Frank McErlane
Encyclopedia
Frank McErlane was a Prohibition
-era gangster. He led the Saltis-McErlane Gang, allied with the Johnny Torrio
-Al Capone
Gang, against rival bootleggers, the Southside O'Donnell Brothers. He is credited with introducing the Thompson submachine gun
to Chicago's underworld. The Illinois Crime Survey called him, "the most brutal gunman who ever pulled a trigger in Chicago."
in June 1913 for involvement in a car theft ring. Released on parole in March 1916, he was arrested eight months later as an accessory in the murder of Oak Park
police officer Herman J. Malow, Jr.. Sent to Joliet Prison
for one year, he attempted to escape but was caught and spent another two years in prison.
Shortly after the start of Prohibition
, McErlane began running a gang with partner Joseph "Polack Joe" Saltis
, operating in the "Back of the Yards
" section of the South Side. In 1922 McErlane and Saltis allied with the Johnny "The Fox" Torrio
-Al Capone
Chicago Outfit
against the Southside O'Donnell Brothers. McErlane was known as an especially ferocious assassin. Standing 5'8" and weighing 190 pounds, he was described as looking like a "butter and egg man". McErlane carried a rosary in his pockets along with a pistol. Frank was known to drink too much of what he sold and frequently slip into alcoholic psychosis. McErlane's face would grow redder with each drink, sending apprehension throughout his toughest criminal associates.
During the 1923 "Beer Wars", McErlane would be credited with killing three O'Donnell gangsters in September of that year; Jerry O'Conner, George Bucher, and George Meegan. On December 1, 1923, two O'Donnell beer trucks were waylayed on the road between Chicago and Joliet. The occupants of one, William "Shorty" Egan and Thomas "Morrie" Keane, were shoved into a car with Frank McErlane and Willie Channell, who drove. Egan miraculously survived what happened next and gave this chilling account;
"Pretty soon the driver asks the guy with the shotgun, 'Where you gonna get rid of these guys?' The fat fellow laughs and says, 'I'll take care of that in a minute.' He was monkeying with his shotgun all the time. Pretty soon he turns around and points the gun at Keane. He didn't say a word but just let go straight at him. Keane got it square on the left side. It kind of turned him over and the fat guy give him the second barrel in the other side. The guy loads up his gun and gives it to Keane again. Then he turns to me and says, 'I guess you might as well get yours too.' With that he shoots me in the side. It hurt like hell so when I seen him loading up again, I twist around so it won't hurt me in the same place. This time he got me in the leg. Then he gimme the other barrel right on the puss. I slide off the seat. But I guess the fat guy wasn't sure we was through. He let Morrie have it twice more and then let me have it again in the other side. The fat guy scrambled into the rear seat and grabbed Keane. He opens the door and kicks Morrie out onto the road. We was doing 50 from the sound. I figure I'm next so when he drags me over to the door I set myself to jump. He shoves and I light in the ditch by the road. I hit the ground on my shoulders and I thought I would never stop rolling. I lost consciousness. When my senses came back, I was lying in a pool of water and ice had formed around me. The sky was red and it was breaking day. I staggered along the road until I saw a light in a farmhouse…"
Despite having nearly half his face blown off, Egan had amazingly lived to tell about his "one-way ride" and fingered Willie Channell as one of his attackers. McErlane was eventually arrested but he beat both this case and charges in the double homicide of George Bucher and George Meegan, who were riddled with bullets while driving home on September 17, 1923.
McErlane's behavior only got worse. On May 4, 1924, he was drinking in a Crown Point, Indiana
saloon with two friends, John O'Reilly and Alex McCabe. Both men egged Frank into demonstrating his marksmanship abilities. McErlane picked a random target at the end of the bar, attorney Thaddeus S. Fancher, and killed him with a single pistol shot to the head. O'Reilly would eventually be convicted of the murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. McCabe got a life sentence as well, but later won his freedom on appeal after the chief witness against him was bludgeoned to death.
By 1925, rival gang boss Spike O'Donnell had reinforced his gang and once again instigated a war with the Saltis-McErlane mob, who also found themselves in conflict with the Sheldon Gang
as well. That summer, all the major South Side gang began shooting each other. Frank McErlane was a prime suspect in the July 23 murder of George Karl and the September 3 killing of William Dickman. McErlane was not charged; indeed, he was about to make history.
