The 'Raiding Pastor' takes on Capone

Reverend Henry C. Hoover, a Berwyn minister, was the leader of a vigilante group known as the West Suburban Ministers' and Citizens' Association, and a constant thorn in Al Capone's side. As early as 1925, Hoover had identified Capone as a menace to society, and, together with his Association, paid off a rival group of gangsters to burn down one of Capone's brothels in Cicero, near the race track. These actions led Hoover to acquire the moniker, "The Raiding Pastor."

On May 16, 1925, Hoover set his sights on the Hawthorne Smoke Shop, a Capone-controlled gambling house, located here at 4818 W. 22nd St., in Cicero. His group raided the house early in the morning and toted out an array of gambling paraphernalia. When Capone heard about the raid, he personally marched over to the Smoke Shop (still dressed in pajamas) to find out what all the fuss was about. When he confronted Hoover, Hoover turned to a police officer who had accompanied him on the raid and asked, "Who is this man?"

Capone answered for him, using his common pseudonym: "I'm Al Brown, if that's good enough for you."

Hoover mocked the bootlegger, "Oh, I thought it was someone like that, someone more powerful than the president of the United States."

Hoover re-enacted this scene word-for-word on the stand at Capone's tax evasion trial in 1931, offering the jury the sacred word of a man of the cloth describing Capone's wickedness, and linking him to a known gambling operation. After this confrontation, Hoover explained that Capone had tried to cut a deal with the Raiding Pastor:

"Why are you fellows always picking on me? Reverend, can't you and I get together - come to an understanding? If you will let up on me in Cicero, I'll withdraw from Stickney."

Hoover responded righteously: "Mr. Capone, the only understanding you and I can have is that you must obey the law or get out of the western suburbs."

Damning as the testimony was, it never should have been heard in court. The raid was over five years old at the time of the trial, and Capone's attorneys could have had it excluded on statute of limitations grounds, had they realized it.

Rev. Hoover continued his crusades against organized crime until his passing in 1955.

Fred Ries, or How Cockroaches Brought Down Scarface

Fred Ries was the cashier at several Capone-controlled gambling operations, including the "Subway", at 4738 W. 22nd St., in Cicero, located where the building pictured above now stands. In large part because Ries was entomophobic (afraid of insects), Jake Guzik, Frank Nitti, and Al Capone ended up in federal prison.

Ries' job as cashier involved collecting the house's winnings each night, converting them into cashier's checks, and then passing cuts of these checks to the Capone Outfit's leadership, including "Scarface" himself. This laundering scheme kept any evidence of income (and thus, tax liability) safely separated from Capone and company. The feds knew Al had plenty of money -- they had seen him lose $20,000 in a night of gambling, plus his substantial real estate holdings -- but they had no way to prove he had earned it as income. Until, that is, they found out that one of Capone's cashiers was deathly afraid of cockroaches.

At the time of his arrest as a material witness, federal agents found Ries hiding out in St. Louis. They threw him into a specially-made cell in Danville, Illinois, which had previously been prepared with roaches, spiders, rats, and bedbugs. After five days in the cell, Ries was ready to talk. He would have done anything to escape that cell.

Based on his grand jury testimony, Guzik, Nitti, and Al Capone were indicated for tax fraud. Of course, during the time between the indictment and the trial, Fred Ries became the #1 mark for Capone's henchmen, which is why the feds sent him on an all-expenses-paid vacation to South America for a month. At trial, Ries' testimony was the coup de grace, the government's final and most convincing witness, tying Al Capone directly to substantial sums of income on which he had never paid taxes.

Capone went to prison for eight years, effectively ending his racketeering career. Ries went into hiding, and apparently was never heard from again.

Fred Ries' operation, the Subway, sat on property which is now the location of a Dunkin' Donuts store (currently being renovated).

Capone's Cicero Headquarters

Al Capone's Chicago headquarters were the Four Deuces, the Metropole Hotel, and later, the Lexington Hotel. But in Cicero, the town his syndicate owned, from the Mayor to the streetsweepers, business was chiefly transacted at the Hawthorne Inn, at 4833 W. 22nd Street.

After Capone's violent takeover of the town of Cicero in the election of 1924, he set up shop at the Hawthorne, fitting it with bullet-proof shutters and surrounding every entrance with battalions of armed guards. This was the true city hall in Cicero, the center of power, and when orders emerged from the Hawthorne Inn, even the mayor, Joseph Z. Klenha, jumped.

It was at the Hawthorne that Dion O'Banion began his double-crossing scheme, telling Capone and Johnny Torrio that he planned to leave the bootlegging game for greener pastures out West, leading to Torrio's arrest at Sieben Brewery, O'Banion's assassination, and Torrio's brush with death.

