Hello from Sweden, thanks for a very entertaining and educational website. I stayed at the near northside, Chicago for six months couple years ago = old territory of The North Side Gang. Read a lot of books about the main players; O'Banion, Weiss, Moran but I have never come across any numbers regarding this gang?
I know they were less organized compared to the Capone Gang and (of course) hade nothing of the future LCN structure (from 1931 and onward) but they must have had resonable numbers to control such a big area as the entire Northside?


Furthermore, I visited (speeded through by car )Cabrini Green, this was before they demolished it. This area was earlier known as Little Hell and before that they called it Swede Town. The swedes were a pretty large immigrant group in Chicago back then even if they by the time of prohibition had migrated up to Andersonville and such places. But the swedes never had any influence on OC despite their large numbers, especially on the Northside. Were there any known scandinavian influence in the North Side Gang or was it entierly irish/polack as the books says (I know Bugs Moran was of french heritage)? With Chicago being the second largest Swedish city in the world at that time (only Stockholm had more swedish borns) one imagines that this should reflect on OC activity as well, but I found nothing.

Cabrini green became all black in the 50s and was probably the worst area in Chicago. YouTube it you won't believe how out of control it got. In the last few years its luckily been demolished.

The north side gang has always been predominantly Irish and Polish. There was surprisingly a few Italians and I'm sure there were some Scandinavian s involved.

The Cabrini highrises are demolished.

The original rowhouses that were built in the 40s for the then nearly 100 percent Sicilian population are actually still standing and there is still a very few amount of people (obviously no longer Sicilian!) living in them.

Basically there are about 5 sets of these row houses. The westernmost and perhaps easternmost set are partially occuppied. The rest are all boarded up. I don't know how much longer people will be living there until the city knocks the old row houses down.

As for Swedes in the Capone Outfit... none come to mind but I'm sure there were people of Swedish heritage involved in it.

Alright, thanks Nicky. But the actual numbers of the NS Gang seem to be held in mystery. The very top boys of this crew did a lot of heavy work themselves (the attempted hit on Torrio, the drive by in Cicero and so on). This gives the feeling that they were more of a minor crew like the westies in NY (never more than a dozen) than a solid organization that ran against Capone for a good few years.

There is an interlude in the biography of Mad Sam De Stefano which lists known gang members in Chicago at that time. NS gang has about forty or so mentioned there but that cant be all, if so they couldnt have last against the opposition for so long.

They were really only around because of prohibition just like the Genna brothers, O'Donnell gang, Joe Saltis gang, ect and never really had a change to survive once it ended. I'm sure in the north sides peak counting associates there was probably around 150 people involved with them. Not sure though. I wish there is more info on them but there's not much for some reason.

I can´t answer your questions but would like to say that the Moran gang most probably did not have a hierarchic structure. Of course there was the boss and a rigkt hand man but the structure was more horizontal compared to LCN. It´s interesting to know that the Chicago Mafia group, led by Joe Aiello at the time, actually allied themselves with the Moran gang in their struggle against the Capone gang.

If you do a search on here on "O´Banion" or any other of his underlings like "Weiss" you will come across a post made by NJboy (I think his name was) where he listed O`Banion gang members.

Nice to have a fellow Swede on here! Välkommen!

Many thanks!

Hairyknuckles: Kul, man tackar.

And there is a fair amount of literature on the North Siders, including biographies on O'Banion and Moran.

And I would absolutely agree with Harry's assessment of the structure of the North Siders.

Yes, there is also an interesting connection between the Aiellos and the Bonnanos in NY, namely the mutual Castellamare origin. Also an interesting link to the (then) ongoing war between Maranzano and Joe The Boss. The later supporting Al Capone in the Chicago feud.

James "Jimmy the Swede" Morand was an apparently Swedish-American fellow who was also a probable lookout during the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre operation along with Byron Bolton, with the shooting carried out by the rest of the American Boys. He's the only possible Swede I can think of off the top of my head.

According to Northsider expert Rose Keefe, there were about 200 members. They were a substantial mob. Like everyone has said, there isn't much in the way of evidence of a structured hierarchy. You've got a boss, his inner circle, and everyone else, and that's it. It was pretty horizontal.

