Gangsters of the Golden Era

I think some of the most brutal and famous gansters are asscoaited with Al Capone. My choices are:

"Bugs" Moran (A.K.A, Adelard Cunin)


"Machine Gun" Jack McGurn (A.K.A, Vincenzo Antonio Gibaldi)


Frank "The Enforcer" Nitti (A.K.A, Francesco Raffaele Nitto)

I'm not much of a fan of the outlaws. Bonnie and clyde's gang did in fact harm ordinary people. Several police officers, I believe 8 were slain by them, also a couple of citizens. I do however like reading their stories but think that they are told with to much compassion for the criminals. The law enforcement officers that tracked some of them down are almost forgotten. Frank Hamer, Melvin Purvis Eliot Ness and others.

gpsoldhat said:

I'm not much of a fan of the outlaws. Bonnie and clyde's gang did in fact harm ordinary people. Several police officers, I believe 8 were slain by them, also a couple of citizens. I do however like reading their stories but think that they are told with to much compassion for the criminals. The law enforcement officers that tracked some of them down are almost forgotten. Frank Hamer, Melvin Purvis Eliot Ness and others.

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Lets face it, Bonny and Clyde are famous for one reason only, the photos they left behind at the Joplin, Missouri apartments. After the shootout, law enforcement found a camera with the now famous photos of the duo, with Bonny chomping on a cigar, it wasn't a rose! After those photos hit the news stands, the rest is history. The final shootout didn't heart to much either!

My favorite, is and always will be, Anthony "Tony" Accardo. He started out as one of Al Capone's enforcers, his nickname "Joe Batters" came from Capone, when Accardo beat fellow Capone gangsters (who were plotting to betray Capone), Anselmi and Scalise to death with a baseball bat (depicted in the movie, The Untouchables, by being beaten to death by Capone at the dinner). He went on to become the boss of The Chicago Outfit, after Paul Ricca was imprisoned in 1943 and maintained that position until his death in 1992. During those years he would step back from time to time and place a high ranking member of the Outfit in position as boss (Accardo's position became the Chairman of the Board, and no move was made in the Chicago mob without his final say-so). It has been said that he died without ever spending time in jail, but I do believe he may have spent a night in local lock up on two different occasions (a couple of mug shot photos I have of him in one of my books show him disheveled, probably from spending a night in lock up). Other than that, he was very smart and pretty much untouchable. A Chicago columnist stated, "Accardo has more brains for breakfast than Al Capone ever had all day."



Some other favorites would have to be:
Charlie "Lucky" Luciano - the creator of the modern day American Mafia.


Meyer Lansky - "The Little Man," Lucky's right hand man and one of the smartest operators in the mob.


Santo Trafficante, Jr. - the long time mob boss of Tampa, FL, one of the most cunning and smartest mobsters that ever existed, who died without ever spending a night in jail.


"Machine Gun" Jack McGurn - Capone's top enforcer, former owner of "The Green Mill Tavern." Here he is with the infamous, blonde alibi.


Frank Nitti - Capone's successor who really organized the Chicago mob and unfortunately has never been given his just due. He was a very smart mob boss, who has been depicted in many books as being stupid and just a figure head for Paul Ricca and Tony Accardo. Which is untrue, he accomplished a lot during his reign. He has also been depicted, mostly thanks to his nickname, "The Enforcer," and by the television series and movie as being a ruthless killer for Al Capone. Which is also untrue, the nickname was derived by his enforcement of mob rule within the Outfit and it associates and he was a behind the scenes, administrative type, who ordered killings but didn't go out with a tommy gun and shoot up rival gangsters. He did use a gun though when he got drunk, stumbled to some railroad tracks and took his own life when he was about to be convicted in the Hollywood Extortion Case in 1943. There is a great book about him called, "After Capone."


The Purple Gang



I have plenty of others, but these are the ones right off the top of my head.

Naphtali said:

Apparently, your knowledge of gangsters emanates from movies and books. I don't want to rain heavily on your outlook, but rain I will. Through a friend - the son of a capo, but no gangster himself - I became acquainted with Carlos Marcello and Nick Civella (spelling of both surnames???), bosses of New Orleans and Kansas City respectively. While pleasant companions, especially Marcello with a most unusual accent, these men were thugs - poorly educated, rigid, authoritarian, manic-depressive THUGS who would have you [fill in the blank] on a whim. Contrary to the "Godfather" nonsense, they were not planners or deep thinkers. They controlled their employees, friends - everybody - via force or its threat. Not to be cynical, they operated as feudal lords, much like politicians and bureaucrats. Where politicians and bureaucrats control via patronage and extortion, so did these guys.

