The Schofield Flower Shop murder of Dean O'Banion
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- In the early years of prohibition, the north-side and the south-side gangs fought for control of Chicago's illegal liquor trade. The murder of Dean O'Banion, also known as Dion O'Banion, a mob boss and florist, sparked all out war which included infamous mobsters such as Johnny Torrio and Al 'Scarface' Capone.
This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As images of actual events are sometimes not available, images of similar objects and events are used for illustration.
This video deals with periods of conflict. All events are portrayed in historical context and for educational purposes. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
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Script by HCW
#chicago #thehistoryguy #ushistory
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My grandmother worked for Dean O’Banion in his shop. That’s family history that has been all but forgotten.
Its wierd how they can have separate lives
When my grandfather was young he was a courier for Western Union. He met Dean O'Banion several times, delivering telegrams to O'Banion's flower shop.
Yeah. And I’m playing shortstop for the Mets.
@@chrisdawson1776 I build rockets for NASA in my spare time, when i'm not running the CDC
@@chrisdawson1776 😂😂😂😂
My grandfather did the hit with my Godfather, Claude Maddox.
They also took out Henryk Wojciechowski on the same street corner where the flower shop was.
@@charlesandrews2360 😱
In the 80s the location of the florist shop was a hot new age/ punk venue in Chicago's nightlife scene named, you guessed it, O'Banion's
Better With A Drone LoL you mention the punk rock club, I use to party in that area in the late 1970s and remember it. It had a bit of a notorious reputation.
That's awesome.
Late 70's sounds about right. I remember seeing Souxi & The Banshees there @@Lockbar
Cute. I'm sure the man himself would be amused.
@@dogstar7 Siouxsie and the Banshees 😎
This was very well done! I wrote a book about O'Banion called 'Guns and Roses' and am impressed by how thoroughly you researched his life and death.
Even without Pirates, a truly great story. Thank you for bringing it to us.
Pirates are gangsters.
You trigger treasured memories of Paul Harvey and "The Rest of the Story". You do a great job, and keep history interesting. Thank you.
Dean O'Banion was portrayed in the TV show "Boardwalk Empire" too.
It would have been nice to see a short clip, but I guess they could not be published. In exchange, kudos to the History Guy for the plentiful contemporary pics, newspaper titles and videos, making this video very well done.
Boardwalk empire I watched it twice great series
Yes! They showed Nucky Thompson, shipping the Guns from Ireland. Loved that show.
I was just watching the Boardwalk Empire scene and this came on next.
Very interesting that you're covering the 'forgotten' mob history of Chicago and the US! Everyone knows Al Capone, and it's good you put this "Florist" in the spotlight.
That's why I enjoyed "boardwalk empire" when an obscure name would pop up and it would make me look'em up. As well as a few prohibition era documentaries.
Al Capone really wasn't all what people glamorize him to be
Syphilitic
The driver for the st. Valentine's Day Massacre had a book about his life called 'Devil Driver 'cuz his nickname was 'devil'. He served 40 to 50 years in prison, became a Christian and one thing I'll never forget he said. He said when drugs became more prominent in prison there was no longer code of ethics. deception went to another level no longer could you say 'keep your hands off my stuff' cuz it wouldn't work when drugs came into prominence. Well that's true in our society as well, people used to see leave their houses and cars unlocked. Drugs or what it's called in the Bible 'magic Arts' is on another level of deception. Greek word for drugs is pharmakeia where we get the word Pharmacy.
I didn't know that TV series, thanks for mentioning it, I'll check it out!
Who was it that attempted to assassinate Franklin Roosevelt in Miami (?) but killed the mayor instead?
Nice to see a piece on this.
I sold flowers once but I'm not living that life no more
I used to work for Wienhoeber's Florists on Michigan Avenue when I was in the 8th grade at Holy Name Cathedral School. O'Banion's shop had been where the parking lot across the street from the Cathedral was. It was the Holy Name Cathedral Reformatory School for Boys in Dean's time. When I went there it had become co-educational.
By coincidence, we both were altar boys. But since they paid me 90 Cents an hour for being a flower boy -- delivering flowers on foot, sweeping up the shop, wiping those massive Michigan Avenue glass windows, etc -- I never felt like I was a *made guy.*
What does that mean gangster?
