1920s in organized crime

List of years in organized crime
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This is a list of organized crime in the 1920s, arranged chronologically.

1920

Events

• Jan. 17 - With National Prohibition having gone into effect at midnight, an army of around 25,000 federal Prohibition agents prepares to enforce the new law and arrest bootleggers and the sellers of now outlawed alcoholic beverages.
• February 3 – Chicago labor racketeer Maurice "Mossy" Enright is killed with a shotgun blast from a drive-by shooter as he parks his car on the curb by his home. Rival labor racketeer Timothy D. "Big Tim" Murphy is suspected in his slaying, but is released for lack of evidence. Although suspected by authorities to have involved the Torrio-Capone organization, Chicago labor union racketeer James Vinci is eventually convicted of his murder.
• February 20 - labor racketeer John "Smiling Jack" O'Brien is hanged in the Cook County Jail for the killing of Chicago police officer Richard Burke the previous June.
• March 31 - Several unknown gunmen shoot and kill White Hand Gang leader Dennis "Dinny" Meehan as he is taking an afternoon nap with his wife in their home in the Red Hook area of Brooklyn.
• April 15 – The Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree, Massachusetts is robbed of $15,776 ($0.2 million today) as a paymaster and guard are killed, supposedly by the Morelli Gang of Providence, Rhode Island. However, Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are, controversially, convicted of the robbery and executed in 1927.
• May 11 – Chicago business owner and racketeer James "Big Jim" Colosimo is shot and killed in the lobby of his restaurant by someone lying in wait for him, allegedly Al Capone.
• May 16 - Albert Anastasia and Giuseppe Florino fatally shoot longshoreman George Terrillo (Turino in some sources) in front of his home in Brooklyn. Terrillo dies the following day in the hospital.
• June 17 - Patrick "Paddy the Bear" Ryan, leader of the Valley Gang, is killed by Walter "The Runt" Quinlan.
• July 30 - Chicago labor racketeers Timothy D. "Big Tim" Murphy, Vincenzo "Sunny Jim" Cosmano, and Michael "Dago Mike" Carozzo are released from the Cook County Jail, where they have been imprisoned for the last four months, charged with the February killing of Maurice "Mossy" Enright. With the disappearance of the government's star witnesses, however, the state is forced to let the men go.
• August 20 – In a daring daylight robbery, Timothy D. "Big Tim" Murphy and his gang rob a mail train of $100,000. Murphy is indicted in February 1921, and convicted in November, receiving a six-year prison sentence and a $30,000 fine.
• August 23 - In an apparent business deal gone wrong, Jewish bootleggers Hirschie Miller and Samuel "Nails" Morton shoot and kill Chicago police detectives James Mulcahy and William Hennessey following a brief struggle inside the Beaux Arts Club in Chicago's South Side. Miller claims to have not known the men were cops, but the following day, a grand jury indicts Miller and Morton for the murders. However, both suspects are eventually released.
• September 28 - Detroit Mafia boss Giovanni "John" Vitale is shot and killed on Fourteenth Avenue early in the morning, the victim of a drive-by shooting. Gunmen in two vehicles hit Vitale a total of eighteen times.
• December 26 – Edward "Monk" Eastman is shot and killed on Fourteenth Street in downtown Manhattan's Union Square following an argument with a corrupt Prohibition agent named Jerry Bohan sometime in the early morning hours. The two men had allegedly been arguing over profits from bootlegging.
• December 31 - In a tense daylight robbery, six members and associates of Cleveland's Mayfield Road Mob shoot and kill Wilfred Sly and George Fanner, the president and vice-president of the W. W. Sly Manufacturing Company, and make off with the $4,200 payroll they had been transporting back to the plant. Over the following months and years, all the suspected robbers would be arrested, with only two being released. The others were tried, three of them being executed and two receiving lengthy prison sentences.
• Giuseppe Masseria assumes control of the New York City Morello Gang.

Births

• Matthew Joseph "Matty the Horse" Ianniello, loan shark and labor union racketeer for the Genovese crime family.
• April 13 – Roberto Calvi, Banco Ambrosiano chairman and mafia associate
• May 8 – Michele Sindona, Italian mason and mafia associate
• September 27 – Carlo Alberto dalla Chiesa, Italian carabinieri general, murdered in Palermo in 1982, for leading the effort to stop the violence of the Second Mafia War.

Deaths

• February 3 – Maurice Enright, Chicago labor racketeer
• February 20 - John "Smiling Jack" O'Brien, Chicago labor racketeer and cop killer
• March 31 - Dennis "Dinny" Meehan, leader of the White Hand Gang
• May 11 – James "Big Jim" Colosimo, Chicago prostitution and gambling racketeer
• June 17 - Patrick "Paddy the Bear" Ryan, Valley Gang leader.
• September 28 - Giovanni "John" Vitale, boss of the Detroit Mafia
• December 26 – Monk Eastman (Edward Osterman), Eastman Gang founder