Like you, although I knew what they were, I was intrigued and flattered by their attention, even though I knew it was veneer, and they knew I knew.

What I've implied I'll just keyboard. This idea of "favorite" or nice-guy gangsters is fundamentally inaccurate. Don't think Robin Hood or the Corleones. Think Heinrich Himler at a dinner party.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

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:eusa_clap:eusa_clap:eusa_clap

My family, as well as others, went through hell because of these so called "glamorous gangsters", so I don't look at them in the same light as others.

I find the American Gangster to be rather fascinating. Bank robbers are a totally different breed of "Gangster" since their gangs were smaller and more intimate than career gangsters or mob families.

I'm of course a fan of the late 20s-mid 30s, the golden age of the bank robbers, Dillinger would be the one I find most interesting, the person he really was is an excellent study. One can't learn a lot of who the real Dillinger was from the hand full of films made about him, especially the Depp portrayal of John. From what I've learned, Dillinger was a country caricature with style in what he did, and I would believe that he didn't pray on the people, and contrary to popular belief, it's not written that John abused Billy either, I've come to know that he treated her rather well.

I'm in Tucson right now, I've stayed at the real Hotel Congress, seen the home on 2nd Ave where he was captured (not the home he lived in) and enjoy learning more about the real man that became the notorious Dillinger.

I don't praise or honor these notorious men of the depression, I like to learn about them and not trust Hollywood's stories because, the true stories are most times much more intriguing or more sensational than Hollywood's stereotyping. The Great Depression created a lot of desperate life styles and thus, desperate men came of them. To understand the crime, one has to understand the time.

Forgotten Man said:

I find the American Gangster to be rather fascinating. Bank robbers are a totally different breed of "Gangster" since their gangs were smaller and more intimate than career gangsters or mob families.

I'm of course a fan of the late 20s-mid 30s, the golden age of the bank robbers, Dillinger would be the one I find most interesting, the person he really was is an excellent study. One can't learn a lot of who the real Dillinger was from the hand full of films made about him, especially the Depp portrayal of John. From what I've learned, Dillinger was a country caricature with style in what he did, and I would believe that he didn't pray on the people, and contrary to popular belief, it's not written that John abused Billy either, I've come to know that he treated her rather well.

I'm in Tucson right now, I've stayed at the real Hotel Congress, seen the home on 2nd Ave where he was captured (not the home he lived in) and enjoy learning more about the real man that became the notorious Dillinger.

I don't praise or honor these notorious men of the depression, I like to learn about them and not trust Hollywood's stories because, the true stories are most times much more intriguing or more sensational than Hollywood's stereotyping. The Great Depression created a lot of desperate life styles and thus, desperate men came of them. To understand the crime, one has to understand the time.

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My thoughts exactly. I am quite interested in the 20s and 30s with a focus on gangsters. I am particularly interested in Dillinger. I come from a long line of law enforcement officers so I have the same ammount of interest in the "other side of the coin" too - the legal side of the story.

My favorite would be Charles Arthur "Pretty Boy" Floyd. Like Jesse James he became a legend, which mixed myth with truth.

"they had a common enemy i.e. the banks and the federal government."


Hmm........

SCIENCE on the Trail of Crime (Oct, 1930)

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2011/04/11/science-on-the-trail-of-crime/

Silver Dollar said:

Hey, that's Creepy Karpis. I saw a picture of him. This guy was weird looking. Those guys sure did have some cool names back then. Baby Face, Machine Gun Kelly, Scarface, Bugs Moran. It sounds like a real Dick Tracy line up.

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Yeah, but most of them hated their nick names. Nelson got his after he pulled a robbery and a witness described him as having a baby face. Capone got his from a knife scar he received while working in a...cat house, and went to great lengths to cover it up. Bugs Moran and Bugsy Siegel, because they were crazy. Siegel was known to go ballistic on anyone who called him Bugsy.
You are right though, ot does sound like a Dick Tracy line up.

Kirk H.

1961MJS said:

Hi Major Danger, boy are you in trouble. It's George Nelson, not that stupid Baby face, G E O R G E. lol

Later

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actually it was Lester Gillis, Nelson was an alias he used.

gpsoldhat said:

I'm not much of a fan of the outlaws. Bonnie and clyde's gang did in fact harm ordinary people. Several police officers, I believe 8 were slain by them, also a couple of citizens. I do however like reading their stories but think that they are told with to much compassion for the criminals. The law enforcement officers that tracked some of them down are almost forgotten. Frank Hamer, Melvin Purvis Eliot Ness and others.