It's a really hard job to sell flowers it's so much more then just giving them to customers 😂
Yeah.. you wanna sell daisies, not push 'em up
I love all your “history snippets” and often pass them on to relatives and friends, who also have become delighted with your channel. We often find incidents that you cover that lead to further reading. Like you, so many of us do love history! Just thought you’d like to know how much your channel means to a fairly large, and growing, circle. 😊
While Mt. Carmel Cemetery is located in West suburban Hillside about ten miles from away from downtown Chicago and not close to his shop, O'Bannion's grave is in good company. It's located on the ring road surrounding the "Cardinal's Mausoleum" in the center of the cemetery with another mobster involved in the St. Valentine's Day shooting. Al Capone and Frank Nitti (Nitto) are also in Mt. Carmel along with my grandparents.
Yes, native Chicagoan here and a rare piece of inaccuracy. Mt. Carmel is indeed at least 10 miles from O'Bannions shop. Some of my friends are buried at Mt. Carmel. I believe shop was very near Holy Name Cathedral, very convenient since all the politicians, sports figures, gangsters and VIP's had their funeral masses there and still do to this day. Some day look up a little known piece of Chicago history, the Greek gangs on the near south and south sides. Although not as violent as the Irish and Italian gangs, they had considerable influence on the restaurant and food distribution businesses which continues pretty much to this day. Many of the privately owned restaurants in Chicago are owned by Greeks and the food distributors that service many of the others are owned by Greeks. And I hate to tell you this, Greeks do not eat Gyros.
Yeah, the History guy gets his facts or terminology wrong often. He refered to a "magazine" as a "clip" episode. Why let the facts get in the way of a good story.
Mt Carmel is still associated with violence! Now, the Chicago gang members buried there are West Side and South Side gang-bangers, and a recent news story said the burials are followed by celebratory running gun battles along the east-bound Eisenhower Expressway. Too bad, I have relatives buried there, but I'm not going to risk visiting their graves these days.
Holy Name was across the street from the flower shop iirc
The Church Leaders look away, the Politicians manipulate the sheeple as they take bribes, the Cops are oblivious to the abuse meted out to law abiding citizens, until one of their own is hurt... and the Thugs dominate and prosper... As it was , it shell always be.
Oh my, I LOVED this! What great story and interesting piece of Chicago history. Love this stuff!
The day you reveal what college or university you teach at is the day that place is gonna get a swarm of applicants.
I haven't taught at a university since the twentieth century...
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Well sir, Thank you for taking time to make all these wonderful videos. If its only a taste of what your class was like then we are all truly blessed.
"Swell fellow". The early 1900's version of calling everyone dude.
@Chase
I'm just a little over 69 years of age and well remember when "swell fella" was used as a compliment in Brooklyn back in the old days
Must be a History Channel employee giving the thumbs down. Another brilliant episode.
What's nice is bad publicity is still publicity.
Question is, why isn't this on the history channel? one of the best historic programs I have seen
There is nothing historical about the history channel.
Can't be. Would have to be literate to understand the vote system. Seems too challenging for a history channel employee.
@@Man-cv5ws not anymore.
My grandfather, on the Irish side of the family, had a saloon on west Jackson Boulevard in Our Lady of Sorrows Parrish. O'Banion was his supplier during prohibition. Bugsy Malone used to come around to the saloon to get my grandfather's liquor order. He would come around noon and sit in the family room. He always asked my grandmother to make him a steak with fried potatoes. He lover her steaks. My mother would bring the tray down from the apartment, and pick it up when Malone was finished. She said he always put 3 or 4 $100.00 bills underneath the plate for her when he returned it.
According to an online inflation calculator $575 dollars in 1924 is the equivalent of almost $8500 dollars. Thas alot of cash to just walk around with.
@Despiser Despised The only reason that money was report was to stay alive. Chicago cops where part of the mob problem but stealing from them might have had you in a funeral as well.
Mario Balotelli was pulled over by British cops for driving a sports car while black.
They searched him & his car, and found £5,000 cash in his pockets.
They asked him why he had a sports car and five grand in his pockets.
