WEBVTT 1 00:00:34.240 --> 00:00:36.920 With the man, my friends of Miami. 2 00:00:37.880 --> 00:00:42.079 I am not a stranger here because very good many 3 00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:45.600 years I used to come down here. I haven't been 4 00:00:45.640 --> 00:00:49.759 here for seven years, but on my coming back, I 5 00:00:49.799 --> 00:00:52.719 have firmly resolved not to make it the last time. 6 00:00:55.679 --> 00:01:11.120 An The President Elect finishes his impromptu talk and prepares 7 00:01:11.159 --> 00:01:17.719 to drive onto the railway station when the startled onlookers 8 00:01:17.760 --> 00:01:21.439 suddenly realize what has happened. Pandemonium range and the crowd, 9 00:01:21.719 --> 00:01:25.879 led by American legionnaires in that glistening helmets counts Assassin Zangara. 10 00:01:40.200 --> 00:01:42.640 William Sinnett, one of the injured, makes his way out 11 00:01:42.680 --> 00:01:53.719 of the crowd. On the left, Mayor Sermak, critically wounded, 12 00:01:54.000 --> 00:01:56.799 is carried to mister Roosevelt's car, Resting in the arms 13 00:01:56.799 --> 00:01:59.159 of the President Elect. He has rushed to a hospital. 14 00:02:01.359 --> 00:02:05.840 They've cut him. The secret Service man road 'em on 15 00:02:05.879 --> 00:02:07.599 the rail of the car and hustle him away to jail. 16 00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:13.960 Lay As. 17 00:02:15.479 --> 00:02:18.840 Now the heroine, the woman who's courage all the world 18 00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:22.360 a fraud. She probably saved mister Roosevelt's life by deflecting 19 00:02:22.360 --> 00:02:25.960 the assassin's aim. Missus w f Cross of my appare. 20 00:02:27.400 --> 00:02:29.520 My first dog was to get his I knew he 21 00:02:29.639 --> 00:02:32.319 was shooting at the President, so my first dog was 22 00:02:32.360 --> 00:02:34.120 to get the pistol up in the air so he 23 00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:35.159 wouldn't hurt any. 24 00:02:35.000 --> 00:02:44.039 Of the bout. Then why do you killed, mister Rusevelt? 25 00:02:44.080 --> 00:02:48.400 What for in your mind? I told her before, I. 26 00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:50.719 Have an titiness all the time on the mind of 27 00:02:50.759 --> 00:02:51.879 the competition is to kill. 28 00:02:51.960 --> 00:02:53.879 In mere I suffered in this king of the stomach 29 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:54.680 for the competition. 30 00:02:55.080 --> 00:02:56.759 So moses to the company that just don't know how 31 00:02:56.800 --> 00:02:59.639 this is sickening and in my stomach it makes your work. 32 00:02:59.800 --> 00:03:03.960 He Joe, you'll get a chance tonight. You would shoot 33 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:05.639 the president tonight? 34 00:03:06.039 --> 00:03:07.039 I can't shoot, no move. 35 00:03:08.120 --> 00:03:10.199 If you'll give you a chance, to give me a chance, 36 00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:12.800 I should again. You hate you don't like him for 37 00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:15.240 president as a man did? 38 00:03:15.280 --> 00:03:15.639 All right? 39 00:03:16.759 --> 00:03:18.120 Then the president? 40 00:03:18.520 --> 00:03:31.120 Right, Hello, and welcome back. It's been a little bit 41 00:03:31.159 --> 00:03:33.199 since I've done a show, but that is because I 42 00:03:33.240 --> 00:03:37.080 have been hard at work on the book, which is 43 00:03:37.199 --> 00:03:41.439 actually done at this point. What I'm doing now is 44 00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:46.879 I am going through the editing phase, and I'm finding 45 00:03:46.919 --> 00:03:50.759 that some of my earliest writings, particularly on the Winterland 46 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:53.680 and on the Three Tramps, which I did almost two 47 00:03:53.759 --> 00:03:57.360 years ago. It's pretty bad. It's pretty bad. So I'm 48 00:03:57.400 --> 00:04:01.960 taking probably next week or so to basically go through 49 00:04:02.000 --> 00:04:05.520 those two chapters and rewrite and add some stuff to them, 50 00:04:05.680 --> 00:04:08.400 because they just don't match the quality of the rest 51 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:11.400 of the book. So that being said, today what we're 52 00:04:11.439 --> 00:04:13.039 going to do is we are going to take a 53 00:04:13.039 --> 00:04:16.240 little break from the assassination, but not really, not really, 54 00:04:16.319 --> 00:04:19.399 because the assassination's story, as I've said before, begins in 55 00:04:19.399 --> 00:04:23.480 the late eighteen hundreds and this falls well within that timeframe. 