On February 14, 1929 the city of Chicago became the scene of perhaps one of the most bizarre and notorious crimes in America, known as the St. Valentine's Day massacre. It was the time period during the infamous war between the Capone gang, which was led by Al Capone and the North Side gang, headed by Bugs Moran. Story goes that during the holiday four assassins, two dressed as cops, entered the SMC Cartage Co. garage at 2122 N. Clark St. which was owned by the Moran gang. The two alleged cops rounded up 5 gang members and two associates of the Moran gang up against the wall. Than the other two men entered in the garage and pulled out their two Thompson machine guns, a shotgun and a revolver. In a matter of seconds, the assassins pumped 70 bullets in their victims, thus killing most of them instantly. After that the gunmen sped off in a black Cadillac touring car that looked like the kind police used, complete with siren, gong and rifle rack. The victims were left for dead in the garage. This was one of the most professional hits during that period. It was made of lookout crews, phony police car and uniforms, and also men that no one ever knew and saw them in Chicago before. The police and other investigators only had theories and suspected that Al Capone planned and ordered the massacre of his rivals. With that theory, there was one Capone ally who had the underworld connections and headed a gang that was mostly formed by gangsters from other cities and also had the power to bring few of the most ruthless hitmen to do the right job. That man went by the name of John Edward Moore a.k.a. Claude “Screwy” Maddox.

John E. Moore was born on January 26, 1901 in St. Louis, Missouri. At the beginning of the 20th century St. Louis was the 4th largest city in the U.S. with 575,000 citizens. The population was mixed with various nationalities like Jewish and Italian but the most dominant group were the Irish people. As any other city during that time, St. Louis also had big problems with poverty and starvation. Many big Irish families tended to live in compact single rooms which were located in boarding houses that usually carried the names of famous historic battles back in their native Ireland. So youngsters like Johnny Moore didn’t care much about school because in those days attending school didn’t place food on the family tables. Also Johnny’s poor family often tended to move to other boarding houses just to avoid paying rent when no rent money was available. The boarding houses were usually crowded places with more than hundreds of people. So in those hard conditions, the natural way of things for little Johnny Moore was being involved in criminal activities such as pickpocketing and stealing. Same as the Italian groups, the Irish had learned to survive in Ireland by forming secret societies, thus forming their own so-called gangs that were involved in all kinds of illegal activities. Usually in times of poverty and hunger, the outlaw takes his place in history.



St. Louis in the 1900’s


At that time, the only rich people were the politicians that ruled the political machines in St. Louis and its population. The combination of poverty, crime and politics created a very lethal atmosphere on the streets of the city. The young criminals were fiercely loyal to each other, to their gang leaders and of course the politicians. The politicians often used these groups of young criminals as bodyguards for themselves or to anyone who would vote for them. Some street hoods like Johnny Moore were paid to place the candidate’s posters around the city during elections and also to make crimes such as robberies of rival candidates or set fires to rival offices. During World War I the U.S.A. joined the other allied countries in their efforts to defeat the Central Powers. Although the United States participated in the conflict for less than two years, they managed to send more than 200,000 American soldiers. Many poor street youngsters enlisted in the army including 17 year old Johnny Moore. He was a tall and stocky young lad, and easily managed to enter the army. He was involved in the battle fields for almost a year and by the end of 1918 he returned home to St. Louis. Once home, Moore had skills and knew how to use a gun and also had the strength to take a man’s life. His experience gave him the right to belong in some of the most ruthless gangs in the city. Two of the oldest, biggest and most violent gangs at the time were the Egan's Rats and the Hogan Gang. Johnny Moore chose the Egan’s Rats gang which during the 1910’s was ruled by ruthless gangsters Thomas Egan and his younger brother Willie. The gang was predominantly Irish but also included a few Italian and Jewish immigrants. During their heyday, the Egan rats counted over 300 gang members. They became the most feared criminal organization in St. Louis that completely infiltrated its government, and were mostly involved in labor slugging, voter intimidation, armed robberies and above all murder. Some of the most prominent murderous members were Dint Colbeck, Ray Renard, Max and Morris Greenberg, Fred Burke and Willie Heeney. Young Johnny Moore started working under the auspices of Max Greenberg and Willie Heeney. Moore and other young hoodlums like Pete Licavoli were promising criminals that will change the face of organized crime in near future. By now they were mostly involved in stickups and larceny. By the late 1910’s the gang’s leader Tom Egan moved into more sophisticated rackets like bootlegging. He had a vision and suspected that alcohol consumption would soon be prohibited in the United States, so he set up a liquor smuggling network in St. Louis. There were many gang members that were placed to work in some of the approximately seventy breweries in the city. But beside his magnificent prediction, Tom Egan was unable to reap the full benefits of his liquor smuggling ring because he died too early of Bright's Disease on April 20, 1919, before the passage of the Prohibition law.

After Tom Egan's death, his brother Willie took the leadership of the Egan's Rats gang. But the problem was that Willie didn’t have the skills to be natural leader like his late brother. Also many of the older members like Greenberg opposed him and as a result of that, many younger gang members like Johnny Moore became restless. Now the younger members forgot the idea for long term profits and reached for the quicker payoffs such as armed robberies. The young “red hots”, began robbing banks, armoured cars, and messengers with lightning rapidity. By now the Egan Rats gang divided in two factions. One was led by Willie Egan which was trying to hold on the liquor business and the other faction was headed by Max Greenberg which was mostly involved in bank robberies. Max Greenberg took the bank burglary profession to perfection and was also a fierce killer. One of their biggest bank heist was the Baden Bank which occurred on April 10, 1919 and 59,000 dollars were stolen from the vault. Johnny Moore’s first arrest record was in 1919 on a burglary charges. So on August 5, 1919, he was sentenced to 1 year in the workhouse prison for burglary following a plea of guilty for larceny in St. Louis. Greenberg’s crew accomplished another bank burglary on April 9, 1920 of the Lowell Bank. This time they only took $11,877. On July 10, 1920, 19 year old Johnny Moore again received a 1-year sentence in the workhouse on a robbery charges.

In 1920 Prohibition closed all of the breweries in St. Louis, but the Irish gangs were already skilled in making beer, so they formed home breweries and sold the home brew throughout the city. This new lucrative racket made the criminals more greedy and bloodthirsty, so they divided in other newly formed gangs such as the Ashley Gang, the Purple Gang and the Cukoos. These gangs had hundreds of members who ruled the rackets in city. Like any other city in the U.S. during Prohibition the streets of St. Louis were also filled with blood. By 1921, the disputes in the Egan’s gang worsened when Max Greenberg, who was dissatisfied with the leadership, double-crossed his boss Willie Egan over a shipment of booze. As a result of that, Willie Egan made an unsuccessful attempt to kill Greenberg. So now Greenberg decided to leave the gang and switched sides to their long time rival, the Hogan Gang. The Hogan Gang was headed Eddie Hogan, who also served as the Deputy Missouri State Beverage Inspector. On October 31, 1921, Willie Egan was ambushed and shot to death in front of his saloon at Franklin Avenue. Members of the Hogan Gang together with Max Greenberg were considered to be the main suspects.

After the death of Willie Egan, Dinty Colbeck became the boss. Colbeck was a bloodthirsty animal who aggressively led the Egan's Rats into a war against the Hogan gang. Multiple killings and shootings swept the city, with both gangsters and innocent bystanders being their targets on the streets.



Dinty Colbeck


The gang’s illegal businesses were slowly crumbling down because of the constant conflicts that were going on. For one year period, over 15 men were killed in the bloody gang wars. So some of the gangsters considered leaving St. Louis or stay there and get six feet under the ground. Max Greenberg was one of the first gangsters to leave town and went straight to Detroit same as Pete Licavoli and the Purple gang. Other gangsters, including Johnny Moore decided to go north to the city of Chicago. Once in Chicago, Moore connected with his old associate Willie Heeney who came 4 years earlier. Moore changed his name to Claude Maddox and made a new identity to protect himself from the rival factions back in St. Louis and to avoid his criminal background. In future he used his name John Moore for legitimate purposes and in the eyes of the law he was known as Claude Maddox.

But Chicago was no different because at the time there was a clash between the two biggest criminal factions, the Dean O’Banion gang and the infamous Al Capone mob. A famous gangster once said that Chicago was a crazy town with bullets flying from all directions. Maddox settled on Chicago’s North Side which was the territory of the O’Banion gang, but besides that Maddox operated independently. He belonged to an independent gang formed by exiled gangsters from St. Louis who used their ruthless skills for robbing safes and stealing booze. On December 1, 1923 Maddox together with two of his associates Joe Lafferty who was a known as prominent burglar and Pat Dwyer, a known killer, made an attempt to rob the safes in the Waiters Association Club rooms at 105 West Madison Street, Chicago. But during the attempt someone called the police and the three men were arrested. On December 18, 1923 Claude Maddox was indicted by the Cook County grand jury for the attempted burglary, jointly with Lafferty and Dwyer. But later the individual who called the cops and was the main and only witness in their trial, suddenly disappeared of the face of the earth. So on June 5, 1923, the case was stricken off because there was nobody to testify in the case and so the burglars were free of charge. Now the cops realised that these guys were no joke. They also realised that these guys came from a place were murder was everyday thing so it was suspected that the witness was killed and buried by their associates in an unknown location.



Johnny Moore a.k.a. Claude Maddox


But the territory that Maddox and his associates operated was “owned” by other criminal gangs. Criminal big shots like Dean O’Banion didn’t tolerate any illegal operations on his turf that were not ordered by him and especially if he wasn’t getting any cut from the action. Also Maddox and his guys were known for stealing liquor shipments from other North Side gangs. So on November 4, 1924, at 10:50 a. m. Maddox and two of his associates John Mackey, member of the Valley gang and Anthony “Red” Caissane (Kissane?), who was one of the most a notorious gangsters in Chicago at the time, were riding in a car in front of 405 South Hoyne Avenue, when suddenly they were ambushed by another car. The attackers fired few shotgun blasts at their car instantly wounding John Mackey who was driving the car at the moment. Caissane and Maddox tried to flee from the attempted killing, but they were injured in the same moment. As they walked out of the car, in some fashion both of them hurt their ankles. When the cops arrived at the scene they found Maddox and Caissane laying on the ground and Mackey was in the car almost dead. They picked up Maddox and Caissane to the police station but Mackey died on the route to the hospital. During the questioning Caissane admitted that the cause of the shooting stemmed from a fight with another rival alcohol-running gang, and each gang was out to get the other. But the authorities suspected that the shooting was connected with the factional trouble of a teamsters union and the precinct election that occurred the same day because the shooting scene was near a polling place. Later both Caissane and Maddox were released. But six days later Maddox and his gang caught a break when the most notorious leader on their territory Dean O’Banion was assassinated in his flower shop allegedly by the Capone mob in collaboration with the Sicilian gang the Genna brothers and New York mobster Frankie Yale. So Maddox and his older associate Willie Heeley saluted this power move by Al Capone and they decided to support this up and coming criminal organization in Chicago. Also three months later on January 24, 1925 there was an assassination attempt on Chicago’s main Italian boss and Dean O’Banion’s rival Johnny Torrio. Torrio managed to survive but in a hurry he changed his mind as being the main boss in city, so in March 1925 a meeting was called where Torrio resigned from the organization and handed over everything to his protege Al Capone.