He replied in his Italian accent, _"because I am rich."_
even today walking with $575 is a lot
@@massimookissed1023 I love that story. That guy is a rockstar. Haham
This was the time before credit cards.
I'm stunned! For all of these years now I understood his first name to be "Dion" Which, to me anyway, has a much cooler ring to it than Charles Dean O'Banion. Thanks for clearing that misconception up for me but, despite now knowing better, I will always think of him as Dion. Many thanks for all of the great history lessons and please keep them coming.
@John Barber I now believe that I originally had it wrong. According to Wikipedia and other online sources, his given name was Charles Dean O'Banion and that the Chicago newspapers of the day gave him the name " Dion ". He apparently never went by " Dion " during his lifetime.
As always, I really enjoy these snippets.
I have a suggestion for a snippet. I'd like to see the history of battlefield doctors.
XxSwagMoney69xX served in World War 1 and World War 2. Only dying 12 times out of 3000 kills. His final words were. "DICE made a pretty cashmoney game."
History Guy
In case you didn't know, feeding mechanisms using springs to feed rounds are properly called 'magazines'. Clips are devices to allow multiple rounds to be loaded manually, as in the 'stripper clips' used to charge the rifles of WW1 and the enbloc clip used on the M1 Garand of WW2 fame.
If you did know, and just using the term colloquially, as many do, then my apologies for the assumption.
The infamous handshake murder. Frankie Yale shook O'Banion's hand and wouldn't let go so he couldn't draw his gun. John Scalise and Albert Anselmi aka the Murder twins drew there guns and killed O'Banion. They were Genna gunmen loaned to Torrio/Capone with their old partner Yale from NY. Merlo had kept the peace his death removed the only obstacle for Torrio's revenge for the brewery arrest he had to serve time for that O'Banion had planned. Love the content it's bringing back the knowledge I learned of the history of the Chicago Outfit. Fascinating stuff had a much larger influence on the country than one could imagine.
This definitely should be a movie
Thank you for doing such a wonderful job of bringing these stories to us. Really enjoy these educational and interesting videos!
So glad to see this channel growing and getting more recognition for the amazing "snippets of history" we all crave and deservedly remember. Thank you for the excellent work put into these videos, and giving us new angles on history we might not have enjoyed otherwise.
Every time I hear a story like this I wonder if my great-uncle Bill Sullivan was involved. He was Canadian (as am I) during prohibition he was a rum runner across the great lakes and spent a great deal of time in the US. When he came to visit he was forbidden to come into my grandmothers house unless she was home to supervise (they were brother and sister). She did not approve of his line of work and did not want him to have access to my dad and his brothers if she was not there.
I never knew the man but apparently he was a rough, hard-drinking and very racist man. My father told me a few of the stories that his uncle Bill had told him, I wouldn't want my kids to be around him if I wasn't there either...
Being Irish when I hear the stories of the Irish mob during prohibition, I wonder, was my great-uncle there?
Interesting story! Maybe your uncle really knew O' Banion.
The mention of Al Capone reminded me of his older brother James Vincenzo Capone AKA Richard "Two Gun" Hart who served as a lawman. Might make an interesting episode.
Excellent and awesome video. Thank you .
At mentioned O'Banion is buried in Mt. Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, IL His grave is near Bishops's hill where the Mausoleum for the Chicago Archdiocese Cardinals is located. It's a fascinating cemetery with quite a few elaborate private Mausoleum's on the grounds. The grave sites closest to Bishop's hill are considered to be more a more prestigious location.
There's another guy buried in Mt. Carmel except he & his family are buried alongside Roosevelt Road that runs alongside the cemetery's South side. He gets a lot more visitors than O'Banion as most people have forgotten about O'Banion. That would be Al Capone & his family. Arch rivals to the end but I guess you could say O'Banion outdid Capone one last time for eternity,
Your bringing up of Dean O'Banion during the flagrant crime years in Chicago. Who I wasn't aware of. Makes me wonder how many history stories ,in all the times that history has been written, have "slipped under the rug" so to speak.
History is an intriguing topic no matter how you look at it. Yet I often wonder how much we've
missed. As always, thanks.
Great stuff. I’m a huge follower of history and I really enjoy your videos. Very well done sir.