56 00:04:25.319 --> 00:04:27.160 This we're today, we're going to talk about the assassination 57 00:04:27.199 --> 00:04:31.839 of Mayor Anton sermac the mayor of Chicago, who made 58 00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:37.160 some unholy alliances that ended up getting him killed. The 59 00:04:39.279 --> 00:04:41.120 I don't know what is he called, is the protagonist, 60 00:04:41.240 --> 00:04:43.519 the antagonist? Whoever? The bad guy is right, the bad 61 00:04:43.519 --> 00:04:52.079 guy in the story is Giuseppe is Agara, a funny guy. 62 00:04:52.199 --> 00:04:56.120 And so you know, let me just not even try 63 00:04:56.160 --> 00:04:57.759 to give you my interpretation. What we're gonna do is 64 00:04:57.759 --> 00:05:00.439 we're gonna go over this series of articles by John 65 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:05.759 Toohe called the Guns of Zangara really fascinating stuff. I 66 00:05:05.800 --> 00:05:08.279 consider this to be like the first of a series 67 00:05:08.360 --> 00:05:13.920 of parallel assassinations started with Mayor Anton Sermac. Then it 68 00:05:13.959 --> 00:05:17.600 moved on to Huey Long, and then Kennedy, Robert Kennedy 69 00:05:17.639 --> 00:05:18.160 and the rest. 70 00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:18.720 Right, So. 71 00:05:20.519 --> 00:05:23.600 Here we go The Guns of Zangara by John Toohe. 72 00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:28.360 Almost seventy years ago, an enigmatic Italian immigrant bricklayer named 73 00:05:28.399 --> 00:05:33.360 Jauseeppe Zangara momentarily leaped onto history stage and took a 74 00:05:33.360 --> 00:05:38.480 misguided shot at President elect Franklin Roosevelt and accidentally killed 75 00:05:38.519 --> 00:05:42.720 Chicago's reform Mayor Anton Surmac, or so the story goes. 76 00:05:43.120 --> 00:05:45.480 But over the next six and a half decades, the 77 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:49.079 shooting only created more questions than it answered. Who was 78 00:05:49.199 --> 00:05:52.959 Zangara and who was his intended victim, Anton Surmac And 79 00:05:53.000 --> 00:05:57.120 did the Chicago mob order the killing? The recent discovery 80 00:05:57.120 --> 00:05:59.839 of lost government records can now answer those questions and 81 00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:04.399 forever seal the case of the Guns of Zangara. Like 82 00:06:04.480 --> 00:06:07.360 most mob murders, it started over money, greed, and the 83 00:06:07.480 --> 00:06:10.560 lust for power. In nineteen thirty one, the labor rackets 84 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:13.439 business in Chicago was worth one hundred and forty five 85 00:06:13.560 --> 00:06:16.240 million dollars or about a half a billion dollars in 86 00:06:16.279 --> 00:06:19.759 today's value. In fact, unions were such easy prey for 87 00:06:19.879 --> 00:06:23.560 gangsters that before prohibition, the mob saw control of labor unions, 88 00:06:23.879 --> 00:06:27.839 not bootleg beer, as the quickest route to riches. Now, 89 00:06:27.879 --> 00:06:30.160 in nineteen thirty one, with repeal closing in in the 90 00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:34.360 national depression curbing the outfit's gambling business, al Campone pulled 91 00:06:34.360 --> 00:06:36.480 out all the stops in his drive to control the 92 00:06:36.519 --> 00:06:40.839 labor unions in Chicago. Capone's goons invaded so many unions 93 00:06:41.160 --> 00:06:45.480 union locals that Frank Lesh, president of the Chicago Crime Commission, 94 00:06:45.600 --> 00:06:48.040 estimated that two out of every three unions in Chicago 95 00:06:48.639 --> 00:06:52.480 was run by Capone. As Capone terrorized his way into 96 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:55.480 more teamster locals, the union bosses fled out of suburban 97 00:06:55.480 --> 00:07:00.120 to planes to live under mobster Roger Tuwohe's protection. The 98 00:07:00.120 --> 00:07:03.519 Twohe brothers, Roger, Tommy, and Eddie were the last serious 99 00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:07.199 threat to Capone's might. The brothers, safely tucked away in 100 00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:10.839 the still mostly undeveloped portion of northern Cook County, had 101 00:07:10.879 --> 00:07:13.360 grown rich from prohibition in gambling and the ability to 102 00:07:13.399 --> 00:07:16.439 avoid big political payoffs and long drawn out beer wars. 103 00:07:17.000 --> 00:07:19.639 By nineteen thirty two, they had the money, the manpower, 104 00:07:19.639 --> 00:07:22.000 and the fire power to take over the entire Chicago 105 00:07:22.040 --> 00:07:25.600 