Part II: Chicago's Unione
Siciliana
1920 - A Decade of Slaughter
by Allan
May
'In Chicago, the 'Unione' was in the early period
of Prohibition engaged in a kind of piecework, sweatshop, alcohol-distilling
enterprise. Hundreds of Sicilian immigrants were equipped with stills, and they
sold their alcohol to the central organization.'
--Theft of the Nation, by
Donald R. Cressey:
When Mike Merlo, the president of the Unione
Siciliana died of cancer in late 1924, Chicago's Little Italy turned into a
battlefield of competing bootleggers. At stake were the immense profits
Prohibition had unleashed. His death would trigger a series of events that would
change the face of Chicago's underworld, paving the way for Al Capone to gain
control of the coveted Unione.
Ironically, Merlo's death did not create
front-page headlines. In fact, below is the entire article from the back pages
of the Chicago Daily Tribune covering his death:
MICHAEL MERLO, LEADER OF CHICAGO ITALIANS, IS DEAD
Michael Merlo, 44, 433 Diversy Parkway, president of the
Union Sicilian society and a leader of Chicago Italians in the Democratic party,
died yesterday at his home of a complication of diseases. Mr. Merlo is survived
by his wife and six children.
This was hardly a fitting accolade to Merlo's prestige
in the community, especially in view of the $100,000 in floral tributes spent on
his funeral.
Merlo was born in Sicily in 1880 and came to America when
he was 9 years old. While rising in stature within the Unione Siciliana, he
exploited the membership to increase his political power, but he was said to
have had a genuine concern for the welfare of those in the community. Merlo
worked hard to maintain the peace in the Chicago underworld. He had the respect
of not only the Torrio/Capone mob and the Genna brothers, but also of the North
Side Gang headed by Dion O'Bannion.
In Edward D. Sullivan's Rattling the Cup, he
describes the Genna family as, 'the most tempestuous, vengeful and reckless
family of fireworks that ever whirled itself to death and disorder in Chicago's
crime history.' The six Genna brothers – Angelo, Antonio, Mike, Peter,
Sam and Vincenzo – dominated bootlegging in the 19th Ward, now more
popularly known as Little Italy. When Prohibition began they found there was a
fortune to be made. The brothers were able to obtain a federal license to
manufacture industrial alcohol. They then re-distilled the alcohol to make it
palatable and sold it illegally. From their headquarters, a three-story
warehouse on Taylor Street, they watched the money pour in and their product
pour out. Soon they were unable to keep up with the demand.
Henry Spignola, a lawyer, businessman and politician,
whose sister later married Angelo Genna, arrived at a solution to this problem.
With financing from Johnny Torrio, the Gennas installed stills in the homes of
Little Italy's residents. Beginning with a few hundred, the numbers of stills
in these mostly tenement flats grew into the thousands. With relatively little
work to be done, the still watchers earned $15 a day. As the Gennas' power and
influence grew in Little Italy, the brothers jumped on the political bandwagon
of 'Diamond Joe' Esposito, the Republican ward boss. They also had a
large number of policemen from the Maxwell Street Station on their payroll
protecting their alky-cooking operations from harassment. Five police captains
were said to be included in their payroll.
With their immensely successful alky cooking operations
the Gennas soon had a surplus of bootleg alcohol and began to push the product
outside of their agreed upon territory. As they moved north and east they butted
heads with Dion O'Bannion's North Side Gang. O'Bannion supplied a better
product compared to the Gennas' 'rot gut' whiskey, so the brothers
tried to level the playing field by lowering their prices by $3 to $6 a gallon.
O'Bannion could be savage and unpredictable. Out of
respect for Torrio, whose genius had helped establish the individual gang
territories in the city, O'Bannion complained to him instead of declaring war
on the Gennas. Torrio's influence was enough to make the Gennas recede,
although there remained a few border skirmishes.
In the spring of 1924, O'Bannion hijacked a shipment of
the Gennas' alcohol and the precarious peace was teetering. Both Torrio and
Merlo used their persuasive talents to keep the Gennas from retaliating. Then O'Bannion
dropped a bombshell. He went to Torrio and told him that he had had enough and
that he was retiring to Colorado. O'Bannion asked Torrio to purchase his share
of the Sieben Brewery, which they jointly owned. The price was $500,000.
