Al Capone: Master Strategist
...rrio bought O'Banion's piece of the bussiness not knowing they would soon be raided. Torrio met with O'Banion to pick up his last shipment of alcohol. They were immediately raided by the police and arrested. Capone and Torrio knew they had been set up…that was the beginning of the end for Dion O'Banion (Bergreen 129-132). Hymie Weiss succeeded O'Banion. Weiss made attempts to avenge O'Banion's death by attempting to kill Capone and other members of his clan numerous times. The most notorious attempt was when Weiss and his gang sent a car driving past Capone's resturaunt firing blanks. When Capone thought the attack was over, he began to make his way to the door to see who his attacker had been. Capone was quickly tackled by his bodyguard who knew the attack was not over. More cars came rolling down the street, all firing machine guns into the resturant. Weiss did not succeed in his attempt; Capone was unharmed in this incident. Capone decided to try and mak epeace with Weiss before another attempt on his life was made. He sent someone to tell Weiss that he was willing to give him whatever he wished in exchange for peace. Weiss's price was the lives of those who had murdered O'Banion. Capone denied his request by sharply saying, "I wouldn't do that to a yellow dog"(Schoenberg 161). Both Dion O'Banion and Hymie Weiss gave Al Capone reason enough to want them dead. Even though Capone had motive to be involved in these murders, he could not be linked to them. Dion O'Banion's murder took place on November 10th, 1924 in the flower shop that he oqwned and worked at (Al Capone 2). Three men entered the flower shop around noon after phoning ahead and open fired on O'Banion. O'Banion greeted his killers with open arms because he believed they were there to do bussiness. Al Capone was not one of the three men that O'Banion greeted that day (Enright 21-22). Hymie Weiss was killed in the street outside the very same flower shop. Al Capone was also no where near the scene of Weiss's murder. Weiss was murdered in the middle of the road with only his three comrades surrounding him. Shots rang out from about them, but it was certain those shots were not fired by Al Capone himself. Bergreen explains, "Although every indication pointed to Capone as the man who had planned Weiss's death, the killers were never found, their identities never discovered, despite an intruiging array of evidence left behind."(208). It was obvious that each murder had been carefully planned. Enright says of O'Banion's murder, "Step by step the execution of O'Banion is worked out according to the lay of the land, his personal habits, and his protective means"(21). One of the Genna brothers ordered a small amount of flowers from O'Banion's flower shop just so that he could get a good look at the inside of the shop. When O'Banion's murder occurred, a getaway vehicle was waiting the entire time so that the killers could make a quick exit from the scene. It was planned that the center of the three men that entered the flower shop would extend his hand to O'Banion and not let go so that O'Banion could not reach one of the three guns he carried with him at all times. Once the hands of his killers restrained O'Banion, five bullets were fired into his body, and one into his head (New York Times 16). The three assassins the...