Having failed to kill Torrio, O'Banion's henchmen attempted to avenge their slain leader's life with a direct frontal attack on the Hawthorne Inn on September 20, 1926. On that date, Al Capone was eating lunch on the first floor of the Hawthorne. At 1:15 p.m., the sound of machine gun fire echoed through the restaurant, sending the waiters and patrons running out the back. Capone and his bodyguard hit the deck as a car passed by and the sound of bullets intensified.

Once the gunfire ceased, Capone arose unharmed and ran to the door, ready to get a good look at his assailants. Suddenly he noticed something odd: despite hundreds of bullets, not a thing was broken in the restaurant. The apparent drive-by shooting was a decoy, and only blanks had been fired, in an attempt to draw Capone out of the restaurant to his death. With this sudden realization, Capone's bodyguard tackled him, just as a caravan of seven Lincolns, headed by Schemer Drucci, Bugs Moran, and Hymie Weiss, passed by the Hawthorne, practically razing the hotel with machine gun fire. Almost 1000 shots were fired into the establishment, but again the Northsiders were frustrated: not one person, and certainly not Capone, was killed.

In retaliation, Capone ordered the hit on Hymie Weiss at O'Banion's flower shop, and the cycle of violence between the Capone Outfit and the North side gang continued to intensify.

The Hawthorne Inn remained open until 1970, and during much of that time, it remained a mob hangout. Today, the location is the parking lot for a bank.

Al Capone's Cicero Hangout

Al kept his wife, mother, and son at the family home in Chicago, but also kept this apartment building at 1600 Austin Blvd., in Cicero, as a crash pad for late night parties. Not far from his Cicero business headquarters, this unassuming home was protected by a heavy steel door (which appears to have been replaced -- see below), a 8 foot backyard fence, underground escape tunnels, and two or more bodyguards prowling the grounds at all times.

The block is one of the most well-kept in Cicero, but the current owners seem to have purposely allowed the shrubbery to obscure the entry and windows.

The Pony Inn

Harry Madigan ran an Al Capone-controlled bar called the Pony Inn at this location, 5613 W. Roosevelt, Cicero, in 1926. In Spring of that year, the sidewalk in front of the saloon became the scene of a famous crime that haunted Capone throughout the rest of his career. The building still stands, now known as Sarno's Restaurant.

William McSwiggin was Assistant State's Attorney in Chicago, and had vigorously pursued an indictment against Al Capone in 1924 for killing Joe Howard in a South side bar. While unable to successfully prosecute Capone (despite the presence of several eye-witnesses), McSwiggin became known as a "hanging" prosecutor. But there was more to him than met the eye.

McSwiggin was also a card player, gambler, and drinker, and that naturally brought him into close contact with Capone and his associates on a regular basis. In fact, with the passage of time, Capone began to consider McSwiggin a friend. One night in late Spring, 1926, after dinner at his parents' house, McSwiggin and a few close friends went out for a night of gambling and drinks. Shortly after leaving the house, their car broke down and they ended up joining a couple of other friends in their car. These friends were the O'Donnell brothers, rival bootleggers who had a growing feud with Capone.

The O'Donnells' shiny new Lincoln went cruising through Cicero with McSwiggin and friends, hitting bar after bar, until they ended up here, at the Pony Inn, not far from Capone's Cicero headquarters. When word came to Capone that his rivals were encroaching on his territory, he sent a convoy of lieutenants, armed with machine guns, to make his displeasure known. No one told him his friend McSwiggin was with the group.

As the drinking party left the Pony Inn, bursts of gunfire sent fifty rounds into the group, killing three, including McSwiggin (the O'Donnells, the targets of the attack, escaped unharmed).

Public outcry at the gangland death of a state prosecutor pushed the police into action. Chicago police invaded Cicero, arresting Ralph Capone and raiding several Capone-owned joints. Al fled the city, spending the summer of 1926 among friends in the Italian community in Lansing, Michigan, until the heat died down enough for him to return to the Chicago area.

Never again, however, was Capone completely unmolested by the police. Though he had never intended to hurt McSwiggin, he had lost his standing with the public, who began to put increasing pressure on the police to shut down gang operations.

The Cotton Club

In league with his younger brother, Ralph Capone ran a number of bars and speakeasies, the most famous of which was the Cotton Club, at this location, 5342 W. 22nd St., Cicero.

The mayor of Chicago, "Big Bill" Thompson, was especially fond of the nightlife here, where prohibition, despite being the official law of the land, seemed not to exist. The Chicago Crime Commission described the Cotton Club as "a 'whoopee' spot where liquor flowed freely."

The Capones were notable for their color-blind policy with respect to entertainment, and the Cotton Club played host to most of the top Black acts of the 1920s (for an all-white audience, of course), and many of the performers grew to appreciate and respect Al and Ralph. Milton Mezzrow, Judge Hinton, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellingon, King Oliver, and Louis Armstrong were among the luminaries who played here, making Al Capone one of the most important figures in the development of Chicago jazz. Comedians, including Milton Berle, were also a common act.

There could hardly be less remaining of the Cotton Club or any of its famous entertainers at this location today.