Teamsters organization without having to split any of the proceeds 106 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:29.720 with Capone. Paddy Burrell, the Teamster's vice president, called a 107 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:32.519 meeting of all the locals threatened by Capone and gave 108 00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:35.639 them a choice. They could stand alone against Capone and 109 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:38.360 lose their unions in probably their lives, or they could 110 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:42.160 move their operations under the Tuohe's protection. They would still 111 00:07:42.199 --> 00:07:44.360 lose a large portion of their treasury to the Tuohe's, 112 00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:47.160 but at least they'd be alive. Most of the union 113 00:07:47.199 --> 00:07:50.160 bosses knew Roger Toohe from their childhood. He had a 114 00:07:50.199 --> 00:07:52.800 solid reputation as a union organizer in his youth, and 115 00:07:52.839 --> 00:07:55.839 compared to Capone, at least he was still evil, but 116 00:07:55.879 --> 00:07:58.240 at least he was the lesser of two evils. The 117 00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:02.959 bosses would go with Towohe. After the meeting, Burrell sent 118 00:08:03.240 --> 00:08:06.160 union boss Jerry Horn to Roger's house with seventy five 119 00:08:06.199 --> 00:08:09.600 thousand in cash for a defense fund. Tooe used that money, 120 00:08:09.639 --> 00:08:11.959 plus an additional seventy five thousand from his own pocket, 121 00:08:11.959 --> 00:08:14.680 to hire an army of thugs, killers, and goons to 122 00:08:14.720 --> 00:08:21.439 fend off Capone's pending assault. To Wohe's defiance didn't come 123 00:08:21.439 --> 00:08:24.720 without a price. The Capones killed one of the brothers 124 00:08:24.759 --> 00:08:27.600 and attempted to kidnap his children, And then on October 125 00:08:27.639 --> 00:08:31.600 twenty fifth, nineteen thirty one, the unbelievable happened. Al Capone 126 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:34.120 was convicted of income tax evasion and sentenced to ten 127 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:37.639 years in prison. That same day, Matt Kolb, Toohe's business 128 00:08:37.639 --> 00:08:39.960 partner and financier as well as the source of Towohe's 129 00:08:40.039 --> 00:08:43.480 enormous political clout, was gunned down by Capone gunmen inside 130 00:08:43.519 --> 00:08:46.799 the speakeasy the Club Morton. With Kolb dead, the price 131 00:08:46.879 --> 00:08:49.840 for political protection went through the roof to wohe would 132 00:08:49.879 --> 00:08:52.639 have to find a cob replacement soon, and Anton Cermak 133 00:08:52.759 --> 00:08:55.879 was just off on the horizon. Tony Cermak was not 134 00:08:55.919 --> 00:08:58.559 a very nice man, wrote Judge Lyle of Chicago's mayor. 135 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:03.639 He appeared to take his lack of polish. He was uncouth, gruff, insolent, 136 00:09:03.679 --> 00:09:07.120 and inarticulate. He could engage in no more intelligent discussion 137 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:08.840 of the larger political issues of the day than he 138 00:09:08.840 --> 00:09:12.879 could have the Einstein theory of relativity. In personal confrontation, 139 00:09:13.000 --> 00:09:15.720 Sirmac was known as the bully and an intimidator. With 140 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:19.399 a violent temper who'd never walk away from a dispute. 141 00:09:19.559 --> 00:09:22.200 He liked very few people, and he trusted virtually no one. 142 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:25.919 As his power grew, so did his paranoia. He wasn't 143 00:09:25.960 --> 00:09:29.360 a backslapper. He was elected because of a political survivor 144 00:09:29.399 --> 00:09:32.799 who simply outlasted his opponents. Those he couldn't outlast he 145 00:09:32.840 --> 00:09:37.159 blackballed in the Illinois State House. As president of Cook 146 00:09:37.200 --> 00:09:40.679 County and later as mayor, Sirmak used wiretaps, stole mail, 147 00:09:40.799 --> 00:09:44.200 used secret surveillance and informants to get intelligence on the 148 00:09:44.240 --> 00:09:47.279 weakness of his enemies, and he took great care to 149 00:09:47.399 --> 00:09:52.159 know who his enemies were. He admitted to authorizing beatings 150 00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:55.639 of anyone that got in his way. Anthony ten percent 151 00:09:55.759 --> 00:09:59.320 Tony Sirmak was born May seventh, eighteen seventy three, in 152 00:09:59.320 --> 00:10:02.919 a Bohemian