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"PINEAPPLE Be PERIOD in the warfare for control of loop gambling the great discovery was made by King Capone and Messrs. Bertsche, Moran and the Aiello brothers that, although pineapples are not indigenous te Chicago, they flourish as marvelously here as do potatoes in Ireland, if, of course they are culti- vated properly. The laboratory experiments of these rival gang mobs may be said to have Been made during their efforts to form a gambling syndicate of the Loop gambling joints and, having formed it, to gain utter and absolute control. The small fellow who ran a little game behind the counter was extremely averse to paying levy either to Al or Moran. This and other ramifications including the protracted abdication of the reigning gambling king, all too involved to be discussed here, brought on the great pineapple period. A pineapple, if tossed into a building properly, will make an insufferably loud noise. Windows ounce out of their frames, entire walla keel over, people scramble about in terror and the owner or proprietor of the building, surveying the ruins, re- marks, “Well, well, I can’t imagine who should have done such a thing to me, or why." But you may be sure that he is telling a big lie. It was just this sort of thing that began happening to the gamblers who cried robber when invited to join the syndicate, being formed by the Big Fellow and the North Side mob, So prevalent did pineapple. ltierntian a. inba cultivation become that the joke mongers the country over soon began using the word pineapple as a synonym for Chicago. Another reason was responsible for the fact that the Aiello brothers, of whom there are nine, began playing around with Moran and his new buddies, the Bertsche and Zuta mob. The Aiellos, long respectable merchants, de- voutly desired control of the Unione Siciliane, a powerful Italian organization which at this time was under the leadership of Anthony Lombardo, who, as we have seen, had stepped out as an ally of Capone and had represented him at the peace conference following the demise of “Little Hymie” Weiss. And there, roughly sketched, you have | the new scenery which appeared on the underworld stage following the re-elec- tion of William Hale Thompson. With “Bugs” Moran behind them, the Aiellos felt that the Big Fellow might be effi- ciently opposed, and when they ap- proached Mr. Bugs he took the matter under advisement and spent several days thinking it over before he acquiesced. Big George Moran must have deplored the sad condition of affairs in his once proud mob which compelled him to align him- self with an Italian organization. For years Bugs allowed himself to be widely quoted as saying that his first principle was never to let an Italian racketeer get behind him either in an automobile, a short saunter down the street, or in a business enterprise. The underworld began to whisper early in 1927 that more and bloodier warfare was imminent. Meanwhile Capone had been attending to established busi- ness as usual and on July 27, one of his new competitors in Burnham paid for his usurpation with his life. At the same time he ™m : i time he began muscling in on Near North Side beer and alcohol busi- ness, thus violating the terms of the tha pet Ike Roderick, professional bonds- man. It was Ike who bailed Dion by en Ae inaie O'Banlon out of a jail osll follow- ing the famous Sieben brewery raid. foi peace pact. A hood. .. of proven talent, Claude Maddox, was placed in charge of operations, and the first blow struck by the outraged Northsiders came on August 10, when Anthony K. Russo and Vincent Spicuzza came to a tragic end. But Capone was king and the unattached “hoods” were flocking to his standards. Others were deserting less powerful leaders and were casting their fortunes with him. One of these, at this time, was Jack McGum, who had found himself tempermentally incapable of association with such men as Moran, Pete and Prank Gusenberg, Leo Mongoven, Barney Bertsche, Teddy New- berry and most of the others. King Capone admired Mr. McGur and saw great possibilities in him. Two other gentlemen of the underworld, now famous, now devoted their services to him. They were John Scalice and Albert Anselmi, free at last from courtroom appearances, and ambitious to get into action. The Big Fellow’s criticism of the new alliance on the North Side was first made in October when several automobiles, all equipped with machine guns, visited the Aiello headquarters which were in a small bakery on Division Street and deposited several hundreds of bullets all over the place, without, however, causing any casualties, The Aiello-Moran-Bertsche-Zuta mob now began to make nuisances of themselves in a big way. An ambush was laid in the Atlantic hotel in the loop. From their front room the killers “covered” a cigar store across the street in which the Big Fellow occasionally made appearances. Luck wes with him or else his lookouts were marvelously efficient for the Aiello killers upstairs were surprised one afternoon to find themselves trapped by the police. On the same day another ambush was uncovered, thia one across the street from the residence of Tony Lombardo. Eleven Aiello boys including the leader, Joseph Aiello, were soon fuming in jai! cells while lawyers flew about trying to obtain writs of habeas corpus. While atill guests at the detective bureau an observant officer spotted three men loitering in front of the bureau and seized them. They were all Capone men, Louis “Little New York” Campagnia, Frank Beige and Sam Marcus. All carried Neht astillary ard ware waiting merely ta offer eonda- 11gNL @Pliucry ana Were Walling, Mercy to orer conee lences to Joe Aiello and his boys. These incidents to- ether with sporadic warfare in the Loop gambling country Brought more and more “heat” upon the Big Fellow, He had become the favorite person to blame for everything, and now the position became increasingly intolerable. But an election was coming on, a typical Chicago election, and Capone could not yet shake himself away from the city. Chicago was stirring, the pent-up feeling against the Crowe-Thompson machine, was about to vent its wrath. The atmosphere buzzed with prophecies as to what would happen at the polls when Judge John A. Swanson got through with State’s Attorney Robert E. Crowe, and when Louis Emmerson was done with Len Small. Crowe and Governor Small had been in office for seven and one-half years, and defeat was to over-take them. During the campaign Chicago produced ea bumper pineapple crop, and the fruit was dirt cheap. Senator Deneen and his candidate for the state’s attorney's office, Judge Swanson, both received pineapples at their homes on the same evening. Other persons who were not ne- glected include Ex-judge Barney Barasa, Municipal Judge John Sbarbaro, Larry Cuneo, brother-in-law and secretary to Crowe, and Morris Eller, political boss of the Valley District. At this time you will be interested in knowning that the Gusen- bergs, Frank and Pete, spotted their old playmate, Jack MeGurn, driving on the North Side. They trailed to a cigar store in the McCormick hotel, a short block off the Boul Mich on the Near North side. When they entered, cautiously, and with hands gripping gats, they found their quarry busily talking in a telephone Toes bere Ware pee erse booth, Now telephone booths, even in Chicago are not made with bullet-proof