1921

Events

• Upon his January 1921 election as Governor of Illinois, Lennington Small would begin issuing over 1,000 pardons to Chicago criminals during his seven years in office, until his own indictment for fraud.
• Sangerman's Bombers rise to prominence soon after the 1921 arrest and imprisonment of James Sweeney, leader of Sweeney's Bombers, a Chicago gang leader and professional bomber.
• Former Black Hand bomber Andrew Kerr is arrested and charged with conspiracy to bomb several union offices.
• A major gang war breaks out in California between the Suey Sing, Bing Kong, Jung Ying and Suey Don tongs.
• Carlo Gambino, the future founder of the Gambino crime family, arrives in New York as a stowaway from Palermo, Sicily at the age of 19.
• March 8 - In separate incidents Paul Labriola and Harry Raimondi, aids of Alderman John Powers of Chicago's Nineteenth Ward, are shot and killed. The five assassins are said to include four gunmen imported from New York City.
• March 17 - Chong Yee Luck, a suspected member of San Francisco's Jun Ying Tong, is shot and killed in Locke, a community about thirty miles to the south of Sacramento. After the shooting, police arrest Joe Chew and Fong Gung, members of the Suey Dong Tong, in San Franciso. The following night, the Jun Ying Tong retaliates with the killing of Suey Dong member Tom Jew Yee in San Francisco.
• March 20 - Peter "Sugarhouse Pete" DiGiovanni, brother of Kansas City Mafia boss Joseph "Joe Church" DiGiovanni, is arrested after policemen raid his grocery store and find two gallons of prohibited corn whiskey.
• March 23 - During an attempt to arrest Thomas "Terrible Tommy" O'Connor, a member of a notorious Irish criminal gang in Chicago as well as a fugitive wanted for the murder of fellow gang member James "Jimmy" Cherin, O'Connor shoots and kills Chicago Police Detective Sgt. Patrick "Paddy" O'Neill. O'Connor then successfully escapes from his remaining pursuers by hijacking a vehicle and forcing its owner to drive him away from the area at gunpoint.
• April 15 - Chicago Black Hand leader Sam "the Devil" Cardinelli and fellow mobsters Nicholas "The Choir Boy" Viana and Frank Campione are hanged for the murder of saloon owner Andrew P. Bowman.
• May 11 – Chicago mobster and president of the Unione Siciliane Anthony D'Andrea is shot down just outside his home around 2:00 a.m., only hours following a card game the previous night. Taken to the hospital, D'Andrea dies of his wounds on the afternoon of the 12th. He is succeeded by Mike Merlo.
• May 11 - Albert Anastasia and Giuseppe Florino are convicted of the 1920 murder of longshoreman George Terrillo in Brooklyn. On May 25, Anastasia and Florino are sentenced to die in the electric chair at Sing Sing. (The two will be released from prison in April 1922, however, when New York Supreme Court Justice Mitchell May discharges them at the request of Brooklyn District Attorney John E. Ruston.)
• May 20 – Labor racketeer Cornelius Shea is accused of leading a bombing campaign during a stationary engineer's strike, in 1920. Charges are never filed due to lack of evidence.
• May 31 - Four "safe blowers" - including future North Side Gang leaders Dean O'Bannion and Earl "Hymie" Weiss - are arrested right after blowing the lid off of the safe in the offices of a local typographical union.
• July 18 – The body of West Side bootlegger "Big Steve" Wisniewski, who is not immediately identified, is discovered dead by the side of the road near the Chicago suburb of Libertyville. Wisniewski, whose corpse was first sighted by the road on the morning of Sunday the 17th (and assumed to be a sleeping drunk), is found with four gunshot wounds and a crushed skull. His body is finally identified on July 20th. Wisniewski had recently hijacked a North Side Gang beer shipment, and was last seen with Hymie Weiss. Upon Weiss's return he reportedly explained, "I took Stevie for a one way ride." This is the first time a gangland killing is used as the phrase "one way ride," a term still commonly used today to refer to this method.
• July 25 - Wanted for the murder of a Chicago detective since March, "Terrible Tommy" O'Connor is finally captured near a train yard in Minneapolis. Extradited back to Chicago, O'Connor's trial begins on September 11. On September 24, O'Connor is convicted and sentenced to hang.
• August 10 - Lim Look, thought to be a member of the Hop Sing Tong, shoots and kills Loung Bow, who is a member of both the Suey Sing and Bing Kong tongs, as the latter is working on his automobile in Stockton, California, near Sacramento. Lim is quickly arrested on the scene. This killing is one of the last known murders of the so-called Tong Wars.
• August 14 – Joseph Sinacola is gunned down in front of his two children during the long running feud between Alderman John Powers and the late Anthony D'Andrea. Sinacola had been released from hospital just two weeks earlier, following a July 6 attempt on his life.
• August 16 - Six New York City Mafiosi - including Stefano Magaddino, the future boss of the Buffalo crime family, and Vito Bonventre, a future member of the Bonanno crime family - are arrested for the murder of Carmelo Caiozzo in New Jersey in July, and arraigned the following day. The six suspects are believed to be members of a Mafia murder ring known as the "Good Killers," who are alleged to have carried out murders all over the country, including those of the Giannola Brothers in Detroit.
• October 13 - New York Mafioso Giuseppe "Diamond Joe Peppe" Viserta is shot and killed in a cafe in Manhattan's Little Italy. While attempting to return fire, Viserta fatally shoots another patron by mistake, while Viserta's killer escapes.
• December 11 - A mere four days before he is to be hanged, gangster and convicted cop killer Thomas "Terrible Tommy" O'Connor, along with four other inmates, overpower the guards and escape from the Cook County Jail. O'Connor then makes his escape from the area using a stolen gun to hijack a series of automobiles, similar to the method he had used to evade arrest immediately after killing Detective Sgt. O'Neill back in March. (After his escape, O'Connor disappears and is never recaptured.)