village about fifty miles outside of Prague. The 153 00:10:02.960 --> 00:10:05.919 family immigrated to American eighteen eighty four, settling in a 154 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:08.799 Chicago slum on the fifteenth and on fifteenth in Canal, 155 00:10:09.279 --> 00:10:12.399 the infamous valley that had also produced the Tuohi brothers, 156 00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:15.879 and later in nineteen hundred moved to Braidwood in southern Illinois, 157 00:10:15.919 --> 00:10:19.480 where the elder Sermac worked as a coal miner. In 158 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:22.799 eighteen eighty nine, Tony Sermak returned to Chicago at age sixteen. 159 00:10:23.240 --> 00:10:25.440 Sirmak was a hustler who saw his opportunity in the 160 00:10:25.519 --> 00:10:29.200 rough and tumble world of Chicago's ethnic politics. He organized 161 00:10:29.200 --> 00:10:32.039 the huge Bohemian community into a powerful voting machine, and 162 00:10:32.080 --> 00:10:34.440 before he was old enough to vote himself, Tony Cermak 163 00:10:35.080 --> 00:10:38.279 was a political power. Sormak was also a greedy man 164 00:10:38.320 --> 00:10:40.320 who wanted to be rich in the roads. He used 165 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:43.639 to riches was to form an organization called the United Societies, 166 00:10:43.919 --> 00:10:46.919 a high sounding name for nothing more than a shakedown operation. 167 00:10:47.720 --> 00:10:50.799 Every brewer and boose seller, dance hall operator, and saloon 168 00:10:50.919 --> 00:10:54.960 keeper was a member, as were most of the area's gunmen, pimps, prostitutes, 169 00:10:54.960 --> 00:10:57.879 and gamblers that worked along twenty second Street later renamed, 170 00:10:57.879 --> 00:11:02.360 oddly enough, Sirmak Road. They paid, They paid to belong 171 00:11:02.399 --> 00:11:04.759 to Cermak's organization because Sirmak had the police and the 172 00:11:04.759 --> 00:11:08.559 politicians in his pocket. In nineteen twenty eight, Sirmak, who 173 00:11:08.679 --> 00:11:12.039 was still the spokesman for organized liquor interests, decided to 174 00:11:12.039 --> 00:11:16.080 become mayor of Chicago. On election day, April seventh, nineteen 175 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:17.799 thirty one, word went out from higher ups in the 176 00:11:17.799 --> 00:11:20.720 copone organization down to the goons and speakeasy owners to 177 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:24.759 support Sirmak. If Sirmak won, the bosses said the reformers 178 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:28.799 would loosen up. Sirmak did win. He trounced Thompson's six 179 00:11:28.919 --> 00:11:32.559 sixty seven five twenty nine to four seventy five six thirteen, 180 00:11:32.600 --> 00:11:35.519 the largest margin ever recorded in the Chicago mayoral election 181 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:38.480 to date, but he double crossed the people too. On 182 00:11:38.519 --> 00:11:40.600 his first day in office, Sirmak promised the people of 183 00:11:40.639 --> 00:11:42.799 Chicago that he would rid their city of gangsters before 184 00:11:42.840 --> 00:11:45.720 the Century of Progress Exhibition opened in the summer of 185 00:11:45.799 --> 00:11:48.480 nineteen thirty three. But Tony didn't want to get rid 186 00:11:48.519 --> 00:11:51.039 of organized crime in Chicago. He wanted to corral it, 187 00:11:51.279 --> 00:11:54.120 to dominate it, to run it, to own it, to 188 00:11:54.159 --> 00:11:55.919 grow rich from it. And he figured all he had 189 00:11:55.919 --> 00:11:58.759 to do was give it another face. So tourney Tony 190 00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:02.480 Surmak threw hist around the city's multimillion dollar gambling rackets. 191 00:12:02.879 --> 00:12:05.200 The first thing he did to corner the gambling market 192 00:12:05.480 --> 00:12:10.120 was to close down the competition seemingly overnight. Sirmak's police force, 193 00:12:10.159 --> 00:12:14.080 which he dominated with his handpicked loyalists, raided hundreds of 194 00:12:14.120 --> 00:12:17.799 syndicate gambling dens and casinos and shut them down. Independent 195 00:12:17.840 --> 00:12:20.519 gamblers there were still a few in those days who 196 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:22.960 refused to throw in with Sirmak were run out of business. 