13. “The Only Man Al Capone Feared”
Polish born Hymie Weiss (1898 – 1926) grew up in Chicago’s North Side, where he took to a life of crime in his early teens. He eventually teamed up with George “Bugs” Moran and Dean O’Banion to form the North Side Gang, which came to dominate crime in north Chicago during Prohibition. Competition with the Chicago Outfit over the illegal alcohol market turned to violent conflict, which claimed the North Side Gang’s boss, O’Banion, in 1924. Weiss succeeded him, and vowed revenge.
He went after the Chicago Outfit’s boss, Johnny Torrio, who came so close to dying in a hit that he resigned, handed the reins to Al Capone, and left for Italy. Capone, who reportedly feared Weiss, tried to make peace, but his offers were rejected. After repeated failed efforts by the rival bosses to kill each other, Weiss led a team of gunmen in 1926, that fired over 1000 bullets into Capone’s headquarters. Capone survived, and a few weeks later, on October 11th, 1926, Weiss was about to enter his headquarters, when a squad of hitmen opened fire from the windows of a nearby second floor building. Weiss was fatally injured, and died in the ambulance en route to the hospital.