I was just watching Boardwalk Empire season 4 today with Dean O'Banion in it another funny thing is I used to work at Mount Carmel and Queen of Heaven Cemetery is Lotsa Chicago gangsters buried at Mount Carmel
Yes, most of them are there or across the road at Queen of Heaven. Including the Capone brothers, the Genna brothers, and Jack McGurin, it's well worth to wander through.
You should do tours of mobster graves...I'd pay for that
Actor and ex-Chicago cop Dennis Farina is also buried there. After all somebody has to keep all the gangsters in line on judgement day.
@@JohnP538 I really liked his work.
@@JohnP538 I was a big fan of Dennis Farina, one of best actors Chicago ever had..
Love these history talks.
Please consider doing a video on "Big" Alma Spreckels, "The great grandmother of San Francisco". The former artist's model turned philanthropist who brought art California. And her inspiration can still be found in various parts of the city.
Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword....another well thought out and presented story. Thank you history guy!!
I think Chicago still has plenty of violence & gang activity, although not as colorful as your story.
The mobsters are gone just punks in saggy pants now, and the Democrats in suits which control them.
@Ruthlessnoodle No way.
@@theshocker4626, sorry but no the Outfit is alive and well in Chicagoland
Look up Willy the Wimp, Chicago is still colorful.
CavSctLdr yea I’m old enough to remember cause I was selling bag phones then and thought it was cool when they buried him with one
Thanks for the great video. One minor correction, Mount Carmel cemetary is nowhere near O'banion's flower shop. It's not even in Chicago, but in Hillside Illinois.
Very interesting video. Thanks for the upload
You're very good at this. Thank you! Love these.
I just discovered your channel this morning. I was never a great fan of History or Politics while in school. It was basically by the book learning by disinterested teachers. It wasn't until later in life that I discovered an interest in the subjects. I wish that computers, the internet and websites like youtube(early youtube, that is) had been available during my "formative years". I won't tell you which decades those were as to not expose my geezerness.(If I revealed that as a youngster I lived in a tiny two room log cabin in the boonies, you would accuse me of spinning a yarn.)
I went on a binge of several of your videos this morning then went to your homepage. I wanted to see if you had uploaded any information regarding two tidbits of American History not commonly known. I saw that you had not, so I decided to comment on your most recent.
First let me say that you do an excellent job. You personally present the information very well and the production quality is the bee's knees. I am looking forward to catching up with all you have posted.
I know that you are very astute regarding little known or washed over facts, regarding what has happened so far on planet earth. I wonder if you might be able to bring others attention to my favorite historical subjects. Both are not only American in nature, but also have a presence on the world stage. One I stumbled across in the 1950's, that I couldn't believe possible. The other in the 1970's when I heard whispers in the Washington, D.C. area of the improbable and thought...why not!?
Two "secret" programs that mean very little. Or so 'they' would want you to believe. You know who 'they' are, don't you? So I don't have to don my tinfoil fedora, I'll ass/u/me you do.
*nudge, nudge...wink, wink...know what I mean, eh!? A wink is as good as a nod to a blind man.*
Seriously, however. I am referring to: "Operation Paperclip"(1950's) and "Operation Grillflame"
(1970's). Careful with the second one...it could lead to witchcraft and devil worship. The human mind is a delicate thing. Can snap at the utterance of a single word. And that is absolute truth. History is full of examples, isn't it? Come to think of it, the first one is real horror story, also. To think one would ingest poison into one's system and think they're normal from that time on. Like The good Dr. Jeckyll. What one will do to win races.
As I write this, it just dawned on me. That's the why behind both. You learn something everyday IF you keep your mind working and open.
Sorry for such a long comment, but once my two fingers go on a hunt and peck, I can't shut them up. As if I am under some kind of demonic mind control...does everyone have a high pitch squeal in their ears...like this?
ruclips.net/video/-hqokrn5oO8/видео.html
I'll shut up now. No need to be accused of being a carrier of insanity. I know I don't suffer the symptoms, only the causes.
The_Shadowman_knows a fellow Shadow fan!
Aha! I always suspected them florists were a dangerous lot!
that's what used to be called "flower power"
A short history of The Purple Gang would tie in nicely with this video.