Some crime historians believe that Frank McErlane acquired his "Tommy Gun" from North Side gang leader Dean O'Banion
, who had purchased a shipment of submachine guns in Denver, Colorado
shortly before his November 1924 murder. At any rate, McErlane was to use one in his next attempt to kill Spike O'Donnell (one of ten recorded attacks on O'Donnell's life). On September 25, 1925, O'Donnell was talking to a beat cop in front of a drugstore at Sixty-Third and Western streets. A car pulled up and someone yelled, "Hello, Spike!" The gang boss saw what was coming and hit the deck; a submachine gun began drumming from the car, stitching neat lines of bullet holes on the storefront before the would-be killers sped away. Police were so unfamiliar with the Thompson, they thought that either shotguns or a "machine rifle of some kind" had done the damage. It was the first recorded use of a submachine gun in Chicago (or any other major American city, for that matter.)
Several days later, on October 3, McErlane used his Thompson to shoot up the Ragen's Colts
clubhouse, killing a Sheldon gangster named Charles Kelly. McErlane was also suspected of shooting up "Buff" Costello's bar on February 10, 1926, wounding Sheldon gangsters William Wilson and John "Mitters" Foley. Newspaper headlines said, MACHINE GUN GANG SHOOTS 2. Both Chicago Police Captain John Stege and gangster Al Capone
commented on the power of the submachine gun; both of their respective organizations set out to arm themselves with the formidable weapon. The age of the Tommy Gun had arrived.
On April 22, 1926, Frank McErlane was finally arrested for the murder of Thaddeus Fancher. He wouldn't be extradited to Indiana until August of that year. McErlane was noted for showing up for one court appearance drunk; the jailer leading him was equally intoxicated. On November 3, 1927, (after the murder of at least one witness and much changed testimony) McErlane would be acquitted of Fancher's murder. At the 1920s closed, Joe Saltis was acquitted of the murder of John "Mitters" Foley and eventually moved to Wisconsin.
McErlane pretty much kept out of sight until January 28, 1930, when he was rushed to the hospital after being shot in the left leg; the bullet had struck above the knee and fractured the leg. Frank claimed that he had accidentally shot himself while cleaning a revolver, but police suspected that his common-law wife Elfrieda Rigus aka Marion Miller may have shot him. They had quite a stormy relationship and often had high-decibel, alcohol-fueled fights. Another possible suspect was gangster John "Dingbat" O'Berta, with whom McErlane had been feuding. On the night of February 24, McErlane was propped up his hospital bed with his healing leg still in traction when two or three gunmen barged in and opened fire. Frank yanked an automatic from under his pillow and returned their fire. While his shots missed, they scared his assailants off; one of them dropped a .45 automatic in his flight. McErlane had been winged three times in the melee and shrugged off questions as to who shot him. Frank said cryptically, "I'll take care of it." Just after McErlane was released from the hospital, on March 5, Dingbat O'Berta was found shot to death in his car on the outskirts of Chicago. The dead body of O'Berta's driver, Sam Malaga, lay face down in an icy puddle of water some feet away. The .45 left in McErlane's hospital room had been traced to Malaga. Frank had, indeed, "taken care of it".
McErlane's behavior continued to worsen. Years of excessive consumption of Prohibition-era booze had taken its toll on Frank's mental state. On June 8, 1931, an intoxicated McErlane swept a South Shore Drive block with shotgun blasts, shooting at imaginary foes. Police ultimately filed a whopping total of five simultaneous charges; drunk and disorderly, carrying a concealed weapon, firing a shotgun indiscriminately around his neighborhood, driving with forged license plates, and biting his sister on the cheek. On October 8, 1931, McErlane was driving his car with common-law wife Elfrieda Rigus and her two German Shepherds in the back seat. Police later determined that both were extremely drunk and arguing with each other. At one point, Frank finally snapped. After pulling over in front of 8129 Phillips Avenue, McErlane whirled around and fired four fatal bullets into Elfrieda. Tired of the yapping dogs, Frank shot and killed them as well.
After this episode, McErlane's remaining underworld associates raised a "retirement fund" of several hundred dollars in order to get rid of the dangerously unstable gunman. Frank thus retired to a lavishly furnished houseboat located on the Illinois River
in Beardstown, Illinois
. In the fall of 1932, Frank fell ill with pneumonia. In his delirium, he was convinced that rival gangsters were coming to his hospital room to kill him; it took four attendants to hold him down in his rage. Frank McErlane died at the age of 38 on October 8, 1932, a year to the day after he killed Elfrieda Rigus.
When a reporter interviewed one of Frank's former associates after his death, he had this to say about McErlane, "I don't remember that he ever did anything good in his life. I don't believe he had a friend left."