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You are so right. Even Dillinger was a critic of Bonie and Clyde, calling them to blood thirsty. In the things that I have read about Hamer, he was a great lawman and started his career with the Texas Rangers in the late 1800's. He had been shot several times in the line of duty and had him self used deadly force several times before Bonnie and Clyde. It was one time rumored that he had shot over 50 people and when people who knew Hamer were asked about that, one lady replied "If that nice Mr. Hamer shot that many, they deserved it."

Regards

Kirk H.

Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel

Best looking gangster that ever lived AND he started Vegas... not much more to say than that

Back to the original question. Sorry I got side tracked in replying to posts before reading the entire thread. I would say that John Dillinger has fascinated me the most. I did a paper on him back in college for one of my criminal justice classes. There are several good books about him and the era. Dillinger, The Untold Story by G. Russell Girardin and William J. Helmer is an excellent read. Also Public Enemies by Bryan Burrough is a good source of information on the Depression Era Bandits.
As Forgotten Man stated earlier “One can't learn a lot of who the real Dillinger was from the hand full of films made about him, especially the Depp portrayal of John”. The movies Public Enemies was entertaining, but there were several historical inaccuracies as far as the chronology of events and left out some major people. In the movie it was about Purvis vs. Dillinger when in actuality the FBI did not become involved until Dillinger broke his first federal law, driving a stolen car across state lines. It is hard to believe but bank robbery was not a federal crime in 1934. Before Purvis became involved, Captain Matt Leach of the Indiana State Police was involved in trying to apprehend Dillinger.
In the movie there was a FBI agent named Charles Winestead and that character was based on a real person. During the early days of the FBI, Hoover wanted his agents to be well educated, clean cut, and come from the best families. He also realized that his hand picked men did not have a lot of experience in tracking down violent criminals. He then brought in several lawmen from the south west who were well experienced in tracking and dealing with dangerous criminals, Winestead was one of them. Winestead, from I have been able to learn was a very humble man. He was one of the agents who shot Dillinger and even had a letter from the FBI ballistics lab stating that one of his rounds was the fatal shot. He kept that letter and never used it for his advantage or to gain notoriety. Sorry to go off-topic there, but as a LEO, I am always interested in the ones who tracked the bandits down.

Regards

Kirk H.

Macine Gun Kelly

Machine Gun Kelly is the funnies of the nick names. His wife Katherine Thorne purchased the Tommy gun at a hardware store, then went out of her way to promote the name to the local under world. He never fired his Thompson in anger, and there is evidence that he never fired it even in practice.In Alcatraz, he was known as Pops Machine Gun because he was a model prisoner! Katherine may have also coined the term G men, when she was overheard at his trial saying, "These G-men will never leave us alone."

Are you an Al Capone aficionado and have at least $80,000 in loose change laying around? You can own a .38 Special that was once the Devil's Right Hand for one Alphonse Gabriel Capone.
http://chicagoist.com/2011/06/20/own_al_capones_gun_for_100k.php

My dad showed me a mug shot of MGK when I was 6yrs old, I really didn't know who he was at the time, but I knew the mug shot was really old by the way the guy was dressed. Each time I see something on MGK, they mention where he was caught. No no no, don't mention Memphis, we don't need the press.

Wow! What a great a topic! Although a tough one. I have to say John Dillinger hands down ( even before the movie and how popular he has become) although trailing not far behind is Bonnie and Clyde. Mostly because of the time period. I have read several books on both and I can just picture it so vivdily! I have always had a soft spot for Dillinger. His story is just so capturing. By far the best. Al Capone is also interesting but not that much for me, not big into the Mafia Mobsters.

Anthony K said:

My favorite, is and always will be, Anthony "Tony" Accardo .

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Mine too, as I've stated in prior threads of this ilk.

Here's an Accardo related story:

Tony's granddaughter had a college summer job working the front desk at my athletic club in Chicago. Few people knew her relationship to TA as she and her brother (an All-American LB at Ohio State) used their father's surname. Anyway, another member friend of mine asked her out and they proceeded to have a summer fling. He was in his 30s and she was 19. A few weeks into the affair my friend was in the steam room when he was approached by a stranger.

The conversation went something like this:

Stranger: Boy you got some really big cajones to be messing around with that girl.

My friend (thinking he was referring to her big brother being displeased ): Oh you mean Eric? He's cool with it; he comes out with us all the time.

Stranger: Eric's not your problem, buddy. You seriously don't know who this girl is, do you?

My friend: No, who is she?

Stranger: She's the only granddaughter of Tony Accardo!



My friend immediately got dressed and left the club, not to return until fall when she went back to college. He told her that he'd been called away out of state on a family health emergency. Of course he was the family member whose health was in danger. lol