197 00:12:23.759 --> 00:12:27.240 Once Sirmak had smashed the gamblers into submission, he would 198 00:12:27.240 --> 00:12:30.120 need someone dependable to act as as collector and street boss. 199 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:35.200 The mayor's personal bagman enter Teddy Newberry, a lifelong gangster 200 00:12:35.240 --> 00:12:38.240 who had been with Bugs Moran and then the iOS, 201 00:12:38.320 --> 00:12:42.440 and finally with Capone until his career ended. After several 202 00:12:42.480 --> 00:12:45.600 months of acting as Sirmak's street supervisor, Teddy Newberry sat 203 00:12:45.639 --> 00:12:47.960 down with Anton Sirmak in the summer of nineteen thirty 204 00:12:47.960 --> 00:12:50.720 one and worked out a deal, as Newberry and Sirmak 205 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:53.039 saw it. With Capone and most of his top men 206 00:12:53.080 --> 00:12:55.480 behind bars or on the run from the law, what 207 00:12:55.639 --> 00:12:58.759 was left of the syndicate would easily fall apart. The 208 00:12:58.799 --> 00:13:01.840 fact that Roger tuohe was winning his shooting war against 209 00:13:01.840 --> 00:13:05.759 the mob, was another plus for them. All that was left. 210 00:13:05.799 --> 00:13:08.600 According to Newbery, the top of the Chicago Syndicate was 211 00:13:08.639 --> 00:13:11.360 to kill the head and then watch the body die. 212 00:13:12.039 --> 00:13:14.480 The head of the Syndicate in nineteen thirty three was 213 00:13:14.519 --> 00:13:17.840 Frank Nitty. Once Nitty was dead, all other hoods would 214 00:13:17.879 --> 00:13:21.519 fall into line, or so they thought. Francisco Nitty, or 215 00:13:21.559 --> 00:13:23.720 Frank Nitty, as he preferred it, was a small built, 216 00:13:23.799 --> 00:13:27.080 pensive little man with ulcers and a nervous twitch. He 217 00:13:27.120 --> 00:13:29.759 was born outside of Palermo in Italy, but he avoided 218 00:13:29.799 --> 00:13:34.279 discussing his Sicilian background, always calling himself an Italian instead. 219 00:13:34.960 --> 00:13:37.679 Nitty had gotten a full formal education in Italy before 220 00:13:37.679 --> 00:13:39.600 coming to the United States, which gave him a working 221 00:13:39.639 --> 00:13:42.519 knowledge of advanced chemistry, and he was also said to 222 00:13:42.600 --> 00:13:46.919 be a talented watchmaker. Although the newspaper referred to Nitty 223 00:13:46.960 --> 00:13:49.720 as the Enforcer, those who knew the real story, the 224 00:13:49.799 --> 00:13:52.720 nickname was almost comical. In fact, as far as anyone knows, 225 00:13:52.840 --> 00:13:55.440 Nitty never killed anyone. He made his way up through 226 00:13:55.480 --> 00:13:57.720 the ranks of the syndicate because he was smart, cunning, 227 00:13:57.759 --> 00:14:02.000 and obnoxious. At Midmoreing on December twentieth, nineteen thirty three, 228 00:14:02.039 --> 00:14:04.600 Tony Cermak summoned two members of his special squad to 229 00:14:04.639 --> 00:14:07.960 his office, Harry Miller and Henry Lang. Miller and Lang 230 00:14:07.960 --> 00:14:11.919 were crooks, gangsters, and badges always had been. Harry Miller, 231 00:14:11.960 --> 00:14:14.679 who had once been dismissed from the force for trafficking 232 00:14:14.679 --> 00:14:17.480 and narcotics, was one of the notorious Miller brothers who 233 00:14:17.519 --> 00:14:20.639 headed up the Valley Gang. Henry Lang was a bagman 234 00:14:20.759 --> 00:14:24.159 for former Mayor Bill Big Bill Thompson and TODP. Miller 235 00:14:24.360 --> 00:14:26.320 that a little bitty needed to know about being a 236 00:14:26.360 --> 00:14:28.679 crook when he came on the force by quote special 237 00:14:28.679 --> 00:14:32.919 political appointment back in nineteen twenty seven. Now through political 238 00:14:32.919 --> 00:14:36.600 poll they were both detective sergeants on his Sirmak's Special Squad, 239 00:14:36.960 --> 00:14:39.720 a group of tough cops of questionable background tossed together 240 00:14:39.759 --> 00:14:43.279 to carry out Cermak's every whim. As Lang would later 241 00:14:43.320 --> 00:14:46.399 testify under oath, Sermak called them to his office and 242 00:14:46.440 --> 00:14:48.519 handed them a slip of paper with Frank Nitty's name 243 00:14:48.519 --> 00:14:51.679 and office address on it. Teddy Newberry was there, sitting 244 00:14:51.679 --> 00:14:55.279 on the mariaral desk, smoking one of his small cigars. 