguards...
and knows Capone is after him.
Now what?
We wait.
Under orders from Al Capone...
Tony Accardo and Jack McGurn have positioned themselves
outside of Hymie Weiss' headquarters.
But after days of surveillance,
Weiss has yet to show.
I know a lot of hitmen.
I've known a lot of men that have killed.
And there wasn't
"Let's hop in the car and go get it."
There was major, major surveillance
that you don't hear a lot about.
I'm talking about guys sitting in a box,
in a van with little holes cut out in a box,
with an empty gallon jug to pee in there,
with sandwiches, and sit there to survey people for hours.
He's coming.
Just two weeks after his attempted hit on Al Capone...
Hymie Weiss is gunned down.
He was gunned down by Capone's people
right in front of the very same flower shop
where Dean O'Banion had been murdered years earlier.
And that was no accident.
Al Capone's first big hit as mob boss
makes headlines across the country.
Another example of the escalating
gangland violence in Chicago.
But instead of keeping a low profile,
Capone does the unexpected.
Good morning.
I just wanna thank you all for coming out this morning.
I just wanna answer a few questions.
Mr. Capone, police say that your fingerprints
are all over this Hymie Weiss murder.
Now, I just want to say
I'm sorry Hymie Weiss was killed,
and even though I had nothing to do with it,
I knew I would be blamed.
I don't want to die in the streets
punctured by machine gun fire.
Now, there's enough business here for all of us
without killing each other in the streets like animals.
I have a boy, Sonny.
He's seven years old.
I just wanna make this a safe and decent place for him.
For all of us.
Al set up one of the biggest hits of all time
out there in the street.
I mean, this was an amazing hit.
For him to stand up and just be in total denial
and talk to the press, this was part of who he was.
I think we've all seen enough bloodshed in the streets,
and we'd all just like to get back to business,
making Chicago
the greatest city in the world.
Huh?
With Weiss eliminated,
what's left of O'Banion's organization
falls to Bugs Moran,
and he decides to lay low in Irish territory,
waiting to plan his next move against Capone.
By wiping out nearly all of his Irish rivals,
Capone consolidates his power,
controlling more territory than ever before.
Territory is power.
Whether in war,
where Hitler wanted to take over Europe,
or in Capone's life,
where he wanted to take over all of Chicago.
Now, Capone is determined
to return his operations to Chicago
and to take his rightful place
as king of the Chicago underworld.
- Synced and corrected by VitoSilans - -- www.Addic7ed.com --