Who Was Hymie Weiss? The Only Man Capone Feared
Mobsters DailyHymie Weiss, born Earl Wojciechowski in 1898, was the Polish-American leader of Chicago's North Side Gang after Dean O'Bannion, and the rival Al Capone reportedly feared most. He vowed revenge for O'Bannion and nearly got it several times.
The drive-bys on Capone
In September 1926 Weiss's men raked Capone's Hawthorne Hotel headquarters in Cicero with about a thousand rounds in a rolling convoy attack. Capone hit the floor and survived, shaken. Weiss also survived earlier attempts and kept pressing the war that O'Bannion's 1924 flower-shop murder had started.
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Death outside the cathedral
On October 11, 1926, gunmen firing from a window across the street cut Weiss down outside Holy Name Cathedral, steps from the flower shop where O'Bannion died. His bodyguard was also killed. The story sits alongside Capone at Alcatraz and the national reorganisation in Lucky Luciano's modern Mafia as Prohibition's defining violence.
Weiss is also credited in popular lore with helping popularise the phrase about taking someone for a one-way ride, though historians treat many Weiss legends cautiously. What is certain is the result: with Weiss gone, the North Side Gang under Bugs Moran kept fighting, but it never again frightened Capone the same way.
Frequently asked questions
Why did Capone fear Hymie Weiss? Weiss repeatedly tried to kill him, including the 1,000-round Hawthorne attack, and refused every peace overture.
When did Hymie Weiss die? October 11, 1926, outside Holy Name Cathedral in Chicago.
What was Hymie Weiss's real name? Earl Wojciechowski, born to Polish immigrant parents.
Keep reading: Who Killed Albert Anastasia? · The Castellammarese War Explained · Frank Costello's Hands on Live TV · How Did Dean O'Bannion Die? The Handshake in the Flower Shop
From the shop: Shadows of the Underworld — the real-mafia history behind the bosses, hits and betrayals in this story.
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