I’m a big history nerd myself so I love this channel. I went to school at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. I was a history major there. While looking for a subject for a paper in my history research class, I learned that the last bareknuckle boxing championship took place less than 15 minutes from the college campus. That’s what I ended up doing my paper on. The story of John L Sullivan and Jake killrain. I feel like most people who aren’t diehard boxing fans don’t know anything about them. I think that would be a great idea for one of your videos.
All episodes are great. Suggestions for future episodes:
Leopold and Loeb and the murder of
Bobby Franks 1924
Eastland ship disaster 1915
Iroquois Theater Fire 1903
Cocoanut Grove Fire 1942
The Hollywood Museum in the Max
Factor Building, 1660 N Highland
Avenue, Hollywood, CA
I love history!
Mount Carmel Catholic Cemetery is located in the Western Suburburb of Hillside, IL. Approximately 17 miles away from O'Banion former flower shop. Mt. Carmel is where also the resting place of Capone.
Your presentations are just wonderful! I thoroughly enjoy them! Are you familiar with the Epping Baseline in Maine? One of eight used to map the US and instrumental in the accurate establishment of Longitude. I believe that it is also the only original baseline left intact. I would love to see a piece on this and or The Great Lakes Survey!
This was another well done story. Good work History Guy!
I just love your little spots on history. I am not a scholar but have a special & diverse interest in American history. Murder suicides, illegal booze all in my family history. All my family was here before Ellis Island.
Keep up the good work!
Love the vids. Keep up the great work
Thanks, History Guy. Can you make a video about Maskelyne and his camouflage successes, please? He was a fascinating character whose ideas saved many lives during WW2. A related subject, albeit from the previous Great War, would be Dazzle ships.
The driver for the st. Valentine's Day Massacre, his nickname was "devil." I read his book 'Devil Driver', where he spent the majority of his life 40 plus years in prison. He became a Christian but one thing I do remember he said, when drugs became more prominent in the penitentiary, then there was no longer a code of ethics 'keep your hands off my stuff'. That went out the window as another level of deception came in. And that's exactly what we see today, but back then, people used to keep their houses and cars unlocked. Bible calls drugs 'magic Arts' but in the Greek it's called 'pharmakea', the same word where we get our word 'Pharmacy.'
You do find the most interesting stories of history! Thank you for sharing!
Absolutely fascinating. More story and excitement in 10 minutes than is “jam packed” into 1 hour episodes of Boardwalk Empire.
Thanks History Guy. You're making the world turn a little smoother. If I could suggest: William Hemsley Emory deserves to be remembered. He had a significant role in the opening of the American West.
Digging the bow tie
I love your channel and learning about our country's history, thank you so much great video! 👍
Thank you for another superb presentation. It sure sounds as if Mr. O'Banion was a colorful character and unique among florists.
ADDICTED.... To the HISTORY GUY!
If you do something on Al Capone, look up "Lloyd Johnstone's Reminiscences regarding Lakelse HotSprings" on virtualmuseum.ca. During the beer wars Al Capone and 3 other gang members had to hide out for a while and hide out they did - in a very remote spot: Lakelse HotSprings near Terrace, BC. (served by the CN Railway). They spent their time there disguised as Roman Catholic priests, though the narrator (who was 12 at the time and working at the Hot Springs) thought they drank an amazing amount of Scotch (legal in Canada a the time) for priests and, when they left they gave him an amazingly huge tip -$10.00. He found out much later it was Al Capone and other gang members.
Also he should look up little chicago...or as I know it. Mattoon Illinois where al Capone would go hide in when the police in chicago got to hot for him...and how he owned all of the police force.....al Capone house is still around and has tunnels in it
Well done episode.
I like your channel, you give an excellent perspective view of various era's of historical significance. Kevin Phoenix
History Guy , I luv the way you narrates the shorts of the subjects in forgotten history, you make them very interesting and informative to listen to, In my opinion, you out did yourself in this one. Being for Chicago, I was interesting in the one about the infamous gangster, Dean O’ Banian is reputation preceded him, but I didn’t realize he was from Illinois and is bury in Mt Carmel Cemetery in Illinois, and other known facts about his life.
