Assassination
Al Capone's mental state began to deteriorate during his imprisonment in Alcatraz. As a result, at the end of 1939, Capone was due for release from federal prison any day.
O'Hare was shot and killed on Wednesday, November 8, 1939, while driving in his car. He was 46. That afternoon he reportedly left his office at Sportsman's Park in Cicero with a cleaned and oiled Spanish-made .32-caliber semi-automatic pistol, something unusual for him. O'Hare got into his black 1939 Lincoln Zephyr coupe, and drove away from the track. As he approached the intersection of Ogden and Rockwell, a dark sedan roared up beside him and two shotgun-wielding henchmen opened up on him with a volley of big-game slugs. Edward Joseph O'Hare was killed instantly. As his Lincoln crashed into a post at the side of the roadway, the killers continued east on Ogden, where they soon became lost in other traffic. Several months after O'Hare was gunned down, Frank Nitti, Capone's second in command, married Ursula Sue Granata, O'Hare's fiancée.
In 2010, Alderman Ed Burke asked the Chicago Police Department Cold Case Squad to re-examine O'Hare's murder in light of a new book, Get Capone, which made allegations about the crime.
Read more about this topic: Edward J. O'Hare