| Hymie Weiss | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 25, 1898 Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Died | October 11, 1926 (aged 28) Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Cause | Gunshot |
| Allegiance | North Side Gang |
Hymie Weiss (born January 25, 1898 – October 11, 1926) was a Polish-American mob boss who became a leader of the Prohibition-era North Side Gang and a bitter rival of Al Capone.
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Born Henry Earl J. Wojciechowski in Chicago, he grew up on the North Side with his Polish-American family.[1] he was nicknamed "Hymie", "Hymie the Polack" and "Hymie the Pole",[1] later in his career. He was Catholic, despite the ethnic moniker. As a teenager, Weiss became a petty criminal (after upsetting a fragrance shelf during a botched burglary as a youth, police dubbed him 'The Perfume Burglar') and ultimately befriended an Irish-American teen named Dean O'Banion. With Weiss and George "Bugs" Moran, O'Banion established the North Side Gang, a criminal organization that eventually controlled bootlegging and other illicit activities in the northern part of Chicago.
When Wojciechowski's brother Fred was questioned about him in 1926, he replied, "I've seen him once in twenty years...that was when he shot me, six years ago." When photographers tried to snap his picture, Wojciechowski would glare at them and say in a low voice, "You take a picture of me and I'll kill you.".[2]
He chased away at gunpoint a deputy U.S. Marshal who came to arrest a friend for violation of the Mann Act at a party he was attending. The marshal returned with reinforcements, arrested the friend, and confiscated a cache of alcohol and weapons. After the raid, he filed a lawsuit to recover silk shirts and socks that he claimed the marshals had stolen; both the government's charges and the lawsuit came to nothing.[2]
Jury selection for a murder trial of Joe Saltis, with whom Wojciechowski sought an alliance, began on October 11, and Wojciechowski and four of his men were sighted there. With him that day were his bodyguard Sam Pellar, gangster Paddy Murray, attorney William W. O'Brien, and Benjamin Jacobs (an investigator for O'Brien). At 4:00 that afternoon, Wojciechowski and his men left for their State Street headquarters, the old Schofield flower shop. The quintet parked their cars on Superior Street and rounded the corner to cross State. As they did, two gunmen hidden in a nearby rooming house opened fire with a submachine gun and shotgun. Wojciechowski and Murray were fatally wounded by this first burst. William O'Brien was hit four times and staggered into a nearby stairwell. At the initial sound of gunfire, a panicked Sam Pellar drew his .38 and instinctively fired a shot in the general direction of shooters (this bullet unintentionally struck Weiss as he collapsed onto the sidewalk). Pellar and Jacobs, both wounded, staggered back the way they had come. Bullets followed them the whole way and some chipped the cornerstone of the Holy Name Cathedral directly across the street.[2]
| Preceded by Dean O'Banion |
North Side Gang Boss 1924-1926 |
Succeeded by Vincent Drucci |