Early Organized Crime Involvement
By the time he was in his mid 30s, Jerry Horan had been heavily involved in organized crime for several years. He owned a saloon near the corner of South Wood Street and West Van Buren Street in Chicago (the site is now a parking lot opposite Malcolm X College). Horan led a gang of bombers, gunmen and "sluggers" (men who would beat others to intimidate them) which was in the employ of various organized crime outfits and labor unions. Among his clients were mobster and labor leader Timothy "Big Tim" Murphy, mobster Fred Mader, and mobster and labor leader Cornelius Shea (who was international president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters).
Horan was hired by his uncle, BSEIU President William Quesse, as an organizer in 1921. His primary job, however, was to act as Quesse's chauffeur.
On May 6, 1922, Horan, Shea, Murphy, and five other labor leaders and labor racketeers were arrested and charged with the murder of a Chicago police officer. Horan was accidentally released, and went into hiding—although the press reported that he had turned state's evidence and been freed for rendering assistance. On May 24, the state asked for nolle prosequi and the court agreed to withdraw the indictments. Horan was indicted a second time a short time later on the same charges. Although Horan was later identified by eyewitness testimony as a co-conspirator with Murphy, Shea and Mader in planning bombings, murders, and beatings, the state withdrew these charges as well.
By 1924, Horan had become a Republican and was active in GOP politics in Illinois, supporting Governor Len Small.
Read more about this topic: Jerry Horan
Famous quotes containing the words early, organized, crime and/or involvement:
“At the earliest ending of winter,
In March, a scrawny cry from outside
Seemed like a sound in his mind.
He knew that he heard it,
A bird’s cry, at daylight or before,
In the early March wind.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Nonwhite and working-class women, if they are ever to identify with the organized women’s movement, must see their own diverse experiences reflected in the practice and policy statements of these predominantly white middle-class groups.”
—Kimberly Crenshaw (b. 1959)
“It is a crime to put a Roman citizen in chains, it is an enormity to flog one, sheer murder to slay one: what, then, shall I say of crucifixion? It is impossible to find the word for such an abomination.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 B.C.)
“It may be tempting to focus on the fact that, even among those who support equality, men’s involvement as fathers remains a far distance from what most women want and most children need. Yet it is also important to acknowledge how far and how fast many men have moved towards a pattern that not long ago virtually all men considered anathema.”
—Katherine Gerson (20th century)