| abstract
| - Shortly after he began working for the Gennas, Scalise met Albert Anselmi, who became his mentor and best friend. Both men remain, to this day, the prime suspects in the November 1924 murder of Dean O'Banion, boss of Chicago's North Side Gang. Soon after O'Banion's murder, Scalise and Anselmi secretly defected from the Gennas to Al Capone's Chicago Outfit. On June 13, 1925, Anselmi and Scalise, along with Mike Genna, ambushed North Siders George Moran and Vincent Drucci in The Patch, shooting up their car with shotguns and wounding Drucci. About an hour later, as the shooters raced south on Western Avenue, they were sighted and pursued by a detective squad. After a high-speed chase, the gangsters were overtaken at the corner of Western and 60th Street. Immediately after the cars screeched to a stop, the gangsters jumped out and opened fire with their shotguns. During the ensuing gun battle, Chicago Police officers Harold Olsen and Charles Walsh were killed and Michael Conway severely wounded. The fourth officer, William Sweeney, pursued the fleeing Anselmi, Scalise, and Genna towards the next block of houses. Genna was fatally shot by Sweeney while the other two were captured after boarding a nearby streetcar. It was later said that when they were initially spotted by the detectives, Scalise and Anselmi were speeding south towards Chicago city limits in order to discreetly murder Mike Genna, who had allegedly been targeted for death by the pair's secret employer, Al Capone. Anselmi and Scalise were bound over for trial. Prosecutor Bob Crowe vowed to send both men to the gallows. The two killers’ lawyers managed to convince the jury that they had reacted against "unwarranted police aggression." Anselmi and Scalise were found guilty of the manslaughter of Officer Walsh and were sentenced to 14 years in prison. In the time between their trials, the two men and their cohorts sent "collectors" around The Patch to raise money for their defense fund. Men like Henry Spignola and Antonio Morici were murdered. The main "collector", a fearsome mobster named Orazio "The Scourge" Tropea, was discovered to be keeping most of the collections for himself. Tropea was shotgunned to death on Halsted Street on February 15, 1926. Other deaths followed before Scalise and Anselmi were both acquitted of the murder of Patrolman Harold Olsen. Back in Joliet Prison, both Scalise and Anselmi had difficulty adjusting to prison life. Both men were frequently beaten and Scalise was nearly poisoned on one occasion. Nevertheless, the two still played a part in Chicago gangland affairs. The war between Capone and the North Side Gang, now under Earl Hymie Weiss, reached a crescendo in the fall of 1926. During a peace conference, Weiss offered peace to Capone if the O'Banion killers, Scalise and Anselmi, were killed. Capone refused and had Weiss murdered less than two weeks later. In December 1926, both Scalise and Anselmi were granted a retrial in the Walsh killing and in January were released from prison. In June 1927, the two men were acquitted. Capone threw them a grand party, climaxed by a shoot-out with champagne-bottle corks.
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