O Banion And The Market Street Gang

O'Banion was born to Irish Catholic parents in Aurora, Illinois and spent his early boyhood in the small town of Maroa in Central Illinois. In 1901, after his mother's death, he moved to Chicago with his father and one of his brothers (a second brother, Frank, remained in Maroa). The family settled in Kilgubbin, otherwise know as "Little Hell," a heavily Irish area on the North Side of Chicago that was notorious citywide for its crime. Years later, Kilgubbin became the site of the infamous Cabrini-Green public housing project.
As a youngster, "Deanie," as he became known, sang in the church choir at Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral. However, neither music nor religion held O'Banion's interest; instead the street life of Kilgubbin caught his eye. An early nickname for O'Banion was "Gimpy" due to short left leg, but few people had enough nerve to call him that.
O'Banion and his friends (Earl "Hymie" Weiss, Vincent "The Schemer" Drucci, and George "Bugs" Moran) joined the Market Street Gang, which specialized in theft and robbery for the black market. The boys later became "sluggers," thugs hired by a newspaper to beat newsstand owners who did not sell the paper. The Market Street Gang started out working for the Chicago Tribune. However, they later switched to the
It was beneficial to everyone to avoid bloody turf battles. In addition, the gangsters were able to pool their political power and their soldiers in the streets. O'Banion accepted the agreement and was ceded control of the North Side, including the desirable Gold Coast. The North Siders now became part of a huge Chicago area bootlegging combine. As part of this agreement, O'Banion supplied Torrio and Capone with some of his thugs to help them win the mayoral election of