John Duffy (mobster) - Life As A Bootlegger

Life As A Bootlegger

With the advent of Prohibition in 1920, O'Banion started a bootlegging operation. He arranged for beer suppliers in Canada to start shipments immediately, and also struck deals with whiskey and gin distributors. O'Banion pioneered Chicago's first liquor hijacking on December 19, 1921. He and the "lads of Kilgubbin" quickly eliminated all their competition. The O'Banion mob, known as the North Side Gang, now ruled the North Side and the Gold Coast, the wealthy area of Chicago situated on the northern lakefront of Lake Michigan. As O'Banion's name grew in the underworld, he attracted more followers, including Samuel "Nails" Morton, Louis "Two Gun" Alterie, and "Handsome" Dan McCarthy.

At the height of his power, O'Banion was supposedly making about $1 million a year on liquor. During one famous caper, O'Banion and his men stole over $100,000 worth of Canadian whiskey from the West Side railroad yards. In another famous robbery, O'Banion looted the padlocked Sibly Distillery and walked off with 1,750 barrels of bonded whiskey.

In 1921, O'Banion married Viola Kaniff and bought an interest in William Schofield's River North flower shop, near the corner of West Chicago Avenue and North State Street (now a parking lot). He needed a legitimate front for his criminal operations; in addition, he was fond of flowers and was an excellent arranger. Schofield's became the florist of choice for mob funerals. The shop happened to be directly across the street from Holy Name Cathedral, where he and Weiss attended Mass. The rooms above Schofield's were used as the headquarters for the North Side Gang.