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
-era gangster. He led the Saltis-McErlane Gang, allied with the Johnny Torrio
Johnny Torrio
John "Papa Johnny" Torrio , also known as "The Fox", was an Italian-American mobster who helped build the criminal empire known as the Chicago Outfit in the 1920s that was later inherited by his protege, Al Capone...
-Al Capone
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...
Gang, against rival bootleggers, the Southside O'Donnell Brothers. He is credited with introducing the Thompson submachine gun
Thompson submachine gun
The Thompson is an American submachine gun, invented by John T. Thompson in 1919, that became infamous during the Prohibition era. It was a common sight in the media of the time, being used by both law enforcement officers and criminals...
to Chicago's underworld. The Illinois Crime Survey called him, "the most brutal gunman who ever pulled a trigger in Chicago."
Biography
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Frank McErlane was first arrested in 1911 and sent to Pontiac PrisonPontiac Correctional Center
Pontiac Correctional Center, established in June 1871, is a Illinois Department of Corrections maximum security prison for adult males in Pontiac, Illinois. The prison also has a medium security unit that houses medium to minimum security inmates and is classified as Level 3...
in June 1913 for involvement in a car theft ring. Released on parole in March 1916, he was arrested eight months later as an accessory in the murder of Oak Park
Oak Park, Illinois
Oak Park, Illinois is a suburb bordering the west side of the city of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is the twenty-fifth largest municipality in Illinois. Oak Park has easy access to downtown Chicago due to public transportation such as the Chicago 'L' Blue and Green lines,...
police officer Herman J. Malow, Jr.. Sent to Joliet Prison
Joliet Prison
Joliet Correctional Center was a prison in Joliet, Illinois, United States from 1858 to 2002. It is featured in the motion picture The Blues Brothers as the prison from which Jake Blues is released at the beginning of the movie...
for one year, he attempted to escape but was caught and spent another two years in prison.
Shortly after the start of Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
, McErlane began running a gang with partner Joseph "Polack Joe" Saltis
Joseph Saltis
Joseph "Polack Joe" Saltis [Soltis] was an early Prohibition gangster who, who with Frank McErlane, controlled bootlegging in the Southwest Side of Chicago, Illinois....
, operating in the "Back of the Yards
New City, Chicago
New City is one of Chicago's 77 official community areas, located on the southwest side of the city. The area is divided into It is a blend of predominantly Irish-Americans in Canaryville, Mexican-Americans in Back Of The Yards, and African-Americans south of 49th Street...
" section of the South Side. In 1922 McErlane and Saltis allied with the Johnny "The Fox" Torrio
Johnny Torrio
John "Papa Johnny" Torrio , also known as "The Fox", was an Italian-American mobster who helped build the criminal empire known as the Chicago Outfit in the 1920s that was later inherited by his protege, Al Capone...
-Al Capone
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...
Chicago Outfit
Chicago Outfit
The Chicago Outfit, also known as the Chicago Syndicate or Chicago Mob and sometimes shortened to simply the Outfit, is a crime syndicate based in Chicago, Illinois, USA...
against the Southside O'Donnell Brothers. McErlane was known as an especially ferocious assassin. Standing 5'8" and weighing 190 pounds, he was described as looking like a "butter and egg man". McErlane carried a rosary in his pockets along with a pistol. Frank was known to drink too much of what he sold and frequently slip into alcoholic psychosis. McErlane's face would grow redder with each drink, sending apprehension throughout his toughest criminal associates.
During the 1923 "Beer Wars", McErlane would be credited with killing three O'Donnell gangsters in September of that year; Jerry O'Conner, George Bucher, and George Meegan. On December 1, 1923, two O'Donnell beer trucks were waylayed on the road between Chicago and Joliet. The occupants of one, William "Shorty" Egan and Thomas "Morrie" Keane, were shoved into a car with Frank McErlane and Willie Channell, who drove. Egan miraculously survived what happened next and gave this chilling account;
"Pretty soon the driver asks the guy with the shotgun, 'Where you gonna get rid of these guys?' The fat fellow laughs and says, 'I'll take care of that in a minute.' He was monkeying with his shotgun all the time. Pretty soon he turns around and points the gun at Keane. He didn't say a word but just let go straight at him. Keane got it square on the left side. It kind of turned him over and the fat guy give him the second barrel in the other side. The guy loads up his gun and gives it to Keane again. Then he turns to me and says, 'I guess you might as well get yours too.' With that he shoots me in the side. It hurt like hell so when I seen him loading up again, I twist around so it won't hurt me in the same place. This time he got me in the leg. Then he gimme the other barrel right on the puss. I slide off the seat. But I guess the fat guy wasn't sure we was through. He let Morrie have it twice more and then let me have it again in the other side. The fat guy scrambled into the rear seat and grabbed Keane. He opens the door and kicks Morrie out onto the road. We was doing 50 from the sound. I figure I'm next so when he drags me over to the door I set myself to jump. He shoves and I light in the ditch by the road. I hit the ground on my shoulders and I thought I would never stop rolling. I lost consciousness. When my senses came back, I was lying in a pool of water and ice had formed around me. The sky was red and it was breaking day. I staggered along the road until I saw a light in a farmhouse…"
Despite having nearly half his face blown off, Egan had amazingly lived to tell about his "one-way ride" and fingered Willie Channell as one of his attackers. McErlane was eventually arrested but he beat both this case and charges in the double homicide of George Bucher and George Meegan, who were riddled with bullets while driving home on September 17, 1923.