O'Bannion had been informed that the Chicago police had
plans to raid the brewery. O'Bannion concocted a plan to make sure Torrio was
there when the raid took place. Since this would be Torrio's second
prohibition violation, if convicted, he faced certain prison time. During the
early hours of May 19, 1924, Torrio, O'Bannion and 29 others were arrested at
the brewery. Torrio soon realized O'Bannion's treachery. In addition to the
humiliation of the arrest, O'Bannion refused to return the money Torrio had
paid him for his share of the brewery.
In the weeks following the raid, hostilities increased
between the North Siders and the Gennas. During this time it was reported that O'Bannion's
second in command, Hymie Weiss, suggested caution in the gang's activities
against the brothers. O'Bannion is said to have replied with a snarling,
'Oh, to hell with them Sicilians.' These words quickly got back to the
Gennas and their allies – Torrio and Capone.
Over the summer of 1924 and into the fall, Mike Merlo was
still preaching peace and discouraging any plans to kill O'Bannion. Torrio and
the Gennas bided their time. O'Bannion had part ownership in a Cicero gambling
den called the Ship. He, Weiss and fellow North Sider, Vincent 'the
Schemer' Drucci would stop by weekly for their split of the profits. On
Nov. 3, they met Capone at the Ship, where he was surrounded by three Franks –
Maritote, Nitti and Rio. As Capone was divvying up the profits, he told O'Bannion
that Angelo Genna had lost a lot of money at the club the previous week. In
addition to dropping an untold amount of money, young Angelo had run up a
$30,000 marker. Capone suggested that as a courtesy to Genna that they tear up
the IOU. O'Bannion responded by heading to the nearest telephone and ordering
Angelo Genna to make good on the marker within the week.
This incident proved to be the last straw. Five days
later, Mike Merlo succumbed to cancer. The Torrio/Capone/Genna forces, who had
capitulated to Merlo's pleas for peace, used the Unione Siciliana leader's
passing to initiate their plot to murder O'Bannion. On Sunday night, Nov. 9,
Vincenzo Genna arrived at Schofield's flower shop, which O'Bannion jointly
owned (he had a love for arranging flowers). Genna picked up a $750 wreath –
casing the shop before he departed. Later that evening, Frank Uale (pronounced
and sometimes spelled Yale), at onetime Capone's New York City mentor and
recognized as the national head of the Unione Siciliana, called Schofield's
and placed a $2,000 flower order (some references say it was Angelo Genna who
placed the call). The order was to be picked up at the shop the following
morning.
Around 11:30 a.m. Monday, Nov. 10, three men entered
Schofield's flower shop. Two were members the Unione Siciliana and would gain
a reputation as Chicago's most proficient killers – Albert Anselmi and John
Scalise. The third man was never positively identified, although he was believed
to be either Frank Uale or Mike Genna. A porter sweeping up in the back room
watched either Uale or Genna shake O'Bannion's hand. As the porter turned
his back to continue his chore he heard five gun shots. Turing back around he
could see the man was still grasping O'Bannion's hand. The North Side gang
leader was killed instantly.
Before Merlo died, a lieutenant, believed to be Anthony
Lombardo, hired a sculptor to create a wax likeness of the Unione Siciliana
leader's head. Done in a tint that mirrored Merlo's skin tone, the waxen
head was taken back to a studio to be completed. Matching brown eyes were
implanted and eyebrows and eyelashes made from actual black and gray human hair
were added. The head was mounted on a copper wire frame built to match Merlo's
measurements. A suit of blue flowers completed the effigy. At the funeral home,
it was said that 'fear gripped' the thousands of mourners who came to
pay their respects until their eyes became accustomed to the candle lit likeness
of the former leader.
Merlo's funeral was held on Nov. 13. Three thousand
mourners gathered around his home the day of the funeral and followed the
procession to St. Clement's Church for high mass. The 266-car cortege made its
way to Mount Carmel Cemetery led by the life-sized effigy of Merlo. At the
cemetery the crowd of mourners swelled to 10,000. Among the honorary pallbearers
were Mayor William E. Dever, State Atty. Robert E. Crowe, Police Chief Morgan A.
Collins, and Cook County board president and future mayor, Anton J. Cermak. The
following day Dion O'Bannion was buried in the same cemetery.
