Hymie Weiss

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Earl "Hymie" Weiss

Earl "Hymie" Weiss (January 25, 1897 - October 11, 1926) was a Chicago mobster and rival of Al Capone. Weiss was born in Chicago to a Polish Catholic emigrant family as Earl Wojciechowski, the family having changed their last name upon immigrating to the United States in the 1890s (he earned the nickname "Hymie" only later in his career).

Hymie Weiss began engaging in petty crime in his teens before ultimately befriending Chicago mobster Dion O'Banion. It was through O'Banion that Weiss was to meet Bugs Moran and become one of the preeminent leaders of the notorious North Side gang. The North Siders had frequent confrontations with Capone, which eventually led to the assassination of O'Banion by Capone's associates in 1924.

In early 1925, Weiss himself made an attempt on the life of Capone in retaliation for O'Banion's murder, but failed. On January 24 of that year, he and Bugs Moran attacked and severely wounded Johnny Torrio outside his South Side residence. Hymie ultimately proved himself one of Capone's most formidable foes (rumored to have been the only man Big Al was truly afraid of). On September 20, 1926, Weiss led a cavalcade of sedans past Capone's headquarters, the Hawthorne Hotel in Cicero. The North Siders raked the entire block with submachine gun fire in an attempt to wipe out Capone. One of the cars stopped, and a man in brown overalls got out (said to be Peter Gusenberg) and emptied his tommy gun into the cafe where Capone was cowering. After this astounding attack, Capone was terrified and requested a peace. But the peace talk failed, and Capone succeeded in taking out his nemesis.

On October 11, 1926, Weiss was crossing State Street with four of his men to enter his headquarters, when two gunmen sprayed them with buckshot and submachine gun bullets from nearby second-story window. Hymie and one of his men were killed, and the others wounded. Bullets from the fusillade sprayed and slightly damaged the cornerstone of the Holy Name Cathedral, Chicago directly across the street. The 28-year old gang boss was said to have left a fortune of $1.8 million dollars. Following his death, Weiss was buried at Mount Carmel Cemetery in the Chicago suburb of Hillside, Illinois.

Weiss was said to have suffered from arterial cancer, which often gave him blinding headaches, dizziness, and fainting spells. Because of his illness, Hymie often said he didn't expect to live to an old age, which may explain his fearlessness while fighting Al Capone.