245 00:14:55.320 --> 00:14:58.679 Newberry told the pair that he and the mayor had 246 00:14:58.679 --> 00:15:00.840 decided that it was time for Frank Nitty to die 247 00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:03.480 and they had to do the killing. The slip of paper, 248 00:15:03.480 --> 00:15:06.679 he explained, was where Nitty would find where they would 249 00:15:06.679 --> 00:15:10.240 find Nitty the most of the morning. Newberry said that 250 00:15:10.279 --> 00:15:12.720 once Nitty was dead, he would pay Miller and Lang 251 00:15:12.759 --> 00:15:15.759 fifteen thousand dollars each, good money for a pair of 252 00:15:15.759 --> 00:15:17.360 cops who were supposed to be making less than one 253 00:15:17.399 --> 00:15:20.519 hundred dollars a week. The detective left City Hall and 254 00:15:20.600 --> 00:15:24.120 drove to Nitty's office at the Lasal Whacker building at 255 00:15:24.159 --> 00:15:26.679 two twenty one North Lasal. Took the elevator to the 256 00:15:26.679 --> 00:15:28.600 fifth floor and walked to room five five four, where 257 00:15:28.679 --> 00:15:32.840 Nitty kept a cramped three room office. Inside the office 258 00:15:32.840 --> 00:15:35.879 was Nitty in several underlings. Lang and Miller lined the 259 00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:38.120 hoods up against the wall, and very quickly Lang fired 260 00:15:38.159 --> 00:15:40.519 five shots in to Nity's leg, growing back, and neck. 261 00:15:41.120 --> 00:15:43.840 Then Lang walked into the ante room and fired a 262 00:15:43.840 --> 00:15:46.679 single shot through his own hand. The story would be 263 00:15:46.759 --> 00:15:49.679 that Nitty resisted arrest and lunged for Lang's service revolver 264 00:15:49.720 --> 00:15:52.279 and had to be shot. The mistake in shooting Nitty 265 00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:54.480 was that they didn't kill him. While it was true 266 00:15:54.600 --> 00:15:57.440 the shooting had spooked what was left of the mob's leadership, 267 00:15:57.480 --> 00:16:00.080 Sirmc and Newberry knew that once Nitty had recuperated, the 268 00:16:00.080 --> 00:16:03.000 the outfit would strike back. What they needed now was 269 00:16:03.000 --> 00:16:07.120 a street fighter to fend off those pending attacks. Ender 270 00:16:07.519 --> 00:16:11.679 Roger Toohe. Anton Sermak, who had known Toohe for Roger 271 00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:16.519 Toohe for decades, wanted Tuohe to join forces with him 272 00:16:16.519 --> 00:16:19.039 and Teddy Newberry to help them jointly run the underworld 273 00:16:19.039 --> 00:16:22.399 in Chicago in the Midwest. In nineteen fifty nine, Toohe 274 00:16:22.519 --> 00:16:26.279 so told the Illinois Parole Board that in early nineteen 275 00:16:26.360 --> 00:16:28.759 thirty three, Newberry and Sirmak called him down to city 276 00:16:28.840 --> 00:16:31.840 Hall for discussion. In a meeting in the Mayor's office, 277 00:16:31.840 --> 00:16:34.720 Sirmak and Newberry urged Toohe to wage a larger war 278 00:16:34.759 --> 00:16:36.720 with the mob, but Towohe laughed it off, saying he 279 00:16:36.759 --> 00:16:38.919 didn't have the strength to fight the Nity organization, which 280 00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:42.200 could muster at least five hundred governmen within a week's time. 281 00:16:42.799 --> 00:16:48.960 Sirmak said, you could have the entire police department. Tooe 282 00:16:49.000 --> 00:16:51.000 eventually agreed, and Sirmak lived up to his end of 283 00:16:51.039 --> 00:16:53.720 the bargain. He sent word down to his police commanders 284 00:16:53.720 --> 00:16:55.840 that Roger to Wohe was to be cooperated with in 285 00:16:55.879 --> 00:16:58.679 his war against the syndicate for control of the Chicago Teamsters. 286 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:01.759 The number of the Pumpan men killed after Cermak took 287 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:05.160 office tripled. In two years, some one hundred gangsters were 288 00:17:05.240 --> 00:17:07.680 killed in ambushes and street fights. For a while, the 289 00:17:07.720 --> 00:17:10.039 hoods fell at a rate of one ganglan murder a day, 290 00:17:10.079 --> 00:17:13.759 with most of the dead coming from syndicate's ranks. James Doherty, 291 00:17:14.359 --> 00:17:16.640 a crime reporter for the Shago Tribune, recalled it was 292 00:17:16.680 --> 00:17:19.559 a war chiefly between the Irish and the Italians. I'm 293 00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:21.359 Irish and I'd come into my office in the morning 294 00:17:21.359 --> 00:17:23.359 after another shootout and I would say to my coworker, 295 00:17:23.359 --> 00:17:26.599 who was Italian, well that's one to my side. And 296 00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:29.960 the next day would come to my saying, well it's leveled, Jim. 297 00:17:30.400 --> 00:17:34.319 We chuck one up on our side last night. For 298 00:17:34.319 --> 00:17:36.440 a while, it was going well for the upstarts, almost 299 00:17:36.440 --> 00:17:39.640 too well. The tuoehe's gunned down the syndicates lead laborer 300 00:17:39.640 --> 00:17:44.240 plunderer Red Barker, the government jailed the equally deadly Murray Humphries, 301 00:17:44.680 --> 00:17:47.839 and Sirmac's boys shot down Frank Nitti. They were so close. 