Arts and literature

• Season 2 of HBO's Boardwalk Empire

Births

• January 19 – William Devino, high-ranking member of the Gambino crime family
• February 24 – Peter Marcello, Sr., younger brother of Carlos Marcello, boss of the New Orleans crime family
• July 28 – Frank "Frankie Bal" Balistrieri, Milwaukee Mafia leader

Deaths

• March 17 - Chong Yee Luck, member of the Jun Ying Tong
• March 18 - Tom Jew Yee, member of the Suey Dong Tong
• April 15 – Sam Cardinelli, (Chicago) Black Hand leader
• May 12 – Anthony D'Andrea, Chicago mobster and Unione Siciliane President
• July 16 or 17 – "Big Steve" Wisniewski, West Side, Chicago bootlegger
• Aug 10 - Loung Bow, member of the Suey Sing and Bing Kong tongs
• October 13 - Giuseppe "Diamond Joe Peppe" Viserta, New York Mafioso from the Mustache Pete era

1922

Events

• New Orleans crime family leader Carlo Matranga retires from the organization appointing Sylvestro "Sam" Carolla in his place.
• Louis Buchalter is sent to prison for burglary.
• New York crime family founders Joseph Profaci and Vincent Mangano arrive in the United States from Palermo, Sicily.
• Louis Romano, an associate of Francesco "Frank 'The Enforcer' Nitti" Nitto, is indicted for murder, however is later found acquitted. On Nitti's behalf, Romano would later assume control of the Chicago Bartender and Beverage Dispenser's Union, Local 278.
• April 9 - Chicago bootlegger Max Miller (brother of Hirschie Miller), along with William "Red" Cohen and James Adelman, are arrested following a saloon shooting in which one man was killed and four others were wounded. The shooting was reported to have been caused by one of the victims having insulted the sister of lightweight boxer Sailor Friedman.
• May 8 – In a drive-by shooting in the morning, Vincenzo Terranova is hit with a shotgun blast outside his home on 116th St. in New York, and killed, most likely by order of Rocco Valenti. Later that evening, in a similar incident, Valenti's gang attempts to kill Giuseppe "Joe the Boss" Masseria on Grand St., but Masseria and his men return fire. Five people are wounded in the shootout, including some innocent bystanders. The police manage to capture Masseria as he flees from the scene on foot. When they search him, they find a gun permit allegedly issued to him by one of the justices of the New York Supreme Court.
• May 11 – Timothy D. "Big Tim" Murphy, Cornelius "Con" Shea, and Fred "Frenchy" Mader, along with five other men are indicted for murdering a Chicago policeman early the previous morning. The state withdraws the indictment against Shea and Murphy in August for lack of evidence, while Mader's trial ends in a hung jury. Upon retrial in November, Mader is acquitted, while only one of the other men originally charged is given fourteen years.
• July 8 – Joseph Peter DiCarlo, co-founder and then-boss of the present day Buffalo crime family, dies of natural causes and is succeeded by longtime (1922–1974) boss Stefano Magaddino.
• August 8 – Umberto Valenti, a leading member of the Morello crime family, attempts to assassinate Joe Masseria after shooting his two bodyguards, and corners Masseria in a Second Avenue millinery shop. Masseria, however, manages to escape with two bullet holes in his straw hat. On August 11, during peace negotiations with Morrello and Masseria, Valenti is killed by Charles Luciano outside a Twelfth Street restaurant while trying to escape an apparent attempt on his life. During the shootout an eleven-year-old girl and a street cleaner are wounded.
• August 16 - Three gunmen shoot and kill Carmelo Ferraro, a Brooklyn grocery store owner and witness in a Black Hand murder case in Boston. He is killed in a garden at the back of his store, where he is hosting a party. Early the following day, Albert Anastasia and Giuseppe Florino, who were released from death row at Sing Sing in April for the 1920 murder of a longshoreman, are arrested for Ferraro's murder.
• August 30 - Early in the morning Al Capone, who is apparently driving under the influence, crashes his vehicle into a taxi, injuring the driver. Immediately following the collision, Capone exits his vehicle brandishing a revolver and flashing a deputy sheriff's badge, and even threatens one of the witnesses. Despite his efforts, Capone is arrested, although he threatens the arresting officer with the loss of his job, and boasts that he'll be able to get the charge "fixed." In newspaper articles the following day, Capone is identified as the owner of the "Four Deuces," a brothel on Wabash Avenue.

Deaths

• April 29 - Richard Croker, Tammany Hall politician and former member of the Fourth Avenue Tunnel Gang
• May 8 – Vincenzo Terranova, New York gangster and underboss of the Morello crime family
• July 8 – Joseph Peter DiCarlo, co-founder of the present day Buffalo crime family
• August 11 – Umberto Valenti, New York gangster and member of the Morello crime family
• December 5 – Benjamin Levinsky, New York gangster and labor racketeer.