By the mid 1920’s, 31 percent of the members in Chicago’s underworld were with Italian background, 29 percent of Irish background, 20 percent Jewish, and 12 percent were black. So it became increasingly clear that organized crime in Chicago was now dominated by the Italians headed by the Capone gang. Every other gang from various parts of the city of Chicago joined the Capone mob except the gangs from the North Side. The other ethnic gangsters like Claude Maddox didn’t stand a chance so they had two options. Join Al Capone or join the slowly fading North Side gangs which during this period were headed by Bugs Moran and Joe Aiello. As his previous mentor Tom Egan, Maddox also had the prediction skills and sense for opinion on who’s going to win the war. So Claude Maddox and his associates were the first and only group on the North Side that supported Al Capone. Maddox together with his old associate Willie Heeney formed a very ruthless crew that will play a major role in the forming of one of the most infamous organized crime groups never before seen in Chicago.

One of Maddox’ closest associate was a mobster from Italian descent named Tony Capezio. Capezio’s all time favourite crime was burglary so together with Maddox they shared the same love for crime. Tony also had close connections with the Capone mob which came from his long time friendship with one of the highest ranking members who went by the name of Frank Nitti. He and Nitti made sure that the prices of illegal booze stayed high on Chicago’s North Side. Tony also promoted Al Capone’s charity works on that territory and was believed to have been the Mobs go-between guy with other independent notorious gunmen such as John Dillinger and Baby Face Nelson. Somewhere around this period Capezio together with Maddox opened the infamous bar at 1857 W. North Avenue which was called the Circus Café.



Tony Capezio

The Circus Café was a home base for many gangsters from different territories that were in alliance with the Capone mob, including members of the Guilfoyle gang headed by Marty Guilfoyle and Marcus Looney. Another close associate of Maddox was Danny Vallo, a notorious gangster and bootlegger from the West Side. After his first contact with Maddox, Vallo transferred his illegal operations on the North Side. Mike Farvia and Sam Laverda were both members of the gang and worked as bootleggers and street tax collectors. Edward “Casey” Konowski and Frank Estes were also both ruthless members of the gang involved in kidnappings and murders. Capezio brought one of his associates a known bank robber by the name of Frank Zanger. Few other frequent guests at Claude’s café were ruthless Capone associates Vincenzo Gibaldi a.k.a. Machinegun Jack McGurn, his nickname explains it all, Jack "Three Fingers" White, infamous enforcer, bank robber and extortionist, Rocco DeGrazia, bodyguard and hitman, James Belcastro, a professional bomber from the West Side, Louis “Little New York” Campagna, enforcer and bodyguard for Al Capone, Joseph Lolordo, also bodyguard and brother of infamous boss Patsy Lolordo, Louis Stacey and George "Red" Barker, both prominent hitmen, and Murray “Curly” Humphries, who worked as extortionist and beer assistant for Maddox. Capezio brought another promising young gangster to the Circus Café by the name of Tony Accardo. Accardo was 17 years old and already had too much street experience and was also a reliable full time criminal which presented as a pass to become a member of the Circus gang. In a very short time period Accardo became very skilful with a Tommy gun and a baseball bat and also became a chauffer for Jack McGurn. In January 1926, the Circus gang was having problems over turf on the North Side with an equally tough Irish street gang called the Hanlon Hellcats. Their headquarters was at the Shamrock Inn and they were constantly encroaching on the Circus gang's territory. Capezio advised Maddox that they should send someone from the young guys to do the job and that young guy was Accardo. They gave Accardo a Tommy gun and 3 more younger associates who were armed with shotguns. The hit squad arrived at the Shamrock Inn and waited for their targets. Three gang members of the Hellcats walked out of the establishment and were instantly riddled with bullets and left for dead. The hit squad sped away from the murder scene with their car but a police squad from the Austin district was nearby and gave chase. During the chase Accardo and the other three men tossed away their weapons and in a matter of few minutes the cops collared with them. They were arrested but later were released on bail and eventually the case was dropped, due to lack of evidence. This was a signal to everyone that young Tony Accardo was on the way up. Although the Circus gang were in alliance with the Capone mob, they also worked under the auspices of another powerful Italian boss and Capone ally from the Near North Side Pasqualino “Patsy” Lolordo.

By now the Circus gang was involved in various conflicts with the other North Side gangs such as the Moran gang over gambling territories, elections and also in the infamous ‘Beer Wars”. Since many of the Irish gang members were previously involved in producing beer it was very easy for them to produce it very fast. Also Claude Maddox had many former associates like the Purple gang in Detroit who smuggled the real stuff, like hard liquor. The whiskey couldn’t be produced fast like the beer because it required aging, so that’s when Maddox came to the big picture and played a major role in importing hard liquor for the Capone mob with the help from outsiders who smuggled the booze from outside the country, like from Canada through Detroit than to Chicago and to the rest of the Mid West.

Back in1925, in St. Louis many members of the Egans Rats gang were killed or went to prison but the ones that survived and stayed free, fled the city and scattered across the country, wreaking havoc wherever they went. Some of the gangsters that came to Chicago were welcomed by Maddox and the Capone gang with opened arms. One crew of ex-Rats, led by Fred "Killer" Burke, committed numerous robberies, kidnappings, and contract murders throughout the American Midwest. Most prominent members of the St. Louis crew were Gus Winkler (real name Winkeler), Ray Nugent, Bob Carey and Raymond Schulte. For example Schulte was a very deadly person who was known for using small fire arms which were concealed in his sleeves and was able to drop an automatic pistol into each hand much faster than those who draw a gun from their pockets. This murderous crew was suspected of kidnappings, robbing banks and numerous hits in Louisville, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Los Angeles and Ohio.



Fred Burke


Fred Goetz


Gus Winkeler


Raymond Nugent and Bob Carey


In 1927, Burke, Nugent, Carey and Winkler had a clash with their former associates of the Purple gang in Detroit. They kidnapped Purple Gang associates and held them for ransom. Also on July 21 Burke and his crew killed a number of gang members as they exited from one of their hangouts. But things went really sour when the former St. Louis crew kidnapped one of the most important associates of the Purple gang, Detroit gambler Mert Wertheimer. They took him to Chicago and kept him in a North Side apartment on Grace Street. Later it turned out that Wertheimer was not only an associate of the Purple Gang but he was also a good friend of Al Capone. The Purple gang sent word down to the Chicago mob and Al Capone immediately called upon Claude Maddox to find these guys and to bring them in. Maddox, through one of his associates Byron Bolton, managed to make a contact with Gus Winkler and invited them to a meeting with the big boss. As additional info, Bolton was an expert machine-gunner in the U.S. Navy before turning to a life of crime like kidnapping. He was very close connected with the St. Louis gangs and was also a chauffer of Fred Burke. In May 1927, the four men met with Capone at the Hawthorne Inn in Cicero. According to an informant who later gave the info, present at the meeting were Capone’s associates Claude Maddox, Tony Capezio, Louis Campagna and Capone’s bodyguard Frank Rio. Capone explained to the three men that the kidnapping racket was no crime for talented men such as themselves. He told them to let Wertheimer go and to come and work for him. He also told them that he’s going to give them a symbolic sum of cash for the release and he also told them that he has a few jobs for them right away. Capone also ordered Maddox to be the gangs contact with the boys. Wertheimer was immediately released and the new guys settled in Chicago. Later Maddox, again with the help of his associate Byron Bolton, brought another ruthless member to the crew by the name of Fred Goetz a.k.a. George Zeigler. Goetz was a born Chicagoan with a college degree. But he had three dark secrets, one was that he loved to steal, second he was a killer and third, he was a pedophile. When Goetz entered the gang, he became associated with underworld figures such as Joseph "Yellow Kid" Weil and Morris Klineman, and also participated in several armed robberies with Burke, Winkler and others. To distance him self a little bit more, Capone ordered Jack McGurn to watch over Maddox and the Circus Cafe gang.

By the end of 1927 the boys became constant guests at the Circus Café on Chicago’s North Side. This crew of killers became Chicago’s most infamous hit team, same as the ones in New York who were known as Murder Inc. But these guys were even better than the guys in New York because they were not from Chicago. They came from different towns and travelled around the country constantly. Now Claude Maddox became the host of one of the most ruthless murder squads in Chicago and maybe country. His local became a place for hired killers and also a place to store weaponry for the Capone mob.

One of Capone’s ally and also a close friend in Brooklyn, New York was Francesco Ioele a.k.a. Frankie Yale. He was one of the most powerful gangsters at the time who was involved in numerous rackets, such as labor racketeering, gambling, dockside extortion and bootlegging. Besides the Purple gang in Detroit, Yale was also a major importer of Canadian whiskey who supplied part of Capone's booze shipments. But in 1927 the long friendship Between Yale and Capone began to fade away. Yale was the main guy who oversaw the shipments of booze that were meant for the Chicago mob so one day many of the trucks began to have problems with hijackings. So Capone suspected a double cross and decided to send James "Filesy" DeAmato to keep an eye on his trucks. DeAmato was one of Al's top advisors and was also he’s spy in case of any internal rebellions. Later DeAmato reported that Yale was hijacking Chicago’s booze. On July 7, 1927 DeAmato was gunned down on a Brooklyn street corner. Things got worst for their relationship the same year when Yale invited Capone and his arch enemy Joe Aiello to New York for a sitdown at the Jack Sharkey vs. Jack Dempsey fight. The problem was the control over the Unione Sicilani organization in Chicago. Capone expected to be backed up by his old friend but that didn’t happened. Yale decided upon a middle course and told both warring factions to make peace and split the profits. A month later Capone invited Yale to Chicago to view the Dempsey-Tunney heavyweight title rematch at Soldier Field on September 22, 1927. While their visit was civil enough, the pair's friendship began to rapidly deteriorate after Yale returned to New York. Distracted by a gang war with his rival mobster Aiello, Capone had to wait for retaliation. So time has come in the spring of 1928 for the plan to kill Frankie Yale. Capone called Jack McGurn for an advice on who should receive the contract on Yale. McGurn said that the boys from the North Side would be the perfect hit team for the job because no one in New York knew their faces. Capone agreed and ordered McGurn to call his boys from the Circus gang and to give them the contract. Later McGurn visited Claude Maddox at the Circus Café and told him to make the logistics on the hit and also gave him cash and few addresses on the whereabouts of Frankie Yale in New York. Because Yale was no easy target, Maddox decided to call his two most skilful associates such as Fred Burke and Willie Heeney. Later Capone also sent for Louis Campagna to join the team so the four hitmen hopped in a dark Buick and drove off to New York.

