Frank J. Loesch

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Frank J. Loesch (1853-1944) was an American law enforcement official, reformer and a founder of the Chicago Crime Commission which attempted to combat the widespead corruption and organized crime related violence during Prohibition.

As a member of the Chicago Crime Commission, Loesch would serve five terms as the crime commission chairman spending much of his career fighting organized crime in the city, particularly against the romantic image of the gangster commonly portrayed by the media of the times. Loesch believed that changing the public's attitute towards oganized crime figues such as Dion O'Bannion and Al Capone was a crucial part in effective law enforcement, and was later creditied for coining the term "public enemy" later used by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

However, Loesch reportedly held considerable influence among Chicago's underworld and was apparently able to warn Capone and other Italian mobsters against further gang warfare, especially following the violence surrounding the 1928 Republican "pineapple primary". Loesch was also responsible for the arrests of many of cities Irish-American gangsters and bootleggers.

[edit] Further reading

Asbury, Herbert. The Gangs of Chicago: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld. New York: Alfred A. Knoff, 1940. ISBN 1-56025-454-8
Kobler, John. Capone: The Life and Times of Al Capone. New York: Da Capo Press, 2003. ISBN 0-30681-285-1