1923

Events

• The Chicago Crime Commission releases its first published report of those "who are constantly in conflict with the law" naming over 28 underworld figures as public enemies including James "Mad Bomber" Belcastro, Edward O'Donnell, James "Fur" Sammons, William "Three Fingers" White, Jake Guzik, and Al Capone.
• Al Capone, assisted by longtime Cook County racketeer Edward Vogel, establishes his headquarters in the Chicago suburb of Cicero, Illinois.
• Owney Madden is released from Sing Sing prison.
• Ragen's Colts member Harry Madigan is arrested and charged with kidnapping and extortion.
• Joseph Lanza, member of the Masseria crime family (evolves later to Luciano, then Genovese crime family) organizes the United Seafood Workers (USW) of New York City's Fulton Fish Market.
• January 3 – William J. "Wild Bill" Lovett, leader of the New York City White Hand Gang, is shot twice in the chest by in a Brooklyn shanty. Although he eventually recovers from his wounds, he refuses to identify his attackers.
• August – The third New York City Labor slugger war (thugs hired by both sides to do battle in strikebreaker situations) begin after Jacob "Little Augie" Orgen's Little Augies and Solomon Schapiro ally against Nathan "Kid Dropper" Kaplan's Rough Riders during a gun battle between the gangs on Essex Street resulting in the deaths of two bystanders.
  • August 28 – "Kid Dropper" Kaplan is killed by Little Augies' gunman Louis Cohen while being transported from Essex Market Court.
• September 7 – In a continuing bootlegger war in South Side, Chicago, between the Southside O'Donnell Brothers and an alliance of the Saltis-McErlane Gang and the Chicago Outfit, Saltis-McErlane leader Frank McErlane kills Jerry O'Connor, a member of the Southside O'Donnell Brothers, in a driveby shooting. McErlane is the first to use a Thompson submachine gun, which becomes popularly known as a "Tommy Gun".
• September 17 – "Tommy Gun" innovator Frank McErlane kills again, gunning down George Meegan and George Bucher of the Southside O'Donnell Brothers.
• November 1 – Having survived the January 3 assassination attempt, White Hand Gang leader "Wild Bill" Lovett is killed by three Black Hand assassins led by Dui Cuteddi.
• December 1 – Frank McErlane strikes again, killing Thomas Keane, a beer-runner for the Southside O'Donnell Brothers.

Arts and literature

• When the Kellys Were Out (film)
• Season 3 of HBO's Boardwalk Empire

Births

• Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero, Bonanno crime family member
• Joseph Todaro, Buffalo Mafia Leader
• Gaetano Badalamenti, Italian mobster

Deaths

• May 2 – Emilio Picariello and Florence Lassandro hanged for killing police officer, the only woman to be hanged in Alberta
• August 23 – Nathan Kaplan, New York Prohibition gangster
• November 1 – William J. "Wild Bill" Lovett, White Hand Gang leader

1924

Events

• Joseph Amato takes over as head of the Milwaukee crime family, a subordinate family to the Chicago Outfit
• Thomas Joseph McGinty, a Cleveland bootlegger and fight promoter, is indicted with two other family members by a federal grand jury and charged with operating "a gigantic wholesale and retail conspiracy" through his saloon. After serving eighteen months at Atlanta Federal Penitentiary, he resumes his bootlegging activities.
• Walter Stevens, a long-time Chicago gangster and labor slugger credited with the deaths of over 60 men, retires as a gunman for the Torrio-Capone organization where he lives peacefully until his death in 1939.
• Joseph Bonanno, future founder of the Bonanno crime family, arrives in New York from Sicily.
• A tong war breaks out between the On Leong and Hip Sing tongs after several members of the On Leongs defect to the Hip Sings with a large amount of money.
• April 1 – Frank Capone, brother of Al Capone, is killed by police during the fighting which broke out while leading around 200 gunmen into Cicero, Illinois during the 1924 Chicago Elections in support of Mafia backed Republican politicians.
• November 10 – Chicago North Side Gang leader Dean O'Banion is killed when three unidentified men enter his flower shop and shoot him several times. This begins a five-year gang war between the North Side Gang, under Hymie Weiss, against Al Capone's Chicago Outfit that would end with the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, in 1929.

Births

• April 2 – Vito Ciancimino, Sicilian mobster and Palermo mayor
• April 21 – Philip Testa "The Chicken Man", Philadelphia crime family boss
• May 12 – Michele Greco "The Pope", Sicilian Mafia boss

Deaths

• April 1 – Frank Capone, Chicago Outfit member
• September 7 – Jerry O'Connor, Southside O'Donnell gunman
• November 10 – Dean O'Banion, North Side Gang leader

