AMERICAN GANGSTERS

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 3449, 24 November 1932, Page 3

AMERICAN GANGSTERS

DIES OF PNEUMONIA. SHOUTING FEAR IN DELIRIUM. Chicago, October 8. Frank McErlane, who was reputed to be Chicago's most vicious gang killer, died to-day of pneumonia in the Schmitt Memorial Hospital in Beardstown, 111. Survivor of twenty years of bullet-filled warfare, McErlane was the third gangster of importance to die a natural death. The others were Walter Stevens, "dean of Chicago gunmen," and Big Dave Earsman. Although McErlane died in bed, hospital attaches said his death was as violent as his life. He lapsed into a delirium on Thursday and four internes held him as he shouted his fear of some secret enemy. In his last hours he leaped from the bed, and knocked a nurse unconscious with a blow of his fist. McErlane was taken to the hospital on Tuesday from a lavishly furnished houseboat on the Illinois River, which had been his home since he fled from Chicago eighteen months ago. With him were five men and his mother, Florence McErlane. Torturer and Killer. Known as a torturer and killer, McErlane operated in Wild West fashion when under the influence of liquor. His business associates, customers in the liquor business and acquaintances feared him when he had a drink. Liqour drove him from the beer racket in Chicago. South side gangs were said to have raised a pension fund of several hundred dollars a week to get him out of Chicago. The pension move came soon after

the killing of McErla'ne's commonlaw wife, Marion Miller, who was found shot to death in McErlane's sedan on October 8 last year. Her two dogs, shot to death at her side. gave the killing the McErlane touch, police said. His fingerprints were found on the car, but lack of evidence caused the police to release him after his surrender on the murder charge. The murder of the Miller woman followed several instances of crazy gunplay on the part of McErlane in the streets and in saloons which he supplied with liquor. McErlane was given credit for invention of the "gang ride" in 1924. In the same year McErlane was arrested for the murder of Thaddeus Fancher, a Crown Point attorney who was shot to death during the robbery of an Indiana road house. Before McErlane was apprehended Frank Cochrane, a witness, was slai'n with an axe. McErlane went on trial for the murder. The jury voted him not guilty. His career reached a high point in February, 1930. The Miller woman shot him in the leg during a family quarrel. As he lay in a hospital room, his leg in a cast, gunmen entered and shot McErlane three times. Amid the screams of patients McErlane drew his own revolver from beneath his pillow and let loose an answering fusilade that routed his assistants. McErlane was credited by the police with more than a score of gang murders, among them the slayings of Dingbat Oberta, Sam Malaga, Spot Butcher, George Meighan, William Dickman and James Quigley.