O'Banion Assassinated: Chicago's Gang War Ignites
Three gunmen walked into a flower shop. That's all it took to ignite Chicago's deadliest decade. Dion O'Banion — florist by day, bootlegger by night — was trimming chrysanthemums when Torrio's men arrived. They shook his hand. Then shot him six times. O'Banion had 10,000 mourners at his funeral, more than most politicians got. But his death unleashed Hymie Weiss, then Bugs Moran, then Al Capone's brutal consolidation of power. The whole bloody Chicago War started because someone refused to sell a brewery.
November 10, 1924
102 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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