Police arrested Uale several days later as he was at the
train station on his way back to New York. Samoots Amatuna provided an airtight
alibi for Uale by producing a waiter who swore he had served lunch to the two
men at the Palmer House restaurant while the murder was taking place. This, plus
the fact that it would have been questionable for Uale to use his name while
ordering the flowers and then showing up to murder O'Bannion, led some crime
historians to believe it was Mike Genna who actually held the hand of the North
Side leader that day,
O'Bannion's death would be avenged. In January 1925, a
North Side hit squad consisting of Weiss, Drucci and George 'Bugs'
Moran shot and seriously wounded Johnny Torrio outside his apartment. Torrio
eventually recovered, served his sentence from the Sieben Brewery raid, and left
Chicago behind. Capone took over the Chicago rackets and would battle the North
Side followers of O'Bannion in a war that raged on for four more years
culminating in the St. Valentine's Day massacre.
Angelo Genna:
Angelo Genna, the youngest and most volatile of the six
brothers would take Merlo's position as president of the Unione Siciliana.
Angelo was one of the top gunmen during Anthony D'Andrea's ill-fated attempt
to take over the Democratic political leadership of the 19th Ward. Of
the estimated 30 murders that took place during that war the only person ever
prosecuted was 'Bloody' Angelo – for the killing of Paul Labriola.
At the trial, Angelo was ably defended by D'Andrea's friend, Stephen Malato,
who resigned his position as assistant state's attorney to handle the case.
Angelo also went free for the murder of Paul Notti in 1922
even though Notti, from his deathbed, had identified Genna. The defense was able
to prove that Notti was under the influence of an opiate at the time for pain;
the judge tossed the confession out. In August 1922, Angelo interceded for two
friends in a Mann Act violation, where a 15-year-old girl was taken across state
lines for purposes of prostitution. On the day before the trial was to get
underway, Angelo stopped the young lady on the street and told her if she
testified that he would kill both her and her mother. The brave girl went to
court and exposed the threat. Angelo Genna was sentenced to Leavenworth
Penitentiary for a year for the threat in November 1922.
With Merlo's death the Torrio/Capone combine saw the
opportunity to install its own man as head of the Unione Siciliana. Antonio
Lombardo was a friend of Capone and the Aiello brothers, with whom he was a
partner in a cheese business. Capone felt his relationship with Frank Uale, the
national head of the Unione, would help him get Lombardo the top position, and
this would eventually lead to Capone's control of Little Italy's alky
cookers.
This plan of the Neapolitan Capone didn't sit well with
the Sicilian Gennas, who, as members of the hierarchy of the Unione, saw the
position of president as one of prestige and honor among their Sicilian
brethren. The brothers quickly lobbied the rank and file and pressed hard to put
Angelo in as the next president. Capone, unhappy at the turn of events, bided
his time under the patient leadership of Johnny Torrio.
Capone biographer Laurence Bergreen gives us the following
account:
'The selection of Merlo's successor provoked
Frankie Yale to return to Chicago. As head of the powerful New York branch of
the Unione, Yale had considerable influence over the selection of who would fill
the corresponding post in Chicago. He conferred with Torrio and Capone, and the
three men decided to appoint Angelo Genna …who wanted only to see Dion O'Bannion
in his coffin. As the new president of the Unione Sicilione, Angelo had no
objection to the immediate elimination of a certain North Side bootlegger who
had recently humiliated him on the telephone over a little IOU.'
On Jan. 10, 1925, after his ascension to the Unione
Siciliana throne, Angelo Genna got married. Kenneth Allsop in his classic work, The
Bootleggers: The Story of Prohibition, claims, 'They (the
brothers) had married off Angelo to Lucille, younger sister of an important
member of the Sicilian community. The marriage was a happy consummation of this
business bond, the fusion of money and blood in the manner which the Sicilians
valued.'
The wedding was viewed as a 'social and commercial
conquest.' Angelo advertised the blessed event in the newspaper with an
invitation to the entire neighborhood – 'Come one, come all.' Three
thousand 'guests' were in attendance at Carmen's Hall of the Ashland
Auditorium on the city's West Side. The highlight of the reception was a
12-foot high, 2,000-pound wedding cake. Described as the 'most elaborately
decorated cake ever baked in Chicago,' it was designed by a local
artist/sculptor.
The newly married couple moved into a $400 a month hotel
suite on Sheridan Road near Mayor William Hale 'Big Bill' Thompson's
home, just north of the Gold Coast. The honeymoon would be a short one. Four
months had passed since the wounding of Johnny Torrio. During this relative calm
only two underworld murders had been recorded – Walter O'Donnell, the
brother of Spike, and Harry Hassmiller were murdered in a roadhouse in Evergreen
Park, Ill., on April 17. The calm was about to end and the killings that
followed did not favor the Gennas.
