Al Capone and His American Boys

by Helmer, William J.

• ISBN13: 9780253356062
• ISBN10: 0253356067
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-07-07
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

When her husband was murdered on the orders of Chicago mobster Frank Nitti, Georgette Winkler -- wife of one of Al Capone's "American Boys" -- set out to expose the Chicago Syndicate. After an attempt to publish her story was squelched by the mob, she offered it to the FBI in the mistaken belief that they had the authority to strike at the racketeers who had killed her husband Gus. Discovered 60 years later in FBI files, the manuscript describes the couple's life on the run, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre (Gus was one of the shooters), and other headline crimes of that period. Prepared for publication by mob expert William J. Helmer, Al Capone and His American Boys is a compelling contemporary account of the heyday of Chicago crime by a woman who found herself married to the mob.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xi
Foreword	p. xiii
About This Book	p. xvii
Acknowledgments	p. xxi
A Note	p. 1
ôA Voice from the Graveö: The Memoir of Georgette Winkeler	p. 6
The Seventh Child	p. 8
ôFor Better or for Worseö	p. 13
Heist Guy-Egan's Rats and the Cuckoo Gang	p. 25
The Bad Pennies	p. 28
Affairs with the Police	p. 31
Fugitives on the Lam	p. 34
Workhouse Widow	p. 39
Gratitude-and Murder	p. 42
Flight from St. Louis	p. 45
Meet Al Capone	p. 50
The Toledo Killing	p. 62
Frankie Yale	p. 71
Murphy's Tough Skull	p. 77
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre	p. 80
Hiding Out	p. 93
On the Run	p. 98
ôKillerö Burke and the Policeman's Murder	p. 101
New Face and New Fingerprints	p. 110
ôKillerö Burke on the Lam	p. 114
The Car Crash	p. 124
Capone to the Rescue	p. 132
The Greatest Bank Robbery	p. 136
Chicago's ôSecret Sixö	p. 140
Enter Father Dwyer	p. 149
The Shooting of Frank Nitti	p. 153
Nitti's Revenge	p. 159
ôThe Informerö	p. 164
The Boom Days	p. 168
A promise Kept	p. 172
Gus and the Planted Gun	p. 175
Legal Beer at Last	p. 179
Gus Winkeler and the New North Side	p. 184
The Kansas City Massacre	p. 187
Gus and the ôMiller Massacreö	p. 197
Beginning of the End	p. 201
The Syndicate Closes In	p. 206
Tie Police Called It Suicide	p. 211
ôThey've Taken Him to the Morgueö	p. 216
Gus Goes Home	p. 220
Who Killed My Husband?	p. 224
The Widow and Her World	p. 228
ôThe Gas Lisped Its Song of Deathö	p. 233
Rebirth and Revenge	p. 237
End of the Empire	p. 240
ôDo You See This Gun?ö	p. 245
Confronting the Mob	p. 249
On the Spot	p. 252
Resolution	p. 255
Georgette Talks to the FBI	p. 259
Biographies and Historical Notes	p. 295
Index	p. 363
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