McErlane's behavior only got worse. On May 4, 1924, he was drinking in a Crown Point, Indiana
Crown Point, Indiana
As of the census of 2010, there were 27,317 people and 10,976 households in the city. The racial makeup of the city was 88.20% White, 6.30% African American, 0.20% Native American, 1.80% Asian, 0.00% Pacific Islander, 1.90% from other races, and 1.60% from two or more races...
saloon with two friends, John O'Reilly and Alex McCabe. Both men egged Frank into demonstrating his marksmanship abilities. McErlane picked a random target at the end of the bar, attorney Thaddeus S. Fancher, and killed him with a single pistol shot to the head. O'Reilly would eventually be convicted of the murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. McCabe got a life sentence as well, but later won his freedom on appeal after the chief witness against him was bludgeoned to death.
By 1925, rival gang boss Spike O'Donnell had reinforced his gang and once again instigated a war with the Saltis-McErlane mob, who also found themselves in conflict with the Sheldon Gang
Sheldon Gang
The Sheldon Gang was a Chicago bootlegging gang during the early years of Prohibition known for being the main rivals of the Saltis-McErlane Gang and the Southside O'Donnell Brothers....
as well. That summer, all the major South Side gang began shooting each other. Frank McErlane was a prime suspect in the July 23 murder of George Karl and the September 3 killing of William Dickman. McErlane was not charged; indeed, he was about to make history.
Some crime historians believe that Frank McErlane acquired his "Tommy Gun" from North Side gang leader Dean O'Banion
Dean O'Banion
Charles Dean O'Banion was an Irish-American mobster who was the main rival of Johnny Torrio and Al Capone during the brutal Chicago bootlegging wars of the 1920s...
, who had purchased a shipment of submachine guns in Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
shortly before his November 1924 murder. At any rate, McErlane was to use one in his next attempt to kill Spike O'Donnell (one of ten recorded attacks on O'Donnell's life). On September 25, 1925, O'Donnell was talking to a beat cop in front of a drugstore at Sixty-Third and Western streets. A car pulled up and someone yelled, "Hello, Spike!" The gang boss saw what was coming and hit the deck; a submachine gun began drumming from the car, stitching neat lines of bullet holes on the storefront before the would-be killers sped away. Police were so unfamiliar with the Thompson, they thought that either shotguns or a "machine rifle of some kind" had done the damage. It was the first recorded use of a submachine gun in Chicago (or any other major American city, for that matter.)
Several days later, on October 3, McErlane used his Thompson to shoot up the Ragen's Colts
Ragen's Colts
Ragen's Colts was a chiefly Irish street gang which dominated the Chicago underworld during the early twentieth century. By the late 1920s and early '30s, the gang became part of the Chicago Outfit under Al Capone....
clubhouse, killing a Sheldon gangster named Charles Kelly. McErlane was also suspected of shooting up "Buff" Costello's bar on February 10, 1926, wounding Sheldon gangsters William Wilson and John "Mitters" Foley. Newspaper headlines said, MACHINE GUN GANG SHOOTS 2. Both Chicago Police Captain John Stege and gangster Al Capone
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...
commented on the power of the submachine gun; both of their respective organizations set out to arm themselves with the formidable weapon. The age of the Tommy Gun had arrived.
On April 22, 1926, Frank McErlane was finally arrested for the murder of Thaddeus Fancher. He wouldn't be extradited to Indiana until August of that year. McErlane was noted for showing up for one court appearance drunk; the jailer leading him was equally intoxicated. On November 3, 1927, (after the murder of at least one witness and much changed testimony) McErlane would be acquitted of Fancher's murder. At the 1920s closed, Joe Saltis was acquitted of the murder of John "Mitters" Foley and eventually moved to Wisconsin.
