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.