The first great North side gangster was Dion O'Banion, who ruled from this location at 736 N. State St.
O'Banion was the Renaissance man of crime, a professional singer who was a talented pickpocket and safe-cracker. But the great love of O'Banion's life was floral arrangement, for which he had a passion and talent. In the halcyon days of gangland, it was customary to send flowers to the funeral of a man you shot, and O'Banion supplied the goods for most of the underworld's needs. In was at his flower shop that he ran his gang, and it was at the flower shop, while working late at night on arrangements needed for the next morning, that he was assassinated by Mike Genna, and the famous assassins, Scalisi and Anselmi, in November, 1924., at the behest -- or at least with the indifference of -- Al Capone and Johnny Torrio. O'Banion was Torrio's North Side operative, but was restless and eventually betrayed Torrio to the police in an elaborate scheme. It was O'Banion who coined the famous gangland phrase, "To Hell with the Sicilians." Men like O'Banion did not last long in those days. After his death, O'Banion's gang was later led by Bugs Moran, who moved the headquarters north to a garage on N. Clark Street, the site of the famous St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
Despite the value of this property, located in Chicago's Gold Coast just two blocks from the tourist meccas of N. Michigan Ave., the location of O'Banion's flower shop is a strangely nearly empty block which serves largely as a parking lot for the Holy Name Cathedral, the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese in Chicago, which was built in 1874. O'Banion had served in this church as a choir boy, and due to his infamy, the rector refused to allow his funeral service to be held there.
40 comments:
I have been told that O'Banion flower shop is located in an empty block because it is their marketing strategy. People who walk on the that street might be blue, so they will decide to buy flowers
I am the great great Grandson of Dion. I would like to know more about him and what his life wass like. If anyone can help out please let me kno
Look up an extensive bio book on yer great-great-grandDa called, "Guns and Roses" by Rose Keefe.
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Your blog is outrageous! I mean, Ive never been so entertained by anything in my life! Your vids are perfect for this. I mean, how did you manage to find something that matches your style of writing so well? Im really happy I started reading this today. Youve got a follower in me for sure!
Sorry buddy...you can't be Dion's g-g grandson...he didn't have any children. However, the family has two spellings of the last name. O'Banion and O'Bannon. I am related on the O'Bannon branch. My mother has been doing our family genealogy for years. If you're an O'Bannon (or O'Banion) you're also related to Marine Corp hero Presley Neville O'Bannon.
Does anyone know when the former Schofield/O'Banion building was razed?
Hello, I am the great-niece of Albert Anselmi...Would any of you be able to tell me where I might find a historically accurate list of all flower shops in the Chicago area between 1924-1929??? As a young girl, my cousins & I remember our great-grandmother, Carmella, teling us stories about Capone. My grandmother, Albert's niece, has always refused to speak about the violent & corrupt events which caused my family to flee Chicago in 1929 & start over in New York. I have been doing a lot of research My great grandfather, Albert's brother, worked as a florist during this time period but as I said before, my grandmother refuses to tell me the name of the shop or give me any additional incriminating information on my great uncle & the historic events which took place prior to his brutal death.
The flower shop building that Dion O'Banion rented was actually owned by my great grandmother. I do not know what happened to it. The family was silent over the notoriety and didn't speak of it. Obanion did threaten to kill my grandfather once. grabbing him by neck when he was sent to ask for the rent money. He made the mistake of doing this while O'Banions associates were in the office. I was young when my Grandparents passed away, and was told this just a few years ago by my father who is also now gone. I believe the building is long gone and was across the street from the church.
idk how far related to him i am but ive been growing up sorta like dion its really wierd and sad but insted of my mother it was my father but any way ur prolly my cusion
Great great grandson of O'Banion there's a good book on your G G Grandpa its called "guns and roses" look it up. Pretty detailed...
Wow what a great one. Its seriously very inspiring that how a criminal become a floral arrangement. Seriously Flowers has the capacity to change the life of a person in the same way Chicago florist is also doing the same work for the welfare of the people.
He was not shot by Mike Genna.
Genna wasn't even there.
It was Frankie Uale and Scalise and Anselmi.
It was in the morning - not the evening.
hi every one i am the great nephew of MR. Dion O'banion and no this is true i am only telling the truth and yes i can help anyone know more about the O'banion's because i'm very closely related to them my mother is one but kids at my high school tease me and say that this is not a real story so i told them to look it up and they are still saying that its a lie.
actualy it was in the evening b/c he was just getting ready to close up the shop that night when the men did the drive by alos it was at night b/c how many eople where out that night that saw this happen i mean who would shot a flower shop up in broad day light? how stupid can that person be to do something like that?!.
O'Banion didn't own the shop. My great grandfathers familu did, hence the name Schofields flowers. O'Banion just used it as a front. You should probably uodate you info so it is more accurate. Also the flowe shop is torn down now, it is a parking lot.
The shop is torn down
What was your great grandmothers name?
It's funny how till this day our family will not speak of those things! Wow now my grandmother is pass away, and my mom but they where like still scared to get in trouble
Hello, I am also apart of the O'Bannon branch and my mother has also been doing our family genealogy so I was wondering if I could possibly get your name? I know this comment is from a few years ago but if you could respond it would be amazing for me and my family!
How can anyone of you sit here and say you are his g g grandchildren if he never had any children of his own?
Sincerely,
K OB
hello, i am dions brother and i can tell you that all of this is a lie. i am the one who killed him because he found out that i was sleeping with our mother.