When they arrived in the Big Apple, they took an apartment in Brooklyn and stalked Yale for almost a month, just to learn his everyday routines. They found out that Yale had a new young wife by the name of Lucy and together they had 1 year old daughter. They also found out that Yale was very sensitive and carrying towards Lucy so the hitmen decided to take an advantage of that. One Sunday afternoon, on July 1, 1928, Yale was playing cards at his Sunrise Club, located at 14th Avenue and 65th Street, when suddenly he received a cryptic phone call. The caller said something was wrong with Lucy and his daughter and that he should come home fast. In a panic moment, Yale took off with his brown colored Lincoln coupe without his bodyguards. Yale drove up to New Utrecht Avenue, where the hitmen in their Buick sedan drove next to him. Yale noticed the hit squad and took off west onto 44th Street, with the Buick close behind him. The chase continued but Yale's car was soon overtaken by the Buick, whose occupants riddled Yale with bullets. Yale lost control of his car and crashed into a stoop of a brownstone at No. 923. He opened the door of his car and fell to ground. One of the hitmen got out of their car and pumped few more bullets into Yale’s body. The job was done. Maddox and his men left the scene and drove nearly three blocks away where they abandoned their car and left on foot. Later the cops found the abandoned Buick and inside they found a .38 caliber revolver, a .45 automatic, a sawed-off pump shotgun, and a Thompson submachine gun. Also the cops managed to trace the submachine gun to a Chicago sporting goods dealer named Peter von Frantzius. Frantzius was Chicago’s most famous legal guns supplier at the time so it was very hard to tell who bought the gun from him. Later the cops repeatedly questioned Capone and some of his gang associates about the Yale murder, but nothing came of the inquiries.



Frankie Yale death scene

By now Cicero area was the main and also most lucrative territory for the Capone gang. Back in the 1924 the infamous Jewish mobster Edward “Eddie” Vogel was the one who invited the Capone gang to Cicero. Vogel needed help for fixing the 1924 mayor elections. Capone knew that if he played along with Vogel and helped in the elections, millions of dollars could be made from this lucrative territory. At the same time the Capone gang was having problems in Chicago with the newly elected and non-corruptable Mayor William E. Dever so it was a smart move for Capone to relocate in Cicero. Cicero became Capone’s wide open territory for operating gambling, booze and prostitution and also became know as “Caponeland". Capone himself was accommodated at The Hawthorne Hotel at 4823 22nd Street and believe it or not, his main protection was the Circus gang. Capone was at the top floor and Willie Heeney was on the floor below him. Heeney was his chief of staff, meaning if anyone wanted to send message or any kind of information or wanted to make a contact with the Big Fella, Heeney was the got-between guy. Next door to Heeney, was Claude Maddox who was armed to the teeth and was also in charge for the security around Capone and the establishment. Every room, window, and door in the place was completely dedicated to the safety of Al Capone, with double locks, latches, and buzzer systems. Young Tony Accardo was always seated in the lobby of the hotel with a Tommy gun in his lap covered with a coat. Capone also had many other luxurious establishments and secret hideouts around Cicero so it was very hard for any rival gang, including the government, to locate him.

Immediately after the murder of Frankie Yale, Joe Aiello decided that he needs another strong alliance so he can win the war against the Capone mob. Aiello realized that the enemy of his enemy is actually his friend, so he sent word down to George “Bugs” Moran and invited him for a sit down. At the meeting Aiello offered Moran a portion of his gambling empire on the North Side in return for muscle and protection. Al Capone heard about this alliance so he also decided to call a meeting and to end this problem once and for all. Capone called a meeting in late October, 1928 in the Chicago Heights area, which was a place he often used as a hide out. Capone gathered his men at the house of the new rising boss of the Chicago Heights faction, Vincenzo Ammirato a.k.a. Jim Emery. Other gangsters who attended this meeting were Frank LaPorte, second in command of Emery, Sam Costello, the boss of the Sicilian faction in the Heights, James Summons, a known murderous Capone hoodlum, Louis Campagna, Rocco DeGrazia, and Circus gang leaders Claude Maddox and Willie Heeney. There were two agendas at this mob convention, one was the placement of Emery as the new boss of the Chicago Heights since his previous boss Dominic Roberto was exiled to Italy, and the second agenda was the Bugs Moran problem and how to solve it. As usual they decided that a hit on Bugs Moran would be the smartest thing to do. There’s no need for any explanation about this idea or solution because most of the men who attended this mob meeting (Capone, Heeney, Summons, Maddox, DeGrazia) were all former and current enforcers and had more muscle than brains.


(standing from the left) Rocco DeGrazia, Louis Campagna, Claude Maddox, Fur Summons, Sam Costello
(sitting on the ground from the left) Frank LaPorte, Vera Emery, Al Capone, Willie Heeney, Jim Emery

Somewhere around late November 1928, Capone called for another meeting with the boys from out of town. The meeting took place at a house on Cranberry Lake, six miles north of Couderay, Wisconsin. Present at the meeting were Frank Nitti, Louis Campagna, Fred Burke, Gus Winkler, Fred Goetz, the First Ward Republican committeeman Daniel Serritella, North Side politician William Pacelli, and Capone himself. Byron Bolton also attended this meeting but he’s role was to serve the big shots with drinks and meals. This organized crime convention lasted for almost two weeks and the men were hunting, fishing while planning the murder. They decided that the boys would be the prefect guys for the job. The job of the crooked politicians was to take care of the law during and after the hit. Since he was Chicago’s most famous mobster and was usually blamed for every crime that occurred in the city, Capone decided that it’s better to leave town during the operation and to enjoy his summer home in Miami, which would also be his alibi. So he left his two main strong-arm men Frank Nitti and Jack McGurn to oversee the operation. Later McGurn handed over the making of the logistics to the chief of the current most deadly squad, Claude Maddox.

In the next few months Maddox, together with his associates Goetz, Heeney and Capezio at the Circus cabaret were making the plan for the most infamous gangland extermination in Chicago’s underworld history. First they had to find and pay someone from the Moran gang so they can receive information about their boss’s future whereabouts. But the thing was that Moran’s associates were very tight with their boss so no one would rat, so Maddox thought of another idea. He knew that the Moran gang supplied their booze from the same place as he did, and that was the Purple gang in Detroit. So Maddox contacted his associates in Detroit and arranged a deal with them to call Bugs Moran and to sell him a load of hijacked Old Log Cabin whiskey below the market price so Moran can leap at the offer with out any second thoughts. Second Maddox had to use his hitmen from out of town because they were unknown to the Moran gang and the public also. Maddox decided to use his usual four hitmen, including Fred Burke, Fred Goetz, Gus Winkeler and Ray Nugent. They would all receive a $5,000 payment for the lob. They also decided to mask two of the hitmen as police officers so the rival gang would think that it’s an ordinary police raid. They also had to use untraceable getaway cars for the hitmen to be carried to the exact destination. In December 1928 they bought a police Cadillac from an auto dealership on Irving Park Road. The Cadillac previously belonged to Cook County Commissioner Frank Wilson. The guy that was sent to buy the car identified himself under a different name such as “James Morton (Martin?) of Los Angeles”, which in reality was Byron Bolton. They also bought another car, Peerless Sedan, under the same false name. Bob Carey would drive the false police car with Burke and Goetz dressed as cops and James Belcastro would be driving the other car with the other two hitmen, Winkler and Nugent, dressed as civilians. Jimmy "The Swede" Moran and Byron Bolton would be the crew to watch over the Moran gang and there will be a second lookout with Tony Accardo. Tony Capezio and Raymond Schulte would be assigned as the cleanup crew to get rid of the evidences, such as the cars that would be used in the hit. And since this was a high profile hit and the cops and also the whole city knew about the conflict between the two gangs, all of the high profile Capone members had to find their own alibis. The stage was set.

On February 1, 1929 some member of the Purple gang called Moran and said that he had the shipment with booze ready and will deliver it on February 14, 1929, Valentine’s Day, between 10 and 11 a.m. Moran assured the caller that he would be there with his crew to help unload the truck in the gang’s garage on 2122 North Clark Street. Than the caller informed Claude Maddox that Moran will be waiting for a shipment of booze on Valentine’s Day at their hangout on N. Clark St. Maddox immediately sent for Byron Bolton, Jimmy Moran and Tony Accardo to rent a room along North Clark Street across the garage.(as additional info some sources say that Jimmy McCryssen was there instead of Accardo, but years later an FBI bug records a conversation that Accardo was one of the guys) So Bolton and Jimmy rented a room at 2119 N. Clark St. which was owned by Mrs. Michelle Doody and Accardo accommodate himself on 2125 N. Clark St. at Mrs. Minnie Arvidson’s apartments. The three men represented themselves as cab drivers who worked the night shift and they insisted on rooms in the front, overlooking Clark Street. The three men rarely left their rooms and for the next ten days they constantly overlooked the area. Their job was to watch for Bugs Moran and to make a phone call to the Circus Café and to inform the hit squad the second when Moran and his gang will enter the garage. In the end Claude Maddox was struck by luck, when he was called on the same day February 14 to appear in court for a previous gun possession. It was the perfect alibi for Maddox. Al Capone also had his perfect alibi to appear in the police station in Miami the same day. Frank Nitti also skipped town and went to St. Louis with his girlfriend and together they got married over there, thus forming a perfect alibi. Jack McGurn arranged a hotel room at the Hotel Stephens to celebrate Valentine’s Day with his blond girlfriend Louise Rolfe.

So Bugs Moran had called the gang the night before and told them to be at the garage early, because he was expecting a shipment. The morning on Thursday February 14, 1929 the temperatures were bellow zero and the streets were covered with snow and ice, thus causing a bad rush hour. The first Moran associate that came to the scene at about 8:30 a.m. was John May. The two Gusenberg brothers, Frank and Pete, arrived at about 9:30 a.m. followed by James Clark, Adam Heyer and Dr. Reinhardt Schwimmer who was only a friend of some of the gang members. The last to enter the garage at 10:30 a.m. was probably Albert Weinshank, the man who very much resembled Bugs Moran. And that’s when Byron Bolton from the lookout crew across the garage made a mistake. He thought that Weinshank was in fact Bugs Moran because from a distance he bore a big resemblance to Moran. And so Bolton made the call to the boys at the Circus Café and informed them that their target has arrived. The killers were waiting in their cars in a rented garage at 1722 North Wood St. The garage was rented under a false name of “Frank Rogers”. With the signal from Bolton they headed for the SMC Cartage Company garage. The killers took north along Wood Street for a mile to Webster Avenue, then east for two miles on Webster to Clark, which would have taken about fifteen minutes. The first car with the fake policemen arrived at 10:45 a.m. in front of the garage and the second car left the two killers in civilian clothes at the back of the establishment. The two “cops” entered the garage and their role was to persuade their victims to surrender their weapons without a fight, which was the reason behind the police uniforms. The “cops” rounded up the seven men up against the wall. Than one of the “cops” opened the back door and let the other two men enter the garage. The two guys pulled out their two Thompson machine guns and the “cops” pulled out a shotgun and a revolver. Suddenly machine gun rifles were heard all around the neighbourhood and each Moran gang member was riddled with bullets. After the murder, the hit squad then staged their final part of the job and that was to confuse any witnesses as they reappeared on the street. The two hitmen who posed as policemen, took out the other two men as their prisoners, entered the fake police car and sped away. Also the lookout crew vanished at the same time. The killers came back and left the fake police car at the rented garage on Wood St. and fled.