Packing a wad of cash totaling $11,000 into his pocket,
Angelo Genna kissed his 18 year-old wife Lucille goodbye and headed out the door
on the morning of May 25, 1925. Angelo was on his way to purchase a dream home
Lucille desired in Oak Park. As Angelo tooled down Ogden Avenue in a new $6,000
roadster, a sedan with four men in it began to overtake him.
At the sound of sawed-off shotgun blasts, Angelo floored
the gas pedal and the chase down Ogden Avenue reached speeds of 60
miles-per-hour. Angelo, who always carried at least two guns, pulled one from a
belt holster and returned fire. At Hudson Avenue, Angelo tried unsuccessfully to
negotiate a turn. His car crashed into a lamppost and Angelo was momentarily
stunned by the collision. The sedan pulled broadside and the assassins fired a
barrage at the helpless man.
The sedan sped away and when bystanders arrived they found
Genna trying to reach for his second gun, the first lay emptied nearby. One of
the shotgun blasts had severed his spine. Angelo was taken to Evangelical
Deaconess Hospital. As he lay mortally wounded on the operating table a
detective sergeant gave him the bad news.
'You're going to die, Angelo,' he said.
'Tell us who bumped you off.'
Genna shrugged his shoulders in arrogance.
Lucille Spignola Genna was rushed to the hospital. Calling
him 'sweetheart' she asked who had shot him. Genna shook his head and
soon died. Sam Genna, who had arrived too late, Lucille and Peter Spignola were
taken to the detective bureau where they were questioned by Chief of Detectives
William Schoemaker and Captain John Stege. No information was forthcoming other
than, 'Angelo had no enemies, everybody liked him.'
At the coroner's inquest, a young man came forward to
say that he was close enough to see the license plate number of the killer's
automobile. A check of motor vehicle records showed the car had been stolen two
weeks before the murder. Without a clear-cut explanation, police attributed the
murder to the North Side gang in retaliation for the killing of O'Bannion and
claimed that Weiss, Drucci and Moran were three of the four men in the car, the
driver of which was alleged to be Frank Gusenberg, one of three brothers in the
gang.
Angelo Genna's funeral procession consisted of 300
automobiles, 30 containing flowers. The Catholic Church denied him a church
ceremony and burial in consecrated ground. Genna's active pallbearers were all
members of the Unione Siciliana. Among the mourners were a state senator, two
state representatives, 'Diamond Joe' Esposito, and Al Capone. Oddly
enough, Alderman John Powers, whose associates were murdered by 'Bloody
Angelo,' was also in attendance. In a unique twist to this funeral, Angelo's
'crepe-hung,' shotgun-peppered roadster was towed along.
Angelo's death and the loss of leadership of the Unione
Siciliana were the least of the remaining brothers' worries. Capone had
covertly stolen away the firepower of the Gennas – Scalise and Anselmi. On
June 13, 1925, Mike Genna was killed by a police officer interrupting what crime
historians believed to be a one-way ride for him by Scalise and Anselmi. On July
8, Antonio was murdered on the street. In a period of 44 days three of the Genna
brothers were killed. Later, on Jan. 10, 1926, Angelo's brother-in-law, Henry
Spignola was murdered. The remaining Genna brothers – Peter, Sam and Vincenzo
– fled to Sicily. The Genna family's reign over the Unione Siciliana had
lasted a little over six months.
'Samoots' Amatuna:
Samoots, whose real name was Samuel Samuzzo Amatuna, had a
short but colorful career in the underworld. Called the 'Beau Brummel of
Little Italy' by the newspapers, his rise and fall paralleled that of the
Genna family with whom Amatuna was once closely associated.
In 1916, at the age of 17, Amatuna's rise in the crime
world began when he was credited with the murder of D'Andrea foe Frank
Lombardi on Feb. 21. Five years later, on March 8, 1921, he was a participant in
a Genna hit team that killed both Paul A. Labriola and Harry Raimondi. In the
Maxwell Street neighborhood where he was so popular, Amatuna had the reputation
of a tough guy who never carried a gun. Apparently when he did carry one, he was
accustomed to using it.
In the wake of Angelo Genna's murder, and without the
blessing from New York, Amatuna seized the opportunity to make himself head of
the Unione Siciliana. He accomplished this by hiring two bodyguards, Edward Zion
and Abraham Goldstein, and then walking into the Unione headquarters and
proclaiming himself the boss.