This video states that Mt Carmel Cemetary where O'Banion is buried would have been just a few blocks from his old florist shop. However his old florist shop was located across the street from Holy Name Catheral on Wabash in downtown Chicago. Mt Carmel Cemetary is in Hillside, IL miles away from the location of his old florist shop. I've been to his grave many times as it's not far from the Bishop's Mausoleum where Cardinals Bernardin and Cody are interred and it's also not all that far from the graves of Al Capone, the Genna Brothers, Hymie Weiss, Frank Nitti and also Sam Giancana. It's a very interesting cemetary.
Hello History Guy, I like your style.
Have you made a video on Ella Hatton (La Jaguarina)
She seems to be a suitable subject to be remembered.
Nicely done!
another excellent production. thank you for your wonderful work
On an alternate subject would you consider doing an episode about the Hatfield and McCoy feud?
Thank you for sharing another great history lesson
So that florist mobster portrayed in Boardwalk Empire was based on a real character.
Yes, Dean O'Banion was a character in Boardwalk Empire, portrayed by Arron Shiver
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel
Do like that show? I always felt they portrayed 1920s life fairly accurately.
Justin Pipes I have watched some, but not all. It is an enjoyable show, but its presentation of various historical figures is highly fictionalized.
@@TheHistoryGuyChannel I know the arc and life depicted of the main characters is highly fictionalized like you said. What I meant was like the day to day life of the people in general. Anyways... thank you for the videos sir. You sure can tell onel hell of a ripping yarn.
The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered Agreed about Boardwalk taking a lot of liberties. My distant cousin is Eddie Cantor and I feel slightly miffed whenever I see his character on there. :).
Love your history capsules.
Great vid, but that cemetery is alot farther than a few blocks from the flower shop.
I want to know about your collection of military hats I see behind you.
Thank you
Great, just great Usual. Keep it up history guy, love your show.
Lifelong Chicagoan here.
Hoping you might consider doing a segment on the Haymarket Bomb Incident.
Talk about forgotten, few people know that anarchists (who were innocent of the bombing) were hanged so that American workers might have an eight hour day
John Sheehan The statue near the incident site that was frequently damaged had been moved to the lobby of Chicago Police academy. There is a Haymarket memorial in Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, just past the Gypsy family section at the Des Plaines Ave. entrance.
Despiser Despised Oh the were definitely anarchists, Lucy Parsons husband and all that. As much as it’s known it’s not really known enough in the US.
@@wrecktech Thanks Art. I live very close to the cemetery in Forest Park (as I suspect you may, too) and you are correct about "Decenter's Row" and it's proximity to the "Gypsy" or as they prefer Romani section. Here's a bit of trivia: The reason that Communist, Socialist, Anarchist and other labor notables as well as the Romani and other humanist organizations such as Druids and Oddfellows are buried at Forest Home is that it is an unconsecrated cemetery. I'm associated with the Illinois Labor history Society who maintain the memorials and the cemetery plots.
And yes, the police statue was blown up...twice. The last time reputedly by members of The Weather Underground a year after the 1968 Democratic Convention
@Despiser Despised Thanks for asking. Anarchist is the term that many of the Haymarket Martyrs and their followers called themselves. Historically Communism as a political movement would not come into being for another 50 years although the teachings of Marx and Engles would spark a social movement spawning many iterations soon after the turn of the century.
Mount Carmel Catholic Cemetery is in Hillside Il ...fifteen miles west of the loop and O'Banion's flower shop
Very interesting video, thanks for sharing this little known history.
A fascinating bit of history that is well worth remembering.
O'Banion and his Chicago Typewriter. I remember hearing those stories growing up on the south side of my beloved City
Enjoy your channel. I learn so much here.
My husband's family is from Chicago, lived on Archer Ave. & ran a small grocery store. Moved to Michigan in 1946. Supposedly, one of Al Capones hideaways was nearby in sw Muchigan.
"Nearby" is a relative term... the cemetery and the florist shop address are indeed "nearby" each other at 10 miles, in relation to most of us, that are from hundreds to many thousands of miles distant.
I am new come to this channel and watch two or three episodes with my meals. Eventually I will come to the end of playlist. That day will be sad, but not today oh but not today.
Great episode. Love history and have a personal interest in Chicago as we will soon have a student in college there.
If only someone had been there to yell "run florist, Run!"
