Peter Gusenberg
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Peter Gusenberg (1888-February 14, 1929), and his brother Frank were prominent members of Chicago's North Side Gang, the main rival to the Chicago Outfit. Peter Gusenberg participated in an infamous attack on Al Capone during a vicious gang war.
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[edit] Early life
Peter Gusenberg and his brother Frank Gusenberg grew up tough on the North Side of Chicago. After graduating from petty crime into more serious offenses, the Gusenberg brothers teamed up with Dean O'Banion, Earl "Hymie" Weiss, George "Bugs" Moran and other members of the North Side Gang. This gang would dominate bootlegging and other criminal activities in the northern part of Chicago throughout the 1920's.
[edit] Prison time
In the early 1920's, Peter Gusenberg was sent away to the United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth on a mail robbery conviction. While he was in prison, the North Side Gang became embroiled in a vicious gang war with the rival Chicago Outfit, headed first by Johnny Torrio and then Al Capone. During this warfare, Outfit gunmen had murdered North Side leader O'Banion in his florist shop. When Peter Gusenberg was released from prison in 1926, he rejoined the North Side Gang, now led by Hymie Weiss, in its war against the Outfit.
[edit] Gang war
On September 20, 1926, Peter Gusenberg participated in the infamous drive-by shooting on the Hawthorne Hotel, Capone's Cicero, Illinois headquarters. The North Siders riddled the hotel with thousands of bullets. According to many accounts, the second to last car stopped in front of the hotel restaurant where Capone was cowering and Peter Gusenberg emerged, clad in a khaki Army shirt, brown overalls, and carrying a Thompson submachine gun fitted with a 100-round capacity drum. Kneeling in front of the doorway, Gusenberg emptied the entire drum into the restaurant, and then casually strolled back to his car, which then sped off to safety. The attack worked. Capone was in fact terrified and offered a truce between the two gangs. But the truce was shortlived and it was back to open warfare.
As the gang war continued, the North Side Gang started to weaken. Three weeks after the Hawthorne Hotel attack, Hymie Weiss was murdered by a Capone hit squad. Moran now took over the gang. The North Siders especially wanted to kill Jack "Machine Gun" McGurn, as he was rumored to have killed Weiss. On at least two occasions, the Gusenberg brothers tried to kill McGurn. Despite wounding him several times, McGurn survived theses attempts on his life.
By late 1928, Moran struck an alliance with Capone rival Joe Aiello. Aiello and the Gusenberg brothers first killed Antonio Lombardo and then Pasqualino "Patsy" Lolordo, two successive presidents of the Unione Siciliane and both Capone allies. It was these murders that motivated Capone to eliminate Moran and the North Side Gang in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.
[edit] St. Valentine's Day Massacre
On February 14, 1929, the upper echelon of the North Side gang, including Peter Gusenberg, gathered in their main booze garage, the S.M.C. Cartage Company at 2122 N. Clark Street in Chicago. Also there were Frank Gusenberg, Albert Weinshank, Adam Heyer, James Clark, John May, and Dr. Reinhardt Schwimmer (a friend of a gang member). The usual story is that the North Siders were waiting for a shipment of hijacked whiskey from Detroit (a ploy devised by Capone). However, this story has been disputed.
Two men in police uniforms entered the garage and lined Peter Gusenberg and the other North Siders up against the north wall. At this point, two men in civilian clothing came in with submachine guns. The four gunmen then opened fire with submachine guns and shotguns, killing all seven men, in what would become known as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. Peter Gusenberg died instantly.
Although the killers (widely believed to be former members Egan's Rats, a St. Louis gang), wiped out most of the North Side Gang, they missed their prime target, Moran. Moran was either late arriving at the garage or spotted the gunmen before entering the garage and kept on walking.
[edit] In popular culture
Peter Gusenberg would be portrayed in two movies about the Prohibition era;
- In Roger Corman's The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967), Gusenberg was played by George Segal.
- In Steve Carver's Capone (1975), Gusenberg was played by Martin Kove.
