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"Lilacs in bloom, Paris perfume..."
-- "Jeannine, I Dream of Lilac Time"
Gilbert/Shilkret
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Dion & Viola |
The lads of Kilgubbin turned out in splendor when their leader, Dion
O’Banion, took himself a wife on Feb. 5, 1921 in a spectacular ceremony at Holy Name
Cathedral. She was the angel-faced 18-year-old Viola Kaniff, a recent graduate of an Iowa
boarding school. Deanie was 29. She wore white and he his finest suit, a sprig of lily in
his lapel. The marriage would prove to be a happy one and, oddly enough, temper
Deanie’s midnight rovings. Even his own friends were probably startled at his
adoration of Viola. By all accounts, she provided him with a domesticity he may have had
before his mother died, but never remembered. He considered his home (a fashionable
apartment at 3600 North Pine Grove Avenue) his only retreat and sincerely enjoyed being
there with his bride, Viola.After his death, the wife recalled that, "He was not a
man to run around nights, only to take me to a show. He was fun loving, wanting his
friends about him, and never leaving without telling me where he was going." |
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Because he now felt that he must demonstrate some respectability, he bought half
interest in a legitimate enterprise, one that he had considered for some time: William
Schofield’s Flower Shop, located at 738 North State, directly across the street from
Holy Name. In total contrast to his gangster surface, he adored flowers. Arranging them
into lovely bouquets, centerpieces and wreaths for special occasions was his passion. He
worked hard at it, too, never missing a day in the shop, arriving promptly at 9 a.m. and
not closing shutters until 6 p.m. He would frequently stay after-hours and come in on
weekends to help Schofield with the balance sheet. The other employees -- another
designer, a cashier, a salesperson, three clerks and a porter -- found him a joy to work
with, never barking orders but always singing Irish ditties as his light fingers spun
roses into bows. Most evenings he proudly brought home one of his original designs to
Viola.
But, Deanie was, after all, Deanie. While he cut and trimmed petals in the work room,
one or more of the three clerks were often summoned from the shop to man a special
telephone in the back to take orders for beer.
Robert J. Schoenberg in Mr. Capone describes the layout of the floristry.
"(It) was 25 feet wide, the showroom running about twice that deep, a jumble of
plants, ferns and flowers obscuring the walls. In the back, a floor-to-ceiling showcase,
five feet deep, filled much of the shop’s width, flaunting a glory of American Beauty
roses. The side of the showcase and the side wall formed a narrow passage that continued
to the back workroom and the upstairs offices, the workroom screened by a wicker gate,
usually propped open."
Schofield’s became, by instinct, the florist for mobdom. Whenever someone was
riddled, stabbed or taken for a ride, the florist for the funerary trappings became
Schofield’s. In a token of good gesture, Capone and Torrio often placed large orders
for someone they may have killed, but thought deserved a grand send-off much the same.
Deanie always gave them a discount for their beneficence.
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