Early Life
Peter Gusenberg Jr. was born at the Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois to Peter Sr. and his wife. He was the firstborn of three sons and the namesake of his father Peter Gusenberg (Gusenberger) Sr. who was a first generation Roman Catholic emigrant from Gusenburg, a municipality in the Trier-Saarburg district, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany and his wife. His parents moved into a home at 434 Roscoe Street in Lakeview, Chicago where Peter lived with his brothers Frank (October 11, 1892 Chicago, Illinois) along with their youngest brother Henry who later moved to 5507 Bernice Avenue, Portage Park, Chicago. In 1901, when Peter Jr. was twelve years old, he returned home from school and found his mother on the floor, dead. Following this discovery, he pried off his mothers wedding ring, which Peter Sr. had bought for her back in Germany, and pawned it.
After graduating from petty crime into more serious offenses, the Gusenberg brothers teamed up with Dion O'Banion, Earl "Hymie" Weiss, George "Bugs" Moran and other members of the North Side Gang. Although Peter Jr. and his brother had little formal education, they would both learn to speak German and English. He later married a German-Irish woman Myrtle Coppleman Gorman and did not let her know about his criminal activities, keeping her under the ruse that he worked as a travelling salesman. He was first incarcerated in 1902 and sent to the Joliet Correctional Center for burglary in 1906. He was released on a probationary period but violated the terms and conditions of his probation and was sent back to Joliet in 1910 and re-released in 1912. He 1923 he was convicted for his participation in helping rob a mail freight car while stopped at Dearborn Station. He also helped carry out the murders on Antonio Lombardo and Pasquale Lolorado with his younger brother Frank Gusenberg and Albert Kachellek, a fellow cellmate at Joliet.
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