1925

Events

• Italian dictator Benito Mussolini's campaign against the Sicilian Mafia causes many Sicilian mafiosi, organized by Don Vito Cascio Ferro, to flee Italy. Ferro would later prepare to move his criminal operations to the United States before his arrest the following year.
• Joseph Sangerman, leader of Sangerman's Bombers, is arrested and later imprisoned. His death the following year while still awaiting trial would lead to that organization's eventual breakup.
• Carlo Matranga leaves New Orleans to establish the Los Angeles crime syndicate.
• Johnny Jack Nounes, leader of the Downtown Gang, is sent to Leavenworth Penitentiary for liquor charges.
• George "Big Bates" Karl, a Sheldon Gang hitman, is killed by the Joe Saltis-Frank McErlane Gang.
• John Barry, a member of the Sheldon Gang, is sentenced to two years for violation of the Volstead Act (Prohibition).
• January 12 – North Side Gang members Hymie Weiss, Bugs Moran, and Vincent Drucci, attempt to kill Al Capone at a South Side, Chicago restaurant. They fire at Capone's car, injuring his chauffeur but missing Capone.
• January 24 – Weiss, Moran, Drucci, and Frank Gusenberg ambush Chicago Outfit leader Johnny Torrio as he returns from shopping with his wife, shooting him and his chauffeur, Robert Barton, several times. As Moran is about to kill Torrio, the gun misfires. The gunmen are forced to flee as the police arrive. Soon after this attack, Torrio would retire to Italy, giving leadership of The Outfit to his lieutenant, Capone.
• February 9 – Johnny Torrio is sentenced by Judge Adam Cliffe to nine months in the Lake County Jail, in Waukegan, Illinois, a short distance north of Chicago. Torrio's lawyers ostensibly choose this facility because Torrio can receive proper medical treatment there; however, the real reason is for Torrio's protection as the Sheriff Edwin Ahlstrom is on Torrio's payroll. After his release, Torrio would be escorted by Capone out of Lake County.
• May 26 – Shortly after claiming the presidency of the Unione Siciliane, "Bloody" Angelo Genna is killed, possibly by members of the North Side Gang.
• July 14 – James Russo, an independent bootlegger in Chicago's "Little Italy", is killed by Al Capone's gunmen.
• August – Leo Lanzetti is killed by Salvatore Sabella in a drive by shooting.
• November 13 – Samuzzo Amatuna, an associate of the Genna crime family, is gunned down outside a West Side Chicago barber shop by members of the North Side Gang.
• November 18 – Amatuna associate and bodyguard Edward Zion is killed shortly after returning from Amatuna's funeral.
• November 20 – Amatuna associate and bodyguard Abraham Goldstein is shot and killed by unidentified gunmen while in a drug store.
• December – Saltis-McErlane Gang member Joseph "Dynamite" Brooks is supposedly killed by fellow member Pete Kunski out of professional jealousy.

Births

• January 19 – Rocco Chinnici, Italian anti-mafia magistrate
• January 26 – Luciano Leggio, Sicilian (Corleonesi) mafia boss
• March 7 – Former Genna crime family enforcer Joseph Calabriese.
• August 7 – Anthony Gaggi "Nino", high-ranking member of the Gambino crime family
• August 16 – William G. Hundley, head of the Justice Department's Organized Crime and Racketeering Section.
• December 22, Peter Milano, Los Angeles crime family boss

Deaths

• Angelo (May 26), Mike (June 13), and Tony Genna (July 8), three of the six brothers running the Genna crime family, are murdered by the North Side Gang, causing the remaining family to leave Chicago
• Sheldon Gang hitman Karl Bates
• January 22 – James Patrick O'Leary, Chicago gambling racketeer
• November 13 – Samuzzo Amatuna "Samoots", Unione Siciliane president and former member of the recently disbanded Genna Brothers gang.
  • November 18 – Edward Zion, Amatuna associate
  • November 20 – Abraham Goldstein, Amatuna associate
• December – Joseph Brooks, Ragen's Colts and Saltis-McErlane Gang member

1926

Events

• Sicilian Mafia Don Vito Cascio Ferro is arrested by Benito Mussolini and imprisoned. Casio Ferro would remain in prison until his death in 1945.
• John Tuccello, a gunman for the Sheldon Gang, is killed by members of the Saltis-McErlane gang.
• January 10 – Henry Spingola, brother-in-law to the six Genna Brothers of the Genna crime family, is killed by members of the Chicago Outfit.
• February 15 – Urazio "The Scourge" Tropea, an associate of the Genna crime family, is gunned down in a drive-by shooting by unidentified gunmen.
• February 21 – Genna crime family ally Vito Bascone, a Chicago West Side bootlegger, is killed in Stickney, Illinois.
• February 23 – Genna crime family member Edward Baldelli is found in a ditch outside Chicago.
• April – Saltis-McErlane Gang members hijack a Sheldon Gang beer shipment.
• September 20 – Members of the North Side Gang, including George "Bugs" Moran, Earl "Hymie" Weiss, Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci, Peter Gusenberg, and Frank "Tight Lips" Gusenberg attempt to kill Al Capone in a drive-by shooting at Capone's Cicero headquarters, firing hundreds of rounds. Although unharmed, Capone is terrified and requests a truce.
• October 11 – While meeting with Chicago lawyer William W. O'Brian, North Side Gang leader Hymie Weiss is killed in an ambush outside Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago, with bodyguard Patrick Murray. North Side Gang members Benny Jacobs and Sam Pellar are severely wounded. With Weiss's death, Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci assumes gang leadership.
• October 20 – John "Dingbat" O'Berta and Joseph "Polack Joe" Saltis call a peace conference in an attempt to broker a ceasefire among Chicago's major bootleggers. With the establishment of Madison Street as dividing the Chicago Outfit and the North Side Gang territories, the two sides agree to peace.
• December 30 – The Chicago gang ceasefire is broken when Sheldon Gang member Hillary Clements is killed by the Saltis-McErlane Gang.