The infamous photo of the St. Valentines Day Massacre

When the real cops arrived at the scene they were so shocked of the sight of the dead men that haunted them for the rest of their lives. The scene was so shocking, that the dog that belonged to one of the Moran members and was also the only “witness,” had to be put to sleep. The cops noticed that one of the seven men was near death crawling to the door. Miraculously Frank Gusenberg survived the shooting and lived for 3 hours with 14 slugs in his body. One of the cops that first arrived at the scene was Sgt. Thomas Loftus and questioned Gusenberg. Loftus asked "Do you know me Frank?" Frank replied "Yes, you are Tom Loftus." Loftus then asked 'Who did it or what happened?" Frank replied "I won't talk." The officer then replied "You are in bad shape." Frank said "For God's sake get me to a hospital." Loftus than asked Frank if they were lined up against the wall and again he answered “I won't talk.” Once transferred to Alexian Brothers Hospital, Loftus asked Gusenberg one last question and that was if the killers wore police uniforms because he previously received information that two men in police uniforms walked out from the garage. To this Frank answered "Yes"' and then he died.



Frank Gusenberg

On February 22, the “cleanup crew” consisted by Tony Capezio, Joseph Lolordo and Raymond Schulte needed to get rid of the getaway cars. First they dynamited one of the cars in west suburban Maywood, the area where Claude Maddox and his family lived at the time. Than they came back to the garage at 1723 North Wood St., to demolish the second getaway car (the phoney police black Cadillac) with acetylene torch, axes and hacksaws. But Capezio made a mistake that nearly cost his life. While he was cutting through the gas tank with the acetylene torch, a fire broke out and blew him to the ceiling, knocking him unconscious. The reason was that he forgot to empty the gas tank. Capezio burned his arms and hands, so Schulte took him to the North Avenue clinic, but when they arrived there they suddenly ran back out because they realized that someone might’ve heard the blast and would be calling the cops. This stunt earned Capezio’s nickname “Tough Tony.” Several years later bank robber Alvin Karpis, who was a close friend of Capezio's, confirmed this story. So when the fire broke out in the garage the firemen who answered the call discovered the black Cadillac that had been partially demolished and called the cops. Some of the witnesses said that three men were seen leaving the burning garage after the car exploded and at least one was said to be injured.



The partly demolished car

The problem was that the cops found out that the man who rented the fake police car under the false name “Frank Rogers” also gave his address as 1859 W. North Avenue, which was a place just few doors behind the infamous Circus Café. That’s when the cops suspected that the Circus gang had a hand in this bloody situation. They immediately arrested Claude Maddox who was found in his Circus Café. The cops searched the place and found a Thompson drum full of cartridges and many overcoats strewn about the back of the cafe. They also found a loaded .45 in one of the overcoats. Maddox was brought in the police station for questioning, but he was later released when he showed his alibi by being in court on an unrelated charge at the same time when the massacre occurred. Judge Peter H. Schwaba confirmed Maddox presence in his court from 9:30 to 12:15 o’clock on the same day of the murders, which took at about 10:45 a.m.

Later the police formed another theory, and again Maddox was also implicated. Few weeks before the massacre Capone gang associates Harry Burton, Frank Carlson and James O’Brien were arrested in a house near Crystal Lake for the kidnapping of wealthy automobile dealer Thomas Gaynor. They constantly tortured their victim and demanded $100,000 for his release. Maddox immediately ordered his associates to collect a defence fund to pay the bail. During the trial, Burton was acquitted but the other two guys were sent to 5 years in jail. This action called for an investigation of the jury and one juror was sent to six months in jail for taking a bribe. Two weeks after the release of Burton the massacre of the Moran gang occurred. Investigators later learned that Burton and his associates were suspects in a similar massacre that occurred in Ohio, when three hitmen dressed as policemen entered a garage and killed five embers of a beer gang.

The cops also questioned all of the residents in the neighbourhood and the people who lived around the garage where the massacre occurred. When they questioned Mrs. Michelle Doody, she said that there were two guys in her rented apartment on the second floor, who constantly overlooked the street and rarely got out. The cops felt suspicious and decided to check out the apartment. During the search, they found a letter and a prescription bottle with the name of Byron Bolton. They didn’t thought about the significance of this clue until years later. But either way they started a search for Bolton for any possible explanation. But the thing was that by this time the out of town hit squad and Bolton fled the city and they were hiding out from any possible questionings by the police.



Cops standing in the room where the lookout crew resided

It doesn’t matter whether this bloody massacre was arranged by Capone or not, in the minds of many Chicagoans and citizens around the country, Capone went from being a role model to Public Enemy No. 1. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, which appeared in every newspaper front page around the country, was the final blow to Chicago’s already bloody reputation. The Chicago Association of Commerce immediately posted a reward of $50,000 for the arrest and conviction of the killers. And additionally the angry public collected another $10,000 for the reward. The city council and the state’s attorney’s office each added $20,000, bringing the total to $100,000, the biggest price ever put on the heads of gangsters. The Capone mob made few fatal mistakes during the arranging of the massacre and blew their cover. Capone was known for saying that "If you want something done right, then just do it yourself." This was the beginning of the end for the infamous Capone gang and the rise of a new criminal organization that the world has never seen before.



A special crime investigation committee takes an oath before the murder victims in the massacre

On February 26, 1929 Deputy Police Commissioner John Stege issued an order for the arrest of 17 well known criminals in the Chicago area. He believed that some of the men on the arrest list may have been the actual killers and the other might have knowledge about the situation. The first one to be arrested was James Belcastro because his description given by a witness corresponded with the description of a man with a missing finger on his hand that drove the getaway car. Belcastro was a known bomb maker in Chicago and lost one of his fingers during an incident. Second on the list was Jack McGurn but he had a strong “Blond alibi. His girlfriend backup his story and the cops found room service orders from the time when the massacre occurred. Again Claude Maddox found himself at the top of the suspect list and was taken for questioning. Maddox was a major hope for the investigation but he disappointed the cops because he kept his mouth shut and they had nothing on him. The cops also arrested Joseph Lolordo because he lived next door to the garage where the demolished car has been found. Danny Vallo, it was said, had voluntarily appeared at police headquarters when he previously heard about the arrests. During the arrest of Circus gang member Sam LaVerde and his sweetheart, who gave her name at one time as Dorothy Smith and at another as Dorothy Cohn, were taken into custody while riding In LaVerde's automobile. In her bag Dorothy carried a notebook with telephone numbers and addresses from many establishments. While investigating the notebook, the cops found the address of an alleged beer flat. In a matter of hours the place was raided and the cops arrested Fred Emery, a known rum runner from Detroit. He was question whether he was in any form implicated in the massacre but Emery denied any associations with the mentioned suspects. Others arrested were Willie Heeney, Raymond Schulte, Tony Capezio, Rocco Fanelli, Tony Barone, Frank Diamond and also Bugs Moran and some of his friends and allies, including Sam and Joe Aiello, Rocco Griffo, William Rode, Charles Kakel, Frank Milici and George King. The cops also questioned the Jewish mob boss and Capone’s right hand man Jake Guzik. They had records that Guzik called Capone in Florida from The Congress hotel shortly before, and after the massacre went down. No one dared to talk.

During a raid on a roadhouse in Forest Park, which was owned by the Capone gang, the cops found a police star. The star no. 65 was issued to D. Alzell. It was very strange for the investigators because the killers in the massacre were dressed as policemen with police stars and the uniforms were never to be found. Also on March 5, 1929, the cops raided a liquor depot on the North Side which was operated under the auspices of Claude Maddox and Danny Vallo. During the raid, on the wall of the garage the cops noticed a paper with the name, home address, telephone number of a police officer and also information where he might be reached in ant hour of the day. But for unknown reasons Police Commissioner John Stege decided to ignore these two cases. My own believe is that these two obviously corrupted cops were the ones who provided the police uniforms and also information about one of the cars that was used in the hit. Since this was a big case and the public was outraged, maybe the Police Commissioner didn’t want any bad reputation for the Chicago police or even possible involvement in the massacre to be uncovered during this period. So he decided to push forward the idea that only paid killers from out of town were involved in the multiple murder case. So an angry group of wealthy Chicagoans decided to put up a large sum of cash for a scientific crime detection laboratory to be installed at Northwestern University. This lab, which was first of its kind, was completed by the end of 1929 and its first case was the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. So they acquired guns and bullets from the police stations to determine whether the actual shooters were in fact real police officers. But the results came out negative and the forensic ballistics showed that in no instance was found a duplication of markings to indicate that any police weapons had been employed in the killings.

The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre became big obstacle for everyday business even for the national organized crime syndicates. They all knew that Capone at least knew about the murder and gave the “ok”. Criminals like Charles Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Frank Costello from New York or Atlantic City boss Enoch Johnson knew that a person from Chicago couldn't even steal an apple without Capone having knowledge about it. Capone had eyes and ears all over the city by paying lookouts in shop keepers, shoeshine boys and newspaper stand owners. Also they couldn’t ignore Capone’s wise move of voluntarily coming to the police station in Miami and being interrogated by Florida officials at the exact time when the massacre occurred. So in May, 1929 the national organized crime bosses invited Al Capone for a meeting in Atlantic City which was chaired by Enoch Johnson himself. There were many agendas on that meeting but the most important topic was the ongoing violence and bloodletting that occurred in Chicago. This board of organized crime directors decided that Capone should lay low for a while and he accepted this proposition. Proof for that is, just few days later Capone and his bodyguard Frank Rio went to Philadelphia and were arrested for carrying concealed deadly weapons by two very friendly cops. They were sentenced to a year in prison but were released just several months later. When Capone returned to Chicago he was very furious at his chief organizers of the Valentine’s Day botched hit, especially at Jack McGurn. Capone had a reason to be furious because the massacre triggered a public outcry and enormous heat from the government.

Now Capone member Claude Maddox was under the watchful eye of the government and was constantly “harassed” by investigators and government agents. But even with all of the everyday “headaches” Maddox and his associates still managed to get it on with their business deals and also ventured in other new illegal rackets such as the extortion and taking over unions. Most prominent Capone figures involved in the labor racket at the time were George “Red” Barker, Wlliam “Three Fingered Jack” White, Murray “Curly” Humphreys and Claude Maddox. By 1930 they were involved in the trucking association called TNT (Trucking and Transportation exchange), which netted over $40,000 a month. Drivers of various trades cough up membership fees and paid dues to these organized crime figures. Other partners connected to this enterprise were Marcus Looney, Charlie Fischetti, Capone’s cousin, and William "Klondike" O'Donnell. This crew of union racketeers was also involved in the International Union of Operating Engineers and according to police reports Maddox played a leading role in the invasion of the Chicago Teamsters Union. Later Maddox also brought in his partner from the Circus gang Tony Capezio to control the Local 705 of the Teamsters and Chauffeurs Union. During this period Prohibition was still in effect so Maddox and Willie Heeney were still known for stealing liquor from small time bootleggers. Story has it that Heeney and Maddox once entered a home posing as Prohibition agents. They confiscated $15,000 worth of whiskey and left, making off with quite a prize. As I said before, these guys were real tough nuts because with all of the police attention and investigations, they still made the big bucks. They didn’t care about anything because they had all of the protection they needed. Back in those days the courts even hired gangsters as bailiffs and such. The judges were corrupt by the Capone gang so much that the gangsters felt like they had a licence to kill anyone. Like for example in this next case.