302 00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:50.519 They had chased the syndicate out of the teamsters and 303 00:17:50.599 --> 00:17:53.839 had ready access to the pension funds they owned City 304 00:17:53.839 --> 00:17:58.319 Hall and the cops. Then the tide started to turn. First, 305 00:17:58.400 --> 00:18:00.640 Teddy Newberry's dead body showed up up on the bitter 306 00:18:00.720 --> 00:18:04.440 cold evening of January seventh, nineteen thirty three. He was 307 00:18:04.480 --> 00:18:07.640 found lying face down in a ditch in Porter County, Indiana. 308 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:11.680 After Newberry was killed, Tony Cermak lost his nerve. Tony 309 00:18:11.839 --> 00:18:14.839 was absolutely certain that the outfit had pegged Louis short 310 00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:19.240 Pants Capanya al Capone's former bodyguard was going to kill him. 311 00:18:19.920 --> 00:18:23.000 He may have been right, according to newsman Jack Late 312 00:18:23.079 --> 00:18:25.960 in nineteen thirty three, the syndicate's hitman tried to blow 313 00:18:26.000 --> 00:18:28.160 up Sirmak's car early one morning in the middle of 314 00:18:28.240 --> 00:18:31.720 Chicago's Loop. After that, Sirmak beefed up the security forces 315 00:18:31.720 --> 00:18:34.480 and moved from the Congress Hotel to the Morrison Hotel, 316 00:18:34.519 --> 00:18:37.200 where he paid for a private elevator that went NonStop 317 00:18:37.279 --> 00:18:40.839 to his penthouse suite. He increased his city police guard 318 00:18:40.839 --> 00:18:43.039 from two to five officers and had detective sent to 319 00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:46.200 protect his daughters, and hired on own private bodyguards to 320 00:18:46.240 --> 00:18:48.599 augment his city police detail, and then took a midnight 321 00:18:48.640 --> 00:18:52.440 train to Miami, where he owned a home. The job 322 00:18:52.480 --> 00:18:55.160 to end the union war with twohe's in takeout. Anton 323 00:18:55.240 --> 00:18:58.519 Surmak fell to Paul Rica, acting boss. Since Nidi had 324 00:18:58.519 --> 00:19:01.640 been shot, Rica determined that the only way to deal 325 00:19:01.640 --> 00:19:04.599 with Sermak was to kill him. But knocking off the 326 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:07.160 mayor of the nation's second largest city would bring down 327 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:10.079 more heat on the mob than Sirmak could ever have gathered, unless, 328 00:19:10.119 --> 00:19:12.920 of course, the murder could be thumbed off on a nutcase. 329 00:19:13.640 --> 00:19:17.880 The nutcase they found was Joseeppe Zangara, a hapless Italian 330 00:19:17.880 --> 00:19:21.200 immigrant with a gambling problem who was into the outfit 331 00:19:21.720 --> 00:19:28.359 for his eye teeth. Zegar was born September seventh, nineteen 332 00:19:28.440 --> 00:19:32.519 hundred in Furuzano, a small and very poor village in Calabria, Italy. 333 00:19:33.119 --> 00:19:35.160 His mother died while he was still a small boy. 334 00:19:35.720 --> 00:19:40.160 His father remarried to a woman with six daughters, and Zangara, small, fragile, 335 00:19:40.160 --> 00:19:43.640 seldom smiling, and deathly quiet, was lost in the horde 336 00:19:43.720 --> 00:19:46.720 that was his new family. By all accounts, Zingara's father 337 00:19:46.839 --> 00:19:49.400 was an odd man, angry at the world. He had 338 00:19:49.400 --> 00:19:52.160 constant problems with authority, and he beat his children. It 339 00:19:52.240 --> 00:19:54.279 was no surprise to anyone when, at the age of six, 340 00:19:54.319 --> 00:19:58.119 after Zangara's stepmother entered him into public school that his 341 00:19:58.119 --> 00:20:01.200 father withdrew him. Two months later, when my father come 342 00:20:01.319 --> 00:20:04.000 he say me like this. He say me, you don't 343 00:20:04.039 --> 00:20:07.000 need school, you need work. Zangar Of the Child went 344 00:20:07.039 --> 00:20:10.000 to work beside his father building roads. Later he learned 345 00:20:10.240 --> 00:20:12.640 the work of bricklayer, which was in Italy of that 346 00:20:12.759 --> 00:20:17.480 time still most in art form and required years of apprenticeship. Apparently, 347 00:20:17.559 --> 00:20:19.960 Zangara had an aptitude for the trade, and at the 348 00:20:19.960 --> 00:20:22.519 age of seventeen was already a mason. No small feet. 349 00:20:23.519 --> 00:20:26.240 Zangar Of the somber and unhappy child drew into Zangara, 350 00:20:26.400 --> 00:20:29.359 the somber and unhappy man, enraged at the world because 351 00:20:29.400 --> 00:20:31.480 he was poor and because he was taken from school 352 00:20:31.519 --> 00:20:34.720 as a child. He