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.