Arts and literature

• The Gangs of New York by Herbert Asbury.

Deaths

• John Tuccello, Sheldon Gang member
• January 10 – Henry Spingola, brother-in-law to the six Genna Brothers of the Genna crime family
• February 15 – Urazio Tropea "The Scourge", associate of the Genna crime family
• February 23 – Edward Baldelli, Genna crime family member
• February 24 – Vito Bascone, Chicago bootlegger and Genna crime family ally
• August 6 – John "Mitters" Foley, Chicago bootlegger
• October 11 – Hymie Weiss, North Side Gang leader, and his associate/bodyguard Patrick Murray
• December 30 – Hillary Clements, Sheldon Gang member

1927

Events

• Al Capone's Chicago Outfit earns a yearly income of $108 million ($1.9 billion today).
• Salvatore Maranzano is sent to New York by Sicilian Mafia Don Vito Cascio Ferro in an attempt to unify the New York Italian-American gangs into a single organization.
• South Carolina bootlegger Manley Sullivan becomes the first gangster to be convicted for federal tax evasion. The case would establish the precedent of illegal income being taxable, an effective weapon against organized crime figures throughout the decade.
• The Southside O'Donnell's gang kidnaps John "Jackie" Adler, a liaison for Al Capone to the Chicago police. Adler is later released unharmed.
• Angelo Lo Mantio, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin gunman, is hired by Chicago bootlegger and organized crime leader Joe Aiello to murder competitor Al Capone.
• Joe Aiello continues hiring gunmen to kill rival Al Capone, but hitmen Sam Valante and New York gangster Antonio Torchio, in separate incidents, are both killed by members of Capone's Chicago Outfit as they each disembark their trains in Chicago.
• Sydney, Australia, gangster Norman Bruhn is killed on the orders of John "Snowy" Cutmore, leader of the Fitzroy razor gang.
• January – Chicago saloon owner John Costanaro, a distributor for the Sheldon Gang, is killed by a rival bootlegging gang.
• January 6 – Theodore Anton, a restaurant manager above Al Capone's Hawthorne Inn, is kidnapped and later killed by the rival North Side Gang.
• March 11 – Saltis-McErlane gunmen Charles "Big Hayes" Hubacek and Frank "Lefty" Koncil are killed, possibly by Chicago Outfit gunmen in retaliation for Koncil's recent acquittal for the 1926 murder of Sheldon Gang member John "Mitters" Foley.
• March 28 – Joseph Amato, boss of the Milwaukee crime family, dies of natural causes and is succeeded by Joseph Vallone.
• April 4 – North Side Gang leader Vincent Drucci is killed by Chicago Police detective Dan Healy while in police custody.
• June 10 – While checking up on Frankie Yale's bootlegging operations in New York, Capone gunman James DeAmato is killed in Manhattan.
• July 24 – Charles Birger is sentenced to death for the murder of West City Mayor Joseph Adams. Ray Hyland, a gunman for Birger, and Birger associate Arthur Newman are sentenced to life imprisonment.
• August 7 – After being stopped by a US Coast Guard cutter off the eastern coast of Florida, "King of the Rum Runners" James Alderman kills a US Secret Service agent and two members of the Coast Guard while being arrested. Alderman is later convicted of murder and hanged in 1929.
• October 13 – Joseph "Big Joe" Lonardo, founder and boss of the Cleveland crime family, is killed in a local barber shop, along with his brother John. Family underboss Salvatore Todaro, who planned the killings with the large Porrello brothers faction (owners of the barber shop), becomes the new boss.
• October 16 – New York labor union racketeer Jacob Orgen is killed by Louis Buchalter and Jacob Shapiro. Orgen's bodyguard Jack Diamond is severely wounded but survives.
• October 26 – A shootout between rival Australian razor gang leaders Joseph 'Squizzy' Taylor of Melbourne and John "Snowy" Cutmore of Sydney results in the deaths of both men (Taylor succumbed on the 27th).

Arts and literature

• Josef von Sternberg's Underworld is released starring George Bancroft, Evelyn Brent, Clive Brook, Fred Kohler and Helen Lynch.

Births

• James LaPietra, Chicago Outfit member
• January 2 – Vincent Meli, Detroit Partnership boss
• March 16 – Joseph Ferriola (Joe Nagall), Chicago Outfit member
• March 29 – Michael Rizzitello, Los Angeles crime family captain
• April 30 – Christopher "Christie Tick" Furnari, Lucchese crime family consiglieri
• November 13 – George Cornell, Richardson Gang member
• December 26 – Louis R. Failla, Patriarca crime family soldier

Deaths

• Norman Bruhn, Sydney gangster
• Sam Valante, member of Joe Aiello's gang
• January – John Costanaro, Chicago saloon owner and associate of the Sheldon Gang
• January 6 – Theodore Anton, Chicago Outfit associate
• April 4 – Vincent Drucci, North Side Gang member
• March 11 – Charles "Big Hayes" Hubacek, Saltis-McErlane gunman
• March 11 – Frank "Lefty" Koncil, Saltis-McErlane gunman
• March 28 – Joseph Amato, boss of Milwaukee crime family
• June 10 – James DeAmato, Chicago Outfit gunman
• October 13 – Joseph Lonardo, founder and boss of Cleveland crime family
• October 13 – John Lonardo, brother of Joseph Lonardo
• October 16 – Jacob Orgen, New York labor union racketeer
• October 26 – John "Snowy" Cutmore, Sydney gangster
• October 27 – Joseph "Squizzy" Taylor, Melbourne gangster