You hear them called an "Irish Mob", but this isn't really accurate at all; they were a multiethnic gang, and of the identified members, it seems that there are more German-Americans than any other ethnicity, at least in the guys I can think of off the top of my head. They get the "Irish" designation from the prominence of O'Banion (who really was Irish, though he may have been Welsh if you trace his ancestry back far enough - not that that matters) and Moran (who wasn't really Irish at all).

That's off the top of my head, as I don't have my references with me at the moment. You need to read "The Man Who Got Away" and "Guns and Roses", both by Rose Keefe, and "The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre", by William Helmer and another fellow whose name escapes me.

I know quite a lot about the Northsiders really, at the risk of sounding arrogant... feel free to ask if you have any other questions. Did you go by the site of the Valentine's Day Massacre? I've been there; it's a parking lot and a retirement home now.

Coincidentally, I am going to be living on the North Side of Chicago starting later this year.

Absolutely. And many can argue without looking like a fool, that the trouble they were having in Chicago (the Aiello/Capone feud) was actually the starting point of the so called Castellammarese war (the Maranzano/Masseria feud). Because when Masseria tried to intercede, in his role as the boss of bosses, in the Chicago feud, Stefano Magaddino (a Buffalo Castellammarese who had close ties to Joe Aiello and who acted as Aiello´s benefactor) advised Aiello not to abide to Masseria´s and Capone´s demands. This in turn forced Masseria to turn to the Schiro Family in NY to set up a meeting with Magaddino. But Schiro (and especially Maranzano, who was a member of the Schiro Family) smelled a rat and turned Masseria down. And this lead to Masseria condemning "all Castellammarese" to death.

Ivan: Great, Great stuff...this is exactly the kind of info I was looking for.

Ive read Keefs works on Obanion and Moran, gotta check the other one out.
Yeah I went there, the building across the street where Capone guys is said to been stationed for weeks is still standing, or so I was told at least.

I lived at State and Division so I had pretty close to the parking lot where the old flower shop used to be. Other interesting sights were Taylor Street in little Italy and ofcourse Andersonville, because Im a Swede.

Will get back to you on this topic, be sure

Interesting. When reading "A man of honour" one gets the impression that Maggadino was an utter...something. And not so very smart.

Well, Bonanno described Magaddino as an "illiterate, hardheaded and cantankerous but was far from dumb or stupid. His instinct for selfpreservation was uncanny."

"bonnslug" as we say in Swedish. Dont know the right word for it in English

Andersonville is a very cool area of Chicago. Great pizza up there at Great Lakes Pizza.

Cabrini Green at it's height had about 20,000 people living there and it got really bad. Gangs shooting at each other from opposite high rises, people being thrown off roof tops, girls being raped and blinded in stairwells. Bad stuff.

They are all torn down now(highrises). Putting up a target in there place now, IIRC. The row houses are there but I don't know if anyone lives in them. I think they are all abandoned. Moved away about 2 years ago- so not 100% sure.

Drove through Cabrini with my family around 1991, sister was going to De Paul and we made a WRONG turn. Not a good mistake. Rocks, garbage and whatever they could find was thrown at our Suburban. Place was nuts.

instead of trying to sell u drugs they threw dirty drawls at you?

they stopped gang warfare to throw rocks at your suv?

sounds fabricated but maybe not

Why would I make it up?

It was little kids (8-13) that were throwing the rocks, not gang bangers. We made a wrong turn, went down a street filled with kids and they started throwing shit at out car. I was young, 8 or 9.

I thought u meant grown people were on bullshit with you

don't feel too bad because anybody between the ages of 12-15 that were throwing rocks either got a stern lecture and never did it again. or a couple minutes of getting there asses kicked for throwing rocks at your family

The row houses are not abandoned. They are still about 2/5 fill, and there is still a fair amount of crime there, though nothing even close to the heyday.

Although for murders in the downtown vicinity of Chicago, there are basically only two places where there has been even a moderately high concentration of homicides the last few years--the entrance to Cabrini on Chicago Ave. and the dance clubs in River North.

(By downtown I mean basically what people are calling River North these days... plus Streeterville and the Gold Coast.)

About three people have been killed right there over the last few years. Drug dealing.