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#Post#: 1397--------------------------------------------------
The Night Chicago Died
By: Thorgrimm Date: June 30, 2013, 11:12 pm
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Back in the early 70's when I was a teenager, an English band
called Paper Lace released a song called The Night Chicago Died.
For years I had the idea about creating an alt hist that this
song could have been based on. Below is my effort to do just
that. Comments are welcome. :)
THE NIGHT CHICAGO DIED
From July 27 to August 2, 1932, a Major gang push to take and
rule Chicago began in that hot July night. When it was over one
hundred and eight police officers and 250 mobsters were dead,
537 injured and about 1000 rendered homeless. The incident which
sparked the 'war' was the shooting of a Capone hitter after he
had drifted into a neighborhood controlled by a rival gang, on a
hot, 96 degree day. The reasons for the 'war', however, lie
solely with the greed and ambition of one Alphonse Capone, a
vicious gangster, who controlled and organized the activities of
the southside gangs, many of which were sponsored by Chicago's
political machine. Most of the killing, murder, and arson was
concentrated on the east side where Capone had staked out his
new turf.
The 'war' was characterized by much activity on the part of
gangs of hoodlums, and the clashes developed from sudden and
spontaneous assaults into organized raids against life and
property.
As part of the background of the Chicago gang war, the
activities of gangs of hoodlums should be cited. There had been
friction for years, especially along the western boundary of the
area in which the southside gangs had tried to establish control
in the spring just preceding the gang war. They reached a climax
on the night of June 21, 1932, five weeks before the war, when
two east side mobsters were murdered. Each was alone at the time
and was the victim of unprovoked and particularly brutal attack.
As the raids began, clashes between the gangs stepped up.
Further to the west, as darkness came on, Capone's mobster's
became more active. Eastside mobsters caught in Capone's
districts suffered severely at their hands. From 9:00pm until
3:00am twenty-seven Eastside mobsters were beaten, seven were
stabbed, and four were shot.
The mobsters went back their territory to work the next day
without incident, but a street strike forced workers to walk,
creating opportunities for mayhem. But as the afternoon wore on,
Capone and his boys sought malicious amusement in directing
civilian mob violence against any eastside mobster they could
find
Eastside mobs began to retaliate against the Capone mobsters. As
the violence increased, police fired into a crowd of meleeing
mobsters, killing four. the mobsters became emboldened and began
to kill the police as well as each other, finally Capone began
taking the offensive in raids through territory that he wanted
to 'conquer'. Capone even began to use the boys of his men
between sixteen and twenty-two to help with the 'conquest.'
Then it escalated even further, the drive-by shootings began:
Automobile raids were added to the warring on Monday night. Cars
from which Tommy guns and revolver shots were fired were driven
at great spead through sections inhabited by the eastsiders. The
Capone raiders were never arrested and eastsiders began
'sniping' at the police in retaliation for not stopping the
raids. Chicago's Police Chief admitted to the Commission
afterwards:
"There is no doubt that a great many police officers were
grossly unfair in making arrests. They shut their eyes to
offenses committed by Capone's men while they were very vigorous
in getting all the eastsiders they could get.". Twice as many
eastsiders were arrested than Capone men.
The next day gang violence grew worse; A gang of capone's
soldiers, augmented by civilians, raid the 'Loop' or downtown
section of Chicago, early Tuesday, killing two eastside mobsters
and beating and robbing several others. Capone and his allied
gangs began raiding down as far south as Sixty-third Street in
Englewood and in the section west of Wentworth Avenue near
Forty-seventh Street. Premeditated depredations were the order
of the night. Many homes in the districts were attacked, and
several of them were burned. Lasalle Street railroad station was
invaded twice, with Capone's gangs hunting for eastside hitters.
Rain seemed to calm the raids for a few hours and fires in the
Stock Yards left 948 people, mainly Lithuanians, homeless. While
eastside gangs were blamed for the fires, the Grand Jury
suspected they were started in back of the Yards by Capone and
his gangs for the purpose of inciting feelings of anger by
blaming it on the eastside mobs, in whose territory the
stockyards were. But by then, the war began to escalate.
The police began to intervene in the raids and so Capone then
turned his Tommy guns on the police. In a running battle that
even has a police station sacked and destroyed, Capone began an
effort to so weaken the police that he would be essentially
king, for they would be too weak to interfere with his plans for
Chicago.
What actually happened was a 18 hour Gun battle where the
eastside gangs were forgotten in the combat between Capone and
the police. When it was over the police had finally stormed
Capone's fortified hideout in Cicero and he was in custody,with
a body count of 108 Police Officers dead to his credit.
Capone and his gangs and their activities were an important
factor throughout the raids. If not for them it is doubtful if
the raids would have gone beyond the first clash. Both organized
gangs and those which sprang into existence because of the
opportunity afforded seized upon the excuse of the first
conflict to engage in lawless acts.
Many of Capones's gangs came from the westside in and around
Cicero, and even the police said they could get little
information from residents about the activities of their gangs.
The report later made about the raids singles out two of the
worst of Capone's allies "Canaryville bunch" and "Hamburgs" as
particularly tough and involved in the raids. Richard J. Daley,
later mayor of Chicago was a member of the gang at the time and
was its president in 1924. The Hamburgs were sponsored by
Bridgeport Alderman Joseph McDonough. Daley always refused to
comment on whether he was involved in the raiding.
The worst of the gangs were Capone's killer's, a gang whose turf
extended from Cicero to Oak Lawn and from Roosevelt Road to one
hundred and eleventh Street. The gang was sponsored by Cook
County Commissioner Frank Ragen. Gang members boasted that they
were 'protected' and 'tipped off' by police. The Killers even
broke into a police station at 47th and Halstead where they
killed 12 Police Officers and stole evidence, along with some
firearms.
Capone's Killers and other gangs were targeted by the Grand
Jury, whose report said:
"The authorities employed to enforce the law should thoroughly
investigate clubs and other organizations posing as athletic and
social clubs which really are organizations of hoodlums and
criminals formed for the purpose of furthering the interest of
local politics. These gangs have apparently taken an active part
in the raiding, and no arrests of their members have been made
as far as this jury is aware."
Other Gangs
The Commission found that the gangs were mainly made up of boys
17-22 year old, and that many murders were committed by hitters
as young as 14. Members of The Lorraine gang also terrorized
residents and drove them out of areas around Wentworth and 47th.
Our Flags gang, a gang located on 47th near Union participated
in the raids, as did the Sparklers, were responsible for a fire
on 5919 Wentworth which burned down a house. The Aylward gang
also beat to death eastside mobsters in the Stockyards as a
handy dumping grounds. Other gangs who participated in the raids
included the Pine Club, Hamburgers, the Emeralds, the White
Club, Favis Greys', and the Mayflower.
The 18 hour gun battle was later immortalised as a song by Paper
Lace Called The Night Chicago Died
HTML http://www.stgfc.com/pnp/Images/Chicago_Died.mp3
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