1928

Events

• Louis R. Elfman, a former lieutenant of Philadelphia bootlegger Maxie "Boo-Boo" Hoff, becomes a government witness.
• April 21 – Illinois gangster Charles Birger is executed for the ordered murder of West City, Illinois Mayor Joe Adams.
• June 14- Mafia associate Samuel Stein is charged with killing Kansas City police officer James H. "Happy" Smith
• June 26 – Timothy D. "Big Tim" Murphy is gunned down by assassins as he answered the door at his Chicago home.
• July 25 – Salvatore Canale, an associate of Chicago mobster Joe Aiello, is killed outside his home in Chicago.
• September 7 – Unione Siciliane President Antonio Lombardo, an advisor to mob boss Al Capone, is killed by several unidentified gunmen.
• October 10 – Salvatore "Toto" D'Aquila, founder of the present day Gambino crime family and reportedly held the title of "capo di tutti capi" (or "boss of all bosses"), is shot and killed by unidentified gunmen. He is succeeded by Alfred "Al Mineo" Manfredi.
• November 4 – Mob financier Arnold Rothstein is shot by an unidentified gunman while at Manhattan's Park-Central Hotel and dies of his wounds at the Polyclinic Hospital the following day. Rothstein's murder would be attributed to his refusal to pay a $320,000 gambling debt from a three-day poker. Rothstein had refused to pay because he said the game was dishonest. George "Hump" McManus, a participant in the game, would be arrested for Rothstein's murder, but later acquitted due to lack of evidence.
• December 5 – In a meeting known as the Cleveland Conference, over 20 mobsters are arrested while staying at a Cleveland hotel, including Cleveland, Ohio bootlegger Philip Bacino and New York bootlegger Vince Mangano. Of those in attendance, future mob boss Joe Profaci and mobster Joseph Magliocco, would attend the 1957 Apalachin Conference in New York.

Births

• George Cornell, UK gangster for the Richardson Brothers
• John Riggi, Sr. "The Eagle", New Jersey boss involved in northern and central New Jersey waterfront labor racketeering and ally of Simone DeCavalcante
• January 23 – Salvatore Lima "Salvo", Italian politician and mafia associate
• March 29 – Vincent Gigante "The Chin", Genovese crime family Don
• July 13 – Tommaso Buscetta, Sicilian mafioso turned government witness

Deaths

• April 21 – Charles Birger, Illinois Prohibition gangster
• July 1 – Frankie Yale, New York Black Hand boss, assassinated by Al Capone's hitmen
• July 25 – Salvatore Canale, Joe Aiello Gang member
• September 7 – Antonio Lombardo, Unione Siciliane President and Al Capone consigliere
• October 10 – Salvatore D'Aquila "Toto", Gambino crime family founder and "capo de tutti capi"
• November 4 – Arnold Rothstein "The Brain", New York mobster and gambler, murdered over a debt