My Great Great Grandmother Anna Traina (Moser) used to date Mr. O'Banion. She said he used to stop by for breakfast in the mornings and she claims that she and her mother were in the flower shop the day he was killed. He had given her mother some money to purchase coats for the two of them, as she said he insisted it was to cool out to not have a coat. He used to decorate her stroller with flowers while they visited. She said she recalled that Capone visited her mother the day after O'Banion was killed with flowers and fur coats trying to convince her mom that he did not order the hit. Capone used to call my GGma Little Caponie and she used to sit on his lap while her father cut Capone's hair. My G-G-Grandfather, her Dad, James Traina, was a barber and used to work in one of Capone's hotels as his barber but had 2 other shops in town . One was near where the stage show were at and did a lot of the girls 'pixie' hairstyles that were popular then. I always thought these were just cool stories but as I dig into my families history I am finding that a lot of the stories are plausible.
Folks, either history is wrong or everything written about "Dean O'Banion" is wrong. His assassination was knows as "the handshake murder." After the blessing of Johnny Torrio, Scalisi and his associates walked into the flower shop. One of them took O'Banion off-guard by shaking his hand and pulling him forward over the counter leaving him unable to get to his own gun on his right hip. He was immediately shot twice in the head and allowed to fall to the floor behind the counter. The Scalisi associates in gangster necessity shot O'Banion twice each to throw off the police ballistics during the investigation. There was a reenactment a few years ago on "Boardwalk Empire." The building fell into a tug-of-war in the O'Banion family with different factions wanting to sell it and others reopening the the flower shop because it was very profitable. After O'Banion's monster funeral, the family strife and finger pointing left the building with unpaid property taxes and the city seized and sold the property for the amount owed. It was torn down in the 1950s and was going to become part of L.B.Johnson's "Great Society in 1963 with a huge housing project planned for the vacant lot. You'll never get anyone to admit it but the church purportedly purchased the original building and them owning it left it exempt from "condemnation by "eminent domain." To this day they are laughing all the way to the bank. The church congregation is quickly aging and the "Gold Coast" property is so valuable that the central diocese is just waiting to sell it for millions of dollars in profit after they paid just something like $600.00 in back taxes. The O'Banion family fought the church all the way into the 1970s before the church paid the family close to $250,000 to just drop their lawsuits and go away. A sad but strange culmination of the story of the building and the "handshake whac
Ryan in California (Professor of History Chapman University)
Deon was not killed at night, and not by a Genna. Otherwise, good post.
Hmm.... I find your claim to be dubious sir..
Wow, for a guy who had little family and no children, there certainly seems to be a hell of a lot people claiming to be "descendants" of O'Banion. It's interesting that so many of you are purportedly related and direct family in some way to the famous gangster, but, though that would make all of you claiming to be related to him, all family to one another. Yet, somehow none of you know each other. I guess you can be whoever you want on the internet these days. Googling known facts that are easy to find about a man then saying he's your grandfather, uncle, whatever, and it becomes true.
Anonymous April 24th. Very accurate. The family split and we are all over. Kentucky here.
Very Nice Information, Thank you very Much For sharing It. Send Flowers To HONG KONG
My name is Andrea Dawn Neely, I am trying to find out more on the O'Banion side of my family. I am related to Henry Charles O'Banion. He is my grandfather, I know that looking up the O'Banion Brothers didn't put a good light on my blood line. Most of my family is military and that is the part I am proud of. If you have any information that can help me, please email me at andreaneely@gmail.com if you need a little more information to help me.
I will add this, I will not be allowing trolls to bully me, so unless you are going to help, I suggest you don't send hate mail to me.
Development is beginning on the block where the flower shop used to be: https://chicago.curbed.com/2019/3/21/18275779/construction-holy-name-skyscraper-one-chicago-square
So they are building on the property bounded by Chicago, State, & Superior. My father's family had a deep connection to this site. My Great grand father build at the turn of the century at 16 W. Superior. My father grew up there in the 20s & 30's. My grandfather operated a delivery/cartage operation and was involved with the O'Bannon gang. My father related stories of going around the corner to the shop with this father and sitting on O'Bannon's Knee. I suspect the relationship sprang from the fact my grandfather delivered the Tribune in the neighborhood in the late 1900's when O'Bannon was just a Newsie. I was told the story that on a hot day my father's young sister & a cousin were admiring the ducklings swimming around in a display in the window at the shop. They entered the shop with no one in the front. At this point both 3 years old disrobed and joined the fowl in the tub. This resulted in a crowd that grew to the point State St. was blocked.
My grandparents purchased the building at 17 W Chicago in 1949 which they ran as a rooming house. My grand mother was the last hold out to sell in the late 1960's. I would have loved to have acquired some of the ancient cobble stones from the back alley.
Would anyone happen tho have a picture of the floral shop?
This blog is very helpful and informative to find out the Flowers for Funeral Service.
Dion obanions grandson i wasnt aware that he ever had children
What was there names just curious deani no doubt was the 1st boss of chicago with a loyal crew of men and honorably wouldnt allow brothels in northside.
"vaya con dios deany"
Respect from 🇮🇪🇮🇪 da oldcountry
August 13, 1960 the original building was torn down.
My last name is Drake and I’ve always been told I was related to them by my Dads side, I was told I had a great aunt or something that refused to take the gang’s money before they were all killed saying she didn’t want blood money
Is Mr. O'Banion's Flower Shop still in business?
Noah Versmesse, Could you reach out to me? I am an aspiring author writing a historical fiction book that highlights the Northside gang during the years O'Banion was the head boss and when he was killed. You can find me on instagram @avalongirl20. I really hope you see this!
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