talked about his unhappiness openly and 353 00:20:34.759 --> 00:20:37.200 often during his trial, perhaps if for no other reason, 354 00:20:37.240 --> 00:20:41.519 he finally had someone to listen to him. In nineteen seventeen, Zangar, 355 00:20:41.599 --> 00:20:44.400 then seventeen, was drafted into the Italian infantry and stayed 356 00:20:44.440 --> 00:20:47.240 in the army for five years. While in the service, 357 00:20:47.279 --> 00:20:50.000 he was arrested on October twenty fourth, nineteen twenty one 358 00:20:50.000 --> 00:20:52.640 for carrying a knife. He was tried and convicted, but 359 00:20:52.720 --> 00:20:56.480 the sentence was suspended. Discharged from the military in nineteen 360 00:20:56.559 --> 00:20:59.279 twenty three, Zangara sailed to the United States from Naples, 361 00:20:59.359 --> 00:21:03.079 arriving in Filmiladelphia aboard of the liner Martha Washington on 362 00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:07.119 August eighteenth, nineteen twenty three, five days before his twenty 363 00:21:07.119 --> 00:21:10.200 third birthday. He went to Paterson, New Jersey, moved in 364 00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:13.359 with an uncle, Vincent Cafaro, a bricklayer, who landed Zangar 365 00:21:13.519 --> 00:21:16.160 a job with the construction company that he had worked 366 00:21:16.200 --> 00:21:18.920 for as a skilled laborer and a member of the 367 00:21:18.920 --> 00:21:21.880 Brick Layers Union Number two and Patterson, Zengar earned as 368 00:21:21.960 --> 00:21:25.400 much as twelve dollars an hour, an extremely high hourly 369 00:21:25.480 --> 00:21:27.839 rate when the national income was less than fifty six 370 00:21:27.960 --> 00:21:31.279 hundred dollars a year. He filed a declaration to become 371 00:21:31.319 --> 00:21:33.799 a citizen of the United States, doing so only because 372 00:21:33.799 --> 00:21:36.160 it was required by his union that all members of 373 00:21:36.160 --> 00:21:39.079 be United States citizens, or at least have filed to 374 00:21:39.079 --> 00:21:42.279 become citizens. The names of the witnesses on the declaration 375 00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:45.039 two men, disappeared with most of the official information that 376 00:21:45.079 --> 00:21:49.240 surrounded Zengara's background, but on September eleventh, nineteen twenty nine, 377 00:21:49.359 --> 00:21:52.799 Zanngar became a United States citizen and registered as a 378 00:21:52.799 --> 00:21:56.400 Republican later that month. On September twenty eighth, someone named 379 00:21:56.440 --> 00:21:59.599 Jim Zeppe Zengar of Paterson, New Jersey, was arrested for 380 00:21:59.680 --> 00:22:02.920 running a mass of one thousand gallons still in rural 381 00:22:02.960 --> 00:22:06.839 New Jersey. When arrested, Zangara used the name Sam Lavari, 382 00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:11.440 but later changed that to Luigi di Bernardo. Arrested with 383 00:22:11.559 --> 00:22:15.680 him was Tony Agostino, a known racketeer in northern New Jersey. 384 00:22:16.440 --> 00:22:19.480 On May twenty sixth, nineteen thirty, Zangara and de Bernardo 385 00:22:19.519 --> 00:22:22.160 pleaded guilty to owning the still and was sentenced to 386 00:22:22.160 --> 00:22:25.720 one year and day at the Atlanta Federal Prison. During sentencing, 387 00:22:25.960 --> 00:22:29.160 United States Attorney Philip Foreman later a federal judge asked, 388 00:22:29.480 --> 00:22:32.920 your real name is Zengara, isn't it? And Zangara answered 389 00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:35.880 that it was the fact that the prosecutor knew Zengar 390 00:22:36.039 --> 00:22:38.599 by sight implies that Zeenara wasn't a stranger around the 391 00:22:38.640 --> 00:22:42.839 federal courthouse. Di Bernardo Zengara entered Atlanta Federal Prison on 392 00:22:42.880 --> 00:22:46.119 May twenty sixth, nineteen thirty, and was paroled seven months later. 393 00:22:46.119 --> 00:22:50.799 On December twentieth nineteen thirty. Later, in the Secret Service 394 00:22:50.839 --> 00:22:53.920 investigated the Cermak shooting. They accepted Zangara's explanation for the 395 00:22:53.960 --> 00:22:57.680 missing seven months, as has been in Central America. Even 396 00:22:57.720 --> 00:23:00.119 more remarkably, when Philip Foreman the US at Turne and 397 00:23:00.160 --> 00:23:02.519 he informed the Secret Service about Zangara's time in prison, 398 00:23:02.559 --> 00:23:05.640 the agents pulled Zegara's prison photo and compared it to 399 00:23:05.640 --> 00:23:07.799 a picture taken in Florida when he was arrested and 400 00:23:07.839 --> 00:23:10.920 determined that quote they seemed to match. However, our Zangara 401 00:23:10.920 --> 00:23:14.359