17. The Gangster Who Scared Al Capone
In his first major act of revenge for the murder of Dean O’Banion, his successor Hymie Weiss went after the Chicago Outfit’s boss, Johnny Torrio. He was ambushed outside his apartment with a fusillade of gunfire, and took bullets to the jaw, lung, abdomen, groin, and legs. Severely wounded, Torrio was spared from a coup de grace shot to the skull when the killer’s gun jammed. The near-death experience frightened Torrio, and convinced him to get out while he still could. So in 1925, he handed control of the Outfit to Capone and moved to Italy.
Capone, who reportedly feared Weiss, tried to make peace and end the feud with the North Side Gang, 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 returned the favor a few weeks later. On October 11, 1926, Weiss was about to enter his headquarters, when a squad of hitmen opened fire from the windows of a nearby building’s second floor. Weiss was fatally injured, and died in the ambulance en route to the hospital.