Back in December 13, 1925 one of Maddox’ closest associates and also public enemy William “Three Fingered Jack” White shot and killed Policeman Edward Pflaume of Forest Park. Officer Pflaume together with two other policemen James McBride of Bellwood and Charles Jones of Berkley were looking for a Chrysler automobile in connection with a robbery. McBride got information that a known robber was hanging out at the Mannheim Inn Tavern on Mannheim Road and 22nd Street. This robber also corresponded with the description of a man who had a one bum hand with few fingers off. When the cops came at the place they saw Jack White and James Johnston hanging out with two gorgeous ladies, having drinks. The cops approached the two gangsters and asked for their automobile licence number cards. White pulled out his card with one hand and kept the other in his pocket. During the comparison of the numbers, Officer McBride took White’s hand, pulled it out of his pocket and discovered the two missing fingers. Than the officers walked to the back of the establishment with the two suspects to take White’s coat and to take them to the station for further questioning. As they entered the room, White made a quick turn to the right and as he did that a flash of fire came from his pocket. McBride was scratched on the right side of the face by the bullet and jumped back into the hallway. Than White and Johnston ran to the door and both fired at least six shots at policemen. The cops fired back and managed to hit Johnston. White fired few more shots thus fatally wounding Officer Pflaume in the abdomen and leg. Later White threw his gun and surrendered to the cops. Johnston died on the spot and Officer Pflaume died on his way to the hospital. White was arrested for the murder but the trial started two years later. On January 21, 1927, in Judge Philip Sullivan's court room White was found guilty of the murder of the policeman and was sentenced to Joliet for life. That’s when the wheels of mob justice began to turn. After two years, the Supreme Court set aside the verdict and White’s lawyers made an appeal and “miraculously” on July 10, 1929 Jack White was freed of charges against him in the murder of policeman. The case was dropped but the States Attorney office didn’t give up and the case was reinstated.

On October 12, 1930, Claude Maddox had a meeting in his automobile with Jack White and George Barker. The car was parked just few doors down from Capone's Cicero headquarters on West 22d Street. Suddenly few officers of the State Attorney’s office approached the car and arrested the men. In the car were found also a couple of revolvers. So in September 1930 the States Attorney announced that White will be called again in front of a jury in the murder case of Officer Pflaume, and also will be charged for bank robbery and for carrying a concealed weapon. The main witnesses again were policemen McBride and Jones. On October 30th, policeman McBride was driving to the States Attorney’s office to assist Prosecutor Harry Ditchburne in gathering the evidences for the new trial of White. Suddenly another car approached McBride with Fur Summons on the wheel and Maddox on the passenger seat with a sawed-off shotgun in his hand. Maddox fired a shot at Officer McBride’s head and the gangsters took off. McBride was heavily wounded, half of his face was in blood, his jaw was shattered and his vocal cords were also affected but miraculously he survived the attack. He was taken to the intensive care unit at West Lake hospital in Melrose Park. With the help of “unknown” witnesses, few hours later Maddox and Summons were arrested and brought to station for questioning. Later both of them were taken to the hospital were Officer McBride laid in critical condition. McBride identified Maddox as the shooter but couldn’t identify Summons. After leaving McBride’s bedside Maddox and Summons were taken to the Melrose Park police station and later were locked up at the states attorney’s office by Ditchburne and few other detectives. The attempted murder of policeman McBride was regarded as the most glaring defiance to law enforcement officials. Special guards were placed around the hospital were McBride was staying and also around the states attorney office were Maddox and Summons were locked up. It was clear that McBride was shot at the instance of Jack White in order to hamper the prosecution in the new murder trial. One hour after Maddox’ arrest, he was taken to court of Judge Joseph David and forfeited his $10,000 bond and was set free until the trial.

On November 13, 1930 Maddox appeared in court of Judge John F. Lyle, handcuffed by two policemen, to answer on the charges of assault to kill a police officer. This time Justice Lyle ordered a $100,000 bond or $200,000 in real estate and ordered the defendant to be held in jail. Maddox’ attorney William Smith jumped in his defence by saying “This bond is absolutely out of reason”. Judge Lyle replied “This bond is exorbitant for an ordinary case, it is true, but this case is an exception to the rule. A crime of this nature was not thought of by the lawmakers when they passed the bond laws”. As addition Claude Maddox also added that “McBride only thought that I was one of the men who shot him while he was riding on the street car. I have as much chance standing trial here as I have flying to the moon”. After his speech, Maddox was sent to the Cook County jail. In fact, the unusual high bonds were not only issued to keep the gangsters in jail, but it also forced them to come up with large sums of cash just to disclose the nature of their treasury. But on November 25, corrupt Judge Joseph David again sliced $90,000 of the $100,000 bond for Maddox during the hearing. The prosecutors commented that “Judge Davis actions cannot be explained, except that he says he’s following the law when he is turning these mad dogs out on the street”. And that’s what happened. Maddox’ lawyers paid the bond and he was released again until the next hearing of the witness against him. Seven months later the trial of Claude Maddox began. The main witness was a 20 year old girl, Gretchen McDonald, of 422 South 20th Avenue, Maywood who identified Maddox as being the shooter of Officer McBride. But during the trial, the prosecutor called the witness to the stand and she refused to identify Maddox. The prosecutor Walker Butler asked the girl why she had changed her testimony. The girl said that she was confused and so the case was dropped. In the end Butler made a furious statement to the court by saying “Your Honor, this is just another case of gangland's successful intimidation of a witness. The State is helpless under the circumstances”. Claude Maddox walked free with a small grin on his face. On June 25, 1931 Maddox was again arrested but this time in the company of Rocco DeGrazia, Tony Capezio, Louis Stacey, John Purdy and Lawrence Imburgio, while having a dinner in a Du Page county roadhouse. All of them gave fake names and addresses and the cops seized them for questioning in connection with the 1929 massacre and their bootlegging operations. This was a pure harassment from the government because shortly all of the gangsters were released.



Claude Maddox getting out of court

But not everyone had the same “luck” for getting out of jail like Claude Maddox. As I stated before in some of my previous articles, Al “Scarface” Capone became too much of an obstacle for "free enterprise". By now he was the head of one of the biggest criminal operations in the country and if not the whole world. But the biggest problem was that every righteous cop or judge was waiting to throw him in jail. All the members of his gang were constantly under the pressure from the government, which affected their illegal business very much. By now Judge Lyle frequently issued search warrants covering gangster hideouts. As usual they didn't find any gangsters because their spies were alert and very busy but they did find records of the illegal activities and income sources. These findings proved to be very useful to the government investigators. One day a very prominent labor leader Tommy Maloy tipped the government officials that Capone had come back to Chicago from his Florida home to look after some business interests. So Judge Lyle, Pat Roche, chief of investigators for the state s attorney s office, and a group of armed federal government men went on the raid on one of Capone’s most prominent hideouts in Cicero, the Hawthorne Inn. When they arrived somewhere during the night, they knew the location of Capone's apartment on the top floor and they also knew where the guards like Claude Maddox, Tony Accardo or Louis Campagna were stationed. Some of the agents surrounded the building to prevent a getaway while the rest staged the raid. While the agents began their silent approach, suddenly the sounds of automobile sirens of two Cicero squad cars pulled up screeching, gongs sounding, and throwing lights over the agent’s cars. This was in fact a help, but not for the agents, it was for the Capone gang. Now the agents didn’t take time to welcome this unwanted help so they were forced to make an entrance in the building. But some of the agents that remained outside to prevent any getaway, they noticed that something was thrown of the second story window. They noticed that it was two cans filled with opium. When the agents arrived at the apartment on the second floor they found a slight, shrewd-looking, sallow colored little man in the company of a beautiful blond girl. It was Circus gang chief Willie Heeney. During the search of Heeney’s room the agents found few more cans of opium. One of the cops pulled up Willie's sleeve and then trouser leg, revealing skin marked by hundreds of scars made by the dope addict’s hypodermic needle. Heeney was a junkie and was also heavily involved in dope peddling. One of the G-man asked Heeney "Willie, were you under dope when you killed your first man? " In a flat voice Heeney replied " Why else would you kill somebody you never saw before?" Than the agent said " You gotta be full of dope. How about the next one?" Heeney again replied "After the first one it ain't so hard." Than they also found his two pearl-handled revolvers and a Tommy gun.

Later the agents revealed that Capone had been there, and evidently, with some of his top-flight gangsters, got away, being warned by the sound of the Cicero police sirens and gongs. But the raid was successful because they managed to gather tons of guns, narcotics, and mob records such as books of accounts, papers, correspondence, leases, bills of sale, bank books, lists of beer peddlers and customers, alcohol distillers and their suppliers, warehouse receipts, and receipts showing payment of rentals on safety deposit boxes. It was this kind of information and evidence that enabled the government to build its income tax case against Capone and other rich hoodlums. By this time the government realised that the key to Capone's conviction was proving his income, and the most valuable evidence originated in his previous offer to pay his taxes. Capone was afraid because his brother Ralph was tried for tax evasion back in 1930 and received three years in prison. But the government received information from someone that Capone ordered his lawyer to regularize his tax position. So in 1931, Capone was charged with income tax evasion, as well as with various violations of the Volstead Act (Prohibition) at the Chicago Federal Building in the courtroom of Judge James Herbert Wilkerson. I have to admit that I believe in a story or to be precise, in a rumour, that Capone was setup by his own gang, meaning Frank Nitti, the Fischetti bros, Murray Humphreys and the new up and coming head of the gang from Chicago’s West Side Paul “The Waiter” Ricca.



Paul Ricca

You see, Capone could have walked on the tax evasion charges up to the last minute before the jury in the case retired to make its decision and all Capone had to do was pay the money on the back taxes that he owed. But the boys didn’t want that to happened and their decision had nothing to do against Capone personally, it was just business. Capone had to take the fall, so the gang could’ve survived. In May 1932, aged 33, Capone was sent to the Atlanta U.S. Penitentiary and later was transferred to the newly opened Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary.



