Dean O'Banion
| Dean O'Banion | |
|---|---|
Dean O'Banion
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| Born |
Charles Dean O'Banion July 8, 1892 Maroa, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | November 10, 1924 (aged 32) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Murder (gunfire) |
| Occupation |
Florist, gangster bootlegger, racketeer |
| Years active | c. 1910–1924 |
| Known for | Founder and leader of the North Side Gang during Prohibition |
Charles Dean O'Banion (July 8, 1892 – November 10, 1924) was an American mobster who was the main rival of Johnny Torrio and Al Capone during the brutal Chicago bootlegging wars of the 1920s. The newspapers of his day made him better known as Dion O'Banion, although he never went by that first name. He led the North Side Gang until 1924, when he was murdered, reportedly by Frankie Yale, John Scalise and Albert Anselmi.
O'Banion was born to Irish Catholic parents in the small town of Maroa in Central Illinois. The O'Banion family moved to Aurora, Illinois, when Dean was a small child. In 1901, after his mother's death, he moved to Chicago with his father and one of his brothers (a second brother, Frank, remained in Maroa). The family settled in Kilgubbin, otherwise known as, "Little Hell," a heavily Irish area on the North Side of Chicago that was notorious citywide for its crime.
As a youngster, "Deanie," as he became known, sang in the church choir at Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral. However, neither music nor religion held O'Banion's interest; instead the street life of Kilgubbin caught his eye. An early nickname for O'Banion was "Gimpy" due to his short left leg, but few people had enough nerve to call him that. The shorter leg was said to be the result of a childhood streetcar accident.
O'Banion and his friends (Earl "Hymie" Weiss, Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci, and George "Bugs" Moran) joined the Market Street Gang, which specialized in theft and robbery for Chicago's black market. The boys later became "sluggers," thugs hired by a newspaper to beat newsstand owners who did not sell the paper. The Market Street Gang started out working for the Chicago Tribune. However, they later switched to the rival Chicago Examiner due to a more attractive offer from newspaper boss Moses Annenberg. Through Annenberg, the gang met safecracker Charles "The Ox" Reiser, who taught them his trade. In 1909, O'Banion was arrested first for safecracking and then for assault. These were the only times O'Banion ever spent in a correctional institution.
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