1929

Events

• Mobster Antonino Morddelo "Tony," "Joe Batters" Accardo becomes head enforcer for Al Capone's "Chicago Outfit".
• Danny Stanton, a former member of the Valley and Sheldon Gangs, assumes control as interim leader of arch rivals Saltis-McErlane organization.
• January 8 – Unione Siciliane leader Pasquale Lolordo is killed in his Chicago apartment, supposedly by mobster Joe Aiello and members of the North Side Gang.
• January 12 – Labor racketeer Cornelius Shea died in a hospital in Chicago after an operation for gallstones.
• February 14 – Four unidentified men, two of them dressed as Chicago police officers, storm into a Chicago garage and murder seven members of the North Side Gang, (among them optometrist Rheinhart Schwimmer and mechanic John May). Their primary target, gang leader George "Bugs" Moran, is not there. However, the St. Valentines Day Massacre effectively ends the five-year gang war between The Chicago Outfit and the North Side Gang.
• March 19 – William J. Vercoe, a colorful Chicago criminal noted for reciting poetry, is shot and killed by Westside O'Donnell gang member William Clifford while at the Pony Inn in Cicero, Illinois.
• April 14 – William Clifford is gunned down along with former Westside O'Donnall's gang gunman Michael Reiley.
• May 7 – Chicago Outfit hitmen Albert Anselmi and John Scalise, two of the men suspected in the murder of North Side Gang leader Dean O'Banion and fellow mob boss Joseph "Hop Toad" Giunta, the current Unione Siculiana President are all killed during a lavish party held at Al Capone's residence. The party was a ruse by mob boss Al Capone to lure the three men to their deaths after their plan to gain leadership of the Chicago Outfit by eliminating Capone is uncovered. The men where beaten to death by Capone, who used a baseball bat to commit the murders.
• May 9 – Prominent New York mob associate Meyer Lansky marries Anna Citron.
• May 13–15 – The Atlantic City Conference is held in Atlantic City, New Jersey by American East Coast and Midwest organized crime leaders. This conference would later result in the formation of the National Crime Syndicate of all Italian-American gangs.
• May 16 – Shortly after leaving the Atlantic City, New Jersey meeting, Chicago mob boss Al Capone is arrested by Philadelphia police and charged with carrying a concealed weapon.
• May 16 – Bootlegger Joe Porrazo "Disappears" after alleged confrontation with organized Crime Figures {Joseph Ardizzone}
• May 29 – Thomas McElligot, a member of the Westside O'Donnell's gang, is killed in a Loop saloon in Chicago.
• June 11 – Salvatore "Black Sam" Todaro, a Cleveland, Ohio mafia leader, the #2 man or underboss in the Porrello crime family is shot and killed while approaching a parked car. Todaro's murder was a revenge killing for plotting with the Porrello family to betray and kill his former boss Joe Lonardo and take over the crime family in late 1927.
• June 24 – Broadway based mobster Gandolfo Curto, better known as "Frankie Marlow" was found murdered in Queens after a night of dining in Manhattan. Frankie Marlow was a former associate of Brooklyn mob boss Frankie Yale. Among other things, Marlow ran a bookmaking operation under Yale's protection and was also a bootlegger, nightclub owner and boxing manager.
• July 2 – Benjamin Evangelista, a religious leader and real estate tycoon, is killed with his wife and four children. It is believed that the killings are related to possible dealings with organized crime.
• August 6 – Pittsburgh mobster Steve Monastero is shot to death at the entrance of Allegheny General Hospital. Following Monastero's death, he would be succeeded by Joseph Siragusa.
• August 17 – James Alderman, a prominent Florida bootlegger, who was sentenced to hang the previous year by US District Court Judge Henry D. Clayton for the 1927 murders of a US Secret Service agent and two US Coast Guard crew members during an arrest at sea, goes to the gallows. Despite appeals to the US Supreme Court and President Herbert Hoover, Alderman is hanged on a Coast Guard base near Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
• September 4 – Westside O'Donnell gang member Frank Cawley is killed.
• November 17 – John "Bilikens" Rito, a former bootlegger for the Chicago Genna brothers, is killed shortly after forming a partnership with North Side Gang member Ted Newberry.
• November 29 – Los Angeles Vintner Frank Baumgarteker "Disappears" after alleged confrontation with organized Crime Figures {Joseph Ardizzone}
• December 29 – Chicago bootlegger James Walsh is killed by Charles Baron after a prize fight.
• December 30 – Stephanie St. Clair, the Harlem, New York numbers game queen, is arrested by New York City police. She would later be sentenced to eight months in prison.

Arts and literature

• Little Caesar (novel) by William R. Burnett.

Births

• September 30 Donald Angelini (Don Angel) "The Wizard of Odds", Syndicate gambling racketeer
• Frank Chin, Chinese-American author and playwright
• Louis Manna "Bobby", Genovese crime family Capo involved in the New Jersey construction industry, illegal gambling and loansharking
• Frank A. Pugliano "Frankie Pugs", Patriarca crime family associate and West Springfield gambling club owner
• Joseph Ullo, New York mobster and suspected ".22 caliber" hitman
• January 1 – Joseph Lombardo "The Clown", Chicago Outfit leader
• April 7 – Joe Gallo (Joseph Gallo), New York Mafia leader
• April 9 – Joe "Pegleg" Morgan, Mexican Mafia Boss
• March 8 – Nicky Scarfo (Nicodemo Scarfo) "Little Nicky", Philadelphia and Atlantic City Mafia Don
• July 27 – Carmen Milano, Los Angeles crime family underboss
• August 9 – Albert Caesar Tocco, Chicago Outfit member involved in extortion and racketeering in Chicago's South Suburbs

Deaths

• January – James Alderman, Florida bootlegger
• January 8 – Pasquale Lolordo, Unione Siciliane leader
• March 15 – William J. Vercoe "Clown for the Hoodlums", Chicago criminal
• February 14 – James Clark, North Side Gang member involved in bootlegging, bank robbery and victim of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre
• February 14 – Frank Gusenberg, North Side Gang gunman and victim of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre
• February 14 – Peter Gusenberg, North Side Gang gunman and victim of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre
• February 14 – Adam Hyer, North Side Gang member, owner of the S-M-C Cartage Company garage and victim of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre
• February 14 – John May, North Side Gang associate and victim of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre
• February 14 – Rheinhart Schwimmer, North Side Gang associate and victim of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre
• February 14 – Albert Weinshank, North Side Gang bookkeeper, speakeasy owner and victim of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre
• April 14 – George Clifford, Westside O'Donnells member
• May 7 – Albert Anselmi, Chicago Outfit hitman and Scalise, and a fellow gangster named Joseph Giunta
• May 16 – Joe Pozzaro, Bootlegger
• May 29 – Thomas McElligot, Westside O'Donnell member
• June 11 – Salvatore Todaro "Black Sam", Cleveland crime family leader
• July 2 – Benjamin Evangelista, Illinois religious leader and real estate tycoon
• August 6 – Steve Monastero, Pittsburgh crime family leader
• September 4 – Frank Cawley, Westside O'Donnell member
• November 17 – John Rito "Bilikens", bootlegger for the Genna Brothers and associate of Ted Newberry
• December 29 – James Walsh, Chicago bootlegger