I used to work in Maroa. It’s known as Maroa-Forsyth. There is a huge shopping mall there. It’s the suburban area of Decatur.
I had no clue the history.
It’s very close to my family’s home.
"Florist" isn't the first idea you think of when you hear a business is a front for the mob, but that's precisely why it's kind of a great cover
True .
Mt. Carmel cemetery is not near the former Schofield Flower shop. Far from it, the cemetery is in a western suburb with many gangsters of the period buried there.
Yet another fine presentation!
Yet another fantastic story
I vaguely knew about some of this, but as usual your knitting together of a fine yarn in the spirit of the story teller historians of other times was nothing short of wonderful! Thank You Again!!
The history of "The Youngstown Tune-up" deserves to be remembered.
The History Guy is wonderful!
I didn't know the beginning of the mob war in Chicago, thank you for informing us.
Your videos are greatly appreciated and a joy to watch and learn from. Have you a segment of the death of Chief Black Kettle?
Chicago is still a crazy town. I wouldn't go playing around much in the old "North Side"...but I'm from a rural community and any town over 10,000 people is a rough town to me, haha.
thank you, interesting piece of history
WoW! Fascinating (in a macabre way) piece of little known, Chicago mob history. One I never knew about, even though my family roots are there, and shamefully, we had mob connections. Thanks for bringing this to light, especially with all those pictures. I couldn't believe all the flowers!
What an interesting guy though; one of those who obviously used his smarts for bad instead of good. Those were some really big sums of money you were mentioning, so he was quite the entrepreneur. $1M in revenue for one year of business, & died with over $500 in his pocket?! That's rare even today.
I'm fairly certain my great-grandfather was involved somehow in the mob. It was hushed up in front of us kids, so we never did find out exactly how high up he was. But it's kind of funny now that I think about it, because every time there was a family wedding or funeral, we would hear the adults talking about mob connections & activities, while they elbowed each other, even in the days we were living in. Of course, that was after they'd had quite a few Highballs.
My own father was Jimmy Hoffa's cousin, and everybody knows he ran the Teamsters Union. (The connection will become apparent in the next paragraph; but I digress.)
My great-grandfather, was apparently a "big wig" in his time, and very popular; knew a LOT of people. He was supposedly, "in trucking." In Chicago, that's code for illegal transporting, highway robbery, and fencing stolen goods. These kinds of activities were fairly common place in Chicago...probably still are, just not with Tommy guns.
He had just won an election, and was about to become part of Chicago politics, when he was found crushed to death under a delivery truck. The Al Capone way of saying, "It was an accident."
As a child, I often heard that his wake lasted a week, and thousands of people attended, leaving huge sums of money for my great-grandmother, who was left with 5 girls to raise.
Sadly, she struggled financially, lost the youngest daughter to appendicitis, & wound up as a cleaning lady for offices in Berwyn.
Digressing again:
She remarried a wealthy businessman after the girls were grown, but spent years nursing him after a stroke left him paralyzed. He left her well off, and we all took care of her till her own stroke took her life in 1970.
She had immigrated from Czechoslovakia by herself at age 14 to escape pogroms, and worked to help pay for passage of her entire family's immigration to America.
She was only 4'8", but one tough cookie.
I wish I'd known my great-grandfather; he was apparently a really fun-loving, gregarious guy. But then again, most gangsters of that era had a form of charisma. I suppose in one way, it's how they built the mob, and got away with what they did.
Thankfully, my mother divorced my father, who abandoned us, and she shielded us from those elements of the family as best she could. We had a pretty hard, dirt-poor, but straight-laced upbringing.
But it was my proper, ethically driven step-father, who eventually rescued us. I have always said that if it weren't for him, I would've wound up waywardn in trouble, and messed up.
Now in my 60's, the only run-in with the law I've had, is one ticket for an expired parking meter.
... Thank you for this. Very interesting.
I really enjoy hearing about this. I recently found out that my mother's family are the ones that rented their cabin to Capone when he went up to the UP. My great grandfather was a bootlegger and ran a brothel up there also. My mother hated it because she and my grandmother had to clean the rooms in-between uses. My family sure has a colorful past, but I was wondering if you can get anymore information than that?
Excellent video of the history of the O'Banion mob hit in 1924