The real muscle of the Genna gang came from the killing
duo of Scalise and Anselmi, who, unbeknownst to Amatuna and other Genna
loyalists, had switched allegiance to Capone. The two were facing separate
trials for the recent murders of two police officers who were killed during the
ill-fated attempt to murder Mike Genna. Amatuna busied himself and his men with
raising $100,000 for their legal defense.
While this was going on, Antonio Genna was murdered and
the remaining three brothers fled town. This left Amatuna with the unenviable
task of trying to regroup the remnants of the once powerful Genna organization.
In addition to rebuilding an underworld empire left in
shambles, Amatuna was also planning his wedding, which was to 'set a new
high-mark in the festivities of the kind.' Amatuna was engaged to Rose
Pecorara, the sister-in-law of the late Unione president Mike Merlo. The wedding
was planned for the previous December, but postponed when Merlo passed away.
On Tuesday night, Nov. 10, 1925 Amatuna and his fiancée
had tickets to attend the opera to hear Aida. As was his custom before
any social event, Amatuna visited his barber at the corner of Halsted and
Roosevelt. After receiving a shave and a manicure, Amatuna was preparing to
leave when two men entered the busy shop and drew guns. As the pair started
shooting, Amatuna ducked behind a chair while barbers and customers dove for
cover. Both gunmen fired four times each, but only one bullet struck Amatuna,
entering his neck and coming out his back below the shoulder blade. Friends of
Amatuna's standing outside the shop rushed in after the gunmen fled and
carried him to a taxi which took him to the hospital.
At Jefferson Park Hospital Dr. Gaetano Rongo, the former D'Andrea
supporter attended to Amatuna. The bullet that entered Amatuna's neck passed
close to his spinal cord. Doctors feared that if he lived he would be paralyzed.
Amatuna lingered through Wednesday, but by Thursday afternoon he knew he was
dying. His brother had spent the afternoon canceling wedding arrangements that
had been made for the following week. Meanwhile, preparations were underway for
a deathbed wedding for late Thursday night. Before the ceremony could begin,
Amatuna slipped into a coma. At 2 a.m. Friday morning he was pronounced dead.
The wake was held on Nov. 16 at Miss Pecorara's home
where $20,000 worth of floral arrangements spilled out onto the front lawn, back
lawn and neighbors' lawns. The following day the funeral cortege wove its way
through Little Italy, passing the barbershop where Amatuna was shot. The
procession ended at Mount Carmel Cemetery where Amatuna was placed in a
temporary vault. His body would soon be sent home to his native Sicily where it
would be buried in consecrated ground with much pomp.
A friend of Amatuna's, speaking anonymously, told a
reporter after the shooting, that the relationship between Amatuna and the Genna's
had soured sometime before Amatuna took over the Unione. Amatuna had confided to
a policeman friend that he was in debt some $22,000 due to the money he had to
cough up for the Scalise and Anselmi defense fund. Meanwhile, the police,
incensed over the killing of two fellow officers, kicked over all of the stills
in the Maxwell Street territory of the Gennas. Amatuna complained, 'More
than half of those stills were mine.' The friend stated that each time
Amatuna set up a new still, 'it cost him $800 to $1,000, and every time he
set one up the police came along and kicked it over again.'
After Amatuna's funeral his ex-bodyguards were next to
go. On Nov. 18, after returning from the funeral, two men shot Edward Zion to
death in his driveway. On Nov. 20, Abraham Goldstein was shot twice in the head
while standing in a drug store.
Over the years the killers of Amatuna were believed to be
Jim Doherty of the West Side O'Donnell gang and Vincent Drucci of the North
Side gang. In his book Mr. Capone, author Robert Schoenberg presents a
logical argument that the killers were actually members of the Capone mob
instead of Doherty and Drucci. Whatever the case, Capone was certainly the one
who benefited. Finally he was able to get his own man into the presidency of the
Unione Siciliana, and second, he now believed he had the Genna's
'fabulously profitable alky-cooking empire' to himself.
Amatuna's time atop the Unione Siciliana leadership was
under six months, just weeks short of Angelo Genna's reign.
Next: Part III of Chicago's Unione Siciliana: 1920 – A Decade of Slaughter
Capone finally gets his man, Anthony Lombardo, in as
president of the Unione Siciliana. Lombardo's murder at the hands of the
Aiello brothers sparks another gang war. Capone's men murder national
president Frank Uale in New York, and Unione Siciliana representatives from
around the country arrive in Cleveland to discuss a new leader.
Allan May's e-mail address is: AllanMay@worldnet.att.net