Al Capone

After the imprisonment of Capone things started changing for the Circus gang hot heads. Also word spread around that Prohibition, the mobs biggest racket, will be soon shut down. So now the Capone organization was concentrating on their illegal rackets such as gambling and labor extortion. It was a time when a lot of backstabbing and quarrels over rackets and territories occurred in Chicago’s underworld. By now Goerge “Red” Barker was one of the leaders in the labor rackets. According to underworld rumours, Barker had a quarrel with some of his closest associates such as Claude Maddox, Murray Humphreys and Frank White over the shares in the labor business. He controlled many unions and also made a big fortune so story goes that he didn’t want to share some of his newest operations with the boys. On June 17, 1932 Barker was walking in front of 1502 North Crawford avenue with three of his friends. Suddenly 36 machinegun bullets were fired into Barker’s body. Whether the shots came from an automobile or across from a window on the second floor of the house at 1502 is undetermined. Some witnesses reported seeing an automobile driven away immediately after the shooting. The police also found the room across the street that had evidently been used as a machine gun nest. There were shells on the floor and a rifle that had been abandoned. The amazing thing was that the aim of the assassins was so accurate that none of Barker’s friends were struck by the bullets. Later the cops found out that the room was rented by some couple that were on alleged honeymoon. There was also a car that oversaw the killing and the men in the car were Claude Maddox and Frank White. This was confirmed years later by an FBI wiretap. After Barker’s murder Maddox, Humphreys and White took over his operations in the union business.

Things really started changing back in 1929 when Fred Burke killed a police officer and managed to elude the government for over a year. When cops raided Burke’s house, they found a bulletproof vest, two Tommy guns, pistols, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Ballistics tests proved that both of Burke's Tommy guns had been used in the St. Valentine's Day massacre. The same tests showed that one of them had been used in the murder gangster Frankie Yale. So now everyone who was allegedly involved in the Saint Valentine’s Day murders became too hot for the syndicate to deal with. The up and coming Chicago criminal administration decided to start a clean up, meaning to get rid of all of these hot heads that didn’t generate high sums of cash and were involved in unsanctioned robberies and hits that also might affect their illegal enterprises. But Burke managed to escape the wrath of the new up and coming gangsters because he was arrested back in 1931 at a farm near Green City, Missouri and was sentenced to life in prison. In October 1931, Fred Burke was visited by Capone’s old bodyguard and trigger man Phil D’Andrea at Marquette prison in Michigan. According to the prison’s Warden James Corgan, D’Andrea exchanged just few words with Burke and than left. Obviously D’Andrea’s visit was to make sure that Burke will keep his mouth shut about his previous involvements with the Capone mob or else. Burke was never pressed to answer any questions about the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre.



Fred Burke arrested and the two actual Tommy guns

But not everyone was so lucky. Back in 1930 Ray Nugent remained as an associate of the Capone gang. He acted as bodyguard for Ralph Capone and followed him to Miami. In 1931 Nugent disappeared and legend goes that he had become a liability to the Outfit and had been taken out into the Everglades and fed to the alligators. Bob Carey heard about the news so in 1932 he decided to leave town together with his wife and headed to New York. According to police reports, on the night of July 29, 1932, Carey shot his wife to death, after which he turned the gun on himself. Some investigators believe that Carey and his wife were in fact killed by the mob. Fred Goetz managed to remain as criminal force in Chicago. At first he controlled some of the rackets in Cicero for the Outfit under the auspices of Claude Maddox and Willie Heeney. After a while he wanted to claim independence which was his biggest mistake. Also one of his close associates Verne Miller, was accused of helping gun down three policemen and a federal agent in an attempt to free bank robber Frank Nash during the infamous Kansas City Massacre. Story goes that Winkler gave informations about the massacre to FBI’s Chicago field office. Goetz forgot about being constantly watched by the new organization and so on March 20, 1933 he was murdered in a drive-by shooting outside of a closed Cicero restaurant, the Minerva. Gangster Alvin Karpis believed that Frank Nitti ordered the murder and Maddox together with Heeney delivered it. The last one was Gus Winkler. He also remained as force for the Chicago Outfit by controlling the rackets on the North Side. And he also tried to gain independence from the Outfit. So on October 9, 1933 Winkler was headed to the beer distribution office of Charles Weber at 1414 North Roscoe Avenue. Upon his arrival Winkler was hit with 72 shotgun pellets by mob assassins. As he lay down in his own pool of blood, Winkler managed to gasp out the Lord’s Prayer before he died.

After the imprisonment of Capone the remaining members of the infamous Circus gang were absorbed by the newly formed crime organization, which was now headed by the Camorra faction with Frank Nitti as the acting boss and the real power behind the organization Ricca-Campagna ruling panel. Jake Guzik remained as boss of the non-Italian faction together with Eddie Vogel, Claude Maddox and Murray Humphreys. So now the former Circus gang members Maddox and Willie Heeney became prime forces in the most lucrative Cicero area and Tony Capezio with his main enforcer Tony Accardo took the Grand Avenue area. Heeney constantly travelled down to Miami, Florida with Ralph Capone and Nitti so Maddox became the prime boss in Cicero. His headquarters was a tavern at 2241 South Cicero Avenue where he issued his orders and collected his daily payoffs from gambling, extortion of unions and prostitution. He also owned a famous blues and jazz club which was named The Hi-Ho. Many famous bands from that time period played at his club for $20 a week. But most of the musicians were poor and didn’t have the $5 to transfer their union cards to the Chicago local. But Maddox told the bands not to worry about the union and that he would take care of the problem which he really did so that placed most of the bands in an uncomfortable situation because they really didn’t have any visits from the union but they also didn’t saw any payment from Maddox. Maddox also controlled a string of handbooks on the North Side and his main collectors were Jack Perkins, a known hoodlum with close connections with high profile bank robbers, and also Edward “Casey” Konowski and Frank Estes. Maddox started to climb up the ladder in the Outfit’s hierarchy and also in the eyes of the government. Detectives constantly raided his tavern in Cicero and as usual they didn’t find anything illegal. They would take every one to the station and later release them. In fact the arrests were made just to make the hoodlum element like Maddox very uncomfortable. But the problem was that guys like Claude Maddox didn’t care about all of the harassment, I mean this guy grew up in a world of harassments and violence. Most of his associates spent their lives in and out of prison so as time went by it became a normal everyday thing for them. They were so much good in hiding their crimes and also in covering their mistakes that they became untouchable. These guys were the first class and generation of the newly formed and infamous Chicago Outfit, a predatory organized crime group that will rule Chicago’s underworld for the next 60 years.

But not everyone from the old gang was welcomed in the Outfit. By 1933, Jack McGurn was demoted from the organization and was placed on the shelf. The reason was that he was a heavy drinker, narcotics user and above all a degenerate gambler. He lost all of his money and was constantly harassed by the investigators as the main suspect in the St. Valentine’s Day massacre. He only had the skills for killing a man but by now the Outfit had an army of killers and didn’t need McGurn’s services anymore. He didn’t generate any real money or controlled any of the rackets so in plain English, he was useless. One day newspaper reporters found McGurn in some restaurant and asked him if he had any connections with the kidnapping of Jake the Barbers son, Jerome Factor. McGurn replied “Boys I ain’t made a payment on my house, the roof over my head, in 11 months, so I guess I’m gonna lose the place to foreclosure. So if I snatched Jake’s kid, believe me, I would have collected the dough long before this”. But some guys of the old Circus gang like Willie Heeney still had respect for old boy McGurn. By now Heeney was involved in the labor extortion business, bookmaking operations, white slavery and narcotics trafficking, so he was way up in the ranks over McGurn. So Heeney decided to take McGurn under his wing and give him another chance. Heeney knew that McGurn didn’t have the brains for the big businesses so he gave him the job for running numbers and also selling dope in the Black neighborhoods. Both of them were dope addicts so we can only imagine how the business for McGurn was really going. But two years later McGurn made a master plan about importing heroin from the Caribbean to Chicago and to flood the rest of the country. But the problem was that he didn’t know the Outfit’s boss Paul Ricca already made a deal with New York’s Charles “Lucky” Luciano and Meyer Lansky to establish dope routes from Cuba to Florida and the rest of the country. McGurn also asked for financial backup for his international drug smuggling ring. The bosses refused and also dismissed him again from the organization.



Jack McGurn

Things got more complicated when on January 8, 1935, FBI agents surrounded a Chicago apartment building at 3920 North Pine Grove, looking for few members of the infamous Barker-Karpis Gang, in connection with the kidnapping of banker Edward Bremer. After a brief shootout which resulted with the death of gangster Russell Gibson Bremer was rescued and the kidnapping gang was arrested. Among those taken into custody was also Byron Bolton. During the questioning, to the agents surprise, Bolton started talking. He pointed out the Barker gang’s main hideout in Florida and among other things, he also claimed to have taken part in the infamous St. Valentines Day massacre. According to Bolton the main people involved in the massacre were Burke, Goetz, Winkler, and Nugent. But some of Bolton’s claims didn’t add up because he started throwing names like Maddox, Humphreys and Carey and these guys already had their own alibis. The problem was that most of these fellas were dead or in jail by now. Burke was sent to jail for the rest of his life and Humphreys was serving a 18 month term in Leavenworth prison for income tax evasion. The only suspect who was named in Bolton’s testimony and was still free on the streets of Chicago was 35 year old Claude Maddox. On January 25, 1935 Maddox was arrested as he walked in his home at 2240 S. Oak Park Avenue, Berwyn and was brought to the police station for questioning again regarding the massacre. But a strange thing happened at the station. No one wanted to question Maddox regarding the slayings. It looked like every cop in station was afraid of Maddox. The only cop who had the courage to ask him a few questions was Chief Detective John Sullivan. But Maddox didn’t say much except that he was in court during the time of the massacre or in other words he used his old alibi which was very useful. Bolton claimed that Maddox was indeed in court but he paid the corrupt judge to let him sneak for a while at 9 a.m. to accomplish the task with the other killers and than again returned to the court room before noon when his case was called. But Bolton’s testimony on Maddox was very unbelievable and if it was true it was very hard to prove it. Maddox’s court statement was supported by his attorney Tyrell Richardson and also by government officials. So Detective Sullivan had no other choice except to hold Maddox for the night and to release him the next day. The detective told the reporters “So far as I know, Maddox has no connection with the massacre and he’s not wanted here in Chicago for any crime”.



Claude Maddox has his picture taken by police photographer William Mathews in Chicago

When the cops raided Bolton’s home they found numerous pictures of him together with Al Capone and other gangsters such as Fred Burke and Fred Goetz. A veteran of the police force in Chicago, Sergt. Samuel Loftus said that “Every detail that Bolton pointed out is true to my personal knowledge. I lived that case and as a matter of fact I’m still working it. The Maddox angle is not only possible but I believe that is the answer to the puzzle of his alibi. We know that Maddox was involved but couldn’t prove it”. While leaving the police station Maddox allegedly said to his attorney “Well that’s one rap they can’t hang on me”. The shady director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation J. Edgar Hoover immediately dismissed Bolton’s testimony by saying “There’s not a word of truth in it” but the agent in charge of Chicago’s Division of Investigation D. M. Ladd said that “The Federal Agents haven’t even questioned Bolton regarding the massacre”.