McErlane pretty much kept out of sight until January 28, 1930, when he was rushed to the hospital after being shot in the left leg; the bullet had struck above the knee and fractured the leg. Frank claimed that he had accidentally shot himself while cleaning a revolver, but police suspected that his common-law wife Elfrieda Rigus aka Marion Miller may have shot him. They had quite a stormy relationship and often had high-decibel, alcohol-fueled fights. Another possible suspect was gangster John "Dingbat" O'Berta, with whom McErlane had been feuding. On the night of February 24, McErlane was propped up his hospital bed with his healing leg still in traction when two or three gunmen barged in and opened fire. Frank yanked an automatic from under his pillow and returned their fire. While his shots missed, they scared his assailants off; one of them dropped a .45 automatic in his flight. McErlane had been winged three times in the melee and shrugged off questions as to who shot him. Frank said cryptically, "I'll take care of it." Just after McErlane was released from the hospital, on March 5, Dingbat O'Berta was found shot to death in his car on the outskirts of Chicago. The dead body of O'Berta's driver, Sam Malaga, lay face down in an icy puddle of water some feet away. The .45 left in McErlane's hospital room had been traced to Malaga. Frank had, indeed, "taken care of it".
McErlane's behavior continued to worsen. Years of excessive consumption of Prohibition-era booze had taken its toll on Frank's mental state. On June 8, 1931, an intoxicated McErlane swept a South Shore Drive block with shotgun blasts, shooting at imaginary foes. Police ultimately filed a whopping total of five simultaneous charges; drunk and disorderly, carrying a concealed weapon, firing a shotgun indiscriminately around his neighborhood, driving with forged license plates, and biting his sister on the cheek. On October 8, 1931, McErlane was driving his car with common-law wife Elfrieda Rigus and her two German Shepherds in the back seat. Police later determined that both were extremely drunk and arguing with each other. At one point, Frank finally snapped. After pulling over in front of 8129 Phillips Avenue, McErlane whirled around and fired four fatal bullets into Elfrieda. Tired of the yapping dogs, Frank shot and killed them as well.
After this episode, McErlane's remaining underworld associates raised a "retirement fund" of several hundred dollars in order to get rid of the dangerously unstable gunman. Frank thus retired to a lavishly furnished houseboat located on the Illinois River
Illinois River
The Illinois River is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately long, in the State of Illinois. The river drains a large section of central Illinois, with a drainage basin of . This river was important among Native Americans and early French traders as the principal water route...
in Beardstown, Illinois
Beardstown, Illinois
Beardstown is a city in Cass County, Illinois, United States. The population was 6,123 at the 2010 census. The public schools are in Beardstown Community Unit School District 15.-Geography:Beardstown is located at...
. In the fall of 1932, Frank fell ill with pneumonia. In his delirium, he was convinced that rival gangsters were coming to his hospital room to kill him; it took four attendants to hold him down in his rage. Frank McErlane died at the age of 38 on October 8, 1932, a year to the day after he killed Elfrieda Rigus.
When a reporter interviewed one of Frank's former associates after his death, he had this to say about McErlane, "I don't remember that he ever did anything good in his life. I don't believe he had a friend left."
Further reading
- Asbury, Herbert. The Gangs of Chicago: An Informal History of the Chicago Underworld. New York: Alfred A. Knoff, 1940. ISBN 1-56025-454-8
- Binder, John. The Chicago Outfit. Arcadia Publishing, 2003. ISBN 0-7385-2326-7
- Chiocca, Olindo Romeo. Mobsters and Thugs: Quotes from the Underworld. Toronto: Guernica EditionsGuernica EditionsGuernica Editions is a Canadian independent publisher established in Montreal, Quebec, in 1978, specializing in Canadian literature, poetry and nonfiction...
, 2000. ISBN 1-55071-104-0 - Enright, Laura L. Chicago's Most Wanted: The Top Ten Book of Murderous Mobsters, Midway Monsters, and Windy City Oddities. Dulles, Virginia: Potomac Books Inc., 2005. ISBN 1-57488-785-8
- Lashly, Arthur V. Illinois Crime Survey. Chicago: Illinois Association for Criminal Justice and the Chicago Crime CommissionChicago Crime CommissionThe Chicago Crime Commission is an independent, non-partisan civic watchdog organization of business leaders dedicated to educating the public about the dangers of organized criminal activity, especially organized crime, street gangs and the tools of their trade: drugs, guns, public corruption,...
, 1929. - Reppetto, Thomas A. American Mafia: A History of Its Rise to Power. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2004. ISBN 0-8050-7798-7
External links
- Frank McErlane and the Chicago Beer Wars by Allan May
- Find a Grave