Deadly Valentines: The Story of Capone's Henchman "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn and Louise Rolfe, His Blonde Alibi - Hardcover

Gusfield, Jeffrey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1613740921 ISBN 13: 9781613740927

Verlag: Chicago Review Press, 2012

Inhaltsangabe

Almost before the gunsmoke from the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre cleared, Chicago police had a suspect: Jack McGurn. They just couldn’t find him. McGurn, whose real name was Vincent Gebardi, was Al Capone’s chief assassin, a baby-faced Sicilian immigrant and professional killer of professional killers. But two weeks after the murders, police found McGurn and his paramour, Louise May Rolfe, holed up downtown at the Stevens Hotel. Both claimed they were in bed on the morning of the famous shootings, a titillating alibi that grabbed the public’s attention and never let go.

Deadly Valentines tells one of the most outrageous stories of the 1920s, a twin biography of a couple who defined the extremes and excesses of the Prohibition era in America. McGurn was a prizefighter, professional-level golfer, and the ultimate urban predator and hit man who put the iron in Al Capone’s muscle. Rolfe, a beautiful blonde dancer and libertine, was the epitome of fashion, rebellion, and wild abandon in the new jazz subculture. They were the prototypes for decades of gangster literature and cinema, representing a time that has never lost its allure.

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Jeffrey Gusfield, a native Chicagoan, has researched the history of Jack McGurn, Louise Rolfe, and the Capone years for more than four decades.

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DEADLY VALENTINES

The Story of Capone's Henchman "Machine Gun" Jack McGurn and Louise Rolfe, His Blonde AlibiBy JEFFREY GUSFIELD

CHICAGO REVIEW PRESS

Copyright © 2012 Jeffrey Gusfield
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61374-092-7

Contents

Preface.................................................................................xiiiAuthor's Note...........................................................................xixThe Capone Outfit, 1928.................................................................xxiPrologue: Call Everybody! Valentine's Day, 1929.........................................31 I Came to America to Give a Better Future to My Children, 1906........................112 Sicily in Brooklyn, 1907..............................................................163 He's Capable of Learning Many Things, 1911–1917.................................224 She Who Is Born Beautiful Is Born Married, 1918.......................................285 Boxing, 1921..........................................................................366 If You Don't Do What I Want, I Won't Be Happy, 1921...................................447 Everyone Wants to Earn More Money, 1922...............................................498 Terrible Misfortune, 1923.............................................................579 We Remain Tormented in This Land, 1923................................................6210 I've Been Living in This City for Three Years, 1923..................................6811 This Man Knows Precisely What He Wants to Do, 1924...................................7212 Dean Is More Clever than Intelligent, 1924...........................................7713 You Don't Have to Say Anything, 1925.................................................8314 I'd Like to Buy a Hat, 1926..........................................................9215 The More One Works, the More One Earns, 1926.........................................10016 I'm Not Afraid of His Words, I'm Afraid of What He Can Do, 1926......................10917 Aren't You Ashamed of What You Did? 1927.............................................11618 Sometimes Cat and Mouse Dance Together, 1927.........................................12519 We'll Come Back Later, 1928..........................................................13320 Do You Know Who I Am? 1928...........................................................14221 When Love Knocks, Be Sure to Answer, 1928............................................14922 Who Looks for a Quarrel Finds a Quarrel, 1929........................................16123 The Wicked Man, 1929.................................................................17224 This Doesn't Suffice to Remove All Suspicions, 1929..................................18125 Mind Test, 1929......................................................................19026 See You Soon! 1930...................................................................19627 I'd Send You to Jail, 1930...........................................................20328 Nothing Lasts Forever, 1931..........................................................21029 The Bad Intention, 1932..............................................................21930 A Great Victory, 1932................................................................22531 I Am Innocent! 1933..................................................................23532 Only You Were Singing in the Silence, 1933...........................................24533 I Don't See Anyone, Anywhere, 1934...................................................25234 February May Be Short, but It's the Worst Month, 1935–1936.....................25635 Why? 1936............................................................................27136 Whoever Desires Too Much Ends Up with Nothing, 1936..................................27837 I Feared He'd Come Back and Kill Me, 1936............................................28338 Lulu Lou: What I Want, You Don't Have, 1936–1995...............................290Acknowledgments.........................................................................301Notes...................................................................................303Bibliography............................................................................327Index...................................................................................331

Prologue

Call Everybody!

Valentine's Day, 1929

Like most participants in the sideshow of the ages, police sergeant Thomas J. Loftus, star number seventy, hasn't a clue that he is poised on the brink of history. In the morning, he pulls his Arctics on over his shoes and buttons his shin-length blue wool coat against the fourteen-degree Chicago air. This day will see no sun and will only get four degrees warmer. As he leaves his apartment at 2737 Carmen Avenue to work the day shift, he is concerned only with buying some Valentine's candy for his wife and daughter.

Sergeant Loftus, born in Chicago, is a veteran cop at fifty-four, his ginger hair rapidly receding, making him thankful for his hat on such a morning. The city is misty, dotted with clouds of steam that come from the thousands of smokestacks, sidewalk vents, and manhole spouts. By the time he arrives at the Thirty-Sixth District station house at 1501 North Hudson Avenue, it is fifteen degrees, and the air is filled with a light and picturesque snow, a Valentine's gift from Lake Michigan.

So far, it is a quiet Thursday morning. Loftus begins jawing with a local neighborhood cop fan, an eighteen-year-old named Billy Rudd, who occasionally stops by for coffee. At 10:45, as he and Billy drink the strong station-house java and watch the street through frost-coated glass windows, Desk Sergeant Harrity answers a phone call from a nearly hysterical woman identifying herself as Mrs. Landesman. Loftus catches part of Harrity's side of the conversation as the sergeant tries to calm the woman on the other end of the wire. Harrity finally hangs up and turns to Loftus, explaining that there's a screaming Mimi over on Clark Street who says there's lots of gunfire at 2122 North.

Loftus is the only cop in the station; everybody else is out on patrol. Both Model A squad flivvers are gone, and Billy Rudd doesn't drive. A telephone-company electrician is working on the alarm switch box near the front desk. Loftus buttonholes him and asks him for a ride. Wanting to get in on the excitement, the electrician succumbs to human nature and nods his head. He'll gladly drive Loftus wherever he wants to go. Billy Rudd asks to come along, and the three of them bundle up and hurry out the front.

At that moment, one of the squads pulls up. Loftus runs over, yanks open the passenger door, and sticks his head in, informing the two officers inside that they should follow him to Clark Street. As with every call, it could be something or it could be nothing. Loftus slams the door and jumps into the passenger seat of the telephone truck, with Billy Rudd climbing in behind him.

Thrilled to be doing anything other than his job, the electrician, whose name is Charlie Corrigan, throws the Ford into gear. He plays policeman all the way, speeding around streetcars on the icy pavement. When they pull up in front of the Clark Street address, Loftus jumps out and spots a frantic woman in the open window of the second-floor apartment, which is situated over a tailor's shop. She is yelling and pointing down at the painted window that says SMC CARTAGE.

A small crowd is beginning to gather as Loftus opens the door, which is swollen from the harsh...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Chicago Review Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2012
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1613740921
• ISBN 13: 9781613740927
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 346
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar