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the * GENNAS “Little Hymie” Weiss had got off to a flying atart by eliminating Johnny Torrio and he still had about nineteen months left in which te besmear the town with blood, before the “Big Fellow" Alphonse Capone, was to blast him inte eternity. Capone, however, who could always appreciate & good man had come to admire ferocious “Little Hymie” despite all the nasty things he had said and done; and, as one of his first royal acts, offered pardon to Weiss if he would promise to behave himself and return to the fold. While “Little Hymie” was considering the Big Fellow's proposals, the Big Fellow was having a tough time of it right in his own home precincts. A courageous editor of a Cicero newspaper had under- taken the ambitious project of relieving his town of the presence of King Capone and his numerous business activ- ities. He used pitiless publicity which, true enough, is a swell weapon. The editor, Mr. Arthur St. John, made one grave error however. He neglected to acquire the services of a few platoons of infantry. For some time his paper appeared regularly with fine attacks upon King Capone urging the good peopie of Cicero to get behind the cam- paign and push. Mr. St. John’s immediate rewards were rather terrible. One fine afternoon early in March, some tough gentlemen whe had warmed him repeatedly to keep his mouth shut, picked him up and went off with him. When he returned to his friends a few days later, they could hardly believe he was the same man, for Mr. St. Jobn had been severely beaten in all visible places. This treatment inspired another throaty yell from Mr. Robert E. Crowe, but why go into it? He ordered that King Capone be haled before him forthwith which was done. The king came down to the Criminal Courts Buildin in the style that befitted his exalted position, He appeared in a new automobile, the like of which had never been seen before on the streets and boulevards of the fourth metropolis of the world. It weighed about seven tons, four tons more than your automobile, its windows were fitted with bullet- proof glass, and it was plastered with large sheets of armor-plate. Mr. Capone still uses this dis- guised tank whenever he is in Chicago. To those of us who did not know at this time that King Capone was offering peace to Hymie Weiss, the big automobile was taken as overt proof that Ca- pone intended to stay on. his throne and to hell with those who didn’t like it. King Capone's call on the state’s attorney came to nothing. Se did his overtures for peace. The peace proposal had been made at a banquet held in a famous restaurant juat off Wacker Drive which still operates under the same Italian name, It was pro- posed that Gangland should be divided in half with Madison Street the dividing line. For a couple of months “Little Hymie” whe had certain definite misgiv- ings as to the sincerity of King Capone's peaceful impulses, be- “Mike” Genna, tonghest of the Gennas, which is saying « monthfal. His last act in this lite was to Kick an ambulazce attendant in the face, [33] haved himself and strictly observed the terms of the pact. He was busy any- way, with the - ernment who had in- sisted on his stand- ing trial in the Fed- eral building on a booze charge. With him on the same charge was Dapper Dan McCarthy, a member of his gang. During the process of this trial “Little Hymie” discovered that the peace ban- quet had been merely an attempt to throw him off his guard and the discovery brings us to ac- quaintanceship with two of the most sin- Angelo Genna, youngest of the Gen- nag, and the first to be murdered by the North Side gangsters, ister figures who have ever skidded across blood-streaked Gangland. Signor John Scalice and Signor Anselmi. Killers de luxe, these men had been summoned from far off Sicily by Mike and Angelo Genna shortly before the death of O’Banion. How long they had been in town is not certain, but “Little Hymie” discovered them one day during the progress of his trial up there in the Federal building. A member of “Little Hymie’s” gang—they were al! in the courtroom— noticed a stool pigeon for the Capone gang in earnest conversation with two strangers—Secalice and Anselmi. The stool pigeon was “fingering” every North Side gangster in the courtroom. Why did these two strange ltalians appear so interested in learning the iden- tities of the Weiss henchmen? The observant North Side gangster hurriedly dispatched another one of his com- panions down stairs and outside to determine whether or not any of the Capone boys were about. Sure enough, outside the gangster came upon Al's big armor-plated Lincoln parked around the corner on Adams Street. He examined the car quickly and found that it was well- stocked with sawed-off shot-guns and other artillery. In a few minutes Scalice and Anselmi, together with a chauffeur who had sprung up from somewhere, got in Al’s car and drove away. All this meant but one thing to “Little Hymie"--war. He soon determined that Sealice and An- selmi spent a great deal of their time in Cicero, although they ap- peared to be body guards for Mike and Angelo Genna, “Little Hymie” resumed his expeditions into the Genna territory; he began “absorbing” speakeasies which be- longed to the arrogant brothers. For several weeks Gangland was comparatively quiet, except for an unimportant and mysterious “ride” murder here and there. The South Side O’Donnells were still battling Messrs. Saltis and MacEarlane on occasions and there was much muscling and double-crossing in every quarter. “Spike” O’Don- nell’s greatest personal blow came on April 17 when his foolhardy brother, Walter, was mortally wounded during an attempt to terrorize and hold-up a roadhouse in the Saltis country. Walter died on May 9. Every police official in Chicago as well as those “in the know” locked forward to an unprece- -_ ag ee 2