Byron "Monty" Bolton


Bolton (middle) with two agents

The only gangster that wasn’t mentioned in Bolton’s testimony but was believed by every cop in Chicago that he had some involvement in the massacre, was Jack McGurn. I believe that he was one of the main logisticians for the slayings but there was no proof for him being directly connected with the massacre. But the new criminal organization which was headed by Nitti and Ricca didn’t want to risk any chances since McGurn was out of favour and was also displeased by their leadership. He was all done in the rackets as far as Ricca was concerned. McGurn didn’t respected Ricca’s order and continued his drug peddling operations in Chicago. Ricca was one of the few rare bosses of the Outfit who would gave you second chance to retire and if you ignored his offer,that was one way ticket to the graveyard. So that was the case with Jack McGurn. So in 1936 the evening before Saint Valentine’s Day, or in other words the Massacre’s seventh anniversary, McGurn went bowling at the second floor of the Avenue Recreation Rooms on 805 North Milwaukee Avenue which was owned by Ricca’s henchman Willie “Smokes” Aloisio. McGurn was called by two of his former gangster friends, Frank “Three Fingered” White and Claude Maddox, to join them for few games. The three men entered the bowling alley and according to witnesses 15 minutes later three men with bandanas on their faces walked in and yelled “Stick ’em up!” One of the three men fired a warning shot in ceiling and everyone in the establishment has hit the floor. So one of McGurns bowling buddies approached him and whispered “This is for you, you son of a bitch!” and than shot McGurn behind his right ear. It was a set up. McGurn fell to the ground and the assassin fired few more shots. The three stick up men fled the scene while White and Maddox, that came with and killed McGurn ,before leaving one of them turned around and walked back to the table where McGurn had been sitting and took the tally sheet which had their names on it, shoved it in his pocket and walked away. Years later an FBI wiretap confirmed Maddox’ and White’s involvement in the hit. I believe that McGurn’s demise on the same day when the massacre occurred 7 years ago wasn’t a coincidence, but it was a message from Ricca and the boys.



Jack McGurn dead

Right now I want to ask the most important question regarding the slayings of everyone who allegedly were involved in the massacre. Why Claude Maddox or Willie Heeney remained alive and continued to rule the streets of Chicago? The answer is simple, and that is because they were generating a lot of cash for the new organization and were very loyal to their superiors. By the mid 1930’s the Chicago Outfit was taking over every union in the city. Like for example the president of Chicago Moving Picture Operators union Thomas Malloy was slain by Outfit assassins on February 4, 1935. Half of Malloy’s head was blown to bits by a shotgun blast. Suspects in the murder and immediately arrested were Claude Maddox, Ralph Pierce, Sam Hunt and Leslie Kruse. Later all of them were released because the cops had no evidence to hold them up. With Malloy out of the picture the Outfit took over the projections union and looked forward for the Movie Industry and in 1936 they succeeded in their goal. By the late 1930’s Claude Maddox together with Danny Stanton, feared ex-Capone enforcer and extortionist, took over the AFL Hotel and Restaurant Employees Union and the Bartenders International League of America. Maddox and Stanton controlled the Chicago Hotel and Restaurant Employees Local Joint Board and District Craft Council, in which all of the International's local unions held membership. The two gangsters plan was to destroy the local autonomy of all the member locals by setting up a master contract for negotiations with employers, thus the council would direct the destinies of over 35000 hotel and restaurant workers. By 1940 Maddox alone was in control of local 450 of the Bartenders, Waiters, Waitresses, and Miscellaneous Workers' union at 2137 South Cicero Avenue, Cicero. Maddox was listed in the local’s books as a member and officer and in 1941 he was a delegate at the International's convention in Cincinnati, Ohio as a representative of local 450. When the news reporters learned about Maddox’ involvement they asked William Kerr, the secretary-treasurer of the Cicero local, if this is true? Kerr denied any connection between Maddox and his union but the records and investigations said otherwise. The same year the Chicago Crime Commission listed Claude Maddox as a Public Enemy number 8 and also reported him as being one of the biggest threats for the unions in the city. Maddox was also assisted in the matter of establishing control over local 450 by Louis Romano, who was head of Local 278 of the Bartenders Union in Chicago. By now Maddox belonged to the “Big Four” in the union business among other gangsters such as Murray Humphreys, Danny Stanton and Frank Nitti.



Claude Maddox

Danny Stanton was a real hot head and started to muscle in on every possible union in the City of Chicago and even on those unions that were already in control of the Outfit. With his imposing figure, Stanton was a professional for intimidation. Previously he rose as a criminal independently and later was absorbed by the former Capone gang. But during the early 40’s and with the massive taking over of the unions, Stanton blinded by his ruthlessness, started making problems for the Outfit in general. He started quarrelling with Claude Maddox over the Restaurant and Bartenders union scheme because he wanted a bigger share. He also started to muscle in on another prominent racket and that’s was the numbers scheme which by now was controlled by Sam “Golf Bag” Hunt. At the same time the whole top echelon of the Outfit, including Nitti, Ricca, Campagna and D’Andrea, was indicted for extorting over a million dollars from several Hollywood studios. Rather go to jail, Nitti decided to shoot himself in the head with a loaded .32 caliber revolver. So maybe Stanton figured with Nitti dead and with some of the big shots were going away for awhile, his chance was now or never. Stanton enjoyed many years of wealth from his connections to the Outfit but now those times were over. On May 5th 1943, just before midnight, Stanton and one of his closest associate Louis Dorman were having drinks in a bar at 6500 May Street. Suddenly Outfit hitmen William Block and another hitman kicked the back door of the bar and blasted three shots with their shotguns. Dorman got one in the back and Stanton got one in the back of the head. After the shooting the killers ran back out and made their way to the front door and fired three more shots from a revolver through the glass panels of the front door before making their getaway. Stanton and Dorman both lay dead on the floor. That was the end of Danny Stanton. A young beautiful blonde by the name of Cecelia Ashley was one of the witnesses who was sitting next to the dead gangsters and saw the killers. The other day she learned that the police knew about a “blonde” woman sitting near the victims. Her friends advised her about going to the police so she decided to go for it. On May 8, Miss Ashley started walking down to the Englewood Police Station but never managed to reach the place because she disappeared from the face of the earth. Later from various sources the cops were seeking for Claude Maddox and Sam Hunt in connection with the double murder and the missing woman. They were both arrested and questioned about the killings but as usual everything ended with no results. Patrick Collins, of the police department, and Assistant States Attorney Francis McCurrie stated publicly that Stanton had refused to take any orders from or surrender any of his powers to Claude Maddox. There’s also another report that Maddox was then attempting to take over the checkroom attendants' union which up to that time had belonged to Stanton. Anyways Stanton became just another example that no single person was above the organization.

During the mid 1940’s, even with most of his friends from the top echelon were sent to jail, Claude Maddox’ business was booming. One of his underlings from the old Circus gang days Tony Accardo became the front boss of the Chicago Outfit. Accardo had a great respect for his older companion and placed him in charge of the few biggest union rackets in Chicago. Accardo also granted him few more gambling spots on the North Side and also gave him few race tracks operations.



Tony Accardo

Now Maddox as a senior member of the organization was riding high and also had his own voice in Chicago’s criminal commission. He remained as the prime force in Cicero together with his older associate Willie Heeney and other gangsters such as Joseph “Fifke” Corngold, Ralph “Bottles” Capone and another ex-Capone gangster Tony “Mops” Volpe and they were all overseen by jailed boss Louis Campagna. One of their hang outs was a gambling spot known as El Patio Tavern at 5914 Cermak Road, Cicero. These old timers made money and managed to survive the pre-Capone era, the Capone era, the forming of the Chicago Outfit and World War II. Guys like Maddox didn’t serve more than a year in jail and also had a constant flow of cash through the decades. By now two of Maddox’ prime underlings were Robert Ansani and Joseph “Joey O’Brien” Aiuppa. Together they were operating the Towne Hotel in Cicero, which was also a big gambling spot filled with prostitutes. Maddox knew Aiuppa since the 1930’s through his connections with other various gangs. Aiuppa used to work closely with the infamous John Dillinger gang and also Barker-Karpis gang. He used to provide these gangs with weapons and hide outs. In 1935 seven gangsters including Aiuppa, were arrested regarding various hold-ups on golf clubs in Chicago. Aiuppa was aksed who he was working for, he answered “You know me, I’m working for Johnny Moore”. Within few minutes Aiuppa and the rest of the gangsters were released. By this time Aiuppa mostly ran the gambling and bookmaking operations for Maddox and was the owner of the Greyhound Recreation Center at 4031 West Cermak Road. Maddox and Aiuppa also owned another famous club in that area known as the Turf Nighclub. It was a place with many gambling operations and also filled with prostitutes. Another gangster who worked at the club and launched his criminal career from that place was Gus Alex. The Cicero crew also owned few more joints such as the Paddock Lounge, the Post Time Lounge and the Circle Club. Aiuppa became a charter member of Maddox’ Local 450 and during the mid 1930’s he was arrested during his connection to Maddox regarding an aggravated assault. Later the case was dismissed and Aiuppa was released. By the late 1940’s Claude Maddox, Joey Auippa and Robert Ansoni were partners in the Taylor & Company organization which was a front for transportation of gambling devices, like slot machines, around the city of Chicago and beyond. They made over half a million dollars a year from this enterprise. Maddox and the rest of the gang owned another firm which was called the AMA Advertising Company. From here they manufactured silk screen process. Aiuppa and Maddox also managed to spread their bookmaking operations in Melrose Park with the help of their old associate and also boss of that area Rocco DeGrazia. In other words Aiuppa was Maddox’ number one guy. According to underworld resources Aiuppa once bragged that he was the number two guy (after Maddox) in Cicero.


Joey Aiuppa

The infamous Cicero crew also played a major role in securing the parole for their jailed superiors in the Hollywood studios case. If the bosses remained in jail for a long time, that would’ve been a big downfall for the mob in Chicago and maybe a reason for an internal war. The first step was to pay off the tax debts that Ricca and Campagna owed to the U.S. because a prisoner cannot be paroled if he has another case pending.There were back taxes on the part of Campagna and Ricca to the extent of about $500,000. Claude Maddox, Willie Heeney, Fifke Corngold, Ralph Capone and Joey Aiuppa together collected over $100,000 donation for the bosses. Through their connections they managed to settle the $500,000 debt for about 20 cents on the dollar which at the end was around $100,000. Heeney carried the cash to St. Louis and turned it over to some prominent political figures, who played a leading role in getting the bosses released. Than the Cicero guys collected another $160,000 from the other top guys in the Chicago Outfit and gave it to the bosses’ lawyers. One of the lawyers went to the judge that led the parole hearing and placed the money on his desk and said "This is for Paulie", meaning Paul Ricca. The final step was to influence the parole board and rumours are that the Parole Board members accepted a $500,000 bribe. So on August 13th, 1947 the bosses were set free after serving just 3 years and 4 months of a ten year sentence. In 1948 Heeney was called and questioned before a federal grand jury in Washington about the alleged conspiracy for the release of the Chicago bosses. Heeney explained that he never contributed a penny toward getting the paroles. So now the Cicero chiefs Claude Maddox and Willie Heeney gained a big respect in the eyes of their superiors and the Outfit in general. They received a reputation as a true stand up guys.

