Guns and Roses: The Untold Story of Dean O'Banion, Chicago's Big Shot Before Al Capone
Rose Keefe
Before Al Capone, Chicago's reigning gang leader was the flamboyant and lethal Dean "Deanie" O'Banion. His role in the Chicago gang wars of the 1920s has been examined briefly in Capone biographies and Prohibition histories, but never before has there been a book-length biography of the Irish-American gangster who was known as "Chicago's Arch Killer" and "The Boss of the 42nd and 43rd Wards."
Using information compiled from police and court documents, contemporary news accounts, and interviews with O'Banion's friends and associates, Guns and Roses covers O'Banion's rise from an Illinois farm boy to the most powerful gang boss in early 1920s Chicago. It examines the role in the Irish-Sicilian clashes that plagued the North Side circa 1890–1910, his years as a slugger for William Randolph Hearst during the city's newspaper circulation war, and his turbulent relationship with Al Capone as the two gang bosses struggled for supremacy. Also exposed in colorful detail is his association with Chicago's other underworld luminaries, many of whose names have been lost to history despite their fascinating stories: the "Kiss of Death" girl Margaret Collins, the "Safecracking King" Charles Reiser, Jewish mobster Nails Morton, and O'Banion's own men: Hymie Weiss, Louis "Two Gun" Alterie, Vincent Drucci, and Bugs Moran, the latter of whom barely escaped the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. The book ends with O'Banion's notorious "handshake murder," and the struggle of his successors with Al Capone.
In many ways O'Banion was an enigmatic character. A powerful gang boss who cracked skulls as brutally as any of his henchmen on election day, yet he supported entire North Side slums with his charity. And while he had few gangster allies, he inspired fanatical loyalty among his own men. The product of fifteen years of research and writing, Guns and Roses is a stroll through the memories of old Chicago as much as it is a study of its most "storied" gangster.
| ROSE KEEFE is a researcher and historian whose work has appeared in national and regional periodicals. She lives in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. |
$16.95, Paperback
ISBN-10: 1-58182-378-9 (Paperback)
ISBN-13: 978-1-58182-378-3 (Paperback)
Paperback Currently Available
