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Jack McGurn

Vincenzo Gibaldi
JackMcGurn.jpg
Born (1902-07-02)2 July 1902
Licata, Sicily, Italy
Died 15 February 1936(1936-02-15) (aged 33)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.

"Machine Gun" Jack McGurn (July 2, 1902 – February 15, 1936), born Vincenzo Antonio Gibaldi, was a small-time boxer, Sicilian-American mobster and key member of Al Capone's Chicago Outfit.

McGurn was born in July 1902 in Licata, Sicily, the eldest son of Tommaso and Giuseppa Gibaldi (née Verderame). Four years later, he and his mother emigrated to join his father in the USA, arriving at Ellis Island on November 24, 1906. McGurn grew up in the Brooklyn slums where he went to Public School 46 on Union street between Henry and Hicks streets. McGurn moved to Chicago when he was 14 where he later took up a career in boxing as a teenager and changed his name to "Battling" Jack McGurn because boxers with Irish names got the better bookings. After Tommaso's death while McGurn was still young, his mother remarried to grocer Angelo DeMory, who was later murdered by Black Hand extortionists.

Legend has it that McGurn was first introduced to Capone after his stepfather, Angelo DeMora, was assassinated by gang extortionists on January 28, 1923, and McGurn had methodically avenged his death by killing the three hitmen responsible. In fact, McGurn was already on the Outfit's payroll by the time of DeMora's death, and had probably come to Capone's attention through his budding career as a prizefighter.

McGurn had part ownership of a speakeasy jazz club, a venue which still exists today, the infamous Green Mill, at 4802 North Broadway, in the middle of the rival "Bugs" Moran gang's territory. In November 1927, manager Danny Cohen gave McGurn the task of "persuading" comedian/singer Joe E. Lewis not to move his act south to the New Rendezvous Café, at North Clark Street and West Diversey Parkway. Lewis refused, and McGurn slit Lewis's throat, cutting off a portion of his tongue and leaving him for dead. Miraculously, Lewis eventually recovered and resumed his career, but his voice never regained its lush sound.


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