The same year Chicago’s first big crime boss Al Capone had a stroke. Capone managed to regain consciousness and started to improve but contracted pneumonia and later on January 25 he suffered a fatal heart attack and died. Capone was buried аt Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois. Most of the top echelon of Chicago’s underworld didn’t show up at his funeral because of the publicity but according to investigators Willie Heeney and Claude Maddox were there. Again these guys showed their huge loyalty even to their long gone former superiors like Capone. They didn’t care about the public attention or the press. They understood the fact that the world already knew about their shady past and presence so why hide?! Years later Virgil Peterson, the head of Chicago Crime Commission reported that Maddox, Joey Aiuppa and Robert Ansoni were pallbearers at Capone’s funeral which was a closed affair.

By 1950, Claude Maddox had control over most of the unions in Chicago such as the Produce Drivers' Union and Local 703 at 216 South Ashland Avenue, the Picture Frame Workers Union and Local 731 at Southwestern Avenue, the International Hodcarriers Union at 814 West Harrison Street, the Movie Operators Projectionists Union Local 110 and of course his favourite the Hotel, Club, Restaurant Employees, and Bartenders International Union, Suburban Local 450 at 2137 South Cicero Avenue. Maddox’ frontman and international vice president of Local 450 was James Blakeley. Blakeley was also a member of the huge Hotel-Motel Service Workers, Drugstore, Sports Events and Industrial Catering Union, Local 593 at 10 North Wells. By this time Maddox’ placed the Lardino brothers, John and Dan, as overseers of his union enterprises. The brothers were both known as killers, extortionists and members of the Chicago Outfit. Blakely constantly reported to John Lardino and also gave the money from the scheme directly to him. Lardino was also a member and consultant for Local 593 and received additional $100 a week for his services. Later Lardino held a $30,000-a-year job as administrative director of the local. Investigator reports say that with the help of the Lardino bros, Claude Maddox allegedly was receiving $10,000 a month from all of these unions.

On July 13 (Friday the 13th), 1951 Maddox lost one of his oldest and closest associates Willie Heeney. 63 year old Heeney died of tuberculosis in the Mercy Hospital in Cicero and was buried in Mount Carmel Cemetery. Many high profile Outfit members came to his wake including his old buddy Claude Maddox. He was remembered in the underworld as a killer, gambling boss and as a cornerstone of organized crime in Chicago.

By 1952, 51 year old Maddox became one of the elderly kings of Chicago’s underworld. In August Maddox was the host of a lavish gangster champagne party right under the noses of the police in Chicago. The occasion was the wedding of his eldest son Bob Maddox. The party was a gala affair with a12-piece orchestra and the vintage wine flowed freely. The newsmen who motored to the country club were urged not to enter the clubhouse by 10 husky bodyguards in tuxedos. The wedding was visited by more than 1000 guests including Paul Ricca, Tony Accardo and the new up and coming star in the Outfit Sam “Mooney” Giancana.

Maddox also loved horses and during this period he devoted a portion of his energies to horse racing. He owned a lot of stables and race track stock around Chicago and other areas and also owned thoroughbred horses and ran them under the names of "stooges". In 1953 "Mr. Moore" became a celebrity in the fashionable show horse set by winning ribbons with horses kept at the Onwentsia stables, near Lake Forest. His main establishment was the Pat Kay horse stable in an exclusive country area north of Barring, Cuba Township, Lake county in which numerous high profile society figures resided. The ownership was listed as Mr. John Moore and Mrs. Alice Moore, his wife. His son Bob and William Campbell were the frontmen for these stables. Maddox knew a lot of veterinarians, trainers, jockeys and bookies, and story goes that he fixed a lot of racings and made a fortune. Two of his business partners and also stable owners in this lucrative enterprise were Sam Hunt and Louis Campagna. In October, 1954 the officials in Cuba Township thought that office of the Pat Kay stables would be a good central location for a polling place for the 512 voters. But the ownership of the stables by Maddox was highly publicized in a recent investigation of gangsters in horse racing. So the township and county officials decided to move the polling place to the Biltmore Country club. Joseph P. Welch, the Cuba Township supervisor said "I was just as surprised as anyone else to learn that Mr. Moore was in fact Claude Maddox." Maddox also used to sell some of his horses to many famous and rich people. In one deal he sold three horses for $35,000. During this period the government officials unleashed a big investigation on the horse race business which resulted with the convictions of many Outfit associates and hirelings.

On January 22, 1955, Claude Maddox was again the host of another huge lavish gangster party but this time it was the wedding of his daughter Patricia. It was a Franklyn Park social event and among those present at the reception were Paul Ricca, Tony and his brother John Accardo, Sam Giancana, Joseph Aiuppa, Robert Ansoni, Mike Spranse, Lenny Patrick, and numerous others. Also most of the cars that brought the guests to the reception bore license plates issued to many known union officials from Chicago and around the country. But the good times were slowly fading away because the same year two of his best friends and also high profile members of the Chicago Outfit passed away. On May 30, 1955, Louis Campagna died of a heart attack on his yacht off the coast of Florida. Later his body was returned to Chicago, and there was a wake in a funeral parlor on South Harlem Avenue. The wake was attended by every member of the Outfit including the top bosses (Ricca, Accardo, Giancana), Jack Cerone, Willie Alosio, Ralph Pierce, Frank LaPorte, John Lardino, Tony Accardo, Murray Humphreys, Joey Glimco and Claude Maddox. Maddox drove a car to the wake with 1955 license plates 745-748, issued to John Lardino, 10 North Wells Street, Chicago, which was the address of local 593.



Louis Campagna

More than a month later, on July 7, 1955 Tony Capezio died also from a massive heart attack on the golf course at White Pines country club in Du Page County near Bensenville. He collapsed at the fourth hole and his golf buddy placed him on the electric cart and took him to the clubhouse. The Bensenville firemen were called and they worked on him for 45 minutes with an inhalator before Dr. Paul Hasbrouck pronounced him dead. Capezio was 53 years old. On July 11, less than three hundred people attended his funeral and most of the mobsters shun the funeral, not because of any dislike towards Capezio but simply because they didn't want to be seen by police or federal agents who mingled around the area. But Claude Maddox, who was Capezio’s long time friend and cohort, did show up. Maddox again showed his true gangster loyalty.



Tony Capezio

Slowly the good times for 53 year old Claude Maddox were comming to an end. By now most of his old associates were gone and now his freedom was also jeopardised. Back in October, 1954 the government investigated Maddox’ the Taylor & Company organization and found out that it was a front for manufacturing and distributing gambling devices in violation of the federal laws. Maddox, Joey Aiuppa and Robert Ansoni were all arrested and taken to the FBI building for further questioning. Maddox was released on a $1,000 bond but outside the federal building he was again arrested by Peter McGuire, chief investigator for the Illinois attorney general, who arraigned a trial. The feds had evidences that Maddox was making illegal profit from the company and was not listed in the documents as an owner which was required by law. Maddox was again freed on a $500 bond but was set for a hearing on October 25 1954. The government’s informant was a salesman for the Taylor Company named Walter Clinnin who vanished from the face of the earth in 1956. But the problem for Maddox was that the agents already had the records to prove the illegal operations. The trail was set for January, 1956 where Maddox, Aiuppa, Ansoni and two other partners R. J. Johnson and Harry Milner were convicted, based on an indictment that the defendants had shipped gambling equipment in interstate commerce from Chicago to Pennsylvania in violation of the Johnson Act. Following their convictions, Federal Judge William J. Campbell sentenced each defendant to serve 1 year and 1 day in Federal prison and to pay a fine of $1,000 and costs. The case was appealed, but they were upheld on appeal, and the men went to prison. This was the first time after 30 years Maddox again set foot in jail.


John Moore aka Claude Maddox

In 1957, Claude Maddox was released from prison after serving 10 months. He continued to reside in his home at 3536 S. Harlem Avenue, Riverside and kept a very low profile. He was out of the rackets and mostly hung out with his family and grandkids and enjoyed his “hard earned” money. With Maddox’ blessing, Joey Aiuppa became the prime boss in the Cicero area and continued to run most of the rackets, or what’s left of them. Aiuppa’s real success was his close connections, thanks to Claude Maddox, with the Outfit’s big shot Tony Accardo. By now most of the old Capone “Mustache Petes” were dead or in jail and the new Outfit force, called Sam Giancana, was taking over the rackets and was also taking the organization on a higher level. Giancana ordered Aiuppa to share his profits in Cicero with one of his underlings Willie “Potatoes” Daddano. According to the gangster code, when a “big shot” dies such as Maddox, his operations aren’t taken over by his number one man, but the operations are divided among other big shots.



Maddox' residence

On June 21, 1958 Maddox’ wife was watching television in the living room while preparing a meal for her husband who was taking a nap in their bedroom. When she walked to the bedroom to wake him up, Alice realised that her husband was dead. She notified the Riverside police, who sent an inhalator squad and a police surgeon. They found out that Maddox died from a heart attack and had been dead for about three hours. The services for Claude Maddox were held at the chapel at 4000 St. Charles rd., Bellwood. Maddox was gangster to the core and was very much respected in the underworld. He was so much respected that at his funeral, five of his gangster friends chased George Quinn, a Chicago Tribune photographer, for two blocks before cornering and slugging him and in the end took his photo plates. Besides the publicity, out of respect the funeral was visited by many Chicago Outfit high profile figures including Paul Ricca, Tony Accardo, Sam Giancana, Joey Aiuppa and Gus Alex. Besides his wife Alice, 58 year old Maddox was survived by his two sons Bob and Terry and his daughter Patricia.


John Moore aka Claude Maddox' tomb

Maddox died just in time to avoid answering a subpoena from the Rackets Committee of the United States Senate. In other words he double crossed the government. Few weeks after his death, during the Mcclellan hearings, the director of the Chicago Crime Commission Virgil Peterson was asked by Democratic Senator Frank Church and Senator Carl T. Curtis about Maddox’ death:

Senator Church: Did he die of natural causes?

Mr. Peterson: Yes, sir, natural causes and, in fact, I think his wife was watching television and he was asleep in the bed and died a very peaceful death.

Senator Curtis: Is that a natural cause for a hoodlum to die, or an unnatural death?

Mr. Peterson: In view of his background, I would say it could be considered an unnatural death.

Senator Curtis: Maybe "unusual" is a better term.

Johnny Moore a.k.a. Claude Maddox wasn’t Italian but lived and died like a true Mafia Godfather. He killed many people and wasn’t afraid of the law. He was arrested and questioned about murders more often than most people go to the grocery stores. He was considered as a public enemy through all of his life time and in the end he died peacefully in his bed as a multi-millionaire.


This article is completed from various infos that can be found on the internet.

More great pics, Toodoped. Thanks so much.

You're welcome Gary

Another great read.

Thanks a lot man

NIce Job Toodoped

Awesome read as always. So much info and great pics!

Thanks ricky

Thank you also Primo and thanks for the support