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"When stars appear and shadows fall,
Then you’ll hear my poor heart call..."
--" I Surrender, Dear"
Barris/Clifford/Crosby
As the 1924 city elections drew nearer, the Democratic Party fretted that Deanie,
always their top "ward healer," might defect. He had been seen in the company of
some of the notable Republicans and, reports gushed, looked pretty chummy. Wanting to
ensure his patronage again this year, the Democrats, on November 1, threw him a
testimonial dinner at the Webster Hotel on North Lincoln Park Avenue, where they presented
him with a $1,500 platinum watch.
Three days later, wearing the gift, he and his North Side lads played havoc at the
polls -- this time "suggesting" to the voters to vote Republican. Entering a
State Street speakeasy, he brandished a brace of revolvers, blew doorknobs off several
doors, and shouted, "We’re going to have a Republican celebration tonight."
And they did.
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Angelo Genna
(POLICE) |
In the meantime, the tension between him and the Gennas hadn’t
cooled. In fact, it came to a climax the night of November 3. Stopping by The Ship
gambling hall in Cicero to collect his share of the October proceeds, he learned that one
of the Genna brothers, Angelo, had lost $30,000 at the tables the previous evening. When
Torrio recommended that they write the debt off as "professional courtesy,"
O’Banion sneered. Grabbing the nearest telephone, he placed a call to Angelo and told
him to pay up within a week, "or else". Even pal Hymie Weiss was taken aback
by his leader’s impetuosity. When he warned Deanie in the car on the way home to
tread lightly with the Gennas, the other replied, "Ah, to hell with them
Sicilians!" |
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After the North Side hothead left The Ship, Torrio summoned Capone and the brothers
Genna to counsel. Dion O’Banion had insulted the brotherhood, betrayed their trust,
mocked Johnny Papa and continued to make a farce out of the combination that all had
worked so hard to preserve. He didn’t understand Italian tradition and railed it with
every gesture. Unione Siciliane President Mike Merlo, Dion O’Banion’s unexpected
shield, lay near the point of death and was expected to succumb at any hour. What to do to
O’Banion when Merlo passes? Their fate was unanimous, thumbs down.
Merlo died that coming Saturday, November 8. Torrio ordered $10,000 from
Schofield’s Flower Shop, Capone $8,000. Deanie told them he would prepare the wreaths
himself. His tribute.
On Sunday, November 9, Genna sibling James, stopped in to order a wreath for $750.
While Deanie crafted it in the back room, Genna’s eyes took in the layout of the shop
and memorized it. A few hours later, Frankie Yale, the Unione’s national director,
having come in from New York to attend the funeral, placed an order for $2,000.
"Please have it ready by mid-morning," he advised the clerk.
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Frankie Yale
(POLICE) |
Monday morning, November 10, 1924.Deanie was hard at work in
Schofield’s back room, clipping chrysanthemums, rushing to get ahead of an order
backlog. He was tired this morning for some reason; needed a break; he glanced at his
watch -- 11:30 -- just as he heard the transom bells over the street door jingle. On his
way out front to greet the customers, Deanie nodded at porter Bill Churchfield heading the
other way, carrying a broom and dustpan, having just swept up. In his left hand, Deanie
still held his pair of clipping shears as he rounded the corridor into the showroom. He
instantly recognized one of the three men who had entered; the short, stout man in the
middle of two strangers was Frankie Yale. |
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"Are you from Mike Merlo’s?" he asked, holding out his right hand to
Yale.
Then, Deanie must have known something was wrong. In a flash, he knew it. It was the
way Yale took his hand. His grip was extraordinary and he clutched on as if he would never
let go. If the victim may have seen the other men, the strangers, draw their guns, there
was nothing he could do. Yale clenched tighter and Deanie winced. The strangers fired: two
bullets into his chest, two in his throat, and another blew his jaw away. When Yale
released his hold, the bloody thing that was Dion O’Banion fell like fodder against
the glass display case, then slipped to the floor. It was probably Yale who administered
the colpo de grazia (kiss of death) into Deanie’s once blushing cheeks. This
O’Banion would never crack wise against the Sicilians again.
Had Deanie recognized the two men accompanying Yale, he would not have been caught
unawares, for they were the most brutal assassins in the syndicate, Juano Scalise and
Alberto Anselmi. Together with Yale, they careened from the shop toward Superior Street
where they jumped into a dark blue Jewett, driven by Mike Genna. Turning left at Dearborn,
the next street over, the car disappeared into history.
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Crowd outside Dion's flower shop |
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